PREVIEW PREVIEW PREVIEW THE VIP CHRISTIAN IN GOD’S EYES, YOU ARE A VERY IMPORTANT PERSON, AND A VERY IMPORTANT POSITION HAS BEEN RESERVED FOR YOU TO BE ENJOYED ACCORDING TO THE VISION, INTENT OF GOD’S ETERNAL PURPOSE FOR YOUR LIFE. BY ABRAHAM JOSEPH AJENIFUJA “The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.” (Revelation 21:23, NKJV) PREVIEW PREVIEW PREVIEW Copyright © 2016 by Abraham Joseph Ajenifuja The VIP Christian In God’s eyes, You are a Very Important Person, and a Very Important Position has been reserved for you to be enjoyed according to the Vision, Intent of God’s eternal Purpose for your life. by Abraham Ajenifuja Printed in the United States of America ISBN 9781498471671 All rights reserved solely by the author. The author guarantees all contents are original and do not infringe upon the legal rights of any other person or work. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author. The views expressed in this book are not necessarily those of the publisher. Unless otherwise indicated, scripture quotations are taken from The English Standard Bible (ESV). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers; The Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB). Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville Tennessee; The King James Version (KJV); The New American Standard Bible (NASB). Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation; The New International Version (NIV). Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®; The New King James Version (NKJV). Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson and The New Living Translation (NLT). Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.xulonpress.com PREVIEW PREVIEW PREVIEW TABLE OF CONTENTS Part I Chapter 1 The ternalE Glory of God ..................................................................... 37 Chapter 2 Jesus Christ Is the Glory of God .......................................................... 50 Chapter 3 Perfect Creation ...................................................................................... 81 Chapter 4 God Is VIP .............................................................................................101 Part II Chapter 5 Man’s VIP Syndrome ...........................................................................153 Chapter 6 Our Innermost Desire .........................................................................173 Chapter 7 Gospel of the Culture ..........................................................................188 Chapter 8 The Gospel of Jesus Christ ..................................................................199 Part III Chapter 9 Purpose of the Gospel ..........................................................................223 Chapter 10 Identity of the VIP Christian .............................................................257 Chapter 11 Fragrance of God ..................................................................................284 Chapter 12 Fragrance of the VIP Christian ..........................................................300 Part IV Chapter 13 Your VIP Prophecy ..............................................................................333 Chapter 14 VIP Need to Know ...............................................................................345 Chapter 15 National VIP Day of Christians ........................................................369 Chapter 16 Summary .................................................................................................385 v PREVIEW PREVIEW PREVIEW ABOUT THE AUTHOR braham Joseph Ajenifuja is formerly known as Lateef Lanre Ajenifuja was Aborn in Jos, Nigeria and immigrated to the US in 1984. He graduated from University of District of Columbia with a BS in accounting and later received Certified Public Accountant (CPA) certification in 1990. Presently the vice president of Rod Miller Inc., where he has served the Lord for the past 30 years. Abraham is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Counseling at Liberty University. He is a member of Forcey Bible Church in Silver Spring, Maryland for the past 26 years where he has served in various capacities such as elder, Treasurer, Sunday School teacher; Prayer Warrior, Nursing Home minister, and Home group leader. He expanded the hospitality ministry by forming a team to establish the Forcey Café, a church ministry, to provide an environment in which the Gospel Love relationship can prosper. Abraham is a former board member of Washington Bible College and Capital Bible Seminary where he also had a brief tenure as the Chief Financial Officer during some of the most critical years before its closing. He is a man of passionate service to God, who takes his faith seriously and seeks to live it out in practical ways in his community. Abraham started and led a Bible studies at work, and a Children’s Bible Clubs in the home. He is a member of Pinnacle Forum, an organization that mobilizes Christian leaders to be “change agents” in their com- munities. He serves on the Parent Advisory Council to the Prince George’s County School Board in Maryland and along with his wife, he founded Adopt-a-School Ministry, which seeks to partner faith-based organizations with the public school. vii PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW He resides in Maryland with his lovely wife Catherine and their six beautiful chil- dren: Kareem, Oluwakemi, Oluwakayode, Oluwaleke, Toluwalope, and Oluwatoyin. Abraham is a true champion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As an aspiring author, The VIP Christian is a demonstration of his inner passion of his love of God and to make Him known, “that all may know Him, the fellowship of His suffering and the power of His resurrection. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead! I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. Philippians 3:10-14, NLT. viii PREVIEW PREVIEW PREVIEW DEDICATION hen I look back over the events of my life, I now see clearly that God has Walways been in my life, but I did not always know Him. However, I know that He loves me and has a purpose for my life to know Him and be saved through Jesus Christ. God sovereignly and providentially brought people into my life at specific times and in specific places in order to save and preserve my life so that I can know Him through Jesus Christ and make Him known. God worked out every detail of my life for my good and for His glory. O Lord, our God, how great Thou art! That is why I am dedicating my life and this book to God: To God who alone is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent To the glorious brilliance of the Godhead To the beauty of His glory To the Sovereign Provident One To Him whose robe is the light and whose canopy is space To the One who is able to keep us from falling To the Potentate To God whom no one has seen or can see To God who, yet, has not hidden Himself from us To the Fountain of Glory To the Fountain of Love To the Fountain of Light To the Fountain of Indestructible Life xvii PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW To the Fountain of Living To the Great Lover of our souls To Jesus Christ, our Great God and Savior To Him be ascribed worship, honor, and adoration from eternity to eternity. xviii PREVIEW PREVIEW PREVIEW PART 1 PREVIEW PREVIEW PREVIEW CHAPTER 1 THE ETERNAL GLORY OF GOD The VIP Christian sees the eternal glory of God as the lens through which the world is to understand God and His economy. The VIP Christian sees all things in heaven and earth wrapped around and directed toward the eternal glory of God in Christ. he eternal glory of God is God in His infinite and indescribable continual Tawesome self-existing manifestation of the beauty of His glory where God is in His Rest. The eternal glory of God is not a thing or one of the attributes of God. It is the description of God in the eternal display of the beauty of His glory. The eternal glory of God is in Christ but veiled so that we do not see Him fully manifested. Attempting to describe it, the eternal glory of God is God in His eternal state as the eternal, immutable, the Great I AM, all-holy, self-existing, self-sustaining, self-determining, self-fulfilling, self-revealing, all-sovereign, all-mighty, ever-present, all-provident God. Then there is the relational aspect of His glory that can be described as the all-loving, all-merciful, all-gracious, all-compassionate and all-forgiving God. There is insufficient vocabulary available to finite beings to describe the eternal glory of God as it is incomprehensible, unattainable, and unapproachable. It is a healthy way for us to describe God without losing our mind and being consumed in the process because it is impossible for the finite to fully describe the infinite God “whom no one has seen or can see.” 37 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW “He alone can never die, and he lives in light so brilliant that no human can approach him. No human eye has ever seen him, nor ever will. All honor and power to him forever! Amen”. (1 Timothy 6:16, NLT) Each of the attributes of God consists as part of all of the other attributes. For example, God’s attribute of omniscience is eternal, holy, powerful, immutable, and so on. We can try to understand God’s glory from the description of His glory in creation, His glory in His acts of history, and from what others have said, who have come in contact with Him, and His glory in Jesus Christ. THE GREAT I AM God Himself is the Reason for Being.