THE VINEYARD OF MY LIFE
Make sure you don’t forget this message because it is a mystery that you must know. (Proverbs 3:1-12).
When the Lord speaks, hear Him. The word to you may come as exhortation, or rebuke; or encouragement. But as the word comes to you make sure that you don’t harden your heart. Make sure that you are obedient to Him. And it is my prayer that as we study this word the Holy Ghost will open the eyes of our understanding and we will understand in Jesus name.
You have heard of some men of God in history that were on fire in their work with God; in fact they brought down the fire of revival but along the way all the revival that they have laboured for; all the wrestling prayers stopped suddenly.
What has happened?
What has happened to such a minister?
What has happened to such a ministry that were experiencing the power of God?
What has happened to that church that you always see experience presence of God in their service but suddenly the service becomes so dry?
What has happened to such a ministry?
It is because of the lack of understanding of what we want to talk about. It is because they were not watchful over their life. They were not watchful over the vineyard of their church; ministry and therefore evacuated the presence of God from midst. And there is something that always take place in the spirit realm when the – when the Holy Ghost is at work and men tries to evacuate His work, they allow the evil spirits to take over.
When the Lord is moving mightily in your life; when the Lord has set His throne in your life and sits in your life as King of kings and Lord of lords and you evacuate Him from your life, one thing that is certain to happen in the spirit realm is that another spirit will enter your life.
Your life cannot be left empty. It is either you are possessed with the Spirit of God or evil spirits. It is either the Lord occupies your life or the devil occupies you.
When I gave my life to Christ, in my walk with God there are some experiences that I can never forget. And I will tell you one of them which I know you might have experienced before.
And its that the moment you are on fire for God and you personally know it that a fire is burning in your life; that the Holy Ghost is at work in your life; you could feel the spark of revival fire in your heart but along the way – after 2 months or weeks you just discovered that the fire is no longer there; the revival is no longer there.
And then I will be asking myself, “What’s going on? I know how fervent I was last week. What has happened to me?” And I discovered one thing, that it’s because of unwatchfulness over the vineyard of my life. This is why I am praying for you in the name that us above every other name, that you will be watchful over the vineyard of your life in the name of Jesus.
When a man has just been delivered from evil spirits. No wonder when Jesus healed that man, He told him, “Go and sin no more lest the worst thing befalls you.” When He said that He is only trying to say, “Now that you are delivered and free indeed, you must be watchful over your vineyard. The evil spirit has been cast out of your life but the same evil spirit will still come back to inspect your vineyard in order to see if there is a space that can accommodate him. And when such a demon comes back, the Bible says the end of that person will be worst than his beginning.
When you begin to notice the spark of revival fire in your heart; when you begin to notice the spark of the work of grace in your life that the things you can’t do before you start doing them – you start praying the prayer that you can’t pray before; you start doing the vigil you can’t do before; in fact you now start studying the Bible that you cannot study before, that is the moment you need to be extra careful and watchful over the vineyard of your life.
When the Lord is working wonders in your life – you have asked for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and He has poured it upon you; you have asked for spiritual gifts and He has poured them upon you; you asked for empowerment and He empowered you, you must be careful and watchful over the vineyard of your life or else the time will come that you will say, “That day when they are doing Holy Ghost program, I received the Holy Ghost and fire.”
But the question is, “What about now? Is the fire still there?”
You’ll say, “You know this and this and this.”
It’s not that when people pray God did not answer.
There are some things you ask God and He give you immediately. And there are some things you’ll ask that God purposes to do in the future. But one thing you must understand is that whatever God has purposed to give you and whatever He has given you already has an enemy and that enemy is unwatchfulness over the vineyard of your life.
As we continue this study, you are going to know what I mean by the vineyard of your life.
This is why we have so many people that had gone to mountain and prayed for forty (40) days; some even went for dry fasting for twenty-one (21) days and they left the mountain with the assurance that God has answered them. But when they got home the enemy tarnished the testimony because of unwatchfulness over the vineyard of their life.
This message is a mystery that you must know. It is an uncommon mystery in the church. In today’s churches we can see motivational messages that cannot change lives; useless sermons that cannot bring conviction to sinners. This is why so many believers are perishing in ignorance. The Bible says in:
Hosea 4:6 KJV
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:..”
Isaiah 27:3 KJV
“I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.”
There is a sister saw sometimes ago. In the revelation the Lord opened my eyes and I saw four angels – one at the left and one at the right; one at the front and one at the back. I pray that the angels of God will guide you anywhere you go in Jesus name. I want to bring out something from there – When you are encamped by God’s presence the devil will be afraid of you. And there is one thing that the devil will be looking for. And it is how to get rid of God’s presence in your life and he can only succeed if you give him space in the vineyard of your life.
The life of a believer is compared to a vineyard. The dictionary and spiritual meaning of a vine, it is a tender plant. That fruit that is just coming out in the plant is the vine. As the egg is very tender that if you are not careful with it, it will break so also, is the vine a tender plant. And when a vine is coming out, it needs continual guidance and care. So that as it is growing, the more you take care of it the more it matures.
Meaning that, that spark of revival fire can turn to a furnace of fire. If you take care of it, guiding it jealously it will turn to a furnace. That gift of prophecy, if you can take care of it very well it will get to a level that one will begin to see open vision – you open your eyes but do not see the physical but a spiritual realm.
But when that vine is tender so many of us are less bothered and concerned. We have prayed and prayed and we have forgotten that we have prayed. We pray and pray and even forget that we asked God something.
And God is faithful to His word. He has said, “Ask and it shall be given unto you”, and when we ask He gives it to us. But when we have prayed we forget that we had asked God for something.
And when the answer to that prayer is growing up little by little, we get rid of it through our carelessness and unwatchfulness. There are some that live demons have been casted out of their body before, just to discover that after two (2) years that demon came back because of carelessness and unwatchfulness.
So that garden/yard is your heart and if that vineyard is not well fenced or guided, the enemy of the vine will destroy the vine. This is why you must understand that out of all the parts of your body, God decided to live inside your heart because you are the best of the best; the excellence of the earth in whom God delights.
He delight to live inside of you and not outside of you. So when God is living outside of you, that is not the original design. Your heart is designed as the palace of God’s presence. And when the presence of God is in that palace – when God is living in that palace, you must be careful of strangers that can come and evacuate God’s presence. As God has promised in His word that we read to keep our vineyard for us, we must also understand that it is only if we are willing to be kept.
Why do have the word of God? Why do we have preachers that preach the mind of God? Why do we have the godly counsel of men?
It is because God is willing to keep our vineyard for us.
Listen carefully to this; the Lord gave us the Bible because He is faithful to His word. As He has said, “I will keep it. I will water it.”
Do you know what?
As you are reading the word now, I am watering that vineyard in your life.”
I pray that the vineyard of your life will not reject the word of God.
He say, “I will water it. I will guide it. Not only by day; not only in the afternoon; not only in the evening but in the night as well.”
But one certain thing you must understand, is only if you are willing to be kept. And if you are truly willing to be kept, live by the word of God, pay attention to what the word is saying to you, follow the instructions of the word of God, obey the counsels of the word of God. Because as He has promised to be leading you by His Spirit and guiding you by His instructions, it is for the purpose that our vineyard might be kept clean. So that all grasses, weeds of unbelief and so on may be uprooted out of your life.
Why is the Lord leading and directing us always? It is in order for our vineyards to be pure and clean because there are forces without trying to creep into our vineyards.
It’s just like a farmer that has laboured for so many years. I heard of this story. Though it sounds funny to me. But I consider it as the best example in this context. This man has the call of God upon his life but does not want to answer the call. Then he went into farming. One day he came to the farm to check what he has planted saying, he will harvest all the following week. But by the time he got to the farm some people had gone there and taken all that he has planned to harvest. He still did not obey the call.
There is also one dangerous enemy that lives inside the vineyard which God have given every believer to put to death by all means. And that deadly enemy is called “Mr Self” as a man and “Mrs Self” as a woman.
What is that “Mr Self”?
It is that spirit that loves the praise of men.
The spirit that desires the praise and applauds of men.
It is the spirit that always boast of it’s own ability.
It is the spirit that hates correction.
It is the spirit that hates counsel.
It is Mr Self that you need to get rid of. You must put him to death in your life.
Ephesians 4:22-24 KJV
“That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
[23] And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
[24] And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”
Mr Self is the enemy of that tender vine.
There was a man whom God was using mightily in century past for the break forth of revival.
“Sir, how did it work, that through you revival came forth?” Then pride sets in, “I did this and this and this.”
And the revival stopped. Why? Because he refused to put to death that Mr Self.
But you need to understand that when you have God’s presence in your life, God is like a wall in order to protect and like a well in order to water that vineyard in your life. He is a wall to guide that vineyard and a well to water the vine. But when you begin to provoke Him; when you begin to do things that are contrary to His word – He tells you to go left and you go right, to say yes and you are saying no or no and you are saying yes; that wall will disappear and that well will dry.
The Old Testament believers believed that God is a wall and a well.
Lamentations 2:7 KJV
“The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the Lord , as in the day of the solemn feast.”
What are those noise in verse 7? They are the noise of worldliness, lust, disobedience. It says, God has left His sanctuary. It means the vineyard is for the purpose that God should be there to watch day and night so that the wicked one will not take the vine away. No wonder the Bible says that we are in the hollow of God’s hand and the wicked one take us not out of His hand.
But one thing you need to understand is this – when you begin to live contrary to the word of God, He will abhor His sanctuary; He will cast of His altar. And when God leaves the sanctuary; when He leaves the vineyard of your life, then you are exposed to destruction.
Lamentation 2:18 KJV
“Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.”
I pray that in any area that you have pulled down the wall of God in your life, because you are reading this message that wall will be rebuilt in the name of Jesus.
That wall from where we read was meant to guide them from their adversaries. The wall that God moulded around our vineyard is to guide us from all our adversaries and the well is to supply us all our needs out of His overflowing fullness. You know what makes a plant to grow is watering that plants. So what makes you to grow is the overflowing fullness of God.
It is the fullness of God you experience on daily basis that makes you to grow in your level of spirituality. This is why you must be aware that there is an arch enemy that long to raise axe at the root of God’s vine in your life in order to remove that vine from your life.
1 Peter 5:8 KJV
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”
If there is any time the devil is roaring. If there was ever a time that Satan is roaring very hard, it is in our own present day. Everywhere you turn to – no matter what you are doing, reading or the church you are going, you see Satan roaring. And his roaring is so convincing to the hearts of men.
This is why I want to ask you this question. How many of you have heard that lion roar before? I mean that lion that is seeking for our soul. How many of you have heard how Satan roars to you? Some of you may not understand my question but as we continue this study, you’ll understand.
How does the devil roar to you?
Satan roars to us in the workplace when people come to you to tell you latest gossip.
“Have you heard?”
That ‘Have you heard?’ is the roaring of the devil that you need to pick race and run from for your life.
“Have you heard?”
“I don’t want to hear!” That should be your reply.
So when your friend comes to you in your place of work, “If you see what boss did yesterday. Do you want to hear?” It is the roaring of the devil. And once you say, “Eh ehn, tell me”, and you begin to gossip, that roaring lion has successfully put you in his cage – spiritually you have been thrown into the den of that lion.
The devil roars in the marketplace. This happens in our economy. They suddenly announced that the prices of things has gone up. And you start complaining, “Haa, even when the thing was down before, I was just managing. Ahh God.” It is the roaring of the devil to plant the seed of fear in your life in order to look down on the covenant of God’s providence.
The roaring in the marketplace. You have been in the shop since morning as a shop owner till night, and nobody came to ask you what you are selling. And if you get home there is nothing to eat. It is the roaring of the devil in order for you to start complaining. “God I’m serving you now.”
He roars in the marketplace when someone comes to you. You are selling something for #1,000, that you even beg to buy it for #950 and you want to make #50 profit from it. And the person priced it for #500 and you say, “Ah ahn, why will you price it like that?” And the person begins to abuse you.
It is the roaring of the devil and if you hearken to it, you are gone.
At times he roars at home. When your husband speak a provoking word to you. “Look at you. Look at your eyes. Look at your face like a monkey. Look at this one.”
And that Mr Self within that is trying to open door for the enemy without will tell you, “Did you hear? He just said you have face that looks like a monkey. What will you do about that? Will you keep quiet? If you keep quiet he will think that you’re too dull. You too say something to him.”
And you too now look at him and say, “Is it because I am not talking? Your own face that looks like dog nko.” Successfully, that roaring lion has pulled you down.
The devil roar when you tell your child to go and watch plate and you are in a hurry to go out. And by the time you come back from where you went to, that your child is playing football and you become provoked. And something told you, “Curse him! Curse him!”
I pray you will not curse your children. As a parent your tongue is so powerful. Whatever you utter into the life of your children will come to pass.
I pray that whatever you have said with your mouth into the life of your children that is bad, will not come to pass in the name of Jesus.
He roars at home at times when there is misunderstanding between you and your husband. And it’s like you should report him to your in-law. It is a baby husband or wife that does that. Spiritually he/she is still wearing pampers. Little thing, “Mama, you better warn your son o.”
Little thing, “Your daughter has started again.”
And the devil will now roar through that in-law. “Slap him if he does anything to you. I give you power, slap him. Nobody can do anything.”
“It is me her mother that support you.”
It is the roaring of the devil.
I pray that if you are in that position the Lord will open your eyes in Jesus name.
I watched the confession of a sister three or two years ago, I think. And she was confessing something about a particular pastor. She said that before the man went for ministration he committed immorality with her. She said that she was even afraid, “Haa! What will happen in today’s program?”
But when the man got there, he was still commanding demons. In fact the ministration was so mighty that day.
Anointing is deceitful at times. This is why what should give you peace is the assurance of salvation with the witness of the Holy Spirit within you. You must not say, “Because I can still do this; I can still perform this, my life is right with God.”
So if the great enemy never come to us to take us down and spoil the vine. If he tries unbelief and the unbelief never root us up, then we must be careful of that deadly fly that goes before destruction. And what is that deadly fly? It’s pride.
You must keep your vineyard.
You must flee from carnal security and self-confidence.
Like Samson. “I have removed the gate of a city. I have tore the mouth of a lion.”
“Samson, choose a woman in our country.”
“No mother, it is that woman I want.”
Judges 14:3 KJV
“Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?
And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well.”
As if to say, “There is nothing you can do. I have the anointing.”
I once told us of the story of a man. That man was so much empowered by God. Power is by the grace of God and it’s the gift of God. Some may pray for it but God will not give them because He knows that immediately they receive the power, they will become a criminal. So that’s why some have asked for power but God refused to give them.
But this brother, God loaded him with power. I’ll say his vineyard was the storehouse of power of God. He was so powerful. One day he was sleeping and something just woke him up and he got up and went to the sitting room. When he got there he saw a demon chewing something. He did not even command – not even ‘Holy Ghost fire’. If it were me and you, we will remember, ‘God of Elijah send down fire’. But he just looked at him and said, “When you are through, you’ll go,” because he was so confident that demon can’t do anything to him. And he went back to sleep.
But he was not watchful over those deadly flies. When they call him for program, “Brother, let’s go to Bible study,” he will first laugh and say, “Okay. But what’s the name of the preacher?” And they’ll tell him. Then he’ll say, “Well, I will come but on one condition. That pastor, how many dead men has he raised? How many blind eyes has he opened? How many lame has walked under his ministration?”
If the answer is “None”, he will say, “I’m sorry, I cannot go.” Pride!
So he continued like that until when those evil spirits came back and invaded his life. At the end of his life, he ran mad. You see what pride did to him? He ran mad, an anointed servant of God.
I’m praying for you that the Lord will give you grace to overcome any pride in your life in Jesus name.
Another dangerous enemy which you must put to death are “The Little Foxes.” The vine is subject to the attack of the little foxes. And there are little foxes of all sorts nowadays. It can be called ‘a false doctrine’ at times; a false teaching or s skeptical teaching. And some of this are satanic seeds. And once you don’t finish those error, they will come in and destroy the vine of God.
Those little foxes or falsehood or false doctrine always comes into into our life to make sure we doubt the inspiration of the Scriptures. Some of them will make us to doubt our confidence in the divinity of Christ.
Like the one that says, “If you see a mad and you don’t preach to him, you gone.”
Another says, “You don’t need to be going to church on Sundays again, just go out and be doing evangelism.”
Another says, “Even though you are in the world and you come to Christ with tattoos on your body, it is an unrepentable sin, because it’s the mark of the beast.”
All these are falsehood in order to make us to doubt our confidence in the divinity of Christ.
There are other little foxes that are so insidious. They seem to tempt us away from outward means of grace.
“It doesn’t matter what you wear. It doesn’t matter how you barb your hair. It doesn’t matter how you paint your face with different colours. It doesn’t matter if you dress naked. It doesn’t matter if you sag as a brother.” All these matters before God.
Sagging originated from prisoners. It is because they have suffered in the prison and are not well fed, their trousers starts falling off from their waists. And this is what brothers in the country are doing. As if they are saying, “I am not in the prison but I am a prisoner.”
They don’t know it’s origin yet they started doing it. And some will say, “It doesn’t matter. God is not looking at that one.”
I was travelling to a particular state. And if you see the way the driver was dressed. The jeans he was putting on was cut in different places. Let’s just say those producing that cloth are also mad people. They have madness in them. Because it is a mad man that will put on a rag. And they’ll be doing ‘big boy’.
The jeans has torn and torn like rag and even when he bends, you can see everything. The nakedness is exposed. And there are some people that will still say, “It doesn’t matter now. God is not such a person. Do whatever you like. He will accept it.
You must be careful of all those insidious teachings that will seek to tempt you away from the outward means of grace.
Some say, “You don’t need to take care of your body.” Some people even believe that holiness is dirtiness. In fact some Christians are so dirty that if they speak beside you, you will feel as if you want to faint. Not that they have mouth odor. And if you ask them, they will say, “I am going to heaven.” Funny.
It’s not that you should be putting on dirty cloths and say, “That’s how to get to heaven. If I put on fine cloth now, my pastor will talk.”
Why did your pastor now put on suit to come and preach on the altar?
That is not holiness. You must run away from all these things. If you come to me to preach the gospel and I look at your dressing and see that you barb ‘kolabo’ or ‘galax’; open your button down and I can see some chain that look like ‘dagrin’s’, I will tell you, “You first need to give your life to Jesus.”
You must be careful of those false teachers that will make you to go astray from the outward means of grace. When you are a person that loves hearing everything, the time will come that you will scarcely know truth from error and you’ll be asking yourself, “Which one is right now? I’m very confused. In fact do you know what they just said now? That women should not be wearing hat and berets. It is a sin now. They said that any cloth with ‘polyester’ written on it, don’t wear it. They have said women should not use sanitary towel again. What else should we do?”
You must be careful of errors. As you love hearing everything from anybody, the time will come that you will be so confused and will not know the error from the truth, that you’d be carried to and fro.
As the Lord has promised to keep the vineyard, you also must be watchful and careful so that the enemy will not come in and invade that vine in your life.
What are the effects of little foxes in the vineyard?
EFFECTS OF LITTLE FOXES IN THE VINEYARD
a.) It hinders spiritual growth.
You cannot grow. You’ll just remain like that – 3 years, 4 years, 5 years, yet you are the same.
b.) It hinders the work of grace.
c.) It stops revival in your life.
d.) It stops the work of sanctification.
e.) It kills spiritual gifts.
f.) It hides God’s plan for your life.
You will keep on asking, “God, reveal your plan for my life.” And God will just be looking at you until you get rid of those little foxes out of your life.
g.) It stops God’s plan from coming to pass.
h.) It makes you to work against yourself.
Listen, if I believe error, I will come here and preach the same thing and you too will tell your friends. And it is not only the establisher of error that will be destroyed but those that spread that error as well. They will be thrown into the fire with that founder of the error. This is why there are plenty members of Jehovah Witness in hell that are screaming with Charles Russell, their leader.
So when you have few grapes that are beginning to ripen in you, there are things that normally come in order to pluck the fruits. These are:
• Dark Thoughts of Worldliness
One cloth just come out now and the material is, ‘show me your underwear’. And your friend says, “That is what is trending now.” And you say, “Okay, no problem. Let’s go into it. I will show them in the church next Sunday.”
The Bible says in the book of;
Romans 12:2 KJV
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
You must be careful of worldliness – worldly thoughts; worldly pursuits; worldly goals; worldly dressings. You must be careful of them.
• You must be careful of selfishness – not looking for the good of others but just yourself. “Me, me me.”
That moment when you begin to say to yourself, “Well done. I’m doing a good work.” That is when all starts to be wrong. You are not to say, “I am trying. In fact, I’m really trying”, but to say, ” The Lord is helping me.”
When you are saying to yourself, “Well done”, you just begin to say, ” All will start to be wrong.”
So this is why you must have the consciousness of what you are exposed to if you are not vigilant and watchful.
You must be so near to God. And you must always seek His face so that you can live under His protection.
√ Watchfulness is a duty given to us.
√ Wrestling prayer is a duty given to us. It is through this that there will be constant divine strength coming to us.
√ You must learn to live everyday in Jesus.
√ You must trust Him for all the grace that you need. When you wake up in the morning, you ask Him, “Lord, there are temptations. I know trials will come on my way but all that I wants is for You to give me the grace to overcome them all.” Because as the heart is so important to the body, that is the soul to man. As health is so important to the body, likewise holiness to the soul. So this is why you must sanitize that vineyard.
√ You must use all holy means to preserve the soul from sin.
√ And you must make sure you maintain communion with God. Make sure your heart is attuned to God everyday of your life.
How can we keep this vineyard? I’m going to tell you few ways you can keep the vineyard. But I want you to put each points down the way you understand – the way you will never forget.
HOW CAN WE KEEP THIS VINEYARD?
1. FREQUENT OBSERVATION OF THE HEART.
Now let me use this illustration. If the altar is full of grasses and you cut it and determine that, “After I have cut these grasses, I don’t want any grass to grow here again?”
What must you do to ensure that? You must observe it every time.
I heard of the story of a man. Don’t be like such a man. The man said, “Ahh, this mango tree! By the time I come out in every morning it leaves have full everywhere. From today I will make sure no leaf is on the floor. If it falls down I will pick it.” And he was there.
But do you know what? He fell asleep. And by the time he woke up, he was surrounded with leaves. So, don’t be like such a watchman.
You must frequently observe the vineyard of your life. This is why Paul said, “Examine your own self.”
Before you sleep this night ask yourself, “Have I done anything today that is against the will of God? Have I said anything today that is against the will of God?” If you remember any, you confess to God and ask for forgiveness.
2. DEEP HUMILITY
If you’ll keep the vineyard of your life, you must come to understand that all that you are and have is not by your own ability but just by the grace of God.
You can speak in tongues, it’s grace.
You can open blind eyes, it’s grace.
You can perform miracle, it’s grace.
You can preach well, it’s grace.
You must understand that all that you are and all that you have – your money; your property; your possession; your position and everything is just by grace.
3. EARNEST SUPPLICATION AND INSTANT PRAYER FOR PURIFYING AND RECTIFYING GRACE WHEN SIN HAS DEFILED THE HEART.
That is, immediately you do anything that is wrong, confess immediately. You get angry and immediately, “I’m sorry Jesus, forgive me for getting angry.” That is how to keep that vineyard pure. If you say, “Until when we are doing night prayer, that is when I’m going to confess,” you may forget.
And when you are confessing your sin, don’t generalize it. If it is fornication, you say fornication. Don’t say, “Lord, I am the greatest sinner in the whole world. I’m the worst criminal. Forgive me all my sins.”
And you know what you have done. You are to say, “Lord, forgive me of my anger.” You need to mention that particular sin so that it can be rectified and purified instantly.
There are also secret faults. As you are going the Holy Ghost just bring them to your heart, “Remember, two years ago you said this and it’s wrong. You did not confess it.” And immediately you say, “Lord, I’m sorry.”
It is because God loves you.
4. IMPOSING OF STRONG ENGAGEMENT UPON YOURSELF TO WALK MORE CAREFULLY WITH GOD.
You engage yourself in so many things that will make your heart to be in tune with God, in order to avoid the occasion whereby the heart may be induced to sin.
Your friend says, “Let’s go a party.” Or someone is doing birthday. And you know that they are going to play worldly music there. And something is saying, “Go! Go! Go!”
You must impose a strong engagement upon yourself. And you declare with holy violence, “No, I am not going in Jesus name.”
You must avoid all occasion that will lead you into sin.
5. A CONSTANT AND HOLY JEALOUSY OVER YOUR HEART.
This heart is meant for God. It is not meant for hatred; malice; for the devil to leave there. “What belongs to God, I will not give it to the devil but keep it jealously.”
6. THE REALIZING OF GOD’S PRESENCE WITH YOU AND SETTING THE LORD ALWAYS BEFORE YOU.
That is, anywhere you are and anywhere you go, you must always realize that God is there with you.
“God is here with me. He is examining my actions. He is looking at my motive. He is looking at my thoughts. He is looking at my words. If I say anything, I will either be justified by it or condemned by it.”
So you must always realize God’s presence with you. That you carry something in you that can easily be provoked. Do you understand what I’m talking about? That is, you carry something in you that can easily be provoked. It’s not as if it’s not holy anger. The Bible says that our God is a jealous God. He doesn’t want to be in one’s heart and the devil occupying the heart with Him. No!
So you must guide it always. Set God’s presence before you always. And you must realize God’s presence in your life. A slight mistake can out the fire to death.
A slight mistake can grieve the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Ghost will say, “All the insults you have been giving me. You insulted me in the morning and said you are sorry. Now, in the afternoon you did the same thing. Who knows what you’ll do in the evening?”
Someone comes to you for help and you have all that the person needs. But suddenly, the person slapped you. And after doing that said, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” But he frowned and slapped you again. And you said, “Ahh, you slapped me.”
The person still said, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry.” Before you know it, he took hammer and was smiling, “I’m sorry,” and wants to smite you, will you wait? Who knows if he is going to take gun the next time.
When you keep insulting the presence of the Holy Ghost in your life, He’ll leave you.
“You have insulted me in the morning and you said you are sorry. In the afternoon you still did the same thing and said you are sorry. Who knows what you’ll do in the evening.”
This is why so many are living an empty life. And they pray, “Holy Ghost fill me.” It’s not that the Holy Ghost don’t want to come.
The Holy Ghost knows them. He knows you.
Some will shout, “Holy Ghost come into my life.” But the Holy Ghost said, “If I even go now, I won’t even stay long. Let me just pity him so that he will not say God is not faithful.”
This are the people that you will see that during that hot prayer the Holy Ghost really came upon them. But the following week you’d be surprised that they’ve totally changed to the old man/woman. Why? Because they have insulted the presence of the Holy Spirit.
You know yourself.
In which way have you littered that vineyard?
In which way have you insulted the Holy Spirit?
In which way have you allowed the little foxes?