MONERIA IS WORSE THAN MALARIA
I WAS TAUGHT PROSPERITY BY BISHOP OYEDEPO IN BIBLE SCHOOL AND CONFESSED I CAN’T BE POOR BUT I WAS STILL POOR
I WAS LAYING HANDS ON THE SICK AND THEY WERE HEALED BUT I WAS STILL BEGGING WITH STYLE
THE WORST FORM OF DECEPTION IS SELF DECEPTION
REDEMPTION THROUGH THE SACRIFICE OF JESUS IS THE SPONSOR OF ABUNDANCE
WHY ARE YOU AFRAID OF GIVING IF YOU BELIEVE THE BIBLE IS REAL?
IF THEY PREACH TO YOU BEFORE YOU GIVE THEN YOU DON’T LOVE
LOVE WITHOUT GIVING IS ORIGINAL FAKE
STINGINESS NURTURES THE ROOT OF FINANCIAL PRESSURE
TO CRY AND GIVE IS NOT A SYMBOL OF TRUE LOVE
YOUR SEED IS THE VOICE THAT YOUR FINANCIAL FUTURE OBEYS
GIVING IS THE PROVOKER OF THE BLESSING
IF IT WAS IN NIGERIA THAT ELIJAH SPOKE TO THE WIDOW TO BRING HER LAST MEAL, THEY WILL SAY THIS MAN OF GOD IS WICKED!
I AM A PROOF THAT WHAT MY FATHER (BISHOP DAVID OYEDEPO) IS TEACHING IS REAL
WHEN A MAN CARRIES THE BLESSING, DROP HIM ANYWHERE IN HARD TIMES, HE WILL PROSPER
YOU CAN’T CARRY THE BLESSING UNTIL YOU ARE A FAITHFUL TITHER
THE VOICE YOU LISTEN TO IS THE VOICE THAT WILL BENEFIT YOU.
– Pastor David Ibiyeomie on ‘COVENANT SECURITY IN HARD TIMES’ at Second Word Session || SHILOH 2023 – Day 2 Hour of Visitation || REDEEMED TO FLOURISH IN HARD TIMES || Faith Tabernacle, Canaanland, Ota ||
‘Redeemed To Flourish In Hard Times’ is the theme and my sub topic is ‘COVENANT SECURITY IN HARD TIMES’ Now, hear this, before I go on to say anything. We were taught prosperity by our father himself in Bible School. He started the prosperity teaching. So, if the Headquarters of Prosperity should teach you, you believe that you will succeed and I heard him say, he put his hands (In his pocket) and said ‘I can never be poor’ and when he said it with authority, I said ‘How can a man speak like this?’ because where I was coming from, they never preached that way. Church Gist. He said ‘I can never be poor. Have I ever asked any of you for a dime?’ I said ‘How can somebody talk like this?’ So, I too said ‘I can’t be poor’ but poverty did not leave. My confessing it did not change my situation. I said I can’t be poor, but deep down in me I knew that I was still soliciting, begging with style.
The worst form of deception is self deception. If you don’t know it, you don’t know it and what you don’t know, don’t pretend to know. So, I discovered that I don’t really know this thing yet. I was already seeing miracles. As a brother, I have prayed for somebody to drop crutches, but when it comes to money, I didn’t get it because moneria is worse than malaria. Church Gist. So, I told myself, ‘Discover the secrets of this Man’ I picked his book, ‘Breaking financial hardship’, locked myself for 7 days and I said, ‘God, show me the secret of Kingdom wealth that you showed to my father’ and when I encountered light, this time it was not a statement of just talking. I now knew the secret. So, out of the things I have learned from him, I am going to share with you.
Now hear this and hear me well. Hardship is a scriptural agenda that can not be averted globally but can be avoided personally through covenant practice. Based on what Bishop Abioye read in Isaiah 60:2, we all know that hardship can not be scripturally averted globally. It’s a global problem. But personally, you can avoid it if you practice what the Bible says. Those who dismiss God’s financial method will suffer man’s financial crises.
– I pray that before this Shiloh 2023 will be over, you will have a new story to tell.
‘I don’t have’ is the mentality of a man who doesn’t want to come out of hardship. Hear me people of God. I will be sharing with us factors that determine your covenant security in hard times. Some of them because it can’t take all.
What are the factors?
1: Be conscious of your exemption status in Christ. 2 Corinthians 8:9. Redemption has moved you and I from the realm of scarcity to the realm of plenty. Through the sacrifice of Jesus, every child of God is entitled to supernatural exemption from all negative occurrences of life. The covenant of God puts us in that place where our case is positively different. In the time of famine, the Bible says Isaac experienced supernatural exemption as he became exceptionally prosperous. He had possessions in recession. Genesis 26:12-14. Galatians 4:28. It means that whatever Isaac saw, you and I can also see it.
– So, no matter what is happening in the World, your own case will be different in the name of Jesus.
There was scarcity in Egypt. In the same Egypt in Goshen, where the people of God were, there was plenty. So, redemption is the sponsor of abundance. During Covid, based on the teachings I’ve heard from our father, during Covid, during the lockdown, people were complaining. Our Church had the highest income during Covid and we were not doing physical Church. Your mentality defines your dignity. So, you must see it, think it and believe exemption to enjoy exemption. ‘ As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he’ You are not born again to suffer what the World is suffering.
– You must see it that your own case is different from others and it shall be so to someone who believes it.
The 12 spies, when Moses sent them. The whole 12 acknowledged there were giants. Remember, the whole 12 acknowledged it. 10 had faith in the giants, 2 had faith in God. 2 only believed that God can make it. 10 believed their case was hopeless. Nobody is saying there is no hardship, that will be self deception but in the midst of hardship, what are you seeing? Everybody goes to the same market, but those who know the truth don’t suffer what others suffer.
– You will not be a victim of suffering.
2: Embrace the love factor. I use Mark 12 because Matthew 22:37 did not put (the word) ‘strength’ So, I will use Mark 12:30,31. It puts (the word) ‘Strength’ because whatever makes you who you are, use it to love God. Your strength can be your position, your strength can be your political power. It says until you use that place that makes you who you are to love God, you are not a lover. Love is the foundation for all covenant practices. Anything done without love will never produce. Matthew 6:33. So, those who see God don’t sink in life.
– You will never sink.
1 Corinthians 13:3. Now, hear this people of God. True love resolves in the investment of your time, your effort and resources in God and His Kingdom. Because your love for God will make you place high value for Him and His Kingdom. Let me say this to you, if they preach to you before you give, then you don’t love. Ask me why. Love identifies opportunity and sows towards it. Church Gist. Who preached to you before you bought clothes for your wife? Where did they preach before you bought car for yourself? So, it’s in God that they have to preach to you. You don’t love Him. When a man sees his wife’s clothes are torn, he goes to buy clothes if he loves her. Does she have to preach to him? ‘Can’t you see my clothes torn?’ So, waiting ‘They didn’t preach to us’ You don’t love Him. If you love Him, they won’t preach to you and love without giving is original fake.
Now, let me tell you practical thing. You tell your wife every day. You come, you say ‘Sweetheart, I love you’ You bought car for yourself. You say, ‘No, I love you. I just bought a car’ She will look at you. You come the next day, you say ‘Sweetheart, I so love you. Church Gist. Look at my suit’ You come the third day, you say, ‘Sweetheart, I love you so much. Shoes’ She will say ‘My friend, stop! You don’t love me’ So, all these love we are singing like choir, you know they can sing very well in Church, ‘I love you, Lord’ and they can even preach the love. If giving is not involved, that love is fake, original fake. So, waiting that they have to preach before you give is not true love. That way, you won’t come out of hardship.
– But today, somebody’s suffering will end.
You find out that even in the natural, who you love, giving to the person, you don’t struggle. Do you know? If anybody struggles to give to you, he never loves you. Who you love, even when the person says ‘Stop’ you will still be giving but who you don’t love you give reasons. Church Gist. You say ‘Don’t mind her, my food is…’ Some of you, when your neighbours are coming, you even hide the food you are eating because you don’t love the person. You say ‘This one, you too worry. Every time, he dey come visit me’.
They said I used to be very fast, so I think I should take it gently. I don’t use to be very fast in our own place but when I come here, I have to be fast and leave. (laughter) Amen. So that I can come next day again. So, don’t blame me. Amen. Praise the Lord. You won’t blame me. Where my father preaches I preach, what am I displaying here? All these things I’m preaching, I learned from him, so, what will I come here to display? Just write your notes and go and do it. Shout hallelujah! Praise the Lord.
3: Obey the law of seedtime and harvest. Genesis 8:22. How many of you believe that this Book (the Bible) is real? You believe it? Then why are you afraid of giving? God is not a man that He should lie. Church Gist. If God said your seed must produce harvest, then why are you doubting? It pains Him when you doubt Him. It pleasures Him when you trust Him. He said that as long as you drop a seed, harvest is sure. Numbers 23:19.
Stinginess nurtures the root of financial pressure. It is those who plant their seeds faithfully that will reap harvest bountifully. Let me say this to everyone. You can never come out of hard times, except you are a giver. Did you hear me? If you are not a giver, there is nothing…if you like sing the best song, you will never come out of hardship. Church Gist. Sweep the whole Church, you won’t come out of hardship. It says ‘Seedtime and harvest’ not ‘Sweeping and harvest’ You will get the blessing of sweeping Church and Sanctuary keepers, but this thing (money), you won’t get it. You see this thing (money)…have you not seen that most people who are very (serious) in quote in Church today, this thing (money), they don’t have it. It says ‘Seedtime’ it didn’t say prayer time. That’s why many prayer warriors are poor.
Let me say this to you brothers and sisters, to cry and give is not a symbol of true love. You will not cry for anything but when you want to give you will start crying. I will show you from the Bible. Malachi 2:13. Some of you, it is only offering time you start crying. When God gave Jesus Christ, He did not cry. When Abraham gave Isaac, he did not cry. When Isaac sowed in the land, he did not cry. Stop giving offering with a frowning face. It says ‘God loveth a cheerful giver’ 2 Corinthians 9:7. Church Gist. So, when you are giving, put a smile on your face because your seed is the voice that your financial future obeys. You can take a seed to meet any need. The exchange price of your future harvest is your present seed and if you don’t like the harvest you are getting, then check your seed, you have to change it because every farmer gets the harvest based on the seed he sows and the best time to sow is during hardship. Isaac sowed in the land when there was famine.
Let me tell you this, practical. The best time to give is now. I did something very practical this period when people are complaining. I increased my offering from what I used to give. I doubled it and my income tripled because God can’t lie. If you want to give, this is the best time to give. In the natural, when things are tough, that’s when farmers plant more. True? This is not the time to halt, this is the time to give to increase. Everybody was hoarding, Isaac sowed when there was hardship. This is not the time to say things are tough, no. You know why? Giving is the provoker of the Blessing. Our father this morning talked about the Blessing. When you are a giver, you provoke the Blessing and the Blessing attracts blessings. Malachi 3:10. Proverbs 10:22. So, if I want to attract the blessing of God, I must give to God in my tithe and my offerings and then the Blessing rests upon me which no devil can destroy me no matter the hardship.
Now, when Abraham and Lot were…Abraham just laughed. He said ‘Lot, choose anywhere you like’ Why did he say to Lot, choose anywhere? He said ‘What I carry, you don’t carry. I carry the Blessing. Lot, you don’t carry the Blessing. Church Gist. So, choose anywhere. Anywhere you drop me, I will prosper because what I’m carrying, you don’t have’ Abraham had the Blessing because he was a tither, a faithful tither. Lot never had the Blessing. So, he said Anywhere you choose, choose’ When a man carries the Blessing, drop him anywhere in hard times, he will prosper.
Let me say practical things to you. When we finished Bible School and I wanted to go to Portharcourt (Rivers State, Nigeria). One of my colleagues called me and said ‘Look, there are only 2 places people prosper. Lagos and Abuja’ I said ‘Why?’ He said ‘Tell me which other place people prosper. You want to go to Portharcourt. Oh boy, calm down first. Start in Lagos. When you prosper in Lagos, then you go to Portharcourt’ and I believed them because I had no knowledge. Church Gist. But when knowledge came, I said ‘No, if it’s working in Lagos, it will work anywhere’ When I got the signal of what my father said, he used to…don’t ever confess what you have not proved in your life, otherwise, confusion will just follow you everywhere. Don’t just get up and say ‘Nothing, I’m not going to suffer hardship’ If you don’t know it, you don’t know it o. Are you hearing me now? I didn’t know it before, I was following my father to say I can’t be poor. Poverty was still chasing me left and right. But when I got it, now everybody is saying Portharcourt is an oil place. Anybody hearing me all over the World, you say ‘Okay, my father’ Look at me, I’m a proof that what my father is teaching is real. Church Gist. There is (are) no 2 ways. It is real. No matter where you are, if you carry the Blessing, it works anywhere. But you can’t carry the Blessing until you are a faithful tither. Malachi 3:20. Okay, you are praying for blessings when you are not a tither. That prayer is ‘one kind o’.
– May the Blessing answer to someone in the name of Jesus.
I’m going to share number 4 because it is about my greatest secret.
4: Understanding the place of the Prophet when it comes to covenant practice. 2 Chronicles 20:20. In the Covenant, a prophet plays a key role for your prosperity in hard times. Hebrews 7:7. Church Gist. Now, hear this people of God. The voice you listen to is the voice that will benefit you. Your reaction to a man of God determines God’s reaction to you.
The Widow of Zarephath in 1 Kings 17:9-16. If it’s Nigeria, they will say this Man of God is wicked. ‘He does not even know I’m a widow’ It is only in Nigeria widows beg men of God. In the Bible, no widow begged men of God, they rather turn their captivity. In case you are a widow here maybe, men of God, we are compassionate, we will give you. Church Gist. But your answer is not in what the men of God give you. Open your windows as a widow. The Woman looked at Elijah. There were 2 things that woman understood.
She understood this is a man of God and she had faith in the Word of God and that provoked her harvest.
Now, let me tell you my personal testimony. I have been a tither from the day I got to know the truth of tithing. I have never failed paying tithe one day. I was giving offering but I was not getting it like that. It was not coming that way. You know, you get today, you broke tomorrow. Most of you are like that. You get today, you broke tomorrow. You say ‘Oh boy, find me something’ They find you, like that. As Church is now, you write small notes to somebody. Church Gist. You say ‘You know, transport to go to Ojuelegba (Lagos, Nigeria)’ You slip it in somebody’s hand. They find you small transport. You come back again and say ‘We are serving God’ and people who beg, they quote scriptures more. Did you notice it in Church? People who beg, they know all the Scripture. ‘God will bless you. He is a faithful God’ If you know all these scriptures and you still beg, you don’t know it.
So, I was not satisfied with this getting today, broken tomorrow. So, I stayed on the bed, after I was done reading the Book. What I got was not inside the Book. Most times, God will not give you what the person is…I said ‘Holy Spirit, show me the secrets of Kingdom wealth. There must be something I don’t know yet that I need to know. Church Gist. What is it that I need to do outside my tithe and offering’ Then the voice of the Holy Ghost came ‘Who is blessing you?’ I said ‘David Oyedepo’ ‘Don’t you know you can never prosper except you sow into his life?’ I said wow! Now, listen. I’m standing before the Holy Ghost, all we had as married people in the house was 50 naira, 1997 and I said ‘I have known the secret’ I put my hand in my pocket and said ‘Listen, my wife. No devil can make us poor’ I won’t tell you the rest. Jesus did not explain everything in detail. If you have ear, you hear here. That was where I broke the backbone of hardship. No economy can affect me. I broke it there. I said ‘I’ve gotten my own secret’ Everybody…you don’t use another man’s headlamp to drive your car. You must have your personal revelation in these hard times, no matter what anybody preaches to you. When I got that light, I said ‘Wow!’ and I have been on. I can’t tell you details of it, you too find out your own. Are you getting me? But believe you me, it’s impossible and can not happen. So, it’s ‘impossicant’ (impossible).
– Shout hallelujah.
Without a prophet, you will never make profit. Every hard time, a prophet is sent. Discover your own prophet. Everybody has a prophet. 2 Chronicles 20:20. So, your prosperity is not possible without a prophet. Church Gist. Many Christians don’t know that in hard times, you must locate your prophet and connect with the grace he carries. You don’t go to your prophet for assistance. That is where we miss it. The Widow of Zarephath did not go to Elijah. Elijah just said, ‘You are not feeding me, you are not helping me. I have come to help you the Widow of Zarephath. But make for me first’ and when he spoke over her life, her heavens opened.
– Somebody’s heaven will open right now in the name of Jesus.
If you believe it, the louder your Amen, you will have a testimony.
I think I’m not fast today. I used to rush a lot when I come. I try to control myself so I can finish.
5: Live a life of patience. In the School of Seedtime and Harvest, patience is a core requirement. The day you plant your seed is not the day you harvest. Many of us, we even grumble ‘Oh, I gave last year at Shiloh sacrifice. I paid tithe’ Calm down, they are not wasted, just be patient. Patience is holding on to your desired harvest. Galatians 6:9. My sacrificial lifestyle took some time before it started producing. Be patient. Patience is the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting. While you are waiting for God to change your story, you are still who you are. Church Gist. You are serving God faithfully like Bishop Abioye said. You are not grumbling. You are just who you are. You are saying ‘God, I know…’ Be patient. Everybody who sows is bound to have a harvest. Even if you are hungry. You can’t just say ‘Today I plant corn. I will go and uproot it because I’m hungry’ No. The corn must get to maturity. So, the seed you have been sowing is not a waste. Just be patient. If your cloud is full, it must empty itself. That’s how covenant practice is.
But let me say this as I’m about to round off. You determine in hard times how your rain falls, not God. If I want my rain to fall in 24 hours, I determine it. If I want my rain to fall for life…some people’s rain may never fall till they die.
Let me close with this illustration. A very practical illustration. If in hard times I want my rain to fall, for instance, 1000 grams makes 1 kilogram. Hope you know that…and I need 1 kilogram for my rain to fall because it says, when your cloud is full, it will empty itself. If you read our father’s…most of you have the Book, ‘Breaking Financial Hardship’ You’ve read it but I don’t think you understood the Book. Church Gist. That you have the Book on your shelf does not mean you understand it. If I tell you something, it will humble you. What brought me out of poverty was the book I collected from somebody who worked with my father. I didn’t have money. I photocopied the Book from him. He is still in hardship, me, I’m out. That you work with a prosperous man does not mean you will prosper. I borrowed the Book from him and photocopied, me, I came out. I couldn’t afford the Book, I photocopied the Book and the man who was working with my father is still struggling. So, that you are in Living Faith does not mean that you will prosper o, if you don’t do what God says, what he’s teaching here. Church Gist. Some of us collected it and left and it’s showing in us. So, for you to be here and not…you know, if you are in a prosperity place and not prospering, very soon, you will begin to walk in bitterness. Because when people share testimonies, you will say ‘Don’t mind that boy. He is a thief’ He is not a thief. He is doing what you are not doing.
So, let me close with this illustration. If you need 1000 grams to get 1 kilogram and you come in, you give 1 gram per service. That means you will need 1000 services for your rain to fall. That can be a lifetime. That’s why some of you have never had breakthrough. Now, if I come to a service and I give 500 grams, 2 services, my rain will fall. Church Gist. How many of you understand it? If I give 500 grams this service, I give 500 grams (the next service)…so, in 2 services my rain will (fall) and that’s why some new believers, their rain falls quick…and If I give above 1000 grams, before the next service, it will be thunder and rain. So, you determine when your harvest comes in hard times. The best time to give is now. To hoard at this time is not to know how to walk in the Covenant.
1: Be conscious of your exemption status in Christ.
2: Embrace the love factor.
3: Obey the law of seedtime and harvest.
4: Understand the place of the Prophet.
5: Live a life of patience.
With these 5 factors, there are many factors. In this time, I want to let you know that you will never remain the same. Good messages don’t make good people. It is putting the message in practice that changes a man’s story.
Rise to your feet.
Tell God that you will put to practice what you have heard. Go ahead and pray that prayer for yourself in the name of Jesus.
— Prayers —
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