WE HAD RELATIVES WHO LOST THEIR FATHER AND WENT TO LIVE WITH OTHER RELATIONS. THEY HAD THE SAME PROBLEM EVERYWHERE THEY WENT.

THEY OPEN A BIG TIN OF MILK AND FINISH IT SAME DAY. IT WAS NOT LACK OF MONEY BUT LACK OF TRAINING.

THE PROBLEM WITH POOR PEOPLE IS NOT LACK OF MONEY BUT POVERTY MENTALITY.

SEPARATE YOURSELF FROM BAD ATTITUDE. YOU WERE NOT BORN WITH ONE.
THE RIGHT ATTITUDE CHANGES YOUR ALTITUDE!

WHEN YOU SEE A CHRISTIAN OFTEN DEPRESSED, HE IS NOT IN FELLOWSHIP WITH THE WORD

IF YOU HAVE NOT BEEN ENGAGING YOU HAVE NOT BEEN MOVING.
YOU ARE NOT MAKING WAVES BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT MOVING.

ONE PASTOR WAS TELLING ME MANY YEARS AGO; HE SAID,” MY COUNSELLING LINE IS SO LONG”. I SAID, IF THEY UNDERSTOOD WHAT YOU TAUGHT, THEY WON’T COME FOR COUNSELLING.

THERE WERE YEARS THAT EVEN IF YOU PACK THE WHOLE OFFERING OF COZA, IT COULDN’T PAY MY BILLS. BUT I NEVER WENT TO ANYONE TO BEG FOR ANYTHING.

Psalm 6:10
The flesh profits nothing. Flesh is not your skin. It is everything the enemy is sponsoring. Unbelief is number one; being neutral- “let’s see what God will do?” If you have not been moving, you have not been engaging. If you engage the gear of a car, the sound changes.

Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Anything done outside faith is sin. In the name of Jesus, the rhythm of your progress shifts.

Psalm 30:5; Psalm 48:
The Church is the last hope of the whole world; that is the joy of the whole earth. If the devil wants to stop the joy of the whole earth, he will attack the Church. Church Gist. When you take away the joy of the whole earth, the earth is in trouble. That is why you must be a joy keeper.
Everything you would receive in the kingdom is hidden in joy. Joy is beyond laughter. Everything is stranded in joy. Faith is a dynamite. A dynamite is dangerous but it is not effective if not ignited. What ignites your faith is your joy. You cannot say I am sad but I am walking by faith. It is not possible.

Abraham was strong in faith, giving glory to God. You cannot be strong in faith without giving glory to God.
You can’t love God and pretend. You can’t enjoy God and God enjoys you and pretend. We don’t do these things because all things are in place. We do it by faith. Everything you are trusting God for is shrouded in this thing I am sharing with you. Things happen for joyful people. Depressed people miss it even when things happen for them. Most of the problems you may be facing in your marriage now has a lot to do with this. You wake up in the morning and you are sad; it will affect you and your spouse. It will affect your children and make them think that’s how to live life.

The Bible says rejoice evermore. If it wasn’t possible, God wouldn’t have said it. But you can’t do it in the flesh. You need the Holy Ghost to do it. Out of all the things in the Kingdom of God, God says there are three things that encapsulates what is in the Kingdom of God – righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. The evidence that the Holy Ghost has a full work in you is joy. It is good to be sober but the sobriety should not make you sad or look sad. It is good sense of judgement that we call sober. Once you take joy out of the Church, the world is in trouble.

I went to a particular mall in London to do something for somebody. As I was about enter, we were stopped. When I peeped, I saw a dead body on the floor. His brain was scattered on the floor. The dead man had gone to the fourth floor of the building and jumped. And the Holy Spirit told me clearly – If he had attended COZA, he wouldn’t have done this.
In the presence of God, there is not only joy but fullness of joy. The atmosphere around Jesus is joy. I may not know what you are going through but in expressing what you don’t like, keep joy in place. Don’t tear everything apart because you want to make a point.
When David sinned against God in Psalm 51 and he said, “Cast me not away from thy presence”, what he meant was the euphoria around God called joy. – Psalm 51:12. How David knew he was moving away from God’s presence was because joy was eluding him.
Watch any church where there are miracles; there is an exciting atmosphere. Any where there is the joy of the Lord, there is blossoming.

Any situation you are going through, keep joy in the atmosphere. Life gives to you what you invest in life. Give joy and life will give joy to you.
Nehemiah 8:10
Even in our pains, we cannot afford to give place to the devil with sorrow. We know that joy is our strength.
I was listening to someone this dawn at 4am. He is someone I haven’t listened to in 20 years but God just said, “listen to this”. He was not really preaching; he was telling stories. One of the stories he told was on a Television. He was talking to his wife when the Television was on; but then suddenly he heard his name on the Television.

The person said something about him that was not true and it was on national television. It exploded on his inside to the point that he began to walk in unforgiveness. He was so down and out. To make it worse, the accuser was doing well; popular and trending. Because of the accusation, everywhere he was invited to go, he said he would not go. He said, “I am not preaching again”. So now his wife started replying his calls and texts and accepting the invitations on his behalf. And the wife made him go. When he got to the green room before the studio, the man who accused him was there.

The accuser was just happy playing with everybody and the man was furious. Then the Holy Spirit told the man, “Go and apologize to him and tell him that he offended you and you took it overboard”. So the man went to the man who accused him and told him, “you offended me and I went overboard. I had wished evil to you. I am sorry.” And the man’s accuser started crying and he said, “You know, I said something about you on national television. I didn’t verify. Somebody told me and later I found out it wasn’t the way I said it. I am very sorry. Today on this show, I am going to apologize to you and let everyone know what I said wasn’t true about you”. Both of them hugged, cried and the healing took place.

Ephesians 6:10
You become strong by staying in joy. If the Bible says, “be strong in the Lord”, it means you can be weak in the Lord. You can be coming to church every day but you can be weak. Some people think their right to be down and depressed is because they think they are the only ones with problems on earth. And the earth should stop spinning and turn to you.

My pastor was teaching in 1994. And he taught something that made me to stand up and walk out of his church. Isaiah 51:9 – You are the arm of God. God doesn’t need to put on strength. The scripture addresses to humans. Strength doesn’t jump on you; you put it on. If you don’t read it prophetically, you will think it is talking to God but God doesn’t put on strength; God is strength. Like David encouraged himself, he put courage on his inside. I asked most people that have done valiant things; they did it afraid.
David ran towards Goliath by faith. Everyone referred to Israel’s army as the Army of Saul. Only David referred to the army as the Army of God.

We came to this land without money. It was after a Sunday service. They had so much infuriated us at the former venue. After service we drove here. Normally, protocols drives me but I said,” I am driving”. And we walked on this place. I was travelling the next day. I told my wife “from tomorrow, get people to cut the place to the measurement of the building”. And then I travelled. I came back the next Saturday for Sunday morning and we drove here again. We were shouting “supernatural supply”. I first of all preached the message in church.

I was preaching to myself. Because we had a land we had already invested hundreds of millions that they sealed, I didn’t want to come and talk to the Church and say” please come and give us money”. The Lord built this place up to the roof level before we told church about it. So you must know the spiritual DNA you are carrying and the spiritual family you come from; you can’t be behaving like bastards. The reason you are not making waves is because you are not making moves.

There is a guy who was 30 years old in 1999. Somebody told me he was in a particular place. It was a dangerous place but I went there; knocked on his door. He woke up and was surprised. We were on different campuses in University of Ilorin. He was wondering; we are not that close. What is going on? I said, “I am here to see you” and I preached to him.

The first two hours, we were arguing but I preached to him till he gave his life to Christ. I didn’t know until six years after when he told me; he had smoked marijuana to stupor; to kill himself. But he dozed off; what woke him was the knock on the door and he gave his life to Christ. Now the fact that you have done these does not mean you will not be tempted to be depressed; you need to remember and put on strength.

It is easy to talk against leaders and complain but have you talked to yourself and asked- why am I in this spot? You need to learn how to put on strength.

Isaiah 55:12
Go out with joy. Never let your spouse go out when you are fighting; settle it. If not, call on the way. Go out with joy. It is dangerous releasing that person to go out like that. People have had accidents like that. People have gone and never returned. You shall go out with joy; not you may, you shall. The moment you take a disposition, everything adjust to you, even the devil will adjust.
Zephaniah 3:17

If God rejoices, it is ungodly not to rejoice. If God laughs, it is demonic not to laugh. Nobody was born with any attitude. We were born neutral. We picked things growing up. Why would you pick a bad attitude when you were not born with one? Separate yourself from bad attitude. As you pick the right attitude, it changes your altitude. Most things you call temperament are the products of your environment and how you responded to them. If you lived in another environment, your disposition would be different. Why do you want to make your background put your back on the ground? The problem with poor people is not lack of money. It is poverty mentality.

We used to have some relations who lost their father. And they said, some of them should live with other relations. Everybody they went to had the same problem. They opened a big milk tin and finished it that day. Is it lack of money? No! It is lack of training. When you come into the midst of people, don’t only look at what they are wearing. Learn; how do they talk; how do they do things. You will see that you will start improving. As a Christian watch out for people who have been around before you; how do they do it; how do they worship? Don’t come and be who you have always been. There are people who learn nothing; they dress up, come to church and learn nothing. You can tell because they have no notes. Those who write notes don’t open the notebook till next time.

HOW DO YOU FUNCTION IN THE FULLNESS OF JOY?
First of all, you must know that the joy I am sharing on with you is not a normal joy.
John 15: 11- it is Jesus joy I am sharing with you; not the normal one. It is a spiritual one. When I understand how Jesus joy functions, I can retain it. And when I retain it, it becomes my joy.

1. The first way to experience this joy is to study the Word.
   Words are seeds for feelings. There are things someone will say to you, you will bring out a sword. There are others people will say to you and you will bring out kola nut and say “take”. When an Igbo man brings out a kola nut, he is speaking peace. Words are seeds for feelings. So there are things you hear from God that explodes joy on your inside. Hallelujah!

A stranger was talking to me recently. And she said, “You know, I lost my parents when I was a teenager.” I said, “Wow, no wonder you are where you are”. She said “I still cried just yesterday because of the loss”. I now said, “Come and let me tell you” and I showed her Psalm 27- when your mother and father forsake you, then the Lord will take you up.

She wasn’t born again. Smile came all over her face. She started telling me the testimony of how she got the job she was on; how God took her from one level to another; how she went to school; how things have just been working for her. And I said,” That’s God”.
Psalm 27:10 – At first she was thinking, I am alone on earth and God has abandoned me. But when I showed her this, it released joy to her.

When you see a Christian who is constantly depressed and wants to commit suicide, that person is not in fellowship with the Word of God. Some people just come to church to meet their needs. I have even met someone who comes to church just to sleep because he doesn’t have anywhere to sleep.
I quite remember the testimony of some people doing construction near the Church. And one of the tiler, came to church and gave his life to Christ. Church Gist. And in two weeks, they made him the leader of everybody. That is what Christ will do to you if you start plugging into him properly. When you allow Christ to have full dominion over you, you will just know what to do.
Isaiah 60:1

When I first gave my life to Christ, it was a normal culture in my fellowship that on Saturday mornings, we had a place where everybody went to meditate on God’s Word. Unless it is an emergency, you will never see me before the service. I will be meditating on God’s word. When I started preaching 22 years ago, I thought it was immaturity and that when I get to a certain level I will be able to talk to people. But no! Even when I finish first service and I want to continue with second service, I still go back and meditate. Those around don’t talk to me unless I talk to them. I am thinking; “Lord what should I say; what should I add; what should I do? The same thing should be your disposition.

One pastor was telling me many years ago; he said,” My counselling line is so long”. I said, if they understood what you taught, they won’t come for counselling. They didn’t understand; that is why.
Ezra 8:21-23
There were years that even if you pack the whole offering of COZA, it couldn’t pay my bills. But I never went to anyone to beg for anything.
Isaiah 60:15