TRUSTING GOD

Scriptures: Luke 1(1-38)
Confession: John 14:1
Song: 1.) I have Confidence in You Jesus 2.) Trust and obey

What is Trust?
Trust is to place confidence in something or someone. It is to depend upon, hope or believe in something. The bible strongly eschews us not to put our trust or confidence in people, power, money, family, idols or our flesh or self. We are told to put our trust completely, without a divided opinion, on God. Trust then is:

1. Putting our lives and destiny in the hands of God.
2. Keeping God’s laws and word by faith. 2 King 18:5-7.
3. Believing that in all situations, all things will for together for your good Rom. 8:28
4. Having faith in God and His word. Faith is believing that God will do what He has promised to do. Hebrews 11:1. Mark 9:23. This could be through the logos or the rhema word. Faith without works is dead. For example, the woman with the issue exercised her faith that Jesus could heal her by touching the hem of His garments. Matthew 9:20.
5. Seeking to please God.

Who can trust God?
1. The righteous Psalm 64:10
2. The believing Psalm 78:21-22.
3. The humble Proverbs 28:25
4. The unfearful Isaiah 12:2

To be able to trust God we must:
1. Know who He is. We must know His person. He is sovereign and holds all power. He is Elyon, the Most High God, Yahweh, the Creator, Jehovah, the “I am that I am.” So in every situation that anyone could possible face He becomes whatever you need Him to be. If you are hungry or in need, He is Jehohah Jireh, the Great Provider. If you are in the middle of a battle, He is Jehovah Nissi, your Banner. He is El Shaddai, the all sufficient one. So we are complete in Him. We must know His character. He is unchangeable, reliable, dependable, faithful, and strong.
2. Know that His Word is forever settled in Heaven.
3. Know His promises concerning your life and situation.
4. Know his will concerning your situations.

The Bible mentions several people that trusted God. Examples are Abraham, Jacob, David, Job, Daniel, Mary, and Paul.

When Can you Trust God?
1. When in trouble Psalm 57:1, Nahum 1:7.
2. When afraid Psalm 56:3.
3. When in need
4. When the Flesh rise up against your spirit Psalm 56:4.

Enemies of Trusting God
1. Anxiety, doubt, and worry. Matthew 6:25, Philippians 4:6-7.
2. Discouragement
3. Frustration
4. Ignorance Isaiah 5:13, Hosea 4:6
5. Impatience Job 14:14
6. Fear
7. Discontent 1 Timothy 6:6

Result of Trusting God
1. Divine Direction Proverbs 3:5. Psalm 37:5
2. Protection. 2 Sam 22:31
3. Victory over enemies 1 Chronicles 5:22, Psalm 144:2
4. Deliverance Psalm 37:40
5. Removes confusion or fear Psalm 71:1, 112:7
6. Endowed with strength and confidence. Isaiah 26:4
7. Perfect peace Isaiah 26:3

Way Forward
1. Decide that come what may, you will trust God
2. Keep your focus on Jesus and refused to be distracted by problems.
3. Pray and ask God to increase your faith

Prayers:
1. The power to trust God, fall upon me, in Jesus name.
2. O Lord, increase my faith, in Jesus name.
3. Every power assigned to weaken my faith, die now, in Jesus name.

DISMORTGAGING YOUR LIFE FROM EVIL POWERS

CONFESSIONS: And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.    Matthew 11:12.

SONGS:There is wonder working power in the blood.

PRAYERS

Let us take these prayer points together. Please be very violent with them:

“I will not pay for what I did not buy in the name of Jesus.”

“My Life is not for sale in the mighty name of Jesus.”

These are not joking matters or prayers to be taken lightly. This truth was brought home to me some years ago in Lagos, Nigeria. I had just moved into a new neighborhood. At night as I slept, I suddenly woke up from my sleep with the following prayer pouring out of my mouth:

“My life is not for sale in the name of Jesus”

I just prayed on my bed and tried to go back to sleep. About thirty minutes later the Holy Spirit woke me up again with a slight variation of the same prayer point and I heard myself praying out loud as I woke up again:

“My house is not for sale in the name of Jesus.”

At this point I realized that a battle was raging and jumped up to start doing warfare with the two prayers prompted by the Holy Spirit. What I did not realize was that the witchcraft powers in that neighborhood were looking for fresh blood for their coven that night. Had I not prayed either I or my daughter could have ended up their victim. They however got their wish because the very next day a two year old child was playing in front of my house and a car backed into him, killing him on the spot.

Pray this prayer point with mad aggression:

“By the power that is in the blood of Jesus, I dis-mortgage my life from every evil power to which it has been sold in the name of Jesus.”

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO MORTGAGE A PERSON'S LIFE?

1. It means to sell such a life to evil powers such as marine powers, ancestral powers, familiar spirits or witchcraft powers.
2. It means to collect a spiritual dowry on such a person's head.   From then on everything that he possesses or will ever possess do not belong to him but belongs to the power from which the dowry was collected.
3.  It means that their is a pharaoh over your life to which you are a slave. You do all the work and the wicked pharaoh gets all the remuneration or reward.
4. It means that you are being controlled and manipulated.
5. It means that you are being oppressed and that their is a need to shake yourself free.
6. It means that you work like an elephant and eat like an ant.
7. It means that you are being foreced o pay for what you did not buy.   You parents enjoyed the benefits resulting from these evil covenants with demonic powers but now you are being

HOW DOES A PERSON'S LIFE GET MORTGAGED OR SOLD?

We will now look at some of the ways that a person's life can be mortgaged or sold to the devil and his demonic powers.

IDOLATRY: Our ancestors worshiped various idols. This include powers such as water spirits, Queen of the coast, the hosts of heavens including Queen of Heaven, serpents, witchcraft, earth demons, idols related to fire and thunder and so on. There is also ancestral worship and their altars and priests that maintain them. Do you see Masquerades, short demon like figures, dwarfs and so on in your dreams?

EVIL DEDICATION: Whatsoever power a man worships he is effectively married to and dedicated to.
Some people are dedicated to the water goddess, snakes, lizards, water spirits, mermaid spirits and a host of other powers. The evil dedication gives these powers access to harass such a life particularly when they now come to know Christ thereby switching allegiance to Him alone. Just like our God is Jealous so are these deities. The can get very vicious unless a person goes through counseling, deliverance with a Holy Ghost filled minister. The must be taught strategies to resist the devil and fight back.

EVIL COVENANTS: A covenant is an agreement between two or more people. They are normally stipulated sanctions that kick in when you break the terms of the agreement. A good example of this in the Bible is the covenant that Joshua made with the Gibeonites which effectively sold the Gibeonites into slavery forever. The parents derived the benefit of protection from the Israelites but even the children of the Gibeonites yet unborn when the agreement was made had to pay he price by being slaves.  (Joshua 9:21-27)

UNBROKEN CURSES: A curse is an evil or negative pronouncement made against a person, a thing, or a place. It is the opposite of blessing. (Deuteronomy 27:13). For example God pronounced a curse of premature death on the sons of Eli forever. None of them would grow to old age. The prophet Elisha pronounced leprosy on Gehazi's descendants. Joshua cursed Jericho (Joshua 6:26; 1 king 16:34). The children of Joab would be beggars, cripples, etc.  2 Samuel 3:29.  The innocent children of these people paid the price for problems created by their parents and ancestors.

Pray like this again:

“I will not pay for what I did not buy in the mighty name of Jesus.”

Please pray this prayer three more hot times.

IGNORANCE: This can happen when you do not know what your rights and privileges are as a child of God. Hosea 4:6.   As Children of God we have divine inheritance such as divine healing, dominion prosperity, and deliverance:

“But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.Obadiah 1:17”


NEGLIGENCE AND CARELESSNESS: The Bible talks about the little foxes that spoil the vine. We cannot be careless with our lives.  Song of Solomon 2:15.  We have to remember that we are not civilians but soldiers. We cannot take decisions without consulting our Commander in Chief, Lord Jesus. We cannot eat or sleep anyhow and anywhere. We cannot be flippant with our tongues because as they say in the military loose lips sink ship.

WAY FORWARD

1. Repent of your personal sins and the sins of your ancestors.

2. Make Our Lord Jesus your friend.

3. Use the blood of Jesus to separate your life from the sins of your ancestors.

4. Pray inquiry prayers to find out the secrets behind your problems.

5. Renounce and break all unbroken covenants and curses using the blood of Jesus.  Galatians 3:13-14.  Colossians 2:14-15.

6.  Do restitution when necessary.

7. Use the blood of Jesus to buy yourself back from any power to which you have been sold. Colossians 1:14.  

GOD STILL SPEAKS TODAY - PART 2

"The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him and He will show them His covenant." Psalm 25:14

From our last discussion we said that in this session we would consider the following question "Why do some people continuously hear God while others do not?”

To answer this question we must first consider the "Who is a friend of God?" and "To whom does God reveal His secrets?"

This is because God never stops speaking to His friends or revealing His secrets to them. The friends of God are those with whom He communicates continuously. They are those to whom He reveals His secrets. They are those to whom He reveals things before performing them. Amos 3:7.
The bible says of Abraham that he was God's friend. James 2:23. Even God Himself said He would not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah without revealing His plan to Abraham.

Those that put God first always
God's friends are those that continuously minister to Him through prayers, fasting, and worship. They spend quality time with Him at every available moment and put His needs first. To them it is a joy not a chore. We see this in the life of Old Anna who continuously stayed in the Temple serving and worshipping God day and night. We see this in the life of Old Simeon that the Lord refused to let die until he saw the fulfillment of those things that God showed him.

Friends of God enjoy being in His presence
They love to spend quality time with God. They never have enough of Him. We see this in the life of Paul who went away to the Arabian desert just to spend time alone undisturbed with God. We see this in the live of the apostles hence Jesus said they were no longer servants but friends. He stopped talking to them in parable like he did with the others and talked to them in such a way that they could understand. While in the presence of God, He shares a lot of secret with is friends. Jesus refused to see His enemies like Herod talkless of speaking to them or divulging any secrets to them whatsoever.
Even our Lord Jesus Christ showed us great example of how a friend of God should live. He spent quality time with His Father often spending the night in prayers, waking before others to be with God or just disappearing into the mountains to spend quality time with God. He had an in dept grasp and knowledge of the word of God. He had a pure heart. He eschewed sin and loved righteousness. He was connected to the Father and only did what He saw His Father doing or telling Him to do.

Friends of God are eager to serve
We see this in the life of Paul as well as in the case of Simeon and Anna. They are eager to minister to God and His needs even before their own as in the case of Abraham who offered up his Isaac to God.Friends of God fear and reverence Him. We see this in the life of Abraham who continuously built altars for God.

There are many advantages of being God's friend. One of these is that God reveals secrets to His friends. Amos 3:7
God reveals His secrets to the righteous, those with clean hands and clean hearts. Psalm 24:4.To hear God continuously you must constantly remain plugged to the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit. If your spiritual battery is running low you must lock your self with God to recharge.

Conclusion
In summary, God talks continuously to His children. He desires continuous fellowship. So the first condition must be to get born again and become His son which will qualify you to hear from Him continuously. Fear God and reverence Him. Seek Him continuously, always putting Him first. Eschew sin and flee from it. Read the Word of God unceasingly. Worship Spend time with him in prayers, fasting, and watching. Ensure that you remain connected to Him. May the Lord continuously speak to us as we practice what we have discussed in Jesus Name. Amen!

GOD STILL SPEAKS TODAY - PART 1

“For God may speak in one way or in another yet man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night. (Job 33:14-15).”

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. (Hebrew 13:8).”

“Today if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. (Hebrew 3:7).”

Recently, I have come across several people that were very puzzled when I shared with them testimonies of what God was currently doing in my life and how He had told me that He was going to do these things and how He brought them to pass exactly as He promised. They all asked me one question “Does God still speak today?” This is the question that we want to address on this forum today.

The bible says that God’s words to His Children are "Yes and Amen". It says further that “ God is not a man that He should lie nor the son of man that He should repent. Numbers 23:19. Also, “Has He spoken and is He not able to bring it to pass?”, the Bible asks. My unequivocable answer to both questions is: "Yes." God still speaks today and He also can bring whatever He says (good or bad) to pass.

But to whom does the Lord speak today? God talks to all. God talks to His children by His Spirit, the Holy Spirit. “To as many as received him to them gave him the power to be called the sons of God.” A son hears his father.
God also speaks to anyone else that he wants to. In Genesis He spoke to a pagan king, Abimelech, to have nothing to do with Abraham’s wife, Sarah. In Genesis He spoke to wicked and idolatrous father in law, Laban, to do Jacob no harm.

In the New Testament God continuous spoke to people. He gave Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, specific instructions to keep Jesus safe. He told Zachariah, the priest that he was going to have a son, John the Baptist. As the early disciples watched and prayed He gave them very specific instructions such “Set aside for me Paul and Barnabas for the work for which I have called them.” Paul, the Apostle, heard Jesus clearly at his conversion and continuous after that. During a ship wreck he assured his fellow travelers of their safety because God had told him so the previous night.

There are several ways that the Lord speaks today. Some of these are through dreams and vision, audible voice, witness in the heart, preaching, prophetic utterances, and signs and wonder.

The challenge is, “Why do some people continuously while others do not?” We will discuss these issues next time. Everyone is welcome to share their experiences in this area. I will share mine as well next time. See you in the New Year by His Grace. Stay blessed and have a very blessed New Year.

YOU MUST REFUSE TO COME DOWN

“Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill. And he spake unto him, Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down. And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.” (2 Kings 1:9-11)

As Generals in God's army there are many things that we cannot do. Like the Prophet Elijah, we must refuse to come down. Like the Apostle Paul, we must continuously be conscious of the fact that: "Others may but I may not."

We will see fellow "Christians" all around us doing different things which we know will drain our anointing and break our intimacy with God if we join them. Do you not know that they are not happy every time you tell "God says"? If we join them we will be forced to come down from the mountain top and join them at the valley.

Terrible things happen in the valley. 1. We will fall before our enemies that had previously being subdued by us. 2. Old afflictions and old enemies resurrect and torment one's life. 3. There is oppression, failure, retrogression and defeat. All the old bad dreams start coming back. 5. As Generals in God's army we do not want to be to be wasted spiritually and physically in the course of warfare.

Being a General and remaining at the mountain top requires discipline. It means that you cannot talk anyhow, eat anyhow, or go everywhere. It demands staying at His side nightly for hours seeking His face, reading His word, war faring, interceding, etc. It takes keeping the flesh under through regular fasting and prayers. It entails going away on retreats just to spend days at His side undisturbed. It takes willingness to cut off from our lives anything and anybody that threatens our relationship with our Commander in Chief, JESUS, who is the pillar of our life. It costs time, money, friends and so many other things.

But you know what? If we are willing to pay the price it is an exciting ride at His side. Isaiah 1:19, Psalm 45:7. You remain up there. You never come down to the valley where the witches harass, marine powers pollute peoples destinies, and oppressive dreams are the order of the day.

WHAT THEN IS DELIVERANCE?

"But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions." (Obadiah 1:17)

Deliverance is ejecting evil tenants that are inhabiting your life.
It is to break every yoke that is troubling your life.
It is to break every conscious or unconsious evil associations for example with witches, and occult groups.
Deliverane is to forcefully throw out evil spirits .
It is to escape from satanic prisons and cages.
It is to be released from altars of affliction.
Deliverance is to destroy satanic dreams and dismantle their effects.

There are certain factors that can hinder a person's deliverance. Some of these factors are unconfessed sins, prayerlessness, ignorance, unbroken curses and covenants, attachment to satanic materials, lack of faith, and not hiding the word of God in one's heart. Prayerlessness does not necessarily mean that one is not praying but one could be praying amiss by praying wrong prayers, praying at the wrong time or praying fireless prayers that fail to hit there targets.

There are several benefits of deliverance. It terminates satanic oppression. It enables one to have dominion over the power of the enemy. Deliverance opens the heavens over a life bringing about rapid breakthrough in various areas of life such as career, marriage, business and spiritual. It gives good health. I cancels untimely death. It disgraces bondages. It enables one to possess his possession or in some cases to recover lost possession. It damages ignorance, makes holiness easier and makes one's prayer life more productive.

There are certain things that a person must do if they are to maintain their deliverance and keep walking in it. First and formost you must make Jesus Christ your personal savior and friend. Separate from ungodly friends and associations. You ensure that your armor which are salvation, rightiousness, truth, faith, and peace stay on always. You must engage in spiritual warfare everyday and join a church that believes in spiritual warfare. Study the bible and pray everyday. Return every curse to sender.

DELIVERED FROM DESTRUCTION

"He sent His Word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions." (Psalm 107:20)

In John 1: 14, we are told that "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." Then in Verse 14, we are told that:

"The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." The Word here is talking about the person of Jesus Christ.

God sent His only son to the world to redeem us. But after redemption we are told here that there is more. From Psalm 107:20, we can see that the sent Word of God, Jesus, heals and delivers as well.

While there has been a lot of emphasis on the healing power of Jesus, as a separate work from salvation,very little has been taught in the Church on the Deliverance power of Jesus Christ and His Word. Jesus was sent to save, heal, and deliver among other things.

The progression is you get saved, then you get healed and delivered. We must go beyond the message of salvation and teach the full counsel of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. How can they hear unless they are taught about these things?

So that is why we are discussing this topic here today. That God made provision for our healing and deliverance not just our salvation by sending Jesus. As you catch this revelation you get healed and delivered by His Word, His Blood, and His Name. Delivered from what? Delivered from the evil works the the enemy had planned and put in place to destroy you.

We must take advantage of this provision and teach those around us how and when to do the same. Amen! The Bible tells us that to him that knows to do good but does not do it, it is sin.