Celebration Anniversary Service by Pastor Jerry Eze: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Heartbeat of God

I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper, and be in good health, even as thy soul prospereth. There can never be prosperity without congratulations. When there's prosperity, there's congratulations.

Luke 15:11-32

I want to borrow wisdom from the life of the prodigal son. By the way, where did this boy go to? He took his journey to a far country.

The Bible says while he was yet a great way off. It's important that the father saw him while he was yet a great way far off. He got right up and went to his father when he was still a long way off. The young man set off for home from a long distance away.

So do you agree that this boy was far? He was far from the house.

The Father Factor

Probably it wasn't the vision of the father that saw him. It was the heart of the father that saw him. Age has a way of diminishing sight. The father, having an older brother already — you can situate the age of this man. He must have had at least presbyopia. He wasn't close. So it wasn't the eyes of the father that saw him.

It was the heart of the father that saw him.

Now I want to establish something. It wasn't his closeness to home that made the father see him. It was his remembrance of his father. It was the thought of the father. So when he walked away from the house, he forgot the father. When he remembered his father, the heart of the father saw him.

Whether he went far or he was going to come home — remember he had not yet returned home. Chances are that he could have still been where he was, making his way back, and the father saw him where he was. The common denominator here is the father.

What makes the difference is not the effort — it is the father.

What brought about his turnaround was not even his labor. It was the father. The father saw that my son is saying there's something going on in my father's house. It bad as he bad — he not going to treat me like a stranger. Even those who are not fully right — once they come under the covering, the father gives to them.

I understand that it is not because I chose to come back home but because the father drew me back.

The father brought him home.

While he was yet a great way off, the father saw him, ran, hugged him, kissed him — and was obviously bringing him back home. The father was not ashamed that he didn't look like his son. What the father was mindful about: you don't look like my son yet, but you're going to have a journey with me.

Journey with the Father

There are seasons when you are saying Lord, let me look like it. And the Lord says: journey with me. I want to look like I serve a big God. I want to look like everything you promised me. God says, I've heard you. I've already made you that way. But the truth of the matter is — you're going to walk with me.

When you don't have the best robe, would you stick with the father? When you don't look like it, would you stick with the father? Because all God wants is to have a journey with you.

The son wanted to explain: Father, I have sinned against heaven and earth, I am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants: bring forth the best robe and put it on him, put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. The father said, this thing you're saying is not the issue. The issue is not about your worthiness or unworthiness — I just want to walk with you.

There are people who are healed but haven't seen the manifestation — journey with the father. Because you see this journey, you will need it after you have received the physical manifestation.

God is not embarrassed by how you look. All God wants is for you to just have a walk with Him.

And by the time he got to the house, the father said, bring forth the best robe, put it on him, put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet.

The Elder Brother and the House

While the prodigal son was coming back, the elder brother was outside. He came near to the house and heard music and dancing and asked what was going on. He was told: your brother is come, and your father has killed a fatted calf, because he has received him safe and sound. And he was angry and would not go in.

People of God, there is a fatted calf in the household.

The father came out and entreated him. He said: Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment, and yet thou never gave me a kid that I may make merry with my friends. But as soon as this thy son was come, which had devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And the father said: son, thou art ever with me. And all that I have is thine. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for this thy brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is now found.

It is not about where you stand in redemption. I came to remind you it is time to move from the basic doctrines from the first principles — to moving up to the high. Get into the house.

Get into the House

The reason the elder brother of the prodigal son lost what God was doing in his life was because he missed out — he was out of the house.

You can be out of intimacy and still be wanting God to prepare a table for you. You can be out of the place of consecration and still be asking God to do that which eyes have not seen.

You cannot be in the place of errors and mistakes and all the Lord is saying is: please, get into the house. Perception will change when you get into the house. Pointing fingers will drop when you get into the house. God still has things to unfold and unveil through your life. When you get into the house, you will look back and just laugh and smile and you will know what God is doing in the now.

Sometimes you are at a loss about what to do next because you came close and you did not enter.

I am afraid of misjudgments. I'm afraid of your missing your season. I'm afraid of your losing your kairos. I'm afraid of your getting to the place of your birthing and then losing your evidence because you were out of the house. Get into the house. You've come too far from where you started from — get into the house.

Don't let depression keep you out. Get into the house. No matter what has happened, the devil wants to discourage you. Hear the voice of the Lord: get into the house.

Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of men what I have prepared for you — get into the house.

When you get into the house, you will understand that there is a divine plan around all that God is doing in your life. When you get into the house, God still has things to unfold and unveil through your life. When you get into the house, you will look back and smile and you will know what God is doing in the now.

I decree and declare: they may be the reason but I am a partaker. I am a partaker.

Things you thought are still far — the Father will give you evidence right where you are. It's not about the distance. It's about the Father. He was still a great way off, but the Father saw him. The Father will give you evidence over there, at the sound of your amen.

Father, we ask that you make your word and your will known unto us. Let there be none of any man but all of you. In the name of the Lord.