Lift up your heads, All ye Gates

By Pastor Kemi Epidi 

Gates serve as entry points. Entry points to a house, city, palace, church, or a person’s life (breakthroughs and lifting). There are also gates in the spiritual realm. 

While God has gates He uses to release blessings and good things into our lives, the devil uses his own evil gates to pass or introduce sin, problems, afflictions and all manner of evil into people’s lives.

 We can deduce that David most likely wrote Psalm 24 when he was at the lowest point of his life. 

He had been anointed king over Israel but instead of taking the throne he became a servant in the palace. 

However, he knew that once the King of glory comes in, everything to do with shame in his life will disappear. Before he invited the King of glory, he addressed the things that had been restricting his lifting. 

Psalm 24:7 says lift up your heads, o ye gates; and be lift up, ye everlasting doors and the King of glory shall come in. There are certain gates that need to be lifted for us to receive our lifting. 

They must be possessed, captured, lifted and destroyed before we can conquer and emerge victoriously. Jesus said, He would build the church that has power to break the gates of hell Matt 16:19. 

Every gate restricting our lifting, restricting the access of the King of glory in our lives be lifted. He has done that––and He will continue to do that, in Jesus mighty name. 

You will have good success this 2021. Remain blessed.  Shalom.

The Woman, Her Husband and Her City

From Our Pastor's Desk

“And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary...” Luke 1:26-28  

The Bible has records of divine visitations from the Old to the New Testaments. Many of us have read and listened to people’s testimonies of divine visitation. 

If indeed the Bible is true to you, then there is what is known as divine visitation.  The Bible in Luke 1 explicitly gave a full record of how a young and beautiful damsel from a little town was visited by an angel of God.  

From the passage above, it clearly showed that the divine visitation for uplift was for three: Mary, Joseph, and Nazareth - Matthew 21:11 – “And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee” 

The main character, the main objective of Heaven, the main reason & recipient of the angelic visitation and lifting up, was Mary. Brethren, I would like for you to go over the passage one more time, there was no visible qualification for this blessing except that she was a virgin. 

Nevertheless, heaven must have seen something else, apart from being a virgin, something we did not see or what is not visible to human perception, but only to God. 

My prayer is that, like Mary, the Lord will find in us that distinguishing trait that’ll single us out for divine visitation of upliftment, in Jesus mighty name. 

You will have good success this 2021. 

Remain blessed.  

Shalom.

Singled Out for Lifting

 By Bro. Chuks Abuaeme

1Samuel 16:12-13 – “And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and withal of a beautiful countenance and godly to look to. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of Oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren; and the spirit of the Lord came upon David and from that day forward”.  

Among the 8 sons of Jesse, God singled out David to be anointed for his purpose. He looked beyond the outward appearance but his heart. 

By man’s standard, he was overlooked, under-mined and deemed irrelevant or only good for menial jobs. While David was at the field, God saw his diligence and how he cared for his father’s sheep.  

As we live our daily lives, what would God see when He looks in our heart? What would He see in your heart when you’re not at the top or when you’re overlooked or, undermined?  

After David was anointed and had the spirit of God upon him, but he was not exempted from life’s challenges. Be prepared for the opportunity as well as the challenges. When God single you out to be lifted and blessed, the blessing comes along with challenges. 

In those moment of challenges, Let the word of God be your sword and light to guide you through. When David confronted Goliath as in 1Samuel 17:45 – “Then David said to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear ad with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Host, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou has defiled”.  

The Lord grant us hearts that seek after God’s heart like David, so we also may be singled out for lifting, like David, in Jesus mighty name. 

You will have good success this 2021. 

Remain blessed.  

Shalom.

Join the LIFT Business

From Our Pastor's Desk

The Lift business is the business that God’s children, servants, vessels, Christians have been called into. It is the Kingdom Business. The King of the Kingdom Himself is in the Lift business. 

1 Samuel 2:7-8 – “The LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the LORD'S, and he hath set the world upon them” 

Psalms 147:6 – “The L ORD lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground” Psalms 3:3 – “But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head” “Lifting the head” means that someone’s status in life has changed from one of disgrace or oppression to one of honor or glory. 

God hates the oppression of His people. Rather than letting tribulations continue, He will send relief to His people even in the worst of situations. 

All around us there are people who are hurting, people who are defeated, discouraged, depressed, there are people close to you who feel hopeless, and alone, circumstances have beaten them down; many of them may be on the verge of giving up, even committing suicide. 

They need a lift. And God has called us into the business of lifting each other up. The Lift Business of the Kingdom. Will you join? 

1 Thessalonians 5:11  Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one an-other, even as also ye do. Hebrews 12:12 – “Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees” 

The Lord grace us afresh to be “lifters of heads” just like our Father in Heaven, in Jesus mighty name.

 You will have good success this 2021. 

Remain blessed.  

Shalom. 

Christ in You, the Hope of Glory

Souled Out Teenagers Week - Shine BIG (Bright in Glory)

 By Bro. Rilwan Daniel Olunlade 

What does it mean to shine bright in glory? Shining bright in glory is to set yourself aside from others and live in certain characteristics.  

Naturally you will stand out from non-believers, it’s obvious because we have sets of rules to follow and live in light. You start to shine when you show love to others, be thankful, be faithful, and obedient in God.  

You will know you are shining bright when you can separate yourself from someone you know that doesn’t walk with God. Isaiah 60:2 says that darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the people. 

This meaning that we live in a world of darkness, when you shine you will be set aside from that. It says the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you.  We are created for God’s glory. Our purpose is to glorify God, doing so you will shine. 

Think of yourself as a temple, God lives in us, He shines in us, giving us life. Now that we know how to shine, you are now forced to continue. What I mean by this is to drive on with your faith.   

This point proves that God can chose anybody to use them for His work, by you obeying His word and His commandments you will shine great in glory. Matthew 5:16 says let your light shine before others so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven. 

After reading this you can understand that God wants us as His followers to shine our light through our behavior and deeds so that non-believers become compelled to glorify our Father in heaven. 

In conclusion, if you want to shine you must first surrender yourself to God. When you surrender yourself open up to God’s calling and words. 

As you know now shining is the act of obeying God and doing things in His name so that non-believers see these acts and begin to glorify God. The Lord bless us as we shine and glorify Him, in Jesus mighty name. 

You will have good success this 2021. 

Remain blessed.  

Shalom

Shine Your Light

By: Min. Rebecca Orimoloye

We live in a climate where seasons are determinants in a lot of things we do. We are observant of our physical weather seasons, but it is imperative we also consider the season we are in as Christians to ensure we are prepared for it and act accordingly. 

We are in the season of revival - and we will see why and how.  

We often think of revivals as religious gatherings. This is largely true but we need to understand revivals are not necessarily religious in nature. A revival is an instance of something becoming popular, active, or important again. 

There is in fact a parallel set of revivals currently happening in the world today. 

There is the revival in Christendom as we have always known it and the revival of the kingdom of darkness. 

An example of this revival can be referred to as being woke or “the woke” generation. Unlike the Christendom revival, what we need to be mindful of is the fact that the revival of the kingdom of darkness is ever so subtle, one would hardly notice it at first. 

It is many times nearly irreversible when it is noticed as a problem. Joel 1:4 paints the picture accurately. The woke movement, which “innocently” started out as being alert to societal injustices, especially in racism is now taking a turn for the worse.  

 And the devil is very happy. His aim of building a parallel kingdom in heaven (Isaiah 14:12-14) is now being fanned by “the woke” revival. For example, a decision that was made to prohibit the name of Jesus or any religious mention in the public school curriculum wasn’t a decision that came about in a day. It was a subtle attack. 

The same is the case with replacing the word "Christmas" with holidays. As children of God and potential bearers of His light, our light must shine, no matter how little. The presence of our collective light, even in a big dark world becomes significant if it doesn't go out.  

We need to live as light bearers in this kingdom and allow the indwelling of the spirit of God in our lives, so we can be just like the Apostles in the upper room. In Acts 2:8-11, the Apostles were speaking in other languages the wonderful works of God. 

We need to ask the Holy Spirit to fill us up with His presence, to enable us to speak the current woke language in a way that what the woke will hear is the wonderful works of God.   

The Lord bless us as we thread this path, in Jesus mighty name. 

You will have good success this 2021. Remain blessed.  

Shalom.