Speaker: Bishop David Oyedepo
There are pathways to righteous living. If you live anyhow, you may suffer anyhow.
Psalms 23: 1 – 6: The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Sanctification is a choice, not a gift!
Deuteronomy 30:19: “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:”
Matthew 5:6: “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”
Sanctification is the foundation for every glorious destiny in Christ.
2 Timothy 2:19 – 21:
Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
Every glorious destiny in Christ demands sanctification for delivery.
Benefits of Sanctification
1. It secures access to your inheritance in Christ.
Obadiah 1:17: “But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.”
Acts 20:32: “And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.”
Your inheritance in Christ is real but the demand for sanctification is non-negotiable.
2. It enhances answers to your prayers.
Psalms 66:19 – 20: But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer.
Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.
Confessing your shortcomings before God makes your prayers ascend faster.
3. It procures divine health.
Mark 2:5: “When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.”
When you make godliness a lifestyle, you enjoy sound health and vitality.
Sanctification is doing what pleases God as a way of life.
If you fight against sin the same way you fight sickness, living a sanctified life will be much easier.
You cannot please God in the energy of your flesh. You need faith in God to succeed in pleasing Him.
Pathways to Sanctification
1. Like Daniel, purpose in your heart not to defile yourself.
2. Watch and pray to stay sanctified.
Matthew 26:41: “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
1 Peter 5:8 – 9:
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
3. Continue to engage the cleansing power of the Word.
Ephesians 5:26: “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,”
John 15:3: “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.”
Psalms 119:9 – 10:
Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.
4. Engage faith to live a sanctified life.
Costs of Ungodliness
1. It blocks access to help in times of trouble.
Isaiah 38:5: “Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.”
Psalms 33:18 – 19: Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;
To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.
Psalms 37:18 – 19: The LORD knoweth the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be for ever.
They shall not be ashamed in the evil time: and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.
2. It destroys destinies.
1 Timothy 6:10 – 11: For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Acts 12:21 – 23: And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them.
And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man.
3. It blocks access to divine secrets.
Job 1:3: “His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.”
Psalms 25:14: “The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.”
God has vowed to exempt those who fear Him from the days of famine. You need grace for sanctification to be listed among this army.
There is no knowledge or skill on the earth that can be compared to divine secrets. It takes the fear of God to access these secrets.
No intellectual prowess will compare in value to divine secrets.
Divine secret is the hardest of all spiritual currencies but its results are unmatchable.
To access divine secrets:
1. Be born again.
Ezekiel 18:21 – 22: But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.
God will only write off your past when you repent.
To repent means to make a U-turn from the wrong path.
It is never late to be right! Whatever displeases God disconnects you from your blessings.
As long as you keep doing the will of God, the ongoing famine will not be targeted at you.
