Minister: Pst. Tayo Fasan
The Lord is using this season to prepare us for the seasons ahead. What God is currently doing with us now, if He had His way, He would have equipped us from ages 15 to 18. Jesus already understood the full purpose of a man and his role in the family even before He was 20.
The answer to the ills of society today can be traced to the fall of the family in Eden. To solve the problems of society, God has to restore the family, and in doing this, God has to restore headship.
As men, to be the head of the home, we have to be under the lordship of the Head. We must be under the Lord in everything: in our finances, in our use of time, in decision-making, and in every other area of our lives.
As men, to maintain a positive atmosphere in spite of the evil in society and the vexations of our souls is to be filled with the Spirit. We should allow the Scriptures to freely permeate our souls. It is not only when we come to church that we hear the voice of God. We should be hearing God even before we arrive at church.
The hope for change in the community of Nigeria is for us to be raised with the formation of God on the inside of our souls. Change will not come from without. Most times, we expect it to come from outside. But in God’s standard, change comes from within.
Psalm 68:6 KJV ‘God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.
These chains are invisible chains, as also seen in Colossians 2:8.
Colossians 2:8 KJV “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”
Philosophies, vain deceits, and the like are the things Satan uses to imprison men. They are invisible chains that make us, as men, keep a life of sin.
When we are fully purged of these things, we will become a new man who can appear in Zion. Such a one has been freed from the expression of the old man and from his family background and upbringing.
For God to order the steps of the solitary, He orders his steps into a family. The Church of God, first, is a family. Adam and Eve were the first family God raised, and it was His plan to colonise the whole earth through one man, Adam. God’s agenda is that, in the same way the earth has been colonised with sin, it will also be colonised with righteousness.
As young men, we should bear this burden even before we get married. The burden is that our family should be a medium for righteousness to reign on the earth. We should aim for our union to be a reference point to showcase the relationship that exists between Christ and the Church. We must bear this burden as men, even before we think of courtship or getting married. This burden will drive us to the place of prayer.
If we do not bear this burden, we will bear a different and wrong burden. Our burden should be an answer to the burden of God’s heart concerning how a family should look.
God wants to save the solitary. The solitary can be someone who is physically lonely. It also refers to someone who lives contrary to the instructions and laws of God even though they were raised in a family or household. A person can be born in a household and still be lonely and live in solitude if the person is not raised by God’s standards. This is why, sometimes, God leads us to stay with other married people in the Lord to deal with abnormalities in how we were raised in our families.
Psalm 68:6 ESV “God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.”
God wants to first make the soul prosper, and He does it by putting us in the home. God leading the prisoner to prosperity is within the family. However, Satan has made us think the home is a prison because of the laws governing it.
One of the ways the Lord prospers our souls in the family is through the place of service. When we have the opportunity to serve under the service of a minister, we should do it well, so that we are able to partake of all the blessings that are upon the set man of the household.
Genesis 50:19 KJV “And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?”
Joseph, for instance, yielded to the leadings of the Lord as he was led through three prisons: from the pit, to Potiphar’s house, and then to the prison. This is why he was able to grow to a place where he could stand in the place of God, due to the graces he gleaned by submitting to God’s training through three consecutive prison phases.
When God instructs us to serve in the Church and at home, what God is doing is that He is trying to call out a man in us.
We saw Paul talk about when he was a child. Paul being a child refers to a particular age. But he grew to become a man. God called out the man that was in the child Paul. We should yield to the Lord, calling out the man in us.
Psalm 68:6 ESV: “God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.”
God placed us in a family to call out the man in us, so that we become a Christ company on the earth. Christ company refers to those who have the laws and genes of Christ.
He leads out the prisoners to prosperity… (Psalm 68:6B ESV)
This prosperity is fruitfulness of life in thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and hundredfold.
There is a man in us, as men. Paul called Timothy a “man of God” (1 Timothy 6:11). This shows that a man has been fully formed in him.
For us, in measure, the reason why many of us do not have this man fully formed in us is that there is another man in us, a wrong man (Ephesians 4:22).
It is only when we become men, having served our jail terms before God, that God can say He knows us. God told Abraham, “I know you” in Genesis 18:19. This was because Abraham had been under God’s dealings, and his jail service term was over 24 years.
God had actually called the man in Abraham. No wonder we could see his preceding conversations, having borne in the Lord.
To be in prison is to live a life by instructions against our flesh. Anytime we do not have our way, but are subjected to God’s way, then we are in prison. The obedience we keep is a constraint on the life of the flesh we would normally live. This is a prison.
Paul called himself “the prisoner of Christ.” (Ephesians 3:1)
When it comes to keeping a home and leading a wife as men, it is to live a life by the keeping of commandments. This will raise us as priests over our homes. To be a priest is to have the power to cleanse infirmities.
1 Corinthians 15:49 ‘And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.’
We need the image of God to hold a home.
Every man has an image. The old man has an image, and so does the new. Everlasting life has an image, and so does eternal life.
Every understanding that comes to us from the Lord is an instruction. We should bear the fruits of it. As we keep the instructions, something is happening in us. We are journeying, and an image is being formed. An image is formed in the course of keeping commandments.
There was a commandment God gave Adam. Adam lost the war of obedience and fell. That is why, even now, Satan is currently operating through a family in the air (Ephesians 2:3–5)
The Lord wants to do a new thing in our lives. For every man who has once tasted of sin must return to repentance.
2 Corinthians 7:10 ‘For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
When we keep instructions, God is able to turn the wilderness of our souls into fruitful fields, which is a new thing God intends to do. Repentance will do a work in us that will make God make a way in our wilderness and give waters in our desert.
Isaiah 43:19 KJV ‘Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.’
2 Corinthians 7:11 KJV ‘For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.’
That repentance works upon a spirit, the self-same spirit. That spirit works ways!
To repent is to go against a particular way in us. And it works in us a work that makes us careful with commandments, our time, and how prudent we are. Repentance will plant in us indignation, an anger against sin, and a vehement desire.
The process of repentance is how they will call out the man in us.
Tongues and Interpretation (1)
For I am teaching your hands to war
For I am showing you how to war your adversary
For you see, your adversary Satan is fighting you,
Yet many of you are not aware that a battle is ongoing
For I am showing you a battle is ongoing; He is fighting you
You need to be aware of these battles, and you need to learn how to fight back
For I will show you how to fight.
That’s why I have brought a general to show you,
For he has fought many wars.
He has fought, and he has conquered
So listen to his words
For there are many battle marks on his soul;
Those marks are testimonies.
I also want you to have my testimony, so listen.
I want you to battle, win, and be victorious.
I want a house of victorious men
I don’t want a house where men are losing.
So listen and learn and respond to Me
I am calling you to respond to Me, My ways, My commandments;
I am calling you.. respond. Don’t ignore;
I am calling you in several ways; don’t ignore, respond to me.
In responding to me, I will show you how to fight and how to win.
I do not take you to the battle for the dead, where the enemy will kill you.
No, I am taking you to the battle to win and be victorious.
So go with me. Come war, come fight. Don’t be scared.
What will happen to those who did not go to war will be worse than what will happen to those who went to war.
Don’t be scared of that training. Go through it, and you will win,
Saith the lord.
Message ends.