You are welcome once again, in Jesus' name.
So, today we are starting something new,
we have promised you and today is the day of fulfilment.
This is our first podcast programme,
where by the grace of God,
we'll be bringing to you issues that bothers,
issues that matters for our Christian life.
We say "Household of Faith".
Why is the title "Household of Faith"?
Faith is the key, we are Christians by faith.
Faith is the basis of our union with God.
We are saved by faith; redeemed, blessed by faith.
Whatever we receive from God can only come by faith.
Only faith pleases God.
So, you can see the importance of faith
in your approach to God.
So please, in our daily life, the Bible says,
"My righteous shall live by faith." (Romans 1:17)
So, we are commanded by God to live by faith;
we are commanded to walk by faith, to walk by the Spirit.
So what is faith?
Faith is a heart that believes God
in ordinary circumstances of life.
In every situation.
You're welcome, in Jesus' name.
Amen, and what a blessing
to belong to "The Household of Faith"!
You know, everyone has their own faith
as they have their own shoes,
as they have their own body,
as they have their own reasoning faculties.
Yes, God has given each person a measure of faith,
and if today you're thinking that, "I don't have faith.
My faith is small, I wish I had the faith
of this Bible character,
I wish I had so much more faith..."
Remember, it's not great faith you need, it's a great God.
And that great God is here in our midst
and that's the greatest miracle of all,
and in these podcasts we want to be able to explore
those practical situations in life
where the Word of God can be applied,
so that you can grow in your spiritual life
and your faith in that great God can grow.
Because, look, here we are, we are weak people,
not amazingly gifted or intelligent,
but look what God is doing in our lives.
The same thing He can do for you,
if you submit yourself to the Spirit of God.
So thank you so much for joining us
in "The Household of Faith",
it's a privilege to be part of this community,
we see it as a privilege to be in the house of God.
Absolutely. So today,
when we look at the Christianity all over the world today,
by the emails we receive,
our communication with many viewers of The UOG,
we realise that many issues
brought to our attention relates to faith.
People have troubles, people have issues,
some want to grow in knowledge of God,
but all this can only happen by faith.
If we understand the purpose of faith
our focus will change in everything we do,
because faith focuses on God,
faith focuses on God's ability.
Now, we remember the message of Prophet TB Joshua,
two kinds of faith - faith in faith
and faith in the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Faith is not mere confessing the promises of God,
faith is to believe with your heart the promises
and you confess them before you see them happen.
So we want to help people
to enter the practical side of Christianity,
because a Christian must not only know his faith
but must show his faith in community, in your daily living.
When we live by faith,
we approach every situation by faith in God,
and that is it, Jesus Christ has done everything for us,
everything, whatever we are,
whatever we receive is not by works; by grace.
Grace means there are two things we don't need to confuse.
Grace is a principle in the Gospel,
I mean, Jesus has paid the supreme price
to bring whatever we need from God.
How do we appropriate it?
Faith comes, our genuine willingness.
So, to grow in faith,
we must enter into the practical side of Christianity,
which requires hearing and obedience.
What does it mean by obedience?
The Bible says that our only means of growth
is the Holy Spirit,
anytime we hear from God and we obey God,
something will enter us that increases our strength, faith.
Abraham, all the heroes of faith,
they were people like you and me, ordinary people,
they faced challenges in their lives - everybody,
but with God all things are possible.
They overcame by faith because their faith
was not based on their own ability; on God's ability.
So, now what is your situation?
That's why we say "The Household of Faith"
is to make you strong in the Lord,
because in this world, whether we like it or not,
there will be trouble.
God never promised that there will be no more problem;
there will be, but we overcome them by faith.
So what is faith, Ruth?
Remind them, what is faith again?
Well, I think you said it all,
I love that definition
that faith is a heart that believes God in every single circumstance,
not just in desperate times but day-to-day.
You say the heart, why not the brain?
Because it's with our heart that we believe God.
What happens when we believe in our brain?
We ask ourselves questions.
What happens when we believe in our brain?
Well, it's mental assent,
it's just reasoning faculty, it's just memorising,
like when you prepare for an exam, you can learn something.
But later on you might
delete it from your brain.
But what's the main challenge in that case
when you operate by brain or not by faith,
what's the main problem?
That's the question.
Anything that doesn't come from the heart cannot last.
Why?
Faith sees the invisible,
faith believes the impossible,
and you can see already it's contrary to common sense
because God always asks us to do what we cannot do
so He can teach us how to do it.
So God's Word and His promises
can only be put into practice or we receive the promises
when we act faith in God's possibility, not our own ability.
So real faith doesn’t reason
because mental assent, as she rightfully said, responds to reason.
So when we face situations that are difficult,
we may likely reason and say,
"Ah, it's not possible."
We begin to restrict God
within the frame of our intellectual mind.
And that's why we say today,
failure to give God and His Word
His proper position in our heart, not in our brain,
is actually responsible for the crisis of our faith.
When you said about the issue of reason,
it reminded me that the Word of God,
our reason will probably reject it
but your heart craves for it.
And you don't know that your heart is actually craving
for spiritual food, and the Word of God is a spiritual food
but your reasoning faculties,
you know, they can't understand it.
And that is why faith comes through hearing the Word of God,
because it's that Word of God that comes into your heart
and causes that faith, which is a spiritual force to grow,
and I think that's what makes it
maybe so complicated for people
because we try and overthink it
and try and make it as if it's a reasoning issue.
No, your reason may reject the Word of God,
like your reason may reject faith,
but your heart craves for it.
Anything that comes by force is not faith.
I know that one for a fact,
anything that comes by force is not faith,
you can't fake faith.
Because you see the goodness of God, you now realise,
"Oh, God is worthy of my praise."
And then your faith in Him automatically grows,
simultaneously, spontaneously grows.
When you say force, it is true.
Sometime we do things by force, by power and by might.
Sometimes we even go to the extent,
we force God to do what we want to do.
Sometimes we pull God to our mind,
"Lord, I want this. Lord, I want that."
When you look at your Bible very clearly,
you will see the need to have effective prayer,
and we come before God, as James 4:2-3 says,
"You do not have because you don't ask."
That means, it's our duty
to come before God, our Father, to ask.
The Bible says, we can make God know all our needs,
there's nothing wrong,
but the Bible says very often we approach God
through the narrow-mindedness of our intellect
because of our outward needs.
"Lord, I need money. I pray for money.
I'm poor, I want blessing, I'm sick"
There is something far more important
than those natural circumstances,
you need to know the will of God in the matter.
So James says, "You do not have because you ask wrongly."
How do we ask wrongly?
Whatever we face - our faith
should not be dictated by the circumstances.
God in His mercy may allow all sorts of situations
to test our faith, to make us grow.
He's aware, but how we respond to it determines the outcome.
We focus on the situation, on the sickness,
but sometimes God may allow
foolish things to happen to our life to strengthen us.
Okay, let's say the case of Paul
in 2 Corinthians 12,
Paul was faced with a thorn in his flesh.
It was a real problem, it was painful,
so he came to the Lord and prayed for the Lord to remove it,
as all of us would naturally do.
God remained silent.
He prayed again and the Lord remained silent.
Do you know what that thorn was - Paul's thorn?
Many people are interpreting what the thorn is -
all we know it’s something contrary to his desire.
So we don't know, the Bible never says
whether it was a sickness.
All we know that there was a problem,
it was a physical problem he had or a weakness.
But the Lord said to him,
"My grace is sufficient for you."
You want God to remove your problem,
but sometimes God will not answer your request to the letter.
One thing we should never doubt,
God always answers the prayer of faith,
but never in the letter.
Never the way you expect it.
Absolutely. What you're asking for,
God may not give you that,
but an equivalent is always given.
What is equivalent?
When Paul asked for this thorn to be removed,
it doesn't mean God ignored him.
God allowed that thing to happen for a purpose.
You see, he said because of the excellency
of the revelation God gave me,
He allowed the thorns to prevent me from being conceited,
to protect me from spiritual pride.
Once He understood that,
the Lord said, "My grace, My power
is manifested in your weakness."
He really understood the reason for that thorn,
and because He understood the reason
that gave Him such a peace,
and I think that's such a lesson for us today
because he had that spiritual maturity
to understand that he'd been given such an amazing gift,
like he had these revelations,
amazing revelations that no one else had,
in order to prevent him from becoming conceited
because pride is our biggest enemy,
and in order for that not to happen
he realised that God gave him that thorn,
and that's why if we look at our lives
we can see many things as like a check,
a check for us to...
If we've been so blessed in so many areas,
just so many people come to us
with complaint after complaint,
but if you begin to think and
count the blessings of God in your life -
good health, your ability to wake up in the morning, to read the Bible,
think about your family, your friends,
everything that God has blessed you with,
and then you realise that any difficulty or maybe hardship -
it's to check your spiritual life,
to make sure that you realise that you need God.
So I love that about Paul.
There's a big lesson
I, myself, personally, learned from him.
He was a friend of God, a man of faith,
he prayed for the sick, they were healed.
He himself had the sickness or thorn, whatever.
The Lord said, "My grace is sufficient for you."
What I want to say,
I remember one word of wisdom of Prophet TB Joshua
which really opened my heart to the issue of prayer.
So let's talk about prayer
to make it more practical in our discussion about faith,
all prayers should be prayers of faith.
He said, "We often hear people say
that prayer answers all trouble,
that prayer brings changes."
Honestly, if prayer were changing all things,
all things would've changed in the life of many people,
because some say, "Ah, I've been praying. Does God ignore me?
Maybe God does not want to answer my prayer."
You see, because I see many people,
many face mountain of unanswered prayers,
unanswered prayers keep standing
between them and their faith,
and many stop praying
because they have no hope for an answer.
They've given up.
But when we understand
that God does not answer our prayers to the letter,
because He knows what is good for you,
means in every circumstance you face
God has something to say.
If the Lord sees that I am the type
that pride may destroy,
the Lord may allow something to test my faith
and to break that pride.
God can use terrible situations, difficult situations,
like gold must be refined,
as a check to reform me.
It was the purpose of God.
So, if I ignore the purpose of God in that situation
and I begin to pray for healing, God will not answer me.
If Job had prayed,
"God, heal me, heal me,"
nothing would've happened
because God allowed the things to happen for a purpose.
He was not sick because he sinned,
that sickness was a test of faith.
So, it means as a member of "The Household of Faith",
God is our Father, God is good all the time,
whether good or bad.
So what must we do when we face difficult situations?
The first thing, we should not rush and begin to ask God,
first, the most difficult to do,
sit back in silent and ask God, surrender to His will,
what is His purpose in the matter?
As you know, when Job was sick, some of his friends came,
because of compassion, to visit Job,
he was their best friend.
The Scripture says when they came,
when they saw Job from far, they could not believe;
when they saw his state, they were moved.
And the Bible says, "For seven days they could not speak."
That was the right thing to do.
For seven days it was fine,
there was no trouble.
There was no problem with Job.
For seven days they would come,
but the moment they opened their mouth to speak,
trouble started, they began to misjudge Job,
they began to see the situation in the natural
and began to defend God,
and began to point fingers at him, and trouble started.
That's why most of our troubles
are tongue troubles.
So, what is the best thing to do when you face a situation?
Inquire from God first, and this is not easy to do.
Sit down in silence and pray to God
to reveal to you what is His purpose,
as a man of faith or a woman of faith,
that we should do,
always, when we are faced with challenges.
God may reveal His purpose to you,
He's a God of love and mercy,
because we will all face
what Prophet TB Joshua called unchangeable events.
I think if you have that kind of outlook on life,
it really changes you from the inside out.
I mean if I look at my experience,
even just going through this whole journey
of pregnancy and birth, and the first few months
of the baby and everything,
my whole way of seeing life has really changed.
I think people can have so many expectations
of what they think life should be like
or what they would like life to be like,
"I would like to have this at this age
and do this at this age,
and have this this way, and this this way."
But God is the one that has the final say,
and if we learn to surrender to His will
and not say we want things in a specific way,
but just say, "God let Your will be done, and-"
There's one prayer of Prophet TB Joshua
that I love so much, he said, "Let me only know Your will and submit
to everything You permit to happen to me."
I think that that's how it goes, isn't it?
Let me only know Your will.
And that prayer really helped me
going through some really tough periods in this last year,
and it really helped me personally
because I realised that it wasn't about
praying for a specific thing,
"God I want this, remove this or have it like this,
or do this in my life;
but, God, this is Your will,
permit whatever You allow to happen to me
to happen to me."
And if you pray that kind of prayer from faith, really,
it changes your outlook.
You mentioned faith, but the prayer says,
"Holy Spirit, take me as Your disciple."
"I promise, Lord to accept all, all that You permit to happen to me.
I surrender. Let me know all Your will."
It's easy to do that.
Once the trouble happens, they say, "Lord, what is this?"
If you really accept the will of God
and you're a child of God,
and you know that nothing out of God's control
can happen to you,
when situation comes upon you, never doubt the love of God.
God is aware.
If you are a believer and a child of God,
nothing can happen to you without God's awareness.
God knows, before they even happen; the Lord is aware.
That's what Jesus said,
"When we approach God before you speak,
God knows the word that will come from your mouth."
So why should I ask my God, "Lord, give me money,
give me food, give me this..."
Jesus say, "Don't ask those things."
It's the gentiles that ask for it,
your Father know that you needs them.
That's what he Lord said.
And Prophet TB Joshua said,
to come back to what Ruth were saying
concerning the will of God,
we often hear that prayer changes things.
No, it's not entirely true that prayer changes things,
you see, prayer changes me
and faith causes things to happen.
Let me repeat again.
Prayer changes me, I myself, and faith make things happen.
Faith changes things-
So how does prayer change you?
What does it mean?
When I come to God, I have an affliction.
My natural human tendency
is to focus on the problem I'm having,
and the body, we all know the body,
the body wants peace in the outside.
The body wants quick solution, it's a natural thing.
So, "Lord, please heal me,”
but if God reveals to you, as He did to Paul,
that He's aware of your situation,
that the thing happened for a purpose -
for God to glorify His name in your life,
you will not ask God for healing.
The moment God reveals to you His purpose,
changes will happen.
Why? Because you know the will of God,
as a child of God you are here to do the will of God.
So, God chooses what we go through;
we choose how we go through it.
If God said, "Okay, Ruth, you know what you went through,
it was tough for this pregnancy,"
but God allowed you to go through it,
You never said, "Shortcut or dodge it."
No, you accepted it to go through it with the grace of God.
There are some choices we make,
our choices should match the will of God in our lives,
not shortcuts.
We accept the will of God,
"What You permit to happen to me, I accept it,
let me know Your will."
Why? Because knowing the will of God in your situation
will impart a spiritual strength to endure.
And that's what you need to get you through it.
And that is endurance.
What's the purpose of endurance?
It's to build your character.
I think endurance is rarely talked about today.
I think that long suffering, endurance, perseverance,
are elements of faith and virtues
that are rarely appreciated or celebrated today.
You know, we tend to want everything so quick
and we don't have that ability to endure,
whereas Jesus promised us
that he who endures to the end will be saved.
And even that prayer Jesus prayed, He said,
"I pray that your faith will not fail."
That's the prayer that Jesus is praying for us
and praying for all true disciples of Christ.
And I think what you said is so true,
that endurance and perseverance can only come
when that spiritual strength is there
because everything human has a limit.
Human patience has a limit,
human wisdom, human perseverance, everything has a limit,
but when you have that spiritual strength, you can go on,
and you can have that peace in the midst of the trouble,
in the midst of the problem.
And that's why there's something,
I always remember Prophet TB Joshua said
that always impacted me so much, he said that,
"Learning how to hear God after the prayer
is a much greater blessing
than what you're even praying for."
Like if you're praying for breakthrough
or for a specific answer to something you're asking God for,
hearing the voice of God,
for example, knowing the will of God in that situation
is even a much greater blessing,
because you have that peace.
And when, Racine, you were talking about faith,
That prayer changes us,
that prayer takes our focus from us to God
because if we're praying, we're praying to God,
we're having a conversation with God
so that's why taking our focus off ourselves
and that's why it changes us.
Look for example, an example,
we all know who Saul of Tarsus was;
a persecutor of the church
who later become Apostle Paul.
While he was persecuting the church, arresting believers,
having a letter of recommendation from the religious leaders
to put them to prison, some were executed in his presence -
so people were in fear of him.
He was on his way to Damascus to perform his duty.
When Jesus met him on the way to Damascus,
Jesus spoke to one disciple called Ananias.
When the Lord said, "Ananias," he said, "Yes, Lord."
When the Lord mentioned the name of Saul he said,
"Lord, Saul? Lord, this man!"
"Lord, this man has been persecuting your saints,
he has done so much evil against us,
so many things, so many things!"
So at that moment you don't expect
Ananias to obey the instruction,
but Jesus said to him, "This man who you see as evil
is my chosen vessel."
Immediately when Ananias heard that, that changed his focus completely.
The Lord said, "Go."
Now that knowledge of the will of God
and the purpose of the calling in the life of Saul,
Ananias received supernatural strength
and the fear disappeared.
The man he was afraid of, he went without doubt.
If that dream was given to you and me
and you woke up in the morning,
you would say, "This is a nightmare, I will not go!"
Is the dream real?
This man killing...
Ananias never - he woke up in the morning,
believed the dream and went straight to the place,
and he met that man - the wolf had become a lamb
because Jesus had changed the situation.
If Ananias was not a man of faith,
would he obey the instruction? I doubt it.
But being a man of faith, a man of vision,
the moment he knew God's opinion on the matter,
fear disappeared, strength came, confidence came,
and he went straight...
Because of his obedience Saul was saved,
because Jesus and an angel will never come
and preach the Gospel to you.
You need to hear from a human being who preaches the Gospel
and by faith you receive salvation and be saved.
When Ananias met him, in Acts 9,
particularly in Acts 22:20, he said,
"Saul come, the Lord has called you.
It is time for you to be washed of your sin and call His name,"
And salvation came.
So it is too early to be overwhelmed by your situation
and to come and say, "God, give me this" -
based on your natural circumstances.
First thing, as we said, we should come sit down in silence
and find out God's purpose,
because prayer is answered according to the will of God,
not according to my will.
So don't be rushed by emergencies
before you come and open your mouth to pray before God
without knowing His will in the matter.
When you come to a prophet like Prophet TB Joshua,
and you bring somebody into his presence he often said,
"I first inquire from God before I pray for the person,
so I know the will of God in the matter.
If God revealed to me that this man, what it is
God allowed it to happen just for a short time,
I will not pray against the will of God.
I will strengthen the person, I will counsel him.
My brother, this is for a purpose, to make you strong.
It will not last long."
And the person receives word of encouragement, exhortation,
receive strength, understanding and perseverance.
What is faith?
If you ask and God gives you, like 'cash and carry',
faith is not 'cash and carry',
faith is not a magic button you press
to get exactly what you want.
For faith to be real, it must be based on the promise.
Yes, God has given us promises,
but He'll never tell you at what time He will fulfil it.
And that's what faith is all about, God's time.
So patience is important.
We should never run out of patience,
we should never run out of faith when we face a situation,
whatever people tell you, whatever your situation,
looks like at face value, don't be too quick.
First, examine all things
in the light of God's Word.
That's why we talk about "The Household of Faith".
It is easy to go to church,
to listen to wonderful messages as you did last Sunday,
but the next day you face real challenges
in your business, in your company,
you face real situations in your family, everywhere -
that's where we see the need of faith.
Because when you meet a situation,
if you see it in the light of God's Word,
God will reveal His purpose there and give you strength.
You will not be overwhelmed by your situation.
There are many situations we faced before,
you thought it was impossible,
and you overcame them by the grace of God.
So please, any spiritual experience, including faith,
needs to be tested in the face of a real situation,
that's a test you're facing -
because our values
must be tested in the face of a real situation.
If you say you are a Christian; you're a believer -
we know you're a believer when your faith is tested.
We cannot dodge it.
The purpose of a test is to check the state of our heart,
we need a check; if our heart is not checked
we may drift away from the way of the Lord.
That's why God always allows a check to happen in our lives,
to reset our mind so we can be focused on God.
That's why Jesus said, "In this world you will have trouble."
God never, never promised us
to keep us away from tests and trials; never ever.
but He promised to see us through it.
So, be encouraged today
that you are a member of "The Household of Faith",
and what does that mean - to be part of a community
of believers, real believers.
To be in a household means you belong,
and what makes you belong?
It's not which country you were born in,
which race, nationality you are -
whatever kind of genetics you have.
What makes you belong is your faith in Christ Jesus,
and whosoever wills,
whosoever believes in Jesus Christ is saved.
Jesus is the only way,
so that faith makes you part of this community,
and it's such an amazing thing
because you're part of a community all over the world,
of real believers.
And that's such a thing of joy, so you're not alone.
And remember that Jesus Christ loves you so much,
and sometimes we allow fear to rob us of faith.
So don't allow fear to rob you of faith today.
And I think that's one of the major problems people have,
they spend so much time worrying and anxious,
and fearful of things that don't actually ever happen.
If you think about how many years, and time you've wasted
worrying about things that actually didn't come to pass,
so don't allow your fear to rob you of your faith,
because faith is the route to God.
Don't forget, go read your Bible very well.
And even today, in our midst, including me
and we talking to you,
no one comes to Jesus Christ in comfort, nobody.
Everybody came to Christ because of a problem, because of a 'check'
so when you face a problem or a situation
don't think it's strange and begin to doubt your God,
don't think it's strange
and begin to measure your Christian life by it, that,
"Does God love me? Am I a Christian?"
And begin to doubt your faith.
Please, we need to understand that whatever happens in life,
we need to find out that nothing happens for nothing,
Nothing for a believer happens by chance.
So what are you facing today?
What is your trouble today?
When you come to "The Household of Faith",
you will know one truth, no condition is permanent.
And today God is still saying something,
and whatever happened to you
it may be just a mere stopping interval
to check your faith and to take you to another level.
There's no way our character in Christ is built
without test and trials.
How will you know the faithfulness of God
when everything is fine?
How do you know the value of love when everything is fine?
How do you know the man of faith when everything is smooth?
We know a man of faith in the face of a difficult situation.
We know that you're a man of faith
when that faith is deeply tested,
when your faith is challenged by a situation -
uncommon situations.
So what's the answer to all this trouble?
Now you can understand the meaning of faith today.
Faith in Christ Jesus is not a risk,
but a sure and practical act.
What does it mean?
Faith is a trust that arises in your heart
that God is faithful.
Daniel found himself in the lion's den for a purpose.
Daniel never doubted his God.
The Bible says in that Book of Daniel 11:32
"Those who know their God will do wonders."
Those who know God's ability in their life will what?
Work wonders.
Jesus walked towards Jerusalem
knowing the will of the Father -
that by going to the Cross He would die for us.
And he said it to them, "I'm going to Jerusalem,
they will arrest Me and they will kill Me,
on the third day I will rise."
That's a man of faith!
Jesus had absolute faith in the Father's Word.
Jesus never let any Word of God fall to the ground -
He knew He came to fulfil the Word.
He knew that Isaiah 53 said,
that He'll be taken like a lamb to the slaughter.
He knew that. He knew in Psalm 22 that He will be crucified -
they will pierce His hands.
He came to fulfil the Scriptures.
So members of "The Household of Faith",
we have a lesson to learn from all we have said so far -
that God is not moved by our words,
God is only moved by His will.
This simply means that
when I come before God, whatever situation I face,
I must inquire from God first to know His will
before I utter a prayer in His presence.
When I know the will of God in the matter,
that knowledge of His will will impart a strength
to endure whatever situation I'm facing,
knowing that God has an appointed time.
Job knew that it was a test - he said it,
"I know that I am being tested,
I will come out like gold."
That's what he said.
Jesus knew that going to the Cross was the Father's will,
and He believed - He had absolute faith in God
that He will rise from the dead,
so He never let the Word of God fall to the ground.
He fulfilled the scripture, laid down His life,
committed His Spirit to the Father,
on the third day He rose from the dead.
So faith is a trust that arises in your heart
that God is reliable.
So what do we need to do?
To move God is to be moved by His will, as the prophet said,
"Your seed of faith must first move your faith -
you must have faith in your heart,
and that faith will move God to act in your life."
As a Christian,
we should not think it strange to face a situation -
the Lord has told us clearly
that in this world we will have tribulation.
The Lord has said, ‘I will bless you with persecution.’
So when difficult times come, what do you do?
Glory be to God Almighty! Run to God, pray the more,
move closer to God, trust God, meditate in your heart.
Ask God to reveal to you His purpose.
Many marriages, many are crushed because of impatience.
If you look at any successful marriage today; successful one,
they went through difficult situations.
Abraham and Sarah went through barrenness,
Isaac and Rebecca went through barrenness.
Jacob went through difficult situations, we know.
All these people went through difficult situations,
so the lesson is this one;
being faithful to God does not eliminate adversities,
adversity will come,
but God will show you the way out by faith.
And one thing I really want you to hold in your heart
is that God's will is just the best thing
that can possibly happen for you.
God doesn't want good; He wants the best for you.
You know, if I think about my life,
I never even imagined
in a million years that I would marry Racine!
That never even came into my thought, ever.
You know, I never
imagined that I would marry Racine,
that we'd have a baby together,
We never, never,
never thought about it.
We were the best brothers and sisters!
For many years - I'm just trying to give you an example
that you did something
which you never imagined could happen,
but God's will and God's time is just perfect.
Can you imagine?
And if it had been me, I would have said,
"Oh, I want this in my life,
and I want to do this, and I want to do that."
But God has a perfect plan for each person's life
and I really want you
to take that in your heart as well -
the issue of God's promise.
God's faith cannot be real without His promise and His time.
We like to just take one, not the three,
God's promise, God's time, God's faith.
So you can't have faith
unless you know the promise and the time of God.
So God has a promise for your life,
He has a perfect timing for your life,
so you just need to rest in His will,
and your prayer should be - change your prayer,
let your prayer be, "God, let Your will be done.
Give me the grace to submit to Your will.
Allow everything that You permit to happen to me,
to happen to me."
And if you pray that prayer with your heart,
it's a soul saving, life changing prayer, because
it will change the way you see yourself and the way you see
your relationship with God,
and the way you see your relationship with others.
So if there's anything
you take from this little podcast today,
take that nugget of wisdom - let your prayer change today,
let the will of God be done in your life.
So, you are not alone.
The purpose of this special program
of "The Household of Faith"
is to accompany you in your daily life -
it is to give you the secret of faith, to strengthen you
to overcome every day, day-by-day, day-by-day,
and to grow in faith and to discover how faithful,
how reliable God is.
Be blessed, the Lord be with your spirit.
I just want to read this scripture for you
so you can meditate on it.
The book of Acts 20:32. "Now I commit you to God
and to the word of His grace,
which can build you up and give you an inheritance
among all those who are sanctified."
You are among those who are sanctified,
that's "The Household of Faith",
and the only thing that can build you up spiritually
is the Word of God.
So that's what we do -
we commit you now to God and to the Word of His grace.
That is it - and live a victorious life.
So when the devil comes with his temptation; to cause fear,
to show you doubt, show him that faith exists,
that God is real, in Jesus' name, amen.
Father, we thank You for the promise of victory.
The Bible says, ‘Greater is He that is in us,
than he that is in the world.’
Lord, we are praying for each and every one
of the members of "The Household of Faith",
looking up to God, looking unto God.
Father, I pray, give them the grace
and the strength to be conscious of their faith
in the midst of troubled situations.
Lord, we are living in a troubled world,
but we have reason not to be troubled
because You are the Lord.
Because You are the I Am that I Am,
You are the Shepherd of the shepherds, the Lord of Lords,
and You are good.
Father, we commit every single person here,
Their ways to your mighty hand, in the name of Jesus.
You are the one who led them by the way of the wilderness
and nothing out of Your control happened to them.
The Bible says they walked in the wilderness
and You made the water to spring from the rock.
Father, the Bible says You were the Cloud going in front of them
to show them the way in the wilderness,
that sheltered them from the heat of the day.
You were the Light that walked before them,
to show them the right way to follow,
and nothing, nothing out of Your control happened to them.
Our security is in Your hand.
Lord Jesus, I pray You shelter every member
of "The Household of Faith"
under the refuge and shelter of Your mightiness,
in the name of Jesus.
Protect them Lord, strengthen them in the name of Jesus,
fill them with the Spirit of faith
to overcome whatever comes their way, in the name of Jesus.
Reveal Your purpose,
Your will in their matter; in their situation,
in the name of Jesus.
Teach them, Lord, to look to the cross
where the price was paid for the victory in Christ Jesus.
Strengthen them, guide them,
make them victorious by Your Spirit, by Your grace.
Open their heart to the Word of faith,
open their heart to the Spirit of God,
open their heart to divine faith, in the name of Jesus.
Manifest Your strength in their weaknesses,
let them grow in knowledge, grow in wisdom,
in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
Amen, amen, amen, in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
Amen. The Lord be with your spirit.
Thank you so much for joining us here
on "The Household of Faith",
which is such a privilege to be part of this community here
in The University of God.
God has really put it in our hearts
to go deeper in our spiritual walk with God,
and to take you with us.
Freely we've received, freely we want to give
all that we've learned under the grace of God,
through our mentorship under Prophet TB Joshua,
through our mentorship under prophet TB Joshua,
the servant of Jesus Christ
in the power of the Holy Spirit.
And we just want to take a moment
to explain "The Household of Faith",
the subscription to the app of "The University of God" -
the content on the app is free.
The reason why we want you to subscribe
is just so you can help maintain the app.
We thank God for the partners
of The University of God that have contributed
and God has put it in their heart to bless us
with this amazing application,
what an amazing privilege to have an app -
our own app, ‘The University of God’.
And the reason why the subscription is there
is just to go straight to the company
which have created the app and are maintaining it,
in order for us to give you the content
without using social media.
So you can watch the content of The UOG
without going on YouTube, without going on Facebook -
you can watch it direct on your phone through the app.
You can download the app through the App Store,
Google Play, Roku, it's there for you and for your family.
So we just want to explain that to you.
God bless you.