MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL, CO-LABOURERS || DR. AKIN AKINPELU

You are about to go from your hard places, and you're about to move into your high places. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' most precious name we have prayed. How many of you have ever experienced a storm in your life? Put your left hand up. Okay, only a few people. How many of you have seen a major storm in your life before? Put your two hands up. Great. Because the word God put in my spirit as I entered the car to come here is that ministers of the gospel, co-laborers, God is helping us to navigate the tough seasons, and we are going from our hard places to our high places. It looks like the people I'm speaking to, they're in the Abuja church. Are they here tonight? I said God is moving you from hard places into high places. Let's begin from Genesis chapter 28. I'll introduce to you a man called Jacob. We start from verse 10, Genesis 28 and verse 10. Jacob— we have so much to talk about this man Jacob. Jacob was that boy, that brother that was holding his brother, and he didn't want his brother to come out before him. There was a lot of fight in the womb. So when you begin to look at that kind of fight in the womb, you'll be wondering what's going to happen when you come out, because right from the womb there was a strong contention. That's Jacob. Jacob was the one who saw an angel and held the angel bound and says, you are not going anywhere. In case they are looking for you in heaven and you want to go mark your roll call 'Until you bless me, you will be missing in the assembly of heaven.' He held and froze the angel. That was Jacob, who was mommy's boy. He was mommy's boy that to get the blessing over his brother, contention in the physical had to collide, get an extraordinary strategist who is the mother to be able to help him get the blessing very fast. I hope you know the blessing can be in your name. But if you don't get it at the right time, somebody else can stumble into your blessing. And we've seen that happen in generations, in generations and generations, that you can have 10 churches in a particular place and God can give a particular minister the inheritances of certain people around. And it will show that this person has what is called the double blessing of the tribe amongst where is. Somebody say amen to that. That was Jacob. Jacob was the man who took the blessing and ran. He was on the run. He ran away from the house. He couldn't stand his brother. He couldn't speak to his brother. He couldn't speak to his family. He was so, so, um, so he was so cautious of himself that he felt he has disappointed himself and people. And he began to run everywhere. He left his father, left his mother. Jacob left his brother, and he went very, very far. Jacob was a man on the run. And sometimes when you look at the journey of ministry, it's like you're a man on the run. You are running, you're running, you can't even catch your breath. Everything is on the go. Devotion is on the go. Counseling on the go, trusting God for personal things on the go. You are running and you're asking yourself, when am I going to stop running? When is this battle going to be over? How am I going to navigate this tough period of my life? What am I going to do about it? And he was running and running and running until one day. So let's go to verse 10, Genesis 28. We'll read a few verses there very quickly. If you are still with me, say amen. Amen. Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and he went towards Aran. Verse 11: So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night because the sun had set, and he took one of the stones of that place. This was Jacob that was disappointed. Frustrated, depressed. He had everything he wanted, but his life was not going well. He was facing a tough season. He was navigating a serious season of his life. And as powerful as he was in that time, Jacob was on the run. He ran to the point that he was so exhausted. He was so exhausted that he had nowhere to lay his head. And the next thing Jacob did was that he took one of the stones of that place, and he put his head on it, and he laid down in that place to sleep. I hope you know that when you pick up a stone to sleep on, is a hard thing to sleep on. Do you know that? It's not like your cushion pillows, beautiful pillows that you sleep on, and you're going to have a good rest, as it were. What was troubling him was so much that even if you give him a soft pillow, he wasn't going to sleep well. He slept on a hard pillow. Everything was hard for him. Another translation of the Bible calls it a rocky pillow. He was sleeping on the rocky pillow. He's gone through a lot in his life, in his ministry. All his survival ability was cut away. He couldn't go further, and he's telling himself How am I going to navigate this season of my life? He was sleeping on a rocky pillow. God sent me to ministers, collaborators, and everybody here. You have been going through a tough season and you have been sleeping on a rocky pillow. Everything has been hard for you. Life has been hard. Ministry has been hard. Some of you are at the point asking yourself, is it the same ministry that we are doing, that others are doing, except there's something else that they are doing. And you don't have the— I mean, somebody came to me and said to me, next week Saturday I'm about to see a man who is going to make my ministry to blow. He said, you will see wonders as this thing happens next week Saturday. He had already consulted a man who was from the devilish kingdom to tell, because the man told him that nobody rises in the kingdom except they have some negative powers. And he said I can't go over it. My general overseer told me if I cannot multiply the church to 400, I'm going to be sacked. I've been on 25, you know, shu state for many years, and I'm about to be sacked. And I know I'm called into ministry, but I need to add a few things to it. And he says— and I said, that journey, I pray you don't go. And I interceded overnight for him that he would know that's one journey in his life that he would not make, that he would— everything will prove abortive for him to get to that place. Everything hard. Everything is hard. Sometimes you have to do a lot to show up before people. Sometimes you have to dress well so that people can think that things are going well. Sometimes you have to learn the, the, the Christianese and the languages that you have to speak. And but you know that everything is hard. And it's hard. I've had my fair share of hardness in life. I've had hardness. I don't know if I ever shared it before. I had a terrible time. Everything was hard for me. Everything was hard. I hawked on the road, 16 things. I was on the road for many years of my life in the city of Lagos. I was hawking The first thing I hawked in my life was ice water. How many of you remember ice water? Ice water, the nylon you used to buy sugar. Okay, you guys don't buy? Okay, buy cubes. You are rich kids. There's no how in this country you wouldn't know what I'm saying. You know what I'm saying. You are just forming, you know it. Then you pour water into that nylon, you tie it put like 20 on a big ball and put blocks of ice on it, and you are on the road and you are screaming. The first time I was going to— I was going to sell on the road because we used to be rich. So when life happened, we've been rich, we've been poor, we became rich, then it now looks like the next poverty was now, you know. So it was a mix. So we were in private school, came back, you know, and, um, I was going to sell water because the only way we could survive was to hit on the road and sell. Everything was hard. I was on the road saying, "Cold ice water." I just noticed for 2 hours nobody bought water from me. 2 hours. Then one guy looked at me, EJK, and he said to me, "Guy, no be so." And he told me how to sell it. He taught me the language, the marketing, my first marketing class, and said to me, "You will shout and you say, 'Cold ice water, tuture.'" And see, it was like a miracle because in 5 minutes they began to call me. 50 kobol, 1 naira, they began to call me and I sold. It was many years after that I noticed that I was speaking bad English. I didn't check the induction language they gave me. Cold ice water, to to remain cold means ice. Ice is also water. In Yoruba, it's tutu. But you said arrogantly, you know. See, arrogance from ignorance is the worst thing that can ever happen to you. But life was hard. Life was hard. Life was hard. One day I was selling and a man looked at me and said to me that, ah, you speak so good English and you're hawking on the road. This not how life should be for you. Let's help you. And I thought, destiny helper has come. The man said come 9:00 a.m. Guess the time I got there? 8:00 a.m. Of what use is my destiny if they give me 9:00 a.m. and I'm getting there late? I don't have any reason in my destiny to show up late. I showed up 1 hour before. Guess the time the man came? He came 11:30. He was apologizing to me. I now said, sir, you can't apologize to me. I'm the one to apologize. There's nothing about my life. You have something to do with your life and you, you left it to come and meet me. I said, sir, I'm sorry. You see, he that is on the floor, he that is on the ground, he's is not afraid of a fall. I was down to my barest, and the man said, I like your spirit, follow me. I followed the man. We branched by a place where they were selling rice, beans, dodo, plantain. I don't know if you still do it, or you want to eat rice, you mix rice with beans, plantain, macaroni. That's how we— because it shuffles, you know. So, and the man just passed by the place. I said, my God, This man is not just God-sent, he's a caring man. How did he know that I have not had breakfast? And so I just— I began to pray for him in my heart. Then the game changed. I had a conversation between the man and the woman selling the food. The woman say, he don't come, say he don't come. Na imbi, that say na imbi. I go view work, go view work. I was like Isaac in front of his father. And all the other men. And he said, we have seen firewood, we know how to get the fire. One thing is missing here, the sacrifice. I hope I am not the sacrifice. I understood that this was not a destiny helper. This is a handler that carries you and drops you, like they carried Mephibosheth in the Bible. Mefibosheth, limp, no hand, no leg, carried by a nurse. He had everything complete and he fell down many times from the hand of the nurse. What is a nurse doing that a child can fall down many times from your hand? Less than 1-year-old baby and lost the limbs because the handlers dropped him. His life was— it became very difficult to live. Everything was hard. In school, it was hard. I wrote JAMB, hard. See, it's like hardness was my life. I was privileged to write JAMB a few times— 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. The 7th one, they seized it, because if I passed it, I would have been a JAMB ambassador, because they will give me a t-shirt. If you want to fill the JAMB form You know that Sulaiman, that guy that they put his name there, it would have been my name there to how you will fill your form, you know, those brochure. Everything I touched was hard. It was hard to go through life, hard. I sold buns, puff puff, chin chin, firewood. I sold— now the Nigerian Breweries gave us a kiosk to be selling only Amstel Malta product. Inside that kiosk, we sold 12 products. Even the one that concerns Nigerian Brews and the one that does not concern. Even the one that is against them. We, we sold 12 things inside of it. Everything was hard. Jacob laid his head on a hard pillow. He was a man on the run. You're here today, you're a minister. Of the gospel, you are going through hardness. Can I pause and pray for you in a minute? That in the name of the Lord Jesus, the days of your hardness, they about to be converted even into the days of your pleasure. That amen sounds like you don't believe it.

May the God of Heaven move you from your hard place and take you to your high places, in the name of Jesus.

Just sit down. Rocky pillow. He was sitting on that rocky pillow. Back to the scripture where we stopped. I think we're in verse 11. Let's go back to verse 11 so that we can read in through. Thank you. He said, and he took one of the stones that place and put it on his head. He laid down in that place to sleep. Pastors, in the midst of everything that looks difficult this season, one of the spiritual things you must do is to come into a spiritual spa and find rest. There is no how you can sleep on a hard pillow and find rest. You can't sleep overnight. The mosquitoes, the hardness—

how will you?

You would be changing your head almost every 5 minutes. But the Bible explained that he slept well. You must find rest. Rest in God. I hope you know God has a spiritual spa. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down. That's a spa, because you can't carry out surgery in motion. So for— you can be a powerful man, for surgery to happen inside of you, you will first sleep. Tell your neighbor, say sleep.

Sleep.

Say rest in God. Rest in God. No, see, you can be president of a nation, if they need to carry out surgery on you, you must be laid down. He made me to lie down in green pasture. You will first go down. You must come to the place of rest. Don't forget that this guy has not really gotten what he wanted. He just made him to lie down in green pastures. Then he began to lead him beside the still waters. Then he now restored his soul. You see that restoration now began to happen, but he first slept. Adam, you need a helper. Sleep. When you sleep, from your rib will bring out Eve. Rest is very powerful. Everybody shout rest! Let's move on. So the ministry is not working, find rest. You're struggling, rest. You're going through financial challenges in the ministry? Rest. What the promises of God told you is not looking like what you're experiencing? Rest. Tell your neighbor, say rest. So let's go to the next verse. So he dreamed. He dreamed. He dreamed. How can you dream on a rocky pillow? The dream he had was not a bad dream. It was not a lakala, because if you sleep on a hard place, you would have bad dreams. There are some mattresses that when you sleep, you can't sleep well. Then you have all kinds of— have you ever had a dream that scene 1 is not connected to scene 2? Scene 2 is By the time you wake up, you ask yourself, 7 things together, you can't put it together. But Jacob, he dreamed. That means he got into rest and he spent time dreaming. Sometimes— and that's the second point I want to teach you— is this: sometimes you may have nothing in your life and all you have is what you hold on to, and that's your dream. I know God told me that I'll be great. I know God told me that he would multiply me. I know that God told me he will send me to the nations of the earth. I know that God told me I'm the light of the world. I know that God told me he has made me a light to the nations of the earth. I know that God told me through, through me salvation shall appear to many places on the earth. I know this is what God told me. This is what God told me. I know it. And everything he told you, nothing else is responding. Every other thing hard. Marital life hard. Finances hard. Church growth hard. A lot of things hard. But he had one thing: he didn't stop dreaming. Can I tell you something, ministers? Sometimes all you hold on to in your life is what God told you, and you will stay with it. I believe what God says to me. I am who he says I am, and I'm going to stand on what he says, and his word is coming to pass in my life. And you will ensure that you don't let that dream go. If God ever told you, this is the, the, the scope of the vision that he's given to you hold on to it. He dreamed on a hard pillow. He dreamed. Can I tell you something? Your hard days are the days to actually get God. The hard times— call upon me in the days of your trouble, and I will show you great and mighty. So those days are the days of your showings. The hard days are the days of your showings. He wants to show you a lot of things. Day unto day uttereth speech, night unto night he what? He showeth knowledge. He loves to show knowledge in the night. Your night times are the days, are the times of your showings. I have a diary, a covenant book. I think when Gala was 40, I've been using that small book for like 24 years of my life, you see. And I began to write 24 years ago the things God told me will happen. And all I had at that time was just that book, the word of God in my spirit. I don't look like it, I don't smell like it, but that's all I had. I stayed with it, wrote it down, pasted things around to help my psychology. If you see me externally, there's nothing to love about it, but there was something I still had. I stayed to that which God said to me. The dream. One day I went for a minister's conference. And we finished ministers' conference. We're just on break, and somebody walked up to me without asking any question. He said, "Praise God." I said, "Hallelujah." He said, "We just bought a property of 48 million." Sir, I didn't ask you. I'm struggling to pay my rent. How much was my rent? 1 million. He said we bought it. He didn't say— he didn't say we bought it, we bought it cash. I left the ministers conference, I came to be boosted, but I left deflated. What they taught there did not matter to me again. I was embarrassed, I was bullied, I was emotionally down. God, is it not the same ministry that you called us to do? I remember one of the things I heard clearly is this: stay true to my word. Sometimes all you have is just that dream, that word, that vision. And you see, that thing that you have is a seed. You'll never die. I hope you know seeds don't die. Seeds are instinctive, they are intuitive, they are creative, and they are powerful. Have you seen some grasses grow on the roadside close to a wall? Like, they put asphalt on those seeds, they did all that they could to make them die, but these seeds stayed in the soil till they found— and it was hard for them to come out, but they looked for a place behind the wall, and they began to bring their head out. The word of God, he says to you, it will not return to him void until it accomplishes that which was sent to do. Sometimes all you have and you hold on to is the dream. It's the dream. Let's continue the scripture. I just want us to understand so that when I begin to teach, you understand better what I'm speaking about. Then he dreamed, and behold, A ladder was set up on the earth. That was the dream. So looking at the context of his dream, a ladder was set up on the earth and the top reached to heaven. Who built the ladder? Who is the carpenter? Because sometimes you read some things in the Bible, you need to question and say, okay, God rained manna. Who baked it? Who baked the bread that they ate? Where is the oven? He said in the dream he saw a ladder, and that ladder was set up on the earth, and number two, the top reached heaven. A ladder is a facilitator between the heaven and the earth. The ladder is the interface between the supernatural and the natural. But before he saw a ladder, He was in a hard place. Then in the hard place, he had a dream, and he dreamed and he saw a ladder that was on top of him. And remember, there was rest there. You see, the rest that God is bringing you into— you are about to have an encounter with a spiritual ladder. That every puzzle and riddle in your life that you have not been able to solve, and it's been a riddle to you for many years, in the name of the Lord Jesus, in this High Ministers Conference 2024, may you encounter a ladder that takes you from here to there.

There's a wisdom that you need to have, there's an understanding, there's a counsel that needs to come your way. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I speak as a man sent tonight that there's going to be a ladder that will that facilitates your supernatural and the natural in the name of Jesus. There's a ladder appearing that will bring heaven on the earth unto you in the name of Jesus. If you believe it, shout amen! If you believe it, say a big amen! Somebody here, you're about to move from the season of drought and you are about to send the mists from the earth and your rain is about to come down. It looks like those people are not here tonight. A mist will leave your mouth tonight.

Listen, the first time rain fell in the Bible, the Bible says, and a mist left the earth, he went into the heaven, and he returned back as rain. With your words tonight that you speak to the Lord, in the name of Jesus, it will go as a mist, and you—

it's going to return back as a rain unto you. You are going to live here a rainmaker. You are going to live here a rainmaker. Say that amen like you believe it. Please sit down.

The ladder is what takes you to where you are going to. Without the ladder, there's no interface. Without a ladder, you can't get there. What if you have allowed the hard places to define you? Before you saw the ladder. Some people stop at the hard place, the hard stone. Some people get to the point of rest and they get disappointed. Only few get to the point where they can hear the voice of God, and God begins to give them the spirit of counsel. This is where you should go, this is how you should go about it. And he showed him a ladder. The scripture just jumped in my spirit. Let's digress a bit. Psalm 65 and verse 11. This is a word for somebody. Somebody pulled that word out of me. Glory to God! I said glory to God! Can you see the word on the screen? First rejoice before we read it. Rejoice before you read it. No, no, you don't sound like you're joyful. Rejoice before you read it. Hallelujah!

One more time, rejoice before you read it. Now we are going to read the scripture. One to go.

You crown the year with your goodness and your path drips with abundance. Give me NIV. Let's play with a few translations. Let's cut NIV. After MIVV, you can do Message Version and NLT. Now let's read it together. I want to go. You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance. Let's look at Message Version.

I want to go.

Snow-crowned peaks with splendor scatter rose petals down your path. Glory to God. King James says that you crown— amplified Says you crown the year with your goodness. Hold on, you crown the year with your goodness. It means that the year is crowned. There's a crown on your year. I hope you know 2024 is still the year. Oh, are you packing up your ship thinking let's begin to look at 2025?

Collaborate 2024 is still the year because the year is wearing a crown.

There's a crown on this year and you are going to wear that crown. Then it says the hard pathways, they are going to drip and they are going to drop fatness. Every hard finances, hard emotion, hard life, everything you touch has been hard, everything you do hard is provoking you every day.

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, your paths are dropping fatness. I speak that your paths, they are dropping fatness. Somebody say fatness. Somebody say fatness. Say it again, say fatness. Glory to God.

Please sit down. Are you getting blessed?

He saw—

let's go back to the scripture. He saw a ladder.

He saw a ladder.

And the angels of God, they were ascending and descending. Now don't forget that the ladder was on the earth. Is that true? Now he said the angels were ascending first. It means that the angels were on ground. They didn't come from heaven. They were on ground. So they were ascending and they were descending. So in case they take some things from here ascending, they must what?

Descend.

You know, if the angels were descending and ascending, it means that— but he said that these angels, they were ascending and they were descending. They were taking some things away, but they were bringing some things.

Back.

The ladder was what brought heaven down for Jacob. It was what provoked the angels to come. And he said to the angels that you are not going to live here no matter who is calling the roll call in heaven. I will— you will know, they will know that you are missing today. Let God be shouting your name, Michael, where are you? Michael is absent, that they will mock. He said, if you want to get there early, you won't bless me. You won't go except you bless me. Life has been too hard. You see, you don't need a physical ladder. It's figurative. You don't need a physical ladder. Jesus is already our ladder. Hallelujah! Jesus is our link between heaven and the earth. He's our link between the supernatural and the natural. So Jesus is already our ladder. Glory be to God. I said glory be to God. He said, whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. He's your ladder. Because he's your ladder, you can be multidimensional, deal with different dimensions, and you can go, come back, go, come back, go, come back. He's the ladder. So in case you're saying, oh, I need a physical ladder, I need— you don't need a physical ladder. Jesus is your ladder. So with Jesus tonight, you get your stuff. Say that amen like you believe it. I want to talk a little bit about that ladder. I, I, I sent a little picture to the media. Thank you. When you are going through difficult times and you are asking God, how do I navigate this?

So I—

there's a construct around the ladder. That's why I said the ladder is figurative. It's not a physical ladder, as the case may be. Sometimes When you don't have the spirit of counsel, I found that people go, they spend a lot of time in their processes of life because they don't have enough wisdom. Not because God wanted to elongate it. I know, you see, every problem has an expiry date. For example, though weeping may endure for the night— can you see that there's a time it must expire— then joy will come in the morning. So if your weeping now continues morning, night, morning, night, morning, night. You see that there's not a problem somewhere. So there's an expiry date, but sometimes you can elongate the processes of your life. So if God had 40 years for you in mind, you can go 400 years, and that's by your own doing. By your own doing. How do you connect through the hard times. Number 1, I wrote faith. Everybody say faith. Now, ministers of the gospel, collaborators, faith is a very powerful thing about your life. You will need faith. You need faith.

Hm.

Let me tell you one story you will like. Do you like stories? Oh, you don't like it? Let me continue teaching. Um, one day after I wrote JAMB for many years, I got into University of Lagos and I still did not finish. So when I tell life was hard, they expelled me, but I didn't finish. Whatever that means to you. I just didn't finish. So my brother now called me, he said, ah, there's this Kulu, let's pray they can take you. Go and try it. I just put it somewhere. Then I took my life serious, I went to pray. Then I heard God say to me that I'll give you, you can go there.

Really?

How is the money going to be paid?

Ah, okay.

Then I went to see— I went to the campus. I went to see a girl. I just went to play, just to gist with a particular girl. Somebody who does not have a future going to university to go and look for girl. So I went there, I gist there, gist there, spent 4 hours. Then they saw me off into the moving coffee. You know what they call moving coffee? Molo. Just move me there. As I was going, as I put my first leg there, I had 3 girls who stood away from the bus. They were saying, tomorrow is the last, last, uh, supplementary list is coming out tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last admission process. Tomorrow is the last. You know, they were not— they didn't call my name. They were not talking to me. Suddenly I jumped back from the boss. I said, sorry, I heard you say something. They said, what is that? I said, you, I heard that the supplementary and tomorrow is the last day. They said, eh, eh. Say, why you, why you, what's the problem? I said, it concerns me. So the girl looked at me and said, concerns you? Is this one okay? I said, you will not understand, just tell me where the admission office is. Then I went to the admission office, I saw the man. Very positively. He's a positive, arrogant man. I said, sir, I heard there's an exam tomorrow. It's the final exam. I said, I want to buy the form. The man said, move back, because I got close. He said, move back. I moved back. He said, do you know what you are saying? I said, yes. He said, you must be stupid. Do you think this is Soso School? We don't do that here. Please get out. I said, sir, I want to get this form. By the time I said it the second time, the man said he will call the security on me. So I quickly left his office. As I left his office, I went straight down the road. I saw a library. I saw a library. I saw a woman who was pregnant there. I said to the woman, Ma, I have a little problem. The woman said, what problem? I said, I want to buy admission form. She said, go there and ask them now, because me, I'm just a library attendant. I said, I've asked them and they said it is closed. She now said, what is that my business? I said, I just want you to know in case you can help me. The woman said, are you okay? I said, yes, ma. After a while, she saw that my nuisance value was increasing, told me to leave the place and go and stay outside. So I went back inside. She was going to close for 5:00. I went back inside 5 minutes to 5. I said, ma, I think you can help me. The woman said, I have nothing to do with these people. Listen, it dawned on me, it dawned on me that that was my kairos here. It dawned on me, it was my kairos. The woman closed 5:00. The woman said, I think there's something wrong with you and you don't know it. So she just left and closed the door. I just saw that she entered into the admission office. I don't know what happened. She came back outside, she just called me. 'Come here.' And I ran to meet her. The woman said, 'You are strange.' I said, 'How?' She said, 'We can give you a form.' 'You can give me a form?' Then I said, 'Pe.' Pe. Did I leave my house thinking I will buy form? I went to look for a car. They said pay. I said I don't have any money. I only had ₦18. That's what will take me back to Lagos. I said that's what I had.

Ha!

He said now I can see. But I said, sir, I believe you can give me this form and I'm going to pay you tomorrow. He said when will you submit tomorrow the form? I said tomorrow morning. He said when are you writing exam? I said, tomorrow morning. The man laughed. He said, you are not serious. I said, sir, I believe I will go with this form. To cut a long story short, I went with the form. That's not the testimonial, just listen. Then I wrote the exam, I submitted. As I finished submitting, I wrote the exam, I got, um, admission. I got admission. Ah, I said, finally I've broken through from this hard life. They now said that I should pay ₦100,000 as acceptance fee. But enigbe, esokwe, ₦100,000 acceptance, not school fees. Okay, they say you have to pay it in so-so number of weeks. I said no problem. I went, I looked for 100,000. All every community, my network, everything we raised was 11,000.

Hard.

Everything hard. As in, you looked at all your network, your net worth, your family, everything that you people have and your extension, your relative, all you could bring together was 11,000. That's when I knew that what was with me, what was following me, was very serious. I lost it. Then one day my brother called me, said, I did a job for my boss, he's supposed to pay me. I was praying 5:00 a.m., and that's why you should not joke with your prayer, with your prayer time. I was, I was praying, and he said to me, I did a job for my brother. My boss is supposed to pay me ₦1.9 million, he's paid me ₦1.1 million and I'm angry. And I'm saying, ah, ebom, I'm praying, 5 AM, what kind of matter is this? I dropped the call, he called me back again. He said, well, God told me this morning to give you ₦100,000. I said, when did he tell you? He said, actually, God told me 3 weeks ago. I said, ah, I said, you're a wicked one. Listen, I'm telling you the truth. See, and this how spiritual things work. Let me pause that story. Let me show you, cuz let me tell you what happened to Reverend George Adeboye. One day he was trusting God for a car, Mercedes-Benz 300. You know Mercedes-Benz 300? It's not a car you would, you desire now. Mercedes-Benz 300. And he was praying to God for the car. 19— he prayed for the, for the car in 1984. As at that time, all his contemporaries, all his had cars. Then he was trusting God that God can give him a car. See how he was practicing faith? 1985, no car. 1986, one day he was coming to work, and you know, and he came with a Beetle, and it was raining. He was coming to church and he came in a Beetle and it was raining. It would have been better he walked in the rain than to be inside the car, because it looked like the car would collect a large portion of water water, you understand, the way the roof was then. Pour it on him. Then after service one day, the church committee went to meet him and said, sir, we are concerned about this poverty. And he said, okay, what do you want to do about it? He said, sir, we want to give you a loan. He said, God didn't tell me to buy a car with a loan. He said, God said he will give me a car. I said, they said it's just a loan, soft loan. He said, no, there's nothing called soft loan. When you collect it, it's soft. To pay back is hard. They left him. They said, this our pastor is not okay. 1986, no car. 1987, somebody now brought him a car. He bought him a Peugeot 505, Peugeot 505, and said, Pastor, the Lord said I want to give you this. You can't be embarrassing us as your pastor. Then brought him. The man said, I won't take it. I said, sir, car is car. He said, no, car is not car. He said, I told the Lord I wanted Mercedes-Benz 300. I said, well, take it, car is car. After that one, Mercedes-Benz will come. He said, no, I asked the Lord to give me Mercedes-Benz 300. He was certain. He said, well, it's the same thing, car is car. He said, no, one is from France, one is Germany. He said, number two, the way the way they sound. Do they sound alike? And they just left him. Finally, '88, no car. '89, somebody now says, sir, the Lord showed me the car you want. And he didn't tell anybody with his mouth that he's trusting God for Mercedes-Benz 300. So they brought him from Ilorin, brought him to a place in Western Avenue, Lagos, and they said, come on, come and see the car. So when they opened the car, it was Mercedes-Benz. When he saw it, he rejoiced. He said, this is that which I prayed unto the Lord. Then he rejoiced. Then they carried the cart to Elorin. He slept rejoicing and he woke up. When he woke up, you know when you buy something, you want to check it very fast the next day. You know when you buy a new shoe, you'll be looking at it like 10 times as you're walking on the road. If you buy a watch, you must be— you're not checking the time, but you're just, you're just idolizing it and worshiping it. So he woke up in the morning and they opened up the car, and the car was Mercedes-Benz. But he checked the back, it was Mercedes-Benz 300E. Then he went on his knees, said, God, I'm sorry, I went to rejoice on what is wrong. I asked you for Mercedes-Benz 300, now I can see that what you— what they gave me was Mercedes-Benz 300 I said, God, I am sorry. Then he said, it is a here. Then he said God spoke to him and said, actually, the person— he said, the day you prayed in 1984 for that car, he said, that same day I ordered somebody to give you that car, but the person is arguing and arguing and arguing that he can give what he has. Daniel, from the first day that you prayed, the first day that you prayed. So you can see, when you're having contentions, you don't know the backside of the story. God does not love me, God does not care, everything is hard, my processes are long. Faith. They said, then God, why did you give me Mercedes-Benz 330e? He said, what you asked me for in 1984 is 300. I will be a wicked God if what I was to give you in 1984 is same thing I'm to give you in 1989. He said, so I have— I added 30 to it. So what does 30 mean? Said, 30 is a sign of maturity. At 30, Jesus became matured in the ministry. At 30, Ezekiel, 30 Isaiah. He said, that means your faith has not matured. He said, my God, then what about the E that I can see? He says, extra features. For I will do exceeding abundantly above what you ask or think.

You know why?

Because God will not just restore you, he will compensate you. Because the years that you have lost, what you ask asked for. He can't give you the same thing.

So it has to be exceeding abundantly above. Somebody say above.

When you're going through your hard times, faith, faith, keep it strong. You know, when I got 100,000, after the admission has expired I went to all the banks in Lagos, they said that code cannot work. Then I went to the Microfinance Bank, at least that is the bank of the school. I spoke with the cashier, I said, I want to pay school fees. He said, let me check your code. When they checked, he said, it can't work, it can't work, it can't work. I shouted at the girl, Small meal. Can I see your manager? And everybody turned and said, who is that one? And the manager came out. Man, man, I heard you are making noise in your— he just dragged me inside his office. I said, what's your problem? What's your problem? I said, sir, if you know how I raised this money and somebody now tells me I can't pay— I then narrated my story. The guy said, well, gentlemen, I'm sorry about that, but there's nothing you can do— I can do about it. I said, sir, can I say something before I go? He said, yes. I said, sir, I can take you away from this seat by way of sickness or disease, or take this seat away from you by sack letter or death. I said, sir, choose one. Apparently no man had ever spoken to him like that. He was shocked. I saw him cleft on the chair. He couldn't stand up. His ego, his pride deflated. There was nothing managerial about it. When he got strength to stand up, he said, "Gentlemen, give me one minute." I would have lost another circle if I had no faith, because they had told me that it was over. Somebody shout faith! Say it again, say faith! Give me that ladder on the screen. While you are difficult— you are dealing with difficult time, faith It's not yet over. God's word is true. I will stay with it. I'm not wasting my time. This thing will work. This thing will work. This thing will work. Faith is my life. Faith is my life. Faith is my life. Many times it's just the obedience that God wants to see. Abraham, take now thine son, thine only son Isaac, and take him to the mountains of Moriah, and there you shall sacrifice him unto me. And he rose at twilight and he took the knife, was about to kill the boy, and God said, don't kill him again because faith is your obedience. You don't even need to kill him again. In your heart you have killed Isaac already. Faith in these difficult times. Faith. I know things are hard in the country, things are falling the country.

Faith.

As you go up the ladder, you go beyond faith. You go to a place called forgiveness. Everybody say forgiveness. Say it again. Say forgiveness. You moved from this place. You are climbing that ladder. The ladder can be some few weeks, it can be for some few months. It depends on how you can free yourself fast and pass the test. He takes you to a place of forgiveness. There are people that hurt you, ministry and life, that you would have to ignore like it never happened. Like it never what? Happened. You see, that man that took me to go— I mean, and by the way, I didn't finish the story. My real story was that my job description was that I should start selling rice, beans. That's the helper, the destiny helper I was telling you in Act 1, Scene 2, you remember? So that was what he brought me, and he said he wanted to turn my life around. Ah, every handler that drops you, God will pick you up. Every handler that has capacity to help you, but they are dropping you on the road of destiny. In the name of Jesus, the Lord will send help as your way. But let me tell you, on this journey of ministry, you must learn to forgive. I have been hurt. There was a time in my life that I never wanted to relate with anything called pastors, so I had all the people I related I said we were corporate people because I began to find them more interesting. But God had to teach me forgiveness. You see, that man, I put him in my heart and I said that, ah, we will meet again. That's what I said to him. We will meet again. But can I shock you? We actually met. So one One day, I can't remember whether it was CIBN or the directors, IOD, Institute of Directors meeting. I can't remember the meeting I was speaking that year. I did a paper, 2013. I did a paper, very powerful paper. When we're done, people just wanted to say hi, normal networking session, and say hi and say everything, you know. And then on the queue, I saw a man 5 persons away from me, and I could remember this was the guy in 1995 that did this to me. I hurried the people in front of me, say, you want my card? Just come, just come, just come, move. They didn't know why I was treating them like that. I wanted to see the man. I wanted to show him that God is good, that now he's queuing to see me. As he entered my front, the Lord said to me, let love lead. You know, sometimes the times you will hear God are not the times you want to hear him. He just pours all the cold water on you. Say, why now? Let me just so A little bit, let me flex a little bit on this one, then we come back again to get born again again. Let love lead. As I saw him, I hugged him. He said he didn't even know I was hugging him. Now said, I need your number. I said, you have my number. He said, there's no how I would have met a man like you and I'll not have kept your number. I said, let me tell you what happened, and I explained to him. He said, for you to give me these details, I mentioned his office name, his chair color, the floor he wears at Nigerian Port Authority. He said, you obviously know me. He said, I'm sorry. I said, no, no, no. I said, in this kingdom we forgive. Ah, I said, with this thing you even said, sir, This thing you said, sir, you're going to train 28 branches that we have. I said, say it again. 28 branches. I said, that's good. Forgiveness. People hurt you. I also did a series on church hurt. Your hurt, they Pastor here, you are hurt. People left you. You invested into people, they left you. No ma thing.

No ma.

Abi Apostle, no ma stuff. You invested in people, they left you. The time they broke through, God led them to another church. No ma stuff. Even the devil broke away from Jesus's, from God's ministry. When he left, he left in one thought: Godu, the senior pastor, cut down. God, he was the founder, and the devil broke out and went with one thought. No, man, don't kill yourself.

Move on.

Forgive. See them tomorrow. Hug them. Your parents, your siblings, people around you. Check it, because sometimes people who are on that face of forgiveness, they don't go faster in life. You can move up the ladder very fast. And remember, because of where you are going to, you need to be light to climb the ladder. You can't climb the ladder with a lot of weight. Forgiveness. Is God speaking to you?

Forgiveness.

Number 3. It's freedom. Forgiveness will lead to that. There's no time again. Let's move to number 4: faithfulness. Faithfulness. Do you remember David in the Bible? His brothers were going to the, to the field. They were in the military. He was sent to the backside of the desert to take care of the sheep. Somebody said, oh, maybe because he's too young for that. Yes, he was the last born, but last born should get good treatment. It's not the last born you send to the backside where he can be killed by a lion. And of course, you know that David's mother. David was a half-brother to all his brothers. His mother was a concubine. He never lived inside the house. That's why they could treat him like that. While other brothers were on the field, they were doing stuff, David was sent to the backside of the desert to be taking care of sheep. And you look at yourself, I'm anointed, is this the kind of thing I should be doing? I'm anointed. Am I supposed to be a protocol officer? I should be commanding like Apostle is commanding. I cannot be anointed, they'll be calling me like this, bring that thing. No, I hope you know they had anointed David before he went to that place. I hope you know that. And you would doubt the anointing. You doubt the anointing. But one thing I noticed about David is this: there was no day he never went to stay with the sheep. There was no day. The day the father called him from work and said, go and give your brothers food— what if that was the day he went to play football? What if that was the day he said, I'm sick, I'm not coming to this work again? Every day they found David at his place. Then a kairos moment came. When Kairos came, and he comes in a way that is very simple, very simple way. Go and give your brothers food. Food? You can even get annoyed with that kind of instruction. So you want to humiliate me? They've gone to work, the next thing is for me to now go and give them food where my other mates are there in the military, and you want me to go and give them food. What kind of humiliation is this? But he didn't know that there was a miracle in his faithfulness for that particular task. And he carried the cheese. Whether he was happy or not, I don't know. All I knew was that he found himself on the field. See, faithfulness, ministers, is key. I've been doing this for 3 years now, there is no change. Who told you there is no change? Can you be the teacher and the student? Can you write the exam and mark it yourself? Then why are you writing the exam if you can mark it? Faithfulness. You are not wasting your time serving God. God is not a user. Will you— would you rather want the devil to use you? And number 2, if you are not used, you'll be useless. Those who are useful are being used. It's just the way you are being used. Used in a full way, used in a less way. How do you want to be used? Because if you are not used in any way you are going to be abused. Which one do you want? Faithfulness. He carried the cheese. When he carried the cheese, he didn't see people playing table tennis. He just dropped the cheese and started playing table tennis with them. He kept on doing it. Whatever God has called you to do, keep doing it. Faithfulness is key. Faithfulness is key. When he got to the field, he just heard that they said the king wants to reward anybody that can kill Goliath. That was the reason God sent him there. The cheese was not important. He dropped the— he went to meet his brothers. Take— he said, I'm coming, I heard something. Say, where are you going to? We know your pride, we know the haughtiness of heart. But in fact, the first question they said What brought you here? Because they looked at him and they said that people like you are not supposed to be here. Your life is supposed to end up at the backside of the desert, but you are not supposed to be here. God will shock your enemies in this season. People who put a limit to your life, God will shock them this season. He said, is there not a cross? Is there not a curse? And you know how the story ended. Exempted from tax, married the king's daughter, became the darling of the king, and later got the throne. Faithfulness. You keep doing it, you keep doing it, you keep doing it. One day I trekked from Surulere to Victoria Island for an interview. You see, we look fresh. We've gone through hell, we only come out smelling like heaven. I tracked, you know why? You know, resilience. People don't— people are not resilient again. People are not resilient. It was my Kairos day and there was no transportation. It was my day and I said whatever I will do, I will do it to get there. It's faithfulness. You are the most high. You are the most high God. He's God. Stay faithful. Stay faithful. Faith is not enough. You need to be faithful. Forgiveness is not just that. Freedom is not just that. You've got to be faithful. I want to blow, you know, I want to blow. Go near a transformer. Is it your time? Can you afford the sacrifice of visibility? People that God bring into visibility, do you know the sacrifice Blessed is the man that God hideth. With all that I've been doing, is this all that?

No.

Faithfulness. Because these are things that give ministers undue pressure. I want to, I want to, I want to. There's a man called Bishop Ayobuye, a man to learn from in this country, to learn stewardship, an embodiment of wisdom and stewardship. Let's finish up. What's number 1, everybody? Number 2? Number 3?

Number 4? Faithfulness.

Now, number 5 on the ladder is called fruitfulness. You see, your fruitfulness will not come if you are not faithful. It is faithfulness that brings you into fruitfulness. I didn't say it will give you fruit. Fruit is just a once in a while answer. Fruitfulness is the cycle that produces the fruit. Does that make sense? So it means that you can repeat the success story every time. Not flash in a pan, not once in a while. You can repeat it. Apostle left Ibadan, went to Abuja. He can repeat it.

You see that?

He goes to any nation, he can repeat it.

Faithfulness.

Faithfulness brings you into fruitfulness. Fruitfulness. A man who can subject himself to faith, a man who can subject himself to forgive, a man who can subject himself freedom, a man who can subject himself to be faithful. That's the man that is about to be fruitful. Can I prophesy to somebody? This is your season of fruitfulness. Your hard pathways, they are overflowing with fruitfulness in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Whatever is not enough is going to be more than enough.

Who am I speaking to tonight? God is bringing you into a season of fruitfulness in the name of Jesus.

Your days of dryness, they are over. The days of wilderness, they are over. The days of crying are over. You are coming into fruitfulness. Somebody rejoice and give him praise.

Then on top of the ladder is what you will call favor. Now you are going to scream this one higher. Scream, let me hear. One, two, go!

Femi Lazarus! Femi Lazarus!

It's a buildup, it's a buildup. A man who can stay in faith, that can move on and forgive, a man freedom in faithfulness, a man who is fruitful can come into a season of Favor. Favor is one spirit that I have encountered. I didn't say that I got favor, like I encountered the spirit of favor. When you have it, you know it. When you don't have it, you would also know it. But you know, I don't want you to live life without favor. It's expensive. Life is expensive without favor. Favor. Favor has a smell. Everywhere I step into, I always smell favor. If I'm going to buy something, I, I ask if there's no favor price around it, I won't do it. Favor. Favor. You see, one day I was going to take the aircraft. So, Apostle, I always take economy. My level at that time, I take economy. So I went to meet a woman, Qatar Airways. I said, excuse me, ma. She said, what is that, sir? She thought I wanted to say something important, that's why she said, sir. I said, I want to ask you a question. She said, oh, please go ahead, that's why I'm here. I said, ma, don't be angry. She said, no, no, no, you have the right to ask. I said, by the time I'm done, you know I'm apologizing before I ask I said, please go ahead, we are here to serve you. She thought I was doing something very important. I said, sir, I said, your first class cabin, is it full? He said, no, that most times there is— I mean, it is always filled up. I said, okay. He said, why are you asking? I said, I'm sorry. He said, stop apologizing, sir. Do you want to upgrade? I said, yes, I want to upgrade without payment. Since it is not full and it's going to be empty by the time you get to where you are going to, 'Would you allow me to sit there?' The woman looked at me, she eased, and she walked away. She walked away, collected our boarding pass. I now became careful. I've come to embarrass myself in the whole organization, you know. So I mean, economy, no, they're bad. Why would I push myself to do that kind of thing? So I picked it up and we're just going to the aircraft. I sat down at my seat. I can't remember the number. She said, sorry, excuse me, gentlemen, somebody walked up to me at the operations and asked me a question about upgrade. I can't remember who is the person. I was now scared to answer because I don't even know the next thing they want to say, but I just got the boldness and I said, your hand cannot go up well, I'm the one. He said, please, sir, pack your things, you have another I have another seat. Then I sat down there. My experience was different. My energy was different. My interconnectedness was different. I sat down there. I said, ah, there's a difference. Then I said to myself, ah, if this thing worked I can't do it again. So every time I go to the aircraft, I will buy economy. I will ask. Can I shock you? Every time I asked, I got it. The problem is that they have not seen people bold enough to ask. And I know that the place is empty. How can there be a man on the throne, the commander of a country, and God is anointing another man at the backside of the desert while the commander is still there. So when I step in, I try to smell favor. Say, is there favor here? Is there favor here? Life without Favor is expensive. But you know, God can bring you into— see, and all the pastors, collaborators here, if life has been so hard, this is the word in my spirit: God is bringing you into a season of favor. He himself knowing what he would do. As you live here tonight, may the spirit of cancer the spirit that knows what to do in these difficult times, that spirit that can help you navigate this tough season. In the name of the Lord Jesus, may that spirit of counsel find practical expression upon your life.

In the name of Jesus. Oh, you're not saying that amen. Scream it like you believe it. Shout it like you believe it. Thunder it like you believe it.

One day I had an encounter with the spirit of favor. There's some spirits that I've encountered, and one of them is the spirit of favor, real time. And that day God said to me, today I give you the spirit of favor. And in that same day, I saw 4 expressions of a massive favor that there are some things that if I tell you, at the end of the day, you just say, 'I'm chosen.' That's the only way you would just explain. Because it will not make sense. But you know, we don't make sense, we make spirit. It doesn't have to make sense. We're not sensible people, we are Spirit-filled people. If you have gone through real bad time, hard time, and everything has been hard, from today, may the spirit of favor rest upon you.

May the spirit of favor rest upon you. Somebody say, I'm going into my fruitful season. Say it again, I'm going into my fruitful season. In fact, I want to tell us—

I want you to tell the person sitting next to you, say, I am a favor freak.

Said, I'm a favor freak. Yeah, let's finish the scripture.

We're in verses 13 or 14. We're done already. So he encountered the ladder. He saw angels ascending, Genesis 28, and descending and brought it back. Then he had an encounter with that angel. And, and behold, the Lord stood above it, and it was the Lord. And he said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and Isaac. The land on which you lie I give it to you. The hard place became a place of encounter. See, next, next verse, verse 14, he said your descendants from that hard place will now be as the dust of the earth. You see, the tears coming out of your eyes is going to become the rain to other people's desert.

You thought you are just crying.

But that cry is expensive. I'm telling you, that is going to be a rain to the desert of people. He said that, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south, and in you and all your seed all the families shall be blessed. Verse 15, then behold, I'm with you and will keep you wherever you go and bring you back to this land. But you're not going to come back the same way you left. You know, it's not the same way you came. I'm going to bring you back. I will not leave you until I have done that which I have spoken to you. Next, until I have done that. Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, surely the Lord is in this place. I did not know it. But we will know that the Lord is here. We know that there's a ladder here.

Jesus is here.

He woke up from his sleep. Next verse, let's tie it up. And he was afraid. He said, how awesome is this place! There's no other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. Every time you step into SLC, you are not just on earth, you are in at the gate of heaven, because there is a ladder there. Jesus is there. So we That's why we can always ascend.

Next verse.

I've come in the volume of the books, it was written about me. Yahweh, oh God. Look at this. Then Jacob rose early in the morning, he took the stone that he slept with. It, that hard stone. Then he set it up as a pillar and he poured oil on it. The last thing I want to tell you tonight, it's time to oil your hard places. You can't keep complaining about it. It's time to oil it. How are you going to oil it? It's time to oil your hard places. You see that stone? He would have been carrying the stone everywhere. God said, you can't be carrying hardness everywhere. Press, put it down and oil it. It's time to oil the hard places. So the hard places in your life, you see difficult seasons, difficult situation, you want to oil it. Because oiling it means you are the one that has the last say over it. When I oil you, I am done with you.

Because you are the judge of your life, it's time to oil you.

I can't carry this hardness everywhere again. It's time to oil it.

Are there people ready to oil the hard places tonight and transform it into fatness? Can I hear from your spirit the words that the Lord has put into that place? And I want you to pray it very well.

Lebras ketos katandros kia.

As you are praying, the Lord is telling me you are moving from the point of failing to the point of surviving, and from the point of surviving to the point of thriving. You are about to come into a season of thriving. You are not to just survive, you are about to thrive.

Anemakashketos kaparande kushkieta.

It is time to build the future. It is time to turn it around. It is time to drop the hot stones. It is time to hurl the hot stones. With your mouth, you are given the last say over that matter. I oil you with this hard place, and I oil you with fruitfulness. And this is the last time I'm talking about you. Are you praying tonight?

I've come in the volume of the books. He was written about me to do your will.

Anoint the poles, anoint the altars. Anointing is about to become shalom. That stone is about to become shalom. You are about to have an encounter with that stone. You are going to name that stone and you will call it shalom. You will call it shalom. You will call it shalom. With this ministers conference, God is bringing peace into your hard places. I've come in the volume of the books. You are building an altar around the hard places, around the situation. Are you praying at all? Are you praying at all? Are you praying at all? God is calling you out of failure, calling you out of survival, calling you out of the difficult situation, calling you out of the processes that have stayed for so long. Those things that have defined you, pushed you into depression, pushed you into frustration. Oh, come on, come on, come on, come on! You are a child full of grace and mercy. God is calling you out. There's someone in here, there's a divine There's a divine coincidence in every ministry. Pray, pray, pray for that ministry. Oil it, oil it, and name it. Oil it and name it. Oh, you are what you tolerate. You are what you tolerate. You are what you tolerate. What you don't tolerate will You will not stay. Come and pray, ministers. Pray, pray, ministers of the gospel. Pray. It's time to oil the hard places. Nobody will do it for you. You will oil it and you will name it. You will name it whatever Adam called it. That is what he would have called it. Whatever name he called it, that's what it would have been. Whatever you call it, that's what it shall be. To do your will, to do your will. Life, life, life with rolling rocks and high pillars, but you were on it. You were on it. You were on it. Femi Lazarus here. Begin to pray for the levels of the, of the ladder. Begin to pray that your faith will be strong. Begin to pray that your faith will not be tested. Begin to pray for the spirit of forgiveness. Begin to pray for the spirit of forgiveness. Pray for freedom. Freedom. Pray for faithfulness. Grace to be faithful. Grace to be faithful. Grace to be faithful. Pray that the coming of your season of fruitfulness Pray that you're coming to your season of fruitfulness.

Pray that you're coming to the spirit of fruitfulness.

Pray for favor, favor, favor, favor, favor, favor, favor. Hallelujah, hallelujah!

My time is up, Apostle. Just 2 more minutes. He woke up from the sleep.

He woke up.

I'm not sleeping anymore. I'm no longer the man that I was before I slept. I'm no more sleeping. I'm no more sleeping. I'm no more sleeping. I must navigate this time. I must navigate this season. I'm not sleeping anymore. I'm not sleeping anymore. Sometimes it could be because we are sleeping. Then things slip away from our hands. We enter into processes and it now elongates. I'm not sleeping anymore. I'm not sleeping anymore. I'm not going back to those hard places. I want you to put a name to the things around your negative season today. Whatever Adam called it, I'm no more sleeping again. I'm No more sleeping again. I declare that my ministry is blessed. I declare that I receive favor. I declare that I become fruitful. I want you to begin to name it for the next 20 seconds. Begin to build your future and begin to name it. I'm not that person anymore. If that angel were to be here tonight, he will freeze him in your prayers. You will freeze him in your your heart, and your heart will burn towards it. And you would say, I'm not that person anymore. I came for this International Ministers Conference, day after day, precept after precept. I'm not the same person that came here anymore. As it builds up tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday, I'm not that same person anymore. Thank you, Lord. We give you praise, we give you glory. Lift up your hands, let me pray for you, Lord Jesus. I bring every hard place before you tonight. Hard imaginations, hard emotions, hard ministry, hard life. Today, Lord, you know, you changed this sermon in the car because I want— I wanted to teach what I consider deeper, but you said this is the word that you should to give them. Lord, in the name of the Lord Jesus, I anoint the hard places tonight. I anoint those hard places tonight, and I name those hard places tonight. He said whatever Adam called it, that's what you would have called it. Tonight I call you blessed. Tonight I call your life blessed. Any curse that has been spoken over your life, whether you are aware of it or not, because you are in Christ and he's our ladder, today I call you blessed. And I speak to you by the word of the Lord, you are not person anymore.

You—

that ministry that was hard, it's not that ministry anymore. God is calling you out of failing, calling you out of surviving. He's bringing you to the place of thriving in the name of Jesus. And he anointed the place And he called the place Jehovah Shalom, for here the Lord has given me peace. This shall be your house of shalom. The next 4 days you will receive shalom declarations. You will come out of this place navigating the tough seasons. You will not go down anymore. In the name of Jesus. Thank you, Father. We give you praise. Have you been blessed tonight? Give the Lord praise. Give him a lot of praise.