UNDERSTANDING THE DEMANDS OF SUCCESS 2: THE DIVINE WISDOM FACTOR

YOUNG PEOPLE NEED TO HEAR IT THAT SUCCESS IS A LITTLE BY LITTLE ADVENTURE

THIS GENERATION DOESN’T BELIEVE IN IT, SO THEY ARE ALL OUT PLAYING NAIJA BĒT, COMPUTER SCÃMS AND ALL KINDS OF STUFF

GET OUT OF EVERY ÑÕNṢẸ́NSE OF “I MUST MAKE IT”. DON’T END YOUR JOURNEY IN A PRISÕN

WE HAD NO SINGLE PROPERTY TO OUR NAME IN 1988, NOW WE HAVE FACILITIES AROUND THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD.

IF YOU SEE WHERE THIS CHURCH STARTED, YOU WILL LAUGH.

THERE WERE FAR MORE BENCHES THAN PEOPLE. EVERYBODY SITS ON ONE BENCH AND USE ANOTHER BENCH TO PUT THEIR BIBLE

I DON’T HAVE ANY TASTE FOR ANYTHING ABOVE MY LEVEL.

I’M NOT COMPETING WITH ANYBODY, I HAVE MY LIFE TO LIVE.

WE HAVE A FREELANCE GENERATION TODAY THAT DON’T HAVE GOD AT ALL IN MOST OF THEIR DEALINGS.

I CAN’T HIDE THE FACT THAT GOD BLESSES ME; THE WHOLE WORLD KNOWS, THE d£vil KNOWS!

IN GETTING READY FOR COVENANT UNIVERSITY, I DIDN’T STUDY ANY NON-CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY.

I DON’T HAVE ANY UNBELIEVER TO ENVY OR EMULATE IN MY LIFE. WE OPERATE IN TWO DIFFERENT REALMS, SO WHAT WILL THEY TEACH ME?

• Bishop David Oyedepo on UNDERSTANDING THE DEMANDS OF SUCCESS 2: THE DIVINE WISDOM FACTOR at Financial Fortune Banquet Service || 8th March 2026 || Faith Tabernacle, Canaanland || First Sunday Service ||

We are on in the series UNDERSTANDING THE DEMANDS OF SUCCESS. It is our heritage, what does it take to realize it? We began that last Sunday and today we are on part 2. It is our heritage but there are things required to realize it. Church Gist. God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son but there are things required to be saved. There is what you need to do. We have been redeemed as the salt of the earth and the light of the world, a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden. There is what we must do to realize it.

We serve a covenant keeping God, not a Father Christmas God. Ignorance of what to do is not an excuse. No one becomes a success by chance. No one prospers by chance. Church Gist. There are clear terms of the covenant that makes success a reality in a man’s life.

Today we are looking at the Divine Wisdom Factor. A very critical subject in the school of success. The world says wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore get wisdom and in all thy getting, get understanding. Proverbs 4:7-9. Honour, success. Wisdom is the principal thing. Church Gist. In the school of success that is principal. That is core. Knowing where you are going is great but knowing how to get there is greater. You may know where you are going but if you don’t know how to get there, you never get there. Wisdom is the know-how on accomplishing any given task.

Creation is the greatest success story of all time. The most tested and proven, the most enduring and outstanding of all events in history. Creation is the greatest success story of all time. Creation is the wisdom of God in raw display. Church Gist. Proverbs 3:19. Psalm 104:24. Jeremiah 10:12. Wisdom is the core raw material behind creation. The greatest success story of all time. That shows you and I the place of divine wisdom in realizing our success heritage in redemption.

Divine wisdom is pure, no games, no gimmicks, no cutting corners, no sharp practices. James 3:17. The wisdom from above is first pure. If it is from above, it is first pure. There is no hiding place in it, no games, no manipulation. It is first pure. Church Gist. It is easily intreated, it is sensitive to errors. Gets cheaply corrected, it is gentle, full of mercy and good fruits. It sets godly examples towards realizing our success heritage.

Please note that success is not a destination but an adventure. Young people should hear this. It is a little by little adventure. Nobody is born an adult, it is little by little. Exodus 23:30. You don’t start climbing a tree from the top, it is from the bottom. Little by little. Job 8:7. Little by little. Church Gist. This church began with 4 standing people, we are not 4 now. Church Gist. The almighty God started the human race with one male and one female. Male and female, not males and females. He knew the end from the beginning that there would be billions of people on the earth but He didn’t start with a billion. He started with one man, one woman. Little by little.

You are starting a business, young man, little by little. You get to a career, it is little by little you climb up the ladder. You don’t become an M.D. in a commercial bank because you got a first class degree in Banking and Finance at Covenant University. Church Gist. No! You start as a cashier. When you count well, they move you again. This generation doesn’t believe in it, so they are all out betting. Naija bet! I mean all kinds of stuff. Computer scams, all kinds of stuff.

Success is not a destination, it is an adventure. We got our first musical equipment as a church in November 1986 – One guitar. Proverbs 20:21. Enjoy this little by little adventure. We had no single property to our name in 1988, now we have facilities around the nations of the world. Little by little. If you watch where this Church began in Lagos, you will laugh. If you watch where we were when we started in Kaduna, you will laugh. There were far more benches than people. Everybody sits on one bench and use another bench to put your Bible. There was no children’s church, we are all children of God. Church Gist. You can see that picture. This is when we got somebody to take pictures, not when we started. You better understand that. If you give birth to a child and suddenly he grows to be 3 feet, won’t you run? The father will run. The mother will run, everybody in the environment will run because that is contrary to the law of nature. Little by little.

• No one here will crash.

Get out of every nonsense of “I must make it”. Get out of it. You might be unmaking yourself without knowing. Don’t end your journey in a prison. Church Gist. God is not slow, came early so I love to walk at His pace, so I won’t lose my peace.

I told you a humorous story years ago. One of my sons was asked to get me a pair of shoes and I don’t have any taste for anything. They said: “Buy me 2 pairs of shoes. He came back and he said: “I saw one and that one was N700. Church Gist. I said: “Does it have an engine?” Amen! I wear my size, I sleep on my size of bed, I live in my size of house. Where you live does not affect me, I’m not competing with anybody, I have my life to live. Settle down my friend! Tomorrow is great oo!

-Your tomorrow is greater than you will imagine. If you will follow the process!

Exodus 13:17. So He leads us with the future in view so you won’t crash. He can see what you cannot see. He can see what I cannot see so He leads us according to what He sees in future so we can be strong as we get there. Thank You Jesus! We saw how Joseph ascended the Throne of Egypt by wisdom. That’s how core, wisdom is in the School of Success. Not overnight! You know the story. Church Gist. He was sold into slavery at 17, he got on the throne at 30. 13 short years but enjoyed that rise for 80 years. He died at 110! 80 years! 13 years of adventure, 80 years of enviable success. He didn’t jump the queue, he would have jumped the queue in the house of Portiphar and became the Chief Chef, assistant husband but he operated in the Fear of God to secure a great future.

-May that be each one’s portion here.

Daniel also emerged the Prime Minister of Babylon by wisdom. Genesis 41:39. And we were told that he became relevant to the Government of Babylon for 65 years. He was a faithful man. Daniel 6:4. What a man! So this Success is not free. It flows through the channel of the Fear of God as a lifestyle. The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Proverbs 9:10. Now, you saw Daniel with the Fear of God, you saw Joseph with the Fear of God. Church Gist. Now, we have a freelance generation today that don’t have God at all in most of their dealings. “No! This is business, this is God.” That’s why they keep struggling and struggling and nothing is showing. The Fear of God is a fundamental requirement for access to divine wisdom – fundamental access to divine wisdom. Job 28:7-12. The Fear of the Lord? That’s your acesss. The Fear of the Lord? That’s my access. So it’s not intellectual rigor. It’s accessing divine wisdom that will distinguish anybody, anywhere and any day.

-And that’s you the Lord is talking about.

Please note that the Endtime Church shall be openly enthroned before Christ returns through the manifestion of the manifold wisdom of God. Clean prophetic agenda. Psalm 110:1-2. Daniel 7:27. Church Gist. So, Jesus will not be here until the Church is reigning in power in the midst of her enemies. Proverbs 8:15-16. So there will be an outpouring of the Spirit of Wisdom in these last days that will enthrone the Church in their various space where you will function.

-That will be your case.

Daniel 7:27. It’s an agenda. Psalm 110:1. Ephesians 3:8-11. That’s God’s eternal purpose. The unleashing of the manifold wisdom of God on the Earth that will openly enthrone the Church and the Church is not a building, it’s a people. Church Gist. Don’t forget, the price for access is the Fear of God as a lifestyle. It’s a mystery! It’s not in the open market. It’s a mystery! It’s in the Bible, yes! A natural man cannot see it. It’s a mystery!

-That’s where you belong and that divine wisdom that creates solutions; because creation is all about creating solutions. It will begin to manifest in your life.

What is divine wisdom? I mean in simple terms. Divine wisdom is knowing the right way to go from the Word and going there. Psalms 119:105. Isaiah 55:8-11. His Word is where His ways are outlined so access to His ways and going His way is wisdom. Isaiah 55:8-11. Let’s see where the ways of God are hidden? So His Words are the custodian of His ways and His thoughts. Church Gist. What is wisdom? It’s knowing the right way to go from the Word and going there and that Word covers all areas of life. Acts 5:20. It covers marriage, covers raising children, covers career, covers business – all the walks of this life is there. What is wisdom? Wisdom is knowing the right thing to do from the Word and doing it.

Matthew 7:24-25. Knowing the right thing to do from the Word and doing it. That is wisdom. So, it’s not something floating in the sky, it’s not in the cloud. It’s just by you. You know? There was this time that Hagar, her Son was dying of thirst and she put the Son away. “I don’t want to watch him die with my eyes open.” And the Lord opened her eyes, there was a well by her side. Church Gist. The thing you are looking for is just by your side sir, just to be able to see it – It’s by your side. Success is not outside you, the genes are within you. Your genes are not in the environment, it’s inside you. Success is part of our spiritual genes planted in us at redemption. Just to see what you need to do and commit to doing it? Leave the rest. I tried to illistrate with the human genes and I said: “Look! Human genes are human virtues planted in a man that goes down through his generations.” So there are spiritual genes. When it’s planted in you, it goes down from you to your generations. So wake up and understand this.

-Somebody’s story is changing!

That’s God’s definition of wisdom that puts it within your reach. It is within your reach and my reach. Church Gist. Watch! The Lord said to me in 1984, that’s some 42 years ago. “My son, there is a place for you on top, if you are interested.” I said: “Yes Lord! I am.” He said: “Then, whatever I tell you to do, do it.”

Your place to the topmost top does not need efforts, struggle, travel from China to Dubai, Dubai to Europe, it’s inside you. “Whatever I tell you to do, do it” and what was I reading? I was in Deuteronomy 28:1,2. He said “My son, there’s a place for you on top if you are interested” I said I’m interested, “Whatever I tell you to do, do it” Forget about the devil, too much emphasis on ‘the devil won’t let me go’ Church Gist. There is no covenant of the Scripture that has the devil in the equation. When you are operating on Covenant platform, the devil has no relevance. You don’t have more enemies than I do. Others too have enemies, why are they excelling? They know what to do and they’re doing it.

• You are the next in line!

1. New birth is our spiritual covenant access to divine wisdom. When you are born again, you gain natural access, you now take responsibility for the flow. But new birth it is. Matthew 11:19. 1 Corinthians 1:24. Christ the Wisdom and the Power of God now dwells in you. Inside you is the Wisdom and the Power of God. Church Gist. Praise God! Please, don’t appropriate salvation, it will betray you. Be saved! 1 Corinthians 2:14. When you are born again, it opens you up to things of the Spirit where you know the way to go and the things to do. Access to divine wisdom, like I said, the fear of God is our capital access.
2. Prayer and fasting enhances our access to the flow of divine wisdom. Jeremiah 33:3. A question was asked by the king and they said “give us time, we’ll show you the dream” and they went and prayed. Daniel 2:19 and that secret is qualified as wisdom. Daniel 2:23-30. So he (Daniel) recognizes that secret is God’s hidden wisdom revealed and they got that through the Altar of Prayer. Church Gist. James 1:5. So, we engage prayer and fasting to access the flow of divine wisdom at every time you’re in need. Isaiah 58:6,8. If you watch the wisdom of Daniel, light and wisdom and understanding, like the wisdom of the gods was in him. Amen. Light equals wisdom, you know the way, you can see the way, light equals wisdom.

When you get into fasting, there’s an outbreak of light, there’s an outbreak of the unleashing of divine wisdom on any subject matter to which you’re standing in prayer. Church Gist. Can I hear your Amen? Paul, a Man endowed with wisdom was a man given to prayer and fasting often. It’s an access.

3. Commitment to the study of the Word as a lifestyle, because God’s Word is God’s wisdom in print. This is God’s wisdom (the Bible). Luke 11:49. He’s quoting Scriptures and he calls it the wisdom of God. A commitment to the study of the Word as a lifestyle, you are feeding on the wisdom from above as you stay on the Word, you are feeding on the wisdom from above, so it’s sure. Church Gist. It’s not a story book, it’s God’s wisdom in print. Matthew 7:24,25. 2 Timothy 2:15. You should have a Word study culture, not when you’re coming to Church, you start carrying your telephone and all that stuff. Have a Word study culture, don’t toy with what holds the future for you. Amen! 2 Timothy 4:13. Students must have notes to excel, you need notes. All these carrying devices about and posing as if you’re doing something, settle down, what is God saying to me in this passage? Engage in Book Bible study if you don’t know what to do next, get into topical studies. Paul with his studious life, Peter said “according to the wisdom given to our brother, Paul” So, it’s not lavished on him, he went through a process. Church Gist. He was a man of prayer and fasting, he was a studious believer and so he was operating in the depth of Heaven’s wisdom. Praise God!
4. Be committed to learning from those who have gone ahead of you with proofs. Thank God, there are too many biographies of believers that covers many spheres of life. Church Gist. Can I tell you something? I want to say it openly. I don’t waste my time reading the stories of unbelievers, we operate in two different realms, two different realms! Forever, two different realms! I don’t waste my time, I love reading and I love biographies. I don’t waste my energy reading those things, we operate from two different levels. “His ways are higher than our ways” What will an unbeliever teach me? Forget it, not about life, I have access to the Word of eternal life. Forget it, I don’t have one unbeliever to envy in my life or emulate. It didn’t start yesterday. Church Gist. People waste a lot of energy doing funny things. Is there any business you’re doing that believers have not done and excel in it over the years? With remarkable and unforgettable, undeniable proofs.

In getting ready for Covenant University, I didn’t study one non Christian University, no! We have that heritage with us. Church Gist. I’m flowing in blessings undeniably, untamperably, you can’t tamper with it, because I learnt from those who went ahead with proofs. “You know you are myopic” Good, that’s why we’re global. We are myopic and global. Isn’t that interesting?

• Somebody’s story is changing!

I can’t hide the fact that God blesses me, the whole world knows, the devil knows because I keep saying it.

• Somebody’s story is changing!
• In the precious name of Jesus, this month must mark the end of your struggles to make things work.
• Thank you, Jesus. Come on, give the Lord a big hand of praise.

Jeremiah 6:16. Don’t study their fathers, study your fathers. Abraham remains a symbol of generational blessing forever. He’s your father. Study what was it that made Abraham such an unending name. Study! “They will not work. It’s a modern day.” ‘Okay – have modern problems.’ Hebrews 6:12.

• It’s your turn!

In Proverbs 9:9, the Word says, “Give instruction to a wise man, what happens? He will yet be wiser. Teach a just man and he will increase in learning.”

5. The art of meditation. Meditation, that is, thinking through the Word. That’s what meditation is in quest for an issue of interest, answer to an issue of concern. Thinking through the Word, this book of the Lord shall not depart out of your mouth. Joshua 1:8. It’s thinking through the Word we call meditation. Not sitting and thinking through your life. Thinking through the Word. Church Gist. This thing is not lining up with what I think it should be by redemption. Where am I missing it? Where is the missing link? What do I lack to make it work? This is what David said, “How love I thy law is my meditation all the day. Thou through thy commandment has made me wiser than my enemies.”

Meditation gets us wiser than circumstances. “He said I have more understanding than all my teachers because their testimonies are my meditations.” We think through testimonies. How did that man come out of that trouble? And then light springs out. Church Gist. Now he went on and said, “I understand more than the ancients because I keep (I engage with what I find through meditation)…I engage with what I find through meditation.”

• Somebody’s story has just changed in the name of Jesus!

The top is where you belong and the divine wisdom factor required to get there is available to you as a child of God. Church Gist. For those who would become children of God today, you have the same access as you turn your life over to Christ. It’s the way up. It’s the way out. It’s the way up.

• In the name of Jesus, you will never get stranded again!
• You will never get to a point in your life anymore where you say, “I don’t know what else to do” in the name of Jesus!

Today is our Financial Fortune Banquet or call it, Financial Success Banquet. Please note that God’s financial fortune agenda delivers absolutely on the covenant of abundance. Until you come into that covenant, you are not a candidate. Church Gist. Deuteronomy 8:18…not your idea. That’s when I got that landmark revelation. “My son David, my financial plan is not a promise. It does not answer to prayers. It’s not a promise. It has no respect for fasting. My financial plan is a covenant until your part is played. I am not committed” – March 22nd, 1982. Then I inquired, what is that covenant? “While the Earth remaineth seed time and harvest shall not cease.” How reliable is this covenant? “If you can’t break my covenant of the day and of the night, you can’t break this covenant. Until you can stop the day and the night from exchanging position, this covenant remains in force.” He now went on and said, “when you look up in the day and you see the sun, know that my covenant is in force. You watch in the night and you see the moon, know my covenant is in force.” Jeremiah 33:20-21. Then I screamed, “yea, I can never be poor.”

Light is sweet. It’s a beautiful thing for the eyes to behold the sun. Now, I have never had to ask God, bless me from that day till now. When I say obedience speaks louder than voice on this platform, that is the true truth. Do you know Solomon never prayed for wealth? Church Gist. He only engaged the covenant of seed time and harvest. There is no expectation. It would have been reflected in his prayer. But that covenant was engaged and Heaven responded. “Ask what I shall do for you.”

Now watch, Abraham never prayed when he took Isaac to the altar. Obedience speaks louder than voice. People waste a lot of energy doing some funny things. “Well, I don’t think you understand my situation.” Your situation is not stronger than the Bible. Church Gist. Don’t exaggerate your problem. Ignorance is your issue. People have passed through that place worse than where you are and entered into a new realm altogether. And that’s you today!

• That financial captivity is ending in your life today!
• The era of financial struggle is ending in your life today! Thank you Jesus!

Job 22:21-25…thou shalt put iniquity far from your tabernacles – “no sharp practices, no games, no gimmies, no changing books.” Then shalt thou lay up gold as the dust. So there’s a law that launches men into realms of financial fortune. Then shalt thou lay up gold as the dust and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks. Church Gist. Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defense and thou shall have plenty of silver. Isn’t that fortune? That defines financial fortune in very raw terms. You lay up gold as dust.

Question is what is this law that launches a man into realms of financial fortune that cannot be hidden? That’s what we are looking at. Now three scriptures will help us. Genesis 8:22. God enacted that covenant with Noah and that’s in force till date. 2 Corinthians 9: 6-8…So, He defines that Genesis 8:22 here that sowing means giving. Church Gist. And what will happen? Verse eight. And God is able to make all grace abound towards such givers. So that they having all sufficiency in all things may abound unto every good work. Clear!

Now Philippians 4:15-19. He said, “Now you Philippians know in the beginning of the gospel when I departed from Macedonia, no communicated with me concerning giving and receiving.” That further clarifies it. Sowing and reaping equals giving and receiving. Church Gist. Sowing and reaping equals what? Giving and receiving. People hate to hear that but they want to be out of their trouble. They hate to hear it.

Now, now watch. Go to verse 18. For even in Thessalonica, ye sent once and again. No, it’s a once and again; it’s not once and for all. Once and again, once and again, once and again, once and again, once and again, once and again. He said verse 17, “Not because I desire a gift.” Isn’t that interesting? God does not need you or me, what we hold in our hand came from Him. Of His fullness we have all received…but fruits that will abound to your account. Church Gist. That is, it is directed at your change of story. The giving and receiving covenant is for your benefit, for my benefit, to your advantage and my advantage. Now hear what he said. But I have all and abound and full having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice, acceptable, well pleasing to God. But my God in response, shall what? Supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus where no economic policy can affect. His riches in glory where no economic policy of any nation of the World can affect. His riches in glory. That talks about financial immunity. You can’t be touched. You can’t be tampered with. Amen!

• Now in the name of Jesus, this economic depression ravaging the world today will not hit your family!

Because He blesses us from His riches in glory where the dot and the moth cannot reach, where nothing can corrûpt. Church Gist. That’s why covenant people have always been exempted from the horrõr of economic hârd times always.

Now, money fa!led in the land of Egypt, Genesis 47, to the point that men were offering themselves for sale. So hārsh, so bád. But in the same season, verse 27, Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen, and they had possession therein, and grew, and multiplied exceedingly. Church Gist. What a paradox! Under same economic climate but clearly different experiences. I mean people were offering themselves for sale. If you read that scripture properly, uh! Church Gist. It was so härsh and there was a people in the same nation that were growing and multiplying exceedingly in the same season. That’s you sir. That’s how the covenant exempts people when they connect with it.

• The days of financial misførtune are over in your life!
• No more strēss!

Now watch, Abraham entered into generational fortune through the same mystery. He gave the best of his best. The only one he has, not a tithe but a whole. And God said, “By Myself, I sworn that in blessing, I will bless you, Church Gist in multiplying I will multiply thy seed and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. I will bless them so lavishly, they shall be a blessing to their world. I mean that came from the altar of sacrifice. Amazing God. Amen.

Maybe I need to tell you this my story. One day I said to the Lord, “Why are funds not coming in for the church planting agenda You have asked us to embark upon?” Then He said to me, “Give Me that thing.” I was alone with Him. Church Gist. I was in my office and I walked to my wife’s place and I said, the Lord just demanded for this. She said, “Praise the Lord.” On my way home the same day, same day oh, not the following day, “My son David, even if you don’t want to be rich, it’s too late.” Church Gist. I heard and you know the way I do my thing, I announce. I didn’t tell them what I did, but I told them, “God swore a blessing on me.” This one blessing is speaking. One funny thing opened up a whole destiny.

Please don’t treat this thing casually. I’ll leave you with five things and then we pray. How do I access the realm of financial fortune?

1. Be spiritually minded.

If you are not spiritual, what to have holds you to ransõm. “A natural man cannot receive the things of the spirit of God because they are fool!shness unto him. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.” Church Gist. 1 Corinthians 2:14. That man, they said, “Go and sell all that you have.” He said, “Ah no no, this is too much, please carry your eternal life, leave me alone.” He couldn’t pick what was going on. God is not a rôbber; whatever He asked you and me to do is for our next level change of stories.Be spiritual!

“To be spiritually minded is life and peace. To be carnally minded is dēåth.” Be spiritual, that’s where the journey to financial fortune begins. Church Gist. It will take a spiritual man to pick his only son and I mean, there’s nobody who can counsel you on that. Be spiritual. You know Abraham’s thought, God is able to raise him back from the dēåd after I cût the neck. What a man. I mean, anything God said to him, suits him. He was super spiritual.

The Word says, “I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul prosper.” So our prosperity is a function of our spiritual prosperity. It is our spiritual buoyancy that sets the pace for our supernatural abundance. Spiritual buoyancy. Church Gist. That’s important. 3rd John verse 2. He said something here in Psalm 112 verse 1-4, “Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delights greatly in His commandments. His seed also shall be mighty upon earth. The generation of the upright shall be blessed. Church Gist. Wealth and riches shall be in his house and his righteousness endureth forever.” He was a spiritual man. “He has dispersed, he’s given to the poor.” Spiritual man. “For the upright man, there ariseth light in darkñess. He’s merciful. He gives out. That is a spiritual man and it’s imparting on his generations.

• Grace to stay spiritual in your walk with God. Receive it now!

1. Engage with delight in covenant practice of sowing and receiving.

God loves a cheerful giver. Church Gist. You’re giving to the needy with delight. You are giving to the cause of the gospel with delight. God loves a cheerful giver.

3. Walk in financial integrity.

God does not bless the croôkēd. “Thou shalt put iniqu!ty far from your tabernacle. Church Gist. Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, the gold of Ophir as the stones in the brooks. Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou shall have plenty of silver.”

Walk in financial integrity. The cûrse of the Lord is in the house of the th!ef. Zechariah 5:1-4. “As the ostrich lays eggs and hatches them not, so is a man that gets rich and not by right, he shall leave it in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fôōl.” Jeremiah 17 verse 11. I caught that 1974. Church Gist. “Don’t touch what is not your own or you cût short on your lifespan.” 1974. A friend of mine asked me, “What is an ostrich?” I said I don’t know. I’ve never seen it. But whatever lays eggs is a bird. Mmm, I don’t know ostrich, I’ve never seen one. But it lays eggs. It’s not a goat. It’s not a cow. Amen. Don’t touch what is not your own.

Now take it away from here. God does not bless the cróøked. Abraham your father and my father, he said, “I’m not going to take a thing from you lest you say you made Abraham rich.” Don’t play games. Play financial games in the kingdom.You will goose at the end. Somebody needs to repent here today. Church Gist. We have never chëãted on one man as a commission. People have chēåted on us severally. All kinds of human beings. Amen. All kinds. Some in billions, question where are they today? You know every scripture is functional whether you know it or not. Don’t play games.

• You are going places!

This is a financially strēss free institution. Absolutely so, 45 years running, no begg!ng, no dëbt. Church Gist. Just keep to the terms of the covenant and watch God decorate your life.

• It is your turn!
• It is finally, finally your turn!

He said, “The cûrse of the Lord is in the house of the th!ef. He will consûme it. The timber, the stone, everything. Church Gist. So whatever he has today levels out tomorrow without any w!tch attãcking him. The covenant.

4. Understand that covenant practice is not a once and for all affair, but a once and again.

We don’t stop sowing until we are tired of reaping. Church Gist. The year a farmer stops farming, his harvest stops there. When a believer stops giving, the blessings from giving stops there.

Please note when a man stops going to the toilet and there is no way to evacuate what is inside him, he is on his way to the grave. When we stop discharging, we start choking. Church Gist. Meet a man who has never gone to the toilet for 3 months and then you meet a man that life is choking out of. Let your once again engagement be real. Let it be real sir. Let it be real. Am I surprised that I’m blessed? Never. I saw the way to it and I connected with it.

Now be committed to thinking and speaking covenant-based words. Nothing works here. Don’t set the work of your hand on fire. Speak covenant-based words by thinking covenant-based thoughts as a lifestyle. For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Church Gist. Let them say continually, “Let the Lord be magnified which takes pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.” continually. For by the words of your mouth, you are condemned. By the words of your mouth, you are justified. So, think covenant-based words as a covenant practitioner and speak covenant-based words. Watch how God will keep decorating your life.

7. Keep rejoicing to secure returns on your seed sown. Keep rejoicing.

Joel 1:12. Keep rejoicing to secure returns. Keep rejoicing. Deuteronomy 28:47 and 48. So, serve Him with joyfulness and gladness of heart. Let it be what comes out of you naturally. Church Gist. Don’t struggle with it. Praise God. Your harvest is sure. Although the fig tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the vine, yet I will rejoice in the Lord and then the Lord will show up and make my feet like hinds feet and get me up upon my high places. You are changing levels. So, get excited.

Let me close by this. Now to secure an open heaven, tithing is God’s commandment. Church Gist. Bring ye all the tithes to the storehouse. People are all over town, everywhere around the world teaching nonsense. They have no proof for it. I’m a tithe addict. I live perpetually under an open heaven. Perpetually. Many people in this church are living perpetually under an open heaven through the mystery of tithing. Prove me now if I will not open the windows of heaven. Not pray me now. Not fast me now. Prove me now with your tithing. I will open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there’ll be not room enough to contain it.

Praise God. And Abraham paid tithe of all to Melchizedek, a type of Christ, showing us the way to go to enter into generational fortune. Abraham, your father and my father is a tither and we are redeemed to come under the blessing of Abraham by doing what Abraham did to come under that blessing. He said, “Blessed be Abraham of God, possessor of heaven and earth.” Well and that came down through tithing. Church Gist. Tithing brought him into that realm. Tithing is not a support seed. It is not philanthropy. It is not a donation. It is not helping a church. It’s not helping anything. It is creating your future. Tithing creates your financial future. Please take note of that.

2. Do not give God trash. He won’t take it. Honor the Lord with thy substance, with the first fruit of all thine income. Then your vats shall overflow with wine.

Substance as God has blessed everyone even so let him give. The excreta of a cat is like this. They didn’t have the graphic for me. The one of a dog is like this. The one of a cow is like this. The one of an elephant. As God has blessed everyone, even so let him give. When you find a cow giving like a cat, it is on its way to the grave. You find an elephant discharging like a cow. It will soon be off existence. Deuteronomy 16:17. Church Gist. Everyone should give accord to the blessing of God upon his life. So, we give according to His blessings on our life just like tithing is according to the blessing of God in your life. Your giving must be like that.

If I give my son here 10 naira, you will wonder what happened. Does he think I’m this poor? Why? You are measuring what I gave you with what you consider my size. Church Gist. If I give you 10 naira in those days, you will testify. You will testify that God blessed me today through my pastor because your pastor was not more than that. Sir, if I give God 100 naira today, He will slap me. It will be an insult. It will be what? An insult. Please don’t cut down your life. Respond with honor. He said take that to your governor. Will he take it from your hand? Respond with honor. God is not in need.

If there’s any church nobody will ever ask you what to give you till Jesus comes it is this church. Church Gist. When you are missing, we are looking for you for your soul not for what you have. I said we have never borrowed. Were you here 45 years ago? So, it’s not counting on anybody but on your life.

· Somebody’s story is changing. Amen.

God told me to get back home and make my people rich. I have a mandate to open up the prospective destiny of God’s people in this part of the world and it’s happening. Church Gist. May it happen in your life. August 26, 1987, get back home and make my people rich. Clean mandate. And it has changed the face of Christianity across Africa. Come on, give the Lord a big hand of praise.

Our light shines brightest at source. You better catch this light. Prosperity is our global identity as a church. Clean prosperity, Explainable prosperity, Prosperity without games, without nothing to cover. Church Gist. You are going places. Have you ever seen a place where a project like the ark is going on and there’s no stress? No stress. Even you don’t even have time to go there because there’s no stress. Nothing is amiss.

· From now the greatest events of your life will be stress free.

Lift up your right hand and give God thanks. Give God thanks right now. Blessed be your name Jesus. In Jesus’ precious name we have prayed.

· May today mark the very end of your financial struggles. May financial success become your new identity and whatever thing it does it shall prosper. So, every engagement of yours none shall be aborted anymore. You shall not beg to leave. You shall not beg to wear clothes. You shall not beg to send children to school.

And the interesting thing is that you can start from where you are. God is not asking you to start from where you are going. Start from where you are. He said from the place where you are, start. When our income was 18,000 plus in a whole year. My own tithe was there. Church Gist. That was our size, all of us… but consistency will keep changing your story. Consistency. Once and again. Today I am blessed to see numbers of people that were sponsored on scholarship when there was nothing more to even cover scholarship but we were sharing, giving out and God kept lifting us. It never stops.

Someone met one of my sons in the US and he was doing some graphics for them in their church. He said, “You don’t know papa.” He said, “I’ve never seen anybody like that who sponsored me through school without knowing me?” I never knew him in my life. Church Gist. He was giving me his name. I can’t remember. Doing good is good, sir. Doing good creates a future. Be openminded. Be open-handed. Your future is greater than what you can imagine. Stop hoarding. There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is met, but it tendeth to poverty. Stop living to yourself. It makes a slave. Slave to make others live. Live to make others live and you’ll be glad you did. One more time, give the Lord a big hand of praise.

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