ANYONE WHO EXPOSES YOU BEFORE YOUR TIME IS A DESTROYER OF DESTINY. EXPOSURE WILL PUT YOU IN TROUBLE WHEN YOU DON’T HAVE ROOTS.
THERE ARE A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO WANT TO REACH HEIGHTS AND THEY ARE PRAYING AND FASTING BUT THEIR ROOTS CAN’T CARRY THE HEIGHTS.
IF YOU SHOW UP IN THE LIMELIGHT WITHOUT ROOTS DOWNWARD, YOU WILL APPEAR TO DISAPPEAR LIKE A SHOOTING STAR.
GOD DOESN’T MAKE PEOPLE IN THE PUBLIC PLACE, HE MAKES THEM IN THE SECRET PLACE. ROOTS ONLY GROW IN THE DARK.
FAMILIARITY IN THE WORLD BRINGS CONTEMPT, SPIRITUAL FAMILIARITY BRINGS CONTENT. THE MORE YOU ARE CLOSE TO GOD, THE MORE THE LIGHT OF HIS FACE WILL SHINE UPON YOU.
- Rev. Biodun Fatoyinbo at COZA 12 Days of Glory, Day 6 Morning Session
Thank you Jesus. Father encourage someone today, help someone with a word in season for their life today in Jesus name.
John 15:4
He says ‘abide’ not ‘visit’. Stay there. The devil knows that if you stay, there is nothing he can do. So all his shenanigans, calculations and plots are to make sure you don’t abide. He knows that once you abide and Christ abides in you, you will begin to bear fruit.
John 15:6 -7
There are a lot of people living but they are withered. The Bible talks about the guy whose leaves do not wither. One of the major ways you abide in God is that His word abides in you.
John 15:10
First thing I want to say to you is that you can not bear fruits unless you stay with Jesus, stay with Jesus. The devil doesn’t like your husband or your wife, the reason he is attacking your marriage is because he doesn’t want you to stay. I don’t know if I have told you this story before of a Christian who was a deacon in a Church where they don’t wear earrings. His wife got sick, and after a while his wife wasn’t getting healed. Someone said there is a place somewhere where there is solution. The man said no I can’t go there, I am a Christian. The wife said so you want to kill me and marry another person. So the husband said “okay! No problem, let’s go”. The night they got there, the woman was about to die from the stress of travel but the man just removed a hamlet from his hand and put it in her hand and she was resuscitated in two minutes. Church Gist. She was shouting thank you Jesus. The man was actually a sorcerer. The next morning the man showed up and said that is my own, you have to do your own. First thing the oracle said is that you have to deny that your God you are calling. The man said never! The woman said it’s because the sickness is not on your body that’s why you are talking. Long story short, the woman got there and they poured something in her mouth, said she should spit it out and asked her to say “Jesus for now I denounce you”. The moment she said it, she just passed. She died, if she had stayed with Jesus, there would have been a flow from the root. Every plot of the enemy is not what is on the surface, that is not what he is doing. I hope you realize that the devil did not want Adam or the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the main thing he wanted was the tree of life. If he had made man eat from the tree of life, Jesus would have not been able to come. Even if he came, he could not die to redeem us. The reason why God cannot forgive the devil is he can’t die so he can’t be born again. The main thing is not the tree of knowledge of good and evil, He was taking it to the next point. God put cherubs at the way to the tree of life to make sure Adam does not go there. Because He knew the devil was up to something.
- No trees plant themselves. If you want to be a perennial tree you must be stable. You don’t need someone to be against you to pray, you don’t need to have a bad dream to pray, you don’t need to have a problem to pray. One morning, Muhammad Ali was jogging in the cold and they said “Wow! You must really like the cold”. He said I don’t like the cold but I like to win. If I must win, I must have a routine. Winners have a routine, you will never meet a champion without a routine and they are instant in season and out of season.
- Jesus is an inexhaustible space.
If you put a lion in the zoo, it will limit the potential, if you put a fish in an aquarium it will limit the size. But not trees, put a tree in a pot, it will behave and after a while it will be looking for where the root can go. It will break the pot.
- This year you are breaking out.
If you are planting at the edge, it can be limiting at times. I know a friend that planted a tree that its roots went as far as 10 meters and entered under the foundation of his house and in rooms they will see roots come out. To uproot it was a problem, they had to move. Haven’t you seen trees uprooting fences? Jesus is a space that is inexhaustible. Church Gist. The more you want to take your root down, the more space He has. You will never find someone that Jesus says this guy comes to me too much, please tell him to stop coming. Familiarity in the world brings contempt, spiritual familiarity brings content. The more you are close to God, the more the light of His face will shine upon you.
The next thing I want you to know is that shallow roots produce shallow fruit. We have a lot of people who are shallow in ministry. There are a lot of Christians who are shallow. Sometimes I wonder whether they don’t have discernment. No matter what you tell me about someone, I will still stand by my conviction. You should ask questions and be smart in the spirit. Root only develops after death. I have told you the story of a seed before, seed has potential and a future. When you put it in the ground and cover it. As you are covering it, it is shouting “Heat oh, heat! Do you want me to die? ” After some time, the rains came. It’s happy “Thanks for water, thank you”. It doesn’t know that water is going to cause trouble for him. As the water contacts the seed, it starts to die and decay. It’s necessary because if it doesn’t decay what is inside will not come out. When it decays, it opens up and the root begins to look for where to touch. Church Gist. You outside will come and say it’s not working, when you uproot it you are in trouble. It is trying to go down first to have a footing before it can come up. The reason why you have to cover it is not because the covering does anything to it, it is because roots develop in darkness. Humid circumstances, sometimes lonely circumstances. He that ascended, first of all descended. Roots don’t need sunlight, have you been to a seedling nursery before? You see some small trees, they put them in a nylon bag. The colour of the nylon is black not white because they don’t want that thing to see the sun. They just leave a small part to raise the head because that is your direction. Satan touched everything but Job’s wife. What will cause recovery must not be lost.
- I don’t know what you have lost but what you have left will take you to another dimension.
They wrap it in something black and put it under a shade because they don’t need sunlight. I have seen people who are humble after they gave their lives to Christ but give them small things to handle and they start to misbehave. Anyone who exposes you before your time is a destroyer of destiny. If you are around me and I see you like the limelight, you like the microphone. I will personally make sure it doesn’t touch your hand. You need to be wrapped because you are not rooted. Exposure will put you in trouble when you don’t have roots. I was privileged to be in a meeting, Bishop Jakes will wear shorts not trousers and t-shirt and teach us. Church Gist. He could see everybody because it was a small room. The last one I attended, I was the only Nigerian and even the only African there. He will teach us kindergarten things. One of the meetings he started teaching and from the beginning to the end, I was crying. I did not know he had such depth. Preaching in Church is different from when He is talking to leaders. He was telling us things I didn’t understand: Men of God, run away from the limelight before your time. He said when you are under the spotlight, you are shining and everyone is looking at you but the spotlight has heat. Can you withstand the heat? Some things he talked about I have not heard it before. One of things he talked about is getting scandal insurance because the moment you are on top, they will come for you.
- I prophesy to you: may you not break out before your time.
Some are so eager to be popular. You want to shoot out when you have not shot down. God does not breed His best in sunlight. For 30 years, John the Baptist was in the wilderness until the time of his showing. They told John as you are baptizing, the person the heaven opens over is the One. I thought when the heavens opened they would give Him horsetail like Ekiti people but He went straight to the wilderness. Someone fasted for 40 days and 40 nights and Satan was waiting for him.
- In the name of Jesus you will be prepared.
When you are wearing a belt you are not prepared for, you will receive punches you are not prepared for. We invited a singer to this Church one day, an American singer who is a veteran and he wore jeans that were torn. It’s normal in America. You will not find one pastor doing it but Musicians can do it. That’s their culture. A musician who is a gospel minister went online not DM, “Ha! This is not spiritual, how can a gospel minister wear torn jeans”. I sent him a DM “you have only released one album in your life and from it, it is just one song we are hearing. You have just killed yourself because you have sown a seed. I wish you sent him a DM”. Jealousy had no brother. He apologized to me later, I think five years later because he grew and realized. Church Gist. If I mention his name, you will know one song he has been repeating. We knew he wore torn jeans before we invited him. The Bible says nobody can stand before envy. Envy will bring you down, you can be jealous of your own son, you can be jealous of your own daughter. Haven’t you seen wives that said “My husband likes my daughter more than me”. That girl is in trouble and they are never friends till she dies. I looked at him and laughed, I said you what have you seen.
- May your root go downwards, may you do well.
Some people can say anything, march on anybody just to be popular. Let me tell you the truth: If you see a herbalist advertising, his herb is not working. If you do one, everybody will gather. So if you can say anything to get traction, losers think like that. Church Gist. If you have waited to get your roots downwards, you will have fruits and people will be attracted to you. There are a lot of people who want to reach heights and they are praying and fasting but their roots can’t carry the heights. God is like: son wait, you will fall down because winds will blow. Matthew 7:24-25
If two people are building, one on sand and the other on rock, who will first finish? The guy building on sand will finish sharp sharp but let the rains come. That someone overtakes you does not matter. Any tree that the shoot is longer than the root will not exceed that season, go and ask potatoes or tomatoes.
- In the name of Jesus, you will do well.
Once you start looking for limelight, it’s a sign your root development is already hindered. I don’t know if you have seen the best carpentry workshop? Nobody puts the workshop in front. The other day when my wife and I just got married, there was this boy who was a carpenter in Sabo Kiri. I met him and said “Look, I will make it. I will do well, you should know me well”. The guy said “I believe in you”. I said I want to make a chair, we don’t have any chairs in our house. He said Ah! There is one tree, if I call the name he called it in Yoruba, you will almost laugh and fall off your seat. So we went to the survey. He hit one tree and he said Baba this na the tree. So I bought a tree to cut costs. I sat down there, he sliced the tree and polished it, and they made chairs. My mom came to visit me and I showed her the chair and she said “is this what you left home to do, you better go and apologize to your Daddy”. At that time I just left home to do ministry and I was not talking to my Dad. I bought a tree. I invited a pastor to our church to preach in 2002 and he saw that our church had PB Speakers, only two churches had PB speakers in Ilorin. Church Gist. We bought it for #120,000. We couldn’t paint the full church, we did it in a way you will think it was a design. We put some flower pots. I brought them from Lagos speaking in tongues that the flower pot should not break. I wanted to honour him and he came to the house and sat on the bed. There was no chair, it was a one room apartment. As he came for the next session, he said your life must be square, as the work is growing, your personal life must grow too. The Holy Spirit said “na you e dey talk to”. We gave him honorarium and he returned it, he said to himself if I take this money God will vex. Some people just rise without root. In school they made you pastor and since that day you couldn’t learn, everyone is looking up to you. After a while most people that pastor on campus don’t want to pastor in life. They are looking for jobs. They were exposed too early. I am not talking down on those who had that experience.
One woman just gave her life to Christ and she came to our Church in 1988 and said she was the assistant of the devil, I believed her. It was after I grew in knowledge that I could pass Zuma Rock, she said on the stage that there were a lot of whites inside Zuma Rock. That they come for exploration and they disappear. She said those eyes it was a demon that turned into that stuff and if you look at it, they have tried to build estates around it and it couldn’t work. Church Gist. So when I am passing Zuma Rock, I go throw way face until I was established in the faith. Now I want to go there, there is a resort there now and they say it’s very nice. Where is the woman now? We don’t know. Someone just gave their life to Christ and without being discipled and trained. Don’t give him front seat, let him sit down and learn. You don’t just expose people. If a celebrity just gave his life to Christ and you bring him on stage, He will not be able to grow roots. Don’t let anybody use you to fly kites. If you are a doctor before you gave your life to Christ, when you come here calm down you are not a doctor in the Spirit. As a babe desire the sincere milk of the word of God that ye may grow.
Pastor Chris Okotie shared this story so I can repeat it. When he gave his life to Christ he was the highest paid musician. He was a student of Law at the Enugu Campus of University of Nigeria and he had a permanent suite at Federal Palace Hotel. He was more highly paid than Sunny Ade, than Ebenezer Obey. The moment he gave his life to Christ, it shook all of Nigeria. Archbishop Benson Idahosa said come and be living in my house and that was what saved that man or else stardom would have killed him without discipleship.
In the name of Jesus, you will be solid.
Some people just appear to disappear. After a short while you don’t hear of them anymore. Do you know how long David was alone and abandoned. His first congregation was his sheep before he led the sheep of Israel. Life tests are not pre informed. You will not know God is testing you. A mentor of mine who has been doing a certain programme for 40 years and last year he called us pastors that he wanted to eat with us. Church Gist. All of us could not eat because he was very stern and faces his work. After eating he rested for 30 minutes and when he got up on stage, the anointing was strong. At that meeting when he prayed somebody’s tooth grew and we just finished eating, if I want to do something like that I no dey eat oh. So I went to him and he said Biodun don’t be deceived, the first 35 years during the convention I no dey talk to anybody. He has built it over time. When you see someone’s book and it tells you do this, look at the date they wrote it, look at the date they have been in ministry. He wrote it when he was 80, you are 35. Go and look for the one he wrote at 35. It is not your time to do what he has been doing at 80.
Psalm 90:1. “He that dwells”, they didn’t put anybody’s name there because from today you can be the ‘he’. Not he who visits, not he who worships on Sundays and by Sunday evening his seat is empty. He that abides. Why is it that God does not make people in the public place? He makes in the secret place. If you want an arrow to go far, you have to pull it from behind. The person who wants to grow must be under the shadow of the Almighty.
- I prophesy to you: every premature exposure that the devil has given you and you are thinking it is a major door. I come against it in the name of Jesus
- May your discernment be sharp, may your eyes be opened. You will know what to do.
If you will not be a vegetable, if you are not spinach that after one week you come out we harvest you and you die. If you want to be an Iroko tree in the spirit that withstands the wind. If Igbo people call someone an Iroko, they are talking about someone whose root has gone down.
Matthew 13:5-6
Be careful about those who spring up suddenly. Don’t use another person’s wrist watch to watch your time. Church Gist. He may be coming from Dubai, he is three hours ahead and he might be coming from America and he is six hours ahead. Be careful about using someone to measure yourself. We started together, he is married. I must be married even if it is anybody.
- You will not be scorched.
Lift your hands and pray seriously in 4 minutes. Lord guide me, I am dangerous but I won’t you to guide me like a missile. Lord guide me. May I not be bounced off. May I not have fake success, may I not be a shooting star.
Don’t let the enemy put you ahead. Let God go ahead of you.
- Every insecurity of destiny, every inferiority complex that makes you vulnerable to the devil, I come against it today.
- You will be luscious, you will do well.
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