Meeting: Sunday Service
Date: 19th April, 2026
Message: Living By Gods Ways as a Community
Minister: Pastor Laide Olaniyan
Community service is like a town hall meeting of the church where we’re led to teach or just need to attend to issues about how we live as a community. More people are joining the church, and sometimes, our culture in the spirit may be strange to them. For example, the culture of tongues and interpretation is strange to some people because they are not acquainted with the scriptures or grounded in church life. This is because the church community they were in before coming to our church community didn’t have such a culture. Everything we do in this community is by the spirit and in alignment with the word of God.
The culture of standing up during worship sessions is not compulsory and doesn’t necessarily mean that those who sit to worship are not reverencing God. Reverence is about your heart posture. Sometimes, to participate fully in the ministration of a song, you must embody the mannerisms of the person singing the song and the lyrics. Whether you are standing or sitting, what’s important is that you are connected to the message the song embodies.
There is no scriptural reference to standing as the accepted posture of worship. In fact, on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost came, it does not appear that they were standing. (Acts.2:1-4) – “1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
There is nothing wrong with stirring the people up and asking them to stand during ministration; it’s not a sign of respect or dishonor to the Holy Ghost when you sit or stand during worship. Sometimes, as a worship leader, one might be stirred up in one’s spirit to ask the people to stand up to worship the Lord. Also, as a congregation, the Holy Ghost might prompt you to stand, but it shouldn’t be a religion. We actually should not make a religion out of everything. What is most important and should be a standard is that we are in tune with the spirit.
It is the same with praise; it doesn’t need to be a moment for dancing. It is not compulsory for it to be streamlined into only songs with a fast pace, nor should worship be streamlined to songs with a slow pace. Praise is more of the content of the lyrics than the rhythm of the music. When we approach the word of God for the purpose of truth, it weans us from the vain conversations and traditions handed over to us (1 Peter 1:18).
The instructions concerning music, melody, and singing for the man in Christ were captured well in the following passage:
(Ephesians 5: 18 – 20) – “18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; 19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; 20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Psalms are spiritual odes – a spiritual poem. Some are set to a melody while some are not, and this is where chanting comes in. Thus, you can sing some sounds, and you have to chant to others. This is why in the book of psalms some of the instruments needed to play some sounds were stated, because both the lyrics and melody are spiritual.
According to Ephesians 5, a believer is a factory of melody when he is full of the Spirit. And some of the things that he churns out are spiritual melodies, which may not have any meaning, but bring an atmosphere of the spirit around him. A song is spiritual because it is spirit-breathed and spirit-inspired only.
(1 Corinthians 14:10) – “There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.“ No sound is without meaning when it comes to music. In advanced countries, they have made a breakthrough in how to manipulate people with sound. So, it is not every sound that is innocent; spirits ride on them.
It’s not just the lyrics that make a soul spiritual. There are fountains where the melody or tunes of the melody are birthed. When you listen to some chants, you can literally touch the presence and spirit behind them. You can sing a song in Igbo, and a Yoruba man can feel the presence because the song and melody were downloaded from the Spirit. You can even sing in a foreign language, and another foreigner can bear witness to the spirit that is accompanying the song.
In essence, all this is to say that OUR WORSHIP IS IN THE SPIRIT.
(Philippians 3:3-4) – “2 Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. 3 For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. 4 Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more.”
One key to worshiping God in the Spirit is to rejoice in Christ Jesus. When a person’s joy is embedded in the work Jesus Christ came to do on earth, such a person will be able to worship God in the spirit. So, it is primarily not your sitting or standing position that makes you a true or spiritual worshipper, rather it’s about what your confidence and hope are hinged on and the stream you are drinking from.
Paul spoke about the culture of the church in various books in the scripture, and the summary of it is that our culture is spiritual and our conversation is heavenly. In essence, there is nothing wrong with a fast genre of song; it is just important that we render it spiritually and skillfully.
David was called the sweet psalmist of Israel – he led Israel by the integrity of his heart and skillfulness of his hands – this is why God could use him to lead Israel. Sometimes, God is limited by the level of our skill, even though He doesn’t want us to have confidence in our skills. However, the more skillful a person is, the more versatile he can be – he has more propensity for versatility in the spirit. Skill does not translate to usability if a man is not yielded to the spirit. So, skill is necessary and good only as much as it’s subject to the spirit. The spirit can use it or leave it if it is not profitable to the intent that the Lord wants to achieve. In essence, worship – as in our reverence to God – is spiritual.
Some of us are not regulated enough to sit still and listen to the word; we get bored, and our attention span dies. This is why they use songs to ignite our souls. But we should be more ready to hear the word – “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.” – (Ecclesiastes 5:1) We should be able to endure hearing sound doctrine regardless of how long it’ll take. We need God to adjust our appetite.
To worship God is to connect in the spirit and align with the spirit of the house; it doesn’t matter whether we sit or stand.
On the issue of Tongues in the Church. Many of the cultures have been abused because they were done in isolation from the character and nature of the spirit. Every gift of the spirit should stand on the character and nature of the spirit. The discipline of the body is that we exercise ourselves until we gain mastery in the spirit. It takes a while for people to grow in the culture of the spirit in the giving of tongues. We need to learn constraints, the mind of the spirit, preferring another who is also giving tongues – all these are part of the culture of giving tongues, but not everyone has grown to learn this. While it is valid that order is necessary in the church, some people have quenched the Spirit in the church due to the different expressions of the Spirit. Pa Hagin said he’d rather have a wildfire in his church than have no fire. The existence of false manifestations of the spirit should not make us reject the spirit altogether. This makes guidance from the word on the move of the spirit very important.
God desires that we operate in the gifts of the Spirit, especially in our homes. He wants our homes to be such a haven of the spirit that we won’t have to come to church before the spirit moves.
(Acts 6:5) – “And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch.”
(Acts 8:26) – “And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.”
Phillip preached in Samaria, got the whole city converted, brought Peter to pray for the Christians there so they could be baptized by the holy ghost, and signs and wonders were wrought there through him. From Samaria, the Lord led him to the Ethiopian Eunuch. After this, he went to Syria. In Acts 21, Philip had become an evangelist.
(Acts 21:8-9) – “8 And the next day we that were of Paul’s company departed, and came unto Caesarea: and we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven; and abode with him. 9 And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy.”
From being just a brother in Acts 6, we see the progression of Philip in his spiritual journey. Even Paul and his company, who stayed with them, witnessed and testified to this. Can brethren come to our houses in this manner and find the Holy Ghost there? Our homes should be havens of the spirit, whereby any day, anytime brethren can come, they will find the Holy Ghost, get comfort, find direction and get strength because our homes are not ordinary.
Phillip had only daughters, four of them, and he was content. He didn’t feel unfulfilled because he did not have a son – that mentality of thinking fulfillment comes from having a male child is not a spiritual mentality, but man-made. We should be content in raising our daughters in the way of the Lord, just like Phillip did. He raised his children to be Godly – they were filled with the Holy Ghost and could prophesy.
The Lord will help us parents to cultivate an atmosphere of the spirit in our homes, where our children will pick Spirit. You can’t have a home full of strife and expect them to prophesy; instead, they will fight themselves with prophecy. It’s good to raise children in an atmosphere of righteousness, and it should start from the home before they come to church. If we can’t have the spirit move in our homes, then something is wrong. We should come from home full of the Holy Ghost.
Unannounced, Paul and his company visited Phillip and stayed there for many days – Phillip and his family didn’t grumble or murmur. We can’t have homes in the community, and people get stranded. We need to be built such that brethren and people can come and live with us without us feeling inconvenienced.
The culture of brethren staying with brethren didn’t start with our company; it is scriptural. It is a pattern of discipleship in the scriptures. We just see one another on Sunday and admire what we see on the outside. Can we see the life we live in your house, too, if we come unannounced? Can we see the life we don’t see every Sunday, but you live every day? Can we see how you keep the Spirit in the house, at work? Some of us live separate lives at work and at home. Our life should be one. The same life at work, at home and in church. We should have the same discipline of the Spirit. God designed our homes to be havens where disciples will be raised – cultured children that are godly, righteous and spirit-filled.
Some brethren will stretch our patience – they’ll visit and not go home again. But can we stay filled with the Holy Ghost for as long as they stay? Trusting the lord for provision for their welfare for the period of time they choose to stay? Patience must have her perfect work inside of us. We need to get rid of the nuclear-family mindset we have; otherwise, we won’t be able to accommodate brethren and strangers according to the spirit.
(Acts 21:10-13) – And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus. And when he was come unto us, he took Paul’s girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. And when we heard these things, both we, and they of that place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.
There are some home atmospheres you get to that are hostile to the Holy Ghost. One can hardly connect to God there; that must not be our homes. The essence of the Holy Ghost is not just to speak in tongues in church; we should use the Holy Ghost to relate to our family members, brethren, and everyone around us. Let the culture of word and Spirit be found in our homes. Our homes should be havens of the Spirit, such that we can bring one who is not taught or enlightened, like Apollos was, and he comes to witness the life that you preach.
(Acts 18:25) – And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. No.26. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.
They recognized his deficiency, welcomed him into their home, and expounded the way of God more to him. We must learn to use the way in our homes.
(Genesis 18:19) – For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.
(Genesis 24:27) – And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth: I being in the way, the LORD led me to the house of my master’s brethren.
Men like Eleazar were men given to the ways of the Lord. As a young man, you can be a man of the way. Eleazar found Rebecca as a wife for Isaac while being in the way. A person can know scriptures but not know the way. The ways of the Lord are the cultures and judgments of the Spirit held as life. God wants households, men and women who will be known to be followers of His ways. If we don’t excel in these things, we won’t move forward. We must see all situations in our homes as the Lord’s orchestration for salvation’s sake.
One of the signs of a well-fed baby who has taken adequate milk is that such a one will be filled with faith, the Holy Ghost and wisdom. We can use the wisdom of the spirit to manage the assignment given to us. This builds an attitude of taking responsibility, with the help of the Holy Ghost, and of ensuring that things are sorted and that problems have solutions. To be full of the Holy Ghost is to be responsible. We show the fruits of our prosperity in the Spirit in how we handle responsibilities. Abraham left the destiny of his child in the hands of Eleazar (Gen. 24:27). Through the help of the Holy Ghost, we can be made excellent in handling responsibilities. Many times when we struggle with tasks, it’s because there is no breakthrough in the required wisdom needed to handle them. If you are in tune with the Holy Ghost, He will instruct you on how to go and attend to tasks and chores.
We must learn the culture of reverence. The church is a spiritual shrine, a shrine of the Holy Ghost, and we must be mindful of our attitude and movement in the church. We must be mindful of disorderliness and not miss out on the fullness of the Holy Ghost. It’s in our personal communion that we learn reverence; when we learn to reverence the Holy Ghost personally, then we will learn how to do so even when we come to a corporate gathering.
We must also learn not to provoke one another; we should not do anything that will not build up our brethren. We now find worldliness creeping into the church through our actions, which are driven by lust, and these actions end up inciting competition. (1 Cor. 6:12) must be our way as a company.
If we are not careful, the life we live will be far away from the word we are hearing. Marriages should not be done out of lust or the need to feed our flesh.
(1 Corinthians 10:23) – “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.”
We must be wise enough to know that some things are not necessary. We need to ask ourselves: what do I hope to achieve by my actions? We must know why you believed. That a person is getting married shouldn’t give room for lust. Outsiders shouldn’t rebuke us for what is being done within. We must be wise enough by the Spirit regardless of how the world dictates.
We have a culture of moderation and modesty by the spirit. As much as there is no law regarding some things, we should know what is not healthy for our souls. We must be decent. There are certain things that should be far from us. Things that have been given to us by the Holy Ghost should be held with all reverence and godly fear. (Philippians 4:5) – Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.
Tongues and Interpretation
For where there is no law, there is no sin,
Even where law has not been established, sin has not come in,
This is a law for you to keep at this particular time,
It is the law of the spirit given to you for you to glorify God in your body,
Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Lord?
Pay attention to your spirit. If you walk enough with your spirit, you will know how to glorify me in your body,
It’s a law for you to pay attention; don’t live without the law.
Don’t live without yielding to the prompting of your spirit,
It is now a law that your moderation be made known unto all men,
It is a law that you need to keep and follow,
Anything aside from this is sin,
You need to fight to keep the law,
Even the law of your members, even the law of your assembly,
It is part of your law to fulfil that spirit may rest on what has been said and begin to fight things that will culture disobedience in you,
Anything done outside this is sin,
Keep the law, obey the law, live by grace, not by what you can afford, but by the grace of life that has been measured unto you,
It is now a commandment in the spirit that you glorify God in your body,
Live a sanctified bodily-filled life by obeying your spirit,
Follow your spirit,
Make no provision for flesh to fulfil its lust thereof,
Begin to cut down anything that can constitute provision for the flesh,
Cut friends that are ungodly,
Cut out from wrong influence, for evil communication corrupts good manners,
Keep yourself sanctified unto the Lord,
Begin to look at your circle of influence and begin to cut them down,
The spirit is enough to influence and intoxicate you,
Drink more into the spirit, and you will disobey the flesh,
Cut away flesh,
Learn to develop comfort from your brethren,
Learn to stay with your brethren,
Your brethren are a means of life.
Tongues and Interpretation
For there is pleasure in the spirit,
There is even pleasure in God,
There is nothing going on outside there that is pleasurable,
True pleasure is in Jesus,
For in Him, all pleasures fount from,
Jesus can give you pleasure, Jesus can pleasure you,
Life in the spirit is not a boring life, it is a pleasurable life,
Jesus is a fountain where pleasure and goodness flow, He is not a boring being,
He is pleasurable, pleasure after the order of His Father,
Yea, you are not being caged,
For that which you think is a cage is corruption, it will fade away,
For the fashion of this world is fading away, and you can pass away with it,
So I’m giving you wisdom to keep you in this wicked and perverse generation,
These are wisdoms of salvation, even to keep you. Cut down your appetite, what are you looking for….when you post the status, what are you looking for, what are you trending For…..are you looking for followers ? Look for Jesus, it negates the law of the spirit, even my law. I want you to be wholesome in the spirit and tighten your belt. What are you looking for? Look for Jesus, and you will glorify Jesus in your body, saith the spirit of God.
It’s not about whether your decision is beautiful or not; the most important question is, will it please God and will it build up my brother? The answers to these two questions must be in the affirmative. That’s fulfilling the two laws, loving God and loving our brethren.