Just go to Him this morning, acknowledge that there is no one like Him; there is no one like the God of gods, the King of kings, the I am that I am, the Ancient of Days, the Beginning and the End, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lamb that was slain; He is the Ancient of Days, the Creator of everything, Creator of the ends of the earth, He is Jehovah Nissi, Jehovah Jireh, He is your God and my God, He is our Lord, nothing is bigger than Him, nothing consists without Him, for in Him, we are all things; there’s nothing made that was made without Him.
Father, we magnify You, we exalt You, we declare Your goodness in this place, Your goodness in our lives, Your goodness in our families, Your goodness in our businesses; we declare Your love – Your love for us, You love us so much, You forgive our iniquities, You forgive our shortcomings. You love us so much, You’ve given us all that we need, we glorify Your name, we exalt You, Father this morning, be thou glorified, be thou exalted, take all the glory.
Oh Father, we invite You to come into our midst even this morning, even as we hear Your word; the entrance of Your word brings light, please Lord, illuminate everyone of us; Father, show us what to do and how to do; let no man leave here blinded or impoverished, rather, we will leave here enriched and empowered to be children of God who reflect Your light.
Father, thank You; remove darkness, remove sin, remove poverty, remove lack, remove every form of depravity, let Your name be glorified, in Jesus name we have prayed. Praise the Lord!
Once again, I want to thank our father in the Lord for this opportunity, thank you Sir; thank you to the pastor, thank you to the pastorate for this opportunity, as one prepares to share, He’s a first partaker, so I thank God for this opportunity,
The topic that we will be listening to, or sharing is dual, you can select the one you like: “Winning Always or you can choose The Perpetual Winner”, is the same thing, which is you win in all circumstances, praise the Lord! Two scriptures, 2nd Corinthians 4: 1 – 9, “Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not (and I declare unto you that no matter what it is that’s hitting you, you are facing, it says you have received mercy, so you will not faint in Jesus name); 2But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
3But if our gospel be hid, it is hid that are lost: 4In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. 5For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
8We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed”. I declare unto you that in spite of the troubles, the perplexing situations, the persecutions or things that seem to cast us down, you will not be distressed, you will not despair, you will never be forsaken, and you will not be destroyed in Jesus name.
Philippians 3:13 – 15, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. 14I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 15Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this to you”. Praise the Lord!
For brethren who were here in the first service, I want to please ask, just open your mind because the Holy Ghost would show you a new word, give you something new; you have not wasted your time in Jesus name, because the word of God is fresh, so open your minds and the Holy Ghost who breathe on His word will refresh it for you. But if you were not here in the morning, we just want to encourage us and remind us of who we are, praise the Lord!
We are winners, I’m a winner and I win always in Jesus name. So, we were created to be winners from the beginning in Genesis 1: 28, the Bible says, and God blessed them (being you and I, praise the Lord! As in our forebears) Adam and Eve, He created them and they became our parents, and He created us in His image and likeness, so we have the same essence as the original creation. It says God blessed them and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the earth, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth, praise the Lord!
So this was the state God created, and even as He created you and I in the same
state, God doesn’t regress, praise the Lord! But then, for some reason, we (Eve) allowed the devil, so we also shared from that mistake, we temporarily lost our dominant state to the devil, who began to reign through affiliation with the flesh, praise the Lord!
Ephesians 2: 2 – 3 just spells it out, it says wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others, praise the Lord! But God so loved the world, (the Bible says) that He gave us His only begotten Son, it was for a purpose, because God saw the gap, He saw we had fallen short, and He sent a perfect sacrifice, Jesus.
And so when Jesus came and died, He restored us to that original state. 1st Peter 2: 9 now describes who we are, it says, “But ye (you and I) are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people: (for what reason?) that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness (the enemy put us) into his marvelous light”. That was the purpose, don’t forget that; He has called you out of darkness into this light that we are in, that you show forth His praises.
Romans 8:37, after describing what could go wrong, things that could attempt to separate us from the love of God; Paul tells us, the first question was what could separate us from the love of God in verse 31? 37 says, nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Are you not a perpetual winner? He says you are more than conquerors, which concludes it; so He says that no matter what, no matter the difficulties in the system, no matter what you go through, whatever challenges you have, is it hunger?. I mean, everything is there -death, sickness, you name it, He says, can these things separate you from the love of God? He says no, because in all these things, you are more than conquerors, praise the Lord! I am more than a conqueror, praise the Lord! Don’t just say it, believe it and begin to live it, and it shall be so in Jesus name.
So everything else we will share today is just some pointers, some reminders that God will have us to bear in mind as to how to truly be more than a conqueror. So this devil, this our enemy still partners with the flesh, and because he partners with the flesh and we are still in the flesh, there’s a constant contention that’s going on. Galatians 5: 16-17 says, this I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. Praise the Lord!
All He’s saying really is you can’t serve God and mammon, we have to make choices; you want to live to be more than a conqueror, you must make choices, it’s not willy-nilly because the enemy will toss us back and forth, and that’s why Revelations, the Bible says God is telling us He doesn’t like lukewarmness; lukewarmness is one leg in one leg out, if you are for God, be for God, praise the Lord! When I gave my life to Christ, the scripture that was preached was Matthew 6: 33, one lady preached that scripture and God hit me with it, and I said, if I want to serve God, I want to do his wholly, 100%; there’s no need to do all these and not benefit from it; if you are for God, he says, nothing will separate you from His love, praise the Lord!
So when you come to Him, come 100%, leave nothing behind. As I was going through this, God was showing me a scale (like if you have of 1 – 100) some of us get to 90 and we leave 10, and when some things happen to them, they say but you know I’m still human, you know that’s how women are; we look for excuses to excuse our inability to be all in the Spirit. May God help us today to humble ourselves, to know that it is because we haven’t overcome in that area, so that we’ll begin to work it out with fear and trembling, praise the Lord!
As I told you, it’s different from the morning because the spirit moves, praise the Lord! So the enemy has some weapons, the biggest weapon is ignorance; we read in 2nd Corinthians 4: 4 above, that the god of this world blinds the minds of unbelievers. The god of this world, the devil, uses boju boju, he deceives people – imagery, he blinds people so that your mind does not conceive, does not receive, and does not appreciate the things that God has done for us.
He blinds us to the fact of who we are, we have seen what we are in 1st Peter 2: 9, that we are called to show forth the praises of God. You know when you are showing forth His praise, when you are an instrument of praise, you will not go hungry. David said, I was young, now I’m old (that means he had lived his life), I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor a seed beg for bread; if you commit yourself to seeking His righteousness, you can hold God to His Word, praise the Lord!
I don’t know who I’m speaking to today, but perhaps you are going through some challenges and you are beginning to blame anybody else, just seek God, His righteousness, it might take a while, the Bible says, you have need of patience, but He will come through for you, praise the Lord!
So of who we are, we are more than conquerors, (we’ve declared it), and You have called to bear fruit. Of what we are, you have all things according to 2nd Peter 1: 3, it says, according as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue. Is through the knowledge of God that you live this life (even on earth) and the life to come; that’s why He says when you seek God and His righteousness, all other things shall be added unto you, praise the Lord!
That’s why He says, men will give unto you good; there is principle to things of God; He says seek ye first the kingdom of God, praise the Lord! Then the devil tries to deceive us of our guaranteed victory, we have already read it, Romans 8, if you read the entire chapter, it talks about the love of God, it’s so precious; it says nothing shall separate us from this love, not death, not removal of petrol subsidy, not exchange rates, not angels, not principalities, not powers, not things that are present today nor things to come, (some people are afraid of tomorrow when they haven’t arrived there); no, not height or depth, not any creature shall be able to separate you and I from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, praise the Lord!
Jesus Christ is the expression of God’s love; so we go further to see that the devil, when he sees that you have come to Christ, you’ve accepted who you are, but remember, we are still in the flesh, until Christ comes and we are translated or until we die, we are still in the flesh, so the contention continues. But the devil is subtle, very cunning, you know there are Christians who know the truth but they are not living it, because the enemy is a subtle one, he goes around looking for where we relax, where we become complacent and he sneaks in with very subtle things, they don’t look like sin but they deprive us of the full benefits of Christ, praise the Lord!
First one is procrastination; I don’t know how many of you do things the right time here, but if you are one who procrastinates, remember, it’s the hallmark of slothfulness. We read some scriptures in the morning, I think it’s very important, Ecclesiastes 11: 4, “He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap”; in an agrarian economy, he’s saying, if you are looking at the wind, you will not sow, what does that mean for you today?
If you’re looking at what they say in the news is the exchange rate, what they say the cost of fuel is, if you’re looking at the fact that it costs so much to go to Ajah when that job is in Ajah, or that business meeting, if you are looking at the fact that you know that brother’s face is too hard, so I will not engage, you will not make a move and you’ll short change yourself, that’s the scripture of God.
And then the slothful man, the man who procrastinates in Proverbs 15:19, it says the way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns: but the way of the righteous is made plain; the same way from here to Epe, give it to three people to embark upon, one of them will first look at the cost of transport, look at the fact that the agberos at Ajah. Trust me, it depends on the mind, the devil has closed the eyes of the mind, others are looking at what to achieve in Epe, so they take off, and whatever they face, they don’t care, because their minds are fixed on the goal, but some begin to look at the trouble from here to gate, and it takes them away from even starting off.
Associated with this is fear, because when the devil begins to throw these things in your mind and you don’t move, of course, you can justify it, but it is fear. Our father in the Lord, Daddy G.O, Pastor Adeboye, said success does not come to people who consider their limitation before they move; in business, you do what we call SWOT analysis, it’s not just for you to identify threats, it’s to be able to find mitigant, praise the Lord! The essence of SWOT is not to be like my weakness, my strengths, that’s not the issue, is to say, what could stop me and how will I overcome it? It’s a tool to push you forward, so that when those things come, you are prepared to overcome it, so it is not to sit down and over-analyze and get paralyzed, we will not be paralyzed in Jesus name.
The Bible says in Matthew 10:29 – 31, for people that are so afraid of tomorrow, “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. (Think about it, birds of the air, He says, God cares for birds). But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value to God than many sparrows”. That’s the word of God to you today, He cares for you, it doesn’t matter if you are a Nigerian, Jamaican or American, people think if you go abroad, everything is fine, I can tell is a lie, if your mindset is blinded, it doesn’t matter where you are, you will be a joker and suboptimal, so work on your mind so that when God opens that door, with a good mindset, you are extracting all the value, praise the Lord!
Then there is despondency; despondency is basically giving up. You know, we have the power to cast away confidence or the power to believe, praise the Lord! Hebrews 10: 35 – 39, we’ll just quickly read the first verse and the last one, it says, “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. 39But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul”. So there is perdition in drawing back and there is saving of the soul in moving forward, the choice is yours, and I believe we’ll choose saving of the soul in Jesus name.
So what would God have us consider? What actions should you take? What should you work on, in prayer and in action? The first thing is to strengthen our mindset; strengthen your mindset means, your thought process, that’s why Philippians 4: 8 tells you what to think about, it’s a choice, what you meditate on is a choice. No matter what news comes, what you listen to affects you; who you partner with affects you; your companion affects you; what you eat affects you too, praise the Lord! When you eat and when you sleep also affect you, but your thoughts drive your life.
Colossians 3: 2, “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth”; and then Matthew 8:21, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”. You know when one’s mind set on earth; it says by their fruit you shall know them, praise the Lord! So I think it’s for self examination, by the way, so when I say they, I’m praying for you that your mind is set on things above, but it’s good to look at these points and see if you are struggling with them;
If the mind is set on the earth, the person sees the world as a place to scramble for resources, if the one that God has given them they fight for it, they kill, they cheat, tell lies, envy others, you climb on people like crab to get ahead in life, you pull others down to be promoted, not knowing that the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, they fight for everything, (they say don’t you know I’m a fighter when God says the fight is Mine), they live with a shortage mentality, they compete with those who are minded in their own way, (minding their own business, you just go and fight them), they are hoarders, they neglect the poor and the needy in their society, they become instruments of oppression and injustice.
Those whose minds are on earth, they see the world as all there is to life, praise the Lord! They live life without hope, everything about the future looks bleak, there are people who are very negative, extremely negative, they poison our environment, avoid such people because their minds are fixated on earth.
Then people whose minds are fixated on earth, they basically practice syncretism, that is, they combine different forms of religion, they flow with the crowd, praise the Lord! Somebody comes and says, well, you know, you can do this to get ahead, they will do it though they are believers, they still claim to be in the faith, one leg here one leg there, chasing after miracles, so that’s about the mind. When your mind is fixed on God, it’s transformed.
Second, review your purpose; I will start with the end in mind, your purpose on earth, (we have talked about it), is to show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. So what is your purpose? This is a big purpose for His children, but you, as Joe, as Mary, as Tope, what has God given you to do that will show forth His praise? I will not go into too much there because this is a very personal thing to everyone of us, we need to reevaluate our purpose, if it doesn’t lift people up, you know, we can say, oh, I’m pleasing God, but you know what you owe God is praise and worship, you can’t make God better, so let us know that; when you sweep the church, it helps the church, the Body of Christ to worship in a nice environment, and you get rewarded by God, but don’t think that sweeping the church without regard to the people makes God better, it’s a lie, you can’t make God better.
For people who might not have maybe you think you lack and you say I don’t have any purpose, is because I’m hungry, if I have more, I will do more, it’s a lie, God gave you 24 hours like any other person, use the time to be a blessing to somebody. And for those that has and are hoarding, don’t be like the rich fool, be your brother’s keeper. You think sharing is about money, God has given you a talent, find out what it is and use it to be a blessing to your neighbor.
The third thing is to arise; arise doesn’t talk about just standing up, don’t be like those that are standing up and going nowhere, God says that challenge face it; the Bible uses arise or look up or see, is basically saying wake up, don’t be complacent, don’t stay idle, don’t sit there and think that it is okay.
Genesis 13:17, He was asking Abraham to arise, was he sleeping before? But it was time for his transformation; He says, “Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee”; this was after Lot had been separated from him, this was when Lot chose the lush lands around Sodom and Gomorrah, so you thought you lost something that is precious, God is asking you, arise, the earth is Mine, and the fullness thereof, that thing which you think you have lost, I have better for you, praise the Lord!
The fourth thing you must do, God is asking us to then engage; engagement requires you to get out of that state. You think you are 70 years old and you cannot start again, is a lie from the pit of hell, age has nothing to do with it, the mind has everything to do with it. So engage, the flesh tells us that we already formed, experience in life constrains us and it tells us that what can you do?
There is a guy, he’s my brother in law, he’s a young man and I spoke to him and said start something new, he said me, at this age, 40+ years; he said I have passed 40, what I know is what I know, it’s a mindset, so if he’s not my friend, he will think I hate him because we don’t agree. You can do anything starting today, today is the beginning of the rest of your life, praise the Lord! So wake up, don’t sit there thinking life is finished, is a lie from the pit of hell, rise up and do something new, God says I will do a new thing, praise the Lord!
And in engaging, we talk about three things you could do; you can begin to sell, Parable of the Talent in Matthew 25: 14 – 30, talks about the persons that got five talents, two talents, they went out and they traded with their talents, because it is in trading with what God has given you that you can multiply, God says we should go and multiply, what talent do you have? How are you trading with it?
And we talked about the fact that if you keep your money in the bank, the interest rate will never beat inflation, so savings is not trading, praise the Lord! So save the money, get into a quantum and go and trade with it; look for items people must buy, start something, don’t sit idle, praise the Lord!
Second is service, to serve, and the Bible gives us clear instructions on how to serve, it says we should be obedient to them that are your masters. A friend, one of my mentees, was upset with his boss and he was telling me the man doesn’t have structure, the man wants to be in charge of everything, and so he left the job, he went to another place that pays more by maybe a ₦100,000 a month.
But this old man used to give him accommodation in Lekki, gave him a car; the new one, there was no accommodation in Lekki, he had to go to Ajah to rent a place, because the boss does not have structure. So after a while, when he started getting into debts, we spoke, I aid oh boy, that your old boss… he said he’s still calling me, he wants me back. I said run back, is the company your own? Is he asking you to commit sin? You are doing your work, he’s not just empowering you to do more but he loves what you do, so he ran back, thank God he was restored and was even promoted, praise the Lord!
So sometimes, we begin to fight the fight that is not our own – pray for your boss, is his business, he doesn’t want to build structure, is it your structure? The day God puts you in a place where you are the one in charge, then build your structure, praise the Lord! He says the man wants to control my life, how? Is he marrying your wife? But he went back and God established him, God will establish us in Jesus name.
Then you will become a problem solver; we mentioned Joseph and Daniel as classic examples of problem solvers, so don’t say I am where I am today, when will I become CEO? It can happen overnight; when there is a problem – you know in Nigeria we say ‘nma nmadu’, as in you know somebody you get a job, there are some jobs, it will not work, when a company is doing merger and acquisition, knowing somebody will not merge two companies together, they will look for people with experience and competence to play the role, they might not call you CEO, but they will pay you CEO’s salary times two. They can hire their brother as CEO, in the night, they will come and meet you and say what do I do? Then you can command, you know you’ll just take the money, don’t worry, call them consultants, you know consultants make more money, don’t be jealous, they are solving problems, praise the Lord!
Then just to quickly wrap up, focus is something we must be interested in. I talked about light, is a classic example of focus; we have light in this place, but it dispersed, but when you concentrate light, it can cut through steel or anything. When you see people doing welding and everything, it is the same light but is concentrated, so also it is.
In my consulting years, I have this firm and everything they do, they will say, what are the three things, I’m like, why is it only three you do, why not ten? It’s about focus, because when the thing exceeds three, you are confused. Somebody say, I have 10 streams of businesses, there’s no way you will excel in the 10; they’ll say three, if it exceeds one page, you’re wasting time, top three, so if your executive summary is beyond one page in that place, you are not serious, it means you are not focused; when you cover the one page, you are done, decisions can be made on your one pager.
So in your life, what is the one page? If for anything, think about your one page and go home with it, praise the Lord! If you can’t do one page, you need to refocus.
Then I talked about increasing your connection: the devil uses isolation to separate us. Don’t say you want to worship alone, it’s a lie; the devil is looking for how to kill, to steal and to destroy; Bible says we are many members, but we are one body, praise the Lord!
And finally, stay crucified with Christ. Apostle Paul says in Colossians 3: 1 & 5, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 5Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry”. 1st John 2:15 – 17, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world will passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever”.
[Drama]
Is your name in the Book of Life? That’s the question for every one of us, if you are not sure that when that day comes, and by the way, that day could be any day because Jesus Christ could come back any day, or if He doesn’t come back early enough, the day of death, nobody knows.
[Altar call]
Let’s just commit our lives to God once again and thank Him for reminding us of who we are in Him; let’s rededicate our lives to Him pleading the blood of Jesus; let’s ask the Holy Ghost to help us, to deal with those parts of our lives when we have exposed ourselves unto the devil.
Father, we thank You for Your grace, thank You for the power of restoration, Father, please write our names in the Book of Life, let nothing separate us from your love, even unto eternity; we thank You for the entrance of Your word, for the light that has come, may we be doers of the word; let these things we have heard not stand against us, in Jesus name we have prayed.
