MFM H/Q Sermons

April 21st, 2024.

Topic: EVERY MEMBER, A BIBLE STUDENT (2)
Text: Jeremiah 23:29
Minister: Dr. Daniel Olukoya (G.O. MFM Worldwide)

Last week, we began to look at a very important topic. We take our cue from there again.

Last week, I explained to you the power, the centrality, and the importance of the Word of God and why everybody should be a Bible student. It is not enough to just be praying; the prayer must be backed up by the Word of God.

Jeremiah 23:29 (KJV) says this: “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?”

There are two symbols there about the Word of God: fire and hammer.

As fire:

• the Word of God is a great purifier that destroys all that is unclean and dirty.
• the Word of God removes the dirt from a metal and keeps only the genuine metal.
  As hammer:
• which strengthens our life and conscience
• crushing every evil in the heart.

There are other symbols of the word of God in the Bible, so you know the importance of what we are saying. They are:

1. Hammer.
2. Fire.
3. Mirror to reflect, which is what you use to repair yourself (James 1).
4. A seed to multiply (1 Peter 1).
5. Laver to cleanse.
6. A lamp to guide (Psalms 119).
7. Rain and snow to refresh.
8. Sword (Heb 4:12).
9. Bow to revenge.
10. Gold to enrich a person.
11. Food to nourish. That is why you find the Word of God calling the Bible milk for babies, bread for the hungry, meat for people, and honey for the desert.

So the Word of God:

• gives victory in every battle.
• is the last bus stop in every situation.
• will defend you where you cannot speak.
• will bring you joy.
• will deliver you from bondage.
• silences your enemies.
• destroys hopelessness.
• will work for you in any situation, no matter what the enemy has prepared.
• stops restlessness.
• brings wisdom. If you reject the Word of God, you cannot retain wisdom.
• brings victory over sins.
• gives power to revive.

The power, the centrality, and the importance of the Word of God are not debatable at all. The Great Apostle Joseph Babalola was in a town in southern Nigeria. He started a crusade, but nothing was happening. The crusade looked dry, there was no fire, and so he got concerned. Then he prayed. He said, ‘Father, what is going on here? I have never been to a place where your power is not moving.’ The Lord replied, “You should have asked me.” He said, ‘Okay, Lord, now I am asking you’.

So God said, “Okay, at midnight, you see that river that crosses the town; go there. You will know what the problem is. When you get there, begin to sing praises and call on the name of Jehovah.” So the great apostle went to this great river at midnight and started to pray and sing praises. All of a sudden, there was a rumbling in the water. A giant thing was trying to come out of the water, and very soon, a giant creature came out. The figure was the figure of a giant woman, but with long breasts that were touching the ground.

This principality looked at the great apostle and said, ‘Man of the living God, what do you want?’ He replied, “I want the salvation of God in this city.” She said, ‘No problem; let us negotiate. From this side of the river to that side, you can have it, but leave the other side to me so that both of us will not have any problems.’ The man of God said, “No, there will be no negotiation. Jesus died for the people on this side and on that side.” Then the demon got angry and exclaimed, “What do you mean? Who are you?! Where were you when I started here? I have been here before this river came here”

The man of God retorted, “Well, I do not know where I was. But one thing I know is this: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.’ Immediately after he made the pronouncement, this thing tumbled back into the water, and there was blood all over the water. That was when the power of God could move in their midst.

This is a very mysterious story that is telling you that a particular principality can be an umbrella over a person or even over a nation. The rain of blessings will not fall on the people in that locality as a result. An individual can be an umbrella to stop blessings from falling over your head. The Bible says, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.” Meaning that King Uzziah was that person blocking Isaiah from seeing the Lord.

I am praying for somebody here: Any satanic umbrella blocking you from your rain of blessing, with a twenty-one-fold amen, destroy them, in the name of Jesus.

That was about Apostle Babalola. Let me tell you something that happened in the first church I pastored. We were very few. So I was forcing them to memorise the Bible. I was even embarrassing some of them, regardless of their age. If they did not memorise the Bible, I would ask them to stand up. This was what saved the life of one sister in that church. If I had not taught them, only God knows what would have happened. She was a maternity nurse. A young girl who got pregnant was admitted to the hospital where she worked.

During her night shift, she found out that the stomach of this lady who was brought in for delivery was flat. So she was shocked because the lady was fast asleep, and she shook her to wake up. She asked her, “Where is the baby?” The young girl replied, “Mama, calm down. Relax. The baby has gone for a meeting and will be coming back in an hour. So come back in one hour.” She was scared. Within one hour, the tummy was back again. Then she began to pray that the lady should just deliver and leave the hospital because she was perplexed. She began to pray until the baby was delivered.

Then one day, she was in her office, wide awake. A giant creature came to her and said, “You caused her to deliver the baby here, something we did not want. You are in trouble.” Then the creature started making incantations. She said that as the creature was talking, she was getting weaker and weaker.

All of a sudden, she remembered one of the memory verses I made her learn, which says:

Isaiah 8:9–10 (KJV) “Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us.”

Immediately after she mentioned the scripture, this giant thing fell down and disappeared. Beloveth, the Word of God is quick and powerful. You are not doing yourself any good if you wake up in the morning and leave your house without reading the Bible. Or you have been born again for 2 or 3 years, and you cannot recite any memory verse. When you memorise the Bible, you are storing it in your spiritual bank. So if war is waged against you, you have your own “incantation.”.

And there is nothing anybody can say that can overcome the Word of God. Unfortunately, the church is filled with a lot of biblical illiterates too lazy to memorise, learn, or meditate on the Word of God. They do not understand what Joshua 1:8 says: “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”

This is why you should bring your Bible to church and not tablets or phones.

Signs of Bible illiterates.

• When the Sunday school teacher says, ‘Let us go to Galatians or Lamentations’, and you have to go to the table of contents to first look for it.
• You only pick up your Bible when you want to go to church.
• You are always prone to disobeying God. Somebody has said, “It is impossible to enslave a Bible reader.”
• When you are always fearful and anxious for the future.
• If the world is transforming you instead of you transforming it,.
• If you prefer visions, prophecies, or dreams to the Word of God. Sometimes, the so-called prophets might even tell you something against the Word of God, and you will not know.
• If you do not hear from God.
• If you feel empty and hopeless inside.
• If you are blown everywhere with every wind of doctrine.
• If you compromise in faith.
• When you think the Bible is outdated or does not work for you.
• You find the Bible boring.
• You have turned the Bible into a sleeping tablet. Reading the Bible makes you sleepy.
• You are distracted easily when reading the Bible. That is why you should have a hard-cover book and not read the Bible on your phone, where calls can interrupt you.
• If you have no desire to read the Bible, there is a problem. The Bible says, ‘Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness; they shall be filled.’ If you are not hungry or thirsty about it, to you it is just an ordinary book; you are a Bible illiterate.

A pastor went to a member’s house to pray with them. Then he asked them to bring their Bibles. The woman turned to her son and said, “Go and bring that book we read every morning.” The boy went inside and brought back a story book. She said, ‘No, the one we read every morning’. The child who did not know what was going on said, “But, mummy, this is the one we read.”

More signs of Bible illiteracy.

• If you do not read the Bible like a love letter, you are biblically illiterate.
• You run after prophets instead of the Word of God. You know that one prophet has several wives and is not following the Bible and yet you are following him.
• If you only read the Bible when you come to church.
• If you only read the Bible because you were brought up in a Christian home.
• You believe that reading the Bible is only for preachers alone and that the Bible is not a priority in your life.
• You are too lazy to read the Bible.
• When you have an obituary of quiet time in your life.
• you love entertainment more than God. You can sit down and watch movies for hours. You have never said, ‘Today, I am going to read 10 chapters’ and read it, you are biblically illiterate.
• If you are carnally minded,.
• If you are still a slave to fear and have many excuses for not reading the Bible.

Make up your mind. Determine that you must become a Bible addict. It is good to become a prayer addict. It is good to become a holiness addict. But it is also good to become a Bible addict. Heavens are waiting for some of us to manifest, but the bank of the word of God in such people is so light and low that heaven cannot trust them with much because they are lightweight. They just come to church, know nothing, are just empty, and are swept about by every wind of doctrine.
‘……For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.’

PRAYER POINTS

[Before Message]

1. Battles of the night, assigned to sink my destiny, scatter, in the name of Jesus.
2. Every terror of the night, organised to turn my life upside down, backfire, in the name of Jesus.
3. Powers hiding in the darkness to kill me; you are liars; die in the name of Jesus.
4. Wicked dreams, wicked visions, against my life, backfire, in the name of Jesus.
5. Witchcraft operations in my bloodline, dry up, in the name of Jesus.
6. My days, favour me by fire, in the name of Jesus.

[After Message]

1. Spirit of the valley, summoning me to the valley, lose your hold, in the name of Jesus.
2. Every Goliath delaying my glory, I pull you down, in the name of Jesus.
3. Forces of darkness, preparing my defeat, die in the name of Jesus.
4. My testimonies, in the hand of the wicked, be released by fire, in the name of Jesus.
5. Padlocks of darkness, working against my life, break, in the name of Jesus.

MFM H/Q Sermons
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