FOR EVERY RISE, THERE’S A PRICE. FOR EVERY DESIRED OUTCOME, THERE IS REQUIRED INPUT FROM MAN.
PASSION FOR EXCELLENCE AND THE PURSUIT OF IT IS KEY TO EXISTENCE AT THE TOP PLACE IN LIFE.
WHEN YOU RELEASE YOUR BEST, YOU EXIST AT THE TOP AND WHEN YOU ARE SET TO DEPLOY YOUR BEST, YOUR GENERATION WILL SING YOUR SONG.
Pastor Paul Enenche on ‘SECRETS OF EXISTENCE AT THE TOP’ (Part One)
First Service, Dunamis International Gospel Centre.
I welcome everyone here this morning to this Pre-Convention Sunday. We are already experiencing the density of His presence; I believe that nobody will leave here the same way.
SECRETS OF EXISTENCE AT THE TOP (Part One).
We are in a prophetic service, healing, deliverance and breakthrough and I believe that the Lord will give us the time to experience some measure of that just now.
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Our objective is understanding what it takes to exist at the top place in life. What has been abundantly and plentifully established is that, the top is the place for God’s people. But the top is never achieved by sudden flight; nobody flies suddenly and finds themselves at the top in life.
The top does not happen by chance occurrence; “I am on top in life and I don’t know what I did to get there.” There is nothing like that. “I am in the front in life, I didn’t even do anything” – It doesn’t happen like that. For every rise, there’s a price. There’s no rise without a price. Church Gist. For every outcome; for every desired outcome, there is required input from man. If there is anything you desire as an outcome for your life, there is a required input. That is what we are looking at extensively this morning. So, what is the price for existence at the top?
1). The God-first heart or lifestyle. I am talking about, if you desire for God to be the One to take you up, then you will have the God-first lifestyle (Matthew 6:33). If you look through the scripture, you will look at people who placed God first and how God placed them at the top.
a). Abraham (Genesis 29:27). Abraham couldn’t escape the first place in life because of the place He gave to God.
b). Solomon – God was first in Solomon’s life (1 Kings 3:3). The first thing Solomon did when he got into power was that, he loved the Lord and offered offerings (1 Kings 3:4-6, 11). God said, “you are not asking for money, fame or even for the lives of your enemies or for long life; all you are asking for is that, I should give you understanding; you are a little child and you want me to help you. I have given you what you wanted and I am going to give you what others will never dare and He said to Solomon, I will bring you to such a point where there will be no king like you, before you or after you.” That is the God-first lifestyle.
Solomon could not escape the top place because he gave God His place.
c). King Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26:5). King Uzziah came to the point where he became the inventor of machines and engines; he became very prosperous because he put God first.
Beloveth brothers and sisters, when you give God His place, you take your place at the top in life. When you have decided to give God His place in your life, you cannot escape the top place in life. Don’t let anybody deceive you. Don’t say, “but there are people that I see on top who don’t know God.” Church Gist. Oh yes, it is possible for the devil to position people for disaster, to position people for eternal damnation and eternal destruction, but throughout scripture, we have seen that devil-made people are never a match for God-made people – you look at Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Solomon, people in contemporary times and you realize that, the best person that will make you is God, not even yourself. Let it be clear to God, let it be clear to everyone who knows you that, God is first in your life and you will be shocked at where He will take you.
I have seen my own self and my life and I remember times where people thought we were wasting our time with God, wasting our time with Church; we are doing it too much, but God confirmed it and made it clear to all who thought like that, that you cannot put God first and come last in life.
- I am announcing to someone here today, maybe people are laughing at you right now that you are going to church too much, you are serving God too much, you are praying too much, you are worshipping too much, you are singing too much, you are giving to God too much; I announce; God, the Lifter of men, the Changer of stories, the Changer of destinies shall change your story and position you in the place where you belong!
2). The heart of servanthood; the willingness to be a servant in your generation is a secret of stardom in the Kingdom. I will give you some examples of people who became stars by serving their generation:
a). Joseph – Joseph functioned and existed as a servant in his generation and he ended as a generational and a Kingdom star (Genesis 40:3-4). Church Gist. They brought some executive prisoners and they put them under Joseph’s charge. You know in the prison here, the first person to come to the prison is the chief, even in the police cell, they have the chairman of the cell; the person who arrives later, they deal with him very well and to show him who is the boss of the prison.
I hear stories such as, somebody arrived at prison and they said, what do you do?
Response: “I stole bicycle.”
Get out useless boy! Ordinary bicycle you stole brought you here, your mates are breaking banks, you are talking of bicycle. They will deal with him for not committing the big crime. That is the kind of stories we hear in prisons and now, they brought prisoners to Joseph, he was there in front before them. He must have been lording over them; “Sit down there.” The Bible says, he served them. He had every right to be their master but he served them. He had every right to command them and to tell them what to do, but he served them. In verse 6, he came one morning and he saw that they were sad and he said, “why are your faces sad?” And they said, “we have dreamt a dream.” It shouldn’t be his responsibility; we live in a world where people are to themselves. People sit inside church and they don’t know who is sitting beside them; the sister is not smiling, the brother is not excited and the person seated near does not care. Church Gist. That is the world we live in today. A world that is self-centered, egoistic; nothing bothers anybody except the things that bother themselves. But here was Joseph, came into the prison in the morning and he saw these people, they were not smiling. He said, “Why are you sad? It is natural to be sad in prison, isn’t it? And they said, “We had dreams in the night.”
Response: Calm down. I don’t know what you did but my offence is worse than your own. My offence, I did not do anything at all and yet, I am here. Tell me the dream and I will tell you the interpretation.”
That was how Joseph served his generation, trying to add joy to somebody, trying to make the difference in the life of somebody, trying to impact the life of somebody. There are those who take joy from people, they take happiness from people. When you meet them, by the time they leave you; you are a shadow of yourself. There are some husbands that are like that; this girl was excited, charming, beautiful, full of life; just six months of marriage, all smiles disappear, ugliness takes the place of beauty. You know beauty happens from the inside. What kind of person are you? What difference do you make? What is the experience of the people who come in contact with you? It determines how far God can take you. If you are not a success with people, you will be a failure in life because this world is filled with people. Church Gist. That was the kind of person Joseph was and by serving people like that, by serving his generation like that, that catapulted Joseph; the same people he served were the people who mentioned him to Pharaoh, even though they had forgotten him and that is the natural thing with man; you may help them and they can hurt you. You will raise them and they can try to eliminate you, but that didn’t matter. But God made Pharaoh to dream a dream that forced the people who forgot him to remember him and that took him to stardom.
- You are going places!
The art of leadership is learnt through the act of servanthood. If you are going to become a leader, a generational leader, God is going to pass you through the process of serving people, serving your generation, being concerned and being interested in the welfare of the next person.
b). Job – Job practically served and service the needs of his generation (Job 29:11-17, 20-25). God wants you to become a commander in your generation but your command happens through the pathway of servanthood. Church Gist. How many people are you servicing? How many needs are you servicing in your generation?
They brought the Bill of Quantities from a secondary school that wants to build a chapel for one of their fellowships there and they brought it and I saw it and they were appealing to the Church to help them build it. When I saw it and I saw the amount in it, I said “this is within my own capacity. Church Gist. I will not bother the church with this one; I will handle this from my pocket.” That is, you are eager and excited at every time when the needs arise, you are eager and excited. You want to do something about it and then God says, “you know what? This is the way to the up there and I will take you up.”
- Somebody is going up!
Job came to the point where he became the greatest person in the east (Job 1:3) because of this kind of lifestyle, God made him the greatest man in the east.
c). King David – David served the destitute and the stranded of his generation (1 Samuel 22:1-2). Four hundred angry people gathered themselves together to a man who was living inside a cave, the cave of Adullam. He wasn’t living in a storey building or a duplex, himself was on the run from king Saul, who wanted him dead. He was looking for food to eat and yet, they gathered and he did not drive them away. He didn’t say, “I do not have what to eat and you are asking me to donate to teacher.” You know in the village in those days, they used to donate their food to teachers. Church Gist. “I don’t have what to eat and you are asking me to donate to teacher; teacher is on his own.” David did not say that. He gathered them together, he serviced them until God says, “you are able to serve this four hundred people who are stranded, let me make you to service a whole nation. Let me position you to serve a generation.” That is how it works.
He that is faithful in the little, will definitely be faithful in the much. Don’t say, “I don’t have money.” God is watching you; start from where you are. Somebody told my secretary sometime ago and said, “What the pastor is doing now, did not start today. He said, since university, he will preach to you inside the taxi and pay your taxi fare.” That was true; after preaching to you and you are about to pay, I will say, “Don’t bother, driver, take the money.” In my room, the soup we used to cook was everybody’s soup. In fact, one day, one brother from the upstairs came and carry the whole pot, not the empty pot; the soup pot. Church Gist. It was only refunded when it has been emptied and there was no quarrel. My roommate and myself in the same room, we wore the same suit, we had the same body size, so there was no difference who owns which cloth. The money was in the same place, suit pocket; everybody’s money was everybody’s money. That was when I realized that I can be married without quarrel, that if I can stay in a room with a man for three years and we didn’t argue, if I can live with a man like myself for three solid years in one room; no quarrel, not argument on any issue one day. You saw yourself on campus and it was as if you didn’t leave the same room, you are hugging yourselves afresh and you left the same room the same morning, brother like yourself; I realized that I can be married for donkey years and I will not be tired of my wife and there will be no cause for contention.
You know, the little things that you pass through prepare you for the future. Killing lions and bears prepared David for the killing of Goliath and I am asking that the Lord will help us here this morning, not to just live to ourselves; you don’t have enough but there is something slight that can make a difference in somebody’s life. Let that difference be made and you will be shocked.
- I prophesy to someone here today, the God who lifted David from the cave and turned him into a king, that God is lifting somebody right now!
The heart for your generation is what makes you a generational general. When you have a heart for a generation, you end up as a general in your generation; you are not one that can be looked down upon, you are not one that can be taken for granted, you are not one that anyone could take for a ride. The heart of servanthood, begin to look for how to serve, how to make a difference in the lives of the people; don’t go about with the mentality of a boss; someone who is looking for who to boss over. Just go about and see where you can make a difference and touch lives and see how God will take you and position you in the realm where He will give you the masses of your generation to impact.
When I was getting married, I told God and said, I don’t have too much qualification because some people have qualifications of height, this and that. One major qualification I have is, give me a wife that has a heart for people because I know there will be people in my life and I don’t want anybody who will drive away the people of my life. How many of you know that if you visit a man’s house, you and the wife will know whether you are to remain there or not. Church Gist. The man didn’t say anything, even madam didn’t say anything but you know that you don’t have more than one day to stay in that house. Women are very powerful, men are just carrying muscle for nothing; overnight the man carries his bag, you say what happened? He’ll say I am going. You say, I thought you said you will stay for one week. He will tell you, “no, I have something to go and do.” Madam communicated with him, both with sight and action and the man is aware that his tenure has expired, that is why if you are concerned about your future, marry well and I am talking of both man and woman because a great woman can have a disastrous destiny when you marry a disastrous man.
We live in a generation today where there are so many men now who does not want to do anything but they want to survive. There are many who are surviving on women, is it not a shame? We will leave this for another day.
Wife is clothing you, feeding you, paying children’s school fees and you are beating her on top, what kind of yeye man is this? If you have power, deploy the power to make money. You have the power to beat a wife, use the power to conquer money; your mates are conquering money. So the thing happens in both ways; good woman marrying bad husband is disaster. Good man marrying bad wife is calamity and the two of them is katata.
- You will not fail!
- You will not miss road in life!
3). The pursuit of excellence.
Passion for excellence and the pursuit of it is key to existence at the top place in life. Doing what you do in life with the best of your ability is key to taking your place at the top. Church Gist. Giving the task at hand the best you have got is key to existence at the top. Not doing things shabbily, not doing things in mediocre ways but the best you have got.
Examples:
a). Joseph was the best at what he did and that took him to the top. There were magicians in Egypt but none could compare with him (Genesis 41:8, 37-40). When you dream and you have a great vision and you don’t have matching excellence, that will just become a mirage, it is a nightmare; “oh, I have a big vision of becoming this and becoming that” but you are not the best at what you do, it is just a waste of time, it will not achieve anything. They said that if wishes were horses, beggars will be riding because they will be imagining themselves in the aircraft and there’s nothing that can take them up without work, except maybe by witchcraft. You know there is something common between aircraft and witchcraft – all of them fly.
b). David – David was the best at what he did; he was the best musically (1 Samuel 16:17-18, 21). David did not go to the palace because there was oil on his head, he didn’t go to the palace because he was just handsome. He went to the palace because he could do something better than everybody in his realm. Also, in the face of Goliath, David deployed his expertise, he dared Goliath even when the king of Israel could not dare Goliath (1 Samuel 17:24-26).
Everybody was thinking of how to run away from the man, this one was thinking of how to take the man down. No wonder, that took him up. So, in the realm of music and in the realm of war, David was the best. He was better than every musician and also better than every fighter in Israel. That took him to the point where he became a song (1 Samuel 18:6-7). Church Gist. When you are set to deploy your best, your generation will sing your song; they will sing you like they sing song. It is possible to be good at more than one thing. It is possible to function at the best in more than one thing. David functioned in the realm of music as the best, in the realm of war, as the best. Now I can tell you many other things about David, but I will leave it for another time; instrument, choir direction, king, priest, prophet.
There are people in our generation, they are not good at even one thing but they are good in other things. For example, they hate, very good haters, expert jealousy. Nothing they can do that is good except to hate; “the shoe doesn’t fit him sef, what kind of clothes is this like vulture?” They are permanently looking for what to hate and it is plenty on the internet; a congregation of mega failure in most cases. People waiting for how to tear one person or the other down; a whole life wasted on hatred.
c). Daniel – Daniel was good in three realms;
i). Daniel was ahead of the academicians (Daniel 1:20-21, Daniel 1:4).
ii). He was on top of the magicians (Daniel 5:11-12).
iii). He was on top of the politicians (Daniel 6:1-3).
Any realm you put Daniel; he was on top. When you release your best, you exist at the top.
My counsel to you; make the choice and take the steps to exist at the top. This is my choice and these are my steps; make the choice, take steps to exist at the top. I refuse to live in the pit.
🎶Lord the path of the just man is a bright and shining light
That shines more and more until the perfect day.
I refuse to be history for as long as I’m on earth.
Constant change from day to day is my desire🎶
PRAYERS:
- Father, I demand for the lifting off of every embargo on my life today. In the name of Jesus, every embargo on my life, I command you to break now.
- Every power of blood that supplies strength to killers in Nigeria; every altar of blood that supplies strength, power and indestructibility to killers in this nation, oh you altars, shrines and native doctors that supply them the power to destroy lives, in the name of Jesus catch fire now.
(Altar Call)
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