A PLACE TO BE FRUITFUL [PART 2]: PASTOR MENSA OTABIL – SUNDAY SERVICE, OCTOBER 17TH, 2021
SPECIAL SUNDAY SERVICE BY DR. MENSAH OTABIL (GENERAL OVERSEER INTERNATIONAL CENTRAL GOSPEL CHURCH (ICGC) CHRIST TEMPLE, ACCRA GHANA)
TOPIC: A PLACE TO BE FRUITFUL – PART 2.
DATE: 17TH OCTOBER, 2021
TEXT: GENESIS 26:24-25
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!
Well I started a Message last week (10th October, 2021) on the Topic: “A PLACE TO BE FRUITFUL”.
DMC NOTES: Kindly access the Full Text of the Part 1 of the Series on this Link:
Today I am doing the Part 2 today: “A PLACE TO BE FRUITFUL”.
God wants us to function from a Fruitful Place.
Last Week we focused on Genesis 26, and we looked at the Story of Isaac and we landed on Verse 22.
And we defined Rehoboth as a Wide and Open Place – When God opens a Place for you, He also gives you a Place to be Fruitful.
We also said that Rehoboth means Street – A Place of Access. It is when God makes a Way for you or gives you Access.
We also said that Rehoboth is a Plaza – A Plaza is a Market Place. A Place of Opportunity, where what you have can be put on display.
May God bring you to your Rehoboth – Amen. And may He give you the Grace to be Fruitful – Amen.
Rehoboth is a Waterwd Land – It is a Land of Opportunity. He also said that when God makes room for us He gives us Access and Opportunity.
But we must not confuse Opportunity and Access for Fruitfulness.
It simply means now we have the Capacity and the Space to be Fruitful.
But when God brings us the Rehoboth, we must cultivate the Opportunity that God has for us.
I am going to continue my Studies from the same Genesis 26 – After Isaac had dug these Wells. Remember before, the Philistines with Isaac contended for it, and fought over it, and he lost them.
And then he found this Well called Rehoboth – Which was not taken away from him.
Now Isaac believed that God has given him a Space to operate in.
And God does a couple of things – Two (2) Major things happened after Isaac dug the Well at Rehoboth:
- The first is that God gave Assurance to Isaac.
God came to Isaac and assured him of His Presence.
In Genesis 26:24-25:
24 And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My Servant Abraham’s sake.”
25 So he built an Altar there and called on the Name of the Lord, and he Pitched his Tent there; and there Isaac’s Servants dug a Well.
This is the Second time that God appeared to Isaac – The first time God appeared to Isaac, he told him in the time of famine not to go to Egypt because Egypt was the Commercial Centre.
… It was the American of those days, where People wanted to go to.
But God warned Isaac and said don’t go to where everybody is going, but stay in the Land of Gerar – Stay in this land.
It seemed like this is a wrong instruction because this is the Land where he faced a lot of Oppositions.
And the reason why Isaac kept digging in Gerar was because he believed God had Placed him there.
Although there were also Oppositions.
You know, many times when we are not sure of the Will of God for our lives, we easily move from Place to Place – Change what we are doing, Change our Agenda. We see somebody is doing something and we changed to it as well. And our whole lives are always on the move!
But when we know that God has called us to a Place, then in the midst of Oppositions, we still thrive because the best Place to be is in the Centre of God’s Will – It is not in a Country, it is not in a Location; it is the Will of God.
Dr Mensa otabil
… When you are in the Will of God, you are in the Right Place at the Right Time.
And Isaac kept digging, because he believed that he was in the Right Place.
And when God gave him assurance, He spoke about Two (2) Things:
I. First, He said: I AM WITH YOU.
That is God’s Presence! And God’s Presence with us is our Source of Protection.
God’s Presence was Isaac’s Protection.
So People disliked him, People hated him, People fought him but God was with him.
And when God is with you, you are Protected – It doesn’t mean there will be no battles but you are Protected.
Was God with Isaac when his Wells were being taken? – YES, God was with him.
Was God with Isaac when he worked without having anything to show for his hard work? – YES, God was with him.
Because God’s Presence with us in the Valley or on the Mountaintop – God is with you when you are working hard and have nothing to show; God is with you when People seems to have an advantage over you. God is still with you!
He was with Isaac when People were fighting every efforts he made.
And that is the Lord’s Message to Isaac – He was telling Isaac: Don’t think, because you are struggling, I have left you.
And I believe God is saying to somebody: Don’t think because you are struggling I have left you; don’t think because somebody took your Well from you, I have left you – I never left you. I am with you Isaac.
And if your name is not Isaac, God is still with you – Amen.
II. Then the Lord said something else to Isaac. He said: Not only Am I with you, I WILL BLESS YOU.
God’s Promise to Isaac – I will bless you.
That is God telling him – I will Provide for you. I am your Provision, I will bless you.
So God is saying: Isaac, you have been through a lot in your Life. People have not treated you fairly. But from this day watch what I will do. Now you will see the blessing; now you will see the manifestations of my intentions upon you.
So, the Bible says that Isaac built an Altar and built a Tent in Rehoboth.
So that is the first thing God did for Isaac – To let him know that, this is the Place, you will be Fruitful in the Land; this is an Open Door; this is real.
But how do I know it is Rehoboth? – Because God’s Presence is with me and God’s Promise is with me.
- Secondly something else happened to Isaac; something of very important consequences – Isaac’s opponents came to him, accepted him and allowed him to function in Rehoboth.
Remember earlier, whenever he had a breakthrough, they fought him for it.
But this time, they came to him and they said: ‘We give you Space to function in.
And I want you to look at Genesis 26: 26-29 – It says:
- Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phichol the commander of his army.
- And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?”
- But they said, “We have certainly seen that the Lord is with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a covenant with you,
- That you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you, and since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord.’”
That is a Powerful Testimony! – For Abimelech, Ahuzzath and Phichol to come with these Messages
I. And the first thing they said is: We see the Hand of the Lord is upon you.
They saw God’s Hands on Isaac.
How could they know that God was with Isaac? What was the Sign?
Most likely, they didn’t expect Isaac to survive.
I am sure that they have given the same treatment they gave to Isaac to other People; and run the People out of town, and the People went broke.
But they did it to Isaac: they took his Wells from him, and kept Pushing him out. And with all the Intents and Purposes, Isaac is supposed to give up and say: ‘I give up! I don’t think I will thrive here’ and then move on.
But the guy kept working and then they saw him blossoming. And the only conclusion they could come to is that – God’s Hand is upon him.
I don’t know if somebody Pushed you and fought you but you are still fighting. And one of these days, they are going to say: That is the Woman of God, that is the Man of God because they Pushed you, but you didn’t fall.
So, this People came and said: ‘The Hand of the Lord is upon you.’ Because they have observed what had been happening.
II. The Second thing is that they swore an Oath of Peace with Isaac.
Isn’t that amazing? – The People who had sworn an Oath of hatred, now swearing an Oath of Peace!
They didn’t just make Peace with Isaac, they swore an Oath.
They entered into a Covenant. They wanted this arrangement to be Permanent and they even went to the extent or sugarcoating their earlier actions.
They said to Isaac: We didn’t touch you (which is true). They didn’t touch him – They just touched his Wells.
Sometimes I don’t know whether People have a very Short Memory – The same Person who has been doing you bad says: “Do you remember when I readily used to treat you well and you are my buddy and everything is okay?”
Why are they doing all of these things?
They realised that the man is Blessed and the Tide is about to change. And if they don’t repair the relationship, when God’s favour began to manifest on Isaac they will be in trouble.
So they said: We Perceived that God is with you you. We want to Sign, a Covenant with you – We want to come into Agreement with you, we want to Change the relationship we have had in the Past.
And then they said something very interesting to Isaac – Please don’t hurt us, Please don’t hate us.
They wanted Isaac to treat them well. They figured the future of Isaac was going to be Great; and they wanted to benefit from that Future.
It is amazing when God opens a door for you and brings you to your Rehoboth – Those who were against you turn for you. And they do it with the same vehemence by which they were against you, the same energy
Because they see the Hand of the Lord upon you.
Maybe you may not see the Hand of God upon yourself. You know, sometimes we go through Life – Oh Life is hard! And we don’t even see that People are watching us.
And they watch us and they see us stumble, but we don’t fall. You fall into a Pit, you come out. A snake bites you, but you don’t swell over. You are thrown into the den of Lions; and the next morning you are saying hello!
And for you, you are saying: ‘In my Life is so much pain.’ But they are watching. And whilst they watch, they can’t figure out why you survived all of those things.
I am here to tell every Survivor – You survived that Marriage, that Pain, you survived that situation and everybody thought you would be destroyed, you would live in tears, you would be retarded. And now you are here, worshiping the Lord.
And you may not count it as much. But somebody is watching you; and their Conclusion is: “The Hand of the Lord is upon them!”
That was not how Isaac saw his Life – That is how Abimelech saw Isaac because:
A. They took him through Hell, and he came through Heaven.
B. They gave him Hell, and he Produced Heaven.
C. They gave him Hardship, and he Produced Breakthrough.
D. They dug a Pit for him and he jumped over it unto his High Place.
And their only Conclusion is: ‘The Hand of the Lord is upon him!’
That will be your Story – Amen.
They will throw everything against you, but you will rise up! And one of these days, somebody will look at you and say: I see the Hand of the Lord upon you – Amen.
God’s Hand is upon you because God has favoured you.
After they had done all of that, God had assured Isaac. And the People had also assured Isaac – Isaac is in a Good Place.
Genesis 26:12-14 says:
- Then Isaac sowed in that Land, and reaped in the same Year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him.
- The Man began to Prosper, and continued Prospering until he became very Prosperous;
- For he had Possessions of flocks and Possessions of herds and a great number of Servants. So the Philistines envied him.
Genesis 26:12 occurs before all digging of the Wells – So it would appear as if this happened and they took him out, and then he went to dig the Wells.
But in a Chronological Sequence, Verse 12 comes after!
And the reason, you would find in that Verses 12-14; If you read Verse 15, it says:
- Now the Philistines had stopped up all the Wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and they had filled them with Earth.
What the Passage is doing is: It tells us the end and then tells us the Process. It tells us that: Isaac Prospered.
How did he Prospered?
This is how he Prospered – The Philistines had stopped all the Wells and Isaac went digging the Wells. And they took him out, they took his Wells from him.
But God Prospered him and brought him to Rehoboth.
And when he got to Rehoboth, the People came and Signed a Contract with him. After that, Isaac sowed in the Land, and the Lord gave him Abundance!
The sowing in the Land does not come before the digging of the Wells – The digging of the Wells come before the sowing in the Land.
And why is that so? – Because the Land was in famine. And you cannot stay on Dry Land. You have to sow on Irrigated Land.
He had to irrigate the Land with the Wells, before he sowed – So that God could make him Prosperous and he would continue to Prosper.
He had his Rehoboth, which opened the Wells to him. And the People gave him access to water. He dug more Wells and after that, the Man had all the water he needed. And so he started sowing in the Land and the Lord Prospered him.
… We don’t sow on Dry Land; we sow on Irrigated Land!
There are some environment you don’t sow your Seed in. Until God has Changed the environment, then you can sow your Seed and you would see the results.
So you can see the Process:
A. Rehoboth, the Lord has made room for us. Therefore, we shall be Fruitful.
B. Did he become Fruitful? – Yes, because Isaac sowed in the Land and it became Fruitful and Prospered abundantly.
C. When God brings you to your Rehoboth, you have to sow a Seed that God has given to you.
Many times, God brings us to a Place, like Isaac – A Rehoboth. He makes a way for us, He brings us to a large Place and everything is working for us. But our Attitude may disturb the outcome.
I am going to look at two (2) responses to Open Fields – When God brings you to an Open Field the two (2) ways you can respond:
- The First way – If you are Isaac, now you have your Wells of water and you are in Rehoboth.
God says I am with you; the Philistines have said now you are blessed, you can operate.
A. Sometimes you can take that as your Breakthrough: Fold your arms and rejoice.
B. Sometimes, although God has given you the Breakthrough, you may not go out and take advantage of it.
So the First way that sometimes People respond to an Open Field is responding in Laziness.
… God has opened the door, but you are LAZY. And that is not a recommended response.
Proverbs 26:13 says: The lazy Man (or Woman) says, “There is a Lion in the road! A fierce Lion is in the Streets!”
And just for your Information – The word translated “Street” is the same word from which the “Root of Rehoboth” comes from. The same thing!
Another version of Proverbs 26:13 says: The Lazy Man says, “there is a Lion outside, I shall be slain in the Streets!”
What is wrong with the Lazy Man? – Two (2) Things:
I. First, a Lazy Man makes Excuses.
He goes to bizzare length to avoid leaving his house; because he says, “there is a Lion in the Streets.”
At the time that these Stories were happening in Israel, the Lion will not be roaming in an Open Plaza. In an Israel town you won’t find a Lion in an Open Plaza – Lions were in the wild.
But the Lazy Man makes excuses: There is danger, there is trouble, I can’t go out. The last time I did it, I was not encouraged. The last time I did, the Lions came after me. The last time I tried to Prosper, People discouraged me.
Enough is enough!
Man came to do some, but the Almighty God came to do ALL.
I have done my Part!
You know, sometimes you hear someone of about thirsty five (35) Years saying: “I have done my Part, I have done my Best.
… At thirty five (35) to fifty (50) Years, you have done your best? What are you going to do with the next forty (40) Years of your Life?
The Lazy Man makes Excuses.
And sometimes, we all make it –
A. You know things are hard, you know, Pull him down Syndrome.
B. You know if you try to rise, your People will Pull you down.
Hey, you can’t trust anybody!”
Those are just Excuses!
When God gives you an Open Field, stop making Excuses. Stop hiding behind Proverbs – It is an Open Field, it is your Rehoboth. Don’t be lazy!
II. And the Second thing you note about a Lazy Man is that he Exaggerates the Oppositions.
Why do I say he Exaggerates?
If you listened to the Statement in Proverbs 26:13, it starts with ‘a Lion’ and Progresses to ‘a Fierce Lion’.
The Lazy Man starts and Progresses – “There is a Lion in the streets; a Fierce Lion is in the Streets (Laughs)!
… He magnifies the challenges facing him!
Yes, it was bad! But don’t add to it.
Yes, a Lion came, but it wasn’t fierce.
Yes, they Pushed you, but the Push was feeble.
Don’t go about Magnifying your Problems beyond Measures.
“What I have been through, I would have died. Last week, you would have heard that I am gone!”
… And you are still here, talking about – Last week you would have gone! Why didn’t you go (Laughs)?
Stop Exaggerating for Sympathy. Stop telling Stories for People to start Sympathising with you and say, ‘Is that so?’ And what did you gain?
Because one of the Problems we have in this Part of the world, we like Sympathy.
The Lazy Man makes Excuses and Exaggerates – Even in their Rehoboth, they make Excuses and Exaggerate.
- But there is a Second way we can approach this – Not with Laziness, but with Strength.
And my example is from Samson in Judges 14:5-6
- So Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother, and came to the Vineyards of Timnah. Now to his surprise, a Young Lion came roaring against him.
- And the Spirit of the Lord came Mightily upon him, and he tore the Lion apart as one would have torn apart a Young goat, though he had nothing in his hand. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.
When God brings you to your Open Field and a Lion rises against you, you don’t behave like a Lazy Man – Who stays indoors and says there is a Lion in the Streets, a Fierce Lion. You behave like Samson!
And watch what happened when the Lion came against him – The Spirit of the Lord came upon him.
I. If you want to move in Strength, you have to move in the Power of the Spirit.
Samson was in the Vineyard of Timnah when this attack came. But with the attack also came the Empowerment.
So listen to me: When the enemy comes against you, the Spirit of God will come upon you.
The enemy rose up! And the spirit also rose up!
Because, for what the enemy is doing against you, there is an equal Action of the Holy Spirit on your behalf.
Don’t just look at those who roar against you, sense the Power that is upon you – When the enemy comes against you, the Spirit of God will come upon you!
II. Then the Second thing we noticed about Samson is that he tore the Opposition apart.
He had no weapon in his hand, but he had a weapon in his Spirit. On the outside he was unarmed; but on the inside he was fully armed for Battle.
I believe there are Lion Slayers here today or reading this Message on the Label of DMC – And God has brought you to your Open Field. And you are a Lion Slayer.
You may hear the roar of the Lion from the outside; but you hear the roar of the Spirit that is resting upon you.
Something on the inside is working on the outside. You have the Grace of God.
I believe there are Lion Slayers here or reading now on the Label of DMC!
And may the Lord cause you to tear apart every Oppositions that is rising against you – Amen.
CLOSING DECREES:
And this Morning, I speak into your Life, into your Destiny, into your Purposes – By the Power of Almighty God whose we are, and Whom you serve:
I don’t know those who Pushed you outside and those who said you will not open Wells in this Place.
The Lord will turn their heart towards you; and one of these days, they are going to come back to you and say: ‘But we didn’t do you any harm; but we didn’t hurt you.’
Because, the Blessings of the Lord is coming upon you!
I say the Blessings of the Lord is coming upon you – Your Story is turning and it is Changing. And the Spirit of the Lord is coming upon you.
And that which roars against you, the Lord will cause you to roar against it!
And may you receive Strength to tear apart every Plans, every Manuever, every Activities, every Orchestrations, every Devices, every Forces.
Every Demonic Activities, you will tear it apart and tear it apart, in the Name of Jesus – Amen.
Although you may have no Weapon in your hands, you have a Weapon in your Spirit – For the Weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are Mighty through God.
And today, you are going to tear apart every Lions!
And I like how the Bible puts it – It says: Samson tore it apart like a Young Goat.
A Lazy Man says: There is a Lion; Samson says ‘come on Lion!’
The Lazy Man says: ‘I will not go face a Lion.’ But Samson, with the Strength of the Lord – tears apart a Lion!
Put your hand upon your head and say: Spirit of God, Come upon me, Empower me, Anoint me with Strength, with Power.
In my Rehoboth, Nothing will Stand in my Way!
I declared today: No weapon of the enemy woul succeed against me!
From today, I rise to Slay the lions in my Open Fields!
In this Season, I would Plant, I would Build, I would Harvest, in Jesus’ Name – AMEN.
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