THE PRESENCE OF GOD IS EXCLUDED FROM THE CLIMATE THAT DOES NOT HAVE LOVE
THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE TODAY WHOSE FAITHS ARE NOT WORKING, THEY ARE PRAYING BUT PRAYER IS NOT WORKING BECAUSE LOVE IS BANKRUPT IN THE HEART
IF YOU GIVE AND PAY YOUR TITHE WITHOUT LOVE IN YOUR HEART, YOU WILL NOT SEE RESULTS
IT IS IN YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH MAN THAT YOU CONFIRM YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
THE QUALITY OF YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD IS REFLECTED IN THE QUALITY OF YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH MAN
THE PLAGUE OF ENVY AND JEALOUSY IS A ROOT OF HATRED AND LOVELESSNESS
THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO HATE YOU WITHOUT A CAUSE BECAUSE THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT YOU THAT THEY ENVY THAT YOU’RE NOT AWARE OF
A PASTOR SAID, “PAPA OYEDEPO HAS ALREADY OVERTAKEN EVERYBODY, WHAT DOES HE WANT AGAIN?” THAT IS COMING FROM A BITTER HEART
GOD IS NO RESPECTER OF PERSONS, HE’S A RESPECTER OF PRINCIPLES
THE MAYOR OF LEEDS CAME FOR OUR PROGRAM HIMSELF WITHOUT BEING INVITED
DON’T BE ENVIOUS AND JEALOUS BECAUSE GOD FAVOURED ANYBODY
THERE’S NO STAR THAT SHINES SO BRIGHT ENOUGH TO BLOCK THE SHINING OF ANOTHER STAR
WHEN YOU PRESENT A BIG VISION TO PEOPLE AND THEY START TALKING YOU DOWN, IT IS COMING FROM THE ROOT OF ENVY
IT DOESN’T REDUCE YOU TO PUSH ANOTHER PERSON FORWARD. IT IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR YOU TO HELP LIFT A PERSON AND REMAIN ON THE FLOOR
IF I’M NOT PULLING THE WALLS IN FRONT OF ME DOWN, NO ONE BEHIND ME CAN PULL ME DOWN
NOBODY CAN HARBOUR BITTERNESS AND ACCOMMODATE LOVELINESS AND LOVINGNESS AT THE SAME TIME
THAT PLAGUE OF UNFORGIVENESS AND BITTERNESS DOES NOT ONLY AFFECT THE FLOW OF YOUR LOVE TOWARDS THE PERSON YOU’RE BITTER AGAINST, IT AFFECTS THE FLOW OF YOUR LOVE TOWARDS OTHERS
BITTERNESS AND UNFORGIVENESS CORRUPTS THE FOUNTAIN OF LOVE
– Dr. Pastor Paul Enenche on “THE PLAGUE OF LOVELESSNESS (2)” || August Impartation Service – First Service || Glory Dome, Abuja.
Welcome to Church this morning and I bring you greetings from the United Kingdom Glory Conference, greetings from Leeds. Church Gist. I also welcome you to the Pre-Convention Sunday service, I believe that God has something in store for you today and you shall not go back the same in Jesus’ name. We started a subject on Wednesday midweek service titled the “PLAGUE OF LOVELESSNESS – Part 2” and we shall continue the second part of it today. If you were not in that service, please, I will like you to pick up that message.
We had a 3-fold objective in that message, it was to understand the lovelessness of our generation and to understand the consequences of lovelessness and then to understand the cause of the origin of lovelessness. Matthew 24:12. Church Gist. We saw that as we approach the end of the age, there shall be the shortage of love and we saw that this lovelessness will translate into characterlessness. Romans 13:8-10. We said that if you know love, you don’t need to struggle to know the Lord. That is why lovelessness equals characterlessness. Church Gist. Somebody decides to destroy a person, maybe because money is at stake, that lack of character, that display of heartlessness came because love was bankrupt. Somebody denied someone promotion because they refused to give a bribe or refused to commit sin with them. That characterless manifestation was a product of lovelessness in the heart. Church Gist. We said in that midweek service that love will solve the problem of the world, leadership of a nation for example, heartlessness for the people, interest just in themselves and don’t care whether the masses die is the reason why we have characterless leaderships in the nations of the earth today. We saw all of that. Church Gist. Then, we began to see the consequences of lovelessness. What are the consequences?
1. Hurtful and lawless behaviour. When people don’t love people, they become lawless and hurtful in the behaviour.
2. Lack of Divine presence and manifestation. God is love and where a person does not work in love, he cannot walk in God. Church Gist. The presence of God is excluded from the climate that does not have love. Where s person does not work in love, you can’t feel God around them. If there’s anything to feel, it’s the devil.
3. The impotence of Faith. Faith worketh by love according to Scripture. There are many people today whose faiths are not working, they are praying but prayer is not working because love is bankrupt in the heart. Church Gist. The Bible said Faith worketh by love, so, faith is impotent without love.
4. Ineffectiveness of the giving covenant. Under normal circumstances, the Bible said, “give and it shall given unto you, good measures, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall men give into your bosom”, Luke 6:38, Genesis 8:22 but He said where love is absent, 1 Corinthians 13:3. Church Gist. Even if I sell my house and gave to Church, even I offer myself as a physical sacrifice and I am not walking in love towards people and towards God, all that exercise is a waste of time and money, nothing will come out of it. Church Gist. That is very frightening. No wonder some will say, “I have paid my tithe, I did what they said I should do and yet I have not seen results”, it might be connected to bitterness or unforgiveness or something like that in the heart.
5. The limitation of life’s potentials. God made man in His image and God is love, so, it is when we walk in love that our potentials can come out. Church Gist. We can become everything God wants us to become as we walk in love.
– somebody say a loud Amen!
We saw all of that in the midweek service. Now, we looked at the origin of causes and lovelessness.
1. Godlessness. We said that if a person is Godless, he will be loveless because God is love. That nobody can claim to know God who does not love God. Church Gist. The deeper we go in God, the deeper we go in love. Like they used to say, “you carry Church on your head” and yet you’re not in talking terms with your wife and yet your children don’t have any relationship with you. Something is wrong with that fake spirituality. Church Gist. Very fake spirituality. It is in your relationship with man that you confirm your relationship with God. The quality of your relationship with God is reflected in the quality of your relationship with man. We looked at that in the midweek service and I believe that it’s a new day for somebody. Don’t forget this; I didn’t say this in the midweek service, it is in your relationship with man that you confirm your relationship with God. Church Gist. 1 John 4:20. The quality of your relationship with God is reflected in the quality of your relationship with man.
2. Enviousness. The plague of envy and jealousy is a root of hatred and lovelessness. Church Gist. There are people who hate you without a cause because there’s something about you that they envy that you’re not aware of. Am I communicating at all? Look at Cain’s anger that made him to kill Abel. It was rooted in anger and jealousy. Genesis 4:4-10. What was the fault of Abel? He just behaved to the best of his knowledge. Church Gist. Can I ask you a question? Was it Abel who advised Cain to give the offering that Cain gave? Was it Abel who advised God to accept his offering? Was it possible for Abel to accept his offering and to approve himself? So, what was his fault? Church Gist. There are people who are angry that you’re bright looking. Things that you didn’t necessarily have a hand in, “Why should he be the one?” One lady told a Pastor’s wife to pray for her because she has seen her husband and the Pastor’s wife said, “so what has happened? The man has not come to marry you yet?” She said, “No. I’m still trusting God”. She said, “why?” She said, “because the man is already married?” She asked, “so, how will he be your husband?” Do you know the wicked reply she gave? She said, “what if the wife dies?” Church Gist. Jesus Christ! So, that Pastor’s wife was telling another one, “please, be praying for yourself oh because there are people who envy your position and they wish you dead to take it”
– anyone who wish you dead will die that death!
– anyone who is envious and bitter at any favour and opportunity that God has given you, who would have wished you dead, they will take your place in that death!
– what they’re expecting to happen will happen to them!
There are people you see, you greet them, they refuse to reply your greetings, they are wondering, “why should he be the one? Is it only you? Why should she be the one? Why should they be the one?” It’s not of him that willeth nor runneth, it’s of God that showeth mercy. Church Gist. By the way, God is no respecter of persons, He’s a respecter of principles. If Cain did what Abel did, God would have accepted him too. We went to Houston, Texas, the Mayor gave us an award, declared 3 days, Dunamis Revival Fire Conference days for the city of Houston. He sent his representative because he couldn’t be there. For Leeds, the Mayor of Leeds came for the program himself, before he left, he asked for prayers. He was about going and said, “but you have not prayed for me”. Church Gist. I took him back to the altar. None of them, we didn’t invite any of them. I don’t know them, we were there and they showed up and then somebody may be trying to kill himself for what we had no hand in. In several aspects of your life, yourself shouldn’t be a victim of such. Don’t be envious and jealous because God favoured anybody. There’s no star that shines so bright enough to block the shining of another star. Church Gist. There’s no eagle, no bird in the sky that flies so massively that blocks the flying of another eagle. I haven’t seen where the elephant was too big until it blocked the road for another elephant to pass.
Do you know that when I saw a Scripture that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ had envy inside? That was when the matter of envy became more serious to me. Church Gist. Jesus Christ was being envied by the Pharisees, Sadducees, the Sanhedrin, the High Priest. Matthew 27:17-18. “Kill the man! When did they born him that he will be gathering crowds that we cannot gather? At least I have been High Priest for 50 years, this boy is only 30-something years. When we say people should come to the Synagogue, they refuse to come yet this boy will go to the waterside and people will gather there. We did everything, sent out town criers, sent everybody that there’s an announcement in the Temple this Sabbath day, only about 15-16 people came, this boy went to the wilderness and everybody went there. We have to kill him. The worst one now is that he’s not only making the blind to see, He’s multiplying food for them. Since we don’t know the source of His power to reproduce the result, he claimed that He’s reading the law, we are teachers of the law before he was born”. Envy. Church Gist. See, as powerful as Jesus Christ was, he was nailed by envy. Most times, when you see people find your fault, their challenge is envy. When you present a big vision to people and instead of saying, “oh, what a powerful vision”, they begin to knock it down, “in this country, you think this can be achieved? No, think of something else”. That statement is coming from the root of envy. In other words, “who do you think you are? Where do you think you want to go? Who do you want to leave behind?” Church Gist. It is so terrible, that is why people are so loveless because when you share a testimony, they try to look for a testimony that can counter your own. Where people find it very difficult to be genuinely excited with the progress of somebody. Church Gist. They find it very hard to be genuinely at home and excited that somebody is successful.
– Beloved brothers and sisters, that will never be your story and lifestyle!
– lift up your right hand and say, “in the name of Jesus, I receive complete deliverance and freedom from the plague of envy. I refuse and reject the plague of enviousness. I receive complete deliverance from the plague of envy in the Name of Jesus!”
Acts 13:44. Paul the Apostle preached, like we say in Nigeria, ‘so tey’ that the next sabbath day, almost the whole city came together to hear the Word of God. Acts 13:44-45. Envy didn’t arise until they (the Jews) saw the crowd. “It’s not true, what the man is saying is not true. Church Gist. It’s a lie, no miracle happened. Nobody was healed, they just tried to organize something, they are just deceiving you people”. That is one riffraff on the internet who is reacting from his failure, reacting based on his retarded experience and the limitations of his life that he could have asked for help from. “All these people going to Church, they brainwashed all of them, all dummies”, I’m sure you have heard that before. Church Gist. Those are people that are chronic failures. People who are so hopeless about life and they can’t find anything good with anybody or anything.
– that is not your portion! You’re a successful person! You’re a progressive person! You will never be in that category! You will fulfill your life’s assignment.
After we finished the Leeds conference, a young man invited me for his meeting in Bedfordshire. Church Gist. So, we had done night vigil, we were planning to end by 1:30am but that was a plan that never saw the light of the day. We continued to 3am because we had a morning session to attend to and then people engaged from that 3am till 5am. I don’t think I can boast of 2 hours sleep. Before we went, we called him and said, “see how the situation is, we have done vigil all the way from the night till morning and we had no time to sleep and so on and so forth. Church Gist. Will you allow us go and come back another time for your meeting? What is the turn out of the meeting like?” He said that they are like 500 people. We just finished with a massive crowd of people and I didn’t sleep and I traveled all the way to 500 people. I said, “okay”. Church Gist. Going there was going to cost us so much money extra, a 30 minutes flight but was very costly. “So, what do you want us to do?” He said, ‘I would want you to still come sir if it’s possible”. I said, “alright, I’m on my way”. 500 people. So, we flew all the way, traveled by road, another 30 minutes. We went there, he said, “even if it’s 10 minutes, just step in and move. We have publicized and told the people that you’re coming”. Church Gist. Our flight was meant to be 11am. By the time I stepped in there and I saw the 500 or less people and I began to preach, I just went on like a rocket that lost control, went on and went on. Now, this is the point I’m making, by the time we were through, he said, “you know what Sir? You didn’t come for all these people, you came for me and my wife”. I said to him, “feel very free with us going forward. Let us know where we can be of help in what you do”. Church Gist. On our way to the airport, he said, “how tired you were, I thought you were only going to step in and do just 10 minutes, I didn’t know you were going to preach that length, still minister and all manner of healings and so on” because he himself watched the night vigil. I said, that is how our life has been wired, we preach to 50 like we are preaching to 100,000 or a million and here we are today. Church Gist. My passion is to see to what extent that this young man can be pushed. He’s doing very aggressive work, he’s doing street evangelism, the kind of rugged things we do in Africa is what he’s trying to do there. It doesn’t reduce you to assist another person. It doesn’t reduce you to push another person forward. It is not possible for you to help lift a person and remain on the floor. Church Gist. It does not reduce you or take anything from you. If you can make up your mind that your assignment is to ensure that anywhere you see anything good, celebrate it. Anywhere you see anything positive, be excited. Anywhere you see anything progressing, let it interest you. Whether it’s a person lower than you, same level as you or a person higher than you. Somebody said Papa Oyedepo has already overtaken everybody, what does he want again? That’s a Pastor talking. Bitter heart.
The kind of people that I’m talking about, they are nothing, some of them even turned to native doctors in their attempt to become something important. Church Gist. Instead of, “Father, bless Him, the grace on your servant, may it multiply”. This is my own principle: if I say this person in front of me should go forward, no devil can prevent me from going forward. If I say, “Lord, all that you want this your son to become, may he become it”, it is a prayer that I’m praying for myself too. It means that I’m telling God, “all you want me to become, I shall become it. Church Gist. All you want me to do for you in life, I shall do it”. If I’m not pulling the walls in front of me down, no one behind me can pull me down.
– somebody say a loud Amen.
Enviousness. Paul the Apostle, “who is this man? Where did he come from? The whole city has gathered for him” and they organized the mob to deal with Paul. Church Gist. In the next chapter, Paul was stoned and dragged out as a dead man, then the disciples stood round about him and he came back to life.
– you will fulfill your days!
– I announce to you today, envy will not pull you down! Yourself will not be a victim of the plague of envy!
3. Bitterness. Bitterness and unforgiveness will facilitate and enhance loveless living. James 3:11-12. What is the meaning? You can’t be bitter and be lovely at the same time. You can’t be bitter and be sweet at the same time. Church Gist. There’s nobody who can harbour bitterness and accommodate loveliness and lovingness at the same time. You can’t be a bitter personality and a sweet personality at the same time. The bitterness will corrupt the sweetness. If you’re a bitter person, the bitterness you’re carrying will corrupt the sweetness. Church Gist. There’s a transfer of aggression, you will see how the man is shouting at the wife and then the wife becomes so agitated and tensed up and transfers to the children. She’s getting terrible input from husband and she’s trying to find time to calm down her head and then it is flowing to the children. It’s a transfer of tension. Church Gist. That plague of unforgiveness and bitterness, it does not only affect the flow of your love towards the person you’re bitter against, it affects the flow of your love towards others. For example, young lady was disappointed and jilted by a brutal heartless man, ate her food, got everything, borrowed money from her and young ladies know how to over-love until they injure themselves. Church Gist. “Why did you make such a mistake and spent so much money on him?” “I love him”. The man now abandons her and goes to another girl, she becomes so bitter against the man but that is not the problem now, another person comes, a genuine man comes, she says, “all men are the same. Leave me alone!” “I love you”. “Love who? Lie lie”. The bitterness has coloured and corrupted her sweetness. Church Gist. This person that used to be charming and excitable, exciting young lady is now very tensed, her face is straight, and doesn’t want to greet anybody. Like somebody in my class used to say in those days, “guys are bad!”. Not so, there are good men and women. Irrespective of what you have seen, if you encountered an Orpah, there’s a Ruth that is a good person. If you encountered a Judas, there’s a John the Beloved. Judas crucified Jesus, John followed him to the foot of the cross. Bitterness and unforgiveness corrupts the fountain of love. Church Gist. Do you remember what David told Solomon his son? He said, “you see this Joab, don’t let him die normal. Don’t let his grey hair go to the grave”. “Why sir?” He said, “he shed the blood of war in the time of peace”. 2 Samuel 3:27-28. 1 Kings 2:5-6. That was what bitterness caused Joab. War had ended, people died on both sides, you’re still holding the issues of the war against somebody. No. It ought not to be so.
– somebody say a loud Amen.
– lift your right hand and say, “Father, I receive complete freedom from the plague of bitterness. I refuse to be bitter in the name of Jesus! I reject bitterness in the name of Jesus! I receive help to be lovely and loving and lovable in Jesus’ precious name.
There are two more that I’m going to be dealing with in the next services. It’s called selfishness that is a major factor in lovelessness and the final one is wickedness.
What is the cure for lovelessness?
1. Godliness through time spent in His presence and in His Word. 2 Corinthians 3:18. The more time we spend with God, the more time we spend in His Word, the more like God we become. Church Gist. That is why I said it is a lie when anybody says he’s Godly and he’s loveless. It’s a lie, it’s a contradiction of terms. When somebody says that he has a relationship with God and his relationship with human beings is terrible, it’s a lie.
2. Contentment with what God has provided. Contentment is cure for covetousness. 1 Timothy 6:7. Alongside that is the consciousness that nobody receives anything if God did not give to them. John 3:7. Church Gist m What God has not given me yet, I don’t need for now and if God is doing it for somebody, I appreciate and celebrate God for them while I trust God to change my own story. Celebrate what God does for others, what you celebrate, you attract; what you antagonize, you frustrate.
3. The conscious decision to walk in forgiveness. Making the choice unto forgiveness is critical towards overcoming lovelessness. Matthew 6:14-15. Church Gist. I want to give you another reason why forgiveness is necessary; we forgive because God forgives us when we forgive others but secondly, we forgive in order to access God at the place of prayer. Matthew 11:25. Church Gist. In case you’re interested in God hearing your prayers, you must forgive.
– somebody say Amen!
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