Halleluyah! God is good and all the time… Brethren, concerning you, your family, your marriage, your business, your careers and our nation, God will turn our mourning into dancing.
As much as I know, this is like the darkest night that we are going through as a people, but His light will shine through the night. His light will shine through the night; He will put an end to darkness; He will put an end to reign of terrors; He will put an end to oppression; He will put an end to famine in the name of Jesus. A new dawn, a new day, a new beginning, a new Nigeria, a new you in the name of Jesus. Thank you Jesus!
Brethren, I’d like us to take some prayer points and by the way, the songs virtually just boosted my message, because there are some that would have just been the next thing after my message today, and after everything that we need to do, a time will come in this nation that we will be singing ‘He turned again my captivity; He turned our sorrows into dancing’; we will sing that song in this nation soon in the name of Jesus. Praise the Lord!
Psalm 122: 6, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee”. Brethren, we will pray for the peace of our own Jerusalem which is Nigeria. Some of you may have dual citizenship or even three or four or five but guess what, there is no place like home; there is nowhere like Nigeria; this is our own, so we are going to pray for it, we can’t run anywhere, we must fix it, praise God!
So we are going to pray and say Father, please visit our land; visit Nigeria oh Lord. Father, please visit Nigeria oh Lord, particularly at a time as this, Father please, we need You, visit our land Lord, visit our land in the mighty name of Jesus. Father please, visit our land in the name of Jesus. In Jesus mighty name we pray.
When God visits, He normally leaves traces; there is no way God will visit someone or a place and you will not know that God has come. For example, when He visits Nigeria (as He will), there shall be restoration; so we are going to pray and say Father, please restore the lost glory; the lost fortunes; the lost identities; the lost goodness of Nigeria in the mighty name of Jesus.
Father please restore; Father please restore the lost glory of our nation; restore our lost fortunes in the name of Jesus. Thank you heavenly Father, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
When He visits a place, because He is the Prince of peace, peace will reign; so I also see a time when Boko Haram will no longer be an issue; when kidnapping will no longer be an issue; when ritual killing will be a thing of the past; by the way, for those who lived in the 60s, what was kidnapping? What was ritual killing? We didn’t know it, but that time will come again in the name of Jesus.
So let us pray and say Father in the mighty name of Jesus, let there be peace all over our land; in the nook and crannies of Nigeria. Father, let Your peace reign in the mighty name of Jesus; let Your peace permeate the whole of Nigeria, whole of our land in the mighty name of Jesus; before, during and after the forthcoming election Father, let Your peace reign; let Your peace reign in the mighty name of Jesus. Father please, let Your peace reign in the name of Jesus. Thank You heavenly Father, in Jesus mighty name we have praised.
You know in this chaos, there are people who prosper in the chaos; there are people who prosper in the insecurity, they won’t want peace but there is only one language that they must hear, the Bible says since the days of John the Baptist, the kingdom of God suffereth violence and only the violence will take it by force; are you going to be violent this morning? We must take it by force.
We are going to say Father, every troubler of our nation; every troubler of our peace, Father trouble them. Everyone causing problems for us in Nigeria, Father please uproot them; Father trouble our troublers oh Lord; trouble every troublers of our land. Everyone that is distorting the peace of this land, Father uproot them, uproot them oh Lord in the mighty name of Jesus. Father please uproot them, Father please uproot them in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank You heavenly Father, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed!!
Elections are around the corner, four years after four years we’ve gone to the polls; we’ll go as a people and come back, within six months or three months we start crying again. You know the reason? Because many people sell their conscience and then they bring in the wrong persons and there’s poverty in the land, so ₦1,000 will make somebody sell, isn’t it? But this time around it will not happen in the name of Jesus.
You are going to pray and say Father, please give us the grace, the willpower, the tenacity to elect the right leaders in the name of Jesus. Give us the grace oh Lord; give us oh Lord the zeal, give us the consciousness, the presence of mind, the tenacity oh Lord that we need to elect the right leaders in the mighty name of Jesus. Father Lord, give us that grace in the name of Jesus. Thank You heavenly Father, glory be to Your name forevermore, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed!!
Brethren, we will sit down shortly but I know that very soon, our testimony shall be “once I was blind, now I see” in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank you blessed Redeemer, glory be to Your name forever more; we thank You Lord because Your presence in our midst is heavy; we can feel it, we can touch it; glory be to Your name forever more.
That which You alone can do, Father we ask that You do in the mighty name of Jesus. We cry oh Lord unto You, concerning our lives as individuals, concerning our homes, concerning our marriages, concerning our businesses and careers, concerning our nation, Father please hear us; rise up for us; take us from our ruins and take us Lord to the mountain tops in the name of Jesus. Father take us from the place of defeat, Father Lord give us victory; You alone can do it, we trust in You, help us also to play our part in doing what is necessary in Jesus wonderful name we have prayed. Amen. Praise the Lord! Praise the living Jesus!
You are welcome to the presence of the most high God; I want to thank God because only the living can stand, hold the microphone and preach, so I thank the Lord Almighty that I have life today; I also would like to give thanks to the pastor in charge of Province for this privilege I have to stand here, we will be reading through a fairly long passage, there should be two but we’ll take one and the other one I’ll talk through. 1st Samuel 7: 1-14; “And the men of Kirjathjearim came, and fetched up the ark of the LORD, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the LORD.
And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjathjearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD.
And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the LORD, and serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines”. May the Lord deliver us out of the hands of our own Philistines in the name of Jesus. “Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served the LORD only. And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpeh, and I will pray for you unto the LORD. And they gathered together to Mizpeh, and drew water, and poured it out before the LORD, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the LORD. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh.
And when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpeh, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the LORD our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines.
And Samuel took a sucking lamb, and offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the LORD: and Samuel cried unto the LORD for Israel; and the LORD heard him. And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel: but the LORD thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them; and they were smitten before Israel.
And the men of Israel went out of Mizpeh, and pursued the Philistines, and smote them, until they came under Bethcar. Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the LORD helped us.
So the Philistines were subdued, and they came no more into the coast of Israel: and the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron even unto Gath; and the coasts thereof did Israel deliver out of the hands of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites”. Praise God!
In the next couple of minutes, we’ll look at a message which is titled Ebenezer: The Fall and Rise of God’s people. Ebenezer simply means this is how far God has helped us. God is never tired and that should tell us that people needed help, God came to their help and they testified; we need help, God will come through for us and we shall testify in the mighty name of Jesus.
Now I’ll give a background using the second passage, please can we have 1st Samuel 4: 1-11 (just on this screen); so there was a time Israel went to war against the Philistines and they were defeated; as soon as they were defeated, they went back home, consulted with their elders and the elders said what are you waiting for? Take the Ark of Covenant and go back there; this time around don’t worry, no battle. Unsurprisingly, for those who could read it; but surprisingly to them they were defeated again even with the Ark of the Covenant of God, but this time around it was a great defeat; the Philistines did not only took away the Ark of the Covenant to their own land, they took away the identity of Israel; they took away supposedly the presence of God, then they killed 30,000 foot soldiers of the Israelites army; then they killed also two of their senior officers – Hophni and Phinehas, the children of Eli.
Now as soon as the news got to Eli that the Ark of the Covenant had been taken by the Philistines, he just fell down, (old man) fell on the chair, broke his neck and died. National calamity! The wife was saying, ‘ha baba, what is happening?’ he said ‘ah, Phinehas is dead’; the wife was pregnant, she fell down, fell into a forced labor, brought forth the baby but she died. But before she died, she passed a curse; she said ‘Ichabod’, saying ‘glory departs from Israel’.
So that was the story, but let us look at what lessons can we learn from here because that’s the background to the victory that he saw in chapter 7; they went to war against the Philistines, they lost the battle; they went back to the Ark of the Covenant, they lost the battle. Now the first thing is that they were extremely religious just like many of us; as soon as anything happens, even some people, once you want to go out and the sun is too much, you will start speaking in tongues; you will say they have come, and then quickly they run into the pastor’s office, Pastor please pray for me. this sun is about to … or some people, just something different from what is expected, the first thing is 25 days fasting; 50 days fasting, religious activity; they went to pick the Ark of the Covenant, religious activity; they carried the Ark of the Covenant, they got there, the Philistines were afraid when they saw it, they said ah God has come, we are all finished, but some of the Philistines would have looked at them and said is it not that one that I saw yesterday at the beer parlor? Is it not that one that I saw fornicating? Is it not that one that I saw stealing? Is it not that one that I saw telling lies? Don’t worry, the Ark of God won’t work for them, go and fight them; the Philistines fought them and defeated them despite the Ark of the Covenant.
The second lesson brethren, we cannot continue in sin and expect grace to abound, Romans 6: 1. We cannot continue in sin and expect that grace of God will work for us, it does not matter how many times you come to church, if there is uncleanliness, if there is sin, if there is iniquity, if there is unrighteousness in you, it will not work.
It does not matter how many times you go for vigils, from Redemption Camp to the other one on the right side, to the one next on the left and spend the whole day, nothing will happen because it’s just religious activity. Unfortunately for them, they did not find out what the issue was and they were oppressed for 20 good years, 20 years, the only thing they could do was to say bread is now ₦1,000; school fees I can no longer pay; rent is due, landlord is chasing me and you know what? Many of us Christians are very guilty of that, that’s when we start binding and casting landlord; somebody who built his house and rented it to you, rent is due you cannot pay, you say God I bind him, I bind him and lose; God will not hear that type of binding and loosing.
You know many of us Christians are very guilty of this; how many of us in our respective offices truly stand for God? You want to issue invoice, do you over invoice? You have receivables, you have actually sold the good to yourself and you have continue to keep aging receivables that you know will never be collected by the company; you’re a loan officer, you want to give loans and you say add my own on top of it, so you give out the loan of five million naira but three out of it is your own.
Many of us are guilty of this and then we come to church we pray one month, two months, one year, three years, they say God where is Your face? His face is nowhere, He is constant. The difference or the problem is the person who is crying unto God.
Many times brethren, like the children of Israel of that period, we expect that God is an object that we just twist; 50 days fasting, the moment I finish the 50 days something will happen; if you like turn it to 500 days, nothing will happen if you live in unrighteousness. Hallelujah!
So when Eli died, his two sons had died, the daughter-in-law died, a curse was hanging on Israel, Ark of Covenant was taken away; I cannot remember the worst time than that in Israel, it was a dark night, they would have lost hope but God came through for them. I’m not too old, I’m middle age but I’ve seen a few and I know a bit of history, I have not seen a time worse than this in this nation; it’s like a dark night – the darkest of dark. Brethren, hope is not lost, hope is not lost because the Lord will come through for us in the mighty name of Jesus.
But before the Lord will come through for us, we also have work to do, and by the grace of God that is what we will see in that chapter 7, we’ll go through the lesson and by the grace of God He will release unto us the grace to do the things that we need to do and let’s wait on Him to do what He will do concerning this nation in the mighty name of Jesus.
So that is the fall of the people of God, now the rise of the people; Israel transited from a failed nation, from a failed people to victorious people, but the transition did not just happen, there were deliberate actions they took, deliberate steps they took, we need to be intentional and deliberate about the turn around that we desire for our nation, for our families, for our lives, we need to be deliberate about it.
There’s a simple principle in the Bible in 2nd Chronicles 7: 14 that says if my people who are called by My name, they will humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land. There are things we need to do before the ‘then’ happens.
So the children of Israel went through this and the Bible says the scripture is written for us as end samples that we can look at it and try to do a cut and paste and see if we will achieve the same results.
1st Samuel 7: 2, so now let’s go on the journey of what they did; and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord; in the 20 years that they were under the oppression of the Philistines, you know what they were saying? House rent skyrocketing; no fuel in the filling stations; no cash at the ATMs; bread, ₦1,000 per loaf; school fees, I cannot pay; rent is due, landlord has increased rent; they were just lamenting and throughout the 20 years of their lamentation, nothing happened until Samuel reordered their steps, he said this is the way to do it and I know many of us have also been lamenting what kind of country is this? Some people even use some words, this country is I’m going to japa; the solution is not japa, it’s not, the truth is that if we all japa to those lands and they come here, they will change this place. So the solution is not the japa, praise God!
So Samuel said to them, verse 3, Samuel said to them, you need to return to the Lord with all your heart, no divided attention, put away strange gods. (I will explain all that), prepare your heart for the Lord, serve Him only and then He will deliver you. So what does this mean? We will break it down; 1st Samuel said you need to do a self-examination; what went wrong? Where did it go wrong? How did it go wrong?
The first time when they were defeated by the Philistines, they could have come back and said God, ah you have said in Joshua 1:5 that no man on the surface of the earth will be able to defeat me, how come I suffered this defeat? They did not do that, they just said (being a business) as usual, I’m going to carry the Ark. So Samuel said go back to the basics, go and search yourselves as we will also have to do; go back to the basics brethren, let us search ourselves individually, what went wrong? When did it go wrong? How did it go wrong? Where did it go wrong? And then when we established that, we’ll come to the Lord and say Father… So Samuel said to them, you have to confess and say Father I have sinned before You and before the heavens, have mercy and forgive me.
I will give one or two examples I couldn’t give in the first service; in one of the places that I’ve worked, I used to have a boss – jim jim Christian pastor, but some news going around in the office about that fellow, I argued until one day when I opened my eyes when he was praying and me I also saw what people were saying, I said ah. One day I saw this person in the congregation at the camp laying hands on people, that was not the same person that was in the office.
Many of us go about with this cloth of pastor, Pastor Jenrola, but who are you before God? We need to do soul searching, we need to be real to ourselves and go to God and ask God, have mercy on me.
I’ve shared this also before; many years ago one of my friends, we went to buy a bus for his parish and we got to a dealer, after agreeing the price and the color and the vehicle, he then said what price should he write on the invoice? We were both stunned; we said what do you mean? We just agreed; he said ha, there are many people from your church, (he mentioned the name of the church), that when they buy vehicles like this, they would say add our own on top, I said our own is not like that.
So you can see how the problems of this country can be traced to many and all of us, we need to do soul searching. Personally, we need to go to the Lord and confess our sins, and the Bible tells us that if we truly come before Him to confess our sins, He will hear us; He will forgive us of all our unrighteousness, praise God!
What else did Samuel ask them to do? That same verse 3, he said once you have done that, return to the Lord with all your hearts. There are some of us, as we are calling Jesus we are also calling something else; as we are coming to church to give offering, we are also sending offering to the village for sacrifice; as we are coming here or going to wherever for vigils, we will also go to the shrines to dance; God is saying return to the Lord with all your hearts, when you return all, it means there is nothing else somewhere else.
Brethren, let us return to the Lord with all our hearts, serve God alone; we cannot serve Mammon and God together, you must choose one, you must choose one and I believe the Lord Almighty that when we serve Him alone, He will answer us because our God is a jealous God. Exodus 34: 14; He is jealous, He cannot share us with any other person, so you can go to the other places leave God, but if you must be with God, serve Him alone.
Then the next thing he said to them; put away all your strange gods. The strange gods are not limited into today’s world, to those idols, to those things that people bend down to worship and all that; there are other things that are taking the place of God in our lives that may turn out to be gods, to be idols; is your job an idol for you? Is your career an idol for you? Is your bank balance…, like I said in the morning, somebody will keep saying ah me, 100 million; every minute you are checking that balance, has it become an idol? Or you just bought a Rolls-Royce and it’s on a Sunday morning that the roads are free, you will say I want to cruise town, so you don’t come to service again? You don’t seek God anymore. Put away those idols.
Pastor, are you saying I should give somebody my money? Are you saying I should throw away the car? No. What I’m saying brethren is, put God first and every other thing go to the back seat; put God first, let every other thing go to the back seat because God is jealous, He wants our attention, He wants to be first and all in us, Praise the Lord!
What else did they do? Verse 6, the Bible says they gathered together at Mizpah, they drew water, poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day. They did soul cleansing and sanctification; they cleansed themselves; they made a commitment to say from today, I’m free of this and I’ll go back no more into it, and they sanctified themselves.
The Bible tells us in John 17: 17, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth”. Sanctification is like washing, those of us who grew up washing in trays, my mother would stand and say keep washing until it is clean; so you can turn out that water like 10 times until the water is no longer dirty, that’s when she would say go and spread it. So that’s like sanctification; the first time you wash it, the water that comes is dirty, she would say wash again; you wash it again, the water is dirty, wash again, until it is clean water and she would say yes, now you are clean.
What do you use for the washing? Washing of water by the word – the word of God. Let’s put ourselves deep into the word of God, study and meditate according to Joshua 1: 8, praise God! Praise the living Jesus!
So what next did they do? What did they do again? Verse 8, after they’ve done all of that; they have examined themselves truly and confirmed that they were living in sin, they confessed their sins; they’ve dedicated their hearts to God; they have chosen to wash and continue to study the word of God; then they said we want to pray. So the next thing is they prayed to God.
Now this is where I think there’s a difference in our world of today; what we do is just pray to God and then you say God does not answer, and the Bible tells us that the eyes of the Lord will not behold iniquity; the Bible tells us that if I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me; so if you come into the church, if you like, after the service has closed pray for two hours or till evening until they want to lock the church, if there is sin, the Lord will not answer.
So the children of Israel understood this principle, they had done all the cleansing before they went to the Lord to pray. Don’t let us do prayer as rituals, as religious activity, ‘they said we should pray I pray,’ what do you want from prayer? The Bible says while they are yet speaking, I will answer; before you open your mouth, God has solved it.
As soon as they finished praying, they didn’t even have to ask ‘God help us to fight the Philistines’ before God started fighting, so they prayed to God and God heard them. By the grace of God, God will hear us in the mighty name of Jesus.
Then what did they do? Verse 9, they then gave God burnt offering and that is worship. They gave God the best. You remember worship from a clean vessel is quality worship; worship from a sinner is singing, it’s not worship. Some people would think that it is this slow tuned song that make you worship, it’s not the song that makes you worship, it’s the source – the vessel that offers it that makes the worship.
So they worshipped God in spirit and in truth, John 4: 23- 24, and as they were worshiping God, they gathered together, the Philistines said hey look at them, we will go and attack them like before; they didn’t know that they are now changed people; as some of you, when the enemies come again now they want to attack you but they won’t know that you are now a changed person.
So as they were coming to attack them and God saw them, God was already enjoying the worship, He’s saying don’t go and disturb this worship session, He started raining thunders on the Philistines, He started raining thunders until they all saw it and He said there was no hiding place and they were running away; then and then only, the children of Israel went after them and destroyed them.
They didn’t have to fight, they didn’t have to pray, they didn’t have to ask God to say please help us fight Philistines because their ways were already right before God; from today by the grace of God brethren, your ways will be right before the Lord in the mighty name of Jesus, and as you open your mouth or even before you open your mouth, the Lord Almighty will answer in Jesus mighty name.
So what was God’s response? God responded sharp sharp first and answered prayers. 1st Samuel 7: 9, the lower part of it says “…and the Lord heard him as soon as he was praying God had”. From today for somebody, as soon as you pray, God will hear you in the mighty name of Jesus.
Second, what did the Lord do? They were still together, even though they were afraid they were still worshiping God; the enemies were coming; God did not even wait for them, God fought their battles, the Lord will fight your battle. The Lord will fight the battle of your homes. The Lord will fight the battle of our nation in the mighty name of Jesus.
The next thing, what did the Lord do? They ran away but there’s a possibility that they could come back to reinforce, but the Bible says God subdued them. Verse 13; the Philistines were subdued, God put them under, they could not come back again. The victory that God will give to you today shall be permanent in the mighty name of Jesus. Those enemies won’t come back again in Jesus mighty name.
And God gave them an enduring and lasting victory. The Bible says throughout the reign of Samuel, the Philistines never came back, never, you will live in peace; the victory God will give you shall be permanent and our nation, as we pray, the victory that God is about to give us soon, that victory shall be permanent in the mighty name of Jesus. We will live in peace in Jesus name.
What else did the Lord do? Verse 14, all the cities that they had lost to the Philistines, God gave it back to them, that is restoration. Everything that you have ever lost, the Lord Almighty will restore, you will recover all in the mighty name of Jesus, and you will sing again ‘He turned my mourning onto dancing again’.
What else did the Lord do? Verse 14, God gave them peace with all the other enemies. The Bible says there was peace between Israel and the Amorites, all the other enemies around, they came to be peaceful. From today, you will live in peace; you will find peace before your enemies’ you will find peace even before your friends; you will find peace before the Lord in the name of Jesus.
And finally, what did the Lord do? The Bible says in verse 17 that Samuel returned to Ramah, that’s the place and there he built an altar and he lived there in the presence of God, so God began to live in the midst of the people. From today, the Lord will make your home His own abode; He will make your body His own living place in the name of Jesus; and when God is living in you and you carry God everywhere, who can come and attack you? And I pray also that in our nation, in all the positions of authority, in all those places of shrine where they are disturbing our peace, the Lord will take over and reign there in the mighty name of Jesus.
As we round up brethren, the Israelites were subdued by the Philistines; for 20 years they were lamenting and complaining; as we have done for so many years here but one day, just by opening their eyes on what to do and doing what they knew they ought to have done, there was a turnaround.
Brethren, we may have gone for so long in these issues, but God is only waiting for us to do the right things; today, I ask you, please search yourselves, confess those sins to the Lord Almighty, commit your life to Him that you will have Him as the Lord alone, you will not share Him with any other god; put all the other idols, throw them away, trash them, put them in the back seat, no place for them anymore; make your life a sacrifice; offer God quality worship and offering, and when you pray, instantly you will have answers and He will fight your battles; He will fight the battles of our country in the mighty name of Jesus.
But you know the first step to do this is that we need to give our heart to Him as everything; let’s take that song ‘This is my desire’, my desire, and that should be your desire in that we will give God everything. Praise God!
You are here this morning, you’ve heard that song or you’ve taken that song but you know that your heart is not totally for the Lord, raise your hands and come forward majestically; come and give your heart, your life to the Lord, that is the starting point. Or you have given Him before but you know that He’s no longer the One in control, you want to surrender it to Him afresh, are you here you want to surrender your life to Jesus? You want to give Him your life as a starting point to the turnaround?
Brethren let us rise up, we have been making lamentations to God, ‘God can you not see? God did you not know? God have you not heard? God where’s Your face? God have you traveled? God are You still there? Malachi 3: 6 tells us that He changeth not, He’s still there, so if we have to look in and look at ourselves, can we just go before the Lord instead of lamentations? Let us begin to examine ourselves, find out what those issues might be or are, and confess them to Him.
What your issues are different from mine, and by the way, I’m not absorbed from all of this, I am also part of this, God is speaking to us so let us talk to the Lord Almighty; let us confess those issues to Him; let us talk to Him; do a self-examination, what is it? Do a self- examination and the Lord Almighty, (the Bible says that) He is just, He’s faithful to forgive us of all our unrighteousness and He will today in the mighty name of Jesus.
Confess those sins to Him, talk to Him, speak to Him; you know those things nobody else knows but God knows; confess it to Him; ask the Lord Almighty to have mercy, ask the Lord Almighty for mercy; thank you heavenly Father, glory be to Your name forever more in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
Now you are going to make commitment to Him and say Father, everything that represents an idol in my life, I put them aside, I trash them and I give You
Your rightful place in my heart, in my life in the name of Jesus; I give You Your rightful place in my life, in my heart in the mighty name of Jesus. Take away every idol, everything that represents idol, every other God, every other thing that is competing with my attention, Father Lord I give them all, all away, and I commit my life anew and afresh to You in the mighty name of Jesus. I commit myself and my life afresh to You in the name of Jesus, thank You Father, for in Jesus wonderful name we prayed.
Now before we take the next prayer point, I shared in the morning, in Genesis 18, God wanted to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and He said should I do this without telling Abraham? Can you imagine God wants to do something He says I want to consult a man, he must be an exceptional man, but there can be Abrahams in our world also of today. So Abraham began to negotiate with God, he said God, these people of Sodom and Gomorrah, if you find 50 people, will you still destroy the city? God said no, if I see 50 righteous people, I will not.
He continued to negotiate until he got to ten; if you find ten, will you still destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? God said no, but guess what happened in Genesis 19? Sodom and Gomorrah, something happened, they went to the house of Lot blah blah blah and God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, why? He didn’t find ten righteous people.
Brethren, God needs even if it’s all of us here for a start that we decide that we will give our hearts to God and give our lives and everything to God and cry to God on behalf of this nation, God will hear us in the mighty name of Jesus.
So I want as many of us who have cleansed ourselves, who are sure of ourselves, let’s begin to cry to the Lord Almighty for this nation, for the restoration of this nation, that the glory of God, the glory of God will come upon us again in the mighty name of Jesus. You can also cry to the Lord Almighty for your home, for your family, for your marriage, for your career, for everything, for your life; pray to the Lord Almighty, the Lord Almighty will hear the voice of the righteous. For the sake of 10 righteous people, God was ready to spare the city of Sodom and Gomorrah; for the sake of the saints, God can turn around the situation of Nigeria in the mighty name of Jesus; He can turn around the situations of your home in the name of Jesus; thank you heavenly Father, thank you blessed Redeemer in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
Then one more thing and then we are done; in the first service we did it, when you worship God, it goes to Him as a fragrance – as a sweet fragrance, but in return, God looks around you, when He sees the enemies, He begins to shell thunders on them; so there’s this song ‘fragrance to fire’, when you worship God, the fragrance go to Him; in response, God releases His fire.
Today as we worship Him, He’s going to release fire upon the enemies, upon the Philistines, upon the troublers of our Israel in the name of Jesus.
