THE CHURCH WILL REMAIN A FEARFUL ENTITY WITHOUT THE MOVE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
NO CHURCH CAN EXPERIENCE GROWTH OR ADVANCEMENT WITHOUT THE MOVE OF THE HOLY GHOST.
THE KIND OF GROWTH AGENDA GOD DESIRES OF US WILL REQUIRE THE ACTIVE, UNTARRYING ENGAGEMENT OF THE GOD OF THE HARVEST.
WE BREAK THE BARS OF THE WICKED ON THE ALTAR OF PRAYER AND FASTING.
BEFORE THE HOLY GHOST CAME TO THE CHURCH IN NIGERIA, THEY REFERRED TO US AS MUSHROOM CHURCHES.
THEY ARE NOT WRONG BECAUSE EVERYTHING ABOUT US WAS LIKE MUSHROOMS, EVERYTHING ABOUT US WAS TEMPORARY AS IF JESUS WOULD COME THE FOLLOWING DAY.
AS THE HOLY GHOST CAME, THE WISDOM OF GOD BEGAN TO FIND EXPRESSION LITTLE BY LITTLE AND THE CHURCH IN NIGERIA BEGAN TO BE BUILT
WATCH TODAY, THE GLORY AND THE MINISTRIES OF CHRIST ACROSS OUR NATION, ACROSS AFRICA. GREAT MINISTRIES RISING AS THE HOLY GHOST CONTINUES TO MOVE.
IF IT IS GOD NO ONE CAN UNDO IT. WHEN GOD BLESSES A MAN, NO GANG UP OF THE devil CAN UNBLESS HIM.
WHEN GOD HONOURS A MAN NO GANG UP OF hell CAN DISHONOUR HIM. WHEN GOD TAKES AWAY SHAME AND REPROACH FROM A MAN, NO devil OR HIS AGENT CAN BRING HIM DISGRACE.
THAT SHALL BE YOUR EXPERIENCE
- Bishop David Oyedepo on ‘PRAYER AND FASTING- THE LIVE WIRE OF EVERY GROWING CHURCH’ || 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting Day 17 || Youth Chapel || 25th January, 2023 ||
Thou shall serve the Lord thy God and He shall bless thy bread and water and I will take sickness away from you! There is none serving Me that is permitted to be barren or cast their young in the land and the number of your years no matter the virus in town, no matter the witches launching attacks on you, the number of your days, I (God) will fulfil Exodus 23:26. So you got no time to die serving Jesus! You got no business to die serving Jesus! Why? Church Gist. The labourers are few. So He has vowed to keep those serving Him alive.
-You shall be kept alive.
——–PRAYER———-
-Lord Jesus, thank you for how much you have helped us till date in this Prophetic season of prayer and fasting. Receive our thanks. Church Gist. Now according to Your Word let there be an outbreak of Light this evening that will keep each one of us going for You without being weary in the journey in the Name of Jesus. Thank You Jesus, in Jesus Precious Name.
Payer and fasting is the live wire of every growing Church. From a Biblical perspective, it’s impossible to take over any territory for Christ without the Holy Ghost on the move. One twenty men and women were hiding away in the Upper Room for the fear of the Jews, the Church will remain a fearful entity without the move of the Holy Spirit. Church Gist. No Church can experience growth or advancement without the move of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost broke loose on them and about three thousand souls were added to them in one day Acts 2:41. That’s how impotent any Church will be without the Holy Ghost on the move.
When the Holy Ghost came and began to move, the second report shows that about five thousand souls were added to the Church Acts 4:4. And the move continued and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem Acts 6:7. And so a multitude of men and women turned to God Acts 5:14. Church Gist. So without the Holy Ghost on the move, no Church can experience growth. It’s like using a table knife to fell a tree when you have a sawing machine that is not engaged you will be sweating and nothing will be happening. But bring in a sawing machine you can even be singing and the kingdom of the devil will collapse.
The labour of the foolish wearies all of them because he knows not how to go to the city Ecclesiastes 10:15. You cannot leave the Holy Ghost behind and experience growth, He is the Lord of the harvest Matthew 9:38. Church Gist. The kind of growth agenda God desires of us will require the active, untarrying engagement of the God of the harvest. It is not by power nor by might but by the power of God Zechariah 4:6.
Furthermore, we must continue to destroy the hold of the wicked from off the lives of our new converts so that they can be established in the faith and in this Church. Loose him and let him go in the Name of Jesus! Loose her and let her go in the Name of Jesus! Is this not the fast that I have chosen? Church Gist. To break the bars of the wicked… Isaiah 58:6. So we do that on the altar of prayer and fasting. Loose him and let him go! Loose her and let her go! Loose the family and let them go! Enough!
Explosive Church growth as ordained for us this year requires the active engagement of the Lord of the harvest Matthew 9:38 and Luke 10:1 and 2. He is the Lord of the harvest.
Now let’s see a picture here that will help us. In farming, you have five different levels of operation. 1. You get virgin land, the first task is land clearing. It is very costly. After the land clearing then you go down to ploughing, harrowing and ridging before planting. If you watch very well, our task begins with planting so who does the clearing? Who does the harrowing? Who does the ploughing? Who does the ridging? He does. Isaiah 45:1-3. He is the one that does the clearing. He does the clearing, He does the ridging, He does the ploughing and harrowing. Then Paul planted, Apollo watered and God gave the increase. Church Gist. Our job begins with planting. He clears the ground for the harvest and sends us to go and plant on the prepared land. You can imagine planting on a land that has not been prepared. Nothing comes out of it. So Jesus sent them two by two to go into towns and cities where He will come. So there is a going before. Luke 10:1. The Lord of the harvest must be engaged for any church to experience explosive church growth.
Soul winning is fishing of men out of the sea of despondency, despair, defeat, sorrow and devastation. Matthew 4:19. Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. There are different levels of fishing – fishing by hook, fishing by a net and by a fishing boat. By hook is only one fish at a time. By net is whatever comes out with your net, by a fishing boat, it is every fish on its path. It is sweeping. So without him, we have a hook, just one. With our prayer and fasting we have a net, with the Holy Ghost we have a fishing boat. Church Gist. The man with a net may need one month to generate the result of the man with a fishing boat. The fishing boat goes to the centre of the sea. So in case, the fish doesn’t want to come out. He goes to meet them where they are and sweeps them, comes back to the shore and delivers them for export.
Without engaging the Lord of the harvest, no church can experience explosive church growth.
Prayer: Holy Ghost come and take over our harvest field across the nations of the world.
Why do we need the Holy Ghost in our quest for unending Church growth? Apart from all this clearing and preparing the ground for planting, what are His other functions without which the church cannot see growth.
- He is the one that convicts and converts for Christ to save.
He convicts us and brings us to Christ for our salvation. John 16:7-10. He is the one behind the conviction of sinners and when he brings them to Christ, He saves them. Church Gist. Acts 4:12. He convicts and brings such souls to salvation by the hand of Jesus. - The Holy Ghost is the power that subdues all the enemies of church growth.
Psalm 66:3. Church Gist. The Holy Ghost is the custodian of the power of God. Acts 1:8. - He is the mighty rushing wind that drafts multitudes into the church.
Numbers 11:31. Church Gist. On the day of Pentecost there was a mighty rushing wind that rushed thousands into the Upper Room and three thousand of them were saved. Acts 2:41. - He is the irresistible sound like fire alarm that rushes people irresistibly into the church.
Acts 2:6. The sound came. You don’t ask what is happening when there is a fire alarm. Church Gist. You rush for escape. Isaiah 5:26. He is the whistle of heaven that sounds like a trumpet and everybody rushing with speed responds to it. That is the Holy Ghost Himself. - He empowers our soul winning endeavours for outstanding results.
John 15:16. Church Gist. But He empowers our soul winning endeavours for effectiveness thereby generating outstanding results Acts 1:8. Everything shows that He is the Lord of the harvest. - He grants access to revelation of the Word that grows the Church. Listen! As the Word began to dry up, the Church began to go down. Church Gist. No closed restaurant attracts clients, it will be your best restaurant but if they shut down, you will relocate. When He comes, He will teach you all things! John 14:26, Jeremiah 3:15. You can’t feed anybody with what you don’t have.
So without the Holy Ghost, no access to the Word and without the Word, no Church ever grows! You can go to town and cry and cry but when they come and smell that there is no food, they won’t come next time!- The Word is just full of grammar, there is no Life, when they find nothing they won’t come next time. He’s the one that keeps the grass green, He’s the one that makes the sheep to lie down Psalm 23:2.
In 1996, we were in a Ministers’ conference in Kaduna and I told our brethren (Co-labourers) in the field and other Ministers that were gathered together. Church Gist. And I said something, ‘People saw something in these new wave Churches and so they shifted from where there was famine of the Word to where the Word is flowing. So when the Word dries up there, they will flow to where the Word is found next.
The sheep has no friends or enemies, it is looking for food. At a time in East Africa, you find them moving en masse, it’s ‘Exodus-like’, just like when Israel came out of Egypt. Church Gist. They moved en masse from the dry region to the watered region, they just moved en masse, there was no announcement, there was no broadcast! They just can’t find food there and they must move to where there is food.
So without the Holy Ghost, no Church experiences stable growth, it will grow today and go down tomorrow when they are tired of entertainment. Church Gist. No matter how much you play music, the sheep will come down there and listen and say, “What are they doing here?” The noise may attract them but what they are looking for is the food.
The sheep has no vision, the vision of the sheep is to get what to eat. So without the Holy Ghost on the move, there will be famine of the Word and when there is the famine of the Word, there will be automatic migration. That’s why praying for Pastors Is praying for continuous access to the Word that will keep the Church growing- Access to Light and revelation!
The Word of God increased and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly! It’s just a straight equation. The Word increases, the Church increases! The Word decreases, the Church decreases! Behind access to the Word is the Holy Ghost! I have many things to say to you but you can’t handle them now but when the Holy Ghost comes to you, He will guide you into all truth John 16:13. So the Holy Ghost is the man in charge, He is the force behind access to revelation and utterance! Church Gist. That’s why no Church can experience growth behind the Holy Ghost! He is indeed the God of the harvest!
- The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Wisdom through which the Church continues to grow, expand and be established Proverbs 24:3-5. Without wisdom, nothing gets established. Power can establish results but only wisdom can stabilize and sustain results. Jesus the Master builder of the Church is called the wisdom and the power of God. Church Gist. The two must go together! No Church growth without the power of God in manifestation and the wisdom of God on display. God will not come down and establish Service units, you are the one who knows that you need it and by inspiration, you get across to it and put it up 1 Corinthians 1:24.
The Holy Ghost will never arrange this room, you have been given a sound mind for sound reasoning so as to get sound output but He (The Holy Ghost) is the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. So without Him, no Church expands or gets established! Church Gist. Now Acts 16:4 and 5, and so were the Churches established in faith and increased daily. If you watch the background story in Acts 15, the Apostles came together and said, “Hey! Wait a minute, religion is coming to tamper with this move!”
James said, “Listen to me, let’s write letters to them and tell them things to do and things to avoid and that they lay no extra burden on them”. And so the Apostles sat down together and wrote a letter and said, “We the Apostles are saying this, and they listed them: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7”. And so they called Paul and Barnabas and said, “We are sending you as emissaries and so were the Churches established in the faith and increased in numbers daily.
Wisdom came on display before the expansion and establishment was achieved. And this is the Ministry of the Holy Ghost! Can we find a man such as this? A man in whom the Holy Spirit lives? Inasmuch as God has shown you all these, there is no one as wise and discrete as thou art! He’s the one that makes wise! The Holy Ghost! Church Gist. Genesis 41:39. When He gets on the move, you will find wisdom on display.
In those days, we knew that we should pray, we even learned how to pray but we didn’t know what to pray about. All those things that we are praying about is for our needs to be met- We were always in need! You will look for the need and if you can’t find the need immediately, you search the need out saying, “What need do I have?” Every prayer meeting was a beggarly meeting of, ‘Oh! God remember me oo’. 🎶Remember me Oh God!🎶 Kilode!
As the Holy Ghost came, the wisdom of God began to find expression little by little and the Church in Nigeria began to be built. We were mushrooms, that was our identity. They talked about the dead churches as established churches, status quo churches. They referred to themselves as established churches and we were the mushroom churches. They are not wrong because everything about us was mushrooms. Everything about us was temporary as if Jesus would come the following day. Batchers even came after, it was primary schools that we were hiring. You go to the headmaster and you discuss, no charge because there is nobody who will pay anything. Watch today, The glory and the ministries of Christ across our nation, across Africa. Great ministries rising as the Holy Ghost began to move.
How do we get the Holy Ghost on the move? Luke 11:13. We engage Him from the altar of prayer and fasting. So the apostles of Christ asked for a refilling of the Holy Ghost. They were once filled with the Holy Ghost in the Upper Room. The Holy Ghost descended in response to their prayers. Acts 4:24-32. What they were asking for were the Acts of the Holy Ghost, so they have to be filled with the Holy Ghost to see those things come true. We engage His operation through the altar of prayer and more often than not coupled with fasting. Holy Ghost, move again in our midst. Do a new thing in our midst. Church Gist. Come down as the wind of heaven. Come down one more time as the mighty rushing wind of heaven, rushing men into the Church across the world. Come down as a whistle and draw in an influx of record breaking multitudes into our church this year. Come down with waves of convictions leading to massive conversions across our harvest field. Come down and release more labourers on the field than we ever have. Stir up the spirits of men to seek the lost and serve his interest. The Holy Ghost is the Lord of the harvest. No gainsaying. We can’t just wait expecting Him, we engage Him on the altar of prayer.
Would you add this to your prayer – Come down Holy Ghost into our Church this year, go beyond all that we have ever seen before, come down as the mighty rushing wind, compelling whistle from heaven. Come down with convictions and conversions across our harvest fields. Come down and manifest your wisdom on the best way to deliver with speed each one’s portion in this harvest season. Lead the Way, clear the ground. Church Gist. Make this year an Isaac order of year for all Winners. Let every engagement yield results this year. Isaac sowed in the land and received a hundredfold yield. Let it be the Isaac order of year in everybody’s life. Holy Ghost take over my life, position me for fruitful stewardship this year. We need Him more than we need anything else. That is the only way to secure His ministry.
Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit and began reaping the massive harvest of the world. Luke 4:14. People began to say we have never seen it in this fashion. We have seen strange things. That will be our testimony this year. As a church we shall see strange order of growth. As individuals, we shall see the glory of God like never before. Jeremiah 30:19. That is what God said and when God does it, no one can undo it. This year God will turn something surprising out of each one’s life. Church Gist. The good news is if it is God no one can undo it. When God blesses a man, no gang up of the devil can unbless him. When God honours a man no gang up of hell can dishonour him. When God takes away shame and reproach from a man, no devil or his agent can bring him disgrace. That shall be your experience. The better news is that when it is God, it is forever. You don’t suffer a setback when God blesses as long as you keep following Him. You don’t know a downward trend as long as you keep following Him. This Church has never suffered a downward trend. Your life will never suffer a downward trend. Just keep going. He leads our way forward phase by phase, step by step. Life is a journey. Grace never to be tired from one phase to another following the Master receive it now.
Lift your right hand everyone and give glory to God. Magnify Him, celebrate Him.
No one serves God and His interest at a loss. Job 36:11. Grace to keep serving Him in truth and in deed, not with eyeservice like men pleasers but servants of God doing the will of God, may we all receive that grace afresh today. Serving God shows. They may not know it immediately, but they will know eventually. At the end it must speak. Church Gist. I tap into that grace of steadfastness in truthful and faithful stewardship so as to maximize the blessedness of kingdom advancement endeavours. Serving God in truth and in deed always shows. He has not asked the son of Jacob to seek Him in vain. Grace to serve Him acceptably with fear and reverence, let’s receive it afresh tonight.
I have heard from heaven this year what I never heard in my life. He is a God of new things. We serve a God of new things. Something new must burst forth in your life this time. Church Gist. We are in the last week and the last phase of every divine agenda speaks the loudest. The last week must speak the loudest in everyone’s life including your life and my life.
It was the platform of stewardship that Jesus Christ was springing surprises. We have seen strange things today. Luke 5:26, Mark 2:12. So God’s surprise package for the year will only come from our platform of quality, faithful and fruitful stewardship. Church Gist. It is not for a sit-down Christian. It is for a believer that is on the move.
- Grace to keep springing surprises is released on us.
- This shall be the best year ever in our walk with God.
- What eyes have not seen nor ears heard shall be our story.
Thank Him for the encounter of tonight. Thank Him for the outbreak of light and renewal of strength.
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