DO YOU KNOW HOW WE HAVE COME TO BE SO RELAXED IN OUR BUILDING ENDEAVOURS AS A MINISTRY?
MANY YEARS AGO, I ENCOUNTERED THAT GOD SAID ‘I HAVE THE SILVER AND THE GOLD IN MY PERSONAL CUSTODY FOR BUILDING THE LATTER HOUSE’. SO IT IS NOT IN ANY MAN’S POCKET IN CASE HE RUNS AWAY.
THAT GAVE ME ASSURANCE ON ANYTHING HE SAYS TO DO. I HAVE NEVER HAD TO BOTHER WHAT WE HAVE OR DON’T HAVE.
MOST TIMES WHEN WE SAY WE ARE WAITING ON THE LORD, WE ARE JUST WASTING AWAY
FAITH NEVER DROPS ON THE LAPS OF MEN, IT COMES THROUGH OUR DEVOTION TO THE WORD.
PROPHETIC WORDS ARE NOT AUTOMATIC PERFORMANCE, THEY ARE PREMISED ON YOU BELIEVING AND PROVING THAT YOU DO BY OBEYING WHAT HE COMMANDS YOU TO DO.
PEOPLE SAY ‘I KNOW GOD WILL DO IT’ GOD WILL DO NOTHING UNTIL YOU FIRST DO WHAT HE SAYS.
EVERYONE INITIATES THE OUTCOME OF HIS LIFE BY HOW HE RESPONDS TO WHAT GOD SAYS
THIS WHOLE THING WE CALL MINISTRY IS A MYSTERY, IT IS A RAW PRODUCT OF FAITH.
ALL THAT WE KNOW, ALL THAT WE HAVE SEEN BY GRACE ARE ALL PRODUCTS OF FAITH,
ONE OF MY ELDER ONES SAID TO ME “DAVID, NOW THAT YOU ARE GOING INTO FULL TIME MINISTRY, HOW MUCH SAVINGS HAVE YOU GOT?” I SAID NONE.
JESUS SAID “TAKE NO PURSE OR SCRIPT OR SHOES OR MONEY”. IF I HAD ANYTHING I WILL FINISH IT BECAUSE HE TOLD ME NOT TO TAKE ANYTHING WHEN I AM GOING.
WHATEVER RESULT FAITH OBTAINS, STAYING IN THE FAITH PRESERVES
– Bishop David Oyedepo on UNDERSTANDING THE MYSTERY OF FAITH 3′ at Midweek Communion Service || LFC Canaanland
There is no one like our God. He reigns supreme. Lift your two hands and worship this God who is your Father and my Father. He is the God of strange works. Church Gist. He is eternally on duty, watching over His word to perform it. Celebrate and Magnify Him. Thank you, Jesus.
I have said severally, any faith that seeks to make God absolutely responsible for the outcomes of our lives is an irresponsible faith. You shall know the truth and the truth you know when applied will set you free. If you won’t learn the truth, you won’t know the truth. You can’t apply what you don’t know so you can’t be free. Prophetic words are settled in heaven. Blessed is him that believes, he is the one who should expect performance. Luke 1:45. So prophetic words are not automatic performance, they are premised on you believing and proving that you do by obeying what He commands you to do. Church Gist. As free as salvation is, if you are not willing to repent you can’t be saved. Faith is always about knowing your part, believing in the validity of the source who is God and taking your path. You can’t know the truth without being willing to learn the truth. You can’t find true rest if you are not willing to learn. What you understand and believe is what gives you rest. ‘I know God will do it’ God will do nothing until you first do what He says. Everyone initiates the outcome of his life by how He responds to what God says.
Shall we lift up our two hands and ask God for grace to take spiritual responsibility. It is an important and non–negotiable requirement in this Kingdom. Church Gist. Lord give me the grace to take spiritual responsibility in my response to your Word and spiritual instructions all the time.
Heavenly Father we are here again to look at your Word as we sit under your feet. Let your Word come through to each one of us to move us forward. Engrace us to respond to our part faithfully and all the times in the name of Jesus. Church Gist. Baptize us afresh with the spirit of faith. So let it be. Let no one return from this service return without a touch. Let every touch lead to a turnaround and let your name be glorified in Jesus’ precious name.
UNDERSTANDING THE MYSTERY OF FAITH has been our teaching series for our midweek services for this month. I don’t have any doubt that each one of us is moving on a new frequency in the school of faith. As I mentioned briefly before we sat down, faith comes by hearing and understanding the Word of God. It never drops on the laps of men, it comes through our devotion to the Word. Hearing, reading, watching to the point of understanding which is what stirs faith. No one ever doubts what He can say. Spiritual understanding is being able to see what God to saying. You hear and hear to the point where you say “I see”. So faith is a lifelong school. Till we come in the unity of faith unto the fullness of the stature of Christ unto a perfect man, it is a lifelong school able to bring us into the very realm of Christ, making heaven real on the earth. Ephesians 4:8-11, 13. John 14:12. Faith has unlimited capacity for growth. You just withdraw when you are tired. Church Gist. It is not 100 Level and then 400 Level and you go. It is all Levels forever. 1000 Level, 3000 Level, 5000 Level and it is one by one you go. 1 Level – 2 Level, 3 Level, 4 Level, anybody can withdraw at 4 Level. That doesn’t mean that is the end of faith, that is where he stops. Church Gist. Faith has the capacity to grow exceedingly, I mean at an exceeding rate depending on how much investment you are making, exceeding rate depending on how much time you are spending in building your faith. Faith will never build itself. You can’t wake up in the morning and just discover your muscles have developed. They can’t develop while you sleep. There should be a workout to develop it, you work the development out. You can’t wake up in the morning and you just become a heavyweight wrestling champion. You must build strength to become a featherweight wrestler. Most times when we say we are waiting on the Lord, we are just wasting away.
– no one will waste away anymore.
Faith is a mystery that can be understood. Ephesians 3:3-5. It is understandable it is not a myth. The mystery of faith is ravellable. It is unfoldable. It is not a mystery for only evangelists, pastors, No! Everybody who cares to read. When ye read ye will understand. Until you read you can’t understand. It is so interesting now for those who may not be able to read, we have the video form of the Word everywhere. Church Gist. Always connect. It means no one can understand until he settles down to want to understand by sitting down to learn. It is an understandable mystery. But the understanding comes through as we begin to seek to understand.
Whenever faith comes alive on any truth of scriptures, victory comes along. Do you know how we have come to be so relaxed in our building endeavours as a ministry? Many years ago, I encountered that ‘the silver is mine, the gold is mine, I won’t put it in the hands of any man in case he runs away. I have the silver and the gold in my personal custody for building the latter house’. So it is not in anybody’s pocket in case he runs away. That gave me assurance on anything He says to do. I have never had to bother what we have. Church Gist. Get back home now and start that building, He said to me in Kaduna. I didn’t call the accountant first to know how much we have and He did it. Anytime faith comes alive on any truth of scriptures, victory comes along. There are no schemes here.
When we engage with the truth of scriptures believing, victory is guaranteed, the devil notwithstanding. Isaiah 14:24. My covenant will I not break no matter how many devils are roaming around the world nor utter those things that have gone forth out of my lips. Psalm 119:34. As long as our obedience of faith is in place regarding any truth of scriptures, the devil is completely out of the equation. Deuteronomy 28:1-2. Church Gist. Every time you read the scriptures, you can add there ‘the devil notwithstanding’. There is no covenant of scriptures that has cognisance of the devil as a factor. When our obedience is fulfilled we will avenge all disobedience. When we get it right we silence all disobedience, we make them irrelevant. 2 Corinthians 10:6. Hebrews 10:38.
Now what is faith? Let’s take these two definitions tonight and you will be blessed, it will open your eyes into the next level in the school of faith.
What is faith? Faith can be defined as a spiritual force that establishes the active partnership of believers with the invisible God thereby empowering us to subdue impossible situations. Enoch subdued death by his quality walk of faith with God. Hebrews 11:5-6. Hebrews 11:24-27. Active partnership with the invisible God empowering us to subdue impossible situations. Church Gist. They went through the Red Sea as on dry land and the Egyptians thought it was weather and some east wind blowing, they followed after and they drowned. Subduing impossible situations through the consciousness of one’s partnership with the invisible God- the God of all possibilities.
We have the example of Daniel in this case. Daniel 6:20-22. Faith in God establishes partnership with the invisible God empowering us to subdue impossible situations. Daniel was restful, an evidence of faith. Church Gist. They didn’t struggle to throw him into the den of lions. They that believed have entered into rest. That partnership manifested in the midst of that den. If God be for us, who can be against us?
What is faith? Faith is a spiritual engraftment of the believer into divinity thereby empowering him or her to command dominion. It is a simple agricultural term. You take a branch of a tree and you graft it into another and it begins to bear fruits after the order of that tree into which it is grafted. Church Gist. When faith comes alive, we are grafted into God. Humanity is grafted into divinity thereby establishing dominion on the earth. Romans 11:17-21. Faith is a mystery of engraftment of the natural man into the divine God thereby bearing fruits after its new roots. Mark 10 says “What is impossible for man is possible with God”.
Now we have the example of the three Hebrew boys. Daniel 3:27-28. You find out at the end because they trusted in their God, they were grafted into divinity so that fire had no power on them because they possess a yielded body. It is a graphic illustration of the engraftment mystery we are talking about. When one is genuinely engrafted, his body is yielded to operate above human limits. We are going to be seeing many men and women, boys and girls, old and young operating in the realm of yielded bodies through their next level realms of faith. Church Gist. Daniel believed in his God and enjoyed a partnership with God that showed in the midst of danger. The three Hebrew boys trusted in their God and that established their engraftment with divinity and fire had no power on their bodies. Even the smell of it didn’t go over them.
What makes faith a mystery?
1. Faith is an ever proof producing force.
Hebrews 11:1-2. It is an ever proof producing force. It always shows wherever it is found. Church Gist. Show me your faith with His proofs and I will show you my faith by His proofs. We saw amazing proofs of faith all through Hebrews 11.
2. Faith is a story changing force
Jesus saw the faith of that paralytic man and said “Stand, take up your bed and go home”. Faith changes story, after 8 years of no motion. Paul perceived that Aeneas had faith to be healed “Aeneas stand upright” and the people exclaimed that the gods have come to them in the likeness of men. Church Gist. Faith is a story changing force. Every aspect of anyone’s life that requires a change of story is going to happen tonight. Because faith is a story changing force. In Acts 3, we saw the man at The Beautiful Gate and then in verse 16, Peter was explaining what happened. Acts 3:16. Faith is a story changing force. Somebody is returning with perfect soundness tonight.
3. Faith empowers believers to command the supernatural.
Through faith, Sarah also received the strength to conceive seed. Hebrews 11:11. Church Gist. Through faith, no ovulation, nothing. Mark 16:17-18. You believe then you are established to operate in the supernatural.
4. Faith empowers believers to command exploits.
Hebrews 11:32-34. We saw the stories of these men and women. Exploits! This whole mystery that we call the Commission is a raw product of faith. It is a mystery. One of my elder ones said to me “David, now that you are going into full time ministry, how much savings have you got?” I said none. If I got anything, I will finish it because He said “Take no purse or script or shoes or money”. Church Gist. If I had anything I will finish it because He told me not to take anything when I am going. This whole thing we call ministry is a mystery, it is a raw product of faith. All that we know, all that we have seen by grace are all products of faith, no games, no gimmicks. God will do wonders in your life.
Now watch! Whatever result faith obtains, staying in the faith preserves. Not that you got something and you walk away, you will lose it in no time. Whatever result faith obtains, staying in the faith preserves. When you get off the faith, you lose it. No go come about it. Whatever result faith obtains, staying in the faith preserves. Abraham stayed on, the results kept multiplying until he became very old and stricken in age and God had blessed him in all things. He stayed on. All these hit and run won’t take you anywhere Sir. When you stop submitting yourself to Him, you start manifesting it yourself. Church Gist. Whatever result faith obtains, only staying in the faith preserves. The day I will turn to someone to come and help God won’t meet me on this earth. Whatever result faith obtains, only staying in the faith preserves. Over to you. Some have seen wonders before but they are now wanderers. Some have seen miracles before but they are now embodiments of obstacles. Only staying in the faith preserves whatever result faith obtains. That is why our faith must be current.
The mystery of faith demands currency. Now faith is not then faith was or tomorrow faith shall be. It is the currency of faith that established its mystery dimension. Faith is never late, it can turn any stinking situation around in a moment. The faith of yesterday can’t handle the issue of today, let’s come awake. It is time to engage in a topical study of the Word on issues that pose a challenge to you. Why is my family life like this, oh God what is it? Then you gather resources materials available to you from proven authors with your Bible by your side and you begin to search. You find yourself x-rayed to know what is wrong. You find out what the problem is instead of looking for the problem of another person, what your problem is.
Anytime we step out in faith we have committed God to commit His Word. Just step out in faith on what He tells you to do then God is committed to confirming His Word. He sent them two by two to go into every place that He will come and He was there with them. We step out in faith on any subject of scripture, God is out to confirm it. Faith is the mystery that commands the unstoppable hand of God to confirm His Word in our lives. Isaiah 14:27. His hand is stretched out, tell me what devil can turn it back. Whatever God says with His mouth, His hand has capacity to deliver. Just put your faith in the line and you have committed God to deliver. 1 Kings 8:15,24. His hand is unstoppable. When our faith comes alive on any subject of scriptures, we have committed His unstoppable hand to confirm His Word. Watch out for diverse confirmations as a result of the encounter this time.
We serve a God of strength works and strange acts. He is able to multiply us as a congregation a thousand times many more than we are today. I like your faith to be strengthened. One day, He brought three million out of captivity and they called that the Church in the Wilderness. Exodus 12:41. A day to be much remembered. All the hosts of Israel went out of Egypt. Everyone we have ministered to, everyone holding our tracts and fliers across our harvest fields, He is able to bring them out one day. We serve that God of strange works. One day strange works, one day strange acts. Acts 2:2-6. The Church multiplied 25 times in one day, the day of Pentecost. He lives in the timeless zone when He comes He comes. We will see wonders. This coming Sunday, the God of one day strange works will show us wonders and the next Sabbath day (not the next Sabbath days) almost the whole city gathered together to hear the Word of God. He created the entire World in one week, eleven days is too much for God to confirm His Word. As our faith stays alive He confirms His word. My faith is alive. What God said He will do, He will do. What God said He will confirm, He will confirm as my faith stays alive.
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