TODAY MAKES IT 42 YEARS EXACTLY WHEN GOD VISITED ME TO STIR IN ME THE VOW NEVER TO BORROW BY THE WORD OF THE LORD. THE THINGS REVEALED, EMBRACED AND PUT TO WORK, ARE STILL WORKING NOW.
GOD THAT CANNOT LIE SAID, “I WILL NOT LEAVE YOU HELPLESS.” YOU CAN BANK ON HIS WORD ANY DAY, ANY TIME, ANYWHERE
EVERY BELIEVER MUST BE THIRSTY TO RECEIVE THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST BECAUSE YOU NEED HELP AS LONG AS YOU LIVE
THE HOLY GHOST IS IN US TO EXECUTE JUDGEMENT AGAINST THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD THAT IS MAKING LIFE UNBEARABLE FOR MANKIND
EVERY BELIEVER HAS A GOLDEN DESTINY BUT IT TAKES THE HELP OF THE HOLY SPIRIT TO ACTUALIZE IT
WE LIVE IN A TIME TODAY WHEN THE CHURCH DOESN’T WANT TO DO ANYTHING BUT THEY WANT EVERYTHING.
THEY WANT GOD TO DO EVERYTHING AND THEY SAY IT WITH CANDOUR, “YOU DON’T NEED TO DO ANYTHING, GOD LOVES YOU.”
IF YOU DON’T DO ANYTHING, YOU ARE LOST. IT IS JUST LIKE A STUDENT IN SCHOOL SAYING HE DOESN’T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING, JUST BELIEVE GOD. HE WILL FAIL MISERABLY
PRAYER ALONE DOES NOT GUARANTEE VICTORY IN BATTLES BUT FAITH IN THE FINISHED WORKS OF CHRIST TO ACCESS OUR HERITAGE OF VICTORY IN BATTLE
BELONGING TO A NOBLE PROFESSION IS NOT A GUARANTEE FOR SUCCESS BUT ENGAGING WITH INSTRUCTIONS OF SCRIPTURES FOR SUCCESS.
THERE IS NO ‘IN’ THING IN THE BUSINESS WORLD THAT GUARANTEES SUCCESS, IT IS PUTTING THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE LORD CONCERNING SUCCESS TO WORK THAT DOES.
– Bishop David Oyedepo on “ENGAGING THE HELP OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 1” at October 2023 Week of Spiritual Emphasis Day 1 Service || LFC Canaanland || 4th October 2023 ||
It is what you go to the market for that you return with. You can’t go to shop for planks and return with plastics. Church Gist. You can’t go shopping for kitchen wares and return with textiles. It’s what you go to the market for that you return with. As many as are here for the Word tonight, you will return with an encounter.
Today makes it 42 years exactly when God visited me in what I call the “Mount of Transfiguration.” It was a mountain of voices. I went for it, I returned with it. I went for details regarding the marching order into full time ministry. I heard in my ears, angels singing, “be in time.” Church Gist. I had chapters of the Word opened to me to stir in me the vow never to borrow by the Word of the Lord. 42 years have come and gone, the things revealed, embraced and put to work, are still working now.
– May you encounter God’s Word tonight!
There is nothing called luck in the Kingdom. It’s light that differentiates one believer from another. Not just the light that you caught, but the light you walk in. Church Gist. Revelation never changes people’s life, it’s applied revelation that does. Grace for an encounter accompanied with grace to put to work, receive it tonight!
John went to the Isles of Patmos for the Word of the Lord. He returned with God’s details of end time agenda for the world. He went for it, he returned with it. You must return with something tonight and this month of helps, you will encounter this eternal helper that will abide with you for life. Church Gist. You will not leave your life to chance any more, every of your steps will be meaningful. Every direction you face as led by the Lord will be productive in the name of Jesus.
The prophetic focus of the month one more time is, “I will not leave you helpless.” God that cannot lie said that. Jesus who is the same yesterday, today and forever said that – Hebrews 13:8. Anybody can bank on it, rest on it. God never lies. What if they believe not? 2 Timothy 2:13; Hebrews 6:18. It is impossible for God to lie. We can bank on his Word any day, any time, anywhere. John 14:18. The word, “Comforter” literally means helper. John 14:16-18. I (Jesus) will come in the person of the Holy Spirit who shall be in you. Church Gist. So he is the Help that you go about with, it’s not the help you forgot at home. Not like your handbag that you can forget where you put it, this one is inside you until you forget your life is there. That’s why every believer must ENDEAVOUR, must be thirsty to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost because you need help, I need help. Our needing help is not temporal – it’s as long as we live. John 16:7-11. That helper is to execute judgement against the prince of this world that is making life unbearable for multitudes – the one tormenting and afflicting man kind. The Holy Ghost is in us to execute judgement against him. Isaiah 59:19. He rises up to our defence. Whether you’re sleeping in the night, you’re in your bathroom or you’re driving to work, he is there. Church Gist. In our old Church there was a man after service he was going home and armed robbers were stopping everybody and they came to him and said, “Your Royal Highness Sir, please go ahead.” He wasn’t wearing beads. The helper showed up, “I am here.” Raw armed robbers, agents of the devil!
Interestingly the Holy Ghost comes along with diverse gifts and manifestations to help us fulfill our glorious destiny. Every child of God has a glorious destiny in Christ but not everybody ever lives to realize it. Why? The helper required is not at work, not in us. 1 Corinthians 12:4-7. The diversities of operations is for our profiting, so we need an understanding of it. 1 Corinthians 12:1. Church Gist. You need to know what it’s all about, what it offers and how to engage him. According to Scriptures, every believer has a golden destiny but it takes the help of the Holy Spirit to actualize it. Zechariah 4:1-6. You can’t arrive at that golden destiny without the help of the Holy Spirit. What makes it golden? All things that make for life and godliness, he has given us. 2 Peter 1:3. Not most things, all things. What can be more golden than that? Somebody’s story is changing! This is why Believers are helpless without the Holy Spirit. We are helplessly helpless. Just like the body without the spirit is dead, the body without the Spirit is helpless. James 2:26. A dead man is helpless. He can’t feel, move, react, respond, that’s how helpless a believer is without the Holy Spirit. Church Gist. Luke 24:49; Luke 10:19. So there are serpents and all stuff on the way, we need help – the help of the Spirit to overcome them. Romans 8:11. He quickens us, turns our bodies from natural to supernatural against the assault of the enemy. Fire could not burn them (the 3 Hebrew boys) because he was there. Daniel 3:26.
Tonight we are looking at one of his diverse operations which is called the Spirit of Obedience. Obedience of faith is definitely a vital key to a life of fulfillment. Ezekiel 36:27. Church Gist. There is a spirit of obedience that empowers us or engraces us to walk in his statutes, keep his judgements and do them.
So there is a spirit of disobedience that works in the children of disobedience as we have in Ephesians 2:2. It takes a counter spirit to destroy that spirit, it is spirit versus spirit. There is a spirit working on the earth making people to be disobedient to God. They are not subject to God. Jesus loves you ‘I don’t want His love’. It is a spirit working in them. Here is peace, he says “I don’t want peace.” Church Gist. Who doesn’t want peace? This is life, he says “I don’t want life” and you are not mad? There is a spirit behind it. He is the prince and power of the air, wherever there is oxygen and carbon dioxide, he is there. We need a counter spirit, a superior spirit to disarm it. Not official obedience where you are working, official obedience to the word of God. Ezekiel 36:27-28. Let’s watch some wonders that are in that act of obedience.
Every act of obedience is passing a test which qualifies us for a change of class. It is a test. Genesis 22:1. God did test Abraham and moved him from the realm of blessing to the realm of sworn blessing. We saw Abraham blessed in chapter 12, we saw Abraham come into a sworn blessing in Chapter 22. It is a change of class. It came upon passing the test of obedience. Church Gist. Get thee out of thy country – no problem but the only son you waited for 25 years, come and kill him for me. He rose up early in the morning. It is a test. He didn’t have to take away the life of Isaac yet he returned with a sworn blessing because he passed the test. Genesis 22:16-18. We are all products of that sworn blessing today.
“Thou shall not go down to Egypt,” He told Isaac and Isaac abode where He said He should and within one year God turned his destiny around like a dream of the night. Genesis 26:12-14. When you walk in obedience that is what happens, you become the envy of the world that once mocked you. That is how powerful obedience is. A man was born blind and you now pasted another plaster on his face and said go to the pool called Siloam. What a wicked instruction. Church Gist. He went and washed and came back seeing. Obedience! He didn’t say, be speaking in tongues, He didn’t say be praying, he said he should go and wash in the pool called Siloam. Obedience is better than sacrifice. Every level of obedience is not in the same class as obedience. No sacrifice in the world is a substitute for obedience.
God will always manifest Himself to the obedient. John 14:21. I will show up for your matters. All devils in hell will know I am on your side. I am for you. 2 Kings 5:10-13. Until the seventh time, nothing happened. After the seventh dip, his flesh was fresher than that of a child. Somebody’s story is changing. When you are not in obedience you are heading for crisis. God only blesses obedience to His Word. He didn’t lead them through the way of the Philistines that was short but they obeyed Him and headed for The Red Sea. It was a suicidal mission but the sea saw God’s presence because they worked in obedience and the sea pathed way. They walked on dry ground. The enemies were drowned. Church Gist. There were no multitudes to pursue them anymore. That was the end. The good news is that the spirit of obedience is coming upon each one of us afresh. Psalm 114:1-7. God’s presence causes your troubles to tremble. If you walk in obedience, it causes your enemies to tremble. From henceforth the things that caused you to fear before will start to fear you because of God’s presence that is made manifest through your obedience.
John 8:29. We live in a time today when the Church doesn’t want to do anything but they want everything. They want God to do everything. In fact, they say it with candour. “You don’t need to do anything, God loves you.” You are lost. Don’t do anything. It is just like a student in school saying he doesn’t have to do anything, just believe God. He will fail miserably, they can even call the police to arrest him because the level of failure will be too much. Church Gist. There is always what to do for good things to happen. May no one miss that anymore.
Every breakthrough testimony in scriptures is stirred by obedience of faith to His commandment. Push your boat off the shore, Yes Sir. After preaching, Cast your net into the deep, Yes Sir and he came forth with net breaking, boat-sinking dimension of breakthrough. Church Gist. Obedience! Fill the water pots with water, don’t speak in tongues, don’t prophesy. They filled the water pots with water and it turned to water at the instance of obedience. Somebody’s story is changing.
Please note that obedience to the Word is pivotal. That is the obedience we are talking about. That is the obedience that counts the most. I remember God speaking to me thirty-nine years ago from Deuteronomy 28:1, “My son, there is a place for you on top if you are interested” I said I was interested. “Then whatever I tell you to do, do it”. I saw it as the flight to the topmost top in life. Just settle in with His commandments with delight. You are not pressured, you are not being coerced. With delight! Why? His Word lives and abides forever. Church Gist. You can count on it any day. So my obedience and your obedience to the Word cannot fail because He is a covenant-keeping God. Obedience is the way we cut a covenant with God. This is what God says to do and you are doing it, you are now in Covenant with God. He is not a covenant-breaking God, He is a covenant-keeping God. We cut a covenant with God through obedience of faith.
Isaiah 34:16. None shall faith. We can count on the Word any day and cut a covenant with God through our obedience of faith, He won’t come out of it. For example, vision to go into business from the Lord never guarantees breakthroughs in business but putting biblical demands for breakthrough to work. That is what guarantees breakthroughs. The vision is clear but the Word to make that vision produce has to be complied with. No, it doesn’t work. Belonging to a noble profession is not a guarantee for success but engaging with instructions of scriptures for success. You belong to a noble profession, everybody is clapping. That is the ‘in’ thing today. There is no ‘in’ thing in the business world that guarantees success, it is putting the commandments of the Lord concerning success to work that does. Belonging to the medical profession does not secure healing but putting the Word to work concerning healing, health and wholeness is what does. Church Gist. Prayer alone does not guarantee victory in battles but faith in the finished works of Christ to access our heritage of victory in battle. Ephesians 6:16. 1 John 5:4. We heard the testimony of that priest who was afflicted with high blood pressure, hypertension and dizziness. He had his team praying and fasting and nothing worked until one day he walked into a bookstore and bought three books and found his right to healing within three days. He went into a fast for three days after seventeen years of unending prayer and the bondage of his life was broken. He came out of it. Somebody is coming out. Obedience is what makes it work. Obedience to the Word is a gateway to a world of blessing. Deuteronomy 28:1-2. It is your turn.
I mentioned something here that obedience to the Word is pivotal, he’s the one we are talking about. The Spirit of Obedience is to help you and me to keep his statutes, do his judgements. Ezekiel 36:27; Deuteronomy 5:32-33. In his commandments is life, doing his bidding guarantees life. Joshua 1:8. Church Gist. Success is not on the street, it’s in the book. Psalm 1:1-3; Psalm 19:7-11. Life becomes extra profitable when there is a committment to keeping the commandments of the Lord. You’re not struggling to make things work. Psalm 112:1-3, 9. There is what he had to do to step into that realm. There is no provision in the Kingdom without conditions to meet and we need help from God to be able to subscribe to those conditions.
For instance, no one will ever taste success without first having a direction for his life.
– Learning how to get across what it takes to deliver that direction.
– Discipline himself to engage with the demands
– Raw diligence – Investment of time, energy and resources to deliver.
You want outstanding success, move beyond that and go beyond your best. They call it sacrifice and your star will shine. Church Gist. There is no prayer of any Apostle that can make it happen otherwise. So we need the Spirit of Obedience to align with the demands of what belongs to us in Christ or we can’t taste them. James 1:22-25. It’s the doers of the Word that are blessed. 1 John 2:15-17.
Psalm 138:2. So prayer cannot overturn disobedience. He has exalted His Word above His name. Prayer cannot invoke the blessing that obedience attracts. His Word is above His name. Philippians 2:9-10. At the mention of His name, every knee bows. So what happens when His Word comes? They don’t bow, they vamoose, they fade away as if they never existed. Church Gist. Mountains melt like wax at His presence and obedience attracts His presence. Israel didn’t have to climb any mountain anywhere, they were just walking straight, the mountains were skipping and clearing the way. Obedience paved the way for them, that is what will happen to us from henceforth. May that Spirit come over us today and keep us going forever.
Why do we need the spirit of obedience?
Some instructions are far above our natural capacity to handle. That we came into this forest is not natural. There must be some help from above to make it possible for us to move into this forest at the time we did. No life in this area. He moved Abraham at 75 and He departed, how? There must be some help backing up. For a man that age to say he is going away. Church Gist. Where are you going? God will show me as I am going. Are you mad? Obedience drove him. It is the source of Abraham’s faith. As soon as they have given him an instruction, He carries it out as if he had no other agenda for the day. On the spot!
Some instructions may be too deep to comply with. You say they should circumcise all the males born in the house. Abraham circumcised himself at 99. Devastating! All the males born, he just paralyzed all of them. Genesis 17:10-26. Some may be too costly to engage with. “take now thine son, thine only son whom thou lovest, Isaac.” No mistaken identity. Genesis 22:1-3. Church Gist. Sacrifice him on a mountain I will show you, Abraham trekked for three days still looking for the mountain with your son that you are going to kill. What a torture. Abraham took his son at that age and laid him on the wood, God said “Stop there! Now I know you fear me!”.
That is how much we need the spirit of obedience. To look at the Word and the Word says no to what you are doing and you comply. The Lord said to me in 1985, “No matter how far you have gone doing what is wrong, do what I say”. So I came forth with that statement: “It is never too late to be right”. 2 Chronicles 25:9. The Lord gave Amaziah victory because he made a U-turn at a dead moment. The Spirit of obedience is what we need to obey His commandments with delight and that spirit is released tonight. Church Gist. As often said here, “Obedience may be costly but the end result is priceless”. On our first Sunday here, we asked everybody to come to the Faith Arm because there is no point scattering around. I said to them “Soon, we are going to start two services” inside this jungle. Jesus did it. Obedience will always invoke His blessings. Do you know what made it tough? Close the Church in town and come to this forest to face failure but I saw it as success. Though there is no similitude of it in the atmosphere. See where grace has brought us, see where obedience of faith has brought us. Incomplete obedience is disobedience. We better mind that.
No one will ever outgrow the demand for obedience. Where obedience stops is where God’s blessings stop. No one will ever outgrow obedience. J.C. Penney was in the Covenant of abundance and as God began to enlarge him, he began to cut down on his tithe and he went down until he went down and out, he went bankrupt. Church Gist. If a man has been doing the right and starts doing the wrong, God will deal with him as if he never did any right at all. That is why we all need the grace for obedience.
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