THE BEST TIME TO PREPARE FOR A DAY IS BEFORE THE DAY ARRIVES
ANY MAN THAT IS STILL RUNNING AROUND FOR MONEY WHEN HIS WIFE IS IN LABOUR IS A ‘MIS-MAN’. I DON’T HAVE ANY PITY FOR SUCH MAN
TAKE STOCK OF THE THINGS THAT HAPPENED IN 2023 TO APPRECIATE GOD FOR
IF THE devil WANTS TO CAUSE YOU DEPRESSION, DISCOURAGEMENT AND FRUSTRATION FOR THE THINGS THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN FOR YOU THIS YEAR, SHOW HIM THE THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED!
ANYWHERE YOU ARE PER TIME IS SOMEBODY’S PRAYER REQUEST. BE GRATEFUL
THE BEST TIME TO DO A TO-DO LIST IS NOT THE MORNING OF THE DAY, IT’S THE NIGHT BEFORE THE DAY ARRIVES
AN UNPLANNED DAY OR YEAR MUST END AS AN UNPROFITABLE DAY OR YEAR
THE END OF THE YEAR IS NOT THE END OF THE GAME
IF GOD AS BIG AS HE IS COULD CONTINUE TO WORK FROM DAY TO DAY, WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT YOU FAILED BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T FINISH SOMETHING IN ONE YEAR?
IF YOUR STORY DOES NOT CHANGE ONE DAY, MOVE AGAIN TO THE NEXT DAY. IF IT DOESN’T CHANGE IN ONE YEAR, GO FORWARD INTO THE NEXT YEAR
THERE ARE EFFORTS YOU’RE MAKING NOW THAT IS NOT PRODUCING EFFECT NOT BECAUSE IT IS WASTED BUT BECAUSE IT IS BEING SUMMATED
THE STORY OF THE CHINESE BAMBOO TREE
REFUSE TO ALLOW PAINFUL EXPERIENCES WALK WITH YOU INTO THE NEW YEAR
THERE IS NO FUTURE IN THE PAST. YOU CANNOT WALK BACKWARD INTO THE FUTURE.
FOCUSING ON THE PAST MAKES A PERSON HISTORY WHILE HE’S STILL ALIVE
STEP INTO THE COMING YEAR AT REST MENTALLY, EMOTIONALLY, PSYCHOLOGICALLY.
– Dr. Pastor Paul Enenche on “PREPARING FOR THE MORNING (DAY)” || December 2023 Pre-Crossover Service || Glory Dome, Abuja.
Concluding instructions or beginning instructions are instructions never to play with. In the village in those days, if your father calls you maybe sometime late in the night or very early in the morning, parents would say, “I have something very important to tell you”. Church Gist. It’s not normally in the heat of the day, it’s normally in the middle of the night, dawn or first thing in the morning. So, today we are here for very strategic concluding instructions. Church Gist. So, I am speaking on the subject, “PREPARING FOR THE MORNING (DAY)”.
Genesis 1:5. Our objective in this study is to understand what it takes to prepare for the beginning of a new day which literally is the beginning of a new year. Church Gist. By way of introduction, it’s important that we all know and there’s no need to say that we are in the evening of a passing year, actually in the night of a passing year. If January is considered morning, December would be considered evening and 31st December would literally be considered like the night time of a year that is passing. Church Gist. As it is well known, the best time to prepare for a day is not when the day has arrived, the best time to prepare for a day is before the day arrives. You identify and orchestrate the day’s work before the day arrives. Anybody who wakes up in a day and doesn’t know what to do with that day is an unserious entity, a failure waiting to happen. Church Gist. You don’t prepare for war at the sight of war, you prepare for war before war arrives. You don’t prepare for rain at the gathering of the clouds, you prepare for rain before the clouds gather. The woman does not prepare for delivery in the labour room, she already prepared. The pregnancy gave her and her husband nine months notice and she has to buy all the things, the baby things and everything that needs to be bought in preparation for delivery. Church Gist. When you see a man running up and down while the woman is in labour room, looking for money for the hospital bill or baby things, that is a “mis-man”. Church Gist. I don’t have any pity for such a man because even if he needed to do a labourer’s job to prepare for the arrival of a new baby, he should have done. That is how it is regarding the arrival of a new day or a new year.
How many of you know that it is interesting to note that God’s day begins in the evening? Genesis 1:5. So, God begins the day from the evening, He begins to handle the day from the evening. Church Gist. He begins to get set for the day from the evening. Now, what I’m going to say is going to be parallel both for the preparation for a new day and the preparation for the new year. Church Gist. Now, we are in the evening of 2023, we are in the evening of a passing year, what do I do before the morning, which is just tomorrow? Tomorrow is 1st of January.
– Give the Lord the Praise!
How do I prepare for the morning or year to come?
1. Appreciating God for His goodness and mercies in the passing day or year.
You appreciate God for His goodness and mercies in the passing day or year and you do that preferably in the night or in the evening or in the conclusion of the day of the year before the next day arrives. Church Gist. If you look at Genesis 1:5 where we read, before God could declare the day, he had to identify what was good. Before He could say, “this is the second day”, He would see what He saw that was good in the first day. Church Gist. Before He could arrive at the third day, He would see what was good in the second day. Before He could arrive at the fourth day, He would see what was good in the third day. Psalm 92:1-2. That is, “this is the night time of a concluding year, what faithfulness have I seen throughout the year from January till now?”
There’s something we call spiritual stock taking, today is the day to take the stock for the year. Things to appreciate for, things to be grateful for in 2023. Church Gist. Don’t ever allow the devil to fixate you on the things that didn’t work, on the expectations that did not turn out, on the negativities that may have crossed your path. Beloved, I just told you now how many people saw January 1st this year that are seeing December 31st of the same year. Was it because you were more educated or more anointed or more talented or more prayerful or because you were more connected or because you were wiser or because you took better decisions? Church Gist. Some people traveled the road you traveled, just 30 minutes before you passed and they died on the same road and here you are alive. That devil is a bastard liar! He wants to cause you depression, discouragement and frustration that you’re at the end of the year and this has not happened and that has not happened, show the devil the things that have happened!
– is somebody here giving Him the shout of praise!
To him that is joined to all the living, there’s hope. A living dog is better than a dead lion.
– shout the loudest Amen!
Listen to this, it doesn’t matter how bad life is, there’s always something to thank God for. Church Gist. I have said many times, look at the testimonies we heard just now, see that lady with the crocodile skin, see how crippled and paralyzed and dejected she was, just imagine the pain she went through. What did she do to go through that? What did you do differently that made you not to go through that? Anywhere you are per time is somebody’s prayer request. It doesn’t matter how good or how you think it is, anywhere you are per time, I have said that over and over, is somebody’s prayer request. Church Gist. Your current position is somebody’s future expectation. So, between now and the night time when we are back for the crossover, one of the major assignments you’ll be doing is taking your spiritual stock, appreciation for yourself, family, children, your loved ones, appreciating God for having hope in the kind of destructive and devastating condition we find ourselves in a nation such as this. Church Gist. There are those who don’t have hope at all, they can’t smile, they can’t laugh because they don’t have God. See how you’re seated in dignity, beautiful, colourful, celebrate Him because you have God and you have hope.
– shout the loudest Amen!
2. Identifying what needs to be done in the morning (new day or new year).
That is, we are in the night now, the very tail end of a year, before that year arrives, we identify what needs to be done in the morning (the new day or new year). Church Gist. Now, we know that the evening or the night is the best time to plan for the day. Somebody may take this and run with it for the rest of your life. Before you go to bed in the night, identify what you’re waking up in the morning to do. Church Gist. Maybe the best time to do a to-do list is not the morning of the day, it’s the night before the day arrives and probably you can add to that list in the morning the things you forgot to put in the night. Habakkuk 2:1-4.
Now, what is the implication of this?
2a. identify where you want to direct the most of your life’s energy, resources, time, ability, potentials, mantle. Church Gist. Where is it that you want to direct your life’s energy, resources, time, ability, potentials and mantle in this coming day or year for maximum productivity?
2b. Identify what constitutes the necessities and priorities of your life and destiny. What is it that is necessary and a priority of your life and destiny in the coming day or year? Church Gist. That begins with spiritual necessities and priorities. The spiritual must be placed ahead of the physical. Matthew 6:33. What is it that constitutes your spiritual necessities and priorities? This must be identified.
Listen to this, an unplanned day or year must end as an unprofitable day or year. Why? Because you cannot find what you cannot define. Church Gist. You can’t possess what you cannot pursue. This is very important. Again, before the day or year arrives is the best time to get this done.
3. Refusing to be discouraged about unfinished pursuits in the passing day or year.
Without any doubt, there’ll be things that you were pursuing, there are expectations that you had but you enter a new day by making up a new mind never to be discouraged about the task of yesterday that couldn’t finish. Church Gist. You enter the year making up your mind about the agenda of the previous year that couldn’t be finished.
Listen to this, many times in my life, if I have a lot of things to do today and I could not finish it today or if I realize that I slept more than I should have slept and didn’t study as I should or pray as I should, the next day pays for it, the next day answers for it, the next day recovers it. Church Gist. I am saying this because some people think that the end of the day is the end of the game. No. The end of the day is not the end of the game and the end of the year is not the end of the game. There are games that couldn’t finish today that continues tomorrow. Church Gist. I don’t know if this that I’m saying right now is making sense to anybody.
Let me give you various illustrations. How many of you know that the Almighty God is the most powerful entity in the whole universe? Is that confirmed? Yet, He didn’t finish the world in one day. Church Gist. He created the earth in a day, the things that couldn’t finish, He continued the next day. The ones that couldn’t finish in the second day, He continued the third day. What couldn’t be finished in the third day, He continued the fourth day. What couldn’t be finished in the fourth day, He continued in the fifth day. What couldn’t be finished in the fifth, He continued in the sixth day and as He concluded on the sixth day, He rested on the seventh day. Church Gist. If God as big as He is could continue to work from day to day, what makes you think that you failed because you didn’t finish something in one day? What makes you think that you failed because certain things in a particular year did not get concluded or completed?
– look at your neighbour, say, “refuse to be discouraged about the pursuits that are yet to concluded!”
You remember Naaman the Syrian? Elisha sent him to the River of Jordan. When Naaman came. Big man, Chief of Army Staff, he expected the man of God to come and respect him and say, “you’re welcome sir”. Church Gist. The man of God couldn’t even see his face. He sent a servant, “go and tell him, I’m neither interested in his prestige or prosperity, I am interested in his liberty. Tell him he should go to the River of Jordan and dip himself seven times and he will be clean”. The man got angry, “how should he treat me like this? Does he know the number of people that are answerable to me? If I am looking for water to swim in, we have Abana and Pharpar Rivers of Damascus, they’re cleaner than River Jordan, dirty River Jordan”. Church Gist. His servant said, “if he asked you to do something bigger, wouldn’t you have done it?” He went and dipped himself once, no change, second, no change, third, no change, fourth, no change, fifth, the skin was a leprous as leprosy, sixth time, “oh boy, nothing dey change oh” but he stepped in the seventh time. Church Gist. Beloved, if it didn’t change the first time, go again another time, if your story does not change one day, move again to the next day. If it doesn’t change in one year, go forward into the next year.
– is God speaking to somebody, shout the loudest Amen!
– look at your neighbour, say, “I would keep at it until everything changes because something must change!”
When they went round the wall of Jericho the first time, it didn’t come down; second time, it didn’t come down, third time, fourth time, fifth time, sixth time, then on the seventh day, they went seven times! Ola ola ola, that was when it collapsed. Church Gist. There are efforts you’re making now that is not producing effect not because it is wasted but because it is being summated. Am I communicating at all? Atimes, it takes the synergy of energy, your energy is just synergizing, you’re just wrapping the mantles together, the effect is just multiplying until the day of explosion. Did you hear what I just said?
Now, let me say this to you and that can settle somebody. Jesus spoke to the fig tree and the fig tree didn’t produce result the same day. Church Gist. He saw a fig having leaves and he wanted to eat the fruit of the fig, he came but there was no solution, no fruit. He said, “let no man eat fruit of you from this day forward”. In other words, “I dry you up” but the leaves were still intact until the following day. Mark 11:20-21. Church Gist. This is the conclusion; there are efforts of today that only produces effects in tomorrow. Spiritual efforts, prayer efforts, prophetic efforts, declaration efforts, investment efforts that produce not immediately but eventually, not immediately but ultimately. This should sort out somebody.
– I believe there’s somebody seated here now, your efforts of years is producing results in today!
– lift your right hand, say, “I am not wasting my time, I am not wasting my efforts, I am not wasting my energy, something is happening”.
I’ve said this before but I want to say it again, the fig tree did not dry from the fruit or from the leaves, it dried from the roots. The root is the place you don’t see. In the realm where you see nothing, something is already happening. Church Gist. In response to your prayer, faithfulness and commitment to God, in the realm where you see nothing, something is already happening. There’s divine activity beyond human visibility when you release commitment.
– somebody say a louder Amen!
– look at your neighbour, say, “keep at it, what was not finished yesterday continues today and if it doesn’t get completed today, continue tomorrow, it must be completed!”
Many years ago, I came across the story of the Chinese Bamboo as documented by John Mason in the book titled The Enemy Called Average. Church Gist. He said that the Chinese Bamboo is a bamboo tree that once planted needs to be watered daily for 5 years everyday. Every day, you water it, every day and every month for 5 years without fail. When it is exactly the 5th year, by the time you’re watering it, it is still on the ground like a dwarf but you water it daily for 5 years. In the 5th year, exactly the fifth year, the Bamboo would grow by 90 feet under 5 weeks. Church Gist. 90 feet is like two trailers height under 5 weeks. But this how interesting it is, it said, if the watering process stopped even for one day when it is 5 years, you won’t experience the growth. So, it didn’t grow in 5 weeks, it grew in 5 years, 5 weeks. Church Gist. The effort of the first day counted and the effort of the third year counted and the effort of the fifth year counted.
– I don’t know who is speaking to but you’re not wasting your life, efforts, prayer, commitment or faithfulness!
– shout the loudest Amen!
Evan Roberts prayed for 13 years before the Revival in Wales happened. Charles William J. Seymour prayed for 5 years and a half…and then he increased the prayer by 2 years to 7 and a half years before the Azusa Street Revival happened. Church Gist. The things that are not finished today, continue tomorrow. Am I communicating? If there are things you identify it for 2023 that were not completed, don’t just knock them off and start brand new things afresh. Whatever is to be started as far as you know God wants you to do, those things are to be started in continuation to where you stopped last year. Are you receiving wisdom free of charge?
Somebody say a loud Amen! Lift up your right hand say, “In the name of Jesus I shall not be discouraged by any uncompleted project or agenda of my life. I shall not be discouraged by the unfinished pursuits of the passing year. Church Gist. Wherever I stop this year, I shall continue to fire more. I will fire more prayers, fire more worship, fire more fasting fire more evangelism…and everything must break in my favor in the name of Jesus”. Give the Lord a big shout and a clap of praise. Have you received anything so far?
4. By entering into the day or year unburdened with the baggage of the passing day or year.
Uncluttered, unloaded, unburdened of the baggage of the passing day or year. Listen to this on a note; to have a productive day, you must have a restful night. You can’t have a sleepless, restless, stressful night and end with a productive, successful day. Church Gist. You can’t have a restless, sleepless, stressful night and have a truly successful and productive day. It is difficult. If you want to inhale fully, (when you say, “Take in a deep breath” if you want to do that) you must exhale fully. You must bring all the breath out as much as possible to be able to take out much breath in as you can.
If you want the Vehicle to carry a new load, you must offload the old load. Let him that has ears hear. What are we talking about? Church Gist. The reason why we rest at night is so we can be useful in the day. I like you to step into the coming year rested. Not rested necessarily of sleep. Rested mentally, emotionally, psychologically. What is the meaning of that?
4a) Unwind, download all stress, all distress.
Stress download it, unwind…all stress, all distress of the passing day. Philippians 3:12-14. Offload and download all stress and distress of the passing day or passing year.
4b) Release all pains and all hurts of the passing year.
Painful, hurtful experiences of the passing year, release them. Refuse to allow them to walk with you into another year. Let the year pass with its pain. Let the year end with its hurt. Church Gist. This is very important because people carry baggage from the year…”Oh! 2023 dealt with me o” and they are talking about it by September 2024. They are still talking about this. You cannot walk backward into the future. If you don’t allow the past to pass, you pass with the past.
There is no future in the past. Don’t forget, you cannot walk backward into the future. If you don’t allow the past to pass, you pass with the past. Church Gist. Focus on the past makes a person to be history while he’s alive. You can’t do…ask God to help you. Let the pains of the past…if you can follow this key, you’ll be shocked at how you’ll walk into a new year with springs under your feet.
4c) Forgive yourself for failed opportunities or missed openings (by your own doing maybe).
Opportunities you missed, openings that you missed. Don’t lament what you can’t amend. Don’t perish with milk that has poured. Am I communicating at all? Oh yes! One door is closed. A door came against you, but other 7 doors are opening. “It shall come against you one way and flee before you 7 ways”. Church Gist. ‘Come against you’ means the door was locked against you but another door…7 others flee before you. Somebody say a loud Amen! And as you saw, forgive yourself. We just saw the seed of destiny…
4d) Forgive anyone that you must release in order to advance.
Until you let go of the past, you don’t lay hold of the future. Until you let go of the past, you don’t lay hold of the future. Forgive! (Husband, wife).
5. Give the new year the chance to deliver expected results.
Give the new day, give the new year the chance. Don’t suspect the year before it arrives. “That was how my life was last year, 2021 was the same, 2022 was the same, 2023 was the same. Well, I’m used to it”…And most people, it is according to your faith that it is unto you. Give the new year the chance to deliver the expected results. Church Gist. Never enter into the year with the mentality that another year has come, it will be the same. That will never be your portion. Can I hear a louder Amen? Can I hear the loud most Amen?
What are the four things you are to do with the Morning?
1. Appreciate God for his goodness and mercy in the passing day or year.
2. Identify what needs to be done in the morning, that is in the new day or the new year. (These are assignments tonight)
3. Finish pursuits in the passing day or year. The summary of it is where you stopped this year, continue next year. Pastors where you stopped in Church planting projects, continue next year. Where you stopped in your personal agenda with God, continue next year.
4. Enter into the day or year unburdened. Download the baggage and breathe out fully so you can breathe in freely.
5. Commanding and directing the morning, the day, or the year at the place of prayer.
Job 38:12. Genesis 19:27. Mark 1:35.
5a) You command the day and order the day to know its place.
You command the day or the year ordering it to know its place.
5b) You refuse to allow the day or the year to go how it wants.
This new year, you can’t behave how you want.
5c) You refuse to allow the day to proceed at random.
You refuse to leave the day to chance. Now consistently that man (that) came on the road with his head from a moving vehicle would have been long forgotten. Church Gist. But the night before that happened, every altar of death…at the Commanding The Day prayers…every grave dug for you is closed…and that devil was deprived of its power before it manifested. And tonight, it is not just Commanding The Day but Commanding The Year.
Crossover starts by 8pm and we’ll proceed until the time it is 11:30pm and we’ll begin to give deadly blows to altars, to ancient powers, to demonic projections and prognostications. What they have predetermined, we’ll give them a knockout before we meet it. Church Gist. If a child says the mother should not sleep, that child needs to be awake to fulfill that vision. If Mama must not sleep, it’s a vision. You say, “Baby, what is your vision”. (The baby says), “My mother must not sleep tonight”. “Baby, how do you plan to achieve that vision?” The baby must be awake.
– The devil that will not allow you to rest will be roasted in pieces.
– This year, the witch and the wizard who will not allow you to rest will be roasted in pieces. If you are saying Amen, say a louder Amen!
All road leads to the Glory Dome and all our locations outside the City (Abuja) especially…and all those who are in Abuja, find your way to the Glory Dome and let’s overflow everywhere. All the newcomers and those who are not familiar with what is going on in the Church can fill up the Satellite locations and the places. Am I communicating at all? Church Gist. The same with the First Sunday of the Year (coming Sunday). We’ll charge up the place and then declare the year open with the First Sunday message. Give the Lord a big hand and a shout of praise.
Lift up your right hand and say, “My year cannot go the way it wants. My year shall be controlled, it shall be coordinated, shall be directed at the place of prayer. Today!! In the name of Jesus”. Give the Lord a shout of praise!
6. Receiving and accessing instructions from the Almighty.
This is through choice. You can qualify it…instructions at night from the Almighty. Why do I say at night? Church Gist. Just before the day breaks. Just before the year happens. Job 33:14-18. Psalms 16:7. What time are we in 2023? (31st December). So we are in the night of it. We are well-positioned for instructions, well qualified for directions. Isaiah 30:29-30.
What do we need instructions for ahead of the next day?
6a) To discover the divine purpose for our lives in the coming day or year.
Where does God want us to pour our energy? What does He want me to emphasize? Pastors. Church members, what is God saying to me for this coming year? What am I hearing?
6b) To deliver man from distractive directions.
He delivers you from the road you shouldn’t follow. Distractive directions. He will let you know friends that are not to be called friends (they are to be people you just know). He will let you know businesses to withdraw your money from that will occasion losses if you remain there. He will let you know where to pack out from. Hello!
6c) He will speak to you concerning the coming year to rescue you from destruction.
He rescues you from destruction so that man does not go into a pit. Proverbs 16:25. So my beloved son, my beloved daughter, my beloved child, please before you come in here, before you…embark on any major trip. Church Gist. So between now and Crossover time, it’s a very sensitive and crucial time. Don’t while it away, be in the Spirit. Surround yourself with worship. Any Scripture that occurs to you, open it and read it. Don’t just read the verse, read the whole of the passage. Within that vicinity and peripheral, there is a word coming for you…and if in the course of praying and praying you got tired and felt sleepy, flow. In the little sleep, there may be light. In that sleep-awake junction, half asleep, half awake. How many of you know that junction? It’s a junction where a lot of things can happen. Trances! Am I communicating?
– But today is a new day!
If He places the title of a book in your heart, open it. You may not be able to finish a book between now and the evening…or maybe a chapter, maybe a statement can have a word that will bring you light. Don’t enter the new day or the new year until the things that are mentioned happen with you.
#DrPaulEnenche
#DrBeckyEnenche
#TheGloryIsRisen
#LightHasCome
#DIGC
#SupersonicSunday
#GloryDome
#31stDecember2023
#ChurchGist
