Immortal, Invisible, the only wise God; the One that was, the One that is, the One that is to come, the unchanging God, dependable and reliable; thank You for the privilege of life, thank You for keeping us standing, thank You for always being there for us and it is in You that we put our faith knowing full well that You are our anchor to the ground, one with You is unshakeable, we declare Your majesty this morning.
Thank You because You are the reason why we have not been blown away; the devil was determined to have us but by Your grace we are what we are today, for this and more we return all the glory back to You in the name of Jesus Christ.
Thank you Father Almighty for the first Sunday of this month; thank You for the second; thank You for the third, and thank You Father Almighty God for bringing us to today; thank You because we have this confidence that You will see us through this year, accept our thanks in the name of Jesus Christ.
Lord we pray today, You will speak to our situations, You will display Your power, You will displace fear, You will abort curses, death will be eliminated; everyone that is sick today will be healed; wherever there is confusion and thick darkness, Your light will shine forth.
Holy Spirit we just release ourselves unto You today, and we pray Father that You work on us; individually and collectively as Your children, Lord please work on us. The load is too much for us, Father please, help us to carry our load, stand by us, defend us, fight our cause, wipe away every tears, strengthen us and empower us in the name of Jesus Christ.
We pray that You will grant us victory; thank You blessed Savior. As we go into Your word, we just pray once again speak to us; in a way that we will understand, Lord please speak to us and give us the grace to live Your word, in Jesus wonderful name we have prayed.
Let me start by thanking the choir for being of God this morning, as usual; it was like you saw my message today and that confirms something, the fact that the presence of God is in the house, with God, we are safe and secure because God does not let down His own. It might be tough, but one thing you can be sure of is that at the end of the day, you will testify to the goodness of God in the mighty name of Jesus.
I welcome everyone of you to this glorious service, and I want to thank you for always being here, thank you for being one for us, I pray that the glory of the Lord will continue to flow ceaselessly in your life, in your home, in your business, in every area of your life in the name of Jesus Christ.
2nd Kings 7: 1 – 8, “Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord, To morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. 2 Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.
3 And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? 4 If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.
5 And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there. 6 For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us.
7 Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life. 8 And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it”. May God bless the reading and the hearing of His words in the name of Jesus Christ.
My first prayer and declaration for you this morning is that from today, that your oppressors, those who have vowed that over their dead body will you make progress, from this moment, they will begin to hear great noise such that will frighten them and send them into fleeing in the name of Jesus Christ.
Today by the grace of God, I want to speak to us on the topic “Confront Your Fears”, it was a message I once shared sometimes in 2020 during the Covid era, but the need for us to go through that message today is very compelling; it’s very compelling because we are at such a desperate time that has the capability of causing or creating fear, hence the need to confront our fears and nip them in the bud.
To confront simply means to challenge; to confront means to come face to face; when you come face to face with your problem, it looks at you eyeball to eyeball; you look at it eyeball to eyeball. To confront means to face up and to deal with, and as you confront your challenges today, as you confront your fears today, God Almighty will work things in your favor in the name of Jesus Christ.
There are two types of fears: firstly, there is what is known as reverential fear or feeling of respect and wonder for something very powerful such as the fear of God in a man’s life. If indeed you are a genuine child of God, there is that reverential fear that you have within you that will make you not to do certain things, because you know that even when nobody is around, but God is seeing you and such a fear will make you to behave properly and to comport yourself in such a manner that God will be happy with you.
So reverential fear is such that is necessary in order for us to carry the consciousness of the Holy Spirit at all times. However, the second fear, which we need to confront today is the one of an unpleasant emotion caused by the awareness of danger. It’s such a feeling of anxiety or the uneasiness or being afraid of something or someone.
The times in which we live is creating so much fear – fear of survival, fear of making progress and such, you cannot fully express yourself because your sense of judgment has been tampered with. I pray today in the mighty name of Jesus that as many of you that are being held captive by fear, you will receive deliverance in Jesus name.
Fear was defined by someone as false appearance appearing real, and it’s one of the major enemies of success. And I want to say this that many times, what we fear only exists in our imagination; I remember those days, on our way from the particular part of the town to our house, we have the Anglican burial ground, and whenever I went out and coming back, once I got to that particular side I will close my eyes and I began to run, why running? Fear, did I see anything? the answer is no, but when fear grips you, you will see something, and that’s why people say I saw one white something, he didn’t see anything. oh, I saw one black thing chasing me, you did not see, it was a figment of y our imagination – false appearance appearing real.
Very many intended successful people have failed on account of fear. For instance, it was fear that made King Saul and his people to suffer indignity in the hands of Goliath and the Philistines before David showed up, you’ll find that in the Book of 1st Samuel 17. The Bible makes it clear that Goliath at regular intervals will come out , I challenge King Saul, send me the person nau; in fact he told Saul that look, if the person is able to kill me, no problem, he takes over.
King Saul and his people were overtaken by fear and because of that fear, they suffered indignity. I pray in the name of Jesus that as many of you that are going through such experience, God Almighty will deliver you today in Jesus name.
It is that same fear that prevented ten of the spies that Moses sent to go and spy the Promised Land and their families from getting there. The Book of Numbers 13, when they came, they told Moses, we saw the land and true to what the word of God said, it’s a land that is flowing with milk and honey, the fruits in the land are good, not only they are good, they are sweet and very nutritious, everything there is perfect, however, we saw the children of Anak there – they said and these children of Anak are giants and we were like grasshoppers compared to them, and they told Moses, on the strength of that, we doubt it. I pray in the name of Jesus that whatsoever that is making you to doubt the power of God, God will deal with it today in the name of Jesus Christ.
The same force of fear made Peter to deny Jesus Christ against the run on pla . Jesus Christ prophesied it and that would have been enough to strengthen Peter and to prepare his mind that something was coming, but fear messed him up.
When they grabbed him and they said we saw that this guy is one of his.. he said me? You don’t know who you are talking about; my prayer is that none of you will deny God min Jesus name. Until he was reminded, then he began to cry; I pray today in the name of Jesus that every one of you that is crying publicly and silently, God will wipe away your tears today.
God will wipe away our tears because He’s our anchor to the ground; He said He’s our firm foundation and you know if the foundation is good, it doesn’t matter the level of storm, it will stand, the reason you hear of collapse and all the rest, most times has to do with the foundation, and that’s why we are told that if the foundation be destroyed, there is nothing anybody can do.
He’s our firm foundation, that is for as many that believes Him, as many that has no other god, as many that has no other agenda. I tell people, I have no agenda, I have no other thing, I don’t know any other thing, they have ever taken us anywhere before, we grew up to be taught the Bible, to be taught the word of God, our parents didn’t go to any other people, they didn’t go to any other place; from time, just like Paul told Timothy that from infant, thou has known the Holy Scripture that made you wise unto salvation; for us, we may not be as wise as Timothy but we were shown that way, maybe we didn’t have enough faith until we gave our lives to Christ, but no other way other than Jesus, and because of that, what excuse will God give?
I have never gone to any secret place, I’ve never used any alternative means, I only call on Him every time, and as many of you that are in that situation, God is owing us and then when God is owing you, you can be sure you will be defended, you’ll be supported, you’ll be encouraged, you will be strengthened and you will be empowered, and guess what, He will not let you down. Help me tell your neighbor, He will not let you down.
So brethren, fear is an oppressor and that was why I raised that declaration that everything that is causing you fear that the Lord will displace. It is an oppressor because it makes you behave in a form less than you are and that is what is called indignity – when you behave in a manner that makes you less than you are.
There are factors responsible for fears such as failure, hardship … during the workers meeting, the man that took us through said if we mention dollars today, every ear will tingle, it was not like that before, now dollar has become an essential commodity. Before if you need dollar, you go on the street, they will come to you, but now if they are caught, they will be arrested.
Hardship- as at December we bought a bag of rice for ₦61,000 – ₦62,000, as at today I think it’s about ₦85,000 – ₦90,000. When we were in the village we used to eat rice during Christmas and Easter celebrations, it was when I got to Lagos I realized they eat rice in the morning everyday on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, it’s a staple food.
Rice, a common man food has gone out of the range of a common man; it’s like taking a walking stick from the hands of an old man, how is he going to survive? But today in the mighty name of Jesus, there shall be restoration.
Fear is a product of uncertainty; fear is a product of persecution; fear is a product of sickness, and fear is a product of death. In the village they said when you see your colleague drop down and die, it’s a signal to you that what happened to this man can happen to you, and occasionally when you think about it, truly for a moment you will be very sober.
Death can actually bring about fear, but I pray in the name of Jesus that from today, God will confront the source of your fear through the power of the Holy Spirit in the mighty name of Jesus.
What did God say about fear? Isaiah 41: 10, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness”. Fear not, and the truth of the matter is the Bible scholar will be able to find out that ‘fear not’ is the most repeated command in the Bible; in fact, it has been said that there are 365 ‘fear nots’ in the Bible, one ‘fear not’ for everyday of the year.
Lloyd Oglivie in his book, ‘Facing the Future Without Fear’ even said there 366 ‘fear nots’ in tye Bible, one for everyday of the year including a leap year, like we have this year. So God does not want us to go a single day without hearing His word of comfort, fear not. I want you to tell yourself, mention your name and say ‘fear not’, then help me tell your neighbor, ‘fear not’.
In my place, they would say whatever goes up comes down; you may say oh pastor, that is not the situation, in your own case, everything that has come up will come down in the name of Jesus.
Why should we not fear? 2nd Timothy 1: 7, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind”. Help me tell your neighbor, e f’okan bale, relax, calm down, tomorrow will be alright; so I don’t think you need any other conviction, He said He has not given us the spirit of fear; in Isaiah He said fear not, and He did not stop at that, He said I will help you, I will go with you, I will support you, (He said) and I will uphold you with My right hand of righteousness, what other things do you need?
Fear is a potent weapon in the hands of the devil and that is why God is saying fear not, lest the devil should take advantage of you.
What are the effects of fear? In Matthew 6: 25, the Bible says Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? If you follow through down, you will see where it says God will take care of you; help me tell your neighbor, God will take care of you, and I say this with every sense of responsibility, I say it by faith in the word of God, God will take care of you in the name of Jesus Christ.
It is the work of fear to produce anxiety: when you see today, you see a lot of chaos in our community – we were coming this morning, about two times the red light will be on, people will not obey. Sometimes you go to places – I saw a video that my wife sent to the family platform, somebody took a cutlass, went to a shop, picked bread and as he was going, the people saw him holding it, they had to calm down, then the guy decided to come back the second time and as he was going they said since you picked one, we are not talking, why are you coming? When he raised the cutlass, everywhere scattered.
I guess that was a movie but it also depicts some of the happenings in the community, but one thing I’ve seen is that even before this time, Nigerians have always been very lawless, unfortunately, we don’t obey the rules but the situation now is worse and that’s why I want to beg you, don’t get involved with anybody, everybody is tensed.
If somebody hits your car, just drive away because if you come down there may be problem; I saw one, somebody hit the other person and the other one just went to his car, I was wondering what would happen, he carried the wheel spanner and began to break the windscreen, okay if you face that one and he breaks your head, are you not gone?
If they damage your car, you can always go and repair it, you can still refer it to insurance, but a man that is coming out in his fury with wheel spanner – if a wheel spanner lands on your hand… so everybody should take it easy, you will be provoked but just take it easy; people will insult you but just take it easy, everybody is carrying his own load, but from today God will help us to carry our own in the mighty name of Jesus.
Fear stifles our thinking and action: when you see a man behaving such way, they hit your car and the next thing you reach for is a wheel spanner and start destroying the windscreen, it means that the thinking faculty has been stifled and such a man can kill, he would have done it before he realizes it.
I saw another video of one masquerade that was jumping up and down and a guy was going, he just whipped the guy, the guy looked back and gave him a blow, masquerade was on the floor. That was when I knew that masquerade can also be subject to blow, he received a big blow and he landed on the floor; let everybody be careful, don’t be involved physically with others, the tension there is high but let God be our anchor, let God be our hope, let God be our strength and at the end of the day we will all laugh last in Jesus name.
Fear hinders us from becoming the people God wants us to be – when we are dominated by negative emotions, we cannot achieve the goal He has in mind for us because fear causes a lack of self confidence, and that ultimately makes you to start doubting.
Bible says we are a royal priesthood, 1st Peter 2: 9, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light”. Psalm 82 says we are gods, so you must see yourself as such, but fear will not let you see yourself the way God sees you, but I pray from today, you will begin to see yourself as God sees you in the mighty name of Jesus. You will be what God wants you to be in the name of Jesus Christ.
Fear drives people to destructive habits, because they feel that to numb their pace and to keep them on, many of them turn to things like drug. It’s very privileged today, you’ll see some of our young people dress anyhow, they come out anyhow, if you investigate, drug is involved.
Alcohol – and they crave for these things to give them artificial relief or a temporary relief; in fact, I hear in Ghana, they would not allow the dead to rest in peace, they dig up their graves to take the bones of dead people so that they can be high. You can imagine when people get to that deprived state of digging up graves just to get their bones for the purpose of getting high, sniffing, then you’ll know there is trouble.
Many of them have become – maybe because they cannot meet up, the salaries they get cannot sustain them, the young people cannot even get married because no accommodation; somebody who has not gotten a job, how is he going to get accommodation? And to worsen matter, many of them lack home training, they look for alternative way for survival, so that fear will make them to resort to drugs and alcohol.
There is something that is going on today, give young people job, they won’t do it, go and find out, they are into sport betting; I’ve met like 2 or 3, they said look, I made like ₦150,000, ₦200,000 in a month in sport betting and you want me to come to the office for 30 days, but easy come, (they taught us) easy go, what you get from betting will go back to betting. It’s likened to what Yoruba says that ‘iyawo ti a fi ijo fee, iran naa ni o ma wo lo’.
Fear steals peace and contentment; when we are always afraid, our life becomes a centre of pessimism and gloom, and I have this to tell you, Psalm 37: 25, David said I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread; you will not beg for bread in the mighty name of Jesus.
Fear creates doubt: God promises us abundant life, but if we surrender instead to the chains of fear, our prayers won’t be worth very much. James 1: 6, “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed”. The reason most times we don’t get answers to our prayers is that after prayer we have even forgotten, and sometimes we just pray without believing whether that thing is going to work or not, but I want to encourage us today, believe what God says and whatever God says, He will do; believe Him and work in His word.
What are you afraid of? Is it a loss, rejection, persecution, hardship, sickness or whatever? The truth of the matter is that everybody will face such realities at some point, all you need to know is that God will never reject you. In fact, I was amazed when the choir came up and said He will never let you down; what I have here says God will never reject you.
The world is full of challenges, but the good news for us all is that victory is sure for us. John 16: 33 says “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world”. In Romans 8: 37, it talks about the fact that we are more than conquerors, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us”. Who is He that loved us? Jesus, so nothing an supersede, nothing can put asunder the love of Christ for us all.
So today, the key lies with you whether you will accept Him or not. The Bible says repent ye therefore, so that your sins may be blotted out, so that the time of refreshing can come from the presence of the Lord, Acts 3: 19. The Bible also tells us that God will meet all our needs; Matthew 6, He feeds the birds of the air and clothe the grass with splendor of lily, (it says) how much then will He care for us who are made in His image.
Our only concern is to obey the heavenly Father and leave the consequences to Him. God will always fight for His own; He said seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all other things shall be added to it.
I want you to know one thing for sure as I lose this morning that we are not called to be demon-conscious, our calling is unto completeness – everywhere you go, ‘we bind you devil, we bind you demon’, the calling of God upon our life is not for us to be demon-conscious, Colossians 2: 10 says “And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power”:cockroach come, trouble, wall gecko come, trouble, lizard run, trouble, cat enters your house, trouble, that is not the calling of God for our life, our calling is unto completeness and He said ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.
We are written in God’s palm, Isaiah 49: 16 says Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me; you are right in the palms of God, your name is there, the name of your children are there, so there is no cause for alarm, tell your neighbor ‘no shaking’.
This is not the time for you to begin to fret, it is not the time for you to begin to have these foolish thoughts – I had about a guy who was saying he was going to end it, he was threatening his father and they started running; I said haha, why are you running, let him end it nau, if he ends it, who has he deceived? Sometimes we indulge them, we over pamper them and that’s why they grow up to become problem; if you don’t tame them at the beginning, they will become difficult to tame at the very end.
I want you to just bow down your heads and talk to God, first and foremost appreciate God for the glorious provisions that He has made for us. Brethren there is a hope for a better tomorrow, the Bible says to him that is joined to the living, there is hope; a living dog is better than a dead lion; you are better than a dead lion, you are a unique being, you are created for signs and wonders, you are created to blossom.
I want you to thank God this morning, appreciate God for the word that He has spoken to you today; appreciate Him, give Him all the glory, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
I want you to quickly cry unto the Lord and say Father, please help me to fight and overcome fear in every area of my life in the name of Jesus; thank You Father because it is done, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
You are going to cry unto the Lord and say Father, repair every part of me that fear has destroyed in the name of Jesus Christ. Every part of me – physical, spiritual, marital that fear has destroyed, repair today in the name of Jesus. The Bible tells us in Isaiah 45: 2 that He will straighten the crooked path; pray to God this morning, thank You glorious Lord, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
You are going to cry unto the Lord and say Father, please restore back to me everything (opportunities) that fear has taken from me in the name of Jesus Christ. In Jeremiah 30: 17, He says I will restore your health and heal your wound; pray to God, Lord please restore everything that fear has stolen from me; thank You because You have answered, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
You are going to cry unto the Lord and say Father, please cancel every mark of fear upon my life; every mark of fear upon my children, Lord please cancel in the name of Jesus. He says in Colossians 2: 14 that He has blotted out every handwritten ordinance leveled against us; pray to God this morning; thank You because it is done, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
[Altar call]
I pray as we all whispered in His ears, He will hear and answer us in Jesus name; every mark of the devil upon your life is cancelled in the mighty name of Jesus. Paul said let no man cause me trouble for I bear upon me the mark of Christ, I pray that everywhere you go from today, you will carry the emblem of our Lord Jesus Christ in Jesus name. God will satisfy you with long life, peace of mind, good health and deliverance in the name of Jesus Christ. Every good thing that your heart desires, the Lord will grant unto you in Jesus name; He will meet you at the point of your needs, He will see you through and He will help you to carry your load, so shall it be in the name of God te Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
When next we hear from you, your testimony shall be resounding, in Jesus name we pray.
