WELL KITTED FOR THE RACE

Life and Ministry

Sharing with Pastor Dapo Adeniyi

Well kitted for the race

 Acts 19: 1-7

 Disciples that Paul met at Ephesus were not kitted with the whole armour of God.

But they prove that sincerity is the most significant consideration in the business of the kingdom.

Like Apollos, they ran with and for God with what was available to them.

Which was the baptism of John without that of the Holy Ghost.

John’s baptism was unto repentance.

I think with sincerity, we will come eventually into the fullness of the sons of God.

Sincerity takes us over and above doctrines and teachings which deny aspects of God’s power and promises for His people.

Like Apollos, the 12 men were open to receive.

The basic witness in a believer proves and confirms the word of God to His saints even where there was little prior knowledge in that regard.

The Holy Ghost is given to those who are open.

Unbelief sets up a barrier to God’s blessings.

Unbelief which is deliberate is rebellion and enmity against God.

The Holy Ghost falls like rain upon God’s people.

It is one of the great signs of an open heaven over a person.

It confirms that other blessings can and will flow if we  press on to believe for them.

The passage says that they spake in tongues and prophesied, v6.

That proves that one who is filled is dangerous.

They can say something with authority and it will come to pass, (that is what prophecy means).

They will pray with the intensity of fire because they will speak with power.

They will speak out of the well of the Father’s will.

In prayer, they will smite accurately even in the midst of great or total darkness.

LIGHT IN THE MIDST OF DARKNESS

Life and Ministry

Sharing with Pastor Dapo Adeniyi

Light in the midst of darkness

 The Bible loudly declares that we are the light of the world.

By contrast the whole world lieth in darkness.

By this contrast we can see clearly why there is an epic struggle between the light and the darkness.

The light is destined and called to undo the darkness.

We are also informed by God’s word that the darkness that is in the world will grow (Is. 60:2)

“Behold the darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people…”.

Isaiah also gives us to understand that darkness, especially gross darkness, is an opportunity for the light to shine.

To shine can also mean to grow in influence.

Let’s quickly examine the things that happen even as the darkness in the world grows.

Fear will grow.

The hearts of men will fail them.

Wickedness rules in the midst of darkness and wickedness will grow.

Sin is convenient in the midst of darkness and sin will also grow.

As sin grows, sin will become more fashionable and godliness will appear and sound obsolete.

Uncertainty is also an attribute of darkness and uncertainty will grow too.

Everything men leaned upon for support will give way.

No one needs to stretch his or her imagination to see all these happening in our world today.

The Lord however promises to rise on His people and His glory on them shall be seen.

Another lesson I want us to learn is that, true light evolves in order to gain more power.

John 1 alone defines the true light in two ways.

Number 1, it has life v4

Jesus the light of God is life and that is why He is the light of all men.

Number 2, it is the marvelous light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

And true light spreads.

As it passes from age to age, it grows in power because it evolves with the time.

Light went from roaring naked fire to candlelights.

Quiet but lively candlelights are dangerous to darkness.

It is shared fast.

Light also went from candlelight to electric bulbs.

Today, electric energy can be generated through nuclear power.

The dispensation of church communications must change even as our own city evolves.

We may not be able to paste posters on walls any longer but we can post them on the walls of facebook.

As the potentials of light grows in a dark world, the conspiracy to put out the light in the midst of darkness grows too. John 1:5

One of many ways in which darkness tries to overpower the light is by the spread of demonic doctrines.

One of the most injurious to faith are the lies about fellowship relationships.

Also modern day failures of marriages did not come out of a void.

There are demonic influences on modern culture which snuff out traditional notions of commitment in relationships and promote selfishness and sensuousness.

FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD

Life and Ministry

Sharing with Pastor Dapo Adeniyi


People are friends with God by choice.
We can draw near Him.
Some pull as far away from God as possible.
Some cannot be God’s friends simply because they are already engaged to His enemy.
The Bible stipulates one of the conditions for incurring God’s enmity.
It is to destroy God’s Temple.
It can be an actual place of worship.
It is most often a house in which God dwells, which is the life of a man.
Another temple or house in which God delights to dwell in is the praise of His people.
He is of course an eternal friend of those who cultivate the habit of giving thanks.
God is also friends with those who thank their own fellows who have been a blessing to them.
Needless to say that God cannot be reconciled to those who blaspheme His name, particularly His power (embodied by the Holy Ghost).

The Bible even gives us to understand that the worst kind of thanklessness is not to discern Christ’s body which was broken on the cross for our sake.
Particularly because it was for our sakes that His flesh was broken and He died.
To be God’s close friends, we have to build for Him.
His best friends in the Bible were builders.
Abraham looked for a city whose maker and builder was God.
To live in a house, or city for that matter, God has to have an input in the design and its very location.
Abraham got His wish: Jerusalem became God’s home forever.
David conceived the plan for a house for God.
Solomon, one of God’s best friends, actualized the building of the Temple.
King Josiah repaired the Temple’s breaches.
Nehemiah supervised the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem.
Ezra rebuilt the Temple.
The walls before the temple?
That symbolizes that security comes before prosperity.
How are you and I building for God?
We cannot afford to allow the devil to destroy the temple of our own lives.
There are many, many temples around us, and in our city, in which God, the omnipresent God, desires to dwell.

THE LORD HEARS WHEN WE CALL

Life and Ministry

Sharing with Pastor Dapo Adeniyi

This is one of one millions ways in which God is manifestly greater than the idol.

The Lord sees.

The Lord knows.

The Lord hears.

The Lord even speaks.

These are the reasons why He is a person we can know and build a relationship with.

Just like the way we relate to men, we can and should build our relationship with Him.

God also has a will.

Idols on the other hand don’t have a will.

The will of man is the will of the idol.

Since men made idols, they also create the will of the idol for him.

Anytime a Christian starts to think whatever he or she desires is equal to what God desires, he or she is worshipping an idol.

We did not create God.

He made us and therefore is in a position to reveal His will to us.

When we are born into God’s family, we become aware of God in a way similar to how a child grows in his awareness of the natural world.

We are filled with love for God.

We are filled with awe for God.

We are overcome by His power and majesty.

This especially happens when we come into His house to worship Him.

We are also given a stomach for receiving the word of God and for digesting it and growing through it.

Just like milk is to a natural child.

One eternal sign of someone who is not yet born into the family of God is that they don’t care about God’s word.

It simply means nothing to them.

To a child of God however, nothing in the world is more precious than God’s word.

A Christian lady was asked to imagine she was marooned on a lonely island after a shipwreck and therefore is to choose 3 things for her survival.

She chose her Bible, fresh water and a blanket!

Nothing is more uphill or difficult than for someone who is not born of God to try to call on God for help.

It is more difficult than for a man in a great valley below to call upon his friend on the mountain top.

Someone whose soul has been saved loves to pray.

They particularly love to pray with others who are alive to God as well.

How does someone who calls on God know that God has heard?

First is by receiving inner peace.

Sometimes solution to a problem consists of us doing something in particular in the situation and Jehovah will speak about it.

Change in the natural realm often comes last.

Even though Jehovah knows, He still wants us to call.

Calling on God sharpens our awareness of Him.

Calling on God deepens our fear for Him.

People don’t fear God for the simple reason that they don’t know Him.

A GOOD HANDLE FOR GOD'S SERVICE

Life and Ministry

Sharing with Pastor Dapo Adeniyi

A Good Handle for God’s Service

Acts 18: 24-28

We have an encounter here with a man named Apollos.

A man who gave himself into God’s service despite the fact that he did not have enough to go with.

The Baptism of John is not really enough to go with into the virulent waters of ministry.

Apollos was informed by his great zeal for God.

He was alive to needs in the kingdom that must be addressed with urgency.

Three things that Apollos had:

The baptism of John.

This means that his faith had a foundation in repentance from dead works, and other basic things (Heb 6: 1-2).

Apollos  also had natural eloquence.

Some don’t have much of this but they still have a heart filled with God that can touch people.

He was versed in the Old Testament.

This was why he could mightily convince the Jews by relating the scriptures to Jesus.

I have always admired people that, even though they are faint, they are pursuing.

Somebody whose strength is little but is yielded to be used as a vessel by God.

Someone with a little but enough light.

Someone seeing through a glass darkly.

The woman of Samaria in John 4 did not wait to have a full Bible course before she started running for God.

The fact was that she had a heart that was full, full of love for God and His people.

God is eternally against those who produce reasons.

Those who let a little affliction deter them.

Faith is all about going with the little you have.

The men who brought their friend to Jesus in Lk. 5: 18-19 couldn’t find a way to Jesus but they found a crevice in the roof!

The widow of the Prophet in 2 Kings 4 was tuagh to make use of that little was in the house.

To get healed you may have to employ the little strength you have remaining to reach out to God.

And Apollos was open to receive more.

He was teachable and open to receive more of God through Priscilla and Aquilla.

Pride did not set in.

God perfects the imperfect that is available for a good work.

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A FERTILE GROUND FOR THE GOSPEL

Acts 18: 18-28

 Corinth was a place where the gospel through Paul gained a firm foothold, after much battle.

The word that God gave Paul earlier at Corinth brought much fruit.

Only the Holy Spirit can tell where the seeds of God’s word would do well.

Certain kinds of grounds are a lot more resistant to God’s word.

Even though opposition seems to persist everywhere, the word thrives in a place if we allow God to send us there in His own timing.

The pattern of Paul’s work seems to be to break new grounds for the gospel in new places.

He breaks the fallow grounds, introduces the seed of the gospel and leaves while it springs forth in his absence.

Corinth was a success story to the extent that, Priscilla and Aquilla could leave with him to Ephesus.

Paul clears a little space for the word also in Syria but quickly moves on.

The case of Ephesus is very interesting indeed.

This is the same region where God forbade Paul from entering to preach the word in Chap. 16: 6-7.

It proves that the issue was one of timing even at that period.

It could also be a question of divine priority – maybe God wanted them in Macedonia first.

The city of Ephesus was thirsty for God’s word but Paul could not wait now for personal reasons

The passage says Paul had a vow

This implies that Paul made a vow, most probably a vow of thanksgiving, before reaching the region of Syria and Ephesus.

Paul seems to live above a common pitfall of public ministry.

Ministers tend to spend much time attending to other people without working on their own relationship in a private place with God.

Paul seems not to be ignoring his own spiritual life.

We need to study for ourselves, apart from studying to teach others.

We must spend time praying to edify ourselves, apart from when we pray for others.

There are times when we have to leave God’s business in God’s hands when they prove to be too much for us to handle.

The hunger and the need in Ephesus notwithstanding, Paul dropped the work at Ephesus to continue back to Jerusalem for reasons of his own edification.

BUILDING A DIFFERENCE

Life and Ministry

Sharing with Pastor Dapo Adeniyi

Building a difference

Reading randomly in the book of Nehemiah, the first lesson to learn there is that, anyone can make a difference.

The problem is that, we often think only a big difference is good enough.

The walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt one block at a time.

The Bible generally gives many examples of people who made a little difference where they were.

The important thing is to yield one’s self as a vessel in God’s hand to make a difference that can be felt.

A small difference is made that can be felt by someone and then it grows to affect a nation.

The Shunamite woman gave Elisha a little more than a cup of water and it brought miracles that were reported to the king, II Kings 4:37, 8:1-6.

David made a difference to the sheep he served in the field, and it led to his becoming the shepherd of all Israel.

Everyone is in a position to make a difference.

The most unlikely people, in the worst conditions of life, made a difference in the Bible.

Joseph was only a slave yet he made a little difference through a faithful spirit in Portiphar’s home.

He became a condemned inmate yet he continued to make a difference.

Over time, God used his faithfulness to turn the tide, and he became the Premier of all Egypt.

We also have the case of 4 lepers of Samaria in II Kings 7.

Among the fascinating examples is that of the little boy with 5 loaves and 2 little fishes at the crusade ground in Mat. 6:32-44.

He could have refused to go forward with his lunch pack because it was so little.

Also, one of the worst examples of missed opportunities is that of the man who buried his single talent in the parable that Jesus gave.

The book of Nehemiah begins with the author receiving news of the state of things in Jerusalem

His reaction produced a burden.

That burden drove him to pray

Prayer in turn opens one’s eyes to how we can begin to make a little difference.

We must always remember that things are never too late for a remedy.

Meaningful change begins with little things, especially when you are not in a position to take a big step.

It can look like a long way off but we can begin to do what we can.

The ruin or pile up of generations can thus begin to be rectified.

The walls of Jerusalem was rebuilt one stone at a time.

This is the irony of life: you can pull down in one day but it takes a step, a layer at a time, to build up.

MAKING FRIENDS WITH GOD IN ADVANCE

Life and Ministry

Sharing with Pastor Dapo Adeniyi

Making friends with God in advance

I believe that the best time to make friends with people is when you don’t really need them to intervene in your cause.

Someone who befriends you for the sole purpose of drawing something from you may not be a good material for friendship.

He or she is not the type you want to trust.

The problem is that they are likely to disappear once what they needed you for is no longer there.

I am not sure you should make friends simply because you will need them eventually, but you surely will.

As the saying goes, no man is an island.

Sooner or later, everyone comes to a mountain that is higher than them.

Hezekiah became king over Judah and set himself to spiritual reforms that had not been seen since the days of David and Solomon.

The Bible says, that it was because he had a perfect heart.

I think we will all need to ask God for this kind of heart.

Someone with this kind of heart comes to God because he or she loves God and not because they need Him to meet a material need.

They are also the kind that God answers quickly in the day of need or trouble (Heb 4:16)

Hezekiah loved, honoured and served God long before crises broke out in his life.

He had formidable enemies at a later stage in his life

Senacherib king of Assyria was a terrible enemy but God saved Hezekiah out of his hand.

Hezekiah also contracted a sickness that was going to kill him but he called God and he saved/healed him.

The errors of a lot of church-going people are worth noting.

They don’t start taking God serious until serious problems arise.

That is like a builder hurriedly trying to put a foundation in place when the floods have already come.

Some have never loved the word of God but they expect the word of God to comfort and heal them when trouble looms.

The only people who can gain confidence from God in the face of a storm are those who had treasures of God’s word in their hearts, long before.

How the devil prepares some for a fall.

By injecting an apathy for the word of God and fellowship long before crisis time.

Those who never gave themselves to the service of anyone when they were strong have deprived God of instruments to use to help them when they are weak.

The devil also blocks the blessing of many good people by blocking them from being a blessing with their finances.

Blessing actually means you sow and get more than you deserve.

A curse means you sow much but get less than you put in.

 We need to cry to God for a pure and a right spirit today.

ROSES AND THORNS

Life and Ministry

Sharing with Pastor Dapo Adeniyi

Impact and trials

Acts 18:11-17

Here is a rather strident evidence that wherever the word of God has an impact, trouble from hell looms.

The devil may try to mobilise his dormant agents within the church itself.

The serpent in Act 28 when Paul landed from the wreckage on the island of Melita is an example.

 If you are always an instrument for stirring trouble in the church, you are informing yourself about whose you really are.

The devil also has a lot of people he rules over out there in the world.

Let’s now quickly examine some types of impact the word of God may have that would provoke reaction from hell.

The first is the fruit of a healthy and united church or fellowship.

The second is salvation of souls.

The third is the growth of the influence of the word of God.

This passage also reveals that God has influence over everyone both saved and unsaved in the world.

The action of Gallio who was a sort of ruler over the province of Corinth confirms the promise given to Paul in Verse 10. The heart of Gallio was clearly in God’s hands. Instead of Paul, the wicked people vented their anger on Sosthenes, the ruler of the Synagogue.

 Historically, religious but unsaved people are ever ready tools in Satan’s hands.

It was Jews that moved against Paul at Corinth.

Similarly, looking way back, it was Doeg the Edomite who claimed to have been detained before God who slew the whole city of the priests in I Sam 22.

In the parable of Jesus on the good Samaritan, priests walked by as the slain man lay dying on the road.

Even in the case of 10 lepers that Jesus healed, there were 9 Jews and 1 Samaritan, yet, it was the Samaritan that came back to give thanks.

Gallio was a type that helps the gospel but may have no part in it.

He did not allow Paul to open his mouth to speak even though he had been instrumental in saving Paul from his avowed enemies, Verse 14.

Those who do all the talking don’t hear from God.