Let somebody shout hallelujah! If you are happy to see the month of February, praise the Lord! I want it to sink, you need to understand what we are talking about; there are 12 ladders in every year, one is gone, 11 left, today is the beginning of the 11th one, if you believe that the same God that has taken you through the first ladder is able to take you through the remaining, shout hallelujah!
Father in heaven, we just want to say thank You; thank You for all that You have done for us, we say thank You for taking us through the first month, we want to say glory be to Your name Lord, accept our thanks in the name of Jesus. Thank You for this second month, thank You for the first day, thank You for the second, thank You because for all the days in this month You will see us through. Accept our thanks in Jesus name.
Lord Almighty, is our month of testimony, we pray in the name of Jesus that You will flood our lives in every areas with testimonies in Jesus name. Testimonies of Your goodness, testimony of Your kindness, testimony of favor, testimony of breakthrough, testimony of love, testimony of great things, testimony of newness, Father Almighty, You will flood our lives with in Jesus name. Take us from glory to glory.
And this morning Lord Almighty, we pray that a heart of praise, a heart of gratitude, grant unto us in Jesus name. A heart that sees the positive, the heart that receives the positive, the heart that mediates on the positive, Lord release onto us in Jesus name. And by reason of our heart, Lord, give us the best. Thank You for everything.
Father, we remember Your children who have been faithful in the payments of their tithes and the giving of their offerings. Lord, that in blessing you will bless them in Jesus name, You will meet them at the points of our needs in Jesus name, and Lord Almighty God, You will treat them nice in the name of Jesus. And for those who have not been giving, we pray Lord Almighty that You will touch their hearts in the name of Jesus, and we pray that all of us together that we will not lose the benefit of serving You, in Jesus wonderful name we have prayed.
Happy new month to you all! The Lord will bless you. Is our month of testimony, you will testify, I will testify, and we will testify. It’s with a grateful heart that we welcome you to this glorious service today in Jesus name, we pray that as we come to bless our God for all He has done for us, may He find our praise and worship acceptable unto Him in Jesus name.
[Birthday Celebration]
February, like I said, is our month of testimon; this scripture is taken from the Book of Psalm 37: 25. Fasting program of the Redeemed Christian Church of God which runs for 30 days beginning from today. Just do it to the best of your ability, but you must do it and the Lord will hear and answer your prayers in Jesus name.
You know there are things that fasting and prayer will do for you both spiritually, physically, it even helps your health. When you want to see the doctor for some tests, they will tell you come fasting, that’s to let you know how important it is, so do it to the best of your ability and more importantly pray. If you say you are fasting and you are not praying, it amounts to hunger strike.
So in your own little way, make sure you seek the face of God and that is what is important, and stop joining those who celebrate it – you know we are fasting, the Bible says when you do that, you have received your reward, so don’t join the hypocrites, let’s do it decently. quietly with focus on no other than our Maker. And the One that you look up to, I can trust you, will not disappoint you.
By the grace of God, in the course of this month, we’ll be having the yearly Victory Hours. The Victory Hour by the special grace of God is a program of our father in the Lord, it comes up between 6:00 and 7, and of course, by the grace of God, we are going to do it together from Monday 16th all through to Wednesday 18th of this month, 6 to 7:00 p.m. we’ll be having it, he will be broadcasting from the national and of course it’s a strictly 1 hour event and the Lord will bless you as you join in Jesus name.
Tomorrow by the grace of God, we’ll be having our usual Prayer Chain, and the theme for tomorrow is the God of Miracles. How many of you desire miracle? You desire miracle, then come and have an encounter with the God of miracles, He will give you as many as possible. Time tomorrow is 6:30 p.m., please come, I look forward to seeing you and the Lord will bless you in Jesus name.
Numbers 13: 1 – 3, then 26-32 – as usual we want to give you what we call the first course before our father comes on board. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 2send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them. 3And Moses by the commandment of the Lord sent them from wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel.
(Let’s move to 26) And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruits of the land. 27And they told him, and said, we came unto the land whether thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.
28Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. 29The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan. 30And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.”
May God bless the reading and the hearing of His word in Jesus name. Maybe the media wants us to take. I pray in the mighty name of Jesus that from today, God will give you a mind that speaks to God’s ability to deliver and to save in the mighty name of Jesus.
This morning I’ll be talking to us on the topic, “The Covenant Mind”. A covenant mind is a mind that does not only focuses on now but also considers the past and the future; is a mind that does recall and remember what God has done in the past and of course what He’s able to do again and again. Is a mind of gratitude, is a mind that glorifies God in every situation in line with the biblical injuction.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, there we are encouraged to give thanks to God in all things; in great things and of course in little things; in the good things and of course in the bad things, and the reason is simply that whatever happens per time can be said to be the will of God concerning our lives. So when we talk about a covenant mind, we talk about a mind that is positive, a mind that focuses on gratitude and of course sees gratitude as a way of life.
In Psalm 124: 1 – 3, the Bible says, “If it has not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say; 2If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us: 3Then they had swallowed up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us.” David was a special specie of a man when it comes to someone having a covenant mind; in all his endeavors, he prioritized seeing the positive aspect of whatever happens and he always appreciate God to let God know in everything, God, You are number one.
And that’s why brethren, I want to challenge us this morning that our success or failure is a function of our mind. In Proverbs 4:23, the Bible says, keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. In that same book of Proverbs, the Bible tells us that as a man thinkketh in his heart, so he is; if you believe you will overcome, you will overcome; if you believe you will live long, believe you me, it doesn’t matter how much the devil tries, you will fulfill your days. But if you write yourself off, it doesn’t matter how anointed a man of God can be, there’s nothing they can do to save you, keep your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life.
And I want to encourage every one of us today by letting you know that you are not created for deficit, you are not created to be ordinary. God makes it clear in the book of Deuteronomy that we shall be the head and not the tail, so you are not created for deficit, you are created for importance, you are created for pleasure, you are created for glory and you are created for breakthrough.
Success depends squarely on our mind and not where we were born or come from; your success is not a function of where you come from. In the Bible, it was written, it says can anything good come from Nazareth? People had already written Nazareth off, but from Nazareth came Jesus our Savior. Success in life is not a function of where you come from, success in life is not a function of who is your father, you can be fathered by a carpenter and yet become a president.
Joseph was fathered by a farmer (or what do you call cattle rearers?) but he became a prime minister; when God is involved in a man’s life, anything can happen, God can decide to take you from ground zero to grand hero. And I pray in the mighty name of Jesus that that will be your testimony in Jesus name.
In Numbers 13:26, the spies that were sent by Moses, you know the story, God spoke to Moses and Aaron as it were. I want to show you the land that I promised you, send 12 spies each representing a tribe that makes up the republic of Israel and they did, they went. The Bible says the 12 of them got there, they saw the land, they saw the resources on the land, they saw that according to the word of God, it was a land that was flowing with milk and honey, they saw all manner of fruitsvand in order to confirm what they saw, they came back with fruits.
They showed the leader, they showed the congregation, they showed everybody to let them see what the land has to offer, but unfortunately majority of them – 10 said however. I pray in the name of Jesus that your story will not end up with a negative however in the mighty name of Jesus. They said “however, we will not be able to possess the land,” we saw that there are giants in the land, we saw the children of Anak on the land, we are even told that is a land that devoured its inhabitants.
But thank God for Joshua and Caleb, men with great minds, men with positive minds, men who recalled the encounter they’ve had in the past with God and I’m sure they would have processed it and said look all these things we saw, yes, but the God that delivered us from the hands of Pharaoh, the God that took us through all the plagues, the God that took us through the Red Sea, He should be able to take care of these things. They stilled the people and they said we are well able, we can possess the land and to the glory of God, those who had that mind possessed it, but those who had the other mind unfortunately couldn’t make progress. I pray in the mighty name of Jesus that today, God will give us a heart of praise, a heart of gratitude, a heart that harbors the positives in the mighty name of Jesus.
Success like I said, is a phenomenon and guess what, success has a process, it’s not something that can be achieved overnight, but I pray in the name of Jesus that God will give you success in every area of our lives in Jesus name.
Very quickly I want to share with us why majority of the spies failed and this becomes necessary so that we can avoid their errors. Number one, they failed to recognize and acknowledge the mercy of God. Brethren, we are kept by God’s mercy, the Bible tells us in the book of Romans, it says it’s not of him that runneth neither of him that willeth, but of God that showeth mercy.
Mercy keeps us, mercy sustains us. Lamentation 3: 22 & 23 say it is of the Lord’s mercy that we are not consumed because his compassion faileth not. Mercy keeps us and it’s the same mercy that will see us through. The 10 spies failed to recognize and acknowledge the mercy of God. I pray that that will not be your own testimony in Jesus name.
Number two, they magnified their problem than God. In other words, they failed to recall the goodness of God in the past, they lost the sense of remembrance. There are many of us in that category, we easily lose our sense of remembrance, we live for now, we forget the past, we forget what God has done in the past.
These same children of Israel were in Egypt for 430 years, yet the Lord delivered them from their oppressors, He took them through the Red Sea and as if that was not enough, He drowned their enemies right before their eyes and yet ordinary Canaan was a big issue. They magnified everything they saw there, they told them the land is a land that devoured its inhabitants – we saw giants there, the land is this, the land is that.
Brethren, I want to challenge you this morning, stop magnifying your problems. There are many of us today, we engage in pity party, when we talk to people we talk to people so that we can get their sympathy, that will not take us anywhere, all you need to do is to have a positive mind. Yes, today may be tough but tomorrow will be all right; yes, I might not be there today, but tomorrow I will be there. I decree in the mighty name of Jesus that whatsoever it is that is making you to just throw in the towel just as easy as that, the Lord will take away in Jesus name.
They also doubted God’s promise to deliver them. God promised them from time, I’m taking you to Canaan, is a land that is flowing with milk and honey, that is going to be your headquarter, that is going to be your dwelling place. It was the same God that arranged for spies to go there so that they could see to reinforce their confidence and their faith but reverse was the case for them. I pray today in the name of Jesus that whatever it is in your life that will not glorify God, God will take away in Jesus name.
They focused on the problem, they forget about the past. No wonder that David said in Psalm 103, he said “Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name,” he recalled. You also remember in 1 Samuel 17 when he came to Saul and Saul said look you can’t fight this man, this man is an expert, you are a rookie; he told Saul, he said look, there were days when my father sent me to the field, there was a day a lion came and I destroyed it, another time it was a bear; he said the Lord that gave me the lion, the Lord that gave me the bear will give me these uncircumcised Philistines, did the Lord do it or not? He recalled the past experiences to navigate his future.
Look brethren, our today is a function of our yesterday and our tomorrow is a function of what we do today. My prayer is that God will give us understanding in the name of Jesus Christ.
Number three, they failed to appreciate God and somehow preferred death to life. In Numbers 14: 1-5, it says, and all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; (I pray that this year you will not cry in Jesus name); and the people wept that night. 2And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, would God that we had died in the land of Egypt or would God we had died in the wilderness?
My prayer in the mighty name of Jesus is that you will not die in the wilderness, you will not die in the course of your journey, you will reach your destination, you will get to the Promised Land in the mighty name of Jesus. They preferred death to life, but those with the covenant mind, Caleb and Joshua, they said we are well able. 3They murmured, and whereforth hath the Lord brought us onto this land, to fall by the sword (how can God bring somebody out from a place only for Him to come and kill him halfway?)
That our wives and our children should be a prey? Were it not better for us to return to Egypt? I pray once again this morning, you will not go back to Egypt. Whatever relationship you have with Egypt that is dragging you, the Lord Almighty will bring a severance today in the name of Jesus Christ.
Number four, they underestimated what God can do. But thank God for Joshua and Caleb, they said look, we are well able because we know God will help us. I’m sure they had trained their mind enough to know that with God all things are possible, and the fact that God has the final say, brethren, don’t throw in the towel yet for whatever reason.
In Romans 8:31, the Bible says, “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” Have you pondered on that scripture? Like I said before, God counts seriously on our minds before He gives out His blessing, He wants to know the state of your mind. When you read same Numbers 14: 21 – 24, it says but as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. 22Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice.
23Surely they shall not see the land which I swear unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoke me see it. 24But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it. Philemon 1:14 says, “But without thy mind would I do nothing; that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity.” God is not going to force Himself on any man, what you get is a function of what you are ready to receive. I pray in the mighty name of Jesus that success, victory, prosperity among others shall be your portion this year in Jesus name.
