Praise the Lord! There is power in what you see; what you see can make you afraid, and what you see can actually stir up your faith or motivate you. The reason for the 10 spies not being able to meet up was simply because of what they saw: they told Moses, we were in the land, but we saw giants. they did not stop there, I think again, because of the effect of what they saw, they tried to do a kind of comparison, and that comparison was the last straw that broke the camel’s back, they said we were like grasshoppers compared to people we saw, but thank God for Joshua and Caleb, they said, look, we didn’t see giants, we saw a plain field, we saw a land filled with milk and honey; and they said, look, we can possess the land.
I pray for everyone of you under the influence of my voice this morning, arising from this choir ministration that from today you will see no evil, you will not see giants. In the mighty name of Jesus, no more barriers, no more limits. In the mighty name of Jesus, all that you will be seeing from today will be increase, you will see enlightenment, you will see fulfillment, you will see multiplication in the mighty name of Jesus.
You will see mountains move in the mighty name of Jesus; you will see valleys being filled in the mighty name of Jesus, and you will see victory over your enemies. Those who said, ‘over our dead bodies’, if they don’t repent, you will see them being buried; the grace of the Lord will be multiplied for you, and I pray this morning that God will speak to the atmosphere, He will speak faith to us, He will speak joy to you, He will speak strength into your life, He will speak healing into your life in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
By reason of today’s service, values will be added to you, your confidence shall be strengthened in the mighty name of Jesus. You will imbibe godly principles, principles that will transform your life and take you to the place of your destiny, and at the end of everything today, God will take control, He will take all the glory, the blessings will be ours, and the shame will be unto the devil. So shall it be, in Jesus wonderful name we have prayed,
Good morning, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, it is with great joy that I welcome you to His presence this morning. I have no doubt in my mind that the presence of God is here, and that, of course, is evident by the ministrations we’ve had already, and I can assure you that God will speak to everyone of us and we will leave this place better than we came in the mighty name of Jesus.
Thank you for partnering with us, and thank you for choosing CTL (Christ the Lord) parish as your worship church, it’s a family church, is our Father’s house – my Father’s house, your Father’s house, our Father’s house. This is where God dwells, and He dwells here on permanent basis, hears and answers our prayers whenever we pray, and I can assure you that today will not be an exception.
So I want to encourage everybody, calm down, everything will end in praise in the name of Jesus Christ, Whatever has gone up will come down and the name of the Lord will be glorified. Whatever is your load, it doesn’t matter how big or heavy, God will help you to carry your load: school fees will be sorted and everything will be okay in Jesus mighty name.
Tomorrow by 6:30pm, we will be here again for our regular prayer meeting, prayer chain, and the theme for tomorrow is ‘Not By Power’, and I think that speaks for itself; you cannot achieve result by your own strength, but with God on our side, we can be sure that we have a phenomenal breakthrough in life. So please make sure you are here by 6:30 and the Lord will bless you mightily as we pray in Jesus name.
Our palliative exercise – you know we’ve made it part of our program here to care in our little way for the needy among us, and we’ve actually set aside the last Sunday of every quarter for that same purpose. So this quarter’s edition, which is the third quarter year in the year 2024 will come up on the last Sunday, on the 29th of this month, so we want to humbly seek your support and collaboration because it’s not a thing that just one or a few people can do alone, and the Bible says whosoever giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord.
So we want to thank all of you who have responded, most simultaneously between last week and today, but what we have is still far cry from what is needed, so we count on you, the bank details will be displayed for your attention and further necessary action, and as you do that, the Lord will bless us in Jesus name.
CSR Account Details:
A/C Name: RCCG CTL CSR
A/C No: 1022224065
Bank Name: UBA
Genesis, 26: 12 – 22 (that popular scripture), “Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the Lord blessed him. 13And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great: 14For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, a great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him. 15For all the wells which his father’s servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.
16And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we. 17And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwell there. (I want you to take special notes of the last four verses), 18And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them. 19And Isaac’s servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.
20And the herdman of Gerar did strive with Isaac’s herdmen, saying, the water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esekl; because they strove with him. 21And they digged another well, and strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah. 22And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.
I decree, by the authority of heaven that whatever it is that is contesting with you or contending with you, from today, you will see them no more in Jesus name.
This morning, I’ll be talking to us on the theme, ‘The Blessedness of Consistency’; my major emphasis today is going to be on consistency. When you talk about blessedness, I’m sure you know what it means, but for the purpose of this exhortation or teaching, as you may wish to call it, consistency has to do with always behaving in the same way or having the same opinion or opinions, principles, standards, etc.
Consistency also means being in agreement with something and not contradicting; always standing for something, always being focused and always being responsible. Spiritual consistency develops what I call routines and build momentum, in other words, consistency helps in habits formation; if there is something that helps people in forming habits, consistency is one of them, and it also becomes a source of motivation and encouragement to us and even the people around us.
In other words, when you have a consistent man, a consistent man is always motivated by his consistency, and by that, he becomes an encouragement, even to those who are around him. Consistency makes us stronger in our spiritual life and walk with God, and let me tell you that it is pleasing to God when we are consistently in fellowship with Him; we get a better outlook, a better posture on things, and of course, it helps us to have a better attitude.
In Romans 15: 4, there we are told that “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope”. When you talk about aforetime, you talk about the former, the things that were written in the past, and these things are written for the purpose of our learning, is written for us to acquire knowledge so that we can be better people, better fathers, better mothers, better children, better brothers and sisters, wherever we find ourselves in the community,
Consistency is a key, and not only in our spiritual life, but in a successful life in general, be it professionally, be it in the area of marriage, be it in your political commitment or whatever it is. And that also takes me to 1st Corinthians 15: 58, it says, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” .
Brethren, I stand to say this morning that consistency brings us close to the Lord. Jesus Christ Himself told us in John 15: 4, He said, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me”. To abide simply means to endure without yielding, without shifting; to continue in a place or to continue with an idea, and remain stable,
One of the key ingredients of consistency is stability; another ingredient of consistency is predictability. Colossians, 3:23 says and whatsoever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men. There are many dangers associated with inconsistency:
Number one, inconsistency promotes suspicion and distrust. When you see someone who is so unstable, you’ll find it difficult to trust that person, and many people who do not want to even associate will say that man is a man of unstable character. So inconsistency promotes distrust, of course, suspicion will lead to distrust.
Number two is that inconsistency kills intimacy and discourages patronage. If you have a customer that is so inconsistent, you don’t want to buy things from him/her, you want to look for somebody you can trust, I think these are natural things. In 2nd Timothy 2: 13, Paul was talking to Timothy and says if we believe not, yet he (God) abideth faithful: he cannot deny Himself.
Failure is another byproduct of inconsistency. No man will want to invest in an inconsistent fellow; I read a story and something of that happened yesterday. I read again; a man and his wife went to the University for the graduation of their son, it was when they go to the university they realized that their son was still in second year, 200 level. They broke down and wept, they were persuaded, they were encouraged, let’s try to continue again, they said look, for us to continue, this guy has to come back to Nigeria so that we can monitor him, all that we have invested in the past has gone has gone down the drain.
So if you cannot trust somebody, it doesn’t matter how close, whether it’s your son, whether it’s your brother, whether it’s your wife or your husband, you don’t want to invest in such people. For you to invest, you must have confidence; God invested so much in Abraham because of the confidence the Lord had in him.
In Genesis 18: 19, God said concerning Abraham, “For I know him, (authoritative statement), that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the word of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken of him”.
Brethren, a man cannot be fruitful in life without being consistent. There are many examples of consistent men and women in the Bible who walked with God and with men in integrity; you can’t talk about consistency without talking about integrity, and this is simply because consistency is a product (like I said at the beginning) of some set of principles, standards and values.
You will recall that Jacob was scammed by Laban, yet he persevered until he received what he wanted. He wanted to marry Rachael, Laban told Jacob, for you to marry Rachael, you will serve me for seven years; at the expiration of seven years he was given Leah, so anybody can scam anybody, but my prayer today is that never again will you be scammed. If a father-in-law could scam his son-in-law, anybody can be scammed, so if you have been scammed before, you have to play down but make sure you don’t get scammed the second time.
Hannah walked in consistency for many years, she was going to Shiloh without anything to show for it, but that will not discourage her from pursuing her course, and to the praise and glory of God, a day came (just like it has come for somebody today), she encountered God and her story changed. I pray as you have come before the presence of God this morning, God will encounter you or you will encounter God and your story will change in the mighty name of Jesus.
In James 1: 4, the Bible says “But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing”. During the morning dew this morning, our pastor made a presentation, and along the line they said, look, if you have Jesus, even without any other thing, he said, you have everything, but let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and entire, (entire means complete), wanting nothing.
Ruth was another Bible hero who went through thick and thin to demonstrate loyalty and commitment to her mother in law. She walked against all odds but she remained consistent, consistently consistent, and she was duly rewarded at the appropriate time. When you get to Ruth 1: 16, when the mother-in-law said, look, you can go, there’s nothing I can do, go, I’ve been faithful, but the lady said, wherever you go, and Ruth said, entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.
And if you go to Ruth 4:13, it says, “So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife: and when he went unto her, the Lord gave her conception, and she bare a son”. I pray in the mighty name of Jesus, for as many of you that will walk with God consistently from today, every of your heart desire the Lord will grant unto you.
The three Hebrews demonstrated consistency in their walk with God, even in the face of death, they held tenaciously to their faith in God and He proved Himself their lives. Isaac, in our text, never gave up until he arrived at the point of his destiny. The Bible says he dug the well, he was stopped; he went and dug another well, he was stopped, but he went to another place, he was stopped, but do you know he never threw in the towel?
There are many of us today that are stagnated because we easily throw in the towel, we give up too easily. Many of us will have been higher than we are today, but because we lack that spirit of consistency, we want it done now; many have taken to crime because of desire to get it fast. Isaac was crossed on every side, he was doing well when Abimelech said look, you have to leave here, you are mightier than us; he suffered envy, he suffered oppression, he suffered deprivation, if I may say, he suffered robbery. They said they dug a particular well that gave them a spring of water, but guess what, these people came, they said it’s our fathers land, he never entertained depression.
There are many of you today, any little thing I am depressed, where did you get depression from? People throwing up themselves into the lagoon, is nothing but the spirit of evil; everything that will make you to think negative of yourself and about your future is the spirit of Esek. And I decree this morning that every spirit of Esek in your life, the Lord will take away in Jesus name,
You must have this ‘can do’ attitude; in Daniel, 11:32, the Bible says they that know their God shall be strong, “And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits”; Isaac was a strong man, Ruth was a strong woman, so don’t think that it’s only men that are designed to be strong, women too can be strong.
‘I’m a woman of weaker vessel’, who told you? When it comes to money, will you accept that argument? Why can’t we just tell ourselves the truth, when it comes to money, when it comes to power, today we are still talking about government, you must give us affirmation, 50% affirmation, but when it comes to performance, you’ll say I’m a woman little vessel, if I hear that again, let somebody shout Hallelujah! They that know their God shall be strong and do exploit for God.
The James 1: 4 we read before, it says, “But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing”; and I want to say that patience in this scripture is defined as steadfastness, constancy, endurance, consistency and steadfastness, we produce a harvest where we find ourselves complete and lacking nothing. And I want to say that consistency, brethren, is a bedrock of success and fruitfulness, you want to be fruitful, you’ve got to be consistent; it is synonymous with positive attitude and values, because failure and discouragement cannot stand in the way of a consistent fellow.
Job was another consistent Bible hero, he said, even though he slay me, yet will I trust in him; in another place, he said, I will wait until my change comes and Habakkuk says, vision is for the appointed time, it might be delayed, you need consistency, you must wait, waiting involves patience, waiting calls for constancy and steadfastness.
What are the benefits of consistency?
Number one, it fast tracks growth and progress, John 15:4.
Number two, it enhances productivity and brings us close to God, the same Bible quotation is relevant, and like I said, to abide means to endure without yielding, to remain stable and continue in a place. In fact, Hebrews 10:36 put it in another very fine way, it says, “For you have need of patience, that, after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise”. I pray that from today, you will receive divine promises in the name of Jesus Christ.
Number three, it helps focus and speed. Once you know where you are going, you don’t look right and left, you gaze straight and you go straight. For Isaac, he was never distracted, each time they came, he moved, until he got to the place of his destiny.
Another benefit is that it promotes the efficacy and sincerity of purpose.
Another one is that it helps to preserve energy and resources, and why? Because you are focused, a focused man does not dissipate energy on frivolities, they face where they are going. Galatians 6: 9, it says, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not”; you go straight and help you to preserve energy and resources.
Number six, it is one of the nuggets for success, and I want to challenge us today to confront your battles however daunting, and bear in mind that those who run away from battles will never get the testimony of victory. It is those who wait, fight and win that come to the church to say, this was what happened, I faced it, and God gave me victory. I pray that victory shall be your portion from today in Jesus name.
So this morning, I want to encourage us to consistently work on ourselves, maintain an unbroken fellowship, have a tangible plan of action, and I want to say this that you need to also remember that feelings and thoughts are temporary, they won’t take you anywhere.
Do one thing at a time, so that a better you can emerge; be consistent in your efforts at improving your marriage, work on your marriage. A man said he looked, it appears greener on the other side until you get there, sometimes before you know that it’s not even as green as the one you have, don’t take your spouse for granted. Many of us, we take ourselves for granted, especially church people, ‘there is nothing he can do, there is nowhere he can go’, work on your marriage consistently to make it better.
Work on your work, the Bible says, whatever your hands findeth to do, do it with all your might. There are many of us, we want blessings of God, we want this, you are meant to resume at 8 but you come by 12; you are meant to close by 5, but often time, 3, you have left the place, and you still want to come and lift your holy hands in one accord, who is deceiving who?
Work on your faith: we can know God the more, we can serve God the more, Apostle Paul notwithstanding his relationship, he was still striving, he said that I want to know Him; he wants to know more about God. When you work on all these things, I can assure you, fulfilling destiny will not be a difficult thing.
And I want to beg us this morning that you should also work and adjust your mindset; some of us, the problem we have is our mindset, there are some young people, they rely on their parents, in fact, some are praying that their parents should die so that they can lay hold of what the man has, we are not going to die, we will live our lives to the fullest, go and work for your own. If your daddy had waited, your mommy had stayed the way you are staying, today, they won’t be where they are, the thing you are waiting for to inherit, it will not be there.
Those of you that are paying that your mother should die, your daddy should die, so that the inheritance will be yours, they will not die, because of your ojukokoro, God will prolong their lives, they will live 100, they will live 120, oju e a wa ja.
Conceive something nice and begin to work on it. From today, my prayer for you is that God will reward your consistent positive commitment, you will not fail nor falter in Jesus name.
In summary, consistency is the bridge between goals and achievements; every little effort repeated over time builds the pathway to success or fruitfulness. It is not necessarily about perfection, but persistence, each step, no matter how little adds up and takes you further; embrace the journey, trust the process and remember that even the strongest tree grows slowly; the big Iroko started small and it grows slowly, it’s rooted steady with care.
Be fully aware that your daily actions shape your future, stay committed, focus, and let your unwavering dedication lead you to greatness. Key into consistent positive investment and watch your dream(s) unfold. If we have consistency in our spiritual life, we will also have the most important constant in life – God, He never fails.
Shall we rise on our feet; John 15: 4 makes it very clear that God is the strength of every man, God is the foundation of our success, God is the foundation of our fruitfulness, if you don’t have Him, you have no foundation, and any structure put in a foundationless or a place without foundation, is a matter of time it will collapse.
So I want us to bow down our heads this morning… I want you to pray, if you have not given your life to Christ, tell God this morning, Lord, I want to bring my life to You, I’ve seen this morning that without You I can do nothing, Father, come into my life, I invite You from today, take hold of me, work with me, work on me, work through me, take my heart, Lord Almighty God, and dwell there.
And the rest of us that have given our life to Christ, I want you to pray this morning that God will give you the grace to be consistent in your walk with God, in your professional pursuit, in the betterment of your marriage, in the betterment of your work, in every area that you need growth and development, pray to God this morning that God Almighty will bestow you with that virtue of consistency in the name of Jesus.
Open your mouth and talk to God, this is not the time to be looking sideways, it’s a time that God wants to have a word with you, God wants to have a communion with you, and guess what, God is repackaging us purposely to make us better, He has brought us here today so that we can be back with the value of consistency, and there is no way you will be consistent – I mentioned a whole lot of names, Isaac, he was never deterred by the distractions that came his way, he overcame. So pray to God this morning that Father, don’t let me go back the same way I came, every spirit of flip-flop – some people will tell you what to do today, tomorrow they abandon it, moving from one business to the other, Jack of all trade, master of nothing, pray to God, God help me, give me focus from today, make me steady in every aspect of my life, because consistency has to do with positivity.
But if you have not given your life to Christ, pray to God this morning, come and be the foundation of my life, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
[Altar call]
Father in heaven, we just want to say thank You for Your word that have been spoken, we give you all the glory, accept our thanks in Jesus name. Thank You for those who have saved, thank You because You are consistent in love and Your mercy, we pray oh Lord, that out of Your consistent love and principles and mercy, You will redeem these ones in Jesus name.
And Lord, for the rest of us that heard Your word today, every ‘Ts’ that need to be crossed and every ‘Is’ that need to be dotted so that we can walk the path of consistency that will make our life fruitful and meaningful, grant unto us in Jesus name. And we pray that the word we share today will not in any way stand against us on the Day of Judgment, blessed be the name of the Lord forever, in Jesus name we have prayed.
