Dynamics of God's Holiness; Prayers

The Church of the Fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly desires a godly home front. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 1] Praise ye the Lord. Blessed be the name of our God. We thank Him again for another Monday for our discipleship class. We are also grateful to God for bringing us to the last Monday in the month of February, which is usually a time we create enough time out of our one-and-a-half-hour time to pray. Our last Monday is always a time to pray, to pray over the things that we have been learning, to pray over our lives. And particularly today, incidentally, the Monday following the Saturday of our presidential and National Assembly election. It’s also a Monday to pray for our nation, trusting the Lord that the desperation of men, the manipulations of men, the permutations of men, will not throw the nation into confusion in the name of Jesus Christ. As we gather today, we welcome our brethren who are joining us on Telegram. We welcome our brethren who are joining us on Mixlr. And we trust the Lord that together, it will be a time of blessing in the name of Jesus Christ. So let us have a word of prayer to open up for today. We take one or two songs of worship and then we go into a brief exhortation and then the time of prayer today. So let’s pray to start. Our Father, to You be honor, to You be glory, to You be praise, to You be adoration. We appreciate You for Your kindness and Your mercies towards us. We are grateful for all who You are and all that You are. We thank You as we all connect together again this evening to learn at Your feet, to cry unto You. Our God, we pray that Your Spirit will work with us, within us, among us, in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord God Almighty, we pray that Your word will come expressly in the name of Jesus Christ. We also ask, Father, that this day, You will teach us to pray. You will help us to pray. You will make us to pray. You help us to pray accordingly. You help us to pray aright. And as we pray for the nation, Lord, in Your mercy, You will hear us in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You, everlasting Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So we have been looking at "Be ye holy for I am holy" since we started this year. And three weeks ago, we began to look at a sub-theme under that. Under "Be ye holy for I am holy," and the sub-theme has been "God's Dynamics of Holiness." Or what you may call the ingredients of God's holiness. The various characterization that sum up into holy conduct for the believer. We have been looking at that for the past three weeks. And today, we just want to try to recap one or two things, and then particularly as a basis for prayer. As a basis for prayer, as a time to pray. I’ll just bring some things together and then make it the basis for prayer. And the first thing that is really coming to my mind as a basis for exhortation recap today is coming from the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13, I take it from verse 1. It says, "Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing, some have entertained angels unawares. Remember the prisoners as if chained with them, those who are mistreated, since you yourselves are in the same body. Marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have, for He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.' So we may boldly say, 'The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?'" I decided to read from verse 1, even though my emphasis is on verse 5 and 6. In Hebrews chapter 13, the Bible began from verse 1 exhorting us to diverse important conduct. The first one is the conduct about love. The second one is the place of hospitality. The third one is the place of concern to the brotherhood. The fourth one is the place of sexual purity, sex remain in marriage. And the fifth one, in the verse 5, is about covetousness. You remember in the course of discussing the ingredient of the dynamics of God's holiness, we discussed covetousness extensively. When we said we should be careful that one way to worship idol today is covetousness. When you are covetous, it’s a kind of idolatrous act. It’s a kind of idol worship. It’s a kind of bowing down to some images, images of money or of riches. And we noted in the course of that discussion that we should be careful. As far as the Lord Jesus is concerned, money should be seen as a kind of master. He said, "You cannot serve two masters." Mammon is a kind of master. The Lord saw it as a kind of master. And in beginning our prayer today, this verse has just been coming to my heart over and over and over, honestly, for the past two weeks. And I said I’m going to begin from there in recapping and taking our prayer. It said, "Let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have, for He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'" I like to take that in two other translations, NLT and The Message. NLT: "Stay away from the love of money. Be satisfied with what you have. God has said, 'I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.' That is why we can say with confidence, 'The Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?'" The Message: "Don’t be obsessed with getting more material things. Be relaxed with what you have since God assured us, 'I will never let you down. Never walk off and leave you.' That is why we can boldly quote, 'God is there, ready to help. I'm fearless no matter what. Who or what can get at me?'" What I want you to see in this place is that one deep, one important secret of holy living is being assured of who God is and what God has said. He said be relaxed with what you have. God Himself has assured us, "I will never let you down. Never walk off and leave you." Now, why should we not be obsessed with getting more material things? I’m going to give a particular example about this "God has said I will not leave you or forsake you." It was a very, very touching example for me. Some years back, I was praying to the Lord. I really don’t know what happened, but I can remember vividly that I was in the place of prayer. And I told the Lord that, "Lord, I will need a car that I can use in running around for ministry purpose." That, "Ah, I need that car now, now, now, now, now, now." And as I was praying that prayer, the Holy Spirit called my attention to the week before that week of my prayer. And that is something that I believe that we really need to pray. We need to pray to God to help us that we may see God in light of who He really is in our life. It’s very, very important. You see, when you don’t do, you will not be relaxed. This "be relaxed" is coming from a deep-seated understanding that God can never let me down and God cannot forsake me. What happened the week before? That preceded the week of that earnest prayer was that I went for a ministration. Probably it was that week before that led to the desperation in prayer, the earnestness in my prayer. And the Lord began to correct some things inside my heart. Now, that week that preceded the week of that earnest prayer, I had two ministrations. And the two ministrations, they were inside Akure precisely, inside Ondo State. But two different areas. One is at Ijoka, the other one is at Alagbaka. Two places that are far from themselves. Mind you, I have one from 4:00 till 5:05. I have the other one from 5:30 till quarter to 7:00 thereabouts. So, when I went for that ministration, I finished because I was rushing for the other ministration. I finished exactly 5:00 or few minutes after 5:00. And I began to make haste so that I can meet up with the other ministration. While I was trying to make haste outside the church where I did the first ministration, somebody just walked up to me, who was part of those I ministered to inside the first church. And said, "Sir, okay, you are set to go. Oh, how did you come?" I said I came by public transport. "Okay, how are you going?" I said, "I’m looking at how I need to quickly even get out of this place. I have another ministration at Alagbaka." He said, "Ah, Alagbaka? That’s exactly where I’m going. Maybe I should just quickly drop you at the other place of the ministration." So the person took me. And do you know the funny thing? I was at the other ministration 10 minutes earlier. 10 minutes earlier than the time. By 5:20 I was already there. Because the person knew a lot of shortcuts with his car. He just went, and I was surprised. He came out at Alagbaka. He said, "Ah," he said, "Ah, because it is private, that’s why we don’t follow the normal." So he just took some shortcuts and he was there. By 5:20 I was surprised I was already in Alagbaka. And then I waited for the program to start, did my ministration. So the Lord began to remind me of what happened that week. That, "What is the earnestness about now, now, now, now, now give me car about? Did I forsake you without a car? Without a car, were you forsaken?" He said, "When you needed to get to ministration early, did I not provide what will take you to the place?" And he said, "Look," that’s when he brought this scripture. "Look, don’t be obsessed with 'I must get it now.'" In My time, you will have it. But you need to understand that without it, what is important is that I don’t leave you and I don’t forsake you. Because even with it, if I leave you and I forsake you, the car will not serve you. And that day it was a turning point for me. I just told the Lord, "Lord, in Your time, I need another car." So that was the end of that prayer. That was the end of the agitation of "Ah, the car must come now for ministration to..." I just said, "Lord, I know You will not leave me. I know You will not forsake me." I want us to begin our prayer from that place this evening. I want us to begin to talk to the Lord. You see, nobody can conduct himself properly without a deeper understanding of who God is. You cannot live correctly if you don’t have a deep, and deeper, understanding of God. And that’s where we want to begin from. Holiness is not just something that happens. Holiness is something that is a product of deep-seated knowledge. And I want us to pray. He said, "Be relaxed, for I have said I’ll never leave you nor forsake you." Many things that makes us covetous, many things that makes us misbehave, is because of not having this deep-seated knowledge. And I want you to pray this evening wherever you are. Lord, knowing You better, knowing You deeper. Lord God, may the knowledge of You handle my struggles. May the knowledge of You handle my struggles. Many agitations that are within us, many conflicting passions, many things that we are fighting and we are—and I’m telling you, that is what explain the desperation of men today. That is why men kill to get power. That is why men lie to get power. That is why men go to all kind of diabolic activities, because they want to obtain. Hey, they want to obtain, but they don’t understand. They don’t understand that, look, the basis of their struggle is coming from a deep-seated ignorance. If you know that, look, no matter your state, you cannot be forsaken by God. And let me tell you, no matter how much you possess, no matter how much you have, if God forsake you, things will still not work well. What is important in life is that God is with you. That is the secret that I’m just trying to make you see. A man's life does not consist in the abundance of what he possesses. What is important is, is God with you? Is God with you? If God is with you, life will be better and sweeter than men who seem to have more than you have. Life will be better, life will be more comfortable, life will be richer, life will be fuller, than men who seems to possess more without God. Oh, somebody made this statement: "Much without God is little. Little with God is much." And I want you to pray. God Almighty, as we are talking about the matter of conduct—holy conduct, godly conduct—godly conduct is a product of deeper understanding of God. Deeper understanding of what He said. He said look, be relaxed. God has assured. Men who are not relaxed is because they don’t know what God assured. Men who are not relaxed, they don’t know what God said. Men who are not relaxed, they don’t know how God said it. Men who are not relaxed, they don’t know what God promised. Men who are not relaxed are not assured of God's presence. And that is what you need to pray God for. Lord, that I may see You at my right hand, that I may not be moved. That I may see You consistently at my right hand, that I may not be moved. Lord, that I may be relaxed in Your greatness, that I may be relaxed in who You are and all that You can do. Oh, Lord God Almighty, open my eyes again. Lord, assure my heart again. Lord, help me, O God, to see Your greatness in the midst of my situation. Lord, that agitating passions, that conflicting passions, particularly for material things. Particularly for material things, it is not how much you have that gives you peace. Honestly, you need to see it. It is not how much you have that guarantees rest. God is saying that it is only if I don’t leave you. It is only if I don’t forsake you. And can you pray to the Lord this evening? Lord God Almighty, do not leave me. Do not forsake me. That is the secret of sufficiency. The secret of being sufficient is not how much you have in your bank account. It’s not how much you have. It’s not how many material things you possess. No, the secret of sufficiency is God with you. The secret of sufficiency is that God, don’t forsake me. The secret of sufficiency is that God, don’t leave me. You see, if God leaves you, no matter how rich and material, blessed you may be, you can be stranded, be disgraced, you can be ashamed. But when God, when God is with you, when God is not leaving you, when God is not forsaking you, the truth is that you become sufficient. The secret of sufficiency is God. And we are praying this evening, Lord, particularly as we march through these times in our nation. This period of economic necessity. Oh, brethren, there is so much distress in the land. And what I notice today is that people are becoming desperate. People are becoming covetous. People are becoming more desperate. They want to just grab anything. They want to just hold anything. They want to put so much in their bank account. They think all of that will guarantee their future. But they don’t understand that what guarantees the future is that God not leaving you and God not forsaking you. We are praying this evening that God, God Almighty, that You will not leave me according to Your word. That You will not forsake me. That is what He said. He said, "Look, I will not leave you and I will not forsake you." He said, "Behold, I am with you to the end of the age." That is what He said. Look, that is what we need. And what we need is a constant reminder that God said, "I will never leave you." That is what he was telling them here. He said, "Brethren, do not be obsessed with getting more material things." Sometimes you think, "Ha, if I can just have this, then I can be sure nothing will happen to me in Nigeria. If I can just have this, I can be sure it will be well with me in Nigeria." You can have all of those things and yet it is not well. You can have all of those things and yet it is not well. And you can have none of those things and yet, I’m telling you, it will be well. You can have none of those things and yet, you see how God raised help for you. You see how God stand with you and God stand for you. You see how God undertakes for you. Brethren, the secret of godly conduct—the secret of godly conduct is this understanding, this deep-seated understanding that God, You have said You will not leave me. You will not forsake me. We have been talking not only about covetousness in the course of discussing holiness. We said holiness is important and one ingredient of holiness is avoiding covetousness. Another thing we talk about is being generous. We talk about being generous. We talk about that when you are not generous then you are not godly. We saw that in the book of Leviticus. When you don’t—when you are not intentional about the state of the poor, when you are not intentional about brethren who does not have as much as you have, when you are not intentional about the poor, when you are not intentional about strangers. The Lord said, "When you go through your garden, do not glean the edges of your harvest. The one that drop from the harvester, don’t take it. Leave it for the poor. Leave it for strangers." He said, "Then I the Lord will bless you." Why is it today that people cannot be generous? When the Bible says a liberal soul shall be made fat. When the Bible says it is more blessed to give than to receive. When the Bible says remember the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we should not forget the poor. Why is it that today many people it is take, take, take, take, get, get, get, get that possesses them? It’s still because of this same scripture, brethren. They don’t understand that God has said, "I will never leave you. I will never forsake you." And what just came to my mind right now about a cheerful giver is the widow, Shunammite—the widow at Zarephath that Elijah went to meet. That woman said all that remain in the house is just this flour, this last food that we want to eat, and then when we eat it, we will die. And Elijah said, "Look, don’t worry. Just serve me first. Serve me first. The other ones, the food will not finish." What I’m trying to make you see is that, brethren, can you explain that miraculous? Do you mean that it is possible to be spending 1000 and the 1000 will not finish? God is still doing wonders as of old. We are the ones, the problem today is our faith. He said, "Since God have said 'I will never leave you, I will never forsake you,' we can boldly say 'God is there, ready to help me.'" You see, it is because we cannot boldly say these things today. Because in our heart we are doubting whether God can still do it. That is why many times occasion of giving, occasion of generosity, occasion of being concerned, becomes a difficult things for us. What I’m trying to make you see is that some of these dynamics of holiness that we have been discussing, it is a product of not being able to see God. That is what I’m saying. Holy conduct in the dimensions in which we have discussed it, I want to make you see that the bottom line is this secret that we are praying about. You need to beg God that God, open my eyes to see You. Open my eyes to know. Open my eyes at every juncture to realize that my sufficiency is of You. That is what makes you at every juncture to live correctly. At the juncture of not being covetous. At the juncture of not being stingy. At the juncture of not telling lies. At the juncture of not stealing. At the juncture of not doing injury to your neighbor. At the juncture of even being meek. I’m going to get to that point. You will see this is the bottom line. We are not seeing God as we ought to see God. And our prayer this evening is centered on God, that I may see You again and afresh. That I may encounter You again. That when I come to my quiet time, there may be a revelation of the greatness of God afresh. That there may be a revelation again of the almightiness of God. That there may be a revelation again that God, the sovereignty, the awesomeness of God. What I’m still discussing with you is the Zarephath woman. Do you still know that the bag of rice in your house, that bag of rice in your house, do you know that God can make you eat that bag of rice for 10 years? You’ll be saying, "How will it happen?" What simply happens is that God assures that no matter how much you eat and give out of it, somehow replacement just keep coming. That was what happened with that food. As they were taking it inside the bowl, replacement was coming. That was why that food did not finish. The woman and Elijah, they kept eating and eating because God kept replacing. You see, what is important is for God to be your source. What is important is who is your source. What is important is God being committed to you. s not how much you have in your hand. It's whether or not God is committed to you. If you have so much and God is not committed to you, that thing will fail you. That thing will make you to be stranded, be disgraced, you will weep and you will cry. But no matter how little you have in your hand, if God is committed to that little, you will be surprised. You just keep telling the story. "I don’t know how, oh. I just see that we just kept on eating. As this one is finishing, something just keep replacing it. As this one is going, another one just entered. We were just thinking of what will happen. Somebody just called and dropped this. Before we just knew it, somebody just gave this. Before we knew what was happening, this one just came in." So you’ll be telling the story. And days will be running into week, week will be running into month, month will be running into years, years will be entering into decade. This is what God can do. This is what God can do. Brethren, we need to pray. One thing the Lord is making me to see is that the revelation of the almightiness of God is lacking in the midst of God's people. That is why the people of God are putting their hope in different things, are laying hold on different things. And because they don’t put all their hope in the Lord, that is why they are not faithful to God in different areas of their life. That’s why faithfulness to God is eluding them in different ways. And our cry this evening again is that Lord, open my eyes afresh. Lord, open me up again. A deeper realization that You are my source. A deeper realization that You are my sufficiency. A deeper realization that You are my all in all. Lord, a fresh, a fresh, a fresh, a fresh, saying it afresh, afresh, afresh again. A reassurance in my heart, a reassurance in my heart, that I can boldly say, "God is ready to help. God is ready to help. God is ready to help." I am fearless. I am not afraid. What can man do unto me? In the course of the week, in the course of the month, in discussing the holiness of God, we discussed the matter of family stability. Family stability. And in discussing family stability, what we said was that look, whatever good conduct you have outside, if it does not begin from your marriage, if it does not begin from your home, those who are not married, if it does not begin from the home, if it does not have a bearing in the home, that thing you are doing is hypocritical. That thing you are doing is still not very correct. There is a missing gap in that godly conduct. We said true godly conduct must first have its fruit in the home. We saw different scriptures when we were looking at the matter of holiness. That you cannot say people are godly when you see them behave well in the church, in public place, if we cannot trace those things to their families. If we cannot trace it to their home. If we don’t see children who are obedient and submissive to parents. We now see them in society being obedient and submissive in fellowship. It is a lie. That thing they are doing in fellowship is a lie. There is no truth in it. Godliness must first be exercised at home. If you find a man who seems to be a very, a very wonderful preacher, a great teacher, you know, a blessed person. And we cannot see faithfulness to his wife, that man is an ungodly preacher. Don't describe him as godly. He's an ungodly man. If you see a woman, no matter the level of good works she displays inside the church, she displays in the house of God, and we cannot trace it to the matter of her conduct towards her children and her husband—her husband and her children. Then that thing you are seeing is a lie. Real godly living, the first partaker, are those who live with you. If the first partaker they are not at home, that thing is still not very real. It's not yet very real. If it is real, those at home will be the first receivers. And then it begin to go from there, from your Jerusalem to Samaria, from Jerusalem to Judea, from Judea to Samaria, from Samaria to the end of the earth. If nothing happen in Jerusalem, nothing happen in Judea, nothing happen in Samaria, there is nothing happening at the end of the earth. It's a lie. And that is what we discussed when we were looking at family stability and the holiness of God. And look, let me tell you, one major secret of rest within the family is trust in the Lord. Do you know that the reason why you see a man struggling and struggling to have dominion, struggling and struggling to pin down a woman who he calls his wife, is because the man does not trust that God cannot forsake him or leave him. He thinks that, "Ah, if I don’t do something now, if I don’t do something now, this woman will do this." And that is why so many things. And do you know why women cannot submit their life to their husband? Because they don’t trust God. They don’t trust God who told them to submit it. They feel that if I give this life to this man, this man will useless this life. They don’t trust that God who told them to submit it—that God is sure not to leave them, is sure to defend them. So in a bid not to make sure that they defend their life, is why so many women today became very rebellious. I am showing you the secret to so many things that we have been discussing. A matter the Lord open my eyes to, that all of these dynamics we have discussed so far, let us call our attention back to the root. The root is that many things happening around us today is a display of two things. Number one: not having a deep knowledge of God. Or number two: not having a working relationship with God. Some of us, God have already told us this thing. If you look at that Hebrews, he said, "He has said." But they forgot. So there was no working relationship. It was not a—it is not coming fresh. They were not renewing their strength. And so, what happened is that they got wearied. They got wearied along the way. And we want to pray. Lord, renew my strength. Renew my inner strength. This inner strength of trust in the Lord. This inner strength of hope in the Lord. Particularly when we look around us today. Lord, renew my inner strength. He says, "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." Lord, let there be a renewal of strength upon my life. Lord God Almighty. And in the midst of all of this, Lord, again, again, and again, teach me, Lord. Teach me, Lord, to wait. When I wait upon the Lord, I will renew my strength. I will mount up with wings as eagles. I will run and not be weary. I will walk and not faint. Teach me, Lord. Teach me, Lord, to wait. When I wait, when I wait upon the Lord, I will renew my strength. I will mount up with wings as eagles. I will run and not be weary. I will walk and not faint. Teach me, Lord. Teach me, Lord, to wait. Oh, teach me, Lord. Teach me, Lord, to wait. Oh, make me, Lord. Make me, Lord, to wait. Oh, cause me, Lord. Cause me, Lord, to wait. When I wait, when I wait upon the Lord, I will renew my strength. I will mount up with wings as eagles. I will run and not be weary. I will walk and not faint. Teach me, Lord. Teach me, Lord, to wait. Oh, teach me, Lord. Teach me, Lord, to wait. We are looking at this matter of waiting. In which area is your strength going down? In which area? Look into your life. You understand yourself better. In which area is your strength going down? Is it in area of managing your marriage? Is it in area of relationship with your spouse? Is it in area of unnecessarily being obsessed about material things? Is it the fear of your future? Is it the fear—fear of—fear of, "Ah, ah, I may lack"? Is that what is making you not to be generous, not to be a cheerful giver? What is it? What is it that is bearing? In which area is your strength? Do you need God to renew your strength again? In which area do you need God to renew your strength? You talk to the Lord this evening. And say, "Lord God Almighty, in this area. Lord, in this area, Lord, renew my strength." Lord, renew my strength. Oh, you know, this scripture just came to my heart: "Let brotherly love continue." And the scripture that came to my heart in that relation is "love suffers long." Do you know that being able to suffer long has to do with how much of God you can see consistently? If you cannot see God consistently, you will not suffer long. Oh, you will suffer short. You won't be able to suffer long. Any small, after little provocation like this, you will just go on fire. Why is it again, look at it again in the area of being truthful? Which area in your life are you not being truthful? We have look at "do not lie to your neighbor." Do not do with your neighbor falsely. What is making you not to—not to have the confidence—ha, if I tell—ah, if I know. Ah, and because you want to get, you want to grab, you want to hold, because of some selfishness, you begin to deal falsely. You are no more true, you are no more sincere, you are no more plain. Is that the area you need God to renew your strength? Which area? Which area do you need God to renew your strength this evening? I want you to talk to the Lord. What of—what of in the area of your drive? What is the drive behind your life? In the area of revelation. How is your walk with God? In the area of personal revelation. Have many things not distracted you? I was in a meeting on Saturday and the brother who led the prayer was talking about corruption that is in the world. Corruption that is in the world through lust. And what is lust? Strong desire for something. Corruption that is in the world through lust. That God has given us great and precious promises. That by these promises, we can escape the corruption that is in the world. And our brother was trying to make us see that look, the level of corruption today in the world—the world is not only corrupt, the world is also corrupting. And believers are people who have been designed to escape the corruption. He said, "He gave us great and precious promises so that we can escape the corruption." So that we don’t become corrupt. So that we remain holy, we remain pure, we remain godly, we remain upright. He said He gave us precious promises. And when you look at the scripture we are given this evening, he said you need to remember that God said, "I will not leave you or forsake you." You see, when a man forgets that God will not leave him or forsake him, when he forgets that promise, the man will misbehave. The man will begin to—will begin to think that the more material thing I have, the better for me. In the same way, I want you to pray this evening. Are there promises that are eluding you? Promises of God you don’t need to forget. He said you need to remember that He has said this. In the same way, there are things you also need to remember. I will give you a good example. You remember Caleb and Joshua? When they were to face the giant, every other person said, "Ah, they will finish us. We are facing giant." But Caleb and Joshua, they remembered that God had been their defender. They said, "See, if God, if God who have delivered us all this while—since He's still with us, He will also deliver us from this giant. Look, don’t let us sin against God." The people took stone to stone them. The glory of God appeared and God said, "As you have spoken in My mouth—as you have spoken in My ears, so I will do to you. Every body who said they are going to die will die. Every body—the people who said they will live, they will live." What made those people to have a correct confession? That they remember the promises of God. They remember that since God had delivered them XYZ, then He can still deliver them again. I want you to pray. Lord, You gave us great and precious promises. Oh, Lord God Almighty, revelation of these promises. Fresh revelation of these promises. Insight into these promises. Because when you forget what God promised, you will misbehave. When you forget what God assured, you will misbehave. When you forget what God said, you will misbehave. And then number two, the ones that You have revealed, help me never to forget, particularly at critical times. Help me to remember them, particularly at critical times, particularly when we need them, particularly at critical times. I remind you of Elisha and the servant. When the host of Syria came to arrest him and the servant was just jumping here and there. Elijah saw—Elisha could see that they that be with them are more than they that—they that are with them are more than they that be with the enemies. Elisha could see it. And when the servant was just jumping here and there—and many times, it is this jumping here and there that make us to misbehave. "Heh, heh, heh, ha, ha, heh, look at what is going on! How will I save my life? Heh, look at what he did to me! I must revenge. Look at what he has done, I must do this. Look at what she did, I must do that. Ah, look at what this my colleague did!" It is when we begin to look here and there that we misbehave. That’s when we go out of holy conduct. That servant was jumping here and there, "Heh, master! Heh, master! Ha, master!" It was in those kind of situation Elisha only said, "O God, please open his eyes that he may see what I am seeing." Men of revelation, they are men of strength. Men of revelation, they are men of power. Men of revelation, they are men of honor. Men of revelation, they are men of peace. Men of revelation, they are calm. They are in control. I want you to pray. I want you to pray. It looks like we are losing control. When you see what is—when you hear and you hear things and you see things happening, sometimes we are tend to lose control. We are tend to lose control. It looks like "Ah, what is going on? Where am I? This thing." And before you know it, you are not behaving as you should behave. You are not acting as you should act. You are not doing what you should be doing. And you know what came to my mind again? It is the story of Jael. You remember Jael killed Sisera? That woman, that woman, it take a woman that have inner strength to do what that woman did. So much was she in control. So much was she in connection with the prophecy that has gone ahead of her life. Don't forget, Deborah had given a prophecy that God will not give the honor to Barak. God will give the honor into the hand of a woman. God will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. A prophecy have gone ahead of her life. And that woman was not where the prophecy was made, but she was working in the spirit of that prophecy. But I’m trying to make you see that it take women of strength to work in the spirit of God. It take calmness. People who are not still in their spirit, they cannot work with God. He said they will be still in serving Him. Those that believe in Him, they don’t make haste. People that are hasty, people that are restless, they miss it in God. That woman, for you to know that she was calm all through, she knew what to give the general. Oh, she was able to discern. This man is an enemy from the spot. Even though the man came to seek rest. This is not a stranger to do good to. She was able to perceive in her spirit. She was able to know. This is not a stranger to do good to. This is somebody to be executed. Number two, she began to carry out the process of execution very, very calmly. She gave him milk to drink. Something to make him completely relaxed and give him a deep sleep. And then she covered him up and then she made sure that she prepared him for the sleep. While she—he was busy and he was deeply asleep, she went and took a tent peg and a hammer. I am showing you people that are of strength. They are people that can see. They are people of confidence. They are people of revelation. They are people of knowledge. And that is why we are praying, brethren. This holiness that we have been discussing since January, we are praying so much today that God Almighty, Lord, one, open our eyes to see You afresh. Open our eyes to remember the things that You have told us. Open our eyes to Your promises. Open our eyes to remind us of the promises that You have given us. Open our eyes, O Lord. Lord, renew our strength. Renew our strength. As we march through 2023, if the Lord is not renewing our strength, we will not mount up with wing as eagles. We will work and we will be weary. We will run and we will faint. Let’s talk to the Lord. God Almighty, Lord, let Your peace reign in my heart. Honestly, if you begin to look at how things are going, your heart will begin to skip. Let Your peace reign in my heart. Lord, let Your peace reign in my heart. And I also want us to pray, this almightiness of God. I want us to pray that the desperation—those competing and struggling for the seat of power, many of them don’t know God. So there is desperation. If it is to kill, it is to kill. If it is to waste, they are ready to waste. They are ready to do anything to get power. It is those who know God that wait on God to receive power. I want us to pray that the desperation of the wicked, the desperation of the godless, will not throw Nigeria into confusion. Rather, let the desperation of the wicked overtake the wicked. Let the desperation of the godless overtake the godless. In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. The desperation of the wicked, the desperation of the godless, will not throw Nigeria into confusion. Rather, the desperation of the wicked will overtake the wicked. The desperation of the godless will overtake the godless. In the name of Jesus. Next, we are going to pray. The Bible says in Psalm 33, "The Lord command, He commanded and they stood fast. He spoke and it was done. Let the earth tremble before Him, let the earth fear before Him." He said, "For the Lord frustrated the counsel of the heathen, He thwarted the thought of the nations to naught. For the counsel of the Lord shall stand, and the counsel of His heart to all generations." I want us to pray. The counsel of the heathen over Nigeria, the counsel of the nations over Nigeria, will not prevail. It will not prevail. But according to as it is written in that Psalm, Psalm 33, He said, "The Lord bring the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the plan of the people of no effect." I want us to pray that scripture. Baba, the counsel of the nations—nations have gathered, different nations. "Heh, no, I must hold the power. We must hold the power." Different nations have gathered. Nations here, nations there. "We must take it. It must be ours." The people have made plans. "If plan A don’t work, plan C will work. If plan A don’t work, plan S will work. Okay, if it has to be like this, then waste Nigeria. If it has to be like that, kill everybody." They have made different kind of plan. Plan A, plan B, plan C, all kinds of plan. But the Bible says, "The Lord bring the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the plans of the people of no effect." We want to pray. That God Almighty, over this struggle for the soul of Nigeria, the counsel of the nations, Lord, bring them to naught. Make the plans of the people of no effect. No effect in the name of Jesus. Every plan to scatter the nation, every plan of the godless, the desperate, the wicked, to waste, to win, to hit, to kill, to steal, to kill and to destroy. We pray the Lord makes the plan of no effect. The Lord will make it of no effect. The Lord will make it of no effect. The Lord will make all their plans, they will be of no effect. No effect. No effect. They will do it and do it, they will run and run, it will not be possible. Something is just coming to my heart, brethren. You remember the prophet of Baal when Elijah gave them a challenge? Elijah gave them a challenge. He said, "Oya, whichever can call down fire." They began to call, they began to call, they began to call. They wounded themselves, they tear themselves, fire did not come down. Because that day, God had said there should be no fire. I want us to pray. That God, like You frustrated the prophet of Baal that they could not bring down fire, everybody that want to bring down fire on Nigeria, Lord, frustrate them. They will do everything to call down fire, fire will not come down. They will do everything to bring down fire, to say, "Yes, let everything burn, let everything scatter." They will work, they will cut themselves, they will injure themselves, they will run helter-skelter, they will call what they know, they will try what they know, but the fire will not come down. Fire will not come down on the nation. Fire will not destroy the nation. Nothing will—nothing will destroy Nigeria. Nothing will destroy the nation. The nation will stand. Nigeria will remain. In the name of Jesus. There will be peace in the nation. And in the peace of this nation, we will have peace. There will be peace for us. There will be peace for us. In the name of Jesus. Lastly, I want us to pray. The counsel of the Lord shall stand. The plan of His heart over Nigeria. The counsel of the Lord shall stand. The plan of God's heart over Nigeria. The counsel of God shall stand. The plan of God over Nigeria will stand. In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. Thank You, eternal Father. Blessed be Your holy name, our God. Thank You for this evening. Blessed be Your name, our God. I want brethren to bring your personal request this evening before the Lord. I want you to bring your personal request before the Lord this evening as we close. Bring your personal request. What is it that you are asking the Lord to do? What is your personal request? What are you bringing before the Lord this last Monday in the month of February? As we close up this month, what personal request is in your heart? Why not bring it before the Lord? A scripture that is coming to my heart, something why you must pray about that request, why you don’t need to struggle about that request. Why you must pray about that request. Why you don’t need to struggle about that request. It’s James chapter 4. He said, "From where do wars and fight come among you? Do they not come from your desires of pleasure that war in your members? You lust and you do not have. You murder and you covet to obtain. You fight and you war. You do not have because you do not ask." Instead of fighting, instead of worrying, instead of complaining, instead of murmuring, why not ask? Why not ask today? Bring that request before the Lord. He said you have not because you ask not. Why not ask? Why not ask in faith? Why not believe the Lord? That woman that was 18 years, who had been bound by Satan for 18 years, she had been coming to that temple. She had been coming to that temple. And one day, the Lord was in that temple. And that day, the woman not being able to look up was dealt with. For 18 years, she has been in that temple, she has been coming day by day for worship. But it was a time of answer. Don't say because I've been asking, God did not do it, I will not ask. No, don’t have that kind of mentality. In His time, He makes all things beautiful. Opportunity to ask the Lord for personal request. Bring it before the Lord, trust in Him and He will bring it to pass. Thank You, Father. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Father. Blessed be Your holy name, our God. In Jesus' name we pray. [Speaker 2] I let me invite our brother Godson to close the meeting for us. Please come and close the meeting for us today. Our Father and our God, we want to say thank You for the opportunity and the privilege to come before You to pray. Thank You for how You have helped us to pray, because Your word said we do not know how to pray as we ought to. But the Holy Spirit help us this evening, and we appreciate You for how You have helped us to pray. Thank You because this is the confidence we have in You, anytime we call on Your name, You answer. We appreciate You that You have answered us. With thanksgiving, we receive answer to all our prayer request this evening in the name of Jesus Christ. We have prayed for ourselves, we have prayed for the soul of Nigeria. Lord, we begin to share testimony in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You for all Your word that have come to us in the month of February. We appreciate You. Indeed, You have opened our eyes to know that You are our God of all-sufficiency. You have opened our eyes to have rest and confidence in what only You can do. We appreciate You, Lord. And we pray, Lord, as we continue in the month of March, You will continue to speak to us. You will give us revelations. You will open our understanding in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You, precious Daddy. Daddy, as we go, Lord, we go in Your name. We will return next week with testimony to share in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You, precious Daddy. Now we pray for Your son, that Your hand will continually be upon him to continually refresh him with power, with grace and revelation in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You, Father. In Jesus' mighty name we pray. Amen. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us now and forevermore. Amen. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah! This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in reaching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development and mission aid. Our regular activities are: Discipleship class, every Monday, 5:00 PM; Adolescents and Singles Club, every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; Marriage Forum, second Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; Family life seminars, regular school outreaches and every day counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location: Life Camp by the first bridge, Ilere community, opposite Borojo filling station, along Ijayere Road, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytent@yahoo.co.uk, familytentministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentministry.org. Our phone numbers are 080-3386-1136, 070-3361-3848. God bless you all.