God Is Good Accelerate Conference, June 2025 by Apostle Emmanuel Iren: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

God is good

James 1:17

A text that will save your Christian journey at least once in your lifetime. If you receive it and understand it, it will save your Christian journey. It saved mine

Testimony: the baby we lost

Something devastating happened to my family. My wife was pregnant with our first child, and we were excited, making plans

I prayed constantly for the Lord to tell me about that child, and he never said anything. For me that was very strange

One day my wife came back spotted. I rushed her to the hospital. After the final checks and scans, it was concluded the baby was gone

That put me in a place I had never been before. I felt rage on the inside, disappointment, anger

My father-in-law put his hand on my shoulder and said, "God is good." For the first time in my life I wanted to protest. He saw my face changing and quickly said, "You preach it"

That month in our church we were teaching on joy. Every Sunday I preached on the joy of the Lord. Sometimes I preached and cried. It was the most difficult teaching series to date

God is good. You may not always understand what he is doing, but God is good.

Our human perspective is limited. We cannot see beyond a few feet from our feet

When you stand before him at the end and he shows you myriads of plans you could not see from your perspective on earth, you will know that God is good.

The 24 elders have a deeper perspective than you, and they unanimously cast their crowns and cry holy Revelation 4:10

To someone who came to church but is not really happy with God, who is beefing God: God is good, and it will not be long before it all makes sense.

Your eyes will see the glory of the Lord.

The Father of lights does not shift

James 1:17

He calls God the Father of lights. It alludes to the sun.

The sun, moon and stars all have some form of light, but among all of them the sun is the father, the biggest, the greatest

In primary school they teach that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. In reality, the sun does not rise or set. The sun is always shining

Illustration: the earth and the sun

A volunteer stands as the earth. I stand as the sun. The side facing me has daylight and the side at the back has night

A child on the dark side would say the sun went down. The sun did not go down. Anytime you do not see the sun, it is because you are turned away

What gives occasion to the rising and setting of the sun from our perspective is that the earth is rotating. It seems like the sun rose, but we are the ones who moved

With God there is no variation, no shadow of turning.

If you experience something and it feels like God is not good, it was you who moved in your perspective. Something is affecting your lens, skewing your vision

What skews our vision

Wrong teachings

Wrong teachings create wrong expectations, and wrong expectations create disappointed Christians

If you do not believe God blesses, you are reading the Bible from the back.

The summary of the Old Testament: as long as Israel had a relationship with God they were safe in their land. Every time they turned their back on God it had economic consequences

But there are extreme teachings. One of our pastors met someone who had been out of church for 2 years. "I don't like God"

He went to a conference where an invited prophet told him to sow his car and that in a few weeks he would get a breakthrough. He sold his car

Does God ask us to give sacrificially? He does. But from our human standpoint we sometimes put a timeline with cannon expectation and we hurt people

The promised time came and elapsed. Instead of beefing the pastor, he began beefing God.

A veil had been put over his perspective. He no longer saw the sun and thought the sun had gone down 2 Corinthians 3:14

Presenting God without presenting tribulation

We present that he blesses, heals, is good, and we create an expectation that life is a bed of roses and that because you serve God you will not go through tough times

Believers go through the slightest inconvenience and are surprised. "Pastor, why me?" And I say, who else? When you say "why me," you insinuate there is someone more fitting for the suffering

John 16:33 is not a prophecy of doom. It is a fact of life, the fabric of nature.

Whether you are tongue speaking or sanctified, you will go through some tough times. Do not be surprised

When people experience it they think God has disappointed them, that he did not keep his end of the bargain.

"I came to church, I gave my tithes, and look at what I am going through"

Isaac and the wells

Genesis 26:15 to Genesis 26:22

Isaac dug the first well and the Philistines strove with him and seized it

For a modern day charismatic trusting God for a business, investing his capital and seeing it go down the drain, how would he respond?

This patriarch did not complain to God. He did not cry or mourn. He just went again

They seized the second well. He dug a third. They seized the third. He dug a fourth, and the striving ceased. He named it Rehoboth, God has made room

If God is with you, it does not mean there will be no confrontation. It does not mean there will be no trying times. It does not mean everything you do will be easy

It takes understanding to have failed three times and by the fourth time still believe that God has been with you throughout the journey

If God is with you, it does not mean life is going to be easy. It means you will win at the end.

This understanding births a tenacity to wear the devil out. The devil will finish all the weapons in his arsenal and you will still be standing Ephesians 6:13

Business failed, but God has not failed. Go again. I know you lost a baby. Go again.

Whatever you lost, I know a God who is able to restore all the years the cankerworm, the caterpillar and the great army have stolen Joel 2:25

The hand of the Lord is upon you to go again, to pursue, to overtake and to recover all 1 Samuel 30:8

Positioning, not activity

The first thing about shining is to understand that God is the Father of lights

One of the most important things to learn as a Christian is not first of all activity. It is positioning

If he is the Father of lights, we are children of light, children of the day Ephesians 5:8, 1 Thessalonians 5:5

You may have come expecting 7 keys to shining. There are invaluable lessons, but all the moon needs to do is position

There is a realm of effortless rhythms of grace, not by the efficacy of your efforts but by the efficacy of your positioning

If we do not get this right we will have a lot of disappointed Christians. Results were not always commensurate to prayer, as important as prayer was. Nor to fasting, as important as fasting was

What determined the extent of miracles in your life:

1. The sovereign decision of God to do something
2. Your relevance in what God was doing

From Genesis to Malachi God spoke, and then for 400 years he said nothing, until Matthew

As important as prayer is for revival, there is an overarching understanding of the times and purposes of God.

He told Abraham his children would be in bondage for 400 years, do not pray about it, it will happen.

After that I will bring them out with a strong hand Genesis 15:13 to Genesis 15:14

If you stood in front of the Red Sea one year earlier, nothing would happen

It is not just your obedience and devotion. It is your ability to be positioned with what God has marked for your life at a particular time

What makes prayer effective is who is asking

Not just your prayer posture. Not just fervency. As important as fervency is, what makes prayer efficacious is your position

Illustration: the request for 100,000

A random person on the street asks you for 100,000. Then someone else asks for the same amount, and even if you do not have it, you look for it

What determined your response was not the tone or the fervency of the asking. It was who is asking

The effectual heartfelt prayer in James 5:16 is first and foremost about who is asking

The Samaritan woman John 4:19 to John 4:24

A lot of people think it was about worship music. It was not. As soon as she perceived she was talking to a prophet she asked where the place to worship is

Once upon a time you could not offer sacrifices everywhere. It had to be done in the temple. The protocols of devotion in the Old Testament help us appreciate the liberty we have in Christ

Jesus told her, you worship you know not what. Doing it diligently and consistently did not mean you were doing it well

When God inherited Israel he inherited their land, and their land was recognized as sacred space. Israel was the proper and ideal place of worship

David running from Saul 1 Samuel 26:17 to 1 Samuel 26:19

David's major problem was not for his life. Because he ran from Saul, he ran away from Israel and could not pray or offer sacrifices

Being driven out meant being abandoned to idol territory. There was a prince of Persia, and the prince of Greece was coming.

Spirit entities controlled the other nations, but Israel was God's inheritance Daniel 10:13, Daniel 10:20

Even in the Old Testament, prayer was first about where you stand

What makes prayer powerful is not your religious calisthenics. It is not dotting the i's and crossing the t's. It is about who you are. Romans 8:15

Illustration: the toddler's note

You come home and your toddler wants to welcome you with a lovely note.

She is still learning to spell, so she writes "Mommy, I love you" with a W. She hides, trying to be cute

Will you pick up the note and say, "You are wasting my school fees, you should know better"? You will be touched by the message. If you can respond that way, how much more God

Hagar and Ishmael Genesis 21:15 to Genesis 21:17

Hagar put Ishmael in a corner because she did not want to watch him die. The angel of the Lord heard the cry of the baby

What can a baby cry? How many words can he articulate that God will hear? It is first and foremost about who you are

If you are a child of God, brought into adoption, into sonship, your prayer has moved to a new level of efficacy

When you come to God in prayer, your first confidence is that you are a son 2 Corinthians 5:21

That gives me the right to come boldly Hebrews 4:16

Naaman 2 Kings 5:17

Naaman was healed of leprosy, but that is just a side of the story.

Having encountered the God of Israel, he had one problem going back to his hometown: how will I worship there? He knew there was a place of worship

He asked for two mule loads of earth, knowing the soil here is blessed, so he could carry it home and set up an altar to offer prayers

You do not need all this in Christ. When the Holy Spirit came into you, you became the altar of God

The prodigal son Luke 15:11 to Luke 15:24

Even a child who strayed is still a child. In human thinking the prodigal rehearses: "He will never accept me again.

I am not worthy to be your son. Accept me as your servant." Sins of permission, omission, commission

When the father saw him a far way off, he ran towards him. He did not even allow him to say all the silly things he had rehearsed.

He hugged him, put his signet ring on his finger and his garment on him, and announced to everyone

He said, my son was dead and is alive. Even while eating with the pigs he was still a son.

He lost his identity and was living in an identity crisis, but he was still a son

If you are here and you have strayed from God, this is that meeting. The most important thing is your position Colossians 1:13

What about the habits you have been trying to break? Come first. Let his power rest upon you. Let his grace overshadow you

The glory of God needs no prayer points

A lot of Christians do not know the efficacy of the glory of God. We are used to prayer requests, to 7 steps and 4 principles

When the glory of God manifests, you do not need prayer points. When it encounters any challenge, the challenge knows what to do

When the ark was in front of Dagon, nobody needed to pray. Dagon knew what to do 1 Samuel 5:1 to 1 Samuel 5:4

Bring the presence of God in front of any challenge and the false gods know what to do. They bow. Nobody led a confession

Whatever the problem in your family, present it with the glory of God. Just present it and go home

If every day in your devotion you generate spiritual energy, whether you have prayer points or not, you are full of the glory of God

Jacob was a sanctuary. The Jordan saw it and fled. The mountain skipped like rams. Tremble, O earth, at the presence of God Psalm 114:2 to Psalm 114:7

2 ways to get what you want in the kingdom

1. Faith. Confession is important. You say to this mountain, be removed Mark 11:23
2. The anointing. When you are full of the Spirit, the moment you show up in front of the Jordan, the Jordan knows what to do

This is the secret of mantles. If we pass mantles full of power you do not need to tell us your prayer points. The sick are healed. The one who needs favor receives favor

In the kingdom there is one drug for every sickness, one drug for every problem

Peter in prison Acts 12:7

The angel did not break the chain. He told Peter, "Get up." The chains fell off on their own accord

Paul and Silas Acts 16:25 to Acts 16:26

As they praised and sang, suddenly there was a shaking and the doors of the prison opened of their own accord

When the presence of God shows up, everything that represents a challenge shifts out of the way because of the excellency of the glory of God

As the presence of God shows up in your life, it does not matter how many years the doors have been shut. I see them opening.

Illustration: the eagle and the hawk

Eagles are stronger, but sometimes a hawk climbs on top of an eagle to attack it. The eagle does not fight.

It continues to ascend, because there is a place it can fly that hawks cannot survive

There are problems you are going through that cannot survive the anointing of the Lord.

You have prayed a long time, but here is a more excellent way. Drag them into the presence of God, a realm where the Jordan sees it and flees

Your position in God. Stand and receive as much light as you can and watch all the challenges bow

• Thank you, Lord, for all we are set to receive.
• Your word says we go from strength to strength.
• Even the least of us is living better than we came by the anointing of the Holy Ghost.

Psalm 84:7

To the lady who has been battling depression, with wrong voices tormenting you: this is your last night facing that oppression.

This is the last night you will hear those strange voices. The anointing has set you free and the chains are broken.