WE’RE IN THE DAYS OF GREAT RESTORATION OF THE BEAUTY OF THE REDEEMED FOR ALL THE YEARS WE HAVE LOST TO IGNORANCE.
WHEN YOU SUSPEND YOUR OBEDIENCE, YOU’VE SUSPENDED YOUR BLESSING.
OBEDIENCE IS WHAT SECURES SWORN BLESSING ON BELIEVERS. NOT WAITING, NOT HANGING ON.
LIFE IN THE KINGDOM THRIVES ON OBEDIENCE.
NO REASON UNDER HEAVEN IS TENABLE FOR DISOBEDIENCE IN THE SIGHT OF GOD.
THE COVENANT OF WEALTH IN THE KINGDOM IS A COVENANT TO EQUALITY.
TITHE IS A COVENANT OF EQUALITY.
MY GRANDMOTHER EXPLAINED TITHES AS ‘GOD’s PORTION THAT MAKES THE REMAINDER MEANINGFUL’
MANY PASTORS AND FOUNDERS ARE BEGGARS TODAY BECAUSE THEY THINK THAT MEMBERS ARE THE ONES TO GIVE
THE COVENANT OF SEEDTIME AND HARVEST HAS PROVED TO BE THE GATEWAY TO A WORLD OF SUPERNATURAL BLESSINGS, NO SHORTCUT
IF YOU WANT A HARVESTFUL TOMORROW, THEN HAVE A SEEDFUL SEASON TODAY
NEVER GIVE IN YOUR LIFE AS MEETING GOD’S NEED
THE COVENANT IS NOT A PRESS BUTTON SYSTEM, IT’S AN ADVENTURE
A PERCENTAGE OF OUR INCOME WORLDWIDE GOES INTO HUMANITARIAN SERVICES.
DURING THE IKEJA BOMB BLAST SOME YEARS BACK, WE GAVE MORE THAN THE RED CROSS SOCIETY.
THE ALTAR OF SACRIFICE IS THE ALTAR OF TURNAROUND.
GIVING IS A COVENANT GATEWAY TO SUPERNATURAL BLESSINGS.
EVERY ADJUSTMENT OF THE TRUTH IS DISOBEDIENCE.
-Bishop David Oyedepo on “WALKING IN THE COVENANT OF SUPERNATURAL BLESSINGS 3” at April 2024 Week Of Spiritual Emphasis || Day Three || Youth Chapel, Canaanland || 5th April 2024.
Joel 2:25. We’re in the last days, we’re in the days of great restoration of the beauty and the colour of the Redeemed for all the years we have lost to ignorance. Church Gist. Joel 2:26. We are in the days of the restoration of the glory of the saints.
-May each one be awake to partake of this glorious time in the name of Jesus. Church Gist. May each one be awake to be a bonafide partaker of this awesome season.
—PRAYERS—-
In Jesus’ precious name, we have prayed. Just like no degree of darkness can stop the way against light. So walking in the light of Scriptures secures the future, clears the barriers away on their own accord. Light shows up, darkness bows out. No argument! Get back home tonight! Church Gist. Get to your bedroom, ask your toddler to put on the light, darkness will fade. The age of the one that does it or notwithstanding. So darkness is not our problem, absence of light is our problem. Arise! Shine! In spite of the darkness, as your light comes. Isaiah 60:1-2.
-Your time to manifest His glory is finally here!! Your time and your turn, your turn to manifest His glory is finally here! Your turn! I said: ‘Your turn’, to manifest His glory is finally here. Church Gist. As you encounter light, darkness will bow. His glory will be made manifest, His glory will show up!! It is not only your time, it is now your turn!! In the name of Jesus.
-Father, thank You! Jesus, thank You! We believe you’re still very much here in our midst, in Your resurrected form. Thank You for making Yourself manifest and tonight we’re here again. Church Gist. Open every heart as You did (to) the heart of Lydia. To attend to Your Word to the point of encounter in the name of Jesus. Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord! Fortune is my portion in 2024. Congratulations! WALKING IN THE COVENANT OF SUPERNATURAL BLESSINGS. God made a covenant of supernatural blessings with Abraham and by redemption, we are the seed of Abraham, though that Covenant pertains to us because He could swear by no greater, He swore by Himself saying: ‘In blessing, I will bless you, in multiplying I will multiply thy seed…’ Genesis 22:17-18. Obedience is what secures sworn blessing on believers. Church Gist. Not waiting, not hanging on. Raw obedience! Unreserved obedience! Obedience to the full, obedience to the end. That was what secured a sworn blessing for Abraham. And if you’re Abraham’s seeds, you do the works of Abraham. John 8:39. I was having some humour with the Lord today, He said: ‘Just like breathing is to living, so obedience is (the) gateway to all of My blessings for you’. When you suspend your obedience, you’ve suspended your blessing. And God have mercy! No reason under Heaven is tenable for disobedience in the sight of God. Deuteronomy 28:1-2.
Deuteronomy 28:14-15. No neutral place! You turn your back on My Word, I turn My back on you. You engage with My Word in obedience of faith, you have provoked My blessings. You refuse to, you’ve invoked My wrath. All through Scriptures, the blessing of God usually traces the obedience of believers. God’s blessing always traces the obedience of believers. Where obedience stops is where His blessing stops. The same way you don’t suspend your breathing, don’t suspend your obedience. Life in the Kingdom thrives on obedience. Christ our perfect example was obedient unto death even the death on the Cross. ‘Wherefore God also has highly exalted Him’. Philippians 2:8. We look for many shortcuts, sir. Isaiah 59:8. ‘I think, I suppose, you know? Circumstances, situations, they’re all over me’.
Isaiah 59:8. Come on now let’s check it! ‘Why am I going through this stress? Is this God’s agenda for me in this World? What am I required to do to get out of this’? There is no sorting in them! ‘Well if that is the way God wants me to live my life, so be it’. Let’s go! The Covenant of Wealth in the Kingdom is a covenant to equality, equality sir! It’s a covenant of equality. We have the same and equal access, no racial discrimination. No professional advantage, stop that! The Covenant and profession are not the same class. ‘You know? I belong to one of the most lucrative…’ Who told you? When did you measure it? Church Gist. When I was still involved in studying the wealth climate around the World, I stumbled on one thing one time, where the wealthiest man in the World was in furniture business – Wealthiest! What a lucrative business! It’s not about living in one country and another. ‘You know? Things are just looking up in our country where we live’. Well done! There are people who are down with poverty there right now. Let’s look up to Jesus! Things are coming beyond what man can handle with his skill and capacity. Let’s go back to the one who has the answer. The Covenant of Wealth emphasizes equality, that there be equality. I mean as God has blessed everyone even so let him give. Tithe is a covenant of equality. If I have ten thousand (naira), my tithe is one thousand (naira), there’s no debate, there’s no calculus. Simple! If I have one hundred naira, I mean, ten naira is my tithe. You don’t need anybody to start pressing calculator.
My grandmother gave me the most profound, I believe, definition I ever had on tithing. I wasn’t saved. I just simply asked her, “what is this money you carry to Church every Sunday morning?”. She said, “that is God’s portion that makes the remainder meaningful”. Church Gist. That’s the mystery of tithing. God’s portion that puts the blessings on the remainder. And His blessings maketh rich and adds no sorrow. “God’s portion for what? No, no, I’m going through stress right now, even God knows”. Church Gist. God is now saying, “hey, oh boy, this is the way out of the stress you’re going through”. You say, “I don’t agree”. Okay, una well-done.
All through Scriptures, the covenant of seedtime and harvest has proved to be the gateway to a world of supernatural blessings, no shortcut. Genesis 8:22. Deuteronomy 8:18. So, Deuteronomy 8:18 is an interpretation of Genesis 8:22. Church Gist. That’s the covenant He swore with our father’s – that the earth will no longer be destroyed but will now operate on the platform of seedtime and harvest. Church Gist. If you want a harvestful tomorrow, then have a seedful season today. We have this well captured in 2 Corinthians 9:6-7.
- can I have you say with me, “God is never in need. If He ever had needs, I’ll be the least qualified to be consulted”.
Never give in your life as meeting God’s need, in your life. Who are you and I? Psalm 50:12,10. Church Gist. God does not need any storage, He creates whatever He wants. He says it and they’re created. Many years ago in 1987, the Lord said to me, “tell them”, I was going for a conference then, “that I, the Almighty God will not depend upon their wretched purses but that their wretched purses depend on me for flourishing”. I told them directly. Church Gist. Maybe some were angry, I don’t know, I didn’t check their hearts. God is saying, “look, I don’t need your help, I want to help you. This is the way you can access my help. Church Gist. Acknowledge what is in your hand as from me, then you’ve committed me to supply more and more in your direction”.
I see tithing as acknowledgement of receipt. “Lord, I saw the bountiful blessings you sent from and here’s my covenant acknowledgement just to say I received it and I thank you for it”. Church Gist. He says, “ehh, okay. Get ready for more”. It’s an acknowledgement of His blessings in your life and my life.
Some Founders of senior ministries and all that have a problem with this. They think that members are the ones to give, no, the covenant of seedtime and harvest applies to everyone interested in the harvest. Church Gist. So, it’s no wonder that many Pastors are beggars and their Founders. God’s covenant is no respecter of persons. But to help understanding, the Bible commands or recommends or admonishes that we follow those who have inherited the promises by doing what they’re asking you to do. Church Gist. Find out if it has brought about any visible changes in their lives. You may never have to sit down with them in your life but you can read about them and what they became of them and where they’re coming from. Church Gist. I never sat with Yonggi Cho live before he went to Heaven but Yonggi Cho’s biological, whether molecular or otherwise history and adventure is inside this man by reading of his personal walk with God that resulted into what he experienced. I’ve never met Copeland one in one in my life when God visited me so mightily through his ministry. Hebrews 6:12. Church Gist. Don’t be slothful, they worked it out. Whatever redemption offers and manifests in our lives is worked out. So, work out your own salvation. They worked it out before it began to work. Church Gist. They put it to work to see it work. They put it to work till they begin to see it work.
What is missing in most cases today is the lack of consistency in our covenant walk. The covenant is not a press button system, it’s an adventure. “Walk before me and I will establish my covenant with you”, that’s what God said to Abraham. Genesis 17:1-2. Church Gist. “You come on the walk, come take an adventure with me”. It’s not a banking system, “I have this saving, I have this interest”, it’s a walk. Hebrews 6:12. I had a visitation where I screamed, “yeah! I can never be poor!” That didn’t bring me from where I was to anything overnight, it was a long trek of unabated, delightsome obedience to what He said to do. It was a long trek. Church Gist. After all that mighty visitation, my salary was still 300 naira a month, it was a long trek. Is God asleep? No. He said, “come take an adventure with me”.
There’s a story of a man that simply illustrates this by name, J. C. Penney, he’s gone to glory today. He was a tithing young entrepreneur and things began to look up, he was changing level, changing level. Church Gist. At a point, he said, “hey! This tithe is looking too voluminous, let’s start to rationalize” and he began to rationalize his business without knowing. It was going down and down, “well, it’s just the weather, it’s just the climate, it’s the currency exchange”, it was just going down and down until he was back down on the ground, bankrupt. Church Gist. “Oh God!” “Remember why you’re falling, weeping won’t change it oh. Start from your bankruptcy state if you’re interested in climbing your way back”. He did, once beaten, twice shy forever, a tithe addict.
Many haven’t found out where their trouble is. They are just blaming one woman, that “I dreamt yesternight, there was one woman that fought my mother, 19… I was 3 years old. Church Gist. She looked at me, she said all of you won’t do well. That’s my problem. Otherwise, there is nobody. My career is sound, I’m sound, I’m an excellent student, excellent graduate, excellent worker, yet they sacked me” They say, why? “The woman” Where is the woman? “She has died” Then you are in trouble. But when you are in Christ, you are a new creature, old things are passed away. Church Gist. 2 Corinthians 5:17. All those old wives’ fables, they are stories of ignorance.
- But you have escaped.
- Tonight is your night of escape in the name of Jesus.
Among those that obtained the inheritance of abundance is the Philippian Church. They were a tireless giving Church. Church Gist. Philippians 4:15,16. Not once and for all, ‘once and again’. Not once when you hear the Word or the teachings on giving, once and again. Not the time when you are in need and you need the emergencies of life, once and again. The Philippian Church was a tireless giving Church. ‘Once and again’
Your Church as a body is a tireless giving Church, once and again. A percentage of our income worldwide goes into humanitarian services, once and again. So much goes on healthcare, once and again. Church Gist. Yes, we have a healing ministry, but now you’re injured, you’re attacked by robbers, you need your wound to be healed. Once and again. During the Ikeja bomb blast of some years back, the people said that that was the largest humanitarian thing they received since Nigeria’s civil war, that is, we got the Red Cross beaten to it, with a heart for God. Church Gist. Once and again. There are graces upon Churches that we are called to follow. Once and again.
They understood giving as the Covenant gateway to supernatural blessings and they demonstrated it. Sacrificial giving was their lifestyle. Philippians 4:18. Church Gist. They were not giving leftovers. Proverbs 3:9,10. Theirs was a sacrificial Church with sacrificial giving as a lifestyle.
Psalm 126:1-4,6. The Altar of sacrifice is the Altar of turnaround. Their giving committed God to supply all their needs according to His riches in glory. Philippians 4:19. Not limited to financial this time, your need for protection, your need for healing, health and wholeness according to His riches in glory. Church Gist. You are a once and again covenant practicing Church, my God shall supply all your needs. You don’t just give leftovers, you offer substances and sacrifices in your giving, all your needs.
- As many as are prepared for it, will hit that realm of fortune this year from which you will never recover.
So, start from where you are. “Oh! I wish I started” No, start now.
Let me close by reading these prophetic Scriptures to you from Ezekiel 18:21-24. “I know when God used to bless me.” Find out what you were doing that made Him to bless you. Church Gist. “I didn’t know what happened” You should know what happened. What were you doing that time that connected you to His blessings? Check it out. You must have departed or adjusted. “Now Lord, you know our Church is quite far, all the way in Canaanland. Fuel today is about this amount from my place in Ajao Estate. Church Gist. Fuel to and fro is this. Cost of wear and tear of tires is this. Cost of maintenance per month is this” You now subtract it from your tithe. That is what they call tithe adjustment. It’s an auditing system of the end time. Remove, adjust. “I carry about 2, 3 people anytime I’m going to Church. Now, transport from here to that place is 500. 500, 500. Since they won’t pay, I’ve removed it from the tithe.” Church Gist. They say the police are looking for you, you now are hiding in your chair in the office. You are too easy to pick. You say “No, police, I’m not here” “Okay, whether you’re here or not, when we get to our vehicle, we will know.” Church Gist. Better check it. Every adjustment of the truth is disobedience.
So, for businessmen not to know what they make is not proper. We have the mind of Christ. He has given us a sound mind. My old woman who never went to school, my grandmother who never went to school knew her tithe and then you sell you, you eat, you sell, you eat. You say you don’t know what happened to your capital. The capital is inside you. You ate your entire capital. Some of you have eaten (not here in Church by the grace of God) ten-storey buildings. By the time they analyze his body, there are storey buildings inside him. It is time to be awake unto righteousness. Church Gist. God said I will not remember the right things you did, with the wrong things you did you find yourself in trouble. You can’t afford to suspend obedience. It is like suspending your breath, it is a risk. It is disastrous. Ezekiel 18:25-26. So it is no games. Grace to keep walking in obedience of faith to the terms of the covenant of abundance that keeps a man flourishing in hard times, receive it right now.
The prosperity of this church is a headache to the devil. So he must be working against it day and night. Why is it not working? Darkness can’t succeed against light. No! In the same vein, no force from hell will stop you walking in fortune as you keep walking in the covenant in the name of Jesus. End-time prophecies are no threats, they are the unveiling of heaven’s agenda for the end time. The One who created the end knows what the end contains. Church Gist. It is time to take cover. Let’s take cover in the covenant against the horrible days. The days of horror await the world in which we live. Which days are not coming, they are already here. They are only venting their venoms in phases. There shall be famines and pestilences in diverse places but Covenant blessings maketh rich and it adds no sorrow. So you can’t feel it.
- You won’t know that in your family.
The love of many shall wax cold. So keep building your love from phase to phase to a point where for you to live is Christ and to die is gain. Phillippians 1:21. When I come shall I find faith on the earth? Luke 18:8. Keep building your faith from principles into realms of mysteries. Church Gist. Weak faith can’t stand the storms of life. Abraham was strong in faith giving glory to God. Romans 4:20. You can’t get at the best that covenant requires without strong faith. Strong faith! An unyielding and unbending faith. Faith that is stronger than death.
We close by this, mind these two vital instructions.
- Returns on our seeds sown demands that we give without anxieties.
Give confidently and restfully. God never lies. He never deceives. Don’t give with apprehension, it will amount to doubt. Church Gist. Whatever is not of faith is sin. Romans 4:21. Stop giving with apprehension, it never flies. James 1:8. - Keep giving Cheerfully.
2 Corinthians 9:7. Where joy stops is where your harvest stops. Joel 1:12. Keep giving cheerfully to the needy around you as you are privileged, in advancing the kingdom of God as you are enabled. Don’t try to pose to God, He knows your size. He knows your size! Church Gist. We have quite some abuse in the Body of Christ today, ‘borrow not a few’. No! Not for God. You don’t need to borrow for Him. He told us thou shall not borrow. I will bless you, you will lend to nations. Is that who will send you to go and borrow? Start from where you are. Thank God for light as you enlist in the once and again covenant adventure with God, with sacrifice becoming your new lifestyle in your covenant walk with God.
Next Sunday is our Financial Fortune Banquet. The resurrected Christ will show up and deliver His redemptive package to each one. When He opens no man can shut. If He opens the door to this revelation to you, no devil can stop it. When He speaks, He imparts with His Word to enable us to do what He has said. So watch out. Church Gist. There will be a burning heart kind of revelation this coming Sunday that will put an end to every air of financial upheaval in your life. Everyone you bring into this service that is not saved will find their salvation here. Everyone you bring will find their footing in Christ and be free from the fear of the unknown.
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