Thank You Lord, great and mighty God, all-knowing God, all sufficient God, the One who alone is able, Jehovah Sabaoth, the Lord of hosts, the Lord of the armies, hallowed be Your name; none is like You, none was like You, none will ever be like You, the God of divine turnaround, we exalt You.
Father Lord God of heaven, we thank You because Your presence is already in our midst this morning; we thank You oh Lord ahead of all that You are going to speak to us and do in our midst, Father Lord God of heaven we appreciate You. My God and my Father we pray and our heart yearning, our heart desire this morning is that You will visit us in the name of Jesus, and every situation that is contrary to Your plan in our lives, Father You will turn around this morning in the mighty name of Jesus.
Thank You blessed Redeemer, in Jesus mighty name oh Lord we have prayed. Praise the Lord!
I welcome you all brethren to the presence of the Most High God, even as we thank God for the gift of life. I’d like to start by acknowledging our father in the Lord in the house, the pastor in charge of province, daddy I thank you for this privilege and opportunity, the Lord will continue to encourage and lift you up in the mighty name of Jesus.
Please before we go into today’s message, I would like to say that the series that was started last week on ‘Dignity’ will continue and be concluded by next week Sunday by the PICP, please don’t miss it, and I believe you enjoyed the one for last week, so please come for the second part of it.
Also, prayer chain is back in full force in 2024, so tomorrow again we meet here at 6:30 in the evening; the theme for tomorrow’s prayer chain is “It’s Your Season of Lifting”, Job 22: 28 & 29, God bless you.
Please turn with me to the Book of Psalm 126: 1- 6; “When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. 2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them.
3 The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad. 4 Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south. 5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. 6 He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him”. Hallelujah!
Then we take a short reading again from 1st Chronicles 4: 9 & 10, “And Jabez was more honourable than his brethren: and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bare him with sorrow.
10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested”. My prayer this morning is that many of us like Jabez, as we have come to God and we cry unto Him, He will grant us in the mighty name of Jesus. he turned Jabez around from a child of sorrow to a man of honor, there will be divine turnaround in your lives this day in the mighty name of Jesus.
The topic for today is “Divine Turnaround”, praise the living Jesus! Let’s do a bit of definitions quickly; let’s leave the ‘divine’, many of us over time we know already what divine is, it’s something that has to do with God, something supernatural, so what is the ‘turnaround’?
We’ll take a few examples of turnaround; a time that it takes to complete a task or an assignment can be called a turnaround. For example, what is the turnaround time to start a production process? You are saying how long does it take from the beginning to the end of that process, so in that case you are saying ‘turnaround’ is something that has to do with time, praise God!
Another way to look at ‘turnaround’ is when you have a complete change in opinion, in an attitude or a method. Let’s talk about complete change in an opinion; if a child goes to school and he comes back with 27 out 28 in class, the tendency is that the father will tell the mother look at your son, 27 out of 28; now, the day that child comes and he’s first out of 28, he’ll say my son, I’m proud of you, I’m proud of my boy. That’s a complete turnaround in attitude, praise the living Jesus.
Then we can look at turnaround in different ways also; when there’s a complete reversal of a situation or a set of circumstances. When something bad is happening and there’s a complete reversal, then you say there’s a turnaround.
I watched a film sometime ago, Gifted Hands, and it’s a life story of Dr. Ben Carson; he was not a good student in class, but something happened along the line and there was a complete turnaround in his life, he went on to become the best neurosurgeon in the US at the time, that’s changing a bad situation, changing evil circumstances into something positive that will be the envy of the world.
May I pray for someone here this morning, I don’t know what it is that you have been labeled with, today in the name of Jesus there will be a turnaround in the mighty name of Jesus.
Then a turnaround can also be associated with businesses, with finances, with economies. For example when there’s a sudden improvement in the performance of a company, of a business, even of a nation, then you’ll say there’s a turnaround.
I’ll give another example; in finance, there are people that are called Turnaround Consultants or experts, they take companies that are moribund or companies that are not doing well, they get into it and before you know what’s happening, within a few months or years, the company begins to perform at the highest level, so they’ll say they have turned the fortunes of the company around.
So now we’ve seen the different perspectives of turnaround, for the purpose of this message, we’ll stick to the last two, we are not talking about time, so let’s stick to the last two. Divine Turnaround therefore, we’ll narrow it to mean a complete reversal of a bad situation or a set of circumstances by God, because it is divine, or a sudden improvement or success in finance, in business or of a nation by the intervention of God, that is a divine turnaround. Praise the living Jesus!
We all know the story of Naaman in 2nd Kings 5; the Bible says Naaman was the captain of the Syrian army, he was a great man but he was a leper, but before the end of that chapter, the Bible also described him that his body was like that of a baby, that is a turnaround.
I do not know what is leprosy –type that you have been associated with, before the end of this day in the name that’s above every other name, you will come out clean and become the envy of everyone in the mighty name of Jesus.
There can be a turnaround also of a nation, like we know in 2nd Kings 7, the city of Samaria, the Bible tells us in chapter 6 that it got so bad that mothers were killing their children to eat to survive. Imagine where a mother decides to kill the baby so that they can eat, it must be so bad, but in chapter 7 God gave a word as God is giving a word this morning to somebody, that before the next day, by tomorrow, there shall be abundance in the land, those who didn’t believe it did not witness it.
This morning, as the Lord lives and according to the declaration of our father in the Lord that this is our year of divine turnaround, in the mighty name of Jesus, there shall be a turnaround in the name of Jesus. our country needs a turnaround, I’m sure we all know that for those who are following the trends, I’ll come back to the details of our country a bit later, but we need a turnaround, we do need a turnaround and we need it urgently.
So when we talk about turnaround, many times people think that it’s about finance alone, if you limit turnaround around to finance alone, then that’s a very narrow view; there can be turnaround in practically every aspect of life – in your health, there will be a turnaround; in your home, there will be a turnaround; in your education, there will be a turnaround; in your businesses, there will be a turnaround; in your academic pursuit, there will be a turnaround; in your finances also, there will be a turnaround; in your walk with God, this year, there will be a turnaround in the mighty name of Jesus.
Let us take a quick look at some of the areas where we’d see turnaround either in individuals, in families or even in a nation. For individuals; there are a number of people here, in the course of (maybe) last year, the previous year , even as early as this year, this year is still young, it’s just 21 days, a lot of people have lost jobs, people have lost businesses, contracts have been cancelled and the sources of livelihood have been taken away and some do not know how they are going to cope even the next day, there’s a God in heaven who can turn situations around, if you fall in that category, trust God, there will be a turnaround in the name of Jesus.
We have singles in our midst; singles that are beautiful, marriageable, they have attended weddings, they know what to do, they know how to prepare, but then it is not coming, almost to the point that people are asking them, haha, what’s happening to you now, when is your turn? I pray for you this year that there will be a turnaround in the name of Jesus.
Somebody may be wondering, is it that easy to get married? Yes, I will share a testimony; there was this testimony of a brother who came from America for a funeral service, and there was this sister in church who everybody has been saying haha sister, what is happening now? Sister spiri spiri, no husband; as the people were mourning and crying, bro was eyeing sister, before the end of that service, he just went to her and said God is leading mw to you, and the sister said haha, in this place of mourning, from where to where? Anyway let’s cut is short, before brother went to back to America, he got engaged to the sister and before the end of that year they were married.
So I say to our singles again here, you’ve waited for so long and you are waiting on God, in the name of Jesus whose name we call, this year will not pass you by in the mighty name of Jesus.
It may also be that you have failed many times in a venture; you have tried many businesses, you have failed, you have tried this it didn’t work, you have tried that it didn’t work, they have almost called you ‘unsuccessful’, Luke 5: 1-7 is my witness, Peter was at that point one day, he tried many times and he failed that same day, but before he went back home that day, he redefined what success is called.
I don’t know where you failed or where you are failing, the Lord will visit you this day; He will turn around your situation; you will no longer be called failure, from today, your name shall be success in the mighty name of Jesus.
Are you plagued with sicknesses and diseases? You’ve gone everywhere, doctors have tried all they can but there seems to be no solution, you’ve spent a lot, you’ve borrowed, even when the nurses in the hospital see you now, they’d say we don’t even know what he’s looking for now, but there is One who is the healer, He will visit you.
Mark 5: 25 – 34, the Bible tells us that there was a woman, after 12 years of an issue and she’s gone to all the best doctors and spent all sorts of money, all she needed was a touch with the Master and her issue of blood dried off. That sickness, that health challenge, there will be a turnaround in the mighty name of Jesus.
Let us quickly go and see turnaround when it comes to families; we learnt that a family consists of people who are bonded together either by marriage, by some form of association or by blood, and they live together in peace for the common purpose of fulfilling God’s mandate, that’s a family.
So everyone here belongs to a family but we know today that the situations around us had turned around what used to be peaceful families; the peace in many homes are no longer there, what used to be the head of the family in many cases are no longer the heads, they are almost the tail. In some families, maybe it’s the wife now that is calling the shots, I’m not saying women are not – I’m saying the order that God has created is that the man is the head of the home and then God decorated that man for that office to be able to be the head indeed.
But a lot of things happen, things have changed, harmony is no longer there, peace is no longer there, children are now insulting parents, children walk away on their fathers, children even issue directives to what parents shall do, families are no longer what determine or desires families should be because of a lot of things, and you know what, recently we read about cases of suicide, depression and even people fighting over unnecessary things. Do you know that some of these things take their roots from what’s happening in the homes?
In the name of the Lord almighty, God will visit our families, God will visit our homes; everything that is not in place or that has lost its place, the Lord almighty will restore in the mighty name of Jesus. Every man who is meant to be the head of a home, every father, every husband that doesn’t have what it takes to be a husband, to be a father, today the Lord will reposition you in the mighty name of Jesus.
Every child who has walked away by the lure of the indecency in this world, the Lord Almighty will recover them in the mighty name of Jesus.
Many youths are not happy, there are no jobs; many youths are not happy, they are still living with their parents; many youths will like to do things, they have the energy, they have the will, they have the zeal, but their wings are clipped, I pray that the Lord will give you new wings in the mighty name of Jesus.
The japa syndrome that we see in our nation today, where do you think this is coming from? Everybody wants to japa even if it’s just to say ‘I have also gone out of this country’, it is not all brethren, but let me give you a piece of advice, if God does not lead you, please do not go, because where God says you should be, that is where your blessings will meet you.
God told Abraham in Genesis 12, He said get out of your kindred and out of your country; God asked him to go, and when he went, God met with him there. In Genesis 26, Isaac wanted to leave, God said no, stay here, and where he was staying – Egypt that time was like going to America, it was like going to Canada , but God said stay in this village, and in that village, God proved Himself. God will prove Himself in your lives, all you need do is to listen for divine direction, don’t go ahead of your time, praise the living Jesus!
Now let us look at a nation; there can be divine turnaround in nations, brethren believe me, if there is any nation that needs turnaround and they say countries should line up, I think our own should be number 1 on the queue, we need it now, where do we start from? Are we going to talk about the educational system that has lost its value? Or the medical sector, is it politics or governance, is it the legal system? Please tell me one that we can point to, we desperately need a divine turnaround.
Jokingly, somebody was telling me on Friday that pounds now sells for about ₦1,700, I almost could not believe it because I’ve not followed it for sometime, where do we start from? If anybody here has a foreign obligation, you know that by now you are already sweating how to meet those obligations, but I pray, the Lord almighty will meet your needs in the mighty name of Jesus. But much more importantly, the Lord will visit our nation, the Lord will visit our leaders, the Lord will visit our institutions in the mighty name of Jesus.
But guess, we also need to be visited, many times we say the leaders, many of us here are leaders out there, we need to look inward, we are not able to dissociate ourselves from what is happening; brethren, please let us look inward, let us do what we need to do. Somebody says, if you do it well, it shall be well; let us do it well, if you are managing, manage well; if you driving, drive well; if you are working in a factory, please stick to the schedules that you are given to; let us do it well, if everybody does it well, it will be well, praise the Lord! Praise the living Jesus!
I would like us to look at some things that I call the principles of divine turnaround;
Number one: everybody, every business, every family, every nation has the potential for divine turnaround, why? You remember I said before that it is the turnaround orchestrated by God, this our God is a Creator of heaven and earth, Psalm 24: 1 & 2. The Bible tells us also in Psalm 100: 4 that he made us, we are His people, so when He sees us going through challenges, He’s not happy, He wants to fix things for us.
So everyone has a potential for turnaround and He’s a gracious God, He’s a compassionate God (Psalm 145: 8 & 9) and God is accountable, He does not just create people and leave them to be suffering, He’s accountable for His people. In Genesis 1: 31, the Bible says after He created everything, He sat back, took an account and said behold, everything is good; He’s still doing that today, so He’s not happy when He sees us not in the state where He wants us to be.
God is accountable, so everyone, every family, every home, every nation has the potential for a divine turnaround, praise the living Jesus!
That leads me to the second point, but not everybody, not every potential beneficiary will indeed experience a divine turnaround. The reason is not because God is not limited, because according to Matthew 19: 26, the Bible tells us that God can do all things but there are so many reasons, part of it may be that we are not even prepared for this turnaround, we are just saying it but we don’t know what we are saying, we are not prepared for it.
Another reason must be we don’t have faith in Him, praise the living Jesus! The Bible tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please God, if you cannot please Him, you can’t get anything out of Him. Some will say I have faith in Him but they don’t trust His methods. You remember I referred to Naaman earlier, Naaman had faith, it was why he left the city and went to the prophet, but when he got to the prophet and the prophet said go and do it this way, he didn’t trust God’s method, he said he should have asked me to do it in another way.
Many of us want God to do it in another way, He will do it His way, we must trust Him, hallelujah! And God will not waste heaven’s resources, if somebody is not ready, He moves on to the person that is ready, He doesn’t waste resources. Praise the living Jesus!
Number three principle is that even when somebody has a divine turnaround, you still have to do a lot of work to sustain it. You don’t get it, keep it and it becomes like a family chieftaincy title, you still have to do a lot of work to sustain it.
There are some misconceptions and wrong teachings out there in the world today, some of them I’ll say here; some people say once you are saved, you are saved; once you are blessed by God, you are blessed forever, so they begin to misbehave. If God blesses you and you begin to misbehave, God does not waste resources, He takes it back, praise the living Jesus!
I’ll back this up; in Genesis 6: 5 – 7, God has blessed man, and then in verse 5, the Bible says He saw the wickedness of man; man has been blessed and the he decided to do whatever and God said no, not so, I will take back what I have given to man. If God has blessed somebody, if God visits you today and there’s a turnaround, and you choose to abandon God, He will take back, praise the Lord!
Let’s give an example, there is a king called Saul, he was a nobody, God brought him from nowhere and made him the first king in Israel; when he became king, he began to feel big, God will send him on an errand, he would do half and do what he pleases, 1st Samuel 13 & 15. When he was to go for a war, he was meant to wait for sacrifice, he waited and said God, You are wasting time, let me just do it myself.
God cannot waste time, His time is the real time, because of this, he lost that which God gave to him, he lost his throne and his dynasty to the throne, and he ended up badly because he felt I have gotten it already, so brethren, God is surely going to visit us, but please, to retain that which God is going to do, we must remain with God.
Principle four: when God gives to His people and you remain in your place with God, you’ll keep that blessing forever. When God blesses you and you acknowledge God and you remain in His presence, you’ll keep it forever, hallelujah!
Let’s take an example of Joseph; God had told Joseph that he will be this he will be that, he started moving gradually from the pit, at least he came up; they sold him, at least he came up, then he became servant to a minister, haha, what a position, he’s growing, isn’t it? then the madam came and said oya now, let’s do; he said no, I am God’s own, I must remain with God. he got into the prison, he continued to uphold God’s principles, God took him to the highest position in the land, God fulfilled that dream and he remained there forever.
Brethren, you want divine turnaround? You want it to last forever? Remain in the presence of God, remain God’s subject and He will keep that which He has given to you.
Number five (and the final principle that I have): anyone or any institution that is not on its own ready for this divine turnaround will not get it. You cannot wish for a divine turnaround, you must desire it, you must work for it, you must labor, you must yearn for it, you must consciously do things to keep it.
Judas Iscariot had the opportunity; Jesus Christ had only 12 disciples, Judas was one of them, he took it for granted; he was one of the special people of his time but he took it for granted and he lost it. May you not lose that which God is giving to you today in the name of Jesus.
Eli was a priest and then at a point in time, God was sending messages to him about his children, he said let God do what He wants jo, after all He has already told me and my children that we will be forever as priests. He didn’t deliberately keep that which God gave to him and then he lost it.
Brethren, I pray for you once again that the Lord Almighty God will visit you today, and He will also give you the grace to keep that which He’s going to give to you in the mighty name of Jesus.
So what must we do to receive and retain God’s visitation called Divine Turnaround?
First, you must have faith in Him, if you don’t have faith in Him, you can’t get anything from Him, Hebrews 11: 6.
Secondly, you must trust Him. The ways and methods of God are not the ways and methods of men; He will tell you to do things – when you are supposed to run, God will tell you just wait for me, I’m coming, but trust me, that is the right answer. You must trust His method and stay by it.
Number three; you must remain in His presence; make Him your dwelling place. Don’t go elsewhere, don’t look for God anywhere else.
Four; you must surrender all to Him. You must give Him the first, the second and the third place and the last place in your life, surrender all to Him.
Five; you must desire that divine turnaround. You must yearn for it, labor for it, consciously keep it.
And six; you must shun sin. The greatest enemy of man is sin, you must run away from it at all cost, run away. When the wife of Potiphar saw that Joseph was going to succeed, she tried everything to stop him but thank God he was conscious enough in the spirit.
As we conclude brethren, this year has been declared prophetically as our year of Divine Turnaround, and I join my faith with yours in alignment with that prophetic utterance that indeed there will be a turnaround in our lives, as individuals, in our families, in our businesses, in our careers, in our nation, even in our church, there will be a divine turnaround in the name of Jesus.
But don’t forget, even though God is willing to visit everybody, it’s not everyone that will eventually take it, and even of those who will get it, some out of carelessness and not knowing what to do may eventually lose it. So we need to be sensitive in the spirit even as we go through this year, walk with God, ensure that God is your first place in all things and key into the word of God and surely you will be blessed in the mighty name of Jesus.
Now as we conclude and close, there was a man called Saul of Tarsus, he was persecuting the church of Christ, but many people will later learn about Apostle Paul, he’s one and the same man.
Apostle Paul was on fire for God, he wrote 13 out of the 27 books in the New Testament, but he did not one day become Apostle Paul, before he became Apostle Paul, Saul of Tarsus had to die through a process called Divine Turnaround; he met with Jesus and he gave his life to Jesus and the rest of his life began to unfold.
You are here this morning, you know life is not good, life is not smiling at you; you know business is not working well; you know that things are not good and you can attribute it in a way to the fact that you are far from God, you are not His own, if He chooses to call His own, He will not number you among His own.
This morning like Saul of Tarsus, you must come to Him, you must come and accept Him as Lord and Savior, and then, He will bring the best of your lives to see the light of day.
[Altar call]
Let’s begin to give thanks to God; God loves us indeed in this assembly because He said this year, He is going to turn things around in our favor, let’s begin to give Him thanks. Let us thank God for indeed He’s going to turn things around for us in the name of Jesus.
Father we thank You; we thank You for the divine turnaround, Father thank You. thank You Lord, thank You for Your presence, thank You Lord for Your word, thank You Lord for Your visitation, Father we bless Your holy name, in Jesus mighty name we have given thanks.
In Job 42: 10, the Bible tells us that God turned again the captivity of Job and God restored everything that he lost in double folds; God is going to turn your captivity this morning in the mighty name of Jesus, and He’s going to restore you in the mighty name of Jesus.
We are going to pray and say Father, Father, please turn the captivity of my life, my wife, my children, my family, of our nation, Father please turn it around in the name of Jesus. Turn it around for good, turn around the captivity oh Lord for good in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank You heavenly Father, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
Brethren, we are going to pray for our nation, Nigeria; in 2nd Kings 7, God turned around the captivity of a nation called Samaria. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 13: 8 that God is still the same, He has not changed; if He did it before, He can do it again.
We are going to lift our country before the Lord Almighty and say Father please, visit our nation; Father, visit every sector, visit our leaders; whether in the public service or in the private service, Father Lord, please visit our nation; turn things around oh Lord, turn around our captivity Lord. In the mighty name of Jesus, Father please turn around our captivity in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank You Father, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
We are going to pray and say Father please, put an end to our sufferings; Father please visit us with Your mercy; put an end to our sufferings oh Lord in the name of Jesus, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
You know what it is that you want God to turn around for you, God is here, I have no doubt, why not talk to God in the next 30 seconds. Just talk to God; what do you want Him to visit you, He knows but tell Him; what do you want God to turn around for you, and surely He will visit you.
