ONE OF THE GREATEST SERMONS I EVER HEARD WAS PREACHED BY MY SON, OLUWAGBEMILEKE
SEEK AND KEEP SEEKING, KNOCK AND KEEP KNOCKING, KEEP ASKING TILL YOUR JOY BE FULL
WHATEVER GOD IS DOING, HE’S GOING TO STOP IT UNTIL HE HAS GIVEN YOU YOUR MIRACLE JUST LIKE HE GAVE BARTIMAEUS!
IF THE LORD DOES NOT SOLVE YOUR PROBLEM, WHO CAN?
MANY OF US DON’T HAVE ANY PLAN B AND SO, CANNOT STOP PRAYING
WHEN YOU KNOW HOW TO HOLD ON, YOU CAN BRING THE FUTURE TO THE PRESENT
I’M BELIEVING GOD FOR YOU THAT THIS YEAR WILL BE YOUR OWN YEAR
GOD MAY BRING SOME BATTLES YOUR WAY FOR YOU TO SHOW HOW MUCH FAITH YOU HAVE
HANNAH KEPT ON COMING TO SHILOH UNTIL THE DAY THE HIGH PRIEST NOTICED HER
YOU HAVE TRIED, FASTED, PRAYED BUT PRAY ONE MORE TIME TODAY AND THE DOOR IS GOING TO OPEN.
MY WIFE AND I DID NOT GET OUR DESPERATE NEED EVEN AFTER FASTING 40 DAYS AND NIGHTS TWICE UNTIL THE THIRD TIME
GOD IS IN HEAVEN, HE IS ALIVE AND HE HEARS PRAYERS
MOSES TRIED 10 TIMES; HIS NAME WON’T BE IN THE BOOK OF LIFE IF HE HAD GIVEN UP
MANY AT TIMES, WE ABANDON PROJECTS BECAUSE WE HAVE TRIED AND THE PROJECTS SEEM TO HAVE FAILED
GOD IS SAYING TO SOMEONE TODAY, “IT IS TIME TO TRY AGAIN.”
THE GRACE TO TRY AGAIN, TO HAVE THE BIGGEST BREAKTHROUGH IN YOUR LIFE, MAY GOD GIVE IT TO YOU TODAY!
- Pastor E. A. Adeboye on “THE ONE FOR WHOM THE HEAVENS OPEN – part 42” || RCCG Online Sunday Service || 28th April, 2024
Now we move on to part 42 of our series, as we continue to look at the life of Joshua, learning lessons from someone who could be used as the example of one for whom the Heavens opened and a very good example of Divine transformation, divine transportation, divine promotion, divine goodness and mercy.
Last week we looked at Joshua 8 and we read a little bit of verse 1 and we are going to read the whole of verse 1 today. Joshua 8:1. We have examined what God said to Joshua: first, he told him not to fear. Fear is not for a child of God. Romans 8:15. Fear is not for children of God because our God is greater than all our enemies out together. Church Gist. He told him not to be dismayed, not to be discouraged, not to lose hope, not to become like a vegetable but he should remember he is a warrior. Now he is saying to him, “arise, it’s time to go up again, time to fight again.” He told him this time, you’re going to win. He told him, “hey, I can tell you the victory is already yours, the King of Ai I have handed over to you, his people, his city, his land, I have handed over to you. I have given you everything that is in Ai.”
I believe God is saying to someone today, “it is time to try again.” You’ve tried in the past you have failed, it’s time to try again. We’ve already learnt that you should not be afraid, fear is not your portion, you’ve been told not to be dismayed, don’t be discouraged, don’t despair, don’t lose hope, it’s time to try again. Church Gist. Many at times in our journey in life, we abandon projects because we’ve tried and the projects seem to have failed. Many at times even the projects we abandoned are projects we prayed about before we started. Many at times the projects…we even got a word of prophecy before we started but then we have tried and we have failed and the Almighty God will say, “okay, try again.” You remember in Luke 5:1-7.
- I’m praying for everyone of you who have abandoned one great project or the other, the grace to try again, to have the biggest breakthrough in your life, may God give it to you today!
You have to note that in life, occasionally you have to try again and again and again. When people like me were in secondary school, there was something our teacher used to say in those days: “if you try and you fail, try and try again.” They drummed it into our little heads and some of us have never forgotten. Church Gist. When you go through the Scriptures you will find that there are some people who made mighty breakthroughs, who got miracles that are recorded for eternity and they did not stop after they failed the first time. Take Moses for example: Moses tried 10 times before Pharaoh allowed the children of Israel to leave. It was God who told Moses in Exodus 3, “oh, I will be with you. You will go and bring the children of Israel and they will come and worship me on this mountain.” Then, Moses got there and he had to try 10 times and God was there all the time. God could have solved the problem the first time but he chose to wait till Moses had performed 10 mighty miracles. You know the story. There was the miracle of the rod: Moses threw down his rod, the Egyptians threw down their rods, rods became serpents and there were serpents all over the place and then the serpent that came out of the rod of Moses swallowed up all the serpents of the Egyptians. You would have thought that that is enough to get any king to say, “alright o, it looks as if your God is bigger than mine, you better go.” No!
Then, he changed water to blood, there was no water for anybody to drink for sometime, frogs came, lice, flies, murrain, boils, hail, locust, darkness that could be touched but it took the death of the first born to cause Pharaoh to say, “alright now, you can go.” Church Gist. Moses could have said half way through, “Lord, I’ve tried enough, I’m not trying any more.” His name won’t be in the book of life if he had done so. It’s time to try again.
Remember the story of Naaman in 2 Kings 5:1-14. If Naaman had stopped after 6 times, he would have died a leper because it was after the 7th time that he came up and his skin was like the skin of a new born baby – 7 times. I remember years ago, when my wife and I, we wanted something desperately. We decided, okay, we know what we will do, after all Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights before his breakthrough came. Church Gist. We fasted – 40 days, 40 nights, no breakthrough came. We started the second round – 40 days, 40 nights, no breakthrough came. We said alright, this third time my wife and I, I said, “look, you will follow me up to 40 days and 40 nights after that you will wait if we haven’t gotten the result yet and I will continue.” 40 days, 40 nights came, I said, “okay dear, you’ve done your bit. You can break now, I will continue.” She said, “ahn ahn, (no), you continue, I continue with you.” When I saw how she was looking, after 42 days and 42 nights I said I don’t want to kill another person’s daughter o jare – so I broke. But then, the breakthrough came. It’s time to try again. You’ve tried, fasted, prayed, you haven’t got the result yet, try again.
Remember Elijah on Mount Carmel – 1 Kings 18:41-45. Here was a man who prayed for 2 minutes. Check the prayer of Elijah on Mount Carmel, it lasted approximately 2 minutes and fire fell. Now he said, “I have heard the sound of abundance of rain.” Before the competition on Mount Carmel – 1 Kings 18:1-46, The Lord said, “go and show yourself to Ahab and I will send rain.” God said so, he promised. Church Gist. He had shown himself to Ahab, there had been a competition, he had cried to that same God – the living God and fire had fallen. Now he heard the sound of abundance of rain, he said, ah, thank you Lord, your promise is about to be fulfilled. But he prayed the first time, no rain. He prayed the second time, no rain. Poor Elijah! He prayed the third time, no rain. That great man of God probably sensed, “I don’t know what’s going to happen now” when he fell on his face, the Bible said “he put his face between his legs,” he didn’t want to look at the sky so that he will not be discouraged. “God you said there’s going to be rain now, the whole sky is still very clear, no sign and I’m going to pray. I will put my face between my feet so that I won’t see.” He kept sending his servant – 7 times. You can’t call yourself a prayer warrior and say, you’re bigger than Elijah – you haven’t called fire down from Heaven yet.
Believe me honestly, the Almighty God is in Heaven, he is alive, he is on his throne, he hears prayers. Church Gist. He is waiting for you, just one more time. Today you’re going to pray at least just one more time and the door is going to open.
Remember the story of Hannah in 1 Samuel 1:1-20. The Bible didn’t tell us how many times Hannah came to Shiloh, but she kept on coming thinking, “may be it is this year” and nothing seemed to be happening but she kept on coming. Church Gist. Until one day, the High Priest noticed her.
- Today in the name that is above every other name, the Almighty God himself will notice you!
She ended up with 6 children – 1 Samuel 2:21. God rewarded her for all the times she had been coming. After Samuel she still had additional 5 children. God is keeping records of all your efforts, prayers, fasting. Church Gist. He knows how many times you have already said, “Happy New Year” and nothing seemed to have happened but your year will come and I’m believing God for you that this will be your own year.
Remember Jacob – Genesis 32:24-29. Each time you read that story you know it’s an encouragement to you to wrestle on because the Bible tells us that, after a while, the fellow who was wrestling with him dislocated his thigh. Ask yourself the question because this is one of the funny stories in the Bible, one of the dramas. Church Gist. The fellow who can dislocate a thigh can’t he dislocate the head? The boy was being told, “come on, wrestle a little more, show that you’re determined.” Where did the man come from anyway? When the Almighty God says, come on my dear let’s have some time together, it’s not to destroy you, it’s not to take away your hope, it’s not to cause you to fear, it’s to say, “hey, show me how much faith you have. Come on, try again.”
In any case, many of us don’t have any plan B. It’s when you have plan B that you can stop praying. We have no plan B, we’ve already come to the last bus stop. When you come to Jesus Christ, where else can you go? Church Gist. If the Lord does not solve your problem, who can? You think that witch doctor who can’t even take care of himself will succeed where God has failed? We have that beautiful chorus, “since I was young, now I’m getting old, I’ve never seen the Lord fail,” and he will never fail because it is just impossible for him to fail and there’s no plan B. Let’s keep on trying again.
Matthew 15:21-28. When you know how to hold on, you can bring the future to the present. The time for that lady to get a miracle wasn’t come, the time of Gentiles was still far far ahead. The time of Gentiles didn’t come until Acts 10 when God sent Peter to the house of Cornelius. Church Gist. That was when the time of the Gentiles came. But this lady said, “I’m not going to wait for Peter; I’m going to cling on to Jesus.” You remember the story, she got her miracle!
- I am praying for everyone of you who will cling to Jesus today, God will bring what he wanted to do for you in 10 years time to today!
You remember the story of Bartimaeus – Mark 10:46-52. You know the story very well: there was a crowd there and they all told him to shut up. If Bartimaeus had agreed, if he had stopped crying, he would have died in darkness. But the Bible said instead of keeping quiet, he cried a lot much more louder. Church Gist. One beautiful thing I learnt from the story of Bartimaeus is that, the Bible said, Jesus stood still and my Bible tells me that if Jesus stands still, it means the whole universe stands still. Colossians 1:17. The entire universe revolves round the Lord Jesus Christ. So when he stood still, the universe stood still. A beggar cried and God stopped everything until he gave a miracle to a beggar.
- I’m praying for someone today, whatever God is doing, he’s going to stop it until he has given you your miracle today!
Matthew 7:7-8. Those who know the Bible very well said what the Bible is actually saying is that, ask and keep asking, seek and keep seeking, knock and keep knocking. Keep asking till your joy be full – John 16:24. Keep seeking until you find, keep knocking until the door be opened unto you. I remember very well, one of the greatest sermons I ever heard that was preached by my son, Oluwagbemileke, when he said something that has never left me since that day. Church Gist. When he said, keep digging. You dig for a while you get to water, dig a little deeper you get to gold, keep digging and you get to oil. I’ve not stopped digging since then. It’s time to try again, time to pray again, ask again, seek again, time to knock and keep knocking, time to dig and keep digging.
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