I WAS THE FIRST GATEMAN AND CLEANER OF THIS MINISTRY.
WE WERE LIVING IN THE OFFICE BUILDING AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS MINISTRY, NOT BY PREFERENCE. THAT WAS OUR LEVEL.
I HAVE ALWAYS LIVED BY THE MYSTERY OF CONTENTMENT.
WHEN WE CAME TO LAGOS, WE COULD NOT AFFORD A ₦45,000 PER ANNUM RENT. THAT WAS EXCESSIVE AND I WAS ALREADY A BISHOP.
WHY POSE TO OTHERS WHEN YOU ARE DEPOSING YOURSELF? PUBLIC IMAGE, PRIVATE DAMAGE.
CONTENTMENT IS NOT WEAKNESS, IT IS SECURING THE FUTURE.
LIVE UNDER THE COMMAND OF A BUDGET. A WASTER TODAY WILL BE A BEGGAR TOMORROW
“GOD’s PORTION THAT MAKES THE REMAINDER MEANINGFUL”
BEST MESSAGE ON TITHING I EVER HEARD IN MY LIFE PREACHED TO ME BY MY ILLITERATE GRANDMOTHER
THERE IS NOTHING YOU TITHE FROM THAT GOES DOWN.
THERE WAS A TIME ₦300 WAS MY MONTHLY PAY IN THIS MINISTRY AS PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER.
EVERYTHING GREAT STARTS SMALL BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO END SMALL.
EVERYONE HAS A SMALL BEGINNING, NOBODY IS BORN A GIANT.
ONLY GIANT GIVERS EMERGE AS FINANCIAL GIANTS IN THE KINGDOM
- Bishop David Oyedepo on GATEWAYS TO FINANCIAL FORTUNE 2 at Encounter With Destiny Service || Faith Tabernacle, Canaanland|| 14th April 2024 || First Sunday Service ||
An open heart is gateway to scaling unlimited heights. If you get that on the inside, it will show on the outside. I like that to be the focus of our supplication. ‘Lord open my heart to receive the seeds of life that are coming on in this service.’ Church Gist. When that seed gets to your heart which is the good ground, it is bound to produce. As far as your eyes can see unto you will I give it. Open my eyes to see farther so I can go further in life. Open my eyes to see farther so the adventure can be sweeter.
Jesus, grant each one of us in this Service today an encounter with destiny indeed. Let everyone depart from this service knowing what to do to secure God’s glorious plan for each of our lives in the name of Jesus. Church Gist. Many have had such experiences before, let each one of us have a brighter one today in Jesus’ name.
There is the story of the sun and the moon. It is said scientifically that the moon has no light of its own, it only aligns at a particular angle to the sun. The sun generates the heat and the light, the moon simply reflects the light. Chilly cold, no heat. Refreshed. People are not aligned so they are generating heat every day. You don’t need all those prayers on offerings, just know what to do, know where to stand. Church Gist. I am telling you before Lord God Almighty, I have never sat down to pray ‘Give me money’ since he showed me what to do. So all these intercessions… Just align. You don’t need to be dragging on your tithe. You don’t need to, just align on the terms.
I began to ask the Lord why some givers are not experiencing returns. 1 Corinthians 13:3. It is the love content of your giving that determines the outcome. Are you in love with God or just in love with money? Returns on seeds sown are in grades. Some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, some hundredfold. We are talking about the parable of the sower. If there is thirtyfold, then there is onefold. There is also point one fold. It depends on our level of understanding. Matthew 13:23. Church Gist. Our level of understanding of those terms and what makes it work matters a lot. Are you truly in love or you are in a quest for money? Are you truly in love? How much of God things turn you on? Are you truly in love? Anything done in love never fails because love never faileth. 1 Corinthians 13:8. Including your givings. Anything done in love never fails. Today must mark the end of financial failure in your life. Financial tension must end in your life today.
As already established, the covenant of seedtime and harvest is gateway to a world of supernatural blessings and the secret behind our exemption in hard times. Hard times are not coming, hard times are here. It is global. Don’t let anybody deceive you, it is global. The tempo may vary from place to place but it is global. Jesus took away the curse on the earth and enacted the covenant of seedtime and harvest with Noah. Genesis 8:20-22. There will always be an exemption. 2 Corinthians 9:6-8. So giving is defined there as sowing. Don’t give grudgingly or out of necessity, God is not in need. Church Gist. He is not looking for a helper and He can’t find one in you and me. God loves a cheerful giver. Only those who embrace the covenant of seedtime and harvest will smile in hard times. Malachi 3:17-18, 4:1-2. When the heat comes I will exempt those who are serving me with my resources in their hands. They won’t be part of it. You will not be part of this heat, when men are saying there is a casting down, covenant people will keep singing there is a lifting up. That is where you belong.
We established that our seed is a spiritual transaction that provokes divine favour upon our life and not a donation. A donation mentality will stir pride in you. “Yeah, I have ₦10, I gave them ₦20.” It is a seed. Giving to the poor is a seed. “If I didn’t buy those five bags of rice in that location there is nothing else they can share.” Who told you? Someone else will bring it. It is a seed. Church Gist. Proverbs 19:17, 28:27. Abraham reared an altar of sacrifice and God answered from heaven twice. Noah reared an altar and the smell went to heaven. Solomon reared an altar and God smelled a good savour and came down. So it is a spiritual transaction. Every seed sown is a spiritual transaction.
Now this is the big thing, understand that we have equality of access in the covenant of abundance. No one is more privileged than the other. We have equality of access. The same God over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. Jesus became poor so that we believers through His poverty might be made rich. He obtained for us power, riches, wisdom, strength, honour, glory and blessings. Revelation 5:12. We are of equal access. Romans 10:12 turned me on and I couldn’t see any advantage that any race or colour has over another. Church Gist. Please imbibe the mentality of equality of access. It will help you. “As God has blessed everyone, even so, let him give” Equality! Tithe is a validation of equality of access. A tithe of my blessings in your life not something I am going to give you tomorrow. Equality of access. There is no invoking prosperity, just understand what it is and walk through it. Not one pauper will be in this church. No one shall be named a beggar in this Commission. So stay awake.
2 Corinthians 8:12. That woman gave a mite, Jesus said she gave the greatest. It is not the volume, it is the honour that is attached to it. Malachi 3:6-7. Proverbs 3:9. Honour the Lord. Honourable seeds. Please note, because we are in the days of skill and strength and capacity and certifications that what makes rich in the Kingdom is the blessings of God not skill, not strength. What makes rich is the blessings of the Lord which is attracted by the obedience of man. God’s blessings always trail man’s obedience, not man’s explanation. Church Gist. The blessings of the Lord make you rich and add no sorrow. Proverbs 10:22. There are many sorrowful and depressed moneybags around the world. His blessings make rich and add no sorrow. I decree everyone’s access to the realm of sorrow free riches.
Nature teaches a lot of lessons. There is this story of an elephant that I have always shared. It consumes a hundred and forty pounds of straw per day and discharges a hundred pounds per day. As God has blessed everyone even so let Him give. To stay healthy financially, you keep giving as His blessings grow in your life so you don’t choke to death. We all know that hunger is easier to bear than indigestion. Church Gist. Man can survive without food or water for 40 days but man can hardly survive a week with indigestion. They have to pump it out. It kills fast. We know the story of the rich fool, ‘what will I do? I have stored it, I won’t let go. So he passed. Luke 12:16-22. Only giant givers emerge as financial giants in the Kingdom. As you give to your level, He changes it. You give to your next level, He changes it and so on.
In summary, only givers qualify to prosper in the Kingdom. Not prayer warriors, not founders, not preachers, only givers. Not workers, not teachers, only givers. Some men in ministry think they should give them. You don’t prosper by what they give you, you prosper by what you give. Church Gist. It is more blessed to give than to receive. Acts 20:35. These are salient points that are meant for members of this spiritual family who can take it.
Fundamental Terms of the Covenant of Abundance That Anchors on The Covenant of Seedtime and Harvest:
- Tithing is key to a world of supernatural blessings.
Abraham was a tither, we are all the seeds of Abraham and we are called to do the works of Abraham. Genesis 14:19-20. Galatians 3:29. John 8:39. As we do the works of Abraham, He turns our wilderness in Eden and our desert into the garden of the Lord. Isaiah 51:1-3. One can’t see it as real and ignore it. It is not being able to see it that makes people think it is playing on their intelligence. I got it before I went into full-time ministry and I was swimming in the reality of it. No guesswork. Tithing is fundamental, foundational to accessing the realm of financial fortune. Church Gist. It is never late to be right, you better wake up. Let’s assume. Assume what? You don’t know arithmetic? My grandmother couldn’t read one letter but she was a diehard tither. She will come back from the market and drop a tenth of her profit in a particular container. I asked her one day, what is this that you take to Church every Sunday? Because every Sunday they do communion for all old people in preparing them for heaven. She told me that is God’s portion that makes the remainder meaningful. The most high sounding line on tithing I heard in my life. I wasn’t saved when I heard it. She lived in affluence, she forgave all those who owed her and she never owed anybody. Church Gist. If an illiterate who couldn’t read heard just the preaching of the pastor and connected. You read, you heard, you have tapes on your phone but you won’t do it. It is everywhere around you. There are many here who don’t pay tithe. We don’t take record here, it is between you and God. When I see you struggling and struggling, I want to examine what could be wrong with you. At ₦300, my tithe was acceptable to God. Equality of access. Will I ever give ₦300 in a service as offering to Jesus? Never! I have left that stage longest time. ₦300? He could slap me by His blessings on my life. That was my monthly pay in this ministry as president and founder. Everything great starts small but you don’t have to end small. So learn how to treat the small and nurture it. Everyone has a small beginning, nobody is born a giant. People exercise themselves to gianthood.
I told the old Church, please start putting your seeds in envelopes because a time is coming when you can’t lift your seed again. How many can give their seed today naked? People will be tempted, new comers will be tempted. How can you lift this kind of thing up? And in no time, somebody lifted his seed in the old church and somebody picked it. And I said again, now learn how to give in cheques because a time is coming when your envelope will not contain your seeds. Church Gist. I have always seen these things coming. Those who were doubting, they are still where I left them. They heard me when I said it but it didn’t move them. Some offerings today cannot be contained in a cheque because cheques have limits.
The good news is that by the encounter of today, your era of financial struggle is finally over. All the tithe of the land is the Lord’s. Leviticus 27:30. Jesus also validated in Matthew 23:23, talking about tithing. Hebrews 7:7-8. Jesus is the one who receives our tithe as our eternal High Priest in heaven. Church Gist. Why are we struggling in our businesses? You won’t tithe it. Never! All the tithes of the land are the Lord’s. Whether of the sea, the tree is the Lord’s. There is nothing you tithe from that goes down. We have been going higher and higher as a church forever.
- Next to that is worship offerings.
Don’t appear before Him empty. Don’t give trash, give substance at your level. ₦5 is substance acceptable to God at someone’s level. ₦1 is substance acceptable to God at another man’s level. ₦1000 is trash in the sight of God to somebody else. Deuteronomy 16:17. Church Gist. Everyone should give according to the blessings of God upon His life. It is free will but according to the level of blessings of God upon your life. Not that you bought a newspaper on the way and the change you trash it with your left hand, “God take and let me rest.” - Giving towards Kingdom advancement.
That keeps the heavens open over our lives. Haggai 1:3-13. When you commit to Kingdom advancement you begin to enjoy fearful favour from God which includes financial fortune.
- Rearing an altar of sacrifice unto the Lord.
Psalm 20:1-3, Psalm 126:1. The altar of sacrifice is the altar of turnaround. When He prompts you to offer a sacrifice, it is to establish another turnaround in your life. Church Gist. Psalm 50:5-6. The altar of sacrifice provokes divine intervention that opens up chapters of favour in our lives. - Giving to the challenged.
There is one pact here that is very interesting. Psalm 41:1-3. People are scared of this giving covenant because they think it is all about money. In the day of trouble, money cannot deliver you. Otherwise, why do wealthy people die if money can deliver? Church Gist. Can money preserve you? Giving to the poor secures destiny, preserves destiny. We don’t call them poor in Church, we call them the challenged. The challenged today are the champions of tomorrow. We were living in the office building at the beginning of this ministry. Not by preference but by our state. That was our level. One toilet for everyone. The challenged today who are walking in the covenant are the champions of tomorrow. I was having real time. We had a gate in there. You knock in the night, I will open the gate whether you are an armed robber or armed goer. I was the one sweeping the Church. Never mind where you are, set your mind on where God is taking you and keep taking steps according to the dictates of scriptures to get there.
Showing favour to the challenged is preserving your life, it is securing your heart, it is delivering you from the will of your enemies. Get excited about it. He sent us to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked and to provide shelter for the homeless. Church Gist. It is our responsibility. As you do that, He said you have done it for me and watch what I do with you. Matthew 25:31-40
- Giving to parents.
Somebody said I thank God all my parents are dead. Ephesians 6:1-2. A young man here just came down from Nasarawa after NYSC and heard me teach this and went home that Sunday and indeed honoured his parents, by Tuesday he got a job as a manager. That it may be well with you. Today there are a lot of people who don’t mind parents or no parents. Church Gist. Today, parents die and children won’t come. Mark anyone who knows what I am talking about, they keep flowing in affluence. They keep enjoying God’s favour. In case they are no more, they left some things behind. Watch over them. It is always well with people who connect with it. My wife and I are bona fide beneficiaries of it. If you eat your seed plus the fruit, you have nothing to eat tomorrow. Watch over them. - Giving to ministers of the gospel as may be led.
1 Corinthians 9:11. Over to you.
Somebody said if you do all this what will remain? Blessings. What are you looking for? Blessings. The cheapest way in there is to put a budget together. Live under the command of your budget. A waster today will be a beggar tomorrow. Some of us started sending things to parents at ₦5. Have a budget. Today you don’t have to travel somewhere. You can always transfer money. Those days you have to look for somebody travelling somewhere who may also spend the money on the way if the vehicle breaks down. A time is coming, the volume you are dealing with as God’s blessings cannot be managed without a budget. You need to start now. Church Gist. You don’t grow big to manage well, you manage well to grow big. When we were ₦18,000 income per annum we had a budget that I was answerable to every month. When our Council is meeting, you will think it is the United Nations. Every meeting took several hours. You are going somewhere.
For upcoming young business folks, learn to separate your profit in your business and learn it now before it is too late. Don’t tamper with your capital in showing how big you are and say “I don’t even know what happened.” You happened. You are the one that happened, not the devil. He didn’t come, you happened to it. Don’t overrate yourself. When we came to Lagos, we could not afford a ₦45,000 per annum rent. That is excessive. I asked if it was for sale. I was already a bishop. If you don’t have money for something don’t prize it. What are you looking for there? I have never prayed for house rent in my life, I go into houses that I can pay without prayer. Church Gist. My prayer is meant for something else. I never sent my children to schools that need prayer. They go to schools where I don’t need prayer. A school that I can pay for easily without saying ‘Oh God, where are you?’ I have never borrowed, not that we paid back. They call that mystery contentment. Why pose to others when you are deposing yourself? Public image, private damage. You rent a house and you can’t sleep inside it, what is the purpose of the house? Church Gist. Because you are counting the days that they will soon come and then suddenly the day comes and they say bring 3 million. “I better pack to the village”. Contentment is not weakness, it is securing the future. A little leak will sink a ship so beware.
Today is our Encounter With Destiny Service and we will run through this very fast. Please note that every child of God is a child of destiny. We are not redeemed to live like destitutes. Church Gist. Every child of God is a child of destiny. Romans 8:28-30. We have a glorious destiny in redemption, we are not redeemed to live like a destitute. 2 Peter 1:3. We are not destitutes.
Destiny is not a destination in the Kingdom but an adventure. Proverbs 4:18. 2 Corinthians 3:18. It is not a destination, it is an adventure. I once said life is a journey. Numbers 9:15-23. Destiny is a process and arrival is in phases. No one is born a giant, everyone arrives here as a baby. Common sense teaches that. Job 8:7. Zechariah 4:10. Everyone has a small beginning. All we need is to learn how to treat or nurture our small beginnings to arrive at our enviable future. We all have a small beginning. We all have a one pound destiny in redemption as illustrated in the parable of the sower. He gave them one pound each. Somebody gained authority over ten cities from that one pound. Another one over five cities. Church Gist. In that destiny there are cities, there are nations, there are continents, there is the world. We are a people of equal destiny, we only arrive at the phases we find ourselves by our level of understanding and engagement of the same. If you have seven children, there is no way you will sit down and say you wish for two of them to be successful, two to be average and for two to be down and out. God has a common destiny for all His children and left us to trade the truth to getting there. Buy the truth and sell it not. Proverbs 23:23. It is trading the truth that enhances our destiny in the Kingdom, they went and traded with the talent. Luke 19:17-19.
The adventure of destiny begins from where we are. God said to Abraham, “From the place where thou art, get started.” Genesis 13:14-15. The good news is that every child of God has a glorious destiny, a prosperous destiny. He became poor for every one of us so that we through His poverty might be rich. He obtained for us power and riches as He rose from the dead. A royal destiny! Revelation 5:9-10. Verse 9 said out of every tongue, every language, every nation. So there is no advantageous nation, no advantageous race. Church Gist. God is no respecter of persons or races. An enviable destiny like He gave to Isaac and the Philistines envied him. The world power of his day envied him. Genesis 26:14. Galatians 4:28. So we are to be envied not to be pitied. You have an enviable destiny, get started.
Interestingly also, we have a pacesetting destiny. ‘Wow! Never seen this before. What?’ Because we are the light of the world, we are the salt of the earth, we are a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden. We have a pacesetting destiny. 1 Corinthians 2:9. We have a pacesetting destiny in Christ. In those days, I had friends and colleagues who were always excited because they went to certain places. I said wait a minute. Church Gist. People established those platforms that you feel good going to. Establish one. Inside you and me is a deposit of a glorious destiny. A deposit of a prosperous destiny. A deposit of an enviable destiny. A deposit of a pacesetting destiny. Ma f’a ro sere o (Don’t play with your morning) It is inside you, it is inside me.
There was that bread maker when we were growing up in my mother’s friend’s place. It is Ma f’a ro sere bread and I will tell my friend that I like to eat this bread because of what is written on it. Church Gist. Don’t play with your morning, the night will be bleak. Arise and take responsibility.
If you have these deposits in you, why must the world look at you as a pitiable entity? It is an insult to redemption. Anybody can start from where he is, you are the one we are talking about. Life is a journey, destiny is a process and we arrive there in phases. Church Gist. Phillippians 3:13-14. Some people were in it and they backed out, so God stepped out. May God not step out of your affairs.
To realize and fulfil your destiny:
- One must be born again and remain so. Not a child of God today and a child of the world tomorrow.
- Be spiritually minded.
God can only change your level by access to light which requires spirituality to get into. Church Gist. 1 Corinthians 2:12-14. Be spiritually minded, don’t start in the Spirit and end in the flesh. - Be committed to the leading of the Holy Spirit because His blessings will always follow His leadings. Isaiah 48:21. Romans 8:14.
- Stay in love with God.
If you want to fulfil God’s glorious plans for your life, stay in love with Him. Romans 8:28. - Be committed to craving after increasing revelation.
As you behold Him, the more you see the better things become, the faster you go, the brighter you see. 2 Corinthians 3:18. - Be committed to a lifestyle of praise and worship.
Where murmuring starts is where you start going down. Church Gist. Where complaining starts is where you start complicating your case. Numbers 21:1. 1 Corinthians 10:10.
In conclusion, believers have a destiny of no limits in Christ. Therefore expect the opening of new chapters to your life from this prophetic service. God was the one who said at the base of this ministry, He will build this tent and He built it and we kept doing His bidding. He said, “It was you I told this is where my presence is. Why are you taking this project there?” So He owns the 100,000 project even though it was not in the original pack. Destiny of no limit. There was no Covenant University in the original pack. No! It came on board. It keeps growing. Destiny is a most elastic adventure in the Kingdom. You are faithful at one level, He moves you to the next. Faithful at the next to the next and there is no end to the next until the perfect day, the day Jesus comes. You will never be stagnated in your life again.
So it is not let us come and define what your destiny will be. You will build houses in Lagos, Epe… That is not destiny. It is a most elastic one Sir. Church Gist. You can see that from this ministry, things that were not in the original pack in 1982, He has been adding them as He deems fit. As He finds you faithful at one level, He moves you to the next. You will never be stagnated again.
Abraham began that journey at 75, he made it to the end. Moses got it at 80, he made it. David got it at 17, he made it. Joseph got it at 17, he got it all. Church Gist. Every age bracket is covered. You have become a child of God, old things are passed away, all things have become new. No games.
Young people, don’t toy with your morning hours. It can be costly. Get it right with Jesus and things will keep going right for you.
Please note, by divine instruction, the special miracle healing service no longer holds on Sundays because of the special attention we have not been able to offer. We are dealing with life and God ordered that these individuals be rescued. So we have moved it to every Tuesday. It will run like a spiritual clinic where we administer the forces of the Spirit that will get people out of the dungeon of sickness and death. That is what obtains from this week. So Tuesday at 8am, we will have the Special Healing Miracle Service here. For those who may not be able to make it down here, ensure they connect online. Church Gist. There will be so much power surge that will reach anywhere you may be. Our instruction is to pay special attention to anyone who may be within the jaws of death and bring them out of here.
Among the benefits of the covenant is long life. Next Sunday is our Covenant Day of Long Life. Everything threatening your life will be swallowed up in victory.
- No one in this Commission is permitted to die young.
- You will not age into weakness and batteredness. Church Gist.
- Your end shall be greater than your beginning.
- Everyone appointed unto death shall be rescued.
A good age shall be established as a seal on our lives.
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