First Love 3 by Apostle Femi Lazarus: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Revelation 2 and the judgment seat of Christ

Revelation 2 gives us an idea of what the judgment seat of Christ will look like

End time events

In eschatology, the study of end time events, there is a chain of events we expect in these last days

First, the pre-rapture tribulation. It is against the church and of the church. The church is an organism, the bride of Christ, a body

God put in it a mechanism to self-repair, and that in itself will cause tribulation

When things go wrong, should they be checkmated or ignored? Which of them is love? It's a very important question. You must find balance

There are also external forces against the church. That is the antichrist spirit, not the person of the antichrist. It will come from systems, sectors, governments, nations. We will be hated by all nations Matthew 24

Then the rapture of the saints. The word rapture is not mentioned in scripture but the event is described

At the sound of the archangel the dead in Christ are raised, then we who are alive are caught up 1 Thessalonians 4:16 to 1 Thessalonians 4:17

After the rapture, the marriage supper of the Lamb. The resurrected church, bought with the blood, is with Christ in holy matrimony. It takes seven years

A day with God is like a thousand years, so it is a brief wedding but it is for seven years 2 Peter 3:8

While that goes on, there will be headlines of mass disappearance, commotion and confusion. All of a sudden the church is gone

A man rises as a global leader, one who can be trusted to help the world navigate. He rules for seven years

After the first three and a half years he breaks his own covenant. He solves the problems in the Middle East and is called a man of peace

Daniel referred to him as the one who sets up abomination in high places. He is called the man of sin, and the beast Revelation 13

That is why the mark of the antichrist is the mark of the beast

After that seven years, the second coming of Christ. The second coming is not the rapture. At the rapture He is in the cloud and the church goes to join Him

At the second coming He comes with thousands upon thousands of saints

Rapture is a brief event, in the twinkle of an eye. The second coming is for us to be here for a thousand years, the millennium

Jesus will show the agenda of God, the idea for making man, how God designed this place to be managed

In that thousand years the devil is chained. After it he is released and will still deceive some Revelation 20:7 to Revelation 20:8. That is scary

How can someone who has been with Christ for a thousand years be deceived again? That is what the Bible says

Then two kinds of judgment

The great white throne judgment is God the Father Himself. You should not be there. If you appear before that one, condemned, condemned, condemned. Only the level of condemnation differs

Even hell and death will be judged. Hell is cast into the lake of fire. The way the Bible describes hell, it is more of a being than a place Revelation 20:11 to Revelation 20:15

The judgment seat of Christ is the judgment of rewards

Follow Him to the end

The Bible has been used as a weapon to keep people in slavery, and still is. It has been used to manipulate people and take their money, and still is

It has been used to keep people subjugated

You can get to a point as a Christian where you tell yourself maybe Jesus is not worth following

That is why foundation Bible school is important, so you can know Him whom you have believed 2 Timothy 1:12

Illustration: the woman at the grave

A woman was mourning at a grave site while someone was being buried. She cried, you will not go, I will die with you. Then she slipped and fell into the grave

A few minutes before, she was saying I will die with you

People you love fall into a pit. You don't join them. It's okay to be sad but don't be discouraged

We must make up our minds to follow Him till the very end. A man sang that song at the point of death

You are saying I have embraced the cross and I won't turn back from Jesus

The letter to Ephesus

Revelation 2:1

This is a pattern. The one sending the letter is Jesus Himself. The angel of the church of Ephesus is the pastor of that church

Every now and then the one who sent us will check our work

When you have the privilege to serve, don't be full of yourself. Those who spread clothes on the road and shouted Hosanna, it is the same road you will take to the cross

He holds the seven stars in His right hand. The seven stars are the leaders. As a leader, Jesus is holding you in His hands. You are not alone

Anybody who enjoys leadership 100% is not really leading. Leadership is stressful

Some of you would have been enjoying your good night's sleep till you get a message

Illustration: there's a matter

Sometimes a resident pastor walks into my office and says, sir, there's a matter. I try to be composed but inside I'm saying, what again?

Every time I hear there's a matter it's not always nice. Sometimes I want to escape and say go and meet God

Sometimes you have your own matters. When my wife was about to give birth to our two daughters, I was preaching on the altar and got a text. We're on our way to the hospital

The doctor says we are ready. We have a baby now

I stepped on the altar as an expectant father and left the altar with a bouncing baby girl. You would not even know in the message. I was sweating

If He has sent you, He's holding you and you will not fall out of His hands. Be conscious of God's backing. He will back you and keep you

He walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. He is looking at our works, our labor and our patience Revelation 2:2 to Revelation 2:3

Not bearing those who are evil, that is the pass mark

Left first love

Revelation 2:4

Everything can look cool but the substance is gone

If you don't get careful you can get to a point where the only thing holding you is the oath but you are not excited about each other again

That marriage is dying, and if you don't quickly repair it, it moves from bad to worse

Revelation 2:5

Your first love produced a kind of work

You start to feel like a fool serving God. You were not like that before. You start hearing different opinions. Church again? What time do you close? You leave church at 4 p.m.?

Then you kill Jesus

How can you allow those who have not tasted your Jesus to tell you how to love Him? Words have effect on people

You may brush it off in your conscious but it stays in your subconscious. One day something triggers it and you remember, waste of time

One of the ways you know your first love is no longer there is that your first works are gone. You are no longer excited

Illustration: the roasted corn

A guy is dating a girl. She says, when you are returning, please pass by that roasted corn corner. He says, not an issue at all, consider it done

It's easy to do the work once love is intact

Every once in a while I pass through the distance I used to travel to see my wife. It didn't feel like anything

Then one time my wife said, please pass me that cup on the table. I don't like people sending me. When I was growing up they sent me up and down

Then I thought, why is it now becoming difficult? I should serve

Is it still easy serving God? Do you still enjoy it? The farther you are from the cross, the more difficult it is

7 signs in the life of a believer still connected to Christ that the first love is intact:

1. Evangelism

   John 4:16 to John 4:29

   Jesus met the Samaritan woman raw and unfiltered, broken and bruised through life. He didn't hide His identity John 4:26

   Jesus was not a Christian. The people who called believers by that name didn't have revelation of Jesus. They saw Him from afar

   The moment she encountered Jesus, it was natural for her to want everyone to meet the Jesus she had met

   One of the major signs in anyone who has encountered the Jesus of the Bible is that they can't stop talking about Him

   Evangelism is a natural, or supernatural, package of being in love with Christ. Once you love, you want everyone to know. Have you seen my boy, my girl?

   You must live a life worthy of evangelism. You can't preach the good news if your life is bad news Romans 1:16

   The story of Saul who became Paul is one reason to be interested in evangelism Acts 9:1 to Acts 9:8. The solution to the crisis of the church might still be in the world

   When I see girls dancing in music videos doing what they should not, I imagine the saved version of this one. I see a boy smoking and I imagine the saved version

   If you think like this you cannot be walking in loss. You just want everyone saved and propagating the gospel

   Illustration: the campus party boy

   On campus there was a boy who was a party boy. One time we looked at him and said, this boy will serve God. We agreed about him in prayer

   That is the part many miss in evangelism, prayer. It opens the ground and breaks it for you to drop the seed

   At one of our crusades he came out for the altar call and became on fire. He could trek any distance just to preach

   The same places he went doing funny things, he now trekked to preach

   The moment Paul encountered Jesus the next thing was, what will you have me do Acts 9:6. The one asking is willing to do something. That willingness is in your spirit

   It is the things you are exposed to that kill it. The Spirit of God on your inside is the full package

   David sensed disconnection from God Psalm 51:11 to Psalm 51:12. If You cast me from Your presence I'm capable of the worst evil

   But as I stay in that presence, energized by the Spirit, my heart is willing to do Your will

   Pay attention to your internal being. Don't be distracted by the noise. Even when you pray and don't feel anything, there is a charging going on. It is called edification, oikodome, to build up

   You may not feel it but it doesn't change the fact that you have been charged

   Remember the days you trekked to attend church. Now God has blessed some of you with cars. I'm not saying park your car and trek. I'm saying let it cost you something

2. Fellowship

   Psalm 42:1

   You want to stay with Him, hang around Him, hear from Him consistently. Where there is affection there should be attention

   If you are in a relationship and the person doesn't call for one week, two weeks, no calling, no beeping, only likes your post on Instagram, one thing is certain, you are alone

   Two things come to your spirit. Fellowship through the study of the Word, and fellowship through prayer

Fellowship through the Word

The Word is alive. If you are not reading it you will not know. Some pick up the Bible to sleep. How can that which infuses life make you sleep?

John 6:60 to John 6:63

The words are spirit and they are life. They are spiritual and alive. The Bible is the only book you read with the presence of the Author

He's always there to help you and show you what He meant

There are two factions: the word church and the prophetic church. The word church believes the Bible cannot mean now what it never meant to the original author

Jesus spoke to people who were veiled. The same word carries dispensational meanings because the one speaking is speaking from eternity, not in time

What the word cannot mean is what was never intended by God for all dispensations

The same word can mean differently to one generation and something else to another, but from the beginning it was captured in God's thought

The Bible is not a literal book, else you could be a professor of the Word. You can't be a scholar. The highest you will ever be is a student of the Word

You can never get to a point where you need no more teaching. If the word is alive there are unending revelations from it. You read the same verse and see something new

James 1:21

As you read it you are getting enlightened

Psalm 119:99 to Psalm 119:100

The testimony he was talking about is the law. It makes you live above

One of the worst things is to be trapped in time. If you are trapped in your time, you are as confused as those of your time

The only way to be a solution is to have joined ahead by the Spirit. The Word has made you wise

Practicals

For personal study use a hard copy Bible to avoid distraction. It won't beep to tell you WhatsApp has come in

You've given your life to Christ more than a year and you don't have a Bible? We need to drag you to the judgment seat of Christ

Many of you, the reason your Christian life is not organized is that you are eating regurgitated food. Somebody has to read it and tell you Hebrews 5:12

Ways to study the Bible: topically, such as love, faith, redemption. By character study. By books, one of the best if you are just starting

Have an ambition to finish the Bible every year. Read two chapters of Genesis in the morning and two at night

Always fighting with your spouse? Read the Bible together, one chapter. The thing you want to say to your wife, the next verse is addressing you

The Word is so perfect you can't add to it or subtract from it

Fellowship through prayer

Prayer is not a trade by barter. The primary purpose of prayer is fellowship. The word is koinonia: sharing, partnership, exchange

The devil knows the importance of prayer, that is why he fights it. The top two things believers find difficult to keep consistent are the study of the Word and prayer

The devil is distracting you from doing the most important things Acts 6:4

If you are preaching and not studying you'll preach errors. If you are preaching and not praying you will burn out. The well is for personal consumption

If you fall asleep every time you want to pray: before you pray, pray. Lord, energize me to fellowship with You

The reason you have been struggling is that you are not doing it with grace. In prayer you are not trying to beat anybody's record. It's no Olympics. You are simply talking to your daddy

Learn to do it on the go. Pray without ceasing is to connect without breaking 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Learn to make melody in your heart Ephesians 5:19

Don't wait till the plane is shaking. Prayer is not just a panic button

• I love to pray. I enjoy prayer.
• I am energized to pray. I am strengthened for prayer.
• I do not struggle with my prayer life.
• I spend time with God. I've been energized by the Spirit of God at work in me.

The Holy Spirit and prayer

You need the baptism of the Holy Ghost so that He can carry you. Through salvation you have a measure

He is the one who applies salvation in your heart, the salvific role of the Holy Spirit

More than that He is our Paraclete, the one who helps. Help means He practically carries you. The prayer you struggle with is the one you are doing Romans 8:26

Praying in the Spirit is not the same as praying in tongues. You can pray in tongues in the flesh. You and your husband are keeping malice and say, let's pray in the Holy Ghost

You are not in the Spirit. You are outside the gate. You can pray in understanding in the Spirit

Learn to pray in tongues, and learn to pray in understanding too, so you can pray the Word, pray doctrinal prayers and check what you are praying

In tongues there is also the law of intent: your predominant burden is the reason for the prayer. God hears it

The gifts of God are without repentance Romans 11:29. You have the gift of speaking in tongues so you don't have to be in the Spirit to speak it

Often you pray in tongues for a while before you switch into the Spirit. First an hour feels like seven minutes. As the Holy Spirit takes over it is no longer ability but anointing

Pray with the consciousness of the One you are praying to. He is humbling

The number one sign of pride is prayerlessness. You must be a very important person to try to do without God. I need a daily portion of grace. I need a daily portion of help

Often before I come out to preach Bible study, I cry

• If You don't help me, I will build people's lives with rubbish.
• I have things I shouldn't say that must not seep into my message.
• Shield me. Let the utterance from my lips be that which proceeds from Your heart.
• Touch my tongue with coals of fire and I will speak as Your oracle.

Illustration: the problematic place

I was somewhere so problematic. I looked at my life and it occurred to me I don't have the wisdom to deal with this place

I checked whether I had anyone in my life with the wisdom to deal with it. I said, okay, I don't have to be wise. I will lean on Your wisdom

He is called the only wise God. He can never go bankrupt of wisdom. You only run into trouble because you didn't seek Him

We want coming to pray to become a lifestyle and a custom. My sincere prayer is that God Himself will give you prayer partners, people who encourage and inspire you to pray

• Receive grace for prayer. Receive grace for fellowship. Receive grace for communion.
• Receive grace to stay longer in His presence. As we come before His presence we are changed from one level of glory to another.

2 Corinthians 3:18

What prayer builds in your spirit

The Bible describes your spirit like a candle God uses to search the inward part. It can carry small light and it can carry big light Proverbs 20:27, Proverbs 18:14

As you spend time praying you are being built up, edified. Your spirit with the communion of the Holy Spirit is able to carry abilities it is capable of but cannot do without prayer

Discernment

The Holy Spirit needs to relate information with your spirit without breaking. He has already built His charge. He can't pass what He wants to pass because you have built more of the flesh

Discernment works like this. You have not heard any exact word from the Lord but you lose your peace about certain matters. What used to be exciting becomes repulsive

When you fail to pray you are like a city without walls Proverbs 25:28. You can't pick signals

Hosting His presence

You carry so much of His presence that without talking there's a deposit of glory. One man of God said he would never get up till he senses the presence

Some say you don't have to sense the presence, just believe it is there. I get that part. But be conscious of the presence. There is nothing wrong with sensing it

Intentionally carry that presence out. Take it to work, to the hospitals, to court. Take it everywhere you walk

As you spend time praying, glory rubs off on you. People who have seen you before see you again and can tell something has shifted

Praying with the spirit and with understanding

1 Corinthians 14:14 to 1 Corinthians 14:15

As I pray deeper in the Spirit there is no room for my understanding to lead me astray. It is end to end encryption

How I start projects without looking back

I spend time doing two things. First, meditation. I sit with it and put it on my lips. At first it looks very stupid. Meditation is not done with closed lips. I keep repeating it

I see the help coming from the east, from the west and south. Men and women coming to help. Daily men came to David until his camp was great 1 Chronicles 12:22

Daily men come to me to help me. I have received the gift of men

The meditation can take me a month. The day my spirit latches on it, one way I know is joy unspeakable. As far as heaven is concerned it is a done deal

Second, how it will be done. We now switch to praying in tongues. What you are inspired to pray in understanding is a product of what you have done with your spirit

Tongues plus interpretation equals prophecy

These things won't just jump on you. Practice again and again till it becomes lifestyle

You can sing with the spirit too. You may not know what you are singing, but your spirit is doing the activity

You are being built Jude 1:20

If joy doesn't come naturally or supernaturally to your spirit, something is wrong

As you pray in the Holy Ghost longer, you are not seeing things the way men see it. You are rising higher

You pray in the midst of confusion till joy breaks out, joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Peter 1:8

You feel you are supposed to be crying and you are laughing and dancing because you have risen higher and higher

• Thank God we can talk to God. Thank God we can cry to God. Thank God we can call Him and He hears us.
• Pray in the Holy Ghost. Rise higher. See in the spirit.

1 John 5:14

Dwelling in the secret place: prophecy, visions, power

Psalm 91:1

In Him there is no shadow of turning James 1:17. He doesn't cast shadows. He dwells in unapproachable light 1 Timothy 6:16

As we dwell in His presence, your true meaning and essence is in the presence. There are many things possible in the Spirit that you will never do till you spend time with God

Joel 2:28

Sons and daughters will prophesy. Prophecy ought not to be a selective gift. Old men will dream dreams. Do you desire it? The things of the Spirit function when you desire them

You must be covetous. Earnestly desire the best gifts 1 Corinthians 12:31

Illustration: the first time I saw power

The first time I saw a young person walk in power, a man of God came to minister in our church. Before he preached he held the mic and was speaking in tongues

By the time he ministered, fire everywhere. I went home and said, God, I want this. And bam, the power came

In the things of the Spirit you are permitted to be covetous

Watch out for outbreaks of the Spirit. You and your friends meet to pray and as you are praying, like the day of Pentecost, there is an outbreak in the room

What you intended for one hour you spend five hours laughing, dancing, rejoicing. You can't explain it. These are experiences we need to be having

A friend came and said, I want this fire. I said take it now. He went and prayed for people and nobody fell. I said go back by faith, you have received it

You will never ask for bread and your daddy will give you stones. He went back with confidence, one, two, three, take it now, and power moved

That is why you need practicals, and the best place is evangelism. As you evangelize a word drops in your spirit. You hear a name. Do you know anyone who is ill?

Yes, that's my sister. Something leaps. Your confidence rises

At times I minister and say, left side. I can feel where that thing is. It's like watching a movie in 2D and then sitting in 3D.

There's someone here God is calling my attention to. The miracle is received

If you don't say it, the miracle won't move. If you say what if I'm wrong, it is because you are proud. It's not your gift in the first place. Say it and mature

Visions

As you fellowship with Him you start seeing visions. Sometimes talking with my wife I see in 30 seconds what would take 10 minutes to explain, because that realm has time compressed

When we got married I was the only one who saw visions again and again every night. Then my wife moved into it. She had been desiring behind the scenes

I want what you have given him, give me too. One of the questions we ask when we wake up is, what has the Lord shown you?

Visions of the Spirit are crystal clear. God shows you things to come about people and about yourself

I told God I'm passionate about Africa. You speak to me about Nigeria but not other nations. Open my heart to see. I began to lay demand in prayer

God began to speak to me about nations. Write this down about Zambia, this is what the enemy is about to do. Write this down about Zimbabwe

We are in a generation asking for proofs. Whatever price of consecration and prayer is required, show me. I want to see more dead people raised, cripples walking, blind eyes seeing

You must learn to meditate on God's word till you see it in your spirit. 10,000 blind eyes open before 2050. Deaf ears popping open in my meetings

Within a 2 kilometer radius, let the anointing be felt. You are laying demand

I'm conscious of power and presence. Someone says pray for me over the phone. I say get a seat and sit down

I know when I was at the level where if I lay hands, it's just a preacher. I know the level where if I lay hands there is an impartation of the anointing

And the level where I have to be careful who I lay hands on, because even if it is wrong, I can bless it

• These are not normal hands. My hands are charged.
• My hands are anointed to raise the dead, to heal, to open blind eyes.

Acts 10:38

Meditate on it with your name there. God has anointed me with the Holy Ghost and with power. God is with me. I am powerful

Matthew 28:18

The next thing He said was go. You are going with the backing of all power

Acts 1:8

I have received power after the Holy Ghost has come upon me

On this strength I can be a witness from Abuja to Lagos to London to America to Italy to Belgium, all nations of the earth

You must desire walking in power. Don't just pray. If you welcome people to church and the sick is still sick, desire power

Blessed are those who mourn

In secondary school there were students who were best in the class in a subject and still cried. If you are going to see more power you must know how to mourn Matthew 5:4

To mourn is to grieve a loss. You are conscious of what ought to be in a space and is not there. You watch a meeting, see power and say I want it too

You grieve the absence. Why did I struggle in getting that person filled with the Holy Ghost? You mourn for a level that was there and is not there now

You will be comforted. You will be shown the Comforter, the Holy Ghost. There is a dimension of Him you will not see if you are not asking

If you are scared of praying for the sick, it is because you came without meditating. In the place of meditation you see it done

Jesus said the Father works and I do what I see Him do John 5:19. Where did He see it? In the place of prayer and meditation

Lord, I want power. Lord, I desire Your presence.

Illustration: Kathryn Kuhlman

I read in a book on the Holy Spirit about Kathryn Kuhlman. The door to a meeting was blocked by the crowd so she passed through the kitchen unannounced

The presence of God filled that place. Those washing plates broke down in tears. That is the Shekinah glory

You must crave to stay in that presence. It is sweeter than the sweetest things on earth. It satisfies you in a way nothing else can

• Sweet Holy Spirit, reveal Jesus to me. I want to know what the presence of God looks like. Reveal Yourself.
• Let there be a mighty revelation of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Habakkuk 2:14

Sent

The Lord has given me a marching order: to turn this place into an apostolic training camp. Men will be raised from here and sent to the ends of the earth

Have the consciousness of being sent. The harvest is to be processed then deployed. If not, it rots

Some of you will pastor branches. Some will pastor nations. Picture yourself like that. Once you start picturing yourself in your calling, there is a way you carry yourself

• I'm calling forth the call of God upon your life. From this moment it will begin to speak.
• God will raise apostles, teachers, pastors, evangelists and prophets here.
• From this moment you begin to see new manifestations of gifts and operations upon your life. You will be a powerful force to reckon with.
• The Lord bless you and anoint you. Receive the grace for prayer and supplication in Jesus' mighty name.