by Pastor Andrew

This message is an offshoot of my concern for the pains people experienced from the notorious MMM Ponzi Scheme, which defrauded them of so much money. So my aim here is to teach on how to receive true prosperity from God. What makes people prosperous? How can one be blessed to the point where he can also become a blessing? In 1 John 4:17, the Bible says as Jesus was, so are we in this world. This is true and we can get to that level as long as we are God’s children, but it takes certain knowledge to get there. This leads me to teach on prayer and the important role it plays in receiving help from the Most High God.

Habakkuk was a man who found himself and God’s people (Israel) in a situation where everything was topsy-turvy; they were in captivity, under oppression and in lack, what economists will call recession See Habakkuk 3:14-15). The situation here in Habakkuk’s time happened in stages. The book of Habakkuk Chapter 1 tells the story of Habakkuk, a man who felt things were not going well for them as God’s people.And so he decided to talk to God about it. He refused to accept his current state of mediocrity and captivity as a permanent state. What does this teach us? That when we begin to be aggressive in prayers, when we refuse to accept mediocrity or say “this is the way God has made me” and pressed in to God, HE will change our situation.

Habakkuk recognised and told the Lord how that he did not agree with their oppression and captivity by the Chaldeans. He reminded God that they were His children and should not be experiencing such.

And by the next chapter, Habakkuk went up to the sanctuary, to be alone with God and God began to respond to him (Habakkuk 2:22).The main focus here is sanctuary.

A sanctuary is sacred place of worship; it is also the most sacred part of the Old Testament Temple, patterned after the temple in heaven; it provides privacy; a place where one gets alone with God.  In the sanctuary, when you are alone with God, you get more understanding to benefit yourself and prosper beyond others who have not been to the sanctuary. When you want to stay in the outer court, you will get what everybody is getting, but once you are able to press forward into the holy of holies, there you will find the rod of Aaron that budded, signifying miracles, then the miraculous will begin to happen in your life. But side by side with miracles, is the word of God and His manna—which typifies contentment. You cannot miss the three if you are going to prosper beyond others.

Habakkuk 2:14says, “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.”Without the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, true prosperity is not attainable—you may have your daily food, but you will not be able to help others out like Jesus did. True prosperity is missing out in the lives of many Christians, because they find that they do not have enough to meet their needs, how much more to meets the needs of other people. When you get hold and press into the sanctuary, you will receive guidance from God for all you need. It is that guidance that actually makes the difference.That is why God is saying to us that His knowledge (hearing from Him) must move from us and spread out to all the world. That was the point where Habakkuk said, “When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops.Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. . .” Habakkuk 3:16-19.

Habakkuk chose to trust God despite all that they faced in the hands of the Chaldeans, who threw them on stakes at their will. After speaking with God, Habakkuk could then rely on the faithfulness of God, despite their current unfavorable condition. That was what prompted him to say, although the fig tree may not blossom, nor the vines befruitful, yet will I trust in the Lord.

In the face of agitations and the current recession in our country, the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, says some people can’t even eat a meal a day. What we must know is that famine doesn’t just happen, recession does not just happen. God gave Israel as a standard: “if you obey Me, I will bless you; if you don’t obey Me, I will not bless you.” When famine happens, watch it, God is working out something. God will not forget Nigeria, despite the current hardship that the country is facing. If the birds of the air are numbered by Him, then He knows about all that we are facing and will see us through, because He is more faithful than we can even understand.

The faithfulness of the Lord however is in understanding His word and following after Him. In Exodus 15:26, He said He would not allow the diseases of the Egyptians to come upon us. Are Christians not suffering sickness and diseases despite His word? But first of all we need to ask ourselves, are we living in obedience? Are we behaving like the Egyptians? If the world will choose to behave like the Egyptians, then the diseases and famine of Egypt will come upon them, and the situation will bring distress upon everybody. God gave Israel as a standard and Christians had better shape up or face the consequences. In mercy, He will always come down to help because one of His attributesis mercifulness; He is aBenevolent God. Benevolence shows His attributes of helping those who do not deserve His help.

Matthew 5:45 says, “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for hemaketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” God is the benevolent One who reaches out to sinners even as He reaches out to His own children. It does not matter whether they know Him or worship Him, if He doesn’t send rain upon them, then there will be problems. He saves anyone that calls upon His name. He sometimes overlooks some of His protocols to answer, in cases of emergency. This is seen in the life of David who committed adultery and murder and deserved to be stoned to death twice, for the two offences; but God had mercy on him. God’s judgment is different from ours. He has a right to overrule at times, but His standard remains. And He always returns to His standard after the emergency has been taken care of.

In John 15:15 Jesus called us His friends, and not servants. Can you have a friend without talking to your friend? It is not possible. Having a talking relationship with God is not a once-for-all affair or a morning and night thing, itis an all day, all hour, all minute, and all second affairs! If we are friends of God, then it means that we are always talking to Him; that is prayer. God sees prayer as, “we are talking about a matter and until it happens, we won’t stop discussing it.”

In the Old Testament, it is clear that not just anybody could enter into the holy of holies, everybody stayed in the outer court. But most prefer to stay in the outer court and shout from there. That’s what people call persistent prayer, but as far as I am concerned there is no persistent prayer that would move the hand of God. It is a relationship of friendship, in which you follow His conditions and stay with Him in the sanctuary that can move the hand of God. When you are with God inside the holy of holies, one-to-one with Him, that is where you will receive more understanding and guidance to excel beyond someone who is in the outer court. Someone who is in the sanctuary will understand what type of prayer to pray at any point in time—prayerof authority, of supplication, etc. God said we should ask Him, He did not say we should beg; we beg when we know we are undeserving, but we ought to be deservingwhen we live by His precepts.

Proverbs 15: 26 says, “The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD: but the words of the pure are pleasant words.”Psalm 10:4 defines the wicked as:The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.” Many Christians fall into the category of ‘the wicked’. We take God’s word for granted, make our decisions without Him and then we ask Him to approvethem by our “persistent prayer”. Wrong! When we get to the level of a friendship relationshipwith God, we will always find help whenever the need arises. David said in Psalm 3:3-4, “But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill.” The psalmist cried out to God with His voice, not another person’s voice. Then God answered out of His holy hill. Getting to that holy hill is what we must strive to attain to.

I heard the story of a little girl who sat in the church building mumbling alone, while other kids were out playing in the premises after the church service. When the Pastor passed by a second time and saw her all alone and still mumbling, he asked her why she was sitting all alone in the church while everyone else was outside having fun. And she replied, “Nobody is playing with God, so I decided to comestay and play with Him.” The pastor was astounded at such level of relationship that a little girl haswith God.

There is a holy hill of God, but people prefer to pray persistent prayer because they cannot get to God’s holy hill. Who is actually capable of going to God’s holy hill? Psalm 15:1-7 tells us:“LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the LORD. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.”

If you fit into this category of people who can approach God’s holy hill, you shall never be moved by any recession or storm. There will of necessity be times of storms or recession, because God uses such times to call people to order, but He will always create a Goshen for you if you fit in to be on His holy hill.

Difficult times or famine are not new, but when they happen, get into the sanctuary and find out from God why the situation and ask Him for the way out. And He will guide you step by step. Let’s learn from David.

2 Samuel 21:1-14says, “Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David enquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites. . . they demanded for lives of seven descendants of Saul and got them. But David didn’t stop there . . . And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabeshgilead, which had stolen them from the street of Bethshan, where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa:And he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son; and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged.And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the sepulchre of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. And after that God was intreated for the land.”

Therewas a three-year famine in Israel during the reign of David, and David inquired of the Lord; David asked God about the situation! God told him the reason for the famine, but you will find that David went the extra mile, to do something that was not part of the first instruction. Then God was entreated for the land and the famine ceased.

The problem of Christians today is that they do not inquire from God, they do not ask God; they just fast and pray, yet nothing happens. What you need to do is to get into the sanctuary and inquire from God; you will always find help in the time of need.Until you press into the sanctuary, into the holy of holies, and dwellthere, like David said, not just visiting, you may not receive instruction for your next step. Most times, God guides to answer to prayers. In other words, He does not just give the answer all at once. When miracles happen for example, God sometimes just turns nature around. A vivid example of this happened when God rained quails on the Israelites for meat. He did not just create new quails and threw them down, He actually stopped the wind on which the quailsglide on to theirannual migration site, and allowed them to fall for the Israelites at that spot (See Numbers 11). That’s different from normal prayer and answer.

My point is that God can do and undo when you are in the sanctuary with Him and you are also fulfilling all the requirement of being approachable to His holy hill as spelt out in Psalm 15. God moved upon David to do something which is not recorded in the Bible that God told him to do, beyond pacifying the Gibeonites. He exhumed the bones of Saul and Jonathan, and gave them a royal burial, before the famine was stopped. But that was after three years of suffering famine. If he had inquired from the first day, it perhaps may not have lingered for so long. So if you do not understand a situation, press in to God and find out; you are not questioning Him, you are simply fellowshipping with Him as your friend; that is a level beyond sonship. 

1 Samuel 30 also shows how David enquired from God on what to do when he and his men lost their wives and children to the Amalekites. When he enquired, God told him to pursue and overtake the Amalekites, and God made a way for him to overtake them by placing a wounded Egyptian slave on his way to tell him their whereabouts. God recognised that David was His friend, one who dwelt in His presence so He made a way for him to actualize his dreams. Don’t stay in the outer court; don’t stay with the portion of the unjust, receiving only your daily meal from God. There are levels of blessings beyond that, to the point where you have enough for yourself and to give others.

The Bible in 2 kings 5,tells the story of Naaman, a Syrian army captain who was leprous. God had purposed to make him an example to the nations by healing him of his leprosy, but he almost blew it up when he despised the prophet’s instruction to go and wash in the Jordan River to be healed. But God placed a slave girl around him who encouragedhim to obey, thereby receiving his healing. And Jesus made reference to Naaman the leper, to drive home a point to the people He taught, many years later (See Luke 4:27). When there is purposeattached to a prayer you make, God will ensure that it gets fulfilled. So the question we must ask ourselves is: is purpose attached to our prayers? If it is just to glorify self, it is a waste of time!

In Genesis 37, we see that the purpose of God in the life of young Joseph was at stake when his brothers plotted to kill him. God prompted Reuben to go save him, and by the time that purpose had been achieved, Joseph himself was the one who said, “You meant it for evil, but God purposed it for good in order to preserve lives”(See Genesis45:5-7; 48:20). In the same vein, if purpose is attached to whatever is worrying your mind;as you pray, God will place people on your way to help you. The issue is will you recognize those helpers of your purpose? Many have abused and fought their God-ordained destiny helpers without even knowing it. So we need to watch out against such. We will receive guidance concerning all we need from God Himself, when we dwell in His presence.

God sends people to help His children but if the situation warrants it, He can come down from the sanctuary Himself to help.When the Egyptian armies were drowning in the red sea, with their own mouths, they testified that “their God fights for them!”In the book of Joshua Chapter 9, the Gibeonites deceived Israel into making peace with them, and when the surrounding nations wanted to make war with them, the Israelites had to partner with them to fight.  God fought against the enemies of Israel by throwing stones on them, and those who were killed by the stones were more than the ones killed by the army of Israel (See Joshua 9:11). That same God is still available to fight for you and to meet your needs, if only you are not an Egyptian, if only you become His friend, one that lives to glorify Him!

If you are carrying purpose, God Himself will watch over you, He will not just assign an angel to you.Psalm 41:1-3 says, “Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble. The LORD will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies.The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.” When God is watching over you, He will not deliver you up to the enemy even when there is a legal ground against you. He would rather punish you by himself, in His love; because He has promised to deliver the lawful captive. This applies only to someone that is intimate with God, who is a friend of God, and one who is carrying purpose in his life. And this intimacy is obtainable in the inner court of the sanctuary.  Anyone in the outer court is at risk.

The Scriptures are replete with instances of God mighty deliverances of His people. In 2 kings 7:1-11, God made provision for His people at the request of Elisha, to end a famine; and in 2 Chronicles 20:1-30, God laid ambushes for the enemies of His people because they prayed. Also in Acts 16:16-26, God delivered Paul and Silas from prison after they had prayed and praised Him.Prayer that prevails (prayer made according to God’s purpose and in His presence) is what sends help from the sanctuary. You may never know your potentials until you have a face-to-face encounter with the Lord. This was the case of Gideon, who never knew that he was a mighty man of valor until he met face to face with the Lord. The Bible records it as the angel of the Lord, but that same angel of the Lord was the one that appeared to Samson’s parents, and when they asked him for his name, he said it is secret. The same word ‘Secret’ is the same word used to describe the attributes of God in Isaiah 6:9 as ‘wonderful’. So the angel of the Lord is actually God in angelic personification.

You cheatyourself when you don’t press in to have encounters with God in order to know the potentials within you which are waiting to be tapped.Concerning young Timothy, he was told to stir up the potentials, the gifting of God within him. So dear child of God, you have gifts and potentials within you, stir them up by staying in the presence of the Lord and let His glory shine on you. Then you will see yourself blossoming and having ideas beyond you and your life will be better because you will be blessed of the Lord Himself.

The Bible tells of the man Jacob in Genesis 35:10-11, who wrestled with the Lord for the Lord to bless him.  Jacob had been blessed from his mother’s womb, but it never happened until he stood in the presence of the Lord. He had been going up and down all his life, until God told him to dwell in Bethel. There he struggled with the Lord and in the presence of the Lord he was changed from the crafty one to a prince with God.God had to clear away the fox spirit in him to bless him with the princely anointing. It was in the presence of God that his potentials came forth. He had always been a man, but nowhere does the Bible state that Jacob named his child. His wives named their children in contention, but when he settled it with God, the man in him came up and he took charge. That was when he changed the name of his last child from Benoni (child of sorrow) as was named by his wife, to Benjamin, child of my right hand. In the presence of God, your potentials will come out because it is only in the sanctuary that you get help.

If you want help from the outer court, you will get what everybody else is getting—only your daily bread—but God has room for more than that. It is in God’s presence that the grace He has given you will blossom. It is not in the outer court. The glory in the outer court cannot be compared to what is in the holy place. And it is possible to press in to that holy of holies.

The life of David and how he blessed everyone around him, confirms the blessing that are available to God’s people in the His presence. David took the Ark of the Covenant(God’s presence) from the temple and brought it to a place where it was accessible to all. History has it that the glory of the Lord shone 24hours of the day and nobody died (then they believed that anyone that saw God would die); instead of death they received blessings, to the point that they contributed 1 trillion US Dollars for Solomon’s temple. That speaks a lot about the blessings of God that comes from His presence. But when Solomon took the Ark and hid it in the temple again; the people became poor to the point where they could not pay taxes again. They were blessed immensely when the sanctuary and the presence of God was visible to them.

The challenge I am throwing at you is to get into the sanctuary, get into the presence of God and receive blessings that will keep you buoyant, beyond staying afloat in times of recession, remembering that in the sanctuary God will give you guidance, the graces of God in you will be brought out, and your evil nature will be changed. Get into the sanctuary and enquire from the Lord concerning your situation. You will be glad you did.