PROVOKING PROPHECY 6th of June, 2008

Let somebody shout halleluiah!

Provoking prophecy, what is prophecy? In the very simplest language; Prophecy simply means the revelation of what God wants to do.

Amos 3 v7 he said God will not do a thing without revealing it to his servant the prophet. Whenever God wants to do something, he will reveal it to somebody and that somebody is called a prophet. For example He has revealed to me that there is somebody here tonight whose tomorrow will be alright, if you are the one let me hear you say amen loud and clear.

Many at times God may speak to somebody directly, He reveal what he wants to do to somebody directly. In Genesis 12 v1-3 He spoke to Abraham directly; Abraham I am going to bless you, I am going to make your name great, I am going to make you a blessing, I am going to bless those who bless you, I am going to curse those who curse you. Through you I am going to bless the whole world, he told Abraham directly, but many times he will speak through a prophet to a group of people, so that when that happens, you will hear the prophet says thus says the Lord.

Or like we do in modern term; that there is someone here that God wants to do these for you. Occasionally, God may tell a prophet something and tell him for your ears only, you are the only one I am telling, I am not asking you to tell anyone, like in Daniel 12 v 4 He told Daniel what I have shown you seal it up; it is not yet time to reveal it, I just want you to know.

 But at times He would tell the prophet something and the prophet would no longer be able to rest until he has said it, in Amos 3 v 8 Amos said the lion has roared, who shall not fear; the Lord has spoken who will not prophecy.

Occasionally when God tells you something that is particularly unpleasant and you find it difficult to go and tell the person concern, He will make sure that you can’t rest until you have spoken it out.

Now how do we know true prophecy? Because Prophecy can come through three sources, Prophecy can come from God, Prophecy can come from the devil that is why any devilish prophesy concerning you, I cancel it in Jesus name. Prophecy can come from the spirit of a man. False prophet can come to you and say thus says the Lord, give me your car, tell him go and buy his own, don’t come and claim my car.

How do we know true prophecy? Probably the most outstanding feature of a prophecy coming from God is that, it will sound very difficult to believe. Considering the circumstances, it will sound incredible.

For example in 2Kings 7v1-2 when there was great famine in the land the prophet of God got up and said thus says the Lord, by these time tomorrow. Food will be in excess. Somebody got up and said what are you talking about? People are eating their children out of hunger and you are telling me that in less than 24 hours there will be so many food that nobody will want to buy? The Man of God said you will see it but you won’t eat part of it.

May I repeat one more time there is somebody here today, irrespective of what is happening, your tomorrow will be alright. Another example is in Ezekiel 37 v1-10 the bible says there was a valley full of bones. Very dry bones and God asked the man of God, can these bones live. Even the man of God said this is too much for me, and God said to the man of God, man of God prophecy, tell the dry bones, dry bones live! How can you ask dry bones to become human beings? But that is the way of God that is how we know true Prophecy.

Years ago, my first year as the General Overseer, I was praying to God for a house, father build me a house in Mushin. God answered Son, don’t ask me for a house, I have decided to build you a city.

How can somebody who hasn’t got money to build a house find it easy that he will build a city? But that is the way of Prophecy.

Some of the elders here, they would remember during our first convention here. In 1983, the total number of cows that we killed, I think it was three and I told them what God said; that God said very soon, during the convention trailers will be bringing the cows. They said amen (the ‘amen’ means go on deceiving yourself) but today, even a thousand cows will go in three days.

When God is the one speaking it will sound impossible, but that is the mark that it is God speaking. God is speaking to somebody here today, He is saying to you it doesn’t matter what the situation will be now, I say your tomorrow will be alright.

Now what is the purpose of Prophecy? There are many purposes; we will just mention a few. In 1Corinthians 14v3 the bible say the purpose of Prophecy is for edification, exaltation and comfort.

Isaiah 30 v 21 says prophecy can be for guidance. He says you will hear a voice behind you, this is the way walk in it, when you get to a cross road and you don’t know what to do next and you come to a Holy Ghost service and the Lord speaks.

In 2Kings 3 v15 - 17 Prophecy can be for instruction; do this, and do this, then do this. Instructions! In Daniel 4v 20-27 Prophecy could be a warning, could be something telling you be careful, danger is coming so that you will know what to do to avoid the danger that is coming.

Now what are the normal channels that God could use to bring about Prophecy: He could use dreams, when you are just beginning in the Lord and God wants to use you to reveal what He wants to do, He may use dreams, in Genesis 41 v 1-25 it was through dreams that Pharaoh knew troubles was coming, and what to do to avoid the troubles that was coming.

 Many at times when a danger is coming, God may give you a dream to warn you that trouble coming.

I think it was my first or second year as the general overseer, I have a dreams and I saw two pythons, very big pythons. One was yellow, very beautiful; the other was black with dots on the body, beautiful also.  And then I was wondering when I woke up, there are pythons very big! They should be frightening but they were beautiful, what is the meaning of these? Father please tell me; The Lord told me two women will be visiting you, they are pythons, be careful, I will tell you when they arrive.

I pray for somebody here today all the plans of the enemy concerning you shall be exposed.

I don’t need to continue with the story; some of you have heard it before. But the two them came according to the Prophecy that day and as soon as they came, God said that is python number one, this is the number two.

And then another venue for Prophecy is by what is called open vision. In Act 10 v 9-20 the bible tells us at the time when God wanted to send the gospel to the gentiles, He gave Peter an open vision. Show him what he wanted to do next, He knew Peter will not want to go, so He showed him a vision and as he was thinking, the people he had to go with had arrived.

 I am praying for those of you who are here today, that the ability to see visions, the Almighty God will give you today.

But then, probably the highest form of Prophecy is what is called the audible voice. When God will speak to you and you will hear him, and God can talk to you, like I am talking to these brother, clearly, that you even think it is somebody else near you talking. In 1Smauel 3 v 2-14 when God wanted to send someone to Eli, He called Samuel, Samuel, Samuel heard the voice but he thought it was Eli, and he ran to Eli and said here I am because you called me, but Eli say no I didn’t call you. It happened three times before Eli realized that it was God calling the small boy.

 Every one of us that are here tonight there is no reason why God cannot speak to you. It makes Christianity simple, when you can hear from God yourself then no fake prophet can deceive. If you know the number of prophet who calls themselves prophet who have come to me and say thus says the Lord. Many at times I just look at them and say repent! Because God didn’t tell you what you are saying.

 I am praying for everybody here today that beginning from these particular month, you will begin to hear from God yourself, because then nobody will be able to cheat you anymore, nobody will be able to frighten you unnecessarily, when somebody says thus saith the Lord, you will be able to stand boldly and say my father didn’t tell me that. It makes Christianity beautiful.

Now that is prophecy, the next word that is important in our service tonight is provoking. One of the speaker who spoke before me did a beautiful definition of the word provoking, but there was so many definition that I can’t remember them all, but there is one that is so simple anybody can remember it.

 To provoke simply means to cause somebody to do what he doesn’t plan to do. Fortunately, many of us because of the way provoke have been use, we have taking provoke to mean to cause to be angry. The word provoke is not complete of itself; provoke to what? When you go through the scriptures alone, you find that you can provoke to anger, like in Deuteronomy  4 v 25, he said through idolatry you can provoke God to anger but when you look at…

Thank you Lord, He said there is someone here, he said you are the only one left in your family that you have not yet succeed He ask me to tell you, you will surpass the others, now it may sound impossible to you know but you wait and see.

Luke 11 v 53-43 the bible says that the scribes and the Sadducees provoke Jesus to say many things so that they can catch Him from his word, in other words they were causing him to speak more, more and more. In Romans 11v11 the bible says God brought salvation to the gentiles to provoke the children of Israel to envy. Because the Jews have always said salvation is of the Jew, so God gave salvation to gentiles, to provoke the Jews to envy. And then when you read Hebrew 10 vs 24 then you find that it is possible to provoke people to good works, and to provoke people to love, so you can provoke to anger, you can provoke someone to love more than he wants, you can provoke someone to love, you can provoke someone to envy.

You can provoke someone to good works, so you see the word provoke is nothing until you add something, provoke to what? Provoke to anger, provoke to good works, provoke to speaking too much. Provoke to love, provoke to good works. So we can provoke to prophecy.  So the word provoke is not an evil word. It is a beautiful word.

And  there is somebody here, a friend of mine for example, who today am sure will do anything for me, but when I first met him, he doesn’t want to be near me at all, it was his wife who got born again and drag me into their home. This man didn’t like it at all, but he respected me because I happen to be a lecturer and my coming to his house has spoiled a lot of his fun. There was one day for example; he was going to celebrate his birthday, he has loaded his fridge with beer, his friends has come to celebrate and I arrived and I brought out my bible, let us open our bible to chapter so and so, one by one all the friends left. He didn’t like me at the beginning but I provoke him to love so much so now that he loves me with all his heart.

I have heard men say, that their wives don’t know how to do something, it is the duty of the husband to provoke the wife to good works, it is the duty of the wife to provoke the husband to love her, but I am not here to preach on marriage today.

How do we provoke God to preach? How do we get God to say what he doesn’t want to say? Because  God is not a talk active, the bible says in Psalm 62 v11 he said God has spoken once , twice have I heard it ‘that powers belong to God’, He said it only once” power belong to me” if you don’t believe that is your headache He has spoken, let there be light and there is light. he is not a talk active but if you know what to do He can talk to you from morning to evening, He can tell you what is yet to happen the next twenty years, he is willing to talk to you about all your children one by one, He wants to talk to you about your business, he is willing to guide you as to who to marry and who not to marry.

 He is willing to tell you that opening, don’t take it is not from me, If you know what to do.

Thank you Lord, the Lord said there is someone here tonight, He asks me to tell you that I will lift the embargo placed on you.

Thank you Lord, the Lord said there is someone here tonight, He said relax, I have fixed the day for your miracle.

How do we provoke prophecy, Genesis 8 v 20-22 the bible said when Noah offered a sacrifice to God and God smells the sweet odor, He spoke, he said from now on I won’t destroy the world with water again.

In Genesis 22 v 1-18 when God said to Abraham, give me your son Isaac, sacrifice him to Me, and Abraham said okay God and he was ready to offer the boy to God before God stopped him, the bible spoke again, He said “by myself  have I swore, in blessing, I will bless you and in multiplication ,I will multiply you”.

The Lord said there is someone here tonight, He said the next time you say I am a friend of God, all your neighbors will say it is true. In other words they will see proof that truly God is your friend.

In 2 Chronicle 1v6-12 after Solomon offered a thousand offering to God, God visited him and said ask what you want, he asked what he wanted and God spoke to him, what you ask for I will give, what you did not ask for, I will add.

Now before I continue my teaching the Lord wants me to share something for somebody in particular, if you are the one please listen carefully. Some of you have heard me said it before, but there is a prophecy attached to this one.

When we held the first Holy Ghost service in Abuja, to start our church there, I was in the room praying; father save soul, heal, perform miracle, do mighty things and God spoke to me and he “said shut up!”, “do this, do this, all that I have done for you, when did you say thank you”. He said for the next three days(because the program was for three days) don’t ask me anything just keep on thanking me, it was difficult but I tried; Lord thank you, glory be to your name, thank you for this, thank you for that, but please  tonight don’t forget… ah thank you, thank you. After three days He spoke to me and said son, tell the elders to go and strengthen the foundation of the church because what you have seen thus far is addition. Now you will begin to see multiplication. That is when the Redeem Christian church of God practically exploded.

Now the Lord is saying there is someone here tonight all you have seen thus far is addition but from this month you will begin to see multiplications.

I think if you are the one, I think you should just stand up on your feet and thank the Lord. Thank Him for addition, I thank you what I have seen already, thank you for multiplication, Lord I thank you. Lord for what I have seen, I thank you for your goodness, I thank you for your mercy, I thank you for thus far you have helped me, I am grateful Lord, Lord I am saying thank you. Father you’ve been so good to me, so kind, so wonderful, what a great God you are, what a mighty God you are, what a marvelous God you are, from the bottom of my heart I say thank you, glory be to your name. In Jesus Mighty name we have given thanks. May I hear somebody shout a really big halleluiah!

How do we provoke prophecy? By acceptable sacrifice, by sacrificial offering; like in the case of Abraham? By an unusual offering; like in the case of Solomon, and by the rededication to God.

In 1King 18 v 30- 41it was after Elijah repaired the Altar of God, after the whole of Israel feel on their face and said Jehovah is God. After the prophets of Baal have been wiped out, it is then Elijah said I have heard the sound of abundant of rain.

 If you have been hearing God before and you don’t hear from Him anymore; examine yourself, it can only mean you have strayed away from Him, come back to Him and he will begin to speak to Him again.

And then finally, how do we hear from God, how do we provoke prophecy? 2king 3 v15-16 some kings have come to Elisha and they wanted to hear from him, what has God got to say? He said bring me a minstrel. Get me somebody who knows how to praise God and as the minstrel played, the hand of God came upon him and he said thus says the Lord. Whenever people praise God intensely, God will always speak. Praise Him as you ought to, He will speak. You don’t praise Him, He will keep quiet.

The reason why in some churches we don’t hear thus says the Lord, is because they don’t go there to praise him. Even in some Pentecostal churches, we don’t hear thus says the Lord, because we go there to praise the pastor and not God; if you praise the pastor, the pastor will speak. If you praise God, God will speak. That is why when we began the Holy Ghost service several years ago; I use to depend on the choir to bring the power down to bring God to speak. And when they do not perform they ought to perform, it is always a very big trouble getting through the program.

 I went to God in prayer, what do I do? I want you to speak to me so that I can speak to your people and He said you don’t have to rely on the choir, you yourself worship me. if you worship me I will speak, whether the choir perform or not.

That is why when we want to begin a program we will begin with worship but thank God over the years the choir had improved.

Thank God over the years God has raise up a minstrel up for Himself so even if the choir did not perform well, by the time he got on the saxophone, God will come down and by the time he finish his own and I add my own little bit, very soon you will hear thus says the Lord.

 I have a feeling that God wants to talk tonight, He wants to talk to somebody, has already talk to someone but He is going to speak to somebody again, is anybody here who wants to hear from the Almighty God? Let me hear you shout halleluiah!

 But before I get out of the way because really this night is suppose to be for praise.

What do I do when I hear thus says the Lord? Because many of us have receive prophesies but we have not seen them manifesting. What do I do with prophesy? It is your duty to pray it into manifestation. In 1king18 v 41-45 Elijah said I have heard the sound of abundance of rain, what he did then?, he went on the mountain top, fell on his face, put his head between his legs and began to pray until rain fell.

The trouble with many of us is that every God has spoken to us and we know it is God speaking we don’t do anything about it. We just say amen and we keep quiet. You have something to do about it. You have to pray it into manifestation. For example, I heard a prophecy coming tonight that somebody was the last fellow in the family to succeed but that he is going to surpass all the others; you know what that means?  It means that you are going to work harder than the other but God will give you opportunities and when He opens the door, you move in.

I have told you of two people who went to see an oracle. I heard this from my father in the Lord, the oracle man said to them; he said to the first man, you will be a king he said to the second man you will be a servant.

And the two of them left the oracle man, the first one came home rejoicing; I am Kabieysi (king). The second one said what have I done wrong, why should I be a servant? He said I refuse to be a servant. So he got two good cutlasses, took some maize and some yams. Went far, far into the jungle, into a no man’s land. And he began to cut the wood there, kept on saying I refuse to be a servant, I refuse to be a servant. When he is feeling tired he will tell his body you better be careful because I refuse to be a servant and he planted a lot of maize.

 In the mean time the one the oracle said is going to be a king stay at home he did nothing.  Then famine came, the famine was devastated the whole town and the hunter hunting came upon the other man and saw a lot of food that he has already gathered and went to town and told the people and say there is food here and the town people came and said please give us food we will make you our king.

The one that the oracle said he is going to become king ended up the servant of the king. When God says that you are going to prosper that means hard work. If God says you are going to reach the top that means climbing. If God says your tomorrow will be alright, that means you have a lot of prayer to do, how many of you are ready to climb, how many of you wants to be the greatest?

 How many of you are ready for hard work? How many of you know that your tomorrow will be alright, how many of you are ready to pray? When you have receive a prophecy, you must pray it into manifestation,

In conclusion, because we are going to praise God now and I already have a feeling that God is about to speak to some people. Remember Proverb 21 v 27 he said the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to God. We have pointed out the various ways we have provoke prophesy, give him an acceptable offering, give him a sacrificial offering, give him an unusual offering.

Rededicate your life to him and praise and worship Him. But the sacrifice of the wicked God calls it abomination. That means that if you are not born again and you say you want to offer God a sacrifice you are wasting your time. You are leaving in sin and you say you want to praise God you are wasting your time. You cannot be a harlot and begin to shout halleluiah! Halleluiah! To who? you cannot say you a robber and say you want to praise God, praise God for what? You cannot be robbing God of time and come and say oh! Glory be to God in the highest. Robbers, praising God?

The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to God. So those of you who says you are already born again and you want to be hearing from him, rededicate yourself to him, get back a correct relationship with God and those of you who have not even surrender your life to him at all, if you leave here and you say you are hearing a voice. A sinner, who is hearing a voice, is hearing the voice of the devil not the voice of God. But if you give your life to Jesus Christ and He save your soul and he cleanse you in his blood, you will become one of his own. He says my sheep hear my voice.

As a matter of fact, if you say you are a child of God and you have not been hearing from God, check your salvation. My sheep hear my voice, so if  there is anybody here and you know you are still living  without deceiving anybody you are still living in sin, come to Jesus tonight, let him save your soul, His blood will wash away your sin and you will begin to hear from him. I have been hearing from God since I was a very young Christian. God can talk to babies; He spoke to Samuel, when Samuel doesn’t even know how to hear from him. Give your life to Him today, he will wash you with his blood and you may even be hearing from him before the end of the month.

Come now if you want to give your life to Jesus, if you want to be hearing from Him you need to give your life to Him first, ask God to save your soul, ask him to forgive you your sins, ask Him to be your lord and savior, promise him you will serve him for the rest of your life. Ask him to be your shepherd from now on, so that you will begin to hear from him…

Thank you my father, in Jesus Mighty name we have prayed. Father, we want to thank you for your word, we want to thank you for the people that have come to the front. Receive them in Jesus amen, forgive them in Jesus name, and wipe away all their sins with your blood in Jesus name. Please save their souls in Jesus name. Lord God Almighty father, I pray that from now on they will be hearing from you. In Jesus Mighty name we have prayed.

Let somebody shout halleluiah! I have no doubt at all that God wants to speak to somebody but why don’t we get Him to speak to everybody? We can get Him to do this by praising him.