Father we thank you for your goodness to us. We trust you for a great help tonight as we learn from your wisdom in Jesus name.
What to do to prepare for for the resumption of the new church.
The new church should mean the new format for gathering in the face of covid19. And the requirements given by the government for churches to open.
With 40% permitted to attend, with social distancing of 2 meters radius that will even make it less containing, I don’t think it’s worth it.
Until we are able to sit everyone who would want to come to church, I think we should not belabour ourselves for nothing.
Besides, we already have a situation where we are reaching out to many more people who wouldn’t have been able to attend the event at venues.
The government doesn’t want to open but because of pressure they had done that with almost impossible conditions.
But I’ll say, it may work for those who haven’t been able to join online… A few people like that can gather. The truth is in scriptures.
8Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, 9for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained.
The gathering of the brethren isn’t a problem, because we aren’t like the UK where people can hardly visit each other.
We have Sunday morning service in my home and we invite friends sometimes.
You can have one also in your own house. No one stops all that.
And that’s why I said the word of God is not bound according to scriptures.
Paul was in prison when he wrote most of his books… But are they not blessing us today? If he had not been in prison, maybe he won’t have been able to settle down to write all the letters we are reading today. We need to shift from the natural to the supernatural.
If we are led by the Spirit of God, in doing ministry, we can’t be bound.
Shepherding for instance is more than preaching on the pulpit.
Even though some believe that if we aren’t there, God can’t move and we don’t trust that people can actually reach God without us. But it is wrong.
We can always guide home churches on how to run.
Covid19 is questioning some things we all have seen as indisputable.
Traditions like the laws of Medes and Persians which couldn’t be changed are being questioned.
We have to hear what the Spirit is saying.
Our structures and administrative styles are being questioned.
Our mode of operation are being questioned.
Either you believe covid19 is real or not, we should begin to see that there are things that can disrupt any man made system and we should be careful not to run our spiritual systems by the way of the natural so as not to be trapped by Satan and his agents.
I say it again, if we walk in the Spirit, we can’t be trapped.
Jesus said our worship won’t be restricted to certain mountains again.
He said we should enter into our closets and pray to our Father who is in secret and that He will hear us.
He said where two or three are gathered in His name there He is.
So tell me, if the enemy has the power to stop these provisions and instructions?
And even if they won’t let two or three to gather, each one of us is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
So what is God saying to us in all these?
We are being called back into worship in spirit and in truth.
I hope we are hearing.
So if we go to church on Sunday… This is what pastors should teach their congregations.
That next time when things won’t let you go to church, learn to worship and serve God where you are in the spirit.
Because worse than this is coming.
But if we are able to connect with God we will always win.
The One within us is greater than the one in the world.
Our problem is that we have become too carnal. Without faith.
Lazy and slothful. Complacent in the natural. And satisfied with lukewarmness. We need revival.
Nothing will move us if we step up into the realm of the Spirit.
We’ll overcome anything. That’s the way we are built. We overcome the world.
Even in physical chains, we still reign.
This is what believers should be trained to do. But if we are all about being spoon-fed like babies… It won’t work.
We must build up our most holy faith.
Every believer must know that many will fall away in the end time. And everyone must determine not to be one of them that will fall.
Many difficulties will come to trip believers. But only those who determine not to fall will stand.
They are the ones who will step into the realm of the Spirit to tap strength from God.
They are the ones who believe to the saving of the soul. They are the ones who won’t fall for evil prophecies.
They are not fickle. They go on from strength to strength all of them appearing before God in Zion.
You must make up your mind to be one of them. Natural things and systems will fail but the supernatural won’t fail.
Natural things and systems will fail but the supernatural won’t fail. Economic systems of the world will fail… It will fail Christians… But determine not to fail by building up your faith.
The health system will exclude you as the believer at some point… Can your faith heal you from incurable sickness? Go and build your faith up.
Educational system may exclude the believer… Employment system may exclude you… Can your faith cause God to set up a table for you in the wilderness?
The world will hate you..
The world hates Christ
You can’t escape the hatred. What will you do when they begin to show their hatred towards you in actions?
You can’t depend on the world’s system… It is their system… Don’t count on it.
This is the lesson we all must learn and then go back to our stronghold.
Zechariah 9:12
Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.
This is the cry of the Spirit tonight to you oh child of God. Church isn’t shut.
The one government is trying to open isn’t open yet.
Let the one that’s open continues.
This is just a foretaste of worse things to come.
Gird up your loins, stand up as men…
Go up higher
He that’s from above is above all…
Step out of the flesh and out of the natural…
Step into that realm where we overcome the world…
There, we live above the world… We live laughing at their efforts to frustrate us.
I pray more grace to live as we should come upon all of us.
Pastor Adetokunbo Emmanuel.
