Week Of Spiritual Emphasis Day 2 Faith Tabernacle Ota by Bishop David Oyedepo: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Understanding the Covenant

Underline the word his covenant, not a preacher's opinion, his covenant. An understanding of his covenant for wealth is what launches us into the realm of financial fortune.

What is a covenant? A covenant can be defined as a deal enacted by God based on well defined terms and sealed with an oath. I have this package for you, but delivery is based on the following terms if you are interested. This package is yours, provided you meet the following terms.

I became poor that through my poverty you might be made rich. I came down among others to enrich you, and these are the terms for assessing that package. I ascended to heaven and obtained for you power, riches, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and blessings, and there are conditions to meet to access this sevenfold redemptive package. Revelation 5:12.

Until a believer understands the covenant dimension in his work with God, he will be utterly limited. Maybe that is very polite, he will be very frustrated, because the scriptures cannot be broken. The terms will not be changed by your condition or my condition.

The Bible is called the Old and the New Testament. The Old Testament and covenant are the same, so it is the Old and the New Covenant ratified into one by the blood of the everlasting covenant, the blood of Jesus. Hebrews 13:20. That is why withdrawal from the Old Testament answers, and withdrawal from the New Testament answers. The blood has satisfied both the old and the new into one. There is no longer an Old Testament covenant on its own, the old and new are now one.

The Covenant of Abundance Began With Noah

The covenant of abundance began back in Genesis 8:20-22. Noah built an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast and every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar, and the Lord smelled the sweet savor. And the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, neither will I again smite any more every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease.

That sacrifice averted the curse on the ground, as it does till now. The covenant of abundance will avert the curse of lack and want any day, any time, anywhere. God said in his heart, look, the curse is broken, the smell of your sacrifice ascended to heaven, and for that reason the curse upon the ground is broken.

Then in Genesis 22:16-18, God said, by myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand upon the sea shore, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice.

Provisions Become a Covenant When Conditions Are Met

Now let me tell you simply what the covenant is all about. For every provision in redemption, there are conditions to meet. The provisions are promises. When you meet the conditions, it becomes a covenant, it becomes binding on God to perform. It is this condition people are not interested in, so they keep bombarding heaven asking where God is, is he asleep. But the scriptures cannot be broken.

• Salvation is free, but there is work to do to be saved. Many have not done it, they have simply appropriated salvation. The answer to "what shall we do" is repent.
• Healing is free, but there is what to do to be healed. Jesus could not reach out to some for their healing, and he marveled at their unbelief. Without your faith and my faith, healing virtue cannot flow. It is by faith that we draw healing virtue from Christ.
• Empowerment is free, but it takes fasting and prayer to be empowered. You will not see his power sitting down somewhere.

There is no provision in the kingdom without conditions to meet. That understanding will clear off everything that may be standing in your way.

Watch how it is presented in Hebrews 6:12-18. Be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherited the promises. For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself, saying, surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee, and so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. So they do not deliver overnight. Men verily swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.

We encounter that blessing by aligning with the terms of the covenant of abundance, and that is what makes the covenant of seedtime and harvest the gateway to financial fortune.

Giving Is Sowing

2 Corinthians 9:6-8. He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give. So giving is sowing, compare Genesis 8:22. Not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver, and God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.

Philippians 4:15-19. In the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me concerning giving and receiving but ye only. Giving and receiving is sowing and reaping. Even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity, it is not a one and for all affair, it is a once and again affair. Not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. Therefore my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Your giving is abounding to your own account, not to somebody else.

He that giveth to the poor shall not lack, it is not the one who receives but the giver who shall not lack. So giving multiplies back to you, not to anybody else.

How Reliable Is This Covenant?

Jeremiah 33:20-21. Thus saith the Lord, if ye can break my covenant of the day and my covenant of the night, that there should not be day and night in their season, then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne, and with the Levites the priests, my ministers. That defines that God's covenant with the redeemed is as standing as his covenant of the day and of the night. Until the day and night exchange position, his covenant remains in force. So the covenant of sowing and reaping, giving and receiving, will be here till Jesus comes.

Tithing and the Storehouse

Among the covenant terms of access, bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes. This is not only the blessing but also the protection, I will rebuke the devourer, I will stand in your defense against any assault of the wicked one.

Jesus put his stamp on it in Matthew 23:23. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye pay tithe and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith, these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Tithing was being done on the wrong premises, but it remained a thing that must be done.

Hebrews 7. Here men that die receive tithes, but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth. Jesus receives them, he has the keys of David, when he opens and shuts, he receives them. When he receives your tithe, he opens the windows for the outpouring of his blessings.

These are unchangeable terms tied to the Abrahamic covenant. Abraham paid tithes, and you are Abraham's seed. If you do the works of Abraham, and if you be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Abraham paid tithes of all, and it made him the priest of the Most High God. Christ our Melchisedec is our High Priest today, and there in heaven he receives our tithe to determine our entitlement to the opening of the windows of heaven.

Giving Is the Biblical Way to Financial Blessing

Give, and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. Acts 20:35, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

What you receive is bread. What you give is seed. There is no future in the bread, the future is in the seed you sow. He gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater. We eat the bread, and we sow the seed to have bread to eat tomorrow.

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Terms for Guaranteed Returns on Your Seed

1. Understand God does not need what we have. God is never in need, we are always in need of help in one area or another. The covenant does not stop at supplies of material resources, it comes with fringe benefits that money cannot buy. My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus, and all your needs are not financial.

   • Psalm 41:1-3. Blessed is he that considereth the poor, the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble, money cannot deliver in the day of trouble but the covenant can. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive, and he shall be blessed upon the earth, and he will not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing, and will make all his bed in his sickness. Money can buy things, but these free benefits accompany the covenant, and you will not miss them.

2. Give in faith. If God ever had a need, no one is qualified to help him. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, and by it he being dead yet speaketh. Without faith it is impossible to please God. Every provision of scripture requires faith for its delivery. Our giving must be in faith, for whatever is not of faith is sin. Romans 14:23. Faith gives life to your seed to produce fruit.
3. Give in love. 1 Corinthians 13:3. Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Let your giving be love motivated, that is the only way to guarantee your returns. David was a man after God's own heart, and grew prosperous. Solomon loved the Lord, and the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice, and offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar, and heaven came down in response to his love motivated sacrifice, and the wealthiest man in Bible history emerged. When your love for God is your motivation for giving, your harvest is guaranteed, because God cannot lie.

Beware the Enemies of Covenant Wealth

• Covetousness. A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. Luke 12:15. Covetousness drains people of spiritual virtue. 2 Corinthians 10:12, do not compare yourself with others, do not be carried away by what God has done in somebody's life, just be content where you are. The cure for covetousness is contentment, and godliness with contentment is great gain.

  • Achan coveted a wedge of gold and a Babylonish garment, took them, and hid them in his tent, and his entire household was destroyed. Covetousness is a curse, do not give it room, everything you need is in your own place, just keep walking with Jesus.
  • Gehazi said of Naaman, I will run after him and take somewhat of him, and he collected money, garments, and leprosy. 2 Kings 5:20-27. Covetousness terminated his priesthood. Covetousness is a destroyer.

• Loud giving. Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them, otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. When thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men, verily they have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. Matthew 6:1-4. Loud giving is an enemy of kingdom worth. Let the testimonies of your giving speak for you. Solomon loved the Lord, but the only time he recounted what he gave was when he was passing the blessing to his son.

The applause of men is a mere adjective, it is God's commendation that adds value. Let God see your engagement in secret, he vows to reward you openly. When you do it secretly, God will reward you openly, he will not reward secretly what was done openly. Get ready as you step into your era of rewards.

Closing Prayer

There is no match under heaven for this covenant. No money market offers these values, no investment platform can match it. His blessings make rich and add no sorrow with them.