The Covenant Names of God 6

TRINITY HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH

 

SUNDAY SERMON

11th of August, 2024

Topic:                         The Covenant Names of God – Jehovah Shammah (The Lord is Here)

Preacher:                   Reverend Ebenezer Olawuyi

Text:                           Hebrews 13:5 – 6

 

MESSAGE

“This is my Bible, the Word of God. I submit myself to the authority of this Word. My life is guided by the instruction of this Word. I am blessed as I read this Word and I do it. Thank you, Jesus. I receive light and understanding this morning. In Jesus name we pray.

I welcome you to church this morning in the name of the Lord. I will continue with what we’ve been talking about – the names of God in the Psalm of the Shepherd (Psalm 23), but before we do that, I want to ask: ‘What does it mean to be bold?’ ‘How can you talk boldly?’ You know, somebody can still be bold in lying, stealing, etc. Instead of confessing, such person can still be bold, even shouting and threatening the real owner that he will arrest him. However, you will eventually discover that at the end of it all, if the matter goes on and the truth is revealed, the same person shouting will get humbled and begin to plead. When a thief approaches a house and says, ‘Open the door. If you don’t open the door, I will kill you.’ Do you know that the thief himself is afraid? He is afraid because he doesn’t know what you have inside too, yet he talks boldly to create fear inside of you so that you will do what he’s insisting on, but he’s actually afraid. So, when the Bible says, ‘We may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”’ It means there are things that may intimidate you and not allow you say that, but you must confront them. This is why David says in Psalm 91:13, ‘You will tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.’ Now, what does the lion do? When other animals hear the roar of a lion, they begin to run.

The Bible says about Judah in Genesis 49:9, ‘Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion; and as a lion, who shall rouse him?’ This points to the strength of a lion, but do you know that lions run away from some animals? I love watching documentaries and I have learned so many things, in fact, I have seen lions run from some animals. One of the ways lions attack is to first of all create fear in the midst of other animals and scatter them. Once they scatter, they then pick one and face that one. And when they attack, the first thing they do is to try to strangulate the animal. The Bible says Jesus is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, but the devil is not a lion. The devil is ‘like’ a lion, he is not a lion; he is only like a lion. The devil roars and creates fears in the hearts of people to make them run and lose their confidence, but Jesus wants you to be bold as a lion. Even in intimidating situations, the Bible says be bold to say, ‘The Lord is my help.’

The problem with a number of people in the church is that they find it difficult to use their mouth to talk and to say what the Word of God says concerning them. Hebrews 13:5 – 6 admonishes us not to get ourselves bothered about what somebody has, rather, say the Word of God to yourself and don’t keep quiet. God Himself has given you an assurance that He will not leave you nor forsake you (v. 5), so, you can then boldly say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’ (v. 6). Because of his assurance that he will not leave you nor forsake you or disappoint you at the point of your need, you can then speak with boldness; like Daniel’s friends told the king that they were not afraid and they will not bow, even if the king threw them into fire. They were so confident and were not afraid of the king. They were so confident, because: ‘I will boldly say: “The Lord is my helper, I will not fear. What can man do to me?’ I like you to say it to yourself: ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not fear. What can man do to me?’ Say it boldly. Let the devil hear what you are saying; speak concerning your marriage, that situation, everything whatsoever: ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not fear. What can man do to me?’ Now, turn to somebody and say it: ‘The Lord is my helper,’ because He has said He won’t leave you nor forsake you.

You know, we’ve been looking at the names of God. I will conclude with the last one which says: The Lord is Here –Jehovah Shammah. Psalm 23:4 says: ‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.’ I told you sometimes ago that the Hebrew word for ‘death’ also means ‘darkness’. So, that verse is the same as, ‘When I walk through the valley of the shadow of darkness.’ What does that darkness mean today? Poverty, sicknesses, disease, lack, every other kind of evil. Yet, David says, even though I walk through this darkness, I will not be afraid; instead, I will set my eyes on what He has set before me. Now, look at the next verse: ‘You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.’ Even in the midst of that shadow of darkness, in the midst of that thick darkness; in the midst of sicknesses and diseases, troubles all around me, I will not look at them but look at the table He has set before me.

Ezekiel 48:35 talks about Jehovah Shammah – ‘All the way around shall be eighteen thousand cubits; and the name of the city from that day shall be: THE LORD IS THERE.’ The Lord is present, and I said there are three levels of God’s presence. The Old Testament believers experienced two of these: the first being ‘God with them’. They became a threat to the kingdom of darkness because God was with them. But when He decided to withdraw from them, they suffered. For example: Israel went to fight against a big city, Jericho, and they defeated them. God had earlier warned them not to take away anything from the city, but Achan took some valuables. Because of this, the next city they fought against, which was a small city, Ai, but surprisingly, they were defeated. Joshua was vexed and he cried to the Lord, ‘What happened, Lord? Why did you depart from your people?’ Then, the Lord replied and said somebody from among them had taken something forbidden and that was why He withdrew from them.

Psalm 46:1 says, ‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.’ In verse 7 of the same chapter, it says, ‘The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.’ ‘The Lord of Hosts’ is Jehovah Sabaoth – the Lord of the Angel Armies. In the Bible, one angel killed 185,000, so, how many angels do you need? Do you have hundred enemies? The Bible calls the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, the Lord of the Angel Armies. It says, ‘The Lord of Hosts is with us.’ Let me tell you a brief story. In the book of 2 Chronicles 32, when the Assyrian king came against the children of Israel, the army of the children of Israel were afraid, but Hezekiah arose and told them – ‘Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid nor dismayed before the king of Assyria, nor before all the multitude that is with him; for there are more with us than with him’ (v. 7). You are sitting down now, do you know the angels surrounding you? They are more with you than with them. You know, the reason you are afraid is because you are not conscious of this. When a little child sees a masquerade and the mother carries him, the baby is at rest. His thought would be: Who is that masquerade that will attack my mum? ‘The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuges.’ Hezekiah continues in verse 8 and says, ‘With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God, to help us and to fight our battles. And the people were strengthened by the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.’ I speak to you this morning, those who are with you are stronger than those who are with them. And with you is the Lord your God to help you in this manner. When God is with you, you can never lose any battle. When God is with you, you can never lack help. When God is with you, you have divine immunity against all the arsenals, weapons and powers of the enemy. There is a divine immunity for you.

I hear frequently that the devil shoots a person arrows and it worked, no, it shouldn’t be possible. Something must have been wrong somewhere for it to work. Isaiah 52:1 – 4 say, ‘Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city! For the uncircumcised… for thus says the Lord God: “My people went down at first into Egypt to dwell there; then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.”’ When Abraham went to Egypt, what happened? They took his wife. Under normal situation, nobody dares to. You know, 1 Chron. 16:19 – 22 says, ‘When you were few in number, indeed very few, and strangers in it. When they went from one nation to another, and from one kingdom to another people. He permitted no manto do them wrong; yes, He rebuked kings for their sakes, saying, “Do not touch My anointed ones, and do My prophets no harm.”’ He permitted no one to do them wrong nor harass them. When Esau wanted to harass Jacob, the Lord appeared to him in the night and told him never to dare do it. I pray for you, from today, no more harassment, no more oppression, amen. From today, the Lord will rebuke Kings for your sake. So, don’t go down to Egypt, don’t go into sin so that the Assyrians will not oppress you.

Isiah 8:9 – 10 says, ‘Be shattered, O you peoples, and be broken in pieces… take counsel together, but it will come to nothing; speak the word, but it will not stand….’ What is the reason? ‘…for God is with us’ (v. 10). As they take counsel together, it will come to nothing; as they speak the word, it won’t stand, but you must believe it first, that’s the beginning. Psalm 46, 7 – 11 repeat the same word: ‘The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge’ (v. 11). The Lord of hosts is with me, therefore, let them take counsel together, it will come to nothing. As long as God is with me, let them take counsel together, they will scatter. That is why Isaiah 54:14 – 15 says, ‘In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you. Indeed, they shall surely assemble, but not because of Me. Whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake.’ Take time to study the things the Bible says will be far from you: oppression, sickness, violence, destruction, evil. They will be removed from you. So, don’t get worried that people gather against you, it is normal. There are some things that are just normal. God didn’t say they will not gather, why are you afraid? Whether in the family, your place of work or whatever, they gather, but… When the Bible uses the Word surely, it means certainly. Jesus said most times in the Bible: Verily, verily, I say to you; other translations say, ‘assuredly, assuredly’. So, in Isaiah 54:15, the Bible says, ‘Indeed they shall surely assemble, but not because of Me. Whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake.’ That is, God is saying, the gathering that will work against you is the one He approves. If He approves it, it may be because He wants to use it for you to step up. If God allows it, it may be because of your elevation, because problem can become promotion. So, if God approves that gathering, it may because He wants to use it to promote you. I told you that in my place of work, a government office, they gathered against me. My boss forced me to go on a compulsory leave because the plan was to promote my junior above me, but you know what happened? Because God did not approve the gathering, family members gathered together and started fighting. While they were fighting, I was invited by the headquarters to resume and take up the higher position, because God did not approve their gathering. In the next scriptures, verses 16 – 17: ‘Behold, I have created the blacksmith who blows the coals in the fire… No weapon fashioned against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me, says the Lord.’ Divine immunity! No weapon fashioned against you shall prosper. You don’t know how many charms the Lord is nullifying against you daily. God is with me! So, in the days of old, they enjoyed ‘God with them’, except when they sinned.

God also stood ‘for them’ in the days of old. God can be with you; He can also be for you. That is, ‘He is on your side’. God is for you! Ezek. 36:9 says, ‘For indeed I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown.’ In Psalm 56:9, ‘When I cry out to You, then my enemies will turn back; this I know, because God is for me.’ That is, the only thing that can make the enemy remain is if I don’t talk to God. God is for me! God is on my side! Psalm 118: 6 says, ‘the Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’ He is on my side; the Lord is on my side. The Lord is for me. What can man do to me? He is for me; He is with me. So, I’m not going to be afraid. Let them gather together, I won’t be afraid for He is on my side. Psalm 118:7 also says, ‘The Lord is for me among those who help me; therefore I shall see my desire on those who hate me.’ I keep saying it, that it is very dangerous to hate the man whom God is for, so that you won’t become a casualty. You know, some of these occultic powers have become casualties because they went to attack someone whom God is for.

‘Because the Lord is for me, I will see my desire on those who hate me.’ This is what Paul then said in Roman 8:31, ‘…If God is for us, who can be against us?’ That is, they will be against you but what this verse says is that: ‘Who can successfully be against you?’ They will take counsel together but it won’t stand. Because He is for you, no one of them can successfully gather against you. Tell your neighbour that you can’t lose. The battle line is drawn but you can’t lose. ‘With God on our side’ means we can’t lose.

I also told you that, ‘God with you’ means nothing can be impossible. The scriptures in Luke 1:37 and Mark 10:27 all say, ‘With God, all things are possible.’ One with God is more than millions of men together. As long as I am joined with God, the Lord who is Jehovah Sabaoth, nothing shall be impossible. The Bible talks about the chariots of God being 20,000; thousands of angels, the Lord is in the midst of them. He only needs to release one of his uncountable angels. Just one! Only me with the Lord will crush their heads. The Assyrian king came to fight Hezekiah with millions of armies. Anybody will see this and be afraid but not Hezekiah, for God was with them. Let’s look at what happened in the days of Asa in 2 Chronicles 14:9 – 14. Zerah, the Ethiopian came against the army of Asa with millions of soldiers, but Asa prayed to God and with his few soldiers, he defeated Zerah.  So, don’t look at the numbers or what you have but look at the big God by your side: I have a very big God, He is always by my side. A very big God o, by my side, by my side. Asa went against them and defeated them. He said, ‘Lord, it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; help us, O Lord our God…’ (v. 11). If God is with you, forget about it. No wonder David says, ‘I will lift up mine eyes to the hill from whence come my help. You can’t lose if God is with you.

Now, in our time today, under the New Testament, what the men of old don’t have, we have it. God is not only with us and for us, God is now in us. The Bible says, ‘Your body is the temple of God.’ 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, ‘Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?’ 1 John 4:4 says, ‘You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.’ In the New Testament, God is not only for me, with me, but He is in me now. That is why I cannot be careless with my life because I am God carrier. Now, I need to live in holiness. As long as God is in me, let them gather together, they will become nothing. The only thing that can cause trouble is if God withdraws His presence from you.

Say, ‘God is in me.’ And if God is in you, the scripture says, ‘But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.’ That is, the Holy Spirit who is in you will keep quickening you. So, you say, ‘Holy Ghost, you are in me, this body must come alive, none of my body parts can be dead. My kidney, heart, eyes, ears, blood system, come alive.’ If the Spirit of God lives in you, degenerative diseases shall not come near you. Don’t ever accept what is called aisan agba (sickness of old age) because whatever you believe will happen to you. The Bible tells me about Moses that he was 120 years old but his eyes never grew dim, his natural vigour never diminished. You shouldn’t be carried about even in your old age. When it’s time for you to depart this world, you should call your children together and bless them, not that you are being carried about and become a problem for your children. Believe it! Don’t let the mentality of aisan agba come upon you. Remember, ‘If the Spirit of Him who raised Christ from the dead dwells in you, He shall quicken your mortal bodies.’ Jesus was dead but the Holy Spirit quickened his body. You know, some of us believe what they say than what the Bible says. God is able to quicken you on a daily basis.

You will grow strong, amen. As you are advancing in age, your strength will be renewed. I curse the spirit of rheumatism in this place in the name of Jesus. I arrest any degenerative disease, whether of the eyes, the bones, the prostate; whatever it is, you degenerative disease, be reversed in the name of Jesus. Holy Spirit, please quicken the bodies of your children. Quicken that heart now. Amen. Every kidney, every liver, be quickened now in the name of Jesus. All men, let the power of God come upon your prostate; let your prostate be quickened. Anyone with challenge in his or her eyes, let your yes begin to be quickened now in Jesus name.

Say after me: The Holy Ghost is in me. He quickens my body. My natural vigour will not diminish. My strength is renewed in the name of Jesus. The Lord is for me, the Lord is with me; I can never suffer loss. I have divine immunity against all enchantments and divination. I tread upon the lion and the cobra. I trample them under foot in the name of Jesus; they will not harm me. God is with me, God is for me. They will surely and certainly gather, but because God has not approved their gathering, as they gather, they will be scattered. They gather again, they scatter again, in the name of Jesus. They take counsel together, it shall come to nothing. They speak the Word, it shall not stand, because the Lord of Hosts, the Lord of the Angel armies is for me. I shall not lack help, I shall not be helpless in the journey of life; the Lord is with me, to help me. Those who are with me are more than those who are against me. The Lord my God will help me, and will fight for me, in the name of Jesus. As I cry to the Lord, my enemies will flee. This I know, for God is for me. The Lord is for me, so I will see my desire on all my enemies in the name of Jesus. My enemy will not see their desire on me. I will see my desire on all my enemies. I will see the end of this disease and sickness in the name of Jesus. The Lord is for me. The Lord is with me. The Lord is in me. I am more than an overcomer, in the name of Jesus.

Call to Salvation

You need to be on the Lord’s side. You’ve got to be born again to enjoy God’s presence, with you, for you and in you. It starts from being born again. You need to be born again for you to enjoy your life. You want to be born again so that Jesus can be on your side. So, do you want to surrender to Jesus so that the Spirit of faith can be in you? Say this prayer: Lord, I give you my heart, I give you my life. I surrender to you. Take this heart and use it for your glory. Amen.