MINISTRY IS A SCHOOL OF LIFELONG LEARNING. NO MATTER ANYBODY’S SPIRITUAL ENDOWMENT OR ANOINTING, WHERE LEARNING STOPS, PROGRESS STOPS.
WHEN LIGHT COMES, FRUSTRATION ENDS, CELEBRATION BEGINS
I BELIEVE THAT EVERY GENERATION IS ORDAINED TO BE AN IMPROVEMENT ON THE PREVIOUS.
JUST LIKE WE ARE BY GRACE AN IMPROVEMENT TO PREVIOUS GENERATIONS, THE COMING GENERATION MUST BE AN IMPROVEMENT OF OUR GENERATION OTHERWISE IT IS A FAILED GENERATION.
PREACHING IS CHEAP, YOU CAN PREACH WITHOUT BEING SAVED.
WE STUDIED YONGGI CHO CHURCH GROWTH MATERIAL AS A MINISTRY BEFORE WE GOT LIGHT FOR EXPANSION.
NO ONE CAN CHANGE LEVELS WITHOUT LIGHT, NOT WITH PRAYERS.
PRAYER TO KNOW IS FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN PRAYER TO GET.
SPIRITUAL SLUMBER HAS BEEN THE UNDOING OF MANY OF US IN MINISTRY.
ANYTHING YOU DESIRE, WHEN YOU SEE IT, GO FOR IT
I SAW TREMENDOUS CHURCH GROWTH FROM YONGGI CHO’S MINISTRY AND I WENT AFTER IT
FOLLOW THAT WORD THAT I FOLLOWED THAT IS WORKING FOR ME AND IT’LL WORK ALSO FOR YOU
THERE’S NO PLACE FOR A SLOTHFUL MAN IN MINISTRY
- Bishop David Oyedepo at 2022 Ministers’ Summit || THE TRIUMPH OF LIGHT || Day One, Opening Night || Canaanland, Ota.
Light is sweet. Ecclesiastes 11:7. There is no beauty without access to light. My prayer tonight is that light will break forth into the hearts and minds of every one of us in the precious name of Jesus. I want to also join to welcome every one of us here. May tonight mark yet another dawning of a new day in Jesus’ name.
Lord Jesus speak, your servants are all here, we are all hearing you. Church Gist. Speak to our lives, speak to our ministries, speak to our destinies, speak to our future and take all the glory.
UNVEILING THE TRIUMPH OF LIGHT shall be the running theme of my sessions in this meeting. It is common knowledge that the dominion of light is instant and unquestionable. You turn on the light in your room without any argument, no noise, no sound, darkness flees. When light comes, frustration ends, celebration begins. Isaiah 60:1. Church Gist. Light is the gateway to a world of unlimited breakthroughs, sweatless breakthroughs, undeniable breakthroughs, may we all receive grace for continuous access to light so we can keep commanding continuous sweatless breakthroughs in the name of Jesus. Light has the capacity to make a nation out of a person. Isaiah 60:1,3,8. It empowers men for a flight. Isaiah 60:22. Light is what beautifies destiny. It is what sweetens life.
Let me first begin by stating why this Ministers Summit is holding. Why are we gathered? I have a commandment to strengthen the brethren by a divine mandate by what He must have used to strengthen me. Luke 22:31-32. Church Gist. I believe that every generation is ordained to be an improvement on the previous. Psalm 145:4. Just like we are by grace an improvement to previous generations, the coming generation must be an improvement of our generation otherwise it is a failed generation. We can’t get that done without unveiling to them the things He must have unveiled to us that have kept us by His grace to see the few things we have seen.
I also believe that greater works shall be done by anyone who believes in the exploits of ministries that have gone before them. No one gave birth to himself. Jeremiah 6:16-17. As close as these lights are, you can’t access that without a scaffold. You need a ladder. If the bulbs are dead, they will remain dead until we have a ladder. So I developed a module which I call “The ‘Laddership’ of Leadership”. If you don’t have a ladder, you can’t change levels. Church Gist. So we take steps after the steps of those who have gone before us so we can see beyond because you have to see beyond the ladder. On reaching the last step of the ladder, you have gone beyond the ladder. That is what the enemy is trying to do, to disconnect the so-called new generation from where they are coming from. But God said He will restore the heart of fathers to their children before He comes.
I also believe that every gift upon every apostolic ministry is to be freely given to those who truly crave for it. Matthew 10:8. The giving is not auto, it takes a crave to entitle any individual to have it. I craved for the grace upon Hagin with every passion in my system. I saw the serenity of the winning faith. I saw the noiselessness of global impact, “Jesus I want this. Jesus I want this”. Church Gist. There are quite a number of people today, there is nothing anybody is doing that appeals to them. They think they have it because they know the verses but they have not experienced it. I saw the grace upon Copeland, I craved for it and I got it. It is available on demand. It is not an auto transmission.
I also believe that the only way to be free from the blood of all men is to pass timely insights, instructions and warnings to those around that grace. timely insights, instructions and warning so all these agenda of God can come through in their lives. I was never announced once in Hagin’s meetings. I didn’t need announcements, I needed impartation. Hagin was alive when Faith Tabernacle was dedicated because he went home in 2003. Church Gist. So he was alive to see it, he was alive to know it. I bless God because the connectivity is still speaking till tomorrow. Who am I to sit on the front row? For what? No! I am not fit but I got what I wanted because I settled down. It is wisdom to know what you need when you see it. It is wisdom to know what you need when you see it. Zechariah 3:17.
Now let’s take note of the following pillars for generation impact in ministry. We are looking at just three of them tonight to set the stage for what these two days will deliver by the grace of God.
- Ministry is a school of lifelong learning.
- We must continue to wage war against spiritual slumber or one may be heading for a crash.
- We must beware of this ongoing new generation syndrome.
- Ministry is a school of lifelong learning.
No matter one’s endowment or anointing, where learning stops, progress stops. 1 Timothy 4:13,15. Continuous learning is one of God’s secrets behind open profiting and progress. By giving yourself wholly to the things you are learning otherwise one is receiving himself. 2 Timothy 2:15. If you don’t want to be ashamed of your ministry, study. Continuous learning. Not studying to preach, studying to get closer to God. Study to know more of God. The Lord said to me and I always say so because I have it in my heart: “You don’t need to know no one to scale the utmost heights in life, just know me”. Daniel 11:32. It isn’t politics, you don’t need anybody’s vote. When you secure His vote you have won the election. His vote overrides everything, one vote, veto vote. Gang-ups won’t matter, gang-downs won’t matter. Church Gist. So the root of exploits is the revelation of God. People think it is the revelation of the word, it is revelation of God. A revelation of God is at the root of sweatless exploits in ministry. 2 Timothy 4:13. Paul the Apostle, the giant was a note-taker. Do you know how many ministers that don’t have any notes, except to go and preach they don’t have any notes? There are things in my notes that cannot be taught now yet I heard from God lest they stone me.
Knowledge puffs up, that little thing that makes you think you know everything. 1 Corinthians 8:1-2. Romans 11:33. Unsearchable! We are searching the unsearchable so the search is endless. Preaching is cheap, you can preach without being saved. It is telling the story that you have read. Recently I heard the story of a pastor that got saved, he is a pastor of a Pentecostal ministry but got saved here. Church Gist. What was he saying? He was preaching. Somebody was a member of this church for 6 years, 2005-2011 – 6 years before he got saved. So membership and salvation are not the same.
Ministry is a school of lifelong learning. No matter anybody’s spiritual endowment or anointing, where learning stops, progress stops. Proverbs 1:5, 9:9 says it more graphically. Instruct a wise man and he will become wiser, wisdom is in categories. Ecclesiastes 7:17. Be not overwise! You say you know it, okay, show it. Until you show it you have not known it. Jesus was teaching and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom. “I know that about church growth” and your church is not growing so what do you know? Anybody can preach, my friend. Anybody can. Church Gist. You don’t need to be saved to preach. Just understand the story and pass it on to others. The gateway to this realm is meekness. The meek shall He teach His way. Matthew 11:27-28. No proud man has a place in my classroom, Jesus said. Those who know it all, I don’t waste my time talking to them. I talk to those who know that they don’t know it.
So, I know the way forward any day, anytime is light. So, we bought 400 copies of building a successful home-cell by Yonggi Cho. I have been his student since 1985, he’s my school master. I enjoyed him, he taught me what God taught him and people think I know it. Yes, I know it through him. This man had a successful home cell system so let’s find out. So, we studied the book and we came back to do reviews and the Church moved by almost 7,000 cells in a year. ChurchGist. We got to a point, we said; oh, it seems we have exhausted this book. It was not just reading for pleasure; it was reading in search of these three things;
- What are we doing that we should not be doing?
- What are we doing that we are not doing well enough?
- What should we not be doing that we are doing?
So, we gave everybody the book to go and check, and they came back and by light we changed levels.
Who are these that are flying? We fly by light. So, when I felt like it appeared that we’ve exhausted what we got in this material, I got more materials on cell growth research work and then boom, we went to 15,000. ChurchGist. We had to control the growth because it was spreading to all shops and all business centres, I said oh it’s in every house.
Now, this is where meekness comes in, we were to double the number of cells in a year and now we are about 20,000 cells, how do we do this? The Lord gave me an inspiration to search for those individuals through their records who have been very successful in cell replication drives and we got about 160 of them, we contacted them to find out what and what they did. ChurchGist. The people we taught by the way they applied it had to teach us how to go forward. We built 21,000 cells in one year.
There is no learning by emblem and identity. Genuinely seeking the way forward, T.L Osborn once said; when you stop learning, you start dying. You know that stagnant water stinks, without fresh water coming in, it begins to stink. In aviation, piloting requires recurrence of knowledge on an annual basis, just like the eagle sheds her old feathers and grows new ones on an annual basis. No one can change levels without light. All these prayers with intensity (Oh God, oh God) my people are destroyed, they are stagnated for lack of knowledge, not for lack of prayers. ChurchGist. Prayer to know is far more important than prayer to get.
The Lion, the Archbishop Benson Idahosa one day said to me, my son take as much as you want, it was a bag of money and we were preparing for a meeting and he wanted to be a part of it, I said; sir, I don’t want. He said, you mean I can’t give you money. I know you can but I prefer to learn how to get it. ChurchGist. You better be a learner, it’s very simple, be open to learn, be meek to learn. Why am I having tension in my family? Learn so that you can be free from it, you can even be leading prayer and be slapping your wife after prayers. You can be fighting your wife on the prayer altar. Father, what kind of wife is this? Pray on why is this tension unending? Why is this Church not growing? Show me light, He said; go and find light through those I have shown light, go and find it.
We have the bright syndrome in the Body of Christ today and every preacher is an authority, self-acclaimed authority: I have come here to tell you today the things you don’t know. ChurchGist. I tell people, let’s keep using: we are here to hear from God and God wants to speak to us, every one of us, this alone will calm you down. Amen! You know they can’t ask questions, if it is a lecture, they will say excuse me, that thing is not correct. He had his own authority, a complete professor.
PILLAR TWO
We must continue to wage war against spiritual slumber, it has been the undoing of many of us in ministry. ChurchGist. Spiritual slumber! Jesus in the parable of the wheat and tares said, while men slept, the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheats, while men slept, they couldn’t sow it while they were awake. Matthew 13:25-26. No one, no matter how expert he is at driving, if he goes asleep on the stirring, calamity is inevitable.
So, a sleepy pastor and minister is driving the flocks into a ditch. No sleepy driver ever drives save in the highway. What we call ember months in our part of the world it is sleeper month. We boarded a vehicle in Kaduna and the driver was driving gradually off the road and we shouted stop. It was a passenger that drove us, the man would have killed all of us. ChurchGist. One day my driver and I were coming from Jos and then I saw the car going off the road, Elijah you’re sleeping, he said no sir, I said OKAY park, I want to use the toilet. So, I collected the key from him. In 5 minutes, he was already snoring. My God, he wanted to carry me to Heaven but God delivered me because we were not all asleep.
Most crises that ministers suffer are traceable to spiritual slumber. You have three children from your wife and suddenly she’s now a witch, then your children are wizards, because like beget like. It’s your sleeping state. Why is the Church not growing? It’s my wife, you’re a witch. (I’m not a witch, okay I’m a witch, deliver me). Sleeping state is a risky state, don’t toil with it. We must stay awake spiritually to drive safe on the airway of life. Ephesians 5:14. A sleepy state is a deadly state. ChurchGist. We have a long list of giants of faith that went asleep in their work with God at one point to another and how they pay very dearly for it;
- Samson
- Solomon
- David
They were all trapped in their sleepy state. Therefore, let not the fire on your spiritual altar go out. Leviticus 6:12-13. The fire on the altar shall ever be burning in it, it shall not go out, let the priest arrange wood in the fire every morning, because where no wood is, the fire goes out. ChurchGist. The wood is the Word of God, the Holy Ghost is the fire, so when there is no Word, the Holy Ghost has nothing to burn, you will just be speaking tongues that have no meaning in Heaven and on earth. Proverbs 26:20. Let there be wood on the altar of your life, morning by morning. ChurchGist. Let there be no day where you just move out as a mighty man of God, it is a risk. Beware of spiritual slumber, it has slain many people unaware.
PILLAR THREE
Beware of New Generation syndrome. Truth is timeless and ageless, there is no new generation truth. Truth is trans-generational. Beware of New generation syndrome, that is looking for Greek and Hebrew to interpret the Bible, beware of translation that has no meaning. Beware! Every new born baby has its roots in its old parents, every new plant is a product of the seed from the old. ChurchGist. Nothing new exists without its root from the old. There are graces from the old that the new generation will always require to make the most of their calling. Don’t ever discard the good of the old in the name of trying to be a new generational preacher. It’s a risk! Don’t be sloughtfull, don’t look for shortcuts. Every new generation takes its bearing from the old. Our own set came out from the old set and the new set will come out from our set, that is God’s arrangement and yet another one will come from another group set. Psalm 145:4. It is from one generation to another, not no generation to another.
For example; one cannot be faithful like Abraham in his work with God and not be supernaturally blessed like Abraham, if you’re Abraham seeds then you will do the work of Abraham, that will never change, it is there forever. ChurchGist. Abraham came under blessing through unreserved obedience, you want to experience blessing; unreserved obedience to His instructions.
One cannot follow the leading of God like Isaac and not become an envy of his/her world, not carrying your bag and just be running around the world, you think that’s ministry. Isaac, thou shall not go down to Egypt. Yes sir! And he sowed in that land and he reaped in that same year hundred-fold, the Lord, made him very great and the philistines envied him and they said, thou art mightier than we. You cannot follow God like Isaac and not be the envy of your world
His Leadings are superior to any elevation.
We have never authenticated the moving of any Church here from the town but the voice of God is superior. This is the place, no guesswork, if you follow His leadings, only goodness and mercy are permitted to follow you, if you follow yourself anything can follow you. Isaiah 48:21. There is always fishing when you follow His leading. ChurchGist. One cannot be dedicated to God like Daniel and not energy tops in his endeavours. They could not could find anything. These are things that we draw from the world.
One cannot be sold out to God like Paul and not command a generational impact in ministry, “Woe is me if I preach not the gospel, I count everything but dung”. Nothing has any meaning to me again. I die daily and I enjoy saying so. It is not this funfair kind of thing that people are doing around now, that impact is determined by what you have. ChurchGist. Nobody will remember you for what you have forever, you will only be remembered for what you give. What you have is your cup of tea.
October 3, 1984, we were trusting God to pay #3,000 for our Church facility rent and I said, I think we are just 3 or 4, now that we are all at the same level, understand what I’m saying, if I have this money, God won’t appeal to me to give it, but a time is coming when you start seeing us in the air and you’ll start grumbling, let me tell you what I’m using, I’m sold out to God, I wasn’t harassing anybody I was just expressing my stand, so that it won’t become magical tomorrow. ChurchGist. You can’t be sold out to God and not know, let’s stop all this religious statement, you will know if you’re sold out to God. Paul said, I count all things but dung, not God saying I count all things but dung, woe is me if I preach not the gospel.
I said to Jesus, should I pretend I did not hear you, see that I do not succeed in anything I do, so is not that God said, I said it myself. ChurchGist. 12th September 1976, they’re not things you guess about, they are things you know deeply. Be reminded, there is no new generation truth. Truth is timeless, truth is ageless, truth is constant, there is no old-fashioned truth, truth is trans-generational, its impact is forever. Until you can stop the sun and the moon, the day and the night, you can’t stop the truth from triumphing. Truth is truth, take it or leave it.
Before we pray tonight, can I invite my wife to come, I caught the light, I preached it and I taught it. She just came up with a book that will be dedicated in the course of this conference. “Covenant Pathways to Hitch Free Marriage”.
Can I please invite my wife to come to say greetings to this congregation tonight. 40 years of hitch-free experience in marriage by the triumph of Light
- come on say, “triumph of Light”
Every tension in every home, in the name of Jesus, everyone present here or online, anywhere in the world, the tension is doused tonight.
—- Mummy Faith Oyedepo
Praise the Lord, I greet you all in the name of Jesus Christ and I want to say very clearly that the Word of God works and God is no respecter of persons. In our marriage, it has been working. Church Gist. For anyone who desires it tonight, it’ll work for you and your testimony shall be stronger than ours. I love you and God bless you.
—Bishop David Oyedepo
Anything you desire, when you see it, go for it. It is wisdom to go for it. I saw tremendous Church growth from Yonggi Cho’s ministry, I went after it. Church Gist. Since 1985, I’ll photocopy a whole book.
Find out what they did, if you’re interested, engage in the same, if it’s in the Word. I’m not asking you to follow us, I say follow the Word that we have followed. Church Gist. Paul said, “follow me as I follow Christ”. Follow that Word that I followed that is working for me. It’ll work also for you. Thank you Jesus.
There’s no place for an idle man in the Kingdom. There’s no place for a slothful man in ministry. Proverbs 22:29.
- it’s your turn. God is here to make you laugh. It’s your turn.
It’s not enough to encounter light, it’s to sustain the light. Let your light so shine. How? Keep charging it. Church Gist. Your rechargeable lamp will go off if you won’t recharge it. Keep charging and recharging that light and the light will keep shining. If you watch the battery go flat, the light will go out and darkness will come back. Don’t watch the light go out, lest darkness comes back. Don’t watch it. Keep charging every truth that has worked in your life, to keep the light in that area to keep shining more and more and you keep flying higher and higher. Church Gist. It’s the way it works. No place for a slothful man in ministry. 1 Corinthians 15;10b. Only lifetime students of the Word sustain impact in ministry. Not note preachers. Welcome to this mountain of light and expect your desired transformation to be effected here. Church Gist. It will be one mountain you’ll never forget in a hurry. In the name of Jesus.
Let me conclude by saying, this meeting is not put together because I need to have some people to teach. I have enough, by His grace. Church Gist. If it’s teaching, I can be teaching all my life without anything or calling any meeting but God gave me this mandate and I know it’s for somebody here.
- no ministry here will suffer a downward trend again. No ministry shall be stagnated again.
Note this, when you throw a stone up, wherever it stops going up, it starts coming down. So, there’s no Plato, it’s self deception. You’re either going up or you’re coming down. Church Gist. There’s nothing called Plato in ministry. You’re either going up or coming down.
- but from this time on, you shall only be going up.
Proverbs 4:18. So, God told me, I’ve not designed life for ups and downs but for ups and ups. October 4, 1984.
- your life will not suffer the siege of ups and downs again. No circumstances under heaven can prevail against the covenant. Jeremiah 33:20. Church Gist. So, God’s covenant is superior to environmental situations. Far superior.
- something is breaking forth, in your favour and it’s right now. In the name of Jesus Christ.
Stand to your feet. Thank you Jesus. My desire is that this coming generation will hit wherever grace takes us to by committing to the things that He showed us, through people who also went before us and engaging with them with a genuine heart. He showed me on time that following the steps of those before you will give you speed. Church Gist. So, I committed myself to biographies. Finding the way they think, the steps they took, the one they took wrongly, how to avoid it, the one they took rightly, how to follow it.
- may each one be clothed with the meekness required to sustain impact.
Prayer: Lift up your two hands and ask God for the grace of the meekness required to remain lifelong student of the Word.
Paul said, “I’m the least of all saints and I’m not even worthy to be called an Apostle, but unto me this grace is given”. It’s all of grace.
- may each one of us be clothed with meekness afresh.
- may we remain ever fresh in our service of the Lord.
Some are busy learning but they never come to the knowledge of the truth.
- grace to constantly come to the knowledge of the truth as we endeavour to learn more and more, receive it afresh tonight.
John 14:12. Jesus said so. Zechariah 4;6.
- everyone here will fulfill God’s agenda for their lives, in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank you Father.
All these, “pray for me, pray for me”, it won’t take you far. No. It’s “show me, show me” that will get you to where you’re going. “Show me the secret of Kingdom prosperity” changed my story. “Show me why this Church is not growing” changed the state of the Church. Church Gist. “Show me, show me” is the prayer of giants. And there’s a giant in you. “Show me why this is not working, show me how to keep this one that is working, working, show me everyday, everytime, we need it”. Please engage with your God on this point, let your moments here be moments most memorable, your private times in the night, you’re not by your side. Church Gist. “Jesus, what are you saying on this issue?” Every sincere question is entitled to an answer from the Lord. We will soon get into that but the purpose here is to ask God to open every deaf ear so that hearing from God becomes your natural lifestyle. You can’t miss your steps with access to His voice. Church Gist. You can’t miss it. It’s when we don’t look for it or we ignore it that we run into crisis. I told leaders today, “see, remove the voice of God from here, nothing remains” nothing. The voice of God just showing the next step to take, next way to go and how to go by it.
I granted an interview when we were 25 years, I said, “God still speaks today” and I brought out a number of pillars that God unveiled by His voice. Church Gist. It’s not in Genesis, Revelations or anywhere. There are two voices contending for your attention, the voice of the Shepherd and the Voice of the stranger. Also, on this mountain, we’ll be told how to identify the voice of the Shepherd and identify the voice of the stranger so you will not estrange your life. I’ve heard the voice of the stranger several times. I’ve been hearing from God since ’76 and when the devil saw that I was going up, he started rushing and sending me messages. So, I grew to discover how to identify the voice of the stranger. It shall be an awesome time for us. We are not saying that we’re not wise but we can get wiser. We’re not saying we don’t know anything, we’re saying, we should know better. Church Gist. I mean, there are more things to cover in the school of knowledge.
Lift up those two hands and give God thanks.
- may everyone in this summit tonight return with this Impartation of grace. May everyone online around the world enjoy the same order of impartation.
- generational impact shall become each one’s lot.
- no ministry will die while you’re still leaving
- your work will not be eroded while you’re still breathing
- generations after you will be drawing virtue from your words. In the name of Jesus.
Give the Lord a big hand of Praise.
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