Stay In God's Word -Archbishop Benson-Idahosa

Your faith must be based on the word of God if it is going to be a steady faith, a consistent faith not subject to undue wavering, but solid in both good and bad times. This is a basic truth I have repeated stressed over and over in my sermons.

There is such a thing as an enduring faith. This kind of faith depends steadfastly upon the world of God. Faith is progressive and living faith is active, defying all human hindrances. The word of God works in the same way with your faith.

The Bible indeed says, “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17). Faith comes by hearing the word of God from whom? The evangelist or pastor or any instrument of God. You can speak the word of faith to your spirit, too. If you can believe anybody, it should be yourself. Read the promises of God and build yourself up on your most Holy faith. The preaching of the men and women who are anointed causes faith to soar up in your heart. Often the devil has said to me, “Hey, Benson Idahosa, you are trying to act like God. You are using God’s word.” But I reply boldly, “yes, that is what I am doing. I am using God’s word to resist you and triumph over my circumstances.”

The worried mind is not the mind of Christ because the scriptures say, “Let this mind be in you, which, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil.2:5).

To stand when everything crumbles around you is not an easy passage. Scriptures says, in Psalm 91:7 that, “A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.” It takes firm knowing in your spirit what God had said about you, particularly concerning the finished work of Jesus Christ at Calvary and His resurrection.

The truth is that nobody knows, more than satan himself, what was accomplished in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Even if Satan knows, which he sure does, he will not have you know it, because knowledge is power. The Bible states in John 8:32, “and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free”. God is saying in this verse that truth is freedom. And may I kindly add that your freedom in the new spectrum of life depends on the amount of truth you know from the Bible.

Satan struggles relentlessly to keep you from learning about all that God has promised you in Christ Jesus. He will put sickness on you and say God is using it to teach you a lesson. He will deprive you of God’s prosperity if you allow him to and then whisper to you that God made you poor to humble you.

Let me put it this way: As long as satan can make you doubt what Christ has done for you in the supreme sacrifice of His life for you, he can conveniently beat you in every battle. What I mean is, he puts you in the state of non-resistance. God has said in James 1:7, “…Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

In some thirty years of walking with Christ, I have come across some Christians everywhere who belong to the “it is always God’s will” group. They never take the trouble to find out what God has said concerning them in the Bible. They pick a few scriptures along the way. Maybe the pastor used a notable verse in his sermon and so they seize that one. A sister in another church uses that same scripture and they add it to their scanty storehouse of God’s word. It is not, therefore surprising that the devil is about to convince these church goers that everything from sickness, poverty, defeat, broken homes and sin is all God’s will.

Find what God’s will is from the Bible and vow in your heart to stand upon it resolutely. We are to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. He did not say be strong in the world and in the power of political authority. Put on the whole armor of God, it is the only overcoming equipment against the wiles of the devil.

Have you been faced with power from the enemy’s camp and you shout as if God has forgotten you? Have you seen Satan face to face like Jesus did in Matthew 4:1 and Luke 4? Have you come to a place, where you almost gave in and gave up to the enemy’s expectation, in your walk and work for God?

Have you been forced to say Jesus, “If it be thy will, bid one come to you in storm” I have come very close to the point when I almost gave up when unexpected storms came into my life. Yet I have come to know that there are a few of us with a special calling from God and that we cannot run away. Nevertheless, run nearer, my God to thee. I encourage you to stand to your feet and start your walk of faith to victory. Start today. Victory is very close to you.

When we accept the risen Lord into our lives as savior and Lord, He dwells in us. That instantly puts His whole armour upon us. God is telling you now, “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh, is there anything too hard for me?” Isaiah 54:17 says protection is your heritage. God has not given you the Spirit of fear. You have the mind of Christ, a victorious mind.

You have put off the sin nature and put on the divine nature. Christ is your strength at all times. What a glorious inheritance! Revolutionize your revelation about Christ in your life.

You might have had rough yesterdays, yester years. From birth may be all the plans have become still born. But God is asking me right now to tell you that His miracles are like a river passing by your door daily with grace, blessing signs and wonders.

Wherever I go, I say boldly, “I cannot live one day without miracles”. By the authority of God’s word, I say to you, “There will be no more lost battles in your life”. The devil may bark and roar, but remember the words of John the Revelator, “When you are born of God in new birth, that wicked one touches you not” (1John 5:18).

Stand on the word that says your life is hid with Christ in God. Satan knows as he approaches you that you are winner and a more than conqueror and that he cannot touch you.

Take hold of God’s word in 1 Corinthians 15:7 which says, “Thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”. You can triumph over the adversities of life. This is all I am trying to imprint upon your heart.

When satan comes to you, he must deal with Christ who conquered him. You don’t have to work alone. When satan touches you, he knows he is touching God’s property.

Let me illustrate our new position of victory by the revelation God gave me recently. In my neighborhood, which is often called the Government Residential Area (GRA), there are some buildings occupied by serving military officers.

At the gates of these top-level military officers, you will find this conspicuous inscription in bold red letters, “MILITARY ZONE. KEEP OFF.” I have grown up with this common inscription and it did not mean anything to me until recently when I was preaching on “spiritual warfare”. Driving past one of the gates, my eyes caught sight of the inscription again. Immediately a revelation popped up in my heart. The Spirit of God said to me, “My servant Idahosa, if the soldiers ask the intruders to keep off because it is a military zone, what do you say of yourself? You are not a worldly soldier”.

I could not make out what God was saying. The question resurfaced in my spirit after a while. After a few minutes I shouted, “For the Christian, it is SPIRITUAL ZONE. KEEP OFF”. I felt the Spirit of God say to me, “You are right”. Meditating on the fact I am a spiritual zone (to warn all satanic instruction) brought no small peace to my heart.

God has made you a spiritual zone if you are born again. God has put an inscription on your forehead: “SPIRITUAL ZONE KEEP OFF.”

The circumstances around you will respond to God’s word building up in your heart. The seed of God’s word will bear basket-breaking fruit in your affairs.

Jesus Christ said in Luke 6:46-49, “And they call me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whosoever cometh to me and heareth my sayings and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like: He is like a man who built an house and diggeth deep and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon the house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built a house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.”

There is a vital lesson hidden in this great parable by Jesus Christ, some will think the key issue was the storm. No, it was not. The two houses were built on the foundation. Your life like the two houses in the parable is built on some foundation, what is it?

Other people would focus attention on trivialities like storm windows, new roofing’s and the like in the parable. These were purely side issues. You must admit that the key issue was the foundation of the building. A solid foundation is a homeowner’s greatest guarantee in the face of storm and hurricane.

Remember obedience to the word of God is a solid foundation. Beloved if you diligently do what Jesus said, God will stand by you and help you in all circumstances. Do the sayings of Jesus and you will have a house with a firm foundation? The floods and the storms of life do not come from God. Plant God’s word in your life every day and do the sayings of Jesus Christ and you will not fail!