Be Fruitful...and Multiply

From Our Pastor's Desk

One of my favorite themes in the Bible is God taking something small and making something ginormous out of it.  God took a handful of dust and made a man.  He took a rib and made a woman.

He took a sling and a stone and made a giant-slaying machine.  Luke 9:16-17 Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and brake, and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude.

And  they did eat, and were all filled: and there was  taken up of fragments that remained to them  twelve baskets.

The disciples  worried — we only have five small loaves and  two fishes! Whatever will we do?? Five loaves  and two fishes could never feed the multitudes in  the natural realm! But we have a  God who is in the multiplication  business!

He works on an entirely different mathematical equation than we are accustomed to — He takes the little we offer and turns it into more than we could fathom! How often do we feel as if we have little to offer?

The Lord is interested in everything we have to give, even if it seems minuscule to our eyes!  Let’s not be afraid to offer up our gifts, talents, abilities, accomplishments and material things that we may find insignificant.

They are not! When we give up even the littlest of things to the Lord, He brings forth an abundance! Jeremiah 30:19  And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be  few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.

As we release our seeds to our God in faith, may He multiply back to us that we shall not be few, in Jesus Name. Amen

You will have good success this 2020.

Remain blessed. 

Shalom

February 2020 - Our Month of Multiple Blessings

From Our Pastor's Desk

Welcome to this our new Month of Multiple Blessings, in Jesus name. Revelation 7:12 – “… and they worshiped God, Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen”.

In Luke 9, Jesus desired to feed the multitudes that thronged after Him. They were tired, hungry and thirsty. With compassion, the Lord asked the disciples what they had as food. The disciples worried, we only have five small loaves and two fishes!

Whatever will we do? Five loaves and two fishes could never feed the multitudes in the natural realm!  But we have a God who is in the multiplication business. He works on an entirely different mathematical equation than we are accustomed to.

He takes the little we offer and turns it into more than we could fathom.  Luke 9 showed one lad’s lunch became a buffet for tens of thousands in the hands of the Messiah. 

In this month of Multiple Blessings, our God is set to bless us in manifold, multiple returns. We serve a God of multiplication. As He did in the past, He will do in the present and the future. Rejoice.

Isaiah 61:7 - “For your shame ye shall have double…” Where others have failed, we will excel; the good things others lack, we will have in abundance; and when we ask the Lord for one thing, He will give us in multiples , in Jesus Name. Amen 

The Hand of the Lord

 From Our Pastor’s Desk

Ezra 7:6 – “This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request,
according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him”

This verse of the scripture is both informative and instructive.

While the children of Israel were in a seventy years captivity in Babylon, there came a time that God decided it was time for them to return back to the Promised Land.

 Just like Moses during their ancestors’ captivity in Egypt, it was Ezra that God chose to lead the long, dangerous,  difficult almost a thousand mile journey.

Even though it would be a daunting, dangerous journey with snakes, beasts, enemies, highway bandits etc posing as threats, Ezra refused the Babylonian king’s help to send his troop for protection, declaring that “the hand of the Lord his God was upon him”

Ezra 7:9-10 – “On the first day of the first month he began his journey from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him.

For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel”

As we learn from Ezra today and do like him to seek the law of the Lord, do it and teach it, may the Lord’s good hand rest permanently upon us, in Jesus Name. Amen

You will have good success this 2020.

Remain blessed.
Shalom.

Know the Person of Jesus

From Our Pastor's Desk

As Christians, the Name of Jesus belongs to us. But many times, His Name doesn't mean as much to us as it should.

We need to apply the name of Jesus to situations. His name is the solution to all situation. If you apply that name to any disease, there’d be healing. If apply that name to any confusion, there’d be solution.

If you apply that name to any storm, there’d be calmness. First example, Peter & John called on that name & the lame man leaped.

Acts 3:6-8 – “Then  Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but  such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus  Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he  took him by the right hand, and lifted him up:  and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.

And he leaping up stood, and  walked, and entered with them  into the temple, walking, and  leaping, and praising God. Second, Lazarus,  dead and rot-ten for four days rose up at the mention of the name – John 11:42-44 But for you to apply that name effectively, you must know the personality behind that name.

The reason some call that name & He doesn’t answer is because, you don’t know that name and the name doesn’t know you. You need to know the Person of Jesus.

Today, I command everything lame in our lives to leap up in the NAME OF JESUS. Everything contrary to purpose, dead or seemingly dead, in our businesses, in our marriages, in our finances… HEAR the Name of JESUS and come back to life, in Jesus Name. Amen

You will have good success this 2020.
Remain blessed. 
Shalom.

Jesus, The Amen

By Sis Bukola Olode

Revelations 3:14 - “To the Angel of the Church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation.”

In our text, Jesus was referred to as the Amen, the faithful and the true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.

We usually use the word Amen after saying a prayer to affirm that all that we have said will be as we have said it according to His will. As we say Amen, we realize that we are calling upon Him to advocate for us and bring all that we have said this month and this year to pass.

There are many names by which Jesus is known by. E.g. in our Old Testament reading we come to know Jesus as Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace.

When we pray, we should always do so in the name of Jesus. Philippians 2.9- 10. Praying in the name of Jesus involves praying in harmony with His nature, character and will as well as praying with faith in Jesus and His authority.

When we pray in His name, we are praying with the desire to glorify the Father and the Son. When we pray in Jesus name, we ought to be praying the way Christ would have prayed while He was still here on earth and we know that there is no limit to what God can do when we ask anything in His name John 16:23-24.

As we obey God’s commandment to do everything in his name including prayer, let us continue to rejoice and give thanks knowing that Jesus is our Amen and every promise He has made for us will come to pass in our lives, in Jesus Name. Amen

You will have good success this 2020.

Remain blessed. Shalom.

Overcoming By Our Testimony

From Our Pastor's Desk

Revelations 12:11 - "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." 

In John 9, we read a story of a man born blind from birth, and healed by Jesus. He received his sight on the Sabbath, which was a problem for the Pharisees.

When they called the formerly blind man to hear his story, he gave a simple yet powerful personal eyewitness testimony. "A ll I know is this: Once I was blind, and now I can see!"

You and I are often given the opportunity to use the power of our eyewitness testimony to convince others of God's grace, love and mercy and to encourage our brothers and sisters.  The text says, "they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony."

Jesus has done His part in perfectly defeating the enemy.  He shed His  blood and rose from the  grave.  Now we must do ours  by telling our testimony!  Every time you tell it, it reminds  the devil he’s defeated! 

Go ahead, don’t be afraid or  ashamed - "tell it!" Today’s Testimony Service is an  opportunity that the Holy  Spirit has given us to tell our story of His great, amazing and wonderful things the Lord has done in our lives. ALL TO HIS GLORY.

May He fill our mouths with many more testimonies, in Jesus Name. Amen

You will have good success this 2020.

Remain blessed. 

Shalom.