WHEN YOU WANT TO MAKE GOOD FRIENDS, COME TO THE CHURCH

WHENEVER YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A PLACE WHERE YOU WILL FIND A FAMILY OF LIKE-MINDED PEOPLE, THE SOLUTION IS THE CHURCH.

WHEN YOU WANT TO MAKE GOOD FRIENDS, COME TO THE CHURCH.

THERE ARE ENOUGH PEOPLE IN EVERY TRUE CHURCH TO COMMUNICATE THE LOVE OF CHRIST.

THE CHURCH IS NOT A DISADVANTAGE. THE CHURCH IS A BLESSING.

ANY TERRITORY WITHOUT A CHURCH WILL BE A TERRITORY OF LAWLESSNESS, INDISCIPLINE AND LACK OF RESPONSIBILITY.

EVERY TIME YOU PRAY ONLY IN THE FACE OF DANGER, YOU ARE PRAYING LATE.

WAITING TO UNDERSTAND YOUR SITUATION BEFORE YOU PRAY IS LIVING A DEFEATED LIFE.

-Apostle Joshua Selman at Koinonia on ‘THE HOUSE OF GOD’. (Part 2)

Listen, please hear me believers: you are been trained to know how to be victorious. This is what you are receiving. Hear me, I will tell you the principal way the Church is used as a strategy to bring everything to the obedience of Christ. In this Kingdom, the Church executes its role as a strategy through the power of speaking words. The primary tool for change for a believer is not just physical action – the Words, especially when you are dealing with demonic forces. When you are dealing with systems and structures, there is no place for intelligence and acting participation. But when you are dealing with the realm of the spirit, it is immaterial even though it is real. So the weapon of our warfare…, but they are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.

For every time you see evil and darkness happening and you don’t do anything about it and say “I am helpless,” you are insulting your construction. Many times, because we have not seen the power of Words in action, we feel that all we do is just to pray? Go and ask Daniel in Babylon. Ask what the parliament sought for: “Silence this man just for thirty days to give us room to cause havoc.”

Can I tell you this: it is not lack of money that is making the devil to prevail over your family. I told you that when it starts from the realm of the spirit, when it arrives physically, it will now have an expression and diverge itself according to different areas. So when you see that everybody who has a job in your family is losing their job. The fact that you can discern it is proof that God is holding a battle axe that is refusing to rise in His hand. Let me tell you what to do from tonight: step into your room, switch from being a man to being a strategy. Church Gist. Lock that door and say, “Father there is something that can be done over this situation. I may not be able to physically give my brother a job or stop this plague of death, but in the name of Jesus…” Step into that control room and begin to send Words to manipulate realities from the realm of the spirit until they become consistent with the Word of God.

Every time you pray only in the face of danger, you are praying late. The real advantage of prayer is to go as a forerunner to your results. That means tomorrow’s prayer should not be prayed tomorrow. Tomorrow’s prayer should enter tomorrow and wait for that day so that anything that is inconsistent with God’s Word is stopped immediately. Words are powerful. Have this mentality; you are not a nuisance to the society.

Let me tell you one of the ways that Satan knows that you have entered a prophetic season, according to the realm of the spirit and according to scripture, Satan is not omniscient. That means he depends on many factors for the supply of his information. One of them is angelic activities because every time a man steps into a prophetic season, there are heightened angelic activities, moving across the earth and complying the human systems that must partner with prophecy to make the Word of God come to pass. Church Gist. Satan knows because he was once in the system. One of the ways you will know that you are stepping into a defining moment is through unusual attacks. Most of them will make no sense. This is why you need to pray. Waiting to understand your situation before you pray is living a defeated life. The prayer language was given as an advantage and all-purpose weapon.

The Church is a strategy that was invented by God’s intelligence. That means, when you downplay the Church, you are downplaying the principal strategy that sustains the ability to reveal Jesus. The strategy is not the denominationalism, the strategy is not the religiosity, the strategy is the Church in its purest and its essence.

The CCTV camera in many organizations is a strategy to ensure and insists that a level of maximum security be kept and it function to make sure that it captures the happenings around the vicinity to the end that everyone coming in and going out are protected. So God has made us strategies, regardless of where you find yourself. Moses was more than a prophet, Moses was the strategy that God used to bring an exodus of God’s people. Church Gist. It is fresh to me today as it was many years ago because it did not come from a human standpoint. I had a vision and in that vision, I was in an elevated place and then I saw a whole generation of people. In that vision, they were crying and saying no food and no water. I knew it was not just a group of people, it was a whole generation and I felt very responsible. I was talking with those who were in front, I said who is the cause for this? They pointed their hands at me and said, “you are the reason why we are starving from lack of food and water”. I said to myself, “I will not do this kind of evil against you”. Church Gist. I made up my mind in that vision, “I am coming to rescue you”. I remember in that vision that it looks like some people had chased me into that place of confinement and I was just trying to hide like Gideon and I made up my mind with the courage of Esther; “If I perish, I perish”.

I opened that door and the moment I opened the door to go down, I just saw this giant looking grey headed man. Very old with a bright garment. He smiled at me and said, “give me your hands. I will walk with you.” Now I know it was the Holy Spirit. He held my hand. It never tires me to share this experience. We were to jump from building to building but there were small ladders connecting one building to another. I was too small to take the giant leap. Church Gist. So, he jumped to the other side of the building and was waiting for me and to climb slowly through the ladder to connect and he just placed his hand and was smiling at me. What kind of a vision is this? Now I understand – I am a strategy. You must believe that about yourself. If you don’t have this mindset, you will live a defeated life of failure. This is more than a motivation; God is counting on you. There is a unique assignment to you as a strategy.
Prophesy to yourself: “I am God’s strategy”.

Listen, fire does not fear how many things are put on it. You don’t put wood and fire says it is too much. You just leave it for a while. It sustains a unique ability, you can’t catch it, yet everything physical submit to it. He makes His angels winds and His ministers, flames.
– May God locate you in an area where your efficiency will be without struggle.

The moment you find yourself struggling in an area, it is proof that the grace is not there. Don’t kill yourself. There are people who are not ministers of the Gospel like preachers. Just admit it with all honesty and look for where there is grace for you. Church Gist. I submit to your therefore that you must obtain grace from God to really know what area, you have been assigned to. Some of you are intercessors like Anna the prophetess, find rest in that noble ministry and see it as noble as preaching before a crowd on a Crusade ground. Don’t fail in that assignment.

Some of the people who pray for me as a ministry, you may never see them. They may never come on this pulpit. I met with a group of women, a few weeks ago. I traveled to a particular region and I was told that these women (they are comfortable and they are doing well), about seven of them. They said, Apostle, God gave us a mandate to pray for you. We are your intercessors by God. When I saw them, I was so broken. I said, “what do I do to these people to let them know that I love and appreciate them?” Church Gist. Now, when you see Joshua Selman doing well and doing exploits, you think it is just a product of his personal prayer life? Until the day we stand before Jesus, you will see how many people’s prayer provided the leverage for us to rise to this level. The moment you are in a position of visibility, be wise enough to know that the invisible is what births the visible. There are people because of their efficiency as God’s strategy, praying for men of God and praying for nations. You will find out that God will covenant with them that their whole family must have leaders. They may not be very educated but you will never lack leaders in those families. It is God’s covenant and His reward system.

2. The Church refers to the men and women (human vessels) that are the hosts of Heaven on earth and the executors of God’s purpose (1 Peter 2:5). The reason why you feel the presence of God on earth, the reason why you see Him manifest on earth is because there are human vessels that have accepted to be hosts for Him and there are human vessels that have accepted to be executors of His purposes. Church Gist. Plans and purposes are vain until you find not only a strategy; you find the human vessels that are willing to execute it. The Church in addition to being a strategy, we are the executors of the will and the purposes of God.

Romans 12:4-5
The Church is not only a strategy, it is also a people, God’s chosen people. The ones who become the principal executors of His will and His plan. Every time there are no human vessels, even when there is a strategy for God’s program, His program becomes limited until He finds a man. Church Gist. The Church refer to men, not chairs. Chairs without men is not the Church. A good sermon without the men to listen to it, does not make the Church. The Church refer to the men and women. Without men, there is no Church. The more God finds willing men, the more His purposes can advance. When there are few men who call upon the name of the Lord, it is going to be difficult to advance the purposes of God.

The extended meaning of this is that every time God sends men to church, we must obtain the grace to treat those men with honour, knowing that without men, there is no church and every time God is sending those men, you are grateful and you serve them the meal of God’s Word principally and then make sure that within the time that they are under your influence, they feel the love, the warmth, the peace and the fellowship that befits those who are called by the name of the Lord.

Invest in excellence, media, quality sound but not to the detriment of the men. That means if the Church refers to men, the highest attention should not be given to loud speakers, aesthetics or non-human entity. The highest attention in any church should be to the men. That means the most important part of any church service is the part that deals directly with men: Worship, prayer, Word. Do you know that everything from opening prayer to the grace is about men? Church Gist. When you are praying, you are praying that God will make the service a blessing. The worship team – calling us together in worship, to just press into God as we lay down our crowns and worship Him. The testimonies are coming to encourage men and to become a blessing that people can believe. The Word session comes as system of building and edification for the men – everything is about men.

Man of God, when ministry becomes all about you, there is something wrong. True ministry is not about the man that God uses. There is a place for the honour that priesthood demands. But I am telling you, the real assignment of a man, a minister is to build men. If you hate those men, you can never truly build the people you hate. Never be exalted too high that you lose touch with the men you are sent to because you will be aborting and destroying your assignment. We must sustain compassion, the stamina to deal with men and to do so well. Church Gist. As many of you know, I’ve had quite a very serious schedule right from Wednesday, I’ve been traveling over four states or so and then this morning and then right here. Sometimes people will say, “Apostle you are stretching yourself too much and all of that. But when I remember, that the Church is not the building or the pulpit, the Church refers to men, the men that Jesus died for, the men that He so loved and loves, the men that He’ll use to birth His purposes; I am motivated afresh to see that those men are trained. We must trust God to restore the discipleship, to make sure that every time we gather, we do not waste the time of God’s people. It is all about men in as much as it is all about Jesus Christ.

3. The Church is the only institution that is mandated to teach, mentor and build people in the ways and methods of God (1 Timothy 3:15). Every time you are searching for a place where you can find truth, truth being Jesus, doctrine, the ethics that make for civil living and international living, the Church is that institution mandated with the responsibility of shaping culture correctly. The Bible calls it the pillar and the ground of truth.

Hebrews 10:24-25
The Church is an institution. From a Kingdom standpoint, the Church is a real institution, valuable to God, for nation building. The Church is the principal contributor for the moral correctness of a territory. Any territory without a church will be a territory of lawlessness, carelessness, indiscipline and lack of responsibility. Church Gist. When you know this as a man of God and as a faith, you will respect minister. We are contributors to nation building because we are bringing principles that are applicable here and now even though spiritual in context but they have their applicability everywhere.

Whenever you are looking for a place where you will find a family of like-minded people, the solution is the Church. When you want to make good friends, come to the Church. There is no guarantee from scripture that God said I will tabernacle in a bank, a classroom or a court. But God made a covenant with His house that His presence will jealously be represented in His house. Church Gist. As an institution, the Church is the principal avenue for learning the ways of God. The manual for the growth and the maturity of the believers in the Church is the Bible in partnership with the Holy Spirit.

During the pandemic last year, where there was a lock down for about three months or there about, do you know how many people’s lives went down: spiritually and other wise? Because there are people based on their background, they have no family anywhere. There are people who have lost father and mother. The only family they have literally is the Church. There are people whose financial support comes from the Church. Church Gist. There are educated people today because they were part of the Church. They are people who have found purpose and meaning to their lives because they were part of the Church. You cannot tell how many people today who have found relevance in their lives, only because they came to church “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go to the house of God”. If you are looking for love and family, come to the Church.

Apostle, but my biggest pain has come from the Church. That is because the devil also came to the Church, so we have to get him out of the Church. He’s not invited. Never you ignore the Church as an institution. The Church is that one family. There are two kinds of family on earth; the physical family and the spiritual family. The spiritual family is a real family. If you are in church, you must have this family mentality; coming to church is like coming home. The only place where God can accept you as you are while He is changing you. If you ignore the Church, there are many things you will not be able to achieve. There are times that your fire can go down and then you come to the Church and you sit down. Sitting and hearing the testimonies of these precious people and I’m wondering, what if there was no church?

I know that many of you been wounded from church; bitter experiences from church. But regardless of what has happened, church still remains your zone of safety. The Church is the safest place. Everybody cannot be a devil. Church Gist. All you need is to find one person who loves and loves Jesus you genuinely and I can tell you, there are enough people in every true church to communicate the love of Christ.

It is God’s idea and His intention that every believer becomes part of a larger community of believers. Community living is the key to sustaining Kingdom value. It is going to be difficult for you to excel in isolation. So, when God picks you, He connects you to a larger body of believers. It is your assignment to connect indeed. The Church is not a disadvantage. The Church is a blessing. Jesus is the Head of the Church. If you don’t trust the body, trust the Head. The body may fail but the Head will never fail.

The nature of our work may seem to provide some level of elevated positions, but I tell you intrinsically, every single one, as far as Christ is concerned, we carry equal value. The value and the price being the blood of Jesus. It has never been my philosophy to treat people as far as my attention is concerned based on whatever it is. Whoever you father is or whoever you are, thank God for your pedigree. Church Gist. You will be given honour that is commensurate to your sacrifice but as far as my mindset and my understanding is concerned, everybody who God brings to this place is a valuable and a special person. In truth I may not be able to reach out to everybody. I wish I could. But I’m using this message tonight, to talk to you and to our global family, that as far as Joshua Selman is concerned and Koinonia is concerned, there are no ordinary members. Everyone purchased with the blood of Jesus is a special and unique person.

I remember during the graduation of the School of Ministry students, I was walking round, usually that is what I do because I am not preaching. So, I was walking round and I was almost going to look for a place to sit and all these my security and protocol people, they will not let me rest. They were doing their job and I was standing and people were watching me as though it was Jesus Christ. I said, “common listen. I am a human being. My mother is alive, my father is alive. It is only the privilege of God’s grace. I only sit here because of leadership, protocol and the assignment. The day I am not doing that assignment, I should be able to sit anywhere and feel comfortable. If I cannot do that, I am only insecure, it has nothing to do with God. Because my value is not based on the position. It is the revelation of who I am.”

For people who neglect the gathering of the believers and they said church is only in the heart, correct them and say you are right but not completely right. There is something you only receive when believers are gathered together (Psalm 133).

Make it a culture to never look down on anyone. In terms of finances, spiritual exposure, enlightenment, the truth is that we are not at the same level. Never the less, you should be comfortable to hug somebody whose father is not known. This is the Church. They should be able to find love without explanation, love without reason. The moment you have a reason, it is no longer love. The first core value in this ministry is love, not power. Everything is motivated by love . People are looking for a home more than a sermon. You can listen to sermon online but you cannot find a home online. There is a difference between listening to teaches online and being in the presence of God, a place of genuine laughter and love – no pretense.

PRAYER:
– Lord, help me to be effective as your battle axe, as the man you will use in this season and as part of this institution – the Church.

– Lord, give me the grace to be an active contributor to God’s strategy called the Church.

Father, we pray that Koinonia will remain a place of encounters, a place of revelation, a place of transformation and the House of God in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord we declare from tonight’s teaching that we are willing to be sharpened battle axes that You will use to beat down the gates of darkness. Lord we declare that we are the men and women You have found worthy to become hosts of Your presence and advancers of Your purposes. Lord we thank You for this family Koinonia and for every church and every ministry represented in the Body of Christ.

Oh God, strengthen the bond of fellowship. Bring unity over Your body. Let all the works of the devices, the prejudices and all the things that divide us and weaken our strength, I pray oh God that they will fade in light of what You are doing. As for this ministry, I pray that You will increase our bond of love and fellowship. That in truth, we will love one another without discrimination, without favouritism. We’ll love one another in spite of our different level of stratification in the name of Jesus.

Lord we commit ourselves to love one another and to love You. We pray that in and through our lives, Jesus will be revealed. We pray by extension oh God, committing our global family across the nations of the earth; we pray that that bond of unity and love will rest upon everyone of us in Jesus’ name.

PROPHETIC DECLARATIONS:
– May the Lord bless you, prosper you, and reveal Himself to you.

– I decree that everything that has mocked God concerning your life, as a result of your coming tonight, I prophesy and I declare; it ceases from happening in your life!

– I prophesy to you, in the name that is above all names, return with strange miracles of financial open doors!

– For everyone here who is sick in his body the devil has taken advantage of you, not the Church. I decree and declare; that everything that represents darkness in your life, let it be far away from your life!

– Every business here, I decree and declare; the grace to excel, let it come upon you!

– Every dormant gift that is lying down within you, I decree and declare; that gift is activated!

– Anyone whose spiritual life is going down; your prayer life and your passion for God is going down. I decree and declare fresh fire upon your spiritual life!

– Everyone who have been bereaved, we decree and declare, let the Healer bring healing to you right now!

– We stand here prophetically and we declare over Nigeria, Africa and Abuja. We decree and declare, in the name of Jesus Christ that the purposes of God will be established in our lives in the name Jesus!

– Every controlling power over this territory; FCT, Nigeria, the continent of Africa, we lend our voices as the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, as a united force, we decree and declare; like Dagon fell before the Ark, we declare that every altar that does not project Jesus, let it fall before the Ark of His presence in the name of Jesus.

– The Lord bless you. The Lord honour you in Jesus name.