YOU WILL NOT EXCEED EXPECTATIONS IF YOU SPEND ALL THE TIME OVERLOADING YOUR SYSTEM WITH PIZZA.
THERE WAS A TIME WE COULD NOT AFFORD TO GO TO LAGOS BECAUSE YOU HAD TO PAY ONE NAIRA EACH WAY THROUGH THE TOLL GATE.
THE PEOPLE WHO IRRITATE ME THE MOST ARE PHOTOGRAPHERS BECAUSE THEY ALWAYS WANT TO TAKE PICTURES OF ME. WHO CARES ABOUT ME? I ONLY WANT CHRIST TO BE SEEN.
‘I AM WHERE I AM BECAUSE BY THE GRACE OF GOD, I STARTED HEARING FROM GOD EARLY ‘
I HAVE BEEN TREMENDOUSLY BLESSED BY KENNETH HAGIN BUT GOD TOLD ME THAT PA AKINDAYOMI WHO THOUGH NEVER WENT TO SCHOOL IS MY FATHER’.
- Pastor EA Adeboye at RCCG Youth Convention Tagged ‘Exceeding Expectations’
(Day 4, Evening Session).
The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Israel, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Holy One of Israel, the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning, the ending, the One who is, the One who was, the One who is to come, the Almighty God, wonderful, counsellor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of peace, glory, glory, glory, glory be to Your Holy Name. Please accept our worship in Jesus Name.
Tonight, my Father and my God in the lives of every one of your children exceed all their expectations in Jesus mighty Name we have prayed.
Let someone shout hallelujah.
2 Kings 2:9-15.
I decree in the Name above every other name, Christians from every other denomination will bow before you.
Apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, one of the best examples of a young adult who exceeded expectations is Elisha. Church Gist. So from him, we can learn that a youth who wants to exceed expectations must meet certain criteria:
- He must have a father: one father, not a dozen. Church Gist. How many fathers? The only thing that I know that has more than one father is a demon. Every true human being is produced by one father.
Years ago, the elders would have heard me share this. Church Gist. Somebody was trying to introduce himself, he said Mike Murdock is his father, ‘this fellow, this fellow’ his father, another fellow, his father, and Pastor Adeboye….. I said ‘no, no’. Don’t join me to them. I am not a father of a demon.
Only one father. Oh, you could honor elder brothers with the title of Daddy, fine but a child must have how many fathers? And then the fellow must treat that father with extraordinary respect and honor. Church Gist. You are not going to hear tonight something that will tickle your ears but I will tell you tonight something that will cause you to excel. I had a father, Pa Akindayomi of blessed memory. I have been tremendously blessed by the ministries of some people, notably Kenneth Hagin, and then one or two others. But my father, remains one. Church Gist. The Lord Jesus Christ, our Eldest brother, the first born of our Father, when He was teaching the disciples to pray in Matthew 6:9-10. He said, this is how you should pray; our Father.
John 14:28, John 14:10. So, you must have a father, you must honor that father. Your entire purpose must be to expand the work of your father. Church Gist. So, you must submit to your father completely.
1 Kings 19:29-21. The moment the mantle fell on Elisha the first time when he was working on the farm, he immediately forsook all and followed his new father.
And he never referred back to the old father.
I am where I am because by the grace of God, I started hearing from God early. That God will open your ears tonight.
He told me early, this man who never went to school is your father. He told me that Pa Akindayomi who though never went to school is my father. Church Gist. Is the father I have chosen for you. God told me that Pa Akindayomi, who
Never went to school is my father.
He told me to follow him. In fact, He told me in clear terms, I have PhD, Papa who didn’t go to school, he knew the Bible from Genesis to the end because God poured into his head. When every dig and harry will come to say, ‘ we don’t want to belong to any denomination, we want to start a ministry, God told me, this is where you stay. I obeyed, I followed that father, I did whatever he said I should do and that’s why I am where I am today. Church Gist. Oh, I could have started my own ministry long ago. Way back in 1987, I held a program, ‘ Christ Redeemer Congress’ in Ile Ife grammar school, people came from all over Nigeria. I collected the names of all secondary schools and teachers training colleges and I invited them all and they came. Church Gist. I could have taken over from there, but God said no, here, this is the one to follow.
And He had given instructions that my brain couldn’t understand. But God who knows the end from the beginning said this is where you go. So, if some of you said you hear from God, and God asked you to go and start your own ministry, congratulations! Let’s see how far you will go.
2 Kings 2:1-8. Three times Elijah told Elisha to go back, stay here God has sent me somewhere. He said, sorry sir, I am not been disobedient but wherever you go, I go. Because you too you are leaving in a period where every Dick and Harry are hearing from God and they are becoming General Overseers. I pray you won’t perish with the world.
Matthew 26:41.
I don’t have the time to tell you stories tonight but there was someone who had his plans as to how he is going to do ministry and then the Almighty God sent a message to him like you are hearing. Church Gist. By the time God finished with him, he said Lord anywhere, anytime, at any cost, thy Will be done.
Honor your father, do it beyond the call of duty and I am saying this because God Himself had almost chastised me for treating you, my children too likely because by the grace of God, He has given me the spirit of contentment. By the time, we had no money to buy meat in this camp, my wife and I, we were satisfied.
There was a time when we didn’t have two naira to go to Lagos. In those days there was a toll gate, and you have to pay one naira going and, one naira coming, we were satisfied.
As a result of this deep satisfaction, the Lord made it clear to me and I shared it with some of you early this year, the Lord made it clear to me, I am robbing some of you of your blessings. You must honor your father.
When Isaac said to Esau, prepare a meal for me, it wasn’t because Isaac was hungry, he wasn’t! It was so that he could release something that money cannot buy. Honor your parents, honor your father.
The Bible said Elisha wasn’t just preparing the food for Elijah when it was time for him to eat, he won’t even allow him to wash his hand by himself, he would pour water on his hands. Church Gist. We are talking about somebody who is going to exceed expectations.
John 17:1-8. Focus on your father, and if you think I am deliberately drawing attention to myself, it means you lack understanding.
If you had noticed me very well, by now you will know that the people who irritate me the most are photographers. Why? They want to take pictures. Who cares about me? I don’t want to be seen. I only want Christ to be seen. Church Gist. That’s all I am interested in.
Well I know that there are other people when the photographer is looking in their direction, they will pose. I am not interested, I don’t want to. God knows!
You are my children, I am telling you the truth. I want to hide, I want only Christ to be seen. The thing you are going to discover is this if you project Him and Him alone, He will project you.
Years ago, we dedicated the Christian Centre, we used to call it Ecumenical Centre in Abuja and all manners of Bishops and Archbishops were there that day. And there were dressed in their very beautiful robes and I want you to know, I love those robes before I became born again. And I went in my normal way, when it was time to file out, nobody struggled to touch the Archbishops, even the Bishops were trying to touch me. Those soldiers among them, they had a tough time getting me into my car.
I don’t want to be seen, I don’t want to be known, I only want Christ and Him alone to be known, and you better take note of that.
That’s why when I look at some of your presentations on television, I wonder. Church Gist. Do you know where you are going?
Because I see some of these singers, they want to show up. Sing and raise the dead, man.
Focus on your father, Elijah said to Elisha, if you see me when I am being taken away from you, you will get what you asked for.
In the middle of the night, around 3 am, between 2 and 4 am, I met some of you. What do you think I was doing? Strolling? I was praying and I was happy that some of them were praying too. Church Gist. But some of them were phoning, some of them were talking. I even saw about 4 of them, I think 3 boys and 1 girl and they were charting, they were joking. If I wasn’t deeply involved in the prayer, I would have said, go to sleep, if you can’t do something useful with your night, go to bed. But I was interceding for the youth convention, I don’t want some people who don’t know where they are going to interrupt.
I have listened to the preachers, they kept saying something again and again, some of you may not know what they were saying. Church Gist. They themselves may not even know what they were saying, they kept on saying, things are about to change. In your life, things are about to change. No more fooling around. You can’t exceed expectations if you are frivolous.
On one occasion, I had to quarrel with some people doing some recording for me. They brought their camera, showed me all the something and at times they will zoom in and they will zoom out, one moment my head is small, the next moment my head is big. What is going on? We are not in a club house. This is the house of God. Messages coming out are messages that will take you to heaven.
Follow my example and you will exceed me.
My father in the Lord came to stay with me in my little house in Ilesha. Way back I think in 1975 or so. Church Gist. I had a little house, you know the kind of house , he came to stay with me, we prayed before we slept. At least we thought we went to bed, I went to the backyard because the house had no toilet inside before I slept and I saw the old man on his knees praying, that was around 10pm. Around 5am, I went out again, he was still on his knees praying. And God said this is the one to follow, this is the one to look up to.
Focus on your father, one Pastor years ago came to me and said when we started running together we were in the same level, now you are far ahead of us. Tell us, what are you doing? I said, my life is an open book. You all see it, nothing I am doing that is strange, you all know, I fast, I pray, I do vigil.
Another man of God, from another ministry was praying, God give 10 per cent of what you have given to Pastor Adeboye and I will be satisfied. That was some 30 years ago. Church Gist. And God said to him, do what Pastor Adeboye is doing and I will give to you what Pastor Adeboye has. And he said God, what is he doing? And God said he started with 40 days and nights fasting. He said God, leave me as I am.
You are going to exceed expectations, not if you spend all the time overloading your system with pizza, imitate your father.
After Elijah left and dropped his mantle, Elisha took the mantle rolled it together like his father did, went to river Jordan like his father did, smote river Jordan like his father did and then he said, God of Elijah I have done what my father did, answer me too. Church Gist. And what happened? Jordan opened.
Follow my example, that was what Paul said, he said”follow me as I follow Christ”. That is why occasionally when I have to make announcement during the Holy Ghost service , i said specifically, I am talking to my children, not to the rest of the world.
People have challenged me, ‘ why are you always asking your people to fast? Do you want to kill them with fasting? I said, have they complained to you?
They said we are living in the era of grace, I said I know. God bless you with more grace but it is written by the Apostle of grace, I fasted often.
And when they kept on arguing, I said don’t worry, the Bible said, if you are a child of God, you are in the Lord’s army and in the army there all kinds of soldiers. Church Gist. We have general duties and we have Commandos. Every one of my children will end up a Commando.
Those who can’t take it will go elsewhere. We are not just interested In a crowd, we are interested in soldiers that will be razor-sharp. Soldiers that the devil will see coming and the devil will run. That is what you are going to be for Christ.
As you heard the news, somewhere I think in Akure, a man who was going for evangelism. Who made the lame to work, set the mad man free, that is what it is supposed to be. That is supposed to happen to everybody who is a member of the Redeemed Christian Church of God.
Our interest is not fashion, we don’t want to be fashionable, I don’t have to be fashionable. If you don’t like the way I dress, that is your headache.
An Archbishop once said to me, he said I like everything about you except the way you dress, you dress like an hunter. I said I am not an hunter, I am a soldier.
Imitate your dad and then act in faith.
Finally, learn to ask for hard things. You just hear these things and leave it like that.
Do you know if you make up your mind that you are going to contact 100 people by text, by phone, by whatever method, you can do it. Learn to ask for hard things because that was what Elijah said to Elisha.
You know when I was a younger Christian, in the 70s, Friday was prayer night. Elders and those of us who were the youth then, the elders will stop by 2am, they will pray from 8pm to 2am and we will continue. When they close, we the youths will look at ourselves and begin to be happy that they have left us. Girls were not part of us, we will remove our shirts and we will start praying as if the ground should tremble.
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