GOD DOESN’T KNOW WHAT PEOPLE CALL HARD. DIFFICULTY DOES NOT EXIST TO GOD.
WHEN GOD SPEAKS, IT IS NEVER DEPENDENT ON CONDITIONS.
PROPHETIC WORDS ARE NOT JUST EMPTY DECLARATIONS, PROPHETIC WORDS ARE CARRIERS OF DIVINE CAPACITY TO PERFORM WHAT HAS BEEN DECLARED
THE SPERM THAT ENTERED INTO MARY TO PRODUCE A CHILD WAS THE WORD SPERM.
GOD SPEAKS ACCORDING TO HIS CAPACITY NOT ACCORDING TO OUR WEAKNESS.
WHEN GOD’s SERVANT PROPHESIED THAT 10,000 CHURCHES WILL BE PLANTED IN ONE YEAR, EVERY CLIMATIC CONDITION INCLUDING THE LOCKDOWN WAS AGAINST THAT PROPHECY BUT WE ALL SAW IT (HAPPEN).
THE THINGS WORKING IN OUR LIVES ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE THINGS WE THINK ARE NOT WORKING.
WHEN satan TRIES TO POINT YOUR ATTENTION TO SOMETHING THAT LOOKS LIKE IT IS NOT WORKING. KNOW THAT, THAT IS THE PART THAT GOD WANTS TO WORK ON.
WE MUST CONTINUE TO UNDERSTAND THAT NO MATTER OUR CONDITION, WE OWE GOD APPRECIATION.
OUR LIFE OF GRATITUDE SHOULD NEVER BE CONDITIONAL, IT SHOULD BE PERMANENT.
OUR PRESENT POSITION IS SOMEBODY ELSE’S PRAYER POINT, WE HAVE NO RIGHT TO COMPLAIN.
IF YOU WANT TO SEE GOD ACTIVATED ON YOUR BEHALF, YOU MUST CREATE THE ATMOSPHERE OF PRAISE.
WE DON’T JUST PRAISE BECAUSE OF WHAT HAS HAPPENED, WE PRAISE TO TRIGGER THINGS TO HAPPEN.
EVERY PROPHETIC WORD RECEIVED AND BELIEVED IGNITES HOPE.
THE CATALYST FOR SEEING PROPHECIES FULFILLED IS PRAISE.
WHEN YOU PRAISE GOD YOU ARE LIKE THE WEAKER PARTNER IN A WRESTLING MATCH URGING ON THE STRONGER PARTNER TO BEAT UP THE OPPONENT WHILE YOU WATCH FROM THE RINGSIDE.
OUR REWARDS ARE LOADED THROUGH SERVICE AND DOWNLOADED THROUGH PRAISES.
WHEN PRAISE GOES UP TO GOD, OUR REWARDS MAKE THEIR WAY TO US.
GOD IS READY TO WORK AS LONG AS MAN IS READY TO PRAISE.
PRAISE DOES NOT ONLY GET GOD FIGHTING AND WORKING FOR US, PRAISE GETS US OUR REWARD FOR WORKING FOR GOD.
WHAT A CHEQUE IS TO THE BANK IS WHAT PRAISE IS TO YOUR REWARDS.
– Pastor David Oyedepo Jnr on “UNDERSTANDING HOW PRAISE FACILITATES FULFILLMENT OF PROPHECIES 2” at November 2023 Week of Spiritual Emphasis Day 2 || 2nd November 2023 || LFC Canaanland ||
Our Father tonight we have come to give you the praise and to give glory and honour to your holy name for all that you have done, for what you are doing and all that you will do tonight. Church Gist. Accept our thanksgiving in the name of Jesus. Lord speak to us by your Word and let your Word transform each one of our lives. Thank you because you have done it.
We began in this line of teaching in our Week of Emphasis yesterday that is captioned UNDERSTANDING HOW PRAISE FACILITATES FULFILLMENT OF PROPHECIES. Remember our prophetic focus is PRAISE FACILITATES FULFILLMENT OF PROPHECIES. We are understanding how that happens. We began yesterday by trying to understand what prophecies are and we discovered that they are the unfolding of divine plan. Our God is a master planner. He conceives His agenda and He declares what He has conceived. Church Gist. The declaration of that conceived plan is what we call prophecy. The Word of God tells us in Isaiah 46:10. So we serve a God who is a Master planner and He declares His plan before He performs His plan.
We also discover this evening as we are talking about this subject that prophecies carry inside them an inbuilt capacity for fulfilment. Prophecies are not just declared intentions, inside the prophecies, there is the capacity for it to be fulfilled. Men may say what they want to do but do not have the capacity to do so. When it comes to God, whatever He declares inside the declaration is the inbuilt capacity for fulfilment. Church Gist. Isaiah 55:10-11. Now we have been having a lot of rain in recent times in our own area and community. As long as you have been seeing rain, I don’t know if you have ever seen water returning to the sky? No! It hits the ground because the target is the ground. God says the way the rain comes down and you have never seen the reversal of rain, where there is rain falling and the rain went back to heaven and said “I have come back, I couldn’t reach where you sent me.” Church Gist. He said the same way, so is His Word. When it comes, it must hit its target. Like raindrops don’t go back, in the same vein prophetic words don’t go back. In other words, there is no word God speaks that can go back and say “Lord, I know you sent me but where you sent me, but where you sent me it is like I couldn’t go and do what you sent me to do.” No! Every prophetic word like the rain comes down to hit its target.
Let’s look at the example of Mary in Scriptures. Luke 1:34:35. So I asked myself if this is what it says then how did it come to pass? How did we see this executed? We see very clearly from scriptures that the simple formula of God was the formula of the Word. John 1:1-5, 14. When the angel was saying that the Holy Ghost would come upon her, Mary did not have any staggering experience. Church Gist. The Word that was spoken inside it was life. “In Him was life…” That Word became flesh inside of her. So inside the Word was the capacity of the pregnancy. Somebody asked what was the sperm that entered into Mary to produce a child, it was the Word sperm. The Word entered in and fashioned inside her a child. So inside the prophecy was the capacity. What that means is that God does not prophesy and look for capacity to perform. Inside the prophecy is the capacity. Whatever God has said, inside what He has said is the capacity to bring it to pass. God never goes around looking for capacity for prophecy. No! Inside the Word is the capacity. When God was creating the earth in Genesis 1:3. It didn’t say “and there was sun”. It said “and there was light”. Church Gist. Where did the light come from? Inside the Word! John 1:4. Where was the light? Inside the Word. That means when God said “Covenant Highways”, where are the “Covenant Highways?” Inside the prophecy. The capacity is inside the prophecy.
So prophetic words are not just empty declarations. Prophetic words are not just empty descriptions of expectations, prophetic words are not even just perceptions, prophetic words are carriers of divine capacity to perform what has been declared. Church Gist. When we talk about prophecy we don’t just say it like somebody who is saying what he wants to do. It is God telling you what He is doing and telling you that inside what He has said is the power for performance.
2. When we talk about prophecy, it is also important for us to understand that God speaks according to His capacity not according to our weakness.
2 Kings 7:1-2. This was after they had been in such an intense famine. The famine touched the entire community and the king was a victim himself but here he says “By this time tomorrow”. 24 hours! The Lord said this thing you are saying is a complex circumstance. Can this thing happen that in 24 hours the situation will change like that? Can it come to pass? Church Gist. The prophet said you will see it with your eyes but you will not taste it with your mouth because you have doubted what God has said. So from scriptures, it is clear that when God speaks He is not speaking according to your capacity. That king must have been a diplomat, perhaps he was in charge of export and import. He knows that nothing is on the way coming so how can this situation change like that? It is important to understand that when God speaks, it is never dependent on conditions. Climatic conditions are of no consequence. 2 Kings 3:14-17. You will not see rain but the ditches shall be filled with water. When God is speaking, it is not dependent on any climatic conditions, He is not depending on anything. God does not know difficulty. It is so important for you and I to understand that. God doesn’t know what people call hard. Difficulty does not exist to God.
Jeremiah 32:17. So difficulty is not a divine concept. No, it is a human concept. That’s why Jesus said, He said very clearly, He said: ‘Look, with man, this may be impossible but not with God’. Because God is not like man. It is man that knows difficulty, it is man that knows impossibilities, not God! When it comes to God, He knows no impossibility, He knows no difficulty and when He speaks, He is speaking to that limitless capacity. Mark 10:27. Church Gist. He is not limited by our own weaknesses. Shout Hallelujah! This is so important! So when we talk about prophecy we know, this is God speaking and He is speaking according to His own limitless capacity not our own weakness, He is speaking according to His own power not our own weakness. This is so important and the moment we see that, our faith begins to come alive.
We remember the testimony of us in this Commission when God’s Servant made a declaration as the Lord spoke through him and said: ‘This year! The Lord will…’ I still remember that statement, ‘The Lord will plant for Himself 10,000 Churches’ and it was the same year Lockdown happened. Every climatic condition was opposite to the prophecy. Church, is people gathering and God said: ‘Now, 10,000 Churches’! We have never heard that before. In one year! Now, that particular year every place closed ‘baam’, climatic conditions opposite, no rain, no wind but we all saw it, the Churches were planted. Church Gist. Why? God speaks according to His own capacity, not our own weakness. You know what that means? When God said: ‘2023: Covenant Highways’, He knew what would be happening on the earth, He was aware, there is nothing that caught Him unawares. All the climatic conditions may look opposite but it can’t change the prophecy, the prophecy is what He has said. That means if you and I can plug in appropriately, then what God has said becomes our own personal experience in spite of what the climatic conditions look like.
-Somebody hearing my voice, this year, you are still going on that Covenant Highway. If you believe it, say a loud Amen.
The third thing I’d like us to note tonight is that every prophetic word received and believed ignites hope. Romans 4:18. So there was something received from that which was spoken which ignited hope. Now, listen! We look at Abraham and we must bring that picture into proper context. This is a man that is 99 years old, you have not had a child. 30 (years old)! You didn’t have a child when you are 40 (years old), a child didn’t come when you are 50 (years old), it didn’t come when you are 60 (years old), it didn’t come when you are 70 (years old), he didn’t come when you are 80 (years old), the child didn’t even come when you are 90 (years old), 95 (years old), a child has not come. Church Gist. And now the Lord says: ‘According to the time of life, Sarah will be with child’. How old are you Abraham? 99 (years old). Sarah who will carry the child, I don’t know if you know what childbearing is. I’ve never given birth to a child but from Medical Science, we know that the labour pain of delivering a child is equal to the pain of breaking twenty bones at the same time. Now, here is a woman that is 89 (years old), will carry pregnancy which she is supposed to deliver the pregnancy at the age of 90.
You and I know that we don’t give elderly people loads to carry true? Now, she is to carry a load that she cannot download except for nine months. And to download the load is equal to the pain of breaking twenty bones at the same time but when God spoke, remember, inside it is capacity and that capacity ignited hope. If you and I see somebody coming out at that age for prayer, for fruitfulness; our assumption will be that the prayer is for a grandchild not for themselves but this one was coming in faith that what God has said was going to come to pass. Church Gist. Have you not heard in Scriptures Job 14:7-9, there is hope for a tree that though it be cut down and the tender boughs dry in the ground yet at the scent of water it will spring forth again and bud. In other words, there is hope! Every time you hear the prophetic word, what it does is to stir up hope and like we have been told, hope is expectation. That means wherever there is no expectation is because somebody has let loose of the prophetic word, there is expectation. Shout Hallelujah!
So, our hope is ignited whenever the prophetic word is received and believed. There is no running out of time with God. Don’t say: ‘Oh! But we are already in November. How can the prophetic word come to pass, that’s why God declares this operation that we are in: ‘Operation Eleventh Hour’. That is, God is set to tell you that even in this eleventh hour, I’m ready to decorate. Church Gist. That is the agenda of God. So don’t lose hope! Hold on to the prophetic word and it will inspire hope in you. Shout Hallelujah! Now, it’s important to note that these are all the realities of prophecy but we have seen from Scriptures that the catalyst for seeing prophecies fulfilled is praise. So the question is: How does praise facilitate fulfillment of prophecy? And we are going to answer that question to a particular degree in this Service tonight and I trust that the Spirit of God will give us light and understanding.
How does praise facilitate fulfillment of prophecy?
The first thought we are going to leave with today is that we don’t just praise God for what has happened, we praise God for things to happen. In other words, praise is an activator. When you and I engage in praise, we activate God to perform on our behalf. So we don’t just praise because of what has happened, we praise to trigger things to happen. Church Gist. In Luke 17:17-19, we have the picture of these ten lepers that came across Jesus, the Bible tells us that after these ten lepers were released by Jesus, they were cleansed but one of them when he saw he was cleansed, he returned back with a loud voice and began to give glory to God. Luke 17:17-19. Others were made clean, this one was made whole. In other words, his praise was what activated the completion – The perfection of his miracle. If you want to see God activated on your behalf, you must create the atmosphere of praise. Psalms 67:5-7.
-And because we are praising Him, God will bless us!
So, every time we engage in praise, we are activating God, God goes into action on our behalf. This is why you don’t wait for things to happen, praise is a trigger to make things happen. Like we heard yesterday, that’s why you discovered that one of the tricks of the devil is to make people murmur, to make them complain, to give them suggestions. I’d like you to understand that there is no man that has the right to complain. You see? What we must keep understanding, like I say all the time is that our present position is somebody else’s prayer point, we have no right to complain. I can’t forget the experience I have shared many times, of a man that went to the Pastor and said: ‘Pastor, nothing is working’. Pastor said: ‘What’? He said: ‘Nothing at all is working’! So the Pastor took a plain sheet of paper and put it on the table and divided the paper into two. He said: ‘What do you mean nothing is working’? He said: ‘I’m not married, so he wrote on paper – Not married. What else? He said: ‘I don’t have a job’, (He wrote ) – No job. What else? ‘No money’! (He wrote) – No money. He began to list the things that were not working. The Pastor said: ‘Is that all’? He said: ‘Yes’! After he has satisfied himself to download all his problems the Pastor said: ‘Okay, good! Your kidney, is it working’? He said: ‘Yes Sir’! (He wrote) – Kidney working! ‘Your heart is still beating’? He said: ‘Yes Sir’! (He wrote) – Heart beating! ‘Your lungs are still working’? He said: ‘Yes Sir’! (He wrote) – Lungs working! He listed all the vital organs in the body and he said: ‘Very good! ‘So this side is not working, this side is working. We are going to pray, the prayer is that everything that is not working should start working’. He said: ‘Amen’. ‘And everything that is working should stop working’, He said: ‘Ah’! If that one stops working, the other ones will not matter. He said: ‘Ha’! He said: ‘I thought you said nothing is working’? ‘These ones that are not working, let them start working for you and the ones that are already working let them stop! So God will just switch the two’, the man said: ‘That prayer, I don’t need it. Thank you, Sir’. That was the day he discovered that what was working was more important than what was not working. Somebody says: ‘Oh! But I don’t have a job’, you better thank God you are a candidate. I’m not yet married, you better thank God you have not mismarried. We must continue to understand that no matter our condition, we owe God appreciation. Our life of gratitude should never be conditional, it should be permanent. Every day you wake up, let the first thing that comes out of your mouth be ‘Thank You Jesus’ because you see, it is the battles you are confronted with, the ones that are opened to your eyes that you will know, the ones He fought on your behalf you are not aware, you are not aware! So, we must continue to understand that this praise and thanksgiving life must be a permanent condition everywhere you are, every day, continuously! ‘Thank You Jesus! Glory to God! Hallelujah! You are worthy of praise! You are worthy of Glory’! When satan tries to point your attention to something that looks like it is not working, know that, that is the part that God wants to work on. So start thanking Him, start praising Him, start celebrating Him. Shout Hallelujah!
It is so important if you look at the testimony that we read today and heard today, very instructive. That individual said, the job was not there but it was in the middle of the praise that the message came: “Come for an interview”. You see? satan wanted him to be complaining about the absence of a job, but he was praising…and in the midst of his praise, God was activated to perform on his behalf. For somebody in this month in particular, as praises would go up, miracles would come down. If you believe say a loud Amen.
We praise Him for things to happen, that means when I’m praising God, I’m not wasting my time. You are activating the performing hand of God to work on your behalf. It may look naturally foolish but it is spiritually wise.
2nd Chronicles 20:20-24. Church Gist. God is ready to work as long as man is ready to praise. The truth is this if you know anything about tag team wrestling. Usually, they would have a small wrestler and a big one, a weak wrestler and a strong one. When a small wrestler is in the ring and the big opponent comes, it would be wisdom for him to jump out and let the bigger one enter. So they go and tap the hand of the one outside and then the big one goes out and the small one enters. The job of the small one is to tap the hand of the one outside and when that happens, the big one enters and the small one goes out. The job of the small one when he is outside is to be hailing the one inside because if not the one inside can tap him and he would enter…so the more you hail him, the better your case because if he gets angry and say, “I’m here fighting and you are looking”, if he taps you, you enter and then he refused to be taped, you are in trouble. So what must you do? Keep hailing him, “Beat him, you are stronger than him, finish him, kill him, scatter him, pull him leg, pull his hand“. As you are doing that, his head is swelling and he begins to perform. He forgets that there are two that should be fighting, he faces the fight on your behalf. You see, whenever you and I are praising God, God is fighting on our behalf. When you stop praising Him, God taps you and say, “Go and fight”. Shout Hallelujah! Say with me, “I won’t fight, God will fight my fight”. So maybe you have been fighting from the beginning of the year and the closing bell is about to ring, tap the hand of God, go out and begin praising Him and watch Him begin fighting on your behalf that would be somebody’s experience as from today. If you believe it say a loud Amen.
It is important to note also that praise secures returns on our seed sown. When we are praising God, not only does God go to fight on our behalf, He brings returns on our seeds sown. Somebody says, “What are the seed that we have sown?” Our seed sown includes our time, our energy, our resources, in soulwinning, prayers and every other Kingdom advancement we put in. So all that we have done with God are seeds on the earth but for the seed to bring forth, for our returns to come, there is a demand for praise. So praise does not only get God fighting and working for us, praise gets us our reward for working for God. So in praise, God is working for us and in praise, our reward for working for God are coming to us. So we secure our rewards through praise. Joel 1:11-12. So you and I must understand that as we are praising, as we are celebrating, all the rewards and returns from working for God, they begin to make their way to us. So think about what are the rewards for working for God. So many rewards, “You shall serve and I will bless”.
So blessings start making their way to us. “I will take sickness away from you”. Healing starts making its way to us. Exodus 23:26. Fruitfulness starts making it’s way to us. Every blessing that accrues to you for serving God is withdrawn for you by praising God. In other words, when we serve, our spiritual account is credited. When we praise, our account is withdrawn from. Money in the account is good but money that you are going to use must be withdrawn. Our drawing instrument is praise. Church Gist. What a cheque is to the bank is what praise is to your rewards. Our rewards are loaded through service but our rewards are downloaded through praises. As we keep praising God, we keep taking delivery of our rewards. Proverbs 12:14. Hebrews 13:15. The fruit of our mouth is our praise and what satisfies our life is determined by the fruit of our mouth…that means that when our praises go up, we begin to draw on the reward, the blessings that have accrued to us through service.
I know so many of us have been serving God. In the course of the year, you have prayed prayers, you have followed up, you have paid for the transportation of converts and you have served God tirelessly. The account is loaded, now you can begin to draw through praises. As you are praising God, I see every one of those returns making their way to you and as you do so, you will see the hand of God decorating you unusually. Church Gist. Somebody believe, say a louder Amen. That means in conclusion, when praise goes up to God, God goes to work for us. When praise goes up to God, our rewards make their way to us. So praise does not benefit God, it benefits us. That’s why you and I must make sure that we are tireless in our praises and you will see God decorate you in an unlimited fashion. That would be our experience in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In conclusion, take note of this, the praise that would actually attract God must come from the one that belongs to Him. God is selective. Everybody may be singing but not everybody is sounding before Him. He said, “Take away the noise of your song”. So there are those God would not hear, He turns them down and He mutes their voice. Amos 5:23. They are singing with energy but there is no sound in heaven. What is it that makes Him turn their voice down? Church Gist. The only thing that makes your voice sound before God is you belonging to Him. Until you are a child of God, you can sing but you can’t praise. Until you are a child of God, you can clap but you can’t praise. Until you are a child of God, you can dance but you can’t praise. What makes every one of those our investment praise, is when you and I belong to Him. So it starts with Salvation…that is the starting point, that is the beginning point.
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