Brethren, He is our Most High, the King of nations, the Maker of heaven and the earth, none is like Him, none was like Him, none will ever be like Him. Our Father, our Maker, our Shield, our yesterday, our today, our tomorrow, our forever, our sufficiency, our all in all.
Brethren, let us worship Him, let us bless His holy name. Let’s worship Him, let’s worship the King of kings, let’s worship the Most High, the King of nations, the ruler of all the earth, let us exalt His holy name. Without You was not anything made that was made, Father, we bless Your holy name, we thank You, Lord, we worship You, we honor You, we adore You, we declare You as God, there is no one else but You, there’s no other God but You.
Our God, our Maker, our sustainer, our provider, our shield, our sufficiency, our all in all, our beginning, our today, our ending, hallowed be Your name. Father, we thank You, Father, we bless Your holy name, thank You, Lord, thank You, Father, in Jesus marvelous name we have worshipped.
Our Father, the Most High, Ruler of all the earth, King of nations, the Possessor of the universe, hallowed be Your name, we thank You Lord for the privilege of life, we thank You Lord that You honor us also this morning with Your presence, Father, we thank You for what You have done for us in time past, thank You for what You have already done this morning, thank You for what You will yet do, glory be to Your name forever more.
Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, as we go through the word this morning, Lord, please give us understanding, speak expressly to us, to our situations and move mountains this morning in the name of Jesus.
Father, we want to thank You for the 74th annual convention of the mission, thank You; You are the original mountain mover, thank You for moving our mountains, thank you for destroying them, thank You for breaking them into pieces and they will not come back because the victory is permanent. Thank You heavenly Father.
Lord God of heaven, we appreciate You, Lord, we thank You; each and every one of us here this morning, please let no one leave here without a touch of You in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank You Father Jesus, in wonderful name we prayed. Praise the Lord! Praise the living Jesus!
Good morning, daddies and mommies, brethren, brothers and sisters, God bless you. You’re welcome this morning. Thank God for the gift of life, as you know, I’m here because there is breath in me and same for you. Thank You, Jesus.
I would like to also appreciate our father in the Lord for this privilege that I have to minister this morning. I pray that the mighty hands of God will continue to sustain him in the name of Jesus. And would like to welcome as many of us, even those who travelled online, (you know what I mean), I want to welcome all of us back from the annual convention. Thank God for all that He has done. Praise the living Jesus!
Please turn with me to the Book of Isaiah 40: 28-31, “Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding. 29He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
30Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 31But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint”. Hallelujah!
We will take a a second text from the same Book of Isaiah 43: 16-21, “Thus saith the Lord, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters; 17Which bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power; they shall lie down together, they shall not rise: they are extinct, they are quenched as tow.
18Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. 19Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. 20The beast of the field shall honor me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen (members of CTL). 21This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise. Praise the Lord!
I don’t know if we are not sure that God is talking to us because that amen is a bit timid. He says that He will give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to His people, His chosen ones, members of CTL. Hallelujah!
The topic before us this morning is A New Dawn, but I’d also like to tag it as The Dawn of a New Day. Praise the Lord! The key thing there is dawn; by definition, the dawn is a time that marks the beginning of the twilight before sunrise. The word dawn, derives from the old English verb dagian, which means to become day.
Let me break it down: the dawn is the forerunner of a day, before you see any day, the dawn precedes it, that’s what the dawn is. A new dawn, therefore, refers to the beginning of a new day, a brand new beginning for somebody. Spiritually, a new day represents a new beginning, a fresh start, or an important turning point in life. And I’m trusting that is somebody’s testimony here this morning.
So, I want us to start first with a word of prayer. Your night that has endured for so long will give way to a new dawn this day in the mighty name of Jesus.
The dawning of a new day symbolizes hope, restoration, optimism, and an opportunity for a new beginning. So I pray for someone this morning that God will give you a brand new beginning, that which you have been waiting for, God will give to you in the name of Jesus.
Brethren, life as we know it is full of turns and twists, valleys and mountains, darkness and brightness, night and day, but you know every turn, every twist of life brings in a new dawn, refined to dawn as a new beginning and every dawn comes with a reset.
For example, just example now applying it to life. Once upon a time, somebody was a bachelor, single, and then when he got married, the first day that you get married, remember that first day, it marks the dawn of a new beginning; the first time you had the privilege of being called a mother or a father is a new beginning, and what you do when you have a new beginning is different from what it used to be. That’s why every dawn comes with a reset.
I’m trusting God that as many people here this morning, as many individuals, as many families, as many businesses, as many careers, as many marriages will usher in a new dawn today in the mighty name of Jesus. I pray also that our nation Nigeria will usher in a new dawn in the mighty name of Jesus.
Brethren, when we talk about the new dawn, I need to point out this quickly so that we can understand the message indeed. Most times when we talk about the new dawn, we always think of the positive things, right? When I say a new dawn, somebody will think, “Oh, okay, when I buy the new car, when I build the new house, when I get the new job”, yes, but do you know that sometimes that new dawn starts with those things that we do not expect but ultimately it gives way to that which you are expecting.
So a new dawn can be moving from bad to good or from the low point to a high point; it can be getting from good to better or from better to being the best. For example, Daniel was a boy, a young man in his own country, then he was captured, he was taken captive. At the point when he was taken captive and taken to Babylon, it was a new dawn for him but wasn’t a positive dawn, it wasn’t positive at that time but then gradually in the midst of all young men, Daniel was brought out.
Before you know it, he began to serve the kings, before you know it, at the point in time when the king said they wanted to set three presidents over 120 princes, Daniel was one of them, not only was he one of them, he was the first of the three.
What are we saying? Daniel, after the king was the next, but he started where? He was captured, he left where he was a citizen and he became captive in another land – a new dawn.
So brethren, is not every time that we talk about a new that you think oh, you are going to hold a new car key (it will get there). Praise the living Jesus.
So a new dawn can also be a reversal of moving from low to high, like Daniel, it can also be stagnation. Praise the living Jesus!
For somebody who’s been a fast mover, a new dawn can be God saying, “Slow down at this time.” You remember the children of Israel, when they left Egypt, they were celebrating victory, Exodus 14, and then they got to a point, they got to the Red Sea and they had to wait, while they were waiting, there was agitation.
Moses, why did you bring us here? You should have left us in Egypt, but then, God was keeping them for a purpose and after that, before you know it, Exodus 14:28 – 31, they crossed to the other side and they looked back and they realized that indeed it was day; the period while they were waiting, while there was stagnation was the dawn but it transited into a day.
What I’m saying brethren is that, the situations that you may be going through now may not look as if a new dawn has started, but if you are a child of God and you are holding on to the promises of God, brethren, you are already in your dawn. And in the name that’s above every other name, before long it shall be a new day.
Now let me make a distinction between the night, the dawn and the day, and I’ll use example. When the children of Israel were in Egypt 430 years in captivity, that was the night; when they left Egypt, the example I shared earlier, and when they got to the Red Sea and they were waiting and through the period of the Red Sea with agitation, would we make it or not? It was the dawn.
But something had already started, then they eventually saw it when they got to Exodus 15 and they began to sing praises. The way God does things, the time you see it is not when God started, God already started the work. You may not see it, you may not know it, but you need to believe it, brethren, that God is already working in your case. Hallelujah!
Now who can activate a new dawn? One, you yourself can activate a new dawn. I remember I used to have a driver and one time he told me, he said he wanted to go and study. So he went, he did OND, then HND, graduated in accounting and began to work in a company here in VI, became a supervisor; before you know it, the last time I saw him, he’s his own boss, but he could have stayed and remained as a driver but he took an action.
And then when you see him and say he’s a business owner, he will tell you once upon a time I was a driver. But what changed? An action. On the contrary, sometime last week, I was reading a report or a news and I heard about a pastor, (by the way, it can be anybody and this one happened to be a pastor) that they said molested a church member, a young church member and all that. What he thought he had done in secret came to the open, right? But that’s not even the case.
If you had asked him and said, “Pastor, what happened?” He would say it was the work of the devil, but let us ask ourselves, is it the devil? Because I read in that report that at the point in time he went to turn on the generator so that there will be noise, nobody will hear that he was forcing the girl. Was it the devil that turned on the generator? Was it the devil that removed his pants? He had a new dawn but it was not positive.
Brethren, your actions can trigger a new dawn. Let us be mindful and be careful in what we do because we are people on a journey, don’t derail that journey. Praise the living Jesus!
General circumstances of life can also trigger a new dawn. Economic downturn, financial, all of that, global pandemic like when there was COVID. In Genesis 26, the Bible talks about Isaac; there was famine in the land just like the famine in the time of his father, Abraham, and because there was famine, people who used to enjoy, they started seeing hardship, so Isaac wanted to move because there was a new dawn called famine.
But God said to him, stay here and I will sustain you, and God did sustain him, and in the midst of all, while the Philistines failed, he had a 100fold return in the same year. May I pray for somebody, even when there is a general occurrence that triggered a new dawn in your life that you have no control over, but there’s One who has control over times and seasons and He will control things such that they work in your favor in the mighty name of Jesus.
The devil, the enemy can also trigger a new dawn. When the devil gets involved in anything, brethren, things get from good to bad to worse, because the Bible tells us in John 10:10 that the devil’s ministry is to steal, to kill, and to destroy. May he not succeed over any of us in the name of Jesus.
So the devil is known for nothing other than those three things, so when he gets involved in something, he brings it down. In the book of Daniel 10: 10 – 13, the Bible tells us that Daniel prayed and God said to him, from the very first day that you prayed, I had answered you; but Daniel said I have not received the answer, He said the prince of Persia held on to the answer. That’s what the devil does.
So somebody who should have received an answer to the prayer, he was waiting, waiting time is actually the dawn. So the dawn kept longer than necessary because the enemy hijacked his blessing. In the mighty name of Jesus, every one of us who is in the dawn right now and it appears it’s taking too long, if it is by reason of any prince of Persia, any power or principality, in the name that’s above every other name, the Lord Almighty will give back what is due you unto you in the mighty name of Jesus.
Then God Himself can trigger a new dawn. When God is at work, even what looks like a downside will ultimately become the bright side of life. You remember David, when David was in the bush, he was keeping the sheep of his father, his bigger brothers were in the house and enjoying the cool and the comfort of the home and we believed that every day David will be going, “Oh God, today again,” but he kept going.
It looked like it was hard for David but God was working something out in David. It was while he was in the bush that he learned how to use the catapult, it was while he was there that God gave him the boldness because the lion came, he killed the lion, the bear came, he killed the bear, and then when Goliath came, when he came to the limelight, what had happened in the dawn came to day, came to light. In the mighty name of Jesus, your challenges, your struggles, it will not be for too long, the dawn in the name of Jesus will soon transit into the day in the mighty name of Jesus.
Let’s look at a few examples from the Bible. Abraham, in Genesis 12:1-3, the Lord asked Abraham to leave his people, his country, everywhere and go to a place that I will show you; and in verse 4, the Bible tells us that and Abraham did as God had told him, so he moved. But then God said to him, I will take you to a place and I will bless you, I will make you this, I will make you that.
1 year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years and he continued to wait and the promise did not come, and Abraham was asking at a point, he said, God, I am growing old, what about this promise? And that’s what many of us do in the period of dawn, we are agitating, we are asking God, are You still alive? God is alive, brethren.
Then in Genesis 17:1, God visited him, and verses 2 and 3, God said to him, I will change this promise now to a covenant because now the day is about to break, and before you know it, Isaac came. It took him a number of years, but Isaac eventually came. It may have taken you many years but God does not fail on His promises, your Isaac will come in the mighty name of Jesus.
What about Naaman? 2 Kings 5, the Bible tells us that Naaman was the captain of the Syrian army – captain means a leader, general. He must have risen through the rank, now there is something that is not – the Bible says – but he was a leper, the ‘but’. Now you have to think about it, was he enrolled into the army as a leper? I think not because it is not allowed for lepers to live among people.
So I think when he enrolled he wasn’t a leper, but somewhere down the line leprosy came, but because he was a big man they could not expose him so they were hiding it, those who knew. Then one day, a maid, as we know that was the beginning of his dawn, then he went to the king, gave him a letter, then he went to the king of Israel. The king of Israel called Elisha, Elisha said go and wash in Jordan, all this period Naaman was saying this leprosy, now I’m outside, everybody is seeing me, would this leprosy ever go?
But the Bible says as soon as he came out after swimming seven times, what happened? His skin was like that of a baby, he endured a period of dawn but eventually it paved way into the day. It does not matter how long your dawn is because God does not eat His words, the Bible says God is not a man that He should lie, neither is He the son of man that he should repent. Has He said it? Will He not do it? Praise the living Jesus.
Now I want us to take a few lessons very quickly. The first lesson is that from the two examples, every new day is preceded by a dawn. Now what is a dawn? When I was leaving this morning to come here from the camp, I had to leave early and it wasn’t a bit dark, about 6:00, and then as I was traveling, suddenly it became bright. That part of the time where it was still looking like it was dark was the dawn, but there’s a difference between the dawn and darkness – the night, because in the night there was no hope of fulfillment of promise but is in the dawn that there’s a hope of the morning coming. Praise our living Jesus.
So the first lesson is that it may not appear to you yet what God is doing, but because you are in the dawn, soon enough you will see the day. Psalm 30:5, the Bible says, “Weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning.” Praise the living Jesus!
Lesson number two, the progression from the dawn to the day is spontaneous, it doesn’t need anything else to happen. I have not seen a day that refuse to break, I’ve not seen a time when you see the dawn and then you don’t see a day. Isaiah 14:27, the Bible tells us that when God has purposed to do a thing, who can disannul it? Can anyone cancel it? No, so in the same way if you apply the dawn to the waiting time in your life, when God has promised that your day will come, nobody can stop it.
So this is good news for you brethren, that which you are hoping for, that which you are waiting on God for, that which you are believing God for, because God is in it, no power, no force, no principality can stop it. You will soon testify over it in the name of Jesus.
Lesson number three, how long it takes for the dawn to become day is a function of many factors, it varies. There are times (let’s bring it to the natural) when at 5:30 it looks as if the day is bright, and there are times at 6:30 is still dark, you are still seeing dawn at 6:30., it varies, and there are also seasons. If we bring this into life of human beings, it speaks to the fact that in our lives, the time when the dawn becomes the morning also varies depending on who you are, your specifications and what God has said to you and what you are doing. Praise the living Jesus!
Some people see their day earlier, some people once they pray and God says I will do it, before you know it, it’s happened and they come to testify. But some people are waiting, the only thing that we know is that the dawn will naturally give way to become a day.
So how can you activate if you don’t want a prolonged dawn? Now bringing it back to reality of life, you don’t want a prolonged dawn, how can you activate the day? This takes us to what determine if your dawn is short, if it’s prolonged or delayed.
Number one, obedience to God. Genesis 12: 1-7, in verse 4, the Bible says and Abram obeyed as God had said, obedience. If Abraham had not moved, there would never have been the story we read about Isaac. Then in Genesis 17:1, God said to him, you made a mistake in chapter 16, you and your wife conspired to make a baby on your own, that’s not my plan, forget it, from today, walk before me and be blameless. Abraham obeyed and that triggered the new day – obedience.
Number two, walking uprightly. I’ve talked about that already, Genesis 17:1. If you walk before God and be blameless, walk righteous, obey God, do His will at all times, you will activate your day.
Humble yourself. We know the story of Naaman, when they asked him to go to wash in Jordan, he said me, a whole me, Jordan, that dirty Jordan, but then he dropped his pride, he went into Jordan, when he came out of Jordan, he was clean. If he had not dropped his pride, he would have remained a leper.
The next one, you must keep praying and seeking the face of God. Don’t ever give up. The Bible tells us, when Elijah said I can hear the sound of abundance of rain, did the rain come immediately? He sent his servant to go, he came back and said there was no rain. How many times? Seven times. But while the seven times when the servants kept going, what was Elijah doing? The Bible says he was praying, a very funny prayer with his head in between his knees.
While waiting for the day to break, brethren, keep praying, don’t give up, don’t rest on oars. Praise the living Jesus.
Number next, trust God to do His best for you. He’s your Father, He owns you, He knows everything about you. In Acts 12: 1-7, the Bible tells us, Peter was already in chains with armies surrounding him; the night before the day that he will be killed, what was Peter doing? He was sleeping, Acts 12:4.
Why was he sleeping? He’s saying God, my time is in Your hands. Let us trust God to do the best, don’t go and work things out like Abraham did. Praise the living Jesus.
In conclusion, brethren, weeping may endure for the night, but your joy comes in the morning and that morning is preceded by a dawn. I want to tell you, what you are going through now, if you are a child of God is a dawn, is not darkness, but because many of us don’t know the difference, the devil will keep making you think that you are still in darkness, you are still praying and God is saying I’ve already answered you like He said to Daniel, you are in the dawn.
Say to yourself, I’m in my dawn, the day will soon break, I’m no longer in darkness in the mighty name of Jesus.
Then there can be a permanent day, there can also be a permanent night, that is somebody can be perpetually in darkness and away from God and somebody can be perpetually with God but there cannot be a permanent dawn, your dawn will naturally pave way into a day. So I rejoice with you because you’re already in the dawn, your miracle is on its way, your testimony is about to happen in the mighty name of Jesus.
How quickly you turn the dawn into a new day is a function of many factors that we discussed earlier, many of which you have control over. You can choose to be obedient or not, you can choose to walk right before God or not, you can choose to trust God or not, so you have control over all these factors. The ball is in your hands, brethren. How long do you want your dawn to remain? Forever?
If you want your day to come just now, obey God, walk right before Him, trust Him, wait on Him, and surely He will do it in the mighty name of Jesus.
Even though there are twists and turns in life, brethren, there is a clarity what the ultimate day always look like. Isaiah 3: 10-11, the Bible says for the righteous, it is well with thee; for the wicked, is going to be disastrous end.
What this means is that for the righteous, for a child of God, there’s no permanent dawn, what you are going through now will give way to a day, but for the wicked, unfortunately it is not even a dawn, it is a night that may not see the light of day. Pharaoh’s heart was hardened because he was not a child of God and his end was disastrous; King Nebuchadnezzar on the other hand in Daniel 4, even though he went through a period of a dawn, the moment he acknowledged God, his day was activated.
You are here this morning, your walk with God is not sure or you know that you are not a child of God, you fit into that category of the wicked in Isaiah 3: 10 & 11, you are not a child of God, you are not obeying Him, you are not doing His will, you are not following Him, you’ve never accepted Him as your Lord and Savior, you fit into that category, but God is a merciful God, He wants to turn your dawn into a day.
[Altar call]
Brethren, let us rise up and pray, we have a few prayer points to make. Let’s begin to give thanks to God. Father Lord, we thank You; we thank You because You are the Lord God of all flesh, You are the God of the whole universe, we thank You because You are the One who will turn our darkness into the dawn and ultimately into a day.
Thank You for what You have purposed to do in our lives, Father Lord, perfect Your works in us in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank You heavenly Father, in Jesus mighty name we prayed.
The next prayer point, many people have been in a prolonged dawn but by the grace of God your day is at hand. We are going to ask, there are a few reasons why a dawn may be prolonged. In Genesis 16, Abraham went to help himself and because of that action, he had to wait additional 13 years before the promise of God was fulfilled. If you have been doing things that do not please God, it may be a reason why your dawn is prolonged.
Shall we just go before the Lord Almighty and begin to ask for mercy. Father Lord, please have mercy on me; Father, please forgive me in every way that I’ve fallen short of Your glory, in every way that I’ve been the architect of my delay, Father please have mercy on me, forgive me oh Lord. Please have mercy on me, forgive me, oh Lord in the mighty name of Jesus.
Our next prayer point. Daniel 10: 9-14, Daniel prayed but he still had a prolonged dawn even though God has already activated the day, because somebody stood and held it. But what did God do? Sent angel Michael to wrestle it out and deliver it to Daniel.
If you are here this morning and there is any power or any force that’s involved in giving you a delayed, a prolonged dawn, in the mighty name of Jesus, every such power will be destroyed this morning in the name of Jesus.
So we’re going to pray and say Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, every power, every principality, every force that is supervising delay in my life, Father please destroy them, Father please uproot them, Father please deliver my good to me in the mighty name of Jesus. Destroy them Lord, deliver my good to me in the name of Jesus. Thank You Lord, thank You Father, in Jesus mighty name we prayed.
We talked about economic situations, natural occurrences that can activate a new dawn that may be unfavorable. In Genesis 26, the Bible says that there’s famine in the land, there’s nothing anybody could do about it, but in the midst of that famine, God visited a man, Isaac, the Bible says Genesis 26:12, in the same year he had a 100fold return.
There may be challenges, economic challenges in the land, brethren, but there’s a God that can make things work in your favor. So, we are going to pray this morning. Brethren, in the same time of COVID 19 when businesses were failing, did you know that new businesses started up and they are still alive? Before COVID 19, how many people knew Zoom? Now Zoom is everywhere; how many people knew these people that deliver food? In the midst of economic and national disaster, God can visit you as a person.
So we are going to pray and say Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, please visit me; in the midst of this economic disaster, in the midst of this hardship, in the midst of this famine, Father please visit me in Your own way in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank You heavenly Father, in Jesus wonderful name we prayed.
Abraham almost lost it in Genesis 16 when he tried to help himself but God sustained him; Naaman almost lost it when he refused to go to Jordan to wash but then mercy prevailed; a lion and a bear and Goliath almost stopped David but God helped him, eventually he got to the throne. God will help you, God will make sure that your dawn will eventually pave way into a new day in the mighty name of Jesus.
So we are going to pray and say Father in the name of Jesus, help me oh Lord, to fulfill my destiny, Your plan for me in the name of Jesus. Please help me, irrespective of the forces that are working against me contrary to Your plan, Father, please help me, in Jesus mighty name we prayed.
Psalm 30:5, the Bible says weeping may endure for the night but joy cometh in the morning. God will put an end to your night that has prolonged for too long.
You are going to pray and say Father, please put an end, a permanent end to my night in the name of Jesus. Thank You, heavenly Father, in Jesus mighty name we prayed.
Not only can He put an end to your night, He can also speed up your day. Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4: 9 & 10 prayed and the Bible says God answered him instantly; Gehazi was sent on an errand, Genesis 24:12, he prayed to God and said, “Father, please help me,” and immediately the help came.
We are going to ask the Lord Almighty, Father from today, please send help to me, speed up my life, Lord God of heaven, let my day come, speed it up, oh Lord, in the mighty name of Jesus.
