₦airaland Forum

For many Christians, when they are having a dispute with someone, they tend to forget that they are still born again. As they don’t seem to like a fellow or the fellow doesn’t like them, they treat him or her badly. Jesus Christ said in Luke 6:35 that you must not only love your enemies, you should also be kind to them. When you know the right things to do for people, whether you are on good terms with them or not, do it. The Bible says that it is sinful for you to know something good that you are supposed to do and not do it. James 4:17 says:

Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

Don’t victimise someone with your position because the person is not your friend. Whether you are the one who is right or not does not matter, the moment you decide to victimise them, you become the one who is wrong.

In Matthew 5:38-48, Jesus Christ said clearly that you are not to repay evil with evil, rather, you are to repay evil with good. The reason for this is that He does not want your heart to abhor any form of corruption or evil at all. Apostle Paul said that when you decide to avenge yourself or repay evil for evil, you are letting evil overcome you. Romans 12:20-21 says:

Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

The Scripture above says that you should love, care for, and even provide for those that hate you. You shouldn’t relate with people based on whether they love you or not or on how they treat you; you should relate with them based on how God wants you to. Don’t let evil overcome you in a bid to repay someone or show them how powerful you are. If evil overcomes you, it means that you are now on the side of the devil as opposed to the side of God. I will conclude this teaching with the words of Apostle Paul in Romans 12:18:

If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.

Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

You cannot get close to someone by relating with him or her only in a group. If you really want to get close to someone, you will need to spend some time alone with that fellow. It is necessary to have your family devotion, where all members of your family come together to study the Bible and pray, and it is absolutely necessary to attend Bible Study and prayer meetings with other brethren. However, you cannot get close to God if you don’t sit alone with your Bible to study it and spend time alone with Him in prayers; this is your personal devotion time.

God relates with individuals, not groups. Even in a group, when God wants to talk, He addresses Himself to individuals. For example, He was talking to all members of the church in a city when He said, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” (Revelations 3:20). Though God was talking to the entire church, He used singular pronouns. This is why many-a-times, when I am ministering, and God wants to give someone a miracle, He will say through me, “There is someone here…”. Two or three people may get their miracle from that proclamation, but He addressed each of them separately. God wants to have an individual relationship with you. The relationship your pastor, parent or Bible Study leader has with Him does not apply to you; He wants to connect with you personally, and until He has built a personal connection with you, you cannot really know Him.

To build this personal connection with God, you must have a personal altar. This is a place and/or time when you meet with Him daily. You must set aside a time every day to study your Bible and pray. You will discover as you start having personal time with Him that there will always be an ongoing conversation between yourself and Him every time, either on something He is teaching you or something that you are trying to understand as you study your Bible. Your altar is not a place you come to only when you need something from Him, it is a place you come to regularly to build a personal relationship with Him.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

When I got born again in The Redeemed Christian Church of God, those that served in the church were not called workers, they were called Children of God. There was a reason behind that. When a child gets to his father’s house and sees that things are not placed where they should be, he or she naturally starts putting things right. However, when a visitor comes into that same house, he or she will simply find a place to sit and remain there. If you see God as your father, whenever you get to His house, you will do whatever you can to make things work smoothly. You wouldn’t go to your father’s house and not care about the outlook and advancement of the place.

There are many benefits of being a worker in God’s house. One of them is stated in 2 Timothy 2:6:

The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits.

Because you are a husbandman, one who is cultivating the land to produce fruits for everyone, you will be the first partaker of those fruits. In other words, when you work to make services run smoothly, you will be the first partaker of the blessings and miracles that happen in those services. No one works for God without getting a reward. Hebrews 6:10 says it clearly:

For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

God will never forget whatever labour you do out of love for Him. God decreed in Leviticus 19:13 that no labourer must be denied his or her wages. Do you think He will not reward you for working directly with Him? Your wages when you work for Him include protection, provision, a sound mind, deliverance, speedy answers to prayers, and a whole lot more. While it is fine for a church to employ or pay professionals for some services, I always tell church members who are adamant about charging a fee for rendering any service without being employed by the church that they shouldn’t expect anything from God again, as they cannot get paid twice for the same service. As a worker in a church, once you insist on getting paid money for any service you render in the church, you have made yourself a hireling in His house and not a child.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

The most dangerous thing about envy is that it opens up the heart to many evil things. Anyone who allows envy into his or her heart is only a few steps away from harbouring many other evils. Cain did not have any intention to murder his brother until envy came into his heart. They must have been very close, but the day envy crept into his heart, it opened up the door to the thought of murdering his brother. In Numbers 16:1-33, Korah and his group rose against Moses because they envied his position and were swallowed up by the earth. When you see someone with something that you would like to have, rather than envy them, be happy for them. Romans 12:15 says:

Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.

If someone is doing better than you in business, ministry, or whatever, don’t envy them, rejoice with them instead. Yes, you may feel a little envious at first, but the danger comes when you allow that envy to linger and grow in your heart.

For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
James 3:16

According to the Scripture above, envy is a partner to strife, and where they exist, there will always be evil. This is why you shouldn’t allow any feeling of envy to linger and take root in your heart. The moment you catch yourself feeling envious of a fellow, work on your mind to expel that envy by replacing it with joy. To work on your mind, you can ask God to help you not to feel envious. You can also start praying for that fellow because it will really get the devil angry as he is pointing out things for you to be envious of, but instead of getting envious, you are praying for the fellow. He will stop trying to get you to be envious after that.

If you allow envy into your heart, you are opening the door for destruction. Proverbs 14:30 says:

A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.

Guard your heart against the poison called envy, it leads to destruction.

Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

Peer pressure is one of the greatest enemies of a Christian. The most dangerous thing about it is that it is not specifically listed amongst the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21, and so many Christians are not careful of it. Also, many people think that peer pressure only applies to teenagers, but it is also present among older people. For example, when you go to a wedding, and you join your peers in dancing to worldly songs because you don’t want them to see you sitting aside, that is peer pressure making you do something against God’s will. You cannot please God and man at the same time. King Saul tried to please men, and he displeased God as a result. He lost his throne and died a shameful death (1 Samuel 31:1-6).

Don’t try to dress like the world because you don’t want to seem ‘left out’. Don’t try to use dirty slangs to show that you are also familiar with current trends. Many years ago, I was a guest minister somewhere, and when the man of God who was to introduce me went to the altar to do the introduction, he said that he liked everything about me except the way I dressed like a hunter with my short-sleeved suits. I replied that I am not a hunter, I am a soldier. His remarks did not make me change the way I dress, even though my colleagues were wearing flowing agbada around that time. Today, God has raised me very high amongst my colleagues. Children of God are not influenced by peer pressure; they are led by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:14). When a Christian starts doing things because of what people will say or think, such a believer has stopped being led by the Spirit of God, and the fellow is already losing his or her sonship.

The word of God says in (2 Corinthians 6:17) that you must be separate. If people are to be seen as your peers, let them be people who have separated themselves for Christ. Amongst these people, you can bow to the peer pressure of who is praying the longest, who has memorized more Scriptures, who wins the most number of souls per day, et cetera. That is the only kind of peer pressure that is good for a Christian; pressure to please God more and draw closer to Him, not pressure that relates to carnal things.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

A shepherd can fail his sheep in two major ways. One of the ways is by not giving them food and making them starve to death, while the other is by not protecting them from predators. If you are a leader in the body of Christ whom God has placed over some of His sheep, you must ensure that you preserve them by feeding them with the accurate word of God and protecting them from false teachers who are actually wolves in sheep’s clothing.

In Acts 20:28, shepherds are told sternly to feed the flock in their care. If you are not teaching the people that God has put in your care the true and complete word of God, you are killing them spiritually, and God will not spare you for that. No human being can live long if he/she is malnourished, so also, the souls of the people in your care will perish if they are malnourished. As you teach them prosperity, also teach them holiness. As you teach them about Christ’s love, don’t leave out the fact that He is also the consuming fire. Don’t worry about the church’s growth, do what God has called you to do, and He will grow His church.

The apostles regularly warned the sheep about false teachers and their teachings (2 Corinthians 11:13-15), (2 Peter 2:1). They were protecting them from wolves, and we must do the same. There are all sorts of doctrines going around these days that are completely opposite to God’s word. Don’t ignore them; tell your people never to listen to such teachings. If you don’t tell them to stay away from such teachings because you don’t want to offend anyone, you will leave them to be devoured by wolves.

Social media has created many opportunities for false teachers to confuse some of the sheep with their teachings. The sheep may see someone working miracles and believe that he or she is a genuine minister of God. They might start listening to the fellow’s teachings, so you must ensure that what they are listening to is not the lure of a wolf. Teach your followers to be like the Berean Christians who always checked any teaching they heard against the word of God (Acts 17:10-11).

Whether you are a pastor, head of a department, house fellowship leader, or parent, if you have been placed as a spiritual leader over some people, it is your responsibility to ensure that the devil does not devour them.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

Oppositions are different from persecutions. Persecution happens when someone attacks you because you are a Christian, while oppositions happen when you are attacked in a bid to stop you from doing whatever you have planned to do for God. Many people have set out to do things for God and were faced with opposition that made them back down. Some of them remained fervent Christians, but the opposition discouraged them from going ahead to do what was in their hearts for God. If we allow oppositions to stop us from doing what God has called us to do, many souls will perish in hell, and the devil will oppress people because the Christians are quiet. Therefore, rather than allow oppositions to stop you, you must learn to keep going despite them.

One man who faced opposition and kept going until the work was done was Nehemiah. He had set out to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, despite the fact that it was not going to be an easy task – then, opposition arose. If you study the book of Nehemiah, you will see the three major tools of opposition that the devil employs against Christians: mockery (Nehemiah 4:3), threats (Nehemiah 4:7- and discouragement (Nehemiah 4:10). He can raise people to mock you for what you are doing, but you must ignore them. Some people will threaten you with many things or even death if you continue to do what you are doing for God. However, you should not be afraid because God will take care of such people for you. Lastly, the devil can bring discouragement by making the work more difficult. He can do it by ensuring the unavailability of resources or some people’s refusal to cooperate with you. Whether the devil brings one or all of these things your way, if God has given you a vision, you must never back down.

Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.
Nehemiah 4:9

Nehemiah’s default response to all the opposition he faced was to pray. Prayer is not a last resort but your primary defence against oppositions. As you do all that you humanly can to forestall oppositions, put your trust in God. Place your ears on His chest to hear the next instruction He will give you; after all, you are doing His work. The people opposing you are actually opposing Him, so let Him do the fighting while you keep working.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

As long as this world remains, every true child of God will face persecution because the devil is the prince of this world (John 14:30). You must therefore be well-equipped to handle persecutions so that they won’t derail you from your race to heaven.

The devil persecutes you as a child of God because he wants you to deny Christ, and the only way to pass through persecution without denying Christ is to be well-grounded in Him. Therefore, before persecutions come and before the devil launches his attacks, you must be well-rooted in Christ by studying God’s word, memorising it, and praying without ceasing. The depth of a tree’s root determines if it will remain standing during a storm. If you don’t want persecution to bring you down, you must be deeply rooted in God’s word. Those who fail in times of persecution are those who were not as intimate with Christ as they should have been before persecution came.

Long ago, there was a missionary in a foreign land where Christians were being persecuted. On her wedding day, the local police raided the missionary base and arrested her in her wedding dress. She kissed the handcuffs they put on her and said, “Lord, I didn’t know you were so jealous over me and wouldn’t let me marry anyone else. How beautiful is your wedding ring to me!” She was so in love with Christ that her wedding being invaded meant nothing to her; she saw the handcuffs as wedding rings. That is the kind of intimacy you must have with Christ so as not to deny Him in the face of persecution.

When people compromise after facing a little persecution, like not being promoted at work because of their Christian values, I shake my head because I know that they were never really rooted in Christ. Christians who are truly rooted in Christ rejoice when they are persecuted because they know they are blessed (Matthew 5:10-12). They see persecution as a sign that they are a terror to the devil, and that excites them; they want to cause him even more terror. Persecution drives them to do more for God against the kingdom of darkness. In Acts 5:41, the disciples rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Jesus’ name. In (1 Peter 4:13), we are told to rejoice that we are partakers of Christ’s sufferings. Don’t let persecution weigh you down; let it become fuel for you to do more for God.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

I discussed handling failure properly yesterday. However, handling failure properly is not the only factor that can affect success in life; there is also the need to learn how to handle success correctly. Many people have eventually failed in life because they did not know how to handle their success.

In 1957, a man won £75,000 in a lottery. In those days, you could buy a flat in London for a tiny fraction of that sum. One day in the early 1980s, somewhere in Western Nigeria, I saw a man that was wearing rags, sitting beside a building that had collapsed in half. I asked the fellow who was driving me, “Who is that fellow?” He said, “That is the man who won £75,000 in 1957.” The man had great prosperity but did not know how to handle it, so he ended up poor. A popular proverb inspired by Proverbs 21:20 says that a fool and his prosperity are soon separated. If a fellow is not wise enough to handle success, it can turn out to be the beginning of great failure.

Don’t get over-excited when success comes. Many people start rejoicing and partying after a victory, forgetting that the devil never relaxes. What actually happens is that the devil becomes more determined to bring such people down. Don’t miss prayer meetings or your personal devotion because you are celebrating a victory. Yes, you won the battle, but the enemy is not dead yet; he is still roaming, looking for whom to devour (1 Peter 5:. You should increase your commitment to God after every victory and not the other way around.

The devil knows that after successes, people are likely to relax, so he usually attacks them during such periods. After David killed Goliath, he raised King Saul up against him. It was after Elijah called down fire from heaven that Jezebel swore to kill him (1 Kings 19:1-3). When you attain success in a particular thing, you must not relax. You must remain alert and ready for battle. Don’t let success distract you from the end goal that God has called you to achieve.

One great success we had in RCCG was a programme called Lekki ‘98, where over six million people gathered in one place to worship God. Immediately after that programme, we doubled our missionary efforts, sending missionaries to new territories. We immediately started planning the next edition of the programme, and today, we have held much bigger programmes because we doubled our efforts and did not relax after our success.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

The way people respond to failures determines whether they will eventually live in victory or not. Failure is not as bad as people paint it to be; it does not signify the end, but it is a signal to try again using a different method. Almost all scientific breakthroughs result from failure. If most scientists became sad and stopped after the first time they failed, they would never have had breakthroughs. Every successful person you see is a product of many failures. If you try today and fail, rise up and try again in a different way. As long as you are sure that what you are doing is in line with the will of God, don’t give up on it; keep trying until you succeed.

In Judges 20:18-35, the Israelites asked God if they should go to battle against the Benjamites and if they would win. God told them to fight and that they would win. However, when they got to the battlefield, they were defeated. The question on their minds would have been, “Did God deceive us?” They refused to give up, got themselves together, and went to ask God again if they should return to battle the Benjamites. God told them to go, and once again, the Benjamites defeated them. At that point, giving up would have seemed reasonable; they had already lost 40,000 men, and it looked as if God, the only one they could trust, was deceiving them. If they had given up, they would have been commended for trying, but they did not give up. They went back to God, and this time, they fasted and gave offerings to God. They asked again if they should return to fight the Benjamites, and God said that they should go. They went, and as you read in the story, they used a different strategy and were able to defeat the Benjamites. Don’t give up; your breakthrough is probably just around the corner. Try once again.

When next you encounter failure, ask yourself, “Why is God letting me go through this?” If you have been consistent with your prayer life and walk with God, ask, “What can I learn from this experience? What is God trying to teach me with this failure? Are there other strategies to achieve my goal?” If you answer these questions sincerely, you will draw valuable lessons that will help you achieve success the next time you try.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

There was a man in my village called Kaka, who was the leader of the occultists. It was generally believed that he single-handedly protected the town from all forms of evil, and he was feared by all. When we wanted to open the RCCG parish in my village, the place we found suitable for a rally was close to Kaka’s house. Surprisingly, when an altar call was made during the rally, Kaka came out of his house to give his life to Christ – he had been listening to the worship session and sermon. Later that night, he came to my Father in the Lord, Pa Josiah Akindayomi, and said, “The way you spoke about your God, He must be really powerful.” Papa said, “Very, very powerful.” Kaka said, “In that case, now that I have given my life to Jesus, I would need help with an idol in my house called shigidi. It is an effigy that has been in my family for generations and that we send out at night when we want to kill someone. It is so dangerous that we must not sleep until it returns, and we must kill a ram to welcome it. Upon its return, it will step on the ram’s blood and drink it. Thereafter, it will return to its position and become just like an ordinary effigy. I am afraid of the trouble that might follow if I throw shigidi away.”

Papa decided to send me over to remove the effigy. I went to Kaka’s house with the pastor of our parish in Ilesha and a church worker that I thought to be a strong prayer warrior. When Kaka saw me, he felt sorry for me, “Ahhh, Adeboye’s son, you are the one they sent?” When my colleagues saw shigidi, they ran out of the house, leaving me alone with the effigy. It was smeared with blood and adorned with all manner of charms. I said a prayer, broke the effigy into pieces, removed the shrine in front of the house, and threw everything into a river. After three weeks, I returned to my village and visited Kaka at home. When he saw me, he shouted, “You are still alive?!” That was 1975. I am still alive almost five decades after.

Beloved, the devil and his demons are under the feet of even the smallest child of God. You are a part of the body of Christ, and Ephesians 1:21 says that Christ is seated far above all principality and powers.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

Certain things can contaminate our prayers, such that they weaken our prayers and their possible results. One such thing is speaking words that are against what we are praying for. When you pray about your country, for example, and later join others in saying that nothing good can come out of that same country, you have contaminated your prayer already.

Don’t pray for God to give life to something and then turn around to speak death into that same thing; you will not get results from such a prayer. Joel 3:10 says, “Let the weak say, ‘I am strong!’” In other words, if you have prayed for strength, but can still see traces of weakness in you, at that point, say, “I am strong”. As your words go in line with your prayers, they will remain potent enough to deliver the results you seek. When you pray about something, it is important that your words and thoughts agree with your prayer. This way, you will not stand in the way of the answer to your prayer.

Another thing that contaminates prayers is a lack of concentration while praying. This is when people pray, but their hearts are not in the prayer. Rather, their minds are occupied with other things. The devil knows that if your mind is distracted while praying, your prayer will not carry as much power as it should. Therefore, whenever you decide to pray, he will begin to remind you of things you are yet to do and places that you ought to have gone to. His plan is to occupy your mind with other things so that you will become distracted and lose your concentration as you pray. Whenever you find your mind wandering while praying, write down the things that you ought to have done, put the note aside, and continue to pray. Train your mind to keep all distractions away, and don’t give room for them to disturb your connection to God in the place of prayer. With time, as you continually train your mind, you will get good at focusing on only God while praying.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

Today, I will conclude my discussion on some of the factors that can extinguish prayers. Some people get almost everything right in the place of prayer but miss out on just one thing – faith. James 1:6 says that believers should always make their requests to God in faith without having any doubts in their hearts. The next verse directly addresses anyone who makes requests from God without faith:

For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
James 1:7

When you pray without faith, that prayer is dead on arrival.

Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith, it is impossible to please God. Believers cannot expect God to answer their prayers when He is not pleased with them. God requires that you have faith in Him when you ask Him for something. Luke 17:6 says that even if your faith is as little as a mustard seed, God will use it to move mountains on your behalf. If your child asks you for food and then looks at you in such a way that says, “I know you will not give me; you probably don’t even have it,” you will feel insulted. This is what we do when we ask God for things that we are not really expecting Him to give to us.

When you come to God in faith, you come knowing without a doubt that what you have asked of Him is already done. You bring your requests with thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6) because you know that your prayer has already been answered. The moment you pray, your hands are already stretched out to God, expecting what you asked for. This is how to pray; it is the kind of prayer that God cannot ignore. Hebrews 11:1 says that faith is the evidence of things not seen. In other words, when you have faith, even though you have not seen what you are asking for, you will be so sure that you have it that you can present it in court as evidence to any judge, telling them, “See what I have.”

For a long time, I tried by my own power to increase my faith, but it was difficult. Then, I read Mark 9:24, where a man cried to Jesus, saying that he believes but that Jesus should help his unbelief. In minutes, what Jesus was asking him to believe for was done. I also started praying that God should help my faith, and I have seen my faith grow tremendously since then. If you pray the same prayer, Jesus will give your faith a boost, and you will be able to overcome unbelief.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

Yesterday, I discussed how sin can extinguish our prayers. Another prayer extinguisher is – not praying according to God’s will. You must understand that God has a plan for your life and wants to bring you to an expected end (Jeremiah 29:11). This means that God already has an expectation about you before you were born. Thus, everything He does, including the prayers He answers, is to bring you to that expected end. You cannot pray for God to do something against His will and expect Him to do it.

Many people have said, “I have been asking God for a particular thing for so long without an answer.” Where they are probably getting it wrong is that they are not checking if what they are asking for aligns with God’s will or if it’s just for their selfish lusts (James 4:3). Asking for something outside God’s will is asking amiss; such prayers are extinguished, and God will not grant such requests. This is why you must be intimate with the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:26 says that we do not know how to pray because, many-a-times, we don’t know the will of the Father. However, the Holy Spirit can help you to pray exactly what the will of the Father is, and then your prayers will be attended to.

When you pray in tongues, you are praying very accurate prayers because the Holy Spirit is praying the will of the Father through you. Imagine that you are friends with the son of the chairman of a company, and you apply for a job in that company, using an application letter that was written by a director in the company, and having the chairman’s son, who is also a director, as your referee. When your application gets to the chairman’s table, he will not be able to ignore it because it will contain the exact things that relate to the organisation and the role you are applying for, and also because his son is your referee. You will surely have the job because your application will contain exactly what is on the chairman’s mind, and you have a good relationship with his son.

If you don’t want your prayers extinguished, let the Holy Spirit pray through you as you maintain an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ in whose name you are praying. The best prayer points are the ones generated for you by the Holy Spirit.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

When you spray a fire extinguisher over fire, it dies off. In the same vein, certain things act as prayer extinguishers. If such things exist in our lives, we will not get answers to our prayers because the prayers will die off before they get to God.

Sin is the first thing that extinguishes our prayers the moment they leave our lips. David said in Psalm 66:18:

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:

If sin is in your heart, it will extinguish your prayer, and God will not hear it, even if you scream aloud while praying. In Isaiah 59:1-2, the Bible says that sin creates such a huge distance between God and us that He cannot hear us nor can His hand reach us.

Even when a genuine man of God prays for a sinner, the prayer will be extinguished by the sins of that sinner unless he or she repents. Many years ago, when the congregation was not as large as it is now, and I could lay hands on everyone, a woman came to one of our Holy Ghost Services. She had been married for many years without a child and had been told that I have a special anointing for making the barren fruitful. I laid hands on her during the service, and she fell under the anointing. However, months after that, she still did not conceive. She came back complaining, “They told me that when you lay hands on me, I will fall, and then I will become fruitful, but up to now, there is still no child”. I thought she needed an extra dose of the anointing and was about to pray for her again when God told me, “Son, ask her how many boyfriends she has.” It was hard to ask her the question, but I managed to mumble the words. She replied that she had six boyfriends. I exclaimed, “Ah! And you expect my God to answer your prayer?” Yes, I prayed for her and laid hands on her, but her sin extinguished the prayers.

Check yourself before you pray to be sure that you don’t have any sin in your heart because if sin is present, your prayers will go to waste. Repent of the sin first, then you can be sure that God will answer your prayers. The only prayer that God will hear from a sinner is the prayer of repentance from sin because as long as sin exists in his or her life, God will not hear him or her (Isaiah 59:1-2).
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the LORD hath not defied?
Numbers 23:8

The Scripture above tells us that it is impossible to curse people that have been blessed by God. Such persons can never be affected by curses that are pronounced on them. No matter how hard he tries, there is absolutely nothing the devil can do to curse the fellow that God has blessed. Romans 8:31 says:

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

God is Almighty; if He is on your side, there is no force on the earth, underneath the earth, or in any other place that can work against you. The Bible says that you have been bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20) and that price is the blood of Jesus. This means that no one can touch you because you are God’s possession. Through the sacrifice of the blood of Jesus flowing inside you, you are irreversibly blessed. God has blessed you with all heavenly blessings, and there is no man that can curse you! Numbers 23:23 says:

Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!

In Proverbs 26:2, you are reassured that:

As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.

If someone decides to curse you without a genuine cause, do not be moved and do not be afraid. Goliath cursed David and, in a few minutes, his head was in David’s hands. In fact, any fellow who tries to curse you needs your prayers because God’s word says in Genesis 12:3:

And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: …

What is that genuine cause that can make a curse active even on a believer? It is sin. After Balaam could not curse the people of Israel because they were blessed, they were tricked into sleeping with strange women, and before they knew it, they were cursed with diseases. If you want to be blessed beyond curses, after surrendering your life to Jesus, you must ensure that you live holy. A life without Jesus does not have protection against any curse. As long as you remain a child of God, you are untouchable to curses.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

I am quite sure that you are aware that over two thousand years ago, Jesus walked the face of the earth as a human being like you and me. However, are you deeply aware of the exact reason for which He came to the earth in human form? John 1:14 says:

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

What was Jesus’ purpose for coming to the world as a man? Let us examine some of the answers that the Bible gives us concerning this:

1. He came to call sinners to repentance. Matthew 9:13 says, “But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

2. He came to give eternal life. John 10:10 says, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

3. He came to heal, deliver and set the captives free. Luke 4:18 says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,”

4. To destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3: says, “… For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.”

Considering these scriptural references about Jesus’ purpose for coming into this world, has His coming had any impact on your life? If you cannot answer this question clearly, then you need to invite Jesus into your life, even if you have done so before. Surrender your life completely to Him today and make a commitment to live holy going forward. This way, the purpose of Jesus coming to the earth as a man will be fulfilled in your life, and you will live above sicknesses, diseases, captivity, and the works of the devil. You will enjoy abundant and eternal life in Christ Jesus.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

When you consider the word ‘husband,’ you will see its similarity with the word ‘husbandry’. Husbandry has to do with caring for and cultivating crops and livestock. This gives us insight into the duty of husbands; they are to tend their wives like gardens for their potential to blossom. They should nurture their potential and make them more beautiful and fruitful than when they met them. People admire some men’s wives because those men tend their gardens well. The way a man tends his garden is a reflection of the kind of person he is.

Gardens bring beauty to homes; if a garden is fruitful, then the family will be nourished with healthy fruits, vegetables, and fresh air. However, if a garden is filled with thorns, a lot of pain and parasites will exist in that home. Many married men who are always miserable and sad often complain about their wives not making them happy. Their wives can’t make them happy when they are sad and miserable; it is only what they receive that they can give. If you’re a husband, what you should put in your wife is what you want. Take care of her and make her happy; she will make you happy too. Before you buy a shirt for yourself, buy a dress for her. If you call her a witch and maltreat her, know that you made her one because when you were courting, you were calling her an angel. It is after she entered your house that she became a witch.

Another definition of husbandry, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is the management and conservation of resources. Many husbands don’t seem to see anything special in their wives; those are bad husbands. A good husband will see the potentials in his wife in the form of her talents and giftings and will help her manage them properly to yield the best results. As a husband, in managing your wife’s resources, you should also manage her excesses and shortcomings; that is the aspect of weeding in husbandry. Those shortcomings will try to hinder her talents from blossoming, but it is your duty to identify them and reduce them to the barest minimum.

A good husband does not complain about his wife’s shortcomings; he manages them to ensure they don’t stop her gifts from blossoming. A good husband will patiently work with his wife to overcome her shortcomings and enhance her talents. The great women out there also have their shortcomings, but thank God they have good husbands. They are great achievers notwithstanding and are making their husbands proud today.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

Yesterday, I started teaching on the importance of living by God’s principles. Today, I will conclude the teaching.

I thank God for His grace, but I also thank Him for making me study mathematics before I became born again. If there is anything mathematics teaches you, it is that certain formulas will only work if you meet certain conditions. For example, in a right-angled triangle, the sum of the squares of two sides will be equal to the square of the hypotenuse. This will always be true, whether on Earth or on the moon. It is foolish for anyone to try to get certain results without first meeting the necessary conditions. Even Jesus Christ had to be baptised by John the Baptist to fulfil one of the conditions for success in His assignment on Earth (Matthew 3:15).

Do you know that there are many people whose breakthroughs have already been released by God, but they are yet to experience it? The door they have been asking God to open was already opened a long time ago; God is only waiting for them to do what they need to do to walk in. Unfortunately, many people are wasting the answers to their prayers just because they refuse to obey simple principles. I have always told my children, even though the Almighty God had said that Sarah would give birth to a son for Abraham and had quickened their dead bodies according to Romans 4:19, if Abraham had not been intimate with her, Isaac would never have been born. Many miracles have already been released by God to many of His children, but instead of them to do what they need to do to get the miracle, they are being mis-spiritual. By mis-spiritual, I mean spirituality in the wrong direction. Can you imagine a couple looking for the fruit of the womb not being intimate with each other, but observing prayer vigils daily? Or a student who has not studied at all, praying all night to pass an exam that is slated for 7am in the morning?

True spirituality does not suspend the senses; in fact, true spirituality births wisdom because wisdom is a gift of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:.

I pray for you today, mis-spirituality will not be your portion, in Jesus’ name. The devil will not make you blind to the principles that will birth your breakthrough. You will be inspired to do everything that you need to do to receive all that the Lord has provided for you this season, in Jesus’ name.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

Many Christians complain that things are not going well for them even though it has been a while since they confessed Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. The question I often ask such Christians is, “Since you received Jesus Christ into your life, have you been living by His principles?” It is a good thing to have Jesus in your life, however, you must ensure that you also live by His principles if you want to experience positive changes in all aspects of your life.

No matter how spiritual you are, certain principles must be applied for certain things to work in your life. For example, the Bible says that he that does not work should not eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10). No matter how prayerful you are, if you are lazy, you may not escape poverty (Proverbs 6:10-11).

Shortly after I became born again, tapes of many pastors teaching the power of positive confession were circulating around the Christian community. They would say things like, “You will become whomever you say you are. Just confess good; say what you want to see in your life.” Although this message is correct, many took it the wrong way. Lazy Christians continued being lazy, while the uneducated ones did not pursue education to enhance their ability to earn. They all just kept confessing, “I am rich, I am not poor,” “I am a landlord, I will never beg,” and so on, but nothing changed in their lives.

If you want change, you must adopt the principles of God. One of His principles is in Luke 6:38; if you don’t sow seeds, you shouldn’t expect a harvest. Being stingy and yet praying for God to bless you is like being a farmer who did not plant any seed but who goes to his farm every morning to pray that yams should grow there. During the season of harvest, when he digs the ground to get yams, he will find nothing there because he planted nothing.

Some other principles of God which I will like to mention are: Do unto others what you want them to do to you (Matthew 7:12), exercise control over your mouth (Psalm 141:3) and your appetite (Proverbs 23:1-3), let others praise you, don’t praise yourself (Proverbs 27:2), always do things in steps, start small and grow from there (Zechariah 4:10), whatever you embark on, ensure that you plan properly for it to be achieved successfully (Luke 14:28). These and many more are principles of life that may not necessarily lead you to hell if they are not practised, but will definitely help you to live a better life on earth if they are.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

Miracles happen when God suspends one or more laws of nature. For example, when Jesus walked on water, He suspended the law of gravity. Many times, it is difficult to explain a miracle to someone who does not know God because you will be trying to explain how a law of nature suddenly lost its effect. The good news, however, is that it does not matter what the world may say; my Daddy is the miracle-working God, and miracles happen when He steps into a matter.

In 2 Kings 6:1-7, when the sons of the prophets were cutting wood so they could build a bigger dwelling place for themselves, the axe head that one of them was using fell into the water, and he cried to Elisha. The young man cried because he knew that, according to the law of nature, when a heavy metal like an axe head drops in the water, it will sink to the bottom. He also knew that no one amongst them could swim to the bottom of the water to pick up the axe head. He thought he was finished, but thankfully, he called on a representative of the Miracle Worker on Earth for help. The moment the Miracle Worker was introduced to the situation, hope came. All Elisha did was to simply reverse the law of nature. He put a little stick into the water, it went to the bottom of the river, and the heavy axe head swam to the surface. The Miracle Worker will reverse any law of nature to bring hope to every hopeless situation in your life or around you today, in Jesus’ name.

Do you need a miracle? Are you in a situation where you know that the only way out is if God intervenes? All you need to do is cry out to Him today. Don’t try to work things out on your own; take out time to cry to Him until you hear a word from Him. Doctors are helpless when faced with incurable diseases, but with The Great Physician, no disease is incurable. If the body part is so damaged that it cannot be repaired, He will simply replace it because He is the manufacturer. Some financial situations are so terrible that the best finance consultants cannot solve them, but my God can bring money out of the mouth of a fish to solve financial problems.

Beloved, call on Him today and let Him work a miracle in your life.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

To live a blessed and fulfilled life, you must be a blessing to others. A stream is clean because the water keeps flowing, but stagnant water stinks because it retains whatever it has to itself.

If you only look for what to eat, you will likely get enough to survive on, even though you might sometimes have to skip some meals. However, if you constantly seek to feed many people, your meals will never be a problem because you cannot feed many people while you are hungry. If you seek to buy cars for others, you will have a car to drive yourself. The more people you desire to be a blessing to, the more resources will come your way, and the more blessed you will be.

It may seem worldly-wise to be selfish, but the word of God says that when you scatter, you will increase (Proverbs 11:24-26). Students who teach their peers after classes may appear to be very generous, and that is true, but do you know that they understand the subject better as they teach it to others? Such students may be helping their peers, but really, they are helping themselves more.

When you tell your friends and family about Jesus, seeking to save their souls, it is out of love because you don’t want them to burn in hell. However, the more you preach the gospel, the more grounded you will become in Christ. Firstly, you will see miracles happen (Mark 16:15-18), and this will make your faith even more real to you. Secondly, the Holy Spirit will inspire you on what to say when you preach. Believe me, some of the things I say on the altar are new to me. These revelations, because they came through me, have a better rooting in me than in anyone else. Thirdly, a fellow who preaches the gospel and makes disciples has one more reason not to backslide no matter how tough the temptations get because he wouldn’t want the disciples to see him backsliding.

Being the General Overseer of the RCCG is a sacrificial role that God gave to me, but it has also helped me stand stronger in the faith. Since the early days, I have become my own watchdog not to backslide. If people often call you to pray for them, you cannot be prayerless because you will have to pray for them.

Beloved, you will be blessed much more if you choose to be a blessing to others.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

The Bible says that a man cannot take fire in his bosom and not be burnt (Proverbs 6:27). Fire in this context is sin. If a believer is allowing sin or an appearance of sin around him or her, he or she is taking fire in his or her bosom and will eventually be burned.

I learned from Joseph’s story that when the devil is determined to bring a man down, he will position temptation around him such that he will keep seeing it continually. He knows that if the temptation is right in front of the fellow every day, it is only a matter of time before he falls. This is why I have always told my children that they must not have a secretary or personal assistant who is of the opposite sex. It is better not to bring the temptation anywhere near you than to believe that you can resist it.

A common adage in Yoruba land says, if you will not eat it, don’t smell it. If a man has been asking you for a relationship that you know will lead to sin, why are you still answering his calls? If you are always tempted to steal, why will you agree to help your group or department keep the money they have contributed? You must stay far from whatever you know can lead you to sin because the devil is described as a serpent. A serpent is very subtle and cunning. As dangerous as it is, it can crawl right beside you without you realising it. You may have sworn that you will never do something, but if you allow that thing around you, the devil will cunningly get you to do it.

The elders say that it is through an opening in a wall that the lizard gains entrance into the house. When you give room to temptation around you, you have opened up the wall of your soul, and it is only a matter of time before sin creeps in. Unfriend that friend who always suggests sinful things, relocate from that area where you are more susceptible to committing sin, delete whatever is on your phone that can lead you to sin, and just do whatever it takes to get sin far away from you. It is better to lose these things and make it to heaven than to retain them and go to hell.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

In Exodus 14:5-31, the Israelites were in a terrible situation. Behind them, the Egyptian army was charging at them, and in front of them was a great sea they could not swim across. There was no humanly possible solution to their problem, yet they turned to a fellow human, Moses, for help. Thank God Moses was wise enough to turn to God because, at crossroads like that, the only way out is the way God provides.

In situations like the one the Israelites were in, you should face God and say, “Lord, this Red Sea must part. I will not let You go except You make a way for me.” Those are not times for gentlemanly prayers; they are times for violent prayers such that God will know that you will not rest until you get a miracle.

I remember one time that I was in such a situation. I lay flat on the road in the middle of the night at Redemption City, crying to God desperately for help. When there is a serious problem and there is no way out, I hold on to God in prayers, and I don’t let go until He parts the sea and makes a way for me.

In Matthew 15:22-28, the Canaanite woman knew that the only solution to her daughter’s problem was with Jesus, so she did not let anything deter her; she pestered Him until she got what she wanted. The woman with the issue of blood had gone to all the doctors in the land and spent all her money, yet the illness remained. She knew that the only way out of her problem was to make contact with Jesus, so even though the crowd was great and she was weak from all the bleeding, she pressed through until she touched Him and got her healing.

Maybe the reason some Christians are relaxed in the place of prayer is that they cannot see how close the enemy is to them. Maybe they cannot see that the devil is doing all he can to win the battle over them. Beloved, don’t wait until it is too late; pray now! Don’t condone that problem any further; deal with it now. Stop thinking that your solution is with any man when only God can help you. If you call on Him to make a way for you where there is no way, He will do it. Are you ready to pray now?
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

While I was in secondary school, my teacher told us that every human being came into the world with a pillow of suffering which they must use before they leave the earth. You can choose to use your pillow of suffering when you are young so that you can enjoy your life when you are old, or you can keep it intact and enjoy yourself when you are young. However, you must understand that you will surely use the pillow when you are old.

If you decide to use your pillow of suffering when you are young, you will put yourself through strict discipline. You will study while others are playing, attend vigils while others are partying, build a good character while others are engaging in vices, and save while others spend all their income. Hebrews 12:11 says that periods of discipline may not seem pleasant, but they bring peace of mind in the future. Those who do not put themselves through discipline early in their lives will surely have their pillows of suffering waiting for them in the future. The choice is yours, go through the suffering of discipline now, or face the consequences of indiscipline later.


Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. – Ecclesiastes 7:8

Your end is more important than your beginning. It doesn’t matter if you are from a poor background; what matters is that you don’t die poor. It doesn’t matter if you were heading to hell; what matters is that you end up in heaven. Don’t trade your tomorrow for the short-term pleasures of today. Esau was hungry, and he traded his right as the firstborn for a plate of porridge; he traded generational blessings for a single plate of porridge! Today, we would have been talking about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Esau, but Esau gave his position to Jacob because he wanted to eat porridge. You might say that Esau was foolish, but many people are doing the same thing today. There are people who were destined to be great prophets but never fulfilled their destiny because of five minutes of sexual immorality. Some potential owners of multinational businesses trade working on their business ideas for a little more sleep every night.

Beloved, the cost of discipline today is nothing compared to its gains in the future.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

PRAYERS FOR YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD

1. Thank You Lord for my neighbourhood. Thank You for all my neighbours and the leaders in my community.

2. Father, I pray that Your kingdom will be established in my community. Let Your will be done at all times in my neighbourhood, in Jesus’ name.

3. Father, please deploy Your angels to protect us in my community. Let no evil overcome us, in Jesus’ name.

4. Father, please let this community be uncomfortable for evildoers. I displace them from this community, in Jesus’ name.

5. Father, I put all the children in this community in Your hands. Let them be godly, and let them grow to become global champions, in Jesus’ name.

6. Father, please let the weather in this community be favourable for our health and well-being, in Jesus’ name.

7. Father, please let the government establish laws and execute policies that will favour us, in Jesus’ name.

8. Father, please use me to bring everyone in this community close to you. Please help me to cause a revival in my community and let all my neighbours surrender their lives to You, in Jesus’ name.

9. Father, please give the leaders of this community wisdom to direct our affairs. Let them make the right decisions that will make the community better, in Jesus’ name.

10. Father, mark every home in this community like the homes of the Israelites in Exodus 12:13. Don’t let death or sorrow have any place in this community, in Jesus’ name.

11. Lord, let my community be a blessing to the nation. Let us bring honour to our country, in Jesus’ name.

12. Your personal prayer point for your neighbourhood.

Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

God does not give miracles to proud people. I have noticed that everyone who got a miracle from Jesus approached Him in humility. The leper in Matthew 8:2-3 worshipped Him, the centurion in Matthew 8:5-10 didn’t send a messenger but came personally to ask Jesus to heal his servant, and the woman in Matthew 15:22-28 was practically insulted by Jesus when He likened her to a dog, but she took no offence. On the other hand, everyone that would have gotten a miracle from Jesus but didn’t, exhibited pride in one way or the other, especially the people of His hometown (Matthew 13:54-58). The Bible says that He was only able to do a few miracles there.

Naaman almost died a leper because of pride. He went to the prophet for healing and was told to go and wash in River Jordan. He got angry and wanted to return to his country to die as a leper because he thought that a man of his calibre should not wash in the Jordan river. Thank God for his servants who talked sense into his head.

Sometimes, God will give me an instruction that sounds childish during our Holy Ghost Services. Because I am a child in His hands, I will tell the people what He says, and those who are not too big to obey the childish instruction will come back to testify about how they got their miracle after obeying Him. One time, God told me to call out all those who had back pains and dance around them. That was a very childish thing to do, but I obeyed, and when I was done, their back pains had disappeared, and they could all bend over to touch their toes conveniently.

If you are too proud to submit to a man of God, you cannot get a miracle through him. If you are too big to carry out an instruction because it seems beneath your social status, you cannot get a miracle. You must humble yourself before the Most High God if you want to enjoy His miracles. It amazes me that people consult doctors in humility, answering all their questions and surrendering their bodies for examination and treatment, but when they come to God, they act in a proud manner as if they know more than Him.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

Hebrews 11:3 says that the world was created by God through His words. God is a Spirit (John 4:24), and everything you see in this world has its root in the spirit realm. A tree’s roots are a primary determinant of its state, so in the same vein, things in the physical realm are determined by the spirit realm. For example, in Exodus 14:16, Moses stretched his rod and parted the Red Sea. Ordinarily, a sea cannot be parted by stretching a rod; there had to be a spiritual force working on the sea, and that force was what parted it. Now, when you consider that the fellow stretching the rod was a physical being, then he must have had a connection with the root of all things on the earth to control the sea, and that connection is with God. Believe me, if you are a true child of God, there is nothing on earth that you cannot control. You have complete authority over everything because Psalm 82:6 says that you are a god.

Many years ago, we were to have Bible Study at a professor’s house at the University of Ibadan, but then it started raining. We were so many that the sitting room couldn’t contain us, so I used my authority as a child of God to command the rain to stop. The rain stopped, and we had our Bible Study. Not long after we finished, some other people arrived. They were surprised to see that it wasn’t raining in the professor’s compound because the reason they arrived late was that it was raining everywhere else on the campus. The moment you become a child of God, you have authority over everything that has its root in the spirit realm and that includes the weather, elements of nature, and even demons. If you are a part of God’s family, you are a king, and where the word of a king is, there is power (Ecclesiastes 8:4).

You must note, however, that if a fellow is not a true child of God and tries to exercise God’s authority, he or she will be disgraced like the sons of Sceva (Acts 19:13-16). You must note also that whatever you use your authority to decree must be in line with the word of God. A house divided against itself cannot stand (Matthew 12:25). If you are really a child of God, you will act in line with the word of your Father.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

Today’s cell phones are extremely effective; with them, you can communicate with anybody in the world. Despite this being a positive thing, you must be careful not to live under your phone’s influence. You must not get addicted to your phone or live by it because Jesus said that man is to live by every word that comes out of God’s mouth (Matthew 4:4). Your Bible is what you must be addicted to and live by, not your phone. If you are not conscious of this, your phone may easily replace the word of God in your life, and this is quite dangerous because the Bible says that our God is a jealous God (Exodus 34:14).

When you wake up in the morning, do you pick up your phone first or your Bible? You may say that you pick up your phone to check the time, but really, do you study the apps on your phone first or the verses in your Bible? Throughout the day, what do you have more on your mind, what you saw on your phone or what you read in the Bible? You are to meditate on God’s word day and night, not on social media feeds and reels. When you want to start a conversation with your friend in your DM, what interesting thing do you start with, a funny meme or a Scripture? Ephesians 5:19 says that we are to speak to each other in psalms and hymns, but many no longer have such conversations; it is all about celebrity gossip and memes. Can you see that there is a need to repent if your heart has been drawn away from God for so long without you knowing it? It is time to return to God’s word and become addicted to it again. It is time to begin to study the word first thing in the morning and last thing at night every day.

If your heart has been drawn away from God, to bring your heart back to God’s word, you will have to exercise a lot of self-control. You must take decisive actions and stick with them. For example, decide to charge your phone far from you and put your Bible beside your pillow at bedtime. This way, you will read it before you sleep and pick it up when you wake up. You may need to delete some apps that you are addicted to. The time spent on them can be put to better use in prayers and the study of the word of God.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

As I conclude my teaching on good followership which I started some days ago, it is important to note that no matter how strong leaders may appear to be, they need to be encouraged sometimes by their followers. This is primarily because leadership is full of ups and downs. During the down moments, encouraging leaders will go a long way in helping them to succeed. Speaking words of encouragement, sending gifts, and honouring your leaders in whatever way you can, will help them feel encouraged to keep going, despite the burden of leadership.

Many years ago, I felt discouraged. I had resigned from my lucrative lecturing job to become the church’s General Overseer and spent almost all my time praying for people and teaching them. There was a lot of burden on me, yet it seemed no one appreciated my efforts. One day, I was so discouraged and tired of my position as the General Overseer and then I fell asleep in my office. When I woke up, a young girl was in my office with a cake. She said that God had told her to bring me the cake. I don’t really like cakes, but I ate it because I was really touched by her thoughtfulness. When God lays it in your heart to do something to encourage your leader, please do not hesitate to do it; it may be the difference between the leader giving up or continuing the work.

A good follower will always try to reduce the stress on a leader rather than add to it. Leaders are human beings like you; they face challenges just like you do, and even more as a result of the leadership position they occupy. You may not be able to totally relieve them of the stress that comes with leadership, but you can encourage them so they don’t feel all their effort is a waste, and so they can keep doing more. Some years ago, I was really down, but what helped me to get up and keep going was the message of one of my daughters in the Lord. She said, “Daddy, let God carry you.” Your message may be what God will use to encourage your leader.

When Jesus was close to His crucifixion, He took Peter, James and John to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray alongside Him; He needed their encouragement for the task ahead.

Pray for your leaders. Sometimes, seeing that you are praying for them is the encouragement they need to keep going.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

One major leadership challenge is that some people see leaders as being superhuman when they are not. I mentioned yesterday that leaders need help sometimes, but beyond that, you should also note that they can make mistakes.

When leaders err, people are sometimes afraid to correct them. However, leaders need to be corrected so they don’t put their followers in trouble. I’m sure one of David’s regrets was not listening to Joab when he was told not to conduct a census because it led to the death of over 70,000 of his followers (1 Chronicles 21:1-14).

As a good follower, you must not keep quiet when you see your leader going in the wrong direction; respectfully correct them. Years ago, I published a book in which I tried to justify the statement of the midwives in Exodus 1:15-19, where they said that the Hebrew women were very strong and delivered their babies without assistance. Somebody who read the book boldly came to me and said, “I know you are the General Overseer, but sir, this justification is wrong.” I realised the error, thanked him, and said, “I will go to God; He knows I didn’t mean to lead anyone astray.” I re-wrote the book, stood before the congregation, and said, “I have made a mistake. I wrote something in this book that should not have been written. I apologise.” I added, “So we don’t keep remembering it, I won’t tell you what the mistake is, but I want you to return the copies you have bought, and for every copy you return, I will give you two.” I got all the books back and burnt them. Thank God someone was bold enough to correct me. Today, with how God has increased our influence, it would have been difficult to erase that error from the minds of people in the body of Christ if that fellow had felt that I could not be corrected.

In correcting a leader, ensure that it is for the good of the leader and other followers rather than to show that you know better. Discuss with the leader privately, showing love and respect. Present the matter in a way that will be easy to accept, or find someone that is closer to the leader to present it on your behalf. The leader might find it easier to take the correction from that fellow than from you.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

Yesterday, I said that being submissive to a leader and seeking common interests above personal interests are attributes of a good follower. Today, I will discuss more attributes of a good follower.

Leaders are not omnipotent; they need help sometimes. Good followers recognise that their leader needs help and seek to provide it before the leader asks for it. They watch to see which areas they can support the leader in and provide the support as needed.

In Exodus 17:8-13, Moses did not ask for Aaron and Hur’s help. He did not even explain why he was stretching his hands towards the battlefront. They both saw him stretching his hands and noticed that they were winning as he did so. They also noticed that his hands were getting tired, so they went to him, gave him a stone to sit on, and held up his hands. That is good followership, the kind that will make a leader surmount any mountain that stands in his or her way.

Sometimes, supporting your leader will not be convenient. When Aaron and Hur helped Moses, they were not sitting down, neither was anyone helping to hold their own hands up. They must have gotten tired too, but they stayed like that until the battle was over. Sometimes, when you step in to help your leader’s weakness, others might laugh at you and even call you names. However, you must not fail your leader; you must take whatever comes with helping out.

It is a terrible thing when followers take advantage of their leader’s weaknesses. Some followers, because their leader doesn’t know how to keep track of money, start stealing from the accounts instead of helping to manage them. Some others tell people about their leaders’ weaknesses to discredit them. If there is someone in the Bible that every follower should study, it is David. Even though he had already been anointed as the next king of Israel in (1 Samuel 16:13) and had done many exploits (1 Samuel 17:48-51), (1 Samuel 18:5-7), even though he had seen Saul’s weaknesses (1 Samuel 16:23), he remained loyal and never discredited the king. While running for his life because Saul was trying to kill him, he got the opportunity to kill Saul but didn’t do it (1 Samuel 24:4-13) – that is a good follower! As a result, he not only fulfilled his destiny, but the King of kings, who is also called the Son of David, came from his lineage (Revelation 22:16).
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.