Transcription
A time must come in your life where it will be like Esther said, "This move must be made. If I perish, I perish." A time must come in your life where, like the four lepers in Second Kings chapter four, in the midst of overwhelming hardship in the land, he said, "We can't we can't count. If we continue like this, we will just die for nothing." And our imminent debt is predictable if we just choose to remain in the land in these harsh circumstances. It's predictable. However, if we choose to go out, there is still an option. If we choose this other option, there is still a ray of hope that something could happen. But if we choose to stay in the current setting and circumstances, nothing good will happen, and within a matter of time, they will be finished. And so they decided to also take the risk.
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Esther was a woman living in comfort as the queen of a powerful ruler, powerful king, powerful president of a nation. On the surface of the heart, and Esther could step forward and put her life at risk. Why are men, why are husbands, why are fathers hesitating to take a bold step that could bring forth the liberation of the family, that could change the fortunes of the family? Why are men not rising up to the challenge to do the needful to save their community, save their people, save their nation? In the project of the Tower of Babel, they were taking action. They were taking action.
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And the last thing we take from that, we observe from that project, is that the steps they were taking, the particular steps they were taking towards realizing that project, were effective. So you must review whatever is your strategy. A strategy that worked before may not work again. A strategy that worked in Europe may not work in Africa. A strategy that worked somewhere else in the world may not work in your own domain. So you must consistently assess the effectiveness of the approach you are using. Even though it's a proven approach, but elsewhere, the same medication that has brought healing to almost every other person may not work for just one person. So you don't continue to sentence that person to the same medication over and over again. If it's not working, you look for an alternative. The steps that we are taking, we are towards realizing that great project. They were effective. That was why they continued with that building strategy. That was why they continued using it. It was effective. It was giving the desired results at each stage of the project. It's time to take the initiative. You will arise. You will arise.
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You know, we quote Psalm 102 verse 13 over and over: "Thou shall arise and have mercy upon Zion, for the time to favor her is when has come." The same way God is prompted by that scripture over and over every day concerning different people on the surface of this earth, is the same way you will also need to arise at a point in time in your life, on behalf of someone else, on behalf of your family, on behalf of your people, on behalf of your nation. You will need to arise and do something because the time, the time for that problem to end has come. The time for a solution to manifest has come, and you are the one that needs to do something now. Sometimes all you need to do is for just one part of the entire project. You'll be surprised that if only you can start it, some other people are going to come in and take over, and they will finish it excellently. But someone needs to start it, and you are the best person to start it. So sometimes there is something that has already started, but you are now the one to take it to the next level. You are the one to take it to the next level.
So what is initiative? Initiative is recognizing what needs to be done and going ahead to get it done. Recognizing what needs to be done and going ahead to get it done without being asked to do so. Nobody told David to take on Goliath. He was sent by his father to take food, food to his brothers, his grown-up brothers on the war front.
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Nobody sent David to go and challenge Goliath. He observed something unacceptable. He observed something unacceptable, and he had come to a point in life where he recognized that there was a grace of God upon him. He knew, even whether his family recognized that or not, it was irrelevant. Because you observed that when David started asking questions about what would be done for the man who takes out Goliath, his elder brothers rebuked him. And these same other brothers were aware that this same boy, this same David, had on his own killed a lion, on his own killed a bear. Can Goliath stand and fight a lion without weapons? David on his own killed a bear. And you know, obviously his family confirmed that that story was true. They must have gone there to see the lion that he killed. But even with that, his brothers, his elder brother, still looked down on him. His father still continued to consider him inconsequential when it comes to positions of responsibility.
So when the great man of God somewhere came and said, "God has chosen a member, one of the sons from this family to be the next king of Israel," he knew he had eight sons. But the father of David only presented the seven elder brothers of David.
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Ordinarily, that process of screening who among them was chosen by God should not have started until David was sent for from the field. Why? Obediently, he wasn't playing in the bush. He was carrying out his father's instruction. That shows you his humility, his obedience, even to his father. Yet, when a great opportunity came, his father considered him inconsequential. He said, "Parade your sons," and he knew he had eight sons. He paraded seven. So by the father's estimation, when you are talking of looking after cattle, goats, rams, cows, and whatever, that is the only time you think you consider people like young boys like David, youths like David. But for the position of the presidency of the nation, it has to be one of these big guys. It has to be one of these big guys. That was the father's perception. That was the father's perception. And that error is still playing out today in a generation where the youth are seriously marginalized and despised, along with the women. Women are still today marginalized and despised.
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It took God's intervention for that screening to go on, and God had to tell Prophet Samuel clearly, "I have not chosen any of these ones." And then, you know, "Do you have any other person?" "Ah, no, sorry, forgive me. There is still one more." And when David came, the Spirit of God said, "That's the one." David already recognized that there was a grace of God upon him. If he saw her doubt, by the time he killed the bear, it was obvious to him that God was with him.
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It was obvious to him, and he boasted about this positively before King Saul. He said, "No, don't worry. I don't need so much of this armor and some of these things." He said, "The God that enabled me to kill the lion, that enabled me to kill the bear, will also enable me to kill this Goliath." Every Goliath that is defined the people of God in Nigeria, the Lord will take them down. And we are praying now that every human instrument that must rise up in the spirit of David to challenge the Goliaths of Nigeria, may such men and women rise up now to take action in the name of Jesus. Let your aiming connect with the grace of God.
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Are you getting the message of the Spirit this morning? There are times what is needed next is action. We have finished prayer in this mission for Nigeria. We are led to do 159 of prayers for Nigeria for five months, October 1st to the almost the end of February the following year.
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And what we prayed and fasted for has not yet happened. So after the prayer and fasting, there must be action. Esther fasted and prayed, then she took action, which was a very risky, a very risky step, very, very risky. Sometimes when there is risk involved, that is when we sit back and we'll be expecting God to come and finish up the work. And God, you can be very interesting when you are waiting for God, and God is waiting for you. You are waiting for God, God is waiting for you. So initiative is going ahead to do what needs to be done instead of just waiting for it to happen or for it to be done by someone else. If it, and you know the interesting thing we discovered, and the irreversible in our study on the irreversible will of God, if God has irreversibly decided that a particular person will be the one to do a particular thing at a time in life and history, there is no other person that can displace that person to do that thing. And if that person himself is hesitating, that thing will be put on hold. Once it's irreversible, there is no other person that will carry out that thing. If you are tempted, what was supposed to happen would not happen. Is, you know, of course, someone could have gone on his own, taking the anointing oil and poured it on any of his personal favorites. But the grace of God came upon David after he was anointed, anointed by someone. That grace would not have come upon any other person that was anointed by someone. Man putting God's choice aside and choosing his own can succeed when God's choice is not irreversible. But if it's irreversible, anything you do contrary to what God has decided is going to be in vain. Nobody will take your seat. Nobody will take your throne. Nobody will take your divine portion in the name of Jesus.
So, in closing, the talk: lack of initiative. What is lack of initiative? Because does it, does it, that is what is hindering the destinies of certain people listening to this message? It is caused by a non-aggressive or indifferent attitude. Non-aggressive attitude. So lack of initiative is just assuming that something will happen without doing anything yourself towards making that thing happen. Things will, things go better. So what are you currently doing to make that thing you are talking about happen? I said today, you are doing nothing, but how expectant are you? Highly expectant. Yet you are personally doing nothing, but you are very, very expectant. Lack of initiative is just, is when you are just assuming that with time, with time, that's another big deception, another big error, that with time, something will happen. We have been, we have been waiting for the salvation of Nigeria for over 30 years now. This is our year of divine intervention. The same Holy Spirit that gave that word for this year is the same Holy Spirit inspiring the man of God to preach this message. There is something you need to balance. If God is telling you this is time for intervention, and is giving you this same message that you also need to take action in the season of an intervention. No more excuses. We love one, there's an expression we use, "Most of God, we do something soon." Today, the Holy Spirit says, "God will not do anything until you do something." Do something, and God will back you up. Do something, and God will make him prosper. Don't be deterred by past failures. Don't be deterred by past setbacks. Victory is ultimately waiting for you in the name of Jesus.
So, lack of initiative is just assuming that God or someone will do it without doing anything yourself. The government will do it. Your parents will do it. Your leader will do it. Lack of initiative is waiting for a perfect time, which never comes. Ecclesiastes chapter 11 verse 4. That was where we started this journey today. If you wait for perfect conditions, if you wait for everything to just be another, then nothing will be done. There are times when God will speak to you, "Go through that direction." There are times when you will use your own common sense to go through that direction. God is not going to tell you there is a mob coming on this road and there is another route you can take to avoid that mob. You say, "No, the Spirit of God has not yet told me." So you will still go, you drive straight into that dangerous part. So many things we should do, we are just waiting for God. And that is why you see churches arranging prayer meeting, prayer meeting at working hours, and it will go on for days, not just one day in the week. And you are expecting young men and women that should be at a workplace, a business platform, at that time, to be involved in such prolonged prayers. After prayers, the next thing is a deliverance, endless deliverance session. Endless deliverance is for a time, a given number of days, after which the person is delivered. Let things be done properly, and let us be wise. What we are doing, if things are going to change.
Lack of initiative is being too shy, too shy, too shy. Do you want to marry? Yes. Are you really sure you want to marry? Yes. This is what I've been praying for. But every time you come to church, every time you meet, you know, godly young men, you know, you just keep your distance. You are not warm, you are not receptive. And even those who were, you know, attracted to you initially, they become scared. And then some of these, you know, sharper girls from the world who have not even repented, but they are looking for godly husband, not like them, to marry, who just come and they are the ones. Ask us, they will dress well, they know very attractive, you know, and then the next thing, they are so friendly. "Hello, hi sir, how you doing?" You know, whatever you are, "I like your shoe, looks nice." Even if the shoe does not look nice, "Oh yes." If the person is in some, you know, function, is a praise leader, a worship leader, a drama or instrument, every step she was complimented. "I love the way you took that song. The moment you started singing, I just went into the high heavens. Oh my God."
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Like this period of fasting, she knows that he's a bachelor, he's living on his own. Sometimes he may just come like a Sunday night. She can just come with a cooler, they cool out with food. No dead, no. The dead of ingredients she would not use in preparing her love for herself, fried rice, she will double that. Don't put that quality. She will use. So if you are, if you make the mistake of opening that cooler, the aroma that you almost broke your fast before 6 p.m. And she will load it with very aggressive looking meat, giant, carefully chosen. So, "Hell, I just brought you small," she would call it small, just small food to to to to break your fast. Let's take the evening. Thank you. You just carried the cooler. When Bruce gets home, by the time that happens for three to three times, Bruce will just change prayer point. Lord, is his sister that you are there? Is he the one you have been talking about? About you? Are you about the real godly one? Very shy. Praise the Lord. Who's single? Second praise. Very spiritual. If the brother is coming closer, you mean Rachel's Kali, Karima, Seki. It's like, like with this devil coming here to me.
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Praise God. Being too shy. Take the initiative means you reach out. You can, you will not propose to him, but you can be friendly with him. Nobody will question you. You buy a gift for someone on his birthday. Nobody would lambast you for buying someone a present at a particular time. First, maybe Christmas season, end of the year.
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He that had friends must show himself friendly. And the Bible has some powerful scriptures. When you look at some versions like Living Bible, you begin to see some of the real meaning from some scriptures. Say, "Kindness makes a man attractive." It's the same thing for a woman. Kindness makes a man attractive. Kindness, generosity makes a man attractive. And then over-spirituality is another attribute of lack of initiative. Do you know, as I close it up, do you know that even animals, even birds, they search for food? Animals go out to search for food. Animals don't wait and trust God to provide food where they are.
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And with, and there's what is called the law of wasted efforts. The law of wasted effort. It's been observed that most of the time, people make out of the attempts people will make to achieve any particular thing, 75% of those attempts will not materialize. And animals go to lions, for instance, for every time they go out to look for prey, they only succeed less than 25% of the time. So that means if a lion goes out today, goes out in the morning, afternoon, evening, and comes back without anything, he's used to it. That is the pattern. But he's confident that if he keeps on going out, he will eventually get something.
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But the perception we have is that if God is with you, when you go out, once you must get it. And if you didn't get it when you made that attempt, then God was not involved. Error. Serious error. He's clearing the scriptures. The righteous will finally win. Fine. Ultimately, it's not guaranteed at the first attempt. Somebody is a chartered accountant today. Do you know how many times he sat for the exam? Somebody holds a professional degree today. Do you know how many times she sat for that exam before she eventually passed it? Some of them did the exam six times and they failed, but eventually they got it. But at the beginning, there was a word that, "I see you celebrating your success in this particular endeavor." And despite that word, the person went and failed. Desire. But the person persisted, and somewhere along the line, what was prophesied eventually came to pass. You see women carrying triplets today. And when she comes out on the baby dedication, tells the whole world that God spoke that, "I will have triplets." And she'll, you know, some of that meeting, the word came a second time, and today I'm carrying these triplets. Now, if you search the stories of such testimonies, you discover that many of them, before she eventually had those triplets, if you hear the number of attempts that were made, if you hear the number of times some had miscarriage, miscarriage, miscarriage. If you hear the amount they used, some of them on IVF, some millions, and despite spending so much, they still kept on making the attempt until eventually, someday, it happened. Today they are carrying triplets to the glory of God. But some people, just believers, just have the impression, "No, if God, if that man is truly a man of God, and what he said, the next time you conceive, it must lead to delivery." Sometimes there'll be miscarriage, but if you hold down to the word, ultimately, what God said will be fulfilled. Can somebody say amen? Praise hear the Lord.
So, how was the way forward? One, change your mindset. Put aside wrong, wrong mindset, bad feelings, negative emotions like depression, pessimism, hopelessness, despair, discouragement. Put them aside. Two, avoid the attitude of just passing blames and giving excuses. Avoid that attitude. Just passing blames and giving excuses. Oh, it's due to spiritual attack, household enemy, physical and candy cap, poor family background, the people. Various great achievers today that faced a more severe circumstance of the same problem you are claiming is the reason why you have not succeeded.
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And three, avoid the dependence mentality. Depending on government, depending on your parents, depending on your siblings, rich friends, depending on your spouse, depending on your children, depending on your children's rich spouse, depending on lotteries, depending on the state of the economy, hoping on assistance. A dependence mentality is holding many people back today. Don't place your expectations on people's health.
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Don't place your expectations on people's support, on people's intervention. And stop hoping for a repeat of past interventions. Four, take the initiative by doing whatever you can to realize your goal. Take the initiative. Do whatever you can to realize your goal. Don't just hope and believe God for that thing to happen. Don't just hope and expect that the solution will suddenly manifest. Use your initiative. Do what you have in mind. Do what you can to save that situation. Praise hear the Lord. Praise hear the Lord. Take the initiative. Be the catalyst. Take a bold step of it. And that good state of faith sometimes could come with a big risk. But sometimes it's better to take that risk than to continue to allow things to continue the way it is. Praise hear the Lord. There shall be intervention. And as we do what is required from us, God will do what He is supposed to do in the name of our Lord Jesus.