The Nation Newspaper

Category: Worship

  • Experiencing wonders of settlement in God’s word!

    Encounter with the Word is the master key to a world of all-round settlement (1 Peter 5:10). From scriptures, we understand that until Joseph’s word came, the Word of the Lord tried him. But after his word came, the king sent for him, loosed and settled him in a grand style (Psalm 105:19-22).

    We also saw how God sent His Word to Jacob, bringing him out of every ordeal of life (Isaiah 9:8). It is also said that God sent His Word, settled their health issues and delivered them from all destructions. That is, all unsettled areas of your life will be settled by God’s Word (Psalm 107:20).

    Every child of God is ordained for settlement. It is written: The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly (John 10:10). Jesus came to offer us life at its best. That is, pressure-free, anguish-free and distress-free life.

    What, then, are the Covenant Requirements for our Settlement?

    • Be Born-again: Only those who have answered the call of salvation are candidates for settlement. We cannot be settled until we are saved, because settlement is God’s provision for the redeemed (1 Peter 5:10).

    Let us understand that peace is one of the fruits of the Spirit. When we are saved, the Prince of Peace comes into our heart, establishes His throne of peace, and we enjoy peace that passes all knowledge (Galatians 5:22, Isaiah 9:6, Philippians 4:7).

    We must also know that unsettlement is part of the curses of the law, but Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. Redemption is what rescues us from the curse of distress. Therefore, until we are redeemed, we are not candidates for His settlement (Deut. 28:14-16, 53-57; Galatians 3:13-14).

    • Go after the Word: Peace multiplies by knowledge. As it is written: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord. It is also written that Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them (2 Peter 1:2, Psalm 119:165).

    It is great peace that keeps us in command and at rest in the midst of challenges. The battle of unsettlement is a battle with the power of darkness. Therefore, we must engage the armour of light (the Word) to disarm the forces of darkness (Romans 13:12, John 1:5).

    • Be Planted in the House of the Lord: If you want to be settled by God, be planted in His house (Psalm 92:13-15). But why must we planted in His house? The Bible says: In His presence is fullness of joy…pleasures evermore. We must be addicts of God’s house as David the Psalmist said, “I was glad when they said to me, let us go into the house of the Lord.” This must be why he never lost any battle. May the last battle you lost be the last you will ever lose in your life! (Psalm 16:11 Psalm 122:1).

    Also, the house of God is the mountain of illumination. The more insightful we are, the more peaceful, restful and settled we become (Psalm 73:17, 2 Peter 1:2).

    • Make a choice to serve God: Serving God is not a calling or a gift; it is a choice(Joshua 24:15). When Israel chose to serve God, He also vowed to settle them. In six separate scriptures, God demanded for the deliverance and settlement of His people from Egypt, based on their commitment to serve Him. The same God said, “I am the Lord, I change not” (Malachi 3:6).

    When we choose to serve God, in response, God vows to settle us. Therefore, serving God’s interest is what makes a servant of God, not the title we bear. When we make a commitment to serve God, we have committed Him to settle us in a grand style. This is your time of settlement!

    Friend, the power to experience the wonders of settlement in God’s Word is available, if you are born again. You get born again by confessing your sins and accepting Jesus as your Saviour and Lord. If you are set for this new birth experience, please say this prayer: “Lord Jesus, I come to You today. I am a sinner. I cannot help myself. Forgive me of my sins. Cleanse me with Your precious Blood. Deliver me from sin and satan, to serve the Living God. Today, I accept You as my Lord and Saviour. Thank You Jesus! Now I know I am born again!” I will be with you next week!

    Every exploit in life is a product of knowledge. For further reading, you can get my books: The Force Of Freedom, Walking In Dominion and All You Need To Have All Your Needs Met.

    I invite you to come and fellowship with us at the Faith Tabernacle, Canaan Land, Ota, the covenant home of Winners. We have four services on Sundays, holding at 6:00 a.m., 7:50 a.m., 9:40 a.m. and 11.30 a.m. respectively.

     

    I know this teaching has blessed you. Write and share your testimony with me through: Faith Tabernacle, Canaan Land, Ota, P.M.B. 21688, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria; or call 7747546-8; or E-mail: feedback@lfcww.org

  • What and where? : Operation PUSH in Lagos

    The annual operation PUSH service of Christ Baptist Church Alimosho holds today.

    The theme of the service, which ends on August 23rd, is “power as of old.”

    The Senior Pastor of the Church, Rev Sunday Adeyemo, said the programme starts at 10pm and ends at 3am daily.

    Prophet Adetuberu of CAC, Ishashi, Akute; Rev Sunday Oduola of Overcomers’ Baptist Church, Ejigbo and Brother Wilson Balogun of Foursquare Gospel Church Ejigbo are expected to minister at the programme.

    Adeyemo said the programme, which is expected to involve prayer sessions and deliverance ministrations, holds in the church auditorium at 46, Akiwowo Street,Alimosho, Lagos.

  • Baptist church’s 21-day vigil

    The annual 21-day vigil of Alafia Oluwa Baptist Church, Alfonso road, Sasa, Ibadan has commenced.

    The theme of the vigil, which kicks off by 11pm in the Church auditorium is Power to Recover.

    The host Pastor, Rev Amos Ajibola, said the programme was aimed at empowering people to overcome challenges of life.

  • Hour to Receive holds

    |Hour to Receive, the three-day life transforming programme of New Birth Ministries Ikeja, kicks offon August 21 by 5pm.

    A vigil takes place on Friday, tagged night of reaching the globe, from 11pm.

    The anointing service ends the programme on Sunday by 8am.

    The chief host, Bishop Francis Anunobi, assured that participants will receive divine touch.

  • NOSCEF faults religious demographics on Nigeria

    The Chairman of Christian Elders Forum of Northern States (NOSCEF), Mr. Olaiya Phillips, has cautioned against the use of inadequate statistics to create more tensions between Muslims and Christians.
     
    Phillips, who was reacting to an article titled “U.S.: Nigeria ineffective in quelling violence” in some online publications last week, faulted the attribution of 50% of the nation’s population to Muslims and 40% to Christians.
     
    He described the statistics purportedly generated from the latest United States’ Department of State Report on Religious Freedom as “false and insulting to the Nigerian Christian community.”
     
    Page 67 of the 2014 annual report, Phillips pointed out, stated that “Nigeria’s population of 170 million people is equally divided between Muslims and Christians.”
     
    He also cited the official webpage of the Federal Republic of Nigeria stating that “45% of the population is Christian, 45% Muslim and the rest 10% is a mixture of quite a few indigenous religions.”
     
    The Christian leader said: “Accurate Calculations of our exact population – never mind the religious beliefs of our people – are hard enough to come by.
     
     He said: “Research by the Pew Research Centre Forum on Religion and Public Life in 2011 estimated the number of Nigerian Christians to be 80.5m – roughly 50% of the population, which with the 50% of Muslims would not leave any room for the millions of Nigerians who believe in indigenous religions. Religious demographic at a time the country is fighting the terror war is a great disservice to national unity”.  
     
    “Nigerians do give a great importance to religion.  Publishing incorrect – or at the very least inaccurate – statistics regarding the country’s demographics at a time when the Boko Haram insurgency in the North is attempting to raise tensions between Christian and Muslim communities, is both insensitive and irresponsible – especially to the communities on the front line of the insurgency in the North,” he stressed.
     
    Phillips stated that Muslims and Christians in Nigeria are evenly populated, saying any attempt to paint one as more populous than the other should be discouraged.
     
    He added that there is no way to find out the population of each of the two major religions since no national census has ever included religious index in the country.
     
    According to him: “We all know that the two largest religious groups in the country are Muslims and Christians – each with their many denominations.  Both groups are roughly the same size.  This we know and should remember. 
     
    “But the reporting of incorrect or inaccurate information only helps to drive wedges between our communities.  This is exactly what Boko Haram wants.”  
     
  • How to stop Boko Haram, by Oritsejafor

    How to stop Boko Haram, by Oritsejafor

    THE president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, has called on all Muslims, including religious, traditional and political leaders in the north to counter the destructive ideology of the radical Islamic sect, Boko Haram.

    He said only Muslims can come up with a better ideology that will demobilise the one promoted by Boko Haram, which has led to loss of lives and property.

    Oritsejafor gave the charge at the 11th anniversary\prize-giving day and the 6th valedictory service of Stephen Centre International Group of Schools in Ogun State.

    He said that Boko Haram is propelled by a religious ideology and must be countered with a superior ideology through massive awareness by Muslims across the country.

    The CAN’s helmsman noted that Islam is a good religion but lamented that Boko Haram insurgents are painting it in bad light, urging Muslims to redress the development.

    He dismissed the notion that the terror war unleashed by the insurgents was borne out of poverty.

    Boko Haram’s late leader, Mohammed Yusuf, and Farouk Abdulmutalab who attempted blowing up a KLM flight heading to the United States of America in 2009, according to him, were not poor.

    He explained that pumping millions of dollars to the north in an attempt to fight poverty will not stop the rising terror war since it is ideological.

    He said that prayer remains the only way out of the insurgency, stating, “The unwarranted attacks, the destructions of properties, have created distress for every Nigerian.

    “The solution to the insurgency we are facing in the country is for all Nigerians to continue to pray for Nigeria.”

    The Executive Director of Stephen Centre International Group of Schools, Mr. Isaac Newton-Wusu, stated that the home is for displaced victims of the insurgency in the north.

    No fewer than 424 children orphaned by Boko Haram and 84 others from riots in the north are in the home, he stated.

    “We do not give children away for adoption. We just try to give them hope in everything,” he stated.

  • Summit seeks revival of family values

    The family is a place to mentor real leaders.

    It is the place where a father shows himself as an example to his children, where mothers help the kids to become the leaders they should be.

    This is a picture of a typical home painted at a gathering of hundreds of men and women from across the country during the July edition of Awesome Treasures Summit with the theme where are the real men II?

    The Chief Executive Officer of Gemstone Group, Fela Durotoye; the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Homebase Mortgage Bank, Dr Paul Johnson and the Africa Marketing Director, Family Nutrition at GlaxoSmithKilne, Mr. Lampe Omoleye, among others, spoke at the summit.

    It considered the vital roles of parents in the upbringing and mentoring of their children.

    To the convener, Mrs. Olajumoke Adenowo, the examples parents present their children make a huge difference because children easily relate more with what they see.

    This, she said, has changed because men no longer have a personal walk with God and fail to take up their responsibilities at homes.

    She told fathers: “Your children will become who you are and not what you say.”

    She said men in the country have failed in their duty to bring back the abducted Chibok girls.

    “The Bring BacktheGirls campaign is for all to know that we have not forgotten. Real men protect and are there for their children.

    “Each woman’s child is a Chibok child and we cannot forget. Time or the length of day will not make us forget.

    “The fact that the noise has gone down will not make us forget because we are mothers who do not forget their children,” Adenowo, an architect, said.

    Johnson was of the opinion that couples have been getting married for the wrong reasons, leading to massive divorces.

    Lasting marriages, according to him, are built on friendship, understanding, forgiveness and kindness.

  • Experiencing the wonders in God’s word!

    I welcome you to the month of August. It shall be a month of new beginnings for you! Whatever you missed last month, you will, this August, collect them in many folds! This is why the teaching this month is unique- The Wonders in God’s Word!

    Recognize that God’s Word is loaded with wonders. Until your eyes are opened, you cannot access them. No wonder, God’s Word says: Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law (Psalm 119:18). Revelation has the power to change the story of any man supernaturally (Isaiah 60:1-3,8,22).

    God’s Word is pregnant with wonders and this is why all miracles, signs and wonders are direct confirmations of the Word (Mark 16:20).

    But what does it take to Access the Wonders in the Word?

    •One must be born again: Wonders here connote mysteries. But mysteries are God’s secrets behind biblical stories. Everyone can understand the stories of scriptures, but only the redeemed can access the mysteries thereof. The stories are made up of letters, but the mysteries are made up of Spirit and life (Mark 4:11/ John 6: 63).

    •We must be filled with the Holy Ghost: The Holy Ghost is our access to the mysteries in the Word, and we are limited in access without Him. The Holy Spirit brings us into realms of unlimited access to the deep things of God (John 16:12-13; John 14:26; 1Corinthians 2:10).

    •We must be Spiritual: It is one thing to be filled with the Holy Ghost, but it is yet another to be spiritual. We can be filled with the Holy Spirit and still be carnal. For instance, the Corinthians church was not behind in the gifts of the spirit, yet they were carnal. It is therefore important to be spiritual, because a natural man cannot understand the things of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. The more spiritual we are, the greater our access to the deep things of God  (1Corinthians 1:7; 1Corinthians 3:1-3; 1Corinthians 2:14).

    •We must walk in the Spirit: It is written, “I was in the spirit on the Lord’s Day and I heard…” It takes a man of the spirit to hear from heaven. It is not enough to be born again, filled with the Holy Spirit and be spiritual, we must be men and women that walk in the spirit. This is because God can choose to speak to us at any time. If we are not in the spirit, we are sure to miss His directives and thereby continue with our struggles in life. Therefore, we must mind the associations we keep, because carnal men are sure to corrupt our spirituality (Revelation 1:10; Romans 8:6; 1Corinthians 15:23).

    •We must desire more Revelation: More often than not, when things are not working, it is because our insight is inadequate. As we are all aware, we don’t fail exams because we don’t know anything; we fail because we don’t know enough. However, we know that God hates waste and that is why He only unveils treasures to those who are truly thirsty for revelation. As it is written, “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry land.” Revelation answers only to the thirsty; it is therefore our crave to know, that opens the door to revelation – Isaiah 44:3/ 1Corinthians 8:2.

    •We must engage in the study of the Word: We must get addicted to the study of the Word and make it our lifestyle, by feeding on the Word daily in order to stay alive and well. The Bible admonishes that we meditate on the Word day and night; then, we will make our way prosperous and have good success (2Timothy 2:15; Jeremiah 15:16; Joshua 1:8).

    Friend, the power and grace to access the wonders in the Word of God, are the preserve of those who are children of God. Are you a child of God? You become a child of God, by confessing your sins and accepting Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. You can be God’s child now, if you haven’t been, by saying this prayer: “Lord Jesus, I come to You today. I am a sinner. I cannot help myself. Forgive me of my sins. Cleanse me with Your precious Blood. Deliver me from sin and satan, to serve the Living God. Today, I accept You as my Lord and Saviour. Thank You, for saving me! Now, I know I am born again!”

    I will continue with this teaching next week. Exceeding Grace and the Unspeakable Gifts of God are your portion this month!

    Every exploit in life is a product of knowledge. For further reading, please get my books: The Force Of Freedom, Walking In Dominion and All You Need To Have All Your Needs Met.

    I invite you to come and fellowship with us at the Faith Tabernacle, Canaan Land, Ota, the covenant home of Winners. We have four services on Sundays, holding at 6:00 a.m., 7:50 a.m., 9:40 a.m. and 11.30 a.m. respectively.

    I know this teaching has blessed you. Write and share your testimony with me through: Faith Tabernacle, Canaan Land, Ota, P.M.B. 21688, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria; or call 7747546-8; or E-mail: feedback@lfcww.org

  • Remain godly, educationist advises students

    The Principal of Christ The Redeemers College, Pastor Antoinette Omo-Osagie, has advised graduating students of the institution to maintain the values and moral standards the school inculcated into them.

    Omo-Osagie, who spoke at the valedictory ceremony of the school last week, noted that the graduating students have been equipped with intellectual, spiritual and physical skills to stand out in the journey of life.

    She described them as assets exceptionally favoured for higher academic attainment.

    “The students have been trained to acquire different vocational and educational skills such that they don’t have to wait for government before they are fully employed,” she stated.

    She explained that the school’s mandate is to provide education of international standard with strong biblical foundation, giving students the basis for holy and useful living in the society.

    She congratulated the parents for investing so much time and money on the children in the last six years.

    The educationist charged them to continue mentoring and encouraging their wards to be steadfast in their faith.

    The Chairman, Board of Governors CRC, Pastor Adebayo Adeyemo, encouraged the students to be hard-working.

    According to him: “To sustain God’s  favour and grace as you step forward in your career, you need to be hardworking through life’s challenges and trusting God to always help you through.”

    He advised them to face life after school with courage and patience while standing for integrity, impeccable character and godly standards.

    One of the graduating students, Ugboduma Oghenetega, said that the school has shaped her life spiritually and academically.

  • Nigeria will rise again, says cleric

    The General Overseer of God’s Mercy Revival Ministries (GOMERM) Idimu Lagos, Dr James Akanbi, has assured that Nigeria will rise again.

    The nation, he stressed, will not go down despite the socio-economic challenges bedeviling it.

    He urged Nigerians to stand firm and patiently wait on God to fix the seemingly intractable problems in the country.

    Akanbi spoke on Thursday with reporters ahead of the 15th anniversary of the church with the theme “Arise and glow.”

    He noted that the country is bleeding but assured that the phases will come and pass because “the sons of Baals cannot hand-on for life.”

    According to him, all the terror attacks and insecurity in several parts of the nation will soon disappear.

    “Nigeria,” he reiterated, “will arise again and glow. All the things we are witnessing now will drop down and go away.”

    On why no man of God has been able to make a prophetic declaration that will lead to demise of Boko Haram, Akanbi explained such declarations will create chaos.

    He said: “If you expect a Thou Saith the Lord on Boko Haram issue, you will be creating an Armageddonic situation.

    “The maximum a man of God can do is to speak to the conscience of those in power. None of us can speak and expect government to listen.

    “The most we can do is to pray and hope our leaders listen to the voice of God”.

    The anniversary, which starts tomorrow, holds at the church’s headquarters.

    The grand finale holds at Mercy Camp ground KM 4 Papalanto-Shagamu road, Ofada Ogun state, next Sunday by 10am.

    The prophetic impartation service will also witness the ordination of over 200 pastors, assistant pastors, elders, deacons and deaconesses.