The Man GOD will Use- Apst. Peterson O. Abu

So Lord, one thing you must understand about this thing is that whenever God wants to use a man, God will intentionally prepare that man for divine use. Because it is not everybody God uses. God only uses a valuable person. And that is why when we read from the book of 2 Timothy chapter 2 from verse 19 downward, that the foundation of God stands sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that there is. And let every man that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. And what is that place trying to let us know? It is trying to give us an understanding that there is a need for depassion from iniquity before a man becomes acceptable for divine use. So the first requirement that God desires that we should be positioned into in order for him to use us is that we must become a vessel that has been separated from iniquity, departed from iniquity. So if you go to verse 20, verse 21, it is in a great house. There are many vessels in a great house. The house is a great house, but the vessels, not all the vessels are great. So in a great house there are many vessels, some unto honor and some unto dishonor, and some unto dishonor. So some of these vessels are unto honor. Why some are unto dishonor? But God had to put the secrets, put the qualifications, put the standard that can make a man to become what? A vessel unto honor. And what is the qualification? He said if any man would be a vessel unto honor, he must separate himself from this. That means there must be separation from iniquity. There must be separation from uncleanness. There must be separation from wickedness. There must be separation from sin in order for such a man to become a vessel unto honor. And this is still a requirement of God for us. That if we must be useful, if we must become useful, if we must become useful, become ready for divine use, then we must separate ourselves from iniquity. We must separate ourselves from sin. We must separate ourselves from righteousness. We must separate ourselves from disobedience. So if a vessel will become a vessel unto honor, such a vessel must at first be separated from sin, uncleanness, confinement. You know we are talking about vessel unto honor. In this particular verse of the scripture, that the vessel that will be honored, that will be useful to God, must be a vessel that has been separated from uncleanness. Can we take an illustration from the person of Esther? What happened to Esther in the Bible? I hope you can still remember. When the Bible was talking about the person of Esther, the Bible gave us revelation about the condition that Esther needed to meet in order for her to be presentable to the king. And Esther was taken through processes of cleansing, of washing, of beautification. So Esther was transformed into the exact pattern, standard required for the king's choice. Are you getting me now? And if Esther needed to pass through those rigorous preparations, just because of one day ceremony, one day, Esther used several months to prepare for just a single day. A single day. So if a man would be acceptable before the king of kings, that man must deliberately separate himself from uncleanness. All through the period that Esther was under preparation, they were cleansing Esther. Esther was under a cleansing process to make sure that she becomes a bride, to become a vessel without any form of sport or ego. And that was the intention. That was a deliberate preparation of Esther in order for him to meet the king's requirements. And we saw that at the end of it all, the intentional preparation of Esther together with the backing of God became a success. So there were two sets of people that led to the success of Esther. Number one, Esther's personal preparation, which involves the other people that were around her, beautifying her, pouring perfume over her body. And number two, the divine backing of God. So also, if we are going to become vessels, if we are going to be used by God in these last days, two kinds or two dimensions of preparation is needed. Number one is we personally preparing ourselves for God's use. Then number two, God himself backing us up for divine use. So what is our own personal requirement? What must we do? That is number one, our personal requirement for divine use. Write it as points number one. Our personal requirement for divine use. The Bible says in the book of 2 Corinthians 6, from verse 14, it said, Be not unequally yoked together with an unbeliever, for what at righteousness has to do with unrighteousness. Then if you go to verse 18, it says in verse 18, It said, Come out from among them and be ye separate. Say ye the Lord of hosts, Tosh no unclean thing, and I will receive you, and I will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters. So there must be a personal decision of coming hearts from the association, the friendship of this world. We must personally separate ourselves from sin. We must personally separate ourselves from friends, from people that defies our garments. So this first requirement that God demands from us is for us to take personal decision to separate ourselves from iniquity. Personal decision to separate ourselves from sin. Personal decision to cut off from unrighteousness. Just like what I quoted to you. 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 19. Let him that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. It's your decision. God will not come and force you to separate from iniquity. It is you that will take personal decision to separate, to cut off, to come out from iniquity. It is your own decision. It is your personal decision. Your pastor doesn't need to be there for you. Your pastor doesn't need to monitor you whether you have come out from sin or not. Your pastor doesn't need to watch over you whether you are still committing any secret sin. If you still want to continue your sin, that is your own. So the first thing that is required is that you must be sincere to yourself. Yes, before you become sincere to God, first be sincere to yourself. You must cut off sin. You must separate from uncleanness. You must separate from unrighteousness. You must separate from unholiness. You must separate from the things that defies the garment. You must separate from the things that pollute the earth. You must separate from the things that make a man unholy. You must separate from the things that make a man unrighteous. You must separate from the things that make a man impure. Those things become an enemy of your consecration. There is no how we can talk about consecration without a deliberate intention to cut off from unrighteousness. So we must be intentional. We must be deliberate to make sure that we take decision against sin. Taking decision against unholiness. Taking decision against unrighteousness. Taking decision against immorality. Taking decision against sin. This must be a personal decision. This must be part of the consecration. This must be part of your responsibility. So there is responsibility for God and there is responsibility for you. And this is your responsibility. It was Isaac that presented himself on the altar that the father laid. If Isaac was against that decision Abraham would not have been able to take him to Mount Moriah. It was because Isaac had surrendered himself to God. And Paul the Apostle was speaking to the church in Rome. Romans chapter 12 verse 1 I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that they present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service. Presenting your bodies as living sacrifice you have to praise your body. It is not an unconscious thing. It is a conscious thing. The man that God will use. I want you to go back and listen to this message again and again. The man that God will use. It is not every man God use. It is the man. The man that has met the criteria of God. The man that has consecrated himself to God. The man or woman that has consecrated himself to God. That becomes a vessel that God can use. That becomes a vessel that God will use. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies. And that becomes a sacrifice. That becomes a sacrifice. So if God will use anybody that person must at first consecrate himself to God. The man that God will use. I understand that there is a place of prayer. There is a place for prayer, for fasting. There is a place for going to mountain. There is a place of hunger. But the first thing is to position yourself. There must be an alignment between you and God. Your personal consecration. There must be an alignment between you and God. When God met Moses on the mount at the backside of the desert. He said Moses put off your shoe. And that is the first requirement. It was a personal decision of Moses to either put off his shoe or not. So before God speaks further He expects you to put off your shoe. That is consecration. Consecration is you emptying yourself of yourself so that you can be filled with God, with himself. That is consecration. Emptying yourself of yourself so that you can be filled with himself. Because the way you are you cannot serve God in this. You will fight against God. You will not be able to submit because you will have reason not to submit. I see people that say they want God to use them. Even leadership in church they just ask for you to submit to leadership and you want God to use you. How will you be able to submit to God? So it must be a personal consecration. A personal decision. A personal commitment to align yourself with God. Sin must be confessed and be forsaken. Sin! You must depart from iniquity. You cannot hold hands with God when you are still holding hands with sin. You must divorce sin. You must cut off from sin. You must separate from sin. You must give yourself wholly to God. You must give yourself wholly to God. Separating yourself. So if a man will be a vessel unto honor let him separate himself from this. And he will become a vessel. There must be a need for sanctification. When I was teaching you about sanctification I said sanctification has two dimensions. There is a place for separation. And there is a place that place for separation is what we call the consecration. The consecration. Then the second part is called the transformation. That is God's responsibility. So in sanctification two things happen to you. Number one, you give yourself to God. Number two, God gives you himself. So when sanctification has taken place you become a new man. It is a transformation of the inner man. Paul the Apostle calls it the renewing of the mind. But there won't be a renewing of the mind if you have not yet presented your body to God. There won't be. There can't be a renewing of the mind if you have not yet first presented your body to God. Before surgical operation is carried out on a man that man has first consecrated himself to the doctor to be operated on. No doctor will operate on a person without the permission of that person. That is illegality. And that can attract the laws of the government on that doctor. And even the shutting down of that hospital or the clinic. So before any operation is done on a person there must be a permission from the person first from the person himself. Then it comes from the family also. Most especially in the case whereby that person happens to be a married person. The spouse has to come and sign or the parents of the person have to come and sign that this major operation about to be carried out on this person is under the permission of the family under the permission of the father or the spouse before such operation will be done. So if you don't give God the permission to operate on you He will never operate on you and He will never use you. I see a lot of us seeking God and say God use me in my generation. And I'm still telling you that the requirement that God needs from you is your personal decision first to consecrate yourself to the Lord. To consecrate your body to the Lord. To consecrate your heart to the Lord. To consecrate everything that connects to you to the Lord. We cannot serve God in unrighteousness. We cannot serve God in wickedness. We cannot serve God while we are still in malice with our neighbours. We cannot serve God while we are still keeping we still have AIDS in our hearts. I like the way Peter put it in 1st Peter chapter 2 verse 1. He said lay aside. So you are the one to lay aside. Taking decision. I don't want to do this again. You don't know that it takes your personal decision for you to follow peace with all men. Sometimes I follow peace with people that even they are the one at fault. But since they don't want to agree that they are the one at fault I follow peace with them. It is more spiritual to follow peace with all men than for all men to follow peace with you. If you are waiting for people to follow peace with you that is the same reason why God cannot use you. God doesn't use a man or a woman that waits for the other person to come and settle with him. And that is why when you are following peace with all men understand that it is not a sign of foolishness. You are positioning yourself for divine use. Because you are the one that always looks for peace. That seeks peace in the home. That seeks peace in your marriage. That seeks peace in your neighborhood. That becomes a legal reason why God should use you. Because in this part of this world the moment you are the type always looking for peace seeking for peace people will start taking you for granted. They will keep haunting you because they know that you will always come and follow peace with them. Because you just have to obey the scripture. But when God sees that they are taking advantage of your simplicity and your humility in Christ the next time you follow peace with them God will give you a certain promotion that will take you out of that environment. So you discover that God will lift you up above them so they won't be in your level again. For God to use a man that man must first have consecrated himself to God. The process of consecration brings an alignment of your heart with God. Your heart is not yet right with God. There is a man in the Bible, 2 Kings The Bible says that the man did what was right in the sight of God but not with a perfect heart. How come a man is doing what was right in his sight but not with a perfect heart? And this is why you must take decision. Because some of you are coming to church some of you are Christian workers in the house of God but your heart has not yet been consecrated to God. Your heart has not yet been committed to God. You serve God only when you are comfortable. You serve God only when you want to serve God. You come to church only when He pleases you. But the Lord is looking for a man that will put his work on high esteem. That will value the word of God. Job said that I value your word. He said he put it in comparison with food. That he valued the word of God just as the same manner he values food. Just the way you cannot live, you cannot survive days without eating natural food. Job said the same way I can't survive without your word. Jeremiah said that I find your word and I hate it. And it was sweet. There is no consecration. You must be the one chasing after God. And in attempt for you to encounter God I see people looking for God and you know what they do? I'm not against those things. We do it sometimes. The host, what we call prayer stretch prayer stretch and they say we want to encounter God. And they pray for 12 hours. That is wonderful. I really love that. But that is not the pathway. If we want to find God we must find the pathway of repentance. When we are walking along the way of repentance and restitution and everybody is repenting the more you keep walking along that road and you are going far you are going deeper in that road of repentance and restitution and everybody in the church they are going deeper in that road of repentance and restitution as we start going we will encounter God along the way. God is found on the road of repentance and restitution. Because that is what brings an alignment of the spirit man back to God. And that was why when Jesus came into the world the first message that Jesus preached was repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He was pushing a message that has the capability to align a man back to God. So if God will use a man or use the man He is going to use that man that has taken personal decision and personal consecration to please God always. You must find a gay sin. You must cut off from unrighteousness. You must consecrate your bodies to the Lord. You must present your bodies as living sacrifice. We cannot experience God when there is immorality in our lives. When there are all kinds of wickedness going on behind the closed door. We cannot experience God in that manner. The Lord is asking us that we must meet this requirement if we want Him to encounter us. We must meet this requirement. Presenting yourself to the Lord. Number two is what? God's responsibility for your use. God's responsibility for your use. Now we are talking about our own personal responsibility towards God. Now what then is God's responsibility? For God to use a man He must first test that man and train that man. The process of testing is the process of training. Jesus Christ was sent into the world according to the volume of thy book it is written of me. But He had to go through and experience a dealings for about thirty years. At the end of the thirtieth year where He was under the baptism of John behold the voice of God quick. This is my beloved son. There was a call to ministry at that point. Why does God test men before using men? It's not because He wants to trust you even though that is one of the reasons it is not entirely because He just wants to trust you because He knows the ending from the beginning. The reason God tests men or trains people is so that they can come into spiritual maturity. And let me tell you when we talk about spiritual maturity we are not talking about in the display of spiritual giftings. That is not spiritual maturity. God's kind of training takes you into a process that will bring you into spiritual maturity in the area of character. So we have the fruit of the Spirit. Each of those fruit of the Spirit you can only possess them by the Spirit of God in you and the training the training that God will place you under. So you discover that God wants to use you. It will take you into a place where everybody will hate you. It will take you to an environment where everybody hates you. It will take you to a church where people will not understand you. Everybody they don't really like you and they are showing me that they don't like you. It will take you to a territory where the community never likes you. I know what God will start telling you. In that place where people never loves you it will start teaching you how to love your enemies. You know you can read it in the Bible when Jesus said love your enemies. Because that was what happened to Jesus. It was in a territory of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Sanhedrin. People that were against Him. People that wanted to kill Him. God was expressing love towards them. So if you love your enemies bless those that curse you. Pray for those that despitefully use you. Bless and curse not. How will this become possible? Until He places you in a place where nobody loves you. He places you in a territory where nobody loves you. He places you in a family where nobody loves you. He places you in friends that never really truly love you. It is so obvious that you know that these people don't love you. And yet He keeps telling you love your enemies. That people are going back after getting you and He is telling you to bless them and curse not. People are going around spoiling your image and yet God is telling you that if your enemy is hungry give them food to eat. If they are thirsty give them water to drink. How come a man can do that? That man can only do that because he has gone through the training of God. He has gone through the training of God. So many believers many young ministers of God they want God to use them. When the training starts they run away from that training. When the training when God begins to train them with situations of life before you look they will run they will pack their load and run away. And that is why God cannot use them. So the way I am teaching you about the man that God will use might be different from the other teachings you are behaving about from other men of God. I am only coming to add to what they have taught you. So I am not saying this teaching is better than their teachings. No, I am here to add to what they have taught you. And this is why you should send this message to every young man of God to every young woman of God. The man that God will use. The man that God will use is a man that God has trained. So when God has observed that you have overcome the spirit of retaliation the spirit of truth from truth the spirit of the law you have overcome it. That means when you find yourself in a system where everybody is against you the only way you win those people is through love. People don't know that love is a weapon. Love is a weapon. One of the weapons you know is to pray. Binding your enemies destroying powers of darkness around you fighting against people that are speaking against you using prayer against them. But have you used the prayer of love? Or have you used the weapon of love? So when God observed that you are now in a system where everybody is against you the only way you are able to conquer that system is through love. We will not then know that that first fruit of the spirit called love you have gotten it. So number two we move to patience. You know the easiest way for you to develop patience is in the midst of tribulation. Patience is bettered from tribulation. James chapter 1 if you read from verse 1 to verse 3 you will see it there. It is prayer that gives birth to patience. And when God observed that you are the kind of person that no matter how dark the night may be you are so patient to endure through the night. The Bible says that weeping may endure for the night. That means weeping can only be endured for the night. When there is patience you will be able to endure the night in weeping. You will not run into the day. There are people who are only looking for days. There are believers looking for days. They are not on limelight. They want to come to limelight. They are looking for days. They can't endure their night. And I tell you that one of the ways in which God allows you to go through the night time is not because He hates you but because He wants to develop you. And any exam you fail if you run away you are going to repeat that exam. Until you pass that exam you will never be used. Until you pass that exam. So patience patience with who? Number one, patience with yourself. When you come to that level whereby no matter what happens around you it doesn't shake you again. You are wholly depending on God. You are patient with yourself. You are not under pressure. Number two, patience with people around you. Patience with your neighbors. If you are patient with people you will not quickly judge them. We easily judge people because we are not patient with them. You know what? You know judgment is a final verdict. The word judgment means a verdict. So when you judge a person you have already come to conclusion about that person. And that is a sign of lack of patience. Some of us have seen their class of patience because we lack it. And that is why the system God put for us a system where people keep between us. Because He wants us to develop a heart of patience towards them. That you will look at your enemies. Imagine Peter denied Jesus Christ. And yet Jesus appeared to the same Peter as he feed my sheep. If it were to be you and I we would have developed trust issue. We would not be able to trust Peter. But because Jesus understood the place of patience He was patient with Peter. Probably Peter did that out of pleasure. So what this man Peter need now is to be trained so that next time when pleasure comes he will not be able to deny me. When Peter was trained what happened at chapter 4? Peter said He spoke the word of God to the sheep, to the sirens and to the people. To the sheep, to the sirens. And the Bible said that they took knowledge that this man had been with Jesus. And Peter was telling them who should we obey? You or God? This was Peter that was fragile, weak but not the good man because he was allowed to go through process. When God has not taken us through the process of life through training we easily give up in ministry. One year, two years, three years, four years and yet you are not on limelight. Five years it's as though you have just started. Six years nobody knows about you. You are in one village struggling to stand. Seven years there is financial crisis. Everywhere you are going through you can't pay rent so they keep chasing you from place to place. And it comes to ten years the tenth year it looks as if your ministry is over in life. You are contemplating suicide. And it's in the midst of that darkness that light will shine. And suddenly God will call you afresh to a new ministry. You will discover that a new name a new place a new assignment. You will think that the things you experience here is what you are going to experience there. The moment you get there men are already waiting for you. Financiers are already waiting for you. Dealers are already waiting for you. You will not struggle because you were able to endure through the ten years training. The man God will use is a man that is dead to himself. So God begins to use his body. Because the moment we are still alive in ourselves we will begin to fight against his desire and his will for us. The man God will use is a man that has hampered himself he has positioned himself to a level whereby there is nothing hard for him to give to God now. You know some of you it is very hard for you to even sleep outside your bedroom not on your vital form. I mean for you to sleep on a mountain inside a bush you will have you will have more than one reason why you shouldn't do that. Because you cannot miss your vital form. Some of you it is your place of work. Some of you it is the pleasure of your wife. You cannot be separated from your wife or your husband for a short time. For us to be used by God we must come to that place that level where nothing becomes impossible for us to give to God. The man that God will use for us the man is dead to himself but the apostle says he says I am crucified with Christ. Galatians 2 verse 20 I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live not yet not I but Christ liveth in me. I am crucified. That word is a past tense. It is not a present continuous tense. It is a past tense. I am crucified. Crucified is a past tense. He said the moment Jesus was crucified on the cross I was there with him. So from that day nevertheless I live for myself yet not I but Christ liveth in me. And if you wait for that in other verses he said to die is gain to live is for Christ. That means it is not living again it is Christ living through him. That is the man God used. What are we teaching? In a small speaking in terms of this school. This practical teaching is what is needed. If not all the fasting and prayer we are doing we will be using it to strengthen our pride and ego. So begin to write under our book our record book you know some of us have record book where you will write how many hours of prayer you made and how many days of fasting you did and how many times you did this thing and you will now summarize it that this is the reason God is using me. But when a man is dead he doesn't have record because that is his way of life. How many of you are keeping record of your breathing? And you say yesterday I breathed this was the number of times I breathed yesterday. My breathing in and my breathing out this was the number yesterday. How many of you are keeping those records? You don't need to keep the record it is your way of life that is your existence. So why should you be recording how many times you died? You won't take record because that is your way of life. So when you are living for God you don't take record because there is already a record in heaven. When you begin to take record that means you are conscious of it and most of the things we are conscious of will become hypocritical on it will become hypocrite when we start becoming conscious. Some people are doing it because there is a record to keep but when it is a way of life people unconsciously we are still aligning with God. The man God will use is dead to himself he is dead to self he is dead to pride he is dead to arrogance the man that God will use this is the kind of man that God is looking for. The man that does not have will again the woman that does not have will again she has the heritage of herself. He has been emptied of himself this is the kind of person that God wants to use. We must go back to God and cry Lord you must use me. We are still full of self so even when God wants us to expose our sin we become too proud to meet a man to confess our sin. You know the Bible says confess your sin so when you do something that is not good towards your wife you break the matrimonial covenant you will see a pastor that just finished coming to adultery will come to the altar putting and adding faith as if he is still in the spirit. There is a position there is an alignment that command the divine use of God upon a man's life. We spend our time as priestess without alignment. When Elijah Elijah wanted to call down the fire of God what he did was he first of all repaired the altar. You know remember the story of Elijah 1st Kings chapter 18 Elijah so after the prophet of Baal they finished calling upon their God and their God did the answer. Before Elijah offered the evening sacrifice and called upon God he first repaired the altar. He first repaired the altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think something is wrong with our prayer altar. I think