Pastor began on the note that functioning or performing at our peak is rooted in the culture of cultivating patience and persistence in Prayer.
He said that would mean becoming all that God will have us be and living to the fullest of all that He has ordained us for.
He used Joshua as an example of one who assumed he had accomplished all in the mind of a God for Israel, until God showed him that there are yet more lands to conquer.
He made us understand that whatever milestone we have attained so far, there is much more God expects from us and can do through us.
So, he wanted us to live from a perspective that we would not be satisfied with the level we are.
Romans 12:12
Luke 18:1
Pastor explained this scripture to mean that when the Lord comes, will people be willing to embrace persistence and patience in asking.
Ephesians 3:20 (AMP) Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever…
He can do beyond all that you can dare ask or think, our highest level of prayer and desires.
Pastor made us understand that if we know the ability, potential, power, grace, and the possibilities in Him, then we will realise that we have not asked yet.. Our highest prayers, goals, and dreams are so far away from the superabundant power and possibilities in God.
God is able to carry out, to perform, and do all things exceedingly, abundantly, and far above anything that we can dare to ask. This scripture shows us that there is so much possibility in God, and he has the ability to perform. It is possible that we are not asking as we ought to or operating on the level (big performance) we ought to. It is possible that at the end of everything, we would realize that we did not press or achieve all the purpose and plans of God for our lives.
This scripture emphasizes that God is a doer and has the ability to perform well. It is left to us to enter and press into that place that can be described as “big performance.”
He further taught that the platform for big performance is when we understand and are well grounded in the concept of the culture of patience and persistence in prayer. It is a realm that can possibly bring us close to that experience of big performance. Insisting on being all that God wants us to be.
Prophetess Hannah in the bible, waited for 84 year. She she waited and prayed day and night in the temple just to see the consolation of Israel. For them, it was contentment beholding the king of glory, Jesus.
If these men were not willing to wait and be patient and persistent in prayer, they would not have experienced or witnessed what they hoped for.
One question to keep in mind is that, are you coming close to God’s fulfilment, plans, and purpose for your life?
A man may think he is doing well; but, he may not be close to what God has for him or attaining his full potential.
God is worried that you can do better than what you are currently doing.
The only way to press in is to consistently and persistently stay patient in the place of prayer. To ensure that everything written concerning you and all that the Father has spoken concerning you comes to pass. The question is, are you close to these despite all that you think you are doing?
There are mysteries and dimensions hidden in you. There’s a depth, a well, a river inside of you that must flow, which your generation must drink from. Many men, despite being dead, are still being benefited from. Men are still being fed from the abundance of the giftings of God in their lives. How did they press into this dimension despite being long gone? How did they become everything they became?
Pastor made us see that these are the possibilities that lie in God are our realities in Christ. They are things the Father wants to do with our lives before we check out of our bodies. He mentioned that the only way to come close to it is through persistence and patience in prayers. While you thank God for those giftings and graces of God upon your life, you can still do better because that is not all God wants to do with and through you, which is different from how far he wants you to go.
He spoke about the awareness of God’s purposes that made you hungry and brought you to this point but how about those whom these things do not really bother us as it were. There is no burden. There is no desire. Such provoking thoughts are not in their hearts. Once they can pay house rent and eat three square meals, they say “Jesus is good”.
He then said, when we pray there should be a desire in our heart. There are dreams and aspirations that may not cross the hearts of other men. And when these things do not cross the mind of a believer who may hold a bigger position in Church and when such a believer leaves the face of the earth the Father will say he did not walk in all the Father has done for him.
Jeremiah 33:3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
Pastor said that there is a readiness and desire in the heart of God to show us things. Whether those will make us be different and distinct is not the major emphasis in the aforementioned verse, but rather to ask.
Asking that the Lord will show us when we call unto Him…The showing part is not a problem. The things that were hidden that men want to run into. The problem is that we have not called unto Him.
We are not calling. He said “call unto me and I will answer.”
God has a commitment to showing. God has a commitment to revealing things. This is even in the old testament. This shows that God is consistent. He is not hiding it from us. He is hiding it for us. Which implies something God wants to reveal per time. The best platform such revelation will come will be starting with the Father. We place our head on the Father. The best place to shatter a fence is when what seems to be closed and concealed in the heart of God, is open to us.
We do this by being consistent and staying in the place of prayer then, your channels start opening up. That is the point we need to start writing that book. That is when we need to know we are inspired to write books. That is when we need to know to start changing location. That is when we need to know we have moved from one region to another region.
There is so much on our inside. We are pregnant with the possibility of God., fragrance and solutions of God.
This generation should not be starved because we are not responding to the call of the Father to the inner chamber to place our head on his bosom.
There is a dealing of God in our lives that will be needed to heal the pain of this generation. Our brokenness is for the mending of destinies. Healing flows from us, hence we must not waste those opportunities.
We are not meant to cry. We are meant to press into the profit of the pain. We are to call all men unto Him. We are to answer Him. When we call upon Him, He will show us great and mighty things we do not know of. If we do not understand these things we have no knowledge of what it is.
This scripture emphasizes the possibility in God.
Psalms 2:8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
We have asked for things. We have asked for cars, houses and other material things. However, the things we have not asked for are the things that matters more. They are those things that bothers the heart of God. They are those things that matter.
More of these material things do not bring Him glory. If we can ask for shoes with desperation, He will give us the nations when we ask.
We can ask for deeper things. It does not make us simple not to have asked for shoes because we needed them. It is not because we have asked and that has made us sinful.
There is a need in the heart of God, actually.
The prayer point of the Holy Ghost should be the burden on us. We can pray to the Lord that we take hold of a particular location. Some people stood in the place of prayer to be mindful of His counsel and possibility. Some believers are mindful of making our vicinity a better place, a better land for God’s purpose to be fulfilled.
God needs men to stand in the gap for nations, for cities, for communities, it now depends on how much of these places God apportions to you. The Bible reminds us to ask of him, and he will give you nations for your possession.
In the Message Bible translation, the Bible says “Today is your birthday, what do you want for your birthday, nations,…”
Psalm 2:7
A blank cheque was given to us here. Some people might begin to request material things if asked this question. But some people that really understand the things of the kingdom know that these are just by-products of fulfilling the desires of the Father.
Pastor further encouraged us that God has a way of settling us. He doesn’t owe. He is a good master. He has a good reward system, but material things can never be our reward because they can diminish.
There is something bigger and better that we should be longing for. There is something deeper in the heart of the Father that we should press into, to become all that he wants us to be.
We should be concerned about touching lives, meeting the needs of people and go to places he wants us to get to, that you will not need to scheme your way to get there, you will just be at the center of his will. But we need to stay in the place of prayer and keep asking.
The prayers of Paul especially in Ephesians 1 & 3 captures what the experience of a believer should be.
Pastor also showed us that in John 16:23, 24 the Bible admonished us that whatever we ask in the name of the Lord he will do it and also went further to say “until now, you have asked nothing, that your joy may be full.”
The question now is, are men not praying? “Nothing” in this scripture does not mean they have not prayed, it only means they have not fully maximized. It’s implying that we have not maximized redemption and the essence of his death, the possibilities in God.
Pastor went on to say, you are not in competition with anybody, you are in competition with redemption, such that when you stand before Jesus it will be you and everything Christ has paid for.
That’s what is called the stature of the fullness of Christ. The fullness of Christ is what we should yearn for.
Pastor explained that the phrase “that your joy may be full” in John 16:24 means that Jesus wants his disciples, all believers, to experience complete joy, happiness and fulfilment in their relationship with God.
The Greek word used for “full” here means “fullness,” “completion,” “perfection,” in this context it implies “a joy that is complete, lacking nothing, with no room for additional joy.”
In Fact that is what is called Christ. The stature of Christ. The fullness of Christ.
Pastor explained the phrase “That your joy may be full” Is coming to a place and space in God on a matter in the area of our life where we have Complete joy. There is no more room for additional joy.
It also means perfect (flawless, untainted by sorrow or imperfect), Abundance (Overflowing like a cup filled to the brim), Satisfying (fulfilling the deepest longings and desires of the heart).
All that explains that whatever you lay hold onto now will still need additional joy. But there is a place you can get to in God on a matter that the fullness of the joy on that matter has come, there will not be a need for additional joy. And what will take us there is that you have come to that peak performance, that you are performing optimally in that area of your life.
That you have won souls for the Lord and you lost counts and in the state of that service, your joy is full. Such men cry “Come Lord Jesus” (Maranatha). And like the scripture says that we are looking forward to the blessed assurance of his coming with excitement/joy not with fear.
Even in material things, we can press into a place where our joy will be full. But they are subject to diminishing returns.
That you are pursuing those cravings in the heart of the father, does not automatically deny you of your happy cravings. But having your happy cravings at the expense of the cravings in the heart of the father is a great loss. Because the cravings of our heart for this earth will pass away with this earth but the cravings in the heart of the father that we are able to come into and run with are eternal.
Pastor ended on the note that as a smart person, you should place the cravings in the heart of the father much more than your cravings because if you go with the cravings in the heart of the father, he has a way of settling those cravings on earth.
Mathew 6:33