In every way, the word persistent, now, I then combine the word persistent with faith, which we all know, the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, Hebrews 11:1, where I'm sure we're conversant, but just for the sake, for record purposes, I reference the scripture. [00:05:14] (16 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)














Pray in the Holy Ghost. You have been given this gift. Don't waste it. Don't waste it. Use it. It can turn around situations. I've seen so many things turn around. We mess up and then we start praying in the Holy Ghost and things start to change. It medically change. [00:41:36] (16 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

Good morning, church.

I'm sure my father is smiling from heaven because he's probably thinking, "Finally." Oh, thank God. I thank God for the privilege. I thank God for the privilege of being in this family. I thank God for the privilege of serving with you for the number of years that we've served together. I thank God for my pastors tremendously. I thank God for my brothers and sisters that I've known for so many years.

It's almost become like you begin to take each other for granted sometimes, but we shouldn't take each other for granted. It's a blessing. It's a privilege to be able to spend time with people and get to know them, know where they smell, know everything about them. It's a good privilege.

This afternoon, I'm hoping that the Holy Spirit will enable me to minister life and to minister grace to you. You're not novices, as Pastor rightly said. We've been invited. We've been in the Word for years, and for some of us, for even longer than the years of this church. So I want to give God thanks for everyone, and I just want to go into a place of prayer.

I didn't want to go into singing because, you know, that's my default position. So I want to start from the Word, and if the Lord leads us into a song, then we will do that as well. So if you don't mind us praying,

Father, we just give you thanks for the privilege and the opportunity to gather once again. Thank you because we are able to come together, fellowship one with another, to give glory to your name. Father, Lord, you will give me the right words to speak, the words that would impart grace to the hearers. You will teach, you will train my mouth to say the right words, my voice, my tongue like the pen of a ready writer, that I may be able to minister grace, I may be able to minister peace, I may be able to minister courage in these times that we are in. I give you praise, Lord, and I thank you for the things that you have started to do in our midst and the things that you will continue to do in our midst.

In Jesus' mighty name we pray. Amen. Amen.

Um, before pastor actually said to me, "Oh, would you come and minister during this powerful month of November, which has been such a blessing," I'd been meditating on, well, I've been hearing the word persistent faith. So in the number of times that we've shared what God has done for us, the word that always comes out is the word persistent faith. And that word then began to resonate in my being.

I started to ask myself, um, I started to spend time understanding what is persistent faith? What does it really mean to be persistent? So I kind of, if you are looking for a title, I kind of titled today, "Persistent Faith in Troubled Times," because whether we are conscious of it or not, we are in troubled times.

Um, it's only going to get darker, and people don't like you saying that. They go, "Yo, it's such a gloomy person." No, the reality is that's what the word says. So we're just reminding each other so that we don't fall asleep and be slumbering like those 10 virgins. I mean, the five of the 10 virgins, the ones who didn't put their oil in the lamp, and then the bridegroom came, and then they went to town to go and buy the oil, by which time they came back and the doors were shut.

We don't want to be those ones. That's why we keep reminding each other that look, let's not fall asleep. Let's not slumber. Let's not join the world and forget who we are in Christ. And that's why we keep talking about the times that are evil and the times that are pressing, because when the pressure comes, it's what you put inside that's going to come out.

If you don't put anything in, trust me, the first thing that will come out is your Adamic nature, your selfish nature, your self-centered nature. That one is, you don't need to do anything to be selfish. You don't need to do anything to be angry. You don't need to do anything to be biting. You don't need to do anything to be frustrated. Those things come naturally to us. You know that. If you haven't experienced it, then you haven't lived long enough.

But the one that doesn't come natural to us is walking by faith. We have to actually walk it. We have to build ourselves up. We have to lift ourselves out to be able to actually walk by faith.

So the first thing I wanted to share with us is I wanted to do a bit of a bit of a David here where we just talk about the word itself and then break it down and break it down. So the word persistence. You know, I was looking at it and thinking, what is persistent faith? So I thought, let me go into the dictionary, because the dictionary will give me the definition of persistent, and then I can break it down even further.

Now, persistent, it says continuing firmly or obstinately in an opinion or course of action, in spite of difficulty or opposition, not giving up, determined, resolved, resolute, single-minded. And it's derived from the Latin word, persister, which means to continue with strength.

Now, you have to go without stopping, you occur without interruption, which means no matter what is coming on that word persistent, persistent means nothing is stopping you, nothing is slowing you down, nothing is making you give up what you are holding on to or believing for or expecting.

In every way, the word persistent. Now, I then combine the word persistent with faith, which we all know, the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, Hebrews 11:1, where I'm sure we're conversant, but just for the sake, for record purposes, I reference the scripture.

And then we also know that in that same book, Hebrews, it says, without faith, you cannot please God. So 11:6 says, it's impossible to please him without faith. Now, we also know that the world was created by words that were spoken by God. He spoke them into being, and it was.

So what am I trying to bring you to now? I'm trying to now draw your attention. You know, when someone says, "Oh, you have persistent faith," they might think, "Oh, maybe, you know, 200 scriptures and, you know, you're constantly in the word." Yes, you are in the word to be persistent. You have to be, but it might not take you, it's not a one-day journey.

I said to somebody who was saying, "Oh, how do you do this, believe in God for a child?" I said, "I'm going to the doctors, blah, blah, blah." I said, "Well, you know, I can't tell you whether your first journey to the doctor will be victorious." And I said, "Well, I can't tell you whether your first journey to the doctor will be victorious. I can't tell you it will not be. But all I can tell you is that it's not a one-day journey. I cannot tell you it's not a one-month journey. I can't even tell you it's a one-year journey. I can't tell you it's a 15-year journey. I don't have the words to tell you what journey you're going to be on. But all I can tell you is if you stick with it, you will win."

So that was the words I could say to that person. I couldn't even say some of the scary things that the person was going to encounter. Like the first thing you will encounter when you walk into the doctor's office, he'll tell you, "Sorry, mate. 10% chance, 5% chance, this, that, that, that, that's wrong with you. This is wrong with you." Even when nothing is wrong, they'll still tell you, "Can't guarantee nothing." Because why? They don't have the capacity to do so.

So I couldn't explain that to her. I couldn't say to her, "This is what you need to do. This is how you need to do this. A, B, C, plus C, D, E, F." No, you don't have any formula that you can give anyone to be able to walk the walk of faith. It's a personal walk. It's an individual walk. You have to determine yourself that I'm going to walk this walk.

And that is why when my sister was talking about Abraham, she stole my preaching man, Abraham. That was my key man. And when she went into the scriptures, I thought, "That's it. I'm going to still talk about Abraham because really, I really love Abraham, you know. And he's one of my favorite persons."

But I'm also going to talk about the Canaanite woman, the Syrophoenician woman. I'm going to give you the examples of persistent faith. And then I'm going to hone in on one particular area. How do I build it? How do I build? There's no point in me telling you persistent faith and not say something about how it's going to be done.

So I'm going to start with talking about two examples. I hope I have enough time. Talking about the two examples. And then, by the grace of God, maybe we'll be able to flow into how we start building persistent faith. Reminding you of your... What you already know. There's nothing new. It's in the scriptures. There's nothing new under the sun. So there's nothing I'm going to say to you today that is so nouvelle, unheard of. It doesn't exist.

Okay. So, this woman, I'm going to read from Matthew 15:22 to 23. It says, "And behold, a woman of Canaan came from the region and cried out to him, saying, 'Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David. My daughter is severely demon-possessed.' But he answered her not a word. And the disciples came and urged Him, saying, 'Send her away, for she cries out after us.'"

The Amplified said, "He did not say a word in answer to her. And his disciples came and asked him repeatedly, 'Send her away, because she keeps shouting after us.'" That gave me an idea that she didn't just do that shouting once. She was doing it repeatedly. So you can imagine someone saying, "Help me, help me, sir." You know, us Africans, "Please, sir, I'm messing now. Help me, sir. My child, oh," and she must have been going on and on and on and on like a broken record.

So the disciples were getting really frustrated. You know, her first attempt, she was ignored. We know that was the first attempt, but she persisted for a while until the disciples appealed to Jesus, "Send her away. She's getting on our nails. If you're not going to do anything about her, please, can we get rid of her?" You know, she was, even though she was appealing continuously, no one was, he just said, "I'm not, I'm only sent to the lost sheep of Israel. I'm not sent to her."

So he didn't even bother responding to her. He's like, he didn't even address her, you know, he addressed the disciples and told them he wasn't sent to her. Can you imagine if you did that in our time? They'll go, "Oh, that's condescending. That's arrogant." No, he just, he knows who he was called to. He said, "No, I'm not sent to her."

You know, but the woman too said, "I'm here for something." Typical African woman. She's like, "I'm here for something. I am not backing down. Whether you say you're giving it to me or not, I will try till the very last." And so she kept pressing until he said, "You know, why would I give the bread to the dogs?" You know, you know, he called her a dog.

You know, we've had this one before. They say somebody gave an analogy. You know, Jesus was wrong to have called her a dog. Hey, that was what she was. She was a Canaanite. And if you know what the Canaanite did, you would know why she was, why he said dog.

Yeah. And the woman said, "Even the dogs will eat the crumbs that fall off the table. Still have mercy on me, Papa." And he answered, "Dear woman, your faith is strong. What you desire will be done for you." And at that very moment, her daughter was instantly set free from demonic torment.

I can go in different directions on this woman, you know, because I read her up and I think, wow, I think to her, she could have been offended. She could have turned away. Many people get offended. You just say, you don't even, you just need to sneeze and they get offended. And that's it. They give up their blessings so quickly.

Maybe that's the person tied to your destiny. So I don't like the way he looked at me. You know, when I called him for help, he said, "Oh, he was busy." Oh, I left a message for pastor. I need to even respond to three days later. No way, I'm not going back to that place. You know, you have this attitude forgetting that if God has connected your blessing to that person, you had better stay put and hold on and be like this Syrophoenician woman and you keep persisting until you get it.

Because if that is the person, and the man of God always says if that person is connected to your destiny and you walk away, trust me, I'm not saying God cannot send you someone else. It will take a while, maybe another decade, that's if you're still hanging in there.

So remember that word. I wanted to pull that in because that was her persistence. She was resolute. She was determined regardless of the opposition, regardless of the things that anyone had to say. I mean, I had some things said to me that if they said it to some people, they would just, in fact, somebody, one person fell apart like a two-dollar suitcase. I don't even know what I said to her. Did nothing happen. She looked at me like, "How can you say nothing happened? We've just spent three thousand, Pasama, three thousand. Do you want me to start telling you how much I spent so that you can go and kill yourself?"

I just left her. I said, "Let me not be like my other senior. She would just yab you and move on." No, I thought, "No, I'm not going to do that. I have to be nice."

So, but the point I was trying to make is you have to be persistent. You can't say because somebody said this door is closed, then you don't. I remember one of my sons in the Lord, when he was little, he said he wants to play the drums. I said no. He went to the next person, he said no. He went to the next person, and I was watching him going around. And I said to him, "Everybody has said no. Don't you understand no?"

And he ministered life to me instantly that everybody's saying no. "I'm only five, and I'm still deciding that I will keep trying. Somebody must say yes eventually." And do you know that somebody said yes eventually? And that is the fact I learned from that action that he did that day, and I can never forget it because his way went, "But I would at least try. Why should I just stop because one person said no?"

You know, so basically I've gone in directions that I wasn't planning to go to, church.

Again, reminding myself about why I'm always amazed about this, my father of faith. And I just looked at what happened. 75 years old, Genesis 12:4. He left Haran with a promise received in verse 1 to 3. The promise was that he will be multiplied and he will be a great nation. You can't multiply if you don't have kids, right?

Okay. Genesis 13:14, Lot left him, and then God reinforced the promise. Sorry, Lot was his nephew. And God reinstated the promise again and said he will make his descendants like the dust of the earth. So that if a man can count the dust of the earth, that's how much your descendants will be. The guy still had no children.

Then Genesis 15:4 to 5. The promise came back again in a vision. And then it was a sure word that the child will come from his body. God is like, "I know what I'm telling you. I know what I said." The stars. "Okay. Look up. Can you count them? That is how your descendants, that's the number of your descendants."

At this stage, there was no thing. So 75, hear me out. 85, still nothing. 10 years later, God, what's going on? Then at 86, he has Ishmael. He says, "I can make do with Ishmael. He's my child. Thank you, Jesus." No, nothing. But you know, we will say thank you, Jesus. But God still came back again at 99.

"Aren't you tired, Lord? I'm already okay with what I have. I don't need to start worrying about what you said. I know what you said. I heard it. I heard it when you said it." And then God speaks again and says, "Now I'm going to even change your name. I'm going to call you the father of nations."

So at 99 now, I'm changing your name. Can you imagine someone coming to you now saying, "I no longer want you to be called this name. This is the name you should now be bearing." You first go, you yourself, when they call you, you will not remember you're the one they are calling. Because you're not used to being called that anyway.

You know, you only respond to the names that people have called you up to that point. So now he had to first adjust himself. When he wants to introduce himself, "Good afternoon, my name is Abraham." Then he would have done that for a while. Then he's okay, new name. So first he had to adjust. Then his wife too had to adjust, new name, introducing themselves by a different name when they had spent almost a century on earth.

So basically, the promise was established anyway. He said, "I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you." A specific timeline was then received at 99. And a year later, or roughly about that time, is when we know that Isaac came.

Now, he had the word coming, God was coming down, and we're not specific on most of how God spoke, but we know they said it was God that spoke. Okay, so now I would read this one that says, Hebrews 11:12, it says, "Therefore from one man and him as good as dead were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as innumerable as the grain of the earth."

And he said, "I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will of sand by the seashore." So it came to pass. It came to pass because Hebrew confirmed that it came to pass.

Now, another one I wanted to read is Romans 4:17 to 24. And it says, "As it is written, this scripture was a scripture that I read up and read up and read up and read up. I have made you the father of many nations in the presence of God, whom he believes, who gives life to the dead and calls things that be not as they're causing, I'm getting into my mental, causing to existence, the things that do not exist.

In hope, he believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told. So shall your offspring be. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body. That's his persistence. He did not weaken in faith. And when he was as good as dead, that's another confirmation that he was as good as dead.

Since he was about a hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb, no unbelief may come to him. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body. Since he knew how to speak heart and soul, he objected him with cruelties his word made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith. As he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

In fact, he sadly wavered because of the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God. Full were through his promise of God. So shall be boiled, standing scattered all will be heard. As though it was written for us too, but for ours also.

So all this record that you're reading and I'm reading was given so that you too can know that no matter how bleak it is, 75, 85, good God, 95, 99, that no matter how bleak it is, no matter how last minute it sounds, no matter how hopeless it looks, he's saying he made sure that Abraham was able to stand so that you can stand also.

And that's one thing that made Abraham's waiting really meet my heart and touch my heart over and over. Because I will read it. Hebrews said, Sarah received strength to conceive, which means that it is the strength of that persistent faith that gave birth to Isaac. It wasn't just the fact that God has said it. It's the strength that they received.

How did they receive this strength? I keep asking myself, how do you get this kind of strength to stand when things look so bad? Now, you will say, hmm, someone might be hearing me and saying, "Well, I'm not, I don't feel this doesn't apply to me." It will apply to you if it didn't apply to you already. Trust me, it's going to apply to you.

And I want to repeat it again. If it hasn't applied to you already, trust me, it's going to apply to you. There are so many challenges. Challenges, relationship challenges, financial challenges, children challenges, family challenges. Challenges will come. Don't be offended.

Please hold on, hold on, hold on. Challenges will come. But when they come, you need to know what you are going to do when they come. It's not whether if, it is when. So what is your position? Your challenge may be delay. Your challenge may not be delay. Your challenge may be. Every time you work, you can't even, you can't put two dollars together, two pounds. You finish paying the bills and then the red is redder than the red. You know what I mean?

No matter how you do it today, you say, "Okay, I'm not going to this month. They say, if I only may bring food from home and I don't buy food in the shops, I will save X amount." You can do all the maths. You still end up broke. So which means it is not some of these things that you are thinking, "Oh yeah, they say if you do this, you do that." Nah, you can still do everything and nothing will work, trust me, because that is not where the problem is.

I remember one time the voice was like, "If you don't deal with the aspect of the spiritual, you can do all you want in the natural. It's not going to work." Sorry, sorry to bust your bubble. It's not about how good you look. It's not about how much money you have. You can have all the money and not even be able to use it properly because you are not dealing with natural stuff.

Once you take your... You know, I love the way Ron Canoly said it. He said, "You're either on God's side or you're on the devil's side. You can't be in the middle." Some people think, "Oh, well, you know, you still, you look just keep praying and I don't want to do all of that. I don't want the devil to bother me."

Sweetheart, you are not even, if you think the devil is not going to bother you. One day, you know what they call stray bullets? That's it. One day you might just be standing minding your own business and a stray bullet will hit you. So let me just tell you now, take a position. Either you want to serve the devil or you want to serve God. Choose one.

Either you want to go to your, for those of us who are from Africa, either you want to go to where your fathers used to cook it or you come to the throne of grace and obtain mercy. You choose one. You can't stand in the middle. You know, I can assure you there's no middle ground.

There's no, "I'm not for that." When they say, "Oh, whose side I am on?" No side. There's no Switzerland in the realm of the spirit. I'm sorry to inform you. Nothing like Switzerland going there. Because you know, Switzerland, they say it's neutral. No, there's no Switzerland in the realm of the spirit.

So if you really want to win your battles, take a stand. When you want to serve the devil, you better serve him well. If you want to serve God, you serve him well. Don't do this, you know, Charlie, let me just attend. So that, you know, my children will be all right. Are they all right? Their heads are all counted.

They may not, everything may be looking like a quiet storm. Like when Paul, when he got on the ship, and Paul's like, "I perceive danger." And the pilots of the ship went, "What? Danger?" The people on the ships went, "We don't agree. We are going anyway." Then they got into the storm. They call it the North Easter.

The North Easter storm came and then they didn't eat for 14 days. Nobody, nobody, they didn't put them on a fast or they just couldn't eat. The trouble was so bad. Have you had those kinds of troubles? The trouble is so bad. You forget about food. The kitchen no longer appeals to you. All that you're thinking of is, "Hey, this trouble, this wahala, this trouble."

That was what was happening to them on that ship. Trust me. They couldn't even eat. It's Paul that had to encourage them to, you know, eat some food. I heard this angel, "My God has stood by me and told me, none of these lives will be lost. Be encouraged. We will lose the ship because you didn't listen to me, but your lives will be all right, intact."

So there's the storm. It just showed up. Boom. So everything looks like a quiet storm. It's all going well. We're partying. We're having fun. Be careful. The storm is brewing. You just haven't seen it yet. Like that pilot and those people. I just thought I should drop that one in.

Okay. So now we've gone over two examples. The third one was the woman with the issue of blood. And the one thing I know that the Bible said is she kept saying, so she didn't just show up and touch the hem of his garment. She actually was saying, she was confessing the word before she got there.

And then when she touched the hem, bam, it happened. And do you know that in the following chapter in the book of Acts, it says, she was confessing the word before she got there. It records that other people, after they heard about this miracle, they too went tapped in. That's why it's good to hear testimonies. Tapped in and bam, they too touched the hem and they all were healed.

So that one is free of charge, as Pastor always says. We won't charge.

Okay. So now I've done all that to say this, and I'm going to read the scriptures that I wanted to read before I started, that I didn't read. And it said, "I've said these things to you." So I, O Lutoi, "I've said these things to you that you will have peace." No, Jesus said it. "In the world, you'll have tribulation, but take heart. I have overcome the world."

And I know there's some, some verses, some, some, um, he has disarmed it. He has, he has made it, incapacitated it, made it impossible for it to harm you. And then Romans 5:3 to 5 says, "Only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

Yeah. And then the good news translation, 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, "Every test that you have experienced is the kind that normally comes to people." So you're not the only one. It's not novel. If people have stole your money, people have been losing money. A fraudster came and took something from you. Fraudsters have been in existence from day one.

If it is a case of children going rioting, children have always been doing that from day one. Rebellious children, if you go into the Bible, you will see Cain was the first rebellious child. So there we go. It's nothing new. That's what the Bible is telling us basically. But God keeps his promise. He will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm.

So you have the capacity to remain firm. That's why he said he will not allow you at the time you are put to the test. He will give you the strength to endure it. And so provide you with a way out. Some other version says a way of escape. There's always a way of escape. That is what the word of God says.

And then the NET Bible says, "No trial has overtaken you that was, that is not faced by others." Again, I don't need to repeat that. God is faithful. He will not let you be tried beyond what you are able to bear. And the, but that, but with trial will also provide a way out so that you may be able to endure it.

So those words are just there to just encourage you in case you're thinking, where did you get all this from? He said it, and he said, "Don't worry, keep calm, keep moving."

Now I want to just mention it quickly. The way you get persistent faith is through strength. And you can only do that by doing certain actions. The first one, we do it all the time. He says, "My son, attend to my word, incline your ears to my sayings. Don't let them depart from your eyes. It's somewhere here. Keep them in the midst of their hearts for their lives to those who find them and health to all their flesh."

We've been doing Proverbs 4:20 to 22 from the day we walked into this building. And our dear sweet brother actually created, yeah, it is over there. "Attend to my words. Attend to my words. Incline your ears to my sayings."

So it was a case of the more you spend time in the word of God, the more you incline your ears to his sayings, the more he will give you life, the more the healing comes to your body, the more the deliverance comes, the more you find that way of escape because you are attending to God's word.

Because if your faith is not tested, it cannot develop any strength. If you haven't been to the gym like me and you want to go and pick a 25-pound weight, you might tear a ligament. But if you're someone that's been there, you've done the 5 kg, the 10 kg, the 15 kg, the 18 kg, but you've got the 25 kg, it will be easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Amen. I just wanted to point that one out. So let me, I can't go and try that one now. Now, because I don't know when last I went to the gym. So that's, I do my form of excitement. I never go to the gym.

So now, this story always makes me laugh. Jerry Savelle was talking about how the devil keeps bothering him and this woman said, "You people, the devil is always bothering you. The devil doesn't bother me." And he laughed. He said, "That means you have no consequence if the devil is not bothering you."

And I love that when he said that. I love that when he said that. You know, because that really does. You think, okay, you're not the only one. Get on with it. So, and he said, "If you faint in a time of trouble, your strength is small."

That means you need to. And it didn't just leave you there. Because he says, "If you have run with footmen and they've wearied you, how can you contend with horses? And if the land of peace, you're in the land of peace and you're tired. You're in England where you can just go and collect benefits and you're tired. What will happen if you enter the tickets of Africa or the tickets of Asia? Or the tickets of China where the people are being pressed on every side? What will happen then?"

You know, so that's that scripture. I just thought to pop that one into you so that you can actually. So spending time with God's word is a very key one. We have to attend to his word.

We have to attend to his word. Kevin Hart is an actor. So Kevin Hart was broke. His mom, when he was leaving, his mom gave him the Bible. And he took the Bible, of course, because he was brought home in church. He didn't open the Bible and he kept complaining to mama, "I don't have money for my rent."

And the mother says, "Read your Bible." "Mama, I don't have money." "Read your Bible." Then one day he opens the Bible. The rent money. Yeah. But to be able to go from small to making it, you need to do more than reading the Bible.

So this is where we say we meditate. Meditate on the word. What does meditate mean? We mutter it. We say to ourselves over and over again. You'll find the scripture that covers your case. That's Pat Hagen's word. Find the scripture that covers your case. Write it down and begin to say to yourself, record it even.

I recorded, I had this 15 scriptures I used to rehearse. I recorded my voice and then I play my voice to myself. At least if I don't want to hear your voice. I like to hear my voice. I had my voice over and over again. And I did it every time I went on a walk. I would play my voice and follow those scriptures right through consistently, consistently.

I did it without fail for two solid years. Now, it might be 10 years. It might be one day, but you still have to do it consistently, consistently, consistently. And your voice, FQJ says this, your voice is your address in the spirit. You use your voice to activate. Your victory is voice activated.

So if you don't use your voice, you can't. You cannot activate your victory. It's just to say, so I love the book that said they pray quietly. God bless you. But I know that if I don't speak and call those things that be not as though they were, I cannot begin to see it.

The more you say it, the more you see it. The more you spend time with it, the more you receive it. If you don't spend time with something, you can't, you know. For instance, when I walk into my job and they say, "Oh, this and that." Someone says, "How come you're able to do it so quickly?" Someone looks, "You read 200 pages. How do you do it?"

I say, "We have been taught how to." It's not something you can learn in a day. Years of practice. I can take that document and I'm going straight to the key points. I know what to look for. If you give me a 700-page list, I know what I want to find. I want to know whether the repairing covenants work. I want to know who is responsible for repairing the place. I want to know if I'm in a flat. I want to know if there's a right for me to pass through the common paths.

You know, things like that. I would know that because I've been trained to know that. The same thing with the world. If you don't train yourself in the world, you know nothing. You can't show off on this one. There's no showing off. Even if you don't show off, you can't show off.

If some people would memorize the scriptures so they can show off, it don't work like that. You have to get a rhema word. It has to be real to you, you know. And what were the words that he said? He's already assured you that he's with you always. He will never leave you nor forsake you. He will not allow affliction to rise on you a second time.

That was one I learned during one serious affliction. You know, he hears me always. There is hope for a tree. That's another one I learned in another affliction. At the center of what I do, but again, when I said you are dead as a dodo, I said, "No. At the center of what I will bud again."

And that is what I kept saying to myself. When I hear something contrary, I go, "There's hope for a tree." Maybe even if the scripture wasn't relevant for that, I got my revelation from that scripture. There is hope for a tree. Google it, you'll find it. It's very easy.

Anyway, give the word your priority. The word is the most important that you can dwell on. No, Hollywood, Bollywood, Nollywood, it's not going to deliver you. And some will say, "Ah, you are so boring." Thank you.

When you have been through the fire and through the rain, you will learn no more Bollywood. You know, I used to watch Bollywood. I don't know if anyone does watch Bollywood anyway. You make it a daily routine. It's a daily adventure. It's not, "I do it on Monday and then I return to it next month." No way, it's not going to work.

You've got to do it every day, daily, daily. Some people do go to work. I remember one man, a man of God, he's gone to be with the Lord. He said, for years, go to work, come home, eat your food, watch television, go to sleep, wake up, do one quick prayer, five-minute prayer, ten-minute prayer, jump out, go to work, come back until they give him one diagnosis.

If nobody had the diagnosis before, one day, all of a sudden, they gave him a diagnosis. A diagnosis that even the doctors took years to find out what it was. Then he said something. He said to me, "I should have just spent my time in the Word because I knew what to do. I just didn't do it."

That's the problem. It's not what you know, it's what you do. He just didn't do it. He battled that ailment for 20, I even gave him props. He battled it for 20 something years before he went to be with the Lord. But at least he was able to still battle.

But the fact I'm saying is this. You cannot get up in the morning. I remember one time my mom said she would rush, every day, rush, rush, rush, rush, rush, rush. And then one day, she rushed, rushed, rushed, and armed robbers took her car. So she stopped rushing, rushing, rushing, rushing, rushing, rushing, rushing.

She would make sure she does her devotion in the morning. Sorry, mom. She made sure she does her devotion in the morning before she leaves home. Because rushing, rushing, rushing, rushing. If you are stopped to do those devotions, maybe the man that wanted to take your car would have passed before you arrived there.

That is why you should not, you know. You know some people were not, they were not there when the tower, the twin towers were blown up. Believers who were saved. Perhaps if that morning they thought, "Charlie, I got an appointment. I've got to run to work." And they didn't bother to spend time with God.

Maybe that time you spend is not that just delivers you from the impending danger that is just passing by, looking for who to jump on. And you are absent. Missing in action at that point. Spend time. The word will help.

The word will save you. I think it's by Hagen. I said the word will save you. Now, another thing you need to constantly do. I said you meditate on the word. You say it to yourself, right? I said that one already. I said to you that you, another one I want to encourage you to do. I said to you about confession.

Yes. The other one I want to encourage you to do as well is reflect on testimonies of his faithfulness to you and to others. Do you know that the more time you spend looking at the evidence, you can actually plead your case better?

Now, that's my legal speak coming out. More evidence means I have more to fight to defend my position to say because of this evidence, this is why I say. So, somebody had a problem with their DVLA. They went to go and drive the car without, they had the lines, they had the insurance. But they didn't realize that the insurance. The insurance they had did not cover them to drive someone else's car.

And you know what happened? The police said, "Well, oh boy, we're going to put this number of points in your license." And what that meant was the license goes. You don't have to start all over again. The person had an encounter with someone like me who fights every time. I said, "Ah, ah. I went to read the legislation. I said the legislation. I had reason to believe. I said, 'No, write this letter. I had reason to believe.'"

Do you know they backed down? If you don't know what to do, you don't know how to do, there's nothing you can do about that. And that's the fight. I say reflect on testimonies. Because somebody has done it, fought the fight of faith, believes God, and God did it for them.

Gives you evidence that he can do it for you. Not necessarily exactly the same way, but the evidence is there. So, we always look at cases. Do we? Have a precedence. If there is no precedence, you cannot establish your case. But there is precedence in the Bible and every day where you walk.

I used to just go looking for testimonies online that encouraged me so that I can believe that it's possible Abraham did his own. But I want to know Abraham in my time. And I was using that to encourage myself. I will encourage myself with it when I feel down.

And then another thing I did was every victory, every milestone I had in life, I recorded. I'm good at recording, by the way. I recorded it, time and date and everything. And when I'm feeling low, I pick up my recording and I begin to read. "Ah, God did this one. Oh, God did this one. Oh, God did this one."

And those things stand to build your faith and encourage you that if he did it before, he will do it again. That's what David used when he faced Goliath. He saved me from the bear, from the lion. You uncircumcised Philistine, one without covenant. You stand before me with covenant. Trust me, I'm going to beat you and feed you to the dogs.

He had that confidence because he had relied on. He had that confidence because he had relied on God and God had delivered him before. He was rehearsing his testimonies and that's what gave him the courage to go forward and face his big giant.

You might have a Goliath standing in front of you right now. The first thing you need to do is remind yourself of the times God delivered you. Remind yourself of when things were hard and God showed up for you. And then remember, that remembrance is what you would use to be able to stand firm.

And the one last thing. I want to mention because my time is really fast spent and I apologize for this is praise and worship is an expression of your faith in God. It will be a travesty if I don't mention that because that is what I love to do is praise and worship.

Sometimes praise might even elude your mind. What do you do? You pick those songs out. We're so blessed now. Prepare your playlist on YouTube. Look for songs that say strength. Prepare your playlist. Songs for trust. Prepare your playlist. Every time you feel like you're going to die. You need strength. Press play. Bam. Roo, roo, roo, roo.

As it's going through your head, you hear the lyrics. So beautiful words. God has given glorious, mighty women of God and men of God. Those words will just lift your spirit up. And suddenly you will strengthen yourself.

Do you know how David used to strengthen himself? It wasn't said specifically, but in 1 Samuel 30, it says he strengthened himself in the Lord. Do you know what he used to do? Psalms. Go and look at the book of Psalms. The one that he did when his people were taken away at Ziglag. In Psalm 18 is where you will see what he did that brought the victory.

Now, I'm not going to be able to go into that, so you have to do some, if you're interested, do some reading. Psalm 18 is what happened that made Ziglag possible. You know why I know? Because verse 37 to 42 tells us that that's what happened.

Amen. And I trust that that is one thing. So Moses, the power of praise, the power of praise, the power of praise, the power of praise, the power of praise. Moses, when he stood on that mountain, he lifted up his hands. That is it. Worshipping and praising God. That's what he was doing.

Then the truth, the Amalekites were smote. The moment his hands went down, the Amalekites started to win. Then when he couldn't do much, by himself, Ur and Aaron helped him up. And that is where you get your fellowship of brethren. Those are your Uz and your Aarons. Don't despise them. Held his hands up. And that was how he was able to keep his hands up until they won.

The same thing with Jehoshaphat. The same method. They worshipped God. All the people. And as they did, the rioting was happening in the camp of the wicked. Same thing. The same thing Paul and Silas did. As they prayed, praised. Earthquake. You know, in house I don't go, earthquake far. Far to emphasize it. The earthquake.

Can you imagine you praise God at earthquake? I don't know if the earthquake was isolated to just where they were, but there was an earthquake and the chains fell off. That is where I can say, let me pitch my tent.

The last one. I'm finally, finally, finally. Strength comes from praying in the Holy Ghost. Pray in the Holy Ghost. You have been given this gift. Don't waste it. Don't waste it. Use it. It can turn around situations. I've seen so many things turn around.

We mess up and then we start praying in the Holy Ghost and things start to change. It medically change. We've seen it happen and I can't tell you the details of it, but we've seen it happen where they give us one report and one hour later we say, "Give us time. We go down and go and cook and we come back up and the report changes all the way 360."

I have seen God move when you pray the Holy Ghost. So I encourage you, pray in the Holy Ghost because he knows what you need. He knows the way out. As pastor said, when you pray in the Holy Ghost, solutions begin to happen. Just pray in the Holy Ghost.

And that's the final word I have for you. If you have not heard anything I said today, if you have the gift of the Holy Spirit, use it. Don't waste it because you will stand before your father and say, "Oh, but you say I gave, I was living inside of you. I dwelt with you. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, not any other spirit, was residing on the inside of you and you were so powerless. Shame on you."

Hey, when I hear that scripture, Romans 8:11, the same spirit, not another one, the same one that took a whole human being that was killed on the cross, put in a tomb, that spirit that took a dead person and brought him back to life is living in you as you sit here.

Don't waste it. Don't waste it. And that's where I want to pitch my tent. God bless you. Amen.