The Chairman of The Church of Pentecost, Apostle Eric Nyamekye, met officers in the Downtown Ofaakor Area on Wednesday, September 16, 2020, to start his three-day visit to the Area.
The meeting, which took place at the Downtown Central church auditorium, was the Chairman’s first official visit to the Area since the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Apostle Nyamekye took the opportunity to commend the officers for their hard work and sacrifices in maintaining fellowship within the church even in the COVID-19 pandemic.
He, however, cautioned that as church leaders it is important that they regularly examine themselves to see if they are still in the faith. He said that it is not enough to go about their duties as officers but what is most important is that they remain in the faith.
He, therefore, urged them to show value for the salvation they have received in Christ Jesus and must be prepared to hold on to it till the end at all cost.
Speaking on the topic: “Bitterness,” Apostle Eric Nyamekye explained that the human being is a tripartite being made up of a spirit, soul and body.
“The human being is a spirit who has a soul and lives in a body. The heart is the combination of the soul and the spirit. The Bible describes that as the inner man, the man on the inside,” he said.
He said that bitterness is a seed of resentment in the human heart. However, people do not consciously store up evil, but when they keep offences within them, it grows and causes harm to them and those around them.
According to the Chairman, a lot of Christians have backslidden due to offences inflicted on them in church which they did not let go.
He said that God expects believers to have a pure heart because it is only those who are pure in heart that would see God (Matthew 5:8).
Referring to the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis Chapter 4, Apostle Nyamekye said that God saw the bitterness in Cain’s heart and forewarned him to master it, unfortunately, he did not heed to his warnings and ended up killing his own brother in cold blood.
He said that whenever people are embittered, they give room to the devil to water the bitter seeds to cause havoc to themselves and those around them.
Reading Matthew 12:35 and 15:18-20, the Chairman asserted that a good man is known from what flows out from within them and that translates into his/her actions. “You will not see it from the kind of attire she/he is wearing, rather by the state of his/her heart. What this implies is that the stores of the heart determine our actions and ultimately defines us,” he said.
The Chairman indicated that people who are consumed by bitterness are unforgiving and keep mental records of wrongs, saying, “Some even go to the extent of writing them down in a diary for record-keeping purposes. They tend to have very poisonous and sharp tongues due to the pent-up resentments they keep within. Hence, anytime they open their mouths to speak, they spew all forms of vituperations and invectives, sometimes, without even noticing it themselves.”
He also noted that bitterness weakens the individual spiritually and causes their anointing to run dry.
Apostle Eric Nyamekye, therefore, urged church leaders and Christians in general, to rid themselves of any bitterness they may be nursing within in and to guard the heart against the malady of bitterness (Proverbs 4:23) so that they would not lose their position in Christ.
PENTECOST NEWS