Brethren, let us worship Him for His mercy endures forever; let us bless His holy name, let’s magnify Him. It is of the mercy of the Lord that we are not consumed, His compassion they fail not, we are here this day because of His mercy.
Let’s raise our voices, let’s lift Him up, let’s bless His holy name, let us thank Him, let’s give Him thanks, let us bless His holy name, let’s magnify Him. He’s our God, the author of life, He’s our sufficiency, He’s our all in all, He’s the beginning and the end, He’s the first and the last and everything between the first and the last. Almighty God, all powerful God, all knowing God, all sufficient God, He’s glorious in holiness and fearful in praises.
Father Lord, we want to say thank You; thank You, Father, glory be to Your name forever more, for Your mercy endures forever, Lord we give You all the glory, honor and adoration. In Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
Father we thank You for this morning, thank You for Your presence in our midst as always. Father Lord God of heaven, we thank You for what You’ve done for us before, thank You for what You will do again today; Father, thank You for the word that You will speak to us, Father, let this word find free course in our lives in the name of Jesus, and let there be the fulfillment of the word in our lives in the mighty name of Jesus.
Father Lord, in line with our theme for the month, Lord, let there be divine visitation in the mighty name of Jesus. And by reason of Your divine visitation, Father, every barrier, every limitation to fulfilling our destinies, Father, please break them in the mighty name of Jesus. And once You have broken them, Father, please reconnect us, oh Lord, build bridges to connect us again to our destinies in the mighty name of Jesus. Let no one leave here today empty in the name of Jesus. Thank You heavenly Father, in Jesus marvelous name we prayed. Praise the living Jesus!
I would like to acknowledge God for the gift of life; the reason I’m here this morning is I’m still carrying the breath of God and I believe is the same for every one of us here. I would extend also an appreciation to our father in the Lord, the APICR of region 11, Pastor Tunde Netufo, for this privilege that I have, I do not take it for granted. Thank you.
Today is the grand finale of our training weekend which consists of Sunday School, House Fellowship, the School of Mission and Bible College. The theme for this year’s training weekend is Breaking Barriers and Building Bridges; all of us I believe are members of one house fellowship center or the other, and all of us also should belong to Sunday school, so we are all celebrating this weekend, when it is time to give thanksgiving, let us come out in our numbers and give thanks to God.
Welcome every one of you once again, daddies and mommies to this month of divine visitation. Please quickly turn with me to the book of Acts 12: 1-11, “Now about that time Herod the king stre forth his hand to vex certain of the church. 2And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. 3And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread).
4And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. 5Peter therefore was kept in the prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. 6And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the doors kept the prison.
7And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands. 8And the angel said unto him, gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he saith unto him, cast thy garment about thee, and follow me. 9And he went out, and followed him; and wist not that it was true which was done by the angel; but thought it was a vision.
10When they were past the first and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of his own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street; and forthwith the angel departed from him. 11And when Peter was come to himself, he said, mow I know of a surety, that the Lord has sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews”. Praise the living Jesus!
In that passage, Peter had a divine visitation and what he thought was impossible is freedom, it became like a dream. My prayer this morning is that somebody here will have a divine visitation in the mighty name of Jesus, and what you think had eluded you, God will bring back to you in the name of Jesus.
So our topic this morning in line with our theme for the month is divine visitation, and if you want to put it in a different way, say When God Visits. The key word here I want us to focus on is the visit; when you said you visit, is like you go to a place to look at a place, for example you go on an exhibition to Ikogosi, you want to see the spring and warm water, or you go to people’s house or to see somebody in their offices or in their house, you say you’ve gone to a visit.
For example, I’m living in a dream world that I will visit the white house this year, it’s a visit. A visit is usually for a short time, it’s rare for someone to visit you and stay for one year, two years, that’s no longer a visit, that means they have packed in with you. But however short a visit may be, often times it’s impactful. I remember when I used to visit my parents, (they are both late now), even if it was just 15 minutes, it was always a valued time for both of us – for them, for me, a visit is always impactful.
And that’s when man visits, you can now imagine when God visits, and by the way, God does not have time to visit for a day, two days, God can just visit you a second, but that one second can make a lifetime change and that’s what will happen to someone this morning
So how does God visit? God can visit you, by the way, I’ve taken this message but it’s adapted in January last year in prayer chain, so some people can relate with it. How does God visit? His visit can be via invitation or without an invitation.
Many times for those of us living in gated estates, before anybody can visit you, they must let you know; if somebody comes to your house now and you are not aware, the person will get to the gate and they won’t be able to access your house. So in that case, visits require invitation but with God you can visit with or without an invitation. Praise the living Jesus.
For example, when we pray to God, it is an invitation for God to come. Say God please intervene in my situation, we are inviting Him to come; and when God answers those prayers, it is a divine visitation. So I pray for someone today, your prayers will be heard in the mighty name of Jesus.
God can also visit you without you calling Him, He can just come. For example, when we sleep and wake up, many of us we sleep and wake up, but the Bible tells us that I lay me down and I wake up because the Lord sustained me. You are here this morning brethren because God visited you in the early hours of today and that’s why we are alive, and I pray that God will continually visit you in that sense in the mighty name of Jesus.
How does God visit? Another way that God visit is when He visits, He can come alone but often times He travels with an entourage of angels. In Revelation 4: 6-11, the Bible gives us a peak into the throne of God where you have the beasts, the elders, you have the angels all surrounding the throne and you see God. And we know that God is sovereign, so wherever God is, that is His throne, so wherever God is, He also comes with all those people that surround His throne. Praise the living Jesus.
But the beauty of it is that they do not just follow Him, they come with Him for a purpose or for a few purposes. First is that they can bring good tidings, they come so that they can bring good tidings. In Luke 1: 11-37, (will paraphrase it), when the angel visited Elizabeth, the angel brought good news to Elizabeth; the same angel visited Mary and also brought good news. The angels that will come with the Lord to visit you will bring good news to you in the mighty name of Jesus.
When they come, they also come bearing gifts with them. James 1:17, the Bible tells us that every good gift is from the Lord. Praise the living Jesus. So when He comes, they come bringing gifts, and you know, because it’s God, it’s the angels that will come and deliver your gifts. I can see angels delivering gifts, gifts of healing, gifts of redemption, gifts of promotion, gifts of new houses, new vehicles unto His people in the mighty name of Jesus.
Also the reasons angels follow Him is that when they come, they know that there might be some of us here that have one enemy or the other who are barriers to fulfilling our destinies, so the angels silence them.
In Psalm 68:1-4, the Bible says when God arise, His enemies will scatter, and you remember when God arise, He doesn’t arise alone, He goes with angels, so the angels are the ones that silence the enemies. The Bible tells us, I think it’s in the book of first Kings 19: 33-35 that one angel is able to kill 185,000 enemies. How many enemies do you have? One angel is enough is anyone, is there anyone who has more than 185,000 enemies. Praise the living Jesus.
So today in the mighty name of Jesus, every blocker of your destiny, God will dispatch His angels to silence them, to scatter them in the mighty name of Jesus.
There are many other ways through which God can visit us in terms of the mood, but we may not be able to go through that. He can send angels, He can send prophets, it can be through dreams and vision, we’ll not be able to go into the details of that. So let’s get into the meat of the teaching for this morning, what happens when God visits you because that’s divine visitation?
The theme of the training weekend is breaking barrier, building bridges, and that’s exactly what happens when God visits you, He breaks barriers and He builds bridges. Praise the living Jesus. A barrier is a wall or anything that separates you, that blocks you or that limits your connection; they can be visible or invisible, it can obstruct your flow of communication, it can stop prayer like a barrier was done for Daniel.
It can stop your effectiveness in ministry, in business, in whatever that you do. They can be spiritual, they can be emotional, they can be structural, they can be generational, they can be relational. Barriers can be anything, but whatsoever they are, first John 3:8 tells us that the reason why the Son of God was manifest is to destroy the works of Satan, to break barriers. Praise the living Jesus.
So when God visits, He will break the following barriers, (more than these but we can take a few of these); for the enemies of God’s children especially when God’s visit is trouble for them. In Exodus 3, God visited His children in Egypt; Pharaoh and Egypt had been a barrier to them from fulfilling their destinies, they were slaves and they continued to make reasons for them to remain slaves forever, they continued to double their task and withdraw from them the tools they need to do the work.
But then God visited; in Exodus 5:1 – 2, Moses went to Pharaoh and requested that he should let the people of God go, we know that story; and Pharaoh refused until such a time that God broke his back in Exodus 14 and drowned Pharaoh and his people in the sea. In the mighty name of Jesus, every barrier, every power, every force that’s like Pharaoh in your life that continues to belabor you, that makes it impossible for you to progress in life, the Lord Almighty will visit them today in the mighty name of Jesus.
Another one is when the children of Israel eventually left and they were leaving the wilderness going to the Promised Land, the Amalekites came, Exodus 17, and fought them. God empowered the people of Israel, they defeated the Amalekites, but God said to Moses, Exodus 17: 14, and the Lord said unto Moses, write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out of remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.
It says, these your enemies that you see, a time will come that they will never be heard of again. And then in 1 Samuel 5, many years after, God said to King Saul, go and destroy Amalek, utterly destroy the city, don’t leave anything there in fulfillment of this promise. Everyone who is standing in the way of your progress like the Amalekites stood in the way of the progress of children of God, the Lord will take them out in His way in the mighty name of Jesus.
And again the children of Israel as they continued, they got to a point and then they saw a big wall called the wall of Jericho, another barrier. But then God again visited them, because God visited them, told them what to do, Joshua 6, and before you know it, as big as the wall of Jericho was, it came down and the children of Israel were able to move.
Every wall that is standing before you, every wall that is saying where are you going? In the mighty name of Jesus, because of divine visitation they will come down today in the name of Jesus.
When God breaks barriers, it may be enough but often times it’s not sufficient for you to still get there, so He needs to connect bridges so that you can use the bridges to get to your destiny. So when God visits the children of God, is like connecting bridges. Praise the living Jesus.
The first thing that He does when He visits His children in terms of connecting bridges now, you will just find out that those things that delay you, they are no longer there and there will be no more delays. In Genesis 21: 1-7, we know the story well, Abraham and Sarah that had waited on God for 25 years, but then God visited, (starting from Genesis 17, then Genesis 18) and suddenly the delay of 25 years was lifted and their joy came.
I don’t know what your story of delay is, brethren, but I know that as God will surely visit you this season, those delays will be gone.
Have you been waiting for Mr. Right or Miss Right for so long? Have you been waiting for the fruit of the womb for so long? Have you been waiting for that visa, rejection every now and then? Have you been waiting for an appointment? In this season of divine visitation, no more delay for you in the mighty name of Jesus.
When God visits, He gives a new name. There’s something about a name that you give to somebody, your name can either attract favor or bring disfavor. May your name attract favor. A name can either bring blessing or bring curses. May your name bring blessings.
When God visits and He finds it necessary to give you a change of name, He changes your name, and you can be sure that when God changes your name, something is about to happen. A change of name is a sign of a new beginning. In 1 Chronicles 4: 9 & 10, the Bible tells us that Jabez cried to the Lord, he prayed and God visited him by answer and God changed his name from sorrow to honorable. God will change somebody’s name today.
In Genesis 17, God visited Abram and God changed his name from Abram to Abraham. Abraham is exalted father, Abraham is the father of nations, father of the multitude, father of the world, God enlarged his coast in the mighty name of Jesus.
What is the world calling you? Failure, beggar, poor person, Mr. single, as the Lord visits you this morning, He will give you a new name. The world will no longer call you failure, the world will no longer call you poor in the mighty name of Jesus.
When God visits, He brings abundance in place of lack, in place of drought, in place of famine. Spiritually, drought, lack and famine represent hardship, they represent failure, represent fruitlessness, but the Bible tells us in Psalm 24:1 that the earth and the fullness thereof belongs to God, so when He visits, He actually comes with everything.
So when He visits and sees that one of His children is in lack, He gives you and you know the measure of God is so big that if He gives you even a little is enough for a lifetime. Praise the living Jesus. So as God will be visiting you this season, He will take away your lack, take away your failures, take away fruitlessness in the mighty name of Jesus.
He visited the widow of Zarephath, He took away her lack, He wiped out famine, He wiped out tears. So it shall be for you in the mighty name of Jesus.
When the Lord visits, every roadblock, spiritual roadblock, He scatters them and makes a way for you where there was no way. From our passage this morning, King Herod had captured Peter and put him in a prison and kept him with two soldiers and at different levels there were also levels of security, there was no way on earth that he could have come out, dead end, no way.
But when God visited Peter and he got out, he found himself, and in Acts 12:11, he said, I know for a surety that God is not a respector of persons, He can do anything. And because God is no respector of persons, as many of us here as have reached our end that has been defined by the world or that we have defined for ourselves, in the mighty name of Jesus, God will make a way for you, God will move you forward and you will fulfill your destinies in Jesus mighty name.
Now it is good that God will visit us but there can be barriers also now that we ourselves place to that divine visitation. What can these barriers be? The first is sin. God hates sin, God and sin do not see eye to eye. Isaiah 59: 1 & 2, the ears of the Lord are not blocked that they cannot hear, that is it’s not that He cannot visit you, and then verse two says, but is your sin that has caused God to hide His face from you.
Sin and God cannot see eye to eye, He will not go to where sin abound. Romans 6: 1& 2, the Bible says shall we continue in sin and expect that grace will abound? God forbid. Sin is the number one blocker of divine visitation.
Number two is disobedience. God is righteous and He expects us to be perfect like Him. Matthew 5:48, be thou perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect; when you obey divine instructions consistently, it leads to righteousness, Romans 6:16. So it means that disobedience also takes us far away from righteousness into unrighteousness, so anyone who is living and walking into disobedience will find it difficult to attract divine visitation.
Number three, lukewarmness, serving God and Mammon together. God is a jealous God, let’s call it what it is, He wants you to serve Him alone and alone, He doesn’t want to share you with any other person. Revelation 3:14-16, the Bible tells us that you either be hot or cold, but don’t be lukewarm.
Matthew 6:24, you cannot serve two masters; take one; go to Mammon if you want mammon or come to God if you want God. So God would not come where there is lukewarmness because you can imagine when God is coming visiting and then He finds Satan or somebody has come in there, God wants you alone. Praise the living Jesus.
Then unbelief. What is unbelief? Thinking that it’s not possible living with God, when the Bible already tells us that for with God nothing shall be impossible. Hebrews 4:1-3 tells us that there’s no unbelief with God. Praise the living Jesus. And in John 5:1-11, you know that story of the man that was by the pool of Bethesda, unbelief nearly cost him his testimony, but that day because there was grace in the house, Jesus did override his unbelief. Brethren, unbelief will stop divine visitation. Praise the living Jesus.
What can attract Him? What will make Him come? Number one, as we all know, is praise and worship. Psalm 22:3, but thou art holy, oh thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel, inhabit this time around not even visit. He lives in praises, when you want God to visit you again and again, praise Him, worship Him always. Pure praise and worship.
Number two, trust Him to come through for the things that He has promised to do. Abraham trusted God and later God came for him; Zechariah and Elizabeth as old as they were, they continued to serve God believing that He’s a just and able God, and God came through for them in their very old age.
The three Hebrew men in Daniel 3: 15 – 18, they said even if this God will not come, we will continue to praise Him, they trusted God. Trust and obey Him always, in the face of your circumstances just hold on to God and righteousness.
Number three, righteousness. When God first visited Abraham, what did He tell him? Genesis 17:1, and when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared, (the Lord visited him) and said unto him, I am the Lord Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou righteousness. Obey me always, keep my commandments, live right before me. Praise the living Jesus.
As we conclude, brethren, there are barriers, there are limitations, there are obstacles to fulfilling destiny. Some are visible, some are not, but whatsoever they are, we have a God who can break these barriers, not only will He break the barriers, He will not leave us hanging in the middle of nothing, in the middle of an ocean, He would also create for us bridges to cross so that we can get to our destinies. And the way God does this is through divine visitation.
This morning, brethren, I pray and I connect my faith with yours that God will visit you in the mighty name of Jesus. And there’s no way that God will visit you and the world will not see it, so from today you will become a shining example in the mighty name of Jesus. The mark of the Lord Almighty will be upon you in Jesus mighty name.
But you know brethren, like we said earlier, the number one obstacle to divine visitation is sin. Isaiah 59:1 & 2, when God pays you a visit or wants to pay you a visit and finds sin in your life, He will stop the journey and go elsewhere. You know this song we normally sing, ‘pass me not, oh gentle Savior’, sin is something that can make that gentle Savior pass you.
If you are still living in sin and you are calling to God for divine visitation, chances are that you will not have it, the eye of the Lord does not behold iniquity, Habakkuk 1: 13. But you know what? One single divine visitation will turn your life around. Mark 10, blind Bartimeus, he was in the company of unfortunate people but God visited him even there, there’s no way God cannot visit you if your heart is right and one visitation can turn your life around.
So if you are here this morning brethren, you are still living in sin, you are still toying with sin or you are still doing one leg in one leg out, lukewarmness, you are still living in unbelief, you are still doubting, put an end to all of that this morning. Come to Jesus, surrender your life to Him, He will forgive your sins, He will take you as a son, He will take you as a daughter, and then He will break every barrier that is an obstacle to your progress in life and He will connect you to your destiny and make you a new soul.
[Altar call]
Brethren, let us rise up. Let’s begin to give thanks to the Lord Almighty, let’s bless His holy name. Father Lord I thank You, Lord I bless You, thank You for Your divine visitation in time past and now, thank You Lord for Your divine visitation.
Let’s begin to give thanks to Him. Father Lord I thank You, thank You Lord for Your divine visitation, thank You for Your visit this morning, thank You for breaking barriers, thank You for building bridges, thank You for reconnecting me to my destiny, thank You for doing a new thing in my life. Thank You my Father, glory be to Your name forever more, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
Psalm 5: 1-3, the Bible says give ear to my words oh Lord, consider my meditation; hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King and my God; he’s saying visit me when I cry unto you, you are going to cry to the Lord and say Father in the mighty name of Jesus, please honor all my invitations, every time I cry unto You, Father, please answer me. Listen to my cry and answer me in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank You, heavenly Father, in Jesus mighty name we prayed.
One of the things that happen when God visits is that you receive good news, from today you will receive good news in the mighty name of Jesus. Mary received good news, Elizabeth received good news, Hannah received good news, you are the next in line.
Let’s pray. Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, from today, let me receive good news from You in the mighty name of Jesus. From today Lord, please let me receive the good news in the mighty name of Jesus, thank You Lord Jesus, in Jesus mighty name we prayed.
Psalm 68:1-4 tells us that when God visits, His enemies scatter, and because God is visiting you today, every enemy of your destiny will scatter in the mighty name of Jesus. So we are praying and say Father in the mighty name of Jesus, according to Your word, as You visit me, let every enemy of my destiny, of my home, of my family, of my household scatter them oh Lord, scatter every enemy of my home and household in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank You heavenly Father, in Jesus mighty name we prayed.
Peter was in chains without any hope of freedom ever anymore, the Bible says on the night that he was to be killed, God visited him and made way for him. I don’t know where you are and you are saying God just this last chance, I don’t know what is that thing and you are saying if God does not come then it’s all over, it’s not all over brethren.
You are going to cry to the Lord Almighty and say Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, please visit me, make a way for me where there was no way in the name of Jesus. Thank You heavenly Father, in Jesus mighty name we prayed.
Finally, you are going to pray. Father please, by reason of Your divine visitation, break every barrier, every limitation, every obstacle to my progress in life and reconnect me to my destiny in the name of Jesus. Break every barrier, every limitation and reconnect me to my destiny.
