YOUR POOR OR NON-RESPONSE TO GOD DOES NOT ONLY AFFECT YOU. IT AFFECTS OTHERS AROUND YOU.
IF ELIJAH DIDN’T MOVE, ELISHA WILL NOT HAVE OPPORTUNITY TO STEP INTO MINISTRY.
EVERY TIME YOU FAIL TO RESPOND, OTHERS ARE BEING AFFECTED NEGATIVELY.
THAT IS WHY YOU FIND A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO SUFFER WOES AND REGRETS, TORMENTS AND LAMENTS.
DELAY ALWAYS ENDS PEOPLE IN LAMENT AND TORMENT.
DELAY ALWAYS ENDS PEOPLE IN REGRETS AND WOES
THE REASON WHY THINGS ARE NOT MOVING FOR MANY OF US IS BECAUSE WE ARE NOT MOVED BY GOD’S INSTRUCTION.
NOTHING MOVES, UNTIL GOD MOVES YOU.
-Bishop David Abioye at CHoP
This morning, we count it a privilege to stand before You our Father, our King, giving You all the glory, for preserving our lives, our souls at all times. Receive our thanks in the name of Jesus. Our eyes are on You this morning, send to us Your Word of life. Quicken us by Your Spirit. Enlighten and empower us. Thank You for doing so Lord, in Jesus wonderful name.
It is my privilege this morning, I am not taking it for granted to bring to us a word of exhortation. For this week, since we began on Monday, it is being captioned:
PROMPT RESPONSE COUNTS THE MOST IN OUR WALK WITH GOD
Let’s remind ourselves this morning, that basically being born again is a call to walk with God. God made man from the beginning to walk with Him: evening time, He would come down to walk with man and so it continued with Abraham. The Lord came to Abraham in Genesis 17 chapter verse 1 and said, “walk with Me.” God is interested in our walk with Him.
Back into the New Testament, Jesus called Peter and said, “Follow Me.” That is another word, “walk with me.”
Matthew 4:19
God delights in our walk with Him.
And for what reason? So that we can enjoy life with Him; so that His nature can be transferred to us. He that walks with the wise shall be wise; he that walks with God shall be as God. When you walk with God, you behold God and when you behold God, you look like God.
Our walk with God is what gives us worth among men. You are as worthy as God is worthy when you walk with Him. Church Gist. That is why we must not joke with this.
But for us to succeed in walking with God, we must continue to respond to Him and that promptly. You don’t walk with God, He leaves you behind, as it is even in the natural. When a child does not walk swiftly with the mother or with the father, he is left behind.
When we don’t walk with God, or when we don’t respond to His command, He leaves us behind.
-May God not leave you behind.
Jesus came and said, “Peter, follow Me” and they did. Of course, we see from records of scriptures, He called others, they didn’t follow Him, He left them behind.
God is patient, but He will not waste time. He comes knocking at everyone’s door, “follow Me.”
There is no one that God does not call but not all respond to Him. He is patient but He will not waste time. Church Gist. You don’t know how many people God called before He called Abraham. Abraham responded promptly.
What made Abraham to enjoy his walk with God was prompt response. Nothing moves God like prompt response and prompt response means quick action. Quick action. Un-delayed movement towards anything He commands you to do.
“Abraham, come out of your country”: Yes Sir. He followed Him – Genesis 12:1,4
“Abraham, sacrifice your son”: Within a few hours, as the day broke, he went looking for the land that God showed to him – Genesis 22:2-3
Nothing moves God like our prompt response! Our prompt response makes us quick partakers of His nature, His life and His blessing.
You cannot be slow walking with God. You can’t afford it. You are slow, He leaves you behind.
-May none of us be left behind.
This morning quickly, we are looking at the example of Elijah. You will note that all men of worth in scriptures who basically walked with God. Now, whether you go to school or not is secondary. What gives you your real worth in life is your walk with God. Church Gist. Most men in scriptures were not schooled. They were raw men who consistently followed God. We don’t hear the history of many of them.
Elijah: That was his introduction.
Elijah, the Tishbite: not the Scholar. Is it out of place to be a scholar? No, but your basic requirement and qualification to enjoy God, to have worth among men, by the lifting of God is your walk with Him, your prompt response.
He responded promptly to divine instruction and that opened a new chapter to His ministry.
1 Kings 19:15-19
The Lord appeared to him and said, “Hey Elijah, go, look for 3 men: Hazael, Jehu and Elisha. Anoint Hazael to be king of Syria, Jehu to be king in Israel and Elisha, the prophet to take your place.”
1 Kings 19:19 – “So he departed thence”: Prompt response
As soon as God spoke, He moved. Nothing moves, until God moves you.
The reason why things are not moving for many of us is because we are not moved by God’s instruction.
He moved thence to look for those people who God told him to anoint, anointed them, including Elisha
1 Kings 19:19
Please listen to this: your poor or nonresponse to God does not only affect you. It affects others around you. If He didn’t move, Elisha will not have opportunity to step into ministry.
We live in a chain of effects: positive or negative. There are many families that are destroyed because the father in the house will not move when he should move.
We heard the story of a man, an Evangelist who went to preach and over and over again, satan was tormenting his mind, “I will go to your house, I will send rabid dogs to bite your children and kill them.” He had 2 children in the house and promptly he responded, “the Blood of Jesus over my family, the Blood of Jesus over my children.”
Quickly, he sent his brother, go check my house for me. When the brother got there, at the boundary of the house, he found 2 rabid dogs whom the devil said he would send to kill his children; he actually did so. They were dead at the boundary. By the time they checked up the rabies, they discovered they were poisoned, they had poison in their mouth. If they touched the children, they would have killed them. But promptly he responded, “The Blood of Jesus.”
Time to respond in prayer when you have the urge. Time to pray for your neighbour, time to pray for your children. Time to pray for that soul to be saved, time to pray for that soul to be established in the faith. Time to pray for your Pastor, time for the Pastor to pray for your members. Prompt response.
You don’t know what danger the enemy has put in place to destroy you and things around you.
Time to pray over your job.
That is what Elijah did. Church Gist. Every time you fail to respond, others are being affected negatively. That is why you find a lot of people who suffer woes and regrets, torments and laments.
Delay always ends people in lament and torment.
Delay always ends people in regrets and woes: “O I wished I did that. I wished I prayed. This accident would have been averted. O my children would not have suffered what they suffered.”
Failure to respond leads to utter failure in life.
-May we keep responding timely, tirelessly to the nudging of the Holy Spirit.
Prompt response!
How does it come? It comes by the prompting of the Spirit. One thing all of us has as advantage to us is the prompting of the Spirit. The Spirit beareth witness within your spirit, that is the prompting of the Spirit. So when you walk in the Spirit, the Spirit will move inside you and there is none of us who have not experienced that before.
Now, at that point, if you don’t respond, it ends in regrets. All of the men we mentioned, that is how they moved. Something moved them and they released themselves to the move.
-May we from today keep releasing ourselves to the move of the Spirit.
Spontaneous prayer response to issues delivers the most in prayers. We saw Nehemiah. Quickly, he responded. A cup bearer, a local staff, a domestic staff who should not have his name listed anywhere became a governor, simply by responding to the move of the Spirit.
Nehemiah 1:1-11; 2:1-8
You don’t know how much can happen to you simply by responding to the Spirit, engaging to the power of God inside you. That is why when an ordinary man responds promptly, the greatness of God works inside him, to scale heights beyond his imagination.
Conclusively, the scriptures tells us therefore in Romans chapter 12 verses 11 and 12, “not slothful in business (not slow in response); fervent in spirit (quick always to act); serving the Lord…continuing instant in prayer.”
“Be instant”: That is be ready, be on the look out for what the Spirit is saying to you.
-May we receive this morning to keep responding to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
Prayers: Father, give me the required sensitivity to the nudging of the Holy Spirit, to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
This is a most precious prayer to pray for yourself right now.
Lord, in the name of Jesus, keep me engaged in the Spirit and with the Spirit. Keep me alert now and always, to keep responding with the move of the Spirit, to the prompting of Your Spirit, that will move me forward in my destiny. Lord, in the name of Jesus, keep me at alert, keep me quick in my spirit, so I can keep responding to Your leading, to Your guidance.
SPEAK TO YOUR DAY
Tell your day: Today shall be orderly, today shall be a day of greater encounters.
Give glory and praise unto Him. He is worthy of our praise. Give Him thanks some more.
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CHoP is an acronym for Covenant Hour of Prayer
