HOW TO ATTRACT GOD'S BLESSINGS

Malachi chapter 3, verses 10 to 12, says: "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord."

And in verse 10, he says, "I will open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing." You are a candidate of God's blessing. A blessing is a call to supernatural forces to aid and support somebody. The blessing is also a release of supernatural forces to aid and support you towards achieving a desired goal. A blessing is the opposite of a curse.

Deuteronomy 11, verse 6, is the opposite of a curse. So, anyone that has stepped into this auditorium today, in any area of your life where it has been projected, God will remove it and replace it with a blessing. [Applause]

Blessings have consequences. The blessing is the very creative force of God. It created all we see today. The blessing, the blessing, is God's empowerment, His power that established the universe. If you want to look at, if you want to see the blessing of God at work, one of those Bible characters we could look at is a person called Job, the man called Job. Take a look at what Satan had to say when he was upset about Job and said to God, "Does he [referring to Job] serve you for nothing? Have you not blessed him and all that he has? You have built a wall around him." And look how rich Job is. Job chapter 1, verse 9. Today, and perhaps after, chapter 10, verse 22, tells us, "The blessing of the Lord, the blessing of the Lord, it makes rich." It has a consequence. It has an impact. It has an effect.

You know, the anointing is part of the blessing. The anointing is part of the blessing, and the power of the anointing is what removes, strips, the power of the curse, strips all the curse. It removes bodies, it removes yokes, and it destroys them. In Isaiah chapter 10, verse 27, Isaiah 10:27, said, "It shall come to pass on that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing." And this anointing is part of the blessing. It's part of God's blessings.

When God decides to bless a lot is involved. A lot is involved because whenever God makes certain pronouncements, seventeen's will follow, depending on the content of whatever God has said in that pronouncement. When God said, "Let there be light," in Genesis chapter 1, it was not just an ordinary phrase. The moment God made that pronouncement, the Almighty released a power to cause the universe to explode into light. And the moment He made that pronouncement, there was a release of power to cause that whole universe to explode into being. And I pray for him and listening to me here this morning, but this new month, the Almighty release a blessing that will come with great power, changing the previous order of things and bringing in a new dawn for good in every room of your life. But a lot to say for some woman listening to me this morning, in the name of Jesus Christ.

So when He said, "Let there be light," He released the power of light. In Hebrews, a blessing is the exact opposite of a curse. It is the opposite of a curse. And there is another meaning for the word blessing that is even more interesting. It is the definition that comes when God gets involved, when God is the one speaking. A blessing is defined as not only saying something good about someone but as a declaration which empowers them to prosper because God's words carry creative power, as seen throughout Genesis chapter 1. His blessing does not do more than express a positive sentiment. No, no. "Zoe bless you." "Bless you." No, when God is the one speaking a blessing to your life, it's more than just a positive compliment. It's far more than that. His blessing releases the power to bring the blessing to pass. Whatever has been spoken, that blessing releases the power to bring that specific statement to pass.

Now, the reason the blessing that God spoke over mankind in Genesis 1:28 is so significant: God's declaration actually empowers man to prosper. It releases the divine resources that will make the blessing not just a spiritual reality, but a material reality as well. His pronouncement in Genesis 1:28 endowed God's family on earth with all the power that they would ever need: "Be fruitful and multiply, replenish the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." In Hebrew, the phrase "be fruitful and multiply" means to increase and have abundance in every way. This morning, the Lord brings and activates abundance into the life and fortunes of someone here. If you are just that one person in this meeting, let heaven hear your amen. Then Lord, speak abundance into your life. Then Lord, activate abundance into your life in the name of Jesus.

The moment Adam, for instance, and his wife Eve received that blessing, all creation was under their command. They were totally equipped to fulfill their God-given mission. They put my reason of the blessing. Now had the authority and the power to exercise dominion over their heart. They had, as just a small divine ability, to fulfill, to fill the earth as God had spoken. Abraham was another man who received the blessing, and we can see that when God blessed Abraham, a lot of things changed for the better. In areas where things were already going on well, it escalated even more to a much better level for Abraham and everyone around him. Once Abraham received the blessing, things in his life started changing, and changing for the better. Everywhere Abraham went, the blessing was in manifestation. I pray that because of you, God will bless any workplace that you find yourself. Can you assist us? Amen. Can that brother say amen? Wherever you will be appointed from, from the season of your appointment, may a new season of transformation begin to unfold in that environment in the name of Jesus.

Jacob was another man who understood the dynamics of the blessing. And so it was quite interesting that you see Jacob from time to time going out of his way to receive the blessing. And please take note, even before Jacob and Esau were born, God made a very, very remote decision of settling Jacob a favorite. "I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated." Romans 9:13. Why? Jacob was a man who knew the power of the blessing, and he went out of his way to get the blessing. Esau, on the other hand, was someone who had very little or virtually no value for the blessing. So it was very easy for him to relinquish his right to the blessing of the firstborn for a bowl of beans. And he, of course, suffered greatly for that decision. God never forgot it's a mockery of the blessing.

As a believer, you must learn to place a lot of importance on the intangible more than the tangible. If you had to have just one encounter with a man of God that truly carries the grace of God, your greatest desire from that encounter should not be money. Your greatest desired benefit from such an encounter should not be something material or physical. Your greatest desire from a man of God truly carrying the grace of God is on the intangible that is evident upon him. You should more than ever before desire the blessing of a man of God. When Elijah asked Elisha to ask for just one thing before they finally parted, Elijah did not ask for a tangible gift. He asked for the intangible. "Oh, if only I could receive a double portion of the prophetic grace upon you, my master." A double portion of grace of God upon you, my master. Because Esau had no regard for the blessings toward this light. Esau and their men, after the order of Jacob, who value and cherish the blessings of God and whatever will bring the blessing. In the same vein, there are believers, unfortunately, after the order of Esau, who continue to place greater value on the tangible and despise the blessings and grace of the Almighty.

There are different levels of magnitudes of the blessing. The Lord said, "Prove me," speaking them from Malachi 3, verse 10. "If I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing." Pour you out, not pour them out. Pour you out, pour you out a blessing. I pray that even today, being the first day of this new month, now before you leave this service, a specific blessing from God will rest upon your head. Let heaven hear your amen. [Applause]

There are different levels of blessings, different magnitudes of blessings. In Leviticus chapter 25, verse 21, Leviticus 25, verse 21, said, "Then this is my answer, and we all done my special blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will produce sufficient crops for three years." God was giving them an instruction that there's gonna be a year of Jubilee. And so when that time comes, God says, "For a whole year, no famine. For a whole year, no work." And the Lord knew what will come on their mind, and He said, "I know you want that. That's how do we survive for the whole of that year if we don't find, we don't work?" So this is what I would do. In the sixth year, preceding your year of rest, in place of the usual blessing I release upon you every year, in the sixth year, and in view of the greater harvest I want to give you, I will release not just a blessing, but what? A special blessing. If there is one woman who wants a special blessing from God this month, can a woman stand on her feet and shout the loudest Alleluia unto the Lord? [Applause] [Music] May the Lord give you something really special. May the Lord give you something really special. May the Lord honor your faith with something really special. I made that seem manifest before the end of this year in the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus.

And if there is some man in this meeting, I don't know what in bracket, but a male in this meeting that really, really desires this special blessing from God in 2020, can that man stand and shout the loudest Hallelujah unto the Lord? I can see you are ready. Then the Lord, honor you with something beyond your wildest expectation. The Lord surprise you with a very special gift from heaven. And before the close of 2020, the Lord perfect His good work in the name of Jesus. Praise ye the Lord.

So there are different levels of blessing, different magnitudes of blessing. One day, God can decide to release something far, far more than the nominal, far more than the enormous. Sometimes God can inconvenience you, and the longer God inconveniences you, the greater the possibility that God will release a better and higher magnitude of blessing upon you. Before a special blessing, most of the time, there is a price to pay, and that price could be inconvenient. That price could be something you have to do sacrificially. And the further you have to go, you have to stress yourself, inconvenience yourself, go out of your way to do that thing, then the higher the possibility that something beyond the normal, something far better than what God would do normally, will be released. And we've seen different scriptures, different instances when God released different levels of blessings upon different people.

And take note that there are certain blessings in life that will not be endorsed by God for fulfillment if it does not follow the due process that God has approved. There's a difference between blessing and a favor. Favors are ritually merited, but when it comes to most of the blessings of God, there is something that you have to do. One, the first condition to receiving God's blessing is obedience. When the process is not complied with, God will not endorse it. It will not give up proven for the fulfillment of that blessing, even though pronouncements could be made. That is why you will understand what I Rebekah, even though she had a favorite among her two souls, Jacob and Esau, and was so determined to rather favor Jacob, all that Rebekah needed to do was to just call Jacob and release that special blessing that Isaac was supposed to release on him on Esau. But she knew that this is not, you know, I am not in a position as a mother. There is a place for a mother's blessing. Every mother has the authority to bless a child, and God will honor. But the kind of blessing that was at stake at that point in time was not an ordinary blessing of a parent. And the only person who could release, speak that blessing, and then heaven will endorse it for fulfillment thereafter was Isaac. So in order to get that blessing, they had to come up with that conspiracy, and we should packaged with Jacob to deceive Isaac and take the blessing that Isaac actually intended for Esau. So if you could just stand in and release certain blessings, and it would just work, then of course, there would have been no need for her. Because she actually, before proceeding, she said, "Let the curse for this conspiracy be upon her." She knew how delicate what she was about to do was. She knew it could actually bring a curse on her. So why go through all that? She went all the way because she knew she was not in the position to release that blessing.

And you know, there are certain times of your life where a particular blessing now has to be finally spoken, and then once that blessing is spoken, and because the time has come for that blessing to manifest, the moment it is spoken, things will begin to happen. I'm here by the Spirit of God to declare to someone in this service right now that you have come to a season of your life where something new and better has been ordained by God to happen. And that prophetic word, that blessing that needs to be spoken for God to be the final command for those supernatural forces to move on your behalf into action, that word will go out today in the name of Jesus. In that area of your life, there shall be a new dawn. A door that has never opened to you in life before will open now. A great, new door will open now in the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. For someone in your spiritual life, a door will open. For someone in ministry, a door will open. For someone in your marital life, a door will open. For someone in your business and finances, a door will open. Conduct man or woman, say properly, amen. [Applause]

Praise ye the Lord. And that is why I like, I've given into illustration in the past. That is why there is a limit to what an interpreter can see. When someone in the position and with the authority by God to minister at a particular instance, his ministry, and there is need for an interpreter, as the interpreter repeats whatever the man of God, a woman of God has spoken, he's also endorsed. But when a man of God, for instance, is calling out different sets of people and based on certain reasons begins to bless them, and then the interpreter craftily begins to interpret differently, and what the man of God did not say in his blessing of a particular group, they interpret. Seeing the power and forces of God waiting to take into manifestation the words being spoken, that they would not act on the word of the interpreter that did not come from the man who was ministering.

How do you attract blessings to your life, to your family, to your business, to your career? How? There are many ways to do this, and the first of them is through obedience. Can somebody say obedience? Oh yes, through obedience. Obedience is the principal and primary key to receiving the blessing of God. Obedience to the Word of God, obedience to His commands, obedience to His directives. May God help us in Jesus' name. May you be one of the builders in the church and not one of those pulling down the church. May you be one of those encouraging the pastorate in the church and not one of those constantly looking for a fault with which to pull down and ridicule the church. One of the ways God can bless you really like is for you to come to a point where you, on behalf of your family, can even single-handedly build a sanctuary, furnish it excellently, and then hand it over without terms and conditions, without terms and conditions, and hand it over to your church. There are listening people listening to me right now that God will enable and empower to do this over and over again in your lifetime in the name of Jesus. May the Lord release the power to get wealth upon you and your household to fulfill this in good time in Jesus' name we pray. Praise ye the Lord.

Sometimes, if you are silent when something is happening in a distasteful way to God, as well, when it eventually happens around you, God will not raise up any voice on your behalf. But when you raise your voice based on this, on the signal, the speed of God is giving you when it's happening as well, the advantage is that it may not even happen in your place anymore. Because anyone who could have had a tendency to do the same in your own congregation, within twice, based on what you said, when remarks like that were made against such a project as well. Praise ye the Lord.

So one of the ways you can assess the blessing of God in life is for you to be faithful as one of those financial stewards among the disciples of Christ, who are constantly taking up the responsibility of ensuring that there is provision for the running of the church and the mission. Some weeks back, we looked at providing for your family, and we were able to identify at least seven major things that we cannot run away from, even when you choose to be very prudent. You must provide those things for your family. In the same way, in providing for the church, for in running the church, running a mission for God, there are certain necessities that cannot be avoided, and these things cost money, and they are not one-off expenses. They are continuous expenses that we incur on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis in the process of propagating the gospel and doing what God has said we should do from that platform of ministry. And one of those ways you prove yourself faithful in your financial stewardship to God is in the payment of your tithes. In the payment of your tithe, your tithe is 10%. 10% of your income, of your profit, of your material financial gifts. 10%. The first 10%. Your tithe is a seed. And when you sow your seed, you give your tithe, you are sowing a seed in the hands of God with an expectation that God will preserve every good thing He has already given you in life, including your health and the health of your loved ones, and also that God will ensure that there is a continuous flow of your streams of income. He said, "I will open the heavens and pour out a blessing that there will not be room enough to contain." "I will pour you out," not "pour them out." "Pour you out," not "your church." "Pour you." You can hide under your husband and not be tied. If your husband gives you personal allowance every month, it is a gift. So 10% of that allowance goes as your tithe. And when you pay tithe, you are demonstrating trust in God. Obedience to tithe shows that you are trusting in God and not on your income or what you have already. If you make the mistake of putting your trust in what you have already, there is going to be a time of shaking. If you put your trust on your income, there is also going to be a time of shaking. A time will come in your life where you may think you don't need God anymore. You may take it on in God anymore. So when things He has already made it, and you begin to, "What will ever make me call on me, pastor, for life? What on earth will ever make me go and then asking a pastor for prayer?" But a day will come when something will happen. Is that boss not yourself of tomorrow? Professor, in seven words, one for you, know not what, not a month, not even a year. What a single day will bring forward. He said, "I will rebuke the devourer for your sake." You know, when they want to, they want to finish you financially, they may not even touch you. They will touch someone you love so much. It could be your only daughter. It could be your only son. It could be your mother that you love so much. Could be your father you love so much. Could be a dear friend that you cannot watch suffer. And they will successfully inflict a pest. Before you know it, you are running to the hospital. The bills are coming. You have to fly the president out of the country. And before you know it, you are having to sell things. After a while, you sell things, you not have to borrow money to address that budget. And the illness is not yet even down with it. It's even getting worse. These things are happening. These things are happening. He said, "I will rebuke the devourer for your sake." They differ for your sake. You will not cry. Whatever would have brought you down to the very beginning, from where you started in life, God will not allow to happen. God will not allow you to happen. They differ. You will not be a victim of the devourer. You will suffer losses. You will suffer affliction. You will never have to roll you from one hospital to the other on a sick bed. You will not be carrying around on a wheelchair. [Applause] You will never come to a point in life where people are talking around you, and I don't even know who is talking. That will never be a Porsche. That will never be a Porsche. You would not sit on the throne and I know that man is the one ruling for you.

So one way you can assess the special blessing of God in your life is through obedience. Tithe is not an option, it is a command. A man who is running ministry for other purposes as a business, all that regimes, you know, you want to be, you want to please the people, you can't preach on sexual immorality because you preach of sexual morality, premarital sex for too long, some of the youth in the church will start withdrawing from your church. You preach on chastity, you preach on morality, you start talking about women not exposing their cleavage, women will get offended and they will leave the church. So if you are in ministry for money and for business, you will change your message. But if it is God that has led you into a ministry and is the one telling you this is what you preach about, you will boldly declare the Word of God irrespective of who wants to leave the church. Praise ye the Lord.

So God will, secondly, in addition to releasing the grace that comes with a blessing upon you and the works of your hands, God would grant you spiritual cover and security. It will shield you away from the devourer. It will shield you away from the devourer. He will shield your family. He will cover your loved ones. Neck for your sake, your loved ones will not be victims of the devourer in the name of Jesus. You will not be a victim of wrong investments in the name of Jesus. You will not be a victim in the name of Jesus. Praise ye the Lord.

So I want to please encourage every one of you. Nobody's exempted from tithing. Jesus says, "Anyone who is faithful with little will also be faithful with much." If you are faithful with little, you have already indicated to God that He cannot really trust you with great wealth in the days ahead. If you are earning 5,000 naira a month, your tithe is 500 naira, 10%. If you are earning 10,000 naira a month, your tithe is 1,000. So the data, if you are in a church where people are prayed for, like we do here, once every month, for faithfully tithing in the last one month, when your pastor says, "If you have been faithful in tithing in the last one month," even to your tithe was 500, your tithe was 1,000. Before God, you have done excellently. God does not judge on volume, He judges based on percentage. He judges based on percentage, and the percentage for tithe is 10%. So confidently, confidently, when you walk to the altar, you walk to the altar with your, with your 10% tithe. It's about 10%, not about the actual volume of money. It's about 10%. So one can give a tithe of 1 million, and before God, is angry with him for that tithe because that 1 million is 5% of the profit he made. At any level, be faithful with your tithe. Can I tell you something? If half of the church, any ministry, we have to be faithful in tithe, there will be very little reason for the church to call on people to make donations for certain things that need to be done in the church. It's because, you know, a large number are not faithful or consistent in tithe. So the value and their needs in the church, you have to raise a special offering to meet that need. It ought not to be so. But I want to warn you about what is happening in this end time. In this end time, there is an extreme manifestation of the 80/20 principle. The 80/20 principle has been there from time immemorial before it was even observed by the Italian who made that observation. What is happening today, including churches, more than 80% of the financial income of a church comes from less than 20% of the congregation. I cannot tell you today, less than 10% of the congregation gives 90% of the income of the ministry. Less than 10%. Collaterally, where you belong, the wit of God is that no matter where you started from, He will, through your faithfulness, He will mysteriously begin to empower you and take you to a point where you will be among the 10% that once those 10% has given, pastor does not need to preach a one-hour service message on tithe. You are getting to that level in the name of Jesus. Don't ever borrow tithe. Number right. Lord cannot postpone this. The next month, and so you want to use it to quickly sort. If you do that, from experience, there'll be challenges. 10% is your tithe. And let me let you know, this is one of the ways you know a man or a woman is humble, is where the man would do things that he normally would not have done out of respect for someone he's, he ought to give respect to. For instance, if you are the type that does not like to wear face, but someone who God has placed over you in some circumstance is demanding that everybody, all the men in the house, I want you all to wear white. I want you all to wear caftan. Now, you don't like wearing caftan, but your spiritual father is insisting that for that particular service, he wants all the men in this kind of attire and in this color. If you didn't have the money, that would be different. But when you have the money and you choose not to do so, it shows you are not a humble man. It shows you are not a humble man. I give an example. Whenever the man of God calls out those who have been faithful in tithe, you know one of the things, what are the reasons God is doing that? Your children are watching you as a father. Your daughters are watching you as a father. If you actually pay tithes, but when the pastor says, "Those who tithe, come forward," and you refuse to come forward, you know what? They will begin to understand that our father is not a very humble man. That is why he continues to defy the instruction of the pastor. Oh, even though he pays tithe. If you are, if you are a very humble person, you don't like to show your face in deference to someone you ought to respect, you change, you change your rules, you adapt just to please that particular person. So I want to assure us, we have, we still have ten months for so much to happen in 2020. And can I tell you something? There are some women listening to me right now, it will not take God more than six months from today for God to start and complete a particular thing you have been praying about. Can that woman say properly, amen? Tomorrow, we still have how many months this year? Ten months. Ten months. More than enough for God to show His hand. Some of you, you would have, you know, by December this year, some of you listening to me, I said it by, as you know, I said it two months ago at the crossover service, it's already in fulfillment. I don't want to point out any particular person. It's already in fulfillment. I said there are some of you listening to me right now, by God's arrangement, not out of desperation, or mostly by December this year, you may no longer be in Lagos. You may no longer be in Nigeria. You may no longer even be in Africa. But it's going to be a good move. It's going to be in a good direction and for a good reason. Things will change between now and the next ten months. Is there someone here who is ready to trust in God and not trust in your savings, and not trust in your earnings, not trust in your income? Is there? So when He is ready to put His trust in God and not on your hard work alone, you