Founder of Living Faith Church, Bishop David Oyedepo has said positive action is required for the believer’s faith to work.
He also gave personal testimonies of how he maintained a positive outlook in the face of daunting challenges.
Oyedepo who was ministering on Wednesday; in the morning session of the ongoing 40th anniversary of the ministry said, “without a positive action, it may well be difficult to receive anything from God.”
He said he has never mounted the pulpit without a smiling face; even when his wife was down with the sickness.
It will be recalled that his wife came down with an unknown sickness for over a year in the early 2000 but the Lord brought her back to her feet in a miraculous way.
Oyedepo assured the congregation that no prophetic agenda will fail in their lives if they continue thinking positively, speaking positively, and acting positively until what is being asked is delivered.
He said when the 50,000-seater auditorium was being built he knew the exact date the building would be commissioned. “I knew when it would be commissioned. God said September 18, 1999, the auditorium would be dedicated. I saw the date. It was so real. There was no room to doubt. I believed it,” he said.
He said the church had earlier thought of converting Canaan land to farmland before the Lord gave prophetic direction for the building to commence.
“When the Lord spoke, we had to get to work. There was no budget, but God was meeting the needs as they came. At a point some people said we should stop the auditorium and concentrate on the Faith Academy. And I told them is God complaining? What can we do on our own? Nothing. It’s God’s project.”
Bishop Oyedepo said there were many things that happened that could have made him doubt but he refused to doubt. “There was a particular rain that fell days to the commissioning of the auditorium. But I did not see the rain. I saw the roof of the auditorium.”
He said God spoke to him that if He could complete the creation of the world in six days, the auditorium was not a big deal. “That was how I came back and I was fired in my spirit. God made the commissioning a reality,” Oyedepo said.
Earlier in the message, he said, “If your mind does not receive it, your heart can’t believe it. As a man thinks in his heart so he is. You must continue to think about the validity, reliability, and reality of the prophetic word. Let your thought pattern be informed by God’s word. You have to bridle your thought with the word of life.
“Your tongue is also important for maximum delivery. You shall have whatsoever you say. Beware what you say, it will determine what you see. Some are genuine in their work but they destroy their life with their mouth. If you are not a prosperity talker you will be struggling with poverty.”
He said the problem many have is that they don’t want to obey God but they want to blame him, “If you won’t obey God, nothing will change. Your experience is irrelevant it is your obedience that matters.”