======================================================================== WHAT QUALIFIES A MAN FOR GOD S USE by Gbile Akanni ======================================================================== Summary: Gbile Akanni teaches that God qualifies men and women for His use based on their prompt, unquestioning obedience and the condition of their hearts rather than their numbers or external qualifications. Duration: 1:22:23 Topics: "Obedience", "Divine Calling" Scripture References: Judges 7:1-2, Judges 7:12, Daniel 3:16-18, Luke 14:28, Job 22 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In this powerful sermon, Gbile Akanni explores what qualifies a man or woman for God's use, emphasizing that God values obedience and the condition of the heart above external factors like numbers or status. Using the story of Gideon, Akanni highlights the importance of prompt and unquestioning obedience as the key to unlocking God's power in a believer's life. This message challenges listeners to examine their own hearts and obedience, encouraging them to become vessels God can use mightily. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Living Seed Media brings to you God's Word, which is his comprehensive equipment for changing lives. May the Lord impact your heart as you encounter his Word. For further enquiry or counsel, contact Peace House, PO Box 971, Boko, Benue State, Nigeria. Telephone numbers 0703 03636 59 0703 76811 98 Email address lsmediaatlivingseed.org or visit our website at www.livingseed.org Let us sit back and listen as the servant of God brings forth the Word of Life. Now we have come to begin now to look at what does God look for in the men, in the women he want to use? And what is it that disqualifies men from entering into the glorious inheritance that God is keeping for our lives? What does God look for in the men and women that he uses? And what is it that disqualifies a man or a woman from what God is keeping in store for him or for her? I don't want you to miss the point that at the point of divine recruitment, maybe that's the most critical thing that I want to talk about. Because when it came to the time of divine use, when it came to the time when God was going to use the people he has chosen, you will notice that it was effortless. You will notice that they did nothing. You will notice that they only were told to blow the trumpet that was in their mouth, and they were only to break the pitcher in their hands, and they were only to shine the light that God had put inside their pitcher. And they didn't do more than that. And the host of Midianites, the Amalekites, and the people from the East, they were all destroyed. I didn't know how God moved in their lives. But all that that has done to my heart is that the biggest challenge is for God to get the right man to use. There's no problem with God's work. I want all of you to hear me very well. What God will do to demonstrate his power and his glory is not a problem because God is able, abundantly able, much more than able to do, much more than we could ever ask or imagine or think. I still want to say to you now, no matter the host of the Midianites, no matter the host of the Amalekites, no matter the host of the people from the East, no matter the numberless multitude of their equipment, of their advancement, no matter how you think the people have gone all over the world, no matter how the terrible recklessness that you are thinking has already overtaken our world and is making it look as if God cannot do anything, I want you to perish that thought from your heart. When it is time for God to move, it is going to overtake all that you are seeing today. But you see, the biggest issue, which is the biggest matter for me this morning, is for God to recruit the kind of men, the kind of women that he can use. If God will find a man that he can use, if God will find a woman that he can use, then the battle is already finished. So may I begin to say to you, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East and the enemy, they are only standing and they are preparing to stand strong only because God has not found correct vessels that he will use. All the challenges you are facing, either in Nigeria, in Ghana, anywhere all over the world, they are not a challenge to our God. They are only standing there, they are only manifesting and shooting out their chest as if they were something only because God had yet to find the right men, the right women to use. I want you to note, as we are going to go on, that God did not need more than these 300 to disconflict the entire multitude. God did not even need to put a gun in their hand for him to finish the Midianites. God did not need to even wear upon them heavy, heavy, heavy ammunition before he can disconflict and conquer the Midianites and all the enemy that gathered against them. But what is the reason why the enemy is still standing? What is the reason why the kingdom of darkness seems to be advancing and choking us up? Only one matter and this is why God is turning to you in this Student Congress. It is only because God is yet to find a man. God keeps saying, I look from among them, if I may find a man who will stand in the gap. So this morning, what kind of men, what does God look for in the kind of men and women he uses? And what is it that disqualifies people from being used of God? These are the issues I am trusting that I can deal with this morning. And those of you that God has brought into Student Congress this year, I'm perceiving, my heart is enlarged, I'm praying that the Holy Spirit will actually prevail with us, prevail with you as an individual, so that this Kairos moment, this time of great opportunity for you to make a difference, for God to demonstrate his glorious power in your life, will not elude you. As I was looking at the entire story, one of the things I saw was the fact that all that God needed was to see a Gideon who would say, Lord, here am I. Lord, whatever you want to do with me, I am ready. Permit me now to ask you to let us turn to the book of Georges, chapter 7, and we will take a little, little, little time to be able to deal with the issues one by one. What is it that God is looking for in men, and what is it that disqualifies men from being used? Two things that I will be looking at at the same time. And the reason is because, actually, one is a converse of the other. What qualifies you for God to use you, what attracts God to use you? It is the absence of it that also disqualifies you from being used of God. So whenever I take one case, if I take one case, I wanted to take note that as I'm dealing with that case, if you just flip it and look at the opposite of that case, it will disqualify you immediately. So let's quickly pick scriptures now. Chapter 7, verse 1. Then Jerubbah, who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him, rose up early and pitched beside the well of Herod, so that the hosts of the Midianites were on the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley. And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest they revolt themselves against me, saying, My own hand has saved me. Now therefore go to proclaim in their ears, in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return, and depart early from Mangileod. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand. There remained ten thousand. First and foremost, we saw something that the Holy Spirit will have me to quickly analyze. The Lord said to Gideon in verse 2, The people that are with you. When God said the people that are with him are too many, that was very surprising because there were only 32,000. And these 32,000, because they did not have equipment, they did not have weapons of war, and it's not as if they had been trained to fight. It just blew trumpet and these people came out, out of zeal. I was saying, God, how can 32,000 be too many to go and confront the Midianites, the Amalekites, the people of the East, which the Bible described. Again, I want you to see how God described them. Go to verse 12. And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the East lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude. They were like grasshoppers for multitude. And the Achaemites were without number as the sand by the seaside for multitude. So how can you say 32,000 is too many? How would you say 32,000 is too many to confront this numberless multitude? This multitude that lay all along the valley like grasshoppers for multitude. How can God be saying that? And immediately what dawns on my heart is that as far as God is concerned, as far as God is concerned, any group of people that does not carry the kind of life that he wants, they are of no use in his battles. Any group of people, no matter how many they are, no matter how highly educated they are placed, if they don't meet God's own condition, they are actually a hindrance to what God can do. So brothers and sisters, I want all of you to hear me now. Don't ever imagine that, oh, we are not too many, or we are too few on our campus. No, no, no, no, no. There were only four brothers in the University of Babylon when Daniel was there with his friend Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego, and only four of them they had your campus to ransom. And three of them, they brought the king Nebuchadnezzar on his knees. When they stood up and said, we are not going to bow to your idols. We are not going to worship anything outside the living God. And the man got annoyed and was going to throw them into the furnace of fire, and he did. And by the hand of the mighty God, they quenched the violence of fire because of a life that they carried. So my brother, I want to first say to you, what God is looking for in you, what God wants a man to be in his hand is not dependent on his external qualification, or his external number, or the quantity, or the multitude. No, no, no, no, no. There's something God wants. And if he can get it, even two of you, two of you, say one will chase a thousand, two will put tens of thousands to flight, if God gets what he's looking for. And so maybe the critical matter that has delayed revival, that has made everything to lose sluggish, is our sluggishness in meeting God's condition. Maybe what has given the devil the kind of largesse that he has been exercising everywhere, and he's appearing as if he's going to overwhelm everywhere, he's going to swallow us up soon, and he's going to quench the body of Christ. It's not because he has power. It's not because God has gone on leave. It's because God is yet to find a man, woman, that he can stand behind and show his mighty power on their behalf. And I'm praying that God will find such brothers, such sisters, such young people among us in the course of these meetings in the name of Jesus Christ. So when God said 32 were too many, I was myself curious. I said, God, how can you say that? And I'm thinking how Gideon himself must have been standing there on Friday. I said, God, eh? So how am I going to face these people now? But because he was an obedient man, because he had already done the irreversible, his obedience to God is irreversible. God spoke to him in the evening, and by the night he has obeyed God. And before the day broke, he has done what God told him to do. That's the kind of man we are looking for, a man of prompt, unprocrastinated obedience. Some of you are saying that you are obedient, but your obedience is only rational obedience. You will obey when the matter is reasonable to you. But rational obedience is actually disobedience. Obedience, I say, before I obey, explain to me very well before I can do it. I cannot take my life for granted like that. When you do that with God, it is equal, it's tantamount to what? Disobedience. Delayed obedience is equal to disobedience. Procrastinated obedience is disobedience. If God tells you to do something now, and you are saying, oh, Lord, I will do it next week, I will do it next month, the truth is that I will do is not equal to obedience. The promise to obey is not equal to obedience. There's only one thing that is obedience. What is obedience? Obedience is obedience. Obedience means to obey. Obedience is not praying about obedience. I hear some of you say, I'm praying. I'm praying to obey God. I am praying to obey God. I'm praying to obey God. Keep praying, but in heaven, you are a disobedient child. The moment God said, do this, and you rise up to do it, that's when heaven records you as an obedient child. Now, I saw something that I could not overlook in the life of Gideon. I found that he's a man that was going to obey God at any cost. Even if God said to him, all these 32,000 you have gathered, I don't need them. Go alone. He was still going to obey God. He was a man who is not depending on the multitude to take a decision. He never depended on anybody. He did not confer with flesh and blood when he went and burned down the altar of his father. In fact, he said, if I don't do it in the night, by the time the people wake up, they will not let me do the will of God. So he decided to do a night vigil to obey God. I'm asking you, you are wondering why God is slow to release his power on your life? Because he sees the traces of disobedience in your life. He sees that you, you have been promising for the past 10 years, And for 10 years, you have not obeyed. You are disobedient. You may be religious. You may be in the choir singing. You may do anything else. But heaven has recorded that you are disobedient. I remember several years ago when God was confronting me with the matter of obedience. It became so serious. God said, disobedience is rebellion. When I tell you to do something and you have not done it, you are a rebel. You are an antagonistic man to me. You are my enemy. Every time, every kind of disobedience, whether little disobedience or big disobedience, vivid disobedience or invisible disobedience, any form of disobedience makes you an enemy of God. You cannot be a delegated authority when you yourself, you are a rebel at heart. The reason why God cannot release his power, his glory, his anointing upon many lives to cause a change. And I want you to hear me very well. There are many people that are making noise everywhere. There are people that have self-anointed themselves. They call themselves big names. They shout everywhere for being able to bring any transformation to our land. Even in what they are doing, there is corruption. Even if you move close to him himself, the man, the soul man of God, there is corruption in his life. He is not yet free from immorality. How can God commit himself to such? And how will God gather the devil and all his kingdom and say, now I have got my man ready. Let's go to battle now. The Bible says, Jesus said, when he has counted and he found that what he has is not able to confront the king that is coming against him with 20,000, what will he do? He will rather send a message of message of peace and say, please, my friend, I'm not ready for that battle. Keep occupying the territory as long as you can. I'm not yet ready. When I get my man, I will be ready to fight that battle. That's what you find in Luke chapter 14 from verse 28. So which king is preparing to go to battle will not sit down to check whether the amount of people, the number of men he has is sufficient. He say, can he check whether the 10 he has, the 10,000 he has is enough to confront the 20,000 that is coming. In my mind, I say, 10 against 20. Is that not already a defeat? God say, no. If my 10 has the kind of quality of life, I can take 10 to go and face the man that is coming against me with 20,000. Because as far as I'm concerned, it's not about number. It's about the quality of life. So the first thing I saw that is critical here is the life of obedience. I saw that a Gideon God will say to him, the people that are with you are too many. We can't go with them. And he did not argue with God. How many of you are listening to me here? You keep arguing with God. Job 22 said, agree with God quickly. Stop arguing with God. If you read that passage from a living Bible, it says, stop quarreling with God. Every disobedience is a quarrel with God. Every time God tells you to do something and you have not done it, you are quarreling with God. Every time God tells you, go quickly now, go and return that library book you stole. And you say, I will do it at the end of session. You are quarreling with God. You are disobedient. Heaven cannot go forward with you. The Spirit of God cannot settle on your life. You can be speaking in your empty tongues. You can be tonguing everywhere. But soft tongues is noise. Even the devil doesn't fear it. Even the kingdom of darkness, they don't fear it. They know that that's a religious tonguing that has no power. They know it's a form of godliness, but you are denied the power of it. Because the power of the Holy Ghost is the power of obedience. If a man will not obey God, he has nothing to do with the power of God. So the first thing that God looks for is implicit obedience, prompt obedience, unprocrastinated obedience, unquestioning obedience, obedience that is not saying, until I know where it will end. Obedience that says, Lord, at your word, I will lay down. Obedience that says, even if it does not look reasonable to me, since you have said it, I will obey you. That's the first thing I saw in the life of Gideon that was setting him apart for what God wants to do. God had found a man who single-handedly will stand in obedience to God, and he will take his life in his hand and say, even if I perish, I perish. But he never perished. So now 32,000 was going to follow a man of obedience. He didn't know their heart. He didn't know what composed them. And that's the next thing I want to deal with now. What I want to deal with now is the condition of the heart that God always concentrates on when he looks for a man to use. He looks for their heart. And because I just want to limit myself to this particular passage, I could have used any other passage to go on developing all of this, but I want to use the story of Gideon to demonstrate what we are talking about because God's conditionality for the many uses is universal. God doesn't change it for the white man. He doesn't change it for the black man. He doesn't change it for the educated. He won't change it for the uneducated. All of us, when it comes to wanting to be used of God, we all come to the same level. God has no double standard. It's not irrespective of persons. And so let's quickly see what God was looking at now. He was looking at the heart of these 32,000 people. And he said to Brachydion, the people that are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands. And did you see immediately God was raising a matter. He said, lest Israel found themselves against me, say, my own hand has saved me. So you know they have not said it. But God already looked into their hearts and he saw what they will say. They have not had opportunity to say it. But God already knew that if I allow these people to go forward and I should give them victory in the war and I should show them my glorious power, they will never return glory to me. Each one of them will vaunt themselves. Excuse me, what's the meaning of the word to vaunt? To vaunt is to, I thought some of you would help me with that word. To vaunt means to enlarge yourself, to blow yourself, to pump yourself and make yourself look bigger than who you are. When somebody is vaunted, that means something has blown him up outside his proportion. He's going to be bragging. He's going to be boasting. He's going to become arrogant. They'll become arrogant and they will be boasting and they'll say, yes, even though we said we are going to pray, but I knew what I did. I know what I did. And that's when God saw that he can go with them. There are some of you sitting before me here. Just because you are in the prayer band in your campus, because you prayed, you organized prayer. When God did one thing, it's not yet a big thing that God did, but God began to work. What did you begin to say in your corner? We are the prayer movers. I know God couldn't move unless we had prayed. And we just gave that meeting three days, three dry days. What are you talking about? Because you fasted for three days. So we said to that matter, when we declared three dry days, and that's where the matter happened. We are the chief controller of things. Hallelujah. All of you that are prayer movers. And heaven was looking at me, I said, hmm. So if I had answered prayer and I made the whole campus to be on their knees, weeping, maybe this man would have arrogated himself and actually take my position as the God of that campus. You boast about your prayer. What is your prayer? Are you the one who answers prayer or God who answers prayer? So when God sees arrogance, some of you, because God blessed you with a good voice, you are a soloist. But because when we are planning the choir, you were not allowed to be the lead vocalist. You got annoyed and said, can anybody do anything in that choir without recording with my voice? It is my voice that gathers people here. And if they are not ready to recognize that voice, let's see how they will go. And that is why you decided not to join the choir. And instead of joining the choir, you gave your name, you gave your name to the pastor and said, I have a special number. And when they were calling you to come and sing your special number, did you see how you were carrying yourself as if you are so important? And see the opening words you said before you began to present your number. See how you say, wow? You say, God, in the middle of the night yesterday, he just walked into my room. See how you are talking as if you are God, your colleague. And he said, son, I want you to go and bless my people with your song. I have decided that I cannot do anything until you bring that song. Even the pastor will be helpless if you don't present that song. So pastor, I just want to congratulate you for being sensitive to the Holy Ghost, to have allowed me to bring this song. Because until I sing this song, even the pastor's mouth will not open. You remember in the days of Elisha, Elisha could not get any ministration until we, the ministry, were called forward. So as I sing that song, I just want all of you to just know that you are blessed already. Tell somebody I'm blessed. As you listen to this song, you're already blessed. And what was the song he's going to sing? All the paraphernalia, all the arrangement, just to show. He's more concerned about showing his voice than singing the song. Yes! You see, we have a song that, even if there are no organists to back me up, my song alone is solorious. My brother, this is why the Holy Spirit will quickly announce, pegging, pegging. This cannot go forward than this. Even if we had wanted to gather the whole land to be blessed by him, not this man anymore, please send an ambassador to my enemy and say they can continue doing what they are doing. I am not ready yet. I have not found a man to use. Revival has been postponed. Divine visitation has been postponed because God has not found the right man to use. All the people he brought to the stage, just at the initial point, initial consignment of anointing, they have misbehaved. And I will say, all right, all right. They can't go beyond that. That's why, for some of you, your church has remained so small for years. That's why your ministry has just been a noisemaker over the years, because God is afraid of you. God cannot trust anything to your hand. When God sees pride in any man's life, pride is something that heaven cannot tolerate. God said, I am the Lord God. I'm a jealous God. I tolerate no rival. So the first thing I saw, that will not allow God to move, that will not allow God to go to battle against his enemy. The reason why God cannot go to the gates and say, oh, you Midianites, oh, you Amalekites, oh, you people of the East, I'm now ready for you. I have got my men. Let's go to battle. But you see, when God got only 300 men, the battle was ready. How will God take only 300 men who did not have guns, who did not have arrows, who did not have bows, who only had a breakable pitcher and a breakable light and a trumpet in their mouth? How will that go and finish people that have come with machine guns? That's not your problem. The problem is to get the correct men. When I'll be finishing for this morning and I'll be asking you to pray, I'll be asking you to say, oh, God, that thing that makes you to turn away from using me, that thing that is making you as if you are only setting the condition of peace with your enemy because the correct men to use are not available. Lord, don't let me die in this generation without seeing you move in my time. May God answer your cry if you are praying in the name of Jesus Christ. Now God said, these people will burn themselves. They will share my glory. They will become blown up. They will become arrogant. I can't use them. Now my friends, let me share something with you very, very personally now. When I was crying to God for the anointing, and this was in the 70s, we were all crying to God. We have read about prayer. We have read about power through prayer. We have read about why Revival tarrys. And we've been seeking God and saying, God, you will do something. And the more we prayed, the more I knew God wants to do something with our lives. I went to a village. And just before we would start this crusade, the Lord said, can you hand over to me? And I didn't know what to do, what that meant. I said, Lord, we surrender all. And I gathered all the brothers, all the sisters that we went for that outing together. We went to the small church that they gave us. And we were praying. And I think we started praying around 5 PM when we arrived there. But the Holy Spirit would not allow us to do anything throughout the night. We were just praying. Nobody could eat. In the morning, when God said, now you can go into the villages and see what to do. And we sent brethren out two by two, three, four different villages they were going. And I was sitting behind praying. I said, God, what kind of outrage is this? You didn't allow us to do all the jamboree we used to do. God said, it's not about that. I want to show you what I can do in the coming days. Do you know the brethren went everywhere? Things were happening. Miracles were taking place. The brethren went to a place where somebody just died. And they were carrying the corpse. And the brethren arrived. And they said, no, you can't pray to us because we are bereaved. We are bereaved. And a few brethren said, no, no, no, no. Let's pray. And they prayed. And God did a miracle. And the dead woke up. And the entire village went on fire. We have seen such. God was ready. So when we were about to conclude this meeting, I was praying. And the Holy Spirit came down in a very serious way. And he confronted me with two questions. He said, yes, you've been asking for power. You have been asking me to use you. But I cannot commit myself to you. I said, Lord, why? He said, why? He said, I can't trust you with my power. I've trusted many people with my glory. But they have misbehaved with it. If I were going to use you, I abhor betrayer of trust. There is nothing I could do, God said. And before we can confirm what I'm saying in your life, you are going to be on probation. I thought it was a joke. I thought it was going to be just that kind of prayer with friends. Oh, God, yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Hallelujah. I claim it. I claim it. I realize that it's not something I can claim. God was deliberate that if he was going to hand over his purpose to our hands, we've got to become men that are trustworthy, men that will not share his glory, men that will not vaunt themselves, men that will not think that now because things are happening, people are gathering from different parts and different places, and they are mentioning your name here and there, you will forget that you are mere dust. You forget that nothing about you is in what God is doing. You are just a vessel. That was what God wanted these men to learn. This was why God had to trim them down, because they are full of themselves. I'm going to be leaving you with a charge. Those of you that want to be relevant in your generation, those of you that are saying, Lord, here am I, use me, those of you that are saying, oh, God, whatever condition you are setting, I am ready, oh, God. I'm ready. You will help me. Whatever you need to pull out of my life, come and take it away so that I can become the man you want me to be. Any one of you that will do that this morning, I will be giving you a chance to come and lay it down before God and say, Lord, Lord, if it is because you've not found men that you have been setting condition of peace with the devil, that things are happening in our country and it's as if God is quiet. Nobody stands up and says, yes, Lord, it must stop now. And God says, no, I've got a man to use. And if that is why God is saying, go and look for men. Go and prepare men. Go and labor to raise the kind of men I will use. Even if we spend 20 years to prepare men, it doesn't take 20 days for God to demonstrate his power in their lives. And when what God wants to do begins, you will soon see that what we have tried to do in 20 years in two months, God will do it. The kind of thing we are beginning to enter into now already proves to me that what we have tried and tried and tried and tried to do in 20, 30 years, I see God beginning to bring it to pass in three months at little or no cost because it is time for God to move. I call on you this day, and I charge you, if you are listening carefully, I don't mind whether you are a young person who is just in your teenager, or you are a young person who is just above 30 and you are getting to 40, or even more than that. If the Holy Ghost is arresting your heart this morning and say, these are the things I look for before I use men, and so God said to him, they will defend themselves against me. And they will say, my own hand has saved me. All of you that have tendency of boasting, all of you that we always want to put your name on the work of God, all of you that are struggling for position, I want to be the president of the fellowship. I want to be that. I want to be that. For what reason? You want to be the papa of the fellowship? For what reason? And what do you want to sit over a fellowship of 20, 25 people for? When God is offering to you 25 million souls that are willing and waiting to be arrested, why will you use a small campus fellowship to forfeit and to cancel your opportunity with God? I will call you this morning to make personal repentance, personal commission of your life, and say, oh God, what you are looking for in the men you want to use, don't bypass me. Don't bypass me. I know that in the course of time, you may have a material in your hand, what God looks for in his vessel, that you may want to pick and read. When our brothers will be introducing materials to you, that may help you to take more issues, but permit me to go away from here. Now, the Bible said, God said to him, go and proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early, early from Mangliat. And there returned at once 22,000. What's the meaning of that? These were people that were singing, we are soldiers fighting for the Lord. In the name of Jesus, we shall conquer. We are soldiers fighting for the Lord. And God looks into their heart and said, not this kind of people. Not this kind of people. How does God want to test it? What is their litmus? What is God's litmus test? If any one of you is fearful, you may be wondering what is the reason why to be fearful and to be afraid is a disqualification. I don't know how to quickly say that, but when you go to the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter 21, I think verse 8, part of those that will be cast into hellfire, the Bible called them the fearful, the coward, those who have spoiled their lives with women. Maybe I should read that for you. Let's go to Revelations chapter 21 and verse 8. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and war mongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. The fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, the war mongers, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, white liars, black liars, professional liars, all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Did you notice that the fearful is the first least? Why can't God use the fearful? The reason is because the fearful is the one that cannot trust God. The fearful is the one that is depending on his own ability. And whenever he sees anything that he thinks is bigger than his own ability, he immediately drops in fear. The fearful, the unbelieving, they are in the same class. And no man can walk with God without faith. You can't do anything for God as long as you are depending on your resources. You cannot bring the glory of God down if it is according to the size of your pocket. All those who want to serve God, but they are busy calculating how they are going to organize their support, how they are going to do this, how they are going to, and that's why they are fighting for men because they are fearful. They can't go at the word of God and say the Lord said we should go. The way God will meet our need, the way God will lead us, the way God will fight the battles is in his hand, but we are going. The fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, the war mongers, all of these that we are listing, if you have time to go now to simpler Bible versions, you will have seen that when God will classify the fearful, he classified them with those who are practicing abominations. He classified them as murderers. They are in the same class with war mongers, those who cannot have enough sexual immorality. They are the same class. So God said, those of you that are fearful and those of you that are afraid, those of you that cannot see God at work, those of you that think we are depending on your number, those of you that think it is your money that we speak, those of you that are busy saying, if something goes wrong now, what are we going to do? What are we going to do? What are we going to do? Let them go back now. Let them go back early. You see, the word early was very touching to me. I don't know how to put it. This message is just too much. I don't know how we can quickly dispense it now, but I'm trusting that God will give me wisdom on how to go. What did I see there? I found that when a man is fearful, when a man is afraid, the key issue is that he looks to himself, he looks to his ability, he looks to what he can do, and he never sees what God can do. He never sees how God can move. He never sees that the battle is the Lord's. He never sees that it's not about me. It's not about what I have or what I don't have. It's about who I have. If Jesus be for us, who can be against us? All the men that serve God in their lives, the first thing they overcame is fear. When God was telling me, step out. I will not fail you. I will not disappoint you. The first thing I have to overcome is fear. To say, okay, God, if I perish, it's all right. If you waste my life, let it be wasted. It's okay. And I hear God say, and I don't waste any life that is handed over to me. I won't waste your life if you give it to me. And so when Shumani was leading us this morning and said, don't be afraid to hand over your life, that your life can only be preserved when you put it in the hand of God. If you keep it in yourself because you're afraid that you will lose it, you will still lose it. I thank God today that he has not wasted my life. And I'm hearing God say, even if he asked me to drop everything, I will still drop everything because he pays me. He pays me to put all my life, all I have, all I have in his hand. It is him that can preserve it and give it a definition. I pray that God will find in you the kind of heart he's looking for. What kind of heart? Not a fearful heart, but a trusting heart. Not a heart that is afraid, but a heart that is believing. Not unbelieving, but believing. Let him not find a heart that is calculating and manipulating and say, okay, before I can do that, at least I will work for the next 10 years. Then I will save money for 10 years. Then I know I can go anywhere. Even if there's any little problem, I have something to fall back to. God can use you. No man goes to God's battle at his own expense. And I perceive God is directly challenging one or two of you and say, what are you holding your life back for? Are you afraid of me? Are you afraid that I will waste it? You trusted all other persons. It is me you cannot trust. You trust your government. They say they will pay you salary, and that's why you are working even when they have not paid you. And yet I, the Lord, I'm telling you I will take care of you, and yet you are afraid. Are you afraid that I will fail you? Are you afraid that I will litter you? All of you that are afraid, go back. All of you that cannot trust me, go now, go now, go now. Early, early, go back. It doesn't pay you to tag along for many years not believing God. If you don't want to give your life to Jesus, are you hearing me? Go back now, now, now. Go and do your life anyhow you know how to do it. When the result falls on your hand, you will know that you chose to waste your life. But if you want to serve God, if you want to follow God into what God is saying, if you want to go in this your might, this might actually I'm talking about is not your energy. It's not your resources. It's not your reservoir. It is your capacity to connect God who is inexhaustible, to connect God whose power never fails, to take God by his word. The next generation of men and women that God is going to take to the gates for battle are people that are not depending on self. They are not depending on their intelligence. They are not depending on their income. They are not depending on anything. They are depending and depending on nothing else but God. All the people that you saw in the word of God, men like Daniel, they said by faith. Without faith no man can please God. If you are doing anything because some people promise you, I say we are going to be with you, we are going to support you, you are not going to suffer as long as we are alive and that's why you are kiki, you are a waste. You are a waste. Because all those ones who have their breath in their nostrils, they will talk to you today, by tomorrow they are extinct. What are you going to do with all such? Any of you that cannot trust God, any of you that cannot believe God, any of you that cannot put your hand in God's hand and say, Lord, I trust you, go back right early. What did he say right early? I have seen people who instead of following God by faith, they kept dig-dalling, dig-dalling but they are in and out. You will think that they are in the work of God but they are not there. They are the ones that have brought trouble to the body of Christ. They are the ones that are bringing all different, different fashion of raising offering. They are the ones that are selling oil and selling anchor cheap and they are looking for every little means to rob the church of their finances because they can't trust God. They are counting your heads because they are counting on you. They are not counting on God. They are not depending on God and I'm hearing the Holy Spirit saying, those of you that are fearful, those of you that are afraid, those of you that are unbelieving, go back now right early so that the people that God wants to use, even if they thin out and they reduce and they look few, God will still get the victory. God will still show his glory. God will still move in your nation. God will still manifest his power. God will still do beyond what you thought or imagined because our God is not limited by any means. He is the Lord. He comes into existence. Those things have been not as though they were. Now, 22,000 are gone. It remains 10. I imagine our brother Gideon must have opened his eyes. He said, eh, this empty brother is going back. Eh, this man is going back. What? Sir? Eh? All these people, so their hearts are not with you. I thought they were bold. I thought they can even slaughter the altar in their own compound. I didn't know that they are just, ah, God. God, it means I'm going with the wrong people. God say yes. Hey, so the 10,000 that remain, brother Gideon must have become much more careful now. Marcel, God, what of these 10,000? Can we go with them? Even 10,000 is so small compared with the numberless multitude, like grasshoppers. Their horses are numberless. Their chariots are numberless for multitude. How can these 10,000? God said, for your information, Gideon, even these 10,000, the people are yet too many. Bring them down onto the water, and I will try them for you there. And it shall be that of whom I say unto you, this will go with you. The same shall go with you. And of whomsoever I say unto you, this shall not go with you, the same shall not go. Now, this is a very critical issue. In my own life, I have seen this again and again. And when I see God speaking quietly to me and say, concerning what I wanted to talk to you about, the things you are supposed to do in this generation, there are certain people that are going with you now that cannot follow you into it. There are people that they look zealous, but they are not part of what I want to do. Sometimes it pains me. Sometimes I like to say, oh, God, Lord, please include this man. Please keep him. He has been with us. Is this God? Say, no. He doesn't have what it takes for the next phase of what we want to do, allow him to go. It's not easy. So I can identify with Brother Gideon. I can see him, his hand like this, because now this is beyond his hand. When it comes to divine recruitment, nobody can do it for God. And I want all of you to hear me now. You don't bribe anybody to include you in God's army. Nobody can do it for God. It's God that does it by himself. There are very, very bosom friends that I thought were going to do this thing together for life. And the only thing you tell me, do you know this one has no portion in what I'm calling you to do? I say, no, it can't be so. It can't be so. He's very zealous. He's this one. He's this one. Suddenly I see something will just happen, and they will just peel off like that. And I've learned to surrender to God, to say, okay, Lord, it's your work. It's not mine. You are the one that recruits people for your work. I'm not the one. The one that you want, bring them. The one that we made mistake to include, please exclude them. The one that it is my own, they just like me, they like Brother Gideon, so we want to be with him. No, you can't like Brother Gideon and risk your life in God's work. Because Brother Gideon is not a sufficient collateral to sustain you. If you don't see God, you have seen nothing. If you don't hear God, anybody else you have heard is nothing, is nobody. It's very important. So God said, bring them down to the river. And this will be a very critical test, very critical test. I don't know how I can approach it immediately now, but I'm praying that the Holy Spirit will give us help. What did God decide to do? He said, bring them down. And every man that God is going to use, may I tell you, he'll bring you down first. Those of you that are on top there and you want to move from top to top, from one mountain to another mountain, I'm not sure that you are inside what God wants to do. All the men that God will use, he must bring them down first. He must bring them down to test the basic issues of their lives, to check what are the ingredients of their inner character. And until God is satisfied and you win God's approval, you are going nowhere. So Brother Paul told Timothy, he said, do your best, your utmost best to win God's approval. God's approval is more important than human approval. God's approval for your life is more critical than the approval of a crowd. A crowd may clap for you, clap for you because they're ignorant, they don't know anything about you. But when God approves you, no man can disapprove you. Even if the whole city stood against you, but God has approved you, you will still prevail. I'm talking to you from experience. I'm talking to you because I know God. I know that if God be for a man, let the whole city stand against him, heaven will vindicate him. The biggest approver you need in life is God's approver, not man's approver. And if God has not approved you, may I inform you, you are not yet approved. So the Bible said, bring them down, and God did. And God gave a very simple test, but that simple test is a very, very critical test. What is the test? As they came down to the water, I will try them there for you. It shall be that of whom I say unto you, this shall go with you, this same shall go with you. And of whom I say, this shall not go with you, that will not go. So he brought them down, he brought the people down, 10,000 of them onto the water. And the Lord said to Gideon, everyone that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shall thou set by himself. Likewise, everyone that boweth down upon his knees to drink, you set them apart. Now let's see, what is that test? Here are people that are going for battle, and they just came to a place of water. And God was watching. Those that have greed in their hearts, those that are saying, if we don't drink all the water now, when are we likely to find another water? So let's quickly drink water now. Fill our tummy with whatever we can get. Please put your weapons down. Just do anything you can do to carry water. And so they lay down, they buried their head, and they were carrying water, and they were drinking it. Some were putting on their head, some were everywhere, and God was watching. So these are people that if, in the course of my using them, they came to a place of provision, they would be drowned. How many preachers have become drowned because they came to a place where God was willing to bless them and things were happening? Suddenly, they forgot their journey. They settled down there. They can't go anywhere anymore because they have found a place where there is good money, good tithes, good supply. So they settled there. And I see them doing like this, grabbing, grabbing. And that's why Revival can no longer progress with them. They have got to the riverside. They've got to water now, and they are drinking. But God is saying, no. There's a set of people that I'm looking for who have overcome self, who have overcome personal appetite, who have overcome their desire for ease. They have overcome their personal desire for rest. They know we can't rest until we have found rest for the people of God. They know we can't sit down to eat. They are not the people that wake up in the morning to eat and to drink. They only eat for strength. They were only going to drink what their tongue can laugh and go on with their journey. They knew that God who brought them to this water, even if they came to a rocky side, God will call water for them out of the rock. They are not the ones that say, okay, let's quickly prepare now. Let's prepare for the future. Let's prepare for the future. We don't know what will happen. Let's save enough money for the years to come. No! They are the people that are saying, let's go. Let's obey God. Let's see what God is going to do with our lives. Let's see where God is going to carry us. And this morning, because my time is not going to allow me to go beyond that, when God checked, he saw men that are yet dead to self. He saw men that are yet to die to their own appetites. He saw men that are not, they are not dead. They are not dead to their stomach. They are not dead. They are thinking, oh yes, let's make provision for ourself, for ourself, for ourself, for ourself, for ourself, for ourself. God said, no. All those that have not said no to self, all those that are not ready to take their cross and follow me, please put them aside. Put them aside. Some of you are wondering that Jesus prayed to thousands, 5,000, 12,000, 20,000 people were affected and were healed. You are wondering, why was it that by the time he was going, only 120 people, did they commit, did they hold pentacles to their hands? Why didn't God gather the thousands? He tested them. He knew they would labor for meat that perishes. He knew that bread will overcome them. He knew that money will finish them. He knew that whatever else they meet on the way will divert them. I'm going to ask you to join me in prayer. What does God look for in the men he wants to use? Men that are saying, I take my life in my hand, and I put it in your hand. My future is in your hand. I used to sing a song. I remember when I had to compose that song for myself, but I can't sing it to you now. I told God, I said, Lord, my life is yours. All that I am, all that I could ever be, all that I can ever be remembered for, that is when I'm young, when I will be the middle years, and when I will be at the old age, I'm yours. Use me anyhow. Dispense with me anyhow. Do with me as it pleases you. Don't mind my tears, I tell God then. I said, don't mind my tears. It's normal for a man to cry. Don't worry about my cry. A child that has not cried is in the grave today. Let me cry, but keep me in your will. There's something glorious that you are going to do with my life. Take it. Others were laughing at me. Others were saying, you are going too far. Others say, you are a fanatic. Some say, we are all here. Why are you doing as if you are the only man of God in town? No, I am not the only man of God. I only realize that if God is demanding my life, what is wise for me to do than to give it to him? You are going to join me in prayer right away. And I'm going to ask you to take a personal position of prayer. 300 alone made God's approval. 31,700 were pushed back. They are flushed back. But with 300, God was ready to work with them. With 300 that I yielded, God was ready to work with them. When I come back, by the grace of God, I will be looking at the correct equipping for God's chosen vessels. And I will be speaking into that because I'm not thinking you are young. I'm not thinking that you are novices. Because I can see that you will become commanders of God's army in the coming days. I can see that the only goal is going to mobilize you for something beyond what our eyes can see now. So I'm not going to keep any matter behind. I'm trusting God will give me opportunity to do that. But meanwhile, can you pray? Can you take a position of prayer, whether you want to kneel down, whether you want to stand up, whether you want to lie down and say, Oh God, when you are looking for men to put your stamp of approval over, do not pass me by. We are going to take that little song, Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior. Hear my humble cry while on others you are calling. Do not, O God, pass me by. As we take that song, you will rise. You will kneel down. You will stand up. Whatever you want to do, I want you to do it now. In whichever place you are, even if you are alone in your room, it is time to take position. It is time to stand up or to kneel down or to bend down or to lie down, whatever. And you are saying, Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior. Hear my humble cry while on others thou art calling. Do not pass me by, Savior. Savior, Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry while on others thou art calling. Do not pass me by, Savior. Savior, Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry while on others you are calling, while on others, while you are touching others, while you are putting a stamp of approval on others. Do not, do not, do not. Now I want to pray. Wherever you are, whosoever you are, and whatever the Holy Spirit is saying to you, God is announcing. The reason why it seems as if heaven is keeping quiet and we are seeing the advance of the devil here and there is because God is saying, Hold on. When I get my man, I will signal you. You can be doing what you like to do meanwhile. I'm working on my own vessels. Will you become an answer to God's hand? Will you say, O God? As we are praying, the Holy Spirit has drawn some of you already to the altar this morning. Just go there, go before God. If you want to lie down before God, just do it. If you want to just kneel down and say, Lord, hear our man. God bless you, just do it. Take your place at the altar this morning. Let nobody take your space. Go and take your place and say, God, I'm a young lady. I'm a young man. I'm a student. But I've heard you speaking concerning me. I've heard you say, this is the day the Lord has made. It is for you that I'm looking. It is for you that I want to raise. It is you that I want to walk with. It is you that I want to manifest my glory in your life. You are another Gideon in this generation. What is holding you back? Is it fear? Fear of what? Is it fear of future? When God who owns your future is the one saying, come to me. God bless you, God bless you, God bless you. Keep coming. Keep walking out quickly. Because I want to invest prayer upon you this morning. I want to talk to God about several of you that are stepping out before God this morning. Thank you. Thank you, my brother. Thank you, sister. If it is only convenient for you just to lie down, just lie down before God. It doesn't matter how anybody looks at you. Today is your day. God bless you, my brother. God bless you, sister. Thank you. Just walk out. Just walk out quickly. Let's walk out quickly in all the centers, wherever the Holy Spirit is drawing you. Just walk out. Take your place. Kneel down there and say, Lord, mark me out. Mark me out. Make me an answer to my generation. Take me beyond what I'm thinking now. Perish all my fears. I will take your word. I will believe you. God bless you. God bless you. There are still several that need to respond to God in the various places. And I see that some of you in your country, you appear not to be too many yet. But because God is never looking for numbers, looking for faithful lives. Step out and say, Lord. If you say you can use me as an answer to my generation, here am I, Lord. Here am I, Lord. Thank you. God bless you. There are still more coming. There are still more coming. Please keep coming. I'm giving you just two minutes. I'm behind time already. But I want to spend these two minutes to pray with you. And there are so many others that need to step out. Just keep coming out. Just find a space before the Lord. And if you neck down, even by your chair, and say, God, there's no space for me to go out, but I'm kneeling down here. Permit me now to ask you to raise your hands to heaven. Just raise your hands, all of you. Stretch that hand towards this place of prayer. And I will be calling on God on your behalf. Everywhere you are standing, everywhere you are kneeling down, everywhere you are lying down, from center to center, from place to place, you have wondered why some people did not last. You wonder why some people have become stagnant in life. You wonder why those that have great voices, their voices have become irrelevant. All because God saw in their heart that they are quietly sharing His glory. You are saying, Lord, let it not be like that for my life. Or even if you have made that mistake and God is saying, we begged you for some years, but if you will repent, God will visit you again. Just step out and say, Lord, give me another chance. Give me another chance. God bless you. God bless you. I'm praying right now. Father in heaven, thank you for this time. Thank you because your eyes is ranging to and fro the whole earth to show yourself mighty on behalf of those whose hearts have turned to you. How so true it is today that your eyes is going to and fro the entire earth. You are looking from nation to nation, from land to land. You are looking from one denomination to another. You are looking from one professional calling to another. You are saying, where can I find men who can trust me, who can take me by my word so that I can show myself mighty on their behalf? When you found Gideon and the 300 that you were able to approve for him, you demonstrated your mighty power. And you show forth that might. When you say, go in this your might, and that might is ability to trust God, to depend on God. This morning, Lord, I pray. All those who have stood up before you. All those who have lifted up their hands. All those who are kneeling down or lying down at the altar. All those who are kneeling by their bedside. All those who are taking a position of surrender this morning. Please, Lord, mark them out for your glory. I ask that your mighty hand will rest upon them now. Every act of disobedience, please take it out of their lives. Everything that says, not now, not now, not now. Lord, we ask you to uproot all such implicit disobedience in the name of Jesus Christ. I ask, oh God, this morning, that this particular Seiko will raise an army that you are looking for. And that Lord, the answer to our national problems, the answer to the visitation of God in our different nations, will begin to break forth in the name of Jesus Christ. There are campuses there that are invested with demonic activities. And it looks as if God is quiet. No, it's because he's looking for his men that he can use. Please find your men in this meeting, oh God. And all these brothers and sisters that are yielding their hearts to you, that are stepping out to you particularly, Lord, place your right hand upon their lives. And every preparation they need, every discipleship you will provide for them, please make it available from this moment. And as we rise, oh God, to go and be alone with you for these few minutes, please undertake for us now. Thank you for hearing our prayer. In Jesus Christ's name, we have prayed. Amen. ======================================================================== Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/gbile-akanni/what-qualifies-a-man-for-god-s-use/ ========================================================================