PRAYER AND FASTING IS NOT A CALLING NOR IS IT A MINISTRY, IT IS A COVENANT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THOSE WHO DESIRE EMPOWERMENT
I AM STILL AT THE ANKLE DEEP LEVEL OF SPIRITUAL EMPOWERMENT.
I AM STILL FAR AWAY FROM GOD’S ETERNAL PLAN IN THE SCHOOL OF EMPOWERMENT AND SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY WHICH IS GREATER WORKS THAN HE DID ON EARTH.
THE DAYS OF “I GOT A HOUSE, I GOT A CAR” CHRISTIANITY ARE FLEETING, WE SHOULD LIVE FAR ABOVE THAT
YOU NEVER SEE OR TASTE POWER WITHOUT GETTING ON THE PLATFORM OF PRAYER AND FASTING
THAT IS WHY IT IS ORDAINED AS A SCHEDULE IN OUR LIVES NOT WHEN WE FEEL LIKE
SOME FELLOWS THINK THAT ONCE YOU ARE BAPTIZED IN THE HOLY GHOST, THEN YOU ARE EMPOWERED. NO! YOU ARE JUST REGISTERED IN THE SCHOOL OF EMPOWERMENT
I AM NOT A SPEAKER. I HATE THE WORD ‘SPEAKER’
MOST OF WHAT YOU CALL CHURCHES TODAY ARE MERELY MOTIVATIONAL CENTRES.
MOST PEOPLE ON THE PULPIT ARE SPEAKERS, THEY ARE NOT MINISTERS.
THEY ARE MERE SPEAKERS SPEAKING HIGH SOUNDING PHILOSOPHIES, YOU CLAP AND CLAP AND STAND UP EMPTY.
IT TAKES A CRAVING, A DESPERATION IN PRAYER AND FASTING TO SEE HIS POWER.
WE ARE IN THE DAYS OF AN OUTBREAK OF REVELATION IN THE BODY OF CHRIST!
YOU WILL HEAR YOUNG AND OLD SAY, “GOD TOLD ME, GOD TOLD ME” WITH STRONG CONVICTION.
MANY PEOPLE SHALL EXPERIENCE SUPERNATURAL REJUVENATION!
FASTING IS NOT TO PUNISH US BUT TO POLISH US, TO BEAUTIFY OUR DESTINY AND SOLIDIFY OUR PLACE IN ETERNITY
YOU NEED POWER!
YOU NEED POWER FOR TRIUMPHANT LIVING
YOU NEED POWER FOR STEADFASTNESS IN STEWARDSHIP
– Bishop David Oyedepo on UNVEILING THE COVENANT PLATFORM FOR EMPOWERMENT || LFC Midweek and Communion Service || Canaanland, Ota ||
Shall we lift our two hands to heaven and praise God. He is the same God with the same story with a set plan to keep changing our stories from glory to glory. The path of the just is ordained as a shining light to shine more and more. Your days of stagnation are finally over. Your days of going in cycles are finally over. Your days of being fixed at the same spot are finally over. Church Gist. Lift up your two hands, you have just been brought on the covenant highways with a chance to get on the fast lane. Thank Him for it. You have just been brought into your year of difference, your year of a new beginning, ask Him for grace for a great start. Ask Jesus tonight for grace for a great start.
Tonight is declared your own night of encounter. Every one of us tonight will return with a definite touch from heaven. Church Gist. It shall be a turnaround touch in the precious name of Jesus.
UNVEILING THE COVENANT PLATFORM FOR EMPOWERMENT. Empowerment is a non-negotiable platform for triumphant living. We know we are of God and we know that the whole world lies in wickedness. It takes empowerment to tread upon serpents and scorpions and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Luke 10:19. You can’t walk through without power. You can’t work in victory with power. 1 John 5:19. Empowerment is a non-negotiable requirement for triumphant living. Prayer and fasting is the covenant platform for the empowerment of the redeemed. Prayer and fasting is the covenant platform for the empowerment for believers. That is why it is ordained as a schedule in our lives not when you feel like. He said when ye pray not if you pray, when ye fast, not if you fast. So it is a matter of when not if. Church Gist. So it is ordained to be a schedule in our Christian life because that is the service station from where we top the oil and renew the oil. In the parable of the five wise and foolish virgins in Matthew 25. Matthew 25:9. Go to them that sell and buy. Prayer and fasting is the market for empowerment. Isaiah 58:6-8. I have prescribed fasting for your empowerment. It will humiliate the powers of darkness, it will get you off the heavy burdens of life if you care to. Prayer and fasting is not a calling nor is it a ministry, it is a covenant responsibility for those who desire empowerment. You never see or taste power without getting on the platform of prayer and fasting.
Some fellows think that once you are baptized in the Holy Ghost, then you are empowered. No! You are just registered in the school of empowerment. It is our initiation into the school of power. Don’t ever mistake your registering in the school for your graduation. Don’t mistake matriculation for convocation. Many were baptized yesterday, they are as powerless as paper today. To keep us panting we have outlined in scriptures as read in that epistle different levels of empowerment. We have a very graphic picture outlined to us in Ezekiel 47:1-5. Hebrews 12:2. John 16:7. So the water is issuing from the right side of the throne. It is a picture of Jesus releasing the power into the world. So there is the ankle deep, knee deep, there is waist deep and overflowing deep. I don’t know if anyone here is beyond ankle deep including myself. It is a journey. Can we check the benchmark? John 14:12. That tells us how far away we are from God’s eternal plan in the school of empowerment and spiritual authority. The days of “I got a house, I got a car” are fleeting and passing, we should live far above that. What empowerment does is to position us for command. You are not begging issues, you are commanding issues.
We have this illustration from scriptures. On the day of Pentecost, they were endued with power from on high. The. We saw they moved from power to great power. Acts 4:33. Then we got to exceeding great power. Ephesians 1:18-20. So there is exceeding greatness of His power. So from power to great power to exceeding power. From exceeding great power to the power of the world to come. Hebrews 6:5. Operating in the realm of heaven on the earth. All these is to help stir our spirit man to take steps forward. Church Gist. We have gone around the same spot long enough. It is time to step forward. Micah 2:10. We mustn’t be found hanging around the same spot for too long. A car that will not visit the service station, will be grounded it is only a matter of time.
We saw how Christ returned in the power of the spirit. First, we saw the Holy Ghost descend on Him in Luke 3 when He was being baptized and we saw Him return in the power of the Spirit in Luke 4:14. Then we saw the mighty power of God working through Him in Luke 9:43. Spiritual empowerment is the school where we move from one level to another. We saw Jesus return in the power of the Spirit to Galilee after His forty days fasting episode showing us that is the covenant platform for empowerment. Before this fasting season is over, everybody will know your spiritual level has changed. Psalm 110:1-3 we understand that there is a day called “the day of His power”. The day of the dominion of the saints. Jesus will not return until that day be accomplished in the church. How do we get there? Luke 5:33-35.
The day of His power is the day of prayer and fasting of the saints. We can’t move forward in the school of power without operating on the covenant platform of prayer and fasting. You will never find a Power Ministry where prayer and fasting are not recognized. Most of what you call Churches today are merely motivational centres. Most people on the pulpit are speakers, they are not ministers. They are mere speakers, high sounding philosophies, you clap and clap and stand up empty. I hate the word ‘speaker’. I hate it. “we have our speaker here tonight” No! I am not a speaker. I am not. Church Gist. Matthew 17:19-22. So there are kinds of situations that will never give way under no condition other than the force of prayer and fasting. I see everyone’s dominion change level. I see everyone’s spiritual understanding change level. I see us coming out of these 21 days of prayer and fasting saying to this go and it goes, saying to that come and it comes.
It is also important to know that empowerment in the kingdom is essentially for service. Watch these scriptures: Matthew 10:1,8. Empowerment is not for show, it is for service. Some cry and cry and they can’t see things happen because they don’t know the purpose of empowerment. If you will pray and fast to deliver God’s agenda, you will return empowered. Jesus was there on the Mount of Transfiguration and Moses and Elijah came down talking with Him concerning the Kingdom, He was on that Mountain on kingdom matters, heaven released those saints to come down. While he prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered. Luke 9:28-35. He just stepped into the realm of power. “Hear ye Him” It was an announcement to the world, things on earth, things under the earth and things in heaven “hear ye him”. Have a kingdom motive in your crave for empowerment and it will happen like a dream of the night. Luke 9:1. Power is to serve, it is not to sit. People with a kingdom mentality get empowered naturally as they call on God because the empowerment is to serve His purpose. Church Gist. I remember I said to God, Lord “if you ever bless me I want to be part of building you Churches”. I had no bank account when I prayed that prayer. So He called me aside and showed me how to walk into His prosperity. He was convinced of what I wanted to do with it so He had no problem giving it to me. “Oh Lord, give me so I can be like others”. You will waste your time. I had zero concerns. Somebody is being launched into that highway of blessings by having God at the centre of your heart and desires.
This is why one cannot be empowered beyond their spiritual understanding of the purpose of empowerment. You just need to have a spiritual understanding of it. Acts 1:8. I am empowering you to represent me on the earth. Luke 9:6. We need that understanding. Lord, empower me to be an effective witness for you where I live. Where I work, where I sell. Empower me to make a difference wherever I find myself. Empower me to respond to every instruction of the year with utmost delight. Endue me with the spirit of obedience, you see power without struggles. Acts 8:17-21. So it fakes a right heart, a right motive to be empowered. Luke 5:37-38. New wine can only be put in new wine bottles. So empowerment requires a renewal. Otherwise, you will be crying an empty cry. Lord, empower me to please you in all my ways. Endue me with the Spirit of holiness, sanctify me with the Spirit of newness. That is the base. All these emergency things that people are doing won’t last. Some got amazing testimonies for phase 1, Phase 2 of wonder double, some are so far from God now that you wonder whether they were once saved or not. Church Gist. They were not looking for God, they were looking for things and the things they got took them off. There is no sign that they got anything anymore. Lord empower me for steadfastness in my walk with you. Desire spiritual reasons for which you are seeking empowerment and you find your level changing supernaturally. It takes a renewal to access the new wine.
God will only empower our passion for Him and His kingdom and not our passion for things, name and fame. That is where empowerment starts to be abused if the purpose is not well defined. Empowerment starts to be abused if the purpose is not well defined. Church Gist. To overstay a particular level can be frustrating if not devastating. Let’s constantly desire a change of level so we don’t get left behind. My prayer tonight is that you will make this month the beginning of months in your life. Because God is set to change your level and my level.
Now how is prayer and fasting a power service station?
Wherever empowerment is mentioned, you find the word THIRST as a constant. One of the immediate experiences in fasting is a thirst, a thirst, a thirst. John 7:37-39.
There’s always a thirst, a thirst is a constant in our quest for power. Church Gist. Isaiah 41:17,18. I’m overdue to leave this level, I should not be struggling with this thing anymore. Holy Ghost, come down to my help! Isaiah 44:3,4.
There is always the constant of a thirst in our quest for empowerment. Psalms 63:1,2. So it takes a craving, it takes a longing to see His power. It takes desperation in prayer coupled with fasting to see His power. You can’t go to a furniture market, looking for vegetables. You can’t go to a vegetable market looking for textile. You won’t find them. You can wander round for days, for months, it will not be there because it’s not sold there. Prayer and Fasting is the only authentic market for empowerment. Church Gist. You’re not interested, it’s your cup of tea.
We are living in very uncertain times, the earth is being covered by darkness and gloominess, it takes empowerment to live a triumphant life.
-No one here shall be trapped in the Precious name of Jesus!
In conclusion tonight, while the core purpose of fasting is empowerment, there are other fringe benefits that we draw form the platform of prayer and fasting.
Fringe benefits from the covenant of prayer and fasting:
1. It destroys yokes and that includes all unwanted, deadly habits of our lives. This month is declared everyone’s month of Glorious Liberty. Everything that has capacity to derail or disqualify anyone from making heaven, shall be destroyed off each one’s life!
Fasting is to loose the bands of wickedness. To set free the oppressed! You have struggled to be free from certain things for so long, finally, the hour is here!
Target every unwanted issues of your life and demand for your liberty in the course of this prayer and fasting! The pride that is breaking your family already, ask for recovery, demand for recovery!
2. Prayer and fasting is a covenant platform for outbreak of revelations. Isaiah 58:8. Get ready with your parchments, your notes, because light is coming your way! That will show you the way forward, the way out and the way upward. Light is coming, light is coming, light is coming! 1 John 2:20.
The anointing opens up the veil over our hearts to access all things that God has in store for us. John 14:26. Church Gist. The covenant platform of prayer and fasting offers that blessing, the blessing of outbreak of light. Jeremiah 31:34.
We are in the days of outbreak of revelation in the Body of Christ. Outbreak! You’ll be hearing from the young and the old say, “God told me, God told me” with all conviction because it’s God who told them. That’s what we run into from the covenant of prayer and fasting.
I’ve told you too many stories of encounters with light. They were mostly from the platform of prayer and fasting. Mostly! Mostly! Our church broke out from stagnation through the platform of prayer and fasting. Stand up and follow me! Live! No guesswork. Broad day light! And He opened to me the mysteries of church growth and here we are today by grace.
God will open new chapters to your life through the platform of prayer and fasting in the name of Jesus Christ!
3. Prayer and fasting facilitates express answers to our prayers. Isaiah 58:9. That’s the kind of experience we have. I said Lord, show me the secret behind the Book of Ezekiel. It was my access to Ezekiel 37 that motivated me to go seek for it and I prophesied and it happened. Ezekiel 37:4.
I was there first day, no sign, second day, no sign, on the mountain. Third day, already out of physical energy, Behold, I have touched your tongue with a coal of fire and from henceforth, as you say it, you will see it. I never read the book, I never heard it from someone, I heard it from Him directly. Express answers to prayers!
Every kingdom prone prayer you care to pray in these 21 days of fasting shall be answered expressly!
4. It enhances health and vitality. It’s not a health therapy like you tell them in hospitals, it’s a spiritual therapy. Isaiah 58:8. Not about recovery. Therapy is about recovery.
Dramatic turnaround after the order of Job 33:21 of that illustration of terminal disease.
Many people shall experience supernatural rejuvenation! Church Gist.
Very weakness, every discomfort you used to know will disappear like a dream of the night!
It’s one of the great offers on the covenant platform of prayer and fasting.
There shall be massive recovery of health! Beyond all we ever knew since we began to walk with God on the name of Jesus!
How many believe their health shall be totally recovered? It shall be so!
5. It enhances access to Divine guidance and what a plus that is. Isaiah 58:11.
Many are constantly treading the path of regret, they don’t know where to go and they don’t know from where to get it. So they keep going to anywhere that looks like it. Church Gist. Many are biting their fingers today around the world. They’re believers.
They just took off like a horse and they believed that they had understanding. There is no nation on the earth that is not under distress today, not one. Don’t be deceived. Just step out first and find out.
But walking in line with His guidance, makes the journey of life great. Church Gist. Isaiah 48:21. When you access His leading and subscribe to it, things start happening out of this world in your life. You don’t seem to be part of the system. You live in another world in the same world.
May no one here miss the leading of the Shepherd anymore! Following the leading of the Shepherd guarantees an enviable end. Goodness and mercy will keep following you as you keep following His guidance. Church Gist. Goodness and mercy only, goodness and mercy only! John 10:4,5. That’s what happens on the platform of prayer and fasting. The voice of God comes through the covenant of prayer and fasting.
Moses spoke to the Lord and He answered him by a voice. Malachi 3:6.
You will be answered by a voice which will say to you, This is the way to go. This is the right way to go.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again: I may not know anything else, but I know that I know that I know and my knowledge knows that I know that I’m in the center of God’s will. I am absolutely in the center of His will. By His guidance! Step by step. Church Gist. “This cannot be the place.” “Shut up, this is the place.” “Sorry sir.”
“Shut down the church in town?” “Yes. Did you build it?”
Many have misinvested their resources in certain businesses, nothing came out of it . They destroyed what they already had by not placing value on divine guidance.
Jesus himself said I can do nothing. As I hear, so I do.
It’s time to open up to divine guidance. And in these 21 days of prayer and fasting, you will be divine gathered. On the right path. And corrected from the wrong path. If you care for it.
6. It empowers us for supernatural breakthroughs. Isaiah 58:12.
7. It facilitates our access to the high places in life. The covenant of prayer and fasting is our access to high places in life. All that we said earlier clearly points to that fact – Arise, shine, your light has come. Isaiah 60:22.
It’s not to punish us but to polish us. To beautify our destiny, to solidify our place in eternity. To break off all the yokes of hell around our life.
Please lift up your hand wherever you are at this time. Lift up your right hand and thank God for light tonight. The month you have been waiting for is finally here. The first month of this highly prophetic year is finally here. It’s your month because it’s your year. It’s your month, it’s your new beginning in the name of Jesus!
Give the Lord a big hand of praise.
ALTAR CALL.
The fuel in my car cannot run your car. You are married and the two of you are one, the fuel in the life of your wife cannot run your car.
🎵Give me oil in my lamp, give me oil in my lamp🎶
Go to them that sell and buy! I’m a housewife, you need power! I’m a househusband, you need power! I’m an industrialist, you need power so you don’t lose your industry! Church Gist. I’m an academic, you need power so you don’t lose your brain!
Everybody needs power for triumphant living!
No one will suffer defeat anymore!
You need power to serve Him tirelessly by the help of God! Paul said, I continued until this day. You need power for steadfastness in stewardship!
Why are things not working for me? Because you stopped working. You stopped working. The part that worked you up, you stopped working it. Church Gist. You’ve just become a club member not a church member. You like the choir, you like the preaching, you like the environment so here am I in Winners.
Everybody needs power to keep his life meaningful!
May this month never pass like every other January in your life!
You are dozing on the altar of prayer, you need power! The spirit itself helpeth out infirmity. You need power! Even in church when everybody is praying and shouting by your side, you are sleeping, you need power!
In the name of Jesus, everyone’s spiritual life must change gear!
It’s never forced on people, you choose to have it.
May you make the right choice!
As this fasting opens up, may you see it as an opportunity not as a disruption, not as a distraction, not as a burden. Church Gist. May you see it as an opportunity for your long awaited change of story.
Can I tell you something brethren? I have been seeking God long before I was called to ministry. I was seeking God, I want to fulfill God’s plan for my life, I want to be part of His church agenda. I pray that everyone of us will recover our position in Christ!
Lift up those two hands and thank God for the encounter from the communion table tonight, thank God for the encounter with His word tonight in the precious name of Jesus.
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