TEXT: Numbers 23 VS 19.
God is not a talkative, He usually speaks once and that settles it, Psalms 62 vs 11.

In the creation of the whole world, He speaks once, e.g He said let there be light and there was light, He did not have to say it twice. Gen 1 vs 3.
In Gen 17 vs 1 – 4, God told Abraham, that He will make him the father of many nations, that sounds a little challenging to believe, but since it is God that has spoken, then considered it done anyway.

In Gen18 vs 1 – 2, Sarah laughed at what the stranger said about her conceiving and been the mother of many nations as it were. Read More

This year is moving fast, and already three weeks of it are already in the past. As is customary people would have set accomplishments for the year and the changes they intend to make to various aspects of life. On reflection some may discover these changes, intended accomplishments and ensuing plans reveal that: many simply live to work, whilst others work to live, some neither work nor live properly whilst there is a group that recognise they live primarily to commune with God and worship Him. Everything else comes after!

Whatever groups people find themselves in there is a piece of exhortation to take note of in our reflections, and allow to guide our thinking and life.‘Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.’ – Psalm 127.1. Read More

The Christian Must Walk Alone, by Brother Lanre Oginni

Psalm 69:7-8 : Because for Your sake I have borne reproach; Dishonor has covered my face. I have become estranged from my brothers And an alien to my mother’s sons.
THE NARROW ROAD IS OFTEN A SOLITARY ONE
ARE YOU WALKING IN CHRIST OR WALKING IN THE WORLD?
The road for the true believer is many times a lonely one.  The hard road to the cross is one that is seldom congested or busy.  The narrow road is most often a solitary way which the popular crowd is unwilling to tread.
What does the world want?
The world wants an easier message
Matthew 7:13-14“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.“
And often the world gets what it wants, and that is why you see Christians who can’t be differentiated from harlots in dressing
Christian music with heavy worldly undertones
Christian messages designed particularly not to annoy the sensibilities of the world
Why does it have to be narrow
Lets read what paul says: Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The Iife i live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
it is a requirement that children of God must live by faith and not by sight, but most have chosen the way of logic.
Galatians 5:24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
So we can see from these passages that the Christian must live by faith, endure hardships(James 1:2–3, 12; 1 Peter 1:6), and live a life separate from the world (James 1:27; Romans 12:1–2
When faced with the choice between a narrow, bumpy road and a wide, paved highway, most of us choose the easier road. Human nature gravitates toward comfort and pleasure. When faced with the reality of denying themselves to follow Jesus, most people turn away

How narrow is the way
Again, Abraham had Sarah and Lot, as well as many servants and herdmen, but who can read his story and the apostolic comment upon it without sensing instantly that he was a man “whose soul was alike a star and dwelt apart”? As far as we know not one word did God ever speak to him in the company of men.Face down he communed with his God gen 17:3, and the innate dignity of the man forbade that he assume this posture in the presence of others.
Moses also was a man apart. While yet attached to the court of Pharaoh he took long walks alone, and during one of these walks while far removed from the crowds he saw an Egyptian and a Hebrew fighting and came to the rescue of his countryman exodus 2:12. After the resultant break with Egypt he dwelt in almost complete seclusion in the desert. There while he watched his sheep alone the wonder of the burning bush appeared to him Exodus 3:1-3, and later on the peak of Sinai he crouched alone to gaze in fascinated awe at the Presence, partly hidden, partly disclosed, within the cloud and fire.

The Christian desire for loneliness
The man who has passed on into the divine Presence in actual inner experience will not find many who understand him. A certain amount of social fellowship will, of course, be his as he mingles with religious persons in the regular activities of the church, but true spiritual fellowship will be hard to find. But he should not expect things to be otherwise. After all, he is a stranger and a pilgrim, and the journey he takes is not on his feet but in his heart. He walks with God in the garden of his own soul and who but God can walk there with him? He is of another spirit from the multitudes that tread the courts of the Lord’s house. He has seen that of which they have only heard, and he walks among them somewhat as Zacharias walked after his return from the altar when the people whispered, “He has seen a vision

Characteristics of the lonely Christian
One that the lonely man of whom we speak is not a haughty man
nor is he the holier-than-thou, austere saint so bitterly satirized in popular literature
the lonely saint is not the withdrawn man who hardens himself against human suffering and spends his days contemplating the heavens. His loneliness makes him sympathetic to the approach of the broken-hearted and the fallen and the sin-bruised. Because he is detached from the world he is all the more able to help it.
The Christian today
The weakness of so many modern Christians is that they feel too much at home in the world. In their effort to achieve restful “adjustment” to unregenerate society they have lost their pilgrim character and become an essential part of the very moral order against which they are sent to protest. The world recognizes them and accepts them for what they are. And this is the saddest thing that can be said about them. They are not lonely, but neither are they saints.
Final words
A Christian must protect his relationship with God, even if loneliness is the price to pay. Not all homes have the solid foundation for spiritual growth, some homes have destroyed the saints who walked most parts of his life in the lord.
Ask for examples
Finally, Christ even warned that one might be a hindrance to this relationship making the Christian loneliness even deeper
Matthew 16:23-24

The sermon, The Christian Must Walk Alone, by Brother Lanre Oginni, was delivered on November 26, 2017.

Time Up, And Time For God To Be My Salvation, by Brother Yomi Sanusi

When in Exodus 5.1 God decided the suffering and exploitation of his chosen people had to come to an end, Moses and Aaron were sent to call time-up on Pharaoh. God was direct and precise in ordering “Let my people go”. God was interested in recommencing the relationship He had with Abraham, Isaac and Israel. He wanted them to celebrate the freedom he was about to give them by ‘hold a feast to me in the wilderness’.

This month God has promised and pronounced ‘time-up’ on everything- force, entity, situation, pronouncement, decision, groups- that contradict his intention to set us at full liberty, so we can enjoy Jehovah I am that I am, the way He intends. God is not interested in changing or altering His word or promises toward us.

We have great reassurance in the promise that not only do we belong exclusively to God, He has promised to be with us regardless of what we go through, reassuring us that nothing will by any means overcome us. In fact, we have the reassurance of the presence of the King of Kings himself. Isaiah 43.1-4. In effect, we have the word and confidence of God that He will stop at nothing to keep His word. He will act for us and do whatever it takes to ensure we are in a place of worship, peace and celebration.

There we can meet him in everyday life, in triumphant celebration not of our own piety, but of the work of His own mercy, grace, power and judgement. It is time up for the enemies of God in our situations, a time of worship, salvation and feasting for us the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God’s mighty acts of wonder on the powerful enemy of his own are deliberate, effective, irreversible, and will not fail to achieve the salvation of his people. ‘That they might observe his statutes, and keep his laws’ Psalm 105.26-45.

When these beneficiaries of God’s wonderful miracles, multiple gracious mercies and the tender love and protection of God failed to recognise God’s kindness, and when they provoked His anger: God still managed to eventually remember His word and unchangeable commitment and show them mercy, for the sake of Christ Jesus. The sacrifice of Jesus was still valid even when the errors were idol worshipping or even sacrifice of their own children to devils. God still remembered His covenant and had mercy on His people. Psalm 106. 7-12, and verses 45 – 48.

God had decided and declared ‘time-up’ on every error, oversight, imperfection and iniquity, judgement, suffering and consequences not sanctioned by Him. Following repentance, we are called- right now- to the place of salvation, victory, and worship in His presence.

In conclusion, I invite us to pray and take advantage of God’s own decision and provision. Exodus 15.2: “The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him” I surrender to you my God. Man of war, act for me. Become my salvation. It is time. Let us declare in knowledge that, as in Exodus 15.3 “The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name”. It is time up for every negativity. God is become our salvation. It is time to exalt and declare him, and enjoy the presence of the man of war, who will stop at nothing to act on our behalf. Amen.

The sermon, Time Up, And Time For God To Be My Salvation, by Brother Yomi Sanusi, was delivered on 19th November 2107.

Any Reason For Doubt?, by Pastor Victor Olobaniyi

TEXT : Numbers 23 vs 19, Jeremiah 29 vs 11.
The bible says once has He spoken, twice have I heard that power belongs to God.

As we all know that God is not a talkative, He normally speaks once, If He has any reason to repeat Himself, then that is grace.

Many a times He even overlook our doubts, and still do what He promised to do, because He is a faithful God, and cannot be false to Himself.

Considering some of the patriarchs in the bible, they doubted God in some case, but still yet God did that which He promised them.

Abraham was promised by God that He will make him fathers of many nations in Gen 17 vs 1 – 8, but he doubted through the comment he made in Gen 17 vs 17-18, he went as far as given God a second alternative, referring Him to Ishmael.

Sarah also, God confirm His promise to her in Gen 18 vs 10, she doubted God in Gen 18 vs 12 – 15.

The doubt of both husband and wife is enough reason for God to say let it be according to your statement , but God still fulfil His promise in spite of their unbelief.

My prayer is that despite our unbelief the good Lord will bring to pass all the promises concerning us from now on in Jesus name.

Elijah was another great person in the bible , that God was so merciful unto, God gave him victory on mount carmel over the prophet of Baal in 1 Kings 18, not far from that victory, he was telling God to kill him,and that he was not better than his fathers, just because Jezebel treating to kill him.1 King 19 vs 4.

Peter (Simon’s) was another person, that doubted what Jesus said initially, but by the mercy of God he eventually obeyed and reaped the benefit of that act in Luke 5 vs 4 – 5.

In the mighty name of Jesus, I pray that our thought and statement of doubt will not stop what God has promised to do in our lives from now on in Jesus name.
The Lord has promised us many things, for this year,my prayer is that we shall not miss out on any in Jesus mighty name.

Let’s keep up the work in which the faithful Lord has called us and it shall be well us by His grace

May the good Lord have mercy upon us and make His promises good unto us in Jesus name.

See you fulfilling God promises in your life in Jesus name.

Shalom!

The sermon, Any Reason For Doubt?, by Pastor Victor Olobaniyi, was delivered on October 29, 2017.