Our Father in heaven, we bless Your holy name, You are God all by Yourself, You are the Captain of our ship, the only One that can still the storm; You have done it before, You are doing it now, You will do it again and again. We are here this morning, Father, because we knew that You will be here and You are here already with us, glory be to Your name forever more.
We thank You, Lord, for Your visitation in time past; we thank You, oh Lord, for Your visitation even this day; thank You for the word that You have prepared for us, Father Lord, please let the word find root in our lives in the name of Jesus; let there be fulfillment and manifestation of Your power in our lives in the mighty name of Jesus.
And Father we pray Lord, every raging storm in our lives, today there shall be a calm in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank You, blessed Redeemer, in Jesus, wonderful name, Lord, we prayed. Praise the living Jesus!
I welcome you brethren to the household of God, the Lord bless you this morning in Jesus mighty name, I want to acknowledge God, the Sunday School this morning actually tells us I’m standing here because His breathe is in me, is in you, that’s why we are all here, Father, I thank You.
I’d also like to appreciate our father in the LORD, the APICR, for this privilege that I have, and I pray that the Lord Almighty shall continually make him fruitful in Jesus name. Praise God!
I want to invite everyone here this morning to the Prayer Chain tomorrow; Prayer Chain, for those who do not know, is our Monday evening prayer meeting, it starts at 6:30, we do it every Monday except if advised otherwise; the theme for tomorrow is ‘Possessing your Possession’, Obadiah 1: 17, praise the living Jesus!
Also, before going into the word, I’d like to say or identify with this is our helps weekend in the Redeemed Christian Church of God, it started on Thursday through Friday, on Friday, we had a prayer night watch (vigil), it was part of the helps weekend, and then it concludes this morning. The theme for this year is ‘Kingdom, Investments’; by the grace of God, as we go through the message this morning, I’ll touch on that, we may not be able to take it in the full depth as it is, praise the living Jesus!
We have a few passages this morning, turn with me first 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”. 3rd John 2, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth”. And finally, Mark 4: 35 – 41, “And the same day, when he even was come, he saith unto them, let us pass over unto the other side. And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him”? Praise the living Jesus!
My prayer this morning is that every raging storm in your life, every wind that is blowing contrary to progress, they will hear the Word of God, they will be still in the name of Jesus, and there will be calm in your lives in Jesus mighty name.
The title for our message this morning is ‘There Shall be a Calm’. There are two parts to this message: this month of September has been declared our month of fruitfulness, so I will link that to this passage by the grace of God, hallelujah! You know when we talk about fruitfulness, brethren, we need to look at it in the wholesome; when we talk about fruitfulness, it’s a pronoun from the word fruitful, and it means to be productive, to prosper, to fulfill set objectives.
So fruitfulness therefore, is the act of being fruitful, it express itself at different levels in man. As you will see in the Sunday School, man, we are composed of body, soul and spirit, so if we are talking about fruitfulness, and it is not at the different levels, it is not fruitfulness completely, Praise God!
So we will quickly just briefly look at fruitfulness in your body, this is usually expressed in material things, financial achievements, in the things we see, in wealth and all that. If you look at the Parable of the Talent, there were three servants; one received a talent, one received two, one received five; two of them were fruitful because they used the talents and doubled it, and they got more, they had more wealth. The one who had five, brought additional five to make it ten; the one who had two, brought additional two to make it four, and the one who had one had nothing, so technically speaking, you’ll say one was not fruitful, but the others were fruitful,
In Exodus 1: 7, the Bible says that the children of Israel were fruitful in Egypt, even in the midst of hardship; they were so fruitful that Egyptians were afraid of them, these are physical fruitfulness, fruitfulness in our bodies. In Genesis 26, the Bible tells us that in the same land where everybody sowed and there was nothing because of famine, Isaac sowed and he had a hundredfold return, that is physical fruitfulness, hallelujah!
I pray this morning, that as many of us who desires physical fruitfulness, the Lord Almighty will visit us in the mighty name of Jesus.
Then fruitfulness of the soul; this is fruitfulness in the mind, mental fruitfulness, the mind is the center of emotions, the control of emotions, where creativity, where achievements generate from, where ideas come from. It’s a situation where your mind can produce or create something good, which in turn now create results. Your mind can conceive an idea and then the idea becomes a vehicle, but then you will hear some people say I don’t even have ideas, I can’t think – that is fruitfulness is the soul for the one who can conceive ideas, and those who say I can’t think of anything, that fruitfulness at that level is not there, I pray that the Lord Almighty will inspire us all in the mighty name of Jesus, and we will have fruitfulness in Jesus mighty name.
It’s also mental wellness, mental balance, 2nd Timothy 1: 7, the Bible says God has not given us a spirit of fear; but a spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind; if there is anyone here whose life is been taken over by fear, I decree in the name that’s above every other name, the Lord will release unto you the spirit of power, of love and of a sound mind, and He will banish fear in the mighty name of Jesus.
It is also where wisdom comes from, in 2nd Chronicles 1: 9 – 12, Solomon went to God and said please I need wisdom, the Bible tells us that God gave him so much that there was nobody in his time and even today that is as wise as Solomon, fruitfulness in the soul.
Then the third one is fruitfulness in the spirit, this is spiritual fruitfulness and we can look at it from two perspectives, the Bible tell us in Galatians 5: 22 & 23, “And the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith and meekness, temperance: against this there is no law”, praise the living Jesus! I pray that the Lord will bless you with this level of fruitfulness in the name of Jesus.
And then the second dimension to that fruitfulness of the Spirit is in John 15: 16, the Bible says that ye have not chosen Me, I have chosen you and ordained you that you should bring forth fruit. The fruit that He’s talking about here is the spiritual fruit, and that spiritual fruit is the fruit of soul winning, the fruit of souls, fruit from evangelism, fruit from your prayers, so that whatsoever you ask the Lord in His name, He will give to you, praise the living Jesus!
Now brethren, somebody will say, okay, I’m rich, I don’t bother about this; many times, we often limit ourselves to the fruitfulness in the first category, that is the body, mo ti hammer, I’ve made it, if somebody has made it and the person is mentally derailed the next minute, what is the use of making it? 2nd Corinthians 4: 8 tells us that why we do not look at things that are seen, we must put our gaze at things that are not seen, because the things that are seen are temporal and the things that are not seen are eternal.
Many of these things, fruitfulness in the body are things that are physical – I’ve bought a new car, look at the key to my new car – physical, it’s time is limited, also its value is limited, hallelujah!
The fruitfulness of the soul is better than material fruitfulness, but the best of it is the spiritual fruitfulness. For example, a poor man who has a sound mind and who has the spirit of God is much better than the one that has the whole world but does not know Jesus, praise God. So in terms of ranking, I will put the spiritual fruitfulness first and this is where we must be, this is what we must seek after, amen.
3rd John 2 tells us that my desire is that you will prosper well, in your body, in your soul and in your spirit, God wants us to have all round fruitfulness, do not lay your treasure here on earth because it can be destroyed; you remember Lazarus and the rich man, do not put too much emphasis on physical fruitfulness because it can develop wings also and fly. Job, you know the story of Job, let us be rich towards God; remember the story of the rich fool, I have made it now, I can rest, I can go on vacation, go to Bahamas, go anywhere forever, and God said not so quick, because this was not why I blessed you and he was taken that same night. The Lord will give us the presence of mind to understand fruitfulness at the different levels and to pursue them, particularly spiritual fruitfulness.
And when we talk about the ‘Kingdom Investments’, which is the theme of the helps weekend, you’ll see there are number of things, a couple of things that we can do to be fruitful spiritually; deep yourself in the Word of God, seek yourself to know God, accept Him first as Lord and Savior, dig yourself in the word, pray, fast, do good works and make God your all in all, and you will begin to see that passage in John 15: 16 will begin to apply for you. I pray for you, I pray for myself, because God wants us to be fruitful at all levels, none of you will lack in anyone in the mighty name of Jesus.
And if there is anyone here today who is saying what are they even talking about, I don’t even have any, the truth is that there’s nobody that doesn’t have any, you only need to activate it and it will come to you in the mighty name of Jesus.
Now we’ve looked at fruitfulness as God has pronounced it unto us, but brethren, you know the reality, Genesis 1: 28, God has pronounced fruitfulness; 3rd John 2, God also says this is what I want in your life, but the reality is that it doesn’t happen that way, just like that, often times there’s a force, there’s a power, there’s an influence that say, oh God has chosen to bless you, let us see how it will happen and this is where the storm of life comes in. Storm is a force, an influence, a power that can distract the course of your journey vehemently, violently, such that the only thing the person will be thinking about is survival rather than keeping in tandem with the journey of life.
There are many people that are going through the storms of life here, either through, sicknesses, either through financial stress, if you have to think about where the next meal is coming from, is it that person that will be thinking about fulfilling destiny? You are thinking survival, and what we are going through in the present economy does not even help matters, even when people are already crying, last week, then they said 40% or 45% additional fuel price and then costs, of course, went up again – storm of life.
But brethren, I would like to say to you, it does not matter what the storm is, it does not matter where it comes from, because Jesus is the Captain of the ship, you will arrive safely at your destinations. I want to say it again, it does not matter how terrible the storm may be, it does not matter how life threatening it may be, for as long as Jesus Christ is in your boat, you will fulfill your destiny, you will reach your goals in life in the mighty name of Jesus.
Let’s look at the few lessons from that passage and then we pray, and by the grace of God there will be calm your lives, that turbulence, that thing always ringing in your head – every time you see a certain phone call, you know they are coming to ask for their money and you don’t have it yet, anytime you see somebody shadow, you’ll think they’ve come for you, from today, how He will do it I do not know, but there shall be calm in the mighty name of Jesus.
Brethren, the first thing is that if you study that scripture well, the storm that the disciples and Jesus Christ experienced came immediately after a successful revival, if you are doing the will of God regularly and always, and you are causing heaven to rejoice all the time, the devil cannot be happy with you. If you are a child of God, you are a carrier of God’s promises already, you are a child of God, even if you are not seeing it yet, the devil already sees it that this will happen, so he brings issues, great storms, so that the person will be distracted, will be dealing with something else rather than focusing on the journey of life, and will be unable to fulfill destiny, that’s how the devil operates.
The story in the Book of Job is instructive; Job was living his life normally with his family, and the devil came and said let me divert him. It took Job 42 before he became restored, praise the living Jesus! In Numbers 23 & 25, the children of Israel were doing the will of God until Balaam and Balak said how can we distract them, and then they moved them and they offended God and God Himself dealt with them. In the storm of life, I pray for you that you will not depart from the will of God in the mighty name of Jesus, the enemy will not have his final say on you in the mighty name of Jesus.
Please brethren, don’t ever settle, even if there’s nothing here to show that you are fruitful, if you are a child of God, the seed of fruitfulness is in you, you are a promise in the making, don’t deny yourself, the storm will rage, that is the work of Satan, hallelujah!
Second lesson here is that Jesus and His disciples were crossing to the other end, they were going from one point to another, this is a picture of how our life is – everything that we do brethren, is going from one point to another; I’m a student, I want to become a graduate; I’m a single man, I want to become married; I’m an employee, I want to become an employer of labour; I’m a worker, I want to become the pastor and the G.O, praise the living Jesus! From one point, we are moving to the other; it is normal in life that you want to move from one point to the other, just as Jesus and His disciples were moving, praise the living Jesus!
It may not play out as simple as from one point to the other, even some people would do a diversion and eventually get to where they are going, but that’s what life is about, I want to tell you brethren that God knows your journey, God knows where you are and where you are going to, Revelation 1: 8 tells us that He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, and because God is the Alpha and Omega, His eyes is over you in the mighty name of Jesus.
Third point, the disciples thought they were just moving from one point to the other – direct journey, 45 minutes we’ll be there, wait for us (as many of us do – I’m coming, in 30 minutes I will be there, straight and direct journey), but they did not know that something was waiting and it came to affect their journey.
Like many of us set out, ‘in 3 years time, I will become a Chartered Accountant; in 5 years time, I would have finished my housemanship and I will be this and that’; supposedly seamless journey, then something comes and creates a distraction. Brethren, life is full of surprises, these surprises can make your journey longer or make it more interesting in terms of ups and downs; the day the children of Israel left Egypt, Exodus 12, they were rejoicing, they did not know the Red Sea was waiting for them in Exodus 14, they didn’t see it, they may not have seen it but God saw it.Joseph had a dream of a lofty future but he did not see the pit, he did not see Potiphar’s house, he did not see the prison, hallelujah!
But I’m saying to you brethren, you are moving from one point to the other, it doesn’t matter what you are going through, you may not have seen it, God sees it. Matthew 13: 25 b- 30 say while men slept, the evil one came and sow tears, but God said He will rebuke them; everything in your journey that is a baggage, the Lord Almighty will take them away in the mighty name of Jesus.
Number four, the storm might have caught the disciples unawares, but Jesus already knew what was going to happen. You may not have seen that difficult situation coming, you may not have seen that problem coming, you may not have envisaged that challenge, such that when you get there like the disciples, haha, I thought you said once I become born again there will be no problem again; I thought you said that once I pay my tithe I will not be in hardship again’, you may not have seen it coming but there’s One who is the Master of heaven and earth, the Possessor of the whole universe, He sees it all, He knows it all.
John 16: 33, the Bible tells us that in this world there will be tribulations, but we should cheer up because He has overcome for us. Brethren cheer up, whatever it is that you are going through now, please cheer up because God has overcome for you and you will see it in the mighty name of Jesus.
Do you really think you are alone in what you are going through? Do you really think that Jesus is unaware of your problems? Do you really think that your problems are so peculiar that there are no solutions? Our God knows it all, not only does He know it all, He knows what He will do, and in your situation, it will not be an exception in the mighty name of Jesus.
Point number five, the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ was sleeping and the disciples have tried to build the water but the storm continued, it was at that point they said ha, let us go and wake this sleepy Man, Jesus, don’t you care for us to perish? Let me add a bit to it, even if You have surrendered that You want to die, I still want to live life o, please wake up and still the storm, You can go and die but us, praise God!
I know many of us say that thing, ‘God, where is Your face? Where are You in all of these? You have abandoned me, You have forsaken me; the Bible tells us that I will never leave you nor forsake you. Brethren, Jesus Christ may be there sleeping, but He’s in control of the universe, He was sleeping in the body but controlling things. Let me relate it to our life events: if you look to your right you don’t see Jesus, you look to your left you don’t see Jesus, you may not see Him physically, brethren, I want to assure you that He’s somewhere in your boat, monitoring the way things are going and because of that understanding, I decree and declare to you that that storm will not overpower you, you will not drown in the name of Jesus, you will reach your destination in the mighty name of Jesus.
In John 6: 6, the Bible tells us while they had multitudes to feed, about 5,000 people, and they were running around looking how to feed the people, when they came to Jesus and after everything, He said in John 6: 6 that He knows already what He will do. Brethren, there’s an assurance for somebody here, that problem, that sickness, that challenge, that tumult, that tempest,, you don’t have an idea but Jesus already knows what He will do, in the name of Jesus He will do it and He will never come late, He’s always on time.
Number six, despite the storm, despite everything the enemy did, they reached their destination, despite the storm, they got to the end. Are you that student who has failed exams many times? Are you that person who has failed in business many times? Are you that one who the doctors have told there’s no way out? Are you that one who is not doing well in your place of work? Despite the storm of life, you will reach your end, you will fulfill your destiny in the mighty name of Jesus.
Because what happened was that in between the time they woke Jesus and when He got up, all that He did was to say ‘Peace, be still’, from this moment, He will speak peace to the storms of your life, He will speak peace to your problems, He will speak peace to your fatalities in the mighty name of Jesus.
Job 5: 12 tells us me that God is disappointing the devices of the wicked so that they are unable to carry out their enterprise; every demonic plan, every power that is working against your fruitfulness, the Lord Almighty will put them to shame in the name of Jesus. When God has purposed a thing, there’s nobody that can stop Him; if God has chosen that you are His child and He’s taking you from A to B, show me the powers of this world that can say you won’t get there. No storm, no problem, no challenge, no hardship, no situation can stop Jesus from making you who He has decided He wants you to be.
Have you forgotten the story of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? Have you forgotten that Isaac, despite the challenges from the Philistines, he got to a point called Rehoboth? You will get to your own point.
Number seven (and the final number), at the end of the day, what was their problem became their testimony. Whatever problem that you are carrying around today, brethren, at the end of the day, it shall be a testimony; the world will come and rejoice with you in the mighty name of Jesus. Because in Daniel 3: 15 – 18, they threw them in the fire, but at the end of the day in verse 28, the king said from today, the King of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego is the only God and let everyone serve Him,
You will wake up one day and realize that the problem is gone; you will wake up one day and look for the problem and you will not see it. Exodus 14: 13 says the Egyptian you see today, you will see forever no more in the mighty name of Jesus. These tough times will not see your end; this storm shall become a calm in the name of Jesus; the best version of your life is beginning to unfold from now in the mighty name of Jesus. Your current challenges, brethren, will end in praise in the name of Jesus, and your fruitfulness will shine as God has desired it in the name of Jesus. It doesn’t matter what’s happening in the economy of Nigeria or anywhere else in the world, you are a child of God. I want you to be assured, brethren, that you carry in you the seed of fruitfulness, according to Genesis 1: 28, and you have an endorsement of God to be fruitful, according to John2, therefore it does not matter what the enemy does, it does not matter what the trouble is, it does not matter what your problems are today, what I know (according to scripture and the word of God and how God works), is that one day you will testify, and that day is closed here in the name of Jesus. Whether the devil likes it or not, you will reach your goals and you shall be fruitful.
Isaiah 3: 10 & 11, “Say ye to be righteous, that it shall be well with thee: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. 11Woe unto the wicked! It shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him”. He is saying, if you are My child, if you know Me as I know you, it does not matter what you are going through now, it shall be well with you and you will eat the fruit of your doings, you will not labor in vain.
So, what that is saying is that Jesus can still the storm, any storm whatsoever, but He will choose to still the storm only for His own. Verse 11, woe unto the wicked, the ones who are not attached, grafted into Jesus Christ, it shall be ill with them, what is He saying, the storm shall drown them, is the Scripture. Brethren, why do you want to suffer when you have the solution like this?
[Altar call]
Let’s give thanks to God, let us thank God for the word that He sent to us, let us thank Him because He’s a Stiller of storms, let us thank Him because His promises are yay and amen. We thank You for Your faithfulness, for Your mercy, for Your grace upon our lives, thank You for Your word, Lord we appreciate You, in Jesus mighty name we have given thanks.
Brethren, you have Jesus in your boat, congratulations, I know that this storm, this problem will not see your end in the name of Jesus. So we are going to cry and say Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, have mercy on me and still every raging storm in my life, thank You heavenly Father, in Jesus wonderful name we prayed.
Disciples got to a point where their faith flew out of the window and they said Jesus, You don’t even care at all that we die, they were already saying death. I don’t know if what you are going through has taken away your faith and you are just coasting, you are going to cry to the Lord Almighty and say Father, restore my faith, increase my faith in You, let me trust You oh Lord at Your word in the mighty name of Jesus, thank You heavenly Father, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
We talked about Joseph, who would have thought that that boy would become the Prime Minister in Egypt? We talked about Isaac, who would have thought that the Philistines would carry delegations and say we came to beg you? Who would have thought that Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, slaves, would become major speakers, people’s key parties in the politics and government in Babylon? In the same way brethren, whatever it is that you are going through, who would have thought one day you would say who would have thought that (your name) will be this? Praise the living Jesus.
So you are going to pray to the Lord and say Father, that which I’m going through now, turn it to testimonies that the whole world will hear and read about in the mighty name of Jesus. Father, please turn it into testimonies oh Lord, glory be to Your name forevermore, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
Finally I pray, the solution to the storm of life is Jesus, if you take Jesus away from your, from my life, we are doomed. Nothing will separate you from the love of God; nothing will take Jesus Christ away from you; the Lord Almighty will hold you by the hands and walk you through life until eternity in the name of Jesus; you will not fail, you will not fall, you will not falter in Jesus wonderful name. Amen.
