I GOT BORN AGAIN AS A TEENAGER, I WAS ORDAINED AS A PASTOR AT THE AGE OF 21 AND I CELEBRATED 33 YEARS IN MINISTRY LAST YEAR
IT IS NOT EVERYONE THAT YOU LOVE THAT YOU MARRY. SOME PEOPLE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE LOVED FROM AFAR.
WHATEVER GOD DID NOT ORDAIN, HE WILL NOT SUSTAIN.
ANY JOURNEY THAT GOD DIDN’T SEND YOU, YOU WILL PAY THE TRANSPORT FARE BY YOURSELF.
THE ABILITY TO HEAR THE VOICE OF GOD IS ONE OF THE GREATEST ASSETS YOU HAVE AS A BELIEVER
JESUS DID NOT DIE TO GIVE US A RELIGION, JESUS DID NOT DIE SO WE CAN GO TO CHURCH EVERY WEEK TO DANCE AND SING. JESUS DIED TO RESTORE A KINGDOM
THE LOVE OF GOD IS UNCONDITIONAL, GOD LOVED YOU AND DIED FOR YOU WHILE YOU WERE YET SINNERS. WHEN GOD WANTS TO BLESS YOU, THE BLESSINGS OF GOD ARE CONDITIONAL
WHEN I LOOK BACK AT THE LAST 34 YEARS OF MY LIFE, EVERY CRISIS I HAVE EVER GONE THROUGH WAS BECAUSE I DIDN’T HEAR THE VOICE OF GOD OR I DIDN’T UNDERSTAND OR I MISINTERPRETED OR I DISOBEYED THE VOICE.
THE BIBLE SPENT TIME DESCRIBING THE VOICE OF GOD. HOW CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT DOES NOT EXIST? HIS VOICE WAS DESCRIBED BECAUSE HE HAS A VOICE.
GOD WANTS TO SPEAK TO YOU. GOD WANTS TO LEAD, GUIDE AND DIRECT YOU.
IN THE WORLD THAT WE LIVE IN TODAY, THERE IS TOO MUCH NOISE.
ACTIVITY IS A KILLER OF SENSITIVITY. MANY OF US ARE SO FULL OF ACTIVITIES
– Pastor Olumide Emmanuel on “UNDERSTANDING THE VOICE OF GOD” || Recharge Conference 2023 || Covenant Keeping God || Day 3 Morning session || 4th July 2023 || Global Impact Church
Father, we thank you because you are a covenant keeping God and there is no one like you. Your covenant you will not break, neither will you alter that which has gone out of your mouth. Thank you for the privilege we have to call you Father. Thank you for the honour of your grace that has brought us into your family. Lord, we ask that today you will speak to us in a way that only you can. Church Gist. Lord, let every man, every woman, every boy and every girl under the sound of my voice directly and indirectly, through the virtual world, in all the viewing centres, every platform receive a Word from heaven. Let no one leave here the same. Lord, we give you the glory in advance for testimonies of transformation that will take place as a result of this encounter. In Jesus’ mighty name we have prayed.
I got born again as a teenager and I was ordained as a pastor at the age of 21 and I celebrated 33 years in ministry last year. When I got born again… many times you know life is lived forward but understood backwards. Many times as you begin to journey through life you have to look back and find out because success leaves clues. You look back and begin to find out more what are the things that have helped you on your journey. That is what I want to share with us. I realized that as a young boy on campus when I got born again in the 80s, one of the first things that God helped me to understand is the covenant. To understand that when you come into the kingdom, you have come into a different kingdom from the world you live in. Regardless of the geography of where you exist or operate from, there is a covenant that supersedes your geography. Church Gist. As I began to study the Word of God, the elementary part of my journey was understanding the covenant, the importance of studying the Word of God, prayer, fasting, hearing the voice of God, quiet time and all those things helped to shape who we are today.
When I got the invitation to come share and I saw that the theme was COVENANT KEEPING GOD. I knew that we needed to deal with one of these very important aspects of our walk with God that determines whether we will ever experience or enjoy the covenant provision of God. When Jesus died, Jesus did not die to give us a religion. Jesus did not die so we can go to Church every week and dance and sing. Jesus died to restore a kingdom. He died so that you and I can come into the understanding of our redemptive rights and come to enjoy the covenant blessings of God that have been made available through the price that was paid on the cross. When you begin to study the Word of God as a child of God, you find out that there are many covenant provisions in the Word of God that are made available to the saints but not many believers are enjoying the covenant provisions. Church Gist. There is a covenant of prosperity and wealth, there is a covenant of long life and longevity, there is a covenant of health and healing, there is a covenant of divine protection, divine direction. All these covenants even though they are available to you as a child of God cannot be accessible to you without fulfilling the conditions for them to become your portion. The love of God is unconditional, God loves you because while you were yet sinners He died for you. That is because He is God. When God wants to bless you, the blessings of God are conditional. When you look into the Word of God, you find out that every covenant has terms and conditions. Many of us are not able to work in the reality of these provisions of God because we do not even know what the provisions are and we don’t know what to do in order to get in there.
So this morning, I want to start a series with us that I have entitled UNDERSTANDING THE VOICE OF GOD because even though God has a provision for you to be able to live long, you need to hear the voice of God consistently on your journey to know what to do and what not to do, the journey to embark on and the journey not to embark upon. So when you say you have the covenant of long life and you are about to embark on a journey and God says do not go but you did not hear that you should not go and you went. Except mercy prevails, you may not return. You may rapture before your time. What God has joined together let no man put asunder. What of the one God didn’t join together? What of the one that you joined by yourself. You came from Osogbo, she came from Nnewi, boy sees girl, girl loves boy, boy proposes to girl, girl says Yes and then you marry. Whereas if you had heard the voice of God, God would have told you that it is not everything that you love that you marry. Some people are supposed to be loved from afar. Because you could not hear God, you saw the six figures, figure 8, you did not know that is trouble. When you enter, now you are praying for God to deliver you from what He did not lead you into. Because whatever God did not ordain, He will not sustain. Any journey that God didn’t send you, you will pay the transport fare by yourself. We need to understand the voice of God. The ability to hear the voice of God is one of the greatest assets you have as a believer. That’s your leverage, that’s your advantage. When you are able to know what God is saying per time. In the world that we live in today, there are many things trying to get your attention, except you are tuned to the frequency of heaven, you can be a casualty in this world. You are either in the secret cult or in the secret place. Church Gist. The secret place of the Most High God is a place of intimacy, the place of prayer, the place of worship, the place of Koinonia and Communion with the Holy Spirit where you are able to hear per time. When the frequency is intact you know what to do and what not to do. Because it is not just enough to have a to-do list, you need to have a to-stop list so you know what not to do.
When you look all through the Bible you find out that many people that we celebrate today if you look at their journey, it is the ability that they have to hear the voice and understand the voice of God and walk in the manifestation of obedience that brought them into a blessing. In Genesis 12, we see the story of Abraham. Abraham was born in a family that was messed up. The Bible said God told Abraham to come out of his father’s house and everything about the life of Abraham that we celebrate today began because he heard the voice of God that called him out of a place of shame and bondage into a place of prominence. Church Gist. In the name that is above all names, I believe that somebody is going to be connected to the voice of God and you are coming out of shame, you are coming out of sin, you are coming out of lack, you are coming out of obscurity, you are coming out of limitation.
Noah was living in a perverse generation but in Genesis 6, Noah heard the voice of God. Arise, Noah go build me an ark because destruction is coming. What do you do when God speaks? You obey. I will never forget all through the journeys of my life that I have been privileged to look back and see that if it had not been the voice of God that I heard and obedience to the voice of God, I would not have been able to survive some things. In Acts 9, as powerful as Saul was, when he came in contact with the voice of God there was a turnaround. There are many people you are trying to convince and your voice is not powerful enough to convince them. Sometimes they need to hear a voice that is bigger than your own. A woman had come to the Church and she was crying, my daughter is this, my daughter is that. I have fasted and prayed. No matter what you counsel, she does what she likes. After she complained and complained, I said Okay Mummy, I hope you know that almost a year ago you came and made the same complain and now you are still complaining. Complaining will not do this thing. You have prayed, you have fasted, have you read a portion of the Bible that says cast your burden upon the Lord? Church Gist. This child has become a burden, you dedicated this child on this altar, now she has become a burden. Cast her into the Lord. Lord, I hand her over to you. Because your voice is powerless to change her but when she hears God she will come back. I told her in Yoruba that some of them will go outside and when the outside has dealt with them their head will be correct. In less than 2 months, the girl came back crying “Mummy men are scum. Can you imagine that after two abortions for him, I got there now and met another girl in his house. I just want to serve God with my life”. Eh hen, outside have driven her inside because your voice was powerless. In the name that is above every other name, every Spirit of Saul that is contending with any destiny, may the voice of God prevail.
So there are many voices trying to get your attention. In the world that we live in today, there is too much noise. Listen to me, activity is a killer of sensitivity. Many of us are so full of activities. The devil is speaking, social media is speaking, human beings are speaking, everywhere voices. How do you now know which one is the voice of God? God is speaking, your environment is speaking, media is speaking, people are speaking. As a young boy when I got born again and I began to understand the importance of these things in my life, there were seven major questions that I needed answers to. I went on a journey with God about 35 years ago and began to find out the answers to these questions. Church Gist. I tell you that when I look back at the last 34 years of my life, every crisis I have ever gone through was because I didn’t hear or I didn’t understand or I misinterpreted or I disobeyed the voice. I didn’t hear it or I heard and misinterpreted it. You can be Prophetic, you hear something and misinterpret it. You can see someone and say “Your name is Chinedu, I am seeing something around music. You are a musician”. The guy says yes, my name is Chinedu but I am not a musician. You are hearing but you are not hearing clearly, you are not understanding clearly. By the time you ask him what he does for a living, he says he sells musical instruments. You see now that the guy is trying to mess up your prophetic. Instead of him to help the grace.
Seven questions that I needed answers to and we are going to answer the questions within the next two days.
1. Does God really have a voice?
2. Is God interested in speaking to me? If God has a voice, is He interested in speaking to me? Who am I? Ordinary me in Shomolu, how can God be interested in Shade in Shomolu or Tunji in Okoko?
3. Do I really want to hear the voice of God? I may not be interested because I am interested in other voices.
4. Why have I not been hearing and understanding His voice? What has been the blockage to this journey? Church Gist.
5. How can I hear and understand the voice of God?
6. What are the different ways that God uses to speak to people? If He speaks, what are the ways He speaks?
7. How can I differentiate between God’s voice and other voices?
We are going to try to answer these questions in the next two sessions
1. Does God really have a voice?
Yes, He does. God has a voice. As you go through the Bible you will find out that He has a voice. Psalm 29:3-11. The Bible spent time describing the voice of God. How can you describe what does not exist? His voice was described because He has a voice. Church Gist. John 10:14-16. Jesus confirms that there is a voice when He begins to help us understand that the sheep hear His voice. The voice of a stranger they will not hear. He has a voice, there are also strange voices. Luke 3:22. God has a voice. 1 Kings 19:11-12. God spoke to Elijah. Ezekiel 37. God has a voice.
2. Does God really want to speak to you?
We have agreed from scriptures that God has a voice. We now know He has a voice, the question is does He want to speak to me? Psalm 37:23. When you are a child of God, when you are the righteousness of God in Christ, God is interested in ordering your steps. He wants to order your steps as His child. When you come into the Kingdom, He is your Father and because He is your Father and has brought you into the family, He has brought you into a covenant relationship with Him, He is interested in giving you guidance. Psalm 25:8-9. You see that He is a God that wants to lead, guide and direct you. Revelation 3:20. When He said “I stand at the door and knock” He was talking about the Church. How can the God of the Church be knocking on the Church? That means He is outside, so they locked Him out. He is knocking so they can open. God is ready to speak to you. He is interested in speaking to you. Psalm 31:3, 32:8. Church Gist. Instruct, teach and guide. God is interested in instructing you. To instruct is to give instruction. I will not just instruct you, I will teach you. To teach is to give direction. So that He will help you to understand the instruction He has given. I will not just instruct, I will not just teach, I will also guide you, to guide is to mentor. To hold by the hand and help to execute. He will instruct you, He will teach you how to carry it out and He will help you carry it out. So when you look through scriptures you realize that He does not just have a voice, He also wants to speak to you.
God wants to speak to you for many reasons:
A. Because you are His child. That is why He wants to speak to you. You are not just His creation, you are His child. Church Gist. As a child of God, He is interested in speaking to you.
B. He wants to speak to you because He wants to direct your steps, He wants to order your steps so that you will not derail. There are many people who have taken steps that were not led by God. Because everybody is doing it, they joined them. Everybody is japaing, they japa and after they japa they japada. They return and discover that it is not working. We have seen people that entered a relationship that is not led by God, the woman that looks beautiful to them today looks ugly tomorrow. The guy that looks powerful today becomes a terrorist tomorrow. Because the difference between charming and harming is letter C. Oh Pastor, the guy is so charming. Remove C and it is harming. Christ is what makes a charming man not to become a man that harms you. The fact that he has six packs does not mean he has six figures. You now carry the man and find out that all he has is muscular prosperity. Twelve years later, you are the one paying house rent, you are the one paying school fees. You now say men are scum. When the guy took you on a date and you are paying for the first date, you are enabling irresponsibility. Church Gist. It is time for the wedding, instead of you allowing him to be a man, you give him money for everything, you give him money to buy your wedding dress. The guy has now settled down that his wife is a strong woman and you are complaining that he is an irresponsible man. You enabled him. You created him in your own image, now reap your harvest. Why does God want to speak to you? Because you are His child. He doesn’t want you to go astray, He doesn’t want you to derail.
C. Because He doesn’t want you to become a second hand Christian. Thank God for honour “Our Father in the Lord”. God does not have grandchildren. There are many things we are perpetuating that have no basis in scriptures. Our Father in the Lord, Our Grandfather in the Lord. What verse of scripture is that one? I know you are trying to honour people but listen to me, every child of God is a bona fide child of God. Everyone has direct access to God. There is no mediator between God and man except the Christ, Jesus. The Bible says follow me as I follow Christ. My name is Olumide Oladapo Emmanuel, I am a man of God called of God but follow me only as I follow Christ. The day I stop following Christ, abandon me and follow Christ. Church Gist. That is why He wants you to hear His voice. The fact that someone is a man of God does not mean they are God. He is a man of God, remove the God and every man is a man at his very best. There are people that have been misled because they listened to a prophet, they listened to a Bishop, they listened to an apostle, are you fighting with God? Can’t you ask God for yourself? That is why He wants you to hear His voice so you will not be an echo. You will not be a second hand Christian. Pastor said, Reverend said, what is the Spirit saying to you? What is your personal revelation from heaven? Listen and listen well, don’t be deceived, you everybody on the pulpit is not of God. There are people that use the pulpit as a tool to manipulate your destiny and keep you in bondage and once they know that you honour them they can use God said. Anything God said, confirm. The Bible says the Berean Christians were more honourable than all their brethren for one singular reason – after Apostle Paul was through with all the revelation and postulation, they will go back home carry their Bibles and check. Checking Apostle Paul is like checking E.A. Adeboye. It is like Baba speaking and you go back home to check if Baba is correct. Church Gist. That is what they were doing. Will you do that today? Even mentioning it now some people are already feeling that is a dishonour to even mention it. That is how bad things have become. We have lifted men above scripture and above the spirit of God and many things are going wrong in the Church because charlatans are let loose with gifts, charisma without character and they are now using the giftings of God that are legitimate with an illegitimate character to mess people up. Because you are not ready to hear God for yourself you get into trouble.
How can a man come to you as a married woman and say your husband is not your husband? After two children. Because he says he is seeing. What are you seeing? You are a seer, I am an overseer. I oversee what you see and I tell you what you are seeing is wrong. Man of God, do you know a pastor’s wife left the pastor and got married to a prophet in South Africa? He was invited by the man to his church and he collected the man’s wife. He said they are not supposed to be married and the woman followed. Listen this thing is bad. Second hand Christians are everywhere. I had a Minister’s Conference years ago. Day 1 was powerful, by day 2, a man that came to Day 1 with his wife came to Day 2 alone. At the time of Questions and Answers. He said he wanted to ask a question. He said yesterday, after we left your church, we went to another church where a man of God came to minister. The man of God began to preach and as he was preaching. Church Gist. Listen to me, deception and error is not 100 per cent lie. If it was 100 per cent lie, many of you will know deception. Deception sometimes can be 88 per cent true and they just throw 11 per cent lie to mess you up. The man of God now started “I want you to know that God wants you blessed. If you are here today and you are not blessed that is not the will of God for you” That is correct. “I want you to know that angels are ministering spirits, they are sent forth to minister to the saints of God” That is correct. “Every believer has angels on assignment that are supposed to carry out the purposes of God for their lives” – That is correct. “You can command your angels and send them on assignments.” Correct. “I want you to know that if you are not prospering, your angels are lazy” – Error. “I want you to know that if you are not getting blessed, something is wrong with your department of angels.” Error. “I am here to let you know that you can call for a fresh set of angels.” Error. That is how he went on and on. So the guy was like this is an error. The wife was excited. Haven’t you always wondered the way some people are excited when a man is talking and you are like, what has he said that you are jumping? Am I the problem? Church Gist. So when the man wanted to raise an offering, he now said he wanted to challenge them to sow a seed of one million Naira for a fresh set of angels. If you can’t do #1,000,000 do #500,000. If you can’t do #200,000 or #100,000. You need fresh angels. So God can send you a new set of angels that will organize your prosperity. The woman stood up beside the husband and the husband said “Babe sit down, this is an error. The wife said what is an error here, the guy has 3000 members. We are struggling to have 300. If you go I will leave you here, she said leave me. So the wife left the husband and went to give #100,000 for fresh angels. As far as she is concerned, he has 3000 members so the crowd equals to the cloud. You can follow the crowd but it is not equal to the cloud because a crowd is not a congregation. You follow the cloud of glory, not the crowd. The man left the wife and went to the car and the Holy Ghost said will you leave your wife behind? You are the head. Will you leave a woman you brought to church behind? She came out after 40 minutes believing that he should leave her and let her see. May God help you. One of the greatest miracles in your life is to marry right. If you marry the wrong woman, it reduces the quality of your life by sixty per cent. You may never fulfil destiny. When you have a good wife, take care of her unless you will suffer in old age. When they are saying let us send the children abroad. It is a set-up. By the time they use your money to send all the children abroad, the children start having children. Men don’t do Omugwo. She will be travelling and leaving you alone in your old age. So you better love your wife. So that when you are in old age, she will stay with you. So many of you your wives are just watching you, waiting for you to finish the school fees and for the children to be independent so they can leave you to your foolishness. Church Gist. So as the woman is setting you up with all those bedroom voices “Let’s do Canada” Sorry for you. At 50, you want to go and start afresh. Your eyes will clear. There are three rooms that are very powerful – the boardroom, the bedroom and the throne room. Church Gist. If you don’t know how to handle these rooms, they will not give you room in destiny. Your room in destiny will be lost If you don’t know how to handle the boardroom, bedroom and throne room. So that is how this man was by the car and the woman came and said shebi you said you are going? Why did you stay? Why does God want to speak to you? So you will not be a second hand Christian. So that somebody said will not become your password. You will be able to have an intimate relationship with the Holy Ghost and hear him for yourself. In Genesis 24, Eliezer heard the voice of God and God led him to look for what He was looking for and He found it. Job 32:8. Psalm 62:11.
3. Do you really want to hear the voice of God? God is ever speaking but are you listening? God is ever speaking, are you attentive? Isaiah 50:4-5. God wants to speak to you, He is continually speaking to you every day. The question is are you listening? The problem is we have so many things beclouding us. I said it earlier on and I say it again, activity is a killer of sensitivity. “I had a dream and in the dream this one happened”. Dreams are not a gift of the Spirit. When God doesn’t get your attention through normal speaking, He will have to use dreams to interrupt your sleep. Have you noticed that after all the dreams you will now have to quieten down to ask? That is the purpose of the dream. It is to get your attention so that you can now come and ask the question you should have been asking and hear what you should have been hearing. When you have a dream, you cool down because many of us are so full of activities and God is speaking you can’t even hear. Church Gist. The Holy Ghost is there whispering and because so many voices are beclouding you, you can’t hear the voice of God. Exodus 19:20-24. The Israelites told Moses to go and hear God and come back and tell them. That is where the problem started from. People are not willing to pay the price of hearing God. They are not willing to pay the price to break through the flesh and hear the Spirit. They are not willing to pay the price to pray in the Holy Ghost for one hour every day. They are not willing to pay the price to sit with the Word for three hours. They are not willing to pay the price to do dry fasting until the flesh is too weak to be fleshy and the Spirit takes over and you tune into the frequency of heaven and God begins to download to you seasons and chapters of your life in advance. Why? Because you have pressed in. So they said Moses you go and hear for us. The Bible said Moses walked into thick darkness to go and hear God. When he got there he prepared an altar of earth because the earth is everywhere. The altar of earth is accessible to anyone. As long as you are on earth you can connect to heaven when you prepare an altar to connect with your creator. God wants to speak with you. So why are you not hearing His voice? Do you really want to hear His voice? God is waiting. God is looking for people that will come to Him. The problem we have right now is that for the last twenty five years or more, we have been so concerned with what God can do than who God is. The church has been filled with children, kindergarten ministry. What God will do for you, what God will give to you and many of us are not ready to even draw close to God. Listen to me, there is a difference between the gospel of salvation and the gospel of the kingdom. For decades all we have done is preach the gospel of salvation and raise children and children cannot take the land. The world is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God not the children of God. It is only sons that can take the land. As many as are led are the sons of God, not children. Children are not led. They are led by their feelings and their emotions. The gospel of salvation is a legitimate gospel but it is a kindergarten gospel. The gospel of salvation is what reveals to you what Jesus did on the cross and what He has made available to you as a result of that. The gospel of salvation helps you to understand that now you are a new creation. God wants you healed, He wants you to be saved, He wants you to prosper, He wants you to live long. That is the gospel of salvation. There is nothing wrong in that but it is an elementary gospel. Church Gist. So after the healing, what next? After prosperity, what next? The gospel of the kingdom is the gospel of maturity and discipleship. It is the gospel of responsibility. Now that you are saved, this is the reason why. Now that you are healed, this is the reason why. It is the Gospel that helps you to now discover purpose and live for Him and fulfil your assignment. What we see are people looking for the hand of God instead of looking for the heart of God. When you are looking for the hand of God, you are just concerned about what God will give to you instead of what you can do to please the heart of the Father so He can give to you what He wants to give to you. The heaven is His throne and the earth is His footstool, where is the hand? The hand must be hanging somewhere in the sky. What we are trying to do is to jump to collect what is in the hand of God. When you please the hand of God, He brings downs His hand and tells you “My daughter just pick what you want”. Instead of jumping to reach the hand of God, just please the heart of God. So do you really want to hear His voice? Are you interested in intimacy with the Holy Spirit? Have you forgotten how you started? That first love. When you were so excited worshipping God. You were groaning, now it is from sweet hour of prayer to let’s have a little talk with Jesus. From let’s have a little talk with Jesus to let’s have a word of prayer. It has gone from an hour to a talk to a word and you are wondering why things are not working.
4. Why have I not been hearing and understanding the Voice of God? If God has a voice and wants to speak to me and I also want to hear so what is wrong? Few things that needs to be in place in order for you to solve this:
A. In order for you to hear and understand the voice of God there must be a relationship between you and God. When you have a relationship with Him and you are intimate with Him, then there will be some special codes and slangs that both of you understand. Yes, unbelievers do hear the voice of God once in a while because God is the creator of all and by His mercies they hear His voice once in a while because He wants to draw them in. The only guarantee to hear His voice and for Him to guide you continually is to have a relationship with Him. Psalm 23:1. God must be your shepherd. That means you must be a sheep. It did not say He is our shepherd. He is my shepherd, not our shepherd. So there has to be a relationship. John 10:14-17. My sheep knows my voice, the voice of a stranger they will not hear. So why have you not been hearing? Church Gist. Do you have a relationship with Him? I didn’t say do you have a relationship with Church. I didn’t say do you have a relationship with pastor, I said do you have a relationship with God? Because a lot of people have a relationship with churches and pastors but they do not have a relationship with God. Confession is not equal conversion. You can come to the pulpit and confess but if there is no conversion in your heart you are still the same. Romans 10:10. There has to be a believing in the heart before a confession in the mouth. So you can be confessing anything you like, does it start from the heart? Because transformation is from within. We have people that have made confessions and we have conferred upon them Christianity and redemption even though there is no transformation in their hearts. So they are struggling in the flesh to live life in the spirit. My sheep hear my voice. When you look at the animal kingdom, you realize that sheep is one of the many animals that exist in the kingdom but you also find out that even God was to speak with reference to you hearing and obeying His voice, He used sheep. Church Gist. When you go through the Bible you find out that the Bible calls Jesus the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. When you go through the Bible you find out that there are many analogies that have been used to describe the saints and also describe people that are less than desirable. Let’s run through some of these so you find out why so many of us are not hearing.
– To hear you must be a sheep, you must not be a goat. A goat is very stubborn. For some people the reason why they are not hearing is not because they are not hearing, they are just stubborn. You just like to do things your way. Church Gist. When you don’t learn by revelation, you will learn by experience. Many of the things that other people are telling you, have we not told you before? We will tell people these things they will not hear until an outsider comes to tell them.
– To hear you must be a sheep not a cow. Some people are like cows, they will not hear, the one you saw they should not do is the one they will do. Church Gist. What you say they will not touch, they want to taste and touch, that is why you are not hearing.
– You should be a sheep, not a pig. Pigs are very dirty. If you like bathe it, do massage, manicure, pedicure, put perfume, put ribbon, after you finish pig is pig, it is looking for dirt again. Church Gist. There are people like that, they are just pigs, very dirty people. Anything that looks like holiness, righteousness, morality, they are not interested.
– Don’t be a peacock, very proud and arrogant. Why must God speak to Moses? Why didn’t God speak to us directly? Church Gist. As far as I am concerned, I know God for myself. Nobody can tell me what to do. Okay, we shall see. Proud like a peacock.
– You must be a sheep not a snake. Very deceptive. One of the amazing parts of scriptures is that the Bible says they left us because they were never with us. Church Gist. So that it can be evident that they are not part of us. There are people that come to church, they just come and they are not part of us.
Let me say this to pastors. I don’t expect you to agree with everything I say, I am not God. If you don’t agree with this, you will look back 11 years later and say ‘This is what that man was trying to say’. Many of the people that you say betrayed you, it is your misinterpretation of the relationship. My son stabbed me in the back. Did he call you father? Because everybody is your daughter and son in the Lord, you are the one causing trouble for yourself. Many of the people you are calling your sons are your students, not your sons. They came to your ministry to learn and after a student graduates, He is gone. How many of you have gone back to your university to find out how your lecturer is doing? Some of the people that stabbed you are your students, they came they have studied and they have gone. They will never call you. I used to be confused, people I labour over for 14 years, we send them forth with money, when they go they will never call you or text you even on your birthday. I was feeling bitter and God said “Did you not send them forth, they have gone?” I said “My son” “Did he call you father? Why are you stressing yourself? He was a student and He has graduated” Some of the people you are busy over, they came to serve. When you went to do Youth Service, have you gone back to find out how they are doing? Are you a bad person? No! The assignment is over. Some people are in your life for a season, some are there for a reason. So all these Father, Father, don’t hurt yourself. The Bible says you will reap what you sow, not where you sow. “My son” I don’t even use those statements anymore. If you like, call me Father in the Lord. I know how many children I have so anything you like say with your mouth. It is not what you say that will make me to know whether I am your father, it is what you do. If I am your father, where is my honour? When you have gotten to a level that some of us have gotten to, people need your name to enter some places. So they just throw your name. People don’t love you, they love what you do for them. It may take you time to catch that revelation. It is when you are in trouble that you will know those who really love you. The day you stop doing what you have been doing for them, they look for the next anointed man of God. A lot of pastors are feeling bitter because of this japa thing because people you thought were your children were giving you one week’s notice, two days’ notice. They are not your children. Church Gist. Children will never relocate and give Daddy notice. Before they even start, “Sir, we are sensing that we need to explore this, pray along with us.” Before they even know whether they should go, you are involved. While they are getting their VISA, you are involved. With two days’ notice, I am not your father. There is a difference between congregation and sons and daughters. Sons and daughters don’t do that, congregation will do that. I don’t know about you modern pastors, I can never die for anybody. I will not die for any member even my members know. The only person that needs to die has already died. His name is Jesus. My blood is useless, if I die, I died for nothing.
– You must be a sheep not a parrot. There are people who come to see you in your office and will not allow you to talk. They are the ones that came for counselling: “Daddy I thank God for the opportunity to see you. You are trying oh, the Lord is your strength oh. Church Gist. You travel a lot. I follow you on social media.” What can I do for you? “We just want to thank God for this church.” Hello sister, what is the problem? You are wasting time. Talk, talk, talk.
– You should not be a penguin. Penguins are animals that wear a tuxedo. They wear a three-piece suit with a bow tie. They are dressed up going nowhere. There are people like that, they hear God because they are dressed with their own vision and ambition. Anything you are saying, as long as it does not line up with where they are going to, it is not God. It is the one that they like that they will follow. Having itching ears looking for who will tell them what they want to hear.
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