And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?  ⁴⁷Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:  ⁴⁸He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. ⁴⁹But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built a house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.Lk6:46-49

You have accepted Jesus you have done well, but you need to deepen your relationship with him. If you do not go deeper you cannot make the best of your salvation. If you have not accepted Jesus as Lord and savior do it now and enjoy the rest of the article! I know many people who took a long time to conceive, but what is the purpose of a fetus that did not grow to become a child? I know those who had children; joyful as it is after three to seven years if the child cannot walk or talk they have lost the joy over that child. One of the reasons for having children is to have joy and gladness (Lk 1:14). If you secure admission to college and have matriculation, you will be happy, relatives will be happy for you, however if after matriculation, you fail to go to school, you fail to study, you fail to attend class, your case becomes worrisome. The ultimate joy for a student and their parents is not just to be a student, but to graduate from college, convocation is surely better than matriculation.

Many analogies can be given in this regard, and one of the strongest ones was given by Jesus above. 

And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say. What Jesus is saying is be truthful to yourself. Pursue what you believe. Be practical. Be honest. Avoid hypocrisy. Maximize your relationship with me. Jesus in essence is saying if I am truly your Lord, then you will do what I say. You will behave. Pastor Paul Fakunle said ‘if you believe you will behave’.

Jesus is saying it will be a temporary joy and ultimately a disaster if you build a house and you do not build it on a strong foundation. Because you would have spent a lot of money and energy on that house. Probably you have brought in your precious jewels, artifacts, clothing and certificates into that house and when the rain comes, you lose everything because of faulty foundation. The agony will be too much. The waste will be too substantial. Jesus was in essence saying your loss of life will be too terrible if you fail to go deeper after you were saved! On the other hand your gain too will be substantial if you can genuinely call me Lord that is going deeper with me.

The world is tired of artificiality. Nobody is impressed by superficiality. If your marriage is a camouflage and not real or deep with your spouse it cannot last. If your Christianity is shabby and flabby it cannot benefit you, your world, family, church members, community, nation or your Lord Jesus Christ. If you have a job and you are insolent and indolent about it you cannot climb any ladder of promotion. It is not a witch or wizard, you just don't have what it takes. To go deeper means to mature, be committed, become reliable, dependable and an asset. That is our goal this month.

It is a waste of time to go to church and not be in church. People are tired of ‘churchanity’ (adding church attendance to ungodly lifestyle) they are interested in Christianity (becoming Christ-like). A cocoa tree that cannot grow a deep root cannot produce a viable cocoa pod.

The entire world is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. How can you manifest what you do not possess? How can you possess when you are loafing? A farmer with a farmland no matter how large if he does not plant, or even if he plants, but does not go the extra mile of trimming, pruning the land of unwanted weeds cannot have a bountiful harvest if he has any at all. The way to success in every endeavor is determination, hard-work, persistence, consistency and perseverance, that is what is called going deeper. That must be your goal this month and beyond. Go deeper in your relationship with Jesus!

I used to live in a place called Warri, Delta State in Nigeria. To get water for borehole is very easy as it has a shallow waterbed. I recall a case when we went for a burial. The mandatory six feet is what the grave diggers were planning for but before reaching that, lo and behold they have reached water level. It is not so in Ekiti State. I was trying to get a well in my house many years ago in Igede-Ekiti, After ninety feet we were still digging yet to get water. How you go deeper depends on many factors. But the necessity of going deeper is our focus.

The issue is how I can go deeper with God. How do I build a strong foundation for my Christian life?

1. Avoid Faulty Spiritual foundation: Foundation is the basis on which something is grounded.If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do. Psalm 11:3. Jesus says if the foundation be faulty when the storm comes it will crash. Look around you, how many marriages of so called Christians and even Pastors are crashing. How many youth are dropping out of school? How many children from broken homes are involved in terrible life styles? People do not just go to jail they go to jail because they have wrong values of life. Teenage pregnancy is not wishful thinking, it is an act, an evidence of wrong foundation. Jesus is not speaking in abstract terms, but in practical terms. If you want to last then build a strong foundation. It is not if the test will come it is when the test will come. Friends, as a Christian you will be faced with temptation. The only solution is to build a strong foundation. How do you build a strong foundation? Develop determination. Be determined to succeed as a Christian, seek the God you accept. Truly believe Him as your Lord and your master, no pretense. Do not play games with your structure and foundation. Do not cut costs unnecessarily. In house building you may cut cost on decoration not in the foundation materials that will be foolishness. How do you know good students? They are punctual in class. Meaning they are expecting to learn something new. They take notes, they don’t want to forget what they learnt.They value what they are learning. They concentrate in class and are focused, avoiding all distraction. In the age of phones and social media they don’t check emails or text or watch movies in class. They prioritize and maximize the time in class. After the class they do their assignments and further reading. They share what they have learned with others. They have laid a good foundation. Result is simple. They succeed where others fail. In business, lay a good foundation, do a proper feasibility study before putting money on the business. Look for staff with integrity not just the certificate. In marriage watch before you say “ I do.” Many young people prepare only for the wedding not the marriage. The wedding is for a day, marriage is for life. Lay a good foundation for your marriage that is the way to avoid separation and divorce. In spirituality, love Jesus genuinely. Be passionate about him. Your enthusiasm will sell products because people will love what you love. Envision your success. Imagine what you stand to gain in Christ, God’s prosperity, peace, security, blessing on earth and in the world to come.(Mk 10:28-30). Plan your life and get organized. Go deeper!

2. Avoid false profession. Do not call Him Lord when he is not Your Lord. Do not call Him Lord when you are not willing to go all the way. Be genuinely converted. Jesus is saying the evidence of genuine conversion is accepting him as your Lord and Savior. Salvation is a personal decision. If you say you are a Christian the only way people can know is that you saw it, by ensuring you are not making a false declaration. By your fruit you will be identified not just a mere mouthy profession that has no backbone of a solid life style (Psalm 78:35-36,Pr 26:23, Ezekiel 33:31-32, Mt 7:21, Titus 1: 16). Salvation is free; however you must develop your spirituality. You must go deeper.

3. Avoid Disobedience. "And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known."Deut 11:28 

Friend, you will be fooling yourself if you think where there is a law and that disobedience to that law will not attract consequent sanctions and discipline. Not obeying the Lord will have its consequences in this world and in the world to come. If you say you are a Christian and you do not obey the Lord you are telling the Lord you are smart or smarter! You want to enjoy the blessing of Christianity and also enjoy the life of non-Christians, the pleasure of sin. God says that is not possible. You cannot enjoy sin and enjoy God’s divine provision and blessing you will need to make a choice. Yes, God is willing to forgive your sins but will not pamper them. Can you continue in sin and say the grace of God should continue - God forbid the scripture declares." If you are willing and obedient you will eat the fruits of the land "not if you are disobedientand unwilling. For example the scripture declares “Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. ¹¹Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.”

Are you obedient in fellowship? Do you live a life of righteousness? Are you obedient in giving of your tithes and offerings? Are you obedient in winning souls? The Pauls, The Peters, The Johns you read about in the bible did not do extraordinary things, they just obeyed God. Even when they warned them not to preach the gospel what was their response, shall we obey man and not God? No wonder their ministry is characterized by signs and wonders! When last did you purposefully go out to preach to unbelievers? When last did you wake up in the night just to intercede for your community, the youth, the church the nations despite the Holy Spirit promptings? God gives general instructions but he also gives specific instruction. You accelerate your growth and deepen your relationship with God when you do both. Do you listen to God for specific instructions? Do you do what you are told? God instructed Saul to go and destroy the Amalekites but he fumbled and disobeyed God. God’s response to disobedience today is still “Obedience is better than sacrifice” Instead of strengthening his dynasty and establishing his kingdom he lost it totally. Friends let us go deeper this month and beyond. Isaiah 3:10-11(I Sam 12;15; 15:22-23; Eph 5;6, 2Th1:8;ITi 1:9; He 2:2-3)

4. Avoid inconsistency. As a Christian you cannot afford to be inconsistent. You need to be consistently consistent. There are five basic non negotiable ways that you can grow in the Christian way. If you are not consistent in this five  you are operating on your own and you cannot grow deeper or bear fruit and if you do not bear fruit what is the point? Jesus will cut off such:

 1.Consistently read, study  and meditate on the Word and practice the Word.(Jos1:8, Heb 4:12).

2. Consistently pray. There is no substitute for prayer in this kingdom business. That you cannot pray is not any excuse. Learn to pray.Do you have a designated time each day to get alone and study your Bible and pray? If you do not, I would urge you to establish a specific time and get into this habit. Do not be too busy that you cannot pray. You might start with just a few words of prayer, for 5-15 minutes a day asking God to bless you until you graduate to praying for others.Eventhose who are praying are struggling to make it and overcome the battles of life. Imagine you that you just expose yourself to the onslaught of the devil. The devil is not afraid of you because you call yourself a Christian. He is afraid of you when you are on your knees. If you cannot pray you will become a prey! And you cannot pray alone. That is why you have prayer meetings in Churches and places of true worship. The era when you open the Bible to Psalm 23 under your pillow and then the devil will run away is past. The devil is smarter. They know the scriptures; it is in your confession through prayer that you possess your possession. Matt 26:41, 1 Thes 5:17. Go deeper. Go the extra mile stop asking people to do for you what you can do for yourself and others. Pray. Pray until Something Happens (PUSH)

3. Consistently fellowship with fellow believers. One of the major reasons the church exists is to help you to mature. You have to constantly go to church. Hear the word. Listen to testimonies. You cannot become a champion in any profession by just registering and not getting the requisite training. The church is your training ground.Heb 10:24-25

4. Consistently witness. Notice I did not say consistently preach. In Acts 1:8 Jesus did not say go and preach, but go and witness. You cannot witness what you did not experience otherwise you are an hypocrite. To go deeper in the Lord you have to consistently experience God and witness him, by your lifestyle, words, fruit bearing, bringing people to Jesus and giving (Matt 7:3;Lk 6:43;Rom 2:1,2:21; Ja. 2:15-16)

5. Consistently give. If you cannot give when you are poor you cannot give when you are rich. If you cannot give God $1 out of $10, you will not give $1 million when you have $10million. It is not just giving you do not pay your bills inconsistently, learn to give God consistently. Pay your tithe consistently. Help people consistently. That is how to go deeper.

5. Avoid shallowness. Shallowness is the art of superficiality: lack of depth of knowledge or thought or feeling. No deep affection Exe 33:31.No deep roots Mk 4;16-17;No deep foundation Lk 6;49. Inability to receive a deeper message Jn 6:66 No deep conviction. Eph 4:14. I cannot forget one of our members that left the church a couple of years ago. I invited him to my office. I told him upfront that the meeting is not to ‘beg’ you to return to this church it is purely your choice where you worship and grow in the Lord. The reason I invited you is to find out what we are doing wrong that will make a young man like you leave the church so that we can correct our mistakes if any. He looked at me straight in the eyes: and said “Pastor do you really want to hear?” I said “sure!”  Firmly he said “'You don't preach what I want to hear.”Though I was juxtaposed for a few minutes “ I said that is true. I don't go to God to ask what do the people want to hear, I ask God what does he have for His children that will take care of their challenges.”

I also warned him to be wary of any church that he goes and all they are telling him is what he wants to hear. Anywhere the pastor or minister is economical with the truth or dilutes the Word just to keep you on the pew or collect your offering is also not the best.  I think he went away and had a rethink. The same young man was ordained in Christ Apostolic Church worldwide in our last convention in July in USA. He is planting a church in Windsor, Ontario now under our superintendency. You cannot go far with shallow words you are hearing. The gospel is not to tickle your fancy, but to prepare you to be relevant on earth and make heaven at death. The church is not a picnic (amusement park) it is a clinic. It is also not a mortuary it is a sanctuary.

6. Avoid spiritual Loss. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Mk 8:36. Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. I Cor 3:13

7. Avoid Hating Your Life. Ask yourself, in which way do I hate myself? Whichever way you know what is good and you fail to do it you hate yourself. You can only go deeper with Jesus if you love yourself. If you love yourself, you will not want to go to hell. Hell is real. Heaven is real. Hell is not on earth, yet, whatever your experience and you call hell now is a shadow of hell. If you do not like what you call hell now, then avoid the real hell. The wages of sin is death. To go deeper with Jesus avoid the three letter word SIN. Talking about hell I remember when I just got to Toronto. The government has a way to help Newcomers settle down in Canada. They have established employment/Resource centers where they teach you how to write your resumes. In some cases it will take as long as six weeks. I was directed to one of such centers. Zealous for God from Nigeria, I carried to this center our church magazines that I freely gave to my classmates. We had started our church and had a place in the multipurpose hall in North Kipling. I remember inviting this Chinese guy who reads the magazine and was interested in coming to Jesus and becoming a Christian. Week after week he did not show up. He gives the excuse that he lives downtown Toronto and is too far from our church location. I kept inviting him. One day he told me “Amos, I cannot come; I met another group of Christian sect yesterday that told me that there is no hell!" I laughed.  “Do you like Toronto? I asked. “Yes, of course, clean environment, constant power supply, hot and cold running water who will not?” He sounded highly elated. I asked him “Are you aware that they have prisons in Toronto?”  “ Yes, of course.” He replied. I asked him “why will the government put in prisons in this beautiful place?”  “I don't know, he claimed.” I told him “Of course you should know. If you live in this place and you do not keep the laws they will keep you in jail.” What prison is to any government is what hell fire is to God. The only difference is that you go to prison when you are alive and hell is when you are dead, but what you do with your life will determine both whether you go to jail or hell. And some people will go to both!” God, your maker will throw all the people that failed to keep his laws in a place called hell. It is not a correctional jail. It is a terminal jail. It is not theology or doctrine, it is a cold fact. The only way to avoid it is to go deeper with God this month and onwards! May you go deeper in Jesus name. Amen.

Special Announcement: The International Gathering Of Eagles Conference this year is scheduled for this month from September 17-20, 2015 at 22-94 Kenhar Drive Toronto ON, M9V 4L4. The theme is “Return to Your Maker” Admission is free, but space is limited. Register now at www.igoeministry.comand www.cacbethel.com. Send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.or call 647-430-8936. Anointed ministers from Singapore, South Africa, USA ,Nigeria and other nations will be present to empower you. You are invited.

Secondly, you can join our mission team from Nov 13 to Dec 5 to five African nations, Tanzania, Malawi, Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria. Call for more details.

Pastor Amos Dada is the District Superintendent of Christ Apostolic Church Bethel Toronto and the Convener of International Gathering of Eagles conference an annual event where leaders are trained for the ministry.