I DIDN’T HAVE A PLAN B WHEN I WAS GOING INTO MINISTRY BECAUSE I KNEW FAILURE WASN’T AN OPTION
WHEN WE NEWLY STEPPED INTO MINISTRY, WE USED TO LIVE IN A ONE ROOM APARTMENT IN A BOYS’ QUARTER WHERE WE SHARED TOILET WITH OTHER PEOPLE
IF DEDICATION HAS NOT TAKEN YOU TO THE POINT WHERE YOU CAN OBEY GOD WITHOUT QUESTION, THEN YOU HAVEN’T STARTED
YOU CANNOT SING “ABRAHAM’S BLESSINGS ARE MINE” UNTIL YOU HAVE PROVED THAT ABRAHAM’S OBEDIENCE IS YOURS
IF YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH GOD IS REAL, YOUR WORLD MUST HEAR, SEE AND FEEL IT
THE TOUCH OF GOD ON YOUR LIFE MUST TRANSLATE TO THE TOUCH OF GOD THROUGH YOUR LIFE TO OTHERS
WHEN YOU WANT TO RECEIVE THINGS FROM GOD WITHOUT TAKING RESPONSIBILITY, IT BECOMES 419 (FRAUD)
– Dr. Pastor Paul Enenche on “THE BLESSING OF DEDICATION” January 2024 Blessing Sunday Glory Dome, Abuja || Part B.
This morning, we are going to look at the dedication of Abraham that gave him the platform for the blessing.
When you talk about Abraham, what is in the mind of most people is “he was such a blessed man, he was a tither, he was a giver”, that was part of it but there was deeper things about Abraham that qualified him for the blessing he walked in that we are going to see.
We are going to look at four of them in this service and then look at another four in the next service.
What did dedication to God cause Abraham to do?
1. Obeying God without question.
That was Abraham’s dedication. Genesis 12:1-5. Obeying God with question. What did that mean to Abraham? He was willing to go where God asked him to go without knowing where it was.
He was willing to go where God asked him to go without knowing how long it will take to get there. He was willing to go where God asked him to go without knowing what he will encounter on the way. Finally, He was willing to go where God asked him to go without knowing without conferring with flesh and blood.
What God said was sacrosanct, human opinion was immaterial. What God said was final, human feelings were immaterial. He was willing to go where God wanted him to go without it making sense.
Listen to me my brothers and my sisters, if dedication has not taken you to the point where you can obey God without question, then you haven’t started.
For many today, what God said must make sense before they make moves. “Is it sensible? How can God be telling me this kind of a thing?” So many of us, our education is the enemy of our revelation; our education is the enemy of His intervention.
Many people today, what God said must be subject to mental analysis and material consideration. “How much money is in it for me? What will I gain?”
Many have to argue and negotiate with God but not so with Abraham. It was obedience without question.
Somebody asked me, they said, “when you were going into ministry and God asked you to become a Pastor, what did you plan to do if the ministry did not succeed?”
I told them, I said, there was no plan. I had no plans B because failure was not an option. “How much were you going to make?” It was not in the consideration. Salary was not in question. Till today, I will travel all the way to Venezuela and forget to carry one naira in my pocket. All the way to South America.
They gave me cheque of offering from somewhere after I preached, they were reminding me six months later, “please Sir, you have not deposited the cheque.
Please try and deposit the cheque so we can be blessed”. In this country, somebody is forgetting to deposit in cheque in 5 and 6 zeroes? Obeying God without question. Beloved brothers and sisters, I want us to come to the point, because before you can say “Abraham’s blessings are mine”, has Abraham’s obedience been yours?
You can’t sing “Abraham’s blessings are mine” until you have proved that Abraham’s obedience is yours. When was the last time you took risk for God?
When we married newly and after we stepped into ministry after a while, my father in-law came to the room in the boys quarter that we lived in Zone 7.
He came to that one room that we were lived and toilet we were sharing it with about 7 or 10 people, tears filled his eyes. It’s like “how did this young man, Medical Doctor, take this my daughter, another Medical Doctor, to suffer themselves like this?”
But the suffering has imparted millions around the world and this is where the suffering has brought us.
– somebody say a loud Amen!
– lift your right hand and say, “Father, I receive the grace of obedience without question. I receive that grace right now in the name of Jesus!”
2. Evangelizing and discipling his world for God.
Somebody said, “is that true? Is that real?” Yes. Genesis 18:19. There was something Abraham was doing that made to bring to pass His Word in his life.
Many people are busy claiming promises without walking in the covenant. Genesis 18:19.
Listen to this and you can note it down:
2a. Every genuinely saved child of God has an experience with God that they can’t keep to themselves.
An experience that is too real to keep to themselves.
2b. If your experience with God is real, your world must hear, see and feel it.
Abraham evangelized and discipled his family members, employees and workforce.
Don’t forget that last point; If your experience with God is real, your world must hear, see and feel it.
I remember I came for holiday one time from the university and I sat with my father and we were discussing and wine was in front of him and he was serving. You know in the village palace, wine flows like water. They come to greet the King with a keg of wine.
He looked at me and said, “can you stretch that keg to me there?” Then suddenly, he said, “oh sorry, you’re not meant to touch it”. I said, “thank you Sir”. I didn’t say, “don’t bother, let me touch it”. “Thank you, Sir”. Our discussion continued. If your world can’t feel it, it’s not real. Whether your father or your mother or your wife or your classmates. I was in anatomy laboratory, we were doing dissection, dead bodies and one girl was talking near me, then suddenly she closed her mouth, “sorry, I didn’t know you’re here, I shouldn’t be talking like this where you are”.
Beloved brothers and sisters, Abraham’s blessings will be yours, when was the last time your life touched somebody because God has touched you? The touch of God on your life must translate to the touch of God through your life to others. That is what dedication is all about. Abraham did not become the ‘blessest’ person in his generation by chance or because God gave a promise.
Abraham was doing things to activate that promise. When was the last time you evangelized a family member, a friend, a colleague at work, a neighbour, an employee, an employer? When was the last time? If these things are not happening, dedication to God is not authentic.
In our university days, we preached in front of hostels, we preached inside university buses, medical consultation, we preached to people on consultation tables.
In those days, if I was consulting and somebody came with anything that had to do with liver disease and is alcoholic or bronchitis that has to do with smoking or sexually transmitted disease, that is an automatic pathway to preaching and many were led to Christ. In your world, what efforts do you make to ensure that your life touch your world around you?
Or is it dressing to Church and wearing new clothes and letting people know that I belong to so and so Church without the life touching nobody? No, it’s far beyond that.
When I rededicated my life to Christ in 1986, 12th of May, my first target was one of my classmates in secondary school. Very stubborn boy, smoked anything bad, he was a bad boy, very bad boy.
That was my number one target, I rushed to him, caught him, preached to him so tey he went on his knees.
Do you know what happened to him? He became so saved that he became a missionary at the spot before I became a full time Pastor. Missionary, went to two African countries where the Gospel has not been preached, riding camel to preach.
At a point, I was sending him resources in the mission field. That one is there and plenty others.
My dear brothers and sisters, if you want God to be free with you as far as the blessing is concerned, be released to him as far as dedication is concerned.
– I prophesy to somebody here, this year shall be different!
– lift up your right hand and shout, “Lord, I receive the grace to be dedicated to you in Jesus’ precious name”.
I will like you to read Genesis 18:19 again. There are things we do that make God to cause what He said about us to come to pass. The Bible is so clear, it’s so clean. When you want to receive things from God without taking responsibility, it becomes 419. Phillips 4:19, “my God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory” without reading what is in front of it.
– I see somebody’s change happening this year. If you’re the one, say a loud Amen.
