Inspirational Message By Dr. D.K Olukoya : Topic – The Power Of Discipleship II
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THE MOUNTAIN OF FIRE AND MIRACLE MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
SUNDAY WORSHIP SERVICE
DATE: MAY 23RD, 2021
TOPIC: THE POWER OF DISCIPLESHIP II
ANCHORED SCRIPTURES: LUKE 9:23
MINISTER: DR. DANIEL OLUKOYA (G.O MFM WORLDWIDE)
The MESSAGE:
Two Sundays ago, we began to look at the power of discipleship. And let me make you understand that this is one of the greatest messages you need to record in your system because like I told you last time, the word “Christian” appears only once in scriptures but “disciples” appear many many times.
Who is a disciple? We began to make that definition two weeks ago. A disciple is somebody who follows the teaching and training of another.
And so, discipleship is more than getting to know the knowledge that the teacher knows. It is getting to be what the teacher is. To create a disciple is to create a duplicate.
Who is a disciple? It is one who has committed the totality of his life to the goal. And that is why when you see a disciple, you do not find any atom of disloyalty in them because they are totally out for the goal.
So, it is not just about the teaching, but the training. It is not just about the learning but about living like a disciple.
Unfortunately, only a scanty percentage of those who call themselves christians are truly disciples of Christ.
And that is responsible for the powerlessness and trouble we are having in the church of God and even all in all the nations of the world.
If we had produced a lot of disciples instead of just people who claimed to be born again, and cannot pray or read the Bible, this nation would have been so different.
And most nations of the world would have been so different if they had Christian disciples and not just those who call themselves Christians.
This is a very, very serious matter. We are talking about the power of discipleship.
So the goals in the life of the believer has 10 arms. I am going to go through them one by one before we start to pray again.
GOALS/PILLARS OF DISCIPLESHIP
1. A regular prayer life. Meaning that whether it is in the morning, afternoon, or night, a specific period must be allocated for regular praying; different from your quiet time which you must do with God everyday.
The Bible says “Woe unto those families who have eaten up Jacob because they do not pray”. I expect every family here to have a family altar. The family that prays together, stays together.
So if you are here, you with your wife; no family prayer, no prayer in the family, there is no singing of hymns, no praise worship, no prayer, no ministering, no timetable for family altar, let me make you understand that you are not a disciple. You are just a church goer.
And if you continue in that pattern, it will only increase problems in the family. Are you sitting beside your wife or husband? Turn to him or her and ask, “do we do regular family prayer?” If you do not, you better start now.
The environment is even so toxic now that more than at any other time, we need family prayers. We need serious prayers.
I am a firm believer in the power and authority of prayers. No matter how confused situations are, looking panicky and fearful, by the power of prayer, all of them can be silenced in one minute.
The warfare of Sennacherib quenched in minutes. The angel of God just went there and spoke death unto the soldiers. One word and they were all gone. With the power of prayer.
With the power of prayer, there is nothing God cannot do. He can make the enemies to fight and oppose themselves and you will come and pick up their corpses from where they are fighting.
==> I decree upon your life, you that are hearing me, may you become a prayer eagle! May you become a warrior in the place of prayer! The anointing to pray to get results, receive the anointing now in the name of Jesus!
Ask yourself “do I engage in regular prayer time? Is there a time some people will call me and will not get me because I am praying?”
And like I always tell you here: the more you pray, the more you discover. The more you discover, the more you recover. And the more you recover, the quicker you fulfil your destiny. The more you pray, the better your life.
You are not going to get anywhere with just 5 minutes prayer per day. You are not going to get anywhere with 3 hours of watching movies, Netflix, Hollywood, Nollywood and 5 minutes prayer, and you think the enemy will be playing with you. It will not get you anywhere.
You will not go far if you spend 3 hours watching movies and spend 5 minutes praying. You will not grow spiritually. If you are purchasing your data to watch terrible things but you cannot purchase data to pray and do night vigils, then there is a problem.
This is the truth. When it comes to the real show and all the chips are down, all those other things do not count anymore. Like all those movies and things you are watching cannot count anymore when the battle is at stake.
2. Effective Bible study. Once you see a person who is not interested in reading or studying the Bible, who is not interested in Sunday school, you are looking at a person who will soon become a servant to prophets.
You are looking at somebody who never grow. You are looking at somebody who will not develop spiritual muscles. He is not interested in studying the Word of God and the Bible says He has exalted His word above His name.
That word is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, cutting unto the dividing of soul and spirit, flesh and bone marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. That is the word of God.
Many do not like Bible study. They just want to read Psalms and to pray. You are not an effective disciple.
You may be a prayer warrior but you are not a disciple. A disciple has a regular pattern of Bible study. They could buy devotional. They could buy day to day Bible study, so they have a structure through which they are studying the Bible.
They will decide “I want to read the New Testament” and they will start; one chapter a day and meditate on it.
And you will not get far, if your Bible is on your phone. You do not have a book. You do not have books. You come to church, you open your phone to sing hymns. You read your Bible on phone. You want to do everything on phone. You will not get far as a Bible student.
3. Scripture memorization and application. You memorize scripture, and apply it. When people memorise scriptures and apply them, they are better Christians. Before they move, somebody will say “remember the scriptures”. Before they open their mouths, “remember the scriptures”.
You must spend time memorizing the word of God. I expect that if you have been born again for three to four years, you should be able to memorize 52 scriptures, that is at 1 verse per week.
Do you engage in Bible memorization? Do you memorize scriptures? Do you apply what you memorize? If you are placed on a stand here and told “read nonstop ten verses” will you be able to pass the exam? If you cannot, you are not a disciple. I have to tell you the truth.
The Pharisees who were confronting Jesus in those days had memorized the whole of the Old Testament and it was in their head. They quoted it to Jesus anyhow because they had memorized it.
Jesus too knew the scriptures and He would answer them back. When they told Jesus “it is written”, Jesus would reply “have you not read?”. Scripture by scripture.
Do you have scriptures in your head? In your memory? Or you are too lazy to learn the scriptures? No wonder you are not growing. No wonder you are going from one mountain top to the other looking for people to pray for you. You are just going all over the place like a rolling stone.
One common sign of people who run from place to place is that they do not read their Bibles. They just want somebody who will see vision for them; whereas a little bit of consecration, a little bit of reading the Bible, and a little bit of self discipline, they will become prophets of God.
But that discipline, they do not want to practice it. That is a very serious matter.
It is a shame that the devotional that MFM does is bought the most by non-MFM members. It is outsiders, and they are gaining from it. You should practice structured Bible study.
4. You must be a Biblical financial steward. That is, nobody needs to preach to you to pay your tithes. You do not eat your tithes because you know if you eat your tithes, you are eating your seed.
Nobody teaches you to give your offering because you know that if you give it, you will be blessed. More than that, you sow seed into the things of God because you are His steward financially.
Wise believers give more than tithes and the Lord always blesses them for it. And one way you can know whether a man who loves the Lord is what he does with his time and His God. And if you can not trust God with your money, then you cannot trust God with anything.
If you are treating God as a beggar, just give Him what you have left over, He too will treat you as a beggar. That is why God measures our offering not by what we give but by what we have behind, after we have given.
That is why Jesus said that widow who gave two mites had given more than the others who put a lot. Just two mites and Jesus said she had done more. Why did Jesus say that? It is because it was everything the woman had that she gave.
So if you have one million naira and you give an offering of ten thousand naira and somebody has ten thousand naira and gave an offering of seven thousand naira, he has given more than you have, because he is practically giving everything that he has.
That is how we know people who love God. They are Biblical financial stewards of the Almighty.
5. Unshakeable faith in God. The Bible says “without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and a rewarder of them who diligently seek Him.” He said if you believe you will see. Many want to see before they believe. But believe first and then you will see.
He says “if any of you shall say unto this mountain, ‘be thou removed and be cast into the sea,’ and shall not doubt in his mind, it shall be so.” You must have unshakeable faith.
There is a voice that speaks to storms, “Be still.” and everything turns still. The enemy might hold a crusade or revival, but there is a voice that says “that is okay, that is enough”.
==> I am praying for somebody here today that the Master’s voice that silences storms will speak to your situation in the name of Jesus!
6. Absolute obedience to God. We are talking about discipleship now. God wants 100% obedience. Not 5 percent. Not 20 percent. Not 80 percent. Not 90 percent. God wants absolute obedience.
One Negro Spiritual song we used to sing many years ago says:
“I’m trying Lord
Trying to make a hundred
Because 99½ percent will not do.”
Absolute obedience to God. Was it God that asked you to punch three more holes in your ears apart from the ones your parents put there? Was it God that told you to be drinking alcohol?
God wants absolute obedience. The Bible says obedience is better than sacrifice. You should rather listen to God than listen to man.
7. Love of God and worship of God. Many do not think praises and worship are part of the service. Many do not have hymns books at home to sing praises to God. Many do not on their own just sit down and worship the Lord. Many even think that those who worship God are wasting time. Love and worship God.
8. Witnessing to Others. Witness to others. Preach to others. Draw them to Christ. Be an evangelist.
We were all planning to go on evangelism last year, all of us. I was telling you about that one day we will just come to the service like this, pray, give tracts to everybody. If you cannot preach, at least you can share tracts. Do evangelism. Witness unto others.
He said “you shall be my witnesses. You will witness unto me in Jerusalem, Judaea and the uttermost parts of the earth.”
Do you witness to others? Did you listen to that testimony I shared? The first time this woman would evangelize, God gave her back her daughter that got lost five years ago.
9. Service towards others. You serve other people. You are in church now; it was some people who arranged these chairs. You are in church now. It was some people who arranged the microphone, banners and everything; they are working and serving people.
God has planted you in a place. You should offer service to others. Wherever God has planted you, even in your working place and everywhere, you should serve others. If you are in government, you are there to serve others. Not to serve your pockets but to serve others: it is a service to others.
God gave a testimony about David. He said “he served God in his generation”. He was rewarded for the service that he offered in his generation.
10. Discipling others. You make disciples too.
You disciple others.
These are the ten pillars of discipleship. The ten points by which you can check yourself.
“Am I really a disciple? Or am I just coming to church for coming sake? Am I coming to church just because I want my prayers to be answered? Am I coming to church because I just want problems to go? Am I coming to church because I want to meet my friends? Am I coming to church because I want a good wife?”
You should come because you want to be a disciple of Christ. He himself said “seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and his righteousness and all other things will be added unto you”.
PRAYER POINTS
[Before Message]
Declaration: I (Mention your name) am child of the living God and it is written that I shall decree a thing and it shall be established. It is written oppression shall be far from me. It is written that no weapon formed against me shall prosper. It is written that every enemy that comes against shall flee from my face. They shall come against me in one way and flee in seven ways. Every prayer I’m going to pray this morning shall hit the target by fire in the name of Jesus!
- Powers that pursued my parents, you can not pursue me, die in the name of Jesus.
- Powers assigned to cover my glory, I crush you to powder in the name of Jesus.
- Powers labouring to spoil my glory, what are you waiting for, die in the name of Jesus.
- (Slap your leg with your right hand) Curses upon my legs, break in the name of Jesus.
- Powers speaking death on my destiny, be wasted by fire in the name of Jesus.
- Powers preventing my battles from dying, die in the name of Jesus.
- Wicked elders that have refused to sleep in order to attack me, before I leave this place die in the name of Jesus.
[After Message]
O God arise, make me your battle axe in the name of Jesus.