MFM H/Q Sermons

Glorious Sunday Worship Service.
May 19th, 2024

Topic: EVERY MEMBER, A BIBLE STUDENT (6)
Text: Psalms 119:89, 97, 33–34
Minister: Dr. Daniel Olukoya (G.O. MFM Worldwide)

It is important that you take these teachings to heart—not only listening to them, but something to be practicalized. I have been explaining to you the centrality of the Word of God and how it is a tool, a power, a strength, honey, a hammer, quick, and powerful.

Psalms 119:89 (KJV): “For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.”

It is crucial that every member be a Bible student. There is no other book as important as the Bible. Last week, I began to explain to you how to study the Bible. If you did not come, get the message and listen to it carefully. Last week, we stopped at “Meditation” and I made one solid point that I want to repeat this morning: if you will ever become anything spiritually, you must meditate. Oh, you may say, “I have no time”, then you cannot grow spiritually. You will remain where you are.

Joshua 1:8 made it very clear: “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”.

You must meditate. When you come to the Word of God, you drop your opinion, your view, and that thing they say is in your culture that is anti-scriptural. The Bible will say so many things that will not make sense to you. But the Bible is the Bible. As long as the earth and heaven exist, the Bible remains sharper than any two-edged sword.

The Bible will talk about hellfire. Many people say they do not believe, but when they get there, they will believe. Hell will be the greatest prayer meeting on earth. Men who never came to church will be there. Men who are just playing games with their spiritual lives will be there. Those who are careless about the things of God will be there, and they will cry like that rich man cried. He started praying when he got to hellfire. He prayed when it was too late. He saw Father Abraham; he saw Lazarus, who used to eat from his table; and then he saw himself in hellfire.

In great agony, the Bible says that he prayed, “Father Abraham, send Lazarus to dip his finger in water and put it on my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame”. The prayer he never prayed on earth, he prayed there. Some come to church, and when they call prayer points, they do not pray. Some will tell you, point blank, “I do not believe in prayers”. They will pray when they get to hellfire.

● May you not pray when it is too late, in the name of Jesus.

The Bible talks about heaven—a place of the righteous, a place called Paradise. There is no music here. There is no beauty here. There is no organisation here. If God shows you a glimpse of that place, you will know that there is nothing to run after in that vain, dying world. The Bible has completed everything we are doing here. It says, “Vanity upon vanity, all is vanity”. Zero upon zero, all is zero. You may have danced at parties where they sang that you would not die. You will die, no matter what they sing at that party. The Bible makes it very clear.

It says, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment”. You can find all these in the Bible. You may be very uncomfortable, but the Bible does not care whether you are white or black or whether it is your culture or not. If something is wrong, the Bible will call it wrong. If something is right, the Bible will call it right. It is not a black or white man’s look. It is a book from heaven. There are things that the white man is doing that the Bible is attacking day and night. There are also things that the black man is doing that the Bible is attacking.

It says, “As they have rejected the knowledge of God in their lives, He has given them over to a reprobate mind”, meaning that their heads are not correct, and so they will do the things that are not convenient. Something that animals will not do, human beings will do. I met a girl in Paris during a crusade. Her father was a pastor here in Nigeria. She came for counselling after and said, “Man of God, pray for me. I sleep with dogs.” I asked, “Dogs?” She said, “Yes, that is the only way I can get money. Each one I do, they give me five thousand dollars.” I said to her, “Destiny, go back home. Leave this place”.

A human being sleeping with dogs? Strange. But the Bible does not find it strange. It calls such an act ‘bestiality’. So, the Bible is aware of everything. When you come to the Bible, your opinion and instincts are spiritually dead. You must completely disregard what you are told by your natural instincts. No matter whether you are a doctor or professor, when it comes to the Bible, you put all of that aside, because if you are going to be using that brain to rationalise the things of God, you will not get anywhere.

So if you are reading the Bible and it contradicts your life, please accept what the Bible is saying. Your feelings may tell you, “Well, I have to satisfy myself. They are removing my freedom. This is too restrictive. I cannot do this, I cannot do that, I cannot live my life like that!” So, you go ahead and contradict scripture. You think that it is limiting your liberty, whereas it is trying to save you from death. Not only that glitters is gold. All of these are found in the Word of God.

Now, what are the principles of personal Bible study? When you sit down,

1. You offer thanksgiving for the Word and its availability to you. You say, “Father, I thank you for this Word and its availability to me”. I was talking to a minister last week. I said, “My friend, who do you think is the greatest deliverance minister that the Almighty God sent to the Yoruba race?” He started thinking, then replied, “Ahh, they are many”. Then I said to him, “Do you know that the greatest deliverance minister that God has sent to the Yoruba race was Bishop Ajayi Crowther? He sat down, took the Bible, and began to translate it into the Yoruba language.

What he translated then was the Bible that was available when our ancient fathers started Pentecostalism in Nigeria. Most of those early fathers did not go to school to study the English language. But they understood Yoruba, and they could read it. So if nobody made that Yoruba Bible available at that time, what would these men be reading since they could not read English? So he was the greatest deliverance minister in Yoruba land”. Deliverance is not just about saying, “Come out!”, no. You make the Word of God available to the ears of people.

So, for that availability, you thank God.

2. Ask God to give you love for His Word. As written in Psalms 119:97 (KJV) – “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” You cannot get much out of the Bible without loving and desiring it. If you do not have that love and you are doing it as a duty, then you cannot get much. Without that love, your Bible study will be cold and just intellectual. The reason many people suffer so much in their dreams is because, 90% of the time, the bank of the Word of God in their spirit is so low. So they have nothing to say back to the enemy.
3. Ask for spiritual understanding. When you understand spiritually, it is indeed a big thing. Look at the scriptures again: Psalms 119:33–34 (KJV) “Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.” That songwriter says, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”
4. Read a passage the first time. As you are reading, jot down the areas, thoughts, phrases, or ideas that speak to your heart. The faintest ink is better than the best brain. Get a jotter with your Bible.
5. Read that same passage again and say it out loud. I am teaching you how to be a Bible student.
6. Meditate on what spoke to your heart. What lessons did it teach you? What warnings is it giving you? What caution is it putting in your way? What correction is it telling you? What is it trying to let you understand? What have you learnt from the lives of those you read about or from the words you read? You close your eyes and let the Word soak you.
7. Obedience. It is essential to obey what you have learnt, if you want to grow and advance in Bible study. If it is teaching you ‘A, B, C’ and you have not mastered that yet, then you are going to ‘X, Y, Z’, and you will have a problem. If it says “correct this” and you refuse, there will be no more instructions on what to do next, because you have not even done the simple things it is asking you to do. It makes no sense to read the Bible and refuse to obey.

Sometimes we ask people, ‘do you not know that this is wrong? Have you not read the Bible that says, “Let marriage be holy and the bed undefiled; but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge?”‘ Many of them reply, “Yes, I have read it”. Many of you who are here now do not have any magic, any native doctor you are consulting (I hope?), any medicine you talk to at night. Your only friend is God the Almighty and Jesus Christ, our Lord.

The friends you had before have disappointed you. You are now offending this only friend you have. Who will fight for you when you get Him upset?

Immediately after you begin to disobey God, the first thing that happens is that you open the door. You have broken the hedge for the enemies to attack you, using the door that you have opened by your disobedience.

There used to be one man who used to come here. After some time, he ran away, and we did not see him again. Then, by the time I would see him again, I said, “Ah, daddy, we do not see you again. What happened?”. He replied, “I do not feel comfortable coming to that place. I want to marry more wives, but here, you keep saying, ‘One man, one wife, that adultery is bad’. I have gone to a church now where no one talks about sin or adultery, so I am more comfortable there. Do not expect to see me here again”.

I asked, “So, how many wives have you married now?” He said, “I have married two more since I left”. Then I said to him, “Well, God have mercy on you. Bye-bye”. He said, “Nice talking to you, G.O. Bye-bye”. I did not know that I was talking to him for the last time. One of the wives, the jealous one, poisoned him. Obedience is key to growing in the things of God.

8. Memorise scriptures. At least before you get up from that place where you are studying the Bible, pick up a scripture and memorise.
9. Do praise and thanksgiving. This brings your Bible study time to a close.
   I did not say “prayer time” or quiet time. Take note. During quiet time, you read some portions of the scriptures for maybe ten or fifteen minutes. I am also not talking about family devotion. You sit down and say, “What I want to do now is just Bible study time”. You can even declare a Bible study vigil, where you want to sit down and read large chunks of the scripture at a time. It is the most rewarding spiritual exercise you can ever think of.

It is one thing to be in the presence of God. It is another thing for the church to be inside of you. A lot of people do not like Bible study. They prefer prayer meetings. It is a huge mistake. Some of our ancient fathers, who preached the gospel and established Pentecostalism in this country, can read the whole Psalms from 1–150 off the tops of their heads. They were men and women, not only of prayer but of the Word of God. No matter how loud your prayer is, if it lacks “it is written”, it is a powerless prayer.

How Do I Become a Bible Addict?
Many have no problem with prayers; in fact, a lot of people are addicted to praying. But Bible study? No.

1. Fall in love with the Bible: Do not do this thing where you are ashamed to carry the Word of God about. If you take the bags of some people and pour them upside down, you will find a mirror, comb, multivitamin, drugs, toilet roll, and handkerchief. Bible? No. You are supposed to have a small Bible you can carry around. You cannot say, “It is on my phone.” No, the printed book is what you need.
2. Make reading the Bible a top priority. Do not joke with it.
3. Make it a habit to read the Bible. It is not going to be easy to start with, because the devil does not want anybody to grow the Word of God in their hearts. But with regular efforts, consistency, and determination, you begin to enjoy it.
4. Confess the Word of God daily.
5. Bring songs out of the Bible.
6. Read that Bible slowly and carefully.
7. Read the Bible with the intention of doing what it says. That way, you cannot be blown away anyhow.
8. Make use of Bible aids. There are some aids that are sold in Christian bookshops. Spend your money wisely – use it to develop yourself. Any money you spend to develop your spiritual life is money well spent.
9. Study a specific Bible character regularly. You can say, “Today, I want to look at Elijah. Or Joseph. Or Jeremiah”. As you begin to study, you will gain so much.
10. Study the promises of God. The Bible is filled with God’s promises. As you begin to study, it will become your living experience.
11. Study the commands of Jesus. Where He said “do this” or “do it”, do it. Study it.
12. Share the Word of God with people. Enter into discussions with people.
13. Make a plan to read the Bible from cover to cover. If you invest half an hour a day, you will cover it in no time.
14. Make use of devotionals. Fortunately, MFM has devotionals you can make use of.
15. Study the Bible like you are reading for an examination.
16. Create memory verses for yourself.
17. Find a version of the Bible you can understand very well. Or you can get the Bible in different translations.

As you follow and continue to do all these, you will become a Bible addict.

PRAYER POINTS.

[Before Message]

1. Powers assigned to put me in the land of stagnancy, you are liars die in the name of Jesus.
2. Powers assigned to exchange my money in witchcraft markets, die in the name of Jesus.
3. Wicked elders standing against my prayers, die in the name of Jesus.
4. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Arise, prove to my enemies that you are my God, in the name of Jesus.

[After Message]

1. Strange birds, surrounding my glory, catch fire in the name of Jesus.
2. Dangerous sacrifices, offered to report me to demons, backfire, in the name of Jesus.
3. Day and night afflictions, assigned against me, die in the name of Jesus.
4. Holy Ghost, touch me now, in the name of Jesus.

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