Lagos New Year Message - Established by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Two Components of Establishment

Genesis 17:7–8 — "And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger."

Two components appear here:

• Spiritual — relationship: "To be God to you and your descendants."
• Material — possession: "I give to you the land… as an everlasting possession."

Fellowship and possession. These are the two dimensions of the establishment God promises.

What "Establish" Actually Means

The Hebrew word translated "establish" in Genesis 17:7 is kum — and it means to resurrect. Establishment is not construction from scratch. It is a revisit of dead things. A resurrection.

John 12:24 — "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain."

When God introduces resurrection, he is introducing multiplication. One seed falls, but what comes up is a tree and many fruits. Paul argues this same point in 1 Corinthians 15 — that the phenomenon of planting already demonstrates the logic of resurrection. You bury a seed, water it with the word, and it rises as something far greater than what went in.

Anything that has died in your life carries a promise of multiplication — if God is the one resurrecting it.

The Commandment Attached to Every Promise

From the moment God gives a promise, he always attaches commandments. That is how you know the promise is real.

• The promise of salvation came with a commandment: confess with your mouth, believe in your heart — Romans 10:9.
• The promise of multiplied bread came with a commandment: seat them in fifties; bring what you have.
• The promise of water into wine came with a commandment: fill the pots; take it to the master of the feast.

If there is no commandment attached to what you are hearing, you have not heard from God.

Faith is not generated from need. Abraham could not start believing God for Isaac simply because he needed a child. Faith begins when God initiates a word. Romans 10:17 — "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." You believe when God says he will meet your need — not merely because the need exists.

God was promising Abraham Isaac, but also giving Abraham the commandment to change his name — from Abram to Abraham. He could not be a father of one child and not be a father of nations. The commandment and the promise were one package.

Circumcision — The Sign of the Covenant

Genesis 17:9–14 — God told Abraham that every male in his household must be circumcised. Anyone uncircumcised would be cut off from the covenant. The mark of circumcision was the sign of believing in the promise God made.

But circumcision was always pointing toward something deeper. Jeremiah 9:25 says God would punish those who are circumcised in body but not in spirit. Jeremiah 4:4 — "Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts."

Romans 2:29 — "But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God."

Colossians 2:11 — "In whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ."

Philippians 3:3 — "For we are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh."

Philippians 3 is the clearest explanation of what circumcision God requires for us to enjoy fellowship and possession. It means: trusting God and not putting confidence in the flesh.

The Four Marks of Circumcision

1. No Confidence in the Flesh

   Jeremiah 17:5–6 — "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord… he shall be like a shrub in the desert and shall not see good when good comes."

   The uncircumcised person cannot see good when it arrives — not because good is absent, but because they are not looking to God. Without God at the center, even correct choices become wrong ones. Lot looked and picked Sodom — and ended up sitting outside it, unable to enjoy what he seized. God later pointed Abraham in every direction, including toward Sodom, and said: I give you all of it.

   You cannot pick correctly without God. What God allocates, you receive. What you seize without him, you cannot enjoy.

   Abraham sent Ishmael away with bread and water — the wealthiest man in the world giving his son only provisions for the road. The inheritance was not things. It was the mark. "Anytime you are in trouble, if you are circumcised and you cry, God will hear you."

   Genesis 21:17 — "And God heard the voice of the lad." Hagar wept — but God heard the boy. The circumcised cry is the one heaven answers. Genesis 21:19 — "Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water." The circumcised person sees good when good comes. The well was already there.

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2. Covenant Consciousness

   Circumcision means being conscious that God is leading — that you are being guided, not just working hard. The Holy Spirit is the promise of the Father. Hebrews 11:39–40 — the patriarchs had a good report, but not the promise. The promise is the Holy Spirit, poured out in Acts 2.

   That covenant consciousness means: the blessing of God is not by chance. It is by the Spirit. And the Spirit can be quenched (not allowed to flow) and grieved (pushed against by wrong action). A covenant-conscious person is not seizing momentum in the flesh — they are following.

   What David had that Saul lacked was not power or presence. It was covenant consciousness. When Goliath defied the armies of God, David's response was not courage — it was clarity. No one can defile the armies of God. That consciousness, not strength, brought Goliath down.

   You need God more in the promised land than in the wilderness. The wilderness had manna. The promised land requires administration — being led daily, step by step.

   David collapsed in the palace, not the wilderness. When everyone was at war and he was at rest, he saw Bathsheba. The dysfunction entered at the point of relaxed covenant consciousness.

3. Separation from Delilah

   Delilah is not only a person — it is any temptation. Temptation differs from evil: evil is something wrong; temptation is something you desire that is wrong. Beware what you lust after.

   Paul warned those in ministry: "Those who desire to be rich fall into a snare." He then said: "Godliness with contentment is great gain." There is a difference between ambition and vision. An ambition is self-generated. A vision is an invitation God brings you into. Christians do not have ambitions — they receive visions.

4. Separation from Korah and Jonah

   Korah is a rebellious, argumentative, antagonistic spirit — one that always opposes, backbites, and gossips about authority. Numbers 16:32 — "The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men with Korah." Everyone associated with Korah went down with him. Korah is always a movement. If you join it, you are finished.

   Jonah is not an unbeliever — Jonah is a prophet in rebellion. Someone who maintains the appearance of spirituality while refusing to do what God says. Jonah can be your prayer partner while pulling your ship toward destruction. It is not the devil fighting Jonah — it is Jehovah. You do not want to be associated with someone God is contending with.

   The contrast is Paul. In Acts 27, Paul told the crew: an angel appeared and told him no life would be lost, but the goods would go. You want Paul in your boat. Paul brings a word that covers you. Jonah brings a storm that targets everyone nearby.

Establishment Is in God, Not in Things

The patriarchs in Hebrews 11 were recorded for their faith. With that faith, Abraham received Isaac; some received their dead back to life. But none of them received the ultimate promise — because the ultimate promise was Christ.

Isaac is a token. The ark Noah built is a token. The job, the child, the breakthrough — these are all tokens. The promise is always God himself.

If the end of your faith adventure is things and not God, you are standing on sand.

When storms come — and they will — you will curse God if your foundation is what he gave you rather than who he is. Job lost everything and bounced back — not because he had resilience, but because his confidence was in God, not in what God had given him.

There is healing, and there is being made whole. Healing means a condition is cleared. Wholeness means everything lost because of that condition comes back — relationships, time, years. Joel 2:25 — "I will restore the years that the locust and the canker worm have eaten." Locusts defecate what they eat within an hour and a half. God is saying: I will bring back what has already been fully processed and seemingly gone. That is supernatural.