Apostle Joel Obuobisa

1. You are a priest.
Pastor describes doing for the people. Priest is in relation to what you do for and towards God.
We are first priests unto God, before even service to people.
1 Peter 2:9 - As long as we can identify with being called out of darkness into His marvellous light, we are priests
Ephesians 5:8 calls us darkness before we are in His light.
Rev 1:5-6 - He loved us and washed us in His own blood and made us kings and priests...

2. The prayers we offer are incense to the LORD.
Psalms 141:2
Revelation 5:5-8 - v8 The prayers of the saints are incense
Revelation 8:3-

3. The priest ministers to the LORD, not for the LORD.
Hebrews 8:3

God wants continuous incense, prayers offered at all times.
Exodus 30:7-8

5. A priest sins when he does not offer the incense of prayer - this is every believer.
1 Samuel 12:23. We are to pray without ceasing - 1 Thessalonians 5:17

6. A priest is able to save or cause salvation by intercession
Hebrews 7:25

7. Great miracles happen to the priest as he performs his priestly duty
Luke 1:5-18 - the things happened to Zacharias when he was ministering incense

Eph 5:19-28
In order to have a successful marriage, both parties must know the Lord. It is when a husband knows Christ and how He loves the Church, that he can love his wife as Christ loves the Church.
- John 3:16
- 1 John 4:7, 8
- Romans 5:5

- Our capacity to love each other comes from God. Someone may have good intentions, and promise to love his / her spouse, but without God's help, they will not be able to continue giving the love after they have been wronged.

- God also instructs a wife to submit to her husband as unto the LORD, but how can she unless she is first submitted to the LORD? She will rather think submission is oppression.

- 1 Corinthians 13:1-4

- Anyone who wants a successful marriage should stay close to God and take his Christian walk seriously.

During this prayer and fasting period, we will be reading from the book “Sweet Influences of the Holy Spirit” by Bishop Dag Heward-Mills. In this episode, Bishop Joel highlights various topics discussed in the book.

- We need to pray that we will receive the Holy Spirit during this season. John 14.26, John 16.13, 1 John 2.27, 1 John 2.20
- The Holy Spirit helps us to resist the desires, urges and lusts of the flesh. 1 Peter 1.12
- The Holy Spirit sanctifies us.
- The Holy Spirit gives us spiritual strength. Ephesians 3.14-16, Isaiah 11.2, 3  
- The Holy Spirit makes us wise and gives us knowledge, wisdom and understanding. Knowledge is what we know. Wisdom is the ability to use our knowledge. Understanding helps us to know the value of our knowledge and what it can do for us.
- The Holy Spirit gives us might to help us to do what we need to do.
- The fear of the Lord helps us to reverence God, think about God and have a deeper understanding of God. The fear of the Lord affects how we relate to God and to other people.
- The Holy Spirit gives us strength by giving us might.
- The Holy Spirit gives us physical strength. Demons also give physical strength. Physical strength comes from the spirit world for good or for evil. Acts 19.14-16 , Mark 5.2-4 , Judges 14.5, 6, Judges 14.19 , Judges 15.15, Luke 4.1-4
- Jesus was strengthened to overcome temptation. The Holy Spirit will give us the strength to overcome our temptations.
- The Holy Spirit makes us intelligent. Intelligence helps us make good decisions in life.
- The Holy Spirit influences our character.
- The Holy Spirit influences our ability to love.
- The Holy Spirit influences our words.
- The Holy Spirit influences our level of obedience.
- The Holy Spirit influences our boldness.
- The Holy Spirit influences our willingness and eagerness.
- The Holy Spirit influences our creativity.
- The Holy Spirit influences our productivity.

Luke 1:26-56
- God is certainly smarter than us, having made the universe and us. Even when His instruction look absurd to us, they are higher than our thinking.
- Mary's attitude of 'be it unto me according to thy will' is one we'd be wise to adopt
Isaiah 55:8-11
- God's thoughts and ways are higher than ours
1 Corinthians 1:20-21
- The foolishness of God is wiser than man

1. It seems that God will not act on our behalf until we pray. Ezekiel 26:37, Matthew 6:8 - Even when He is saying that He knows what we need before we pray, He is mentioning expecting that we will still pray.

2. It seems that God wants us to ask about the same things that we have asked for before. 1 Thessalonians 5:17, Luke 18:1,7-8

3. Even though God wants us to keep asking, it seems that He finds some prayers boring and repetitious. Matthew 6:6-7

4. It seems that some prayers need to be very long and others very short. Mark 1:35, Luke 6:12-13, Matthew 26:40-41
- So when should we pray for a long time and when should we pray for a short time? From Jesus' example, He prayed ling when He was going to take big decisions - like when He was going to choose the disciples, or when He was going to encounter challenging times - like when He was about to go to the cross.

We need to become prayerful as 2013 ends. A lot of accidents, sudden deaths and other strange occurrences happen as the year comes to a close. Therefore it is very important to pray every day. Prayer is mysterious because God is mysterious.

Genesis 20:1-7 (KJV)

¹And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar.²And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.³But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife.⁴But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, LORD, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?⁵Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.⁶And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.⁷Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.

God’s involvement in our lives is restricted to our prayer. God will become involved in our lives if we pray and ask Him to help us. He will not do anything about our problems if we do not pray. Many situations in our lives will change if we decide to be prayerful.

1 Peter 5:8

⁸Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.

We need to become prayerful as 2013 ends. A lot of accidents, sudden deaths and other strange occurrences happen as the year comes to a close. Therefore it is very important to pray every day. Prayer is mysterious because God is mysterious.

Genesis 20:1-7 (KJV)

¹And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar.²And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.³But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife.⁴But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, LORD, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?⁵Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.⁶And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.⁷Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.

God’s involvement in our lives is restricted to our prayer. God will become involved in our lives if we pray and ask Him to help us. He will not do anything about our problems if we do not pray. Many situations in our lives will change if we decide to be prayerful.

1 Peter 5:8

⁸Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.

- John 13:34-35
- The identification tag of a true Christian church is love - not signboards, singing, etc. But love.
- By this shall ALL men, believers or not, wherever they come from, they shall recognize my true believers by their love.

- 1 John 2:1-11 - Hatred of the others is a sign of somoene yet in darkness

- John 8:1-12 - The woman caught in the act of adultery. After Jesus had forgiven her, He said He is the light of life and whoever follows Him shall not walk in darkness, as if to say that you just saw an example of love in action, not learn to follow it.

- 1 John 3:10-24
- Ask yourself daily - what have I done today to show that I love somebody?

- 1 John 4:6-21

- 1 John 5:1-3
- 1 John 4:1 - believe not every spirit by try the spirits whether they be of God.

- Gal 5:6

- Matt 16:24-26
- Matt 10:34-36
- Mark 8:34-36
- Luke 9:23-24

- The cross is the identifier of those who are following Christ.

- Those closest are most inconvenienced by the active following of Christ and therefore dislike the follower.

- 1 Cor 1:17-18 The cross is the power. If you are not bearing it, you have left the power behind. If you omit the power, how can you do well in ministry?

- God chooses the things that are not sensible to save those who believe, and the world through its wisdom.

4. Passivity in the members

- A passive person does not involve themselves in anything that is going on in the church, but sits back and watch unconcerned and uninvolved.
- A growing church needs to have more people helping. e.g. Drama Ministry, Choir, Prayer Team.
- Some people are not interested in joining any group in the church.
- With the exception of new church members, everyone in the church needs to help to build the church.
- Passivity is often rooted in hurts or offenses, especially in people who were formally active in the church, but have pulled back. Usually they were hurt by something that happened in the church.
- Matthew 25:15-29 - the servant is called wicked for doing nothing! No one escapes blame by doing nothing.
- to do nothing is wickedness because God has given everyone talents, and He looks for a return from the investment he has made into His servants.
- Everyone is passionate about something.
- God wants us to be passionate about our relationship with Him and about building His church.
- Nehemiah 3:5 - God sees who is not passionate.
- Jeremiah 48:10 - passivity attracts a curse.
- Find out what you can do to help and do it.

5. A political spirit

- A person with a political spirit tries to involve others in his ideas and philosophies.
- people with similar political ideas group together and form parties or groups, and disagree with everything the opposing contrary.
- 2 Samuel 15:1-6 - Absalom created a group of people who shared his ideas and thoughts. Later when he rebelled, he got 200 people to rebel with him.
- do not join factions in the church.
- When you have a bad experience or find fault with the church, do not find others who have had the same bad experience, and form a group based on that.
- Instead, get help to try to solve the problem.