I AM A LIVING TESTIMONY THAT HIS BLESSINGS MAKE RICH AND ADD NO SORROW.
I HAVE NOT SUFFERED ONE SLEEPLESS NIGHT AND GOD IS MY WITNESS
YOU WILL BE GRATEFUL WHEN YOU RECOGNIZE THAT BY STRENGTH SHALL NO MAN PREVAIL. SKILL DOES NOT GUARANTEE A FUTURE.
WHEN GOD MOVED US FROM A 2.3 ACRES PROPERTY TO THIS 530 ACRES (CANAANLAND) AT THE ONSET, WE CELEBRATED GOD SO MUCH.
WE WERE WONDERING WHAT WE WILL DO WITH ALL THE LAND. IN NO TIME, THE MASSIVE PLACE IS NOW NARROW.
THANKSGIVING COMMITS GOD TO DO MORE.
A PROPHET WHO DOES NOT LINE UP WITH WHAT GOD SPEAKS THROUGH HIM WILL NOT PARTAKE OF IT IN ANY FORM.
GOD’S WORD APPLIES TO EVERYBODY INCLUDING THOSE WHO ARE SENT TO SAY IT
LACK OF THANKSGIVING WILL SEND ANYBODY INTO CAPTIVITY WHETHER HE BE AN APOSTLE OR A PROPHET, IT DOESN’T MATTER.
THE FIRST BILLIONAIRE IN THE WORLD, JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, WAS BORN OUT OF SERVING GOD.
HE SERVED AS A CHURCH WARDEN AND HE WAS THE LARGEST EMPLOYER OF LABOUR OF HIS TIME.
WHEN GOD’S WORD DOES NOT MOVE YOU ANY MORE, YOUR FAITH IS ON A SICK BED.
I HAVE BEEN DRAWING FROM THE REWARDS OF SERVING GOD SINCE 1976. IT HAS NEVER FAILED ONCE.
IT IS NOT UNSPIRITUAL TO EXPECT RETURNS FROM OUR SPIRITUAL STEWARDSHIP. IT IS SCRIPTURAL.
GOD KNOWS THOSE WHO ARE SERVING HIM. WHATEVER GOD SEES IN SECRET, HE REWARDS OPENLY
SERVING GOD IS NEVER IN VAIN.
OUR PROBLEM IS LACK OF STEADFASTNESS IN STEWARDSHIP. THERE IS NO REWARD FOR BEING OFF AND ON.
YOU CAN’T HAVE A HEART FOR GOD AND NOT HAVE TIME FOR HIM.
– Bishop David Oyedepo on UNDERSTANDING THE BLESSEDNESS OF THANKSGIVING at 43rd Liberation Anniversary Thanksgiving Service || Faith Tabernacle, Canaanland|| 5th May 2024 || First Sunday Service ||
– May today open a new chapter to the spiritual life of everyone.
– May this anniversary thanksgiving mark yet another turning point in everyone’s lives.
Thank you Father for accepting our praise and thanksgiving all through last week. Church Gist. Thank you Lord. Now, Speak to us this morning and let your name be glorified in Jesus’ precious name.
God has been so good. Thank you is not enough. It is Thank You Forever that we need. May our thanksgiving unto God be forever. Church Gist. May the blessings that accompany thanksgiving become our day to day experience.
We are looking at this subject this morning, UNDERSTANDING THE BLESSEDNESS OF THANKSGIVING. Whenever a people or individual stops giving thanks, things start going down. Malachi 2:1-3. Most times we have the wrong diagnosis for our situations, so we are giving the wrong treatment. Lack of thanksgiving makes things to start going down. When a people or individual stop giving thanks, things start going down. Church Gist. Ephesians 5:20. 1 Thessalonians 5:18. For everything, give thanks so they don’t go down. In everything give thanks, so they can go up. This is because whatever you don’t appreciate is sure to start depreciating.
Acts 12:21-23. We saw how Herod was eaten up by worms for not giving God the glory. Murmuring is a trap. Murmuring is a spell. It exposes the believer to the destroyer. 1 Corinthians 10:10. May this be among your takeaway grace from this 43rd Anniversary, that murmuring will cease in your life. Complaining will cease in your life. Numbers 11:1. When we are committed to thanking God for what He has done, we have committed Him to do more. Church Gist. With a loud voice, He gave thanks and God said I will do more. He now made him whole. All the contours that leprosy has brought to his face disappeared. All the fingers were restored. We give Him thanks for what He has done, you have committed Him to do more. You will begin to see more and more from henceforth.
Acts 2:46-47. They were praising God and God was adding to the Church such that should be saved. He does more as we give Him thanks for what He has done. We commit Him to do more. That’s what He does. When we came in here, we celebrated God too much. You mean from 2.3 acres of property, He brought us to 530 acres at the onset. Too much! What are we going to do with all these? Church Gist. So we built a concrete wall to demarcate the land and one day in 2007, He told me to break the fence and go for more. God, you brought us from where we are coming from to this massive place. In no time, the massive place became too narrow. Now, what He gave and acquired by Himself is several times above the first one. Several times! Thanksgiving commits God to do more. No one gets stagnated with thanksgiving, they always keep changing levels as we give Him genuine thanks. Psalm 92:1. That is the access to the realm of fearful blessings. You won’t miss that in your life.
Every blessing usually attracts opposition. The wicked gnashing with their teeth. ‘No, that can’t be. Not here. We won’t allow it.’ Thanksgiving makes God take over our battles against our enemies. We don’t know them, we don’t know where they are but the all seeing eyes of God knows where they are. As we give Him thanks He takes over our battles. 2 Chronicles 20:22-24. God set ambushment against their enemies as they began to sing and praise and they were all smitten. Church Gist. They faced themselves and not one of them escaped. Thanksgiving provokes God to take over our battles. The desire of the wicked shall perish. Psalm 112:10. When God takes over our battles, then we have won. Will God ever return defeated from any battle? The last battle you lost is the last you will ever lose.
He takes over our battles, this is why we owe God thanks to keep the Church growing and our lives advancing from one level to another. It is a vital mystery of continuous Church Growth and expansion. Jeremiah 30:19. So engagement in Kingdom advancement endeavours changes the status of people. Some of our Senior Pastors who have come from far and near in this Service have been here 30 years, 28 years, 25 years and we are here to glorify God this morning for all that He has done in this Commission. Church Gist. Thanksgiving carries more weight than intercessions in Church Growth. Things multiply with thanksgiving, things dwindle for lack of thanksgiving. Nothing goes down in your life anymore.
Just think of where you are coming from and then you have a song to sing. Think of where He picked you from, you sure have a song to sing. Think of what you would have been without Jesus, you sure have a song to sing. Church Gist. As you celebrate Him for who He has been to you, you have committed Him to keep decorating your life the more. You won’t miss it any more.
Not just thanksgiving from the tips of our tongues, from the depth of our hearts. 1 Samuel 16:7. Lay it heart to give glory to God. You do it to a point you are moved to tears of appreciation. How did I get here? Church Gist. Recognising that by strength shall no man prevail. Skill does not guarantee a future. Ecclesiastes 9:11. Everybody is who he is today by grace. But we can grow in grace. One of the ways is to keep appreciating God and grace will keep growing in our lives. That is one of our addictions in this Commission.
Isaiah 29:13. Their hearts are far from me. They are not there. They are singing because they said we should sing. They are dancing because they said we should dance. To him, “What has God done for me? Let’s face the fact, what has God done for me? I know where my other colleagues are.” Go there now. Church Gist. I have a living testimony that His blessings make rich and add no sorrow. I have not suffered one sleepless night and God is my witness today. The blessings of God make rich and it adds no sorrow, I am a witness. It is not just paper riches we are talking about. Somebody’s story is changing.
Please do this with understanding. Anything done without understanding produces nothing. The outcome of every Word is a function of our depth of understanding. The seed is sown into a good heart but they bear fruits in different categories. Some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Church Gist. There must be some fivefold, there must be some twofold because they are counted. There must be some onefold and some negative fold. Understanding is what makes the difference. Matthew 13:23. The same good ground but different levels of understanding.
I said to my son in those days, “David, look here. I know when I pray God hears. So relax. She won’t die now.” When I pray God hears. I was in a prayer time one time and God said I have heard you. So there is no point. I told my partner there, ‘That matter is over. If you have any other matter we can pray over it.’ Our understanding matters to the outcome. It is not just giving that prospers, your understanding of the covenant of seedtime and harvest and the procedures that enhance the outcome and you line up with it. Church Gist. You don’t have to cry to God. Until you stop murmuring, you never know a change. Until you stop complaining, things will remain complicated. You can’t stand His anger, why provoke it? Don’t provoke Him to anger, you can’t stand it. You will never stop experiencing upward changes if you will remain committed to tireless, heart-seated, heart-born thanksgiving.
Now let’s examine the cost of not giving thanks.
1. Lack of thanksgiving can turn our glory to shame. (Malachi 2:1-3)
2. Lack of thanksgiving can stop our way forward.
That man returned and gave thanks and God advanced Him from healing to wholeness. Church Gist. Lack of thanksgiving can stop anybody’s way forward. Luke 17:17-19.
3. Lack of thanksgiving can lead believers into captivity.
Jeremiah 13:15-17. Thanklessness is pride. “God should know I am bigger than God. What is my benefit of serving God? See me living in two bedrooms.” You won’t thank God that you are not under the bridge? That you are still alive and breathing. Lack of thanksgiving brings believers into captivity. Don’t try it. A thanksgiver enjoys companionship with God. Only what can hold God captive, can hold them captive. Psalm 22:3. Every genuine thanksgiving graduates into praise. Psalm 92:1. Church Gist. God cannot be held captive and God is with you. If God be for you, who can be against you? Lack of thanksgiving will send anybody into captivity whether he be an apostle or a prophet, it doesn’t matter. God’s Word applies to everybody. An apostle that is not a giver will be a pauper. His calling might be genuine but that cannot be his covenant. An apostle who murmurs exposes himself to danger. He may be destroyed. A prophet who does not line up with what God speaks through him will not partake of it in any form. God’s word applies to everybody including those who are sent to say it. Very terrible.
4. Lack of thanksgiving destroys just as pride does.
Psalm 28:5. They take God’s doing for granted. He shall destroy them, He shall not build them up. No one here shall be destroyed. Thanksgiving brought us here from ground zero as it were. I remember one of those services, I called Kaduna and I said ‘Young people, how was the service today?’ They said it was great. How many people were present? “Two of us and the Holy Ghost.” That service nobody came, just the staff. Church Gist. I said praise the Lord. So one will be leading the prayers and the other one will be saying Amen. It was a Midweek Service. That is where we are coming from and not one iota of complain. When you hear 4, 4 is a big number. That evening was 2. Steve and Simon and the Holy Ghost. No one’s story will ever experience a change without a genuine heart of thanksgiving. Thank Him for 1, it will soon become 2. Thank Him for 2, it will soon become 4, thank Him for 4 and you are on your way to becoming 8 and 10 and 20 and 30 and 40. No child grows at birth to be three feet tall. The mother and father will run. I have never had one case against God that “God, see what you are doing.” I have not had that kind of gap in my life. Throughout my wife’s ordeal with the spirit of death, I never said ‘God but you know I am a prophet.’ It is challenges that make champions. Most times you just pose to God as if you and God are in charge. Let God be true and all men liars. In everything give thanks. ‘That is my will. You do my will, you obtain the promise. You do otherwise, carry on by yourself.’ In everything give thanks. That is the will of God for us in Christ Jesus. Hebrews 10:36.
5. Lack of thanksgiving will stop prophecies from being fulfilled in a believer’s life.
Thanksgiving is a vital requirement for experiencing the fulfilment of prophecies. It is the will of God to do before prophecies are fulfilled. Church Gist. So much has been spoken about your life and my life for the year. No one here will miss his portion.
This is why we are here today, to give thanks to God for His marvellous works in our midst over the last 43 years. May our thanksgiving that is already offered be acceptable unto God.
I had a very humbling visitation, faith can fail and faith can die. Peter’s faith failed twice. First, ‘If it is you, Jesus, cause me to come to you.’ He said “Come” and he began to walk on the sea. Matthew 14:26-28. When he saw the waves, his faith failed and he began to sink. ‘Lord, save me.’ Why did you doubt it? Oh, ye of little faith. His faith failed. ‘I will rather die than deny you’ He denied Him three times. Jesus said ‘Satan wants you, he wants your faith’ and he denied him three times. Church Gist. He wept bitterly. Faith can fail. Little faith can’t stand the storms of life. Faith can fail. Faith can die. James 2:20, 26. When God’s Word does not move you any more, your faith is on a sick bed. If there is no immediate attention, it will gasp off. It will be gone. Nothing moves the dead. If God’s Word does not move you, you are dying slowly. By 9th of May, the 40 days post-resurrection appearance of Christ will be over. Some have not expected nothing. Some have not set themselves for any encounter and they have never had one. Fasting and Prayers tomorrow to advance His Kingdom as we step into the 44th year of the Commission. It doesn’t move you. You are speaking grammar. You are dying slowly. Operation Rescue, for what? By my status? Star what? Only those who don’t have status think that they have. Men of status don’t talk about status. The first billionaire in the world was born out of serving God. John D. Rockefeller. He served as a churchwarden. He will lock the door, hand over the key to the pastor. He was the largest employer of labour. Stop pulling your shoulders. Whatever time God’s Word does not move you, spiritual sickness has started. Faith is a mover. Noah being warned of God moved with fear by faith and built an ark. If it is not moving you, you have not believed.
May I therefore admonish every living Winner to examine yourself whether you are still in the faith or not. You are the lab diagnostic centre of your life. Church Gist. God’s word demands that we examine ourselves whether we be in the faith or not. 2 Corinthians 13:5.
Here is the good news, it is not unspiritual to expect returns from our spiritual stewardship. It is scriptural. The Apostles asked Jesus, “We have left all and followed you, what is in it for us?” He didn’t say “Keep quiet, you are unspiritual.” He answered them. Matthew 19:27. There is a package for you in serving my interests. For anyone who is all out for me, you shall enjoy hundredfold whatever you deny yourself of in this present time and in the world to come life everlasting. So there is a present time reward. That is what I am drawing on. I am drawing on that since 1976. It has never failed once. Matthew 6:33. Church Gist. They are struggling to have it. He has never stopped adding them without sweat. He has never stopped adding them. I have never entered anybody’s house, ‘Can you please help?’ 43 solid years. He is enough for me. Jesus of Nazareth is enough for me. I am satisfied with Jesus, I am satisfied with Him. My faith in Him has never failed. I am satisfied with Him.
You better wake up. There are tangible returns for genuine value adding Kingdom stewardship endeavours, not sitting down and watching and trying to pose that you are doing what you are not doing. God knows those who are serving Him, whatever God sees in secret, He rewards openly. If you are not being rewarded, ask yourself questions. If up till now, you have not seen a soul this year. You need to ask yourself questions. You have not prayed for one in particular to be saved. Church Gist. The good news is many stars will rise. Many are already up, they will go higher. Many more will rise. The rising of giants is from the platform of stewardship. Well done, good and faithful servant. Have authority over ten cities. You don’t rise because you are long in service, you rise because you are adding value. I gave you one and you are returning with ten. It is fruitful stewardship that changes people’s stories.
Therefore, you may not be able to go out after souls by reason of age but you can go up in prayers. Anybody who can eat can pray. To know whether your heart is there or not, is to find out for yourself how committed you are to seeing people saved and established in Church. Do you ever pray for any service before you come in here? I have been on this these few years and I have had not one day of regret. I signed up for it. It has never failed. I have not one day wondered why I am doing it. Church Gist. Why I am doing it is always showing. Anything about God that does not move you is a proof that your faith is sick and needs urgent attention in order not to result in death. Anything about God’s agenda that does not move you is a proof of a disconnect and it is not safe. May this season mark a new dawn in every Winner worldwide’s life.
I want that clip to be sent everywhere that it is an opportunity to serve. God does not need you and me for anything. We need Him for everything. He has not asked the seed of Jacob to seek Him in vain. So serving God is not in vain. They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. Do you know where the problem is? Lack of steadfastness. Off and on. Occupy till I come. I am coming with your reward, that is the meaning. Stay on duty until I come. I must meet you on duty when I come. So we have these eight gorgeous weeks ahead of us. The first week is starting tomorrow in prayer and fasting for God to visit our various territories with waves of convictions resulting in conversions through the various platforms around us. Church Gist. We have the social media platforms to push our materials to all our loved ones and Jesus will touch them. Don’t watch this thing, endeavour to be a partaker. One thing I know is that many will come out of this and this will become their lifestyle for life. They won’t stop changing levels as they keep serving God with their time, their energy and resources.
You can’t have a heart for God and not have time for Him. You don’t have time for Him, you don’t have a heart for Him. The drunks who occupy the same office that you occupy, they go to their drinking bar every day. They have time for drinking because they have a heart for drink. Church Gist. If you have a heart for God you will have time for God. Daniel was praying three times a day in that high office. If you have a heart for God, you will have time for Him. David was praying three times a day and praising God 7 times a day. You can’t have a heart for God and not have time for Him. The good news is this mystery behind this Commission will start answering in your own life.
By the 9th of May 2024, the 40 days post-resurrection season of infallible proofs will come to an end. Some have had encounters. Many more will have these few days remaining. The best of God is always reserved for the last. You shall be visited. Every visitation opens a new chapter, you shall be visited. Therefore endeavour to walk in the spirit. He can appear to you in the day or in the night, on your way to work, on your way back from work. Endeavour to be in the Spirit. Endeavour to be spiritual. A conscious walk with God and expect Him to visit you. This whole wonders across Africa happened in a car driving from Zaria to Kaduna. “The harvest of Africa is now overripe…” Church Gist. He can appear at any time. This whole Lagos miracle happened in the bathroom. “Arise, get down to Lagos and raise me a people.” He can appear to us at any time.
– You won’t miss this season.
– May this week change everybody’s spiritual life forever.
– May everyone’s prayer life change level.
– May each one’s heart for God come alive.
Among the blessings of spiritual stewardship is favour and among the components of favour is marital settlement. He that finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favour from God. Every marital spell will become history. Every marital struggle will be over in our next Sunday service.
– Now, go in peace.
– May the wonder testimonies of thanksgiving follow you throughout this week and this month
– May you receive help at every point of need.
– Your helper has come and He is now in you, you never lack help any time.
– No mishap is permitted in your area.
– No weeping in your household
– The same order of joy in this Commission becomes your portion from now.
– No more murmurings. No more complaining. Brand new day for everyone in Jesus’ precious name.
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