WHEN OFFERING TO GOD IS TO BE TAKEN AND YOUR HEART DOES NOT LEAP FOR JOY, KEEP YOUR MONEY!
DO NOT JUST GIVE. GIVE CHEERFULLY OR YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GET A REWARD
EVEN FOR TITHES, DO NOT GIVE AT ALL IF YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GIVE ALL
WHEN YOU WANT TO ASK GOD FOR SOMETHING BE SPECIFIC BECAUSE HE IS A GOD OF DETAILS
HOW WE PRACTICALLY SET OUR OWN EXAMINATION IN GEOGRAPHY BACK IN ILESHA GRAMMAR SCHOOL
TO BE BLESSED BY GOD YOU MUST PAY ATTENTION TO HIS DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS
THERE ARE CONDITIONS THAT MUST BE SATISFIED BEFORE YOU WILL LIVE THE REST OF YOUR LIFE IN DIVINE HEALTH
THERE ARE SOME MIRACLES THAT MUST HAPPEN WHEN NOBODY IS WATCHING. THERE ARE SOME TESTIMONIES YOU DON’T SHARE UNTIL THEY ARE COMPLETE
GOD IS A GOD OF DETAILS
THE TROUBLE WITH YOU IS YOU ARE IN A HURRY AND DON’T WANT TO KNOW DETAILS. GOD IS NOT LIKE MICROWAVE OVEN
ABRAHAM DID NOT PAY FULL ATTENTION TO DETAILS SO HE RAN INTO A FAMINE
– Pastor E. A. Adeboye on “FOR WHOM THE HEAVENS OPEN (Part 19)” || RCCG Online Sunday Service || 25th June, 2023
We continue with our series, we get to part 19 of the story of Joshua as an example of one of the people for whom the Heavens opened. May I add that in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, the Heaven will continually open to you. Our text will be Joshua 6:2-5. Church Gist. It’s a passage that is full of lessons, we will cover many of them as God will allow. For example verse 2: they haven’t started fighting and they said you have won the victory. But then he went on to begin to say, this is how we are going to win this battle – verse 3-4.
I feel impressed to talk to you about the God of details. To be blessed by God you must pay attention to his detailed instructions. Last Sunday we spoke about how to survive in the city that is besieged – if you are in, you must be totally in, don’t go out. Church Gist. Don’t go back into the world, never dream of backsliding. Now we find that if you are going to stay totally in and win every battle, you must pay attention to your God who is a God of details. When you read the Bible, pay attention to every word.
For example we always quote Exodus 15:26 and we rejoice because it is true but please read Exodus 15:26 and see the conditions that must be satisfied before you will live the rest of your life never sick again. Church Gist. When you are to sign a contract, your lawyer will advise you, “Read the fine prints. Check what are the conditions.” For example Exodus 15:26:
1. Diligently hearken. It didn’t say, diligently hear; but diligently hearken. Hearken means you listen as if your very life depends on it. In case there are some of you listening to me for the first time and you’ve never heard me define hearken for you before, I will quickly tell you, “I told those of you who have heard it before that when I was at Ilesha grammar school we had a tutor of Geography that whenever examination is near, he will call us together and ask us to ask him questions on what he had taught us. Church Gist. The older students have told us what to do whenever that occasion occurs: Ask him questions; he will explain everything in detail and tomorrow when you get to the examination hall, it is the questions you asked him yesterday that he is going to ask you in the exam. So we practically set our own examination in Geography in those days. When he is answering our questions on the day that we are asking him questions, we didn’t just listen – we hearken. We took note of everything he is saying because we know that’s coming out tomorrow.” So if you hearken in the day that you are asking questions and he says he is revising with you, you can never fail the following day. Church Gist. ‘Hearken’ is not merely listening. When he is teaching us in the classroom in the normal school days, we hear; we didn’t hearken. We wait till the day of revision then we hearken.
Exodus 15:26 says you must hearken diligently. That is, with all your attention, with all your strength.
2. Do that which is right. You’re not hearkening to him, you’re not doing what is right and you’re saying, “The Lord that healeth me.” Church Gist. No! Read the fine prints.
3. Give ear to His commandments: the commandments are not many and he said, pay attention to them.
4. Keep all his statutes: if he says, this is what I want you to do, do them. Church Gist. It is then and only then that he said you will never be sick again.
Deuteronomy 28:1-13. As a result of today’s teaching now by the special grace of God, many of us will get healed even before the service is over!
1. Hearken diligently
2. Observe that is, meditate my words
3. Do all I command you
Again details; then the blessings now begin to flow.
Genesis 12:1-4 see what God said to Abraham
1. Get out of your country
2. Get out from your kindred – I don’t want any relative with you
3. Get out from your father’s house – go to a changed address permanently
4. Go to a land I will show you. Church Gist. You don’t know where you are going but just go, I will show you where to go
Then God now said, me too I will respond in 7 ways:
1. I will make of thee a great nation
2. I will bless thee
3. I will make thy name great – details! Today all over the world the name Abraham is highly respected.
4. You will be a blessing. Christians all over the world sing, “Abraham’s blessings are mine.”
5. I will bless them that bless thee
6. I will curse them that curse thee
7. In thee shall all families of the Earth be blessed – details! Abraham do 4 things and I will do 7 – that’s good bargain.
But you know what followed? Genesis 12:4. Abraham did not pay full attention to details. God said, get out of thy kindred, he took Lot with him. So instead of getting into Blessing that God promised him, he ran into a famine. Church Gist. Until finally in Genesis 13 that Lot separated from him then God said, we can now get back to what I promised you – details.
Read Exodus 12:1-51 and you see detailed instructions that God gave to Moses when he was about to bring a whole nation out of bondage. Many of us just read it casually. God said to Moses:
1. Every man take a lamb
2. But if the family is too small to finish a lamb, they can share.
3. That lamb must be without blemish – no blemish at all.
4. Must be a male either of sheep or goat
5. You must keep that lamb in the house until the 14th day. Everything God was saying had implications.
6. Kill the lamb in the evening. Church Gist. Why not in the morning? He said evening
7. Put the blood on the side posts and the upper door post.
8. Roast it with fire. I am sure those of you who are theologians should know that one is talking about the Holy Spirit that is to come
9. Eat it with unleavened bread not ordinary bread
10. Don’t boil it; you are to roast it with fire. Details!
Let me give you one more example because I know there might be some of you already feeling, “Daddy get on with the sermon, we already got the point.” Church Gist. That’s the trouble with you; you’re in a hurry, you don’t want to know details. My God is not like microwave oven that you say, hurry up. If you want to succeed, details.
2 Kings 4:1-7. The man of God said
1. Go, don’t stay with me here. Go back to your house.
2. Borrow vessels
3. Empty vessels
4. Make sure you borrow many
5. Shut the door on you and your children. There are some miracles that must happen when nobody is watching. Church Gist. There are some miracles that are private to you. As we will learn later on, there are some testimonies you don’t share until they are complete.
6. Pour out the oil into the empty vessels
7. Set aside that which is full. God is a God of details.
So I want to bring to your attention certain details that you must observe from now on. If others are not doing it, that’s no problem. Church Gist. I am talking to those of you who will want this Almighty God to 100 per cent back you up.
1. Don’t just give. He made it clear – give cheerfully. 2 Corinthians 9:7. Please tell yourself today, any time from now on when they say they want to take an offering and your heart does not leap for joy, keep your money. Church Gist. This is because if you don’t give cheerfully you are not going to get a reward. God loves a cheerful giver and hates a grudging giver. You don’t want the Almighty God to hate you. Don’t waste your offering if you are not going to give cheerfully.
2. Don’t just pay your tithe. Malachi 3:8-10. Bring, ALL, to my house. He didn’t say, Send your servant to go and drop it for you. You’re to bring it, he’s not begging you. Oh yes I know there are several people who say, ‘That’s Old Testament’ – fine. Leave them alone. If you know anything about a curse you know what a curse can do. ‘Jesus Christ never said anything about that’ – well, check the Scriptures. Church Gist. He said you are to do all the things you are doing and you must also pay your tithe, fulfill all righteousness and do all other works of righteousness. In any case as far as God is concerned, don’t give at all if you are not going to give all. He’s a God of details, you are to bring it.
3. When you want to ask God for something because he is a God of details, be careful how you ask. Be specific. 1 Samuel 1:1-20. Hannah asked God for a male child. She was specific. 2 Chronicles 1:6-15. Solomon was specific. Don’t just ask God for anything. Don’t just say, God bless me, tell him how – what do you want? In 2 Kings 2:9-15 when Elijah asked Elisha, ‘What do you want?’ Elisha could have said, ‘ah, whatever you want, give me. Just pray for me.’ Church Gist. No, he said I want a double portion of your Spirit. Ask specifically; God is a God of details. In Mark 11:22-23, the reason why many of us are still having problems with moving mountains is that we are not specific. What he said in that passage is: if you shall say to this mountain – specific mountain. There may be many mountains in your life, pick them one by one and move them. The mountain of sickness is different from the mountain of poverty. The mountain of poverty is different from the mountain of a difficult husband/wife. If God is going to move the mountain of marital problems you have to tell him specifically how you want him to do it. Don’t ask him to kill your wife/husband he’s not going to answer you. Church Gist. But you can say, “God this wife/husband is a mountain in my life. Save his/her soul.” If she becomes a child of God things will change. Be specific.
4. When you are praying don’t limit him. Don’t limit the holy one of Israel. Never forget that he can do exceedingly above all that you can ask or think. Church Gist. So when you go to him in prayer today, be specific in your prayers. Remember he is a God of details. Serve him in details and he will bless you in details.
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