Giving All Diligence by Apostle Michael Orokpo: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Faith You Already Have

Peter, whose shadow was healing the sick, wrote to the church and said: "We have the same faith." He called it like precious faith — precious, and equal in quality to the faith that operated in the apostles. 2 Peter 1:1.

2 Corinthians 4:13 — Paul confirmed it: "We having the same spirit of faith, we believe and therefore we speak." And Paul testified in Galatians 2:20: "The life I live now in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God."

Whatever Peter did, you can do. Whatever Paul did, you can do. Because the faith is the same faith — like precious faith.

But faith alone, without development, does not automatically produce results. That is why Peter, after establishing the gift of faith, immediately moves to a command: give all diligence.

The Command: Give All Diligence

2 Peter 1:1–5 — Simon Peter writes: "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of Him." Notice — grace and peace are multiplied not by emotion, not by intense activity alone, but through knowledge. Then verse 3: "According as His divine power has given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue."

All things pertaining to life and godliness have already been given. They are in the package. This is not something you are still waiting for. It has been deposited. The question is whether you are accessing it.

Verse 4: "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature." The goal is participation in the divine nature — not merely using divine power for problem-solving, but becoming a partaker of the very nature of God.

Verse 5: "And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith..."

The Ladder of Diligence

Peter lists seven things to add to faith, each building on the previous:

1. Virtue

   Virtue is moral excellence and courage. It is the readiness to act rightly regardless of the cost. Before knowledge can be useful, virtue must be established — character before capacity.

2. Knowledge

   Not mere information, but the knowledge of God — an intimate, experiential knowing that shapes how you see, decide, and act. Proverbs 2:6: the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

3. Temperance (Self-Control)

   The ability to govern your appetites, emotions, and actions. Without self-control, knowledge becomes pride and virtue becomes performance. Temperance channels the other graces productively.

4. Patience

   The capacity to maintain position under pressure — to endure without abandoning the process. Many disqualify themselves not by falling into sin but by giving up before the promise arrives.

5. Godliness

   Not just the appearance of piety, but a genuine orientation of life toward God. Godliness is the alignment of your priorities, your pleasures, and your pursuits with the nature and purposes of God.

6. Brotherly Kindness

   Active love toward fellow believers — the willingness to serve, to bear burdens, to prefer others. Without this, individual growth becomes isolation and pride.

7. Charity (Love)

   1 Corinthians 13:1–3: without love, all gifts, all knowledge, all sacrifice profit nothing. Love is the capstone because love is the nature of God Himself. To become a partaker of the divine nature is ultimately to become a vessel of love.

The Consequence of Neglect

2 Peter 1:8–9: "If these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacks these things is blind and cannot see far off, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins."

• Those who add diligently: neither barren nor unfruitful
• Those who neglect: blind, shortsighted, and spiritually amnesiac

Barrenness and unfruitfulness in the kingdom are not God's design for any believer. They are the result of failing to develop what God has already deposited. The divine power has already given us all things. The precious promises are already made available. The like precious faith is already in us. What remains is diligence — the decision to actively add, to consistently build, and to give all diligence to the things that make for fruitfulness.

Making your calling and election sure is not passive. It is a daily, intentional act of building upon the foundation of faith with everything God has made available.