(My selected notes from a recent talk by Pastor Agu)
“The sons of Issachar had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.” 1 Chronicles 12:32
We must understand the times – and know what to do. That’s the anointing that is desperately needed in the church. People who can discern the direction forward.
How do you get that? To hear God and apply what he says?
It’s all about RELATIONSHIP with God!
Ps 25:14 – Compare different versions:
The Lord confides in those who fear him;
NIV
he makes his covenant known to them.
There’s a private place reserved for the devoted lovers of Yahweh,
where they sit near him and receive
the revelation-secrets of his promises.
Passion Translation
God-friendship is for God-worshipers;
Message Version
They are the ones he confides in.
We are called to intimacy, proximity and dependency. To get to quiet places where he can speak, where deep calls to deep.
God is looking for people who will make a lifestyle of abiding in him. Going deeper in friendship, like Abraham – of whom God said he had to stop along the way to share details of a plan with.
BUT we have been BUSY.
BUSY = BURIED UNDER SATAN’S YOKE!
Fight for the precious time with God where he can speak. Have and maintain a ‘reserved’ section/ seat – to be with him in. That place is there if you will pay the price – to be like John who laid his head on Jesus’ breast.
The church is meant to be the threshing instrument.
When Agu was praying the Lord said to him, “The threshing implement is blunt.” He was led to Isaiah 41:15 – “See, I will make you into a threshing sledge,
new and sharp, with many teeth.
You will thresh the mountains and crush them,
and reduce the hills to chaff.
God i Sharpening his Church with 5 Tools
- PAIN – you have gone through this and it got your attention!
- FEAR – it paralyses you, or it drives you to God. What the enemy meant for evil, can drive us to surrender to him.
- DISAPPOINTMENT which we inevitable face along the way
- FRUSTRATION – with what’s not working, our structures, skills and strengths do not ‘cut it’
- PERSECUTION. It’s impossible to stand on the Word of God and not face persecution. Many of us have tried to keep our heads down ‘below the parapet.’ But – we are in an army!
God is shaking and shaping his church. Institutions in every sphere have become an impediment.
What must we do then?
BUILD UNITY!
1 How good and pleasant it is
when God’s people live together in unity!2 It is like precious oil poured on the head,
Psalm 133
running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron’s beard,
down on the collar of his robe.
3 It is as if the dew of Hermon
were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the Lord bestows his blessing,
even life forevermore.
YES. How precious! What images! Think of that oil flowing down – it’s costly one translation says. Unity is costly. God enjoys all the expressions of preaching and worship. But he wants unity. How do we help that not hinder it?
Unity must be our consuming desire. Why?
Because it’s what makes God happy!
Because it is arguably the most powerful apologetic and evangelistic tool – John 17:20
So…
Pray for unity! Real, not superficial.
SERVE each other with our gifts and our graces. We all have different ones! The enemy wants us to put a fence around what we are doing and trademark it, but God says ‘No, I blessed you to be a blessing.’ He never gave anybody everything. That’s why we need each other we can all learn from and teach each other.
BUILD relationship. Connective leadership. Beyond annual conferences. Intentionally follow up connections. Invest in relationships. It’s the best investment! Everything good comes out of that.
SHARE our spaces, with others who do not share everything quite the same as you. Share meals. Be like Jesus!
God said to him one day, “Your faith cannot take you where I want to take you to be,”
Heb 11:6 ‘Without faith it is impossible to please God.”
Let him increase your faith. Ask him to increase your faith.
There are really some who are so ‘unsophisticated’ to just believe God can do it, God can heal, because they have no other hope! Many of them are in places where he is their only hope.
God can change this nation!! He can do it in a day! HOW?
PRAYER: Unprecedented Prayer.
Remember the Covid announcements? The phrase that kept coming to us ‘this is unprecedented.’
What is our response to the days we live in?
Unprecedented prayer.
We must pray a lot more in the Spirit – your understanding cannot yet handle what he wants to show youPray more in tongues. That’s ‘ploughing in the Spirit.’ The things you are to pray about are still mysteries to you. God wants us to pray into those things we don’t yet understand,
Could we commit to 30 mins or an hour a day of praying in the Spirit? Unprecedented!
Is that strange to you? There are people going out baying at the moon, and that seems okay to the world! Don’t be embarrassed about what we do as Christians. Go public with it!
Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
Jeremiah 29:12
Let’s put that to the test. “Let me not be negligent in prayer!”
Do we believe that the golden rule of prayer true?
“Ask and you will receive… (keep asking..)!” For ANYONE/ EVERYONE- not just the generals/ mighty intercessors… anyone who asks… for revival in the nation…”
Let’s test that, this year. So we are not negligent
CALL upon God! Make yourself a nuisance to God – he says we can! Is 62
“You who call on the Lord,
Isaiah 62:6
give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest..”
Call! Shout! Pray! Until we see heaven respond.
AND – FAST.
The moment we add fasting to prayer in the West, we will see the dam burst. It will signal to God that we have mastered our appetite. We are not just consumers. Live a fasted life. Fasting as a necessity, not because we like it. But because it’s a turbocharger to our prayers. You say you don’t like it? It’s a sacrifice!
This nation does not turn except by prayer and fasting.