Transcription
No, I know you. You have you haven't heard me yet. That one fellow will be the one who will get the biggest miracle.
[Applause]
Okay. Okay, I I I know that will catch you. Shake a hand. Take the hand of your neighbor right and left and say tonight, even though I love you, my miracle will be bigger than yours. Tell the fellow on the other side, "I love you, neighbor, but tonight my miracle is going to be bigger than yours."
Amen. Praise the Lord. You may please be seated.
I want to thank the Almighty God for bringing us here tonight. Um, it takes God for us to be in this particular place at this particular moment. And almost invariably, when God brings me to a place that I've not been before or I didn't plan to be, it's always because there is someone whose miracle can no longer wait. And we will find out who that fellow is before we finish.
Mark chapter 10. Uh, I can see that the mayor has uh stepped out, but I was going to say thank you, mayor, and thank you for naming a day after us. Thank you very much.
Mark chapter 10 from verse 46-52. Mark 10:46-52. And they came to Jericho. And as he went out of Jericho with his disciples, and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus sat by the highway side begging. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me." May I decree that God will have mercy on somebody tonight. And many charged him that he should hold his peace. But he cried more a great deal, "Thou son of David, have mercy on me." And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man, saying unto him, "Be of good comfort. Rise, he calleth thee." And he casting away his garment rose and came to Jesus.
Allow me to prophesy to someone that the garment of suffering will be taken away from you tonight.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, "What would thou that I should do unto thee?" The blind man said unto him, "Lord, that I may receive my sight." And Jesus said unto him, "Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole." And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way.
The Bible didn't tell us how old Bartimaeus was the day he met Jesus Christ. But he wasn't a baby. He had been blind for quite a while. He had been a kind of nuisance to the people around because he was always begging them for money. Those who had and gave to him felt that the little I have, this beggar had taken a bit of it. Those who had and didn't give, their conscience didn't allow them to rest. So to the people around, it was a nuisance, which showed as soon as we heard him here crying for mercy. But do you know one thing? He woke up in the morning a nuisance. By the time he went to bed, he was no longer a nuisance. In the name that's above every other name, there's someone here listening to me now. You will never be a nuisance again. You will never need to beg anybody for the rest of your life.
You see, there are two forces that control life. Only two of them. One is darkness, the other is light. It had been like that from the foundation of the world. When God created the heaven and the earth in Genesis chapter 1, if you read it from verse 1 to 4, you will discover that the first thing we saw was that darkness covered the earth. And then, of course, God spoke and said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And if you read that passage, you'll discover that at the end of it, God said, "Ah, this is good." I pray for someone here today. By the time you are going home, you'll be singing a new song. Your song will be, "Now it is good for me." Darkness, light, success, failure, joy, sorrow, sickness, healing, poverty, prosperity, barrenness, fruitfulness. They are, you will always find them in pairs. Darkness on one hand, light on the other hand. Now, I don't know which is your choice, but because you came to a program that says "Light Up," I have a rough idea you prefer light to darkness. If that is the case, let me hear you shout, "Let there be light!"
>> Good.
So, I believe we are ready. Certain things happened to Bartimaeus that day. He wasn't expecting what happened, but it was already in the plan of God for him. And everything that happened to him that day is about to happen to someone here tonight. Let me pick just a few of them. We won't be able to cover all because to cover it all will take quite a while.
Number one, he was sick in the morning. By the time he went to bed, he was no longer sick. Because a blind man definitely had a health challenge. It wasn't that he was having some problems with his sight. He was blind. Totally blind. He was incurably sick. But then the one who was passing by, who incidentally you know to be the light of the world, was also the great physician. He is the one who said in Exodus 15:26, Exodus 15:26, he said, "I am the Lord that healeth thee." You know, we thank God for doctors. They're wonderful people. And I'm sure you have plenty of them who are specialists in this part of the world. But at times they get to a stage where they tell you there's nothing more we can do. But there is someone who says, "I am the Lord that healeth thee. I am the original physician." He has never referred a case. Specialists can refer you from one doctor to another. If you don't believe me, read Mark 5 from verse 25-34. Mark 5:25-34. It tells you the story of a woman who had what the Bible calls the issue of blood. She just kept on bleeding. She had moved, transferred from one doctor to another until she ran out of money. But the day she came in contact with the light of the world, her problem was over. In the name of the one who sent me to you, whatever may be your ailment will not follow you out of here.
Some of you probably had a testimony of a young man who had cancer of the jawbone. The father happened to be a wealthy man, an ambassador, and so they could afford very good uh treatment. But one day the doctors in London called the father and said, "Sir, you want your son to see his native land again?" He said, "Yes, then you better take him home now because he has less than two weeks to live." And somebody told them that there's a man in a place called Camp. If he prays for your son, your son will live. When they brought him, when I saw him, even my faith shook because he he said was almost like a big barrel. The sickness had gone so bad. This boy was hungry, it took him one hour to drink a bottle of Coke because the neck was already choking. I can understand why the doctor said no hope. But there's someone called the hope of the hopeless.
[Applause]
That boy is still alive today. They even told him after he got healed, just to show how hopeless the case had been. They said because of the massive dose of chemotherapy that he had taken, that he shouldn't bother to think of marriage because he can never have a child. When he got married, he has children today. Now, I'm I'm telling you this, this story, that the God who performed that miracle is the one here today. I don't care how far gone your case may be. In the name that's above every other name, you will share your testimony soon. If you believe that we are going to leave this place tonight, not just healed but whole, let me hear you shout, "Let there be light!"
Number two, because he was blind, he was living his entire life inside darkness. She She doesn't know any other color other than black. She doesn't know green and white and all the beautiful things you are seeing. He couldn't see them. He was completely in bondage to darkness. Darkness has swallowed him. The devil was so sure that this fellow can never get out of his grasp. But then light came, and when light came, darkness must go.
>> Yeah.
You you know the story in Mark chapter 5. You can read it from verse 2 to 20. Mark 5:2-20. It tells you the story of the madman of Gadara. He's a man who had a legion of demons. Now, to be troubled by a single demon is a is a big problem. This man had not just one, not 10, not 100, but a legion. But the day the one who is called the light of the world came across his path, he was set free. Why? Because the one who is called the light of the world is also the one called the Lord of hosts, the one who has never lost a war.
There are some of us here today when we look at our situation, we know what what we are going through is not an ordinary case. Some of us have worked hard and there's nothing to show for it. Some of us have been going around in circles. We move two steps forward and at times three steps backward. It's not ordinary. It's because there is a force of darkness at work. And God has sent me here today to tell you this very night, you shall be free.
[Applause]
I remember very clearly the story of a woman, the wife of a very important person back home. And suddenly she began to feel funny. And then before anybody knew what was happening, she went to the center of the town and naked herself. Now, if you ask African elders, they will tell you, they know it in their philosophy that if somebody is crazy, as long as he has not gone to the marketplace, the craziness can still be cured. But if she ever gets to the marketplace naked, forget that one. And so they took this lady naked to a habalist, you know, those who know whatever whatever they do. And as soon as they told as the name they call them, that this woman had gone to the market naked, he knew there's nothing that could be done to her back. And then the husband became born again and told us the story. And we went to the house of the Babalawu to go and pray for the woman. We prayed a two-minute prayer like I will be praying at the end of the night. You know, when God is on your side, it doesn't take long. The day God said, "Let there be light," it didn't take two minutes. So I prayed for two minutes and left. And the Babalawo sent to the husband and said, "The man you say was coming. He he prayed for two minutes. So you better come and take your wife. That prayer man hasn't done anything." So they took the lady to the best neurosurgical hospital or whatever they call them. Fortunately, the professor there said, "Uh, before I begin to apply drugs, let's watch this woman and find out what's wrong with her." After one week, the professor sent for the husband and said, "If you say this woman is mad, you must be the one who is crazy." Because the moment the light came, the devil lost his hold on her. I decree in the name that's above every other name, every evil force messing with your life, we leave you alone tonight.
And then number three, as is obvious from the fact that this man was blind and he was a beggar, the fact that he was a beggar means he had financial problem. Let's put it mildly like that. I mean, if a man had to sit by the roadside every day begging people for money before he could eat, he had financial problem. But the moment light shone on him, you know, he never begged again.
There are many of us, particularly in this part of the world, who live from day to day on credit. I even understand that there's hardly anything you can do unless they check your credit score. They want to find out, are you a good debtor? Lord have mercy. Where I come from, nobody wants to deal with a debtor. But here you have to prove that you can owe and pay. You can't even buy a house with raw cash. You say you want to buy a house with raw cash? I think they want to investigate you. But from tonight onward, in the name that's above every other name, you will again. From the day the light shone into the life of Bartimaeus, he never begged again. Somehow he knew that he would never beg again because the moment he heard that Jesus was calling for him, the garment of a beggar, he removed it, threw it away. He knew he wouldn't need it again.
There are some people here tonight. Some credit cards are going to be destroyed. Because in a way you can't even understand, my Father will pay off your debt and begin to provide for you so much that you will never need to borrow again. I can give you examples, but just one might be enough. Some of you have probably heard the testimony of a young man, an Arab boy. He he was a Muslim, got converted to Christianity, and uh the parents wanted to kill him. So he ran and landed in London. And because he didn't have papers, he couldn't get a good job. And so he was working in a restaurant, fast food restaurant. And because the one who employed him knew he couldn't go elsewhere, the payment was very poor. And then one day, one Arab man came to town loaded with money and wanted to buy houses in London. But his English was not good. And so when he sees a house that he likes, he goes to the place and he says to the landlord, "Me house buy." And that father will say, "Get away from there. Who told you I want to sell my house?" And after going around for some time, he got tired. And then he saw the sign of uh the food that had been sold in that fast food restaurant and got in there. At least they will sell food here. And he sat down, and it was this Arab boy who became a child of God who went to attend to him. And while he was attending to him, he heard this man grumbling in Arabic, "Stupid people. I have money. I want to buy a house. They don't want to sell. Stupid people." So the boy said to him, "Sir, what's the problem?" "Oh, you speak English?" "Yes." "And you speak my language?" "Yes." "Ah, I want to buy houses. These people don't want to sell. Please will you come and be my interpreter for three days?" The boy said, "No. If I go with you, I lose my job." He said, "I will pay you. I will pay you well." And the boy said, "How much?" He said, "11 million per day." So the boy said, "Please don't go away." Went to the employer and said, "Bye-bye." The employer said, "What do you mean bye-bye? I'm going." "If you go, when you come back, I won't employ you." "Say, I will never be back." There's somebody here today. In the name that's above every other name, you will never borrow again.
And then another thing that happened to Bartimaeus that day is that he woke up in the morning very lonely. You can see it from the story when he was asking Jesus Christ to have mercy on him, everybody told him to shut up. There was not a single. He wasn't asking for money at that time. Oh, he was asking for mercy. And everybody turned on him. "Shut up." Not a single fellow stood by him.
[Music]
I wasn't there, but I believe that by the time the day was over, when everybody saw the miracle that happened to him, when people were coming around to hear his story, I believe it wasn't long after that that he got married. You see, what are you saying, sir? I am saying in the name that's above every other name, those of you who are of marriageable age and nobody has shown any interest, before the end of this month, a miracle is going to happen.
[Applause]
I will tell you a story. I'm telling you all these stories because only God can bring me back here. Only God. Because there are so many other places waiting, and we have today. So we better get the best from God today. Several years ago, when I was see a lecturer or professor, you call it, at the University of Lagos. One young, very beautiful girl came to me and said, "Daddy, pray for me." I said, "What's the problem?" She said, "Uh, by now I should be thinking of getting married. And somehow the boys, they never seem to even look in my direction, not to talk of saying, 'How?' Pray for me. I want to be married." So I prayed. But a month later, she came. "Daddy, I have a problem." "What kind of problem?" "Since you prayed for me, six boys have come. Each one says they are ready for marriage. And now how do I know which is..." I said, "This is a very good problem, and that's better than being alone." Well, I I prayed another prayer, and we were able to pick which is the right one. In the name that's above every other name, because you came tonight, whether you are a boy or you are a girl, and you ought to be thinking of marriage, I believe I will receive an invitation card very soon.
And then something else that happened to uh our friend Bartimaeus was that all of a sudden, because he kept on crying, and when it is time to pray tonight, you must pray like somebody who really needs help. If the fellow next to you says you are too noisy, ask the fellow to relocate because a night like this does not come twice in a lifetime. So everything you want from God, you must get it tonight. Because he kept on crying, finally God heard him. Ah, in the name that's above every other name, God will hear somebody tonight.
[Applause]
And when God heard him, the Bible says Jesus stood still. That is one of the most frightening passages in the Bible. Jesus stood still because of one fellow. You see, because the Bible tells us that it is in Jesus Christ that we move, we live, and have our being. You know what that means? Everything you do revolves around Jesus. As a matter of fact, the whole universe revolves around him. So when Jesus stood still, it means all the activities in heaven, all the activities on earth, even all the activities in the oceans stood still. Everything stopped because somebody cried and God had heard him. And you know, when you pray and God hears, anything can happen. Some of us have been praying for certain things and we have not received results up till now. Ah, we are going to receive results tonight. Bartimaeus was one of those people who got what I call an instant miracle. The day he prayed, that's the day he got an answer. You know, there are certain problems that you must have an answer immediately, or it will be too late. In First Kings chapter uh 17, First Kings chapter 17, if you read the story from verse 8 to 16, the Bible tells us of a widow of Zar Zaraphat. By the time Elijah arrived, she had only one meal left that, according to her, she was going to prepare for herself and her son to eat and die. If help didn't come that day, death would have come. There are problems. The answer to the problem must come on a particular day, or else it will be too late. That's why I said I believe God sent me here because there is someone here whose miracle can no longer wait. I believe there is someone here. That fellow will know himself or herself very long before very long that this is my night.
>> Oh, you know it is something people say for fun. If you don't tonight is your night, shout Hallelujah. And so and and people will be shouting. Some people just do they do it just for the fun of it. But there are problems that must have an answer immediately.
[Applause]
And your own problem will have an answer immediately today. I give you an illustration. I was traveling between a town called Ibadan and in those days things have improved. Now, there was a bridge between Ibadan and Lagos called Narrow Bridge. It was narrow. It can only take one vehicle at a time. So they show you a sign when you are close to the bridge, "Narrow Bridge Ahead." And what people normally do is when you are approaching that bridge, as soon as you are very close, you check, is there another vehicle on the bridge? If there is, you park. Let that fellow pass before you move on because there's no way on the bridge to branch right or left. We were traveling on that road. We were already on the bridge. No vehicle was coming from the other side. And all of a sudden, from the other side came a lorry coming at full speed. Whether he didn't see us, I didn't know. Whether he lost control of the brakes, I all I know is that he was coming, and we were already in the middle of the bridge there, and he was coming at speed. In a situation like that, you don't pray a gentlemanly prayer. It's either God answers now or bye-bye. As a matter of fact, there was no time for us to pray any long prayer. There was only enough time to shout one name.
>> All right, go ahead. Shout that name.
[Applause]
And God answered immediately, otherwise I won't be here today. We met in the middle of the bridge and somehow the lorry passed and we passed.
[Applause]
When we got to the other side of the bridge,
[Applause]
we were so shaky, my driver and I, that the driver had to park. He was shaking like a banana leaf. Fortunately, he didn't look back because what I can't even know how to describe my own shaking. By the time he calmed down and said to me, "Daddy, what happened?" I I had regained my composure and I told him, "God enlarged the bridge."
[Applause]
And my driver, just for the rest of the journey, he kept on saying, "Wonderful, wonderful." I say, "That's one of his names. His name shall be called." How many of you require an immediate answer tonight? Let me hear you shout, "Jesus!"
[Applause]
>> The day Bartimaeus cried, that was the day he got an answer. Tonight you are going to pray and you are going to get an answer. If you believe me, say amen loud and clear.
And then something interesting happened. As soon as Jesus stood still, as soon as Jesus heard his cry, he turned his enemies to his servants. You know, he told the very people who were asking him to shut up, to go and bring him. The Bible made it clear that God can make your enemies to be at peace with you. He says if a man's ways please God, he can cause his enemy to be at peace with him. But he can do much more. If you read Acts of the Apostle chapter 16 from verse 25-34, Acts 16:25-34, the very man that was asked to hold Paul tight so that he won't be able to escape in prison, so that they can kill him the following morning. When light came into that prison, the same man, the jailer, not only fell down before Paul asking what to do to be saved, and I decree that all your enemies will come for salvation. The same man, after he was baptized in his house, was the one who now washed the wounds of Paul and Silas. He was the same man now who prepared food for them. And you know what? By the following morning, the very people who said that Paul and Silas should be thrown to prison came to beg them to please go free tonight. In the name that's above every other name, all your enemies, whether from your father's side or from your mother's side or from your husband's house or from your wife's house, they will come and bow. Ah, if you believe that, shout, "Let there be light!"
[Applause]
And then, still talking about Bartimaeus. When he got to Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ said, "What do you want?" He heard the voice of God for the first time in his life. He had God speaking to him. And according to Psalm 107 verse 20, Psalm 107:20, the Bible says, "He sent his word and healed them and delivered them from all destructions." You know, many of times we come to church, we hear sermons, beautiful sermons, some we sing, some we dance, and and at the end of the sermon, after the service is over, if somebody asks you, "How was the service?" "Oh, very good. What did the pastor say?" And what did the pastor... Well, the service was good. What was the word that God sent to you in particular? Is it the same word that he sent to everybody? And you know what that means? You have wasted your time because you need to hear a word directly from God that is your own. A word directed at you that will change your life. Some of you have already had one tonight.
>> But we will hear another one. Because when the word is your own, that is when he brings the healing, the deliverance, everything else. I give you an illustration. An uncle of mine was a very great engineer in Nigeria, London trained. And when he came back to Nigeria, he was doing extremely well. And all of a sudden, everything went wrong, and he became so poor that at a stage he had to be taken the wrapper of the wife to sell. Buba. Things were that bad. So one day, I mean, he was a very jovial kind of person. He sat down and said, "Wait a minute. Death is better than shame." He said, "Best thing is to kill himself." But he said, "Before killing himself, he will go to church first. He will get to church. He will dance so well everybody will notice him, and then he will come home and commit suicide." So that when people hear, they will say, "Oh, he was celebrating his..." But then he got to church, and the word came to him directly. The preacher was preaching on Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. It's a story everybody knew. But as he was preaching, he said something. He said, "When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said, 'The God whom we serve is able to deliver us,' he said they did not know how he will do it." When he heard that, he said, "Ah, that is true. And they didn't know how God will help them get them out of the fire. He said, 'I don't know how God can solve my problem, but I refuse to die.'" When he was sharing his testimony, he has just bought 14 cars for his workers because after that day, the tide turned, and everything has lost kept coming back. I have good news for somebody. This is the word for some here tonight. I don't know how God will solve all your problems, but he will. I say God will solve your problem. So he had a voice, a word from the Lord Jesus Christ, and that changed everything in his life.
Ah, maybe I should tell you just warm up so that you can go ahead and pray. After he got an instant miracle, because when Jesus said, "What do you want?" All he said is, "I want light. I'm tired of darkness. Just give me light." Because the Bible says, "The eyes are the light of the body." After he got his healing instantly, after he knew no more begging, after he knew that no more loneliness, he did one thing. He began to follow Jesus. Even though Jesus Christ said, "Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole." I wasn't there, but if I were him, I would have laughed. "Go where? I've been in darkness all these years. Now I am in the light. You want me to go back to darkness?" When you choose to follow Jesus Christ, you have chosen to live perpetually in the light. John 8:12. John 8:12. Jesus Christ said, "I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you'll be walking in the light."
I can give you my own example before I give you a choice to make tonight. I was born poor. And when we talk about poverty, poverty can be in degrees.
[Laughter]
Uh, the poor people in my village called my father poor. And so if if you, if poor people call you poor, that is poor squared. If you know, if you know anything called mathematics. I was so poor that for the first 18 years of my life, 18, I had no pair of shoes. Now, so you know what that means. Then by the very special grace of God, he gave me a little bit of brain. So I I struggled here and there, and finally I became a professor in the university. But we see with that, because of certain forces that I I don't want to tell you details because it's really not your business, I had a car. I had a driver. I paid the driver his salary at the beginning of or at the end of the month. But by the middle of the month, I'll be borrowing money from my driver to buy gas for my car because of one problem or after the other. And then I was a sportsman. Every two two weeks for one reason or the other, I will catch malaria fever. Then I became born again, and Jesus Christ separated me from ungodly friends. Those who will come to my house to drink whiskey and brandy, they say, "You can't pass the house of a king without saying hello." And they come to drink my children today, hospital tomorrow, hospital myself. Within two weeks, malaria fever. Then I became born again, and things changed. I said to the Almighty God, "Heal me of this fever and I will serve you." And he granted my request for donkey years now. I don't even know what they call malaria fever anymore.
[Applause]
Today, I I don't borrow money, not even from the bank, and I'm sure bank owners don't like people like me because I choose to walk in the light. So when somebody was talking to me, when they saw my zeal as a young Christian, and they say, "Ah, we pray for you that you will not backslide." I say, "Ah, I know where I'm coming from. I will never go back."
[Applause]
>> I want to appeal to you tonight. If you are not truly born again, if you claim to be a child of God, but you are still doing some of those things, because when we talk about darkness, all this lying, cheating, fornicating, adultery, uh, whatever, whatever, anything that you yourself know is not right that you are doing, it's called sin, and that belongs to darkness. If you know you are still indulging in sins, I know some of you call this white uh, this lies. You call some lies, white lies. You call some lies, business lies, lies, liar. And the Bible says clearly, "He that sinneth is of the devil." If you are living in any form of sin, you are cooperating with darkness. And if you are cooperating with darkness, sooner or later you will pay for it. Ah, you might be so clever at it now that there's no way the government can catch you. The devil will be laughing. He's not asking the government to catch you. He He all He is already happy that the one who is worse than the government is already in your control. So tonight, make a choice. Is it darkness or is it light? The Bible made it abundantly clear. God is holy. He is the light. In him there is no shadow. There is no sin that you can justify. None at all. So if you want to choose light. I am going to count from 1 to 7. Before I say seven, come and stand before the altar here. Let me pray with you so that Jesus can save your soul. The Bible says the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sins. If you have been born again before and you find that you are already doing those sins that you say you will never do again, come back to Jesus Christ because the Bible says, "He who is born of God does not sin." So if you are backslidden and you want to come back to Jesus Christ, come. I will pray for you for restoration. And so all of you, if you want to give your life to Jesus Christ, come. If you are backsliding and you want to return to Jesus Christ, come. I will count from 1 to 7 beginning from now. So hurry up. If you want to come, begin to come. One.
[Applause]