Godly Smartness in Times Like This

[Introductory Voice] Church fellowship cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute it. God is the designer of godly home. These are words of solution and instruction on righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 1] Our Father, we thank you again for today. We bless your holy name for this privilege again to gather this first Saturday in the month of October. We appreciate you for your mercies. We thank you for your love. We give you all the glory. We give you all the praise. We give you all the honor. We thank you for this opportunity again. Thank you that you kept us through the month of January, the month of February, the month of March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and October. We want to indeed appreciate you for bringing us to the month of October. We say Lord our God, let your name be praised in the name of Jesus Christ. As we gather again unto you this morning, our brethren who are joining us on Telegram, our brethren who are joining us on Mixlr, and we who are here this morning, Lord we pray, let your spirit work within us in the name of Jesus Christ. Our Father, we pray that you will meet each and every one of us at the very point of our need this morning in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord our God, we pray, work among us, work within us. Lord, work within us, work in a way that each and every one will encounter you in his or her own unique way in the name of Jesus. Thank you, eternal Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We are welcome again to this month of October episode of our Singles Club that comes up every first Saturday of the month. I want to welcome everyone again, and I want to trust the Lord that it will be a very fruitful meeting for us all in the name of Jesus Christ. Today, we are looking at a very important topic again which we titled "Godly Smartness in Times Like These." Godly smartness in times like these. If you are there listening to us, you would understand that there is a need today for us to be smart. There is a need today for believers to be smart. There is a need today for every person. In fact, whether young or old, there is a need to set aside sluggishness. There is a need to set aside lethargy. There is a need to set aside heaviness. There is a need to set aside being overweight spiritually. Bible says since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and every sin that so easily beset us. So it's not a time to lay aside only sin, it's also a time to lay aside every weight. Weights are not sin, but they don't allow us to run as we ought to run. And so, it's a time to smarten up. And what we are trying to look at today is what does it mean to be smart? What does it mean to be smart? The world has its way of defining smartness, but we want to look at smartness from the point of God. What does it mean to be smart from the point of God? The world has its own philosophy for defining smartness. For instance, once you can easily trick people and make the best out of them, you are defined as smart. "Oh, that guy is smart. That young lady is smart." If you can subtly play on people's intelligence and get away with what you intend to do, the world calls you somebody who is smart. Say, "Ah, that young man is very smart." If you are somebody who seems to have your way of quickly getting around arguments... Like I was telling somebody one day, I said that even if you win an argument, that is still not the end of the matter. The end of the matter is whether you are on the side of the truth. You may win an argument and yet you are not on the side of truth. So winning arguments is not even the matter, but you may be smart enough to win every argument and it looks like you are a smart person. So the world has its way of defining smartness. But as I look into scripture, as I check scriptures, I saw two things, and that is what is bringing me to look at godly smartness. Honestly, we must be smart. And young man listening to me, you need to be smart, but your smartness as a Christian should be defined as godly smartness. And that is what we want to look at. We need to be smart. Of course, to be smart simply means ability to do something with a lot of skill. Ability to skillfully do something. You are out. That's smartness. Ability to quickly get through. Ability to have what we call agility. You are quick, you are fast, and you are accurate. Quick, fast, accurate. Because the quickness is not with haste. There is no haste in it. It is like sometimes when you look at the way daylight robbery occurs. The robbers will just jump into the street, within minutes, they have overrun the area they want to overrun. Before anybody could say Jack Robinson, they have gotten what they want to get. They are already on their way. Before the police arrive, they have moved. Why? It was properly planned out. They must have come to that area, they would have studied the area, studied the area, studied the area, understand how to come in quickly, how to achieve their aim within minutes, and how to get out very quickly. So smartness is talking about somebody who is fast, somebody who is quick and getting results, but there is no haste. No haste. Because the fastness and the quickness is already planned. It is planned out. It has been evaluated. It has been studied. It is not fastness that has not been proven. You have proved it. It has gotten through. You have studied it. You have looked at it. It is the best way to go about it. And when you are come to do it, that's smartness. And I want to look at why I said the world has a way of defining smartness, and then godly smartness, and why are we talking about times like this. I'll just quickly look at these three things quickly, then we will now zero in into considering godly smartness. Now, what actually prompted this discussion is that I noticed that when I discuss with several young people today, I mean young people, young men, young women of marriageable age, some who are in their 500 level trying to graduate, some who have graduated, some at their penultimate year in the university, some who have graduated long ago and are already working for years—young men, young women. Sometimes in discussing with them, you just say, "Okay, so what are you considering? What are you thinking about?" And many times what I hear from these young people is something like, "I am thinking about this. I am still considering this. I am hoping about this." And when you ask specific questions, "What about this? What about this?" I notice that often many of our young people, they are not very clear. They are not very clear as to what they want to do and how they want to do it. And honestly, it is something that bothers me. It gives me a lot of burden. And many times I find myself praying and asking God, "God, wake up your church. God, wake up your church." The reason why I am saying this is because I try to think back to some things. I could think back to my personal experience, my primary school days. The people who initiated me into drug addiction, into criminality, and all kinds of perverse life, they were young people who were so smart about what they wanted to do. I mean, they had a clear sense of their evil purpose. I mean, at that young age, they had a clear sense of their evil purpose. They know how they want to carry it out. They were clear how they want to move. And before you know it, you are already in a trap. You have been trapped. And before you know it, you are struggling to get out of bondage. And you are wondering, "How these young people had a clear sense of purpose for the evil they want to do?" And so, it bothers me when believers don't have a clear sense of purpose about what they want to do with their life. I'm talking about the things that led to my burden, the burden for this message. I mean, I'm talking about smartness in evil. Smartness in evil. I became very smart in evil at a very young age. I know how to dribble my parents. I know how to go around them. I mean, at a very young age, I've become so smart and intelligent, and I had a clear sense of purpose to do that evil. Of course, thank God for redemption at the age of 17 that turned my life around. But you see, it bothers me when I now see people of 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, and it is still... and by the time you ask, "When did you get born again?" they are talking about three or five years ago. And you are wondering, what have you not been able to, with this spirit that you have spiritually, you should have been able to develop, you should have been able to begin to have a clear sense of purpose that makes you swift in how you want to move. That's about that, what things that led to the burden. Why am I talking about smartness in the world? It was because recently I was just looking at the creation story again. The creation story. And I was just looking at how mother Eve was deceived and eventually father Adam disobeyed, and before you know, a paradise was gone. I saw an evil being, the Serpent, who had a clear sense of purpose on what he wants to carry out, who also knew the best way to go about it. He wanted to achieve something, and he would have been able to study that, "Okay, if I go through the woman, through the woman to the man, I will have my way." Once I can go through the woman, and through the woman to the man, I will have my way. And I want you to look at... I don't know whether you have taken time to personally look at the things that Satan said in that discussion. That is why sometimes when people say that Satan is a foolish man, he is a stupid man, I just laugh. Satan is not foolish. Satan is not stupid. Satan is crafty. Satan is smart. We are dealing with a smart and intelligent being. So don't be thinking about he is a foolish man, he is a stupid man in some of those songs that we sing sometimes. We are not looking at the biblical concept of this being that we are dealing with. But what I really want to bring out is I was looking at the discussion. I was just taking time to look at this discussion. And look at the first general question. Did God say you should not eat of anything in the garden? And the woman said no, God didn't say we should not eat of everything in the garden. What he said is that we should not eat of this specific one. If we eat or touch it, we will die. "And oh, you will not die. You will not die. You see, there's something about this thing." And the discussion went on, and he said something. He said, "You will not die." In what Satan said, that was the only thing that was not true. You will not die. Because they will die if they eat it. But he went on to say, "Your eyes will be opened." Of course, that is going to happen. Their eyes will be opened. "You will become like God." Of course, that is going to happen. They will become like God. I'm trying to make you see the smartness. They will become like God. But of course, the smartness is that by the time their eyes are opened, by the time they become like God in the concept of what Satan was saying, they would have been dead. But he said they will not die. So when the woman look at the fruit, something to make her wise, something that she went ahead, of course their eyes were opened. Of course, they became like God. If you remember what God said in Genesis 3:22-24, God said, "Man has now become like one of us, knowing good from evil." So they became like God, knowing good from evil. But of course, in that state, they were already dead. The only thing that was not true was that they will not die. Now, what I am trying to make you see was that error, when you look at smartness in ungodliness, you see something. You see that error is just a lie in a lake of truth. Error is not everything a lie. Error is not everything a lie. No. It is actually lie coated with truth around it. Just one small lie will be introduced to a volume of truth. So you will take everything as truth, and then you are gone. I'm talking about smartness. It means people who put a little error in a bundle of truth—I'm talking about ungodliness—they know exactly what they wanted to achieve. They are clear about their purpose. So in order to distract the victim from what they want to do, they put what is true to sugarcoat what is death. So you see a level of smartness, a level of wanting to achieve something and going all out to achieve it, knowing what the end will be. So smartness, you are seeing smartness from the point of there is speed, you are fast, there is no haste. You want to achieve something because you have already set your eyes at the end result of what you are doing. You see, anybody who does not set his eye on the end of his action is a fool. He is not smart. Anybody who does not look at where ultimately it is leading to. Satan had a clear understanding of the ultimate thing that he was doing. Go and look at what believers that are foolish. It is when they begin to face the consequences that they begin to say, "Ah, if I had known, if I had known," which means they did not consider the end, the ultimate end of that thing that they were doing. They were doing it but they were not smart enough. So smartness has this ability to be fast, to be quick, without haste, to achieve something because you have a clear understanding of the consequence of that thing. You have a clear understanding of the consequence of what you are doing. That is what you are calling your vision. You have a clear vision. You know that this thing will turn and turn and turn and this is how it is going to end. You have a clear understanding of the end of what you are doing. If you are doing anything without a clear understanding of the end and you are just doing it, you are not a smart person. You are not a smart person. You are a stupid person. You are a foolish person. You are a person that is carrying a lot of blindness around you. Smartness. When I saw the book of Genesis, when I look at what happened between Satan and how he was able to kick our parents out of paradise, he was able to kick them out of that place. He had a clear picture of what he wanted to do. He knew that, "Look, what I want to do is that at the end of the day, they will die eternally and there will be no way to rescue them. There will be no way to get them out." He saw a clear end. But mother Eve and Adam, they were not seeing the clear end. They were seeing... they were not seeing the real consequence of what they were doing. Anybody who is doing something and does not really understand the real consequence of that thing but... please listen to me young person, listen to me very well. If you are doing anything and you don't have a clear picture of the real actual consequence of that thing, but you are running with what you think it will be, what you feel it will be, what you are expecting that it may be, you are not a smart person. Smart people, they have a clear understanding of what the actual consequences of their actions will be. So when they are taking their actions, they are preparing for the consequences. They are ready because they are taking it because they want to achieve that consequence. That is why they are doing it. For example, Christians who are telling lies. You know they are not smart. They are expecting a consequence but they are not looking at the actual consequence. Christians who are deceptive. Christians who are involved in immorality. People inside church who are living their life as unbelievers, who dress like them, who talk like them. You know they are not smart people. They are not smart people. Do you know, like one of my pastor friends said, he said it takes a very smart demon to make people go naked and call it fashion. Look at how ladies are naked today and they are calling it fashion. It is because somebody was more intelligent than them. Somebody was more intelligent. He wanted to achieve something. He wanted them to glory in their shame. So what even English call private parts have become public parts. Breasts are outside. All the thighs of our ladies, they are outside. What ought to be private parts, but what do they call it? They call it fashion. Somebody have outsmarted them. Somebody wants to make them glory in their shame. That was the consequence he wanted to achieve. That is the actual consequence. That is the actual thing that that thing is. But the people that are doing it, they are not seeing it. What are they seeing? They are seeing, "I am beautiful. I am sexy." They have been outsmarted by those who are smart. Who are those who are smart? Those who have a clear understanding that when you no longer have a sense of shame, something has happened to your understanding. When Adam and Eve felt that they were naked, they quickly took something to cover. That covering was not good enough. God came with animal skin. So when you feel naked and you don't feel like covering up, and you have become, "No, I am sexy," something has happened to you, but you don't know that something has happened to you because somebody outsmarted you. It's the same thing with believers who have all kinds of secret sin. Somebody have outsmarted them that see, there is no hellfire. Because the Bible says that if you have a clear understanding of hell, you know what Jesus said? You know what Jesus said? Jesus said if your right eye will cause you to go to hell, what did he say? He said you should rather cut that eye off. It is better to enter into heaven with one eye than to be in hell with your two eyes. So Jesus was making us see the implication, the actual meaning of hell, and he was telling us that, look, if you can, look, whatever you can do not to go there. But you know, people have been outsmarted today. You see believers telling lies about their age, about this, about that. Some do all kinds of things to get out of the country. Some do all kinds of things to get job. You see people inside the church fornicating. They say they have outsmarted their pastor. Oh, look at the foolishness. Is the real consequence of immorality outsmarting your pastor? Is that the real consequence? Oh, I'm trying to make you understand smartness. Smartness has three things. Three actions and then the basis. Those actions have basis. I said it is fast. I said it is quick. I said it lacks haste. Then the basis for that quickness, fastness without haste is that you have a clear understanding of the actual consequence of what you are doing. You have a clear understanding. You are prepared. You are somebody who is prepared for the consequence. You see, many times we do things that we are not prepared for the consequence. You are not prepared for the consequence. You are doing it but you are not prepared. And when you are not prepared for the consequence of something, it means you don't really understand the consequence of that thing. You don't really understand. When I see the way people live today, when I see the way some people handle their... you know, handle their life, carry their life—financial life, spiritual life. When I see the way some young married young men and women carry their married life and when you are trying to make them understand that young man, do you have a clear understanding that what you are doing... The Bible says that he who troubles his house will inherit the wind. Do you know that when somebody troubles his own home, the end of that person is that the person will inherit the wind, that is you will become a vain person. When I see the way young women, young men live their marital life, I know that they don't have a clear consequence of where they are going. They don't have a clear... they don't have a clear understanding of the consequence of their actions, so they are not smart. They are not smart. When I see the way some young men try to make money, the way some young women... I'm talking... I'm not talking about unbelievers. I'm talking about people who define themselves as Christians. The way they handle their financial life. Ah, I know that they don't have a clear understanding of the actual consequence of what they are doing. And so, this group of people are not smart. That is what brought us to where we are today: godly smartness at a time like this. Godly smartness. And in all that I have said, please let me remind you again as I'm speaking, it's about almost 11:00. Please, if you have a question, just go ahead, put it on the group. Don't wait till 11:30. Normally by 11:30, we just check. If there's no question, then we move on to either round up or say one or two things then close. But if something occurs to you as we are discussing, please don't hesitate. Just put it there on the Telegram page, on the WhatsApp page. We will definitely respond to whatever question that are there. Now, you see, I've been able to clarify something in what I've said so far. In what I've said so far, I have been able to define what it means to be smart. I've been able to make you see that the darkness that we are dealing with is smart. The darkness that we are dealing with. Because people don't understand that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. We are actually wrestling with what? With principalities, with powers, with rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in heavenly places. What you are wrestling with is not flesh and blood. And many times, I just pity believers who think that men are their enemies and they begin to hate their brother, hate their sister, hate their uncle, hate this one, hate that one, hate their friend, do this, bear malice, do that. These are also people who are blind. They are not smart. People who begin to take enmity against fellow human beings... Do you know why they are not smart? Should I quickly tell you? They are not smart because when you begin to take enmity against a fellow human being, you have only done something: you have hindered your own prayer life. He says forgive us as we forgive those who trespass against us. And when you are somebody who don't learn to forgive people for whatever they have done to you in whichever way they do it, you know what happens to your own life? You become somebody too whose prayer life become hindered. Because God has said even if your enemy is hungry, give your enemy to eat. If somebody is defined as your enemy, you saw that the person is the one who wants to take your life. Bible says give him to eat. That is you don't need to bear malice to deal with the enmity that is in him. To deal with what that person is doing is not by bearing malice. It's not by seeking revenge. Some people so much make themselves so stupid that they are looking... they want to seek revenge. "Ah, I will do my own back. He slapped me, I will slap back." You are not smart. You are not a smart person. Vengeance belong to God. You see, a lot of people are not smart today. They are not smart. They don't understand the actual consequence of what they are doing. They just out of out... you know, three things that I also want to show you that you must deliberately avoid in your life. Three things that show that that indicate... I've talked about three things to this other side. You are fast, you are quick, there is no haste to achieve something and once you want to achieve, you have a clear sense of understanding of the actual consequence of what you are doing. Not what you think it will lead to, not what you feel it will lead to, but you know, you want to achieve that thing, and you have a clear way to go about it. That is smartness. On the other side, there are three things that seem to rule people today that show that they are not smart. And it's common among believers. Many times, believers are quickly ruled by how they feel. "Ah, he insulted me, he slapped me, I will show him back, I will show him." They are quickly moved by how they feel. "You insulted me, you too you are mad." You think that you are smart? People who are quick to act on how they feel, they are not smart people. They are not smart. Something is trying to get you out of your coverage. What you are actually wrestling with are principalities and powers, rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in heavenly places. They only use human beings as means of doing something. And when you put your enmity against human beings, you will miss your own path. Oh, look at smartness in Joseph. The brothers did a lot of things to him, but Joseph was smart enough to know that this is the doing of God. You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good so that I can feed you and make you well. Joseph was not seeking out to revenge. He was smart enough to understand the consequence of his actions, that if I go back to pay these people back, I will lose my own purpose in life. Many people have missed their purpose in life as they focus on enmity with people, trying to do this, trying to do that. So I'm talking about smartness. Three things to the other side, you must watch these three things as a young man and young woman. Be careful about these three things: what you like, what you feel, what you want. What you like, what you feel, what you want. If your life is ruled by these three things, you are not a smart person. "Oh, I like this. I want this. I feel this." If those are the basis of your decisions, you are not smart. You are not smart. And you will see the reason why I'm saying that will soon be clear as we go to understanding smartness. But I've taken these things one by one so that by the time I zero in into where I saw what it means to be smart, you will quickly understand it. The first thing is to understand what smartness is and things that show that this person is not smart. Elements you will see in your life that will make you be knowing that, "Ah, I am not smart. I am not smart." I've showed you what smartness is. I've told you that the gate of hell we want to deal with, they are smart. They know what they want, they know where they are going. And for you to know how much they know where they are going, look at what Jesus, our Lord Jesus said. He said broad is the way and wide is the gate that leads to destruction. Many work in it. Why? He said because narrow is the way and straight is the gate that leads to life. He's trying to make you see that the gate of hell that we are dealing with is able to carry many. Many people talk about hellfire, talk about heaven, talk about this, but the gate of hell is still able to carry them there. The gate of hell is able to outsmart them. And the Lord Jesus made this clear. So I want to make you know that the arrangement is not... you must have a clear understanding that when we are talking about smartness in a believer, the focus of a believer first go beyond human beings. It goes to understanding that look, I have an adversary. There's this adversary, the devil. Bible says be vigilant, be sober, for your adversary the devil. Your adversary is not your uncle. Your adversary is not your brother who tried to bewitch you in secondary school, and luckily you were able to get out, you say, "That my brother will not do good to me again." Those are not the things to face. Look for the principalities and power that was behind it. That is what to deal with. Now, it says your adversary the devil like a roaring lion goes about seeking whom to devour. So we have a sense of understanding that we have an adversary. Our real adversary is principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, and spiritual wickedness in heavenly places. And so, look at it. If you are having that understanding and it's getting clear, you need to now understand something. Ever from the beginning of time, go back, that's why I took you to Genesis. Ever from the beginning of time, what is the chief aim of the devil? Ever from the beginning of time, what is the primary thing that the devil wants to do? What is the primary thing? Now, I want you to look at something in scripture. Please, from what we discussed about mother Eve, we have an insight in that place. What is the insight? How to make sure that man and God, they are not in sweet fellowship. You saw from the beginning that the chief aim of the devil is how to ensure that man and God, they are not in sweet fellowship. They don't have a walk together. They don't have a walk together. Why is he like that? Because you remember, if you read the scripture, you will discover... Please look at Matthew. I'm trying to show you a very important thing about smartness. Look at the book of Matthew chapter 25. Matthew chapter 25. Smartness. We need to be smart. And I pray for you, I pray for myself, the wisdom of God, by the wisdom of God, we will outsmart the gates of hell in the name of Jesus Christ. There is the wisdom of God. I'm hoping that we will be dealing more with that either in the discipleship classes on Monday or maybe we may take some aspect of it in our next Singles Club—the wisdom of God. But what we are trying to do today is smartness. Checking your life: am I smart? Please note the things that we have said so far. Very crucial. What smartness is and the basis of smartness. People who have a clear sense of what their action will actually lead to. Elements in your life that make you know you are not smart: you are governed by what you like, what you feel, what you want. Three things the other way, three things this way. Watch your life. If you are guided by those three things, it means you are a man of haste. You are a man of haste. You are not a man of discernment. Now, look at Matthew 25. Matthew chapter 25. I want to make us see something very important there, so that from there we move on together to define some more things in the Bible. Matthew chapter 25. When you look at Matthew 25, you will see something in verse 41. Please look at verse 41. Matthew 25:41. Do you see what the Bible wrote in that place? It says, "Then He will also say to those on the left, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for...'" Please look at your Bible if you are with me. Make sure you are looking at your Bible. It says, "'...prepared for the devil and his angels.'" Do you see something? Something had been prepared. It was not prepared for man. It was prepared for the devil and his angels. There is a clear understanding that there is a preparation. As Satan is busy going to and fro the earth today, as he's busy running up and down in it, Satan has a clear understanding that something had been prepared for him. What had been prepared for him is everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. He has that clear sense. For you to know... time will not permit me to quickly run through certain things because this is just a one-hour, one-and-a-half-hour class. But if you are familiar with the story of Jesus' encounter with demons, when he wants to cast out devils, you will see them pleading with him that, "Have you come to judge us before time? Have you come to judge us before time? Ah, son of man, do you want to do this to us? Do you want to do that to us? Have you come to judge us before time?" Something had been prepared. Something was prepared. And so he had a clear understanding that something had been prepared for him, and what had been prepared for him is something that is certain, and there is a time of judgment. And so he knew how he came to this point. How did he come to this point? The way he came to this point of something having been prepared for him was not that he does not believe in God. Let me show you that again in the book of James. In the book of James, please let's see the book of James just to get some things, just to put some things in order, and then we quickly zero in into smartness, godly smartness, the background. Now, if you look at the book of James, look at James chapter 2 verse 18 and 19. James 2:18-19. Look at what the Bible says there. The Bible says, "But someone will say, 'You have faith and I have works.' Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even demons believe—and tremble!" Are you getting what James is saying here? James is saying that what makes devil devil is not that he does not believe in one God. Devil knows that Jesus is Lord. Devil knows that Jesus is Lord. Devil accepts the lordship of Jesus, that Jesus is Lord. He knows that. He believes there is one God. He believes that. So that you believe that you accept the lordship of Jesus is not the end of the matter. We are looking at what makes devil devil, so that you can understand it. So Satan acknowledges the lordship of the Lord. That is why you notice the man at Gadara, he was pleading, "Please let us go into the swine. Don't cast us. Please let us go. Please let us go into the swine." Then he allowed them to go into the swine, and the swine run into the river and they all died. So the lordship of Jesus is not something that is questioned by the gate of hell. It's not. It's not something that is questioned by the gate of hell. It's not. Now look at this, vis-a-vis what the Lord Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7. I want to give you a background to smartness, to understand smartness. Matthew chapter 7. Look at Matthew 7 now so that you can have a feel of what the Lord is saying in that place. I would like for us to read the matter from verse 21. It says, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father." So what are we seeing here? Satan also say to the Lord, "Lord, Lord." What makes Satan Satan is that he does not do the will of God. So what makes him Satan is not that he does not acknowledge the lordship of Jesus. He acknowledges the lordship. He calls him Lord. There is a clear understanding of the lordship of Jesus. But the real thing about Satan is that when God says... God told them, "Do not eat that fruit." Satan came around with a trick to make them eat. So he made them to disobey. So he made them to become like Satan. Somebody who acknowledges the lordship of Jesus but will not do the will of Jesus. So what makes you... when you say the gate of hell, the gate of hell does not mean that you may not be a pastor. It may not be that you may not be somebody who is inside church. It may not be that you may not read the Bible. No, hell will not stop you from all of that. Hell will not stop you from preaching and teaching. Judas was among those who preached and taught. You understand me? Judas went everywhere to do all those things. Judas was among the twelve. Judas did everything. But what made Judas to lose out was that while he was doing all of those things, he was calling Jesus Lord, but he was not doing his will. He was not doing the will of Jesus. I'm trying to make you understand what it means to be smart. Satan understands that, look, that you acknowledge the lordship of Jesus does not guarantee anything. It still does not make you different from him. Satan acknowledges the lordship of Jesus. That you can quote scriptures, you memorize scriptures—please don't forget—Satan quoted scriptures to Jesus. "It is written, 'He will give His angels charge over you.'" Now, not that these things they are not useful. No. To believe in the Lord Jesus as Lord is very, very important. To have a working knowledge of scriptures is very, very important. But there is something about hell, there is something about God's punishment, there is something about God, and that thing is obedience. The will of God. The will of God. Satan clearly understood in that garden that the will of God is that they should not eat that thing. And so he did everything to make them to go against the will of God. Are you understanding me? I'm showing you smartness. I'm showing you what it means to be smart, so that no matter what you think you may be doing. Let me give you a picture that makes me understand this matter very seriously. I will show you three people in scriptures now. We'll just make reference to them. You can go and read the story. The first one I will make reference to was Uzzah. You remember Uzzah? When they were bringing the ark of God and everybody was dancing, they were rejoicing, they were rejoicing, and the ark got to a point where the animal that was used to carry the ark stumbled, and the ark was about to fall. And Uzzah stretched forth his hand to make sure that the ark does not fall. What happened? What was he thinking he wanted to do? He wanted to make sure the ark don't fall. But what was the actual consequence of what he was doing? The actual consequence was that he was going against the will of God, that it is only the priest that can touch the ark. What happened to Uzzah was that he died. If Uzzah was to be smart, he would have allowed the ark to fall. But that looks like foolishness. What looked like smartness to him was the way he felt. "Ah, the ark should not fall. It is good to hold it." And many times people are governed by how they feel, what they want, and what they like. But the matter of the will of God is not a matter very clear. That is Uzzah. Look at how it happened. I show you another one. Look at Saul. The Israelites had a covenant with the Gibeonites. You will see that in Joshua chapter 9. I'm trying to save time just to make sure I get to where I'm going. Joshua chapter 9. Israelites when they were coming out of Egypt, the Gibeonites deceived them. And the Bible says Israel went into covenant with the Gibeonites. They did not ask counsel at the mouth of God. So they went into covenant with them. Go and read that scripture. The Bible—that's how the Bible recorded it. Joshua chapter 9. You can go and read the whole of the story. You will see that the Bible recorded that they went into covenant with them but did not seek counsel at the mouth of God. They were not smart. The Gibeonites were smart. What they ought to have done was to seek counsel at the mouth of God. They did not seek counsel at His mouth. They look at what they brought. "Hey, you must have traveled from a very, very far country. It is impossible for you to be around us." That is how several people today have been tricked into so many things. The enemy will come with different kinds of presentations, different kinds of things, and people will not ask counsel at the mouth of God. They won't seek counsel at God's mouth. They will go into because they like it. It feels good and they want it. Don't you understand that the enemy normally arrange things around what you like, what you want, and what you feel? That's why if your life is ruled by what you like, what you want, what you feel, I am telling you, you will be outsmarted by the devil. So they did not ask counsel from the mouth of the Lord. They looked at what the Gibeonites brought and they entered into a covenant with them. Three days later, they discover the foolishness that they did. And then but the covenant has been made. They could not go against that covenant. But somebody in days, that was Saul. When Saul later became king, listen to what the Bible says in that book of Samuel. You see, the way the Bible puts it made me to tremble at the things of God. Honestly, the way the Bible puts it, it makes me to tremble at the things of God that wow, men we need to be very careful. We need to be very careful how we live our life, what we do, and how we do them. We need to be very careful. I want you to look at the book of 2 Samuel. Let's look at something in 2 Samuel. Look at how the Bible puts it, and I just want to show you something that happened in 2 Samuel chapter 21. Open your Bible to that place. I want to show you something very, very crucial that for Satan, that you believe in Jesus, it's not a problem to him. That you go to church, good. That you preach the gospel, good. That you read your Bible, good. But there is something he knows, and that is what he did at the very beginning. You see, Satan's style have not changed. It is because we are not discerning. It is because we are not smart. It's because we are not wise-ing up ourselves. What he did to our parents was that he made sure they fell out of fellowship with God. There was a will of God: do not eat. And all he wanted to achieve is that they disobey, that they don't do the will of God. So you notice Jesus said not all who call me Lord, Lord will... but those who do the will of my Father. So it's not about calling him Lord and acknowledging him as Lord, but about doing the will. This is clear to the gates of hell. And what they want to do, how they outsmart us, is that they want to make sure you do everything but they make sure we don't do God's will. You can walk around it but not the will. Now Saul became king. Look at what happened. 2 Samuel... there was a... don't forget we have read Joshua chapter 9 where they made a covenant with the Gibeonites, a covenant before the Lord. Now, I'm reading 2 Samuel chapter 21 from verse 1. "Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David inquired of the Lord. And the Lord answered, 'It is because of Saul and his bloodthirsty house, because he killed the Gibeonites.'" Are you seeing something? Saul killed the Gibeonites. Why? Let's see what the Bible says. "So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not the children of Israel, but the remnant of the Amorites; the children of Israel had sworn protection to them (that was in the days of Joshua, protection to them), but Saul had sought to kill them..." Why? Look at the reason. What was the reason? "...in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah." Saul did it out of a good intention. Out of a zeal for the children of Israel and Judah. But the matter is that it was not according to God's will. The will of God is that the Gibeonites be protected because there was a covenant with them. And Saul went against that will. Saul did it, and God did not say anything. And that is why I tell people that you are doing wrong and it looks like you are prospering. That is a deception to think that if I am really wrong, God should have punished me. God should have just killed me immediately. You can be doing something that is evil and yet you are still prospering. Saul did that in the days of Saul. He did everything he wanted to do. God did not say anything. God was quiet until all the days of Saul was gone. Then when David became king... yes, David had become king now for many years, and then God now brought famine on the land. David thought maybe it was a usual thing, very soon it will go. That year did not go. "Ah, what's the problem?" The second year again, there was still famine. "Ah, what is this?" The third year again, there was famine. Ah, David said, "Look, let me quickly ask question." David went to ask question. I'm talking about men who are smart. Stupid men don't seek direction. Men who are not smart don't seek direction. They just allow circumstance to guide their life. The first year, David was not smart enough. He just assumed, "Oh, the usual famine." The second year again, the thing started. He was still not smart enough. The third year again, "Ah," David said, "No, ah, this thing, this thing, what is going on? What is going on?" He woke up out of his slumber. May you wake out of every sleep that you may be sleeping in the name of Jesus. David woke up. He needed to get direction. I'm talking about smartness. Smartness is making sure you connect with God's will in every matter of your life. I take that again. Godly smartness is setting your life in a way that you connect with God's will in every matter of your life. Godly smartness in a time like this is making sure you connect with God's will. You have a clear understanding that whatever else you may be doing may we definitely not end well, will definitely collapse, will definitely not bring you to where you want to go. What can bring you into what you want to go is the will of God. David by the third year became smart. He woke up out of his slumber, and then he connected, and then he got... "Wow, David, you have been acting foolishly. You have been assuming. You have been thinking the way you think, the way you feel. Famine normally comes now, we will just do this and we will just get it out." And that's how many of us do. "Okay, okay, you see now, I'm now... I've finished serving now, I have a good job, you see, I'm working and I'm now earning 3 million monthly, I've been able to buy land, I think I should get a wife now. I think... oh, this girl that we have been in fellowship together, I think she is a good one, we seem to be very compatible, let me get... oh, I think now I need to relocate from Nigeria, I just feel like being in Canada." And you just begin to run your life like that. You are a fool. You are not smart. You are not a smart person. You are not smart. There is a hell who wants to make sure that you don't connect with God's will. And let me tell you, everywhere you don't connect with God's will is the areas of your life where you go out of fellowship with God. And look at what happened. So David's smart... you know, he became smart the third year. He became very smart the third year. And what happened? He asked God, and God gave him a clear understanding. He said, "Now the Gibeonites were not the children of Israel, but remnant of the Amorites. Israelites swore protection to them, but Saul killed them out of his zeal. Therefore, David said to the Gibeonites, 'What shall I do for you? And with what shall I make atonement, that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord?'" And the Gibeonites said to him, "We shall have no silver or gold from Saul or from his house, nor shall you kill any man in Israel for us." So he said, "Whatever you say, I will do for you." Then they answered the king, "As for the man who consumed us and plotted against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the territories of Israel, let seven of his descendants be delivered to us, and we will hang them before the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, whom the Lord chose." And the king said, "I will give them." But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Jonathan because of the Lord's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. Are you seeing something? Are you seeing the smartness in David? Saul entered into trouble because there was a covenant between Israel and another people. Saul, out of his zeal for Israel, killed those people. God was quiet all these years, but God finally showed up because He's a God of covenant. And that's what I tell people. People who break marriage covenant, who break promises to people, you make commitment to people and you just break it, and you think that you will not suffer it. You don't understand life. There is a God of covenant that will show up one day somewhere, and He will fight you. He who breaks covenant are always broken by that covenant. People who break covenant, they are broken by that covenant. That is what people don't know. But that is not where I'm going. I'm not teaching covenant today. But I'm showing you something about smartness. David was smart. He didn't take anybody from the house of Jonathan. Why? Because he saw what was happening to Saul. There was a covenant. He too had a covenant with Jonathan, that he will not do anything to the house of Jonathan. So he didn't take anybody from the house of Jonathan. He went to pick seven children of Saul, other children that were not from Jonathan. Of course, they gave them to the Gibeonites, they killed those seven people, they were hung on the tree, and eventually the people now blessed the land and then the famine went away. God fought for those people. And it was when they now blessed the land back that the famine was off. What am I trying to make you see was that Saul was acting out of a zeal for Israel, but he was not smart enough to know the will of God concerning the Gibeonites. He was not smart. He was doing it out of zeal for Israel, but he didn't connect with the will of God. He didn't connect with what was God's will. I'm showing you how hell normally outsmart us. They want to make sure we don't connect with God's will because the matter about the kingdom is not that you are calling Jesus Lord, but that you are doing the will of God. You are connecting to make sure you are doing God's will. That is godly smartness. Many believers are not practicing godly smartness today. They are smart, but they are not godly. Godly smartness is the ability to connect with God's will on matters and run the will of God. That's godly smartness. You are not a smart person. And that's why I tell young people when they get born again, I said if there's anything anybody can do for you, it's not about just making you a church member. Please, there's nothing wrong about church membership. Don't get me wrong, please. I'm a member of a church. I'm in the... I'm a teenage church teacher. I'm in the prayer unit. So don't get me wrong. But that's not all about Christianity. It's not. What I'm trying to say is that once you get born again, if they are telling you that what makes you a Christian is church membership, being in a unit, being active, and all of that, and so you are a believer, oh, you are doing well—that is foolishness. The real thing about being a believer is that you must be able to connect with God in such a way... Look at the way David connected with God. Look at the foolishness of Joshua at a point. Joshua someone... Joshua connected with God because you know at the beginning, look at how they conquered Jericho. God gave him a strategy: go round. Things came around, some people brought some things. Joshua was not smart enough to connect back with God to say, "God, they brought these things and it looks like... we feel that this is okay. Should we just do it?" That's why you see people, "I feel like America is the thing, should I..." Why not connect back? Why not be smart? "I feel like there is this sister in my church, I feel like... there is this car, I feel like... there is this house." Why you are always feeling like? Why you are looking at this from the point of what you feel, what you like, and what you want? You are not smart. You are not smart. Look at Joshua. Foolishly did not connect with God at that point. Look at how he entered into trouble with the Gibeonites. Go and read that story. He has been connecting. He has been connecting. Smartness. Look at this tree. Look at this tree. And they were going only for him to get to that point. Look at Saul. Zeal for Israel. He didn't connect, and then it went off. Look at David. The first three years, he didn't connect on time. That famine should have stopped the first year. That first year, some things you would have stopped in your life the first year it happened. "Maybe, maybe." Second year, it carried into the third year. You didn't connect on time. I'm talking about God's will. I'm talking about smartness. Your job, your career, your finance, your marriage, your academics, I don't know, just mention them, your health, your mention every area of your life: connect. Oh, there is abundance in the house of God. Abundance is waiting for you. Connect with the abundance of God. Drink out of the abundance of God. Drink out of the plenty of God. Your own reservoir cannot carry you because you will soon exhaust it. What your intelligence can give you cannot carry you far. What your feeling can give you cannot carry you far. It can't carry you far. But there is a God of abundance. There is this eternal God. Once He opens a tap for you, oh, that tap can never... can never stop running. If God opened it maritally, if God opened it financially, if God opened it academically, if God opened it in your health life, if God opened it in your emotional life, if God begins to open them, they can never run dry. That is smartness. Don't build what cannot last. Oh, are you understanding me, young people? Don't go into what cannot last. Don't waste your energy into what will not last. Be smart. Connect and be smart. Look at how the Bible puts it in summary. Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. Let's see Ephesians 5. That's our last scripture for today. Smartness. May we be smart. Godly smartness is something for us all. It's something for us all. We need to connect with this and be smart. Godly smartness. Godly smartness. We need to be smart. Ephesians chapter 5. Let's look Ephesians 5. Let's see what the Bible says there. I will read from verse 14. It says, "Therefore he says (he has been saying something from verse 1, but all that he has been saying from verse 1 I have already used it as the background of what we have already discussed. So based on all that we have been saying, he's now saying therefore. Based on all that I have said from the beginning, therefore look at what God says, that we connect with His will and all of that, all that we have been saying, therefore what did He say?), 'Awake, you who sleep.'" Are you getting it? Anybody who is not connecting with God's will is a sleeping person. You are not smart. A sleeping person cannot be smart now. Sleep is a temporary death, while death is a permanent sleep. A sleeping person can never be smart. When somebody is sleeping, can you not easily kill the person? Am I correct? When somebody is sleeping, if you set the house on fire, the whole house... the person cannot escape. The person may not even wake up until he cannot escape again. A sleeping person can never be smart. It is somebody who is awake that can be smart. What is God telling you? Everywhere you have not been smart, please go and wake up. Wake up. I am charging you young man, young woman listening to me, wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Please wake up. I charge you in the name of the Lord, wake up from your sleep. Anywhere you are sleeping, check your life. How have you been running it? If you are married, how are you running your marriage? If you are not married yet, how are you running relationship? How are you looking towards marriage? "Oh, you have a good job." How did you get there? "Oh, you are the now, now." Check the now of your life. Check areas. Look inward. Are you building on God's will? Are you building on what God said, what he states? Are you that what you are building on? How are you building? If you are not building in such a way, that thing will not last. Your reservoir cannot carry you. Wake up, wake up. He says, "Wake up, you... arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. See then... (see then) that you walk circumspectly." Be careful how you live. Not as fools but as those who are wise. That's verse 15. It says see then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise. NLT: See how carefully you live, not as fools but as those who are wise. Amplified: Look carefully then how you walk. Live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as unwise and witless. Don't be witless. Live your life with wit. Evaluate, look into, evaluate it, check it very well. He says, that's Amplified, "Live carefully. Look carefully how you walk. Live purposefully. Live worthily and accurately, not as unwise and witless, but as wise, sensible, intelligent people." Be sensible, be intelligent. What does it mean to be sensible and intelligent? It's not because you know physics, you have first class. It's not because you are the best graduating student. That is not to say there is something wrong about that. I was the best student from my own set. I graduated as the best student from my department. So don't think I'm ridiculing education, please don't get me wrong. But I'm saying that intelligence is not... it's not just about book. It's not about... it's not just about you're able to get grants, you're able to make money. No, no, no. There is something that the Bible defines as intelligent. That's what I want to show you. To be intelligent, it says "Live sensibly and intelligent people." Who are intelligent people? They are those who live carefully. They look carefully how they walk. They live purposefully. They live with a sense of purpose. There is God's purpose for my life. My life had been purposed before I came. And that is the truth. Before you were born, God knew you. While you were still in your mother's womb, He have ordained you to be something. Before you were born, He knew you. While you are in your mother's womb, you have been ordained for something. You are living purposefully. You are running. "God, what is the plan for me? Where are you taking me to? What do you want me to become?" It's not that, "I have this plan and I'm planning." You don't plan a life that has been planned. That is foolishness. Listen to me. You don't plan... I take that again. You don't plan a life that has been planned. Rather, you ask for the plan. Do you know why? The person who planned the life is the Creator. And when He planned that life, and the Bible says the counsel of God stand forever, it stood for all generations. That which God planned is something that can carry you. But the one that you are planning, can it carry you? Because God is eternal. You cannot exhaust God, His resources, His power, His provision. That one that God planned, there is provision, there is abundance. It will not run dry until you finish the whole thing. But the one that you plan, how do you want to sustain it? How do you want to sustain it? Sustain the one that the one that you are now planning your life with? You cannot sustain it. So you don't begin to replan what has been planned. Rather, you connect. And what was it planned for? You connect purposefully, sensibly, intelligent people. Don't be stupid. Don't be foolish. Smarten up. Godly smartness. Be smart. The earlier you start building on God's will, the better for you. I was speaking to a group of young people somewhere, and I told them that what you call Family Tent Ministry today, under this travel as I'm speaking to you, God gave me this name of the ministry when I was in 300 level. I was in 300 level as an undergraduate when I've begun to prepare my CV for ministry. For those who feel how... you even find some young people, "Oh, God wants me to go into into this," and you say, "Okay, career path." You ask them, "Okay, put up a CV," they cannot even write a correct CV. I'm talking about the need to understand sensibility, to be purposeful with your life and live worthily, not as fools. You are living... you are living as wise, until you are purposeful and you are living worthily. You see how he defines that now? Let us go on. He says redeeming the time because the days are evil. The days are full of evil, so that you don't go into evil. Look at it. He said, "Therefore (verse 17), therefore do not be unwise, but what? But understand what the will of the Lord is." May you not be unwise in the name of Jesus Christ. Everywhere you don't understand the will of God, you are a foolish person. A foolish person. Understanding what the will of the Lord is. Don't be unwise. Godly smartness. You begin to... you begin to dig out God's will. You begin to dig out His will in every area. You are digging it out. You are digging it out. "Lord, this is the will of God. No, this is how I must..." That is smartness. In all your ways you acknowledge Him. You begin to find out, "Brother, are you not doing this?" Say, "No, no, no. Sister, are you not doing this?" Say, "No, no, no. I'm not going that way I want to go. But He said this is what God wants me to do." You see that those are people who are smart. Those are the smart people. Be smart. Godly smartness at a time like this. These are the days when young people are running by what they want. They are running by what they like. They are running by how they feel. "There's this way I just feel towards this sister. There's this way I just feel towards this job. There's this way I just feel towards being in this location." It's not about what you feel about it. It's about what is the will of God about it. "You know, I just... I just like the scenario of how Akure looks like. That's why I just want to settle in Akure. I've just been wondering. You like the scenario of how Akure looks like? That's why you are settling in Akure? Is that the way to get your location?" It's not about how you feel. It's not that way. It's about what you want or what you like. Rather, you have a clear understanding of something. Why? Look at the end of the thing, and that's where I'm closing today. I'm trying to talk a little more to summarize because there are no questions. Look at how we close today. Let's take that popular scripture together. I believe you know it. 1 John 2:15-17. Can we go together? Or if you don't know it, you can open your Bible, but it's a very popular scripture. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life..." Then 17: "The world does what? Passes away and its lust thereof." That's the place that interests me. The world passes away and its lust thereof. That is, it is vanity and its lust thereof. "But he who does the will of God abides forever." He who does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2:17. Are you getting something, young man, young woman? Are you getting something? Are you picking something? The world is passing away and the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever. Don't put your life into what will not last. Don't put your life into what you will build and build and build to eventually fail. You are foolish. You are not smart. No matter how long you build, you will eventually fail. No matter how long you build, you will eventually fail. Don't put your life into what will eventually fail. Put your life into what will last. Build your finance in the way that it will last. Build your academics in the way that it will last. Build your marital life in the way that it will last. Build in a way that it will last. Don't build in a way that you will not last. Be smart. Be smart. Be smart. As we close this morning, I want you to wise up. I don't know how you have been building, but in days like this, in times like this, we must come to godly smartness. In times like this, we cannot afford to waste time. I'm telling you, you cannot afford to be wasting your energy and your life. You cannot afford it. Young man, don't waste your energy. Don't waste your life. Don't waste your time. When we started in our own time, people said, "Look, oh, Bro. Wale, you are wasting time. You better do this to do this." But we told them, "Don't worry." Today, by the time we look back into 30, 35 years of doing what the Lord showed us to be doing, we don't have any regret. And we are still trusting God much more the more to be showing us what we will do. Let me tell you, my greatest fear in life, you know what is my greatest fear? I want to tell you, young person listening to me. My own greatest fear in life where I stand now as a middle-aged person, having seen how God has helped me through my teenage years... I got to know God as 17. My teenage years, my 20s, my 30s, my 40s, now that I am in my 50s. Having seen how it went for those decades, my conclusion is that God, please help me that I don't get involved in what you are not involved in. That's my greatest fear in life. So as we close today, oh, a question is just coming in. This question should have come much earlier. I wanted us to pray. But I've told people that please, let your question come in early enough. I wanted us to pray now. I've rounded up already. Let me see if I can quickly answer the question before we pray now. It says, "If one is not certain as to what the will of the Lord is, even after asking, does one abandon life to get what God will say? Or is it okay to come to a position like, 'I will continue what I am doing until I am sure'?" You see, it's an unfortunate thing when people talk like this. I could understand why you are asking this question. And it is because today we have made people develop to be church people as against kingdom people. People are more churchy than they are spiritual. Because the foundation of Christianity, that you became a Christian, what makes you a Christian is that you can hear God. That's the thing. So when people say, "I'm asking to know God's will and I don't know it, I don't know it," it's something that, you know, I could understand the background. It's because we were not made to grow correctly. Our spiritual life was not made to develop the way it should develop. And so over time, understanding... because God's will, you see, God's will is not something that you just say, "God, who do I marry now?" God just tell you, "This one." No, that's not how it works. Go and check out how God's will is. It says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, then He will direct." So it's a process. If you are somebody who has been living the normal Christian life, a life of trusting God with all your heart, a life of not leaning on your understanding, a life of acknowledging Him in all your ways, you'll discover that over time it gets easier and easier to discern what God's will is. Because God's will is something that begins first as a lamp to your feet, then before it becomes a light to your path. "Thy word is a lamp to my feet, then a light to my path." It will first come gradually. "Okay, it's like God is wanting me to do this." You begin to step gradually. "Oh," it becomes clearer and clearer and then now becomes very clear. But we have not been made to work like that. It is more like once you are very active in your church, you are a good Christian. By the time you want to say, "What is God saying?" you say you have asked God for the past three months, God have not spoken. Then it looks like why? It is because today... I'm just trying to react to something before I answer that question... please, let us develop our spiritual life, our personal walk with God. And if we are converting people today, let us be concerned with developing their personal relationship, that intimate relationship with God. An effective quiet time. An effective life of meditating on the word of God, of staying... of pondering over God's word to discern His will. So that in many things before you get to that place, you already understand what God's will is. In many things. It's just like I give an example of somebody who was having a big challenge. He has the offer of a job, almost 300,000 or... I'm just giving a figure, I don't want to mention the actual thing. Let's say one million for one job. Another job, they were offering 250. But in that other job, he will have to... it will not be too clear about his age. He will have to just do something about his age where he'll be getting the one million. But this other one, everything is just straight. And the young man was asking me that he's just confused, that he doesn't know what to really do. And I said see, you don't need to be confused. You are confused because ordinarily you have not been understanding from God's word that a good name is to be preferred than silver and gold. You have not been made to understand that integrity is better than riches. This situation don't call for any confusion. The will of God is clear in this matter. You can't lie about your age. Age is not a number like the people have been telling you. They are deceiving you. Age is not a number, age is your age. They say, "What if your father made a mistake about when you were born?" Just all those are deception. You have already assumed a age that you have been using, true or false? He said true. So why you want to change that one again? You see, some things that people call confusion is not confusion. It's because people have not been giving themselves to acknowledge Him, to trust Him. So over the time, a lot of things become so crowded and confused. That's just want to say that in the background. Whereas... and I'm encouraging every person listening to me, please develop an effectual life with God. An effectual life of consistent fellowship with God. Bible study, Bible meditation, seeking God. Don't wait until there is something. I wasn't seeking God about ministry when God spoke about ministry. And true to it, I tell you young persons listening to me, do you know that I never prayed to God about who to marry? I was just in God's presence worshipping God one day, having a sweet fellowship, and God said, "That person is your wife." In fact, I thought it was the devil. I said, "Satan, I bind you. How will I be praying about this and you are talking about wife?" Then I didn't understand God properly very well then. But over time, God made me to know, "I'm the one who spoke to you." In fact, there was no time I really prayed that, "God, my wife, my wife." But because we have learned to always be with Him... you see, the more you stay with Him, the more you fellowship with Him, the more you develop... that is what the world is taking from us today. We don't have consistent fellowship. We don't stay with God. It is when there is something, we now start fire brigade. "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, okay, quickly, quickly, God speak now, speak now." No, that's not the way to live our Christian life. But in any case, to the question, "If one is not certain as to what the will of the Lord is about a matter, when you are at a junction and you are not clear about whether it is God's will or it's not God's will, it is always better not to get into what you are not clear about." It's always better to remain at that junction. Maybe for... let me give an instance. Because you said, "Does one abandon life and get what God will say? Or is it okay to come to a position like, 'I will be doing what I am doing now until I am sure'?" Yes, in a sense, to be doing what you are doing until you are sure. In a sense, that is what you will now resolve yourself into. That may be better than jumping into another thing again that may be from frying pan to fire. So if you are at a stage in your life, you are doing something, like as we are speaking now, maybe you are wondering, "This my job self, is it God who spoke to me? Let me go and check whether it is even God. I want to change my job." And then you are praying, and it's still not clear whether it is God or not, don't leave your job. I know that's what you are trying to say. Stay on what you are doing now. Maybe for example now you are already married. Say, "Maybe my wife self is not the one I'm supposed to marry," and you're thinking of going to throw away your wife. That is foolishness. So, or maybe you are already in a particular location now and you are there. "Ah, I don't even know whether it's God because I'm not clear." You have prayed, you have prayed, you have prayed, and God has not spoken. Then let me just leave here. I will just go because I think it may be this other one. No, don't do it like that. Be where you are. Be doing what you are doing. But begin to develop the correct way to deal with it. Begin to ask the Lord for better way to do it. Begin to smart up. That's what I talked about: godly smartness. Begin to smart up. "I want to be smart now. Before I change location again, before I change job again, before I move this, before I change that, before I do this, I need to now be clear." So from whatever junction God is meeting you, begin from that junction. Don't just jump because of what you heard this morning. "Ah, I want to jump. I've been told maybe this is not even God's will for me." No, no, no. You may even be in relationship right now. I'm not talking about marriage. That you made a mistake in who you married is not a reason to break marriage. I've often told people about that. So that's why I said not about marriage. I'm talking about relationship with a brother or a sister you are not yet married. You're in a relationship. Don't quickly say, "Ah, I don't even know whether Sister Grace is the best I should marry. Let me quickly leave Sister Grace, and now I go and go back to go and pray." No, no, no. That's not the way to do it. Remain in your relationship. If you know you have not sought God well about the relationship, you now begin to seek the face of God. "God, this thing now I did not even ask well at the beginning. I just chose Sister Grace because her father is a pastor. That's why I began relationship with Sister Grace. Ah, God please, make it clear. Should I continue in this thing? Should I come out of it?" You get the point I'm making. Don't just jump. That is the way to go about it. And I believe that if you truly seek the Lord... You know one thing about God? God said, "You will find me. You will seek me and you will find me if you seek me with all your heart." I believe when you do that, it becomes clearer and clearer what the will of the Lord is, and then you are able to take step. Okay, there is already a response that the question had been answered. Let's go ahead to pray this morning. Let's talk to the Lord wherever you are. Whatever position you are right now, talk to God. Don't just jump like in answering the question that we have just answered. Don't just jump. Jumping anyhow is also not smartness. But I've shown you what it means to practice godly smartness. Godly smartness. We must be smart in a godly way. We must be smart. Begin to build on what will not fail. How wonderful to build on what will not fail. How wonderful to build on what will last. How wonderful is it to build in the abundance of God. Precious Father, we thank you. Please talk to the Lord wherever you are. Precious God, we give you all the praise. We give you all the glory. We give you all the honor for this afternoon. We thank you, Lord our God, for how you have helped us. And Lord God Almighty, we pray, Lord for ourselves, particularly for everybody listening to me. Lord, I just pray. In a time like this, when everything is just failing, marriages are failing, finances are failing, health are failing—the health of people is failing them—this disease, that disease, money is failing, Naira seems to have collapsed, dollar is taking over. Everything around us seems to be failing. Oh God Almighty, we are begging you as believers. Help us to build to last. We need to build to last. We need to last. We need to enter into what will not fail. Oh God please help us. Oh Lord please help us to be able to position our life in a way, oh God, that Lord it will be building on your will. He who does the will of God abides forever. Lord please help our life. Lord please help our life. Lord please help our life. Lord please help us. Thank you Father. Blessed be your holy name. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Trust the Lord to meet with you again next month with another interesting topic. Please don't come alone. Invite someone. God bless you. This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in enriching 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, Adolescent 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 everyday counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location: Life Camp by the first bridge, Ilere community, opposite Bovas junction filling station, along Ijarre 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: 08033861136, 07033613248. God bless you all.