FOR THE LORD SUSTAINS YOU: Thanking The Lord For The Life Of Oreoluwa ADEJUMO, M'Wings
I heard in my spirit, "for the Lord sustains you". I knew not what to say or preach or bring as a definite reason for thanksgiving (on your behalf) until I heard, "for the Lord sustains you".
Of a truth, it's the Lord who has sustained you. Same has sustained all of us also but in particular (as today 30/07/23 is your birthday), it fits to see specifically why you're the favoured one who the Lord has particularly sustained.
People and well-wishers with us, what does the Bible say concerning Oreoluwa and how the Lord has been her sustainer till now? See this Bible verse with me.
Psalms 3:5, KJV
"I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me".
Did we all read that? Once more, echo to me what it says specifically as it addresses Oreoluwa who we're celebrating today? It says, "she laid down and slept; she wakes; for the Lord sustains her". First thing first. That place says, "you lie down and sleep..." Let that portion suffice us for now. When that place says, "you (Oreoluwa) laid down and slept", it is referring and reminding you of your daily laying down or going to bed. Oreoluwa, I'll like you try to count how many times you have gone to bed since you have been born. I want to see whether it is countable and rememberable.
(We may be laughing already)...
If I'll join the other part of that verse to it, it'll read, "you (Oreoluwa) lay down and sleep; you wake up because the Lord sustains you". On daily basis that you have travelled into the dream world, sleeping, resting, taking a nap and being inactive (unlike being awake), that place brings to our remembrance one major thing that the Lord has carefully, selectively and proudly done for you. It is that, "He sustains you". Oreoluwa, God is bringing one thing to you. It is that, "I want you to see that I am the One who sustains you". It is just like He says of being the One who heals you (and consequently us or all of us).
So, you ought esteem and see the importance of having been kept on this journey of laying down to sleep and waking up thereafter (to and fro) for these long years. It is this recognition that can and will fill you with gratitude for being alive today. Yes, the gratitude to fall before God and acknowledge Him as your sole keeper and sustainer.
No one has given you the hope of a new day to see the sunlight and participate in the business of our world if not this God. So, He's solely claiming right, praise, esteem for having been your keeper, watcher and sustainer. And let's be sincere, you ought acknowledge Him so. All of us who are well wishers ought acknowledge Him so in our lives too. Don't give - in any way; don't mistakenly give praise in any way to any one, thing or factor for having been responsible for your sustainance. They're not capable. Nothing is enough and has been given that ability to sustain man daily in this life. It is rather His Creator's to see to or cease from! Not any man's. Believe me.
If you were living in Japan which has the highest life expectancy in the world, their government and welfare put together is far less to be given the credit of having sustained you when you sleep and then wakes up. No! It ain't any good government. So, I'll say none of us here, including my wife, the celebrant should make the mistake of ever u-turning praise and usurping God's glory by giving it to another standing or existing entity. I can tell you from having known God and His fear that that'll be the death of that entity in particular. Funny enough, God may spare the one who wrongly attributes the honour of sustainance to another but that other one (who the honour is being given to and who receives it without knowing God to attribute it to) shall die. To be acquitted before God and His host, let me quickly confess that though I am your husband, I am not the one and I have not been the one who has been sustaining you. If anybody is now here who will see it wise to claim God's gold of having being your sustainer (whether they be father, mother, sibling, boss, doctor, personal nurse, friend) etc, let them go ahead. However, I, Olusola ADEJUMO M'Wings have saved my own head. Heaven is my witness and all of you reading are.
You know one aged song that we used to sing in primary school occurs to me now. That song summarily briefs God's sustaining work over you. It says:
"Every day and every night
Angels are keeping watch over us
All day and all night
Angels are keeping watch over us".
It is this sustaining work the Lord did and persistently does as the years roll and turn and as the cycle continues that has made each and everyone of us here today to still be relating with you as a living soul. Let me quickly stop here to discharge the burden for prayer in my heart. I'm soaked with a particular burden for prayer. Say with me everyone: "may I not stop enjoying God's sustainance". There's no one who they say dies untimely that it's not because he lacks sustainance for that day. Sustainance is like daily bread that we gather from God. Each day's sustainance must be given us by Him. It's still give us today our daily bread. That's what we live on. That's what we enjoy. So, I pray for you that you shall not stop knowing God's sustainance. You have known it today; you shall know it tomorrow and shall continually know it until it could be said of you that you discharge and serve the will of God in your generation and then sleeps (Acts 13:36).
What a thing that a man can go to bed and in the hope of being sustained make plans for tomorrow!
What are plans if not that the Lord sustains you? Plans can't execute themselves. They need the planner, a human being (who derives his breath (araulah) from God and also takes his being from God to give them meaning by execution. Just like we're useless without God and His daily sustainance, so are plans useless without us. They can't execute themselves. But I thank God for you that even when you sleep, you always wake up (and that's obviously because the Lord sustains you). We can't rob God of what He does. We have to give Him the works of His hands and let His work praise Him at the gate.
Look at me people and all our well wishers. God wants to empower you. God is saying I should tell you that He wants to empower you and arm you against death. You may be curious, already at your chair's edge or on tip toe seeking to understand how God wants to do that. That's praise worthy!
God says I should tell you that, "when you go, you will come. When you sleep; you will wake". He's saying He'll keep your to and fro (not only in real life journeys as the cycle of life goes) but even in your travels while asleep. Accidents do happen even in sleep-travels but God is saying, you'll always have safe journeys. He's assuring that He has given you the power to lay down and wake up and because He has given you that franchise or power to lay down and wake up, no one anywhere (including spirits) can gang up to say, 'no more fuel of sustainance for you". They just can't terminate you. Some passages of the Bible are flooding me now.
One, a king stretched his hand against a prophet with a proclaimation to seize him. Immediately, the Bible records that hand withers and could not be retracted.
1 Kings 13:4, KJV
"And it came to pass, when king Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which had cried against the altar in Bethel, that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him. And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him".
Note, "so that he could not pull it again to himself". That's a big trouble and frustration that he couldn't bring back what he willingly sent and stretched out. Kai! I pray for you that you will not be denied the ability to take up what you have willingly laid down. When you sleep, I declare again and again, you shall always recover back to the land of the living.
The power word I want to use is the fact that "he stretched it out (he went, he slept) but he couldn't retract it back (return or wake to life again). Why? The ability to go (to sleep) was exercised freely by him but the more or greater power to return (wake up as fit our discussion) was denied him.
On this note, I am proclaming upon you that you shall be granted daily and as at now you have been granted by God the ability not only to LAY IT DOWN but to TAKE IT UP.
Jesus while speaking to His disciples also secretly addresses death (though not present with them there) not to glory over Him at all. He said it as a pro and one with heaven's revelation. He knows of a surety that no one could cut His life short since the FATHER has not given it to them. So, He tells death (knowing He'll also soon have to lay it down - die) to keep shut and watch it because... He has been given the right to lay it down and then pick it up. Of Himself, He exercises control over His very life. What a thing! Don't you like that franchise? Won't you like God to give you that?
John 10:17-18, KJV
"17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father".
Look at trouble staring at us (lol). Jesus says He has power to lay it down and to take it again. That's the power that other king lacked. That's the same power God is giving you today.
The power to go and come even in your sleep-journeys and outings. You can't be killed. Because of a surety, you must live on. You must go and come; sleep and wake. You have the power now but however you can give yourself away. You're the only one who can give yourself away. Watch your mouth people! And let me tell you, laying it down is not as important as picking it up indeed. Going is not as important as returning. Stretching is lesser than retracting. So, it's not important that you sleep or journey, you must wake and always return.
I told you Jesus spoke as a pro. He knows definitive things about Himself. Imagine Him saying, "no man can take His life..." and then concluding with, "this commandment I have received of My Father". Eeeh! Imagine God signing a contract with you that no one could kill you! It means God, the Father fully gave the exercising of right to Jesus on His own life. What a thing! He has the power to lay it down and then take it up. May that power prove for you on daily basis.
On this basis, I say thank God for being your sustainer on daily basis as you sleep, wake, grow, glow and go.
Meanwhile, "I sleep and wake up" as used in that Psalm also is used to denote our day in, day out living and how it has been the Lord who has been sustaining us in that to and fro living, journey, repeated cycle and repeated habit of our life.
May the God of yesterday (who sustained you) prove Himself as the God of days to come(that you yet haven't seen). Do you know my prayer for you dear? It's that you'll have the testimony of David. What was his testimony?
1 Samuel 17:37
"David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me from the paw of the lion, and from the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee".
David acknowledged that the God of ages past in his life is as well and will be the God of years to come. That's your testimony. You've seen today (because the Lord sustains you), you'll see tomorrow (because He'll yet sustain you). You'll be able to look back in retrospect and summon assurance to defy the future, its posers and challenges and gory over it all in victory. Look, you have seen tomorrow. That commandment you have also received of your Father!
Olusola ADEJUMO,
M'Wings.
Morning Wings Ministry, Nigeria.
+234 81 3704 6812
morningwingministry@gmail.com
