IF SALVATION OF SOULS DOES NOT MATTER TO A BELIEVER, NOT MUCH OF HIM MAY MATTER TO GOD
IF LIVING ANYHOW IS STILL YOUR WAY OF LIFE YOU ARE NOT IN A REVIVAL
REPENTANCE MAY NOT BE IN WORDS; GOD SEES GODLY SORROW AS AN EXPRESSION OF GENUINE REPENTANCE
SPIRITUAL AWAKENING IS AN ETERNAL PLUS TO EVERY BELIEVER. TO BE ALIVE TO GOD IS AN ASSET
PASSION IS STRONGER THAN UNCTION. PASSION GIVES VALUE TO UNCTION.
WITHOUT PASSION EVERY BELIEVER’S DESTINY IS UTTERLY LIMITED
IF THEY REMOVE CHRIST FROM MY LIFE WHAT REMAINS? NOTHING!
WE ARE NOT IN A LAWLESS KINGDOM, WE HAVE THE LAW OF CHRIST.
SO WHEN YOU HEAR THAT WHATEVER YOU DO DOES NOT MATTER, THAT IS THE GRAVE.
IN THE KINGDOM OF LIFE WHAT YOU DO MATTERS TO YOUR WELL-BEING IN THAT KINGDOM.
TO LIVE A LAWLESS LIFE IS TO BE IN THE GRAVE. ANYBODY WHO HATES LAW HATES LIFE
THE WORD IS THE LAW. WHATEVER THE WORD SAYS IS WRONG IS WRONG AND WHATEVER THE WORD SAYS IS RIGHT IS RIGHT
– Bishop David Oyedepo on ENGAGING THE POWER OF PASSION IN STEWARDSHIP 6 at Midweek Communion Service || Youth Chapel, Canaanland || 21st June 2023 ||
ENGAGING THE POWER OF PASSION IN STEWARDSHIP. Passion is stronger than unction. It is passion that gives value to unction. Church Gist. Passion is not a gift, calling, it’s an expression of one’s undying love for God and the interest of his kingdom. It was passion that made Peter give Jesus his boat without asking for what he will pay. Passion made him leave his father and mother and followed him. Passion gave Peter his place in destiny. Mark 10:28; John 21:15.
Without passion every believer’s destiny is utterly limited. But genuine passion for God is expressed among others by genuine passion for souls which is God’s utmost interest on the Earth. Luke 5:11; Luke 18:28-30; John 21:15-17.
Paul the passionate: Galatians 1:16; 1 Corinthians 9:16-17; Acts 26:22. Genuine passion for God is expressed in genuine passion for souls. Church Gist. Philippians 3:7-8. If salvation of souls does not matter to a believer, not much of him may matter to God (let me be very mild). You can’t be in the midst of this kind of revival and all you are doing everyday is “me, me, me” – there’s a problem there.
Also, genuine passion for God is expressed in genuine passion to live a life that pleases Him. You don’t like to hurt anyone you are in love with. 1 Peter 1:15-16; 1 Thessalonians 2:10. Passion for God is expressed in an undying crave to live a life that pleases God. When you miss it, you weep. Godly sorrow that stirs repentance. Church Gist. Acts 17:30-31. Repentance may not be in words; God sees godly sorrow as an expression of genuine repentance. 2 Corinthians 7:10. Ahab never mentioned a word. He just walked softly after he heard the prophetic verdict and God said, ‘see how he humbled himself. Okay, this evil is averted, it will not happen in his day.’ When you hate doing the wrong, you are on your way to pleasing God in all areas of your life.
If living anyhow is still your way of life, you’re not in a revival. If minding only yourself is still your way of life, you are not there. Church Gist. Spiritual awakening is an eternal plus to every believer. To be alive to God is an asset because we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. Romans 8:28; John 14:21.
– My prayer is that no one here will miss heaven’s manifestation this time and for life in the name of Jesus.
ENGAGING THE POWER OF PASSION. Every passionate believer is an ever self motivated individual in stewardship – you don’t push them. Church Gist. Their engagement, committment, dedication is natural. It’s not pressurised nor coerced. We saw that in Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:20-22.
Now listen, we have a law of Christ. We are not in a lawless Kingdom, we have the law of Christ. They call it the ‘law of the Spirit of life in Christ’ it sets man free from the law of sin and death. So there are two laws. You come out of one, you step into the other. If you leave this country today and find yourself in the U.K., you have left from under the law in Nigeria to find yourself in the law of the U.K. There is nowhere on earth that you won’t find yourself under the law. So anybody teaching you that there is no law… To live a lawless life is to be in the grave. When you are in the grave, you are not under any law. You can’t be arrested, you can’t be imprisoned, you are already in prison. So anybody who hates law hates life. There is the law of sin and death, which is not good that no man can survive under it. Church Gist. There is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ. Romans 8:2. So when you hear that whatever you do does not matter, that is the grave. In the kingdom of life what you do matters to your well-being in that kingdom. We drive here on the left and they drive in the U.K. on the right. If you carry the law here to that place they will arrest you before you move far. So we are perpetually under law. That should ring a bell. The words he has spoken to you are spirit and life. The law of the Spirit of life is the law of the Word. Whatever the Word says is wrong is wrong. Whatever the Word says is right is right. He said ‘I became all things to all men that I might win some”. Every passionate believer is an ever self-motivated individual in stewardship. They always make themselves of no reputation. They take upon themselves the form of a servant after the order of Christ. Philippians 2:5-9. Please put your reputation aside. You can’t succeed in stewardship with reputation-headedness. He came all the way from heaven, left all His glory and came here to ascend to the highest of highest.
Passion is what fuels our consistency and steadfastness in stewardship.
Our consistency and steadfastness in stewardship are fuelled by passion. All those disciples that scattered when Christ was going through that agony. If you check the scriptures very well, in Luke 9 they were given power and authority over all devils but there was no passion to match, they fled. In Matthew 10, they were given power to heal all manner of sicknesses and diseases. Luke 10:1. Church Gist. They fled. Peter the passionate stayed on. You say he denied Christ, okay, where are the others? They weren’t available to deny Christ. They disappeared. May each one’s undying love for God come alive. Paul said, “By the help of God I continue to this day”. Yes, we need help but you need the passion that will be helped. Passion must be there to demand for the help. You have the passion, help to keep it alive. Acts 26:22.
As I said before, passion is not a gift but a decision stirred by one’s unreserved love for God and the interests of His kingdom. A decision! We heard the man, Elijah, saying ‘I have been very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts’. 1 Kings 19:10,14. You can’t be passionate and not know and you can’t be passionate without the people around you knowing. You can’t cope with where they are, you can’t cope with what they stand for. Church Gist. You are driven by something that they are not aware of. I have been very passionate. You watch where the passionate Elijah ended. He enjoyed the first rapture. A spacecraft from heaven came and took him yonder.
Passion entitles you to an unlimited destiny in Christ. Passion with knowledge, passion driven by revelation will take off the limits of any believer’s destiny.
What is passion? Two quick descriptions or definitions.
1. Passion is a product of one’s compassion for the well-being of others as we saw in Nehemiah.
When he heard the affliction of those who were left of captivity in Jerusalem, he broke down and for weeks was in prayer and fasting. He was living in the comfort of the palace but had a passion for the well-being of others. That is one of the evidence of genuine passion. Church Gist. It expresses itself in one’s compassion for the well-being of others. If you truly want others to be saved, you will be driven towards making that happen. You will be committed and dedicated to seeing that happen. If they remove Christ from your life and my life what remains? You can check what remains.
We are the only people today… Believers, no matter the church they belong to, every true believer, they are the only ones laughing in this country and around the world where there is global depression. Everybody is just going about not knowing what will happen next. Church Gist. But there is the joy of salvation, there is the peace from Heaven that accompanies our salvation which money cannot buy. You want others to have that joy, you want them to have that peace, a relationship with God. You are driven – your compassion moves you towards them. If we were looking for Church growth I won’t be going out for anything. God is growing his Church, blessed be his name but there are still many in the valley of decision that need to come out of the Kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of light. Church Gist. So one’s compassion for the well being of others is what we defined as passion for God because God’s utmost interest on the Earth today is salvation of the souls of men. John 3:16; Matthew 1:21.
Nehemiah 1:1-11 is an expression of compassion for the well being of others. We all know what that made out of him – a cup bearer eventually emerged a Governor. He wasn’t looking for it, they appointed him – ‘come and rule over us.’ This young man took his life in his hand and spoke in a way that nobody ever spoke to a king and survived and instead of being killed, favour came from Heaven. ‘Why are you sad?’ ‘Why should I not be sad? You invaded my nation, destroyed the walls, you say why am I sad? I’ll rather die than watch it continue.’ ‘Okay, make you no vex; what do you want?’ (Nehemiah 2:5). Church Gist. Is that the response that should come from a king that has never had anybody answer him roughly before and survive? That’s passion.
Passion is the force that fuels our consistency and steadfastness as we saw in Paul. Romans 8:35-37. Nothing could deter or disconnect or discourage him from going after Christ and that helped him to continue to the end. Songs of Solomon 8:6-7. Church Gist. When you’re truly in love it shows. When you’re one leg in and one leg out, it shows. They call it lukewarm. So there is lukewarm love, love when it is groovy and dislove when it is not. But genuine love keeps you going in season and out of season.
Everyone that came across Paul during his time of challenge in Jerusalem, he preached to them – every one! ‘They said you should bring me? Church Gist. Do you know Jesus? I am bound but the Word of God is not bound.’ – in season and out of season, that’s what true love is.
I heard the testimony of one of us here whose husband was declared dead by the doctors and she said, ‘Honey, you can’t go.’ So, in his death he was still honey! Church Gist. She stood there as a woman of valour and saw the husband brought back to life. Thank God for godly women, God loving women.
There is no substitute for passion in one’s quest to accomplish any given task. Interestingly that covers all areas. Without passion, your accomplishment in your career, profession will be limited. Church Gist. There is nothing that moves without passion. Passion is pivotal to motion. Nothing overcomes friction in your quest for motion like passion. Passion keeps you going.
We saw Jesus in Psalm 69:9 – that was a prophetic Word and when it happened in Matthew 21:10-16 they remembered it was written of him. Now, we saw the parable of the talents: he gave them one one talent each – there were 10 of them and gave them the same space of time. Church Gist. One traded his talent and made 10 more and he said, ‘Have thou authority over 10 cities.’ Luke 19:12-21 – the same time! Passion made the difference between one and the other. They were under the same atmosphere, condition, but they came forth with different results.
Yes, we need the help of the Holy Spirit to keep our passion for God ever burning but we must have it and then he comes to ignite it. Church Gist. The Holy Spirit cannot inject you with passion. It is a decision of yours then he comes to help you keep it on. Romans 5:5.
We have 2 examples of passion made giants in Scriptures tonight:
a) Esther: ‘If I perish, I perish.’ What’s that? Passion. That’s not a calling nor a gift. You want to destroy my people? ‘If I perish, I perish.’ Esther 4:16-17 and we saw how God came through for her. Church Gist. Esther 5:1-3. That’s the life changing power of passion. If you appear before the court of the King without being invited, you are dead. ‘If I perish, I perish.’ Esther 5:1-3. Favour will always answer to the passionate.
– You’re going to run into strange realms of favour from henceforth!
– They will be sending for you from where you least expected!
So let your passion for Jesus come alive. Let it have raw expression in your crave to live a life that pleases him and in your crave to go after his utmost interest on the Earth and watch how favour will keep answering to you.
Psalm 44:3. Now listen to me, I never knew one person before Jesus gave us this entire place. Church Gist. Never invited one person to help me know one person – favour!
– You are going to begin to hit surprises from henceforth if you let your passion for God come alive and stay alive!
I was talking to my partners – my Outreach team and I told them, ‘You know something? I bought the last wrist watch in my life in 1985.’ One day I called one of my daughters and said, ‘help me check all these wrist watches.’ She said, ‘ah! These are high class!’ ‘ehhhee, I don’t know the price/ cost.’ Favour! Church Gist. Not that they saw my hand and it has no wrist watch but they will still bring more. 1985! So it is not about your Church here. I didn’t know you that time, you didn’t know me. The passionate will never lack favour. Therefore watch out: a deluge of favour will start coming your way on every side.
You saw how the story ended. How God turned the table against Haman and Haman had to go and hang himself. Church Gist. Favour will kill your enemy, it will destroy them. When you hit God’s favour your enemies are helpless; they will just go down the drain.
We have the story of Peter. We saw what became of Peter. The Rock in him emerged when the Holy Spirit came upon him. Peter the Rock took the whole of Jerusalem by storm. I was in the place called the Upper Room life and that place won’t take 150 people if they sit back to back. 3000 people! I don’t know where they hung out there. In one day! He preached that historical life-transforming message by the Holy Ghost. Church Gist. You can’t stop us, we rather obey God than you. Somebody is going places and you are the person. Matthew 19:27-29, Mark 10:28-30, Luke 18:28-30. Hundredfold. Whatever you leave for my sake you will have a hundredfold now and in the world to come life everlasting. Many will be enlisted in the hundredfold company of the blessed in this revival and for life.
However, the forces that make stewardship profitable require effective, fervent prayer for delivery. You can’t be effective on the harvest field in your quest for souls without prayer because soul winning is warfare. Luke 11:21-22. Isaiah 65. So we pray to bring forth, we pray to bear fruit, we pray fruits to abide, we pray to see them established in the faith. Galatians 4:19. Church Gist. I travail to birth you into the kingdom, I travail to see you established in the kingdom. It takes prayer. What a joy, we have these prayer bulletins that will keep your prayer life alive. They are ready to go prayer points and prayer points don’t go old as long as the requirements are still needed. So whether you are a newborn child of God or an old one, Jesus was praying saying the same thing. The Lord’s Prayer is still relevant today. Church Gist. These prayer points are relevant to keep your prayer life revived. For instance, Personal Spiritual Awakening Intercessory Prayer Guide is for you and me to keep our spirit man on top at all times in season and out of season. So you know what to pray for. Sir, if you are not doing anything this time it is your fault. Let me say it is your choice. May you choose right.
Also, one way to keep your spirit man revived is to keep reading revival provoking materials. Settle down for revival provoking materials. Proverbs 26:20. All these psychedelic, chocolate Christianity won’t take you far. Settle down with materials. Keep your spirit man alive and you will be in command of other things because everything about your life is controlled from inside. When your spirit man is alive you are supernaturally in command. So settle down. They will mention books of the month and you will just ignore them. Are we booksellers? If you know what books did in stirring the revival in this country you will be afraid. You will salute God. It is books that brought us out and set us on fire. Hagin’s books brought us out. I was carrying it on my forehead, carry it on my shoulders to make people see what I saw there. I never got one dime of commission, I didn’t know they had commission so I didn’t feel I was cheated by anyone. I was having a good time. Kenneth Hagin sent $140,000 worth of books for free to Nigeria. See the effect today. Look out for that material, it is online, ‘Fanning Revival Fire’ use that to keep your fire alive. Look for the material ‘Walking in the Newness of Life’ it will make you hate evil and love the Lord. Read the book ‘Conquering Controlling Power’, it is a little book. Church Gist. It will put you in command of all foul spirits trying to defile your life. ‘All You Need To Have All Your Needs Met’ will keep your focus on Jesus and other things will be added to you. ‘Walking in Wisdom’, putting the Word of God to work as a way of life. ‘The Wisdom That Works,’ that always works because the Word abides forever. Look for those books. I have not received a dime for books in my life and I have been publishing since 1985 by a vow and I am blessed. It is selling around the world. Settle down and locate a place for yourself in this revival and watch how God will keep decorating your life. Church Gist. This Church has been focusing since its inception on ‘God save souls, God deliver them, God decorate them, God rescue them’ and we are still going forward every day. If you don’t believe anybody’s testimony, believe the one of the Church you are in there. No stress, no strain, how? Matthew 6:33. Psalm 33:10. The end has come to all the struggles of your life. What to eat, what to drink will never be a concern to you forever. Your children will not beg for bread. If you will genuinely go after God, goodness and mercy will be going after you. By serving God and the interests of His Kingdom, you will leave a legacy behind for your children’s children.
—— ALTAR CALL AND COMMUNION MINISTRATION ————-
I can share this to the glory of God, we have seen 12,000 converts in our outreach team this year. We have had 10,000 over in church here. Last Tuesday, we were in the Rice Market and sharing the good news and somebody was about to commit suicide and he just came across us by divine orchestration and the Word about him came forth as he was there. ‘Hey! Who told him about my problem?’ That was the end of it. He gave his life to Christ and he was in Church on Wednesday last week. His passion came alive. He was going to be in the grave but God took him out of it. We are rescue agents. Church Gist. We are not in a church growth craze, we are God’s rescue agents. We are saviours born out of Zion to rescue mankind out of perdition. Get driven by it. I am a rescue agent, I am not just having fun. I am a kingdom rescue. Your life will never suffer any stress anymore. Go with that passion. Just as your church is not under any stress, your life will not suffer any stress anymore.
Give God thanks.
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