JUST THE SAME WAY THINGS ARE WORKING HERE, AS GOD’S SERVANT HAS DECLARED, IT WILL KEEP WORKING IN YOUR LIFE.
OUR SPIRIT MAN IS PREGNANT WITH PROPHETIC BLESSINGS, PROPHETIC DECLARATIONS, PROPHETIC WORDS BUT IT TAKES THE FORCE OF THANKSGIVING TO SEE THIS PREGNANCY TURNED INTO TESTIMONIES.
YOU MUST GO CONTRARY TO THE CULTURE OF THE NIGHT IF YOU WANT TO TURN YOUR NIGHT TO DAY AND YOUR CAPTIVITY TO LIBERTY.
DON’T CRY FOR YOUR SITUATION, PRAISE IN YOUR SITUATION.
-Pastor David Oyedepo Jr at CHoP
*As you praise God in this season, not only will you be free but everyone connected to you will be free.
Our Father, we thank You today for the blessing and the privilege of being in Your presence. We thank You Lord for the great testimonies we have heard. They are your doings and they are marvellous in our eyes. For it, we give You all the praise. We thank You also for the answers You have given to all of our prayers. Accept our thanksgiving, in the name of Jesus Christ. This morning, our eyes are upon You, we ask that You will speak to us and that Your words will transform our lives. Thank You mighty God, in Jesus precious name we have prayed.
Our line of exhortation all through the week has been:
ENGAGING THE POWER OF THANKSGIVING FOR FULFILLMENT OF PROPHECY
We have stated earlier in the week that prophecy is the declaration of divine intention – Isaiah 42:9
God’s Word makes it clear to us that God is in the habit of utilizing His Word as a forerunner of His work. If you are going to see the work of God, you must first secure a Word from God – Isaiah 46:10
The God we serve is a God that precedes His work by His Word. If you are going to see God work, it will start with a Word from God. Church Gist. That is why the greatest treasure that any man can accumulate is the treasure of Words: Words from God. Prophetic Words are spiritual treasures.
Psalm 119:162, Matthew 13:44
Remember we are told, “buy the truth and sell it not” – Proverbs 23:23
Clearly from God’s Word we discover that the Words that we receive, these prophetic Words are spiritual treasures. It means therefore that the riches of a man’s life are not determined by physical resources but Word resources.
Romans 11:33
Any man that is Word loaded is treasure loaded. The Words of God are the treasures of the Spirit but we discover that to see those Words brought to pass in our lives, the instrument of thanksgiving is a vital necessity. It is our response to every Word received.
Psalm 119:162 – There is a response to the discovery of every prophetic Word and that response is the response of praise and thanksgiving.
Psalm 56:4,10 – There is a response required in order to facilitate the fulfillment of the prophetic Words, those spiritual treasures that we have received.
I know that each of us can testify to the fact that this is a prophetic family and we have been receiving prophetic treasures continuously. Many of us have our spirit man loaded with prophetic blessings, prophetic declarations, prophetic Words that have come our way from the altar, from our private time of study, from our time of prayer and the spirit as it were is pregnant but there is a force that is required to turn the pregnancy to delivery and that is the force of thanksgiving.
-I pray this morning as each one of us positions with this force, every one prophetic Word that your spirit man is pregnant with, will be turned into a testimony.
All through the week, we have been looking at examples in scriptures of how these Words were turned into testimonies via the force of thanksgiving and praise. We are going to look this morning of the example of Paul and Silas.
Acts 16:25 – Paul and Silas were locked up in Prison but the Bible makes us to understand that their situation required a particular catalyst in order to see God step in. We must first realise that every child of God is redeemed to be free and free indeed – John 8:36, Galatians 5:1
God’s Word makes it clear that we have the heritage of liberty. Say with me, “I have a heritage of liberty.”
2 Corinthians 3:17
Everyone that belongs to God is ordained for liberty.
Galatians 4:31 – We are born into a Kingdom of liberty.
Galatians 6:6-7
Every child of God is ordained for liberty. What kind of liberty? The Bible calls it the glorious liberty of the sons of God – Romans 8:21
We are ordained for glorious liberty, that is enviable liberty. Every child of God is ordained for glorious liberty. Church Gist. That is, you are not to be pitied, you are to be envied. But what happens when you have a prophetic Word such as this Word that tells us we are ordained for glorious liberty and yet you find yourself in captivity?
That is what happened to Paul and Silas. They had this reality that according to the Word of God they were ordained for liberty, yet they found themselves locked up in captivity.
Acts 16:25
The word ‘midnight’ is not only significant by reason of the time of the day, but it is significant by what happens in the night. Because the Bible tells us that what happens mostly in the night is weeping, “weeping occurs in the night”. But if you are going to turn your night to day and your captivity to liberty, then you must go contrary to the culture of the night. Church Gist. Rather than weeping in the night, what happened to them? At midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God, so loud that the prisoners heard them. The Bible tells us “and suddenly there was a great earthquake” – Acts 16:25. It was a targeted earthquake.
From what I know, earthquakes are not specific like that. When you have an earthquake and it hits anywhere where a building is, the building is the one that should come down. But this earthquake was specific, it came to unlock the door and break the chains. Building was intact but imprisonment was terminated, by reason of that divine intervention that came through the instrumentality of praise.
You see if you want to terminate captivity, if you want to terminate imprisonment, if you want to terminate whatever is contrary to your liberty in Christ, the instrument is very simple: Go forth in praise. When praise goes forth, God comes down and when God comes down, captivity is terminated.
As they gave God praise, suddenly the prison doors opened. Suddenly, every man’s bounds were loosed.
-I will like you to know that as you are going to be praising God, thanking God, celebrating God in this season, not only will you be free but everyone connected to you will be free.
There are ways that you position yourself with God that the effect of God’s intervention goes beyond you as a person. It begins to affect all that are connected to you. The Bible says, Paul and Silas praised God to the point that the entire prison was filled with their praise and when the praise saturated the prison, liberty came to the entire prison. Everybody was set free. There is a way you will praise God, thank Him and celebrate Him that liberty will infiltrate your entire family where no one will be left in captivity.
We had a testimony recently of one of us that was read to us in the course of this week, who stood on the behalf of the family. That family, nobody had gotten married, but after she stood on the behalf of the family: year after year, person A, person B, person C, including herself, all of them got married. The captivity was broken.
-I don’t know what looks like captivity in any department of your life: is it academic captivity, career captivity, business captivity, whether it is captivity of sickness or disease, of pain, of failure, of frustration, of stagnation, no matter what that captivity is, in this month as your praise goes forth and God comes down, the prison will open up.
-That prison will open up on your behalf in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We discover that this works for us as individuals, it works for us as families and it works for us as a Church. As the Church keeps giving God praise, you will see barriers of growth broken down and you see the Church expanding and going from glory to glory – Jeremiah 30:19, Isaiah 54:1-3
That is what happens when praise goes up. Not only do we enjoy breaking of limits in our personal lives but the Church also continues to break forth.
-I see that continue to be our experience in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Don’t cry for your situation, praise in your situation and you will find the captivity breaking down. I see that becoming somebody’s experience.
Prayers: Give quality thanks to Him. Give thanks to Him, even concerning that issue that seems to be a present captivity, give thanks. Right there in that situation, right there concerning that issue, He said, “giving thanks for all things.” Thank Your way out of it.
As you are thanking Him, He is stepping in!!! He is stepping in on your behalf, breaking the captivity, opening up the prison door. Thank You mighty God, in Jesus precious name we have prayed.
God’s Word is clear to us, keep your praises going forth. He said, “they shall still be praising Him.” Keep it going forth and watch God showing forth in every department of your life.
-That will be your experience in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAK TO THE DAY
Another day is here, speak forth to the day and make your declarations concerning this day. What you declare is what God will deliver. Therefore, speak forth into the day. Make your declarations and make your decrees. Thank You mighty God and blessed be your holy name. In Jesus precious name we have prayed.
-This day is declared blessed.
-It will be for you a day of testimonies.
-It will be for you a day of encounters. So shall it be, in Jesus precious name.
Well, to the glory of God, today is also the 8th convocation of Landmark University.
Prayers: One moment, just give thanks to God. Everything works here. Everything works here and it is because of the hand of God at work. Give glory to Him, give praise to Him.
Father, thank You for bringing Landmark University to this 8th Convocation. It can only be You. We give You the praise, we give You the glory. Accept our thanksgiving in Jesus precious name we have given thanks.
Lord, we say thank You for this great day of this 8th convocation. Only You could have done it. We say thank You and thank You. Blessed be Your holy name, in Jesus precious name we have given thanks.
-Just the same way things are working here, as God’s servant has declared, it will keep working in your life.
-Nothing will cease working for you, in Jesus precious name.
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