ARISE AND TAKE WHAT GOD HAS GIVEN YOU: PASTOR MENSA OTABIL – SUNDAY SERVICE, 19TH SEPTEMBER, 2021
SPECIAL SUNDAY SERVICE BY DR. MENSAH OTABIL (GENERAL OVERSEER INTERNATIONAL CENTRAL GOSPEL CHURCH (ICGC) CHRIST TEMPLE, ACCRA GHANA)
TOPIC: ARISE AND TAKE WHAT GOD HAS GIVEN YOU.
DATE: 19TH SEPTEMBER, 2021
TEXT: GENESIS 13:16-17, DEUTERONOMY 2:24, JOSHUA 8:1 AND JUDGES 7:9.
Amen and Amen! Let’s keep Standing, as we make our DECLARATION OF FRUITFULNESS in this Year of Fruitfulness:
Are you ready? Well say with me:
The Eternal God is our Refuge. He opens Rivers in desolate Heights.The Lord makes the wilderness a Pool of water.
The LORD God is my Sun and Shield; The LORD gives Grace and Glory.
Therefore, I delight myself in Him. Those who are Planted in the House of the LORD shall be Fresh and Flourishing.
Though the Earth be shaken; the Name of the Lord is my Strong Tower. By Faith I affirm that: In Christ alone is my Salvation. In Him I live, and move and have my Being.
It is written: The Righteous are like trees Planted by the waters; bearing Fruits in its Season.
So I boldly declare: As for me, my God has made me Exceedingly Fruitful.
In this Season, my Spirit bears Fruits of Righteousness, my Talents make Way for me. With my hands, I will Plant, I will Build, I will Harvest – Day by Day, Step by Step.
In Jesus’ Name – Amen!
Today I am concluding my “Rising Series”.
As you know, for some time now I have been talking about different things with the word Arise or Rising or Rise in them.
I began with: “LET GOD ARISE”. And then I spoke about “RISE UP AND WALK”; and then we spoke about “RISING ABOVE YOUR SHORTCOMINGS”; and then last week I spoke about ‘ARISE AND DEPART”.
And so I am concluding today with: “ARISE AND TAKE WHAT GOD HAS GIVEN YOU”.
As you read the Scriptures, we see that many times when God wants to do things for People or He wanted People to do things for Him, He will usually demand the People to Rise up – To ARISE.
… And it is so many times stated in the Scriptures.
We are going to look at four (4) Examples of those Commands, where God tells People to Arise to Possess something.
And so we are going to look at four (4) Scriptures today.
The first reading is Genesis 13:16-17.
This is God talking to Abraham about the Land He was Promising him. And I want you to Pay attention to what God says:
16 And I will make your descendants as the dust of the Earth; so that if a Man could number the dust of the Earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.
17 Arise, walk in the Land through its Length and its Width, for I give it to you.”
Then Deuteronomy 2: 24.
This is when God commanded Israel that He was giving them the Promised Land. And it says:
‘Rise, take your journey, and cross over the River Arnon. Look, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, King of Heshbon, and his Land. Begin to Possess it, and engage him in battle.
Joshua 8:1:
And the LORD said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither be thou dismayed: take all the People of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai: see, I have given into thy hand the King of Ai, and his People, and his City, and his Land:
… Again God tells Joshua to Arise.
The Final Scripture is in Judges 7:9.
This is God’s instructions to Gideon, after Gideon has cut down the number of his Army to Three hundred (300).
And then God says to him: It happened on the same night that the Lord said to him, “Arise, go down against the Camp, for I have delivered it into your hand.
If you look at all these Four (4) Scriptures, something is very common – God told each one of them to ARISE and TAKE something He was offering to them.
I. He told Abraham: I have given you the Land, but you must Rise and Walk in the Land.
II. He told Moses: I have given you the Amorites – Kings and their Lands. But you must Arise and engage in battle.
III. God told Joshua: I have given you the City of Ai, but you must Rise and go up against it.
IV. Then He told Gideon: I have given the Medianites to you. But you must Arise and go against their Camp.
In each of these cases, God tells them what He has done and what he wants them to do.
God tells them: I have given you the Land, but you must Rise and take it.
So there are two (2) Ideas:
- First, we must KNOW what God has given to us.
We cannot live our Christian lives just hoping that things will happen well for us – We must live our Christian Life with certainty, with the knowledge of what God has given to us.
- And then Secondly, we must TAKE what God given to us.
… KNOW it, TAKE it!
So God says: I have given it into your hand (That is the knowledge). But RISE and take it!
We must KNOW what God has given to us, and we must TAKE what God has given to us.
So what God says is: I have given it to you!
Most of the time – If you look at these Verses of Scriptures, the Tense is in the ‘Past’.
It is something that God has Already done; He has Concluded.
Because God conclude things in the Spirit; but what he has concluded in the Spirit must be manifested in the Natural.
So He says: I have given it to you – It is done. RISE and TAKE it. You must now actualised it; you must take what is concluded in the Spirit realm and bring it into the Natural realm.
Between KNOWING what God has given to you and TAKING what God has given to you, is that word Arise.
… Arise!!!
And that is what He told all of them – I have given it to you, take it! But in-between that: ARISE!
Everybody say: ARISE!!!
The three (3) thoughts that explains Arise to us:
- First to ARISE means to Stand Upright; to take on the task. Be ready to take on the Challenge.
To be alert, to be set. Arise! Stand Upright, take on the task.
When God says I have given you something, it doesn’t mean it just happened in the Natural; it has happened in the Spiritual. But He wants us to take it by first, Standing up, taking on the task.
- ARISE also means to Show Up.
That means to work towards what God has given to you.
- And thirdly, ARISE means to establish it, to make it happen.
So, He says to each of them, I have given it to you – Rise, take it!
So giving to you, taking it; in-between that is RISING: Standing Up, taking on the task, Showing Up, not running away from the battle and establishing it or making it happen.
So we see from the Scriptures that we cannot be Passive about the Blessings of God, we cannot be Passive about the Goodness of God. We cannot just sit and say well, God has done it, so there is nothing for me to do!
God says: I have done it, I have given it to you. But you must Arise and engage in battle. So there is always activity in our Part in relation to the Word of God and the Promise of God.
And we are going to look at a Statement made by a Character in the Bible – A gentleman called Jephthah.
… Most of you must have read about Jephthah.
Jephthah was one of the Judges of Israel in the times before Israel had Kings. In those days, God will raise Judges and these Judges were basically Deliverers or Warriors.
And they would go and fight the enemies of Israel, deliver them from bondage. And then the time of the Judge will Pass. And they would get into another bondage, God would raise another Judge.
Jephthah was one of the Judges that God raised. And he had to fight the Amorites.
And Jephthah was a sort of a bad boy; a Vagabond because his mother was not the rightful wife. So he was sacked from Town and then he became a Vagabond
But he became a fighter! And when Israel went into trouble, they said: ‘Who will fight for us?’
So they went to pick Jephthah; and Jephthah decided to fight for them.
… And I want you to listen to something Jephthah said to the enemies of Israel at that time in Judges 11:23-24 (I love it so much)!
At this time Amorites have come up against Israel. They said: ‘We are going to fight you!
We are going to fight you because, when Israel left Egypt and was coming through to the Promised Land, you took our Land from us.’
So that is what the Amorites are saying – ‘You took our Land from us’.
So we have come back to take the Land back from you because it was ours and you took it away from us.
And that is why they have to call Jephthah to come and help them Protect the Land; because the Amorites are saying: ‘It is time! – The lease is over, give us back our Land.’
Now listen to how Jephthah responded to that. When the Amorites said: ‘Give us back our land.’ And these are the words of Jephthah. He said in Judges 11:23-24:
And now the Lord God of Israel has dispossessed the Amorites from before His People Israel; should you then Possess it? Will you not Possess whatever Chemosh your god gives you to Possess? So whatever the Lord our God takes Possession of before us, we will Possess.
Do you get the logic of Jephthah?
Jephthah is saying: You guys, you worship Chemosh. And if Median says: “I have given the Land of Israel to you’ won’t you obey Chemosh and come and take your Land?
How much more, when Jehovah God says: ‘I have given the Land of the Amorites to you.’ Don’t you think we should also come and take what Jehovah has given to us?
So whatever God has given to us, Jephthah says we must Possess it (I love that)!
… We must Possess whatever God has given to us.
Now Jephthah did not say: ‘Whatever God gives to us is ours’. That is not what he says. He says: whatever God gives to us we must POSSESS + We must make sure that we don’t lose it.
And because of that, you guys – The reason we took your Land is because “OUR GOD” says we should take it! We didn’t take it on our Will and Accord; we took it because God said we should take it.
… In the same way that you would take your Land if your god says you should take it!
You know many times, People who worship idols are more Obedient to their idols than those who worship Jehovah God. People who consult “Juju Power” are sometimes more Faithful than those who worship God.
If somebody goes to consult a Fetish and the Fetish says: I will make you a Millionaire or I will do this for you, I will do that for you – Go and lift up a Store, and gives them instructions.
Believe you me, they will do whatever they are told to do!
If they are told to wear White on Fridays; every Fridays they would wear white. If they are told to go and sprinkle something on People’s Shops – In spite of the shame; they will sprinkle it.
… Whatever they have been told to Possess, what is demanded, they will do it.
And yet when it comes to Believers, when God tells us: I have given you the Land, do this. We don’t do it.
No wonder the People who worship Chemosh are Possessing the Land and the People who worship Jehovah are losing the Land.
If an Unbeliever goes to a Fetish and they say ‘Go and put food in the junction of a road’ they will go and put food there!
And then God would tell His People “GIVE” and I will take the devourer from you. We won’t Give! And if they attempt, they will do half of it. They will only ‘GI’ (and not DIVE) … Laughing!
That is why I like Jephthah – Jephthah says: You guys think the Land is yours because Chemosh says it is yours; we believe the Land is ours because YAHWEH says it is ours.
… And whatever YAHWEH says is ours, we will Possess it (I love that)!
I. So when Yahweh gives you Salvation, repossess it.
II. When Yahweh gives you Healing, you Possess it.
III. When Yahweh gives you Wealth, you Possess it.
Yahweh cannot say you are rich and you say I am Poor. When Yahweh says you are Rich, you Possess Riches.
Whatever the Lord says He has given to us, we must Possess it!
And that is why Jephthah says: We are ready to fight in this battle because everything God gives to us is surrendered in Battle.
All the People God gave Victory, they had to fight for it. Why is it so? Because the enemy will always Challenge your claim.
If you say: ‘God has spoken to me’. The enemy will show up to challenge you. He doesn’t sit down and say: ‘Take it freely”.
Battles birth Champions. Champions do not emerge from Comfort – They emerged with Battle Bruises.
If you love Movies, and you watch the Rocky Series – Staring Sylvester Stallone.
Rocky is a boxer, but in every battle, when it ends, Rocky is holding his Title Belt. But his face is battered. There is blood from his mouth. He has been Punched badly; but he is the Champion.
Because in life, you would be Punched, but you don’t lie down when you are Punched; you are Punched, you get up! Because God has called you to be a Champion.
And after you have been Punched, and you Stand many times; in the end you are like a Rocky – You are holding on the Title Belt; but there is blood all over your face.
Battles Produce Champions! – If you want to be a Champion for God, get ready for Battle.
You think the devil is going to smile at your Blessings? You think your enemies are going to clap for you because you have Plans? You think the world will be happy with you?
… Then leave Planet Earth – Go to Neptune.
But if you live on this Planet (Earth), your Title will be challenged – The spoils of battle come out of the scars of battles. Good things come to those who win their battle in all areas of Life. Whether in Academics, in our Careers in our Marriage, is our Ministries – Everything comes from battle.
If you see a Married couple who have been married for fifty (50) to sixty (60) Years and you look at them and say – Oh, it is so beautiful to see these Old People Married. Oh look at them, they are laughing and they are smiling. Look at how he holds her hand!
Do you think that it has always been like that? Go back to sixty (60) Years earlier: it was battles, quarrells, fights (I don’t mean blows)! – I mean difficulties. But they Persevered. And now, you are taking Pictures of them (after 60 years) to say ‘I wish I was like that!’
And you, every little thing – ‘Oh, we are incompatible; we don’t agree – I like to sleep there and my wife doesn’t like to sleep there. I want my food hot, she makes it cold.’
… You will not get the Picture of the sixty (60) Years, because the Reward comes after battle.
Whatever God has given to us, He gives us the Grace to receive it; so no matter the battles surrounding it, you have the Grace to receive it.
Somebody say: I HAVE THE GRACE FOR IT.
… You have the Grace for it!
I. When you marry, you have Grace for Marriage.
II. When you start your business, you have Grace to succeed.
III. When you start Education, you have the Grace to be the Head and not the tail.
Whatever God entrust into your hands, He will give you the Grace for it.
In the midst of the battle, there is Grace.
That is why you hear People say: ‘We don’t know how you survive.’ – It Is called GRACE.
AND HOW DOES GOD GIVE US GRACE?
- He Trains our hands for War.
Psalms 144:1 says: Blessed be the Lord my Rock, Who trains my hands for war, And my fingers for battle.
If you don’t know how to fight, God will train you for the battle – Amen.
He trains us ahead of our battles. And when you are in the battle, don’t forget the training He gave you for the battle.
… Not only does He train us for warfare.
- He Teaches us how to Profit.
Isaiah 48:17 says: Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, Who teaches you to Profit, Who leads you by the way you should go.”
… He orders our steps in the Right Way!
I. He told Abraham: Rise up and walk in the Land for – I have given it to you.
II. He told Israel: Rise up and Possess the Land of the Amorites – I have given it to you.
III. He told Joshua: Rise up and Possess the Promised Land.
IV. He told Gideon: Rise up and deliver Israel.
Each one of them had to battle for what God has given them:
I. And for each one of them, God Trained them for battle.
II. For each one of them, God taught them how to Profit.
You don’t just sit with Good Intentions; you must RISE UP and TAKE what God has given to you!
And don’t be afraid of the battle – It is Part and Parcel of the Package.
What you must take, you would battle for it. But the Lord is with you!
You would the Punched many times, your face will be swollen, your mouth will be swollen, you may lose a tooth but Thank God for the Dentist, they will give you a replacement (Laughing). But in the end, you will hold the Title Belt.
And may the Lord cause you at the end, to hold the Title Belt – Amen.
There are some of you who have been Punched so much – You just want to quit. But the Title Belt has been Promised to you; Please don’t quit! Get up again, get to the Battle again, try it again, do it again, start it again, move it again because God has ordained you for something, and you must take it. You must Possess it – Amen.
My Concluding Thoghts: God rewards those who Overcome in all areas of life.
When you lose the required battle, you get Punished; but when you Win, you get Rewarded.
… The Rewards always go to those who Overcome!
And when you look through the Bible, in the Last Book of the Bible – The Book of Revelation; this is how everything is ending.
The Book of Revelation tells you this is how this whole thing that started in Genesis is ending up.
And I am going to read to you some Verses from the Book of Revelation, and what is says to us who Overcome;
In Revelation 2:26, it says: And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give Power over the Nations.
Somebody say: I WILL HAVE POWER OVER THE NATION.
Revelation 3:12; it says: He who overcomes, I will make him a Pillar in the Temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the City of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of Heaven from My God. And I will write on him My New Name.
… May God make you a Pillar – Amen!
Revelation 3:21; it says: To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My Throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His Throne.
Somebody say: I will sit on the Throne!
But if you look at the last one in Revelation 21:7-8; it says:
- He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.
8 But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their Part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
… He who overcomes shall inherit all things.
The first on the list of things not to be inherited is: the COWARDLY. I mean, you will not think how cowardly compares with muderers.
But before He mentioned murderer, He talks about cowards. Why? – Because being a Coward in God’s Economy is more serious.
When God tells you something and you are a Coward: you are afraid, you run from the battle, you give up, you surrender – YOU ARE A COWARD.
… Overcomers are not Cowards!
Somebody say: I AM NOT A COWARD.
Yes, you tell the world – We are ready for battle: We tell our Destiny, we will battle for it. We tell our Assignment, we will battle for it.
… I will not stop battling until I become what God says I would be.
I. If God says I am the Head, I am going to battle to the Headship.
II. If God says he will prosper me, I will battle my way to prosperity.
Don’t let poverty knock you down – Poverty may blow you, it may hit you, it may give you Punches; but you must get up!
Because it should never be said that – Here lies a man who was knocked out by Poverty. It knocked his father down, knocked his grandfather down. And finally succeeded against him.
… Minus me, minus my children, minus my children’s children – Amen.
As for me and my family, we will fight, because we are not Cowards – Amen.
We would push through because God says it is ours – Amen.
It is my Heritage! And whatever the Lord God says is mine, we will Possess it – Amen.
This morning I came to tell you: You are a Champion; there is a reward for you – Amen.
Yes, life has hit you very HARD. But you are like Rocky – You are coming out, and your Title Belt is in your hand. There may be blood oozing from your nose but you are a Champion!
Somebody say: I AM A CHAMPION. I AM A WINNER. I AM NOT A QUITTER. I AM NOT A COWARD. I DON’T SURRENDER. I DON’T LIE DOWN – I RISE!
Because whatever God has given to me, whatever God has said about me, whatever God has declared about me, whatever God has written about me, I WILL PROCESS IT – Amen.
This morning, I want you in the next three (3) Minutes to do a warfare battle – WARFARE PRAYER.
You are not going to do some Simple Prayer and say – Whatever will happen will happen.
No Que sera sera here!
We are Praying to say: LORD, what you said I will be, today I Stand to Possess it. I Rise to Possess it. I Arise to take it.
Let’s Pray now: what God says about your Marriage, what God says about your children, what God says about your business, what God says about His Purposes for you:
Don’t give it up! Don’t surrender it. Don’t throw it away – There are battles all around. There are battles to be fought. There are battles to be won.
In the Name of Jesus, we refuse cowardice! The devil is a liar – You will make it. You will rise again. You will Prosper. The favour of God is upon you!
In the Name of Jesus Christ, we Possess our Destiny, we Possess our future. We come out of the Battles. We emerge from the scars of the battle. We emerge with our Title Belt.
CLOSING PRAYER.
And so Lord, in the Name of Jesus: Strengthen the feeble hands, Strengthen the feeble knees that are weak, Strengthen your People Lord.
Train their hands for battle. Teach them how to Profit!
Where they don’t know, guide them. What they don’t know how to do it, help them to do it.
Speak to them by Night: speak to them in a Dream, speak to them in a Vision, speak to them through the Scriptures – Speak to them!
Guide them Lord by Your Spirit within and show Your People how to Profit, in the Name of Jesus.
And we declare in Agreement with Your Word, that whatever You have given to us – we will POSSESS it, in the Name of Jesus the Son of God – Amen.
Somebody give a Battle to SHOUT – Hallelujah – AMEN!!!
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