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THE MESSAGE NOW

Vol 1, No. 12 – Monday,26th September, 2016

(Phil 3:1; Psalm 92:1-2; Neh 8:10; Psalm 50:22-23)

Rejoicing is an art not an act.Dearly beloved, l charge you  by the mercies of God to make the art of rejoicing  your daily exercise.

The reason for this is not far-fetched. First, there are two spiritual weapons that the enemy cannot confront. These  two weapons  are the most potent tools for answered prayers. Infact they are so potent that when engaged in prayer  the flip side of that prayer are unhindered  access  to God and the total annihilation  of any problems. These two weapons are prophecy and the power of praise.

The second reason you need to rejoice  and praise God always is that  your problems are now solved and the era of delay and oppression  are now over since the moment of our conference.Third, rejoicing or praise to God is one thing  God cannot do for himself. Our God therefore  needs you and me to praise him. One such reason why God cannot praise himself is because self “praise” is no praise at all. By the way, self praise is the inclination of the proud, the ungrateful, the indolent  and those suffering from pathetic self-pity and inferiority complex.

These inclinations are never part of the character of God. As  God lives and His spirit lives your testimonies shall manifest speedily in Jesus name. But know this for a fact that the best praise is the praise offered in advance of testimony not in arrears or thereafter. It is time dearly beloved to praise the Lord for all the prophecies and prayers offered  by you and those offered on your behalf  during the conference. Such praise moves the hand of God to speedily accomplish the desires  of men . Your great day has come and your breakthroughs will not be held up in the traffic  of life and darkness  for one second.

Pray now:

O Lord, let every snatcher of blessings and polluter of prayers in and around me be consumed by fire.

O God, give me a heart of stainless worship.

O Lord, anoint me with uncommon grace to daily praise you.

Lord, destroy the wicked and the horn of the wicked before they gain access to my testimonies.

Begin to praise the Lord now

 Pastor Mike

 

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THE MESSAGE NOW

Vol 1, No. 11 – Monday 19th September, 2016

1 Sam.25:2-38; Eccl. 2:13; 7:12, 19; 8:1; 9:16; 10:10; 1 Cor.1:24;

Were life to be as straightforward as the mathematical principles of binomial theorem, how sweet it would have been. But alas! Its zigzaggedness means that going through the tunnels of life will always require the companionship of wisdom. In defining binomial theorem, what makes any complex expression of a higher power in any mathematical formulae simpler for ease of understanding is (among a number of others) called a binomial theorem.

In more apt terms and tempered more to the issue at hand, wisdom (like the binomial theorem) is the most needful and the most necessary lubricant of life barring every kind of friction.
Wisdom then can be said to be nothing short of applied knowledge effectively displayed as solution to any given challenge. It never ceases to astound my mind realizing that wisdom paves way and eventualises personal and even communual breakthroughs faster than prayer.

In effect, the flipside of this can only mean one thing; that wisdom is so powerful that its potency and outcomes are by far much weightier than the potency and outcomes of the most powerful prayer that can and has ever been offered by man. The Lord taught me that even when on my knees in prayer, wisdom is needed. I make bold to say then that in the hierarchical contest among all spiritual weapons, in the priority placement of all things, wisdom is the most needful and most indispensable. (Please spend the next few minutes to pray the following): 1. Lord, endow me with your excellent Spirit of wisdom. 2. Lord, as you grew in stature, in wisdom and in favour with God and man, so endow my children with unusual wisdom. 3. Father, anoint me with grace to go through life with effortless ease.

Do you know that some problems which prayer failed to solve in the past are problems which would have been solved with effortless ease if only wisdom had been brought to bear at the time? My brother, my sister, wisdom is crying out to you today: ‘ask for my hand in marriage from the Almighty God that I may become your life-partner paving the way for all-round success through the journey of life’. Would you say YES to wisdom Dearly beloved?

Hear me this day on the numerous – withouts – of wisdom. – Without wisdom, your service to God cannot be truly pleasing or satisfactory. There many humans in your circle and around you in your area of service to the Lord. Unfortunately, most of the time, hurts and frictions characterize such circle. Be careful,lest men make your service unpleasing and unacceptable. In the name of Christ Jesus, I plead with all to come to the realisation that it is wise to live quietly, minding one’s own business (1 Thes.4:11) and righteously. – Without wisdom, you cannot get to heaven. Christ is the wisdom and power of God (1 Cor.1:24).

Without Him in your company, your striving to make it to heaven is a most unsure and a most unfortunate gamble. Without diplomacy otherwise called wisdom, you cannot win the battles of life. Reaction (in sharp contrast from response) is the greatest bane of any man at the moment of provocation. Know when to react or talk. Watch your words; watch your mind. It is only a fool who empties his mind’s treasury.

Your quietness even in the face of fierce storm and oppression is a sign of three things: (1) how much of God and godliness dwells in you, (2) marked victory and strength not weakness or folly, and (3) your wealth of experience which tells God and man about your indepth, dependability and maturity.

Without wisdom, you cannot climb the next step on the ladder of life. Progress is only meant for men who can make projections. Projections are the by-products of insight, foresight and farsight. Insight, foresight and farsight are the direct offspring of wisdom. Therefore get wisdom and without fail get progress. Lack wisdom and of course lack progress. Are you aware that the best prayer without wisdom is the same as possessing all the available capital in the entire world for business yet without a single idea of what to do with that capital.
– Without wisdom, you will at best manage your marriage or worst still endure it till death. Socrates once opined: ‘by all means get married. If you marry a good wife you are lucky. If you marry a bad one you will become a philosopher’. I challenge Socrates that even with the worst wife, if only wisdom will be brought to bear, that marriage will be a haven of peace. Husbands, hear me, without wisdom you cannot tame your wife to your taste and delight. Forcefulness, domination, self-opinionation, harshness or even violence will not do. You are the head of your wife by wisdom not by exertion.

Learn this wisdom from the Lord all husbands. If you are the head then, your wife is the neck bearing you up. So you see, it is a symbiotic relationship. If something is wrong with your wife who is the supportive neck; something terrible is most possibly wrong with you the head who must be overburdening the neck your wife. Repent then and re-adjust. The lubricants of any marriage are mutual love, respect for each other, innovative thinking, deep understanding of the relational nature of woman and the non-relational nature of man and more absolutely, the prevalence of wisdom.

Are you an unwise wife? Hear me: you are worse than a destroyer of good things of life and destiny. You need to visit the laboratory/theatre room of Proverbs.14:1 and Ecclesiastes.7:26-28 for sound spiritual examination and for immediate serious spiritual surgery. In that divine laboratory/theatre room, ask yourself very sincere question and answer that question with all sincerity of mind whether you are such a wife/woman as described therein. Better still, visit Proverbs.31:10-31 for serious spiritual renewal and unconquerable spiritual upgrade.

In sum, let your attention be sustained by the following: (1) be warned dearly beloved people of God, there is no middle ground between wisdom and folly. You are either one or the other. Which one are you? (2) With wisdom, you own and can own all the positive – withouts of wisdom. Do you want to? And (3) The presence of darkness is simply the absence of light. The obvious presence of heat is unequivocally the absence of cold. The absence of wisdom produces the presence and experiences of lifelessness, stagnation and even possible eternal damnation. Therefore, dearly beloved, seek the face of the Lord for wisdom. It ‘is profitable to direct’ us safely through the dark tunnels and zigzaggedness of life.

Pray now:

Father, I have failed you, failed others and failed myself severally because of lack of wisdom, forgive me and help me to stop failing you or wisdom.

Oh thou voice of wisdom, speak to me daily and direct my ways from this day.

O God my Father, lavish your blessings from on high on me.

Oh dew of heaven fall upon me afresh and renew me.

Oh Lord, bless my children with such wisdom beyond their age, teachers and every foe.

I decree an all-round turn-around for my life, family and career.

You yoke of non-achievement and frustration break and return no more.

In the name of Jesus, I receive wisdom and strength to win in the battles of life.

 Pastor Mike

 

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THE MESSAGE NOW

Vol 1, No. 10 – Monday, 12^th September 2016

Zech.13:6, Eccl.7:16-17, 10:10, Jer.17:5, 1 Cor.13:1-13

The latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary defines trust as: ‘to have faith in (something or someone); to put/place one’s trust in, to have (every) confidence in, believe in, pin one’s hopes/faith on; rely on, depend on, bank on, count on’ …… Hmmm! have every confidence in someone, place one’s hopes/faith on something or someone? How so limited is man’s knowledge and understanding about the core issues of life.

Unarguably, the lesson envisaged by the above definition is such which saliently (not subtle) choruses unwavering trust in man. Alas! is the Oxford Dictionary and its writers/publicists aware that more often than not a man’s most trusted fellows are his greatest spy spying on him and his progress? So, why ‘put/place (every) confidence in’ him? This definition is nothing but a subtle (not salient) paradox of trust in experiential terms.

There are a number of paradoxes about trust that never cease to astound me. The first paradox is never trust any one who lies to you and never lie to any one who trusts you. The question is can one ever lie to any one whom he trusts or who trusts one? And why? Disturbingly shocking! isn’t it?

The second paradox is even more shocking. Trust is not love yet trust journeys in an inseparable company with love. Do you know that a man can trust the Lord so much that his trust in the Lord otherwise known as faith can fetch him all that he desires yet that trust is void of any aota of love for him?

Apostle WF Kumuyi opined that ‘mountains that cannot be moved by faith (in other words, trust) can only be moved by love. What does this mean? I do hope you agree with me Dearly Beloved, that our journey in this present world and to heaven eventually is an upward, mountain climbing one. The end of this journey therefore is attainable only by love and not trust/faith. Of course, this shows the invaluability and inviolability of love in terms of ascending in rapture to meet with our Lord. But despite this invaluability and inviolability of love, is it not still mind-blowing that the fountain of love is sustained by the pillar of trust/faith? What a paradox?!!!

My intent at this point in specificity (not in generality) is to establish the importance of love whilst at the same time demonstrating the inseparableness between love and trust/faith. However, this article for the moment is concerned primarily about relational trust (that is the relationship between man and man).

So, the next paradox has always left my spirit ever gasping. Those people a man trusts most end up betraying him first and hurting him deepest. Dearly Beloved, do we have a penchant for being unreliable with confidentialities vested in us? It is an evil crime to betray mutual or collective trust. Those who invest their time and energy betraying others will forever end up very badly. Did not the Lord vest so much trust in the man Judas? So much trust that He made him the treasurer. Yet Judas betrayed that trust in every way. How did he end up? Are you a spy on your boss, leader of any kind, friend or co-workers? Are we trusted but we are not true? Man in his limited knowledge more often than not trusts his greatest enemy as his greatest confidant. That too is one of the many paradoxes of trust.

Man’s inhumanity to man is today a most common phenomenon. So much prevalent today to such an extent that Marley lamented regrettably in his day raising yet another paradox: ‘your worst enemy may be your best friend, and your best friend your worst enemy’! Oh man! can you not take lectures from the tragedies of Julius Ceasar and Brutus? What happened to Brutus in the end? Did he wear that great Roman crown that he craved so much for afterall?

Oh! my heart bleeds. Remember that the treatment you are meting out to others whether it be good or evil is returning some day to hail or haunt you. Life and life’s treatment of one man to another is like a looking glass giving back to every man the reflection of his face. Are you aware of this?

It is said that the revolving of the earth round the sun causes day and night. Isn’t it? Likewise humanistic ethos should inform anyone that what goes around comes around. In the end, I must safely assert that what killed Julius Caesar is not Brutus’ betrayal but Julius Caesar’s excessive trust in a man. Thus Ceasar’s best friend was his worst enemy. Dearly Beloved, learn very firm lessons of life from the source, baker and bakery cautionary guide expoused to me by Dr. Samuel Oladele. What does this source, baker and bakery cautionary guide mean?

It means in sum that he who empties his mind’s treasury to another is worse than a fool. Do I hear you say how? I have learnt in the years of my life that meeting the needs of others is an absolute necessity. I have also learnt in the most recent years of my life that whilst the art and act of giving is not just paramount but absolute, revealing the source of my sustenance however is absolutely unneedful. Even with the most trusted people, the truth is, men have the potent tendency to burn down the bakery which is your source of sustenance. Worst still, should the first attack of burning down your bakery fail, such men can go all the way to kill your baker. In either or all of these two treacherous betrayals, the question is, what happens to your sources of sustenance?

By the way, should I ever blame anyone for betraying me? Oh! No. In order to avoid a repeat of any betrayal, it is only wise for me to put the blame where it belongs. Why? To start with, do you know that if a man betrays you once; it is his own fault. If he succeeds in betraying you the second time, then it is your own fault.

In my summative view therefore, the solution is perhaps fivefold: (1) always leave room for disappointment, (2) trust men moderately, never trust men fully, (3) know that men will always be men. Only God stands alone and unmovable, true and with spotless trustworthiness. Even a Man of God is first and foremost a man before ever becoming Man of God, (4) Do not think that trusting in a fellow Christian is by any means synonymous with being righteous, and (5) Dearly Beloved, trust can save life: trust can also end life. In the name of the Lord Jesus, you and I will not end up like Julius Caesar.

Pray now:

Father, retrieve my most vital information from the information bank of my enemies.

Father, deliver me from unfriendly friend.

Father, give grace to me and my Christian friends and brethren to be more principled and matured with spiritual and vital information.

Father, heal me and my destiny from every injury caused by my mouth and those of others.

Whether the enemy likes it or not, I will not lose the major thing in life.

Pastor Mike

 

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THE MESSAGE NOW

Vol 1, No. 9 – Monday, 5th September 2016

Dan.12:1-3, John.4:5-42, Luke.19:13

The Abuja Declaration known as ‘Islam in Africa’ had a Conference in Abuja, Nigeria in 1989 six years after the London Strategy Meeting of 1983. Its foremost strategic agenda in that 1989 Conference were and still existing as follows: (1) ‘to eradicate in all its forms and ramifications all non-moslem religions in member nations. Such religions shall include Christianity’, (2) ‘to ensure only moslems are elected to all political posts of member nations’, (3) ‘to ensure the appointment of only moslems into all strategic, national and international posts of all member nations’, (4) ‘to ensure the ultimate replacement of all western forms of legal and judicial systems with the sharia’, and (5) ‘to make sure that these strategies work’.

Dearly Beloved, take a deep breath and then wait for the next bomb shell. Indeed, to ensure that the Islamic agenda/strategies above works, the then President of Nigeria, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida not only endorsed it but worse still looted the Nigerian treasury by removing the sum of 21 billion Dollars from our national treasury. This sum was handed over to the Islamic Development Fund ofOIC with the clear instruction to: ‘use (this fund) for the total islamisation of Nigeria in particular and the whole of Africa in general’.

Dearly Beloved, Are your scholarly and spiritually sensitive minds following me atall? If so, the question your intelligent minds must be perspiring with and for at this moment, I guess, must be the question: what is/are the genesis of the collapse of Christianity in Turkey in the first instance? If you are passionate about your Christian faith, then the answers below must be of great concern to you.

To start with, when the capital of Turkey at the time, Constantinople (now called Istanbul) fell in 1453, it had the largest and the most expensive cathedral on earth called ‘Hagia Sofia’ (House of Wisdom). In spite of the beauty and the wasteful expenditure of money on that Cathedral, it became the inheritance of islam in the end.

Of course, this is the same way our earthly mansions called churches without sound spiritual palaces in our hearts and in heaven will one day become the inheritance of the antichrist (see Mat.6:19-20). When Basilica Cannon shattered Constantinople into pieces in 1453, 21-year-old Sultan Mehmed headed straight for the altar inside the cathedral. On standing on the altar, he raised up his hand and commanded, ‘convert it into a mosque’.

Dearly Beloved, are you shocked by this? Then wait for more. From that day in 1453, the Cathedral called Hagia Sofia remained a mosque for 478 years until 1931 when the government of Turkey went secular. Then in 1931, the Turkish government decreed that Hagia Sofia which was a Christian cathedral but which was turned to a mosque for 478 years should be further converted to a museum. It remains a museum till this moment of writing and has not yet been returned to the church.

Dear reader of this article, are you already beginning to hate moslems because of what you have read so far? Then you are mistaking. Please rather hate two people. First, hate yourself for failing Christ in evangelism, soul-winning and untiring show of Christ’s love to all men irrespective of their race, language or creed. Second, hate Satan who is the number 1 enemy of both Christians and moslems. Dearly Beloved, make moslems realize that both Christians and moslems have been created by only one God, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ (see Acts 17:26).

Prior to the fall of Constantinople, certain far-reaching factors of disaster were glaringly looming. First, the church in Turkey had few committed forces just a paltry 7000 men. On the contrary, islam had 80,000 well-prepared forces. I ask where are the forces of evangelism today? Pastor Mike is not preaching war, revenge or hatred. But rather, once again, Pastor Mike is calling you back to very serious evangelism and outward show of Christ love to win both moslems and the likes to God, the Most High. When was the last time you went on evangelism? When was the last time you prayed for peace? When was the last time you prayed for fellow Christian brothers in the north and everywhere? When was the last time you prayed for the souls of moslems to be saved? Are you being used by Satan against fellow Christians in any guise? When was the last time you truly hazarded your life for the sake of the gospel or the salvation/deliverance of others? Remember the next time you adorn yourself in your latest fine attire that at that same moment some other Christians have just put on their latest ugly rags.

Second, the church spent its financial strength on buildings, non-essentials. As such, it failed to pay for Basilica Cannon (royal gun) which was one of the foremost bombard technology at the time. This armory was presented to the church then for purchase but it could not afford it for whatever reason. Shockingly, Sultan Mehmed of the Ottoman empire effortlessly paid cash for this bomb. Thus in three month, the bomb was ready for war against the church and Christianity in Turkey. Worst still, are you aware that that bomb was invented by a Christian who of course sold it to Sultan Mehmed since the church could not pay?

Further, one of the greatest tragedies of the Turkish Christians at the time was concentration on building edifices and not Christian disciples (as was earlier noted). Other cataclysmic errors of the Turkish Christians included: Underestimating islam – Are the Nigerian Christians not doing same? Nobody is raising any outcry against Fulani cattle rustlers, strategic islamisation of Oshun State, etc, (2) the assumption of the best defended city – Constantinople was the best defended city at the time. South-western, south-eastern and south-south Christians are all feeling safe now believing that only northern Christians are in trouble. Hmmm! Tragedy is already at the door.

(3) Bitterly divided house – just as there is no unity among the body of Christ in Nigeria, (4) racism and tribalism – (5) powerless church authority without people’s backing through financial support – (6) christians’ empowerment of islam – Strategising, voting during elections for fanatical moslems, and (7) less force (7000 – 80000) – how many forces/disciples are committed to daily evangelism of the Nigerian church of today?Remember DL Moody who will never go to sleep on any day or night until he has reached a soul with the gospel of Christ.

Other factors (not peculiar to the Turkish experience) but strictly limited to Nigeria is the silenced issue of dual constitutional ideology. What does this mean? Section 1 subsections (2) and (3) of 1999 Constitution provides that the Constitution is the most ‘supreme’ law of the land and that every other law not in consonance with it is ‘void’.

Section 10 provides that no government be it of a state or even the nation at large, shall adopt any religion as its own. Section 15(2) provides that ……. discrimination on the grounds of place of origin, sex, religion, status, ethnic or linguistic association or ties shall be prohibited. The question is, why Boko Haram, and why the sharia?

Section 38 subsection (2) further provides that ‘Every person shall be entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom (either alone or in community with others, and in public or in private) to manifest and propagate his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance’. Yet, the same Constitution encapsulates sharia, which forbids a change to any other religion other than islam. By the way, Dearly Beloved, are you aware that in the 1999 Constitution, sharia is mentioned 73 times, islam 28 times, grand kadi 54 times, and the word moslem is mentioned 10 times. No single mention of Christ, Christian, Christianity, church nor a single mention of Pastor in the Nigerian Constitution.

Three other factors rocking the boat of Christianity in Nigeria and which of course is strengthening islam are: (1) indifference, (2) over-sensitivity and undying ceaseless appetite for money, and (3) pastors and churches in close partnership with Satan.

Are any of these untrue about the state of the Nigerian church today? As Pastor Bosun Emmanuel rightly opined, the effort of the Nigerian church is now concentratedly focused on building palacial castles and millionaires no longer the making of disciples. Thus he reminds us to take our salvation in our hands because when war breaks out, the millionaire we are making instead of making disciples will be the first on the next available flight jetting out of the country.

Dearly Beloved, on all of these, my question to you is, where do you stand? Still indifferent? Are you ready to be used for and by Christ?

Pray now:

Read Lamentation.3:40, 5:21 and genuinely repent of every personal known sin and those of ours as a nation.

Read Ps.29.

O heavenlies speaking doom and disaster against me and my nation be silenced by the voice of the Lord.

Pray for whosoever is Ajayi by name for business consistency and rebuke the devourer for his or her sake.

I shatter in pieces every closed heaven over my prayers.

O human enemies of Christ receive the arrows of deliverance and be saved.

Pastor Mike