WAFBEC 2018 – Day 7 (Afternoon Session 1) with Pastor Sarah Omakwu

WAFBEC 2018 – Day 7 (Afternoon Session 1) with Pastor Sarah Omakwu

RETURN TO YOUR FIRST LOVE

Pastor Sarah teaching at the WAFBEC centered on ‘Brokenness’, and how as Christians, we can turn our lives around and be used mightily by God. 

She said, “Brokenness has to do with dying to live”. From Bible times until date, all humanly instruments used by God were broken. Anointing must not be placed on flesh; it should be on broken people. God is looking for men and women who would make his kingdom their agenda.

She explained the meaning of Brokenness as surrendering to the Holy Spirit, and letting Him have freedom in every area of our lives. She said, “To be mightily used of God every flesh idea must be taken out of us. No one gets precious items on the surface. To get the deep benefits of God an individual must delve deep into the Spirit. We need to drop our own assessment of ourselves and allow God to measure and realign us.”

Brokenness also means ‘being completely weaned off pride’. When we live in the flesh, we give birth to ‘Ishmaels’ instead of ‘Isaacs’. Brokenness is death to self. Self is the flesh. Flesh is the elements in our lives that make it difficult for us to please God.

Reading from Rev. 2: 1-5, she said, “We need to go back to our first love, to Jesus, to his gospel; we must slam the brakes on things. The gospel is all about Jesus. Jesus must be our example and compass.”

Jesus finished his ministry in 3 years, yet we are claiming so many years without fulfillment. We need to live to be on point with Jesus. Right now, we do not want to die because we have lost the picture of heaven. We just want to live to dominate the earth but left with a dim reflection of heaven.

“When we live in the flesh, we give birth to ‘Ishmaels’ instead of ‘Isaacs’.”

To reform means to make changes, to improve, make better, amend, redesign. We need to shift our minds from the world and ourselves to God. We are not here to camp but to do his assignment and move on. We cannot serve God and mammon. God is too big to serve along with another person. God was direct about it, He said He is a jealous God.

Reading from Matt. 4:23, she said that it is not about Jesus going to Galilee anymore, it is now about Ayo, Bola, Emeka, Bello going round Nigerian cities, preaching the gospel.

If any man be in Christ, he is a new specie. We cannot be speaking in tongues and still go on committing lesbianism and homosexualism. We cannot perform water baptism and continue sinning and cheating our spouses or fornicating.

Jesus used men at work for the gospel. They were working and had their business. We are professionals today and like the disciples, we should serve God.

“Brokenness is death to self, and self is the flesh.”

Pastor Sarah mentioned that Christians now focus on who they are in Christ and no longer on what God wants. She said, “We made the message of faith as an end in itself instead of being a means to an end. We are bragging about faith but not about what God wants. Faith is not an end in itself. We are to add to faith until we come to the full knowledge of God’s word.”

She said that God did not put us here to claim things but to claim more people into the kingdom. Our works should expand God’s kingdom. Vigils were done in the past to take over new territories for God, not to claim new possessions as we do today.

She said that God chose us out of so many to spread the word. Your education, profession and possession is for God. This life is not about you. Abraham was taken to the Promised Land but the only thing he bought in it was a burial ground. He saw past the possessions, his desire was to be with God.

Pastor Sarah admonished the congregations to talk more about heaven. No one goes to heaven and wants to come back. Yet we live our life as if we do not want to see heaven or are not concerned. We need to illustrate heaven in our minds, think about it and read about it. We need to have our mind on the future. We need to paint a good picture of heaven. In heaven, everything is perfect. No crying no weeping, no time.

She said that there are people with tons of money, while there are many people in missions with no money to spread the gospel. She therefore advised, “Let us go back to the time when we use hours to praise God, time when we set days for fasting for the church, time for reading the bible, time when we sent our finances ahead of time to activities that expand the gospel. Saved but sinning Christianity is not it. We need to go back to the place of repentance, obedience, loving, and giving.

The entire message of Pastor Sarah Omakwu is available on the church’s website. Click DAY 7 AFTERNOON SESSION 1  to purchase it at 100 NGN