Tarry The Mystery Of Waiting by Apostle Joshua Selman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

You cannot fail

God is with us. The meaning of that is that you cannot fail. It will look like you can fail but you will not fail

Sometimes when you see the kind of load put in an aircraft, you wonder if it can lift. Don’t disrespect the people who built it. They factored in what can enter

You keep putting the load and it will taxi slowly, but there is an agency within it. By the time it begins to run, anything that stands in its way will be tidied

That airplane is you, packed in already, ready for another flight. Backed up by God, backed up by wisdom, backed up by power. There’s nothing the devil can do about it. It’s too late

You are born again. Too late. Filled with the Holy Ghost. Too late. Access to wisdom. Too late. Yes, there is such a thing as too late

Mary said if you were here on time. You can reverse it and tell trouble, sorry, you came too late. You would have come before I had the truth, before I received the Holy Ghost

But now I’m born again, filled with the Holy Ghost. I have access to light

Don’t trivialize the statement that God is with us. When God is with a man, it makes all the difference

God is with us means wisdom is with us. Power is with us. Consistency is with us. Victory and triumph is with us

Tarry: the mystery of waiting upon the Lord

The light that comes, it comes to liberate. It comes to set you on fire. It comes to reposition you and put you in the place of power so you can walk in dominion

I want to show you the mystery of waiting upon the Lord. What does it mean to wait upon the Lord? What does it entail to wait profitably?

What are the blessings that follow? Is there value, is there profit in waiting upon the Lord? Am I disadvantaged if I ignore this mystery?

Isaiah 40:28 to Isaiah 40:31

It begins with a question. The word faint means to gas out, to be weary, to be fatigued. That possibility does not exist with God. That is how vast his understanding is

This is a reality that befalls all men. No matter how healthy or vibrant, once you are earthbound, even the youth will faint and be weary

The glory of young people is their strength, yet they will fall

Here is the mystery. They, not everyone, not every Christian, but they. It matters the object of the waiting

Psalm 27:14

I like to write scriptures. That is how God built me. My life is wordbased. I’ve seen the vanity of exalting emotions above the word. I’ve seen the vanity of exalting even logic above the word

Some of us have found an anchor for safety and consistency. I don’t want to take risk with my life. Word founded, word built, word roofed, word everything

When you walk the way of the word, there is a guarantee that you will win. Don’t start with the word and mix it with human imaginations, vain philosophies, or overdependence on self

Walk that way and your life will be a sign and a wonder

Lamentations 3:25 to Lamentations 3:26

God is a good God, but among the principles of profiting from his goodness is waiting on him. That already gives an idea of what waiting on him entails

It is a good thing that you engage this mystery of waiting in hope for the salvation of the Lord

Micah 7:7

He waits like a maid waiting for her mistress, because he knows God will hear him

Psalm 130:5 to Psalm 130:8

That is a level of desperation and determination to wait

One reason we wait is that he is the only one who can show mercy and he is lavish in showing redemption. We wait because we understand he is merciful and plenteous in redemption

Psalm 25:4 to Psalm 25:5

Show me your ways means show me the mysteries of the kingdom. Because my desire is to know your ways, to understand your path, to learn your truth, I will wait on you all day long

What tarry means

Tarry means to linger, to wait. It extends to mean to stay longer than proposed or planned. You decided to shelf every other activity and place priority on what you are doing

You decided to stay 2 hours and for whatever reason, passion or an obstruction, you stayed longer than planned. We say you have tarried

The average believer hears wait upon the Lord and thinks fasting and prayer. That is correct, but it is the latter part of the definition

Most of us have not derived maximum profit because we limited what waiting means. The average Pentecostal charismatic thinks piety through fasting and abstaining from food

4 meanings of waiting upon the Lord

1. Fellowship

   Fellowship that builds intimacy, conviction, strength and power

   It builds intimacy with God. It builds conviction about God in your heart. It builds strength, capacity, stamina. It opens doors to be endowed with spiritual power in ever-increasing dimensions

   This comes through ministering to the Lord. In one word, think fellowship

   2 Corinthians 13:14

   The word communion there is koinonia, the sharing together, the intimacy, the participation of the Holy Ghost

2. The discipline and patience of staying to align with divine timing

   Romans 8:25

   Sometimes you feel frustrated because you desire certain things, but you know there is a timing component to receiving from God, so you wait patiently

   Psalm 27:13 to Psalm 27:14

   A man weary and about to give up because time is gone. He says no, wait. He emphasizes it two times, like the Bible does with rejoice

   The time spent waiting upon the Lord, no matter what you lose, that time will be rewarded

   Aligning with divine timing and prophetic seasons. God may have told you he would move a certain way, but that activity of the spirit is connected to timing and seasons

   Illustration: the rainy season

   If I have a vision of a bumper harvest, and it’s not a prophetic vision, most likely it will be achieved in the rainy season

   You can deploy irrigation, but the season has an advantage. I don’t labour for water. The atmosphere is conducive, the soil is soft enough for farming

   There is timing to prophecy. There is timing in walking with God. It’s not enough to think fellowship. Think the discipline and patience of alignment until you come in sync with divine timing

3. The posture of dependence, trust and wholehearted reliance on God

   Dependence on God for direction, for next level strategies, for the power to function

   I depend on you for divine direction. I depend on you for the strategy for the next season. I depend on you for the power to function

   Luke 24:49

   Tarry does not mean sit idly. It means sit with the consciousness of dependence until you are endued with power from on high

   Proverbs 3:5 to Proverbs 3:7

   Acknowledging him in all your ways is part of the extended meaning of wait

   This is also one of the meanings of looking unto Jesus. It doesn’t just mean to crave to see him in a vision. It means a posture like a maid looking to her mistress for help.

   Total dependence and trust

4. The spiritual activities engaged during your time with God

   Especially prayer and fasting. This is the one most of us know, and it is wonderful, but only when the first three are intact

   It is not limited to prayer and fasting. Your time in worship and in the study of the word also refer to waiting upon the Lord

Waiting is only guaranteed to profit when it is upon the Lord

The Bible does not tell us waiting brings profit. Waiting can be a waste of time. It can lead to pain and defeat. Only when it is waiting upon the Lord is there a guarantee of profit

Many people are waiting because of ignorance. Many because of fear, confusion, or because they’ve been blinded by darkness

2 kinds of waiting that disappoint

1. Waiting upon men and human connections as your source

   Wait here means to rely on, to invest your trust and expectation on. That waiting leads to vanity and pain

   Psalm 60:11 to Psalm 60:12

   Men only profit you when they are channels, not sources. When a man is a channel he becomes a profitable channel, because the help came from somewhere

   All blessings come from God through men, not from men. The job can come through your uncle but it comes from God. The lifting can come through your uncle

   When it comes from men you have made man God in your life. Anybody who tries to take the place of God, even well intentioned, is destroying you

   We live in a world full of arrogant men. Sometimes we talk as though we are God

   We make people wait to give ourselves the impression that we have the exclusive power to do and undo with their lives and destinies

   The psalmist said the only reason he woke was because the Lord sustained him.

   Someone can promise you a job. As helpers we need to be careful not to delve into the position of God

   There are times you can be this close to help and yet not have the power to help

   The preacher is a servant of God, not God. He didn’t die for you. If you made him God in your mind, that becomes your bad

   A man can hunt and prepare the meal, but the power to eat it comes from God. The hospital is full of wealthy people who would have wanted to live otherwise but were incapacitated

   My help comes from the Lord. I know your mind goes to your landlord. To the billionaire who promised you, whose house you went to last night and you have not slept since

   Or you came expecting Joshua Selman to strike his hand like a magician and have you healed. My help comes from the Lord

   If the man God chose to help you decides not to partner with God, you don’t cry, because only the channel was compromised. The source is still intact and God will reroute another channel

   This does not mean you go around telling people God can do without you. That is for God to say, not you, so it doesn’t backfire on you

   We need to shake off overdependence on men. How do you call one man 200 times? He says meet me next week

   You pray, God, this man has come close, let him not sleep till he gives it to me. God says what if I change my mind? And you say no, God, don’t change your mind

   If I perceive you can help me, I will come to you sincerely, without arrogance. If you choose not to help, I will not be offended

   I respect your decision and go to the source of all help. I say, Lord, since they have refused, can you reroute another strategy?

   If no man, God can make stones help me. God can make a fish bring you the coin.

   For you, he first starts with men. When men refuse, he takes you to the sea

   A correction to the body of Christ. God gives us wisdom to engage the systems he has put for our prosperity and influence

   But let us not become so systemic that we forget there is a God who controls it

   Careless statements like you don’t need God to prosper. I know what we mean to say, but you can stand face to face with your finances and the hand to receive it will not be able to receive

   Principles only work when spirits don’t manipulate the process. We are not left with principles alone upon the earth. There are real spirits

   1 plus 1 in principle is 2. But 1 plus 1 plus a demonic attack cannot be 2, in a way you cannot explain

   An aircraft in principle should lift based on the laws of aerodynamics, but even pilots know that some carry charms

   Businessmen know the secret to wealth is supply of value, yet why do they go to herbalists?

   The balance: for many, waiting on God is a way of spiritualizing irresponsibility

   I won’t read, I won’t study, I won’t drop the application, God will do it. That is false waiting and leads to pain

   Prepare the horse, but safety is of the Lord. You need both

   If asked to choose one, leave the horse in a hurry and hold on to God. If you throw away God because you have a good horse, the horse can die. The horse can even refuse to move

   Let men be your channels and not your source. You can know whether men are your source by the level of pain, anger and regret when they tell you no

   If you become angry and start cursing them, your heart attempted to make them your God and that idol disappointed you

   When a man tells you no, humanly speaking it will pain you. Just say, God thank you, at least you have tried for me, and go to the one who does not fail

   I learned from Dr. Mudok many years ago, if my word is correct, that God’s obsession is to be trusted. His heart is pained the moment you share dependence between him and any other entity

   When you explore every option, it always looks like it works, because a part of you is still trusting so and so

   When it fails and you say, God I trust you, he knows now you are not lying

   He is the one who makes it work. He is the force that powers principles. Before you explore principles, make sure your heart is stayed on him as that force

   No matter how guaranteed any man is, because they are humans they will disappoint you, maybe at the point you need them most

   I’m saving you heart attack on time. Don’t go around getting angry. There are people who see a preacher and say, if you had prayed for me I would have gotten a job. Don’t harass the preacher

2. Waiting upon your intelligence and your ideas

   You make your intelligence and ideas your source. There is an overestimation of self that is dangerous for destiny actualization and dominion. Be confident, but not overdependent

   Proverbs 3:5 to Proverbs 3:7

   When you are brilliant, gifted and learned and you pray God help me, there can be an air of arrogance. God knows that prayer is not from a broken heart

   Sometimes ignorance makes you cry out genuinely because you know you’re in trouble

   But when you looked at the exam questions and said this is child’s play, that is not dependence

   You can fly me into a conference and whisper the topic to me on arrival. I may not do my best intellectually, but I will not do the worst either

   It is the power of being instant in season and out of season.

   When you get to that state because of the abundance of knowledge, be careful. That is the seed of pride and dependence on intellect

   When you see me praying and crying before God preparing for Koinonia or any meeting, I don’t do mojo. When you depend on your intellect you will be disappointed

   I have seen intelligent people present their facts rightly, yet those who listened did not believe or receive

   Another man brings frail truths in the midst of noise and people swallow it with passion, including intellectuals. You wonder what they heard from him

   You came with an encyclopedia in your head, sociology here, philosophy here, medicine here. At the end they say it was a nice meeting, we hope to see you one day

   Be confident about your sacrifice. It is a big mystery in this life

   I’ve seen someone competent come for an interview, a fine young man looking like Saul. At the end they just say, you’ll hear from us

   Another, a confused person, came late and did all the wrong things. He sat down without being asked

   He could not answer question one. For question two he honestly said, I don’t know. They asked why he was there and he said, honestly, I have a kind heart, I can serve

   The manager said, you also hear from us. You want to see grace, go for visa interviews

   At visa interviews you find noise makers, the well suited, disturbing people who are tensed and waiting. They enter and come out as if they announced a funeral for them

   Another, who looks like he was just released from kidnapping, enters and comes out smiling. He got his visa

   I’m not insulting intellectual preparation. But once you overdepend on your intellect, you will be disappointed. There are preachers, businessmen and professionals who overdepend on intellect

   Illustration: the disciples and epilepsy

   The disciples took power into their hands. They didn’t start with milder issues, they came straight with epilepsy.

   They were not fake, but did the miracle work? You don’t have to be fake to be disappointed

   They laid hands, did all their drama. The man said, wait for Jesus. He told Jesus, sir, they wasted our time

   They were stung, which is why they pursued Jesus and asked why they could not heal this. They felt good about being his disciples, even driving children away from him

   That frustration later built up to I go out fishing. We’ve left all to follow you and could not heal the sick. The only time we enjoyed healing was when you sent us

   When they returned from being sent, they were shocked because the same thing they could not heal now worked. They asked what changed. Dependence on the intellect

   Continue to invest in knowledge. Be sound, be intellectually powerful. But when all is said and done, it is not the abundance of your knowledge. Many intelligent people suffer as if their knowledge were a waste

   When you are intelligent and you depend on him, that humility powers your intelligence to bring you profit

   Men you invest your trust in become God in your life. Many times they propose to be God in exchange for solutions

   Make sure you know God before you start insulting men. Some like this teaching and say thank God I don’t have to go and beg my uncle

   Go and beg, my friend, if you are not even prayerful. Your uncle is an agent of mercy

You can wait upon your intellect. You can wait upon men as your source. It can work sometimes, but in most cases it will not. There is no guarantee for consistency.

3 reasons to tarry

1. Waiting provides the platform for the making, refining and remolding of the man who desires to be used by God

   It allows God to minister to the believer as the refiner, the maker and the purifier

   We have all kinds of motives, ambitions and desires locked up in our hearts and minds

   Waiting allows God to prune and edit those motives until all that is left in you is the desire to glorify Jesus

   This is where self and flesh die. Character and motive are realigned to Christ

   I desire a great life, prosperity, fame, renown, wealth, influence, godly or carnal

   When you carry all that as luggage to the place of waiting, God ministers to you as refiner, maker and purifier of motives and desires

   Only God knows the kinds of desires that would have sponsored my appetite for ministry if waiting did not prune some. He is still working in me

   Some desires the carrier is not even aware of. They hide quietly waiting for opportunity. You may even be beguiled by your own desire. Remember, guard your heart

   A man who has never held money may never know that pride and dependence on finances can affect him

   A man who has never had influence or renown may not know what ego will do. God sees the end from the beginning

   Illustration: garden egg and worms

   You bite a garden egg and see worms in it. How did they get there? The outer part looked alluring

   A fly pecks around, you don’t know something rested there, and eventually you see maggots. That’s how our hearts are

   You may not know when the desire latched on, like a virus. Pride got there and you did not know. Vain glory got there and you did not know

   Those who know how to wait upon the Lord, you may see pride, lust, selfish ambition, give them until their next retreat

   They disappear for 3 days or a week and come out like a cloth that has been washed by hand. God marinates them in his presence until everything that is not him leaves

   The day you feel everything is right with you and nothing is locked up in your heart, that already is a revelation that deception is hiding

   If you don’t deal with it, it will deal with you in the future

   In the place of waiting even your shape and texture is changed. Gold in a bar, subjected to intense temperature, melts and a blacksmith turns it into any shape

   It is purified from 15 carat to 18 to 21 carat, and you look at the price and want to say God forbid

   • Purify my heart. Prune my motives. Test my motive.
   • You know the things locked up in me before they destroy me now and in the future.
   • Show me mercy as a preacher before you begin to open doors of ministry.
   • Let wealth not become a curse. Let fame and renown not become a curse.
   • Let me not pride in the abundance of revelation. Let much learning not make me mad.
   • That desire for a husband, for a wife, prune the lust in my heart before he comes, before she comes.

   The goal is that you become a sign and a wonder, an object of praise, but not this version of you

   Allow him to do the work of pruning. You may cry, but let him prune you, build you, line upon line, precept upon precept, like a refiner’s fire refining gold and silver

   When he’s done, it’ll be clear it was worth it. Not when he starts. Maybe one year, maybe a few months of a rigorous process of purifying

   Stay. Become intertwined with him until his life grows and makes you a blessing.

   God says give me your heart. Preacher, not your sermons. Businessman, leave your ATM and your accounts.

   Your waiting is wasted if you do not become the clay. Your waiting is wasted if the gold called you is not upgraded from 15 to 18 to 21 carat

   Let the anger die as you wait. Let lust, over ambitiousness, unforgiveness die as you wait

   Let the anger that is hiding, I will visit all of them one by one when I make it, die

   The more purified your vessel is, the greater the weight of glory. The glory of God comes in weights

   Don’t admire certain levels of glory until you are willing to align to the death connected to that glory

   There is a dimension of death that equals a kingdom billionaire. Don’t desire just the business idea that made the man

   The transaction part you don’t need God for, you just need brain. But the covenant part, no sir

   There is a dimension of death that equals being trusted with the program of God nationally

   Most times we see the effulgence of the glory and desire it, but we hate the process that leads to that death. Death and glory is a deep kingdom mystery

   The way to live is to die. Galatians 2:20 is a realm in the spirit. My desires crucified, my flesh crucified, my ambitions crucified

   When God starts with you, the first thing he does is smash the current texture until you become clay

   In a way you would think your life has been wasted. Then he begins to remold

   Illustration: the pastry

   A woman making pastry, you have no idea what she’s making, meat pie or chin chin. Only she knows

   She cuts, then it goes into boiling oil and stays there while she watches. The shape becomes firmer, the colour changes. When it gets golden brown, she says it’s done

   Today you look golden. Tomorrow you look like you are not a believer. Stay in that fire

   You preached last week with power, by next week it was as if you were not born again. You are not done yet. The refining is not over

   Tarry until flesh dies. Tarry until ambition dies. Tarry until all of you reflects all of him

   • Father, by your spirit, work on me as a refiner’s fire.
   • As the potter works on the clay, refine me, purify me, make me until I become a vessel of glory.

   It is a beautiful sight to see a vessel God has finished on. By finished I don’t mean he will not work on that man again, but at a level it is beautiful

   You see character, wisdom, maturity, power and influence all in one man. Refined by God, made by God

   For someone, God is almost done. Don’t run. Men have told you that by now you would have become a prophet. Stay

   You already see visions, but character needs to be worked on. The gift of the Spirit minus character will abort a great destiny

   Stay longer than usual, longer than expected, longer than planned. I know you didn’t plan to be here in 2026, but stay. The maker is working

   He is removing everything from your life so you will have space for wisdom and power

   The kind of destiny you have seen, this version of you cannot get there. The kind of wealth you have seen, this version of you cannot get there

   You get to a realm where one enchantment by darkness can crumble your company even though you are productive. You will need to understand the depths of the power of God

   It takes buying and selling to attract wealth, but it takes strength to retain wealth.

   God is raising you to be the savior over a family rooted in idol worship, 17 of you, and nobody has risen. You are the one who will open that gate

   You are about to confront the beast of Ephesus. Let him walk upon you

   A big secret. Every time your prayer is not answered beyond a certain level, stop praying about what you are praying for and start praying about yourself

   Many times when you pray right and it is not answered, it is not the answer, it is the person receiving the answer

   The faster you change, the quicker the answer. Accelerate your answer by evolving in a hurry. There are prayers you will not need to pray because many answers were designed to respond to growth

   There were things I prayed for in my life, and at a point I ignored them and focused on me, the training, the building. I didn’t even know when the answers arrived

   Not, God, let people stop despising me. Pray, Lord, let me grow, let me carry your glory, let me walk in humility and character

   Pray that for one month and you will not need to pray about increase in honorarium. Many carnal prayers are direct reflections of the refusal to grow

   You are organizing the crusade, resources are not coming, everybody is ignoring you. It is in your destiny, but this version of you cannot host it. Say, Lord, walk upon me, build me

   Illustration: Premier Hotel, Ibadan

   One day as he is building you, they will call you sometimes in the same location

   Many years ago I went to Premier Hotel in Ibadan and I did not have the money to pass the night. I stayed awake

   I asked if there was a church around so I could attend a vigil and not waste my time

   Years later I went to preach, I think it was in UI or one of the places. From the airport they took me up that hill, and I could identify faces I saw before. They couldn’t recognize me

   Everybody was clapping, apostle, apostle. They took me to the highest floor and kept me there

   I put my chin on the window, almost in tears, waiting for my time to go and minister. I watched my guys swim and play table tennis from that altitude

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   This was way before people started knowing about Joshua Selman. That is where I saw the value of growth

   There are many things you are praying for. You pick the signal because it is in your destiny, but this version of you cannot get there

   • Do a work in me. Purify my motive.

2. Waiting is the place of exchange

   Where divine transactions happen. Your weaknesses and limitations are exchanged for his strength

   Your limited human perspective and assessment of things are exchanged for a divine perspective and an accurate interpretation of things

   It is at this place you gain stature and capacity to host tremendous dimensions of God’s power and wisdom without it overwhelming or destroying you

   Isaiah 40:31

   The word renew there is not revitalize. I used to think so, but the root Hebrew word means to swap, to change

   Like Jesus stood in my place and gave me his strength, carried my unrighteousness and gave me his righteousness. It is actually exchange

   If left to interpret your life using emotions, intellect, human wisdom, your conclusions on why this door did not open will most likely be wrong

   In the secret place a superior diagnosis, a spirit birthed interpretation, replaces that low-level assessment

   Without the right interpretation, the death of Jesus looked like the defeat of a champion. Invincible for 33 and a half years, then they caught him, flogged him, stripped him

   Humanly it looks like a man whose charm has failed. And yet death was the path to glory. Before Pilate he had the opportunity to advocate his release, and he kept quiet

   There are many judgments in your life of things and people that will be wrong until you go to the secret place

   In other words, I have exhausted everything I know to do unless God shows up for me

   A spiritual man can laugh through pain because the secret place has afforded him a more superior interpretation of things

   You prayed for your loved one not to die. At a point the loved one gave you a smile and died. For years you carry the thought, how does a healer not heal my father or my mother?

   In the secret place God reveals a bigger picture and what you call death was actually profit.

   Illustration: the cancelled flight

   You get to the airport and they tell you the flight is cancelled. Everyone rants about the airline

   The spiritual man steps back and says, God, there must be a bigger purpose. It does not have to be a plane crash

   After 3 or 4 hours you converse with someone and find out he is the manager where your husband has been looking for a job. It was never about the flight

   Do you have the maturity to let negative situations bring the glory of God? Light shines into darkness, but there are times light shines out of darkness, out of pain, shame and disappointment

   Some of the most amazing miracles in my life happened after disappointing events. I’ve been indoctrinated that God loves me

   When things don’t happen my way, I’ve lost the ability to shout and complain. My next call is, Lord, let my mind be aligned to divine purpose. What was the point? Reveal it to me

   The job did not come, the one who promised to marry you died or left. Don’t blackmail any man of God

   After you cry, because you are human, get up and say, God, there is something you are doing

   There were things we wanted to do as a ministry that were not wrong, the resources were there, but there were very strange restraints, spiritually and in opportunity

   Today I am grateful a thousand times that I went through them

   There are pains in my life that are scars of dignity. The wisdom and anointing they brought is priceless. I wouldn’t trade it for anything

   There is a gift of pain. Not every negative situation is demonic. Some pains usher you to the secret place, where you find what took you there and what you did not know was there

   The place of exchange. Watch what exchange does

   Isaiah 61:2 to Isaiah 61:3

   For beauty you must bring ashes. If there is no ashes, that kind of beauty is not for you

   The oil of joy is for those who have cried genuinely. The garment of praise is for the spirit of heaviness

   • Lord, I exchange my pain for your glory. I exchange my limitations for your strength.
   • I hand over my tears, my disappointments, the shame, the reproach, the insults that came on account of my diligence.
   • Father, you said your yoke is easy and your burden is light. This yoke is killing me, weighing me down. I exchange it for your strength and your joy.
   • Take away this pain and give me joy. Take away this disappointment and give me peace.

   You are not called to explain your life to people. Just stay with God and cry for an exchange

   Don’t conclude on anyone who loves God. They may be weak but watch the maker in that refining place. He will receive that weakness and infuse strength

   It will not always be that way. You cried, I agree. But a day will come you look at what made you cry and you will not cry again, because strength has come to you

3. Waiting is a place of revelation and divine downloads

   Psalm 25:4 to Psalm 25:5

   I wait for revelation. I wait for divine downloads

   Where mandates, patterns and strategies for your life and kingdom assignment are delivered

   It is dangerous to experiment with your life and destiny with every available idea or what is trending. Your life is too precious for that expensive experiment

   We live in a world obsessed with doing what is trendy and coming up with human ideas to drive a God-given destiny

   Destiny fulfillment depends on understanding the mandate and receiving the pattern or strategy connected to it. You can understand your mandate and use a wrong strategy for execution and still fail

   A correct mandate plus a divinely ordained pattern. You get that in the secret place, through inclining your ears to his voice and your eyes to his visions

   Jeremiah 33:3

   Things pertaining to your destiny, the next season, 2027, your home, the next level. I call them next level strategies

   Something you received from God brought you where you are today. Something you need to receive now will take you to the next phase

   I receive the strategy. I receive the pattern for the next level of my kingdom exploits.

   You will open the Bible and see the next level of your life there. You will go to bed and those five, six, seven hours will be full of prophetic road maps

   For someone the next business where your wealth is tied will be revealed verbatim

   I have been saying this every Sunday for 3 weeks. When brook Cherith dries, make sure you pray.

   The strategy that sustained you at Cherith is not the strategy for the next level

   I am ever conscious that as a believer I am progressive. I stay faithful with what he told me, but I align my ears like Habakkuk.

   What is the key to Koinonia’s future? It will take more than the downloads we have received to drive Koinonia to her next level

   3 ways to discern the will of God:

   1. The revelation of his will as contained in scripture
   2. The revelatory ministry of the Holy Spirit, extracting and deducing the will of God for a situation
   3. The prophetic. Not just a prophet speaking to you. Every experience, dreams, visions, impressions of the spirit make the prophetic

   For every prophecy and mandate there is a winning strategy allotted to it. You have to know the winning strategy, not just the prophecy

3 dynamics of profitable waiting

1. Assume a posture of surrender

   Your focus must be more of yielding and alignment than presenting a list of desires and demands

   Whether praying, fasting, spending time with the Lord or depending on him, let your mentality be more of surrender and yieldedness than presenting requests

   You profit more when your heart is largely stayed on alignment than on presenting requests. It doesn’t mean you don’t present your desires

   Slice out a small portion for desires, but a major part should be alignment. A posture of surrender makes waiting profitable

2. Make it a lifestyle, not a circumstantial practice

   Waiting upon the Lord yields maximum result when it becomes a lifestyle. If you wait only when in trouble, you will experience him but may not have the best of him

   It must become a culture of waiting beyond a practice of waiting

   Not once a year

   Does the deer ask for water just once? Even if it drinks today, it goes back tomorrow

   Many do not maximize the secret place because the general assembly is coming and we are praying and fasting. In 2 weeks it is done and they look to other things

   Let this practice evolve into a mentality and a culture

   You love him more than your necessary food. Every opportunity to spend with him you cherish, because there is profit. It must be consistent and delightsome, not a burden

   Every day when you wake up he occupies your mind. Not a fire brigade spiritual approach only when there is a special program

   You don’t just read your Bible because a conference is coming. You don’t pray only when you hear a mysterious tree fell in your village or a mysterious fire got into houses

   If you have to wait for trees to fall, you are not spiritual enough. Let challenges come and meet you waiting

   Man of God, don’t wait until you have six invitations before you open your concordance and study as if your life depends on it, then return to nothing.

3. Focus on the quality and intensity of communion, not just the duration

   In fasting, praying, Bible study and worship, focus on the quality and intensity of your communion with God, not only the duration of the exercise

   Nothing wrong with disciplining yourself with minutes or hours. But once you become hour conscious, you think 4 hours tomorrow is better than 3 hours of yesterday

   It is the purity of the connection

   Timing has a place. You can’t give God 5 minutes and expect the stamina of a man who gave him all. Those rituals are disciplines that build stamina

   But when you get to the place of waiting, it is not you that defines how long you stay. God is the chief host

   You plan 30 minutes to make contact with heaven, but that day the glory rests on you. God is saying today is not like every other day, stay

   If you are time conscious more than connection conscious, you get up and say I’m on my way, and you miss a kairos moment

   The 5 hour prayers, 8 hour prayers, 3 days, fasting for one year are wonderful, but you grow into it. It is a mistake being made in the body of Christ

   It takes a skill to fast a long time and to stretch and pray

   Illustration: the learner driver

   Someone who just learned to drive today wants to drive passengers to Lagos with an L on his car. You can play that game around the corridor of your house

   But on that road trucks will not mind that you are a learner. This is what happens to people spiritually

   I’m not a medical practitioner, but I know people who engaged in prayer without mentorship and stamina and ended up with psychosomatic problems

   We have sponsored people’s admission to teaching hospitals because they started praying and ended up behaving like mad people

   I’m not saying that is what prayer does. It is what happens when people are not guided. It is line upon line

   They pass out and get into a realm of the spirit and have experiences they lack the word to explain or defend. They can return and call that realm heaven

   A realm in the spirit does not mean heaven. The realm of the spirit is a vast atmosphere with almost infinite layers. It is the word that gives answers about where you went

   Parents have called me about daughters who started praying. People have brought me notebooks with writings and inscriptions, and I know they are occultic

   They are sincere, but this makes lazy spiritual people blame prayer. The issue is not prayer, not even long prayer. There must be a system of guidance to maximize that experience

   Being open to the prophetic dimension requires guidance. You can return from a vision with an effect no medical cure can treat, because it happened to your spirit man

   Isaiah and the prophets became physically sick from the frequency of their encounters. Jesus felt the amount of power that came out of his spirit man.

   As a man of God ministering under intense anointing, when the anointing for that assignment lifts, it will take the grace of God. Ask pastors’ wives

   A man can stand 3 days without sleep, but when that anointing lifts you may have to admit him in the hospital

   There is a grace that supports what you see us do. It is not pride. There is also a skill to it. We compensate ourselves

   I have prayed for 72 hours and my eyes did not see the sun. There are things you see when you stretch beyond a certain dimension that, if I told you, would look like heresy

   It’s not doctrine, so we focus on the word of God because that is verified

   Waiting and praying many hours is healthy when it is guided through mentorship and spiritual leadership. We must not overburden younger believers just starting, because it is dangerous for their life

   There is a psychosomatic implication to engaging your mind consistently. I’m giving you a medical explanation. When you chant nonstop you are creating a neuropathway

   I want your Christian life to be profitable. God did not die to produce fools

   So in addition to a time frame to guide and discipline you, focus more on the quality and intensity of your communion beyond the duration of the time

There is power in waiting

This is a culture, a mystery you must embrace. You stay till his glory comes. You stay till he speaks. You stay till flesh dies. You stay till the direction for the next season comes

You will look like a fool while you wait. But the treasures that come with waiting are called the riches of his glory

This is one of the biggest secrets of God upon my life. When you wait upon yourself and your strength, it most likely will be a wasted adventure. Waiting starts with Jesus. It is upon the Lord

Salvation prayer

Justify your waiting by allowing the savior who will also double as your refiner and purifier. It starts with being in the kingdom. Transformation is useless until there is salvation

It is beyond a renewal of strength. It’s a translation, an exchange. Death for life, defeat for victory

One of the reasons we wait is because we wait for his salvation.

It doesn’t matter what you have done or not done. Jesus is able to give you a new beginning

Assignment

Listen to this message again. Listen to what waiting is about, why we wait and how we wait so that we maximize his blessings

Not every part of this message may edify you equally, but the Holy Spirit like a radar will guide you to the punchline that matters to your spiritual life. Stay there and build your spirit

Blessing