We first want to sing a chorus here,
and since we all need a little exercise,
I'm going to ask you to lift up
your Bible with your right hand, and we'll
just see the words, first of all we'll
see the words on the, every, can you
put that up?
Now in the original it was every promise
in the book is mine, we just changed
it so it refers to the Bible, every
promise in the Bible is mine, every chapter,
every verse, every line, all are blessings of
his love divine, every promise in the Bible
is mine, it's no use singing it if
you don't believe it, but if you believe
it, you say Lord I want to claim
it, every one of those, so, it's a
very good thing to tell the devil, and
to remind ourselves, so, if you don't have
a Bible what shall you do, don't hold
up your cell phone, cell phone has got
many things which are not from God, and
receives many things which are not from God,
ok, every promise in the Bible is mine,
every chapter, every verse, every line, all are
blessings of his love divine, every promise in
the Bible is mine, once again, every promise
in the Bible is mine, every chapter, every
verse, every line, all are blessings of his
love divine, every promise in the Bible is
mine, Thank you, please put it down, I
hope you believe that, it's a wonderful thing,
you heard me say, perhaps more than once,
that one of the prayers I have prayed
many times, Lord, before I leave this earth,
I want to obey every commandment given for
Christians, there are some commandments given for Israel,
keeping the Sabbath, not eating pork and things
like that, but every commandment given for Christians,
I want to obey before I leave this
earth, and every promise given for Christians, not
to the Jews, given for Christians, I want
to claim before I leave this earth, and
if you are a serious Christian, I would
encourage you to follow me in that, those
two things, Lord, every commandment that you have
given in your word, I want to obey
it, and every promise that you have given,
I want to claim it before I leave
this earth, I believe it will make a
lot of difference in your life if you
are serious about it, and you study the
Bible, seriously, to see if there are commandments
given for Christians that you have not obeyed,
and if there are promises given for Christians
that you have not claimed, I often use
the example of getting a check, if you
get five checks one day in the mail,
you will deposit all five in the bank,
otherwise you won't get any money, so if
there is a promise in the Bible that
you don't claim in the name of Jesus
Christ, you will not get it, so when
we go to God in prayer, I told
you in the last session there are four
things in our relationship with God, prayer, thanksgiving,
praise, and worship, so when you go to
God in prayer, if you have a bad
conscience, I want to mention this, Jesus said
if you come with your offering and remember
somebody's got something against you, before you settle
that, don't pray, just don't pray, and I
believe there are many Christians, I would say
they should not pray, they should not pray
because they have hurt somebody, and they have
not settled it, and until it is settled,
it's no use praying, it's a waste of
time, it doesn't go beyond the roof, and
I want you to see this verse in
Psalm 66, Psalm 66, Psalm 66 and verse
18, if I regard sin as a sin,
if I regard sin in my heart, the
Lord will not hear me, so if there
is sin in your heart, which you have
not confessed and forsaken, as I say, the
Lord will not even pick up the phone,
he will not hear you, it's no use
praying, and that is another reason why many
Christians should not pray, I'm teaching people not
to pray, when there's sin in your heart,
not to pray when you've got a grudge
against somebody, it's what Jesus said, and don't
say that God is not answering my prayer,
there's a reason why he's not answering your
prayer, he's not even hearing it, so it's
very important when we come to prayer, we
first clear things that are obstructions, the line
has been disconnected because of sin, the line
has been disconnected because you have not settled
matters with somebody, so you pick up the
phone and talk and talk, it's like children
talking on the phone, there's nobody on the
other end listening, a lot of prayer is
like that, a lot of all night prayer
is like that, God is not listening, who
are you talking to, you're talking to thin
air, the other thing I want to say
is, Jesus said don't think that you'll be
heard because you're praying a long time, see
Matthew chapter 6, I just want to say
a few things about this, four things I
mentioned about prayer, thanksgiving, praise and worship, in
Matthew chapter 6 we read how the non
-Christian prays, verse 7, don't use meaningless repetition
as the non-Christians do, they think they
will be heard for their many words, there
are some, I've seen this in some CFC
churches where they feel a bit ashamed because
they say hey, some Pentecostal said, hey you
guys are not allowed in your praise, so
some CFC churches try to artificially make a
lot of noise and say hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah,
as if that is the mark of being
full to the Holy Spirit, when you keep
on saying hallelujah, you know what you're doing,
hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, you're just disobeying Matthew 6
verse 7, let me tell you honestly, whoever
keeps on doing that is disobeying Matthew chapter
6 verse 7, so you get up in
a church and you disobey Matthew 6 verse
7 and say hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, just to
sound Pentecostal, to impress the Pentecostals that we
also say hallelujah, we also make noise in
our church, what nonsense, whom are you trying
to impress, whose honor are you trying to
get, I don't want to impress any human
being in the world and last of all
the Pentecostals, I don't want that type of
thing, I will not make a meaningless repetition,
if you look in the Bible, you take
a concordance and see where hallelujah is mentioned,
nowhere in the 26 books of the New
Testament, in the last book of the New
Testament revelation, towards the end of revelation, it
says hallelujah, Babylon is destroyed, yeah, that I'm
ready to say hallelujah for, so always there's
a hallelujah because, hallelujah because the Lord our
God reigns, hallelujah because Babylon is destroyed, that
is the right way to say hallelujah, not
just hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, this is meaningless repetition
that the Pentecostal teach people to say in
order to make them speak in tongues, you
never see that in the New Testament, don't
use meaningless repetition because that is a non
-Christian's thing that if they repeat something so
many times, God will hear them, don't be
like them, don't disobey what Jesus taught, God
can hear very clearly, you can say it
once but when Jesus said we must pray
again and again for something, it's not just
repeating like that, you pray and then pray
again later during the day or pray the
next day, very often we have to pray
for something again and again and again before
we get it, like victory over sin, you
can't just ask one day for victory over
sin and get it, it didn't happen like
that for me, I persisted, persisted, persisted, I
persisted for seeking the baptism of the Holy
Spirit, so in prayer there is an asking
with meaningfulness from our heart but not with
blind repetition, very important, the second thing I
want to say is that when you pray
it must come out of a burden that
God has given you, a burden that you
know we can pray for anything, my child
is sick, I can pray, definitely you can
pray, you must pray, if your child is
sick at home, your mother or father, you
must lay hands on that child and in
Jesus' name, mother or father, pray for that
child that claimed the promise, they shall lay
hands on the sick and they shall recover,
that's the way your children will learn to
have some faith, but otherwise when you are
praying in general for some particular thing, I
mean a lot of people tell me pray
for this, pray for that, pray for all
types of things, I'm not saying, if somebody
asks you to pray for their sickness or
for a job or for marriage, by all
means, I will always pray, but other than
that, general requests and general things, we must
have a burden in our heart, when there
is a burden in our heart and faith
in our heart, prayer is answered, so I
think of prayer like a circle, it starts
from heaven, God gives me a burden in
my heart, I pray that prayer with faith
back to God and the circle is complete
and that prayer is answered, but a lot
of prayers we pray which are not necessarily
a burden given by God, we can definitely
pray for them, which is earthly needs that
people ask for, definitely we must pray for
them, but there are prayers which come out
of a burden for something, a burden for
revival in your church or a burden for
the spirit of God to move among the
young people in your church or some type
of burden like that, that God puts on
your heart, you have to lift it up
in faith to God and that's what completes
the circle of prayer, so think of prayer
like that, a burden that God gives and
if you pray back to God in faith,
it's not a question of how long you
pray, more than how much faith you have,
we read in the Old Testament that the
prophets of Baal prayed for maybe 6 hours,
nothing happened, when Elijah was there challenging them,
who is the true God, and Elijah prayed
for one minute and the fire came, the
important thing is not whether you prayed, the
important thing is did God answer that prayer,
see it says about Elijah in James chapter
5, verse 17, he
was a man with the same nature like
ours Elijah and he prayed earnestly that it
might not rain, and it did not rain
for 3 years and 6 months, that was
like a punishment, I'm not talking about asking
God to stop the rain or rain in
this type of situation, the rain that Elijah
prayed against and for was a time when
God was judging Israel by stopping the rain
and then when they repented, when the fire
fell, Elijah said ok, they have now repented,
you can send the rain, that is the
context of that, but he prayed earnestly that
it might not rain as a judgment upon
Israel and God answered it because it was
a burden, God gave Elijah from heaven, he
prayed it back in faith to God and
it didn't rain for 3 and a half
years, and then he prayed again verse 18
after the Israel had repented and the sky
poured the rain, and in that context it
says in the last part of verse 16,
listen to this, the effective fervent prayer of
a righteous man can accomplish much, if you
are a righteous person, you are seeking to
be free from sin in your life and
you pray fervently to God, there is much
that you can accomplish, those of you who
preach the word of God, it is very
important to pray that God will give you
an anointing and utterance and clarity of mind
and thinking and understanding of the burden people
have to the people you are speaking, that
way your prayer will be effective, so and
you will get a result from it, a
burden and you must pray, particularly when sharing
the word of God, every time I seek
to share the word of God, I pray
that God will give me the gift of
prophecy and anoint me, every time, I don't
care how many years I have been preaching,
I say Lord, if I go up there,
depending on my past experience, I will fail,
so these are some little bits of advice
I can give you in the matter of
prayer.
Okay, the next thing I want to speak
about is Thanksgiving, so that's the second step,
we go beyond prayer to Thanksgiving and then
we think of the story of the ten
lepers, Charles can you give me that bottle
of water, thank you, Luke chapter
17, Jesus spoke about the ten lepers, they
all got healed and only one of them
came back to give thanks Luke chapter 17
and verse 11 onwards, the ten lepers came
and raised their voice in verse 13 and
said have mercy on us and Jesus said
go and show yourself to the priest and
when they were all cleansed, one came back,
is it important to give thanks to God,
that is the question we want to ask
here, he came back and Jesus didn't take
it lightly, he asked the question, weren't there
ten people who got an answer to prayer,
where are the nine, where are they and
you know that the Lord is asking the
same question today about many many believers who
claim to be his children, didn't that person
come to me and pray for a long
time to heal his child or to pass
in an examination or do well in something
or get a job and they got it,
did they come back and thank me, no
they forgot about it or they gave the
credit to something else, I worked hard and
I got good result or this medicine healed
my child, then why did you pray, there
is no need to pray if your medicine
was enough, the Lord is asking that question
about many many prayers that you have prayed
in the past for different situations in your
workplace, in your home, with your family, can
you think back to times when you prayed
fervently for something and the Lord says, what
happened, where are these people whose prayers I
answered, is the Lord interested in that, of
course he is, that's why he asked them,
where are the nine, only one person came,
verse 18, to give glory to God, how
can I glorify God, here is the answer,
very simple way of glorifying God, when some
prayer of yours is answered, learn to give
thanks, it has to be a discipline, you
don't need to have the discipline of praying
when you are in trouble, you don't need
any discipline there, automatically it will come, but
you do need the discipline, after God has
answered your prayer, to say now I have
to discipline myself to go and thank God
for it, that's a discipline, because there it
was one out of ten who came back,
I think today one out of a hundred
will come to the Lord and thank him,
so you examine your own life, look back
over your life and think of times when
you desperately cried to God for some difficult
situation and God answered, and ask yourself, did
I really cry to God for this, did
you humble yourself and go to God and
say Lord thank you for answering my prayer,
thank you so much, I prayed to you
with a loud voice, I will thank you
with a loud voice now, and if you
ask the church to pray and the prayer
was answered, I think it's right to ask
the church to thank God for the prayer
was answered, but usually it never happens, usually
we have many many prayer requests in the
church, think of your own church, many people
say please pray for this, pray for this,
it's good, very good to ask the church
to pray when you have a problem, any
type of problem, sick child, examination time, or
any time you need a house, you need
this, any problems there are in this world,
you ask the church to pray, fine.
Many of you have sent prayer requests to
your churches, my question is after the prayer
is answered, how many of you send another
note, please church please thank God with me,
because that prayer I asked you to pray
for two weeks ago has been answered, you
can see in your own life, I've seen
in my own life, it does not come
naturally, crying out to God for help comes
naturally, that's step one, Thanksgiving is the second
step, it does not come naturally, so what
does not come naturally, we have to discipline
ourselves, see if you are overweight and you
find the doctor says you should reduce your
weight if you want to be healthy, you
have to discipline yourself to do some exercise
or some walking or something like that, and
that does not come naturally, going to sleep
comes naturally, but to do some exercise to
reduce your weight does not come naturally, it's
like the type of food that we want
to teach our children to eat, vegetables or
something and that's not something they like very
much, they have to do it as a
discipline because it's good for them, so there
are certain disciplines we must have, and one
of those disciplines is to learn to thank
God when a prayer is answered, it starts
as a discipline, it will become a habit,
if you keep on doing it, it will
become a habit, if you don't keep on
doing it, it will never become a habit,
you know I learnt something from Jesus, where
Jesus said, if you give a cup of
cold water to one of my disciples, you
will not lose your reward, and what I
learnt from that is, Jesus remembers even a
cup of cold water, so I can imagine
when Christ comes again and he decides to
give out his rewards, he calls some totally
unknown person from the crowd and says, I
remember 2000 years ago, you gave a glass
of water to Peter when he was thirsty
after he finished preaching somewhere, and here's your
reward, and you say what, 2000 years ago,
somebody gave a glass of water to Peter,
and the Lord remembers that, I say Lord,
please help me to be like that, help
me to be like Jesus, that years ago
somebody did something for me, let me not
forget it, I've sometimes written to people, said
brother, I remember 25 years ago, when I
came to your place and I needed to
go somewhere, some distance away, and I could
not get a taxi, you took me in
your car, I'm very grateful for that, and
you wouldn't even take any money for the
petrol, thank you so much, I'm very grateful,
25 years ago, where did I learn it
from, that Jesus said, if you give a
cup of cold water, you'll not lose the
reward, that means you'll at least get a
thank you from the Lord, we are very
slow in giving thanks to God, we are
very slow in thanking God's people also, I
don't know whether it's particularly Indian habit of
not being grateful, now I'm not saying that,
you know Westerners, they teach their children from
childhood to say thank you, sorry, sorry uncle,
thank you aunty, but it's pretty meaningless, it
becomes a ritual after sometime, so I'm not
asking you to do it as a ritual,
but meaningful thank you, be thankful for your
wife who brings you a cup of tea
or coffee in the morning, I'm not saying
you have to say it loudly, she may
get a shock, this chap, what happened, 20
years he never said anything, all of a
sudden, main thing is have an attitude of
thankfulness, that's the main thing, you don't have
to be formal with your wife, but have
an attitude of thankfulness for cooking your food
and washing up the dishes and cleaning up
the house, and you children, I'll tell you,
you children, if you learn to be thankful
to your parents for the 101 things or
1001 things they do for you, it'll go
extremely well with you, remember all your children,
even older people, if your parents are alive,
learn to appreciate them and thank them, because
it says here that this man, the 10
people got healing from leprosy, but this man
got healing plus salvation, how did he get
a little more, it says here, your faith
has saved you, verse 19, your faith has
saved you, before he got only healing, now
he got salvation, and that was because he
came back to give thanks, do you know
what you have missed in your life, by
not coming back and giving thanks, so even
if I can provoke you to give thanks
for a selfish act, you will get something
more from God, a bonus that you didn't
expect, at least start like that, learn to
give thanks, it's a very good habit to
men and to God, and Jesus taught that
very clearly here, then I want to go
further, we were talking about thanksgiving, we've seen
a little bit about prayer, thanksgiving, it says
in Ephesians chapter 5, and it says in
verse 20, this is an amazing thing, always
giving thanks for all things in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ of God the
Father, now this is much more than what
we are thinking of, in fact this is
one of the marks of being filled with
the Holy Spirit, many of us are seeking
to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and
Ephesians 5, 18 it says, be filled with
the Holy Spirit, and one of the results
will be, verse 20, always giving thanks for
all things in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, so I take that as, I
say Lord, I know I am filled with
the Spirit, one evidence of it is, that
I will always give thanks, not necessarily in
other tongues, but in my mother tongue, we
can begin with that, now you know, when
God gives us the gift of unknown languages,
where we express syllables from our heart to
our mouth to God, it is because we
don't know what else to say in English,
or we don't know how to give thanks
to God in English, or whatever language you
use, but if you are not even giving
thanks in English, then the Lord will say,
why do you need another language, with English
itself we are not giving thanks, so why
do you need another language, you don't need
it, do you know in what atmosphere, the
first 120 people on the day of Pentecost
got the gift of tongues, I will show
you, please turn to Luke's Gospel in chapter
24, Luke 24, the Lord said to them,
before he went up to heaven, verse 49,
Luke 24, 49, I am sending forth the
promise of my father, that is the Holy
Spirit on you, but you must stay in
the city until you are clothed with power
from on high, and then he lifted up
his hands, he blessed them and departed from
them, and they went back to Jerusalem, and
what did they do for the next 10
days, listen, they were continually in the temple
praising God, and they went into the upper
room, and they were praising God, Lord we
thank you, we praise you, thank you for
all that you have done for us, and
we exalt you, and we praise you, and
they ran out of words, of course they
were praying in Aramaic, or whatever language they
were using, and they ran out of words,
how can we praise God, and God said,
don't worry, I will give you another language
to continue praising me, that's exactly it, and
a desire to thank the Lord and praise
him, and you don't know what else to
say, and the Lord gives you another language,
but if you are not using whatever you
already have, why should he give you another
language, not at all, now if you want
to know how difficult it is to thank
and praise God in your mother tongue, in
English, even for one minute, 60 seconds, try
sometime when you are alone in your room,
to thank God for 60 seconds, to thank
and praise him, ok, see how long you
can continue, and you will find it even
difficult to say for 60 seconds, what do
you say, Hallelujah, thank you Lord, praise you
Lord, we exalt you, it's only about 20
seconds, what do I say next, you are
stuck, you try it, see if you can
go one minute without repeating yourself, you will
find in 20 seconds you are repeating yourself,
and we leave it at that, and the
Lord says, why do you need another language,
your English itself, you are not using it
to thank me, so there is no need
for you, but these people were continually praising
God, and in the midst of that atmosphere,
they began to speak in other tongues, but
if you are complaining and grumbling and criticizing
and finding fault with this, that and the
other, why in the world do you need
a gift of tongues, you don't need that,
you got the English language to complain and
criticize this that and the other, I decided
to finish with all this long ago, I
said Lord, I want to, what we read
in Ephesians 5, always give thanks for all
things, be filled with the Holy Spirit, and
give thanks always for everything in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, you try doing
that, try obeying Ephesians 5, 18, be filled
with the Spirit, and verse 20, always for
everything, give thanks in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that means even if something
appeared to go wrong, you say Lord, I
don't know why you allowed this in my
life, but I want to give you thanks,
to teach me, to humble me, I want
to give you thanks, it says give thanks
for everything, and the reason why we can
give thanks for everything is because the Bible
says in Romans 8, 28, that God makes
everything work for my good, now if you
are if something is definitely for your good,
will you give thanks, for example you took
a medicine and it healed you of a
terrible sickness that you were suffering with for
one year, would you give thanks, sure, because
something good happened to you, or you one
day went to the office and the boss
said, I am doubling your salary today, oh,
is it difficult to give thanks then, why
is it not difficult then, because it is
good, that was good, I was sick for
one year and now I am completely free
of that sickness, or I got an unexpected
reward from my boss, he gave me double
the salary, do you believe that every single
thing God will make to work for your
good, then you will give thanks for everything,
it's not just doubling salary that we give
thanks for, not just for healing from sickness,
Romans 8, 28 says, God makes everything work
together for good, now if it is written
in Romans 28, God makes 90% of
the things that happen to you work for
your good, then Ephesians 5, 20 will say,
give thanks for 90% of things, yeah,
because the other 10% is not working
for my good, connect Romans 8, 28 with
Ephesians 5, 20 and you learn something, because
God makes everything work for my good, therefore
I give thanks for everything, and when you
don't give thanks for everything, but you complain
about something, your problem is not Ephesians 5,
20, your problem is Romans 8, 28, you
don't believe Romans 8, 28, or the condition
in Romans 8, 28 is not fulfilled in
your life, because Romans 8, 28 is not
for every person, it says, those who love
God and who are called according to his
name, fulfill his purpose, that means you love
Jesus more than you love everybody else, which
is a condition of discipleship, and you want
to fulfill his purpose in your life, a
true Christian will only want to fulfill God's
purpose in his life, say Lord, I only
want to fulfill your purpose in my life,
that's all I want, and I want to
love you with all my heart, I don't
want to love a single thing on earth,
I want to love you with all my
heart, then God says, I will ensure that
every single thing that happens to you, works
for your good, works for your good does
not mean that you'll get more money if
you lost one job, no, he'll give you
a better salary job, no, it does not
mean if you couldn't marry one girl that
God will help you to marry a better
girl, no, that's not the thing, what is
the good towards which God is working, the
greatest good that God can do to us,
is mentioned in the next verse, 29, to
make us like Jesus Christ, so when it
says God makes everything to work together for
good, we can interpret it in a wrong
way, we can say, oh, I went for
that interview, I didn't get that job, that
means God has got a better job for
me, who told you, you may finally get
a job with half that salary, but you'll
become like Jesus, if you believe that is
the greatest good that God can do to
you, you'll be happy, you'll give thanks and
everything, but if you think the greatest good
God can do to you is to give
you a high salary job and help you
to marry a very pretty girl, then you
haven't understood Christianity at all, you're like the
heathen, because they're also looking for those things,
and very often Jesus said, don't be like
the heathen, don't be like the heathen, so
the good is defined in verse 29 as
the good which God has destined for us
to become like Jesus Christ, so one of
the things God has taught us in these
years is what is the Christian's destination, whenever
you get into your motorcycle or scooter or
car to drive, you don't drive without a
destination, always you got a destination, this is
where I'm planning to go, and so whatever
route I take I'm planning to finally reach
here, so the Christian life has also got
a destination, and that destination is mentioned here
in verse 29, pre-destined, that means it
has been decided beforehand what your destination is,
just like when you get a train ticket,
you got it 60 days in advance, it's
written there Bangalore, it's already decided, so you
go to the station and get into the
train that goes to Bangalore, it's pre-destined,
that is the meaning of pre-destination, so
we also got a ticket, pre-destined to
become like Jesus Christ, that is why I
say, go to a church that will lead
you to become like Jesus Christ, you don't
go to a station and say, I like
green trains, but a green train may not
be going to Bangalore, where will you end
up, you choose, even if it's a rusted
old train is going to Bangalore, let's get
into that, so don't choose a church which
is according to size and beauty, no, no,
no, will this church, like a train, take
me to my destination, my destination is not
clapping and singing and shouting hallelujah, no, no,
no, no, my destination is to become like
Jesus Christ, I want to be in a
church that will help me to become like
Jesus Christ, and if you are not in
such a church, you should go and find
a church like that, that will help you
that every time you go there, it helps
you to become a little more like Jesus
Christ, today there are thousands of preachers on
the internet and thousands of sermons, and you
must listen to sermons that will help you
to become like Jesus Christ, because that's your
destination, why do you want somebody to push
you in the wrong direction, going in some
other direction, you will waste your time, you
must have a clear goal, supposing you are
taking a ride, you know there are people
sometimes who stand on the roadside and say,
can you give me a ride in that
direction, and the cars going by, some of
them will stop and give you a lift,
but if that car is not going where
you want it to go, why are you
sitting in it, why are you sitting in
a car which is not taking you a
little further towards your destination, they are turning
off in some other direction, why are you
sitting in a church which is not leading
you towards becoming like Jesus Christ, why are
you listening to messages on the internet, which
are not helping you to become more like
Jesus Christ, why are you wasting your time,
you get into that car, you want to
go in this direction, you want to get
into a car which is a nice Mercedes
Benz, I like Mercedes Benz, I say this
is great, I say it's better to get
into a motorcycle that's going in the right
direction, than to get this car going somewhere
else, but people are taken up with these
things, they go here and wander over here
and there, waste time, while other people are
pressing on towards the mark, Paul said there's
one thing I do, I press towards the
mark for the price of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus, what is that,
to become like Christ, he said that's the
only thing I do, he said that in
Philippians 3, one thing I do, now if
you can be a Christian like that, you
see your goal, and then you say everything
that happens along the way will work to
make you like Jesus Christ, will help to
push you a little further in that direction,
that's why we give thanks, oh thank you
for that problem you created for me, it's
helped me to become a little more like
Christ, and that financial difficulty you brought me
into, wow, when I go through it finally,
I say it really made me a little
more Christ like, so I learned over a
period of time to give thanks for everything,
I can tell you numerous things in my
life, which at the moment look pretty bad,
but I said Romans 8, I live in
Romans 8, first of all because I decided
to love Jesus more than everything and everyone
on this earth, I always wanted my wife
to be second in my affection, and I
wanted to be second in her affection, then
only we can have a happy marriage, but
Christ is first always, so if Christ is
first, his purpose is most important, whatever may
happen, it will work for my good, whatever
may happen, I am a firm believer in
Romans 8, because secondly, I want to fulfill
his purpose for my life, if you can
say these two things honestly today, I love
Jesus more than any human being, I love
Jesus more than my self-life, I'm willing
to crucify my self-life a hundred times
a day, because I love Jesus, I love
Jesus more than all material possessions, I can
guarantee you that every single thing that people
do for you, or don't do for you,
will work for your good.
There's a beautiful story in the Old Testament
about Joseph, where he helped a butler of
Pharaoh's cupbearer to explain his dream to him,
and he asked Pharaoh's cupbearer only for one
request, you know, Pharaoh's cupbearer said, Joseph, you've
been so helpful, because it really happened, it's
going to happen, you said, what shall I
do for you, he says, only one thing,
please tell Pharaoh when you go there, that
I have been unfairly put into jail, my
parents are in Canaan, my brothers are there,
please ask him to send me back, and
do you know what the Bible says, exactly
like Joseph explained the dream three days later,
he went back to Pharaoh's palace, but for
two years, he completely forgot about Joseph, Joseph
was 28 years old, and God wanted him
to be in jail for two more years,
his training in jail had not been complete,
so it was God who made Pharaoh's butler
forget, and two years later, when Pharaoh had
a dream, and nobody could explain it, then
this butler said, oh, I remember now, the
cupbearer said, there was this young chap who
could interpret dreams, Pharaoh said, bring him here,
and that was the right time, that he
could explain Pharaoh's dream, and become the second
ruler in Egypt, now have you ever thought
when you read something like that, use your
imagination a little bit, it says Joseph was
30 years old when he came up to
Pharaoh, what would have happened if Pharaoh's cupbearer
had not forgotten, two years earlier, as soon
as he went before Pharaoh, he said, Pharaoh,
I want to tell you something, yesterday, three
days ago, this man explained the dream to
me, he's been unjustly treated there, so please
release him from the jail so he can
go back to Canaan, what would have happened?
Pharaoh would have said, oh really, release him,
give him some chariots or something, drop him
off in Canaan, and you'd never have heard
of Joseph as the ruler of Egypt, and
in the time of famine, many people would
have died, his own brothers would probably have
died, because they were also starving, so can
you believe that even when you ask somebody
to do something for you, and he forgot
completely, can you give thanks, remember this story
all your life, next time, somebody left a
message for your wife, for you, with your
wife on the phone, and she completely forgot
to give you that message, very important message,
and five days later, she says, oh, five
days ago, there was a message for you,
say, praise the Lord, it's wonderful, you want
to give thanks for that, there must be
some reason why God allowed you to forget
it, can you really say that?
Giving thanks for everything, even when people forget
to do something for you, you really have
to have faith, and that's why the Bible
is written, so that we read these stories
and have faith that the God who lived
in Joseph's time is just the same today.
I can tell you this, many people have
done good to me, harm to me, reminded
me of things, forgotten to do things, every
single one of them, I don't mean 99%,
100% of them have worked for my
good, I believe it.
If it does not work for my good,
it's because I don't love God, or I
don't want to fulfill his purpose, I've got
some other private ambition in my life, then
it won't work for my good.
But if I say, Lord, my goal is
to become like Jesus Christ, that's the direction
I'm going, then it will definitely work for
your good, that is why we can give
thanks always for everything.
So we learned about prayer, thanksgiving, in not
just the good things, every single thing, give
thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that's the second lesson we need to
learn.
So these are the few things that the
Lord has been teaching us, what God has
taught us about prayer, what God has taught
us about thanksgiving, and the third is praising
God.
In prayer, we are asking God for things
that we need, or listening to God, as
I told you, which is also important, listening,
what he has to say to me, you
know, for example, you read, I'll give you
one more quote, one example about listening, it
says two verses, one is Isaiah 50 and
verse 4, where it says, Jesus would wake
up every morning to listen to what the
father had to say to him, it's a
verse I often love to quote, because God
has spoken that verse to me many times,
and it's good for you to know, that
every morning he wakes me up to listen,
so Jesus didn't wake up in the morning
and start praying, when Jesus woke up in
the morning, he said, Father, speak, you know
what Eli told Samuel, the little boy to
say, if you hear a voice saying, Samuel,
Samuel, say, speak Lord, your servant is listening,
very good thing to pray, if you wake
up in the morning, unexpectedly, or at the
right time, you plan to get up, say,
speak Lord, your servant is listening, what do
you have to say, listening, morning by morning,
it says in Isaiah 50 verse 4, so
Jesus also had the habit of listening, and
let me give you an example from Luke
chapter 6, in Luke chapter 6 we read,
the only place in the Bible where we
read that Jesus prayed all night, Luke 6
verse 12, all night he spent in prayer
in the mountain, what was he praying for,
when the day came, he called his disciples
and he picked out 12, this is a
very important decision, because he had to pick
out 12 people who are going to run
his church for the rest of the church
age, and he wanted to be sure who
these 12 people are, how was he sure,
by praying for a few hours, sometimes we
have to wait on the Lord for a
long time, before we are clear about something,
Lord, should I move from this town to
that town, you are not going to get
the answer in one minute, the Lord has
ordained it, that major decisions you take a
longer time, minor decisions, should I put this
blue shirt or the green shirt today, that
you can answer in 5 seconds, but major
decisions, I am going to go here or
go there, take this job or marry this
person, the more important the decision, the longer
you have to wait on God, please remember
that, the more important the decision, the longer
you have to wait on God, and here
was the most important decision, to select 12
people who are going to launch the church,
so Jesus waited whole night, and do you
think he was speaking, speaking, speaking, speaking to
the father the whole night, no, he was
listening most of the time, thinking, father, there
are 70 people I know, all those tossing
around those 70 names in his head, which
one should I choose, and little by little
clarity comes, and you can say, why can't
God just say, this, this, this, this, this,
this, this, this, in one minute you get
all the answers, that's not the way God
works, it is not even the way he
worked with Jesus, if Jesus had to wait
all night to be clear in his mind
as to who the 12 people were, don't
be surprised if you have to wait on
the Lord in a major decision in your
life, but God will make it clear to
you, if you are willing to be patient,
and in the process, you will know God
better, you will be a little more Christ
like, some wonderful things will happen, that's why
God makes it such that you have to
spend time with him, I am not saying
you have to be on your knees all
the time, but you have to wait on
the Lord, say Lord what shall I do,
sometimes you have to pray and then you
go about your work and you pray again
the next day, and the next day, and
the next day, it may take many days,
not continuously in prayer, but you know, lifting
the matter before God and waiting on him
and clarity, like considering marriage for example, you
think about it, think about it, and say
Lord please show me, give me peace in
my heart, that's the way we find God's
will, Romans 8, 6 says, by the mind
of the spirit is peace, great verse Romans
8, 6, so if I have peace in
my heart, I know that is God's will,
if I don't have peace in my heart,
I say well I am not so sure,
so prayer, thanksgiving, praise is, prayer is asking,
thanksgiving is giving thanks, praise is, not for
what God has done, what God has done
is thanksgiving, I thank him, praise is, praising
for who he is, praying is asking for
what we want, thanksgiving is thanking him for
what he has done, believing that everything works
for good, praise is, Lord I want to
praise you for who you are, holy, holy,
holy, you know like Isaiah saw in chapter
6, it says he saw the Lord and
all the angels covering their faces and saying
holy, holy, they were not asking, they were
not thanking, they were not thanking him for
what he had done, they were not asking
for anything, they were praising him, for who
he is, praising him for his holiness, we
can praise him for his almighty power, we
can praise him for his love and goodness
to us and all the person of God
to, like in one song it says, Lord
I will fall down before you for eternal
ages and what rapture will it be prostrate
before your throne to lie and gaze and
gaze on the father of Jesus love's reward,
what rapture will it be, rapture means such
excitement to just gaze upon God, I am
not asking anything, I am not thanking him
for anything, I am just praising him for
who he is, wonderful God, holy, eternal, loving,
you know this is praising him in words,
he praises you for who you are, praises
you for the way you have led us
through so many years and how you are
faithful, everything, you are not thinking of a
particular thing that happened in your life that
you are thanking for, you have gone beyond
thanks to praise and if you look at
all the songs we sing, I told you
we need to follow the words we sing
in our songs, you know when we sing,
let me give you a little instruction on
how, when to clap, you can't clap for
a song which is a song of confession
or where you are asking God to help
you to live in a particular way, you
clap and you are praising God, there are
songs of praise, by all means, those are
the songs we should clap, not Lord give
me light that I may see, you don't
clap for that, you lift up your hands,
Lord if I am doing something wrong, please
give me light that I may see, so
we need to be sensible, this meaningless clapping
that you find in so many churches, particularly
Pentecostal churches, meaningless, whether it is anything, they
are confessing your sin or keep on clapping
just because they are worried about the rhythm
and the beat, it's like a worldly festival,
but meaning, I believe in clapping, clap your
hands it says in the Psalms and raise
your hand, it must be meaningful and if
it is too meaningful, I don't clap when
I am confessing my sin, I don't clap
when I am asking God humbly for guidance,
I clap and I praise Him for who
He is or thank Him for some wonderful
thing He has done, so we must be
meaningful in everything we do, there is so
much of meaningless praying and singing in Christianity,
it shows that people don't have any respect
for God and they don't even think about
what they are saying, so it is very,
very important to be very serious about the
words we say in our hymns, etc., when
we pray to God, so praising is for
who He is, like we sang, holy, holy,
Lord God Almighty and all the verses that
come there, all the earth trembles before you,
so this is praise and we can't come
to praise before we have learned to pray
and learned to thank God, once we go
beyond praise, we come to worship and worship
is beyond, it doesn't even have to be
words, in prayer there is words and it
can be prayer can be also silent like
a burden in the heart can also be
a prayer, thanksgiving contains words and praise also
contains words of praising God for who He
is, but worship, some of the highest forms
of worship can be silent, there is a
verse in Habakkuk which says, the Lord is
in His holy temple, let all the earth
keep silence before Him, the Lord is in
His holy temple, let all the earth keep
silence before Him, you read in Revelation of
a time when there was silence in heaven
for half an hour, they were worshipping God
all the time and sometimes they were worshipping
Him in silence, so I want you to
turn to John's Gospel in Chapter 4, in
John's Gospel in Chapter 4 we read about
worship in the spirit, it's
very interesting that when Jesus spoke to a
bishop, Nicodemus, he told him, you must be
born again and when he spoke to a
woman who was divorced five times and sleeping
with somebody who was not even her husband,
he told her about worship, it's crazy isn't
it, one would think you should tell that
woman about being born again and teach the
bishop about worship, no, the bishop needs to
be born again and this simple woman, Jesus
could speak to her about worshipping God, amazing,
God's ways are not our ways, this woman
asked Jesus, what is the right place to
worship, John 4, 20, our fathers worshipped in
this mountain and you Jewish people say Jerusalem
is the right place and Jesus said, it
is not a question of place, in your
house or in the church building, no, no,
no, not in this mountain, not in Jerusalem,
the hour is coming verse 23 and 24,
very, very important words about true worship, this
highest form of communication to God of worship,
Jesus revealed to a sinful woman who had
been divorced five times, it's amazing, showing us
that you don't need to be a great
scholar or bishop like Nicodemus to understand it,
he couldn't understand it all, very simple lady,
she was probably not educated and had been
living in sin, but she had a heart
that Jesus saw, that's why Jesus met with
her and he said in verse 23 and
24, an hour is coming, that means not
yet come, now is, it has come in
one way, where the true worshippers will worship
the father in spirit and truth and the
father is seeking for such worshippers and when
I read that verse, I say, Lord, are
you seeking from heaven for people who worship
in spirit and truth, please show me what
that means, I want to be one of
those, if the father is seeking all over
the earth for true worshippers, I say, Lord,
please, I want to be one of those,
tell me how to do it, because God
is a spirit and those who worship him
in spirit must worship in spirit and truth,
now to understand this properly, worship in the
spirit, you need to go to 1 Thessalonians
5 and verse 23, where it says, man
is spirit, soul and body, man is a
trinity, like God is a trinity, God is
three persons, father, son and holy spirit trinity,
but man is one person, but in that
one person is a trinity, 1 Thessalonians 5
verse 23, man is a spirit and a
soul inside this body and it is pictured
in the Old Testament tabernacle, where the outer
coat was visible to everybody, like the body
and there was a tent inside which there
were two parts, holy place and most holy
place, corresponding to the soul and the spirit,
which is hidden, those two compartments were hidden
under the tent, just like the two parts
of our soul and spirit, two parts of
us are hidden, so man is three parts,
body like the outer coat of the tabernacle,
everybody can see and soul and spirit which
are hidden and in the Old Testament tabernacle
there was a thick veil between the holy
place and the most holy place saying, you
cannot go in there, God dwells there, teaching
us that God wants to dwell in man's
spirit, but under the old covenant it could
not happen, because there was a thick veil
and the Jewish people did not know, what
does this veil symbolize, they did not know,
they didn't even know that the tabernacle symbolized
body, soul and spirit, we know it today,
but what does that veil symbolize, because if
you don't understand what that veil symbolizes, you
can't understand worship in the spirit, you only
worship in the body and the soul, the
old covenant people could worship in the outer
coat and the holy place, that's all, that
is the body and the soul, what does
worship in the body mean, clap, raise your
hands, shout, body, using my body, and soul
is what, your emotions, intellect, you know with
very eloquent words, that's my intellect and emotion
and excitement, that's the soul, good, but it
stops there, everything you read in the Psalms
is clap and raise your hands and be
excited and shout and praise and get the
trumpet and all these musical instruments, work up
your soul, good, but Jesus told the Samaritan
woman, the time has now come when we
must worship in the spirit, it is going
to come, he said, in one sense it
has already come, which means there is one
person on earth who is already worshipping in
the spirit, that is Jesus himself, that is
the meaning of, our is coming, but now
is, our is coming means the rest of
you will experience it on the day of
Pentecost, but now it is now because one
person is experiencing it, Jesus, and on the
day of Pentecost, before the day of Pentecost,
on the day Jesus died, the veil was
rent, and now you can go into the
most holy place, into the spirit and worship
God in spirit which nobody could do, so
don't go to the Psalms and think that's
clapping and shouting and all that is the
most important part of worship, that is good
and I am all for it, I am
willing to do it, but if you stop
there, it is old covenant worship, body and
soul, but Jesus said the father is now
seeking for those who will worship in spirit,
what God has taught us, that is what
I am trying to share with you, worship
in the spirit, to worship in the spirit
you have to go through the rent veil,
turn to Hebrews in chapter 10 and there
we read what the rent veil is, Hebrews
in chapter 10 and we read now we
can go into the most holy place, Hebrews
chapter 10 and verse 19 and 20, we
can enter into the most holy place, that
is what it means by the blood of
Jesus, by a new and living way which
he inaugurated for us through the veil, what
does the veil mean, the Holy Spirit says
the flesh of Jesus is the answer, the
veil that is his flesh and that was
rent and the way was open, now Jesus'
body was not rent, it was not torn,
it just had how many 1,2,3
,4,5 holes in it, 2 in the
hands, 2 in the feet and 1 in
the side, 5 holes, it was not torn,
not a bone of his was broken, he
just had 5 holes in his body, that
is not rent, so it's not talking about
his body being rent, his flesh, it doesn't
say the veil represented his body, so to
understand the word flesh, we read in Galatians
5.17 the spirit fights against the flesh
and the flesh fights against the spirit, then
you realize it is what we call self
-will, the spirit is not fighting against my
body, no, his body is his temple, he
will take care of it, he is fighting
against the thing called the flesh and I
have through years of study, I have discovered
flesh means self-will, not sinful, self-will
means, did Jesus have a self-will, he
said in Gethsemane, not my will, that is
his own will, but yours be done, he
had to deny his own will in order
to do the will of God, that is
the thing that was torn, what was torn
in Jesus' life, his self-will, he said
in John 6.38, I have come from
heaven not to do my own will, but
the will of him who sent me, have
you seen that verse in John 6.38,
that is a one line autobiography of Jesus'
life, if you were to ask Jesus, what
did you do in your whole life, he
said, I will give it to you in
one sentence, I never did my own will,
but I always did the will of my
father, but what about dying on the cross,
that is also part of that, the whole
thing was not my will, but the father's
will, one part of it was dying on
the cross, there were a thousand other things,
but always it was not my will, but
thine, so did he have a will of
his own, yeah, when he was in heaven
he could say, I do my own will,
because it is the same as my father's
will, but the moment he came to earth
with a body, he got a will which
was not the same as the father's will,
it was his own, he had to choose,
he had to deny it, Gethsemane is the
classic example, you go to Jesus in Gethsemane
and say, Lord what do you want, no
I don't want to drink this cup, but
what if the father wants you to drink
the cup, then I'll accept it, but tell
me honestly Lord, what do you want, I
don't want to drink this cup, will you
tell the father that, yes, I told the
father, take this cup away from me, that
is my will, but I don't want it,
that is the crucifixion of the will of
Jesus, which he practiced not only in Gethsemane,
but all through his life, when his mother
called him to do something, and he wanted
to do something else, he had to crucify
his will, doesn't your little boy have to
crucify his will, if he wants to obey
you, he wants to do something else, and
you want him to do something else as
a parent, Jesus would always obey, or when
he had four brothers and two sisters, who
were always irritating him, nagging him, troubling him,
and you know how if you have six
siblings, four brothers and two sisters, and you
are the older one, they trouble you, nag
you, nag you, nag you, nag you, and
you are tempted to get angry with them,
you think Jesus was tempted to get angry
or not, of course, but he said no,
this will, to do my own will, just
to get angry, I will kill it, he
never did his own will, and that is
how the veil was rent in thirty-three
and a half years, every temptation that he
went through in thirty-three and a half
years, one more stitch in the veil is
gone, another temptation, another stitch in the veil
is gone, another stitch, and there are thousands
and thousands of stitches, torn, torn, torn, torn,
finally, when he hung on the cross, and
he said, it is finished, the last stitch
in the veil is gone, and the father
testified to it by tearing that veil in
the temple and saying, now, the way is
open into the most holy place, because Jesus
denied his will in every single area of
temptation, this is a mystery, the Bible says
that, so if you don't understand it, seek
God for the mystery, I did not understand
it for sixteen years, you can hear it,
you think you got it in your head,
ask God to explain it to you, the
proof that you have understood the mystery is,
it will deliver you from sin in your
life, if you haven't been delivered from sin
in your life, you still haven't understood the
mystery, this is the way into the most
holy place, and Jesus says, it says in
Hebrews 20, he inaugurated it for us, have
you seen sometimes a new road has been
constructed, and the minister comes and cuts a
ribbon, for whom to walk, not for him,
for everybody, so Jesus has opened a way
into the most holy place, and that is
the realm of the spirit, then I can
worship God in spirit, so the only way
to worship God in the spirit is if
you decide to walk this way through the
veil, called the new and living way, where
you deny yourself in every single area, and
that's why I said it, you don't have
to open your mouth, you can worship God
in silence, or in other words, you say
to the Lord like this, in the words
of the Psalmist, in Psalm 73, 25, Lord,
I desire nothing on earth but you, I
desire no one on earth but you, I
don't want my will in any area of
my life, I want your will in every
area, and when I get to heaven, I
don't want anything but you, I don't want
a crown, I don't want a mansion, I
don't want anything, I want you, if that
is your passion, that you only want Jesus
on earth and in heaven, you don't want
to do your will in a single area,
you will become a worshiper in the spirit,
and you will know God in a way
that 99% of so-called believers don't
know him, your life will go to a
much higher plane, you know sometimes in school
they give you a double promotion, skip one
class, this will be like jumping 10 classes
and going right up to the top, if
you decide you're going to worship God in
your spirit.
So, I have explained to you what prayer,
thanksgiving, praise and worship, and you see how
so many churches talk about praise and worship,
that is not worship at all, it's a
deception, what they call praise and worship is
actually prayer, thanksgiving and praise, that's all, many
of the songs are thanksgiving and praise, why
not call it that, why call it worship,
and people tell me, brother what does it
matter, it's just a word right, yeah but
you're missing the real thing, supposing somebody tells
some person who does not know much about
cars, and say listen, I have ordered a
Mercedes Benz car for you in that shop,
he knows that Mercedes Benz is a very
expensive thing, but he doesn't know what it
looks like, so he goes to that shop,
he says somebody has paid for a Mercedes
Benz car for me, and that chap gives
him a bicycle, nice bicycle, he says this
is Mercedes Benz, and of course he doesn't
know, this is Mercedes Benz, great, the man
has painted Mercedes Benz on the bar of
the cycle, and he comes riding on the
cycle and tells his wife, I've got a
Mercedes Benz, is that Mercedes Benz, she says
what does it matter, it's only a name
right, it's not a name, there's a lot
of difference between Mercedes Benz written on a
cycle and a real Mercedes Benz, in the
same way there's a lot of difference between
calling something worship which is not worship, and
real worship, as much difference and much more,
I thank God that God has opened my
eyes to become a worshipper, why is that
important, because Jesus said without worship you cannot
serve the Lord, Matthew 4.10, you shall
worship, then you will serve, and I know
in my life, I always said Lord I
want to serve you effectively, then the Lord
says you must be a worshipper in the
spirit, and I'm absolutely convinced the reason why
there's such a lack of anointing, a lack
of fire, and lack of zeal, and anointing
in so much of Christian service and boring
sermons that I've heard, I know the reason,
they're not worshippers, they will not be able
to serve if you don't worship, in their
private life they're not worshipping God, and they
want to serve Him, you think God is
going to back that up, never, I want
all of you to serve the Lord, but
you be a worshipper first, say Lord I
want to be a worshipper, I want to
walk this new and living way, it's a
wonderful life, I'll tell you that, I wouldn't
exchange it for anything in the world, nothing,
absolutely nothing, this is how we build the
church, and not only build the church, on
that cross the devil was defeated once and
for all, and you walk this way, I
guarantee you Satan will be under your feet,
I remember the Lord said that to me
once, as Jesus is, so are we in
this world, we got that verse downstairs from
1 John 4, was the devil afraid of
Jesus on earth, yes, and the Lord says
as Jesus is, so will you be on
this earth, 1 John chapter 4, and I
say Lord I'm going to live in that,
if the devil was scared of you, he's
going to be scared of me as well,
many Christians are scared of the devil, I
think some of you are, isn't it wonderful
to switch from there, to where the devil
is scared of you, do you believe you
can live a life where the devil is
scared of you, I can imagine, Jesus was
going around the synagogues and casting out demons
everywhere, supposing he was going to a new
place, all the demons would say, hey, hey,
he's coming here, he's coming here, and they're
scared, imagine if they say that about you,
hey, this brother is coming here, this brother
is coming here, be careful, this sister is
coming here, imagine the demons being scared, because
you're going to visit somebody's house, because you're
going to preach in some place, and the
demons are scared, you don't have faith for
that, I have faith for that, because of
that verse in 1 John 4, as Jesus
is, so are we in this world, if
you don't have faith, you will not have
it, you'll get nothing in the Bible if
you don't believe, you won't even get forgiveness
of sins if you don't believe, but if
you believe all things are possible, I believe
it, as Jesus is, so am I in
this world, it's not because of me, it's
because the Holy Spirit is coming to me,
and so if the devil was scared of
Jesus, he's going to be scared of me,
that's how you and I are supposed to
live, my brothers, that's how you and I
are supposed to go back to your homes
from here after this conference with a fresh
vision to be an overcomer, ask God to
fill you with the Holy Spirit, everything that
I have said to you, you can get
revelation on it yourself, if you go to
God, I'm not special, the same Holy Spirit
that taught me can teach you, may God
help you, let's pray.
There are many things that you have heard
in these last 2-3 days, and I
want to encourage you my dear brothers and
sisters to pray to God that you will
be filled with the Holy Spirit, get alone
with God in your room by yourself, the
best place to be filled with the Holy
Spirit is not in a church meeting, the
best place to be filled with the Holy
Spirit is in your room, privately, by yourself,
Lord, fill me with the Spirit and pray
that fervently and make it, ask Him to
fill you regularly, I pray regularly God will
fill me with the Holy Spirit, and spend
your time studying the Word of God, don't
be lazy in that matter, study God's Word
wholeheartedly, and I tell you, your life will
never be the same, the next year of
your life is going to be completely different
from all the years you've gone by, if
you decide that you're going to pray fervently
from today to be filled with the Holy
Spirit, you're going to study God's Word intensely,
and you're not going to listen to useless
sermons that don't lead you to become Christ
-like, you're going to finish with all that
listening to sermons and reading books that are
not leading you to become Christ-like, you're
only going to listen to and read that
which will lead you to become Christ-like,
you're learning, you're going to give thanks for
everything because you believe in Romans 8.28,
you're going to praise God for who He
is, and you're going to be a worshipper,
say Lord help me, I want to be
that, Heavenly Father I believe there are a
number of sincere people here, many, many, many,
that's why you brought them here, and I
pray that their lives will be transformed as
a result of this conference, they'll never be
the same again, let your hand be upon
many of us Lord, fill us with the
Holy Spirit, that rivers of living water will
come out and flow through us, thank you
Father, thank you, you've been good to us.
Brothers and sisters, I want you to stand
up now and let's give God an offering
of praise and thanks, please raise your voice
and your hands, and let's thank Him.
Raise your hands and praise Him.