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Faith Against Discouragement 05112022- Apostle Peterson Onoja
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The speaker begins by expressing trust in God and acknowledging the discouragement many believers are facing. They emphasize the need for encouragement and remind listeners that they are not alone, urging them to listen with their hearts. They mention the importance of reading the Bible and turn to the book of James, explaining that James was the half-brother of Jesus and emphasizing the need for patience and wisdom in trials. The speaker discusses the topic of faith against discouragement, warning against the dangers of suicide and encouraging believers to strengthen their faith in challenging times. They emphasize that faith is necessary to overcome challenges and that it should be exercised in the face of discouragement. I trust in God Almighty because I know that what He is going to communicate to us this morning will be something that we need even as we journey through life. I understand that the condition we are as a nation is becoming unbearable and a lot of believers are discouraged. Many do not know where to start from and the reason it appears as if the statistic of the members coming to church every of our activities are like reducing or dropping down and we begin to think that why are they not always coming like before? It is because a lot of believers are discouraged. Many are seriously discouraged and we are trusting God that God will help Nigeria and that God will help this nation and then help Africa. I know we are going through a traveling moment and that is why the Lord has given me a message to come and share with you which should be a consolation to every heart that would hear the message. So even as you are listening, don't just listen with your ears. I want to encourage you to also listen with your heart. You are not alone. Yes, you are not alone. No matter what you are going through, you are not alone. Are you with me? Yes. Never you think that you are alone. God is with you. You may not be seeing a visible manifestation of the judgment of God, the protection of God, the provision of God, but let me tell you that God is with you. And whatsoever you are going through now, God will bring you out of those things in the name of Jesus. Father, we thank you. Precious Holy Ghost, we ask that even as the word of life is coming to us, bless us massively with this word and let everyone that has ears, let them hear your word. Let them hear your voice. Even as you speak to us, you communicate your word to us in the name of Jesus. Thank you, Father, because you are faithful. So in Jesus' mighty name, I pray. Tonight, sorry this morning, we will be reading from the book of James chapter 1. James chapter 1. James chapter 1. One of the easiest ways you hear from God is from the pages of God's word. So every time we come together to hear what God has to say, and you do not follow by reading from the scriptures, there is every tendency for you not to hear God. I understand that God is speaking through me, but you must deeply understand that as you read the Bible, it will begin to speak to you specifically. So let us turn our Bibles to the book of James chapter 1. James chapter 1. I read from verse 1 to verse 8. James chapter 1. James was the half-brother, the half-brother of Jesus Christ. So he had the same mother with Jesus. So if you read the book of James, the book of John, James was among the people that told Jesus that you cannot keep yourself in the closet, and they expect people to know you that you are the Messiah. So he was one of them. He was one of the brothers of Jesus who never believed in Jesus. But after the death of Jesus, he became a disciple of Jesus. He became a follower of Christ. Now look at what James has to say. I read from verse 1 of James. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see there is no familiarity again. It is not saying that a servant of God, one of the brothers of Jesus Christ. Yes, when we come to Jesus Christ, we have to submit our pride. Lay down your pride at his feet. Lay down your pride at his feet. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad. Greetings. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. The word temptation here is not talking about temptation to sin. It is talking about tribulations. It is talking about persecution. It is talking about affliction. It is talking about difficulty, hard times. So that is the word temptation. It means trials. So my brethren, count it all joy whenever you fall into diverse trials. Knowing this, that the trial of your faith will keep patience. The trial of your faith, that means trials come to try our faith. The Lord permits trials to be able to try our faith. Please, I don't want you to, you see, you can miss God if you are not connected. Avoid distraction. You can be here, you can be close to me. You may think that what we are doing, God is not speaking. Or know to you that God wants to communicate to you. We receive miracles by the hearing of the world. Faith comes by hearing. So I want to believe that every one of you, you are following. Verse 4 But let patience, let patience, but let what? Patience. Have a perfect walk, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God. There is a situation in life you can't attend. If you use force, you are going to scatter everything. If you want to use human wisdom, you are going to destroy everything. So if any of you lack the wisdom from God, let him ask of God. That giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and he shall be giving him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a sea, is like a wave of the sea, driving with the wind and thrust. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. This brings me to my topic, faith against discouragement. Faith against discouragement. I saw a video on social media about an old man. Probably some of you have seen that same video. That is going viral now. An old man in Lagos here, who jumped into the river. I think, I don't know. This happened in Lagos, Ireland. An old man jumped into the river. He committed suicide. Probably because of depression, frustration, or discouragement with life. And many of us have come to that point whereby, the thought of suicide is not critically coming to us like a revelation, like inspiration. So you can be at home and something is suggesting to you, why not just take your life? So to you, you think that the taking of life, that death is the end of suffering. You do not have understanding that death is the entrance into life that never ends. So when you take your life, when you commit suicide, you only admit yourself into a life of perpetual regret for all of eternity. So death is not the end of a thing. It is the beginning of a thing. You really transcend from a life that is limited into a life that never has an end. And many of us, we are discouraged due to the situation we find ourselves. There are challenges of life, there are difficulties. Many believers are not able to feed themselves. They can't feed their families. And the church attenders are reducing, or is reducing. Not only in this fellowship. In many churches, people are discouraged going to church. And many are just tired. Even miracles don't excite people again. Because in those days, when there is a miracle, everybody rejoices. Give glory to God. But people are more interested in you feeding them, than even you opening their eyes. Than even you healing them. Because you can give them healing, but they can't eat three square meals. So you discover that the love of money is on increase. And that is why I have come to remind you, that in a time like this, where these challenges of life is becoming unbearable. We must not forget to strengthen our faith. The only way we can survive through this time, is to make sure that our faith is sharpened. So the Bible says, who is he that overcometh, he wounds our faith. We conquer challenges. We go through the pain. We go through persecution. We go through tribulation. We go through the hardship. Only through the instrument and the energy of faith. So what you need at this time, is what should encourage your faith. You don't need anything that will discourage your faith. The moment your faith is weakened, you have been exposed for demonic attack. The moment your faith is weakened, you will be exposed to satanic attack. You will be exposed to the lies of the devil. So you will discover that the moment your faith is weakened, the devil will come and tell you that there is no hope for you again. So every time you get discouraged, or you say you are not coming to church again, you are not coming for fellowship, or you are not even going for evangelism again, the first part of you that is conquered is faith. So in the moment your faith is weakened, you won't have the confidence to trust in God again. So we need faith in this challenging time. So who is it that overcomes us? Even our faith. James was speaking to the church, speaking to the Jews, the Jewish Christians, and was reminding them that every time they entered into trial, a trial period is a time that tests the faith. So God allows trial in order for our faith to be strengthened. If there will be no challenges, there won't be need for faith. We exercise faith because there are challenges. So faith is given to us in order to face mountains. So Jesus said, if you have faith like a mustard seed, you will speak to this mountain, be it that we move, and the mountain shall be removed. Most of the time, every time we encounter our mountains, we don't even remember what Jesus said, that we should speak to the mountain, but instead we become depressed. We become discouraged. A mountain can be a human being, can be your boss, can be your parents. A mountain can be that person that has authority over you, that is driving you of making progression in life. And Jesus said, every time you meet your mountain, He said, if you have faith like a mustard seed, He said, you will speak to that mountain, and say, you mountain, be it that we move. And Jesus said, the mountain shall be removed. For with faith there is nothing impossible. So even as you are going through these difficulties, even as you are going through challenges of life, you must not forget to understand that faith is given to be exercised. In the face of challenges. Faith is given to be exercised in the face of discouragement. The moment you allow what people say, the moment you allow your situation, or you allow the challenges to control you, you will lose faith. You will lose faith. So, James was encouraging the church, and the same way God is speaking to you. God is encouraging you. Why should you give up? Why should you be discouraged? Why should you be frustrated? God is not dead. Why are you discouraged? God is not dead. Why are you giving up? Every time you meet challenge, or you meet challenges, don't forget that faith is given to you. Because God knows that one day this challenge will come. Raise your faith. So we are talking about faith. Faith against discouragement. Quickly, Proverbs 13 verse 12. Proverbs 13 verse 12. The Bible says in Proverbs 13 verse 12, Hope, be far it. Make it the heart seek. But when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life. Hope. Hope. When somebody gives you a promise, when your expectations are not met, there is bound to be discouragement. Yes. So, discouragement comes when your expectations are not met. What you are expecting to be done is not done. Who you are expecting to do something for you at that point is not done. Answered prayers never came at the time expected. You are expecting God to intervene and there was no intervention. So many get discouraged. People that you never expected to turn you down, they began to turn you down. And you got discouraged. The moment you step into an institution, everyone that gave you a promise that the moment you step into the school, they will take care of you. They will pay your school fees. They will take care of you. You got admission. You step into the school. Not one of them ever pick your call again. People that gave you a promise that the moment you get married, everything will be okay. You got into a marriage and things became even more worse than when you were single. And you began to get discouraged. Because expectations are not met. The things you expected God to do have not been done. Some of us have been getting discouraged. We say we have been sowing seed. We have been consistent in the giving of thanks to God, giving of offering to the fellowship, and feeding the poor and the needy. And some of you are beginning to ask, does it mean that givers will never be blessed? I thought the Bible says it is more blessed to give than to receive. Why am I giving? And I feel that I need to be a receiver and not to be a giver again. Because I have been giving and nothing has been working for me. Help the fervent, make the heart sick. You are not the first to say something like that. And this is why I am bringing this word of encouragement to you, that you shouldn't be discouraged. It may not be as expected. Discouragement comes the moment you shift your focus from God to man, from God to strength, to the strength of man, from God to your own ability, from God to the flesh. Discouragement will set in. And I want to speak to you, my sister, as many of you that are discouraged there, to this morning you will receive grace of encouragement. I want to speak to you, my brothers, as many that are discouraged, this morning you will receive the grace of encouragement. You won't be discouraged again. God will strengthen your conviction. God will strengthen your faith. There was a man in the scripture, probably his strength was failing him, and he told Jesus, he said, I believe in you, for help thou my unbelief. Although he believed, but underneath his belief, there was a symptom, there was a stirring, a battle with unbelief. And he said, Jesus, I am trying to believe in you, although there is a force in me trying to discourage me not to believe in you. So I believe, but help thou my unbelief. So what is discouragement, what is causing discouragement in you? I pray for you in the name of Jesus. God will take away every discouragement in Jesus' name. I pray God will take it away in Jesus' name. And that is why you shouldn't be discouraged. That is why you shouldn't be discouraged. When we talk about discouragement, discouragement means the act of losing courage. It means the act of losing courage. When we talk about discouragement, when you have lost courage, that means you are discouraged. It is the act of you losing confidence. You don't have the confidence in God again. You don't have the confidence in life again. People commit suicide because they don't have the confidence that they can make it again. They believe that they can make it again so they take their life. They said, I don't believe that I can make it. They don't know that if they have life, it's an opportunity because they can make it. You see, if you can't make it again, God would have taken your life away. But for God to still allow you to still believe Him, it is because He knows that you can make it. I'm telling you, the reason you are still alive is because God still believes that you can make it. So God believes that you can make it. I don't care to know who is telling you that you can't make it in life. God believes, the angels believe, and we the believers, we believe in you. I believe, your pastor, I believe in you. I believe you can make it. If you can see the next day, you can make it. So you don't need to think of suicide. Don't think it should not be an option in your life. No matter how difficult the situation may be, I will look up onto the hill from where my help is coming from the Lord. I don't know how long it will take, but I know that vain is the help of men. I will look up onto the hill from where my help is coming from the Lord. If you keep trusting men, you will fail. You see, men do not have the capacity of faithfulness. It is until the spirit of faithfulness comes into them, which is the spirit of Christ. That is how men can become faithful. So you don't put your, you don't rest your confidence on mortal men that don't have the spirit of God. So cast out your burden. Lay your burdens to the Lord. So discouragement means when you lose the interest, or you lose confidence, or when you lose courage. Discouragement means when you give up. It means giving up. And when there is discouragement, there will be what? Number one, there will be hopelessness. Whenever there is discouragement, the first thing you start experiencing is hopelessness. There will be hopelessness. You become hopeless. Hopeless with the situation you find yourself. You become hopeless. Let me tell you the meaning of hopeless. Hopelessness means that you are not seeing anything good about yourself again. You are not seeing anything good about the situation again. You are not seeing anything positive about that situation again. You are not seeing anything positive about your marriage again. You are not seeing anything positive about your business. It may look as if your business is crashing down. The moment you stop seeing something, and you are not seeing anything good about it again, it means discouragement has set in. There are ministers of God that close down their ministry. The moment they start losing concentration, and they don't see anything good, they don't see anything positive about the ministry again, they close it down. So, when we talk about discouragement, the moment you don't see anything good about your life again, you don't see anything good about your children again, you don't see anything good about your husband, you don't see anything positive about your wife, you don't see anything positive about the marriage, you don't see that the marriage can work, that is where discouragement sets in. There will be discouragement when you don't see that there is anything good in serving God. So, people get discouraged and leave the kingdom. They leave Christ. They leave God. They leave Christianity. They go to other religions. They go and bow down to idols. They enter into paganism. Why? Because they have lost hope. They say, I call upon the Lord, but He never answers me. I trust the Bible says, Pray, and it will be answered. Seek, and it shall be found, and it shall be opened. Knock, and it shall be found. Knock, and the door shall be opened. Ask, and it shall be given unto you. And some of them will say that I have applied the three of them. Nothing works. Is your God is dead? I'm going to serve other gods. They lose hope. They lose confidence. They lose courage in God. And that is discouragement. The moment you give up on yourself, never you give up on yourself. See, let me tell you how to survive. If you wake up tomorrow, you sleep tonight, and you wake up in the morning, and you use your true eyes to see the breaking of the day, always, anytime you wake up, and see the breaking of the day, tell yourself that I have hope. That is where there is hope. You cannot be hopeless and still be seeing this thing. Everyone that is hopeless is a dead person. It is only in the grave we can have hope again. I mean, I'm not talking about hope in Christ. I'm talking about hope as a human. Because the moment you leave this world, you can't do anything on earth again. When you go to the cemetery, you go to the mortuary, you will see hopeless people. Why are they hopeless? They may be in heaven, but they are hopeless to come back to earth. They can't come back again. It is appointed for them to die once after death judgment. They can't come back again. These are the hopeless people. You that have life, you can see each day. There is hope for you. It is because you still have a brighter future. There is something special about you. You shouldn't give up. You shouldn't get discouraged. You shouldn't say, I'm giving up. I'm tired with life. Don't get discouraged. Don't be tired with life. It may be delaying, but God has a specific time for your rising. It may not be immediately. It may be a gradual process, but God is saying something. You shouldn't be discouraged. You shouldn't give up. God has something special about you. There is something good about you. So, don't allow discouragement. So, where there is discouragement, number one, there will be hopelessness. Number two, where there is discouragement, there will be fear. So, wherever we find discouragement, we find fear. Fear of the future. Oh, my age is going. I have not gotten married. Oh, my age is going. I have not gone into high institutions. I have not even gotten admission. I have not passed my exams. I want to go into college. I want to go into high institutions. The age is going. The fear of the future. The fear of the unknown. Oh, if I take this step, what will happen? If I say no to this man, this wrong man that is coming into my life, always abusing me, sleeping with me, making me to sin against God. But if I say no to this man, who knows whether I will make it in life, whether I will be able to see another man to get married to. Fear of the unknown. Fear of the future. Fear. And people are discouraged. Wherever you find discouragement, you find fear. The doctor told you that nothing can be done about that sickness. That you should prepare your family that you are going to die. Now, doctors are giving their human medical reports. But you don't go back to the almighty book. The book that contains the statements, the verdict of the great physician. And then what the doctor said, you take it, you swallow it, you believe in it. And because doctor said that there is no hope, you concluded that there is no hope. There is fear. You begin to live in fear. So, wherever there is discouragement, you find fear there. And what do you find again? Wherever you find discouragement, you find depression. You can't separate discouragement from depression. You can't separate discouragement from depression. Everywhere you find discouragement, you must find depression. You become unhappy. You become sad. The things you once enjoyed, they become uninteresting to you. And you are giving up. You are giving up. You are getting discouraged. There is only depression. Anywhere you find discouragement, you find depression. And what do you find again? You find complaining and murmuring. You find complaining and murmuring. Doctor, you will start complaining. Let me tell you the meaning of complaining, in case you don't know. There is even between you exercising, just say in your mind, are you complaining? See, complaining and murmuring go hand to hand. You can't separate them. Murmuring, you just talk about the manner at which you express it. Complaining is the repetition of it. Yes. Complaining is when you repeat a report unhappy. You unhappily repeat a report. That is complaining. Murmuring is the intonation you use. A complaining. That is what we call murmuring. So, for example now, you have not got your answer for years. And then you call your husband, you call your wife, or you call the man of God. And you say, man of God, you say, God is going to do this thing for me. It's about two years now. That's your God. When will He come and do this thing for me? I believe in Him more, but I'm getting tired. I can't keep waiting for Him. And that you said, you said that on Monday. On Tuesday, you may not say it to the same person, but you say it to your husband. Or when I say, you said it to your friends. That is, you are already complaining. You are already complaining. So, what is murmuring? Murmuring is when you now add, you add nagging to it. When you add nagging. You have been saying it to, have been saying it to God. What will God do? That means you are murmuring. And God hates it. God will do everything. The Bible says, He makes everything beautiful in His own time. So, wherever there is discouragement, you find complaining, you find murmuring. You can easily understand murmuring, because those things, this nature is being exercised by children most times. Your children, whenever you tell them to go and do something, go and pitch, they will start nagging or murmuring. Go and, off your school uniform, you see them, go and do this, go and get me something from the market. You see them nagging, that is murmuring. But this complaining, is it when you are talking about that thing every time, unhappily talking about the matter, unhappily talking about the matter, unhappily reporting, you are doing that every time. That means you are complaining. And it is a sign that you are discouraged. Or you are discouraged. You are getting discouraged. When discouraging is taking place, that is some of the symptoms we see. So, the moment I see that a brother starts murmuring about the fellowship, I will know he is discouraged about the vision God has given to us. The moment a brother or a sister starts complaining that the Lord has said to us that he is going to glorify himself in the fellowship, it is not two years now. When will God do it? I will know that they can't believe in that vision. There is discouragement. There is discouragement. So, anywhere you find discouragement, you find loss of interest. Loss of interest. Loss of interest in prayer. Loss of interest in doing spiritual things. Most of you, the reason you are still responding to fellowship, responding to us, responding to our programs, might be because you are still praying. Thank God you are still praying. Don't allow discouragement. The moment there is discouragement, you will have every reason to be missing meeting. And let me tell you, it is a period of discouragement that your angels might visit you. That is why you must learn to control your atmosphere. You are discouraged, you are still coming to fellowship. Because you are not working by sight, you are working by faith. So, in every situation, you are still responding. Recover vision, you are there. Even when things are not easy with you, recover prayers, you are there. Recover fasting, you are there. You are there, you are there everywhere you see yourself. Eventually, God will look from heaven and see you like a job. As a job, I am going to remember you. Don't allow discouragement to cut you off from connecting to Christ. Discouragement. So, what are the factors that bring discouragement? Because of time, I am going to be very fast. The factors that bring discouragement, number one, is trusting yourself or your ability. When you are trusting yourself or your ability, you will end up being discouraged. Don't trust yourself. That is why God starts dealing with some of us. Some of you, what you are going through, is that God is helping you to trust Him, not to trust yourself again. You have used your human wisdom, you have applied your human strength, you have taught everything with human energy, and it is destroying. Every project you involve is getting destroyed. And God is teaching you the path of trusting Him. That is why you might be in that situation where you are now. To make every move without consulting God, you can just travel, you can just go there, you can just jump into a marriage, you will never consult God. You can just move here, buy this property, travel to different nations, because there is finance. And then God begins to teach you. See, every time you experience a challenge, and when you are asking God, why are you going through this challenge, God appears to be silent. You see, if God really loves you, one of the ways you will know that God is jealous about you, is when He keeps disciplining you every time you pray. See, pray that God should discipline you when you pray. That should be your prayer. See, that is one of the ways to go to heaven. If God allows you to be deceived in your error, you will end up in hell. The best way God should train you, I am giving you a prayer point now. The best way that God should train you, go and tell God, God, don't leave me like this. If I sin, rebuke me. If I sin, discipline me. If I sin, make things difficult for me, so that I can find you again. So, the moment you trust yourself, is one of the reasons people are discouraged trusting themselves. Number two is trusting men. When you trust men, there is a tendency that you will eventually end up being discouraged. When you keep trusting men, you see, nobody should be trusted. And that is why God allows people to keep disappointing you, so that you will learn to trust Him. The moment you keep trusting one uncle somewhere, trusting one millionaire somewhere, one philanthropist somewhere, or trusting the man of God, your prophet, your bishop. Some of you, I know you come for fellowship. Some of you, the reason you are even here is because you are in your church. Your pastor has not given you attention. That is why you find a small man like me, small boy like me, and you feel that the power of God is with me, the grace of God is upon my life. You start bringing your head here. The moment your bishop gives you a response, eh? Gives you a response, we will not see you here again. We will not see you here again. So, what God is trying to teach you, not to trust Him again. So, a time is coming when you begin to go to the mountain to pray. A time is coming when you will be declaring, teach you for yourself. That means you are not trusting any man of God again. I am not saying that you should not honor men of God. If you do not honor me, it is your own. My anointing cannot flow and touch your life if there is no honor. Honor is different from trusting. But what I am talking about is, learn to trust in God. Honor your man of God. Honor the man that God has been using to communicate His mind to you. Honor. One of my sons in the Lord, was telling me one of his revelations, the revelation he had, where he saw me in his revelation, and I was climbing his staircase, and I told him to follow me. When he started following me, in that staircase we climbed to another, it was like a staircase we climbed up, higher to another apartment up. He said the moment we entered into the room, he saw Jesus. He saw a man in white. So, when he woke up from the revelation, he called me. And I said that is not me, although that is just a pattern God is playing. That if you submit to an authority, I am going to lead you to Jesus. And let me say this to every one of you. Any man of God you are following, that is not pointing you to Jesus, has missed the way. Don't follow that man. So, maybe that my son in the Lord, probably might be having a kind of confusion. Should he submit to me or not? And then Jesus had to reveal to him, that if you follow this man, if you follow this my son, if you follow this my servant, he is going to lead you to me. And that is why in this ministry, our vision is to promote Christ in every heart. So, he should honor me, but he shouldn't trust me. He should honor me as God's servant, but he shouldn't trust me as a man that doesn't make mistakes. I make a lot of mistakes. Yes. I am still fallible. In case you think I am infallible, I am still fallible. So, don't trust me. There are days I will misjudge you. Yes. There are many times I will misjudge you. Because I am not God. Probably you came to the fellowship, you came to service late. And I begin to query, why did you come late? That is because I am judging from a human perspective. But it is God that knew that your wife was having a problem. At home. Maybe she had a challenge and you had to, you know, help her out. And that was the reason you came late. So, you may not trust me, but honor me. So, people are discouraged today because the people they casted their trust to has eventually disappointed them. You trust someone that promised you a job and he ended up not giving you that job and you are discouraged. You are discouraged with God. You are discouraged with everybody. You must learn not to trust man. It is one of the secrets of happy life. Keep trusting God. Even when they give you a promise, appreciate them, but cast your fear, cast your trust on God. Number three is working by sight. You will keep getting discouraged if you are working by sight. Most especially, a young man looking for a woman for marriage or a young lady looking for a man for marriage. Most of the men that will come to you for marriage may not look like their future. In case you are working by sight, you will miss a lot for the future. So, if you are this kind of person that who you want to get married to, you must evaluate their physique. Does she have the back side? Does she have the front side? What is her qualification? Is she wealthy? What about her family background? And you use all of these things to choose wife. You are going to marry Jezebel because you see, every one of us are in the process. We have not yet come to the product. So, God is still dealing with us. We may not look like tomorrow, but we are still in the refining process. We know we will become better than tomorrow when you shall see us tomorrow. You will see us in our glory. Do not look anybody down because of today. You should not work by sight. You may be in this fellowship, and this fellowship, this ministry is not going the way you like. It is not advancing the way you like. You are getting discouraged. Why can't you look at the future? It is the future of a thing that matters so much. Every one of you that come close to me, I ask God, reveal to me about their future. So, when I know that tomorrow you will be the one to stone me, to kill me, I cut you off. The one I know, I say, this one, God has told me that you are going to be a great person, and you are going to be very humble and useful. I draw you closer. You may not look like it, but I believe in your tomorrow. You may not be like your tomorrow, but I believe in your tomorrow. And that is why consistently I teach you the word of God, because I believe your tomorrow is great. I believe you have a better tomorrow. You may not be able to say, Pastor, I want to sow seed. You may not be able to take care of your man of God. That is not my problem. If I am the one taking care of you, don't be discouraged. I am not taking care of you because I am looking at you down. No, I am taking care of you because I know you have a bright tomorrow. So the moment you start walking by sight, you will lose concentration on the things God has said concerning you. Number four, walking outside the will of God will bring discouragement. And that should be your prayers. Lord, any time I am walking outside your will, scatter that thing, that particular thing that takes me out of your will, scatter it. That particular project that takes me out of your will, scatter it. Any time I am walking outside your will, I am planning to travel outside Nigeria, I am traveling out to the western part of the world, and it is not your will, let not them give me visa. Lord, make sure that I don't have visa. Let visa not be given to me. You intentionally ask God to interfere in your life. So when you are outside the will of God, there will be discouragement because it will not work. The things will start delaying, most especially when God is interested in you. The things will start scattering. There will be no provision. Things will become difficult. Things will become hard. Things will become tough. It means that you are outside the will of God. There will be discouragement, we know, but it will help you. So that also brings discouragement. Number five, prayerlessness brings discouragement. When you are prayerless, you will definitely become discouraged. A man that builds his spirit, a woman that builds her spirit always with prayer, will not be discouraged. Prayer gives another sense of boldness. When you are prayerful, you have a kind of boldness that people cannot explain. When everybody will be discouraged, you will see yourself speaking faith. It is because your prayer water is burning. So if there is prayerlessness in your life, you will be discouraged. Discouragement always hovers around about prayerless people. Because prayerless people have lesser faith. You know one of the ways to strengthen your faith. Now I am going to teach you about how to strengthen your faith. One of the ways to strengthen your faith, decide the word of God. Because reading and meditation on God's word has power to strengthen your faith. Fasting is another means to strengthen your faith. Besides the word of God and fasting, another way you can strengthen your faith is prayer. If you can get yourself to much prayer, your faith... Have you seen these people that normally pump the tire, the tire bladder? Yes, the tire bladder, you know the bladder inside the tire. When you see them pumping it, using their machines to pump it, to put air inside the material and it starts getting rising, swelling up. You see, that is what prayer does. When you are praying, it is as if you are just breathing air, putting air inside that thing to strengthen your faith. Prayerlessness leads to faithlessness. And the moment you become prayerless, you become discouraged. Because your faith has been affected. Number six is pride. Pride can be discouragement. Let me just be fast. Pride brings discouragement. Believing more on the opinions of men, believing men or believing the opinions of men, will bring discouragement. Because not everybody will talk good about you. If you want to be a good person, go and sell ice cream. That was what somebody said. It is only the ice cream man that everybody loves. Not because they love him, but because they love what he is selling. So people will never say good about you. In fact, if everybody is saying good about you, be suspicious. If everybody that has ever met you speak good about you, be suspicious. It means that you are going to leave this world very soon. It means you are doing what is very wrong. It is only a madman that people don't criticize. I will say where people are speaking even against a madman, even the mad people on the street, do you have time to even know where they are going? Who cares to know who they are? Who cares to know where they are going next? So people don't speak against a madman. Because he is already mad. Nobody is jealous, nobody envies a madman. But you see you, you are a wonderful creation. You are a royal priest. Let me let you know who you are. Because God is taking you to the top, you become the topic. It is only men that are on top that become topics. So don't allow anything to discourage you. Okay? So don't believe in what people say. They say you don't know how to do it well. You don't know how to do that well. Forget about those things. Don't believe in what people say. Believe in what God is saying. What is God saying about you? All those that are very close to me, if you ask them, one of the things I keep saying is what God has said about His ministry. I don't care to know what people are saying against us presently now because of where we are. All that concerns me is what God said to me about the future. What God said to me about the future. What God said to me about our destination. Number eight. Lack of reading and meditation on the promises of God. Lack of reading and meditation on the promises of God. And then number nine. Lack of patience. Lack of patience. And then number ten. Unstableness. Unstableness. Unstableness brings discouragement. And a discouraged soul will always be full of doubts. A discouraged soul will always be full of unbelief. A discouraged person will become a slave to his situation and a slave to demons. When you are discouraged, you become a slave to your situation. You become a slave to demons. Many people think of committing suicide because they are discouraged. But I pray for you. As many of you here that are discouraged, before the end of this meeting, God will carry your poor things away. God will carry those poor things away. And as many of you listening to me, those online that are going to get hold of this message, God will carry your poor things away. In the name of Jesus, your poor things will be taken away. Now, how to deal with the question of discouragement? How to deal with discouragement? Because of time, write the book of John, Joshua chapter 1 from verse 1 to 9. Joshua chapter 1 from verse 1 to 9. How to deal with discouragement? Joshua was discouraged. That's why you see that God kept emphasizing, be courageous. Be courageous. Be courageous. Be courageous. Joshua was a young man. Young in the sense that he was far younger than Moses. He was like a son to Moses. So, in our time, we call him a small boy. Are you with me now? And now he was about to fight battles with warriors, aliens, people that are very, very, very dangerous. So, you see that God kept saying, be courageous. Let me tell you the reason God kept saying, be courageous. Because you read your Bible, but you don't know the reason God said that. God will never lie. When you say, be discouraged, when you say, be courageous, it means that that person was discouraged to when God told Joshua. I said, Joshua, be courageous. It means that Joshua was discouraged. So, how did Joshua conquer discouragement? How will you conquer, or how should you conquer discouragement? What is the scriptural guideline on you, on how you can conquer discouragement? Now, the only way to deal with discouragement is our topic, faith against discouragement. So, the only way you can deal with discouragement is through faith. It's with faith. So, when we talk about faith, faith implies consistent praying life. Consistent praying life. You can conquer discouragement when you give yourself a consistent praying life. Pray three times a day. Pray in spirit. Pray in tongues. Habibu sheke tayada badu. When you face your fear, speak in tongues. Pray in the spirit. You are going to the bathroom, you are praying. You are going to the kitchen, you are praying. You are cooking in the kitchen, you are praying. You are in the mood of prayer. You saturate your atmosphere with prayer. Holy Ghost! No, no, no, my fear will not conquer me. You begin to speak into your life. Peter sin is blessed. Apostle Peter sin is blessed. I speak into my life. There are many times I wake up and I say, Peter sin, you are a blessed man. You are a great man. Don't allow your fear. So, you engage in prayer. Engage in prayer. When there is heaviness in your heart and it appears you can't utter a word, start dancing. Start dancing. When there is no energy to utter the words, begin to dance. Begin to sing praises. Begin to sing praises. If you can't pray, praise. If you can't pray, you should what? Praise. So, how do you do it? Number one, consistent prayer in life. Number two, reading and meditation on the word of God. Guide your heart with all diligence. From heart of it, proceed the issues of life. How do you guide your life? How do you guide your heart? The Bible says, wherein shall a young man cleanse his way? But by taking heed, thereof unto the world. The word of God is in my heart, that I may not sin against thee. You see, the word of God is supplement that brings cure to discouragement. Look at David. David was to face Goliath. What did David remember? David remembered the promises of God. Go and read the book of 1 Samuel chapter 17. You will be so surprised that David understood the commandment of God to the Israelites. God has told the Israelites that he had given the nations to them. But when they came before Goliath, they were scared. But there was a man called David. And you will be that David. I say God is raising up another David. Because we are going to be the David of our time. And when David stood before Goliath, what did David do? He remembered the promises of God. He said, I come to you in the name of God, the God of Israel. He faced his fear with the name of the Lord. And he brought down the head of Goliath. Face your discouragement with the authority, with the promises, with the word of God. So if you don't read and meditate on God's word, you won't be able to remember what God has said concerning you and that situation. So you speak the mind of God every time you face your fear. Speak the mind of God every time you are a country of fear. Speak the mind of God. Speak the mind of God. So reading and meditation on God's word is one of the ways you conquer the spirit of fear. Or the spirit of discouragement. Number three is positive confession. I've said it. Positive confession. Some of you come and say, Apostle Peter said, what should I do? I'm going to challenges. See, one of the ways you conquer the enemies is when you speak out. It's when you speak out. I put it on my Facebook handle. I said, one of the ways you keep your conviction is by speaking it out loudly. What you stop talking about will eventually die one day. Your conviction will remain conviction as long as you keep talking about it. When you go to living faith, you will see that the Oriyede Pope, he said one of the visions God has given to him is faith. To proclaim faith, to preach faith. So it becomes an emphatic topic in that church. When you go to the communist church, ministry or church, the deeper life Christian church or deeper life Bible church, you will see that their emphasis is holiness because that is what God has given to them. So what you want to dominate, one of the ways you dominate a place is by confessing. Keep speaking, I will be a great man. I will never become a stranger to poverty. I will never become a victim to poverty. I will be a stranger to poverty. It will never come into me. I have authority over sin. I have authority over sin. I am born of God. The spirit of God dwells in me. I can't live in fornication. You keep confessing. You keep bequeathing. You are changing your atmosphere. You change your atmosphere with words. There is power in your words. So don't be discouraged. When there is discouragement, start speaking positivity into your life. Start speaking the word of God into your life. Positive confession. Possessing the spirit of patience. Yes, learn to be patient. Let there be patience. If you are not patient with life, you will be discouraged. If you are too anxious. The Bible says be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication. Let your request be made known unto God. Be patient with life. Even patience is one of the virtues you need to stop discouragement from coming always. Be patient. You are not there. You will get there. You are not there does not mean that you will not get there. You are not there means that it is not yet time for you to get there. Number five, understanding the power of praise and worship. Give yourself to wonderful music. Songs. Sing psalms. Sing praise and worship. Let your heart be lifted up with praise and worship. Put music. Put music. If I tell you what music I have done in my life, you will learn to always listen to music. Sometimes I receive the promises of God. You may not see me dancing in the fellowship. Some of you, you want to see me dance. I may not do dance because I don't know how to dance. I may not dance well in the fellowship but there are times at home I dance anyhow. Anyhow. I just dance anyhow. At the moment I finish dancing, oh my God, that period or maybe after I finish dancing, I just sit down to open my Bible, God will just speak to me. So, understand the power of praise and worship. It is very essential. It is very essential. And then number seven, avoid sympathy for men. Avoid sympathy for men. Avoid it. Avoid sympathy for men. Don't allow people to be sympathizing with you. They will kill your faith. When they are sympathizing with you every time, they are trying to make your problem to become bigger than you. So, you begin to see your problem like the mighty weapon of the wicked against you. So, instead of you to decree authority over it, you begin to feel hopeless. Don't allow sympathizing. And at the last of it all is number eight, stillness. Stillness. God told Moses, he said, Be still and see the salvation of the Lord. For the Egyptians have seen it, you shall see them no more. If you read the book of Psalms, the Bible says, Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know that I am God. So, one of the way you conquer discouragement is to remain calm. Just be still. Be calm. There may be storm. There may be shaking. Don't allow the shaking to shake inside you. Something can be shaking outside and is not shaking inside. So, it may be there is a storm around you. Be of good courage. Be of good courage. Don't allow it to affect you. Don't allow your situation to affect your temperament. You become temper. You are speaking to everybody around you. You are offended. You are insulting. You are abusing. You are beating your children, hitting this one here. Insulting your husband. Insulting your wife. And they ask you why. You say it is because of what you are going through. Don't allow your situation to come into you. It is when you allow it to come into you. Learn the feelings of calmness. Be calm. Be calm. Shall we go to the Lord in prayers? I know the Lord has spoken to you. Say, the Lord, oh God, my Father, I come to you. I come to you. Open your mouth and begin to pray. Call me this moment. Say, Lord, I receive faith to conquer discouragement. Open your mouth and begin to pray. Begin to pray in the Spirit. Begin to pray in the Spirit. Say, Lord, I receive strength. I receive stamina. I receive grace. I receive grace to conquer my fears. I receive grace to face my fears. I am facing Goliath. Goliath must go down. Who is that mountain? What great mountain? Who are those great mountains? Who are those great mountains? Who are those great mountains? Who are those great mountains? Who are those great mountains? 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