THIS MINISTRY WAS COMMISSIONED OFFICIALLY EXACTLY 40 YEARS AGO:
SEE WHAT HAS HAPPENED BETWEEN THEN AND NOW BECAUSE GOD IS LEADING US.
GOD’S WAYS MAY NOT MAKE SENSE BUT THEY MAKE PROOFS. BETWEEN SENSE AND PROOFS WHAT DO YOU WANT? PROOFS!
THIS TABERNACLE SHALL BE BUILT IN ONE YEAR.” NO BUDGET IN PLACE. IT DIDN’T MAKE SENSE. HE SAID IT 17TH SEPTEMBER 1998 AND HE GOT IT DEDICATED 18TH SEPTEMBER 1999 BY HIMSELF
ALLOW GOD TO LEAD YOU. IT IS ALWAYS SWEET ON GOD’S SIDE.
THESE FORTY YEARS ARE AN ADVENTURE IN LETTING GOD LEAD THE WAY.
I HAVE NEVER HAD TO STRUGGLE WITH THE HAPPENINGS AROUND ME FOR 40 YEARS
WHEN GOD TOLD ME BEFORE THE DEDICATION OF THE WINNERS’ COMPLEX THAT HE WAS GOING TO RELOCATE US, I DID NOT TELL ANYBODY
IT WAS ONLY AFTER WE CAME HERE THAT THE WORLD KNEW WE EXISTED AND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA (BBC) COVERED US ON 18 SEPTEMBER 1999.
WE DID NOT START THIS CHURCH WITH AN INAUGURATION CEREMONY, WE STARTED WITH AN IMPARTATION.
IT WAS COMMANDED FOR HANDS TO BE LAID ON ME AND MY WIFE TO RECEIVE THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM.
– Bishop David Oyedepo on UNDERSTANDING THE WONDERS OF DIVINE DIRECTION 3 at Covenant Day of Vengeance Service || Faith Tabernacle, Canaanland|| First Sunday Service ||
Isaiah 63:4.
– Today shall be a day of vengeance in your favour.
– God will finally silence your enemies.
– From henceforth, nothing shall by any means hurt you.
– Today shall be a day to be much remembered in our lives because God will show up for you.
That testifier said “God fought for me”, today God will fight for you. Church Gist. The man slept and could no longer walk because God broke his legs and he began to confess. God of heaven will fight for you today.
Lord, let your Word go freely. Let it bring about convictions to conversions, let many be rescued today and let your name be glorified in Jesus’ precious name.
We are on in our series UNDERSTANDING THE WONDERS OF DIVINE DIRECTION. Isaiah 48:21. God’s leading will lead to gushing in the deserts. Things may not be working anywhere else but if you let God lead you, things will just be working on their own accord. Church Gist. His leadings are the highways to gushings in the desert. Allow Him to lead you. He never leads backwards, He always leads forward. Allow Him to lead you. Proverbs 16:13. When God leads you, only goodness and mercies are permitted to follow you. Allow God to lead you.
We start this morning with this light from heaven. From scriptures, we understand that every child of God is a spiritual Jew. Romans 2:28-29. The Jews are described in scriptures as eagles, Exodus 19:4. It is eaglets that eagles bear on their wings. So He brought them out as eaglets and bore them on His wings to mature. Every believer is a spiritual Jew so we are also redeemed as eagles. Church Gist. Most of the time, eagles are led about before they begin to soar. The mother eagle carries the baby eaglets on her back and takes them on an adventure into the skies. You are having a nice ride? Okay, then suddenly it removes its back, the eaglets begin to struggle and in the process develop their wings. He led him about. Allow Him to lead you about. It is preparatory to your soaring into the skies.
More often than not, the journey into our Promised Land is a long trek. Exodus 13:17. People are busy looking for shortcuts all their life. God leads us in the path that is safe and secure, that guarantees our future and posterity and secures eternity in the end. He leads us in the right way to go. Shortcuts most of the time cut short destinies. Allow God to lead you. He led them by the way of the Red Sea which looked so deadly but the Red Sea gave way to them because God was leading them. Church Gist. Allow God to lead you. No believer can emerge an eagle without subscribing to God’s continuous leading as a way of life. Isaiah 58:11-13. When you allow God to lead you, He causes your adventure to be like springs whose water fails not and leads you to your high places in life.
You heard in the announcements today that the Ministry was commissioned officially on the 17th of September 1983, today makes it forty years exactly. What has happened between that time and now? Diligently following divine leadings with solid obedience of faith. Church Gist. Someone asked me years ago, how do you get things done so cheaply in this ministry? I said we do nothing except it is commanded. I therefore pray that you will be sensitive to God’s commandments as He leads the way forward for you in your life.
Eagles don’t struggle for flight, they just catch in on the wind and the wind carries them. The wind of the Holy Ghost when you allow him to carry you as He leads you forward. John 16:13. Romans 8:14. You don’t struggle to soar, eagles don’t struggle to soar. Church Gist. They just follow the direction of the wind and the wind carries them. I see all of us today coming under that wind that will keep carrying you from one level to another. Deuteronomy 32:12.
The challenge we have had is that people are just not sensitive, they are full of their own ways so they ignore His ways and they go through all kinds of hardships. His ways may not make sense but they make proofs. Between sense and proofs, what do you want? Proofs! “This tabernacle shall be built in one year.” That didn’t make sense, no budget in place. It didn’t make sense. Church Gist. He said it September 17th 1998 and He got it dedicated 18th September 1999 by Himself. He said it, we followed it and He did it. Allow God to lead you. It is always sweet on God’s side. No believer can emerge an eagle without subscribing to God’s continuous leading as a way of life.
I thought I was in the spirit but I was wrong. I said Paul was out there in Arabia for three years, that must have been where he packaged all the revelations that flowed through him. You have called me into ministry, I need to get myself equipped and all of the mentors that I knew, all of the ones that showed me light by the Spirit of God were all domiciled in America, that will be a good place to train and equip. Church Gist. God knew I had no plan or dream to live in America for anything but I felt an emptiness that needs to be filled. Everything was working in our favour, there were no issues. Suddenly I went to the Lord one time on the mountain and He said “My son the things you seek do not come from abroad but from above. You are going to no America”. All of our team members had heard. So I had to tell them God just told me there was no going to America.
We prayed and thought God was leading us to go to Jos and we had the Commissioning Service forty years ago, I went to the mountain that night to thank God for the wonders of that day. It wasn’t an inauguration, it was an impartation. “I won’t have you go like others have gone…” People are too full of ceremonies, “… I will have hands laid on you and you shall be filled with the Spirit of wisdom after the order of Joshua in Deuteronomy 34:9” verbatim. I was around my dining table saying Jesus, whatever remains to be put in place for me to step into full-time ministry, I am waiting on you. Then He spoke. No guesswork! So it is not inauguration that they are doing all these ceremonies, it was commanded. Hands were laid on me, my wife also and our little baby. No shaking, no jerking, that Spirit rested on me. It was announced we were going to Jos because that is where we were going and we had some of our staff there in Jos for one year for preparation. Church Gist. Bishop Aremu joined our fellowship in Jos. “You are going to no Jos. It was not me you heard, you heard yourself” and I came down and told them God told me we are going to no Jos. If you are not willing to be corrected, you cannot be directed. People just feel too big to be corrected. You can be wrong, that is why you are a disciple. He led him about. So where do we go? “Stay here!”.
Lord, what about Kaduna? He said, “Arise, get down to Damascus, I am sending you to the midst of persecution”. Do you know the meaning? We were praying and I said what shall I do? God said stand up, take your Bible. He opened the book of Acts 22:10 direct. Ask sincere questions, God will answer you. All these questions that you are just testing or tempting God won’t work. So we moved to Kaduna. Things began to work because God led us. Persecution could not reach us because we were above it. We were going to settle when God said “Arise, get down to Lagos”. To where? Agege! What? He was leading. It was like leading backwards because we were coming down from 3,000 people to start afresh. The first service in Lagos after three days of seminar was 189. See the dive but see where we are today. Allow God to lead you. While trying to settle down, we had our Winners Complex, which was dedicated on the 30th of December 1995, you know our skyscraper? Cute campus! Church Gist. NUC passed it for a temporary campus for CU. That is to show you what it was. Then God said, “I will yet relocate my Church”. Church Gist. We had not dedicated it yet, it was the 21st of December. So don’t settle here. “I will yet relocate my Church to a place of enlargement”. I didn’t tell anybody. So they began to look for land and brought us here one day, I said no! This can’t be the place forever. This can’t be a church. The Lord said, “This is the place”. He led us from town into the forest to build a church that would serve people in town. How? Allow God to lead you. Until we got to the forest before the world knew we existed. We began to impact on the world. The international media took it on September 18 1999. It was all over the news because God led the way. May He keep leading your way.
All this packing your luggage from Kano to Calabar without asking God, Calabar to Gusau. Just going about. You are redeemed a star, why must you be a wandering star? These are brief testimonies. These forty years are an adventure in letting God lead the way. In 1994, “Go to Africa, we went” and the going was great. In 2000, “Go to the world” and the going is going greater by the day. Church Gist. You won’t miss your step. Eagles don’t sweat, they only soar. The days of sweating and struggling are declared over in your life. No matter how intelligent anybody may be you cannot succeed to lead yourself. Proverbs 14:12. No one will miss his way here.
When one stops following God’s leading the reason notwithstanding the eagle in him begins to die. His star begins to go down, his moon begins to withdraw itself. Isaiah 6:20. Allow God to lead, let His Word be strong enough to direct yourself and then your sun will no more go down, your moon will no longer withdraw itself because the Lord Himself shall be your everlasting light and the days of your struggles shall be over. Allow God to lead you. Church Gist. Psalm 119:105. Allow His Word to lead and guide you. His leadings include corrections, reproof and instructions which are essentially trials of faith. Well, this is the way to go, I don’t think so. Thank you! You have failed the test. You will not fail the test anymore.
We are redeemed as stars in the race of life. Jesus is the bright and morning star and as His Father has sent Him, so has He sent us. Revelation 22:16, John 20:21. We are also redeemed to command exploits after the order of Christ. John 14:12. The least of us according to scriptures is ordained to be greater than the greatest in the Old Testament. Matthew 11:11. That becomes a reality by following the steps of Jesus. John 5:30. See where He found Himself today. God never leads backwards, He always leads forwards. He leads principally by His Word, until you get connected to the guidance of His Word, you are not qualified for private discussions with Him. The Bible is the master guide, if you don’t have regard for the Bible you can’t become His confidant. Psalm 25:14. It is our response to this that leads to that. ‘I have never heard God’. What He told you in His Word, are you doing it? When I heard that it is good for a young man to bear his yoke in his youth, I was 16. I knelt down and said “Jesus, whatever yoke I will need to bear when I am old, let me bear it now”. Church Gist. That means the Word took hold of me. “my son, your future is not in your plan but in my plan”. I heard that when I was 23. I banged all my plans and sold out to His plans. Lord reveal your plans to me at every stage. I was 20 when I heard Jeremiah 17:11. It got hold of me, I hated anything that was not mine. I shared it with a friend that came to visit me that day, I said “David beware of touching anything that is not your own”. He said what is it? I said God told me that as the ostrich lays eggs… He said what is an ostrich? I said anything that lays eggs is a bird. Does ram lay eggs? When you let His Word lay hold on you and become a way of life, that is when you gain access for confidential talk. He said “Bring in your tithes,” you say “For what?” Good luck! “Oh God, why are these things happening?”. You should ask yourself. Can I tell you this before the Most High God? I have never had to struggle with the happenings around me for 40 years. The days of your struggling must end by just surrendering your will to His leadings. Genuinely so, untiringly so. We are all redeemed as stars but many are wandering stars, they just went off course. You won’t go off course anymore. It is your turn at last. It is enough to say “Lord I woke up today, lead me in the way to go. Direct my steps”.
It will take following divine direction to realize our full inheritance in Christ. Exodus 23:20. Church Gist. He leads us to bring us into the fullness of His agenda for our lives.
We look at the costs of missing God’s direction for our lives.
We look at the example of Paul, the Lord sent him to go to the Gentiles. We read that in Acts 9 when he had an encounter on his way to Damascus. He felt very strongly to be in Jerusalem against what the Holy Ghost said to the brethren, what He said to Agabus and what He said to him. He went ahead, it was the worst experience of his life. When he got there they received him gladly, you know the devil has a way of getting you trapped. If they revoked him, he would have returned. They received him gladly. He told them what the Lord is doing in his ministry, they didn’t ask him anything. The Lord came on and said, “Paul, get out of here quickly, they will not receive your testimony here” (Acts 22:17-22). He didn’t and they caught him, they were about tearing him apart with all the anointing and revelation he had. Church Gist. Misdirection is most costly, don’t toy with it. This man had all the revelation you can imagine, he had all the unction God had given him yet he couldn’t survive a misdirection. He said, “I go bound to Jerusalem not knowing what will happen to me.” He was the one who taught us that wherever the Spirit of God is there is liberty but he went bound in the Spirit yet he didn’t check. No one ever outgrows divine direction. Grace to consistently seek His direction for every step of our lives is released today. You find that episode from Acts 20-22. Acts 21:10-32, you find all the happenings there. Acts 22:17-24.
It takes being sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit to make the most of your life. Some five years ago, God said to me “Don’t you get out of this country until I tell you to”. Somebody said when will He tell you to go? I said I won’t ask Him because I didn’t tell Him when to not go. When it is time He will tell me. We were set to begin the Ark Project years ago and I went to the Lord “Lord, we are set waiting on you”. At one point He said, “Don’t you talk to me anymore on this matter until I speak to you if I need to”. Be sensitive. Church Gist. God knows what He is doing. He knows the ending from the beginning. Be sensitive. Let’s not be like the horse and the mule that have no understanding, you have to put something in their mouth. Let’s be sensitive. God is leading the way today and He is leading the way by the Word, let’s the Word be strong enough to lead you and you will be free from struggles. As I am speaking right now, I decree that everyone’s spiritual ears pop open. I command every spirit of spiritual deafness out of everyone’s life.
Wonders Of Divine Direction
1. It empowers believers to command the supernatural.
Isaiah 45:1-3. Allow God to lead you, you keep commanding the supernatural naturally. You are not struggling, it is just happening. When God leads the way the miraculous will always be the experience. Isaiah 48:21. Water doesn’t gush in the desert. Supernatural! It enhances our command of the supernatural when God leads.
2. When God leads we gain access to supernatural blessings
Deuteronomy 28:1-2.
The first thing to think of as a natural pastor when you move to this forest is what happens to the income of the Church. The income just went up in the sky right in the forest. When God leads the way blessings follow. God told us to come to Lagos and within two weeks we got all the properties. The house I lived in was built and nobody stayed there for five years. The block of apartments we got for the staff had just been completed, no one had taken any part of it. The church facility that we got has been completed for seven years and nobody had used it. Church Gist. When God leads, blessings follow. Allow God to lead you. Goodness and mercy means blessings, it follows you. God didn’t lead us to Kumasi, we went there. Nothing followed us but struggles. We couldn’t get a place to rent, a place to buy. Miracles but no impact. When God leads the way, blessings usually follow. You won’t miss His blessings. Can I tell you this? You can’t bless yourself. No one here can bless Himself. It is the blessings of God that make rich and add no sorrow. Let God lead you, His blessings will follow you and add no sorrow.
3. It infuses supernatural strength.
Judges 6:14. When God leads, it strengthens you supernaturally. Inner strength, physical strength, emotional strength. Church Gist. He strengthens you when He leads the way. Ephesians 3:16.
Prayer: Jesus, I subscribe to the leading of the Holy Spirit today. Help me to be sensitive to your instructions, your corrections and your reproof.
Today is our Covenant Day Of Vengeance, Exodus 4:22-23. God’s vengeance is the exclusive preserve of His children. One must become a child of God to be entitled to vengeance in the camp of His enemies. That is where to begin. You must become a child of God to qualify for vengeance in the camp of your enemies. Isaiah 49:24-26. He is talking to the Children of the Covenant. Church Gist. You can’t launch a counterattack against the powers of darkness when you are in the dungeon of darkness. Darkness can’t confer darkness, it is light that conquers darkness. You must become a child of light to qualify for God’s vengeance in the camp of your enemy. Today, God will fight for all His children. So where to begin with is ‘Am I a child of God or am I just having fun?’ ‘Am I a child of God or I am just playing religion, coming for ‘Papa pray for me’? Am I a child of God?
When the lion came and picked one of the lambs from the flock of David’s father, he ran after it. He smote it and collected the lamb from its mouth. Church Gist. Today every lion after you will come under heaven’s dagger. Isaiah 49:25. How dare any devil? How dare any wicked agent torment your life? You are free today.
I have died several times but would not be buried.
– Every arrow shot at your destruction returns back to the sources.
– Any agent of the devil holding your life captive will pay for it.
– Whatever you may have lost to the devil and to the wicked, you are getting it back seven times.
God has ordained this year our Year on the Covenant Highways of Life. So whatever is out to block it, God will deal with them. Every time a great door and effectual is opened to us, there are many adversaries. That is why the day of vengeance is here. Every enemy of God’s agenda in your life that will make you look like you are not a member of God’s family today God shall visit them. Deuteronomy 2:24. Begin to possess it and contend with him in battle. Church Gist. He is going to resist but rise up to the occasion. So we are rising up to the occasion today. Every king of Heshbon that is going to resist your taking what belongs to you must give up today. 1 Corinthians 16:9. God will silence your adversaries today. Proverbs 6:31. Whatever has been robbed you hitherto by the wickedness of the wicked, he will pay back sevenfold.
Remember the bondage of the Israelites was not just by Pharaoh and the taskmasters, it was the machinations of the gods of Egypt. Until God’s vengeance stepped in, God’s people could not be free. Exodus 12:12. The gods of Egypt, the shrines that have been raised against your destiny and family. Church Gist. To all the gods of the land that might be behind the ordeal of any child of God’s life, today you are cursed from the root. Somebody’s story is changing. Exodus 12:41. After the gods of Egypt were judged, all of them came out of Egypt.
– You are coming out today.
– Your tenure in the land of captivity is over today.
Vengeance is a vital aspect of God’s end-time agenda. Isaiah 61:1-2. If you check Luke 4:18-19, it stopped at “To preach the acceptable year of the Lord”. That is where Jesus closed the book. That was the end of the former rain, the latter rain began and the day of vengeance of our God. So we saw vengeance showed up in Acts 5. When the latter rain began to fall, vengeance was one of the first manifestations. We saw in Acts 13 how Elymas was smitten with blindness. Church Gist. We saw also in the Epistles that he handed over some people to the devil for the destruction of their bodies. He silenced a number of people for speaking blasphemy. Vengeance began with the latter rain, so we are in the days of the vengeance of the Lord.
– Anyone toying with your life will smell.
– Any further assault on your life will answer with raw vengeance.
– The last assault of the wicked you saw is the last you will ever see.
– Every mark of the wicked on anyone’s life hitherto will clear off today.
We serve the God of vengeance. Romans 12:19. Jesus also taught us to pray vengeance prayers. Luke 18:7. The Holy Ghost is also the Spirit of vengeance. We saw that in Acts 13:8-11. Vengeance is here. It is our redemptive responsibility to invoke vengeance upon the wicked. It is not God who will condemn them, we are to condemn them and God will confirm it. Psalm 7:9-13. That is you crying out to God. Church Gist. Arise oh God and let your enemies be scattered. So we are the ones to condemn them and God will confirm it. Isaiah 54:17. Thou shall condemn, not God. It is your day. You don’t play gentleman games on the war front. So wake up! Psalm 94:1-7. Every aspect of anyone’s life that is being afflicted by the wicked, today the battle is won.
God unleashes vengeance among other things through the anointing. Psalm 89:20-24. God is dealing with your adversaries today. By the anointing of this service, you are walking free. The wickedness of the wicked shall come to an end in your life today. Church Gist. Isaiah 10:27. Psalm 92:10. Vengeance usually precedes breakthroughs. You are stepping into next levels. After vengeance has been wrought, your next level Breakthrough is what next. You are returning with it.
Other virtues of the mystery of the anointing oil include healing, breakthroughs, destruction of every yoke and what have you.
The God of vengeance is in the House and He is here for your sake.
– Anything that won’t let you go must go down for you.
– Anything that will not let you must get off the earth for you.
– Any appointment with death against you by the machinations of the wicked, that appointment goes back to where it came from.
– You will hear news. Church Gist. News of the raw vengeance of God in the camp of your enemy.
– Whatever has been against the peace of your life, the peace of your family, that arrow returns back to sender.
– Whatever is holding any of your children or spouse captive, that siege is over today.
– Whatever is resisting your health from flourishing, that plague returns back to the sender.
– Today God will plague all that hate you.
– The sons of wickedness will not afflict you anymore.
– Your long-awaited liberty is finally here in the name of Jesus.
One of my sons was telling me yesterday that the Church bought land in a particular location and paid for it. 280 Million Naira. The man who sold the land said you will not build in this place. So tell them that you lease it. They looked at him and said, “You lie.” By the time they were going to build the fence, they found a pot with a baby’s head. Church Gist. He came and took the sand in Canaanland and put it on it and the man went down. He is dead. Life story! Do you see how wicked people can be? You sold the land, you collected the money and they must not build there. It is off.
Some folks gathered in our old church to kill this man. I am so easy to kill because I don’t leave the office on time. I leave the office at 1am, 1:30am. So to kill me was very simple. One came and said he would sponsor the operation. He had money. I had no idea, God of vengeance stepped in. The man who chaired the meeting, his first son just started shouting “My head! My head!” before he fell down and died. Two days after it was his second son “My head! My head!” he fell down and died. Church Gist. The meeting scattered. God will scatter every gang up of hell. One of them disappeared into thin air. The other one found himself in prison. You know what? We bought some of His properties without knowing what happened. It was the one in prison who told the story when he met one of our people in prison ministry about what happened to them.
Now hear this, evil will strike in the camp of your enemy.
– All that wishes you or your children will die in your place.
– All that are after a life of struggle for you will go into unending struggle all the days of their lives. Church Gist.
– You are walking into liberty today.
One of us had his uncle come from the village to visit him and saw the church calendar with my picture holding a microphone on it. “Please turn it back, fire is coming out from that thing”. He said no, I won’t turn it back. He got back home and ‘katakata’ began. Church Gist. He went down with paralysis, went down with everything confessing he was behind the ordeals of that man’s life.
– You will hear the news this week.
Someone tried to poison one of our members in East Africa and then God set her on fire on her bed. The body was burning, the bed was not burnt to show that God is the one in charge. They took the poison and there was trouble in their bodies, they invoked the God of vengeance. He stood up and they began to confess that they were the ones that brought the poison. They were set free. Church Gist. You heard the testimony of one of us that they prepared food for because he gave his life to Christ. The child of the person who prepared the food got home and was hungry and went and picked the food that had poison and that was the end of it. They started crying. They arrested this young man and put him in police custody. The wife said, “Let me tell you the truth, it was we that prepared the poison, our daughter didn’t know that it was not for her, she took it and passed”.
– In the same way today, everything prepared to end your life, your enemy will swallow it.
In the precious name of Jesus, you are finally out. You have been delivered from the mighty. The almighty has delivered you from the mighty.
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