GOD DEMANDS THAT WE DEVELOP SPIRITUAL CAPACITY FOR WHAT HE HAS IN STOCK FOR US
YOUR CAPACITY DETERMINES THE WEIGHT OF GLORY THAT CAN BE ENTRUSTED ON YOUR LIFE
JESUS, BORN OF THE HOLY GHOST, BEGAN AS A BABY BUT HAD TO DEVELOP CAPACITY TO DELIVER HIS MISSION
YOU CANNOT BE APPORTIONED ANYTHING FROM GOD ABOVE YOUR CAPACITY
“GOD IS NOT SLOW,” NOTHING GIVES VALUE TO FAITH LIKE PATIENCE
I STUDIED THE LIVES OF THOSE WHO LED THE CHARISMATIC MOVEMENT, THEY WERE PEOPLE OF HEAVY SPIRITUAL CAPACITY.
WHEN YOU READ HAGIN, YOU READ DEPTHS OF TIME IN THE WORD. TIME IN STUDYING RELEVANT MATERIALS. DEPTHS!
WHEN YOU LISTEN TO ORAL ROBERTS, DEPTHS! HE WAS THE FIRST TO TRACE JESUS FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION. THEY WERE NOT CASUAL PEOPLE.
THERE ARE TOO MANY BABIES ON THE PULPITS. TOO MANY BABIES WHO ARE POSING AS AN AUTHORITY WITHOUT THE REQUIRED DEPTH.
PEOPLE HAVE TURNED MINISTRY TO SPEAKING. WE ARE CALLED TO BE ABLE MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL. WE ARE NOT SPEAKERS.
WE HAVE ALWAYS HAD A LIBRARY IN OUR HOME FROM THE DAY WE GOT MARRIED. I HAVE BEEN BUILDING MY OWN CHRISTIAN LIBRARY SINCE I WAS 20.
INDISCIPLINE IS ONE OF THE COVENANT HEDGES BROKEN THAT HAS GROUNDED MANY PRINCES.
YOU DON’T WAIT TO BUILD CAPACITY, YOU COMMIT TO BUILDING IT.
WE BUILD UP PRINCIPALLY IN THE WORD.
LEARNING BECOMES A LIFESTYLE FOR ANYONE WHO IS GENUINELY COMMITTED TO DEVELOPING CAPACITY
NOTHING NEW EXISTS ON ITS OWN WITHOUT DRAWING FROM THE OLD.
DIRECTION WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE WILL EQUAL FRUSTRATION
YOU WILL BE AT THE SAME SPOT FOREVER UNTIL YOU LEARN THE WAY OUT OF IT.
THE LORD LED ME TO STUDY THE BEGINNING OF NINE WORLD CLASS UNIVERSITIES WHEN THE COVENANT UNIVERSITY MANDATE CAME
COVENANT UNIVERSITY TODAY IS NOT JUST A PACE-SETTING UNIVERSITY IN NIGERIA BUT IS LISTED AMONG THE ELITE UNIVERSITIES IN THE WORLD
THERE’S NO HEAVEN OF GLORY THAT WILL OUTWEIGH YOUR CAPACITY TO BEAR
I VOWED NEVER TO APPROACH ANY TASK WITH COMMON SENSE IN MY LIFE BECAUSE THE BEST YOU WILL GET OUT OF IT IS COMMON RESULT
LAYING HANDS IS TO IMPART GRACE TO DO WHAT YOU SHOULD DO, NOT A SUBSTITUTE
EVERYONE IS 75 PERCENT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE OUTCOME OF HIS LIFE. WHAT YOU DO WITH IT WOULD DETERMINE YOUR RATING IN LIFE
– Bishop David Oyedepo on “DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CAPACITY TOWARDS YOUR DESIRED NEXT LEVELS” || NEXT LEVELS ||International Ministers conference 2023 || Covenant University Chapel || Day Two Evening session || 10th May, 2023
Isaiah 9:8. I attended my first Christian Conference in 1970. I got saved 1969 and a Word came that was a lifeline for me: God is not slow. Church Gist. 2 Peter 3:9 (RSV; KJV). What ran through my spirit throughout that meeting is, “God is not slow.” Nothing gives value to faith like patience. Hebrews 6:12. What a baptism that was for me.
– Somebody is going to catch a Word tonight that will launch you into your realms of Next levels!
That was back in 1970 this is 2023 and the Word is still working right now. Church Gist. God is not slow, he has helped us to move from one level to another all these years to the glory of God.
– I believe God that this night will be a night of nights.
– It shall be a night to be much remembered in each one’s life
– You will date the events of many years to come to your encounter with His Word tonight
– God will appear to you via his Word tonight! 1 Samuel 3:21
Father thank you for the opportunity to be in your presence. Reach out to everyone of us in Jesus’ name.
I’ll be speaking on this very important subject tonight, “DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CAPACITY TOWARDS YOUR DESIRED NEXT LEVELS.” This is one forgotten aspect of the demands of our walk with God. 3 Scriptures: Luke 1:80; God demands that we develop spiritual capacity for what He has in stock for us. Galatians 4:1-2. Church Gist. Very interesting picture here – Isaiah 9:6. Authority is not conferred on children. Luke 2:12. The journey of Jesus began as a baby. Luke 2:40, 42. So he grew from a baby to a child, from a child to an adolescent. When he began to be 30, he went to Jordan to be baptized of John. Mark 3:13-17. The child has grown to a son. Isaiah 9:6. Luke 9:35 – Authority conferred. This is Jesus born of the Holy Ghost but had to develop capacity to deliver his mission.
No building will ever rise any higher than the bearing capacity of its foundation. No! Matthew 25:15. You cannot be apportioned anything from God above your capacity. Church Gist. Change of levels is changing from one level of glory to another but glory is defined in terms of weights in the Kingdom. 2 Corinthians 4:17. It is capacity that determines how much weight can be entrusted on your life and my life. We need to be awake to the responsibility of spiritual capacity development.
Capacity building is a non-negotiable requirement for accessing next levels in ministry. There are too many babies on the pulpits. Too many babies who are posing as authority without required depth. They are running around with floating inspirations. Every child of God is an embodiment of unlimited potential. We mentioned that yesterday. Matthew 11:11. That talks about the wealth of potential that we are loaded with in redemption. Capacity will not develop itself. It has to be cultivated. It can’t be imparted. I can’t lay hands on you now to become a pilot! No! There is no such anointing that will impact you with a skill that you have not acquired. There is no such anointing. I watched the lives of those who led the Charismatic movement, heavy spiritual capacity. You read Hagin, you read depths of time in the Word. Time in studying relevant materials. Depths! You listen to Oral Roberts, Depths! He was the first to trace Jesus from Genesis to Revelation. They are not casual people carrying about floating degrees. That is not what makes ministry. Spiritual capacity. They blew the world open. I was very close to T.L. Osborn before he went to heaven and his library was facing his bedroom. Church Gist. He turned all his materials into big volumes. As he opens his eyes, what he sees from his bedroom is his library. Spiritual capacity. People have turned ministry to speaking. I am speaking for… What are you speaking about? We are called to be able ministers of the gospel. We are not speakers. I was led to work at developing capacity for ministry very early from Jeremiah 6:16-17. So I went after biographies of ministers across centuries. I want to find out what they found. How they ran the work. How they worked through it, what challenges they had and how they got through it so I can avoid it. When I finished that study, I was in ministry. No guesswork. This is a forgotten aspect of ministry that has gotten several people grounded. Church Gist. It is time to be awake. Reading to preach is not capacity building. Reading to learn how to be impactful and effective in your assignment is what we call capacity development. Any junkie can preach. Preaching is storytelling but ministry is about spiritual impact. It is time to be awake to the demand of developing spiritual capacity. I can read Hagin till I go to heaven, he is always speaking live from heaven, drawing from the depth of encounters in the Word.
We build spiritual capacity the same way we build our physical muscles to stay fit in the race. How do we do that? Physical muscles are built through healthy nutrition and relevant exercise. Hebrews 6:5. 2 Peter 1:4. 1 Timothy 4:8. It is not what you know that develops you but what you do with what you know. Church Gist. Capacity is not about age, it is about depth of insight. It is not about age. Job 32:7-8. It is not about age, it is about depth of insights that comes through a crave for knowledge.
God will always appraise our capacity to determine our next level. Jethro came to Moses and said “What you are doing is not good. This is a counsel from the Lord for you. Seek ye among the people, able men” Exodus 18:21-24. Number 1 – able men, capacity. You can have a good man that is not a good driver and you need a driver. No! That is not the man or you lose your life. Capacity first. God is saying don’t place a novice in office, he will crash. Church Gist. He needs capacity, he needs relevant equipping. There are things I am learning today that may be published when I go to heaven at an extremely old age. They are things that if I teach them, they will stone me but they are assets to my life. They are adding value to my life. It is time to wake up.
Can I give you a taste of what I mean by capacity building? There was a time I went out to the U.S. and I came back, I bought volumes of materials. My wife asked me what did you bring from your trip because she didn’t go with me on that trip. I said come and see, I took her to my library. We have always had a library in our home from the day we got married. I have been building my own Christian library since I was 20. Since I was 20! I said humorously that you are either building a library or building a mortuary without knowing. There is nowhere in the world where you don’t require capacity to maximize your adventure. Church Gist. There is no venture on earth. Ministry people are lazy, they wake up in the morning and can’t tell what they are doing. You ignore knowledge, you suffer mockery. Those who do wickedness against the covenant of knowledge, He will corrupt them with mockery but those who know their God they shall be strong and they shall do exploits. No one will end his journey in mockery. He said study to show yourself approved unto God as a man that will not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth. We need to recover the place of capacity development in our desire to upgrade to the next level. Don’t let us be carried away by preaching. What you don’t have, you can’t give. I saw many have preached themselves dry. You listen to them, they are very dry. “You know yesterday we were talking about… wait a minute.” They don’t have the capacity to preach once a week but they are doing it every day with no resources from where they are drawing. They are dry. No one will run dry here. People talk about burnout, burnout is just a function of a disconnect from current knowledge nothing else. People who are always learning never suffer a burnout.
I was one time in Kenneth Hagin’s office and I saw him with the book by T. L. Osborn, The Faith That Works. That is an evangelist writing, this is a celebrated teacher of the Word of Faith reading ‘The Faith That Works’ by T.L. Osborn. It was on his table. T. L. Osborn said when you stop learning, you start dying. You may be preaching and be dying. Church Gist. The good news is that there is space for everyone in space. Everyone has a place in space. Everyone! We have billions of birds in the air yet they have not stopped the sun from shining. There is space for everyone. It takes a spacecraft to access space.
We all know there is more to flying an aircraft than driving. Church Gist. In the same way, there is more to flying a spacecraft than an aircraft. So how committed we are to learning determines our limit.
-The good news is that your space is there in Space. And you will get there!
Every Child of God is redeemed a Star. Jesus is the Child of God, Jesus is the Bright and Morning Star and so His Father has sent Him as He sent us so we are all redeemed as Stars in the Kingdom. Church Gist. But a great Coach never makes a Star, it is the commitment, devotion, determination and dedication of the Sportsman that determines who emerges a Star at the end of the day. Jesus is the Master Coach, He had twelve of them and not every one of them had an identity after He left.
In fact, one of them among His protégé became a son of perdition and some of them went to the cooler almost as soon as He left. A great Coach does not make a Star. It is the dedication, determination, discipline and selfless engagement of the Sportsman that determines who becomes a Star. Church Gist. A Coach provides an opportunity for the star in us to emerge but not without our practical, personal engagement in driving it. That’s why you lay your hands on ten people and they get ten different results because you can’t lay capacity on people and God can’t give you what you cannot carry – He does not tempt anybody with evil. There is no Star without a scar, I have said it often – And the scar of every Star is sacrifice.
-You better sit up.
It is the depth that defines height, it’s time to sit up. It is our capacity that determines the weight of glory that can be entrusted to us as individuals, so our levels can’t change beyond our capacity otherwise it will crush us and we will crash under it. The Church is five hundred in attendance and nobody can reach you, you have a long way to go. All you do is sit down and say, ‘Come here! Go there’! God tempts no man with evil, He will not entrust to you and me what is beyond us James 1:13. Church Gist. He will give to each one of us according to our several abilities. He is waiting for me to develop capacity into my next levels – We have to develop capacity 1 Timothy 4:8. Spiritual capacity covers all areas of life, let’s commit to it. The good news is that every man’s star is embedded within himself. All we need to do is take heed to the Word till the star in us begins to rise 2 Peter 1:19, Matthew 5:16. We think about it and we nurture it and then it begins to grow. It is capacity!
There are things that God will tell you to do but you don’t have the capacity to receive them, so you develop yourself to the point where you will receive the capacity. You are not ready for the next level until you have the capacity to receive what He is saying. Thank you, Jesus! I once stated that it is paying the abnormal price that makes a world changer. Every world changer pays a global price to emerge as one, no world changer runs a normal schedule there is always something unique about them. There were things I was sharing with us the other time that people started saying, ‘What kind of a human being is this kind of person, the world is not worthy of these kinds of people’! You don’t hear this, you don’t listen to this, what do you read? The Bible! And it’s adding value daily to my life, it keeps me healthy, it keeps me going, strong and winning.
No world changer possesses a normal habit, there is something unique about them that empowers them to make a difference. Their understanding of the demand in their life gets them off what others celebrate. Church Gist. Paul said, ‘I die daily’! And he is still alive today. Can you ever preach a Message without, ‘Paul said’? It can’t be a complete Gospel. ‘Paul said’!!! As if you woke up in the same room with him yesterday. ‘Paul is still alive today’ but while he was still alive on earth, ‘I die daily’! 1 Corinthians 15:31, Philippians 1:21. Bring me the books and my notes, the secrets of men are in their story. These were men who were addicted to capacity building all their days.
-It’s time to wake up.
Capacity building is missing in the Body of Christ today, people are simply reading and studying to preach – No reserves, no storage, no investment. There was this story of a High School boy back in the last Century who emerged as a three-gold medalist in the 1936 Berlin Olympics by name, ‘Jesse Owen’, he asked his School Coach, ‘Sir, I want to be a Sports Star’, and he said, ‘Are you sure? He said, ‘Yes’! Okay! There are four rungs (Steps) on the ladder: Determination, dedication, discipline and sacrifices. Do you understand? He said: ‘Yes Sir I understand’.
That boy went and engaged with it. To emerge a Star in any field including Ministry Sir, these are factors to embrace. And I will explain to us from the Scriptures. This boy emerged as a three-gold medalist in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. His record of long jump could not be broken for 22 years, he was far above his generation in it – By picking those things and running with them Ecclesiastes 6:1. Church Gist. We have been redeemed as kings and queens to reign on the earth, why are so many of us grounded? Because we have broken the covenant that entitled us to a majestic ride on the earth Ecclesiastes 10:5. So we need direction, ask yourself, ‘What is my assignment’? And settle with it.
So, you learn the how towards the delivery of your assignment, the how, the how. It’s a long journey, it’s a long journey, the how is a long journey. Ecclesiastes 10:16. Discipline, indiscipline is one of the covenant hedges broken that has grounded many princes making them to walk on feet as servants. Church Gist. So, you need direction, you need wisdom to learn the know-how, you need discipline and then verse 18, you need to be diligent. So, mark those four things, direction, knowledge, discipline and diligence, you will get on your horse back. You will enjoy a majestic ride, stop waiting for it to happen. You don’t wait to build capacity, you commit to building it!!!
How to build spiritual capacity.
1. Spiritual capacity increases with the knowledge of the Word, the knowledge of the Word. Those who do know their God, they shall be strong, they shall develop capacity to do exploits, they shall be strong and they shall do exploits. I commend you to God and the Word of His grace which is able to build you up, so we build up principally in the Word, we build up principally in the Word!!! Our dedication to the Word is the mystery behind our spiritual capacity, spiritual capacity. Spiritual capacity is enhanced by in-depth revelation of the word. When I say the word, I mean the Bible and every resource material that enhances our insight to the Word, our insight to the Word. I hosted New York Times one time to an interview, when they said “uhh, what do you do with your time?” It was an impromptu question, I said “I read and I think.” They said, we learnt you have read quite some books, I said by the grace of God. Which one and I listed them, I have read all the books that Hagin wrote, all that this one wrote, all that this one wrote, some, most that this one wrote, some that this one wrote. Church Gist. They are not guesswork sir, they are not guessworks! You can’t develop capacity wishing, learn to sit up working. You have to sit up working! One of our ministers’ conference here, I brought in some materials, my diaries that I used my hand to write and a number of our Pastors here came out and brought them out. They are hand written, they are not guessworks. I took about 6 pages note here in the morning during the teachings. Learning becomes a lifestyle for anyone who is genuinely committed to developing capacity, learning becomes a lifestyle.
2. Engage in spiritual exercises. Exercise thyself rather unto godliness. Engage in spiritual exercises. 1 Timothy 4:8. Engage in spiritual exercises which includes fervency on the altar of prayer for continuous access to help, direction and answers to our questions. Church Gist. Fervency on the altar of prayer for continuous access to help according to Hebrews 4:16, direction – Jeremiah 33:3, answers to our questions.
3. To develop spiritual capacity, we study the lives of those that have gone before us in our area of callings. Study the lives of those that have gone before us because there is nothing new under the heaven, what has been is what shall be and what was done before shall be done, there is nothing new under heaven. Ecclesiastes 1:9. This generation needs to be awake to this reality sir, you need to be awake. You need to be awake, there can’t be a new generation without a root in the old. Church Gist. It is the seed from the old that gives birth to the new. Nothing new exists on its own without drawing from the old, nothing! One generation shall serve you to another, it’s a relay, you draw from one to move to the next and they draw from the next to move to the next. Hebrews 13:7. Study them to find out what and what they did to command the kind of results they have obtained and you are in interested, you plug in. You plug in! Today, God speaks to me the same way He speaks to Hagin, clean, on virtually everything I ask, clean. Without a mentor, you don’t have a ladder to climb, without a father, you don’t have feathers. Mentors show the way to go, fathers proclaim blessings that cause men to prevail where others travail. Praise God! I mean and you find the generation that is mentorless and fatherless, what a frustrated generation, mentorless and fatherless.
Let me close with this practical examples and then we will share the goodness, I had a bright vision on Church growth but I need to learn how to see Church growth and sustain the growth. Church Gist. I got the vision,1984, clean. He walked me out of the prayer room, I followed Him and it was a drama, a broad daylight drama but 1983/1985 He connected me to Yonggi Cho and I saw the practical dimension of the vision I saw. I pursued after him. I will photocopy whole books, whole because there were no internets then, I will photocopy a whole book. I will photocopy a whole book and photocopiers then too were not that bright so… and by the time you mark one or two, you have cancelled the statement. I was eating the materials, eating! We were not 100 people when I got this material, I don’t know, we were 100 or 150 when I got hold of Yonggi Cho’s materials, I became addicted to it. Thank God for the impact, Amen! Thank God for the impact.
So, direction without knowledge will equal frustration. We don’t only need vision, we need the knowledge to pursue the vision to deliver. We need it. Church Gist. We needed to see our cell system grow and I said “look, let’s find out how they did it in South Korea.” So, we got building successful home cells – his book, I bought 400 copies and gave to our 400 Pastors, let’s study it, come out with what are we doing that we should not be doing, what are we not doing that we should be doing, what are we doing that we are not doing well enough. We did that and the cell system just boom! Jerked up! Birth Over 7,000 cells within a year, within a year! We got to a point and I now discovered that we have exhausted what we learnt from there, so we carted some materials out online on cell growth research works, we went on it and the cell group, wao! went up! Knowledge is sweet, the Bible say light is sweet, it’s a beautiful thing for the eye to behold the sun. Church Gist. You will be at the same spot forever until you learn the way out of it, until you learn the way out of it!!! There is no apartheid in knowledge, settle for it.
Let me conclude with this practical illustration. God gave the mandate to start Covenant University, that’s okay. How do we go about it? Church Gist. The Lord led me again through Jeremiah 6:16-17, to go after a selected number of world class universities and find out what and what they did in their beginnings that have made them relevant till now. So, I got 9 of them together and interestingly, they were all with Christian backgrounds. I devoured them, I didn’t study them, I devoured them. God began to speak to me through those studies. Church Gist. Today, we have Covenant University as a pace setting university, not only in this country but now listed among the elite universities in the world, by the grace of God. Church Gist. It’s all about capacity development, there’s nothing magical about these things. There’s no heaven of glory that will outweigh your capacity to bear. So, let’s wake up!
I vowed never to approach any task with common sense in my life because the best you will get out of it is common result. Church Gist. There are many common sense ministries, that’s not the way to run. You don’t have a spare, you have only one life. Church Gist. Today, we have over 40,000 home cells in Lagos. They didn’t just emerge, we committed ourselves to advancing them through acquisition of more knowledge on how to do it.
– somebody’s story is changing and that includes your story
– my prayer is that this meeting will mark the end of ups and downs in your ministry.
Isaiah 33:6. Just maintain the fear of God as a lifestyle and keep seeking for more knowledge. Keep engaging the knowledge acquired, applying yourself to them and then you enjoy stable ministry. Church Gist. I’m doing what God told me, that’s why we are here, otherwise, it’s not part of my conveniences. Luke 22:32b. I’m showing you what He showed me that has helped me to see what I’m seeing in terms of grace. I can’t read for you sir, I can’t study for you, the ball is in your court. I can only tell you how to develop capacity, I can’t develop your capacity. I can coach you how to run, you will do the running; I can coach you how to wrestle and you will do the wrestling. Church Gist. I can coach you how to box but I won’t let you box me. So, the ball is in your court.
“You know, he prayed for all of us”, yes, what did you do with the prayer? Did you follow the instructions given? Do you know how many people Kenneth Hagin, T. L. Osborn and Copeland laid hands on? Church Gist. Laying hands is to impart grace to do what you should do, not a substitute. It’s grace to do what you’re required to do. Can I give for you? No. I can only tell you that it’s interesting to give, it’s commanded by God, it’s God’s covenant for abundance, if you’re interested.
Again, I conclude, everyone is 75 percent responsible for the outcome of his life. The best we can put into you by everybody on the outside is 25 percent, you have the bulk. Church Gist. What you do with the 75 percent would determine your rating in life. Church Gist. This is 25 marks that is passed as instructions, revelations and informations. This is the action that determines the outcome, the action is in your box, the action is in your court, play it the way you want. Stand to your feet.
– give the Lord the biggest hand of praise.
Young people, listen to me, this is your season. 1 John 2:14. I must tell you this Sir, I’m still reading but not like before oh. I’m feeding on the things that I have read and studied, while I’m still reading more but my best season was those early days. You better wake up. Church Gist. I would go on a 3-day fast to read a book. I went to the mountain to read the book of Ezekiel, “show me the secret behind the book of Ezekiel”. I was on 5 days fasting reading the book of Acts of the Apostles. I could not sleep on the bed anymore. Church Gist. They asked me to bless the food because they didn’t know what was going on, they couldn’t eat the food, everybody went speaking in tongues and forgot the food there till about 2am. Simple prayer, power, Acts of the Apostles, eruptions. You better wake up. I read ‘Purpose of Pentecost’ in one sitting. I couldn’t stand up to go to toilet sir. 1 John 2:14b. Church Gist. All young men, wake up. Some of us who are getting to senior age, let’s also wake up.
God spoke to Abraham at 75, so God is still speaking to people today, it’s never late to be right. Church Gist. One of my friends called me one time from the University guest house here, he said, “Sir, you didn’t tell me these things are there”. I said, “what?” He said, “I’m just reading Kenneth Hagin books now”. I said, “you didn’t want to listen when we were telling you 40 years ago”.
– you won’t miss your opportunity.
Now, can I tell you this with all sense of humility? If you read all those materials on Kingdom prosperity from here, you will never know financial struggle all your days. I told you exactly what God told me there. Church Gist. I went on 3-day fasting and prayer to read Copeland’s books, The Law of Prosperity, God’s will is Prosperity by Gloria Copeland, it turned my life around. It’s not all these read one chapter and then put marker and then go and sit down, and then, “can I have tea and chocolate?” Do you study to pass exams like that?
– Jesus, engrace me to pursue knowledge, go ahead and pray.
#BishopDavidOyedepo
#10May2023
#IMC2023Day2
#NextLevels
#OnCovenantHighways
#LFCWorldwide
#ChurchGist
