YOU HAVE NO IMMUNITY AGAINST EVIL WHEN THE PRESENCE OF GOD IS NOT WITH YOU.
IT IS A RISK TO WALK OUTSIDE OF THE SHEKINAH PRESENCE OF GOD; THERE IS NO GUARANTEE FOR IMMUNITY.
WORSHIP IS THE PROTOCOL FOR GOD’S PRESENCE.
THE MOMENT YOU FIND OUT YOUR ATMOSPHERE IS TENSED OR YOU SENSE A DEMONIC ACTIVITY AROUND, PLUG INTO WORSHIP AND CHANGE THE ATMOSPHERE IMMEDIATELY.
EVERY TIME YOU SEE PRIDE IN YOUR LIFE, FIGHT IT AND DON’T TOLERATE IT.
THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE GOD CANNOT TRUST THEM WITH CERTAIN WEIGHT OF HIS PRESENCE BECAUSE OF LAZINESS; AN EXCESSIVE PASSION FOR COMFORT AND CONVENIENCE.
- Apostle Joshua Selman at Koinonia on ‘THE PRESENCE OF GOD’
(PART B).
3). Supernatural protection and preservation. Please listen carefully, especially in light of the evil times that we live in. Now watch this; say I buy a product that is very expensive and the product is somewhere hidden in that package. If I throw that package up and it falls, does it hurt the product? Because the product is so secured. What suffers is what is wrapping it, not the product. Church Gist. How many of you have carried a crate of eggs, not wrapped, not covered and you climbed a bike or something and only half of it arrived home because bumps kept breaking everything one by one? Now, the egg is wonderful and it can serve you, but it was not covered and protected. Those who do poultry business, they have a way of wrapping that thing to a point that even if the car keeps turning, it will arrive safely.
The glory of God can become your shield and covering, that whether it is by your left or right, you can be so immune and protected (Psalm 23:4). Anytime you see evil, forget about the evil and verify whether He is with you. If He is not with you, find Him fast, don’t be distracted by the evil. You have no immunity against the effect of evil if you do not secure that He is with you (Isaiah 43:1-3, Daniel 3:23-29). There is a way God delivers that is like a signature; you will know that He is the One. There are certain kinds of deliverances that you may suspect that maybe, this is another kind of God, but that when God shows up, there is a way He can deliver. Nebuchadnezzar is not naïve as to spiritual things and here, he is saying that there is no other god that can deliver after this sort.
- The way God will come through for you in this season will surprise everybody around you in the name of Jesus Christ!
It is a risk to walk outside of the Shekinah Presence of God; there is no guarantee for immunity. The Bible is clear to us from Psalm 91, that there are arrows that fly by day. You know the thing about the arrow? You don’t know who shot it, you just know there was an arrow. If I shoot an arrow, it can be from my room and yet, shoot it there. Church Gist. If I use a sword, you will see the person holding the sword but an arrow can go far; battles you don’t know where they come from. But the Presence of God can immune you. If you intend to rise, grow and manifest the influence of the Kingdom, please understand divine presence, otherwise, you will fall down one day for no reason and you probably might not able to get up. If you ever think everybody will clap for you because you are rising, think again.
We live in a world that is immersed in wickedness, but in the name of Jesus, that Presence will rest upon you and surround you and any arrow projected towards you, the thick skin of that cloud will not only stop it, it can reverse it back in the name of Jesus!
Psalm 3:1-3
- From today, anyone who plots evil against you, whether by witchcraft or divination, whether you are asleep or you are awake, in the name of Jesus the Son of the living God, before you wake up, judgement would have happened already!
In the New Testament, Jesus gave us a very powerful illustration that while men slept; it was time for sleep, the Bible says an enemy came. Certainly, that enemy found access, there was no covering, no hindrance; do you know that there is a name satan is called? The thief. Question, how many thieves will come through your gates and knock responsibly and say, I came to steal? The thief is a master at violating orders. Church Gist. A thief is not just one who steals; he is a master at violating order. A thief does not respect due process. He tells you there is an adversary who does not respect due process and that Cloud can cover you while you sleep and someone is making enchantments and say, how can this person be the first to rise in this family? Let us conjure something that will bring him down and while they try to project you, they think it is your face that will show up, at that enchantment, it is fire that will answer, right from that shrine in the name of Jesus Christ!
There are many of you, just when you want to rise and move and excel, here comes this arrow that flies by the day, the noisome pestilence that waste in noon day, every time you see people rise and cannot continue, something is stopping them. Can I tell you this; when the glory of God rests upon you, you will not only find favour and rest round about; you can be sure of your protection. You can hold a gun to protect you, your gun is only useful if your hands are not tied and you can shoot and if you have the courage to shoot. There are certain assaults of the devil that happens so fast, you will need to be immune before, not during. By reason of what I do, I am not just glorifying satan, believe me, by reason of what I do, this is daily; I interact with people who were not covered.
Here me, when Jesus started rising and He was making news in the town, is it in your Bible that some people came and gathered? Their assignment was not for Him to stop, their assignment was for Him to die. If it happened to Jesus, who flattered you into believing that indefinitely, you will keep rising, changing lives, affecting destinies and then, the gates of hell will fold their arms; your church, ministry, voice and business? Church Gist. No, satan has not changed, it is not only God who does not change; satan too does not change, he is the same from the time he became satan, he remained satan. Don’t you think your life will make him sympathize with you. You don’t know the enemy you are dealing with. If satan did not pity little children and there was a cry in Ramah, you are an adult, why should he pity you?
It takes the covering of that Cloud, because if he cannot get you, he will come to your children. When he tried, he wanted to reach Jesus, he started with Peter, then Judas and he killed two birds with one stone because both Judas and Jesus died; unfortunately, Judas died without Jesus, so he couldn’t come back. That covering is so powerful, there is space for everyone who cares to enter. That means, you can’t enter and leave your children, you can’t enter and leave your husband or your wife; even your business, ministry and school can enter. Don’t watch attacks happen around your life and keep wondering; “I want to know the name of all the demon spirits.” It is not necessary; you just find that covering.
Supernatural protection; “The Lord is my light and my salvation, of whom shall I be afraid of? The Lord is the strength of my life, I shall not fear what man does to me.” You can get up in the morning and go to the market, you know you are innocent, but how do you guarantee everybody there is innocent? You can step into a car and you are ready to drive, just because the car is sound does not mean you are safe (I am not scaring you). Church Gist. This was one of the things I sorted out with God early, because I knew the things He will be doing through my life and I am telling you, even this one does not work by default. I don’t mean to scare you; you desired greatness and when that anointing came upon you, satan saw it too. Satan knows that instead of fighting every child in your school, of the five hundred students in your school, he should fight you and bring you down, he has won.
- If there is any current attack over anyone’s life here under the sound of my voice, you have been seeing patterns around your life that you don’t understand, maybe in the life of your spouse; in the name of Jesus the Son of the living God, I command those attacks that they come to an end now!
When it was time to end Zechariah’s captivity, when Gabriel came and Zechariah was questioning him, he said, “I am Gabriel that stands in the Presence of God.” In other words, will I be false and leave the presence of God and come to you? I am coming from the presence. Let me speak from that Presence:
- In the name of Jesus, anything that fights you goes down instantly!
There are all kinds of things happening; kidnappings, demonic things, ritual activities that just want to waste people’s lives. You can only do your best to protect yourself physically, let me tell you the truth. There are many people who are afraid now, they can’t travel, they can’t go out because they are not sure; look how unsafe the world is, unfortunately even in our regions. Church Gist. The moment you are a person of influence, you don’t even know what can happen, people have died because somebody shook them; the same kiss that is supposed to be a proof of love was a sign to an enemy; “This is the one to kill.” So, someone can shake you, “How are you? God bless you!”
- Every business and every ministry that has gone under attack, every man of God whose voice is being fought by satan, every anointing whether in this City, in this Nation; you are a man of God and the devil is fighting your voice, relevance and ministry: I come from that Presence and I decree and declare, that battle comes to an end now!
- Every business here under strange attacks, you used to do well but you don’t know what suddenly happened; sales have gone down, clients have gone down – unexplainable strategy: by the power that raised Christ from the dead, that devil gives way now!
- Every parent here, you don’t seem to understand what is happening with your children again; poor performance in school, wasting your school fee; they are intelligent people but something happens to them. In the name of Jesus, I declare deliverance for you now!
When you understand the mystery of the Presence of God, it is beyond the realm of anointing. No, you can be a carrier of the living Presence of God, that when people come within the circumference of your person, this is not about falling down or standing up; unconsciously, you can be in a place and when God wants to rescue a destiny, He will just make them pass close to you. Church Gist. Did the Bible not say, the shadow of Peter? The Bible called it shadow, we know better. It is not the shadow; they came under the influence. Peter carried that Presence; take that Presence to your office and watch what happens. You are a carrier of that Presence, that you make up your mind, “that I will never shake anybody or greet anybody and the person goes back and nothing changes, no!”
Someone comes to greet you and says, “Good Afternoon Sir.” He shook your hand and left and he may not know what he carried. All he knows is that, I shook his hand and goodness and mercy began to follow me. What is the mystery behind my day? Favour from morning, rest following me and the Lord will remind them that, you shook one who stands in the Presence.
4). Honour and exemption (Isaiah 43:3-6). When you can secure that Presence, God will rather give a nation as a ransom to preserve you.
When the Magi saw the star that identified where Jesus the King was, they came with gifts. The Bible says they came with the gift of gold, frankincense and myrrh. When Job was about to be restored, the Bible says, all the people who left him, they started coming from everywhere (Job 42:10-11) with gift.
1 Samuel 18:10-16
Saul was afraid, David became a threat: what is it about this young boy that exempt him, that evil that should happen to him, even the one I planned does not happen? Honour and exemption, that is what happens when the Lord is in the midst of you, even to be mighty. You can respect yourself but you cannot honour yourself. Nobody has the power to honour himself, honour is conferred upon you. Church Gist. There are many believers who love God, there are many gifted people and people with but they lack this grace for honour. Honour causes men to perceive you correctly, to match the worth of your sacrifice and then, to reward you accordingly. The assignment of honour is to keep correcting perception until it matches who you truly are.
Five things that Presence of God secures, never forget this, so that when you see people walking in this possibility, the secret is not in any invention of themselves; they have found security in the manifested Presence of God.
1). Passion for God (Matthew 22:37). When it has to do with God, your heart, mind, brain and soul – everything must plug into it. Church Gist. The Presence of God is not a political issue; if you are not genuinely passionate, you can fake power, not presence. You can get adulterated power, not adulterated presence.
John 14:23
Your love and your passion for God will secure that dimension of His presence. There are many believers who have not made up their minds to passionately love and seek Jesus, you are just ready to remain at the Outer Court, you are not ready to press through, even to the Holy of holies (1 Corinthians 2:9). There are many people who love preaching more than Jesus; there are people who love anointing more than Jesus. There are people who love the motions of spiritual leadership more than Jesus, there are people who love the accolades of men more than Jesus: those who love business more than Jesus. Can I tell you? It is a risk in this end time to love anything and exalt it above and beyond Jesus.
You want to secure divine Presence, you want the Lord to be in the midst of you and even to be mighty? Let me tell you; it has to do with your love for Jesus, not your love for preaching, healing and deliverance. “I love Jesus.” To what degree? Passion qualifies the love. It makes it deeper that He is everything. Church Gist. Only a foolish person will take a visitor that you suspect to be a thief and take him to where you keep your money and your ATM and where you keep your jewelries and say, “just sit here and wait for me. I am traveling somewhere and I will return back.” Is that how much you hate yourself?
There are visitors that when they come, they stand at the gate. You don’t hate them but they have not chosen to press deeper; “What are you looking for?” Okay, this and that. All right, you give to them, at the gate. There are others who may enter into the house and stay outside, you will honour them by bringing a seat and say, “Please sit outside.” There are others who may get into the living room and sit carefully as though they are writing an exam – all of them are relationship dependent. There’s somebody who will enter the living room and even before you arrive, the person can pick your remote and be flipping channels – it is a product of relationship and yet, there are few, very few who can come and meet you in your room and say, “How are?” They can even be helping you dress your clothes while you are not there. It is relationship dependent. So, don’t you give God the relationship of a stranger and expect to be at the Inner Court of the Spirit, it will not happen that way.
There are people who, they are not the owners of your house, they don’t live in your house but you are so close, you can give them the spare key, to the point that you can call them and say, “where are you? Enter my house, go to my bedroom, open a drawer there, you will see some money, pick it up.” Church Gist. You have that confidence, that is why God can trust certain people with graces and you are wondering, is God not afraid? Is it not a risk to make this person that powerful? Find out the relationships and the covenants that provides that possibility.
A gentleman sent me a text some months ago, I don’t know who that is, apparently, maybe because he used to watch me say the power of God will do this, this one will happen and he just thought the thing just happens and I think he went to his fellowship or his group and according to him, he said he repeated everything that he knew that I was saying and made a mess and a fool out of himself there, because it is not a charm. You are not reciting; “Oh, the power of God will touch somebody here.” No!
“I am Gabriel that stands in the Presence.” Gabriel is saying, if I have come to destroy you Zechariah, are you saying that the eye of God did not see it? Man of God; preach, stand in His presence. Church Gist. Businessman; do business, stand in His presence and watch what happens to your life; extraordinary manifestations of the glory of God.
Many preachers will not pay the price to build that intimacy that creates that cloud of the presence and we mechanically come before God’s people, then you want to prophesy and preach, you will be surprised that you will be preaching a sermon that should be so powerful and yet the people are looking at you clueless and wondering when you will end because it is just words; empty words, not backed by any Presence. Many years ago, I preached a message called “Envoys of His Presence” and I was teaching believers this same thing, how to access divine presence. Church Gist. I have found it as a gift and a treasure, my greatest asset is not anointing, my greatest asset is not the scriptures in my mind, as powerful as they are, my greatest asset is not my Bible; this was produced by publishing house with people there who are not even born again. My greatest asset is the Presence of God; “Cast me not away, not from my palace. Cast me not away from thy Presence. Take not Your Spirit from me.” He knew what he would miss. Moses said, “do not let us leave here, if Your Presence will not go with us.”
Lord, can there be any Koinonia service without Your Presence? What then will we be doing? Preaching, no!
2). The desire to please God/Total obedience (John 8:29). “The Father is not just working with me because I am Jesus, the Son. My passion to please Him and to obey Him is what has secured His Presence” (John 14:21, Ezekiel 33:31). “That my life will bring joy to You, oh God” and He says, “this for me? You are ready for this dimension of my Presence.”
3). Intense moments of prayer and worship (Psalm 10:14, Psalm 63:1-5). Many of you heard the testimony, when I came in, I met the testimony of that dear lady, the covert that she played worship and prayed. Let me tell you, if you want God to come down, do what Paul and Silas did, the Bible says, at midnight, they took their eyes away from the chains and everything; they prayed and then, they sang and the prisoners heard them. Church Gist. I’m sure somebody from a neighbouring cell will say, “Stupid people, we are all criminals, will you keep quiet here? Let’s meditate on what is going to happen to us and the Bible says, they kept praying and singing. It was an angel that came, read your Bible.
For Apostle Peter, it was an angel that came because they were praying alone, but these ones prayed and then, they sang and God said, “You guys, step back.” The Bible says, suddenly, an earthquake… That is God for you, angels don’t create earthquake; broke everything and the chains were there and the Jailer wanted to kill himself and they said, “No, we are safe?” What happened? He came, the Lord thy God in the midst of thee.
There are times that you will need to take out time to pray and when you pray, you worship, you sing songs, you roll; if you can’t sing, the Worship Team, they have sang for you, there are so many songs, people have done all kinds of worship collections, saturate your room. There is no man of God that I know, who is a solid carrier of God’s presence, who has alienated the life of worship. It has nothing to do with whether you can sing or not. It is the protocol of His Presence (Psalm 100).
Sometimes, you can just lie down and allow that worship. The moment you find out that your atmosphere is tensed, you are sensing demonic activities or anger or some attributes, change immediately, look for worship and change that climate. Church Gist. The moment you begin to sense unease in your spirit; the spirit of fear, other spirits are joining the queue, waiting for fear or anger or any of these spirits, you can change the atmosphere immediately. Your phone is not just for you to browse, remove a lot of rubbish songs and put correct Godly, fire carrying songs. Arrange them as a file so that when duty calls, without thinking twice, you begin to play them.
The devil looks at you and says, “The way I destroyed your father and your mother, that is how I will shred your life to pieces. You see what is happening in this Nation? And just when he wants to speak, you just play something. Let the voice just keep talking, let’s see who will survive; don’t stop the voice from talking, you just create that atmosphere. Don’t waste your time shutting the voice, you bring in another voice. My Bible says, the light shineth in darkness. You go to bed and you wake up with some kind of dream, just play worship and go to bed, put it on repeat. If God helps you and can find one that has tongues in-between, while you are sleeping.
Master the art of controlling your atmosphere, don’t give satan that room; the world is negative. The world is negative in many regards, you switch on the News, you hear that this is happening. Church Gist. Some money was deducted from your account and you are seeing what is left, you feel like throwing away your phone; that is the time to change your atmosphere. It is called the law of atmosphere. Every spirit and their manifestation, is atmosphere dependent.
It is good to pray, but in addition to prayer, take out time to worship God. What does it mean to worship God?
a). To sing, you can sing praises and worship God or you can be in that atmosphere where you are pouring your life and your everything to Him in worship.
4). Walking in humility (Psalm 34:18). Pride and glory will not go hand in hand. That means, you want to secure weightier dimensions of God’s Presence, “Father, I stand in awe of You, that You can do this through my hands and my life. Thank You for Your Presence and the wonderful things You are doing.” Church Gist. And God will say, just because I gave you this dimension, you are walking in humility?” People will sing your praises and clap, thank God for them, but you remind yourself, “I am nothing without Him” and He says, “You are ready for another dimension.”
Koinonia, please hear me, I have a duty to admonish you; fight pride out of your life. Don’t say we are like that, fight it. Every time you see pride in your life, don’t tolerate it whatsoever; pride in ministry, business, the pride of life, pride based on accomplishments; it doesn’t not mean to not acknowledge what God is doing, you have to acknowledge Him. It does not mean to not receive gratefully when people thank God for your life, but please, fight pride.
You know what pride is?
Pride is a state of self-sufficiency, where you believe that every result you are getting is because of your own effort. Humility is not throwing away the truth or the fact about who you are and what God has done in your life, but an unashamed and a vocal acknowledgment that, “I am what I am today because of Him.” Humility is that, in the midst of that, you take your eyes away from these things and say, “Father, it is because of You. I am what I am by the grace of God.”
5). Sacrifice of everything; your life, resources, everything (Psalm 50:5, 1 Kings 3:3-14). Humility is a very powerful spiritual quality that can secure the Presence of God. I submit to you sincerely, every time I have the opportunity to pray and spend time with God, especially preparing for Koinonia, I sit down sometimes and I don’t say anything. Church Gist. I may just allow worship to just be playing and I think of the honour that God has given me, God has given me the honour of many people’s lifetime in one and sometimes, I’m not even able to pray and I say, “God, look at what You have done through my life, if You never bless me again, You don’t owe me. You have blessed, You have been kind to me.”
Do you know what it means for God to gather people across the world to listen to you and to pay attention to what you represent? Don’t you ever take it for granted. It is the mercy and the favour of God. Sometimes, I just lie down flat on the ground and I say, “Lord, I dedicate this result, success; while I am doing that, tens and hundreds of text messages are coming to my phone from all over the world: ‘Apostle, you are this’ and I will push the phone together with the text messages, you can wait. Let me worship the God who made me what I am.” Learn humility, don’t be ashamed of it.
We live in a world where submitting your trophies to Jesus looks like you are falling your hand. We are very full of ourselves. We like to brag and say, this is my own; my estates, building, car, money: wonderful, but Jesus must be seen. Church Gist. You must demonstrate humility in His presence and before men, if you demonstrate humility in His presence alone, you are still a hypocrite. In His presence and before men, they must see your life and know that this man was God-made.
When you make up your mind to live a life of sacrifice, you have offered your entire body, a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1). The Presence of God will not come for nothing, it comes because there is work to be done; your body, resources, intellect; everything must serve the Lord. So, if your body is serving the Lord and your pocket is not serving the Lord, it is not complete sacrifice. If your pocket is serving the Lord and your body is not serving the Lord, it is not complete sacrifice. Your mind, influence; everything God gave you must serve the Lord. We came back from a trip and as soon as we arrived, it was not in mind whether I am tired or not, that was far from it. Church Gist. My heart was just to brush up on my note and to pray excitedly; “Lord, this is another opportunity again to bless Your people, thank You for the honour of granting me safe journey. Now, let’s get to the business. When we are done and I am done with everything, I can now find out, “are you tired? They said you came and preached,” now I can verify whether it was me or not.
There are many of us, God cannot trust you with certain weight of His Presence because of simple laziness; an excessive passion for comfort and convenience. This duty will cost you everything. There are times you will have to stretch; Jesus stretched, the Apostle stretched. I hand over to you five keys that I have worked with in my own life and I have seen a bit of this grace and this mighty presence of God upon my life. For as long as you walk in keeping with these keys; passion for God, the desire to please God and to walk in total obedience, intense moments of heartfelt prayer and worship, walking in genuine humility and a lifestyle of sacrifice, excitedly so, you have secured the keys that will make you indeed a host to God’s Shekinah.
PRAYERS:
- Father, I obtain grace to work in keeping with the principles and the keys that secure Your manifest Presence in my life. I desire to be a genuine carrier of Your presence!
- Father, You are mighty in my life; let me see Your might produce favour, bring me rest round about, supernatural protection and preservation, honour and exemption.
PROPHETIC DECLARATIONS:
- I decree and declare, by reason of this teaching tonight and by the power that raised Christ from the dead, may the Presence of God, like you have never experienced in your faith work, may it mantle you from tonight in the name of Jesus!
- You will become a living manifestation of the Shekinah of the Almighty!
- The Presence of God will go with you to your homes, office, school, business, church, place of your assignment; it will be with you while you travel. That Presence will be with you as you return in the name of Jesus Christ!
- When the rod of Aaron was kept before the Ark, even though it had no root to the earth, it budded. By all means, be fruitful and multiply!
- Between this week and Sunday, I decree and declare, may my God surprise you with favour, honour and exempt you from evil in Jesus’ name!
- I forbid death over your life, I forbid infirmity over your life, I forbid shame and reproach over your life in Jesus’ name!
(Altar Call)
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