SOMETIMES GOD DOES HIS GREATEST WORKS IN THE MOST ADVERSE SITUATIONS.
GOD DOES NOT NEED THE ATMOSPHERE TO BE CONDUCIVE IN ORDER FOR HIM TO BE EFFECTIVE, HE CAN STEP INTO A SITUATION WHERE THE ODDS ARE AGAINST YOU AND STILL ACCOMPLISH WHAT HE SET OUT TO DO.
THE WORSE THE SITUATION YOU’RE IN, THE BETTER GOD WILL SHINE, THE DARKER IT IS THE BRIGHTER THE LIGHT, THE MORE OPPOSITION YOU HAVE THE MORE GLORY GOD WILL GET
GOD HAS A HABIT OF PICKING OUT PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN PRESSED DOWN OVERLOOKED AND IGNORED AND RAISING THEM UP
SOMETIMES YOU CAN BE FAVOURED AND ALL HELL BREAK LOOSE, SOMETIMES YOU CAN BE FAVOURED AND STILL BE OSTRACIZED
I HAVE COME TO LEARN OVER MY ALMOST 65 YEARS OF LIVING THAT TROUBLE IS A SURE SIGN THAT GOD IS ABOUT TO BLESS YOU
YOU CAN’T JUST THANK GOD FOR THE BIG STUFFS, YOU HAVE TO THANK HIM FOR THE SMALL STUFFS, BECAUSE THE SMALL STUFFS GET BIG WHEN YOU CAN’T DO IT
-Bishop T D Jakes at Akwa Ibom Carol Festival 2021
It is the home of my ancestors and I am grateful to be in Akwa Ibom, a place I have never stood before but I am grateful for his Excellency and the favour of the Governor and the lovely First Lady of Akwa Ibom for the Love they have shown unto me and also an added privilege of seeing once again the incomparable Pastor Adeboye can we shout out to God for him also for the Pastor of House on the Rock in Lagos, Pastor Paul Adefarasin make some noise.
Remain standing just a moment with me, lift your hands towards Heaven in total surrender to the God who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we may ask or think to the wise God our father be Glory, dominion and power. ChurchGist. Lift up your hands and open your mouth and give him 60 seconds of the greatest praise you can offer right now, we Praise you, we Bless you, we Honour you, we sanctify you with our Heart, for you alone are God in this sanctuary, there is no one other, Spirit of the living God fall fresh, fall like the morning dew, fall until we are saturated with your presence, thank you for the opportunity to address your people, to stand before your congregation, for this is a royal priesthood and a holy nation, thank you for our sponsors that made it possible, thank you that we are alive to see this day, in Jesus Name, every grateful person shout amen. You may be seated in his presence.
I am here in the Spirit of wonderment and expectation as the Holy Spirit shared with me, I want to read just a few passages my time is limited, but I want to read a few passages out of the Gospel of Saint Luke, Luke 1: 26-34, My God, I want to talk to you for just a few moment that favour doesn’t always feel like favour, it would be important as we celebrate Christmas in Akwa Ibom that we don’t get caught up in the traditionalism of Christmas and we do not receive the underline message that the Holy Spirit will have us understand. ChurchGist. If we only see it as a holiday and a ceremony, a ritual and a routine, a gathering together of family and friends. If we only see it as a historical memorable occasion of the Birth of Jesus and do not understand the underlining wisdom and nature of God that applies to this text then we will not be able to balance the significance of the story with the crisis of our time.
At the time God spoke to Mary things were not well, they were not well in her country, they were not well in her city, they were not well politically, socially or economically, it was not well religiously, it came after 400 years of Historical silence, it came at the end of them losing their tradition, their customs, their routines, their rituals, the succession of the order of the Kings of Israel had all stopped and they were barely holding on to the fragment of the priesthood. ChurchGist. Fragment because the last priest to be born was born through the womb of an old woman named Elizabeth whose wrinkled hands had been chosen to bring forth a child and she was past child bearing age and he was strange, he dressed strange he didn’t fit in with the pack.
I want to talk to some people that are willing to stand out and be different, he dressed in animal skin, he ate wild locust and honey. He didn’t look anything like his fathers, his father was called Zechariah, they thought that he will be called Zechariah, but the Bible says his name was to be called John, for none of their kindred had been called by that Name. ChurchGist. I want to talk to somebody who is ready to do something that is fresh, ready to go to another dimension, ready to go to another level, tired of sticking to the routines, the rituals of ordinariness, ready to step into light of doing something that God wants to do right know, shout Know!!!
You see, there they are in this situation that is perplexing, situation where the people of God were oppressed politically by another sovereign power that had taken over their country. They had to succumb to the rules and dictate of the Roman Empire, everything around them was subordinate, just because she was a Jewish woman, a child of the Hebrews, she was oppressed ethnically she was oppressed as a woman at a time that the world does not see woman as people of influence and power, the attitude towards woman is at most of the times even in the scriptures their names are not mentioned, who was the women at the well? What was her name? What is the name of the woman with the issue of Blood? Seldom in scripture do we hear the names of women and all of a sudden, this gender specific message reaches a woman by name and says Hail Mary!!!
You have been highly favored, I heard all throughout the night the memory that this time last year we were unable to assemble, this is not just in Akwa Ibom, that is also in Dallas Texas, that is in Melbourne Australia, that is in Paris and France, this time last year, the entire world was on lockdown fighting an invisible enemy an enemy that has so infiltrated our forces that it didn’t matter how strong your army was, it didn’t matter what your GDP was, it didn’t matter the colour of your skin or the language you spoke or the God you prayed to, everybody was stayed in the house and even now this year we are here with our mouth covered and our nose covered, because sometimes God does his greatest works in the most adverse situations. ChurchGist. What sets God apart from human will and power and strength is that God does not need the atmosphere to be conducive in order for him to be effective, he can step into a situation where the odds are against you and still accomplish what he set out to do, in fact he said “my strength is made perfect in your weakness”, the worse the situation you’re in the better God will shine, the darker it is the brighter the Light, the more opposition you have the more Glory I’ll get.
I want to talk to somebody tonight that the odds are against you and the circumstance is against you and it doesn’t always feel like you’re highly favour, I want you to understand that God doesn’t need it to be working out for it to work out, God doesn’t need things to be feeling good for them to go good. ChurchGist. God doesn’t need everybody to like you for him to bless you, God doesn’t need everybody on your side to bring you out, God doesn’t need things to be going your way in order to perform his Word, in fact God has a habit of picking out people who have been pressed down overlooked and ignored and raising them up, you know why? Because when you’ve been down low enough and God raises you up, we don’t have to bring anybody in to get you to praise the Lord, when you’ve been down low enough, we don’t have to beat on the drum to get you praise the Lord, when God raises up somebody who has been affected, attacked they will open their mouth and praise the Lord even if nobody else on their row praise the Lord, they will come out by themselves and give God the praise.
I bet you there is at least a 100,000 people in this room that has been through enough in this past year and the fact that you are here tonight is enough for you to give God a crazy praise. ChurchGist. You don’t care who is looking at you, you don’t care what they think about you, you don’t care what you look like or how they whisper, you know that if it had not been for the Lord by your side, you won’t make it, so there is no need if you try to fit in with the people, you know that you’re a walking miracle from the Lord, if that’s you make some Noise right now.
Hail Mary!!! You have been highly favoured, sounds like this is a turning point, the principal point in which everything begins to move in her direction, sounds like this is the moment that things turns around for her, it such an opulent fashion that she can ride in on the east street, sounds like no more problems, no more opposition, no more pains, no more predicament, no more crisis, no more dilemma, sounds like that if she’s been highly favour among women then she’s going to look good, dress good, smell good, have her hair done, everything is going to go fine, sounds like she has nothing to worry about, sounds like all will be well. ChurchGist. But I want to warn you tonight that sometimes you can be favoured and all hell break loose, sometimes you can be favoured and still be ostracized, sometimes you can be favoured and alienated, because sometimes favour doesn’t always feel like favour.
Hail Mary!!! You’ve been highly favour among women; he did not mention the fact that your beloved Joseph is about to give you a bill of Divorcement.
Hail Mary!!! Doesn’t sound like if the angel doesn’t intercede, you’re going to lose the love of your life.
Hail Mary!!! You’ve been highly favoured among women doesn’t sound like that you’re in your final trimester of your pregnancy riding on a Donkey in the heat of the plasticine air, sand blowing up your nose, up and down on the back of a donkey, pregnant and heavy with child, it does not feel like favour.
It does not feel like favour, that at the point your water is about to break your intended finds no place to lay your head. ChurchGist. It does not feel like favour, that the only door that opens to you is in a barn.
It does not feel like favour that it is late at night and with shepherds tending their sheep, the place that you will give birth in is neither clean nor sterile nor easy to enjoy, no tranquilizer, no help, no anesthesia, no midwife. ChurchGist. It does not feel like favour, that you would have the Lord God almighty born in a barn, but he that dwells up high comes down low because he who lives down low could not reach high, I want to stop a moment and praise him tonight because he came where I was, that when I couldn’t reach him, he could reach me, that there is not a person under the sound of my voice or watching on the screen tonight that is so low that God cannot come where you are. ChurchGist. He came so low that he went pass the shepherds and pass the oxen and there in the barn her water breaks and she give birth.
Who would have thought that God would make his entry through such pain, through many turmoil’s, through so many problems. ChurchGist. I have come to learn over my almost 65 years of living that trouble is a sure sign that God is about to bless you. I’m going to say it again I don’t think you all heard me, I said trouble is a sure sign that God is about to bless you. If you don’t have no trouble, you don’t understand what I am talking about, but when you’re in the verge of a breakthrough all hell breaks loose and after it has happened two or three times you will learn how to give God praise in the middle of a storm, you’ll learn how to give God praise in the middle of troubles, I see some people praising God tonight, they are not praising him because things are going right, they are praising him in spite of what went wrong because they know that the enemy will not fight you like this if God was not about to do something mighty in your life. I want all the highly favoured people to open your mouth and make some noise to God.
You don’t have to worry about fitting in with other people, they don’t have enough favour to praise God, but when you’ve been highly favoured and the enemy has tried to assassinate your name, destroyed your character, shut down your dreams, move every door that is opened for you, shut up opportunity up so that you wouldn’t go in and you refused to praise God because God said you got favoured, those are the people God wants to praise him. ChurchGist. The people who have come through trouble and made it, let them give him the sacrifice of praise.
There she was in a barn, after 400 years of God been silenced, there she is in barn, at a year of people being oppressed by others and it been possibly the worst time in Jerusalem, God brings her to a barn because she is going to be significant in the answering of the prayer she prayed. Somebody didn’t get that, she is about to birth the answer to the things she prayed for, somebody in this room has been asking God to send help and you don’t know that help is not coming from outside, help is coming from the inside, the help you need is down inside of you right know, the help that Is necessary to lift your life up to the place that God called it to be, it’s not coming from somebody you don’t know, it’s coming from within you in your belly, in your vision, in your mind, in your spirit and you might not feel favoured but the favour of God is still on you.
- Your finances may be low but the favour of God is still on you.
- Your friends may have turn into enemies but the favour of God is still on you.
- You may have trouble in your home but the favour of God is still on you.
- The country may be in turmoil but the favour of God is still on you.
- Everybody might be restless but the favour of God is still on you.
- You might be struggling to do what you used to do but the favour of God is still on you.
- You may be backed up in a corner and shoved up against the wall but the favour of God is still on you.
- Your enemies might be talking about you but the favour of God is still on you.
- You might have turmoil in your mind but the favour of God is still on you.
- You might be restless at night but the favour of God is still on you.
- Maybe you couldn’t sleep but the favour of God is still on you.
- Maybe you’ve been tossing and turning around but the favour of God is still on you.
- Maybe you’ve been traumatized but the favour of God is still on you.
Hail Mary!!! You’ve been highly favoured amongst women and you’re still going to do it, tell hell I’m still going to do it, tell everybody I’m still going to do, tell every disease I’m still going to do, tell every doubter I’m still going to do and there she is. ChurchGist. Excuse me, you will have to look over me, because I came to have some church tonight, and you might have come a little way but I came a long way, I have been flying for days to get here and I am not going to get here and give God some praise, I have been through the storm and the rain and I owe him some praise and all I need is about 50 folks who knows how to praise God to come help me have some Church. ChurchGist. Yes, I see you, let the redeemed of the Lord say so, there she is giving birth in a barn, wrapping her baby in milk rags the rags that they use when they milk the cow, she wrapped her baby in milk rags, but he is the milk of the world and it is not strange that you will put the milk of the world in milk rags.
She wrapped him in it and laid him in a manger, what is this woman having a baby doing in a barn in the first place, they didn’t have a hospital but they did have midwives, but midwives are for women that are having a regular baby, the barn is for woman who are birthing a lamb, you see the power of Christmas is not just that a baby was born, the power of Christmas is that she birth the Lamb of God that took away the sins of the world, this identify him to the one who paid the price for the sins of the world, if you’re anywhere up under the blood of the lamb, if your family is up under the blood, if your finances is up under the blood, if your business is up under the blood, if your dreams are up under the blood, if your hopes is up under the blood, if God had placed you up under the blood, praise him for the blood
Praise him for the blood of the lamb. ChurchGist. You see my brothers and sisters what I want you to get tonight is that God does not need perfect condition in order to accomplish what he told you he will do, that God doesn’t need all the circumstances to be in place in order to do what he told you he’s going to do, that he doesn’t need everybody to agree with you or like you or support you or encourage you to do what he said he was going to do.
That God has the power to bring peace even when the Nations is in confusion. ChurchGist. But if the peace doesn’t start in the Church, where is it going to start, that is why we as the redeemed of the Lord have to open our mouth and speak peace to the raging chaos of our times, of our world, of our Generation, of our Nations, of our communities, of our Families. Peace doesn’t come from the outside to the inside, it comes from the inside to the outside, is there anybody that has kept their peace while everybody else was losing their head, is there anybody in here that has kept their peace when things were going their way, is there anybody in here that has managed to hold their peace that passeth all understanding, because you know that sooner or later God is going to bring you out, then it is to you that I speak to tonight and want to thank God that it doesn’t always feel like favour, that Mary doesn’t always feel like she was highly favoured, that you don’t have to feel like favour to know that you’re favoured.
When you know that you’re favoured, you can look at your feelings in the face and say I don’t care what I feel like I know I am blessed, l am blessed in the city, I am blessed in the field, I am blessed in my uprising, I am blessed in my down setting, I am blessed when I am coming in, I am blessed when am coming out. ChurchGist. See, I am going to mess with your theology, your blessing is not just on your church, your blessing is on you, your blessing is not just in your community the blessing is on you.
I believe everywhere my feet treed the blessing of the Lord is with me, I am blessed in America, I am blessed in Nigeria, I am blessed in Ethiopia, I am blessed in Ghana, I am blessed in Rome, because if God be for you, he’s more than the world against you. ChurchGist. When you’re blessed, when you walk in the room, blessing just walked in the room, when you’re blessed when you touch and agree, you release a blessing, when you are blessed, people want to be around you because you’re blessed, when you are blessed, God can take you from nowhere to somewhere.
If you remember you didn’t get here by yourself to God be the Glory, for the things he’s done, for the ways he’s moved, for the mountain he’s moved, for the ways he works, to God be the Glory. ChurchGist. I woke up on my own to God be the Glory, nobody had to brush my teeth to God be the Glory, nobody had to comb my hair to God be the Glory, nobody had to put my clothes on to God be the Glory, I know who I am to God be the Glory, nobody had to set me up in the bed to God be the Glory, see you can’t just thank God for the big stuffs, you have to thank him for the small stuffs, because the small stuffs get big when you can’t do it. ChurchGist. While you’re thanking God for how high you’re.
- I am thanking God I can sit up.
- I am thanking God I can move.
- I am thanking God I can stand.
- I am thanking God I can run.
- I am thanking God I can walk.
- I am thanking God I can think.
- I am thanking God I can pray.
- I am thanking God I can dance.
- I am thanking God I can shout.
- I am thanking God I can praise him.
- I am thanking God I can lift him up.
- I am thanking God I can call on him.
- I am thanking God he hears me when I pray.
- I am thanking God he knows my name.
- I am thanking God he knows where I am.
- I am thanking God I am washed in the Blood.
- I am thanking God I am free from the enemy.
- I am thanking God no weapon formed against me shall be able to prosper.
- I am thanking God that I don’t need you to help me.
- I am thanking God that I can praise him by myself, I can praise him in my car, I can praise him in my house.
- I am thanking God if nobody helps me, I can praise him myself.
I want some praisers, some blessed folks, the folks with the most favour clap your hand and give God some praise right now. ChurchGist. Give him some praise, Praise him, until demon tremble, praise him, until hell get nervous, praise him until curse are broken, praise him, until yokes fall off your hands, praise him till shackles come off your feet, praise him till you feel like running, praise him till you feel like going on, praise him till the power falls on you, Praise him till you shout with the angels, praise him till the power falls on you, praise him till you sing a new song until everyone around you feels the power of God, praise him till anointing falls on you, praise him till the anointing falls like rain and when it does you will know that the level of your favour isn’t commensurate with the level of your feelings, your feelings are going to be all over the place but in the midst of all of that drama, favour doesn’t always feel like favour.
God sent the best gift at the worst time, at a time of chaos at a time of desolation and depression at a time of poverty and pains. ChurchGist. God sent the best gift while Herod was planning to kill him, God sent the best while the world was in turmoil, God sent the best gift when people were worried about how things was going to out, God sent the best gift and if all we do is sing Christmas Carols all we will get is Christmas Carols, but if we let the Christmas Carols remind us that God comes in the middle of chaos, he reigns in the middle of the desert, he is the star that lights up the night. ChurchGist. He is the Lilly that grows in the valley, he is the redeemer, the buckler and the way maker that he is the one who walks on top of the water, that he is the one that says peace be still and the winds were slain on the floor, that he is the one whose garment can heal the woman with the issues of Blood, that he is the one that heal blind Bartimaeus, that he is the one that came to the tomb of Lazarus and said show
me where you laid him down.
That he is the one that is mighty enough to talk to Kings and Emperor’s but lowly enough to talk to the woman at the well, I am talking about your God, he is so high, you can’t get over him and yet he gets down so low that you can’t get up to him, he can reach you if you’re the woman caught in the adultery, he can still set you free and you will have a chance to walk in supernatural favour and peace and power and prosperity with God. ChurchGist. I am not saying there won’t be storms, there will be, I’m not saying there won’t be rain, there would be, I’m not saying there won’t be tough days, there’s got to be, I’m not saying everything will fall into place and every door is going to open up that all part of it.
I’m just simply saying that when the doors close and the Journey is uncomfortable, when the pain gets great and problems seems unstoppable, I’m just saying when your back is up against the corner and shoved to the walls that does not mean that the favour of God is not with you.
May you walk in that favour, may you move in that favour, may you raise your family in that favour, may you stand in that favour, I want to pronounce a blessing in everybody who wants to walk in supernatural favour jump up real fast, I decree and declare the blessing of the Lord to fall fresh on your dreams, fresh on your plans, fresh on your business, fresh on your promises, I decree and declare that nothing that the enemy said against you will stop you from getting God’s favour,
I decree and declare regardless of your circumstances the blessing of the Lord will overshadow you, I decree and declare that God will give you beauty for ashes, the oil of Joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, I decree and declare that every plot that the enemy has on you will break its grip tonight. ChurchGist. I decree and declare that your latter days shall be greater than your former days, the blessing of the lord will fall on you like the wind blowing on your neck, you’re receiving a pressed down, shaking together, running over miracle and for the next 60 seconds, I don’t care what you got on, I don’t care what you look like, I don’t care what people says, but for the next 60 seconds I want you to praise God like it’s already done.
Praise him!!! Let everything that has breathe, let everything that isn’t dead, everything that is still alive give God some praise right now. ChurchGist. Praise him for blessing, praise him for miracles, praise him for healing, praise him for deliverance, praise him for insight, praise him for increase, God bless you all the way from the Potter’s House, Dallas Texas, favour be upon you in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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