WHEN GOD WANTS TO BLESS A PEOPLE, HE PUTS IT IN THE HEART OF THE KING, THE RULER OF THE PEOPLE, “DO THIS, SO THAT I CAN DO FOR YOU WHAT I AM NOT DOING FOR OTHERS.”
THAT IS WHAT THE ENGLISH MAN CALLS A SETUP.
WHEN WE GOT TO THIS LAND, WE HAD 4 AND A HALF ACRES. TODAY, YOU CAN SEE A CITY.
HE IS DOING SOMETHING AS A RESULT OF THE SETUP.
YOU ELDERS HAVE A SAYING, IF A COCKROACH FALLS, NOBODY HEARS THE SOUND.
IF AN ANT FALLS, THE GROUND IS NOT GOING TO TREMBLE. BUT WHEN AN ELEPHANT FALLS, IT WILL TREMBLE THE EARTH
OCCASIONALLY, GOD RAISES SOMEBODY HIGHER AND HIGHER SO THAT WHEN HE BRINGS HIM DOWN, EVERYONE WILL PAY ATTENTION.
WHEN GOD SAYS THIS IS WHAT HE WANTS TO DO, HE WILL LEAVE A GAP FOR YOU TO DO MANEUVER AND GET HIM TO DO WHAT YOU WANT FROM HIM
NO MATTER HOW GREAT WE THINK WE ARE TODAY, WE DON’T KNOW GREATNESS TILL WE SURRENDER TO THE ONE WHO CAN PROMOTE.
THE MOMENT WE SURRENDER TO HIM, WE BEGIN TO ENJOY HIS MERCY.
WHEN GOD LIFTS YOU UP, THE BIBLE SAYS HIS HANDS ARE EVERLASTING HANDS, HE WILL JUST KEEP LIFTING YOU UP FOREVER BUT IF HUMAN BEINGS LIFT YOU UP, THEY WILL SOON GET TIRED.
-Pastor E. A Adeboye on ‘THE EVER-REIGNING KING at 2022 Royal Father’s Convention|| Redemed Christian Church of God Special Service
God wanted to bless Solomon, so He put it in Solomon’s heart to do what nobody else has done before. That’s what the Englishman will call a Set-up. When God wants to bless a people, he puts it in the heart of the king the ruler of the people, “Do this, so that I can do for you what I’m not doing for others.”
-I pray for all my royal fathers, that which will bring tremendous blessings to your people, may God put it in your heart today!
I’ve told this story several times of when God wants to bless you, He will set you up, put something in your heart that nobody else has done, so He can do for you what He is not doing for others.
Years ago, when the church was much smaller than this, we were growing by the grace of God. Church Gist. Then my father in the Lord called a meeting of the workers. He said, “My children, the church has a very special need and that special need must be met immediately.”
And so, he said all of us should go and close our accounts and bring the money. We all said, “Yes sir.”
But I mean, how can we go and close our account? If the Pastor says we need money urgently and he wants everyone to bring 10 naira or 1,000 naira, we can still think about that. Church Gist. But he is saying everything we have in savings, we should go and bring to the church. We left. We got home, my wife closed her account, I also closed mine. It wasn’t much, but that was all we had and brought the money to the church.
The following Sunday, Papa called a meeting of all the workers again and said, “Well, thank God the need has been met. We got enough money to offset the need. How many of you closed your accounts like I said?”
I raised my hand and looked around. Nobody else raised their hands. I looked at my wife and she looked at me and immediately I began to think,” Are you sure you are not receiving this thing with madness because nobody else is doing what you have done? “
And I heard God say clearly, “My son, you are not mad. It’s a setup. Church Gist. I want you to do something nobody else has done so I can do for you what I have done for nobody.”
Today, when people see what God has done…When we got to this land, we had 4 and a half acres, today you can see a city. He hasn’t done it for any pastor like that before. Church Gist. He is doing something as a result of the setup.
My beloved fathers and mothers, may the Almighty God set you up for good!
Now when you read 1Kings 4:24-25, the Bible said, All the days of Solomon, there was peace in Israel. All the days! There was peace everywhere! Solomon is the only king you can read about in the Bible who never fought a war. In those days, as a matter of fact, the history of every king had always been this year they fought this fellow, they were defeated, next year they fought the other one, they were defeated. That’s the history, you can read it in the Bible. Read the Kings, read the Chronicles, it is always war after war but Solomon, throughout his reign, not a single war. Nobody ever thought of fighting him.
I want peace to reign in all your domains!
I don’t want this issue of kidnapping here and there in your domain!
I don’t want to hear of any evil report in your domain, because God can do it. He says, I can rain on one city and keep the other city dry. He can do it. Church Gist. He is the Almighty. He can prosper your domain so mightily that people will ask, “How is this happening?”
I can tell you stories, but because I know you are in a hurry, I will be brief. When you now put all these things together, that if He wants to trouble a particular nation or a particular domain, He will cause the king to offend Him, cause Him to do something wrong. He will harden his heart. When He wants to bless a people, He will soften the heart of the king, cause the king to begin to do things that will please Him so He would reward them.
So if anybody wants to raise a query, He will say, “What’s the problem? This is what that king did, that’s why His people got into trouble. This is what the other king did, that’s why his people got the blessings.” Romans 9:15-18.
We are talking of a God so powerful that He can just tell anybody to stop breathing. He is the controller of the air. The most important element in the world is the air you breathe, thank God, that’s why He made it free. Church Gist. Because if air was for sale, many poor people would have died. And all He has to do is say to a king, “Come over and see me” And that’s the end of the show.
I remember some years ago when one Governor said he was going to revoke our Certificate of Occupancy on the land here (RCCG CAMP) and I said to him, “Your Excellency, I am from Osun state. If I say I need land in Osun state, my people will give me land. It is God who said I want you here. And He is the owner of the earth.”
The Excellency was not listening, so I had to humbly suggest to him, “If you say you want to revoke the Certificate of Occupancy of the one who asked me to come and stay here, what if he revokes the Certificate of Occupancy of you on earth? Because the earth where you are living belongs to God. You are here because He grants you Certificate of Occupancy to be on earth. If He revokes your Certificate of Occupancy, you won’t be around to revoke my own Certificate of Occupancy.”
That was what settled the quarrel. I said it gently though because I am an ordinary pastor. Church Gist. I think he thought about it and said we better leave this people alone.
The Almighty God will tell the devil to leave your domain alone!
Now He said I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy and I will show compassion to whom I will show compassion. And He was talking at that time of even two children, twins, in the same womb before they were born
He said, “I love Jacob, I hate Esau.”
But you are the One creating the two. The two haven’t done evil, they haven’t done good.
He said, ‘I just want everybody to know, I am the Most High, I do what I like. Anybody I like, I will show Him mercy, anyone I don’t like, won’t get mercy.’
He said,” For example, that’s why I created Pharoah. I kept on lifting him up so that when he crashes everybody will know. Church Gist. I just want to show who is the King of kings.
You elders have a saying, if a cockroach falls, nobody hears the sound. If an ant falls, the ground is not going to tremble.
But when an elephant falls, it will tremble the earth.
So occasionally, He will raise up somebody and begin to raise him up higher and higher so that when He brings him down, everybody will pay attention.
I pray for you my beloved fathers, that God will show you mercy!
He showed me mercy. That’s why I am where I am today. I’m not in any way better than any other pastor. Not at all. Many many Pastors are superior to me in Bible knowledge, in everything. I never went to a Bible College. I’m a mathematician. Church Gist. Mathematicians normally don’t want to hear about religion. We always say Christianity and Mathematics are parallel lines. They don’t meet.
Why? The mathematician will say, if you can prove it, I will believe it. Christianity says, if you believe it, I will prove it. They are supposed to be opposites.
I was a very rough boy among my colleagues in the university. When we meet in the club after we have taken a bottle or two of beer, when we have nothing else to discuss, we begin to make mockery of Jesus Christ, thinking we are brilliant. Because we were lecturers.
And then He went in the midst of these blasphemers and grabbed me. He said “Okay, you have blasphemed me enough. Now come and preach me.”
Mercy. May the Almighty God show everyone of us mercy!
But I discovered one thing, When God says this is what I want to do, He will leave a gap for you to maneuver and get Him to do what you want from Him.
It’s just like a river. Church Gist. The river is flowing downhill and you want to get to a particular spot. If you are wise you will jump on and flow in the direction of the river.
It is when you begin to row against the river that you get into trouble.
The English man has a proverb: If you cant beat them, join them.
You can’t beat God. You are not wise enough to fight Him. You are not strong enough to fight Him. All you know is today! Nobody knows tomorrow. Church Gist. Only God can tell who among everyone of us will still be alive by this time tomorrow morning. Only God. There’s no Prophet who can tell you! Even the Prophet of God, does He know if he will be alive by tomorrow?
He said in Proverbs 23:13, “Anyone who conceals his sin will not prosper, but anyone who will confess and forsake his sin will obtain mercy.”
He said that’s the formula. You want mercy? Confess your sins, forsake your evil ways and say to God, I surrender.
Forgive me for using myself as an example. I thought I was clever, because my ambition was to become the youngest Vice Chancellor in the world. I thought I was clever. Before I was 30 years old, I was already Acting Head of Department, in a very big university. I had built a house, I had bought a car, until one day, somebody took me to the Redeemed Christian Church of God and they were preaching, saying, “Give your life to God. Surrender your life to Jesus Christ.”
In those days, most of the Pastors just managed to finish Standard 6 as they called it in those days. And here was I, a lecturer in the university. I looked at them, what are they talking about? What do they know about Philosophy? What do they know about Psychology? Telling me to surrender my life, what do they know about sin? Church Gist. But one day, God penetrated through to me, because He just wanted to be merciful.
Surrender your life to Jesus Christ. Confess your sin. Forsake them!
That day, for the first time, the word penetrated. And I said wait a minute, they are not asking me to surrender to a man. They’re asking me to surrender to my Maker. Since I’ve been sinning, what have I gained anyway?
When they made the altar call, I went forward. I knelt before the Most High God. I told him, “From now, You take over my life. Whatever You say, I will do.”
He took over and things began to change. If I seem to be boasting, I am only boasting about the power of God and not myself. Anybody who knows anything about universities, good universities will tell you that if a lecturer gets promoted once in 3 years, he’s doing very well. Church Gist. After I gave my life to Christ, I was promoted 3 times in 2 years. It has never happened before. It’s not likely to happen ever again. Why? Mercy.
I tell you a story, when I was graduating in Obafemi Awolowo University, in those days we called it the University of Ife. The year I was graduating the Kabiyesi, Baba Aderemi (this was 1967) was given a honorary doctorate degree. Kabiyesi came, drums, everything was so beautiful. So my best friend and I were talking about the beautiful thing that had happened. So I said, “One day, I am also going to get an honorary degree.” Church Gist. My friend looked at me and said, “You? They don’t give honorary degree to ‘Dick and Harry’ . If it’s something you studied for, we can understand, but this one, we only give it to very special people, people who don’t need any other thing.”
I looked at him, he was speaking the truth. I was a ‘Dick and Harry’. But today, by the grace of God, I have 8 honorate degrees. In Nigeria, abroad, Canada… They offered me one from the first Christian university in America, I said I’m sorry I’m busy. They said they would come to Nigeria and give it to me here. Church Gist. The point I’m making is this: No matter how great we think we are, we don’t know greatness until we surrender to the One who can promote. The moment we surrender to Him, we begin to enjoy His mercy.
When God begins to lift you up, the Bible says His hands are everlasting hands. Church Gist. He will just keep lifting you up forever. If human beings lift you up, they will soon get tired of lifting you up. The very people who are lifting you up, are the people who will turn against you.
So I’m begging my traditional fathers, if only we can make up our mind to surrender completely to God, everything that we have lost, we will get back!
So may I ask, that you please bow your heads in prayers? Church Gist. Since you are all among your peers – you are not among little people, you are all high and mighty – if there is anyone that would like to say, please pray for me, I will like to surrender my life to Jesus Christ today, all I’m going to ask you to do is to please stand up where you are.
I will pray that God will receive you, save your soul and things will begin to change even for the better.
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