Advance Conference, 2026 - Ascend by Apostle Joshua Selman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Fruitfulness is not merely a sign that a tree is healthy — it is a testament of growth. Fruitfulness is proof that growth has happened. There is enough space for anyone who is serious. It takes discipline. It takes passion. It takes the humility to listen to people with proven results.

If someone does not have results, it is because there is something they do not know. That is as sincere and as honest as it gets. And when people who have results by mercy and by grace are open and liberal to share their understanding, the right response is to embrace that with humility.

Everyone who has become great in the kingdom is emotionally connected to their pain and their sacrifices, and they will not waste it on ears and lives that are not determined to learn. When a mighty vessel in the spirit and in destiny becomes liberal with their pain, their history, and shares it lavishly, it is because they have discerned an atmosphere of honor and receptivity.

Jesus did two things while he walked upon the earth: he went about doing the work of redemption, and he went about training and building the other men who would take over from him.

If Jesus had not raised other people, the Bible would finish with the gospels. There were many things Jesus said he had to tell his disciples, but they could not yet bear them. It was Paul, it was Peter — those others — who carried what was still needed. When you study the gospel without the epistles, you cannot get maturity. The gospel gives a foundation, but the epistles build understanding onto maturity. No matter how great a leader is, there is a part of the assignment they will not be the one to fulfill. A part of the assignment will be a test of their ability to raise others.

Growth Is Engineered, Not Inherited

Growth and increase are a fundamental part of life. One of the indices responsible for happiness, fulfillment, and satisfaction is a sense of progress. To the degree a person perceives they are making strategic progress, it speaks to their confidence and their self-worth. There is nobody who remains stunted indefinitely and finds fulfillment in that state.

Proverbs 4:18 says the path of the just should be as a shining light that shines more and more unto the perfect day.

In Genesis 26:12–14, Isaac sowed in that land and received a hundredfold in the same year. The man waxed great. He went forward. And you would think that was the end of growth. But the Bible says even after waxing great and going forward, he still grew, and he became very great. A person can be great, can go forward — but they must grow to become very great.

Genesis 17:6 — "I will make you exceeding fruitful. I will make nations of you."

In Colossians 1:9–10, Paul prays that the church would be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding — that they may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work.

• John 15:8 — "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit."
• John 15:16 — "You have not chosen me but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go forth and bring much fruit and that your fruit should remain."
• Galatians 1:24 — "And they glorified God in me." Your result brings glory to God.

The only kind of growth that is natural is biological. Every other kind of growth is engineered. It is programmed. It is the effect of engaging specific kingdom laws.

All men can grow but not all men will, because there is discipline and sacrifice connected to growth. Most people believe that time alone — not invested in — will automatically translate to growth. But time only reveals investments. Time only reveals what has been done. If someone has spent time praying, time will reveal the quality of that investment. If someone has spent time being lazy, time will reveal that also.

Time on its own does not change anything. 430 years were not enough to turn Israel's captivity to victory on their own. 38 years were not enough to heal the man at Bethesda on their own. 12 years, 18 years — there are many situations in Scripture that had their time and remained unchanged until something was done about them.

Fruitfulness is not a gift. Growth is not a gift. "One day it will be better" is a consoling statement, but it carries no power.

Growth is a resultant effect of engaging specific kingdom laws. There are laws that translate to increase. Laws that translate to lifting. Laws that translate to influence. Laws that translate to power. Laws that translate to longevity of impact.

Job 38:33 — "Do you know the laws of the universe? Can you use them to regulate the earth?" Dominion is not a gift. It is a resultant effect of mastery — comprehending specific kingdom laws alongside the dynamics of engaging them.

God Is a God of Patterns

Leviticus 9:6 — "This is what the Lord has commanded you to do, so that the glory of the Lord may appear unto you."

God is a God of patterns. A pattern is a principle connected to any aspect of God's glory.

Prosperity is an aspect of God's glory. Influence is an aspect of God's glory. Being anointed is an aspect of God's glory. Increase is an aspect of God's glory. Desiring the glory alone will leave a person disappointed. The pattern connected to it must be understood.

The manifestation of the glory — what people celebrate — is a report card. It is proof that someone has laid hold on the pattern. If a person prospers by righteousness, that prosperity is proof they have held to the laws of the kingdom and know how to engage them. If a ministry is experiencing increase on all sides, it is true that God gives increase — but he does not give it merely by an act of sovereignty. He gives increase in response to what was planted and what was watered. God waits for planting, waits for watering, then he gives the increase.

Many believers understand the various aspects of God's glory they want to see — wealth, influence, the anointing — but most seldom pay the price to study the patterns connected to those dimensions.

Exodus 33:13 — Moses said, "Show me your way." Then he said, "Show me your glory." It is always his ways that lead to his glory.

Jeremiah 6:16 — Stand in the ways. Ask for that path, that ancient path. When you find it, walk in it.

Problems are not generic. They are specific to ignorance. Just because the mountain is not moving for someone does not mean the mountain cannot move. Every mountain depends on the grace and the voice that confronts it. If it is the voice of ignorance, it will remain.

All that is celebrated in the lives of men are different dimensions of the glory of God — different weights of that glory. And all those weights are attestations to patterns found through sacrifice, found through relationships, found by submitting to truth, found by paying the price to learn.

The Key of Mastery: Knowing What to Do

Conferences and training bring an aggregation of knowledge and wisdom. With the wisdom and artistry of an expert, they show how to combine ingredients so that results can be replicated. One who is walking in dominion does not need to try twenty keys hoping one will work. They stand before a door knowing which key opens it.

• If there is stuntedness, they know what to do.
• If there is lack, they know what to do.
• If they cannot command the attention of a generation, they know what to do.
• If there is an attack, they know what to do.

Dominion is the capacity to know what to do — to know how to respond to life in a way that leaves you victorious, regardless of the situation.

This is illustrated by the way the giants in Scripture were confronted differently:

• If the giant is Goliath — strike.
• If the giant is Saul — be careful. Do not strike.
• If the giant is Pharaoh — do not kill him, because promotion is connected to him.

The word "fight" does not always mean use energy to throw. Sometimes it means be silent. Sometimes it means pray. Sometimes it means become friends. There are many ways to bring mountains down. If the only tool known is the sling or the bow, there will be trouble.

What Dimension of Life Has Not Yet Revealed the Glory of God?

That is the dimension where the patterns of the kingdom have not yet been gained mastery in.

The vehicle that brings someone to a destination does not know their name, their hand, their gender. It simply knows mechanics programmed into it, and whoever engages them fully will be transported. That is how the things of the kingdom operate. It is not that God isolated a few people and decided to be partial toward them. Romans 10:12 — the same Lord is rich unto all. The difference is that some have pressed through the sacrifice of alignment, humility, hunger, and meekness to learn the specific patterns connected to the dimensions of glory they sought.

There is a way to pray and never get results. There is another way to pray and shake nations. The difference is not the art of prayer — it is the understanding that supports the activity. There is a way to give that becomes mere donation with no power in the spirit. There is a way to give that provokes heaven to respond. It is not the act of dropping the seed. It is the orientation that supports what is being done. There is a way to sing that provokes the glory. There is another way that becomes chanting.

It is not the activity itself that carries power. It is the revelation and the understanding that supports what is being done.

Many believers keep shadow-boxing principles in hope that one will work, and when one does, they cannot tell which one, because it was not by light. They engaged many things and favor came — but it cannot be sustained because it was not by understanding.

Mastery Is Not Luck — Responsibility and Sacrifice

Greatness is programmed. Victory is programmed. Failure too is programmed — it is simply programmed unconsciously.

Ignorance is an architect. It can build a life of pain, a life of misery — and it builds beautifully. It does not fail when it constructs. When those who have found the way by mercy share what they found, those who are humble enough to admit they cannot deny the result can come and drink from the oasis that springs forth from that sacrifice.

Men of God have to trust God to deliver them from the guilt of being successful. A generation can make a person feel guilty for walking the word of God until it produces — as though they are the reason for others' failure. No more hiding. Every man of God here represents not merely a personality but an aggregate, a compendium of disciplines and sacrifices — the justice system of God interplaying with his mercy, revealing what people have done in time and through time.

Do not call consistent prayer luck. Do not call consecration luck. Do not call surviving criticism and pushing through luck. It is the grace of God well maximized. Knowledge well maximized.

When greatness is trivialized on account of the sacrifice that God invested in people, access to that dimension closes. Celebrating and honoring men is not human worship — it is a recognition of years of pain, discipline, and choosing to say yes when there was full power to say no.

The Gift of Pain and the Path to Encounter

When God wants to fast-track a journey to encountering grace and knowledge, he gives something called the gift of pain. Not every pain is demonic. There are certain dimensions of pain that are gifts in the spirit.

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Sustainable Character For Relevance

by Pastor Anwinli Ojeikere

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Romans 8:18 — "For I reckon that our sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory."

There is a weakness with men — their energy is propelled by lack. That is why when strength comes and finds strength already present, it goes back. God waits until the day a person exhausts themselves, and then his strength becomes perfect in weakness. For as long as a person believes it is their degree, their education, their connections — somewhere in the mind there is still a conviction that they are too comfortable to fail. God will patiently allow those factors to exhaust themselves one by one. And when they do, there will be a reason to need him.

The presence of God is very expensive. In as much as he loves, he waits for a desire born out of need and desperation to attract a person to his presence. Sufficiency depletes desire.

Fight ignorance. Fight it. Do not assume it will go on its own.

Take responsibility and ask: why is the glory of God not being revealed in this area of my life? Like the woman who lost her coin — she lit the lamp and swept until she found it. It takes patience to sweep. Sweep for years and not find it — do not be moved. It is in the room. Keep sweeping. One day, there will be a collision with an anointing, a heavy grace that will rest upon — undeniable.

The Key of Accurate Perception

One of the laws governing growth is the power of accurate perception.

In Jeremiah 1:11–12, God asked Jeremiah, "What do you see?" The answer determined the prophetic word that followed.

In Mark 8, Jesus laid hands on a blind man and asked, "Tell me what you now see." The man said, "I see men, but they look like trees." Jesus laid hands on him again and asked, "What do you see?" He then said, "I now see clearly." The fact that a person is seeing does not mean they are seeing correctly.

When Bartimaeus came to Jesus, he did not say, "Open my eyes." He said, "That I may receive my sight." Sight is received. Like the Holy Ghost — if the gift of sight is not received, a person can see wrongly.

Faith is not only the ability to say what God is saying. A person must see what he is saying. When God calls someone a warrior, they need to see a warrior out of his word. If that image has not formed, smallness will remain.

There are four levels of sight that must be correct:

1. What you see about God

   If God appears weak, disappointing, or unreliable, it will affect the response to him. 2 Timothy 1:12 — "I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which is committed unto him against that day."

2. What you see about yourself

   When Gideon came to God, he said, "I am the least of my father's house, and my father's tribe is the least." God did not say this to him. Satan did not say it to him. He told himself. What you say about yourself matters. What you see about yourself matters. The word of God must be used like a painter designing a destiny — creating a picture of yourself that spells dominion.

3. What you see about your destiny

   A person can see well about themselves and still not see well about where they are going. It matters to see a glorious future.

4. What you see about the adversary

   Luke 10:18 — "I saw Satan fall like lightning." He is defeated. The assignment is not to defeat him. The assignment is to establish as a reality that which is already finished in Christ. In spiritual warfare, the posture is not one of uncertainty — it is enforcing what is unquestionably finished.

The Magi did not come to worship a baby. It is idolatry to worship a baby. They came to worship a king. Even though the king was wrapped in swaddling cloth, they did not carry gifts for a baby. Because although he was a baby, they saw a savior. The vision may appear to be a baby. The life may appear to be a baby. The question is: what do you see?

The Secret of Receiving From Anointed Vessels

The secret of receiving from anointed vessels is found in the riddle of Samson. He said, "Out of something strong has come something sweet." A lion attacked him and was now a carcass. And bees, which could have gone anywhere — trees, rocks — went to the carcass to make honey. When Samson returned, he pushed away the carcass and fetched the honey and ate of it.

The key to receiving from men is endurance: can you endure the carcass so that you draw out the honey?

There is nobody that cannot be received from. If revelation cannot be learned from a person, then character can. Diligence can. Or how not to be them. There is always something to learn.

Two Ways to Be Transformed

• Looking unto Jesus — the author and the finisher of faith.
• Following human models — men and women who have found the patterns by grace. Those who have laid hold on eternal life. Those who have found the key to wealth without compromise. The key to becoming friends of God without compromise. The key to earning the ears and attention of a generation without manipulation.

The Lord bless you. There is a way that leads to victory. There is a way that leads to dominion. There is a way that leads to power.