BE CAUTIOUS, MANY KINGS ARE NOW SLAVES ALL AROUND THE WORLD FOR MISSING THEIR PLACE OF GOD’S LEADING.
YOU DON’T GO DOWN WITH OBEDIENCE. YOU ALWAYS GO UP WITH OBEDIENCE.
OBEYING GOD’S WILL CAN BE VERY PAINFUL BUT THE AGONY OF OBEDIENCE IS FAR CHEAPER THAN THE ETERNAL WEIGHT OF DISOBEDIENCE.
- Bishop David Oyedepo at June 2022 Spiritual Week of Emphasis Day 3 || Faith Tabernacle, Canaanland Ota.
We have the story of Saul the king, Go destroy all the Amalekites and he came and said “the people took some to sacrifice unto the Lord their God”. He said stop that nonsense. Did God call you for sacrifice? 1 Samuel 15:23. He lost his throne after 40 years. Disobedience can be very destructive.
We have the case of Uzziah. Pride got on him. 2 Chronicles 26:1-3. He went to the synagogue to offer sacrifices, the High Priest said no! It doesn’t pertain to you to offer sacrifices. But He said he was king of everybody including the priest. As he stretched forth his hand to offer sacrifices, he became leprous. He died a leper. The destructive cost of disobedience. You know the story of Gehazi. Church Gist. 1 Timothy 6:10-11. He ran greedily after the Syrian, Namaan. So he received the leprosy of Namaan back. That was his end. Gehazi also fell into that trap of the god of gold. Apart from money, many may not be in Church today. God is blessing people there, let’s go. They want money to have not money to serve.
Let’s look at some beneficiaries of the agony of obedience
- Abraham
You must imagine the insults that will come your way if at 75 you are leaving your village. Where are you going? You don’t know where you are going. Where will you tell them you are going to at the horse park? Which direction are you going to face? He will show me. Lot go with him so that when he dies you can bring us news. So we know whether you should bury him there or carry him on your back and bring him back. On and on no child mockery is on the increase. Now a child came, let’s go and sacrifice this child. Church Gist. You are trekking three days to look for the place and he saw it from afar and I don’t know how many days it took him to get there. Maybe another. Today Abraham is eternally blessed. He passed all the tests of the agony of obedience. Genesis 22:1. God did test Abraham and he came under a sworn blessing. Christ died to redeem us from the law and bring us under the blessings of Abraham.
Then we have Isaac. There was famine and everybody was rushing down. “Thou shall not go down to Egypt”. Genesis 26:1-16. He became stronger than the nation he was inside. He stayed where God commanded him to stay and God made him an eternal excellency of many generations. We brethren are the children of promise like Isaac. Follow His leading, obey His leading. Don’t junket around time. It works.
We had Caleb. He followed God fully. He came and said I am as strong at 85 as I was at 40. Obedience gets you stronger by the day. You don’t go down with obedience. You always go up with obedience. Numbers 14:24. Full obedience gave him his place in destiny. Remember they ostracized him and Joshua. They said they don’t have brains, can’t they see the giants in the land. Church Gist. All those folks perished. God hasn’t changed and He will not change. My prayer is that you will take up your cross if you want to wear your crown. He tells you what to do and you go on full blast.
We saw the case of Peter, we saw the case of Paul and what those folks had to go through to obey God. Philippians 2:6-11. That is where the tap root of obedience is. Eternal enthronement is a result of being obedient unto the death of the cross. Unreserved total obedience enthroned him eternally. Church Gist. The suffering of this moment is nothing to be compared with the weight of glory that will be revealed. So get yourself together. Nothing is a substitute for obedience in the kingdom. A calling? No. The anointing? No.
More often than none, God’s instructions can appear very harsh. His corrections can be the most taunting. His rebukes can be brutal but if you want the best out of your life in the kingdom just subscribe. Some thought I was confused, I think they had a right to think that. I saw the emptiness in me and I knew I had to sit under the feet of this anointed fellow and train for ministry. I thought I was right. I saw Paul was in Arabia for three years and he came back exploding in revelations. Everything was in place, we were jubilating about the miracles that seemed to tar the path. The Lord said to me, that the things you look for do not come from abroad but from above. You are not going anywhere. I came back and told them that God told me I am not going anywhere. What happened? We were going to Jos by our own conviction to start the ministry. After we had done the commissioning service, all the prayers were done. The address was on the back of it and I went to thank Him about everything. He said it was not me you heard about going to Jos. You heard yourself. Church Gist. In 1974 when you were playing table tennis around Jenta Area of Jos, you desired in your heart that if there is a place to live in future, Jos will be that place. That was what you heard, not me. I came back to them and told them that we are not going to Jos again. You must be confused. No! You are not confused, you are being corrected. Those who will not be corrected will not be directed.
We had our satellite churches in Kaduna and some unsavoury things were happening that we were not used to. A child of a Pastor was coming back from Church and a vehicle hit him, Jesus what is happening here? He said did I send you? So I sent for them to go and remove all the pulpits. You don’t see the pulpit, you should know Church has been cancelled. When the time came for it. Church Gist. Boom! Eruption. Several mega-churches in Kaduna to the glory of God. You better get ready for the agony of disobedience. Get ready for the insults and assaults or you give up on the line. We must be careful.
Why is nothing happening in Kumasi after six years? I am not there. Without Him, we can do nothing. What should we do? Shut it down. When the time came we invaded Ghana and all the devils couldn’t stop it. We have close to 200 vibrant Churches in Ghana today. I hated this location, it didn’t look sound to me, and it didn’t look right. It didn’t make sense But God said this is the place. So I trashed all my thinking because they are inferior to His thoughts, His ways are higher than our ways. See what God has done today. All that saw me when I was fuming and saying this can’t be the place will think that I am confused. No! I heard a sharp correction from heaven. Here we are today. Please be open to His correction. Most of the time they are in the open.
A young man came to me, I mean one of my very close fellows. He said he was going to help the senior sister who just had a baby. That is normal, that is correct. I said how are you going? Because he didn’t have a car. He said I am driving. I said No! He was a good driver no doubt. He was going like someone who wasn’t going to listen to me. He didn’t have a car, so I said whose car are you using? He told me. I said call him for me, that car must not move an inch. He said but I have given him my words, I said are your words immutable? Sir! The young man died under two and a half hours. If I knew he would die, I would tie him down by chain. Church Gist. The man was carless for eight years. He was trekking. Caution! Some fellows have lost their place in destiny because this place is far but that is where your blessing is. Stay where is near and miss your blessings. “Come over to this place, have no church in town”, we came. By his commandment see the blessing everywhere all around the world. You better settle down for His leading so you don’t live a frustrated life. Don’t get out of this country until I tell you to. Yes sir. It is now five years. Do you have any regrets? Never! I have never had such a wonderful time like this in my life. I have never moved to Ghana or Benin Republic just behind my house. I could drive to Benin Republic. It is two and a half hours from my house. Awesome God.! Have we seen the impact in our life as a ministry as we saw in the last five years? That is when we saw 5,000 churches, 10000 churches planted in a year. Church Gist. That is when we are building the highest number of sanctuaries at a time. I will never ask Him whether it is time or not. If He says don’t get out of this country forever. Thank you, Jesus. I have more than enough to do, where am I going to go? You better learn to embrace the agony of obedience so you won’t miss your enthronement. Jesus went through the agony of obedience to wear the eternal crown of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Young people, a strong word for you: look before you leap. Don’t sell your birthright for a morsel of meat, for hamburger. Look before you leap. Don’t jump from the frying pan to the fire. I have had all the opportunities in my life to live outside this country. Sensitive to what God is saying. Church Gist. I learnt very early at 23, that my future is in His plan not in my plan. His plan brought us here. Now if you mention Ota and you mention my name I will tell you it is not possible. Ota for what. You better watch it, many kings are now slaves all around the world for missing their place. Proverbs 27:8. Ask God what is your plan for me? Settle in and watch God work wonders in your life.
There are other instances where God’s commandment. Where I was not naturally disposed to His commandment but I had no choice. I had to freely and willingly line up with His commandments. For instance, we just got an eviction notice from the property we were leasing for the Church in Kaduna and the same month, at the same time, “Arise, get down to Lagos and raise me a people ”. How? Am I running away? I was not disposed for it at all. He said it several times so I sent a staff the same day. We did not only get here. He now moved us from that miserable two plots facility to 11 acres in the centre of the city. He asked me to move in July and by August, He gave us 11 acres in the centre of the city. He solved all the problems at once because He gave the commandment. His commandments are not meant to be convenient, they are only meant to be obeyed. You better settle with it. When we heard that, we had a property under construction in Kaduna and He said should this ministry move to that property, that will be the end of this ministry. Church Gist. It is His money that we are spending there oh. 1989. We had up to a hundred acres of land there, I told them to sell it, I don’t want the ministry to end. Instructions. This Church didn’t get here by abracadabra, we followed God distinctively, no games to get here. You follow His instructions. You don’t have to understand them. To build this church in one year, how? You say No you damage your life. Everything He says you say Yes. He did it in an inexplainable manner but no games, no crookedness.
We were trying to hurry up our building project in Kaduna and funds were not coming in the way we expected. I said what is happening? He said that is not my plan. Pull down the rectangular structure and build a structure like the letter D for dominion in the North. We were struggling with a rectangular structure, Letter D That is dominion order of problem. As soon as we responded, funds started coming in. Nobody asked any questions about why we were pulling it down.
- May each one here receive the grace to follow His instructions, obey His commandments and access your enthronement.
- You never end your journey on the floor.
Every instruction from heaven is for our profiting.
- You will never be found in the same spot anymore.
- It will be clear that you are following God.
2 Corinthians 4:17. The agony of obedience is far cheaper than the eternal weight of disobedience. Followed through the agony of tireless obedience and today he is a symbol of a blessing. Luke 16:23. He chooses where you belong, May you find it before it is too late. Church Gist. When you find it, may you abide. He brought me to Hagin 46 years ago and he is still teaching me today through his materials even though he is in heaven. He brought me to Copeland 45 years ago. All those graces are reflective on my life today without any stress. A covenant adventure is a walk. Genesis 17:1.
Between going to church every week and going to the hospital to treat yourself, which do you choose? Psalm 84:7. Between feeding on the word to renew your health insurance in Christ and swallowing tablets every day, which one do you choose? Proverbs 4:20-22. Between serving God and worshipping idols, which do you choose? Nature abhors a vacuum, if you are not serving God you are serving the devil. If you are not serving God properly today, you serve the devil tomorrow. Everyone under my voice today, no one will miss his place in eternity.
- May our hearts be right enough to follow His instructions.
October 1 1983, God said to me, I am committed to leading you if you are committed to following me. God is not committed to leading people who have no value for His leading. He leads people who are committed to following Him. May the Lord lead you all the days of your life. If the Lord is your shepherd only goodness and mercy are permitted to follow you. Church Gist. The days of hassle, the days of regret, are finally over in your life. Isaiah 48:21. His leading will always lead to a gushing. A gushing of blessings, a gushing of favour. Grace to allow God to keep leading you by His very harsh instructions all the days of your life, receive it now.
- Be blessed
- The same God who has not ceased to lead me, will keep leading you from now.
- You will find yourself where God wants you to be and abide there joyfully and willing.
Lift those two hands and give God thanks.
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