Sunday Service Rules Of Engagement Part Two by Apostle Johnson Suleman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Rules of engagement part two

Last Sunday we started with Hebrews 11:11 and Genesis 18:1-14. God gave Abraham a prophecy, but for 24 years it hung until Sarah had to engage the prophecy herself. Every act of God, every declaration, must be engaged by mortality if answers will be in view. 1 Timothy 1:18: Paul told Timothy the prophecies on his life would not fulfil themselves, he had to war a good warfare by them. Rules of engagement is connectivity with divinity in the actualization of a great destiny, it is participatory Christianity. The book of Acts is called the book of acts because believers took action.

There is nothing God wants to give you again. Everything God would give you, he has given you. The problem is not God giving, it is man taking.

Recap: the first two rules

1. Consecration — being set apart unto God. Morality is not consecration. A person can be moral and not godly, but a person cannot be godly and immoral. Any abstinence that is not unto God is not consecration, it is dieting, not fasting. Fasting is abstinence from bodily pleasure for an encounter with God.
2. Word mastery.

Rule three: love for God

Deuteronomy 6:4-5: thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul, all thy might. 1 Corinthians 2:9: eye has not seen what God has prepared for them that love him.

• Some people's love for God is conditional, they love him when he answers prayer, when he blesses. True love for God is unconditional, it has no respect to happenings. Any love not tested cannot be trusted. Abraham left his father's house not knowing where he was going, Hebrews 11:10. When Abraham was ready to offer Isaac after waiting 25 years for him, God said, "Now I know," meaning now you love me, not just what I could give you. Everyone that loves God will be tested and tried.
• What empowers your love for God is premising it on the love of God. We love him because he first loved us, 1 John 4:19, Romans 5:8, Jeremiah 31:3, John 15:13, 1 John 3:1, John 13:1.
• True love is trust. Job 13:15: though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Love is not just tears and emotional worship, it is holding on to the horns of the altar no matter what you see or go through.

Love for the brethren

1 John 4:21, 1 Peter 2:17: he who loves God loves his brother also. I can't see God, but I can see my brother. The overflow of your love for God is reflected in how you treat the brethren. You can't say you love God and be chaotic, tumultuous, quarrelsome toward people. True love cares about the feelings of people. You can't invite Jesus and shut the door against his disciples: you can't love God and hate your pastor, your neighbor, your brethren.

Love for his house

Psalm 84:10: I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. Psalm 122:1: I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Anything that will uphold the service of God's house, I am addicted to it.

Love for his kingdom

Psalm 68:11: the Lord gave the word, great was the company of them that published it. Everyone who engages in publishing God's word is applying for greatness. So long as it pertains to the kingdom, I am sold out, I will give my resources and my time.

Rule four: wealth creation

God wants you wealthy. He has blessed you with spiritual blessings in heavenly places, but you need a manifestation on earthly places. Deuteronomy 8:18: God gives you the strength to produce wealth. Isaiah 61:6, Proverbs 22:2: the rich and the poor, the Lord is the maker of them all, but he did not make the rich man rich or the poor man poor, it is decision, addiction and connection that determine wealth. Proverbs 13:11: wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished, but he that gathers by labor shall increase.

Proverbs 8:10-11, 21 shows the three elements that create wealth: wisdom, knowledge, and instruction. There are four categories of wisdom.

1. Scholastic wisdom

Daniel 1:4, 17: children skillful in all wisdom, cunning in knowledge. This is the wisdom you get from education. There is no end to education, if you have your ND go for HND, go for your masters, your PhD, keep researching. Paul was highly educated and wrote a third of the New Testament; Peter, limited by education, wrote only two epistles, though anointed. Read outside your academic books, target reading a book a month. Daniel 9:2, 1 Timothy 4:13, 2 Timothy 4:13, Acts 7:22 on Moses being learned.

2. Professional wisdom

Daniel 1:4, Daniel 9:22, 2 Chronicles 2:8. Get a skill and follow it as a discipline. Professors are admired, but professionals are paid. Education is good, but back it up with a profession, because the graduates being churned out are too many for the jobs available. Whatever skill you learn, be disciplined at it. Tiger Woods' father woke him at 2am to practice, discipline made him one of the best golfers in the world; many skillful people lack discipline and so can never become a brand. Under-promise, over-deliver.

3. Financial wisdom

Currency means movement, money must be multiplied to remain. Proverbs 24:27: prepare thy work, first plant your field, then build your house. Money is not to create an impression, it is to create a future. Two things destroy people financially:

• Waste — pursuing and acquiring things not needed.
• Debt — Proverbs 22:7: the borrower is servant to the lender. Anyone who loves to borrow dies in sorrow.

4. Spiritual wisdom

There are people with scholastic, professional and financial wisdom whose lives are still upside down, because the spiritual controls the physical. 2 Kings 2:19: the situation of the city is pleasant, but the water is naught and the ground barren, meaning a man can be qualified and equipped in every natural sense and still be spiritually stranded. 1 Timothy 1:18: we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Spirits are released to keep people perpetually stranded, whether through addiction, character flaws, or unexplained business losses. You need spiritual wisdom to engage in the place of prayer and fasting so your education, skill and knowledge will not be a waste.

Isaiah 40:28-31: they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, mount up with wings as eagles.

Closing declarations

• Every power that wants to ruin your academics, your profession, your financial intelligence, I counter them today.
• You will not be a stranded graduate, a stranded entrepreneur. Your education will work for you, your career will work for you.
• Every spirit attacking your shop, your business, your finances, your home, I decree their agenda scattered in the name of Jesus.
• I receive passion for knowledge.