Let’s put our hands together for Jesus; let’s give Him thanks, let’s give Him praise, let’s give Him adoration, let’s thank Him for showing us mercy, His mercies from everlasting to everlasting, let’s bless His holy name. Let’s give Him thanks for His mercies, His mercies that are renewed upon our lives every day, Father we say thank You, we give You praise we give You thanks, in Jesus mighty name we have given thanks.
Almighty God we want to bless Your name this morning, let’s open our mouth, let’s thank Him for the gift of life, for the fact that we are here in His presence, let’s just thank Him for the gift of life, for the miracle of sleeping and waking , for His mercies upon us, let’s just bless the King of kings, give Him thanks, give Him praise, give Him adoration, He is worthy, blessed be Your name, Father, in Jesus mighty name we have given thanks.
Today is day 39 of our prayer and fasting and today is talking about the wind blowing away all natural disasters; so we are going to pray and say Father, as Your wind is blowing, put an end to all forms of natural disasters in the mighty name of Jesus. Let’s cry unto Him, let’s talk to Him; Father, as Your wind is blowing, put an end to all forms of natural disasters around us in the mighty name of Jesus, thank You Father, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
We are going to commit this week into His hands and say Father, this week, let me experience open heavens in the mighty name of Jesus; make this week a wonderful week for me; I commit this week into Your hands, let me experience open heavens in all my endeavors in the mighty name of Jesus, thank You Father, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
We are crying again and say Father, for the rest of this year, let me experience divine turnaround in the mighty name of Jesus. Help me Father, and let Your name be exalted, let Your name be magnified, blessed be Your name Father, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
I want to give glory to the Almighty God for this wonderful opportunity to stand before you; also, I want to thank our father in the Lord, the PICP, for this privilege, God bless you, sir, may God bless you, ma.
Our text this morning is taken from the Book of Psalm 127: 1 & 2, and then we’ll move on to James 1: 17; “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. 2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep”, amen. The Lord will comfort us on every side in the mighty name of Jesus.
Then the second text, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning”. Every perfect gift is from Him, we’ll receive our perfect gifts from Him in the mighty name of Jesus.
So this morning, we want to talk about “Success is from God”, success is from the Almighty God, we will receive our portion from Him in the mighty name of Jesus. The simple dictionary meaning of success is attaining a favorable or a desired outcome; we all want to succeed in what we do – any task we are given to execute, we want to be sure we have completed the tasks the way we are asked to do.
A simple example I can give here, if you have a mind of going to Ibadan this morning, probably after Sunday school and your target is to get to Ibadan by 1pm today and you end up getting to Ibadan by 12:45pm, obviously you can say that you’ve succeeded in the task that you set ahead of you. And also if you are a candidate of JAMB, you want to sit for JAMB and you are seeking for admission into the university, and at the end of the day you write your JAMB and you come out very successful and then universities are offering you admission, then you can say you have succeeded in that area.
However, there is something about success in life, success is never a destination, success is a journey that we embark upon from time to time, it’s a journey we have to embark upon until eternity; if you attain success in one area, that one is conquered, there are goals ahead of you that you want to look at and then move on on how to attain success in that area.
You can take for example the English Premier League that is going on, yes you play a match just like yesterday, Arsenal played a match, they won, 5-0, but they have not won the league yet, so we can’t say they have succeeded in winning the league but we know that they are getting closer there, and by the grace of God they will get closer in the mighty name of Jesus. Until they emerge number one, you can say they have succeeded for this year’s Premier League and they will succeed in Jesus name.
I’m just giving a definition of what we mean by attaining success, we shall all attain success in Jesus name.
And why we also need to be careful in that area is what happened in the Book of Joshua 13: 1, it says, “Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the Lord said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed”, which means he has not accomplished all that the Lord expected him to accomplish.
Mark you, he had successes in other areas; at the death of Moses, he was the one that led the children of Israel into the Promised Land, in that area he succeeded – acquiring the land, sharing the land amongst the children of Israel, each tribe, each clan, giving them their own portion, he succeeded, but God told him that there is still more to be covered, that’s why I said success is a journey and never a destination. We shall all reach our destination in the mighty name of Jesus, and we shall obtain the favor of God in our lifetimes in the mighty name of Jesus, amen.
So, my question this morning is, what do we need to do to ensure we have that divine success from the Almighty God? What are the things we need to put in place to ensure that we work with our Maker; we work in line with what He has planned for us as individuals?
I believe all of us that are seated here have a lot of things to achieve this year, there are various targets, objectives, goals, that we have set for ourselves that we want to achieve this year. For example, if you are seated here and you are an IT expert, you are very good in IT, and probably you are in a bad employment and you feel that this year is a time for me to set up my own shop, I want to be a consultant, I can see a lot of people who need IT services and the rest of them. Yes, I want people to patronize me, I want to set up my own, that is your target for this year and you want to make sure that you succeed in that area, so you need to work with God because you have your plan towards attaining success, therefore you need to work with God in order for you to attain that plan, and by the grace of God, you will attain in the mighty name of Jesus.
So God is here to partner with us to ensure that we succeed in our endeavors, so the first thing you should do or think about is, you have your plans already, what you want to achieve, so why don’t you trust God and commit that plan into the hands of the Almighty God. We need to trust God that yes, I’m Your son, I’m Your daughter, I want to commit this venture into Your hands oh Lord; remember what we learnt is Psalm 127: 1 & 2, except the Lord builds, those that build labor in vain, you will never labor in vain in the mighty name of Jesus. And James 1 tells us clearly that every good gift, every perfect gift comes from the Father above and there is no variableness in Him.
So that is the first you need to do, to entrust that venture into His hands, both these verses we have read in the Bible speak of good success, successful outcomes once God is involved in the matter.
I would also encourage you further to look at what the Bible tells us in Proverbs 3: 5 & 6, it says “ Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths”, certainly, He will direct your paths in the name of Jesus.
Trusting in the Lord is an attribute of faith, you are merely exercising your faith that God will certainly bring this to pass and there will be testimonies in the mighty name of Jesus; you shall testify of the Lord’s goodness in the mighty name of Jesus. As you prayerfully present that matter to Him, the Almighty God will breathe on it and it shall yield fruits in the mighty name of Jesus.
So the second point I have here, what you need to do as we want to entrust that into the hands of the Almighty God , do not be fixated on the way God should do it. Do not say, God, You must do it at this particular time or this is the way it has to be, God has His own ways, allow Him to do it in His own way and at His own time, God’s time (they say) is the best.
Some people will say ha, I want to get married, excellent, and they are commanding God, if by June this year nobody proposes to me or I don’t see anybody to propose to, it will be time for me to say bye-bye, no way, we should not do that in the hands of God.
My question is if you are in this category, have you forgotten the promises of God? God made a wonderful promise to us in the Book of Jeremiah 29: 11, He says “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. 12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you”; before you were created, God had already made out His plans for you, therefore, don’t just back away from God, God has your back, He will cover you in the name of Jesus. Believe Him, work with Him and that expectation shall be established in the mighty name of Jesus.
Proverbs 19: 21 says, “There are many devices in a man’s heart; Nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand”. His counsel shall stand for you, it shall also stand for me in the mighty name of Jesus. So let’s trust Him, let’s not be fixated in the way He’s going to do it; His ways are totally different from our ways, we read that in the Book of Isaiah 55: 9, His thoughts are higher than our thoughts; the way He sees things may not be exactly the way we do, so just commit that into the hands of the Lord and He will see you through in the mighty name of Jesus.
His counsel shall stand in our lives in the mighty name of Jesus; He’s the One that knows the end from the beginning and He will lead us through in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
Point number three that I want to make here is, success is built on something, success is not built in the air, there must be something for you to attain that success and then move to the next level. Why do I say so? Deuteronomy 16: 16 says we should not appear before the Lord empty handed, there must be something and then the Lord can build upon it. There must be a seed in your hand for the Lord to bless and then prosper you and you will succeed in the mighty name of Jesus.
Let’s take the case of what happened to one of the widows of the prophets in the Book of 2nd Kings 4: 2, we’ll paraphrase; at the time the husband died, he was indebted to creditors, people he was owing and the rest of them, and after the death of the husband of course, the creditors came to the wife to say we are going to take your two sons as bondmen and they will serve us, and of course the widow had to cry to prophet Elisha and say this is my situation, and what did Elisha say? What do you have in your house for God to bless?
And the widow replied, I have a pot of oil in the house, and that was all she needed for God to turn around her situation; and Elisha asked her to go out and borrow as many vessels as possible and she obeyed the word of God. That is also another lesson for us, obey the word of God, obey instructions received, never doubt any word from His throne of grace, obey Him, we have our Bible as a guide, anything we need that is in the Bible, pray along with it, believe and it shall be established unto you in the mighty name of Jesus.
And so the long story short is she borrowed all these cans and the rest of them, and Elisha asked her, just continue to pour oil, anyone that is filled move to the next one and she obeyed completely, at the end of the day she completed the exercise when there were no vessels again to be filled and Elisha gave her simple instruction, just go ahead and sell; sell it, use the money to pay back the debts and the rest, you and your children can live on it. And that was success for her, she succeeded in that area simply because she had something in her hand for the Almighty God to bless.
So my question to us as we look forward to accomplishing that project, that venture or you are a young graduate, you just finished your youth service and you are looking for job, what do you have in your hand? At least you’ll have your certificate, God can bless your certificate even as you present that certificate to employers, they will say this is the person we have been looking for, come and pick up this job in the mighty name of Jesus.
Is there anything too difficult for our God to do? Absolutely, there is nothing too difficult for God to do. Are you a business person, you are in business, you are running your business, your articles of trade are what you have in your hand, what do you want to achieve this year? What kind of success do you want to attain? Have you presented that to the King of kings?
Earlier in the year we talked about divine guidance, now we are talking about success; it’s time for us to move, it is time for us to act, let’s not wait further, God will give us that success in the mighty name of Jesus.
Let me also sound a caution here for us to know that God also wants us to succeed but He also wants us to play a role in that success. His word is very clear in 2nd Thessalonians 3: 10, it says simply that there is no food for a lazy man; I believe amongst us here nobody is lazy and nobody will be lazy in the mighty name of Jesus.
Therefore, what it means is that we should find something to do; we can’t stay idle in the house and say we are praying without doing anything, God is there to bless the works of our hands, to bless our efforts and give us good success in the mighty name of Jesus.
So success is built on something, there is something you can present to the Almighty God for Him to bless the works of your hand, He’s here to bless and He shall bless you in the mighty name of Jesus.
We also need to be mindful, we also need to talk about prayer, (that’s the fourth point I want to make), we also need to be prayerful, we can never discountenance the role of prayer in achieving good success, prayer is very vital for us to achieve good success.
All the other points I’ve listed, let’s combine them with also prayer. There is this song that says ‘prayer is the master key’, it’s the master key that opens all that locked doors and as we pray, the Almighty God will open those doors unto us in the mighty name of Jesus.
This is further strengthened in the Book of Luke 18: 1, it says that men always ought to pray and not faint or get tired, you will never be tired of praying in the mighty name of Jesus.
1st Thessalonians 5: 17 also says that we should pray without ceasing and there are various ways we can pray, there’s no just particular pattern for our prayers to come from;
We can start with praise and worship; in our individual quiet time with the King of kings, or even in our family altars as the case may be, praise and worship, Psalm 67: 5-6 tells us about when praises go up, the blessings of the Lord will come down to us, that is the word of God as you start with that, that’s a form of prayer; you are worshipping God, praising Him, thanking Him for the things He has done, thanking Him for the ones He’s doing , even thanking Him for the ones He has not done and the ones He will do in future, that is praise and worship. Worship Him from the bottom of your heart; the Almighty God will hear you and He will answer you in the mighty name of Jesus.
Then we can get to the stage of presenting our petitions to Him. Matthew 7: 7 says, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock (on that door), and it (that door) shall be opened unto you, and that is where you can also present your petitions to Him; Father, this is what I want You to do, I want to partner with You in this area. You are asking, you are seeking, you are knocking, there is no way God will not answer you in the mighty name of Jesus. He will answer you speedily in the mighty name of Jesus.
And then at the end of the day when your song is ‘come and see what the Lord has done’, remember to also return all the glory and all the honor unto Him and then He will crown that effort with good success in the mighty name of Jesus. Psalm 89: 1 talks about giving thanks to God, acknowledging what He has done, singing of the mercies of the Lord forever, with your mouth you will make known His faithfulness to all generations; giving testimonies of what the Almighty God has done for you.
That songwriter that we know very well says I will sing of the goodness of God, somebody will sing of that goodness of God in the mighty name of Jesus; the goodness of God will not elude you, it will not elude me in the mighty name of Jesus. We will have cause to sing that in the mighty name of Jesus.
Another thing I would like to tell us about prayer, being prayerful and the rest of them, prayer is a two-way thing – you talk to God and you also expect God to respond, you expect to hear from Him. You’ve asked Him for direction, you can’t just ask Him for direction and then leave (and bolt away); you are talking to your Father, you’ve spoken to Him, you also expect your Father to give you a feedback in terms of what to do next as the case may be.
So after praying, you should be able to be attentive and sensitive to the spirit to know what God wants you to do, that is very important in prayer. I’m saying this because Isaiah 30: 21says, and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left, and that is the Holy Spirit speaking to you.
So when you have prayed, when you have called on Him, you’ve done everything, presented your case, obviously He will give you a feedback; there shall be a feedback and then you will be able to know what to do, you will never miss road in the mighty name of Jesus. The Lord will guide you, the Lord will see you through in the mighty name of Jesus. So it’s a two-way traffic, speak to your Father, listen to Him and He will show you the direction to go in the mighty name of Jesus.
And then another one, (probably my last point for this morning) is you need to partner with God. Partnership as we all know as simply defined to be relationship and agreement between two or more persons to achieve a purpose, to achieve the goal that they have set for themselves.
So you want to partner with God by asking Him these are my expectations for this year, I want to succeed in these areas and what did God say for you to do? Yes, I want to work with You, what are the things that You want me to do?
Look at some of the people that partnered with God; the first case is Samuel in 1st Samuel 3:4, (we know the story), he was with Eli the high priest, he was sleeping in the temple and all of a sudden he heard a voice, voice of the Lord called him Samuel, Samuel, and he answered the Lord and said here am I; are you here, are you available for the Lord? Do you want to work with Him, do you want to partner with Him? What is your own response? You don’t want to partner with the Lord and you want Him to bless you abundantly, take that step and find time to partner with the Lord.
Another person is Philip; he was an evangelist, it happened in the Book of Acts 8: 5 – 8, we saw how Philip worked for God, he did a lot of evangelistic works, traveled from place to place, met with Ethiopian eunuch and quite a lot of things that Peter and John had to come over to even support his work as the case may be. So there is something we need to do, let our testimony be that we pleased God; in the mighty name of Jesus, we shall have that testimony that at the end of the day will please God because we decided to work with Him.
That was what happened in the case Enoch in Hebrews 11: 5, it says, “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God”; may that be our testimony in the mighty name of Jesus. In all our endeavors, in all our engagements, let that testimony be our portion that we please God in all that we do in the mighty name of Jesus.
There are many opportunities for us to partner with the King of kings, to work with Him; we can talk about personal evangelism – you want to speak with somebody, you have neighbors in your neighborhood, you have your family members, your brothers and sisters who probably have not known God, who have not accepted our Lord, you can talk to them. It doesn’t have to be when you gather in the church like this that you do that, you can talk to them at your own time, they need to all know God.
And then we also have the church workforce; some of us are workers here, quite a lot of us are not workers, why are you sitting on the bench? You can come over to the other side and work, volunteer service, volunteer yourself to serve God; God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him and as you seek Him, He will never forget you in the mighty name of Jesus. He will reward you accordingly in the mighty name of Jesus.
And what is the one we have now available? We are talking about Vision 2032 and I’m sure we all know what Vision 2032 is all about and just for the sake of paraphrasing it, it means that by 2032, our mission, RCCG mission, we expect to attain a membership of 40 million people worldwide, praise the Lord! We should know that with God, nothing is impossible and that is why that vision has been committed to the King of kings.
So that vision trickles down to the fact that every month, at least this month of February, bring in one person, invite one person to the church, is it too much? Is it a burden that we cannot carry? To invite people to come and fellowship with us and I’m sure that as they come here, the spirit of the Lord will arrest them and they will stay with us in the mighty name of Jesus.
So let’s find a way to partner, let’s do something that God will say yes, My son, My daughter actually pleased Me in the mighty name of Jesus; and as we partner with Him, it shall be well with us in the mighty name of Jesus. We should not be idle in the house of God, let’s give it our best shot anytime we are in the house of God, He’s the Rock that never fails and He will never fail us in the mighty name of Jesus.
Now as I begin to round up (as I said earlier), I also want to remind us about the story in the Book of Luke 17: 11 – 19, (I’m sure we are familiar with that story); it’s about the story of the Ten Lepers, they came to Jesus and before they can even say a word, Jesus just asked them to go and meet their priest and as they were going, they found out that they have all been cleansed from their leprosy and what happened? Only one of them came back to say thank You Jesus for cleansing me.
As God opens that highway, as God gives you that success you are asking Him for, remember to give Him all the glory and all the honor alone, remember to thank Him and as you thank Him, He will do more for you in the mighty name of Jesus.
As I conclude for this morning, the word of God says clearly in the Book of Matthew 6: 33 that “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”; it’s talking about all the successes you are looking for, even beyond that, the ones you didn’t ask, they shall all be added unto you, but let me also sound a note of warning here with this story I’m also going to share with you;
There is this story of a man looking for success everywhere; he wants to succeed, he thinks that by struggling, by running helter-skelter that’s the way he would succeed. He had not accepted Jesus as Lord and personal Savior, so the enemy saw this opportunity and said come to me, I will give you success, he said okay, I’m here, let me have the success. He said I’m going to give you a ladder for you to climb up and by the time you get to the top of the ladder you will see a lot of success waiting for you and he accepted the ladder from the enemy and he started climbing.
By the time he got to the top of the wall, he discovered that the ladder was placed on the wrong wall and not the right wall and at that point in time, it was already too late for him but our Lord Jesus will never give you a counterfeit ladder, He will give you the correct ladder in the mighty name of Jesus.
So if you are here in our midst and you want to give your life to Jesus and you want to accept that ladder from Him for you to climb to that route of success, you are free to come to the altar, Jesus is here waiting for you.
[Altar call]
Let’s cry and say Father, as I call on You in faith, please answer me speedily in the mighty name of Jesus, help me Lord, answer me as I call upon You in faith in the mighty name of Jesus, thank You Father, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
We’ll pray again and say Father, in line with Your word in James 1: 17 which says every perfect gift comes from You, Father please release my own package this morning in the mighty name of Jesus; every perfect gift comes from You, release my own package unto me in the mighty name of Jesus, help me Lord and let Your name be glorified, thank You Father, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
What are your expectations concerning that project, that venture that you are into, why don’t you talk to God, in the next few minutes talk to Him and the Almighty God will bless the works of your hands in the mighty name of Jesus; thank You Father, we give You all the glory, we give You all the honor, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
