PERFECT LOVE BELIEVERS CENTRE, BENIN WEDNESDAY SERVICE MESSAGE EXCERPT DATE: 15TH OCTOBER 2014 MESSAGE BY: PASTOR PRESTON IDORO In life, what you need is not money; what you need is comfort, peace. You can have money and not be happy. If you have peace, comfort and you don’t have money, you will be happy. Recently, I taught on The Five Whys. In that teaching, I said: not until you understand the root cause of a thing, you will keep having a reoccurrence. If you deal with the problem from the surface level, you will always have the problem repeat itself. A young man had a skin infection and whenever he uses a cream on it, it clears off but after a while, it comes back. One day, he asked his doctor why it was like that. The doctor told him that it was in his blood. He said if they wipe it from his blood (the root) and also apply the cream, then he will not have it again. What is the problem of many people? It is not money. Money is actually an immediate problem; the root problem is the fact that they don’t have peace. The problem of Africa is not corruption, lack of infrastructures or backwardness in their minds; it is the problem of hunger. How is it hunger? Why is it not corruption or lack of infrastructures? Hunger is the cause of corruption, lack of infrastructure e.t.c. When one man is delivered from hunger, he wants to save enough money so that his children and grand children will not suffer hunger and hence, he will be corrupt. Not until you find the source problem, you can’t get things right. So many people have a certain kind of mindset (backwardness, wickedness e.t.c.) but I believe that there can be a new set of people with a different mindset living in heaven on earth. God has blessed you but what are you doing with the blessing? If your scope is not widened, you can’t see afar. Don’t allow the backwardness of your environment limit your mindset. You can go higher. Many people believe that the church is a place to solve problems and when some programs is still there. For example: if the theme of a program is “Breaking You From Bondage.” They might succeed in breaking you from bondage but the guy who kept you in bondage is still there. After a while, he will put you back into bondage and then you start looking for another program where they are going to break the bondage again. Don’t just deal with the immediate cause; deal with the root cause. You can’t do it by yourself; you need the Holy Ghost to help you. Jesus said: come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28). In Perfect Love Believers Centre, the month of October is our month of rest i.e. functioning from the place of rest. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his (Hebrews 4:10). This doesn’t mean you will not work but when you put in one, several results will come out. You will just put in little effort but you will have a great result. This is the life that God has called us to live. Christ in us, the hope of glory. If you truly have Christ, there will be no fear for the future. An unbeliever may not know what tomorrow holds but a believer knows what tomorrow holds. He may not know it categorically but he knows it is a bright future. Christ brought light into our lives. Matthew 5:14 did not say “connect to the light of the world but rather it said: “you are the light of the world; a city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” Why have you be hid for so long? Why does it look as though nothing is happening in your world? There is no time to waste. Don’t wait to get old before you discover those abilities that God placed in you. What are you doing now? Ecclesiastes says “remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say; I have no pleasure in them.” When is the evil day? For those of you that are still single, you don’t have so many responsibilities but yet, some of you can’t commit to the things of God. If you can’t do it now, do you think you will be able to do when you have wife and children and when you have less strength? It will be too late then. What are you doing with your time and life? Many of you are occupied with activities organized by men. School was man’s idea, fashion was the idea of someone, job was someone’s idea but you have been faithful in it. What about God’s idea? How have you taken God’s idea? No matter how much you dodge God on earth, when you close your eyes to this world, you will answer to God. It is appointed unto man to die once and afterwards, it is judgement (Hebrews 9:27). How long will you work so hard just to make a living only to discover at the end of the day that you wasted your life just to invest on earth? No matter how much you eat or drink, the final destination is dust. It is from dust to dust. In medicine, there is something called EDD (i.e. Expected Delivery Day). A doctor can only give you expected delivery day but can’t tell you expected death day. Even the doctor can’t tell when he is going to die except God reveals it to him. If you die now, have you lived a fulfilled life? Paul said: for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21). There is urgency. People need to hear about Jesus. What is truly life? Life is what we have to offer to someone. Life is how you can make someone better than you met them. If I make someone better and you make someone better and that guy you made better is ready to make another person better, the world will be a better place. That guy you have refused to preach to might end up becoming a criminal that will terminate your life. Some people are in a position where they can preach the gospel to people but they don’t preach because they feel the people will not listen to the gospel. It is your job to make the people listen. The bible says “but if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).” The problem is that their minds have been blinded and they cannot see. If you remove the veil covering their eyes, they will see Jesus. It is not in the talking but in the power of the Holy Ghost. Cajoling cannot live for so long but the power of the Holy Ghost can turn everything around. Stop talking and start ministering. You’ve been preparing sermons for too long; start speaking by the Holy Ghost. You’ve been giving principles for too long; there is something the Holy Ghost has that no one has seen before. It might look like the same thing been communicated but it is definitely not the same anointing. You don’t have to wait until your church have a branch in a place before you preach. Be a mobile church everywhere you go. When the Holy Ghost comes into your life, He improves your life. You can’t say you have God and you are the same way you use to be. Some people in the church have committed to preaching money. We don’t preach money; we preach Christ but when you have Christ, you have everything. Christ brings everything but you need to first have Christ planted in your heart. Anyone can pretend to be a Christian. Christianity is not in the “shouting” but it makes us shout anyway. For some people, a good phone makes them happy and for some others, it could be having a good car that makes them happy. What makes one person happy is different from what makes another happy. Joy, happiness and fun is what you have defined it to be. You can redefine what gives you joy by what truly counts in life. What is true joy? What is true happiness? It is not the amount of money in your bank account. Have you ever thought about the fact that you will live earth one day and life will still continue? No matter how much people love you, they won’t mourn you forever. One day, everybody will forget about you and the world will exist without you. I was talking to the Lord and He said: “son, do you know that when the New Jerusalem comes, you are going to forget about all that has happened here?” All of the things that were used here and invested so much in will not count in the next world. Every of our work will be tried in fire. What will truly stand? We obtain the degrees to improve our minds but when Christ comes, the degree will not count. It is how much you have invested in the kingdom that will count. If you are truly heavenly useful, you will not be earthly useless. We are in this world but not from this world. We came from somewhere and we influence/ change this place with what we carry. We are creating peace with the gospel of Christ that we preach. Proverbs 4:18 – “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” As you walk in life, your life needs to constantly improve. If the path is a shining light, who shines the light to the path? You might be fast to say it’s God that is shining the light. God is not the one shining the light. If it is God that is shining the light, then the light that God will shine will be a static light (same kind of light) and not a progressive light. When Moses went to the mountain to be with God, his face shone when he came down from the mountain and the people could not behold his face. He had to use a veil to cover his face so he could communicate with the people. 2 Corinthians 3 told us that after a while, that glory faded because it was away from its source and after a period of time, there was no light anymore. Still in 2 Corinthians 3, the bible said: “for if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.” The kind of light we carry now is the kind that does not fade. What shines the path? We are the ones that make the path shine. When Christ came into your spirit and you gained contact with light, you took Christ. The more you study God’s word and you observe to do what you’ve studied, your light improves. When you grow in the word, grace and peace will be multiplied unto you. The more of God’s word you take in, the brighter you will shine. When you practice more of God’s word, you will get more result. The path of the just refers to the journey of the righteous. As he walks in the Spirit and takes more of God, his path begins to improve. Some people say: “oh Lord, connect me with divinity.” That’s the old school because we don’t get connected with divinity. When you got born-again, you were born into divinity and heaven now resides in you. You don’t need to connect; you need to stir up. That’s why 2 Timothy 1: 6 says “wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.” You are always connected but you might not be stirred up. What does it mean to be stirred up? It means to be activated. In the kingdom, we’ve got power. When we got born-again and the Holy Ghost came into us, He brought peace, comfort. But how come some people are still suffering? Hosea 4:6 says “my people perish for lack of knowledge.” Lack of knowledge doesn’t mean those people have not read the bible. They have read the bible but the bible has not read them. They know so many things from the bible but have not done anything from the bible. 2 Peter 1:2- “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord.” How will grace and peace be multiplied? It is through the knowledge of God and of Jesus. The scripture did not say grace and peace will be multiplied through prayers. Some people sing the song: “Prayer is the key (2x), prayer is the master key; Jesus started with prayers and ended with prayers. Prayer is the master key.” This is a wrong song for a right object. We know Jesus started with prayers and ended with prayers but prayer is not the key. Knowledge is the key hence, you should sing thus: Knowledge is the key (2x), knowledge is the master key. Jesus started with prayers and grew in wisdom. Knowledge is the master key. The bible never mentioned that Jesus grew in prayers but it mentioned that Jesus grew in wisdom. The bible did not also say “my people are perish for lack of prayers” but it said “my people are perish for lack of knowledge.” I’m aware that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available that is dynamic in its working but you can have dynamic working and still be in bondage. Hebrews 4:2 says “for unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” When you receive the word and pray in the Holy Ghost, you are mixing it with faith. When the word is mixed with faith, there will be result. Have you not seen a situation where one guy can pray but has less result whereas another guy prays little but has so much result? What is the problem? The guy who can pray but has little result does not know the word. The more of God’s word you have in your system, the more effective your prayers will be. Apostle Paul said we should pray both in the Spirit and with our understanding. When you pray in the Spirit, He brings alive the right words that will connect you to your miracle. We can defend anything with the bible. Even the wrong things have scriptures to support it. When Satan tempted Jesus, he tempted Jesus with scriptures. When the devil quoted the scripture to Jesus, He did not cooperate. He knew that was a logos scripture but that logos word was not passing for rhema at that time. We don’t live by the logos of God’s word; we live by the rhema of God’s word. The word of God is full of many things but what is God saying to you at that particular time? There was a time when Jesus needed to pay tax. He told Peter to go to the sea and cast his hook and check the mouth of the first fish he will catch for money (Matthew 17:27). When you find a challenge, you don’t need to look outside; you need to look inside for the solution that has been deposited in the word of God in your spirit. Who kept that money in the mouth of the fish? Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is responsible for printing money in Nigeria but you can have money without CBN. If Satan can produce money via the wrong means, what about God who is the source? Why are you looking at your boss as your source of blessing? Why are you looking at the company? It is a limitation. Why don’t you look unto God? fix your eyes on God. God can manufacture money from anywhere. If you get money and you are not rightly in tune with the spirit of God, you might not be able to sustain it. It is the Holy Ghost that helps you sustain the life that God has called you to live. Job 22:24 says “then shalt thou layup gold as dust….” Dust is something you cannot do away it. Even if you clean it up, it comes after a while. Gold speaks about wealth and if your wealth is as dust, that means you will always have it whether you need it or not. Even if they clean it away, another one will come. 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men?” If everything I’ve been saying is not making sense to you, it is because you are carnal. If you don’t grow up spiritually, more spiritual things cannot be communicated to you. Paul called them carnal because of the following: envy, strife and division. As long as you keep these things, you cannot grow spiritually. A lot of Christians want to do what they like in the church. 1 Corinthians 14:40 says “let all things be done decently and in order.” The church is not democracy; it is a monarchical system. We don’t tell God how the kingdom should be ran; He tells us how and we follow. If you like to envy people, if you have strife and if you like division, you cannot grow. Some of you have not grown because of the things you have kept in your heart. Free your spirit. Free your mind. Love everybody. When you increase the level of love, crime will stop. When you make life miserable for other people, you will not be happy. People have remained in the babe stage because they have refused to grow in love. If your neighbour buys a car, be happy for him/her. If your colleague was promoted and you were not promoted, give God the glory instead of being envious. The most important thing is for the job to be done. You cannot get what you don’t celebrate. The Spirit of God is not an author of confusion. People have remained in the babe stage because they have refused to grow in love. Don’t allow the devil play with your life. God cannot speak deeper things to you when you are still a babe (envious, bitter, having strife e.t.c). The life of love is not just to be talked about but must be practiced. A man of love cannot be sick. When you increase in love, things will be better. God said: “come, let us reason together.” God does not reason with people who are envious or those who have strife. Free yourself.
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 11:06:31 +0000