THEME: Divine Favour | Date: Friday, 3rd of May, 2002
He’s worthy to be praised! He’s worthy to be adored! Let’s praise Him! Let’s
magnify Him! Let’s praise the King of Kings! the Lord of Lords!, the I Am that I
Am! The Ancient of Days! The Unchangeable Lord! Let’s worship Him! He’s worthy
to be praised! He’s worthy to be adored! He’s worthy to be magnified! There’s no
one like Him! All power belongs to Him. Let’s worship Him! Let’s adore Him!
Let’s magnify His Holy Name! Adore Him! Lift Him high. Bless His Holy Name!
Bless His Holy Name! Praise Him! He’s worthy! He’s worthy! He’s worthy! There’s
no one like Him! There’s no King like Him! He’s the Alpha, the Omega, the
Beginning, the Ending, the One who is, the One who was, the One who will ever
be! The Almighty! He’s the Unchangeable Lord! Let’s praise Him! He’s worthy,
worthy of our praise, worthy of our adoration! Let’s magnify His Holy Name!
Let’s praise Him! Let’s magnify His Holy Name!
Tell Him you love Him!
Tell Him you appreciate Him! Tell Him there’s no one like Him. Tell Him He’s
your Lord! Your King! Your Friend! The Lover of your soul! Worship Him! Father I
bless Your Holy Name! I magnify You! I lift You up! You are my King! You are my
Lord! You are my all in all! There’s no one like You! All power belongs to You!
What a great God You are! Oh we will continue to praise You Lord! You are
worthy! You are worthy! You are worthy! You are worthy O Lord! Blessed, blessed,
blessed, blessed be Your Holy Name! King of Kings! Lord of Lords! The I Am that
I Am! The Ancient of Days! I praise You! Rock of Ages, I adore You! The Lamb of
God! Oh how I bow down before You! I give You all glory! I give You all honour!
I give You all adoration! Blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed be Your
Holy Name! Thank You Father! Thank You Lord! Thank You Lord! Thank You Lord!
Thank You Lord! Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy is the Lord…… You are high and
lifted up….. Jehovah, You are the most high………. Thank You Father! Blessed be
Your Holy Name Lord!
The Lord said there is somebody here tonight, the
enemies have surrounded you, they are just about to swallow you up… Daddy asked
me to tell you, you shall seek them and you will not find them.
(Amen!)
Father says there’s someone here tonight, someone had told you
recently that there is no hope left for you, Daddy asked me to tell you, I will
be your hope (Amen!)
The Lord said there’s a woman here, somebody told
you specifically that the only way you can have a child is to adopt one. The
Lord asked me to tell you, very soon from your own womb, your child shall come.
Father we want to bless You tonight, we know this is a special night, we
know you will surprise us. After all you are the King of Kings, You are the Lord
of Lords, whatever You want to do nobody can stop You. When You open a door
nobody can shut it, when You shut it, nobody can open it. When You decide to
promote nobody can stop You. Glory be to Your Holy Name! Tonight Father,
surprise us! Save souls tonight. Heal tonight Deliver tonight. (Amen!) Let there
be miracles tonight. (Amen!) Let there be signs tonight (Amen!) Let there be
wonders tonight. (Amen!) Let there be victory tonight. (Amen!) Let there be
blessings tonight. (Amen!) Let there be shoutings tonight. (Amen!) In Jesus’
mighty Name we have prayed! (Amen!) Let somebody shout ‘Alleluia” (Alleluia!)
Well, I know there is somebody here tonight who is going to find favour
with God. Let that fellow shout Alleluia! (Alleluia!) That’s not bad but I know
there is someone here tonight who is going to find the greatest favour with God.
Let that fellow shout the greatest Alleluia! (Alleluia!) Thank You Jesus! Now I
want you to shake hands with at least 7 people – don’t come here – and tell
them: “God is going to show me favour tonight! God is going to show me favour
tonight! I say, God is going to show me favour tonight!”
I’m the one God
will show favour to tonight. Oh yes I’m going to find favour with God tonight.
I’m the one God will show the greatest favour tonight! Oh yes no doubt about
that, God will show me favour tonight. Oh yes He will show me favour tonight.
Amen! Alleluia! If you believe that shout another ‘Alleluia!’ (Alleluia!) and
then put your hands together for the Almighty God Thank You Jesus! Thank You
Lord! God bless you, you may be seated.
Before we go because once we
start only God knows how we are going to end, we are going to end very
gloriously….. God will favour tonight – let me hear you say “Amen” (Amen!)
People have asked me again and again what do you come to the Holy Ghost
night to do? And you spend all night! What do you go there to do? Then why do
you keep coming every month? Now I’ve told them we come to Holy Ghost for 3
major things. Number one we come to worship God and I can never be tired of
worshipping God. As a matter of fact I am looking forward to that time when we
will do nothing throughout the night than just worship God. The second thing we
come to do is to study the Word of God because the Word of God is food to the
Christian. And by that we grow. And the third thing we come to do is to pray
because God commands us to pray without ceasing. These are the three things
we’ve cone to do. Any of the three is lacking then the night is not good.
Tonight we have had wonderful worship. I give God the glory for that. We
have prayed a little, we are going to pray much more! And I want to give God
glory for that in advance. Now we are about to go into the Word of God – a very
crucial part of the three. We come to do these three and after we‘ve done these
three, whatever follows will be divine response to what we have done! If we
praise Him correctly, He will speak and you will be able to hear – thus says the
Almighty… If we study the Word of God correctly, souls will be fed and we will
be able to go home feeling, “Thank God, I have been well fed”. We’ve done some
eating already. The man who spoke first, is almost all my sermon. I was
wondering whether he was able to peep into my notebook somewhere… but then of
course I know as the elders will say – they said if the leaf stays long with the
soap it will become soap. I think we should give God a big hand for the one who
gave us the first message.
And then we are going to pray. Somebody has
led us in prayer. The one who led us in prayer is my only prayer partner. If I
let her go, we won’t be able to do anything here tonight! So when we praise Him
and we study the Word and we pray then God will respond and then miracles follow
– signs follow – wonders follow – like somebody’s going home tonight with
miracles in Jesus’ Name! (Amen!) But because there is a lot to study tonight I
might not be able to mention the miracles as they are happening. But you can be
sure they are going to happen because God told me specifically for example, that
tonight He’s going to work from the waist down so all kind of miracles are going
to happen at the waist, at legs, at ankle bones at joints – tonight in Jesus’
Name! (Amen!) Now that doesn’t mean that’s the only thing He’s going to do but
that is the special area where He’s going to pay serious attention tonight. Why?
Because He said there are some people who want to dance for Him and they are not
able to do so very well. I know somebody is going to go home dancing tonight
Say: “It is me!” Say it loud and clear!
I want to talk tonight about
Divine Favour. What is Divine Favour? Numbers 6:24-26 tells us the blessing that
the priest is to pronounce on the children of Israel. One of
the statement’s there is: May the Almighty God lift His countenance upon You and
may His face shine upon you … you can’t even say ‘Amen’ to that? … And be
gracious unto you… When we talk about the divine favour we are talking about the
face of God shining on you. In Yoruba the interpretation of the favour calls it
“Good face”. That means there must be ‘bad face’. By looking at the face of
somebody you can tell whether the fellow is happy with you or angry with you. If
you come up on somebody suddenly, the fellow began to smile broadly, you will
know that this fellow is happy with me. And if you see somebody and he looks at
you as if - if it were possible for the eyes to just kill you, you yourself will
know, I better stay away from this fellow! Today God is going to smile on
someone. (Amen!) He’s going to smile on at least three people – myself, my wife,
and one other fellow – who is the other fellow? Let me hear you say ‘Amen!’
(Amen!)
Now basically, amongst several other things Divine Favour will do
certain things for you. If you find favour with God certain things will happen.
Because I have told you, Divine Favour is like the rays of the sun, it is like
the sun shining. And when the sun is shining you can’t hide from it. Just like
the preacher who spoke first said, when the ray of God is shining upon you, it
will locate you wherever you may be. The favour of God found Moses at the
backside of the desert. It found David where he was looking after the sheep. It
found Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus and I am confident that same ray, that
favour of God is going to find somebody tonight at the Redemption
Camp.
Another thing that that favour does, like we have been told is that
it singles you out of a crowd. It doesn’t matter how many people are there, the
favour of God will just zero in on you and say ‘You are the one I want!” You
yourself will not understand how. Several years ago I was travelling – I can’t
remember whether to America or somewhere – and the plane
was full and I’m talking about those days when even to get the money for economy
ticket I had to pray. I was seated, the plane had taken off. Suddenly, somebody
was coming from the very front. One of the top officers of the plane and he was
looking and looking and look at the seat number and said “You are Pastor
Adeboye?” I said, “Yes Sir.” He said, “Come with me.” What have I done sir?
Because I know I paid for my ticket. He said, “You have any carry on? “ I said,
“Yes. It’s up there.” He opened it. He said, “Which one?” I pointed it pout.
Then he picked it up. The plane is already in the air so they are not going to
throw me out I’m sure. And then I followed him. And I passed the place where
they call business class. I was seeing that place for the first time. I said,
“God this place is beautiful.” But he kept going. He didn’t say anything! He was
going and I was following! And then he took me to where the first class is. I’ve
never been there before and I saw the seats, double the one I was coming from,
and there was only one person there. “You are to sit on that side sir.” and I
was looking at him – what’s wrong with this man. He said, the pilot said, he
doesn’t want the one man here to be lonely that he should go and find somebody
to sit with him and when they went through the list they found that there’s only
one peculiar man on the plane – he’s a Pastor, the others are businessmen. So he
said “go and get that man.” I’m telling you that day, I sat down….. Who is going
to be upgraded tonight? Let me hear you say ‘Amen!’ (Amen!)
The favour of
God will single you out of the crowd – for blessing - like He singled out
Abraham for blessing. In Genesis 12:1-3 because when you read the Book of
Genesis, the first mention you hear of Abraham is in Genesis 11 and nothing was
said about him that he was either good or bad. They just told us this is this
man, he’s the son of so-and-so and the next thing we heard was – “and God said
unto Abraham, Blessing I will bless you, I will make you great, I will make you
a blessing. Anyone who blesses you, I will bless, anyone who curses you I will
curse, through you shall all the nations of the earth be blessed!” What has
Abraham done to deserve that? Nothing. But God just said, I want to bless
somebody and I can choose anyone I want and so I decide to choose ..... Adeboye!
Who’s God going to bless tonight? Let me hear you say ‘Amen!’ (Amen!)
The
grace of God will single you out. The favour of God will single you out. Not
only for blessing but for promotion, for greatness. That’s how He got David – in
1 Samuel 16:11-13, David was just minding his own business in the farm. But God
singled him out for promotion, for greatness. So shall yours be in Jesus’ Name!
(Amen!)
The favour of God will single you out for a miracle because if
you read Mark 10:46-52, the Bible says Jesus came to Jericho and as he was coming out of Jericho a great multitude
followed him! A multitude followed Him! But how many of the people in the
multitude got a miracle? Only blind Bartemeus who was by the highway side
begging! There was a multitude following but only one got a miracle – somebody’s
going to get a miracle here tonight. (Amen!)
Now when the favour of God
has alighted on you the next thing that it does is that God speaks to you.
Anyone that God decides to favour He will speak to. I’m sure somebody came here
tonight and is already saying ”Ahhh, everything they’re saying today, it is as
if somebody told them about me!" ”And there are several other people who will
still hear from God tonight! When Noah found favour with God, God spoke to him.
When Moses found favour with God, God spoke to him. When Saul of Tarsus found
favour with God, God spoke to him. God will speak top you tonight.
(Amen!)
And then the next thing that the favour of God does after it has
located you, after it has singled you out of the crowd, after God started
speaking to you, is that suddenly, your situations will change! And change so
radically that things will never be the same! After God located Moses by the
backside of the desert, in Exodus 3 and He spoke to him, suddenly the life of
Moses changed, never to be the same again. The one who had been forgotten –
suddenly became a man who was remembered. And you who have been forgotten God
has decided to remember you tonight.
When David found favour with God,
the boy who was despised by his relatives, the one who they would never have
been presented for election to be king, became a celebrated person. Up till
today we still talk about David. When we talk about Jesus Christ we talk about
David because we say Jesus, thou Son of David…. When the favour of God comes
upon you your situation changes completely. Never, never to be the same again. I
think that God called us together tonight because in His infinite mercy He has
decided that the time has come to change the situation of certain people so
radically that things will never be the same again. And I’m sure I’m the first
one on that list.
But then I want us to take a close look at what Divine
Favour can do for you. Let’s take it topic by topic. What can Divine Favour do
for you physically? If you are sick and you are considered incurable and you
find favour with God, you will suddenly discover that the incurable will begin
to have a testimony. In John 5 that my brother mentioned earlier on – from v.2-9
John 5:2-9 There was a multitude by the pool of Bethesda. Jesus came there, saw
a man who had been there for 38 years. His face shone on that man. He went to
that man, healed that man and left the place. There were several others. Divine
Favour singled out that man for a miracle. Tonight, it doesn’t matter how far
gone our case may be. I am confident that the face of God is going to shine on
you! (Amen!) And single you out for healing!
When you read the story of 2
Kings 5:1-14. It tells us the story of Namaan that you know very well – how he
was healed and how he nearly missed healing because when they told him to go and
wash and be clean, he was angry, he was on his way back you see but when God has
decided tot favour you, He will take care of your anger, take care of your
pride, take care of all your unbelief and do what He wants to do…. Finally he
got down and washed and was made clean. But you see, Jesus said something in
Luke 24:27, He said there were many lepers in Samaria in the time of Elisha,
only one was cleansed! How many? One! Out of the many, one found favour.
Somebody’s going to find favour with God tonight. And I’m going to be that one
in Jesus’ Name! (Amen!) Thank You Father!
Now I told you that the
healings were already on. There’s one that I’m too excited to keep this one to
myself… the Lord said there’s somebody here, He said the fire burning in your
chest had been put out. (Amen!) You know what it means, the fellow concerned
knows what it means – when you find favour with God physically you get healing.
What about materially? When you find favour with God, suddenly, whatever
you touch begins to prosper and people will begin to wonder how? You sell water
and you become a millionaire. You are selling firewood and you are riding
Mercedes. How? You’ll be able to tell them – Divine Favour! I mean just one
contract and all of a sudden for the rest of your life you can enjoy.
I
remember one brother who asked me to come and dedicate his house. When I got to
the house – I am not usually surprised and even if I am surprised, I’ve learnt
to keep it to myself but this one the surprise showed. And I was looking at this
and looking at that as a matter of fact, if he wasn’t there, if he left me there
and said, fins your way out, I will probably miss my way. He made a statement
that caused me to say, “Wait a minute, tell me how?” He said the only thing in
this house that is not imported is sand. Every other thing you see here, Oh
Daddy, it’s all imported! How? He said, well somebody sent for him and said
there is a job I want you to do for me. He thought it was a small job. The job
just kept on expanding, expanding, expanding. He said, all I do now is just wake
up in the morning, praise God because the money keeps coming in and I can’t stop
it! There is somebody here today who is going to have a similar testimony.
(Amen!) If you are the one let me hear you say ‘Amen’ Loud and clear!
The
man who spoke before me had already told you. He said in Luke 5:1-7 Jesus was
preaching by the seaside. He saw two boats. One belonged to Peter. One belonged
to somebody else and by favour of God it was Peter’s boat that was chosen. By
the favour of God your boat will be chosen tonight. (Amen!)
When God
decides to favour you there is no way you can escape being prosperous. God
decided to favour Abraham and by the time you read about him in Genesis 24:34-35
the Bible said Abraham was keeping servants as if you are keeping goats. As a
matter of fact, when the enemy captured his cousin Lot, he had an army already
in his own house! Abraham looked at his servants – they were enough to form an
army.
When God decided to favour you, you cannot escape prosperity
whether you like it or not. If He says, ‘I’m going to prosper you!” Prosperity
will come! That is why you need to pray for favour tonight.
What about
maritally? If God decides to favour you maritally it doesn’t matter what anybody
may say, you suddenly discover that certain strange things begin to happen. If
you have been considered barren and God decides to favour you, suddenly those
who have been laughing against you will begin to laugh with you. If God decides
to favour you, He will draw the attention of all those who will help you to you.
I mean in 1 Samuel 1:9-20 we find a woman who was so full of sorrow while she
was praying in the temple because she was barren that if she had been praying
out that day, no-one would have noticed her but because her mouth was moving and
no sound was coming it got the attention of the High Priest.
We were
having a programme in the old Auditorium. Everybody prayed and I closed my eyes
and I was praying because I need prayers, I don’t know about you! And suddenly
God spoke to me and said, “Son – open your eyes!” I was almost telling God –
“Daddy, I’m praying!” But then I know He wanted to do something. “Open your
eyes, son!” “Yes, Lord.” Then He pointed a woman to me in the crowd, wet with
tears. He said, “Go and tell her: Stop weeping” I didn’t know what was happening
then – I knew the details later. Apparently the woman had been barren and the
in-laws were giving her hell of a time and finally her day came. God singled her
out of the crowd. I just went to her, tapped her by the shoulder, delivered the
message of God: Sister, God said, stop weeping…” Ahh, immediately, her face
changed. It was as if the sun was coming out of a cloud. “You mean God finally
located me?” God will locate somebody here tonight. (Amen!)
Some moths
later when the lady came with her baby, carried her baby in her arms – it was
now my turn to weep! I was weeping with joy. Favour will locate you! (Amen!) It
will locate you physically. (Amen!) It will locate you materially. (Amen!) It
will locate you maritally. (Amen!) Now when you read Proverbs 18:22, the Bible
says whoso findeth a wife, findeth a good thing and obtains favour of God.
Anyone of you looking for a wife, you will find favour with God today! (Amen!)
And those of you looking for a husband, I mean those of you who qualify for a
husband and you are looking for your own husband not the husband of somebody
else, you will find favour with God today in Jesus’ Name! (Amen!) So when Divine
Favour comes materially you will prosper, physically, you will begin to enjoy
divine health, maritally, if you have no husband you’ll get a husband. (Amen!)
If you have no wife you’ll get a wife. If you are barren, you’ll have children.
(Amen!) What about mentally?
Thank You Father! You know Daddy said He’s
going to work on legs and He’s just told me that He’s replacing the anklebones
of somebody. Let me hear somebody shout ‘Alleluia’ for that!
Alleluia!
When God decides to favour you mentally suddenly you begin to
have wisdom that you never can explain. You know Daniel 2:20-22 tells us that
wisdom belongs to God and He gives wisdom to the wise. If anybody lacks wisdom
God said you should just ask God. That’s in James 1:3. You will find that when
God decides to favour somebody mentally, he has a wisdom he himself cannot
explain – that’s why you find that in a family of maybe 5 children, 6 children,
you will find just one that is brilliant and the others are just ….. God have
mercy! You just find a genius among maybe 5 children and that’s why you find the
father may not be able to write ‘O’ with the bottoms of a bottle, the mother can
hardly add 2 + 2 together and get four and the son will become a professor! And
you begin to wonder – how? Because God decided to show favour to that fellow.
Somebody is going to find favour mentally tonight in Jesus’ Name!
(Amen!)
Now what about what happens when God decided to favour you
spiritually…..
Thank You Daddy! This one is big. The Lord said there’s
somebody here that your brain had been damaged as a result of spiritual attack.
Let’s give the Lord a big hand!
The anointing here tonight is very
terrible. I’m sure some of you have not seen this one before. There was a time I
preached like this – by the time I preached for one hour I will need 3
interpreters. We are trying to keep everything under control …… but tonight is
somebody’s night! Whose night? I can’t hear you? Whose night?
The Lord
was saying that there was someone here who’s brain had been damaged as a result
of demonic attack and your people have been trying everything they can to amend
that brain The Lord asked me to tell you tonight, He has decided to replace the
brain. Let’s give the Lord a big hand for that, that’s a good one! That’s a good
one! That’s a good one!
We were talking about Divine Favour spiritually.
When you find favour with God spiritually absolutely anything can happen. Luke 8
for example, verses 1-3, we find that when a witch found favour with God she
became a divine treasurer. First of all she found favour with God – deliverance
came and then usefulness for God came also. In Mark 5:1-20 a mad man found
favour with God and he became an evangelist! He was a madman but he found favour
with God – he became an evangelist!
There are several other things that
can happen when you find favour with God spiritually. Suddenly you have the
ability to see into the future. Without being a prophet you just suddenly
discover that you have a simple dream and in detail everything that is going to
happen will be related to you. Like Joseph found favour with God and while he
was very young he already knew what was going to happen to him. And just like
the man who spoke before said, that’s why I said maybe he read my note! Elisha
was a farmer – he as not among the sons of the prophets. But he found favour
with God and very soon he became the father of all the sons of the prophets.
When you find favour with God spiritually, you’ll be able to see the invisible,
you’ll be able to hear the inaudible and you will qualify for a double portion
of anointing.
But then what happens when you find favour with God
ministerially? Because there are many ministers of God here – who are ministers
of God, ordained that we all know – but everyone who is born again, baptized in
the Holy Spirit, is a minister of God – all you are waiting for is favour from
God. When a minister finds favour with God, it becomes easy for him to do the
work of God. He will preach a simple sermon and souls will be saved. I remember
the first time I attended Billy Graham’s crusade in London. I listened to the
sermon. Any worker in the Redeemed Christian Church of God can preach the same
sermon….. not pride, I’m saying the truth…..… then he gave the altar call – it
was as if people just wanted him to say, “Come forward”. And do you know we
bought a ticket to go and attend the crusade. The ticket was in the range of £5,
£10, £20.. Can you imagine? Buy a ticket to go to a crusade? What’s the
difference? Favour of God! The favour of God! The favour of God was upon him!
The favour of God is upon his ministry. He finds it easy to win souls for
God.
When you find favour with God – any door you knock will open. I
remember very well – when we wanted to start the Redeemed Christian Church of
God in Israel, they told me – the Ambassador told me categorically – “Sir, don’t
let us waste our time – they will not register any church here. No way!” And
that he is even coming from where…. "Let’s forget it!” I said, “Sir, the
Redeemed Christian Church of God is different, the favour of God is upon this
church. It is not a man’s church. It is God’s own church. He’s the one who named
it.” So I said, “this one is different.” He said, “All right. No need to argue
with you. I’ve told you the truth, you don’t want to believe. Let’s go ahead. “
So we applied. Today we have more than 14 parishes in Israel. Why? Because when
they got our application – everything that could go against us, they didn’t see
because there is Divine Favour! Somebody’s going to find favour here tonight.
(Amen!) If you are the one let me hear you shout Alleluia!
(Alleluia!)
Then let us talk about all-round favour now. I’ve talked
about favour in the physical, favour in the material, favour in the marital,
favour in the mental, favour in the spiritual, favour in the ministerial. Let’s
talk about All round favour because somebody’s qualifying for All round favour
tonight (Amen!). And for us to be able to understand All round favour – when we
study just one man. His name is Joseph. He had All round favour. Physically, if
you study Joseph very well, I have studied him very well, I’ve written a whole
book on him because I like him and I want to be like him so I studied him
closely and I found that in my deep study of Joseph that lasted me two years
there is not a single place in the b where it said, “And Joseph was
sick”.
At the end of 110 year – 110 years in Genesis 50:22-26 Joseph woke
up one day and said, “ I die” and just went home after 110 years. Not a single
day of sickness! He just woke up one day and said, “I’m going home”. Isn’t that
beautiful? There is somebody here tonight, for the rest of your life – no more
sickness. (Amen!) No more pain! (Amen!) No more aches! When you are satisfied
and you are ready to go, you just call your children together and tell them:
”Children, I’m going home”. Isn’t that beautiful? And you can have it if you
find favour with God.
What about materially? If you read Genesis 45:4-13
Joseph said, “God has made me Lord of all Egypt.” and he sent to his father and
he said, “Come with all your family. I will feed you for the rest of your life.”
Somebody who can say that – go and bring a whole tribe I will feed then for the
rest of their life – that man must be rich. I’m telling you that man must be
rich. When we come for the Convention and we feed everybody who comes for only
one week, we know how much it costs for one week. Can you imagine somebody
saying that he wants it feed this crowd for one year? Or for somebody to say, “I
want to feed the whole town for every day until they all die”? That man must be
rich. There’s somebody here tonight who very soon, will come to Daddy GO and
say, “Tell me – how much does it cost to feed everybody during Convention? And
from now on I will be responsible!” Who is that fellow going to be? You better
shout Alleluia! (Alleluia!)
What about mental favour? If we read Genesis
41:39 Joseph was referred to here by Pharaoh and Pharaoh said, “there is none as
wise as thou art..... there is none as wise as thou art..” because Joseph found
favour with God he has a mental capacity that is frightening…
What about
marital? If you read Genesis 48:8-20 you will discover that in the home of
Joseph there was peace, there was harmony. He had 2 sons – everything anybody
could want in a home was there – he didn’t even have to look for a wife – one
was given him! He had favour!
What about spiritual? Of course, I’ve
already told you – he was a dreamer. But not only was he a dreamer, he found
favour - he was even able to interpret dreams. He could tell the future.
What about materially? As far as Joseph was concerned – everything he
touched prospered. Genesis 39:21-23. Everything Joseph touched prospered, even
in prison. When they took him to prison, very soon he became the man in charge.
I’m telling you if you are a prisoner and you are the one in charge of the
prison then that’s not bad because it is after you are fully fed that the rest
of the prisoners will eat. From today on now somebody’s going to find favour
with God. (Amen!) And your office will begin to prosper because you are working
for them. (Amen!) Joseph had all-round Divine Favour and because he had All
round favour – because it is possible for a man to find favour all round, I am
confident that there is somebody here today who will find All round favour with
God. (Amen!)
Now very quickly. How can I attract Divine Favour? What must
I do so that God will look down with favour upon me? What must I do so that when
God decides to smile on everybody here, I will be one of the people He will
locate? One thing I have always done, wherever I find certain things happen to
certain people, I study their lives – what do they do that others are not doing
so that they have had the success which they have had which others have not had?
So very quickly, let me look at all those people who have found favour with God
and see if they have certain characteristics.
The first thing you will
discover about all those who found favour with God is that they are all
worshippers. The Father seeketh such to worship Him know how to worship God!
John 4:23-24, the Bible says, God is a spirit and they that worship Him must
worship Him in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship Him!
God loves worshippers. If you want Divine Favour learn to worship God. Don’t
wait for the Pastor to ask you to praise God be fore you praise Him! Don’t wait
till they pump you before you shout Alleluia!
I will tell you a secret…
whenever I’m in the bathroom, I sing! Why? Because there’s nobody there to hear
me except God so there’s nobody to criticize my voice… whether the voice is good
or bad – I wasn’t singing to you in the bathroom. Who else can I be singing to
in the bathroom? And I dance! Since nobody is beating the drums, you can’t say
that my legs are missing the beat!!!
When God looks down on somebody who
wakes up in the morning and says “God – You come again..... I’ve been asking You
to do something, You didn’t do it! What kind of a God are You anyway?” And then
God looks in another direction and finds somebody who wakes up in the morning
and says “Good morning Daddy … ahhh.. how great thou art! Thank you for waking
me up again! After all where there is life there is hope! You didn’t allow the
enemy to kill me overnight! I want to dance for You a little! Which of the 2
will find favour with God? If you are going to find favour with God let me hear
you shout Alleluia! (Alleluia!) It is not easy for some people – simply because
they are not used to it! Let me hear you one more time shout Alleluia!
(Alleluia!)
If you look at Abraham….
The Lord says there is
somebody, your hand that had been tied has been loosed. (Amen!). Oh yes – put
those hands together for the Almighty! Thank You Lord! Blessed be the Name of
the Lord! That’s great!
Now when you look at Abraham, you will find that
he was constantly building altars for God. If you study from Genesis 12-13 you
will find that in just those 2 chapters there were 4 altars that Abraham built
just to worship God. What about Noah? The Bible says that Noah found favour with
God. As soon as he came out of the ark – what was the first thing he did? He
built an altar for God. What about David? We all know about David. He said in
Psalm 57:7 he said, my heart is fixed within me – I will praise the Lord! What
about Paul? He said, I will sing with understanding, I will sing with spirit –
that’s in 1st Corinthians 14:15.
All those who found favour with God,
Number 1 – they are worshippers, number 2 they are all generous givers – they
know how to give generously. Solomon 2 Chronicles 1:6. Paul ... Philippians
3:7-10, David 1 Chronicles 22:14-16 David said, I want to build a house for God.
God said, “No, no, no… you were a man of war, your hands are full of blood – not
you, not you! Your son will build the house!” He said. He said, “Fine, I will
give him every kobo that he needs to build the house! If I can’t build it – my
money will build it!” All the money needed to build the house – Bible scholars
said he gave an additional 4 billion dollars for the maintenance of the house.
Let somebody shout ‘Alleluia!” – the interpreter could not think of such a big
amount of money. …But this man was a generous giver......
What about
Namaan, the leper that found favour with God? Look at the money he brought when
he was coming to the man of God, even though the man of God didn’t take it from
him. But if you read 2 Kings 5:5 you will find that those who normally find
favour with God are generous givers. Psalm 23:5 David said, thou anointest my
head with oil, my cup runneth over...... So God looks for generous people
because birds of the same feather flock together.
Not only are these
people generous givers – they are also sacrificial givers – they are always
willing to sacrifice. Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac. David said, I will
not offer to God something that does not cost me something! The widow of
Zarapheth, the only one that found favour with God was ready to give her last
meal. It is one thing to be a generous giver – it is another to be a sacrificial
giver. The sacrificial giving is the giving you give until you feel it in your
body, in your pocket that you have given something. If you are a millionaire and
you give N10, 000 it doesn’t mean anything to you. If you have ten cars and you
give one to God – it doesn’t mean anything to you – 9 are still too many anyway.
Sacrificial giving is the giving that you give and you will know, yes eh…
something left me.
Why is it that God shows favour to sacrificial
givers? Because He himself is a sacrificial giver. John 3:16 God said, For God
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son…. How many begotten sons
has He? Only one! And He gave Him! It was a sacrificial giving – all those who
found favour with God are worshippers, generous givers, sacrificial givers and
finally – they are lovers of holiness. Ah.. – they love the holy
life.
Abraham. God Himself said in Genesis 18:17-19, God said, “I know
Abraham. Not only will he obey me he will teach his children after him. They too
will follow after him.” What of Joseph? When he was cornered by the wife of
Potiphar in Genesis 39:7-10 How can I do this thing and sin against God? I can’t
do it. I belong to God. He’s a holy God. I also want to be holy! Or what about
David, that man who fell into sin. He committed adultery, killed the husband,
drew the woman to himself… How can you say that that man loves holiness? The
moment they confronted him with his sin, he fell on his face and said, “Ehhh –
I’m done for! I have sinned! God has finished with me!” You want to see the song
that he sang read Psalm 51 and you will see the heart of somebody who has found
favour with God. When he fell into sin, how he responded – he cried unto God. If
only You can forgive me this once! If you can restore to me the joy of
salvation!” He said, I will tell everybody about how good you are!” You can
check your Bible very well – after David repented he never went back into sin.
There wasn’t a second time!
You want favour with God? You must be a
worshipper, you must be a generous giver, you must be a sacrificial giver and
you must love holiness.
Now, I’m going to stop briefly now. I’m coming
back later on to talk to you about how to abide in favour because I know some of
us….
There are some people here the miracles are just flying over their
heads.... why? Because they have not repented of their sins and I cannot
continue just allow them to be here and continue to miss the blessing, without
giving them an opportunity to surrender to Jesus, so if you are here tonight and
you are not yet born again – you have not surrendered your life to Jesus or you
think so but you are not sure that you have been saved and you want to say,
Lord, I surrender, I too want to live a life of holiness, I want to please You.
I want to do those things that will make You look at me and smile.
If
you are here tonight and you want to surrender your life to Jesus I want you to
come forward now because that is very important if you are ever going to find
favour with God. I am going to count up to ten. All of you who want to give your
life to Jesus begin to come now. Let us settle your case first before we
continue tonight. 3 now… if you are coming from a far distance you better begin
to move now. 3 now… you cannot find favour with God when you are still in sin…
the Bible says we cannot continue in sin and expect grace to abound. The Word of
God says “God forbid… “. If you have not surrendered your life to Jesus, come
now.....4….. If you think you have given your life to Jesus but you are still
living in sin, you better come to Jesus now! 5 now... It is God who is calling
you! He brought you here tonight so that you can find favour with Him. You can
not find favour with Him if your sins are not forgiven! So if you want to
surrender to Him come now. It is 6 now. By the time I get to 10 it will be too
late. Right now the gates of mercy are open and you better begin to move fast
because I know some of you are coming from a long distance but it is 7 now.....
7 now…! When you come to Jesus Christ there is a promise of God – that the Blood
of Jesus will cleanse you from all your sins. But you have to come to Him first!
For that Blood to be able to wash you clean...... It is 8 now!
The Lord
Himself is the One who said, “Come unto me all ye that labour and are
heavy-laden and I will give you rest........” He’s asking you to come. If you
refuse this invitation then you have yourself to blame. This is a night of
Divine Favour. If you know you want to come you better come now. It is 9 now…
The gates of mercy may soon close. Don’t say I did not call you. Don’t say I
didn’t wait for you. Just say that you are the one who decided not to come. It
is up to you not up to me. I have told you the truth. I have told you very
simply. You want favour with God, you have to forsake your sin. You have to
repent of your sin. God said in His Word, He that concealeth His sins shall not
prosper but he who confesses and forsakes them shall obtain mercy. You want
mercy of God? You want His favour? Now begin to cry to Him. Say, Father, I’ve
come to you today I’ve come to surrender my life to you. I’ve made up my mind to
forsake my evil ways. I will do your will from now on. Forgive me O Lord Forgive
me O Lord! Cleanse me in Your Blood! Save my soul! O Lord! Open your mouth now
and begin to pray.
Those of you who are coming you better hurry up now!
Hurry up! The Lord is calling you now! Call on Him now and ask Him to save your
soul! Ask Him to be merciful unto you! Call on the Almighty God and those of us
who are already born again – please stretch your hands towards these people and
pray for them that God will save their souls, that God will be merciful unto
them; that God in His infinite mercy will wash away their sins, let’s pray for
them brethren. Stretch your hands towards them and pray for them that the one
who saved your soul will save their souls also. Pray for them! Pray for them!
That the Almighty God, the Saviour of mankind will receive them now and be
merciful to them and forgive them all their sins and save their souls and write
their names in the book of Life; that they may be able to find favour with God.
If you are still coming – because some of you may be coming from a long
distance – make sure you get here before we pray. Come now! The Lord is calling
you – inviting you, asking you to come unto Him for rest, for health, for
cleansing, for salvation – He’s asking you to come – that He may save your soul.
And after He has saved your soul then the heavens will open over you. If you are
coming hurry up – cry unto Him! Father! Save my soul!! Lord Save my soul!!
Almighty God Save my soul!! Thank You Father! In Jesus’ mighty Name we have
prayed! (Amen!)
I’m about to pray for your salvation but if there is
still anyone in the congregation and you know you are not yet saved and you are
still sitting down there I pity you because only God knows what will happen
between today and tomorrow. If you are there and you are still living in sin you
better get here before I finish praying! If you don’t your blood is on your own
head. Don’t say I did not invite you. If it is because of your friends that you
refuse to come, how many of them will be by your side when it is time to go and
face your maker? When you are walking through the valley of the shadow of death
only Jesus can stand by you and He’s asking you to come and stand by Him now and
you are refusing. That day you will be ask Him to accompany you - He will
refuse. If you are not sure of your salvation – I’m going to count up to 5. If
you don’t get here by the time I pray, I will know that you have made up your
mind not to come.
1… 2…. 3… …4 …… God said this is the day of salvation.
He said this is the accepted time………….
If you need Divine Favour begin to
present … to God – physically, materially, maritally, mentally, spiritually,
ministerially or just all-round… Begin to tell God now. Present your case to Him
one by one, those things that you know might be standing against Divine Favour
in your life, talk to God about them. Maybe you have not been worshipping Him
enough – talk to Him about it. Maybe you have not been a generous giver – talk
to Him about it. Go on talk to the Almighty God…. And spend about 5 minutes and
of course it will be a shame if you at this time should doze because this is a
serious time when you should be discussing your case with God. Those of you who
want to give testimonies come to the altar now – very quickly…..
1000s
have been healed but next month is going to be better because next month we are
starting a new series entitled ‘Reversing the Irreversible’ and trust my Daddy
that if He’s teaching us in something its because He wants to do that thing.
He’s teaching us on Divine Favour tonight because some people are going home
with Divine Favour (Amen!) And beginning from next month you will see the kind
of miracles you have never believed possible at all as God begins to reverse the
irreversible.
Now last month I had meetings with the various groups
1,2,3 and 4 but some people didn’t come last month because they thought last
month was for children alone. However the details of what we discussed in the
various groups have been written down and they are available with my secretary.
So before you go this morning make sure you see them so you can collect the
details of the meeting we held. Workers your meeting begins at 11 a.m. Saturday.
We want to end early so you can be on your way before 5 p.m. If there’s anything
I need to tell you, I will tell you later……
Now we want to pray and I
want you to pray like someone who is determined to get answers. I told some
people last month: when they were interviewing me in London – why do your people
pray so hard? I said, “Because we expect an answer. We know God is going to
answer.” How many of you believe God will answer you tonight? Ah- ah so we’re
going to pray now and our first prayer is going to be a shout, a shout that is
going to pull down every wall of Jericho, that is going to break open every
barrier between us and Divine Favour. I want you to stand on your feet now and I
want you to roar to God! Let me hear you shout ‘Alleluia!’ (Alleluia!) Thank You
Father! Blessed be Your Holy Name! Glory be to God! Thank You Father! Thank You!
Glory be to God! Amen Now I will let that one be for God the Father. I want us
to give one for God the Son. The preacher who preached before me first, said
Grace came by Jesus Christ, the one who can bring Divine Favour to you. I want
you to give Him a shout …… to God the Son! Let me hear you shout ‘Alleluia!’
(Alleluia!) Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Thank You Jesus! Thank You!
……. (Amen!) Glory be to God! Amen
Then, as many of you know, this is the
dispensation of the Holy Spirit, the regime of the Holy Spirit and if you want
something to happen in a particular man’s regime, you want to male that person
happy so I want your biggest ‘Alleluia’ to go to the Holy Spirit – to God the
Holy Spirit - give Him a worthy Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Thank You Jesus! Glory be to God! Thank You Lord! Thank You
Lord! Amen
All right, now with the same zeal you are going to pray all
your prayers. Your first prayer will be, “Father, let me hear you say it… you
have to say it as if you are the only one He must hear.... Anything that can
stand between me and Divine Favour tonight crush it Lord! Go ahead talk to the
Almighty God… Anything that could stand between me and Divine Favour tonight,
crush it Lord, crush it Lord! Anything that could stand between me and Divine
Favour tonight, crush it Lord, crush it Lord! Anything that could stand between
me and Divine Favour tonight, destroy, destroy, destroy! Anything that could
stand between me and Divine Favour tonight, crush it Lord, crush it Lord!
Almighty God Anything that could stand between me and your favour tonight,
destroy it, crush it, oh Father, crush it! Whatever can stand between me and
Divine Favour tonight destroy Lord! Thank You Jesus! Blessed be Your Holy Name!
Anything that could stand between me and Divine Favour tonight, crush it Lord,
crush it Lord, crush it , crush it ! Lord God Almighty! crush it, crush it, Lord
God Almighty! crush it - Anything that could stand between me and Divine Favour
tonight, crush it Thank You Lord! In Jesus’ mighty Name we have prayed!
(Amen!)
Your next prayer point - open your mouth and say, “Father, let
Your face shine on me and all that are precious to me!” Go ahead talk to the
Almighty! Father, let Your face shine upon me and all that are precious to me!
let Your face shine upon me! Almighty God let Your face shine upon me and all
that are precious to me! Let your face shine! Let your face shine! Let your face
shine upon me! Let your face shine upon me! And all that are precious to me
Father! Let your face shine upon me! Tonight Let your face shine upon me! And
all that are precious to me Almighty God! Let your face shine upon me! Let your
face shine upon mine! …. In Jesus’ mighty Name we pray! (Amen!)
Next
prayer you will cry to God and say, Father, let me find favour with God (Amen!)
Let me find favour with men. (Amen!) At home, in my place of work, every where I
go let me find favour … let’s call on the Almighty God..... …
Please
take all these prayers seriously because each one will be answered. Open your
mouths and say, “Father, open the windows of heaven directly above my head and
pour down favour. Lets talk to the Almighty God…. In Jesus’ mighty Name we pray!
(Amen!)
Brethren those who find favour with God, they never lack
anything. David found favour with God and he was able to say, the Lord is my
shepherd, I shall not want...... I want you to cry out tonight and say,
“Father...... loud and clear: Father, tonight, let my cup run over… let’s cry to
the Almighty God …In Jesus’ mighty Name we have prayed! (Amen!)
Now it is
time to pray for those who are precious to you. By name! You will mention their
names one by one and you will say, “I speak favour into your life, that wherever
you go you will find favour with God, you will find favour with men, you will
enjoy all round favour.” One by one – pick those w ho are precious to you and
speak favour into their lives…… Thank You Father! In Jesus’ mighty Name we have
prayed! (Amen!)
Now it is your own turn. You know what you want, talk to
God now. He’s here tonight to answer your prayers. Talk to God….. All-round
favour Lord, in every facet of our lives Lord, all-round favour. Thank You
Jesus! Blessed be Your Holy Name! Glory be to God! Let’s begin to bring our
prayers to a close. Thank You Father! In Jesus’ mighty Name we have prayed!
(Amen!)
Now finally I want you to pray for your neighbour. The Bible says
we must love our neighbour like ourselves. Join hands together now and speak
favour into the lives of your brother and your sister and just say Father, this
brother, this sister I’m holding, I speak favour into his life – favour
physical, favour material, favour marital, favour mental, favour spiritual,
favour ministerial – all-round favour - give to this your child, Go ahead talk
to the Lord…. In Jesus’ mighty Name we have prayed! (Amen!)
I want you to
stretch your hands towards me and pray for Divine Favour for me before I pray
for you. Go ahead pray ……. In Jesus’ mighty Name we have prayed!
(Amen!)
Now I want you to stretch forth your hands to heaven now. I want
to pray for you for Divine Favour. This is one of the most important prayers
that head ever been prayed for you. So I want you to say the Amen loud and
clear…. In the mighty Name of Jesus (Amen!) In the powerful Name of Jesus
(Amen!) In the gracious Name of Jesus (Amen!), Father, You gathered us together
tonight because You want to show us favour – Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! Father Thank You! Accept our thanks in Jesus’
Name! (Amen!) Father, I pronounce favour into the lives of all these your
children (Amen!) From now on, wherever they go, let them find favour with God
(Amen!) Let them find favour with men. (Amen!) Let them find favour physically
(Amen!) Let them find favour materially (Amen!), Let them find favour maritally
(Amen!) Let them find favour mentally (Amen!) Let them find favour spiritually.
(Amen!) Let them find favour ministerially (Amen!) Let them have all-round
favour – open the windows of heaven over them. (Amen!) Pour Your favour upon
them (Amen!) Let their cup overflow. (Amen!) Let it be well with them (Amen!)
Let it be well with their families. (Amen!) Let it be well with those who are
precious to them (Amen!) Let it be well with their churches. (Amen!) Let it be
well with their families (Amen!) and their towns (Amen!) and their states
(Amen!) and their countries Let it be well with them In Jesus’ mighty Name we
have prayed! (Amen!) If you believe that shout Alleluia! (Alleluia!) Shake hands
with one or two people and say, “I receive that, I receive that and then you may
be seated God bless you!
Now we will be ministering to those who need
ministration. I am sure the hands of the ministers are now extra-special hands.
Anyone they touch now will prosper….
Ministers if you have finished you
can return to your seats. I can sense the power of God moving mightily on my
right-hand side. Maybe because they are the closest to the band.
So
tell your neighbour: “if you see me dozing give me a knock on the head…” Tell
him I mean it, I mean it….
We want to talk about how to abide in the
favour of God because it is one thing to find favour with it, it is an extremely
important thing to abide in His favour. There was a king called King Saul, when
he found favour with God, not only did God make him king, he also give him the
power to prophesy. But he fell out of the favour of God and the one who used to
be a king, who used to prophesy, died a madman. Not only did he die a mad man,
he, and all his children died the same day! It’s a dangerous thing to fall out
of favour with God.... I am confident that this morning now you are going home
with divine favour (Amen!) but what do I do so that I will never fall out of
favour with God? I want to tell you these things very, very briefly and there
are seven of them. So you begin to write and write very quickly.
The
first one is that you must walk before God and be perfect. Genesis 17:1 God said
to Abraham, Abraham you have found favour with me. I have chosen you for
blessing; I have chosen you for greatness – though you the whole earth will be
blessed. Anybody who comes against you is going to find Me fighting him. Whoever
blesses you, I will bless. Anyone who curses you I will curse. But walk thou
before me and be thou perfect. God says you want to be in My favour? You want my
face to continue to shine on you? Then walk in front of me, stay where My eyes
can shine on you. Don’t go and hide behind me. Hiding behind me means you want
to go into sin. You are hiding behind me means you want to do things you don’t
want me to see – stay where I can see you. Let your behaviour be such that you
have nothing to hide from God. Son, walk before me and be thou perfect – that’s
the first one.
The second one that you must do to abide in His favour we
got from David. He said in Psalm 34:1 – I want to read it to you because each is
very important. He said, I will bless the Lord at all times – how many times?
His praise shall continually be in my mouth .. What will be in your mouth?
Anything that may be happening – say “Praise God Glory be to God!” Father, I
praise You. Father, I love you – it doesn’t matter what may be happening. The
Bible made it clear – in all things give thanks. I want you to know, anybody who
has found favour with God every problem will become a testimony. So make sure
you don’t offend God by misspeaking when you find yourself in trouble. Just know
that you don’t know, you don’t understand how this thing is going to end. But I
know that I have already found favour in g and I know all things will work
together for good to them that love God. So Father before I see the testimony I
want to say Thank You! I want to praise you. The only thing that will ever come
out of my mouth is Your praise! Let somebody say, 'Thank You Lord!'
So
the first thing is – walk before Him and be perfect. The second one is praise
Him continually. Let His praise continually be in your mouth. The third one we
also got from David. In Psalm 89:1-4 I will just read – verse one will be enough
for you to know what we are talking about: I will sing of the mercies of the
Lord forever, with my mouth will I make known, thy faithfulness to all
generations…
Anyone who wants to abide in Divine Favour must constantly
testify. Many of us do not testify. God You know one of the greatest blessings
that I found is the story of the mad man of Gaddara is that as soon as God
healed him he went about telling everybody. He went testifying.
So Number
one. Walk before Him and be perfect. Number two; praise Him all the time. Number
3 constantly testify if His goodness. Number four is found in Proverbs 3:1-10.
It says, in all your ways acknowledge Him… acknowledge Him… acknowledge Him….
Proverbs 3… let me show you where it is to be found… look at verse 6 there. All
right. In all your ways acknowledge Him… Put Him first. Before you do anything –
consult Him. Before you begin to execute a project consult Him! In all your ways
acknowledge Him, obey Him, trust Him, honour Him in your substance. You want to
remain in His favour? Before you do anything at all – just keep asking Him,
asking Him. ”I want to do the following – is it okay? I want to enter into a
contract… is it all right? Acknowledge Him in all your ways and then honour Him
with your substance. Always honour Him – honour Him, honour Him.
At
times we give things to God that is an insult to Him. Some of us give the naira
that no beggar will take from us – we drop it in the offering box. And God who
knows how much you have knows when you begin to give Him an offering – He knows
whether you are offering Him or dishonouring Him. I’ve told you the story of a
millionaire who told a Pastor “Ah Pastor…. Please wait for me, I want to bring a
special offering to God and the poor Pastor waited because he asked him to wait
and he went home and came back with his flowing agbada and said: “Ah, I’ve
brought my special offering to God!" and the Pastor opened it and found 1,000
naira....... If I had been on my knees for the one hour I had been waiting for
you and called on God to provide, He would have provided at least 1 million. In
all your ways acknowledge Him...... honour Him with your
substance.
Number 5 In 2 Chronicles 7:5 we have a lesson from Solomon. By
the way Solomon was one of those who found favour with God. As the first
preacher told us tonight there was no way that boy could be King. He was the son
of an adulterous mother with an adulterer father. And the father killed the
husband of his mother. This is the product of sin. How can this terrible product
of sin become king? But God decided to favour him. It has pleased him to show us
favour tonight. You remain in that favour (Amen!)
And then when Solomon
looked at what God had done for Him – that He made him king – he offered a 1,000
burnt offering to God and God said it looks as if the man knows the value of my
favour. So God said what do you want me to give to you in addition? He asked for
wisdom. He asked for understanding and as usual with God He gave more than the
boy asked for. He gave him wisdom, gave him understanding, gave him long life,
gave him peace. The boy said, if this is what 1,000 burnt offerings can do, He
said, I think I will do more. If you read 2 Chronicles 7:5 – let’s look at
it..... 2 Chronicles 7:5 you will see what the boy did to make sure that the
favour of God will abide with him. He did something and King Solomon offered a
sacrifice of 20 and two thousand oxen and one twenty thousand sheep. He said,
God last time I gave you one thousand now I want to give you 22 thousand oxen
and 120 thousand sheep. In other words – you want to remain in His favour –
continue to give generously. Keep on giving to Him generously.
Number 6.
You find it in Malachi 3. I know some of you will say, “O God, Why did He have
to say that one! “ Malachi 3:8-11. The Almighty God asked a question there. He
said, “Will a man rob God” How can somebody rob God and expect that God shall
smile on him. You don’t have to be a prophet to know that if you rob somebody
that person is not going to smile at you. But He went on to say that you should
bring all the tithes into my house. He said that I will open the windows of
heaven… You know if somebody wants to smile at you and the fellow is inside the
house and you are outside and the doors are shut, the windows are shut and the
fellow is smiling – will you see the smile? No, no, no, no… God says “Heaven is
my throne, I’m seated in heaven. You are here on earth, I want to smile on you.
Do one thing – bring all the tithes into my house. I will open the windows of
heaven then my smile will be able to reach you…”
I was telling the
Pastors yesterday – or is it the day before now. I said, somebody – one very
good Bible scholar was explaining Malachi 3 and when talking about v.8-11, he
said “When God said, Will a man rob God?, He was not angry that – look because
you didn’t pay your tithe, I have a financial problem. “ The Bible made it clear
– the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof – can somebody say Amen to
that (Amen!) the Bible says, solver belongs to God, gold belongs to God. The
Bible says, the cattle on a thousand hills belongs to God. God says if I am
hungry I won’t ask you for food, I can take one of the cattle upon a thousand
hills and eat. Every animal in the bush – they belong to me. All the silver, all
the gold that I need – they are there. If I like I can make a fish a bank. I do
not ask you to pay your tithes so that I can solve my financial problem.
So this Bible scholar says what God is actually saying id that when you
fail to pay your tithes you rob God of the opportunity to bless you. He said, “I
want to open the windows of heaven and pour on you a blessing that there will
not be enough room to receive it. You won’t allow me because you did not pay
your tithes. He said, I want to rebuke the deveourer for your sake. As soon as I
see devourers coming I want to say to them, “Don’t go near Adeboye! “ He wants
to rebuke devourers for you but you are robbing Him of an opportunity to do so
by not paying your tithes. Some of you pay half, some of you pay a little bit,
some of you have become so clever that you think God does not know the meaning
of 10% anymore.
If you want to remain in His favour – it is my duty as
your friend, as your father, as someone who wants it to be well with you pay
your tithe completely
Number 7. Now what is number one? Walk before me
and be perfect. Number two – praise Him continually Number three – testify of
His goodness. Number four – in all your ways acknowledge Him, obey Him, trust
Him, honour Hi, with your substance. Number 5. Remain even more generous than
before. Number six – pay your tithe totally. Number seven - remain connected to
somebody that you know has found favour with God. When you find somebody that
you know had found favour with God, when you find somebody that you know – this
man has found favour with God and you hook yourself to the fellow – the favour
that is shining on him will shine on you. For example, when we talk about
David’s mighty men – mighty men of David, and the Bible begins to talk about
them as mighty men.. Who are these mighty men? Read about them in 1 Samuel
22:1-2 the people – they were vagabonds, debtors, discontented people, people
whose life had come to almost an end but they went and joined themselves to
David and David had found favour with God, the favour shone on them. So when
David became a king, the vagabonds became generals. I’ve always told my partners
– as I rise – you will rise, join yourself to somebody who has fond favour with
God! Your favour will last forever.
How do I abide in His favour? I walk
before Him and I’ll be perfect, His praise shall continually be in my mouth, I
will constantly testify of His goodness, in all my ways I will acknowledge Him,
I will obey Him I will trust Him, I will honour Him with my substance, I will
give more generously than ever before, I will pay my tithes totally and I will
remain connected to someone who has found favour with God.
You will bow
your heads now and just offer a short prayer – Father the favour that I’ve found
with you today – don’t let the devil steal it from me. Talk to the Almighty God
for just a minute or two…. and it’s a very important prayer. Pray it with all
your heart…And say, Lord – the favour that I’ve found with you today, don’t let
me ever lose it, don’t let Satan ever take it from me! I’ve found favour with
you now and I know that favour will follow me wherever I go. I know physically
now I have found favour! Materially, I have found favour! Mentally, I have found
favour! Maritally, I have found favour! Spiritually, I know I have found favour!
Ministerially I have found favour! I know whatever I touch now will prosper!
This favour that I’ve found Lord – don’t let me ever miss it! Don’t let the
devil take that favour from me. Let Your favour in my life last forever! Let it
last forever! Let it last forever! Let it last forever! Your favour in my life
Lord, Let it last forever! Thank You my Father! And so shall it be in Jesus'
mighty Name! (Amen!). Let somebody shout ‘Alleluia” (Alleluia!) I didn’t hear
your Alleluia! Well Let somebody shout ‘Alleluia!”
Now our time is
running fast and we are almost through but the Almighty God said that there are
some people, some special cases that He said I should pray for tonight. I’m
going to call those people forward very quickly. If it is not your case, please
don’t come. But if it is your case then come forward.
The Lord said
there is somebody here tonight, you have this abnormal hunger. Within minutes of
finishing a meal, hunger comes again – not within one hour – within minutes! The
Almighty God wants to take away that thing that is eating the food inside you.
Because in spite of all this eating you are never satisfied. If you come very
quickly now, I’m going to pray for you.
The second person that God says
is here, says you have everything anybody could ask for but you have this
unnatural urge to steal, that in fact you have reached a stage now, somebody has
to follow you wherever you go so that when you take something that doesn’t
belong to you that fellow will quickly pay for it. Now God wants to set you free
tonight. If you come very quickly, come and join the people in front, I will
pray with you.
Then the third fellow He said, I will pray for God says
you find it so easy to make enemies – you just find it easy to make enemies.
While other people are making friends you just keep on making enemies upon
enemies. The Lord wants to put an end to that in your life.
Now if you
come very quickly, I will pray for you. Those are the three special cases for
tonight and I just want to thank God for the special cases because testimonies
will follow. How many of you believe that the Almighty God is good, that He
wants to set so many people free? Isn’t God good? Let’s just sing a song of
praise while we wait for these people to come. Let’s sing a song of
praise….
Pick out these people, let that favour destroy every yoke in
their life. Please, Everybody pray for them – stretch out your hands towards
these people and pray for them, that the favour of God that located their
problems, that same favour will destroy every yoke in their lives tonight so
that they will go back completely free – free completely – Intercede for them
brethren, for just two minutes, open your mouth and intercede for your brothers
and sisters – that the Almighty God whose favour has located their problems, the
same favour will see to it that all the yokes in their lives are destroyed and
they will go home completely free. Thank You Father! In Jesus’ mighty Name we
have prayed! (Amen!)
Daddy, I want to bless Your Holy Name. Thank You for
Divine Favour. Thank You that these people have found favour with You tonight.
Accept our thanks in Jesus’ Name! (Amen!) Daddy, Your Word says, every plant my
Father did not plant shall be rooted up. (Amen!) Whatever demons might be in
some of these Your people that is causing them to be constantly hungry, Father,
uproot tonight in Jesus’ Name! (Amen!) Whatever demon might be in these people
that in spite of everything they have they still feel like stealing – uproot it
tonight in Jesus’ Name! (Amen!). Whatever demons might be in these people that
is always attracting hatred to them, Father uproot tonight in Jesus’ Name!
(Amen!) In Your mighty Name Lord, I decree freedom for these people! (Amen!) I
decree deliverance for these people! (Amen!) From tonight all these problems
that brought you forward, you will never see them again! (Amen!) You will never
see them again! (Amen!) You will never see them again! (Amen!) So shall it be!
In Jesus’ mighty Name we have prayed! (Amen!) Amen Let’s give the Lord a big
hand! Alleluia! Amen!
You can dance back to your place tonight.
I
have some messages for some people who will be here tonight, which I have
written down and I will read them to you. If it is your own you will pick it
up.
God said there is someone here, the devil had been moving violently
in your life. He asked e to tell you because His face is going to shine on you
now the devil is going to be silenced permanently. (Amen!)
The Lord said
there is someone here tonight, just one more Holy Ghost Service and your
miracles will be complete.
And then the Lord said there is someone here
tonight things have been so hot recently because God wants to bring the best out
of you. (Amen!)
And then the Lord said I should tell – this one is for
every one of us – from tonight change your language, from now on when they say,
“How are you?” Your answer must be “I am divinely favoured.” How are you? I say
How are you? How is business? How is your work? How is your education going?
Glory be to God!
The last one is for me not for you…. Let somebody shout
‘Alleluia” (Alleluia!)
We are going to listen to some testimonies before
we go and the people concerned, as soon as you hear your name you will come out
quickly and as you come we will prepare to thank God for what He has done
tonight because I believe God has blessed somebody here tonight and I know that
fellow will want to say thank you. Where are the seats for those who are
coming?
………
Let them come very quickly. When it is time we will
listen to your testimony for 2, 2 minutes. In the mean time we want to thank the
Almighty God for what He has done tonight. He has given us favour and we shall
abide in that favour. (Amen!) The ushers will attend to us. ….
Thank You
for health, for strength. Thank You for very soon Your children will be able to
say, "my cup runneth over". Accept our thanks in Jesus’ Name! (Amen!) All these
children who had given tonight I pray that they will never borrow again in
Jesus’ Name! (Amen!) That for the rest of their lives they will always have more
than sufficient in Jesus’ Name! (Amen!). So shall it be In Jesus’ mighty Name we
have prayed! (Amen!) Amen! Now let everybody shout Alleluia! (Alleluia!)
Message by Pastor E. A. Adeboye