Understanding God's Judgment On A Matter Part 2 by Pastor Poju Oyemade: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Isaiah 26:9

Judgment here does not mean punishment for evil; it means that when the books are opened and what is written in scripture concerning a situation is revealed and executed by the person it was shown to, the glory of God is made manifest. Prayer is legal language: supplication is a courtroom word, and what is secured before the Judge is a judgment that can then be executed.

Approach Already Covered

Someone facing a situation goes to God and says, "Lord, open my ears and eyes that I might see your judgment," and the first response is thanksgiving, acknowledging that every member is already written in the book, every day already numbered. Like a car already covered by an insurance premium, the blood of Jesus has already paid for the cover, so the approach to God is not begging to be covered but asking what His judgment is on a matter that is already covered.

Daniel 7:9-10

As worship goes up, the books are opened, and the judgment is given to the saints of the Most High.

Forcing an Outcome Produces Leanness

Pressing in prayer to make God do what you think He should, rather than waiting for His judgment, may still be answered at times, but it produces leanness in the soul and leads to envy of those who received the same thing by divine order rather than by pressure. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with praise; declare that this is the day the Lord has made; crown Him Lord over everything, telling Him that both light and darkness belong to Him and that even what a person has stretched toward you in wickedness happened according to His predetermined counsel. It is worship that opens the seals and releases the judgment already written.

A Court Order, Not Personal Strength

If a building belongs to you and tenants will no longer behave, you cannot simply tell them to leave; you need a court order, and their obligation to leave rests on the authority behind that order, not on your own strength. In the same way, once a judgment is secured from God in prayer, the angels of God stand ready to enforce it, not because of personal power, but because of the word that backs it. This was Moses' mistake: he moved on his own dream and by his own hand, and failed; when Israel prayed and the judgment of God came forth, deliverance came through the hand of the angel of God, not through Moses.

Do Not Be Hasty

Ecclesiastes 8:2-5

Do not be hasty to leave His presence or stand in an evil thing, for where the word of the king is, there is power, and none may say to Him, "What doest thou?" Whoever keeps this commandment will feel no evil, for a wise heart discerns both time and judgment. Where most people miss it is being hasty to leave His presence instead of waiting for Him to begin speaking from scripture. The one who rushes will find himself in the same spot three years later.

Psalm 40:1, 5-7

David waited patiently, and the Lord inclined to him and heard his cry; His thoughts toward us are so many they cannot be numbered, and it was not through sacrifice and offering but through waiting that David's own ears were opened, until he could say, "I come; in the volume of the book it is written of me."

The Song That Opens the Books

Revelation 5:6-9

When the elders wept because no one was found worthy to open the book, they were told to weep no more, for the Lion of the tribe of Judah had prevailed. What changed the atmosphere was not that prayer had stopped; the golden vials of prayer had already been offered. What was missing was the song. Once the new song began, the Lamb came and took the book.

Psalm 40:3

The same pattern: waiting patiently, being brought up out of the miry clay, and having a new song put in the mouth. Ministering to the Lord in worship, giving Him total control over the situation, is what unlocks the answer.

From Answered Prayer to Meditation

Philippians 4:6-8

Once a request is made known to God with thanksgiving, a peace that passes understanding guards the heart, and the next phase begins: thinking, meditating, on whatever is true, honest, and pure.

Psalm 85:8

Isaiah 26:3

Both point to the same place: perfect peace is kept for the mind that stays fixed on Him and trusts Him, though that peace can still be turned back to folly if a person does not go on to meditate.

Psalm 92:5

Great are Your works, O Lord; Your thoughts are very deep.

Psalm 49:4

The way He does His works is why David also said he would incline his ear to a parable and open his dark saying upon the harp.

What Meditation Actually Is

Meditation is not simply imagining something; it is laboring in the word to find the actual steps between where a person is and the promise God has given. Take someone believing God to move a business from a much smaller figure to a far larger one: having received the thoughts of God as promises, the work is to meditate on them until they become present realities on the inside, to acknowledge the Holy Spirit within as the one who will make that word flesh, and to keep beholding that promise as in a mirror until it changes the person beholding it.

2 Corinthians 4:11, 16-18

The outward man, the one governed by what can be seen, perishes daily, while the inward man is renewed day by day as attention shifts from the things that are seen to the things that are not seen, so that the life of Jesus may be made manifest even in mortal flesh.

1 Corinthians 15:58

This is what it means to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

Isaiah 62:6-7

Watchmen are set on the walls who never hold their peace day or night until Jerusalem is established as a praise on the earth. Having secured a judgment, a person takes the same position: unmoved, unwilling to leave the matter, dying daily to what the eyes can see for the sake of what has already been shown on the inside.

Meditation is the labor that people who only get excited listening to a sermon never actually do; the one who truly meditates is not the one shouting in a service but the one absorbing what is being said. Someone starting a work with almost nothing can meditate the way Jesus fed a multitude by first asking what was already in hand before multiplying it, or the way a widow with empty vessels was told to keep pouring until the oil itself ran out of containers, not out of oil.

Job 22:21

Acquaint yourself with Him and be at peace; by this, good will come to you.

Psalm 1

The one who meditates day and night is like a tree planted by rivers of water, bringing forth fruit in season, never withering, prospering in whatever he does, not because he does just anything, but because everything he does comes out of what he has already seen in the place of meditation.

Meditation Opens the Door to People

The first thing that begins to show up once a person is planted in meditation is that God starts sending strategic people and opening doors, which requires learning to manage relationships well. Offense will come, but it is possible not to fight, to keep boundaries, to withdraw where necessary, and to process disagreement internally rather than gossiping about or attacking someone publicly. A wise man sees evil and hides himself. Correction in the body of Christ comes through withdrawing fellowship, not through public conflict, because burning a bridge cuts off a channel God may want to use later, and someone else simply steps into the space that was refused.

Thorns Are People

When God told Adam the ground would bring forth thorns and thistles, the same picture reappears in Paul's own thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan sent to buffet him through the Judaizers who opposed him, in the same way people are "trolled" today. People are also the "blade" in the parable of the sower, the sign that the word planted in a heart is beginning to bear fruit, and often the good that meditation produces is misread and resisted by others rather than recognized. The richest man is the one with the most powerful friends; wealth is found in relationships as much as in currency, and someone who mishandles an existing relationship, airing an offense publicly instead of speaking to the person directly, ends up destroying an asset instead of guarding it.

Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we thank You for this word. By the power of Your Spirit, establish this truth deep within our consciousness, and cause it to bring forth massive fruit in our lives, in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.