Exhortation to Worship the Lord
By Sade Tagbo | October 26, 2009
For the Lord would say, that when I bless you and pick you up into a heavenly place with Me, hear what My Word would say, separate yourself from the world and sanctify yourself in My presence and worship Me and glorify Me that I may continue to live and to move in your life.
When I bless you, come before Me and sustain yourself, let the enemy come and take advantage of you because you become puffed up. Hear what I would say, saith the Lord, believe Me and believe what My Word says in times of great victory and in time of great trial. For there is nothing else which will strengthen your walk as My Word in the power of My Spirit.
Hear what the Spirit would say, at all times worship me, at all times, in strong times, in weak times. For I desire this kind of fellowship with you on a daily basis and I’ll order your life and strengthen you on each side of the path. For on each side as the path grows narrower and narrower, the enemy gathers armies on each side and waits for his chance when you come by this narrow path. But when you walk by him worshipping Me, he is stilled, he is stilled and he cannot get upon your back and ride you down the road that I am bringing you on.
Hear what the Spirit would say and surrender yourself to Me. For you must accomplish these things. I drop them upon you by My grace, but they must be accomplished in you in times of testings and trials. Have I not told you that I am the Lord your God who changes not? And do you think that the circumstances that rage on this planet have anything to do with what I say? For those who lift themselves up and believe Me and the Spirit of Truth, they live in another realm, saith the Lord.
Received at the Family Prayer Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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How to Become a Hero of Faith in Your Generation
By Sade Tagbo | July 27, 2009
Do you ever wonder what it will take to become a hero of the faith? There are people that we look up to and admire. We admire their wholehearted surrender to God and the results for the kingdom.
As a young believer, I remember reading the stories of preachers who won thousands of people over to Christ. I remember watching the videos of services where the sick were healed. I loved those stories and videos, but it never occurred to me that God has called every believer to walk in the same level of intimacy and power that I saw in these people.
We’ve all heard the stories of Old Testament believers such as Daniel, David, and Joseph. They seemed to have God on their side in all situations. In the New Testament, we’ve read of Paul, Peter and other apostles who preached God’s Word with signs and wonders following. These signs and wonders followed whether they were in someone’s home, preaching to a crowd, or witnessing from prison.
They all served God in ways that caused their names to stand out for generations as men who knew God. They were filled with the fullness of God and He was able to show forth His power through them. God wants to fill EVERY believer the same way.
In Ephesians 3:19, Paul wrote to the Ephesian church and prayed
“…that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
Do you ever wonder about the possibility of knowing and walking with God as intimately as these men did? If you do, I have good news for you: God is not a respecter of persons. He has made it possible for ANYONE to be filled with the fullness of God. This truth is outlined in the scriptures:
Acts 10:34-35:
Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.”
Mark 11:23
For verily I say unto you, That WHOSOEVER shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
Do you know what “whosoever” means? It means anyone! THAT MEANS YOU! God is not a Father who plays favorites. No one has a “special” call. Even Stephen who waited on tables in the early church walked in miracles, signs and wonders. He has prepared a mantle and anointing for you!
Acts 6:8
And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.
Well, you say, I really do believe that God wants to use me. So what do I do? How do I go from here to where I need to be?
The answer to that is simple. The key to becoming a mature Christian to the point of serving your generation like the heroes of the faith did is to DO WHAT THEY DID!!
That’s it? Yes! And the truth is that if you will take the things that they did and do them faithfully, you will receive the same promises that they received.
Hebrews 6:11-12
And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
It is on this principle of doing the Word that many believers fail to realize the fullness of what is available in Christ. They believe that receiving the fullness of God comes from:
Reading books
Listening to tapes/CDs
Going to church
Volunteering at church
Attending conferences
Working at being good
Giving money
Going for pastoral counseling
Hanging out with other believers
Doing nice and good things for people
Asking for prayer from everyone they can find
Attending Bible School
Adding longer titles to their church positions
Adding more church functions
Giving up on church and staying home
None of these things are bad in themselves. In fact, some of them are good things to do. However, I challenge you to read the stories of any Bible hero or hero of the faith and see if ANY of them will tell you that the above activities were the secret to the power of God in their lives. The truth is that NONE OF THESE THINGS CONSTITUTES DOING WHAT THE HEROES OF THE FAITH DID.
Our desire to experience Christianity through what we can see, hear, touch and feel keeps us going round in circles and coming up frustrated every time.
The Christian walk is a walk of the inner man, not the outer man. The growth comes from the inner man, not strengthening your soul and flesh through your senses.
We have to learn to let the inner man grow. The inner man is the part of us that walks with God. We need to let it take over the part of us that walks on the earth.
When the men and women of God that we admire rose up and determined that they wanted to walk with God, the most important things that they did were:
1. Receive the Holy Ghost: Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the LORD our God shall call. (Acts 2:38-39)
2. Pray Much in Other Tongues: Paul said, “I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all.” (1st Corinthians 14:18). But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost (Jude 20)
3. Devote Yourself to the Word and Prayer: Peter said, “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:4)
4. Fast: Paul said, “In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.” (2 Corinthians 11:27)
5. Hold Fast Your Confession: Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for He is faithful that promised) (Hebrews 10:23)
6. Worship God at All Times: By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name. (Hebrews 13:15)
7. Obey God: As you pray and fast and worship, He will speak to you and give you instructions for growth and maturity. Whatever He tells you, do it.
Can you see how the list of effective things to do is much shorter than the list of ineffective things that we do? That is the simplicity of the gospel. God is not trying to make things hard.
We are the ones who delay our destiny by continually looking for “a new revelation”, “a new book”, “a new church” and “a new way of doing things.”
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.
It is time to revive the real dream that God has put into the heart of every believer: The dream to walk in His fullness as His sons.
Let us stop majoring on the minor items of our faith and begin to focus on bringing a personal revival to our own selves. Bring a revival to your own heart and mind and home. Revive your first love for the Lord by seeking Him deeply and with your whole heart.
And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13)
And because God is not a respecter of persons, He has made the process of growth so simple that anyone anywhere on the face of the earth can participate in His process of walking in the spirit and growing into the fullness of the stature of Christ.
We must get off the roller-coaster of modern Christianity and return to the simplicity of the gospel and walk God’s path into His love and power.
Do you remember what to do?
1. Receive the Holy Ghost
2. Pray Much in Other Tongues
3. Devote Yourself to the Word and Prayer
4. Fast
5. Hold Fast your Confession:
6. Worship God Privately
7. Obey God
Grace and Peace to you,
Sade Tagbo
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Praying in Tongues is the Process by which the Holy Spirit Teaches
By Sade Tagbo | June 24, 2009
This is a long one, but the message was so crucial, I did not want to break it into parts. If you can’t read it all now, print it out and save for later:
There is a common misconception that when we become born-again, our spirit-man is fully grown and full developed in Christ, and all we have to do is tap into the great revelation that is in our spirit-man. The Bible says differently:
1 Peter 1:2
As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.
When we come into the kingdom of God, we come in as babies, children. It is now up to us to grow up into the full-grown stature of Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 4: 13 – 15
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
As babies in the Kingdom, the things of God are still mysteries. However, we now have a born-again spirit that is able to understand the things of God. Before becoming born-agin we could not understand the things of God’s kingdom.
This is why Jesus told His disciples, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” They could not understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God because they did not have born-again spirits that could receive the revelation. God is a spirit. His greatest desire is not to speak to our physical ear or our physical brain, but to commune with us spirit to spirit.
1 Corinthians 2: 7- 16
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ.
These verses are so wonderful. They contain the understanding of how God wants to relate to His born-again children. All through the Old Testament, God related to men, but He could not commune with them spirit to spirit because they were not born-again. Jesus was the very first man after Adam to live on the earth with a spirit-man that was alive unto God.
When we became born-again, we received the spirit of Christ. We now have a re-born, recreated spirit-man that has the nature of God. God can now commune with us spirit to spirit. But He doesn’t do it through our senses – seeing, hearing, tasting, feeling, and smelling. No, He now communes with us in our spirit-man through the Holy Spirit.
God could not reveal His mysteries to natural (unsaved) men. He can only reveal them by His Holy Spirit. Now we no longer have the spirit of the world (a dead spirit). But we now have a new nature, a spirit-man which is of God, so now we can now know the things that are freely given to us of God. These mysteries of God are not things that man’s intellect or wisdom or knowledge can teach. These mysteries can only be revealed and taught by the Holy Spirit unto our spiritual mind (the mind of Christ) which is inside our spirit.
So, how does the Holy Spirit teach us these things? He doesn’t do it when you read a book, because that is knowledge passing to your natural mind. He doesn’t do it when you hear a sermon – same problem – you are getting information through your physical senses. He doesn’t do it through natural circumstances – that is still the process by which the human senses receive information.
All these things can help to renew your natural mind so that it comes into cooperation with your spirit-man, but they are not the ways that the Holy Spirit teaches. He is a spirit and He teaches your spirit. How?
1 Corinthians 14:
Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.
For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.
But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.
He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church.
I would that ye all spake with tongues but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.
When you speak in an unknown tongue, you are speaking mysteries! When you pray in tongues, the Holy Spirit is praying out all the things that eye has not seen, nor ear heard, have entered into the hearts of a man, all the things that God has prepared for you!
Some of these mysteries are revelation understanding of the Bible that you read. Some of these mysteries are specific instructions about your calling, your ministry and your future. Some of these mysteries are issues in the world today that God is laying on you to pray for.
What Paul was saying in these verses is that as believers, we can’t use the gift of tongues for personal edification in the church setting, unless God has revealed the interpretation to someone else (or to you).
He’s telling these believers not to just stop at the ability to pray in tongues, but to pray themselves up to the point that God begins to give them words of prophecy in the public assembly so that other people can be built up and blessed by the revelation knowledge that God was sending.
When the Holy Spirit speaks to you or gives you revelation knowledge, He reveals it to your spirit-man. Spending long hours praying in other tongues gives Him the authority or permission to take over your spirit, teach you revelation knowledge, and give you instructions for your life.
Remember that God does not forcefully do anything to you. In the same way that He does not force you to receive salvation, nor force you to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost, in the same way, He will not force you to come and learn of Him.
Some people have complained the praying in tongues is an “easy” kind of prayer. Why would God make it hard? Do you think He is trying to make it difficult for you to move into the manifestation of His life? Do you think He is trying to put obstacles in your way? No! If anything, His delight is to give you His Kingdom.
Luke 12:32
Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
You need to make a decision to give the Holy Spirit the opportunity to teach you one on one. Let Him become your personal spiritual tutor. Make time to pray in the Holy Ghost and meditate on the Word of God.
Matthew 11:28-30
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Blessings,
Sade Tagbo
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New Audio Messages
By Sade Tagbo | February 7, 2009
I have updated the audio page of the Prayer Boot Camp with 8 new audio messages from the Prayer Boot Camp services.
You may download the mp3s here: Prayer Boot Camp Audio Page
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Develop An Image of Hope
By Sade Tagbo | September 20, 2008
Here is a recorded teaching from the Prayer Boot Camp group on developing an image of hope to strengthen your faith:
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The Dangers of Self-Deception
By Sade Tagbo | August 25, 2008
It is always an amazing sight to observe a man (or woman’s) ability to remain in denial about a situation in their lives. Too often, we refuse to open our eyes to accurately evaluate our situations and take action to correct a problem until it is too late.
Unfortunately, Christians, are too often subject to this fault if we do not actively guard against it. This is the issue that James addressed in the Scripture:
James 1:22- 25
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
When I was a college student, I was the head of the intercessory group for my campus fellowship. I was passionate about prayer, always heading out to the campus chapel with my friends or on my own to pray.
After I left college, I retained my passion for prayer, but my actual time spent in prayer dwindled at times to almost nothing without my noticing. I continued to talk about prayer and I read books on prayer, but without the support of my friends and the environment where young people were passionate about God, I became a hearer only and not a doer.
Needless to say, my spiritual life was lukewarm and I was simply coasting on past spirituality, but I wasn’t moving ahead with God. That wasn’t the worst part of it, though. The worst thing that can happen to a person is to HAVE A PROBLEM AND NOT EVEN KNOW IT! I thought I was still a pretty spiritual person.
The change came for me when one of my pastors told us to record our prayer time for a week in a journal. I had been evaluating my prayer life based on my intentions and desire to pray. However, an audit of my prayer time revealed that I barely prayed two hours each week!
No wonder, I wasn’t moving ahead spiritually. No wonder my life remained the same year after year. No wonder I wasn’t walking in victory. I woke up and realized that even though I attended church and even volunteered, I had made zero progress in my personal relationship with God. I was spinning my wheels, covering the same ground over and over.
Don’t let this happen to you. Why does it seem that so few Christians enter into the fullness of destiny? It’s because we let years whiz by without making real progress in God. Those years turn into decades and those decades turn into a lifetime.
Don’t waste a lifetime. Do not let yourself coast by being a hearer (or thinker) of the Word only. You must DO the Word of prayer to see the results in your heart, character, marriage, finances, ministry and family.
This week, I encourage you to make a note of the time you spend in private prayer. If you prayed fifteen minutes today, write it down. Two hours tomorrow, write it down. At the end of the week, total it up and audit yourself. Do you meet the expectations that you have set? Does the reality of your prayer life match up with the image of your spiritual maturity that you have in your mind?
Remember that we have the Lord’s warning:
Matthew 7:24-27
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, AND DOETH them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, AND DOETH THEM NOT, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
It doesn’t matter how much we attend church and listen to good sermons on prayer. It doesn’t matter how much we talk about prayer. Our house is not on the rock until we DO the word by actually getting in and praying.
If we do not build a lifestyle of prayer by praying, when trials come, our house will be washed away. By the time the storm arrives, it is too late to start working on the foundation.
Knowledge of prayer does not make you prayerful.
Hearing good sermons about prayer does not make you prayerful.
A desire to pray does not make you prayerful.
Talking about prayer does not make you prayerful.
Vowing to pray does not make you prayerful.
Only PRAYING makes you prayerful.
So my friends, take a little time to consider your prayer life today. Remember, this is not an issue for condemnation. It is an issue for creating change by taking action. Not tomorrow or next week, take action today. Do the Word of prayer and you will be blessed in your doing without fail, because God cannot lie.
Grace and Peace to you,
Sade
Topics: Prayer | 2 Comments »
Praying For Transformation to Love
By Sade Tagbo | August 14, 2008
Some years ago, I began to tackle head-on the issues of what was manifest in my heart and in my life. I’m supposed to be like Jesus, right? Jesus is Love, therefore, Sade is…. ?. Let’s just say there was much to be desired.
Permanent change comes from within and the problem with justifying your behavior is that the justification removes the ability to change from you. If you deny there is a problem, then you can’t fix it. I was certainly not under any illusions about my imperfections. As my dear brother Gary Carpenter would say, “If you are judging me, then you’re not a very good judge because my imperfections are quite plain and obvious.”
Nonetheless, it was clear to me that I needed to pursue love as Paul instructed in 1st Corinthians 13:13 – 14:1
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. Follow after charity…
So, I began to do this by praying in the Spirit, or praying in tongues, fasting and making confessions of the Word of God over myself in the area of Love. By confessions, I do not mean confessing sin. I am referring to taking the Scriptures and creating a present tense declaration of faith in the truth of those scriptures in your life. God creates by speaking and He created us to operate like He does even though we are not Deity.
Romans 4:17
(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
I really like this excerpt from Gary Carpenter’s article “Tapping Into God’s Power”:
Isa 55:10-11
For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.There is only one way to “return God’s Word unto Him” and that is by CONFESSING IT AS BEING PRESENT TENSE TRUTH IN YOUR LIFE! This is the faith of our father Abraham. He had to begin calling himself the father of many nations (Calling those things which be not as though they were) long before his son Isaac was ever conceived in the womb of Sarah.
There simply is no separating the power of the Holy Spirit from the spoken Word of God! Get this; the Lord said to me, “The Holy Spirit will not manifest the unspoken word of God for anybody…not even God the Father! The Holy Spirit would still be brooding over the face of the waters today waiting for the SPOKEN Words ‘Let there be light!’”
It was as Abraham confessed the “promise” that the Holy Spirit began changing Abraham and Sarah’s bodies at the molecular level, causing sufficient change that Sarah actually began ovulating again (she was long past menopause) and causing sufficient change in Abraham that he became virile again. But if Abraham had not been obedient to “speak the promise” as if it were already so in his life (”I am the father of many nations”) the Holy Spirit would NEVER have manifested those changes … God’s will or not! The number one way that the Holy Spirit works in the earth is …He manifests the SPOKEN Word!
So, no matter what problems people come to me with: health, marital, financial, children, etc., etc., my counsel to them is always the same: “Find two or three promises from the Word of God that cover your case. Begin worshipping God for these promises and begin saying them out of your mouth as if they were already manifested in your life. Quit speaking the negative circumstances, COMPLETELY! Keep saying about yourself what the Word says about you. The Holy Spirit will manifest those promises in your life.”
That’s it! Simple! Too simple for most folks to accept! Yet it is the power of God! It works every time for those that do it! There are no exceptions! There are no difficulties that are too hard for the Holy Spirit! There are no special cases! This always works! Period! Even those that “try it” usually fail because they become “weary in well doing” and quit before the manifestation comes. But it will always come if they do not. It is through faith AND patience that we possess the promises. Amen?
Click Here to read the rest of Gary’s Article. http://www.garycarpenter.org/tapinto.html
Now when it comes to my own confessions on the Love of God, I have kind of gone overboard because I know just how far I have to go to become like Jesus and I have only one lifetime to get there. So, a couple of years ago I created a confession document full of Scriptures about the love of God and the fruit of the Spirit in my life.
It takes me about seven minutes each time to speak out the entire document. Beyond that, I then read out the confessions onto an MP3 recording that I now play in my ipod so that I can do my confessions not only when I have time to pray privately, but also when I am cleaning house or driving around with the kids.
Since I started these, I have seen real, permanent change in my life and relationships. Well, you’re not perfect yet, Sade. Well, no, but I’m more perfect than I used to be and when you see me next time, I’ll be more perfect than I am now, Hallelujah! I’m so grateful that God isn’t going to leave me like I am. My confession is that as Jesus is, so am I in this world.
If you need to increase the level of your love walk (and you know you need to!), I invite you to download my Love Confessions document and speak these over your life. If you have a computer or MP3 player, you can download the recording of the confessions as well.
Don’t just do this one time and wait for change. Press into the change. Pray until the change comes. Be ready to pray for ten thousand years, knowing that God is faithful to answer. Speak these words over and over and give the Holy Ghost the opportunity to manifest the Love of God through you in this lifetime.
John 13:35
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
Click here to download the Love Confessions as a Word Document
Click here to download the MP3 recording of the Love Confessions
Grace and Peace to you,
Sade
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Audio Message: Praying Through to Victory
By Sade Tagbo | August 11, 2008
This is the audio recording from the Prayer Boot Camp service of August 10th, 2008.
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Face to Face Communion – Part Two
By Sade Tagbo | July 28, 2008
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Face to Face Communion – Part One
By Sade Tagbo | July 20, 2008
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