LEADERS & WORKERS CONFERENCE — Rev. Victor Adeyemi | 36th Annual Convention | Breaking Barriers

establishing this.

God bless you and mass and other ministers and pastors.

The harvests.

There is my home.

regime's home. You.

We started yesterday, but that particular text

into that by the grace of God. But for this morning, let us take a Psalm 78 verses 7

7870. To. And it's that I love very, very much. I'll do this.

Of. Is

that many years ago. He yeah. And he took him from the ship. That's good. From following the EU.

And Israel his inheritance. So he fed them all his life. And

the skillfulness. I'm going to minister by the grace of God, uh, this morning on the subject capacity. Capacity for new Records we are very thankful for the opportunity.

Give from ways back then until today, I practise it because people will always offend you. So when people offend me, I first decide to forgive. And I don't feel it, but I just decide. Then when I make that decision, the second thing I do is to pray. Why? Because the Bible says we should bless them that curse us in Matthew 5:44. Now, it is not possible for you to be blessing somebody.

Or give them a gift or do something else anyway. But that is just by the side. Anyway, back to my story. I prayed for Holy Ghost that morning and the Lord began to speak to me and he told me he had not called me to sing. But he told me and said, you will, however, start out, I've called you to stand in the office of the evangelist, but you will start out as an exhorter. And from an exhorter, I will move you to start functioning in the office of the evangelist. He said, and then in the latter years. You will evolve into the office of an apostle. So you see Life in faces. You see ministry in faces. You discover that God creates capacity. And then that leaves a room for growth. The development of that capacity is now your responsibility. In John chapter 1 verse 12, the Bible says to as many as believed on Him, gave he the power to become the sons of God.

You start out as a child and then you mature to become a son. In the book of Hebrews 5:14, the Bible says, but strong meat belongs to them who are of age. Even those who by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern between good and evil. But in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 1, for instance, Paul told the Corinthians, he said, and I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual. But as unto babes, as unto carnal. And, and that's unto babes, uh, for, for there is, uh, whereas there's yet envying and strife among you, are you not yet carnal and, and, and, and behave as a mere men, you are acting like babies. You're acting like ordinary people. You are carnal. You are baby Christians. Hospital 22 says as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the world that you may grow thereby. So when you're a young Christian, you're a baby and you desire the sincere milk,

like breast milk. Little children can only handle breast milk, but strong meat or strong food, the word meat is used in the Bible representative of food. But to eats pounded yam. And proper egusi soup or eddikaiko. With all manners of protein. You know, juggling for space inside it and you're able to digest it very well. That means you have matured. And so, we must realise we have the potential to become sons, but we start out as children. Now, in Galatians chapter 4, verse 1, the Bible says that um a hare. Uh, for as long as he is a child, deferreth nothing from a servant. Let me read directly uh from the KJV. Now, I said that the hair, as long as he is a child, different nothing from the servant, though he be what Lord of all, now a he is a successor. So let's imagine.

If I want a good illustration for me is that of the king of Agbor. Is there anybody from Agbo here? AGO in Delta State. Nobody from Agbo. Anyway, When I was a child, I was aware in reading one of my father's magazines. I think it was Drum. There used to be drum, drum magazine in those days. Anybody that knows drum here. You are at least 50 years old, so praise God. Drum Uh, I think it was Drum and Trust that were the two popular magazines in those days. So, in that drum, I saw the story of a 4 year old boy that became a heir to the throne of Agbo. Now, A 4 year old cannot run. A city. So what they did was to send him to the United States for education. And the kingmakers were running the town on his behalf. And then when he attained the age of, I think 21 or so, having graduated from university, they now brought him back

to come and resume duties on the throne. Why? Because he was a child initially. He was a heir, but because he was a child, he did not differ. From a servant, though he be Lord of all. But in Galatians chapter 4 verse 2, it says, you know, but he will be under tutors and governors until the time appointed. This is, but it is only the tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. So that is the way it, it, it, it, it is for us. Many of us are not only heirs of salvation, but we are heirs of great promises from God. We are heirs of great destinies. We are heirs of great ministries, but we cannot attain unto them until we mature. Even the Lord Jesus Christ, even though he was called to a, a great ministry on the earth and to go carry out the work of redemption on our behalf, could not do it until he matured. Isaiah 9:6, it says, unto us a child is born.

Unto us a son is given. A child can be born unto us, but it is a son that is given unto us. When he is born as a child, he is not able to minister to us. As a child, he could not stand in his office to minister. He had to grow up until the age of 30, then went to John's baptism. And if it was only then, he was presented to the world. He had developed capacity for the destiny that God had for him. So you and I must realise the need for us to develop capacity. Notice David in our text that God, that there the scripture says that God brought him. He said, I found uh David. He said, I, I brought, I found David myself and then I brought him from shepherding the ewes and the lambs. From shepherding the flock of his father Jesse. God now brought him to shepherd a whole nation, to lead the whole nation of Israel. The, and he did so, number one, with the integrity of his heart.

And then 2 with the skillfulness of his hand. And those two statements are very pregnant. Number one, David had to develop spiritual capacity. Every one of us in order for us to fulfil our God-given destinies, must develop spiritual capacity. In Christ Jesus is unlimited potential. But it is up to you and I to develop the capacity and the strength that it takes. In the grace of God to fulfil those potentials. In 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 2, Paul writing to Timothy said, My son, breathe out, therefore, strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Now in Christ Jesus, there's unlimited grace. John 1:16 says, and of his fullness, have all we received and grace for grace. 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 186, but growing grace and in the knowledge of our Lord

and saviour Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:3. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you, verse 2 rather. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ. So, grace can multiply. There's grace for grace in Christ Jesus. It's unlimited measure of grace. But Paul wrote to Timothy and said, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, meaning that it is possible to be in Christ Jesus and be weak in grace. If it were not possible to be weak in grace, he won't tell him, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. To be strong, therefore, is your responsibility. If you don't do what it takes to be strong, then you will be weak. Recently I got for myself a health coach. So that this coach can coach me uh to be healthier than I have been. I've always studied a lot about health. But gradually, I just discovered that

As I was making my best efforts, I kept growing fatter and fatter. I kept growing fatter and fatter. We are, you see what we're eating. We're still growing fat, fatter, fatter. So, and I began to realise that I was diminishing in strength. And I will even get to that later. Praise God. And, and, and, and my coach began to give me, she's been coaching me since the beginning of July. And since the beginning of July till now, I've lost some weight. Your eyes may not see it, but I can feel it. Praise God. And the closest people to me say they are noticing anyway. So the reality is, you know, um, this, so this coach is, is coaching me and she now started coaching me in squatting. She said I should start squatting a few days ago. So, I came with sore thighs. I never knew that squatting is such an important exercise. And uh, it all started, in, in fact, the knowledge of the importance of legs

was something I just received not long ago. And during, you know, a dinner meeting with, with, with Reverend, uh, you know, I, I get to see him frequently these days because we both live in the UK. Praise God. So, Uh, he himself was telling me, uh, he was telling my wife and I about the importance of exercising the legs. And one of the things my coach taught me to do is to walk for at least one hour every day, you know. So, and, and when I was sharing that, you know, with Baba Baba, I was saying, oh yes, I was talking about the importance of the legs and, you know, he has knowledge about any and everything in this world. And he began to educate us about health, health matters, you know, again. So I was now told by my coach that one of the best exercises you can carry out is squatting. Going this way, standing up, going this way, standing up like that.

And we use this time to exercise again now. Please God. Very, very important. My coach told me, he says, stand on your legs, sir. We were on a virtual, virtual meeting one day said, stand on your legs, sir. He said, I want to see if you're able to stand for 30 seconds. If you cannot stand on one leg for 30 seconds, your matter is an emergency. Very serious about that. If you can't stay on one leg like this for 30 straight seconds, your health is an emergency matter. You need to exercise, you know, the lower part of the body. But, you know, but I, I started feeling sore. That, that, that the feeling saw was indicative that the legs and thighs lacked a level of capacity that I'm now building through the exercise. Are you following me, somebody? But the capacity to, to, to squat is there. I remember I did something my coach told me not to do. My coach pished me with, with 20 press-ups. Yes,

I know you're wondering, hey, who is that person punishing the person. Yes, I submitted myself. She's my spiritual daughter and I submitted myself to her. She said, press up. So whenever she's warning me right now, I say, you will do 20 press-ups. So if you don't do this particular thing, I said, ah, the fear of press-ups is the beginning of wisdom. I. Hallelujah. Capacity. Somebody say capacity. Say I am building capacity. So, meaning that, why was it that all the thighs were aching? There was weakness there before. Now I'm building strength through the exercise. So you can be in Christ Jesus and in Christ Jesus is unlimited grace, but you can be weak in Christ Jesus. That's why in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10, it says, Father, let my brethren, be strong in the Lord. Power of his might. You can be in the Lord and you'll be weak at the same time, even though you are in the Lord.

So that's why he says, be strong. One translation says, be empowered in the Lord. Another one says, be strengthened in the Lord. And in the power of his might, then he says, put on the whole armour of God that you may be able to stand against the whites of the devil. You cannot put on the armour in weakness. That's why you will see soldiers are trained with heavy, serious exercises so that their bodies will develop the capacity to handle their armour. They carry heavy knapsacks on their backs for hours during war. Their kit is very, very massive. They carry heavy guns. They shoot them, and those guns, they can shake out of your hand. I was Visited a friend of mine who is also a mentee of Reverend George. I'm sure he must have ministered behind this church before Pastor Pike Olawale. I also visited him one time in Dallas, Texas, and he took me to a shooting range. He likes to shoot a lot.

You know, and shooting is part of their lifestyle in America. America has millions of guns. There is no nation in this world that will try America by going to invade America. They will kill all of them because the average American has a gun. That country, more than half of their population, they carry their own gun in their hands. They have guns in their houses. In fact, when I started practising shooting, shooting, ah, he was selling the car that my children can shoot much better than you, children, because he's taught all his children how to shoot. It's just the American life. That's why you are usually very careful with road rage in America or anything because you're trying to find somebody on the road, the guy can just open his glove compartment, pow, like that. So, and everybody that wants to go and steal in the house has to be very careful because

you don't know what the owner of the house has in his arsenal. And it's all about self-defense. And um that's, that's why, of course, it's also part of what is causing a whole lot of shooting in the country, uh, but no matter how hard any president tries, they cannot stop people from carrying guns in America. It's just part and parcel of their national life. Britain has good control on it. So they fight with knives. Knife is the problem of UK. Since they don't have guns, knife, they carry on manners of machete that they used to fight. Anyway. So the, the, the, what the bottom line of where I'm going was to handle the weapon, I had to learn to hold the gun with firmness. If you lack firmness, you can't hold a gun. The gun, some of the AK forty-sevens we see that they use in movies. If you handle it, if you shoot like this, the gun would just jump out of your hand.

If you don't have the strength and the firmness to hold it, and if you are in battle, the enemy will kill you if you can't hold it steady because it is not just a matter of holding it, it's a matter of being able to hold it so steadily you can aim at an enemy and gun the enemy down. You know, appropriately. So they train the soldiers and make sure that they are very fit. It's the same thing with sportsmen. You will notice at times some of the players that are going to be to play at second half, even last, last night, I still noticed it. Was it last night now or when was it? Yes. You know, Sunday, Sunday evening when Chelsea, you know, thrashed Brighton. I, I noticed that the guys who are going to Who are going to play in the 2nd half, they were already exercising during the 1st half so that they will be fit to play in the 2nd half.

You can notice it with the dominant colour in this building is blue. If you go outside the sky blue. It's colour of heaven, blue, is it? I know some people will say, but the blood of Jesus is red. It is the 2nd favourite colour of God. Blue is the first one. Praise God. So, we must learn to build capacity, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. That's what you will notice. In the prayers of Paul. 2 In the epistles, you will notice that one of the principal prayers he prayed for. was strength. In Ephesians chapter 3, he prayed, uh, from verse 14, for this cause, uh, we faint not. Uh, although it, it says, it says, for, for this cause, I pray, uh, I'm trying to remember exactly how he started that prayer there. Please help me, my dear. For this cause, I bow my knees. Oh, OK, I will, I was trying to quote from verse 13. Give me verse 13.

Hallelujah, verse 13. Let us start from 13. Yeah, for this cause I, no, 13. I'm still waiting media 13 verse 13. Wherefore I desire that ye think not at my tribulations for you, uh, which is your glory. OK? In other words, he saw that they were getting discouraged as a church because of its incarceration, and he said, uh, no, for this cause, he said, I'm praying that you do not faint. Come on, don't lose heart. You know pray this prayer verse 14. And for this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. That he will grant you to be strengthened with might by His spirit in the inner man. He prayed that they be worked strengthened with might. By the spirit in the inner man. He prayed for them in Ephesians chapter one. You know, he started out from 17 to say that the God of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

the Father of glory. They give it to you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of Him. The eyes of your understanding and enlightened, that he may know what is the hope of His calling, what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us word who believe according to the working of His mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places. Praise God. You see him praying again in Colossians chapter 1, for, for the Colossians, you know, and, and I think that is from the 7th verse, verse 7, Colossians chapter 1, verse 7. For this cause also since we heard of it, that is heard of your, of your faith, Colossians 1:7, uh, skip down to verse 9. Verse 9. For this cross, we also, yeah, verse 9. Since the day we heard, heard it, that is,

heard of their conversion unto Christ because Paul did not convert the Colossians directly. It was Onesimus that took the gospel to them. So he now wrote them a letter. For these children of his spiritual son. Uh, to say, uh since we heard it, cease not to pray for you that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Let's read on verse 10 now. Very similar to Ephesians 1 prayer, but look at verse 10 that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all priests and be fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Yeah, let's keep reading. Verse 11 now. Strength. And with all mighty. According to his glorious power. Strengthened with all might according to His glorious power unto all long-suffering. Or to all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness. Let me ask you this question. Those three things, uh, patience,

long-suffering, joyfulness. What does it remind you of? Talk to me somebody. What does it remind you of? The fruit of the spirit, yeah. Meaning that the fruit of the spirit is a product of strength. Be spiritually strong. The reason why you are not patient with your wife is you are spiritually weaker. The reason why you're not patient with your children is that you're a spiritually weak man. The reason why you cannot tolerate us in church. And you're always talking about church people, tell people, no, I just go to church. I worship my God and I go home. Constructive. Touch people, hmm, you don't get along with people because you lack spiritual strength. One of the things with people with spiritual strength is the fruit of the spirit. You are long suffering. I always tell people, if you don't like the fruit of this very long suffering, don't get married. Tell young people,

don't get married. Because it takes long suffering to live with the same spouse. For 60 years of your life. When I got married to my wife and I discovered the strength of her personality, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I said, I will change this woman. I will break her. I will break up. I wanted to change somebody from the way God made her. I'm going to change her into another mould. And then I switched into carnality. Boisterous anger. I just discovered that the more angry I got, The most stu she was becoming. It did not work. The Holy Spirit told me one day stop competing with your wife in carnality. He said hardship is not domination. Headship is leadership. Leadership is setting the right example before her. If you want her to control her anger, control your hunger. If you want her to be patient, be patient. If you want her to be submissive, be submissive. He said,

be an example of character before her so that she will be inspired by your godliness to submit to you. In other words, let her willingly submit, and I will never forget after all our parts in the first few years of our marriage, one day with tears in her eyes, looked me, she said, I see all the effort you are making to be very godly and to be a very good husband and to be patient with me, and I want you to know that I am very determined that I am going to be the wife you want me to be. I'm very determined to make you happy. Hallelujah. And suddenly I was like, oh, glory to God.

It's Submission is not something you command. Submission is not something you remind your wife that the Bible says you should do. Submission is something you inspire with your love, unconditional love for your wife. Whether she's behaving right or wrong, you are loving right. You are still doing the right things. After she refuses to submit to you on a matter, you buy her a gift. The opposite of what you feel like doing. Do it. Hallelujah. And then you inspire change in her. That's how to do it. So we need strength for the fruit of the spirit. Strengthened withalm. According to his glorious power. Unto all long unto all patience and long suffering with joyfulness. The reason why you cannot rejoice in challenging times is you are weak, son.

That's why you have psychological depression anytime there's no money in your bank account. You just start frowning. The children are in trouble. Snapping at your wife all the time. It is a bank account that regulates your emotional temperature. Every judge calls it being a thermometer, Tamuma Christianity. One day I was travelling from There's a, there's a town in the desert of California called Victorville, and I was travelling by route to Las Vegas, Nevada. Around the coastline on the border of California and Las Vegas is the world's tallest thermometer. Very, very tall thermometer like this massive. You know, massive, uh, object like that or massive development like that. All it is doing is just reading the temperature. But that is different from a thermostat. A tangostat is nothing inside, you're pressing iron. That when you turn it left, it goes cooler. Turn it right,

it goes hotter. The thermostat and regulates temperature. A ttmu start Christian regulates temperature. In other words, if the house is hot, it cools it down. If the wife is boiling and the whole house is soft answer turns away wrath. Hallelujah. He regulates his external. He's not reactive, reactive, reactive. Why? Strengthened with might. You and I need spiritual capacity to handle our destinies. Isaiah chapter 40 verse 28. Hast thou not heard? Hast thou, uh, I mean, it says, hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard? Hast thou not heard and hast thou not known that the everlasting God, the Creator of the hands of the earth, fainted not. There is no searching, uh, the fainted not neither is weary. There is no searching of his understanding. So God is never weary. Verse 29 says, He, God giveth power to the faint

and to them that have no might. He increased strength. So when we lack spiritual capacity, God is the one who can give us power when we are fainting. When we are out of strength to perform. And then he says to them that have no might. Literally mighty means muscular ability. What he just said is the ability to carry the weight of the destiny that God has given you. The ability to carry the ministry God has given you, the ability to conquer principalities and powers.

For them to be standing strong in this city, we fought battles in the spirit. That's why Rebachabo cannot but succeed anywhere it it goes in the city. The ministry God's given us influence. Some people, I even meet some people today in about that and they, they, they, they, they seem to say, one of these days I'll come and watch me your church. They don't know I, I left the city in 2008. They don't know that I've left the city since 2008. They still think that I am in this city because of the influence that is still there in this city. Whereas I was, I'm long gone. It is because the municipalities are ours. We have tied them down that when it comes to us, as far as Ibadan is concerned. Except God doesn't ask us to do a thing, we will accomplish it in this land. Hallelujah. We must develop the capacity to deal with the forces of darkness, and the capacity to birth

the dreams and the visions God has put inside us. It's a matter of developing capacity. He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might. He increased strength. Then he says, even the youth shall faint in verse 30, and the young men shall utterly fall. Verse 31 says, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not say, how can somebody be running and not waiting. Is it not use strength to run? But I always have one illustration that I love to describe Isaiah 40:31. When I was a teenage boy I, my, my father sent me to a secondary school beside our village just so that I would be close to the village. He wanted me to love. The, the village love the young the people of Kogi State and love my little village called Owere in that in that state very much unknown to him, uh, destiny will make it my

my adopted hometown eventually. This is my adopted hometown. Praise God. And my country house is here. My father made me buy a massive plot of parcel of land to build. A mansion in in Udweri, but uh Unfortunately, I'm just waiting for my mother to die so I can sell it. It's. All right, but that's become adopted Ubile. Please don't tell Ubere people that I told you so.

Hallelujah But the chances of going there are very slim. I don't have the time to go there. Hallelujah, and I won't retire. Prophets don't retire. We shall preach this gospel to final breath until the last breath leaves this no space. Who will be working and serving the Lord. You can retire from work, but if you retire from civil service, you better find something else to do. It is idleness that kills people very quickly, not having something to do. God did not create a human being to be idle. Just wake up in the morning. Drink tea Just walk around the house, just smiling in retirement, doing nothing. Esma We actively judge If there's nothing to do, serve the Lord. Everyson should be here. Volunteer to do extra work, anything you can do, but to keep yourself busy. Praise God. We shall preach this gospel to final breath. I remember Maurice Sadulo a few years ago.

I was in the School of Ministry of Vis in America. The man was already 85, still preaching heartily from his heart. They were, they were supporting him to climb up the staircase. He was attaching. He would sit down in the chair to preach. He will stand up. He will sit, but he was still pushing with the last of energy that he had inside him until final breath, and he said, Somebody asked brother Maurice, when will you retire? I said, I am a prophet of God. Prophets, don't retire.

A few weeks before he died, he was still on his private jet to Ivory Coast to preach the gospel. A Few weeks before he died, carried on till the last breath. Love people like that. Praise God. No, no retirement. Only, let me borrow the words of one son of Baba in Kenya, retirement. He says only retirement, no retirement. Glory to God. I said glory to God. So back to my village illustration. So I have this, my village courses there. They told me, Victor. Don't let any of these old men, aged men in this village, don't let them touch you when they are going to the farm in the morning. So just greet them from a distance. I said, why? Hey. He said, if they touch you like this, that you will just discover that you are getting tired inside your house doing nothing. Then you'll just be getting tired. He said, because when they make contact with you like this,

they will take your strength and go and use it to farm. But as they are walking on the farm like this, you'll be getting tired at home and they, they will be fresh. You see this seventy-something year old men. In the evening, they are coming back from the farm with their hoe on their shoulder like this, very fresh. As if they've done nothing and yet they've been working all day and you, you are, huh, you are tall, you are gasping for breath, not knowing what is happening. Hey, you say my go today who goes out there I'm feeling very weak. Somebody else is using your strength in the farm. By witchcraft, black magic. Then I went upon shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be wary. Why? They are running on the strength of the Almighty God. Hallelujah. And the Bible says earlier we quoted earlier that he is that he fainted,

not neither is weary. He never gets tired because he's omnipotent. But when we spend time waiting upon him faster than prayer, we draw strength from Him and we use that strength to work, to serve, to carry responsibilities. We develop spiritual capacity to birth the dreams and the visions God has given us, but we are not weary. So that's why I've been preaching the gospel 40 years now. I am not willing. I just feel like we have just started. Glory be to God. We are ready to go Another 40 years. If Christ is coming. Let's keep preaching this gospel. Let's keep lifting up the banner of Jesus from nation to nation, from territory to territory, from shore to shore. Hallelujah. All around the world. We are going to take this gospel to the farthest places we can and take it to the remotest places we can. We are not growing weary spiritually. We are not getting tired spiritually. Why?

Because The Lord is our strength. And that's what Habakkuk said in Habakkuk 3:17-19, although the fig tree shall not blossom and there shall be no no no no no no produce in the vine, you don't, there's no fruit in the vine. The the the the fields yield no meat. And he said, yet will I Joy in the Lord. I will joy in the Lord God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength. He said, and it will make my feet like hind's feet or like the feet of the deer. The future of the DI is so strong. So the guy, nothing is working for him. Although the fig tree does not blossom. So, he was dealing with fig tree and there is no fruit on the vine. So he was also planting vine trees. The labour of the olive shall fail. So he was dealing in olive. So you can see that this guy is, is, is a, is an owner of an orchard with various fruit trees in it. Though the flock be cut off from the fold.

And there'll be no herds in the stall, so no sheep, no cattle. Yet will I rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength because the strength comes from God. His circumstances cannot affect him. He says because of that, the Lord will now make my feet like hind's feet, like the feet of the deer. In other words, supernatural speed is coming because of the strength of the Almighty God. There will come divine acceleration because of the strength of the Almighty God. Some of us just lack spiritual capacity to handle the vision God's given us. There was one day like that I read something in In a book about Reinhard Bonnke plundering hell to populate heaven. I think I loaned it from Baba's library in those days. I used to help him. I was the time I was helping I read this library in a new house so I will help myself to read the books.

I just couldn't take them away, but I could read their praise God. And I read this one in a hurry, plundering hell to populate heaven. And Ranabuke talked about a vision he saw one time. He saw himself steering a massive ship. But he was steering them in shallow waters and because of that, the ship could not move very well. The Lord I spoke to him right now. That is you leading the ministry that I have given you. That ministry is like a mighty ship, but the ship is operating in a shallow waters, shallow grace, shallow anointing. The prayer base of your ministry is too weak. So he told him to raise the intercessors. That was when he now raised intercessors. God now bless his ministry with a, with a lady. Sorry, Susannah, what's her surname again? No, not Wesley. I know she's Susan. I think she's Susan Hutton, something like that. Yeah, a, a, a German lady like that, powerful intercessor.

Who started leading intercessory ministry and intercessions for his crusades and so on and then Boom, supernatural speed came. Hallelujah. Otherwise, when you are operating in shallow waters, that is where you will discover your life, your destiny, your progress becomes slow. Ministry, slow. Why? Because there is no sufficient spiritual momentum.

One of the things I felt relieved about when I leftdema Chapel was long periods of fasting. 30 days in January, 30 days in July, 40 days in January, 40 days in July. I have never caught more than 21 days in global harvest. Most January 7 days of glory because I like my food. Oh, I went, man. We used to fuss so much. In Ramachapo One day the Lord spoke to me and said, the way you are fasting and praying, you will not fulfil your ministry. I had to put my food aside and give myself. To not eating a single meal for 40 days. It was so clear to me, my spirit, it's either you pay the price for the next phase of your ministry or I'm gonna call you home. It's very clear to me So I had to go on the long fast. Drinking only water for 21 solid days, only water, because on the 22nd day I started drinking juice. Till the 40th day. Hallelujah.

I was so lean, everybody who saw me thought I was sick. And it does not kill There was a momentum that just came into our ministry after that. Boom. Finances went to another level. Church planting went to, we started planting branches all over and we started reaching out to other countries, planting churches. Momentum After paying that price.

A minister recently in New Jersey for a prophet of God, a friend of mine who's a prophet. As soon I asked, the administration was done. He said, man of God, why, why, why, what? He called him inside. He said, I saw a vision. Said, What did you see that? He said, I saw a helicopter. I saw a man beckoning to you to come into the helicopter. You came into the helicopter and then the helicopter took you off and was taking you around to, to, to, to a great height and then I saw a vision of crusades, massive crusades. The Lord says that is the next phase of your ministry. He said to tell you that phase of the ministry will only be bothered by long periods of fasting and prayer. Long periods. So I've started the journey. I don't know when it will end because it won't end until I see manifestation like this with my eyes of what God has shown me. And which

interestingly God spoke to me the day before. The very following day, my prophet friend saw a vision of it to confirm it that it is God who is speaking to you. So whether I like food or not. The price must be paid. Hallelujah. Look at it, they would say there's a price to pay. For spiritual power. So there's a price to pay for spiritual capacity. So if you like, don't join January 1st. If you like, don't join July fast. You are not, you are not hurting anybody. You are hurting yourself. Yeah, you, you are the one who will like the spiritual most. Go get the job done. When God spoke to me some years ago, I had to start daily prayer in all our churches. I pray 30 minutes every morning. Now the Lord is telling me to go and double it. I tell them, we are stretched to one hour every morning, every church like that because of spiritual capacity. Hallelujah. The Lord Jesus Christ,

sinless Jesus, Son of the living God, came into this world. He will wake up a good while before day to go and pray. If Jesus needed to develop spiritual capacity, how about you, sir, and man. With all our issues. Jesus in his perfection. Was he so dependent on his father? To face the cross, he had to pray. Minimum, he prayed 3 hours that day he got, get the money. Because he went to pray, he came back 1 hour later, found them sleeping. Ah, can you not watch with me 1 hour? He went the 2nd time, prayed like that, came back again, went the 3rd time, prayed again, prayed several hours before facing the cross.

We all need to develop spiritual capacity. Barriers can be broken. New records can be set. You can be launched into a higher dimension of impact. You can be launched into a higher dimension of influence, but you have to develop capacity, capacity. Spiritual capacity. 2. I decided to take this out of spiritual capacity. Hallelujah. You have to develop. behavioural capacity. Good character Good character He led the people with the integrity of his heart. Sincerity of heart, sincerity of purpose before God. David was true before God and true before man. He, first and foremost in his relationship with God, he was authentic.

And authenticity is so important before the Almighty God. Proverbs 28:3 says that cove his sins shall not prosper. He that confessed and forsaken them shall obtain mercy. There is nothing God does not know. He is omniscient. He knows your thoughts, conscious and unconscious. He knows everything going on inside your heart. God is not the kind of person you'll be talking to and be using kingdom's English. You go to your closet, oh Heavenly Father, O Thou that renderest the heavens and stretches Thy glory above all the earth. I come to thee this morning. Is that the way you talk to people? Is that your normal language? You're now using it to talk to the Almighty God. Your business is here. You must learn to be honest. God likes people who are very open and honest before Him, even in their imperfection. David was not perfect, but he was sincere before his heavenly Father.

Well he says here. Mm. So That one. He regarded human beings more than God. That's why God rejected them. First Psalm 13:34, God, God told him that he had rejected him. He said, and I have found me a man after my own heart. Who will obey my commandments. That statement, a man after my own heart is somebody who desires to please God. A man after my heart is somebody who wants to know what's on your heart. When I was walking with my spiritual father in Rama Chapel, I always wanted to know what was on his heart. What, what was his vision? And, and God blessed me with a man like that. Who pastor our headquarters church here for many years. He's gone to plant another church for us in in Canada right now. You gonna say, Dad, what's on your heart? What are your heart? What's on your heart? God Wants people who

are motivated by his own pleasure. Never let's just 41. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, honour, and power, for thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. The pleasure of God ought to be our ultimate quest. What can I do to please you? What can I do to make you happy?

I have an older brother who many of you know him, Ressam Adeemi. Who pastors a mega church. The attendance and there are a few locations. There's one church, but you know, they have a few locations. Who together on a typical Sunday morning. In all the services put together. Is between 35 to 40,000 every Sunday. Massive congregation Now, when he was seriously designing church growth in the beginning, they said when they, when they went before God, I wanted the church to grow. God said, Sam, why do you want your church to grow? Why? So what the holi place said why? So you have to be honest before God. So the priest said, because. You want to break through You want to have a large church. So that your financial problems will be solved. And you want to have a large church so that you can feel good. And feel proud of yourself. And I told him, your heart must be right with me.

Before I can give you the church. And then he said, you have to start before God working on his heart. To develop a selfless heart. That is not looking for the people so the people can come and meet his needs. But he's looking for the people so that he can meet their needs. He's not looking for the people so that the people can make him feel good in their numbers. Rather, he wants to see the kingdom of God expanded.

And that is why when you see him, he's as simple as ever. He's put systems and structures in place, restricting himself a very great deal. In terms of how much you can even benefit financially from the work. Even though God's blessed the work so much, budgeted billions and billions of naira every year. Restricted himself Because it's not about me, it's about The kingdom, it's about God and it's about God's people. And at times that motif shows. And how we treat the people. For us who are pastors. One day my brother said he looked at the people in the church and told God, these were not the people you showed me my vision. Why would you bring those people that you showed to me? God said, those people I showed you the vision, they are those people who are in the church right now. If you will be faithful And you will feed them with the word of God.

They will become those people I showed you in the vision. Stop praying that God will bring the big people to church. Say, Father, bring quality members to church. What do you mean by that? Those that you are seeing in the congregation right now, they are the best quality members. A qualitative pastor will produce a qualitative congregation. Hallelujah. Feed them with the word of God. Serve them with excellence. Then they will transform into the people that you are seeing in your vision. If your heart is selfless in serving them. Then God will reward you at the end of the day. He guided them with the integrity of his heart and the skillfulness of his hands, with good character. There is nobody in this world that can really Attract people without respecting them. Mac Murdoch says what you respect, you attract. Some of us have personalities that repel people. You start your business,

you talk to customers anyhow, and you're fasting and you're praying, fasting and praying. You are in every fasting and prayer programme in this world. You wake up in the middle of the night, pray spiritual warfare, and yet the customer comes, your customer is stressing you, you abuse them very, very. Guys we are going, go buy. Nonsense. Your God is answering your prayer by bringing them. Satan is using you to chase them away. It's your character. Bad behaviour.

You must develop people's skills. In the parable of the talent is a very great principle and it is the principle of management. Somebody was given 5 talents. Another one was given 2 talents. The third one was given 1 talent. The one with the 5 traded with it. Got another 5. The one with the 2 traded with it. Got another 2. The one with the 1 went and buried his own and did not trade with it. He did not manage the resource. What happened? By the time that recording was made, the one that was in the hand of the 1 talent guy was collected from him and given to the guy who had produced 5 other talents from his 5 talents. What does that tell you? Poor managers of resources are always losing them to good managers. And it does not matter what the resources financial, material, human. It's the same.

You want to be rich, manage money very well. With prudence Baba used to tell us, use. A Holy Ghost internal regulating system in the management of money. Internal regulating system. As a pastor of a church, you restrain yourself. And then some of us when we are managing our business when they say this is my money. Who told you? We are all stewards. God owns everything. Is that your business God owns everything and he's looking at you the way you're managing it.

And some people would tell me, ah, you can take more benefits. We can be entitled to more benefits, but if we take it like that, the work of God can be hindered. I can't afford to take everything the trustees have approved for me, no. I have to restrain myself. That the work of God be not hindered. And to be an example of prudence to others.

That's why Yoruba say You don't use all your 10 fingers to eat.

One of the greatest joys of my life is learning the power of savings. Setting money aside. When you despise money, money just runs away from you. It is despising money that doesn't allow you to save it. Say, Lulu, whoa, how much is is allowed and collecting? So you cannot set anything aside from it because that's why I guess it is too small. And you are repelling it away much further. But if you respect it enough, as small as it is that you are saying, I won't spend everything, I'm gonna put something little aside consistently, consistently. God is awesome. He will come and meet you halfway. Miracles will happen on top of what you have in order for you to be able to accomplish your dreams.

No matter how little it is, put something aside. Put something aside.

Because I was a branch pastor before, one of the things about me when I became You know, The leader of a ministry with branches was to give my pastors more liberty. The kind of liberty I had wished I had as a branch pastor. I know the pastors of Rama Chapel know what I'm talking about. We all wish for more liberty. So, we try to operate and guide the ministry, however, by policies and we have an internal audit system. But at the time, I now noticed some of our pastors were not saving money. When I'm looking at Financial report. They call all manners of this capital expenses. I said, we had to fix some windows and windows are broken into the church. I said, ah, that one is maintenance. It is not capital expenditure. Capital expenditure goes into development. Buy land, buy, uh, financial instruments for the church. It should be something that is taking us forward,

not maintaining status quo. Ah, they will argue with me in the book of accounts. It is, it is that. So after some time, my director of finance advisor said, Let us begin to collect this capital savings and save it for them. I was initially reluctant. Then initially and eventually I agreed and succumbed and we started saving money for them, but yeah, send the, your 20% for capital, capital savings ought to be 20%. So we started collecting that one and saving it for them. So one time I now asked her, so how is it going with uh, with, with the, the capital services said, ah. He said, your pastors, they don't want to collect their, their savings anymore. They don't want to spend it too. I said, why? He said, they are surprised that, eh, you mean we can have this much money? eh? You mean our branch has 2 million. When they discovered the wonder and power of savings, they themselves

now stopped collecting the money. Let it keep building up. Let it keep building up. Because one day you just discover. We have 5 million. We have 20 million That is how it compounds and builds. Especially you take it and you. Invested into interest yielding accounts, treasury bills, bonds. Or any other safe. Thin, not er MMM All the people that succumb to MMM, it is greed and covetousness that make you invest in things like that. And you can never be rich if that is how you manage your money. Anything that they say can double money in 3 months, you go and put your money there. How do you go? That all that greed, we never let the money go. So at times we take that money and invest for them. They invest it and the money is growing and people are amazed. They are discovering the beauty and the wonder. Of prudence. Of proper management.

And it's the same thing with human beings. Manage people well and they will draw other people. Manage them poorly and they go away. behavioural capacity. If a church wants to attract more people, it starts with behavioural capacity. I like it when I arrived there. I saw people welcoming me from the door. It's a very good thing. I remember one day I went to a church to preach. As soon as I got to that church in Abuja like this, they were clapping and welcoming me. Uh, it was a huge celebration. Uh uh. I felt very important. When I finished preaching like this, they had lined up again. Uh, they were celebrating me as I left. I felt very important. I'm like, I will come back here again. I now discovered that is even how they become members to the church. I went to Creflo Dollar Church in the United States one day in Atlanta, Georgia. They were doing a minister's conference. I I

Right for an evening session like this. I just saw this usher, well-dressed in suits. So you are very much welcome, man of God. You are the God's servant for the hour and we are so happy to have you in this place. You're welcome. Just, just walk in majestically on the royalty you are and just go over to my colleague over there. He will take you to your seat reserved for you. I was like, uh, they are wonderful with this doctor. So somebody has told them who I am. They must have told them and be the end of Global Harvest of Nigeria. And they say, ah, these people do their research because the way he treated me, ah, uh, I went to his colleague. The colleague who said, you're very, the colleague was inside the auditorium, so he did not speak out loud like the man outside. So I was like, You're very much welcome, sir. We are really very happy to have you. If you would just go down the aisle,

my colleague is waiting to have you seated there. Then as I was going to the uh to the colleague. He pointed me to a lady standing in the aisle. I began to suspect. Anyway, I got to her, but I began to suspect that is it not that she wanted to sit me inside? You know, I like sitting at the edge of the sea like this. When I got there, she, she just said, You're very much welcome, sir. We're so happy to have you. Please kindly just go in and, and sit right next to the next person in, in the row. She treated me with so much respect, I had to respect myself. I couldn't sit at the edge and say, I, I, I said, no, this is where I want to sit. Ah, I just respected myself and I went to sit inside there. When I go there, I discovered that everybody was treated like a special guest. And I said to myself, If I were not a pastor and I was living in the city. I will join this church

because of the way I was treated, welcomed. Handled by the ushers, not his.

Some people are there arranging people to sit down in church with a frown. Haba. Haba

Treat people nicely. Be kind, be warm. You see, but there are times where some people need to be handled with firmness. You can be kind and firm at the same time. You can be respectful and firm at the same time. In the United Kingdom when police come. Like this and they want to give you a ticket for overspeeding. They will be using sir for you. Good afternoon, sir. They will sell you. They give you a ticket to go and pay a fine of £100 and they, yeah they will be saying, sir. Be respectful. Be kind Develop a winsome personality. Look at the Lord Jesus Christ with a woman by the well of Siberia. Give me water to drink, woman. How can you a Jew? You're asking me a Samaritan for water. The Jews normally treated Samaritans with disdain. Jesus did not treat her with disdain. He treated her. With respect Jesus knew she would say hello to.

That she was with husband number 6. That's why she came to the well at 12 noon. Who goes to the well at 12 noon? The culture in Bible days was to go to the well in the evening. She came at 12 noon at a time when people don't go out to fetch water because of her bad reputation in the city. But she went at 12 noon to fetch water. And yet Jesus engaged that in discussion.

Jesus said, give me water. If you know the gift of God, and you, who, who it is that is telling you to give me water, you will have asked of him for eternal life. He said, eternal life. Mhm. You Jews, you said that we should worship in Jerusalem, but if our fathers worshipped on this mountain, she wanted to get Jesus into religious discussion. Jesus said, Woman, that the hour. Is coming and, and now is when the true worshippers, eh, they will worship the Father in, in, in, they will neither worship on this mountain or in Jerusalem, uh, but they will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh us to worship Him. God is a spirit, and then the worship him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. He Give me, give me this living water. She considered engaging Jesus. Jesus, I said, go and call your husband. She said, I don't have a husband. She said,

you are right because you are with husband number 6. I said, hey. What? And then Jesus started telling her details about her. The Bible does not recall everything Jesus told her in John chapter 4, but you will know Jesus told her details because by the time she got to town, she says, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Jesus told her a lot of things about her supernaturally. By the time he was done with her, she dropped her water pot and ran to the city to go and call everybody. A woman who was shameful, who was rejected, who was disdained, became a hero of the city at the end of the day. Jesus treated her right. Jesus never treated anybody with disrespect. He only had problems with his Pharisees, and do you know why? Hypocrisy. Hypocrisy The Pharisees, apart from insisting that everybody should obey all the law of Moses,

have plenty of rules and regulations they give the people to obey. They were putting too much heavy burden on the people. Jesus said, look, you are putting bodies on the people that you yourselves cannot carry. The the principle of the Pharisees was, do as I say but don't do as I do. They come out in flowing white garments in the public pretending to be holy and yet they are shacking up with women in secret. That's why then they brought a woman and said, we caught her in adultery. We caught her in the very act. We pulled out from under the man like this. Moses said we should stone her to death. What do you have to say? He said, whoever does not have sin among you, let him cast the first stone. All those fake Pharisees, one after the other, they all disappeared from the place, from the eldest to the youngest. For you to know they were hypocrites. They were doing the same thing.

They were committing adultery. They were lying. They were cheating, but they were appearing wholly in public. They lived one life at home. It was different from the front they were giving us in church. Hypocrisy, lack of authenticity. David was not a man like that. He was a man who led the people with integrity and sincerity of heart. Plain and open before God, Honness before God and honestness before men. That's why I've learned to be vulnerable. I tell people about my own personal struggles as a human being. I tell them about my challenges. I don't try to present in front of one super guy who never had marital challenges, one super guy who never gets tempted, one super guy. I will never endorse him. Anybody that promotes and endorses a sinful lifestyle is not of God. He is eternic and he's trying to lead you to hellfire. But however,

I let people see my humanity because I'm a human being like everybody else. I don't want to be a fake before people. And it starts with my relationship with God. Being open and being transparent and sincere before the Almighty God. No cover-ups. No cover-ups between me and God and no cover-ups between me and men. Very, very important. It's the beginning of proper behaviour. The only time that David did something very wrong, he was trying to cover it up. And that is the problem with sin. The moment you try to cover sin up, sin multiplies while you are trying to cover it up. You will be adding sin to sin at the end of the day. The best thing to do is to go and open it up as fast as possible to the right channel. That's the key to getting rid of it and overcoming it. Anything that is exposed is weakened. Any satanic activity that is exposed is weakened. We all need good conduct,

good character to attract people and to keep them. One of the greatest challenges I had when I was a young pastor was that. When I had challenges with people who are behaving badly. There was one time there was a serious crisis like that. One day, I was, I'd added up to here. I just came and just busted out in church at the Universal Hotel one day like that. It was a terrible outburst. I was just a kid. And some elderly people are giving me stress in church. I got frustrated.

I came to church. I got angry. There was one powerful anointing that morning. I just went on the stage. I just got angry. And another church was started at the other end of town. Hundreds of people just left the church at once. And when they left, I said, go do that or bad rubbish. The church will grow again. Truly speaking, the church began to grow again. However, if the church will continue growing and those who did not live will have grown faster. So after experiencing losing people, I just discovered that when you lose people, you are losing capacity. Because people are precious. They're human resources. Everybody comes with their gift. Everybody comes with their talents. There's one deacon that had a fallout with me then I wanted to live in this church. His friend, another, another man, member of the church came to meet me and said, please, resolve with this man.

Don't let him leave. There is a benefit that the relationship is giving you. Inside me. I was like, Benefit. It is selfish to be looking for benefit. Anybody that wants to leave, let them leave. It was just the thinking of a child. Don't let us deceive ourselves. All relationships benefit. Everybody comes with their gifts, with their talents, with their resources, with their contributions, and everybody should be, should be respected. Some people are difficult people, but it's all part of developing capacity to get along with them. It's developing with relational capacity. It's amazing. Some of the people I have kept for a long time in Global Harvest Church now because I've grown and matured. If it was when I was a young a young Christ, a young pastor, when I was a member, I would have chased me away with it for the longest time. Some people are sincere, they're just difficult.

Some of them are difficult and they don't even know it. Some people it's also because of background, all sorts of baggages from upbringing. We just learn to manage them because with all their trouble, they are still valuable in some other way. So we are the ones that developed the bandwidth. I let people know I love them even when I'm disciplining them. When I'm being firm with them and correcting them and I'm disagreeing with them, I'm still insisting, we love you, we value you in this church. What you are doing, I cannot agree with it and this is wrong and for the life of me, I love you too much not to tell you the truth. Love you. And I will tell you how they affirm that I love you. Hallelujah. We don't throw away our wives because we love them. We don't throw away our children because we love them, and yet we have issues in our family. We are family here also. Hallelujah.

Sharpen your people's skills. You'll have more customers in your business. Sharpen your people's skills and you will discover you will be promoted faster. Let me tell you, technical ability only takes you so far in any organisation where you work. The moment you are getting the managerial level, it's about people's skills. She want to reach the potential in that organisation. How you get along with your colleagues, how you get along with other people. How well you work as a team. Praise God All right, let's make progress. Number 3, intellectual capacity. You need to develop your what? Intellectual capacity. He led them by the integrity of his heart and the skillfulness of his hands. The word skillfulness of his hands, there is an expression that simply means the wisdom of his leadership, the wisdom of his management. Skillfulness