Brethren, in line with the wordings of that song, I just want us to individually go before the Lord this morning and appreciate Him for His goodness, for His kindness, for His faithfulness and for His grace in our lives. Paul said is by the grace of God that I am what I am today, and I believe very strongly that the same applies to each and every one of us; let’s appreciate Him, let’s thank Him, today is the 12th day in the month of January and by His grace we are standing, we owe it to God; as young as the year is, quite a lot has happened and a lot is still happening, but let’s appreciate God for not allowing us to be part of the victims of the year so far, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
I want you to ask God this morning that Father, speak to me today, give me a specific word today, give me something to take back home today and let it be a blessing to my life in the name of Jesus. Open your mouth and pray to God; Father, I don’t just want to come like other days, speak to me in a very clear manner today, give me something specific, something beneficial to take back home today and let it be a blessing to my life in the name of Jesus; thank You for everything, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
Father in heaven we want to say thank You; thank You because unto You shall all flesh come, Lord Almighty God we are here again this morning and we are here for You, Father, we pray that You will just do what only You can do in Jesus name. We have no power of our own Lord, we look up to You for help, Father all through this year help us in Jesus name; health-wise, help us in Jesus name; family wise, help us in the name of Jesus; in the spiritual front, Lord help us in Jesus name; economically, we cannot survive without Your help, Lord please let Your help come through for us in Jesus name; treat us nice, have Your way in our lives and glorify Your name.
Once again we ask of You Lord, because we have come to You and not to any man, do something special for us today, and at the end of everything You will take all the glory, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed. Praise the Lord! Praise the living Jesus!
Good morning church, welcome to the presence of God today; once again, my prayer is that God will bless you mightily in the name of Jesus, God bless you. By the grace of God, tomorrow we’ll be having our prayer chain, time is 6:30, endeavor to be part of it; the theme is ‘When God Visits’, Genesis 21: 1& 2; when God visits, He leaves you with a smile; whenever God visits, He leaves miracle on His trail; whenever God visits, there’s always a transformation, I pray in the name of Jesus that every day of your life this year you will enjoy God’s visitation in the name of Jesus.
Acts of Apostles 3: 1 – 5, as we try to turn our Bible to that, let me remind you that the mission prayer and fasting programs kicked off yesterday and I want to encourage you as usual to do your best and do it in line with the principles of the scriptures; the whole essence of fasting is beyond abstinence from food and fluid (if you want to say), but it also calls for self-restraint and self discipline, and discipline should be part of our daily lives if we must make progress this year, the Lord will help us in Jesus name; do it to the best of your ability.
Acts 3: 1 – 5, “Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. 2And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; 3Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. 4And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, look on us. 5And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. (Let’s take verse six) 6Then Peter said, silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. (Let’s take seven) 7And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones receive strength”. May God bless the reading and the hearing of His words in the name of Jesus.
By the grace of God, this morning I’ll be talking to us on the topic “The Power in Your Action”, and for the purpose of a better understanding, I want to define the two keywords in the topic namely power and action: power is the ability or capacity to do something or to act in a particular way; power can also be seen as the capacity or the ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the cause of event; while action is the act or process of doing something, typically in order to achieve the desired goals; action speaks louder than voice, according to that popular lingo.
The power of your action is therefore your ability to take timely steps towards the accomplishment of the said objectives, and by the way, your action(s) reflect who you really are; in other words, actions are a source of your identity – a man can be identified, a woman can be identified by his/her action, what makes the difference in the lives of other people around us is basically not what we see but rather what we do, and that is what some people may want to refer as what we call ‘set example’.
Brethren, the only way to create change is to take that first step however small it may be, and it goes with that saying that taking action requires courage and persistence; it means facing uncertainty and of course in some cases embracing discomfort; it means being willing to fail and learning from the errors, yet it is precisely through these challenges that we grow and evolve as individuals. It’s often said that the greatest risk in life is in not taking risk at all, because in that case you are perpetually stagnated and you remain on the spot, so therefore, if you feel stuck or unsure of how to progress towards your goal, then remember this simple truth that action changes behavior and not the other way around, suffice to say that you must take action if you want to bring about a change.
People of God, I want to challenge every one of us this morning that there is tremendous power in our actions; when you embrace the power of doing, you will see as your life transforms before your own eyes. You need to align your words, your thoughts and confession with action in order for you to achieve the desired outcome.
In Nehemiah 1: 1 (downward), those of you who are familiar with the story of Nehemiah, he did not just wish to rebuild the broken walls of Jerusalem and restore the glory of the land by a mere wishful thinking, you’ll find out that he personally led and superintended over the rebuilding efforts; according to the Bible, he equipped and galvanized the people such that it took them only 52 days to put up a wall that have been in Rome for many years.
Many of us are where we are today in view of our inability to match actions with our desires, nothing good comes easy, action is required to bring the least of stuff or ideas into fruition, and that’s why I want to challenge every one of us today to rise beyond in action so that we can be exactly what God wants us to be in this new year. The graveyards are full of unexplored potential and great ideas, it is an offense (that’s the way I put it) – it is an offense to go back to God with those great talents and potentials unutilized.
You need to bear in mind that nobody was created to be poor, if you are poor, I need you to know today that you are not created to be poor, help me tell your neighbor ‘you are not created to be poor’, and none is permitted to fail; the Bible tells me that we are created for signs and wonders, you are created to be fruitful and multiply according to Genesis 1: 28, and God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth; that is the power that God has vested on mankind.
When you watch these wild animals channels you’ll see how a small lion, a small leopard will chase a buffalo, take it down and begin to eat it; you’ll see a leopard taking down a warthog and taking it to the top of a tree to go and feast on it; I don’t know whether it’s a taboo for a leopard to eat on the ground, I’ve never seen that kind of animal in my life, it will take down antelope, takes it up, sometimes it will take it up they will be falling and it will be going it will fall, but it will now pieces it and start taking it bit by bit; you see lions taking down all manner of animals and there’s one animal that I discovered, they call it honey badger, that one can fight any snake, in fact it will fight lion to a standstill, I’ve never seen a lion being able to kill a honey badger and what am I driving at, in that area you will see human beings with their moving vehicle, it has no cover, these animals will not come and touch them, as wild as they are, as terrible as they are, in fact sometime when you see the vehicle trying to come near them they will run – dominion, that is what God has given to you.
So you were never created to be poor, so if you are poor something got to be done this year; you are not permitted to fail, if you have failed before, something got to be done about it this year.
I think I’ve shared it here: one of my lecturers those days, (some of you would have encountered him in accounting class) he would tell you, you fail to pass you don’t pass to fail, and one time we had to clarify, then he explained that the day you pass you can’t fail again, the exam you pass will you go and rewrite it, something must be wrong because if you go there you may fail, but once you have that clearance that I have passed this exam, God forbid that I will go and rewrite it again.
Some of the things they taught us in school, if they ask us to come and write now how many of you think you will pass, with all the stress, all your jumping here and there; even those of you who are lawyers, the sections you know now are those ones that you use in the talk most of the time, and often time before you go for any case you go and read – either you read directly or you read by proxy, lawyers are fond of getting those young lawyers busy, go and read, go and study this then you do the summary and bring. I told one of my lawyers, I said so this is what you do, he said before nko, praise the Lord! And on the morning they will see the young guy carrying the bag, following the SAN, but the man has paid his dues anyway, but the truth of the matter is that if they ask you come and write even ordinary school cert, I’m not sure many people will pass, we the adults will pass though, but professionally it might be tough because some of the principles have changed, things keep evolving, so you are not created to fail, and by the grace of God failure will become a thing of the past in your life in Jesus name; you are not created to be poor, with effect from today poverty will become a thing of the past in the name of Jesus.
Peter, in our text, spoke to the lame man at the Beautiful gate, he said silver and gold we have none, but what we have we give unto you, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk; however, Peter received the greatest shock of his life seeing the lame man define his declaration; this is the same Peter who had been with Jesus, he has seen Jesus issue orders, make declarations and instantly there will be compliance. Sunday school of today, (after this service Sunday school will come up) we were told about the woman who had only one son in the land of Nin, as he was going Jesus saw him, he was the only son, Jesus had compassion and spoke to him and he got up, so many instances, and Peter was trying to demonstrate that, and he was full of faith and power of the Holy Spirit, he told the man, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk and the man was looking and Peter said you will not disgrace us, before you disgrace us we will disgrace you, he went in, grabbed the man and he said you will rise, and the Bible made it clear that he rose up and that was the end of his problem.
Brethren, we must learn to get to the action point in order to fulfill destiny; that action point is missing and the time has come for us to be aware that after prayer, after everything comes that action point. The same Peter in Luke 5: 1 – 7, when he lent his boat to Jesus and Jesus Christ told him let down your net, he said Oga, we fished all through the night we didn’t catch anything, we’ve been to the deepest of the places nothing has happened, but when Jesus said it again he let down his net and of course that was his biggest catch ever.
So I’m sure he must have reasoned that look, this Man, I remember when Jesus Christ said I should do something, I did, miracle followed, so you must obey, he backed up the word of God and the question today for every one of us this year is how serious and committed are you to backing up the words of God and your noble desires with concrete actions by way of concerted efforts and perseverance in year 2025?
This morning, a presentation of vision was made to workers and ministers during the workers meeting, Habakkuk says write the vision on the table, write it let it be clear and work with it. In Proverbs 22: 29, the Bible says seest thou a man that is diligent in his business, (it says) he shall stand before kings and he shall not stand before mean men.
Brethren, you still have a long way to go and I can see a glorious future waiting for your actions so that you can enter into your greatness; the seed of greatness is in you but action is needed to harness it. In Romans 8:19, the Bible says the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God; you need to manifest and dramatize your innate strength and ability. There are many great men and women in our contemporary society who started as nobody but who through consistent positive actions, laced with a positive attitude have risen to the pinnacle of their career or business calling and yours will not be an exception, and it is never too late for you to start, there is a saying ‘if the best time to do a thing was 20 years ago, the second best time is now’, you can make it, I can make it and by His grace we will make it in the mighty name of Jesus.
However, you must cast your sleep of ease away, believe me brethren, prayer is crucial but action must be intense and consistent, positive actions gear towards productive endeavor; our declaration for the month, the scripture backing it in Proverbs 23: 18 says for surely there is an end and the expectations of the righteous shall not be cut off, we pray to God that your expectations shall not be cut off this year in Jesus name, but you need to back it up with action, He has empowered us to make wealth, your wealth is lying fallow untapped, and if you fail to do it your neighbor will take it and jealousy will set it, please don’t give room for jealousy this year, and how do you shut the door against jealousy, is simply by acting now; today if you hear His voice, the Bible says harden not your heart needless I say more, take this little step; take the little step, focus on something meaningful in this year, create smart goals for yourself this year.
It was like they saw my note this morning when we got to work meeting where Pastor Mbulu was sharing with us on the need to create smart goals for yourself this year; after receiving the prophecies brethren, there is a need to work it out, there’s a doing aspect of it. James 1:22, it says but be ye doers of the word, and not hearers alone, deceiving your own selves; in those days when they want to describe somebody who is poor, the poorest of the poor in the society, they will say is as poor as a church rat, you know that is an insult, and somebody said that has changed, that got to change, that was when people were living in ignorance, claiming prophecies without working, ‘it is written of me my God shall supply my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus’, but work, they don’t have, they stay at the back of the church, everybody has gone to work they are there, in the morning they are there, in the afternoon they are there, in the evening they are there, when it is time for evening service, they will now come to those who went to work and start asking bro, I’ve not eaten since morning, owo ti o ba sise o ni jeun, whosoever that does not work shall not eat.
So after receiving the prophecies ‘is our year of great expectations’, and I can assure you that is what God has in store for us, you will not see the rain nor see the winds but yet your valleys will be filled with water, you will have more than enough to eat, you will have more than enough to drink, however, you need to work because God is going to bless the work of your hands, if you have nothing in your hands what is God going to bless? So after claiming the prophecies, there’s need to work it out, there’s a doing part of it; this year you can start a new business, you can start a new vocation, your age is not a barrier, you can take on short courses for personal development, thank God for internet, you can offer courses of different – some of them are even tuition free, some you pay, even when you pay or you don’t pay you learn new things, you develop yourself, you can decide to become a better person and every one of us must take that decision.
I saw a story online in the course of this last week, one of the Nollywood practitioners – a lady, she said she was known for bad character; she said I’m known for bad character, they know me; when you talk about anger, I’m there; when you talk about drunkenness, I’m there; when you talk about fighting in the public space, I’m there; when it comes to immorality; she said but I made up my mind that from the day I get married, God, I want to change, she said and God has been faithful. She said she was now trying to caution people that are throwing up some of her old videos, the clips of some of her previous negative exposures and all the rest, she was begging them that please, allow me to have peace, truly I used to be very bad, I used to be this I used to be that, she said since she got married, anytime something is about to get her angry she will remember, sorry I’ve said I will never be angry again, anytime that thing is telling her drink, she will say you know I resolve I will not drink again; she said now I’m married, I have a child, my boy is growing; she was begging them, please don’t pollute the air for this young boy, let him grow so that he can have his sanity. She said yes, all those behaviors I manifested them in the past but I’m a changed person.
I want to beg all of us, listen to me this morning, try to be a better you, do away with stealing, do away with anger, do away with unforgiveness, do away with immorality, commit your life onto God’s hand, no man can help himself but God can help us; do away with laziness, do away with competition, when you begin to compete, the man you are competing with you don’t know his source, you don’t know his strength, you want to be like him, you want to drive his type of car, whether the car he’s driving was given to him you are not sure; if there must be any competition at all this year let it be a competition with yourself, strive to be a better you, is a New Year, let it be part of your expectations that I will be a better me, I want to be a better version of who I was in 2024 and guess what, the Bible says if we delight ourselves in God, we trust in Him, we commit everything unto Him, He has the capacity to bring it to pass.
If you are struggling you’ll say it is because many of us are not acting, is either we are not acting at all or we are not acting enough; that man said you fail to pass and he was encouraging us, you know those days when ICAN exams was released, you will go, once your name is not there you know you are out of it, so we’ll come again, start lectures immediately and the man will try to calm down all the other people in the class, you see don’t worry, this is a going concern, nobody’s going to chase you out so long as you attend lectures, in fact we pray you attend lectures so that at least we can get some money from you, the ICAN is there they want to make some money too; he said don’t worry, it’s a going concern, you fail to pass because the day you pass you will not fail again and that gave us a kind of tonic and motivation to continue and we’ll tell ourselves we fail to pass; a lot of people once they try and it’s not jelly they leave it, they say I cannot kill myself, you will never make progress.
When I came to Lagos I couldn’t speak English, wherever I went people thought I was gentle but I was not really gentle, the constraint I had was that I had communication problem, I didn’t want to speak and make mistakes, so because of that I kept to myself and they will say he’s a gentle man and inside of me… I went to an evening class, I went to exam success, (how many of you remember exam success somewhere in Palmgroove); I will buy all the newspapers, I will buy Sketch, Concord, Daily Times and I’ll be reading, then NTA news I will not miss it, I will go and sit down, look at the way they were – everywhere they thought I was gentle because I was doing like this, but today am I not speaking here?
There is need for a doing, there is need for action, if you fold your arms and only pray – you see, that is one of the major problem of the church, church people and that’s why they were referring to the poorest of the poor as church rats, that narrative has changed and it has changed for life and you must make it become a thing of the past in the mighty name of Jesus.
So as I round up this morning, procrastination is a thief of time, there is time for everything according to Ecclesiastes 3: 1 – 3, stop wasting your time because time waits for nobody; every day lost is like a treasure thrown into the lagoon; my prayer for all of you today is that God will endow you with the much needed wisdom to turn things around and empower you to make the most of your blessing this year in the mighty name of Jesus.
2nd Chronicles 1: 10, it says give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people: for who can judge this thy people, that is so great; that was the submission of the man called Solomon, he said give me now wisdom and knowledge that I may go out, he was not going to receive wisdom and knowledge and stay put, he was going to receive wisdom and knowledge and go out, and brethren, let me tell you something, embedded in wisdom is peace.
Solomon married 700 wives and 300 concubines, but how many of you watched this program called ‘Fuji House of Commotion’, how many wives did they have in house of commotion? Four wives, trouble every day, but in Solomon’s house did you ever read that they were fighting? Did you ever read that they boxed themselves? Embedded in wisdom is peace, embedded in wisdom is abundance, embedded in wisdom is prosperity; receive the wisdom, receive the knowledge, wisdom comes from God, knowledge is a function of action, shall we rise on our feet.
God will redeem the time for you this year, every lost opportunity shall be restored, every lost talent will be restored, every idea that have been buried will be resuscitated and God will help you to move forward in the mighty name of Jesus.
Let’s bow our heads and talk to God this morning, Father, give me the power to act, power for action, power to step out; this is the beginning of a new year, your story must not remain the same by September, your story must not remain the same by the end of the first half of this year. Pray to God, give me the power to act, in every area, help me to take positive action in the mighty name of Jesus; everything holding me down, everything holding me back – laziness, distractions, Father Almighty God, please take away.
God will not come and do for you what He has empowered you to do, Father help me to play my own part gloriously in the name of Jesus, and the wisdom of God from above, may you all receive in Jesus name.
[Altar call]
Father in heaven, once again we want to say thank You for Your word that You have sent to us, we have heard Your word this morning and we believe Lord that everyone has been spoken to, Lord we ask that You will make our heart receptive to Your words in Jesus name. The grace to step out in our might from today and make impact in a larger society, grant unto us in Jesus name; the grace to act positively in the area of a better spiritual walk with You; the grace to act in the area of improving in every area of our lives, in the area of doing well in our academics, in the area of making progress in our marital relationship and every space, that the Lord will grant unto us in Jesus name; we will not be guilty of His word, and when next I hear from you it shall be good news; thank You Father because You have answered, unto You we commit each and every one of us, please help us in Jesus name and take all the glory, in Jesus matchless name we have prayed.
