IT IS GOD’S BACKING WE ARE ENJOYING IN CANAANLAND. IT IS NOT EXPERTISE, IT IS NOT SKILL.
CAN EXPERTISE KEEP WITCHES AWAY? CAN SKILL PUSH ARMED ROBBERS AWAY?
WHICHEVER WAY GOD SHOWS A MAN TO GO, HE BACKS HIM UP ON THAT ROAD.
WHEN satan CAME IN HIS ATTEMPT TO TAKE OUR DAUGHTER, I SAID JESUS THERE MUST BE A WAY OUT. WHICH WAY OUT JESUS?
THEN FOUR SCRIPTURES CAME TO BLAST THE HEAD OF satan BY SHOWING THE WAY TO GO
PRAYER OF ENQUIRY IS A GATEWAY TO ACCESSING DIVINE GUIDANCE
IN SPITE OF CORO PANDEMIC, GOD PLANTED 10,400 CHURCHES IN NIGERIA, 1,300 CHURCHES ACROSS 35 OTHER NATIONS OF THE WORLD IN ONE YEAR!
WE HAD NEVER PLANTED 200 ANYTIME BEFORE IN A YEAR BUT 5,082 CAME IN ONE YEAR BY DOING WHAT HE SAYS HE TO DO
THE WONDER CONSTRUCTION OF FAITH TABERNACLE AND THE WONDER DOUBLE VISITATION ARE VISIONS IN THIS COMMISSION WHERE DIVINE GUIDANCE DICTATED THE STEPS
ANY VISION WILL SUFFER FRUSTRATION WITHOUT A “KNOW-HOW”
THE TEACHING SERIES OF THIS MONTH IS GOD HANDING OVER TO YOU THE GPS OF LIFE THAT HELPS TO GUIDE YOUR STEPS THROUGH THIS WILD WORLD – PLEASE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT!
WHEN WE ALLOW GOD TO SHEPHERD OUR LIVES, WE ARE SAFE, SECURE, ENJOY BREAKTHROUGHS AND LIVE A REGRET FREE LIFE
GOD IS COMMITTED TO GUIDING US ONLY AS WE ARE COMMITTED TO FOLLOWING HIM
WHILE VISION DEFINES THE “WHAT – WHAT TO DO,” IT IS DIVINE DIRECTION THAT DEFINES THE “HOW – HOW TO GO ABOUT IT.”
WHEN YOU ASK GOD GENUINE QUESTIONS YOU ARE ENTITLED TO ANSWERS FROM HIM
BY DIVINE GUIDANCE GOD REPLICATED WHAT I DID IN 27 YEARS IN ONE SINGLE YEAR
WE WERE IN ONLY 63 NATIONS AND BY DIVINE GUIDANCE WE ENTERED 83 MORE IN ONE YEAR (2022)
NO ONE CAN GUIDE THEMSELVES JUST LIKE NO SHEEP CAN GUIDE THEMSELVES
HIS LEADINGS ARE THE HIGHWAYS TO OUR HIGH PLACES
IF YOU LET THE LORD LEAD YOU SIR, ONLY GOODNESS AND MERCY WOULD FOLLOW YOU
ALLOW HIM TO LEAD YOU BECAUSE STRUGGLING WITH WHAT I USED TO KNOW, YOU WON’T GO ANYWHERE
THE LORD SHOWED ME THE SECRET OF KINGDOM PROSPERITY 41 YEARS BACK. 41 YEARS AFTER I’VE NEVER BEGGED, NEVER BORROWED
OCTOBER 4 1981, I ENTERED INTO A VOW NEVER TO BORROW AND GOT THE “GO AHEAD” INTO FULL TIME MINISTRY
ONLY THOSE WHO ASK QUESTIONS ARE ENTITLED TO ANSWERS
WHEN WE PRAY THE PRAYER OF ENQUIRIES ASKING GOD THE WAY TO GO AND DOING THAT FROM OUR HEART, WE ARE GUARANTEED HIS RESPONSE
– Bishop David Oyedepo on UNDERSTANDING HOW GOD LEADS 5 at Midweek Communion Service || LFC Canaanland || 21st September 2023
The theme of this month is so apt, the teaching series so pungent, please take advantage of it. It is God handing over to you the GPS of life that helps to guide your steps and my steps through this wild world. Proverbs 14:12. When we allow God to shepherd our lives, we are safe, secure, we enjoy breakthroughs, we live a regret free life – that’s how vital it is. Ecclesiastes 10:15 – so he walks into crises, troubles, turmoils… but for us, none of us will live a life of regrets. Church Gist. It’s your birthright and my birthright to be guided by the Lord as we choose to. It’s his will for us to be saved but we are only saved as we choose to. He’s committed to guiding us only as you choose to. He said, “I am committed to leading if you’re committed to following me.” It’s as you choose to.
– May every of our steps from henceforth e divinely guided!
Life has no spare, the tyre goes flat, it goes flat and destiny goes grounded.
– No destiny here shall be grounded!
UNDERSTANDING HOW GOD LEADS. You find crises of misinvestment of resources, that is void of guidance and a whole fortune crashing and that’s money – you can start again but you can’t start life again.
– May no life here crash by going off divine guidance!
By way of introduction, it is one thing to know what to do, it’s another thing to know how to go about it. While vision defines the “what – what to do,” it is divine direction that defines the “how – how to go about it.” While vision defines destination, it is divine direction that dictates the steps. Church Gist. We have quite a number of examples of visions in this Commission where divine guidance dictated the steps. Examples:
1. The wonder construction of Faith Tabernacle: He will dedicate this Tabernacle in one year – vision, that’s what he wants to do. How do we do it? Find out from him. We were in a situation where there was no time to even go through the tender process, there was no adequate resources to even award a contract, but he wants to do it. Church Gist. “Lord, how do we go about it?” “Send for the missionaries who are in building related professions. It requires faith to do this and they’ve groomed in the school of faith, bring them in here.” My God, that was it! Vision defined the ‘what,’ divine guidance dictated the steps. We had a great time, Heavens came down.
2. The Wonder Double Visitation: “I, the God of wonder double is visiting you” – great! How do we go about it? Ask from him if you’re interested. Church Gist. Then he laid out the way to go about it and we saw with our eyes what happened that same year.
People don’t ask God, they just “woooo” (dive in) “I have a vision” – good luck!
We saw how the Church literally multiplied by 2 within 7 weeks by knowing how to go about it through asking him. Any vision will suffer frustration without a know how. Not by you wondering and calculating using Mathematics but asking from God. “I will remain in your midst until you don’t want me again” – so he has remained. So, he came through – “we are planting 5,000 Churches this year.” What? How? Ask from him if you’re interested. Church Gist. So he showed the way to go, we went the way he said to go and there we were – 5,082 Churches planted in one year. We had never planted 200 anytime before in a year but 5,000 came. The vision came, the ‘how to’ came along on demand, on request – “ask from me …” There are many many great visions that have crashed because they have the ‘what’ they don’t know the ‘how’ so they went anyhow.
While we were still enjoying the euphoria of that amazing act of God and we said with our own little intellect, “let’s now work at seeing these Churches established,” he said, “you’re planting 10,000 additional Churches this year.” Too many things to counter it – “How do you get the people? How do you get the places? Where is the budget to run it?” “Leave that to me, just find out from me ‘how’. Then we said, “how do we go about it? Church Gist. You’re the one who said you will, how do you want us to go about it?” …and he did in spite of Coro Pandemic, in the midst of Coro Pandemic, God did. You ask him how to, he will mess all the circumstances, he will route them …and then we saw by the close of the year, 10,400 Churches planted in Nigeria – one year, 1,300 Churches across 35 other nations of the world in one year. We never saw it before, but ask him how.
People struggle a lot with life, ask him how. We have depended so much on our little intellect, ask him how. It may seem right to you but it might be the gateway to frustration and devastation, ask how. Again he manifested himself as the wonder double. 2019 we planted, doubled the number of churches we had and then the other year, we planted the doubling of it, at his commandment, by seeking guidance from him. Church Gist. No one can guide themselves just like no sheep can guide themselves, not even within Canaanland premises. You say okay, ehn cow meet me, I dey outside, we will be there together, you’ll wait there forever. It doesn’t know where the Ark is, it can’t read sign board…and then he came in wonder double visitation, people were still struggling with COVID-19, everybody is sitting down in their houses and then you double the number of cells and he did, by asking him how Sir, how! And the how looked so humorous because okay identify those cell replication ministers individuals the cell ministers, okay find out from them how they did it, analyze the things they said, call a seminar, pump the ideas to everybody else, print it. For instance, 21000 cells in one year, allow him to lead you because struggling with what I used to know, you won’t go anywhere.
What I did in 27 years was done in one year. God is going to do something in your life. Please take time to ask him. Lean not in your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct thy steps, he will direct thy steps and so he did with our eyes opened…and then came 2022, we are entering 75 nations, how. We were only 63 or thereabout and then we are going to enter 75 in one year, how, my God…and then we gathered some Pastors, selected some Pastors upon screening, getting ready for this revolutionary outreach, to 75 new nations. Church Gist. They came in from across Africa, people we have proved and tested, from Botswana all the way from Kenya, everywhere and then we came in that night as I stood in there to declare the induction program opened, he said these are not the people I’m going to use. So I told them I said, you are going back tomorrow morning and then they left. Some came with children because they had to come with their wives, so they slept one night and started flying back the following day from their respective places…and then he did without sending one person from Africa, we entered 83 nations. Come on give the Lord praise.
You can see the frustration that comes along when you are going on your own. That’s why we must keep asking, which way Lord. God still leads his people today by his Spirit, may no one hear miss this great advantage that we have as children of God. We understand from scriptures that divine direction is the highway to our high places in life. Deuteronomy 32:10-11 talking about Israel as an eagle. He found Israel in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness where nothing works, he led him about so he can live above those circumstances, he instructed him and he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings, so the Lord alone did lead him, not circumstances, not situations, not where the traffic is heading, the Lord alone did lead him and there was no strange god with him. Church Gist. He is not motivated by any other thing but by the leading of the Lord. So he made him to ride on the high places of the earth. His leadings are the highways to our high places. He made him to ride on the high places of the earth. God’s leading is the pathway to the emergence of giants as we saw in Gideon, the least of the least, he said no you will deliver Israel as one man, he led them to emerging a giant, from being a dwarf, a dwarf of dwarfs.
Everyone of us in the Kingdom has equal destiny. God is no respecter of persons. We all have a glorious destiny in redemption, the people he has predestinated, he called, the ones he called, he justified, the ones he justified, he has also glorified, equal justification, equal glorification. But why would many not experience that, because they keep leading themselves, they know it all from the beginning, they are deputy Jehovah, so they keep running to trouble. Church Gist. If you let the Lord lead you Sir, only goodness and mercy would follow you, you’ll never suffer regret any more in your life. One thing I have come to know is that if you ask him genuine questions as his son and daughter, you are entitled to answers from him.
HOW TO ACCESS DIVINE DIRECTIONS
1. By a Witness of the Spirit
The Holy Ghost bears witness with our spirit. He relates with our spirit that’s the meaning. The Spirit said to Peter, go with them Acts 10:19-20 and then we say Paul saying the Spirit of God forbids me to go there Acts 16:6-7. Forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, signal, signal, no not here, witness of the spirit. Church Gist. This is why it takes spirituality to access divine guidance. For a natural man receives not the things of God, because they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them, he can’t know them, outside a spiritual space, neither can he know them, no matter how hard he strives, he cannot know them.
Most of the things that have guided our steps thus far were not words spoken, they were signals of the Holy Spirit. Signals of the Spirit received by your spirit. Man can only communicate with man, no matter how hard you try you can’t communicate with a goat. You are not in the same space. Church Gist. Without our spirit being alive and cooperating with it, we can’t communicate with signals of the Holy Ghost. I wasn’t praying, I was just on the dining table refreshing myself in God’s presence when He said “I will not have you go as others have gone. I will have hands laid on you and you shall be filled with the Spirit of wisdom”. It wasn’t on the altar of prayer ‘Oh God, what are you saying?’. He comes in as He wants. Church Gist. I was in a car when He said ‘The harvest of Africa is now overripe, arise and stop it from decadence’. I was in the car hungry and tired but my spirit was alive. One has to be spiritual, it is not in the package, it is not in the budget but that is his agenda. We all know the secrets of the Lord are with them that fear Him and He will show them His covenants. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Be spiritual.
There was this highly spiritual, tongue-speaking church, the Corinthian Church. He said, “Are you not carnal, do you not walk as men?”. You can’t walk as men and catch what the Spirit of God is saying, you always bring it down to the level of human reasoning and then you miss it. 1 Corinthians 3:3. So without being in the Spirit, one cannot access the signal of the Holy Spirit. As face answers to face in water, so is the heart of man. Spirit to Spirit. Proverbs 27:9. Revelation 1:10. Church Gist. You can’t hear the voice of the Spirit without being in the Spirit. It is not enough to be in the Spirit, one must be committed to walking in the Spirit because the Spirit of God can reach out to us with instructions that provide directions at any time and place. Galatians 5:25.
2. We can access divine guidance through the prayer of enquiry.
Jeremiah 33:3. Call upon me and I will show you great and mighty things on the subject matter that you know not. Prayer of enquiry. We saw in the case of David “Shall I go after them? Shall I overtake them and recover all?” (1 Samuel 30:6-9). 1 Samuel 30:17-18. David required all through the prayer of enquiry. Somebody is in crisis, he won’t ask God which way out. He is using his head to push it. Do you know what it means to use your head to push a car when it is broken down? When Satan came in his attempt to take our daughter, I said Jesus there must be a way out. Which way out Jesus? Then four Scriptures came to blast the head of Satan by showing the way to go. Church Gist. Don’t sit down in the midst of the river, you can be carried away by it. When you pass through, it is a passage. It shall not overflow you. When you pass through the fire, it shall not kindle over your life because you are not staying there, you are passing through. 2 Samuel 5:18-20, 25-26. Prayer of enquiry is a gateway to accessing divine guidance. Which way, Jesus?
I have secured divine guidance through the prayer of enquiry severally in my walk with God. I remember asking the Lord saying “What are you saying Lord, are we to move the base of this Commission to Kaduna?” He answered like fire. “Stand up!” He said, from where I knelt down. “Take up your Bible”, He opened it and I said Lord what should I do? “Arise, get down to Damascus.” Direct, raw answer. Ask Him! He is not only a prayer answering God, He is a question answering God. Jeremiah 33:3. Church Gist. Call upon me and I will answer your questions on whatever subject matter. I remember asking the Lord why is this church not growing. This is not just walking on the road, you are communicating. In the midst of the prayer, He said stand up and follow me. I have told you that story several times, He laid out four powerful keys that will grow any church anywhere. Here we are today by grace still pressing, through the prayer of enquiry. Why is this business not growing? Where am I missing it, Jesus? Church Gist. Your heart is open, you are not trying to look for one woman in your village who is attacking you. “There is a short man in your house.” There is nobody who does not have a short man in his house. Just know the way to go He will back you. If He shows the way, He will back you up. Church Gist. Whichever way He shows a man to go, He backs him up on that road. It is His backing we are enjoying in Canaanland. It is not expertise, it is not skill. Can expertise keep witches away? Can skill push armed robbers away? As they are passing by, they see the fire burning “Not here!”. There is no lion who doesn’t know fire. Be careful oh, don’t go there. Their gang leader will tell them “Don’t go near there, never!”
He backs you up when He shows the way to go. Like a mighty man of war, He backs you up. I’ve said severally, “there’s no great man anywhere, it’s the backing of the great God that makes an ordinary man look like a great man. Church Gist. He backs you up. He sent them to go, he was working with them, confirming their words with signs following. Mark 16:20.
– May God never back out from your life! When God backs out, we just look like paper – empty paper. May God never back out from anyone’s life!
I remember still asking the Lord, “Show me Lord the secret of Kingdom prosperity.” Only those who ask questions are entitled to answers. Show me Lord the secret of Kingdom prosperity – that’s 41 years back. 41 years after I’ve never begged, never borrowed – God is witness. Church Gist. You don’t ask questions, you won’t get the answer. You will just think they’re cheating you, playing on your intelligence, they’re brainwashing you, because you have not gotten the answer.
I wasn’t Pastor of a Church so I wasn’t collecting data on how to collect offering – No! He showed me live and I spun and said, “yea, I can never be poor.” I got it Sir. I took the Copeland’s books, “The Law of Prosperity and God’s Will is Prosperity” and I was devouring, reading the Bible and praying – 3 days o not one day. Church Gist. This was because everybody was wallowing in poverty, “I want to know the way out of it. Do you really have a plan? Show me your plan Jesus.” Then he came through for me on the third day. I knew when he did.
I also remember waiting on the Lord for 4 days, asking God, “is it time to step out into full time ministry?” People just carry their luggage and do anything Sir. You beg, you borrow, you cringe. I humorously called this, The Mount of Transfiguration because it was indeed a mountain of voices for me. Four days of just enjoying the cloak of Heaven. Church Gist. He was opening seal after seal to me Sir. Among them can I tell you one? Daniel 11:32 – you don’t need to know anyone to scale the utmost heights in life, just know me. That’s untraditional, Un-Nigerian because you must know somebody who knows somebody that will know somebody. There I heard from Heaven, “But thou shall not borrow” …and he connected me with Scriptural things and I entered into a vow never to – October 4 1981, this is October 4 1982 (laughs) it has never happened. Ask God Sir. What you don’t know, you don’t know and what you won’t learn, you can’t know.
We have equal access to him, he is our Heavenly Father. He is no respecter of persons, he loves all of us his children the same way, let’s respond by asking him genuine questions. I tell you, Paul was set to go to Jerusalem but he never asked from the Lord. He never asked. It was a schedule; the schedule was in place – “no, somebody of my status how can I say I am coming and I’m not going? I must go.” He said, even though my spirit is choking, but I must go. Church Gist. Simply to ask God, “should I go on this journey.” Then God now came through for him and said, “Paul, get out from here, they won’t hear your testimony in this place.” He said, Can I explain to you God? As anointed, as deep in revelations as he was, he paid dearly for it. It’s never late to be right.
When we pray prayer of enquiries asking God the way to go and doing that from our heart, we are guaranteed his response. Jeremiah 29:13. Church Gist. Not, “Lord what are you saying? I know where I am going but let me have your opinion so I can compare. Psalm 27:8.
3. A Lifestyle of Praise and Worship
This is one area where many of us are failing without knowing. Full of complains and murmuring. Most believers are ingrates, there is nothing that God does that makes meaning to them. They are worth more than that. God if you know my size you won’t expect me to come and say thank you on this. So they use their mouth to finish themselves. They that murmured in the wilderness were destroyed. Church Gist. You can’t hear God in a murmuring environment. In a complaining environment around you, you can’t hear God. They took our daughter from home, from the prophet’s chamber all the way to the hospital. Do you know what it means? Yet I could smile before the Lord. Jesus, there must be a way out. He said “Son, you got me, here are the ways out. 1,2,3,4.” Isaiah 30:29-30. How glad is your heart?
We were living in the office apartment in the early days of the Church, with one toilet serving the church and the family. I was receiving revelation in that place. I was the gateman day and night there. The passage was our sitting room, two rooms were offices and the other rooms were bedrooms. If you don’t lock your door, anybody can enter. I was having a nice time. Was there power failure? I don’t know, I couldn’t feel power failure or power success. I was having a great time in God’s presence. Somebody here needs to change his status, you need to change the way you stand. Church Gist. You can’t hear from God complaining about everything. You get on the road, you complain. Go and create your own. They took power, did they ask you not to buy a generator? No! You just compound yourself with unnecessary things that choke your Spirit and you can’t hear from God.
You know our first house here when we came into Canaanland? Ramoth (Gilead) … old Ramoth. We were staying there with all the co-labourers, working together and enjoying ourselves. I was in visions and revelations of the Lord. Heavy! Until you have a song, you can’t hear my voice. Psalm 89:15. Joyful sound requires a joyful heart for access. You can’t access the joyful sound without the joyful heart. Isaiah 30:30. Church Gist. You become more than a conqueror through the voice of God. “This is the place.” The voice of God made us more than conquerors, all the witches packed their luggage and left. They were dropping like stupid birds without catapults. So open up. All these complaining between you and your wife on the bird, trouble! Complaining in the office. Nothing is working and he is on television every day instead of asking God what must I do for things to work. He travels from CNN to Al Jazeera and he is tired. God, why are things not working? Ask yourself. After hearing everything that he is hearing on the news, “this world self, what is somebody even living for?”.
Psalms 100:4, He said enter into his gates with what? with complains? and into his courts with what? And be thankful unto him and bless his holy name…and then what happens, he shows the path of light in his presence. You need to understand the protocol for accessing his presence, for that is where he shows us the path of life. Church Gist. Psalms 16:11, thou will show me the path of life, in thy presence there must be fullness of joy, Amen! Fullness of joy and pleasures forever more. You’re just enjoying God’s presence. Then comes the voice of God and leads the way out. Elisha said bring me a minstrel In 2 Kings 3:13-15 and as the minstrel began to minister, the hand of the Lord came upon Elisha. Amen! Don’t wait for a minstrel, sing to the Lord a new song. You may not find a minstrel anywhere, sing, sing your way out. In the midnight, where will you find a minstrel, Praise God.
Develop capacity for praise and worship and that would only come when you become a truly grateful believer, a genuinely grateful believer, a genuinely grateful believer, a genuinely grateful believer. Church Gist. The choir sang it tonight and I’m sure you are going home with something tonight. You will never be stranded anymore.
BIBLICAL PROOFS OF BEING LED BY THE SPIRIT
He doesn’t force his way on anybody’s life. Galatians 1:15-17 He says some preach the gospel out of envy, some to put more burden in my life but in whatever way, the gospel is preached, in that do I rejoice, he does that
Philippians 1:21 He said for me to live is Christ and to die is gain,
1. Unstoppable drive.
2. He secures Divine protection. You can’t you assaulted on the way when God leads you. They came back saying even the demons were subject to us in your name, he said It’s me who gave you power when you went on my mission, to thread upon serpents and scorpions and verse 19 and upon all the powers of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Church Gist. You are heavily protected because you are on my mission. When you go his way you can’t be assaulted, when you go his way you cannot be assaulted. I see the days of assault of the enemy come to an end in every one’s lives, in the name of Jesus.
Lift up your right hand everyone and give God thanks, give God thanks from the depth of your heart, for showing us the way to go. There’s no other way to walk with God, than knowing the way to go from his word, than knowing the way to go from his word, than knowing the way to go from his word. Church Gist. Thank you Jesus for showing me the way to go. Amen! Give the Lord a big hand of praise everybody, Amen.
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