The Harvest Is Ripe!

(From a radio sermon of Bro. Julius Adewumi).

In part 1, I said Christians are the light of the world, and the light should not hide itself when darkness is trying to promote itself. As believers, don't be ashamed of your holiness and the life of Christ, which you have chosen. It is darkness that should withdraw and keep silent when light appears.

Also we mentioned that Faith must be confessed before it happens. David confessed what God had done for him, how he killed a lion and a bear. This boosted his faith and the faith of Saul to let him go against Goliath.

Now we come to the point where David was standing before the Philistine. (1Sam.17: 38).

After David had said moreover, "the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine", King Saul was confident enough to say "go, and the Lord be with thee."

Saul armed David with a coat of mail and a sword. David took them off him because he had not proved them. He chose to go with his sling and his staff, plus five smooth stones out of the brook.

(v.41). "And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David; and the man that bare the shield went before him. And when the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him: for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance."

The Philistines must have heard some rumblings from within the army of Israel, and guessed that somebody was about to accept the challenge. So they waited to see, and when someone was coming forward, Goliath went forward also, only to find David was just a youth.

"And the Philistine said unto David, am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field."

Here is where we must learn something about faith. Faith must confess itself. Many people have a dormant faith. This is how to start your engine. Potential energy will do us no work until it begins to move. Like a big rock standing upon a hill will not do any work; but when the rock begins to move down the hill, the potential energy is converted to kinetic energy and you better not stand in its way, for it can crush and run over items. Our faith must go from potential dormant energy to kinetic active force; and confessing what we want is how to start our engine running.

Let's see how David did it.

This is David's confession of his faith. It has not happened yet, but he was confessing what he wanted, believing that it shall be as he confessed. Heaven is listening. Amen.

This is what God wants to hear from your mouth also, Christian. Heaven is listening. God wants you to confess his power boldly without doubt, not being afraid, even ready to die if it does not happen.

Before going further with this story of David, let me point out about confessing the faith from the book of Daniel. When I said heaven is listening, God wants every believer to be bold to confess him like that. If you have the boldness and the fearlessness to stand for God, God has the power and the supernatural means to stand for you and to make your miracle happen.

We see the same example in the book of Daniel when the three Hebrews, Shedrach, Meshach, and Abednigo, stood before Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon. He gave them one more chance to recant their faith and to bow to the golden image or they will be cast into the fiery furnace. Let's read the same kind of words which these men spake, which is the same kind of confession of the faith that I am talking about. I said this is how you start your faith engine running. Start by confessing what you believe for, that it shall be as you confessed, and don't be afraid to die for it if it does not happen. For this is how the saints are to overcome the dragon. (Rev. 12:11). "They overcame him by the blood of the lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death". It said, "word of their testimony", this is the confessing of our faith that I have mentioned before. Say to the mountain as you desired to happen fearing nothing. It also said, "they loved not their lives unto the death", and that is why I kept saying "don't be afraid to die for what you confess to happen even if it does not happen. Death has already been conquered by Jesus. For you to be able to confess the power of God that can deliver, for you to confess the miracle you are believing for before it happens, you must not be afraid to die for it if it does not happen. Heaven is listening, watching to see your activation of faith whether it is genuine. Is your faith genuine? Or, is your mouth saying one thing but your heart is trembling and fearful? We must not be afraid to die for our faith.

Dan.3:16 "Shedrach, Meshach, and Abednigo, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, (i.e. if you throw us into the furnace), our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O King. "

Now verse 17 is very important.

"But if not, (i.e. even if he did not deliver us), be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up."

These Hebrew men confessed the two sides of God. God is sovereign. They confessed that He is able to deliver us. But if he chose not to deliver us, we are still not going to bow to your idol. That is, they were ready to die. They were not afraid of death. This is what Revelation 12:11 was saying. The saints overcame the dragon by the blood of the lamb, and by the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives unto the death.

This is what David possessed. He was not afraid to die for his God. If you are afraid to die, you will not be bold enough to confess what has not happened yet that you are believing for. Listen to what David said, because it had not happened yet, and he was coming against a man that had a sword and a shield, who was twice as big as himself. David said, you come to me with a sword and a shield, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom thou hast defied. (1 Sam.17:43).

v.46. "This day will the Lord deliver thee into my hand". See? David was confessing that God would do it. He was not afraid should in case God didn't do it. Be ready to suffer the consequence in case it does not happen. That is faith. Among the men of faith listed in Hebrews chapter 11 are some that suffered for their faith "not accepting deliverance: that they might obtain a better resurrection." (Heb.11:35).

David said further, "and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day to the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel."

You can see that he was not boasting of himself. You have to boast in God. The scripture said, "he that glory let him glory in the Lord that he knoweth God". Make sure you are not bragging in yourself, but in the Lord. You can boast in the power of Jesus able to save and to deliver. And he has the choice to come down and deliver or not to. God is sovereign.

Now what is doubt? Let me give you a personal testimony to point out how doubt can occur. From this testimony you may see what faith is and how you can use your faith to overcome doubt. This testimony is to the glory of the Lord. One day I had to go tell one church member about the water baptism we planned to do the second day and I had to walk a distance to this lady's house who had signified that she wanted water baptism. As I drove my car towards the town, I noticed that the cloud was heavy and dark and rain was about to fall. But I had to park the car and walk a distance to get to the house. So I prayed that the rain should not fall until I had gone and come back. As I parked the car, a voice reminded me that, "don't forget your umbrella under the front seat". I usually keep my umbrella under the passenger's seat in my car. As I reached out to grab the umbrella, the Lord said, "if you pick up that umbrella you just nullify your prayer concerning the rain". I paused and thought about it. I said to myself, "what am I doing?" Damning the consequence, ready to be drenched in the rain if it disobeyed, I left the umbrella and went walking the distance. The Lord honored the faith.

Whose was the voice that reminded me of my umbrella, which I had forgotten? The devil's voice. It was to cause doubt. If I had taken the umbrella, it means I doubted my prayer. You see how doubt comes, and how technology can make people lose on faith? Technology can make people think we don't need faith when man has made a way to do the same thing. But without faith it is impossible to please the Lord.

Also, that is how to be fearless of the consequence should in case your faith does not materialize.

Christ said it this way: "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." (Mat.10: 39). "Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's the same shall save it." (Mk.8:35).

You can see why many times people's faith does not manifest result, because they are undecided. Remember the faith of the first church, the apostles. All of them stood firm and many died for their faith, and God still demonstrated his power through some, like apostle John. Christ said, "when the son of man shall come will he find faith on the earth?" What kind of faith will he find in you? The saints overcame the dragon by the blood of the lamb, and by the word of their testimonies, and that they loved not their lives unto the death. No matter the pressure or persecution against us, we must be ready to confess our faith and not be afraid to die for what we believe. You that read this literature, chose this day whom you will serve.

"Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the son of man also confess before the angels of God; but he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God." (Lk.12:8).

Are you ready to confess Christ even in the face of persecution? Are you ready to confess your faith even in the face of fearful consequences? Stand tall and not be afraid; don't be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is time for the saints to stand and not be afraid to die for the faith.

The saints overcame the dragon by the blood of the lamb, and by the word of their testimonies, and they loved not their lives unto the death.

Chris said, will he find faith when he returns? What kind of faith will he find in you? Think about it, and God bless you.

(From a sermon of Bro. Julius Adewumi).

In Isaiah chapter 6:8 we read the testimony of prophet Isaiah. He saw the Lord on the throne, after which he said "woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips and dwell in the midst of men of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the Lord of glory". He said an angel touched his mouth with a coal of fire and told him his sins are purged. Then in verse eight he heard the Lord said "Whom shall I said, and who will go for us? then said I, here am I, send me."

God brought Isaiah to that place, cleanse him up and still said "whom shall I send?" God is looking for people to send. God sometimes call some people aside to give them gifts for his own purpose. He calls them aside and compel them to fast long fasts. They also are examples that perhaps if we do the same thing we will get similar power from the Lord. He is looking for people he can pull aside, purge, ask them to fast in order for them to contain the power. You may say we are just to believe what he said. Yes, but there is a lot of force against us that wants us to doubt what he said. They come against our mind and affect us through what we see and hear. Fasting is therefore a tool to help our body be purged and to suppress those forces.

Let's look at some examples of miracles and really differentiate the acts. When God performs miracles, I want to point out that some of the miracles are done by God himself without the faith of the minister involved at all. It will be God himself initiating the miracle. He basically needs a person to "bring him there", so to speak. He could have gone there himself and cause the miracle to happen, but sometimes God needs somebody to use. Like Isaiah said "here am I, send me." God could have thundered from heaven by himself to speak to the Hebrews. But he needs a man to go and to talk with the voice of men, or to lay hand with the hand of men. I will list three examples of miracles which happened in my ministry while preaching about in Nigeria, and I will try to differentiate between them. The first One: God initiated it, and did the miracle himself. He simply led me to bring him there. The Second: I was invited by men to come help them and I simply took authority upon the situation as a servant of the Almighty God. The Third One: I was involved in the situation and had to wrestle with the enemy for long before the victory was won.

1) In 1978 or '79, I was coming from Ibadan to my workplace in Lanlate one Sunday morning about 8 or 9.00 am. I had visited and fellowshipped with the Ibadan brethren on Saturday night, slept over and rose up early to go back to my station. I want to point to this testimony to show that this miracle was not the faith of the minister. It's simply that God wanted to do something and saw one of his servants passing by whom he could use. There was a village on the road where I had preached before. I had been there only once. There were not many people in the village on my previous visit. As I was about to reach the junction to the village, the Lord told me to branch off the road to the village to preach. it was not customary for me to preach whenever I was returning on a Sunday morning. I was driving my mini-truck. I told the Lord that I have already preached in that village before. The Lord said "go there again!' So I branched into the village. Most of the villagers would have gone to a church in the big city at that time on Sunday morning, was my thought. However when I arrived and started preaching with the microphone, I was surprised to see a lot of people came out of their houses and gathered around me to hear the gospel. I preached and began to pray for them. There was one woman in their midst who had fresh sores of "leprosy" all over her lips, eyelids, fingers, toes. She was restless as she stood there while I preached. I began praying for everybody for salvation and for healing. I came to the woman and as I touched her forehead, the Holy Ghost spoke in tongues through my mouth and the devil troubling her jumped off from her and I felt it. I prayed for her and moved on. She was healed totally. I went past the village a week later and saw the woman. All the fresh sores were dried up and healed. Now this is a case in which I said it was not my faith at all. God wanted to deliver this woman, and he led me to the village. That was a miracle which I classify as God-instigated. I cannot claim any credit for that. The Holy Ghost spoke and rebuked the devil for the woman through my lips. I cannot claim any credit for it. I believe it was for the woman's sake that I was led to that village. Miracles like that happens but it was just God doing his work.

"O, that men will praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men". (Psa. 107:15 ).

What I'm pointing out here is that the above miracle was God-initiated -- being led of the Spirit.

The second testimony is different. I'm differentiating between when "God does something", and when "we believers try to do something". When we see a situation, and we try to arrest it, praying "O God, let this thing not happen", it will be like a tug-of-war against us in such cases. If we are personally involved in the situation, we most likely will hang in there and wrestle with the situation till we have the victory. In such cases, our faith is involved. That is where our faith comes in: How long can we hold on to the fence? Whereas, if we are passing by and the Spirit of the Lord instructs us to turn aside to a place and intervene in a situation, it is the Lord himself who wants to act.

3) The third example of miracle, is when we are personally involved, like when we are praying for ourselves or for our family members, or for someone close to us. That demands our own faith, because we are wrestling with the devil. If the devil does not give up, we need help from the Lord. In this testimony, I visited a christian family in their house. The son of this family, who was then about 2 year-old, was sick. (The boy is by now grown up and gone to college). The father told me they were just coming from the doctor's office when I arrived. I was entertained with food on the dinner table, while the father was carrying the child in his arms. While I was eating, the brother called on me "Bro Julius come quick!" He was arresting the child's mouth who was convulsing, about to give up the ghost. We held the boy, praying, rebuking the devil. Myself, the father and the mother of the child were the only adults in the house. We were praying and speaking in tongues, while the father held the boy's mouth. We held on, just praying over the boy. It looked like he was going to give up but we hung in there calling upon the Lord. It might have seemed to last for about 10 minutes or so, In this case, I was involved in the situation. I was right there when it happened; it seemed like a tug of war. In such case, your faith has to work. I could remember saying "O Lord!" I cried up "J e s u s !" That was a tug of war between saints and the devil. It now depends upon "will you give up easily?" In this testimony, while we were praying, the mother of the child, the lady of the house, was also there praying along. But after we prayed for a while and the child has not recovered yet, the woman started crying. Now that was "giving up!" She bursted into tears and we had to say "Sister, stop it!" i.e Don't give up yet. When I looked up and cried "J-EEE-S-UU-S!", I felt the hand of the Lord upon my shoulder, and the child recovered. (Till I left that house, I noticed the child did not take his eyes off me. He must have seen something in the spirit which we did not see.) Now that is the type of faith we are commanded to have in the bible. The faith that knocks and keep on knocking.

The first case, the leprous woman could have been praying and crying to God, and God wanted to deliver her, but God needed one of his servants to go down there to bring God there. God saw a pastor passing by, and the Lord commanded him to branch there. It was God's doing. In the 2nd example, I used the authority of the believer, while in the third example, it was the saints against the devil: this kind requires the faith of the saints at work. This is the reason why we need to build up our faith so that we can last longer than the adversary. When we are ministering to the world, God will often show his instant power to dumbfound the world, so that sinners may come to the fold where there is peace. However, in the flock, the believers are to be trained and equipped with faith and knowledge necessary to subdue the earth, which will often be challenged and tested by the enemy.

It is easier for a minister on the pulpit to simply pray for folks on a prayer-line, no matter what their diseases are, than if the minister himself is emotionally involved in the affliction.

The three miracles I have highlighted point to the fact that we can either be working "in the Spirit", "in the soulish realm" or "in the body". When emotionally involved in the case we are in the body. We are restrained by all the feelings in the body. The soulish realm is a little bit higher when we take the word of God and use it to arrest the situation. But, to be totally in the spirit, the Lord moves and leads the man of God to do exploits.

Overall, God is looking for whom he will send out to deliver his power and his grace to the inhabitants of the world. Like Isaiah said, "Here am I, send me." God is looking for people to send. When we are built up in faith and power we will be able to help our people, and to help the body of Christ. We must be ready to make the sacrifice: because there is a sacrifice involved when we say "here am I, send me." One sacrifice is the hint given by Christ: "this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." You must be ready to go through such sacrifice in order for him to put the power in you, to contain the power. The Lord Jesus gave us the example, because he did not need to fast 40 days to get power. But he said "For their sakes I sanctified myself, that they also may be sanctified through the truth." (Jn.17: 19 )

I pray that we believers everywhere will give ourselves to the Lord to be committed and to sanctify ourselves so that the Lord can endue us with the power we need to do exploits in his name, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Bro. Julius Adewumi

Gospel Distribution Ministry

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