MOVE TO THE NEXT LEVEL

TEXT: DEUTERONOMY 1: 6-8

“⁶ The Lord our God said to us at Horeb, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. ⁷ Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighbouring peoples in the Arabah, in the mountains, in the western foothills, in the Negev and along the coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates. ⁸ See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land the Lord swore he would give to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—and to their descendants after them.” 

The plan of God for us His children is to prosper, flourish and dominate the earth. God wants us to make positive impact in our generation.

God does not want His children to be stagnant, He wants us to enjoy accelerated or progressive blessing- that is to be moving from one level of greatness to another higher level of greatness.

The scripture says “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof… (Psalm 24: 1). The earth belongs to your father, therefore you should not be stranded at a location- You are to break grounds to have global relevance. God told us to go into the world and make disciples of all nations.

The gift of God in you should be made known all over the world. Do not let anything debar you from moving from glory to glory because that is the disposition of God for your life.

If your gift is making way for you as the scripture has promised, have it in mind that there is room for improvement for you to do greater exploits.

Do not stay too long at a level celebrating your victory or success.

Rather, keep soaring and aspire to get to the next level of greatness that the Lord has prepared for you.

The anchor scripture tells us how God prompted the children of Israel not to stay stagnant at Horeb- because He has given them a vast land for their possession.

God has released His blessing on them, He prepared a land flowing with milk and honey for them to inherit and enjoy; but for one reason or the other they were delaying the “Taking over” of the land until God rebuked them for their stagnation.

There are things that you have to do for you to enter into your greatness. Whatever part God wants you to play for your blessing and divine transformation, if you don’t do it; God will not play your part for you.

This is where some believers are missing it, there are things that do not need prayers to accomplish again because God has already decided to favour you- He has opened the door before you. When a door is opened, what is the next thing to do? The next thing is to move! You cannot substitute prayers for action: if you do and you didn’t get your expected answer, you will be “blaming” God that He did not answer your prayers.

I am telling you today that the Lord has opened the door of breakthrough before you; you do not need prayers and fasting to take the action of moving to the higher level of greatness.

Have you gone into the wrong direction of destiny and you found yourself stagnant? Or are you in the right direction of destiny but for one reason or the other, things are not working as expected because of some stumbling blocks and hurdles on your way to the next level? You cannot afford to be stagnant because you are created for upward movement- Look for the exit door from your stagnated point and retrace your steps to where you will possess the blessing that the Lord has prepared for you.

Ask God for help to advance against all barriers and oppositions to your greatness and be ready to take corresponding action. You are not created to be limited in your career, spiritual life, ministry and in all aspects of life- You are a global champion not local champion, let nothing hinder you. Arise now and take your possession, break every barrier against all odds DO NOT STOP MOVING. It does not matter the size of your step; either baby step or giant step- Just keep moving forward!

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BENEFITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

TEXT: PROVERBS 14: 34

“Righteousness [moral and spiritual integrity and virtuous character] exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.”

Righteousness means uprightness, decency, honesty and guiltlessness. It is the quality of being morally right or justifiable. Being righteous is when no mistake or bad deed is found in you- when you are blameless.

God encouraged us to live righteous so that we would partake in the blessing of righteousness. God wants absolute righteousness from us without spot or wrinkle- though the scripture says our righteousness is like filthy rag in His presence, yet God wants us to try all our best to live a holy life (we cannot continue in sin and ask grace to abound). Grace is available for all the children of God, but you MUST strive to live a holy life because righteous living cannot be replaced with anything.

The scripture made us to know that the spirit is willing but our flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41).

¹⁵ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶ And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸ For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.^[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

(Romans 7:15-20).

The above quote is from Apostle Paul in his wrestle against flesh and sin. We must constantly subject our flesh so that we will be able to live a righteous life to enjoy the promises of God concerning righteous living.

BENEFITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

·        It makes your way to be straight (Proverbs 11:5)

·        Righteousness delivers from problem (Proverbs 11:6)

·        You will be rescued from trouble (Proverbs 11: 8)

·        God will make your enemies to be at peace with you (Proverbs 16:7)

·        You will inherit the land – This means you will flourish in the land

·        (Psalm 37: 29)

·        It shall be well with you (Isaiah 3:10)

·        You will not be forsaken (Psalm 37: 25)

·        The Lord will grant you your heart desires (Proverbs 10:24)

·        Your children shall be delivered from evil and affliction (Proverbs 11: 21)

·        You will live in safety under the shadow of the almighty God (Proverb 18: 10)

·        Your path will be smooth and glorious- you will be moving from one level of glory to another (Proverbs 4: 18)

·        God will not withhold any good thing from you (Psalm 84: 11)

·        You will enjoy God’s favour in every area of your life (Psalm 5:12)

HOW TO LIVE RIGHTEOUSLY

·        Fear the Lord and do not do anything that can cause separation between you and God.

·        Study His word (Bible) and apply it to your lifestyle.

·        Obedience is crucial- not partial obedience to His commands.

·        Put your flesh into subjection and let the spirit of God rule over your flesh.

·        Holiness and humility is key to righteous living.

·        Acknowledge God in all your doing, so that He can direct your path..

·        Live a lifestyle of praise, worship and prayer.

·        Live in love- love the “unlovable” do not follow the slogan of “an eye for an eye.”- Do good to them that hates you (This takes the grace of God… the grace is sufficient for you- ask for it).

The benefits of righteousness cannot be over emphasised. If we can stand right with God and walk in His will, we would not need to struggle for many things in life, because God will take care of everything in our favour.
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THINK BEFORE YOU TALK.

TEXT: PROVERBS 15: 28

“The heart of the righteous studies how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil.”

The scripture tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:31 that whatever we do, we should do it to the glory of God- that includes the way we talk or respond to conversations with people.

“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” (Colossians 4:6).

As believers, we should be careful how we talk either during formal or informal (joke/gist) time. Some get carried away during informal conversation; they let down their guard and talk recklessly throwing caution into the air that people will be wondering if they are genuinely saved!

Professing Jesus as your lord and saviour has given you some unpaid “watchdogs.” Their Eagle eyes watches every step you take without you knowing. They listen to verbal and non- verbal expression you make, they want to scrutinise you to find errors to accuse you with.

The devil is an accuser of the brethren (Rev. 12:10). Therefore, do not give him a foothold in your life.

Speak gracefully; let people see God in your conversation. Worldly slangs are not for genuine believers (that is conformity to the world).

Before you speak or utter a word, think “will this utterance glorify God?”

Some people are saints until there is a reason for them to be angry.

When anger takes over, you will marvel at their utterances- Let not your righteousness be evident around the church vicinity alone, show your righteousness EVERYWHERE and at all times (either at formal or non-formal setting).

If you are in the midst of unbelievers and they cannot see your light or righteousness in your conversation, if you flow easily with their “norms” then, there is a problem with your salvation.

Do not question the existence of God in your life with your utterances- think before you talk, make sure your conversation will bring glory to the name of God whenever you open your mouth to talk.

Be very careful to choose your word, be disciplined with word- do not talk carelessly thinking that “they will understand that I was joking or they will understand that I was being provoked to say what I did not mean.”

“How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life.” (James 3: 5-6).

In the same vein, do not let God down with your utterances when you are angry- lean to control your emotion. The scripture says in Philippians 1:27 that “Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” In your anger do not sin, talk less when you are angry so that you will not utter what you will regret later.

I will leave you with this verse of the Bible “Patience is better than power, and controlling one’s emotions, than capturing a city.” (Proverbs 16:32).

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DON’T FAKE IT!

TEXT: PROVERBS 12:9

“Better to be a nobody and yet have a servant than pretend to be somebody and have no food.”

The world is particular about image, pretence, materialism, outward appearance and unreal personality, over uniqueness, reality, noble character and genuineness. People live fake lives so that they can be accepted and be relevant in the society- since what the society celebrates is images, materialism, pretence,  and so on at the expense of good moral value, intelligence, noble character and godly living.

Only a few percentage of the population care about godly living and honourable character- gone are those days when people give respect and honour to people of noble and excellent character.

These days, the world gives more attention and recognition to people of no “tangible substance” aside of their fake outward glory. The society gives more accolades to vessels that are empty- no content inside them, no substantial achievement accredited to their names.

However, because of the fake life that they are living, the society doffs their hats for them.

When you see some people from a distance- looking at them in their pride and disguised living, you would think they have something to offer their world. On getting close to them you will discover that the image they portray is mot who they are- they are just hiding under the mask of who they are not (That is what the society turned them to).

Our text compared two personalities; the first one is the one that acts like a nobody yet he has a servant. The second personality is the one that pretends to be somebody and does not have food.

I will like to relate these two personalities to our present world. There are some people that are blessed both materially (wealth) and morally (noble character). Yet they are very down to earth, you will not see them making noise around, they will not oppress others with their money- they keep low profile life without intimidating or showing off their worth to people around them- They are best referred to as “humility personified.” These category of people definitely live in the love and fear of God.

The second personality are those that are nothing both morally and materially, but because of the pressure of getting accepted in the society, they would go to any length to live up to the eyes of the society.

They would borrow money; some may even steal to live the flamboyant and extravagant life that is beyond them.

They have lost their morals, self -control and their conscience has bid them farewell! Therefore, they can go to any length to gain prominence and to maintain their fake living.

The outcome of living a fake life could be disastrous. It could lead to different forms of problems ranging from- High blood pressure, stress, and sleeplessness, getting into unclean and shady deals or business. In the quest to meet up to the standard of the society- to maintain the status quo, they may miss eternity. This is the greatest calamity that would befall them.

Do not live for public image, don’t live above your means- do not go bankrupt or go into depression or into debt just to impress the world- the pretence of image, portraying what you are not pays not.

Learn from Lazarus and the rich man. The rich man ended in hell while Lazarus made heaven- the moral is, money or material possession is not a guarantee for making heaven.

Material things can only elevate you in the sight of people but not in God’s sight!

Faking good life would cause you to taking loans that you may not be able to pay. It could cause you to sell your soul to the devil and engage in ritual killing or becoming a member of some demonic and occultic group. Wait for the blessing of God- don’t live a deceitful life, be genuine to yourself and live within your limit.

I read an online newspaper some years back; a teenage boy went and sold one of his kidneys so that he could buy an IPad. What a mistake! This is an example of living beyond one’s limit.

Some will engage in different shifts at work to be able to buy designer brands for an outing- whoever sees them would believe all is well with them; meanwhile, they don’t have provision for the next day! These set of people makes the loudest noise bragging up and down.

As children of God, we shouldn’t conform with this way of life- wait for God’s blessing, and when God blesses you, emulate the first personality in our text “Pretend to be a NOBODY (This means you should live in humility). God bless you.

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HE WILL BLESS THE WORK OF YOUR HANDS

TEXT: DEUTERONOMY 28: 12

“¹² The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.”

God’s plan for us His children is for us to live in abundance. God wants us to bless us to be blessed to the point of being a blessing to people around us. He wants us to be lenders to nation without us borrowing from anyone.

God promised us that He would open the heaven’s storehouse to us and send us rain in due season- This means we will flourish like the tree planted by the river side. However, as good and comforting this promises are, there is a condition attached to it. All these promises will only come to pass in your life provided you engage your hands in any decent labour or endeavour.

God cannot bless an idle hand. Remember the widow that the creditors were coming to collect her children for the debt her husband owed (2 Kings 4). Elisha asked her what she had in her house and she replied that she had a little jar of oil… This tells us that no matter how intangible that job or business brings back to you, God would prefer to work with that than to encourage idleness! Proverbs 14:23 says “All hard work brings a profit but mere talks leads only to poverty.”

You cannot be idle and expect God to bless you. Our God worked to create the universe- He is not a lazy God; therefore Hr won’t overlook your laziness.

We have heard of stories of people that became   wealthy as a result of “one small hubby or business.” They did not start with the mind-set of having chain stores or business empire- They started small and the Lord fulfilled His promise by blessing the work of their hands.

As harsh as this may sound, permit me to use this word “NO WORK, NO BLESSING.” That is the gospel truth. Where will your blessing come from if you are idle? Your hands are not engaged productively and you are claiming kingdom blessings? My friend, it does not work like that. Engage your hands in any honourable endeavour and see where God will take you to. It will blow your mind what God can do with the little in your hands.

WHAT DO YOU HAVE THAT YOU HAVE NOT RECEIVED?

TEXT: 1 CORINTHIANS 4:7-9

Human beings love to be respected and elevated. We like to showcase our skills, talents, wealth, affluence, intellect and so on. We boast of these qualities to step up the social ladder of the society.

We tend to think too high of ourselves that if care is not taken, pride may set in.

I have seen some people that the prefixes in their names are longer than their real names! (This is nothing but a way of getting recognition and applauds of men).

Men may give you standing ovation when you are addressed with your many “titles” before mentioning your real name. However, you must be very careful not to let these “lorry loads” of titles get into you and cause you to become arrogant.

The scripture says in 1 Peter 5:6 “Humble yourselves therefore under God’s mighty hands, that He may lift you up in due time.” God does not like proud hearts; He loves meek and humble people.

Whatever you think you are now is by the grace of God- all good and perfect gifts are from above coming down from the father (God) of the heavenly lights (James 1:17).

Do not attribute your success to your wisdom, connection, intellectual ability, strength, or strategy. If you are able to acknowledge that God made that status possible by His grace, it will make you to be humble and be able to ascribe all the glory to Him and not to yourself.

In our text, Apostle Paul asked “What makes you different from anyone?” I will answer by saying it is the grace of God over your life that makes the difference not human wisdom, strength or effort.

Consequently, the grace of God that made you to stand out among your counterparts is also available to others- do not be intoxicated with success or achievement, rather, glorify God and be able to be a blessing to people.

You received your blessing, breakthrough and success from God- it will not stop with you, our God is not a partial God; He gives literarily without finding fault. What He did for you, He will do it for others as well.

Let no pride override your sense of gratitude- do not bully people with your success, relatively, bless people with it so that the name of the Lord can be glorified through you.

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PEOPLE PLEASER?

TEXT:  1 THESSALONIANS 2: 3-6

“³ For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. ⁴ ON THE CONTRARY, WE SPEAK AS THOSE APPROVED BY GOD TO BE ENTRUSTED WITH THE GOSPEL. WE ARE NOT TRYING TO PLEASE PEOPLE BUT GOD, WHO TESTS OUR HEARTS. ⁵ You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. ⁶ We were not looking for praise from people, not from you or anyone else, even though as apostles of Christ we could have asserted our authority.”

We are in the era where people want to do things that please them without thinking if it’s morally right or wrong. The scripture is coming to fulfilment with the signs of end time visible around us.

We are in the dispensation where immoral behaviour, evil, wickedness, perversion, debauchery, lies, deception and so on are the order of the day.

However, as children of God, we are called to stand out- we are not to conform to these negative manifestation happening around us. We are to be examples of Christ (to show the right way of living- we are the salt and the light of the world).

The slogan of “If you cannot beat them you join them” is not for us believers. Rather, our slogan should be “I will stand for what is right no matter what it will cost me.”

Let us look at our anchor text (1 Thessalonians 2: 3-6) I will point out some key points from there- Apostle Paul wrote “For the APPEAL we make does NOT spring from ERROR or IMPURE MOTIVE, or are we trying to TRICK you… apostle Paul was bold to utter these statement because he was confident that he had not deviated from what the Lord sent him to do- he did not allow himself to be influenced by the people- he never watered down his message of the gospel to make the people “feel good and comfortable.”

Paul guarded his heart so that his motive and focus will be to do what God sent him- which is to preach the gospel of Christ. 

These days, we see some ministers of God on the pulpit teaching ERROR and HERESY because their motive of becoming ministers of God is wrong and impure. Some ministers teach error and heresy so that their congregation can accept and be happy with them in order to be able to bring “bountiful” tithe and offering!

Some ministers of God deliberately conceal the true gospel from their members so that these members will be tricked into believing ONLY in their pastors as their MESSIAH.

As genuine ministers of God, we are indebted to preaching and teaching the true word of God even if it hurts. We are not called to please man but God. Remember that when you are making effort to please man, you will displease God. Which one would you prefer?  Would you choose man over God?

Let your appeal (preaching/ teaching) be without error, speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel.

Apostle Paul went further for more clarification… “We are not trying to please man but God, who tests our hearts.

As a minister of God, if you are trying to fit into what makes your congregation to be comfortable by preaching error and heresy, you will be uncomfortable with God!

If you water down your message or conceal the consequences of sinning from your members because you don’t want to lose them, would you prefer to lose eternity? Think of this!

Another keynote from apostle Paul’s writing is in verse five of our text which says “You know we never used FLATTERY nor did we put on a MASK TO COVER UP GREED…” Some ministers of God are very wise in the game of flattery. They prepare messages to flatter their congregation- they sweet talk them and make them believe that everything is okay with their sinful way of life. These so called men of God hide under the mask of the gospel to cover their greed and love for money. They rip off their members with the “price tags” placed on their “anointing.” They commercialise their so called anointing, they know how to do “spiritual jamboree” that would make their members to ascribe all the praise and honour that is meant for God to be given to them. Revelation 22:12 says “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done.”

As ministers of God we don’t need praises from men but from God.

For men to praise you; you must please them and displease God.

The encouragement of today is that you should not live your life to please man- do not water down the truth of the gospel so that you will be accepted by man.

There is no wisdom in craving for the acceptance of man at the expense of God’s acceptance. It is not wise to please people and displease God.

Do not speak in error to gain the approval of men- rather speak like men approved by God.

Do not flatter your members because you do not want to lose them because the price of losing eternity is greater!