Category: Marital Bliss

• We build strength before the day of adversity.
• There are no fireworks or earthquakes when you are building your strength, it seems as though you are doing nothing.
• Appearing in church and listening to the word of God seems like a silly thing.
• You’re being built up as you listen to the word of God in church.
• In school, examinations have a timetable but the examinations of life have no timetable.
• We should consciously build our faith.
Eccl 11:1-5
• Whatever we do has a way of coming back to us in form of a harvest.
• Things don’t just happen, someone makes them happen.
• Don’t just wait, make things happen by making conscious decisions and actions.

2 Kings 2:1-13, Heb 6:11-12
• It is those who follow through to the end that make it.
• God appears to be hiding so that He sees if you are serious.
• There are many things that are very good and yet very hard.
• Many people do not have good things because of the hard way to get them.
• If you are intelligent enough to plan a bank robbery, you can make your own wealth the right way without shortcuts.
• Many good and great things are hard to get.
• Don’t confuse hard and bad – they are not the same.
Mark 10:37-39
• Don’t make assumptions, make a demand.
• Things drop to those who make a demand.
• When you make a demand for the grace that is upon a person, it is not that person who gives you the grace, it is God that takes the grace from that person and gives it to you if you qualify.
• The power of God goes in the direction of our consciousness.
Isa 26:3
• Your consciousness is important when it comes to making mantles that you have to work for you.
Mat 9:21-22
• When you are not conscious, mantles become ordinary.
• When you pray, be conscious that you have received what you prayed for.
• We have been given the name of Jesus and all the resources of heaven to act on God’s behalf.
• Without realizing it, you might find that you are more conscious of the devil.
• Be more conscious of Christ than the devil.
• Be conscious that even when you walk outside you are bringing the greater one.
• Be conscious that you have the name of Jesus and you can use it at any time.
• Witches know what they have, you should also know what you have.
• When your mind is stayed on God, it draws from the resources of God.
• Consciousness is very important when it comes to the power of God.
• Familiarity robs people because it stops them from thinking deeply.
• When you are not conscious, the devil will fight you for mantles or steal them from you.

Isa 62:1-12, Joel 2:12
What is fasting?
• The act of abstaining from food and certain desires in order to seek God for a period of time.
• What is fasting?
The act of abstaining from food and certain desires in order to seek God for a period of time.
• Fasting is an expression of our willingness to connect to divine resources (Dan 2:18-19, Phili 4:19).
• Fasting is an expression of our helplessness without God (Heb 4:16).
• Fasting is an expression of our confidence that God will hear us (Psa 65:2, 1 John 5:14-15).
• Prayer with fasting is a highway (doorway) to the supernatural.
• When a person is fasting, they become sensitive to the spirit realm.
• Agents of the devil also fast in order to be sensitive to their realm.
Mat 16:16-18
• Demonic forces are higher than human and intellectual wisdom.
• Your access to God’s power helps you handle demonic forces cheaply.
• Your access to the power of God that defeats forces of darkness is made possible and accelerated through prayer and fasting.
• Prayer and fasting creates an atmosphere for divine interventions.

WHAT IS EXPECTED OF YOU IN PRAYER AND FASTING?
1. YOU MUST BE DESPERATE (Gen 32:26, Est 4:16)
• Desperation makes things change.
• Don’t postpone your problems, God’s time is now.

2. BE FOCUSED (Psa 27:4)
3. BE PRAYERFUL (Mat 17:21)
4. BE PERSISTENT (Acts 12:5)

5. BE WATCHFUL (Hab 2:1, Mark 14:38)
• Be watchful for what God will do and also for the tricks of the enemy to disturb your prayer and fasting.

6. BE GENEROUS (Isa 58:7)

Dan 4:29-32, 2 Chron 16:9
• Every time you don’t acknowledge God’s hand in the good things that have happened to you, you risk being taken out of the way.
• Men easily take God out of the picture when good things have happened.
• God knows and sees those who are genuinely grateful.
Psa 91:1-5
• The wisdom behind a trap is usually higher than the wisdom of the thing or person it is intended to trap.
• There is spiritual terrorism at night.
• Ingratitude is evil in God’s sight.
2 Chron 20:3, 21, Num 14:1, 22, 28-32, Jer 30:19
• Complaining complicates matters.
• Humanly speaking, you feel better when you complain about your problems but it doesn’t make things better.

Job 8:7, Eccl 7:8
• Because satan has been around for a very long time and opposes every good thing God does, he does a lot of useless things towards the end of any cycle.
• Satan knows that according to God’s agenda, the end of a thing should be better than the beginning.
• Satan is always watching out for the end.
• When people are about to enter a new season, he will bring things that will confuse them and make them concentrate on circumstances in order for them to miss divine timing.
Hab 2:1-3
• The weakness of men is that they are not able to continue on the same path until the end.
• God programmed the earth to carry seed and produce harvest for man.
• The process of planting seed and producing harvest differs from one plant to another and from one animal to another.
• It is a problem when you don’t understand yourself and what God is doing with your life.
• It is a problem when you’re looking at what God is doing with another person’s life instead of looking at what He is doing with your life.
Job 14:14, Mat 6:22
• People fail in life because of divided focus.
Deut 5:32, John 7:6
• Discouragement comes in when there is comparison – when you are comparing where someone else is to where you think you should be.
• A man who knows that he is in God’s timing can never be discouraged.
1 Sam 8:5-6, John 13:3-5
• Do you know your race and are you running in it?
• An athlete who keeps looking at his competitors won’t have speed.
• When comparisons come into a marriage, it will soon collapse.
• God values process.
• It is important for you to understand your own process, what God is doing with your life.
• Spend time to find out God’s purpose for your life.
• If you allow yourself to look to the left and to the right, you will be delayed.
• It is only the end of the year, not the end of your life.
• Maintaining a heart of gratitude is how you stay clear of distractions.
Col 4:2
• We watch in the spirit by thanksgiving.
Pro 31:5-7, Eph 5:16-19
• If I am truly giving thanks to God while under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I will forget the negative circumstances around me.
• You don’t forget the challenges you have because you are not drunk with the Holy Spirit.
• Don’t give thanksgiving that is mechanical, give thanksgiving that is Spirit-inspired.
• Thanksgiving has ability to shield your mind from the assault of the devil.
• It is not possible to be genuinely thankful and be depressed.
Phili 4:4-9, 1 Pet 5:7, Psa 100:4, 24:3
• Thanksgiving gives you access and that is why it is possible for you to thank your way into a higher level.
• When you genuinely thank God, you are given access to God and God is given access to you, thereby shifting you to another level.
• When we glorify God, He gives us wings to fly
Isa 60:8, 40:31, Jer 30:19
• If you are not grateful for where you are, you will not get to where you think you should be.
• Don’t call things that God is doing small.
• We block our next levels by ingratitude.

• To serve is to work for or be a servant to.
• Serving God is secondary to walking with Him.
• We start by walking with God thereafter we work for Him.
• Walking with God is having a relationship with God.
• When you have the right motive for serving God, blessings will come automatically.
• Serving God should be your nature.
• Our God is not a taskmaster.
• God has everything and can give you everything.
• If you are not getting anything from God, the problem is not with God but with you.
Luke 10:7, Heb 6:10

THE EFFECTS OF SERVING GOD
Luke 1:5-13, Heb 6:10
1. Serving God provokes divine visitations
• Serving God is the easiest way to receiving answers from God to issues of life without sweat.

2. Those who serve God genuinely enjoy divine health, protection, exemption and long life (Exo 23:25-26)

3. It is the easiest way to tap into the anointing (2 Kings 3:11, Deut 1:38)

PLATFORMS ON WHICH TO SERVE GOD
1. Service departments
• Service departments are important because God has a tendency of meeting His people at their place of service (Judges 13:2-11)

2. Through financial resources, substances and giving (Luke 8:1-3, Exo 10:25-26)

3. Through prayers (Job 42:10)

ENEMIES OF SERVING GOD
1. Procrastination (delay) (2 Sam 20:4-10)
• If you have something to do tomorrow , do it today.
• Delayed obedience is disobedience.
• When you wait, you waste.

2. Laziness (Rom 12:11, Heb 6:12)
3. Giving up or doubting (Mat 14:31)
• Ask God for the grace to keep doing whatever you have started.

• There are three altars a man has to take care of if he is to walk with God:
1. The altar of the body
• Your body is an altar.
• What gives you the legal right to exist on earth is the body.
• Man is a spirit being with a soul, living in a body.
• The body gives permission for man or spirits to operate on this earth.
• Your body is not cheap, need to treat it as an altar.
Mark 5:9
• Your body has the capacity to host the Holy Spirit.
Rom 12:1, 1 Cor 6:16, 2 Cor 6:16

2. Your altar of sacrifice (Your church altar and your personal altar) (Lev 6:12-13, Deut 10:12-13, 1 Thess 4:3-5, 7-8, 2 Tim 2:19-20)
• Your sin doesn’t end with you, it affects your children.
• Iniquity is perpetual sin, a lifestyle of sin.
• The enemy wants you to be in iniquity because that gives him legal rights into your life.

There are four kinds of people:
1. The vessel of gold (Rom 8:14)
• These are spiritual men, people who have subjected their senses to doing the righteousness of God.
• They are led by the Spirit of God.
• These are sons of God.
• When you become a believer, you become a child of God but need to grow from that into a son of God.
• Responsibilities are given to sons and not children.

What should you do to grow into a son of God?
a. Give yourself to the encounter and ministry of the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:1)

Who is a spiritual man?
i. Someone who is saved and has submitted their will and mind to be transformed by the word of God.
ii. they are spiritually minded and have set their hearts to be obedient to the word of God.

2. The vessel of silver (Eph 1:13)
• These are believers, however, it is not enough just to be a believer, you need to grow.
• A believer is a person who has received God and accepted Christ unto their salvation.
• Once you become a believer, your duty is to start killing the deeds of the flesh so that the life of God can reign in you.

3. The vessel of wood (Mark 4:4-8, 13-21)
• This is a carnal man.
• This kind comes to church, is involved in church activities, knows about the word and its principles but their lifestyle is contrary to the word.
• They have intentionally decided to be against the rules of God.
• They live according to their carnal knowledge and not the dictates of the word of God.
• They are enemies of God.
• They have not allowed themselves to be transformed by the word and so their carnality has not died.

4. The vessel of clay
• These are natural (ordinary) men.
• Atheists are in this category.
• Their spirits are dead.

• Every battle and temptation that is contrary to the word of God has a spirit behind it.
• Have a militant mindset as a believer, think like a soldier.
• Never tolerate anything that is against the word of God.
Eph 6:12-13,. 2 Cor 10:4-6
• Take a stand to be against the powers of darkness.

How to walk in righeousness
1. Set your affection on things that are above (Col 3:1-11)

• Finishing well is God’s plan / agenda for His children.
• It is important to start with God and finish with God.
Acts 1:16-20
• What matters more in life and destiny isn’t how you start but how you end.
• You may start poorly but by the grace of God, you may end well.
• You need God on your side in order to finish well.
• When a person is disconnected from God, they begin to run on an empty tank and can’t go far.
• You need to keep filling your spiritual tank every day.
• You fill your spiritual tank via prayer, the word of God, attending church services, etc.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO FINISH WELL?
1. To walk with God personally to the end of your life
2. To make a positive contribution to God’s work with your time, talents and resources
3. To leave a heritage and children that will continue to do the work of God
4. Arriving at the end of your journey without failure, defeat or reproach in your life
5. Arriving at the end not less in impact, results and end-product than at the beginning
6. Exiting the world in a blaze of glory, on a note of victory
7. Ending with minimal regrets in life and destiny
8. To remain faithful to Jesus Christ throughout life and complete the tasks He has given you until you hear, “well done, good and faithful servant.” (Mat 25:21)
2 Tim 4:7, Acts 20:24

BIBLICAL EXAMPLES OF PEOPLE WHO FINISHED WELL
1. Job (Job 2:10, 42:12)
2. Joshua (Josh 24:15, 29-31)
3. Caleb (Josh 13:30, 14:10-12)
4. Daniel
5. Paul (2 Tim 4:7-8)

BARRIERS TO FINISHING WELL
1. Money (Acts 5:1-10)
2. Power(1 Sam 18:7-9)
• There is a right use of power and an abusive use of power.
3. Pride (Prov 16:18)
4. Things (possessions)
5. Illicit sex
6. Maintenance

5 THINGS TO MAKE SURE YOU FINISH WELL
1. Have a vision (Luke 9:59-62)
2. Be disciplined
3. Continue learning (Phili 3:10)
4. Have mentors in life and destiny
5. Revival

FATHER, IN THE NAME OF JESUS, I ASK FOR GRACE TO RUN THE CHRISTIAN RACE FAITHFULLY TO THE END. HELP ME NOT TO FAIL ALONG THE WAY.

1 Sam 11:1-12:14
• The enemy’s greatest fear is the presence of God around you.
• Sin doesn’t come by itself, there is a force and personality behind it.
• The enemy plays with your mind.
• The enemy partners with your mind to capture your soul and kill your spirit.
• When he can successfully partner with your mind, he can use your body to fulfill his will.
Gen 3:1-7
• When your soul is corrupted, you will do the will of the enemy and your body will be an instrument of unrighteousness.
• Your desires can be stimulated by what you see.
• Sin starts from the desire level.
• If you don’t understand this as a christian, you will walk in defeat.
• Constantly living in sin causes the blood of Jesus to be of no effect in your life.
• Holiness is nothing difficult, it is simply a right stand with God.
Eph 1:2-14
• Spiritual separation is the separation of the spirit of man from the Spirit of God.
• Physical death is the separation of the body from the mind and soul.
• Satan’s trick to make you sin against God is to keep your spirit from growing, which will keep it in a dead state.
• Growth in the spirit will empower you to live above sin.
Jam 1:13-15
• The enemy studies your desires before he can attack you.
• Satan will tempt you according to your desires.
• If you master your desires and safeguard you heart, you maintain your call into holiness.
Heb 12:14-15
• All the emotions of man are in the soul.
• When you harbor bitterness, it corrupts your soul.
Jos 1:8, 1 Pet 1:13-21, Obad 1:17
• Whatever you meditate on affects your mind and when you meditate on it long enough, it will condition your mindset.
• When God delivers you from your past sins / lifestyle, He calls and empowers you to walk in holiness.
• When you live right before God in holiness, it is very easy for you to manage the blessing because you are accountable to God.
Rom 6:11
• The enemy fashions sin according to what you’ve been desiring.
2 Tim 2:22-26, 2 Cor 4:3-4

How do you live in holiness?
1. Walk in obedience
2. Walk in the fear of God
3. Rely on the Holy Spirit for guidance
4. Meditate and assimilate the word of God with meekness (Jam 1:21-25)