Knowledge – the Access Key

TRINITY HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH

 

SUNDAY SERMON

30th of April, 2023

Topic:                         Knowledge – the Access Key

Preacher:                   Reverend Ebenezer Olawuyi

Text:                           Proverbs 1:20 – 33

 

MESSAGE

I am going to build on what we have been looking at for the past few days: Knowledge – the Access Key. I am going to also review and then add one or two things. Proverbs 1: 32 – 33 say, “For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, And will be secure, without fear of evil.” Beloved, I am bothered about this, that’s why I like to lay some emphasis on this scripture.

Hosea 4:6 says, “My people perish…” Did you ever wonder? He didn’t say, the unbelievers perish for lack of knowledge. He didn’t say the idol worshippers, the adulterers, those in the brothel. No! He didn’t say that. He says, “My people”. Maybe I should put it this way, “The born-again, the believers, the Holy Ghost filled”. How can a Holy Ghost filled person perish? It is abnormal. “My people”, not the unbelievers. Pay attention to that word, to that sentence. Why couldn’t God help them in the days of Hosea? Till today, why can’t God help? Is the Word of God not true again? Like God said to Moses, “Has the hand of the Lord been shortened? Let’s see whether it will not do what I said.” If it is not working, it is not God.

The Bible says in Romans 3:4, “Let every man be a liar and God be true”. If it is not working, it is not Him. Listen to this: you’ve got to understand the principles of the kingdom. No spirit can exist on this earth without a body – that’s a spiritual law. You need to understand the law that guides the earth that we are in now; on this earth, everything must be with a body. The law of God in the Kingdom of God is this: you reign in that kingdom by virtue of knowledge. God wants us to reign “And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth” (Rev. 5:10). God wants you to reign and be in charge.

He said to them, “Have dominion”. What does it mean? Take charge, take control. Not to dominate over man, that’s oppression but God wants you to be in charge of environment and circumstances, especially those that relate to you. I can’t come and reign in your family except you permit me. So, when the Devil gets to my dominion, I tell him I am in charge here. You reign in your own domain. My body is my domain, like the common Yoruba saying, “You can’t stop a bird from flying, but you can stop it from laying its nest on your head”. If it likes, let it begin to fly but immediately it comes near me, I chase it away.

Your family is your domain, they belong to you and are in your domain. Your health is in your domain. Your prosperity and security are in your domain. You reign in this kingdom by knowledge, not by emotions. Not by the years that you have been in church. Not by age. No! You don’t reign in this Kingdom by age. Jesus was still a young child when he went into the temple and spoke with authority. They called him the Son of the Lord. He attained a position in which the great men, the Pharisees had achieved even at his age – age 10. You reign in this kingdom by what you know. If you understand this, then, you must pay attention to know him. It is because you don’t know this, that’s why you are not committed to knowing Him. You must be committed to know Him. The Devil does not want anybody to know, that’s why, when you are hearing the Word of God, he makes you sleepy. The reason is that the goal of the devil is to keep you in ignorance. Even in your quiet time, you can’t read, you are tired. Do you know why the Devil puts diseases in some people’s body, it is to kill them because the earlier they allow diseases in their body, the earlier they get to their grave. So, the goal of the Devil is to keep you from knowing, he wants to keep you in ignorance. That’s what is called “Consent of Ignorance.” The Devil does not have a power of its own, so he gives you ignorance. What you don’t know, you suffer in it.

Some people come to church because it is religious. You are not hungry that you want to know. When they are asked to come to church during teaching hour, they think they are coming to make the pastor happy. No! You are only undoing yourself, because the more you know, the higher your authority. I pray that God will open our eyes and that we will understand this fact. Why would God say, “My people!” Why will the people of God perish? The scripture says in John 8:32, “You will know the truth and the truth shall set you free”. What will happen if you know the truth? It shall set you free, meaning, it is what you know that will bring about your freedom. Out of ignorance, in the generation of our parents and grandparents, even extended to some generation just before us, you see a lot of people who limp and for some of them, it is not accident, it is simply polio. At that time, they say it was witches and they look for concoction. Simple ignorance! A man came, discovered and invented the polio vaccine and that’s why till today, at five years old, they give children the vaccines. For that one, you don’t need to fast, you can pray that God bless the drug, however. Can you imagine what our parents pass through then because of ignorance?

Some things you don’t know, you suffer for it. That is why the Scripture says in Prov. 11:9, “The hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor, but through knowledge the righteous will be delivered.” Listen to this: I fast and I encourage you to fast. If you are a Christian, you need to fast. Apart from being spiritual, it is even good for health. Sometimes, allow your intestine to rest. Can you imagine using your generator every day? That generator will stop working. That is why in big companies, they have like 3 to 4 generators and they switch them from time to time. If not, it will stop working. Apart from spiritual benefits, fasting is good to allow your intestine to rest rejuvenate your health. For some people, their belly is their god. I encourage fast but it’s not everything that fasting will do. The Bible did not say my people perish for lack of fasting, it is for lack of knowledge. Some people have fasted their lives to death because they did not know. Let me give you a good example: Imagine somebody who goes on seven days dry fasting and when he wants to break, he decides to break with pounded yam. Another one, after 3 days prayer and fasting, out of ignorance, says, “Go and peel some oranges.” Some people have fasted out of ignorance to death.

No. I am not looking down on fasting, don’t think that I don’t fast. Fasting is important. I said it here yesterday also, but let me emphasize it. Matthew 17:21, what Jesus said here, “However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” What does it mean? Does it mean that everything go by prayer and fasting? That’s not what it means. It means, this kind alone can never go except by prayer and fasting, meaning, there are a number of them that will go without prayer and fasting. It means, there are some you don’t need to fast for. “Through knowledge, the righteous shall be delivered.” Do you know that in the western world, they don’t fast the way we fast? Do they fast for electricity, security or water? No. In fact, if you don’t have money, there is credit card. You get credit card to buy tires for your car, to buy fruits, etc. As long as your salary keep on coming, they know that you are working somewhere. So, you don’t need to fast for a number of things there. If it works there, do you know that it can work here? The problem we have is lack of knowledge. So, it is not because they are fasting and praying that’s why they have all those things.

There are some things that will not go except by prayer and fasting. An example: In the western world, there are all kinds of diseases…. At the early days when we wanted to start HillCity Schools, we went on educational tour to the US and there we know that there are children of almost 10 years who will defecate and use the faeces to rub the wall. They call it a special disability and they leave the child. You don’t beat that child, if you beat him, you are in trouble. With all the so-called peace they have, there are some things they have that needs prayer and fasting but because some of them also have problem of knowledge, they don’t see it that way and pet it. Even in Nigeria, if you don’t beat that child, you would have made that child fast.

What I am trying to emphasize here and I want you to get the point is that it is not everything that prayer and fasting does. There are some things you don’t need prayer and fasting for, you only need to know. You don’t need prayer and fasting to know that you need to take polio vaccine and when you take it, by the grace of God, you are good. You don’t need prayer and fasting for when you are driving at a high speed and you are not using your belt, you are just ignorant. There are people who have had accident but are saved because they have seat belts around them. The belt was there and kept them from hitting their head or jumping out of the car – just knowledge. Can you imagine somebody inside a car like that with a high speed, not wearing belt and praying and fasting, it won’t work.

You must be keen and determined to know. Isaiah 5:13 says, “Therefore my people have gone into captivity because they have no knowledge; their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.” Let me tell you this: when you see a husband and wife who are always fighting and never having peace, you know the problem? A lot of people can trace it to demon, but the truth is the problem is lack of knowledge. If you have knowledge, how would you slap your wife? Lack of knowledge. There are a lot of things that are just based on lack of knowledge. “My people have gone into captivity because they do not have knowledge, even the honourable men are famished.” You must be committed to knowledge. You must seek to know. The kingdom that you belong to is controlled by the law of knowledge. Say it to another person, you can only reign in that kingdom by knowledge, so seek to know. You must be committed to knowledge. It is that truth that you know that will set you free.

Psalms 45:4, “And in Your Majesty ride prosperously because of truth, humility and righteousness; and your right hand shall you awesome things.” That’s a prophecy concerning Jesus. He will ride on prosperously because of, the first thing – truth, because he knows. You know, I talked about faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Faith is so important, it is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith is built on something and it is built on the truth that you know – that is revelation. When the light comes to you, you are excited, believe and live by that Word. But how can you live and have faith in what you don’t know. Some people just want to worship God and go to heaven, they are not interested in having money and they keep quoting scriptures that they don’t want anything that will make them deny God because they have read the story of Lazarus and wondered, well, he was poor but made heaven. Maybe some of you would have gone farther than this if your parents had money to send you to school but your parents are very good people, they start the day with prayers, they were always going to church but you see their lives? Sickness today, no money tomorrow; struggling, not because they were not serving God but because they did not know some things and because they didn’t know, God won’t say, “Let me release them to you.”

You know Paul was highly educated and so knowledgeable above all the other apostles. Before he became born again, he studied under Gamaliel who was a senior, well-renowned and erudite lawyer of his time. So, he studied religion, philosophy, history, law and was balanced. When you talk about the law, he was up. When you talk about Judaism, he is there. Such as in Nigeria, when you want to mention the top 10 lawyers, you mention some people, Paul was like that, highly educated and exposed to religious law. He was a Roman citizen, yet he was knowledgeable as a Jew. When he gave himself to the Lord… before him, there was Peter – a rugged, uneducated fisherman but anointing was there. Peter was not educated and a number of them like that but when Paul came in with the level of education he had, that same anointing on Peter came upon him but look at the difference, it’s like the difference between light and darkness. Paul wrote about over two-third of the apostles. The missionary work he did, Peter didn’t even come close by. People were even about worshipping him as a god because they think, can this be a man? Because of the level of anointing flowing in him. You know the difference? Knowledge. Even Peter said, the things written by Paul was too hard to understand. Knowledge made Paul to understand.

Knowledge enhances anointing. The more you know, the more your anointing. Your authority will flow by your anointing. Your knowledge will cause your anointing to be enhanced. You can have anointing but if you don’t know, you won’t go far. Some of them in those days that had the anointing were doing miracles but they were poor. Without knowledge, the anointing will flow but there could be issues. Some of the elders were filled with anointing but were very poor. Some of them didn’t even understand the issue of tithing and firstfruit. Knowledge enhances your anointing, that’s why you must be committed to know. You should have gone farther than where you are. Some of you, God reveals some things to you, you have the anointing but are still limited because you refuse to know. You can pray but if you don’t have knowledge, you won’t go anywhere. Even your decisions in life have to be guided by knowledge.

Prayer

Lord, I don’t want to waste your anointing in my life, help me to increase in knowledge.

Call to Salvation

Receiving Jesus as your Lord and Saviour is the beginning of knowledge. Peradventure you are here and you have not received Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, say this prayer: Lord Jesus, I receive you into my life as my Lord and Saviour. Please, wash me clean with your blood and help me to grow in Knowledge. Thank you for saving me. In Jesus Name I prayed, Amen.