MY CHANGE HAS COME

By Pastor Michael Olawore
 New Wine Church, London

Foundation Scripture: John 11: 1-4; 17-20; 38-45; John 12: 12- 17 

Sunday 1^st April 2012

Today is Palm Sunday, one of the most important days in the Christian calendar which marks the beginning of Holy Week, the culmination of which is the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and His ultimate victory over sin and death.  We celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalemon a donkey at which crowds, casting palms on the ground, hailed Him shouting ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel’. This occurred at a time at which Jews from all around the world had gathered for Passover, the commemoration of God’s dramatic deliverance of the children ofIsrael. It is from this event that our observance of Palm Sunday is derived, a celebration of the One who is greater than the great, better than the best, whose height is beyond the heavens, whose age is evermore , the all-time undisputed Champion of love.

The account of the resurrection of Lazarus in John 11 provides the backdrop to the triumphal entry of Jesus and paints an accurate picture of what God wants us to receive today. When Jesus shows up in any situation things cannot stay the same and therefore we can confidently declare, ‘My change has come!” This is the word of the Lord to you today: ‘Your change has come!’

Jesus’ arrival inJerusalemon a donkey, a representation of peace and humility, and is of great significance; indeed, Palm Sunday’s importance cannot be overstated. It is a fulfilment of what God had spoken of centuries beforehand and therefore stands as a reminder of the certainty of God’s word. It represents an unshakeable assurance that the word of God is true. God cannot lie and when God decrees a thing, there is a performance. It is our reminder that the word of God will not fail. The events recorded in John 12 stand as a confirmation of the infallibility of God’s word, a reminder of the immutability and reliability of God’s word. God has sent me today to remind you that the word of God concerning your life will not fail – the word of God concerning you will not fall to the ground, the word of the God is sure, the word of God is unconquerable, the word of God is indomitable; the word of God is living and the word of God powerful! I declare therefore to you today, your change has come!

The word of God works. Irrespective of what you may be going through, regardless of situations and circumstances, the word of God works. This is a simple revelation, your grasp of which will either make or break your destiny. Everything that the enemy does is designed to convince you and those around you that the word of God is ineffective or unreliable. The day that a person concludes that the word of God does not work is the day that he effectively dies. You cannot afford to dance to the tune of the enemy’s lies. Instead, you must come to a place whereby you know, that you know, that you know, beyond all shadow of doubt that the word of God works. There must be something to which you anchor your soul, an unwavering conviction that God’s word is true. It is so important to understand and embrace the reliability of God’s word as what you believe will affect your posture and attitude to what you may be going through. The word of God is not subject to your experience and is not affected or defined by experience and circumstances; instead, the word of God affects your experience and defines what you go through. Every word of God concerning you must come to pass!

700 years before the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, this event had been prophesied by Isaiah (Isaiah 62:11) and echoed 200 years later in Zechariah 9:9 in which the King’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem was declared, some 500 years before the event :‘Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ I declare to you that your saviour is here – your champion is here! Your change has come! When Jesus shows up in any situation, change is inevitable: blind eyes are opened, the deaf hear, the lame walk, fruitfulness comes out of barrenness and the dead are restored to life. Nothing remains the same when He arrives - God is here to bring change to your situation.

Revelation 13:8 tells us that Jesus, the Lamb of God was slain from the foundation of the earth. This is a profound truth: ever before the need arose, before the fall of man from the garden and the wrath of God that sin invited, God had established our source of victory, redemption and right-standing. From this we can understand that God has covered every aspect of your life. God is not panicking about your situation; provision has already been made for everything that you could ever conceivably require.

Returning to the account of the raising of Lazarus from the dead, it is important to remember that Passover was the most significant event in the Jewish religious calendar commemorating the deliverance of the Jews from Egypt an event which drew up to 2.7million people to Jerusalem. Jesus had one week to finish His assignment and no doubt was planning to reach as many people as possible. To get into the mind of Jesus for a moment, He knew that in order for the Jews to believe that He was whom He said He was, there needed to be a spectacular demonstration of the power of God. As Jesus was planning to maximise the opportunity that Passover represented, the enemy was also hatching a plan. Historians have indicated that up to 270,000 rams had been sacrificed in celebration of the Passover and no doubt, the atmosphere was charged with expectation of a move of God. It is in this context that we are told that Lazarus had become sick. From Satan’s perspective, Lazarus’ sickness provided him with an opportunity to undermine Jesus in that if he could kill Lazarus, whom was described as the one that Jesus loved, he could discredit Jesus entirely. This intention underpins everything that the enemy attempts to do to you; he seeks to discredit the word of God and the power of God in your life. In terms of Jesus’ intention to reach as many of the Jewish people as possible, Lazarus’ sickness and eventual death was the ideal platform that Jesus sought on which to demonstrate the power of God, by which the Jews would be believe.

When Lazarus became sick, undoubtedly Mary and Martha, being close followers of Jesus prayed and fasted but nothing seemed to change in the natural and eventually, they sent for Jesus. In these circumstances, it would have been reasonable to expect Jesus to have dropped everything and rush to the scene but he did not, He waited a further 2 days before making His way toBethany. Mary and Martha were undoubtedly disappointed at Jesus’ delayed reaction. They only saw part of the picture – they were so focussed on the situation at hand that they could not perceive Jesus’ plan. You may be going through difficulties and challenges and having prayed and fasted and apparently seeing no answer to your prayers in the way that you expected, you may be tempted to question God’s care for you – do not. Just because heaven appears to be quiet, it does not mean that God is not interested in you. As we can see in this account, everything that you are faced with is a set-up by God.

In the account, we are told that by the time Jesus returned to Bethany, Lazarus had died and had been buried for four days. However, Jesus, on being told that Lazarus was sick had declared ‘This sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.’ Even though Jesus had waited, the word of God had gone forth and therefore, the issue had been settled. However, it is beyond question that Lazarus had died – how do you reconcile that with the declaration that had been made? Nothing is too difficult for God; no situation is so hopeless that it cannot be reversed and therefore the issue was and remained settled.

In fact, Jesus, in His exchange with Martha upon His return, settled the issue on three distinct counts: The first thing He established was He confirmed to Martha that her brother would rise again. He used this to introduce Himself as the Resurrection and the Life, saying ‘I AM the resurrection and the life’ from which we can understand that resurrection is not an event but a person, the person of Jesus.  He further confirmed that they would see the glory of God if they believed. The devil having taken Lazarus’ life must have been convinced that he had achieved his goal and would have concluded that, as Lazarus had been buried for four days, there was no way that Jesus could  affect that situation. However, when Jesus comes in to a situation, there is change. We can be assured therefore that regardless of how bad our situation may appear, there will be a turnaround.

The first thing that Jesus asked when He arrived at the scene was ‘Where have they laid him?’The situation looked bleak, if not impossible but Jesus had assured Martha that if they believed they would see the glory of God. Jesus arrival at the scene set the stage for a spectacular contest: in the one corner, the enemy staking his claim of victory at the death of Lazarus and in the other corner, the Champion of Love. Jesus entered the ring and immediately struck the first blow by instructing the onlookers to roll away the stone. Satan thought he had sealed the destiny of Lazarus but as he would soon discover, his apparent victory was short-lived. In every area of your life, where it appears that you have been written off, I declare a reversal. Every negative conclusion that has been drawn about your destiny is reversed. To everything that represents human or demonic conclusions about your life, I declare ‘The stone is rolled away!’

Jesus then delivered a follow-up blow by clearing His throat and with a loud voice, calling Lazarus out of the grave. Lazarus responded to the life and the power contained in the word of the Lord and came out of the grave. Similarly, I declare that every dead area of your life responds to the resurrection power that raised Lazarus from the grave – the grave could not hold Lazarus and it cannot hold you! Every dead area of your life is turned around; I call you out of your situation - you are coming out! When Lazarus came from the grave, he was bound in burial clothes. This represented and symbolised death and the past. It is interesting that Jesus did not instruct the on-lookers to simply loose the grave clothes, but He instructed them to ‘Loose him and let him go’. Jesus not only released Lazarus from Satan’s grip of death but released him to go forth and fulfil his destiny. This was the final knock-out blow for Satan from the undisputed, undefeated Champion of Love! There is a destiny and an assignment that you must fulfil. In the Name of Jesus, I release you today to fulfil your purpose; you must go to all to whom you have been sent.

Thus, we see the conclusion of an exhilarating, power-charged bout in which the power of God was displayed beyond all doubt. We are told that that those who had seen this display of the power of God believed. This provided the background to and trigger for, Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalemin which vast crowds took branches of palm trees and shouted ‘Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord’.

In June 2010 we received a prophetic promise of an 18-month window of opportunity in which there would be a spectacular demonstration of the power of God. We are entering into the season of the fulfilment of this promise inNewWineChurch. I declare today a new season in the life of this church.

Everything that you have been through has been about the demonstration of the power of God in your life. It is not about you; it has always been about the power of God operating in your life for others to see. It is important to understand that this is why the enemy fights believers, he wants to put poverty, sickness and defeat on our lives to convince on-lookers to conclude that there is no point in worshipping God. However, be assured that turnaround, change and victory always accompanies Jesus; turnaround, change and victory is a certainty with the undisputed and undefeated Champion of Love. Your change has come!

YOUR EXPECTATION WILL NOT BE CUT OFF!

By Pastor Michael Olawore
 New Wine Church, London

Sunday 18 December 2011

Foundation Scripture: Proverbs 23: 18; Proverbs 24: 14
“Your expectation shall not be cut off!” This is the declaration of the Lord to you today. In saying this, I am presupposing that your expectation is founded in the will of God for your life. I am therefore encouraging you that insofar that your expectation is founded on the will of God; it shall not be cut off. In Luke 22 Jesus prayed ‘Let your will be done’, therefore the will of God for your life, the purpose of God, the spoken word and the written word of God will be performed in your life. There are just over two weeks left of 2011 and although you may not yet have seen the manifestation of what you had been expecting this year, I have come to declare to you that in that your expectations were founded on and in line with the word of God, your expectation will not be cut off!
The will of God is your assurance of victory in the midst of the battle. The will of God is your peace, the will of God is your joy, the will of God is your prosperity, the will of God is your deliverance and the will of God is your restoration. Everything that Jesus came to deliver is the will of God for your life and inasmuch as your expectation is founded on the will of God, your expectation will not be cut off! In John 10: 10 Jesus declared that He came to give us ‘life more abundantly’ and I declare the abundant life is yours, now! I repeat, the word of the Lord to this house is that your expectation in Him will not be cut off.
Proverbs 23:18 (KJV) says ‘For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.’ Proverbs 24: 14 says ‘So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul: when thou hast found it, then there shall be a reward, and thy expectation shall not be cut off.  From this we can understand that our hope will not be cut off or disappointed; your hope will not be disappointed. In Proverbs 23: 18 the promise is prefaced with ‘surely’ – this means definitely, without fail, certainly. This should fill you with joy because you can be confident that there will be an end to whatever challenges or confronts you and in addition to that, your expectation will not be cut off. There will be an end to affliction, and end to failure, an end to worry and an end to anxiety; there will be an end to disappointment, an end to lack, an end to debt and an end to insufficiency; there will be an end to intimidation, an end to nightmares and an end to demonic interference; surely there is an end – in addition to that your expectation will be granted – it will not be cut off!
It is a travesty to go through life devoid of expectation. You need expectation – expectation is the vehicle that takes you from where you are to where God plans for you to be; transporting you from your ‘now’ to your future. A man without expectation has deprived himself of life. Expectation is more than just wishing –it is a confident assurance – irrespective of any factual situation or ‘professional’ evaluation or opinion. The Law of Expectation establishes that whatever a man expects a man attracts. Your expectation therefore operates much like a magnet, connecting your expectation to you.
With that in mind, I ask you, ‘What is your expectation?’ What are you expecting for 2012 in fact, what are expecting for the remainder of 2011? What are your expectations regarding the prophetic promises of God that have been released into your life?’ What were your expectations in coming to church today? Did you come because that’s what you do on a Sunday – is it business as usual or did you come with an expectation?  Expectation involves having anticipation, an eagerness, a longing and an outlook of possibility and grounds for hope. Expectation gives you the grounds to state “I have anticipation with confidence of fulfilment; I am longing for something to come to pass. I am expecting that which God has promised me to be manifested to happen. I know my change has come!”
You can break out of anything that the enemy throws at you by simply establishing your expectation on the will and the promises of God for your life. The enemy wants to put you into a position whereby all you can see is the negative situation that he places you in, however, if you can shift your gaze away from the enemy’s picture and instead focus your expectation on the promises of God, you can break free. We see this principle at work in the book of Job 3: 25, albeit in a contrary sense when Job said ‘For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me’. Expectation will always happen. Job’s negative expectation resulted in disaster whereas expectation based upon God’s word releases confidence and hope; it prevents weariness setting in and stops you from giving up in life. Whatever is deprived of expectation is devoid of life; the best way to stifle the life of  a thing is to starve it of expectation – on the other hand, achievement is borne of expectation – a child, for example, if filled with expectation will achieve and fulfil, if not exceed that expectation. When Jacob served his father-in-law Laban, he placed striped rods before the sheep before they mated and they reproduced according to what they saw. Expectation gives birth to manifestation. You have a God-given ability to make a demand on your future – it is your expectation that connects you to the supernatural miracle-working power of God and it is therefore crucial to your success.  I ask you therefore, ‘What are you pregnant with?’ what are you expectant with for the remainder of this year – what are you expectant with for 2012?’
With this in mind, let’s look at the account of the man who was begging by the Beautiful Gate in Acts 3: we are told that the man sat begging by the Beautiful Gate and upon seeing Peter and John, he asked them for some money. Notice that Peter and John were going to the Temple to participate in the afternoon prayers although for the lame man, this marked his moment of opportunity; God met with him where he was; help was sent to him. In the same way I declare to you that God will meet you and send help to you. The lame man’s life was filled with questions but God sent the answer –when questions and answers collide, change is inevitable – I declare that before the end of this year change will come to your life. You will not carry the questions of life in to 2012 – there will be answers in your life. God has sent help to you. Wherever the enemy may have held you, I declare that your help has come. The days of looking for help are over – I declare that help comes looking for you.
When help comes however, you must be able to operate in discernment and be able to recognise opportunity and visitation. The lame man asked Peter and John for alms in the same way that he had asked everyone else passing. He didn’t realise that what stood before him was far more than the opportunity to receive alms, but the opportunity to receive a permanent answer to his situation. Peter was carrying the answer but the lame man’s failure to discern operated as a hindrance to the flow of power. We are told that Peter and John looked at him intently and Peter instructed him to look at them. It was clear that the man had physically seen them as he had asked them for alms and therefore why, you may ask, did Peter instruct him to look at them? Peter needed him to discern what he was and therefore in this instruction, he was essentially telling saying ‘unless you discern who I am, you will not be able to discern and receive what I am carrying’. Having given Peter and John his attention, in Acts 3: 5 we are told that he was ‘expecting to receive something of them’.  At this point, I believe, the lame man had begun to recognise that they carried something significant, his expectation was elevated beyond the possibility of just receiving alms and expectation having been ignited, and he connected with the power of God.
Peter could not give him what he had until he discerned what Peter had and expectation was stirred up. You cannot afford to go through life devoid of expectation. There is something that God wants to do in your life in 2012 and indeed, the remainder of 2011 and your expectation is the key – it is the mother of the miraculous in your life. The woman with the issue of blood who pressed through the crowds surrounding Jesus repeating ‘if I can only touch the hem of his garment, I will be made whole’ was filled with expectation that her healing would manifest and that change would come. In the same way, I declare to you that your change has come.
My expectation is such that, despite what we are going through as a church, my mind is at rest. We are not jittery, anxious or filled with worry, despite what the facts or the ‘professionals’ may say. We are connected with the heavenly purpose and we can be confidently assured that all shall be well. There has to be something on the inside of you that is ready to receive what God has promised you and that is your expectation. It is a confident assurance that you will not remain where you are. 2012 will be a glorious year and you will lay hold of God’s plan for you. I challenge you to expect your future to be glorious and bright.  
Looking back at the account in Acts 3, the man, whom previously had sat begging at the entrance of the Beautiful Gate, never having previously been able to get beyond this position, now entered the Temple walking, leaping and praising God. In the same way, we as a church have been promised that we are entering our ‘season of beyond’ – we too are going beyond our previous position, into our season of beyond, walking leaping and praising God! The enemy will look for you at your previous position but you will have moved on. God will surprise you this year – you will leap, dance and praise the Lord. In this account, everyone saw the previously lame man walking, leaping and praising his way into the Temple – in the same way, your victory will be a public one – everyone will see you leaping, dancing and praising God! God has promised something spectacular will happen – this is the season – you will walk, you will leap, you will praise God. Your expectation will not be cut off!

THE LORD HAS FOUND A MAN

By Pastor Tayo Adeyemi
 New Wine Church, London

Sunday 04 December 2011

Foundation Scripture: 1 Samuel 13: 14
As you probably already know, it was Pastor Michael’s 50^th birthday last Thursday.  So today, I’m dedicating my entire message to him. Now right there is my first problem! Just take a look at him.  How can anyone believe that he is 50?  It just isn’t fair! Just take a look at me – I look like I’m 10 years older than him; yet he is the one who is 10 years older than me.  But seriously, Pastor Michael I want to say happy birthday and many happy returns.  We rejoice with you as you attain this significant milestone. And we know that you have just entered into a new season in your life: a season of rest, a season of release and a season of restoration.  Over the years, you have been faithful in serving God and His people. I now decree that you enter into your harvest and into your reward.  Your life is about to shift into a whole new dimension – a dimension of supernatural and exponential increase - a dimension where the glory of God upon your life is intensified and magnified.  Get ready: God is about to blow your mind and amaze people as they observe your rising and shining.
Now church, I want to take this opportunity to highlight certain qualities about Pastor Michael that are worthy of emulation. I want to share with you five things about this man that every believer should aspire on to.  These are the five qualities that God is looking for in a man or woman after his own heart.

1.  He is a man under authority
Pastor Michael is a man who truly understands spiritual authority and spiritual positioning. In the years that I have known him – and that’s almost 20 years now – He has never once followed his own agenda.  At his birthday celebration on Thursday, Rev Celia had this to say about him: he never presents himself; he always presents his Senior Pastor and his Church. Ladies and Gentlemen, here is a man who knows how to be a faithful servant and a true follower. Here is a man who knows the power of being a number 2. You see in our society today, people have been conditioned to think that they are not truly successful unless they are number 1. But look through the bible, there are many men whose greatness lays  in the fact that they were very good at being number 2. Some of them eventually became a number 1; but those examples were few and far between. Many fulfilled the call of God upon their lives by being the best number 2 they could be. And in being a great number 2, they became number 1 in God’s eyes. Pastor Michael has never had the ambition to usurp authority or to promote himself; and this is the reason why God is blessing him immensely.  The example of the centurion whose servant was sick in Matthew 8: 9 is noteworthy: Here, the centurion said to Jesus ‘For I also am a man under authority’ – In saying ‘also’, he recognised Jesus as being as a man under authority as well as possessing authority himself.
The truth is, you will never be a man or a woman of authority unless you are first a man or woman under authority. When your position yourself under God ordained spiritual authority, you become empowered to command situations and cause them to obey you.  Angels will be at your beck and call; they will come and go at your command. Demons will tremble under the sound of your voice.  This Roman Centurion recognised that Jesus had placed himself under the authority of the Father. Therefore, he knew that whatever Jesus said concerning his servant would come to pass instantly.


2.    He is a man of excellence
If you want to see the personification of the spirit of excellence, just watch Pastor Michael at work.  Many times, guest ministers commend on the spirit of excellence that they perceive in this house. Well let me assure you, excellence doesn’t just happen – there is usually someone behind the scenes who drives it. In this house, that person is Pastor Michael. He understands my spirit, and has come to recognise that ‘if it’s not quite, then it’s not right’. I wish I could tell you that everyone who works with me embodies that same spirit, but that would be a lie. In a million years, some people just don’t get it. And the reason is, they have not made a quality decision to embrace the spirit of excellence.  You see, excellence is a spirit. Before it manifests in the things that you see or feel or hear, it first exists in the heart.  In Daniel 6: 3 we are told ‘Then this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him’. When you carry the spirit of excellence, you will be distinguished; you will never have to chase promotion ever again in your life; because promotion will always pursue you. In Daniel 5:12, the spirit of excellence upon Daniel qualified him to be invited into their highest council in the land.
When you carry the spirit of excellence, people will not be able to make significant decisions until you arrive. What is the spirit of excellence? Here is my simple definition – excellence is simply improving on your last performance. Excellence is not about glitz or glamour or showing off; it is about being the best you can be at every given point in time.  The spirit of excellence will open doors for you and cause people to beat a path to your doorstep from all over the world.


3.    He is man of passion
Pastor Michael never does things by halves. He either does not get involved at all, or he pours his everything into it. Many times, passion is the difference between success and failure; the difference between being acknowledged and being ignored; the difference between being exceptional and being good.  If you really want to light up a room, don’t use a twenty watt bulb – use a hundred watt bulb. Passion is the difference between twenty watts and hundred watts. Passion is the difference between a lit matchstick and a blazing forest.
If you want to get something done, give it to a man who is not just on fire, but who can also set others on fire. Pastor Michael is that man. Ecclesiastes 9: 10 says, ‘Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.’ A man with passion will be chosen over a man with qualifications any day. Why is it that recruiters do not employ people purely on the basis of their CV? Why do they insist on an interview? It’s because they are looking for two things – passion and attitude. They want to feel your temperature before they employ you. They want to know if you are a wet rag or a blazing flame.
Another quality that goes hand in hand with passion, especially for believers is compassion. There are many people who are passionate but not compassionate.  Pastor Michael is not just a man of passion, he is also a man of compassion. If you do not know him well, it is easy to misunderstand him, because he is very resolute and very strong willed and he is a no nonsense man. People don’t like that because they want someone they can walk all over and treat as a doormat. So if a person is firm, they say he is difficult. What they are really saying is ‘that guy won’t let me take him for a ride’. But when you really get to know him, you will discover that Pastor Michael is a man with a large heart.  He is kind, compassionate and generous.


4.    He is a man of diligence
Proverbs 22:29 says that a diligent man will stand before kings. Pastor Michael is the epitome of diligence. He is very hardworking, almost to the point of being a workaholic. I cannot tell you how many times I have had to force him to get out of the office and just go home. But seriously church, the only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary! God has used the life of many bible characters to demonstrate that diligence is a godly virtue. I am not asking you to be a workaholic; but I promise you, if you are not hardworking, you will not be successful and you will not make lastly impact. This is the truth folks, God does not reward laziness.  When your boss, your colleagues, or even the people you supervise describe you, can they call you diligent? That scripture says, a diligent man, a skilful worker will always be in demand. Are you the kind of person that everyone will miss when you leave your job? 
Diligence means putting your very best into whatever you do. It means not cutting corners; it means not dodging responsibility; it means the people who work with you can depend on you. It means you are an asset and not a liability. When I commit something – anything – into Pastor Michael’s hand, I have an assurance that it is as good as done. I don’t have to chase him up, or tackle him to the ground to get an update.  Diligent people make the people they serve look better than they are. To be diligent is to be dependable. To be diligent is to be reliable. To be diligent is to be consistent. Pastor Michael is all of these things and more.


5.    He is a faithful man
Faithfulness is one of the rarest qualities in people today. Yet the bible says it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. While the world is looking for skill and ability, God is looking for faithfulness. To be faithful is to be trustworthy, to be devoted, to be dependable, to be steadfast, to be unwavering, to be reliable, and to be loyal. I can say with any fear of contradiction that Pastor Michael is a faithful man. He has been faithful in little things; no wonder God is now making him ruler over great things. Look very closely; faithfulness always precedes promotion. Many have forfeited great blessings because they have failed the test of faithfulness. Proverbs 28:20 says ‘A faithful man will abound in blessings.’
One of the cornerstones of faithfulness is loyalty. There are many leaders today who have to constantly look over their shoulder because they are not sure if the people they lead will stab them in the back. And I can tell you, I have had my own fair share of backstabbers in life. But with Pastor Michael, I have never, repeat never, had to look over my shoulder. Let me make it clear to you, this guy is so loyal, I can trust him with my life. Now pay attention; that is a very serious thing I have just said. Can people say that about you? Are you faithful, are you loyal, are you reliable and are you dependable? Potiphar trusted Joseph with everything in his house because Joseph was a faithful man. Pharaoh trusted Joseph to run the country because he was a faithful man. I promise you, if you can just learn to lay down your own agenda and embrace the spirit of faithfulness and loyalty, there is no limit to how high you will rise. I believe that these are the qualities that have served Pastor Michael in good stead all these years and I assure you; these are qualities that are well pleasing to God. In Hebrews 13:7 we are told to remember those who rule over us and to follow their faith and consider the outcome of their conduct. In Pastor Michael, we see a shining example of a man under authority, an excellent spirit, passion, diligence and faithfulness; in Pastor Michael the Lord has found a man.

FROM MOURNING TO DANCING

My Change Has Come!

By Pastor Michael Olawore
 New Wine Church, London

Sunday 27 November 2011

Foundation Scripture: Psalm 30
‘I am moving from mourning to dancing – my change has come!’ This is the prophetic word to this house: God is moving you from sorrow to joy; the days of sorrow are over in Jesus’ Name! The shout of celebration and rejoicing will not depart from your life in Jesus’ Name. This is a prophetic word  - God wants to adjust situations and address the circumstances that have hindered your life and He has sent me to say to you today ‘Your change has come!’
God specialises in turning mourning to dancing and in situations that men have concluded to be impossible, He flexes His muscles and proves Himself to be able to bring joy out of sorrow. All things are possible, particularly in situations and circumstances that appear to be impossible.
In Luke 1 26- 37 the angel Gabriel who appeared to Mary to announce that she would conceive by the Holy Spirit and give birth to Jesus, the Messiah, explained to her that Elizabeth, Mary’s elderly relative who had been barren, was in the sixth month of her pregnancy and concluded ‘For with God nothing shall be impossible.’  Elizabeth had been called barren but God refused to permit her to remain in that condition but being a progressive God who moves those who serve Him from where they find themselves into their destiny, invaded her situation and moved her from barrenness to fruitfulness; from mourning to dancing. Similarly in the Old Testament, despite the 400 years of oppression, God moved the children of Israel out of bondage and into their promise.
There are many issues that we face in which conclusions have been drawn that they are impossible. Anyone using the term ‘impossible’ to describe their situation in my view, simply proves beyond doubt that they do not know God as with God there is nothing that is impossible. In Isaiah 43: 16 God announces Himself: “I am the Lord, who opened a way through the waters, making a dry path through the sea”.  Making a way through waters and paths through the sea He makes it abundantly clear that nothing can stop Him and that He will always make a way for His children.  Later on in verse 18-19 He declares that His previous acts in defeating the Egyptian army are nothing compared to the new thing that He is about to do and that indeed, He has already begun to do and that paths will be made in the wilderness and rivers will be created in dry wasteland. Do you not see or sense change; you are living in a moment of change. This is the God that you serve; this is the same God who is saying to you today “I am doing something new.” The bible is full of examples of impossible situations being turned around – in Genesis despite the darkness covering the earth, God called forth light and light came into being.  The children of Israel were in captivity for 430 years but in one day, were brought out into freedom. Hanna having been mocked taunted and brought to tears due to her barrenness was given a son and able to declare ‘My heart rejoices in the Lord!’ As in the account of the widow of Nain in Luke 7 who was on the way to bury her only son when she encountered Jesus who told her ‘Do not weep’, I declare to you, weep no more, the day of change has come. In the account in Luke 7 Jesus approached the funeral procession and touched the coffin and the bearers stopped; at Jesus’ word instructing him to arise, life returned to the boy in the coffin and he began to speak.  Similarly, I declare to you that everything that is taking life out of you must stand still; I resist everything that the devil has sent to you to take life from you in Jesus’ Name; life must return to every dead situation that you face. Psalm 126: 1 says ‘When the Lord brought back his exiles to Jerusalem, it was like a dream! We were filled with laughter and we sang for joy!’ I declare to you that the Lord will surprise you this year!
Now that we have established that God specialises in turning situations around, what should we do in order to make this our experience? In considering this question, I want to look at the life of Abraham, in particular recounted in Romans 4: 16-23 from which we can extract 7 distinct learning points: (i) Abraham received the promise; (ii) Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life; (iii) Abraham kept hoping – believing that he would become the father of nations; (iv) Abraham’s faith did not weaken; (v) Abraham did not waver at the promise of God; (vi) He remained convinced that God would fulfil the promise that had been spoken of; (vii) He was accounted, or credited with righteousness.
Let’s look in more detail at Abraham’s faith, in particular the object of his faith and the obstacles of his faith.
(i)                 The Object of Abraham’s Faith - Romans 4 makes clear that Abraham believed God.  The quality of faith depends on the object to which faith is attached; the person to whom your faith is anchored. Abraham knew God to be one who makes dead things come alive and calls things out of nothing. Abraham knew the God to whom his faith was anchored and this determined the quality of his faith. From this we can extract the importance of focussing on the bigness of God, despite our situations.  
(ii)               The Obstacles to Abraham’s Faith - An obstacle of faith can be hopelessness of the situation faced. From the life of Abraham we see that he was about 100 years of age with a body described as being ‘as good as dead.’ Essentially, although there was a promise, there was nothing visible to sustain the promise. The situation was compounded by the fact that Sarah was barren and yet God had declared that he would be the father of many nations. There was therefore a contradiction between the promise and the circumstances with which Abraham was faced and many of us face such situations – such as when God has declared you to be a millionaire and yet the bailiffs are in pursuit of you. In such situations, what do you do? Well, the clues are in Romans 4: 19 which says ‘And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.’ From her we see that he did not pay attention to or observe the physical situation, namely the deadness of his own body or Sarah’s womb, but focussed on the bigness of his God.
We see this in Matthew 14 when Peter was empowered to walk on water by Jesus’ instruction “Come”, he was able to do so as long as he kept his focus on Jesus. Once he began to pay attention to the wind and the waves, he began to sink. From this therefore we can understand the importance of giving our attention not to the situation but on the bigness of God. Each time Abraham thought about God, he was encouraged and instead of rehearsing the problem, he rehearsed again and again, the magnitude of the God he served. When he looked at himself and Sarah, he saw not the deadness of their bodies but the God who quickens the dead. A situation or a set of circumstances can only be dead until it is introduced to God; once it is introduced to God, it must come alive. I declare to you that everything that the enemy has killed in your life must come alive – before the end of this year, you will celebrate.
A further obstacle to faith can be the promise itself. In Abraham’s life the promise was that he would be the father of nations although as Genesis 18: 11 makes clear, he and Sarah had no child at all and were both past child-bearing age. As Abraham was asked ‘Is there anything too hard for God?’, is there anything about your family, your finances, your health, indeed any part of your life that is too hard for God?
How did Abraham deal with the magnitude of the promise? The answer lay in his revelation and understanding of the nature of God that he served. He looked on the God that he served. Let me ask you: ‘What is it that you see?’ Do you see your problem or your God? Abraham remembered that God calls into manifestation substance out of nothingness and hope began to well up inside him. We are told that he hoped against hope, when there was nothing apparent on which to base his hope, he hoped still because his focus was on God. Faith we understand is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. When there is no hope therefore, there is no faith and when there is no faith it is impossible to please God. However, I have news for you: there is hope in your future.
Hope is the assurance that something will happen, the confident expectation that what you believe for will come to pass. Abraham hoped against hope; I believe that as he hoped, he kept his joy alive, rejoicing in his hope in God. I can imagine him singing at the top of his voice ‘Things are getting better for the Lord is on the throne, things are getting better’ and despite the taunts and raised eyebrows of his neighbours, only singing the louder, “Things are getting better, things are getting better, for the Lord is on the throne, things are getting better!” Well, the results of Abraham’s unstoppable faith in God are recorded in Genesis 21: 1-3 when we are told that ‘the Lord kept his word and did for Sarah exactly what he had promised’. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son who was named Isaac and declared ‘God has brought me laughter. All who hear about this will laugh with me.’
“I declare to you that every word that God has spoken over your life will prosper and come to pass. One thing that never fails is the word of God - nothing that God has spoken over your life will fall to the ground. God will make you laugh – the days of weeping are over! Isaac means laughter; I release the blessing of laughter over your life – the manifestation of your Isaac is on the way. As Abraham was moved from mourning to dancing, you too will move from sorrow to joy and celebration - Your change has come!”

WALKING IN VICTORY

By Pastor Michael Olawore
New Wine Church, London

Sunday 23 October 2011

Foundation Scripture: Matthew 16: 13-18
Over the past few weeks we have been looking at Jesus’ assurance in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of hell shall not prevail. Last week we understood that related to this statement was Jesus’ promise to give us the keys to the kingdom, illustrating the truth that to every problem there is a solution and the fundamental importance therefore of knowing who we are, knowing what we have been given and know what to do with what we have got. Today, I want to unravel these truths further and in particular, for us to reach a collective understanding that we are destined to walk in victory, irrespective of the circumstances that we face.
It is essential for this truth to be settled firmly in your spirit: you are destined to walk in victory and that is the conclusion of the matter. Romans 8: 37 states: ‘Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.’  This confirms that we are called to take charge and we must never permit situations and circumstances to overwhelm us. In Genesis we understand that God created us and gave us dominion which means that we have authority. Jesus’ statement in Matthew 16:18 that He will give us the keys to the kingdom of heaven and whatever we bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven further establishes this truth. The essence of these scriptures is that we are in charge and circumstances are subject to our prerogative, a reflection of the enormous power that has been bestowed on us.
God’s plan for you is that you should walk in victory; this is our mandate. We have no business in engaging in prayer if that were not the case as prayer is the mechanism by which we enforce on earth what God has already established for us. There is no situation that can arise for which you have not been already been empowered by God to come out victoriously. Psalm 23:4 states ‘Yea, thought I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for You are with me; Your rod and your staff comfort me.’ We must understand that regardless of how the circumstances appear, we are only walking through the valley of the shadow of death – it is not our destination and in addition, we can be assured that God is with us, His rod protects us and His staff guides us. The fact that you are facing challenges does not mean that you are not walking in victory. In fact, if we do not face challenges, warfare, contention and battles, it is difficult to see how we can declare ourselves to be victorious. Many of us love the idea of victory but do not like the process by which our victory is established and want the battles of life to pass us by but it simply does not work that way.
I want to make it clear to you today that it is okay to experience difficulties and challenges; what is not okay is to be come out of the battle in defeat – in fact, I forbid it! In the realm of the spirit, victory is not measured by the process but by the eventual outcome of what you go through.  If we assessed victory in terms of the process rather than the eventual outcome we would conclude that Jesus’ death on the cross marked His defeat but we know that the outcome of the process, namely Him being resurrected and seated right hand of the Father represented an indisputable victory.
Everyone will go through rough patches in life; it doesn’t mean that they’ve been cursed or have no faith. Jesus made clear in John 16:33 ‘In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.’  If you had lost the battle, how could He possibly instruct you to rejoice? Jesus Himself is the ultimate example of victory, despite having faced the humiliation and suffering of the cross, now being seated at the right hand of the Father. The process produces the victory. The pit was the process by which Joseph was brought to the palace. I am sure that when he excitedly recounted his famous dream to his father and brothers as a young man, he could never have imagined the hardship that he would face before that dream was realised. God often speaks of the end of a thing but will rarely tell you the process by which that end will be realised.
God has declared the outcome and has awarded you the winner’s trophy before the competition has even begun. He has brought you out in victory and you simply cannot be held down, whatever you may be going through. God cannot be bound and in that He lives in you, you cannot be bound either. Victory is your covenant right. Proverbs 24: 16 says ‘For a righteous man many fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity’. Micah 7: 8 says ‘ Do not rejoice over me my enemy; when I fall, I will arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me,’. You are assured therefore that regardless of the situation that you face, regardless of how many times you may fall, you cannot stay down. You will arise and walk in victory.
In life you will face storms and tribulations, circumstances in which you will experience days that look like the darkest of nights but be assured that God is not unaware of what you are going through. The outcome has been pre-determined and the story has been concluded: your end is a good one. Psalm 139: 16 says ‘Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.’ From this we can understand that God has concluded the conclusion of your story before the beginning; everything about your life was concluded before your life began, in fact, the beginning was only permitted to begin after God had concluded the conclusion. God will not start a thing and not conclude it, therefore you can be assured that your life is a finished work and nothing takes Him by surprise. He is aware of every situation and nothing perplexes Him. In Jeremiah 29: 11 says ‘For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope.’ Despite the pain, hurt and the frustration, He knows.  Our challenge however is to reconcile the uncomfortable truth that affliction is a tool in the hand of God. We see this as early on in scripture as in Genesis where the Spirit of God was there in the midst of the chaos and further, in the life of Jesus, whose experience of being tortured, mocked, whipped, abused and eventually crucified and buried, was part of God’s plan.
My assignment today is to release the spirit of victory over you and to make you understand that the fact that you go through difficult circumstances does not mean that God is not there. Jeremiah 29:11 arises in the context of the affliction of people of Judah at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar which was so extreme that the people cried out to God in anguish. God’s response was to confirm that His thoughts towards the people were of good and not evil, essentially the pain was part of His plan. If you fail to understand this truth, it is very easy to step outside the will of God for your life or to take action aimed at ‘helping God out’.  In Jeremiah 29:10 God confirmed to His people that after 70 years were competed in Babylon, He would visit His people and perform His good word to them and causes them to return to their land. From this we can understand that the problems that we face have an expiry date and will not last forever; further, in His promise to visit His people we can be assured of His presence, the presence which causes the mountains to melt like wax and also, in His promise to cause the people to return to their land, we can be assured of restoration.
This leads me to the core of my message today, namely how to walk in victory. The victory walk can be broken down in to three key components: the walk of faith, the walk of hope and the walk of confidence and I want to examine each of these in turn:

1. The Walk of Faith

In Habakkuk 2: 4, Romans 1: 17, Galatians 3: 11 and Hebrews 10: 38 we are told ‘the just shall live by faith.’ This means that for those who are justified by the blood of Jesus, faith forms the basis of their lives. These scriptures represent four witnesses and from the repetition of this truth, we can safely conclude that God is trying to get our attention. We live by faith, not by knowledge or by our experiences; faith is the way in which we live. Faith releases God into your situation. It is the substance of what you hope for and the evidence of what is not seen; the tangibility of the intangible, the raw material of the things that we hope for.
Romans 10: 17 says ‘Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God’; we must understand the inextricable link between faith and the word of God. The word of God sown in our heart generates faith, which is the raw material which produces what we hope for. Experiences do not generate faith; only the word of God generates faith. Everything therefore begins and finds its origins in the word of God. Once the word of God is sown, faith is released and what we hope for is manifested.
In the story of creation in Genesis to each of God’s ‘Let there be’ we saw a corresponding ‘and there was’. Everything starts with the word and therefore we must never tire of confessing the word of God as this is the source of our victory. The more that the word of God is poured into a negative situation the more the negative situation is displaced and replaced with the manifestation of what you desire to see, namely what the word of God promises you. I challenge you to be a good, diligent and consistent student of the word.

2. The Walk of Hope

Hope, we are told in Hebrews 6: 19, is the anchor for the soul. It is this that brings about stability and keeps you going. You must determine therefore not to lose your hope regardless of the circumstances with which you are faced.

3. The Walk of Confidence

The story of the three Hebrew boys Shedrach, Meshach and Abednego in the book of Daniel, and their determination not to bow down and worship the idol at Nebuchadnezzar’s instruction and threat of being burned alive is a perfect illustration of confidence. They were confident that God would deliver them and were therefore able to respond to Nebuchadnezzar’s threats in Daniel 3: 15-16 ‘We have no need to answer you in this matter..our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and He will deliver us from your hand O King’. Their confidence in God however came from an intimate knowledge of Him. Your intimacy with God will form the basis of your confidence in Him.
Be assured therefore that, regardless of the challenges that you face you are mandated and empowered to be victorious. Your walk of faith, being grounded in the word, your walk of hope, which brings about stability and the ability to keep going and your walk of confidence, borne of your intimate knowledge of God guarantees that you come out with your hands raised in victory.

OVERCOMING THE GATES OF HELL!

By Pastor Michael Olawore
New Wine Church, London

Sunday 16 October 2011

Foundation Scriptures: Matthew 16: 13-18 
Last week we began to examine the significance of Jesus’ conversation with His disciples in Matthew 16 in which Peter declared Jesus to be the Messiah, in response to which Jesus stated that He would build His church and ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail’. We concluded that although this conversation arose in the context of Jesus establishing His disciples’ understanding of whom He was, it was also the mechanism by which Peter was revealed to himself.
In the statement ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail’ Jesus established with finality that the church will overcome any and every assault of the enemy. Today, I want to examine Jesus’ declaration further. Before embarking on further analysis of the substance of Jesus’ declaration, His choice of words bears closer examination: the word ‘prevail’ means to be strong to the detriment of another and denotes overcoming and being of superior strength. From Jesus’ statement therefore we can understand that the gates of hell will not be of superior strength or overcome the church and instead, that the church is strong to the detriment of the gate of hell. You are not inconsequential or a weakling; you are stronger than the enemy and despite the gates of hell’s propensity to intimidate you, they will not overcome you. It is important therefore for you to know who you are. As a member of the body of Christ you are stronger than the enemy.
In Jesus’ further statement in Matthew 16: 19 ‘And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven’ we are given insight into the reason that the gates of hell cannot prevail. Jesus, in speaking about the gates of hell (plural) and confirming that He will give the church the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven (also plural), was assuring us that there is a solution to every problem, and regardless of the magnitude of the problem with which we are confronted, we will always be provided with a means of escape.
The walls of Jericho were described in Joshua 6 as being ‘tightly shut’, providing neither a means of exit or entrance, however God gave Joshua the ‘key’ to this city which was in the instruction to march around the city daily for six days and then on the seventh day, to march around the city seven times and then to let out a shout. The keys that you have been given are the keys of the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ and therefore are not subject to the natural realm or indeed, men’s opinion but are based upon your authority in God.  There is no gate that can confront you for which you do not have the key and I declare therefore that every gate of the enemy must crumble before you!
I want to look at a number of fundamental truths that will deepen our understanding of Jesus’ statement as follows: 

1. Establish Who You Are
You are not a product of your background: In 1 Chronicles 4: 10 we see that Jabez was more honourable than all his brothers however, had been given a name synonymous with pain and distress as a result of the painful circumstances of his birth which he was eventually able to address in prayer to God.  You must refuse to define yourself in relation to your background.
Further, you are not a product of your circumstances: In Mark 10 we are told the story of Jesus’ encounter with the beggar Blind Bartimaeus who was named in reference to his situation. You must be clear that you are not your circumstances and your situation does not define you. You are what God says you are and you must refuse to be defined otherwise.
Within Moses there was a deliverer yet, he paid more attention to his condition, describing himself as being slow of speech. Similarly, within Gideon there was also a deliverer through whom God would bring about victory for the children of Israel and yet he considered himself to be insignificant and hid himself within the winepress maintaining that he was the least of his father’s house. Likewise in Jeremiah there lay a great prophet whom despite his protestations that he was a child, God used to speak to the nations.
In 1 Corinthians 1:27 we see the qualifications of those that God uses, namely what the world considers to be foolish to shame the wise, the powerless to shame the powerful, the despised and counted nothing at all to bring to nothing what the world considers to be important. In this description of God’s selection criteria we can find ourselves. God does not look for our expertise but uses us where we are to affect our generation, despite our inadequacies. It is the bigness of God who sees us not in terms of where we are but where we will be that enables us to be sure that there is hope in our future. You must stop undermining who you are in God and instead align yourself with how God sees you.
If we turn back to Jesus’ discourse with Peter we understand that he was previously known as Simon, the meaning of which is a reed, denoting weakness and instability of character. Until he understood who Jesus was, his true identity as defined by Jesus whom called him Peter (which means rock), had eluded him. This is the same Peter whom after Jesus’ resurrection preached a message that led to 3000 people being saved, an illustration of the truth that once our identity in Christ is discovered and understood, our potential is limitless.
Every manufacturer of a product first constructs a prototype which is subjected to gruelling tests to ensure its quality and durability. When God created you the prototype was Jesus who was wounded, rejected, ridiculed and eventually crucified and taken to hell. I can only imagine the celebration in hell on the first day after Jesus’ arrival which would, no doubt, have only intensified on the second day with the enemy congratulating himself on what appeared to be the total conquest of Jesus. The mood however would have been very different on the third day when the power of God showed up and enabled Jesus to break free from death and deliver the keys of hell to the church. Jesus went through the most incredible turmoil and trauma to empower us to rule and reign over the forces of darkness.

2. Know What You Have
We have a tendency to focus on what we do not have however God has revealed what we have in Him, having made clear from the very outset that we have been given dominion.
The word ‘testament’, which is used to define the distinct parts of the bible, means ‘will’ which of course is the legal mechanism by which an inheritance is bequeathed upon the death of the person making the will. The word of God therefore defines all that we have inherited in God. Jesus said that we have been given the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and therefore rather than focus on what we consider that we do not have, we must focus on what we have.
In Acts 3 when Peter and James encountered the lame man begging at the temple gate called Beautiful Peter’s response to the beggar’s request for money was ‘Silver and gold I do not have’ – many of us stop there but as you will notice, having made clear what he did not have, he went on to say ‘but what I do have I give to you’ and commanded him to health.
You have authority in God, a delegated power; you have what it takes to function irrespective of what you have been through. You have been given authority to function and if you refuse to utilise that authority, it remains useless. Psalm 110:2 says ‘The Lord shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of your enemies’, making clear that the rod has been sent out and we have the power and right to rule.

3. Work With What You Have
Jesus said ‘I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven’ assuring us that whatever we bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven, however the responsibility to exercise that authority is ours; Jesus will not do it for us. Whatever heaven has prohibited, you have the authority to prohibit. The power has been given, however the responsibility to exercise that power and therefore to determine what happens to you is yours. You have the responsibility to discover what heaven has allowed and disallowed and act accordingly. Often, we are happy to accept the keys but reluctant to exercise the power, however the authority and the exercise of the authority must go hand in hand.
In the days of Elijah the prophet had declared by the spirit of God that there shall be no rain except at his word. By the spirit of God he exercised the same authority in declaring the sound of the abundance of rain and prayed until the manifestation was experienced. The fact that you are exercising your authority and are not seeing the manifestation immediately does not mean that your authority is ineffective. Be assured that there is a response in the spirit realm to the exercise of your authority. Elijah held on and travailed in the place of prayer until the rain came; I encourage you to determine to do likewise as there will be a manifestation of everything that you are praying for in faith. 
Jesus has assured us that the gates of hell shall not prevail over your life, your home or your family - instead, you can be assured that you, being of superior strength to the powers of darkness, will overcome the gates of hell!

THE GATES OF HELL SHALL NOT PREVAIL!

By Pastor Michael Olawore
New Wine Church, London

Sunday 9 October 2011

Foundation Scriptures: Matthew 16: 13-18 


The inspiration for this message has emerged over the past few weeks during which Pastor Tayo has explained the story, statements, structure and strategy of New Wine Church; as the picture of the future of New Wine unfolded, the significance of Jesus’ statement has become more and more clear.  The message title derives from Jesus’ declaration in Matthew 16: 18 ‘And I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.’ It is not the statement or fabrication of man, but the definitive statement of the sovereign will of the Master, the Creator of earth and sea. He has declared that the powers of hell will not prevail against the church, namely the people of the living God and that settles it; regardless of what the enemy throws our way, the gates of hell shall not prevail!   When you know the conclusion of a situation you are better equipped to get through it – it is much like watching a movie the second time around, you know the ending and therefore are not alarmed or affected by the twists and turns of the plot. Similarly, knowing the outcome that Jesus has declared your victory, this enables you to walk through whatever the enemy throws at you with great peace.
The events leading up to Jesus’ statement are interesting. We are told in Matthew 16 that when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He began a conversation with His disciples that appeared to be centred on people’s perception of Him, asking them ‘Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?’  Jesus who had been clearly rejected by the Jewish religious community, was not actually seeking affirmation but being a master strategist, was carefully staging his questions. Knowing that He was shortly to go to the cross, He was seeking to establish that the disciples had a clear understanding of who He was before handing to them the institution that He was creating. The disciples’ answers showed a lack of understanding and therefore He followed it up with a question forcing them to address the issue directly ‘But who do you say that I am?’
In John 1: 10 we learn ‘He was in the world, and the world was made through Him and the world did not know Him’ Knowledge and understanding of a thing will affect the degree to which anything can be derived or withdrawn from it. The world has been forever adversely affected as a consequence of its rejection of Jesus. A life lived without knowledge of God is limited in its effectiveness which would explain why the Apostle Paul expressed his longing in Philippians 3: 10 as being ‘that I may know Him’. Knowledge affects our actions and how we interact. If I know that a cash-point machine is not working I will not attempt to withdraw money from it. Your knowledge of a person will determine how you interact with them and for this reason, throughout scripture, we see numerous examples of the efforts to which God went in order for His people to know Him. In Isaiah 46:9 He declares ‘Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other; I am God and there is none like me’ and in Isaiah 45: 18 He says ‘For thus says the Lord who created the heavens, Who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who has established it, who did not create it in vain, who formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord, and there is no other.’
Jesus therefore put the question of His identity to His disciples –‘But who do you say that I am?’ Until that point the disciples had been happy to offer to Jesus the various opinions of whom He was but this question was very different. I imagine that the question was met with silence, you could hear a pin drop until Peter’s bold answer ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’  Peter’s revelation brought about a great change; with the revelation of Jesus’ identity as the Christ came his own identity as Jesus’ response to him in verse  18 ‘And I say to you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail’. When Peter discerned who Jesus was his own identity was revealed. Similarly, our identity is rooted in Him. You are the light of the world because He is the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world; you are healed because He took your sickness and bore your stripes; you are seated in heavenly places with Him because He is seated at the right hand of the Father. Your understanding of who He is determines your identity.
Jesus, in saying to Peter ‘And I say to you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church’ was doing more than re-stating his name. The Greek word used here is ‘Petros’ which denotes small rock taken from a larger rock. Jesus was revealing that the church was of an identical composition of the larger rock form which the smaller rock derived. The bigger rock could not be crushed and likewise the smaller rock. The Church has the DNA of Jesus and therefore the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. The enemy may try and try hard for that matter but he will not prevail. I encourage you to grasp this truth. The enemy cannot prevail against you, no matter what you are going through. God wants you as a believer to understand who you are in Christ and that nothing can crush or overpower you. Peter’s response to Jesus ‘you are the Christ’, acknowledged Jesus as the Anointed One and his anointing. It was a statement of recognition of Jesus as Saviour, healer, restorer and provider, source of wisdom, power and security. Regardless of what you go through, refuse to cave in or quit as the outcome remains the same – the gates of hell shall not prevail!
Throughout scripture we see many examples of the enemy’s attacks and assaults upon the purpose of God but the result has overwhelmingly been a victorious outcome. Joseph was held in prison but was delivered – I declare that you are coming out of the enemy’s prison!  Goliath came to terrorise and intimidate the people of God but was beheaded and brought down – I declare that every Goliath in your life is brought low! In the book of Esther the gallows that had been prepared for Mordecai became the place of his enemy’s demise – every plan of the enemy for your destruction will become the very place in which the enemy is humiliated and destroyed! As Job was restored totally, you too will be restored, as Daniel was delivered so will you be also. Jesus conquered death and the grave and the gates of hell shall not prevail against you! In Revelation 21 we understand that every tear will be wiped away from our eyes, there will be no more sorrow. In verse 5 & 6 we are told ‘Behold I make all things new’ and in verse 6 ‘And he said to me “it is done”. That will be your reality. God will wipe away your tears and make all things new and for everything that you are believing Him to do, I declare ‘It is done!’
In the life of Peter, you see an illustration of the enemy’s harassment and confrontation of the church. In Acts 12 we are told that Herod harassed the church and killed James, the brother of John and seeing that he pleased the Jewish, he proceeded to seize Peter too. It may have been the case that when James was taken the church had done nothing but when Peter was seized the reaction was very different, the church prayed. We are told that constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. The enemy cannot handle a praying church. Isaiah 62:6-7 says ‘I have set watchmen on your walls O Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord do not keep silent, and give Him no rest till He establishes and till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth’
The prayer of the early church brought about divine intervention. Four squadrons of soldiers had been assigned to guard Peter in the prison with a view to him being executed after the Passover but an angelic intervention brought about his miraculous release. Chains fell off and iron gates opened of their own accord. I declare that in the season God will surprise you – the gates of limitation will give way to you and the chains of the enemy shall fall away! In the same way that the enemy’s army, chains and gates could not contain Peter, they cannot contain you - you are coming out! Where the enemy expects to find you, you will not be – You are delivered! You are free!  The gates of hell cannot prevail