I Will Strengthen Your Weak Hands, by Pastor Samuel Obafaiye

I Will Strengthen Your Weak Hands, by Pastor Samuel Obafaiye

The God we serve is a God of great strength, great power and great might. He is All-powerful, Almighty and full of strength.

I Sam. 15:29 – And also, the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.

Isaiah 40:29-31 – He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

2 Tim. 4:16-17 – Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.

Dan. 10:18-19 – Then there came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me, And said, O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong. And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened, and said, Let my lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me.

I remember during my training in the Nigerian Army, there was a part of our training that was called “Bush Exercise”. It was a practice war situation. Just that we use blank ammunition and not live ammo. We the recruits would fight against some of our instructors. While some of them would watch us that we were doing the right thing.

When we were going, we would be full of strength and enthusiasm; but by the time we were coming back, we would be tired and worn-out. (Food, water, trek, combat, trench, trench-cover, trek, load, etc).

But as the Bush Exercise was not the end of our training as soldiers, we were expected to use our returned day to clean our kits, rest and regained strength to recommence training the following day as normal.

In the same vein, we are in the Army of the Lord, last year might have been a ‘proper war’ situation for you or a ‘simulated war’. Maybe you have come out of 2019 tired and worn out; in this month, God will renew your strength.

Guess what? Let me announce to you that it’s not the end of your service yet. Your training still continues. Quit yourself as men and get ready to recommence your training for 2020. Your assignment is not over.

In I Sam. 30:1-19, the bible tells us that while David and his men went out to look for what their family would eat; the Amalekite came and raided their camp. They took everything they had away (wives, children, belongings). Such that when David and his men came back, they began to weep until they had no more power to weep.

David, however, encouraged himself in the Lord; and having been instructed by God, he pursued after the Amalekites.

In their pursuit, following the enemy’s path, they found a sick Egyptian man who was a servant to one of the Amalekite Raiders. He was abandoned by his master to die in the desert or to be eaten by animals because he was no longer of use to them.

David and his men fed him with cakes and raisins; the man regained strength and became a valuable help for them to recover all that was lost.

– You have been abandoned by someone close. God says I will send an unusual and timely help to you.

That wilderness state will not swallow you. It is a temporary experience that will soon end.

To another person, your body weakness is not as a result of a sickness, but it’s due to lack of balanced and sufficient diet.  God says I will feed you with a natural and supernatural balanced diet.

In Acts of Apostles 15:36-39, apostle Paul asked Barnabas to let them go and visit churches they had started before in order to strengthen them. There was a bit of disagreement between them, whether to take John Mark or not. Eventually, Paul had to travel with Silas to embark on the strengthening mission.

As a church of God, God says 2020 will be our year of strengthening.

It will be our year of confirmation.

It will be our year of re-establishment.

God says, “my promise and covenant shall be re-confirmed to you this year. You will be vividly noticed. You will be unmissable.

When Jesus Christ rose from the dead, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene. He told Mary not to touch Him, as He needed to go and show Himself to His Father. Having done that, why would Jesus be making the trip back to this world again for about 40 days, before He finally returned to heaven?

My thought is for only one reason. To strengthen the faith of His apostles and other disciples.

Someone like Thomas Didymus needed to be strengthened in faith (John 20:24-29).

Someone like Simon Peter needed to be re-confirmed in faith (Mt. 26:69-75; John 21: 2-19).

The courage and trust of the disciples needed to be helped make stronger and more solid (John 20:19-22).

God says, “These are all what I will do for you in this year 2020. I will strengthen your faith.

I will reconfirm your purpose and destiny.

I will help to further boost your courage and trust this year.

I will totally eradicate any doubt and unbelief from you.

The strength you will receive this year will last you for a lifetime”.

Elijah was unarguably one of the most prominent prophets in the scriptures. Prophets of his calibre in the bible were few: possibly only 3: Moses, Samuel and Elisha.

Elijah was used mightily of God. After he called fire from heaven, he was used to restore the hearts of the people to God, and having slew about 850 false prophets, energy had dissipated from him.

He ran out of town for his life at the threat of Jezebel, and even asked God to take his life (I Kings 19: 1-4).

But thanks be to God, as He doesn’t kill His prophets who are tired, He always feed them instead (I Kings 19:5-8).

Elijah was fed twice as he was extremely tired and was told he had a long journey to make. The food he ate took him for 80 days journey.

Helped him to return to his assignment.

Enabled him to choose and trained his successor.

Was able to serve for another 3 years more.

Helped him to finish gloriously well without even a taste of death!

– God will restore every energy that had dissipated from you. May God endue you with power from on High.

You are only tired. You still have a long journey to make for God.

The meal I will give you this year will take you pass your 80th year.

You are here, the Jezebels of this world have declared a date to terminate your life, don’t be afraid of them, as you still have at least 3 decades more to spend. The date they have given is hereby cancelled.

You are feeling famished, God says, I will feed you with the Bread of life, the Lamb of God, the Living Water.

As I have promised to strengthen you, I expect you to do the same for one another. In the Regular Army, we all watch out for one another. We are trained not to leave our injured colleagues behind on the battlefront. As it can actually work against us as a whole. (The Egyptian slave of the Amalekite did).

Even when a colleague dies, we still try to evacuate their body from the battlefront. Such was our training.

As we are all soldiers of Christ, there might be those that the events of 2019 have wounded and made weak. We are to seek such and strengthen them. How?

Offer prayers on their behalf.

Offer them necessary assistance.

Offer them words of encouragement.

Isaiah 35:3-4 –Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you.

That will be our message to the weak and wounded.

Everlasting Father’s Assembly has been through several battles in the last years as well. God is looking for those who will offer prayers, offer assistance and offer encouragement. Will you be that fellow? Will your family be that unit? It’s time to step up now.

God bless you.

Altar call

Prayers

Father, strengthen me for the journey of 2020.

Father, cut off anything and everything that is draining strength from me.

Father, make me a source of strength for others in this year.

Father, help me to be a source of strength for Everlasting Father’s Assembly.

The sermon was delivered on January 5, 2019.