The Might of the Youth 1

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We honor, we exalt you for this year's Student and Youth Congress. Thank you for your faithfulness that has brought us together. Thank you for what you intend to do across the nations of the earth.

Thank you, God, that your servants, your young people, you want to release them to become answers and solutions to this generation. And so, Lord, we pray that as we get on going, even with this meeting this weekend, your Spirit will come upon us. Your mighty hand will rest upon us.

You will do for us what we could not have done for ourselves. We are asking, O God, that there will be an outburst of your mighty move of the Spirit all over the nations, in different parts where your children are gathered. Just as we have prayed, let the heavens be opened over us.

Lend the heavens, O God, and come down and do for us what we have been longing. You say, eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, it has not entered the heart of any man. The things that you have prepared for those who love you.

Father, let it come to us now. Let it come, O Lord, we pray you. Let the shower of blessing fall.

We are waiting and waiting, O God. Let it fall, revive the heart of all. Thank you.

We are asking, Lord, that your presence will descend and the mighty hand of God will be made bare and eternal things will begin to take place. Blessed be the name of the Lord, our God. In Jesus Christ's name we have prayed.

Amen. Our heart's desire is that the Holy Spirit will be walking in our hearts from place to place, from land to land, from nation to nation, calling for the young people to release their might for the end time move that God is releasing to us at a time like this. Our theme, go in this thy might.

And we have taken our theme text from the story of Gideon in George's chapter 6. And I'm going to read that very quickly, George's chapter 6, where we have taken our theme text. And I would like you to read from verse 11, George's chapter 6 from verse 11. And there sat an angel of the Lord, and sat under an oak which was in Ephra, that pertained unto George the Abbezerite, and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.

And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said unto him, the Lord is with you, thou mighty man of valor. And Gideon said unto him, O my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befalling us? And where be all these miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. And the Lord looked upon him and said, go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites.

Have not I sent thee? And he said unto him, O my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. And the Lord said unto him, surely I'll be with you, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. May the Lord bless this word to our hearts in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I want to thank God. And two things that is very critical in my mind that I want to begin to share with you tonight is the fact that the eyes of the Lord has turned upon us as young people, as youth and students. The eyes of the Lord have turned upon you.

God is about to respond to the cry of his people worldwide. The story of Gideon, which we are going to spend time on in the course of our meeting this week and this weekend by the grace of God, is a story of repeated confusion, repeated oppression, repeated backsliding, repeated destruction to the extent that people began to cry. There are confusions everywhere.

There's oppression everywhere. And the Midianites that God permitted to bring a kind of discipline to the children of Israel were also very wicked, very aggressive. And the kind of thing they do is difficult for me to describe at this point because that's still not the issue we want to focus upon particularly tonight.

But one thing is that as people began to cry to God, as people began to cry out of their desperation for a divine intervention, God was going to respond. God sent a prophet that began to speak to the people as regards the cry of their heart to God, calling them to repentance. But any time God wants to respond and do anything important on the face of the earth, whenever God wants to move and intervene in the affairs of men, he has to look for a man, he has to look for a woman on earth to use.

And this is what is very, very overwhelming in my heart for this year's cycle. I realize that seeing God is about to answer the kind of prayer that our fathers have prayed for many years. God is about to answer even the cry of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God is about to fulfill his promise to Jesus when he says, sit down at my right hand until I make your enemies thy footstool in Psalm 110. God is about to answer that prayer. The Bible has said to us that he must ever retain until God has brought his enemies under his footstool.

God is about to respond to that. We have checked and as we have been praying, it is clear to us that an unstoppable move of God has begun. There's a going on already on the mulberry tree.

And the Holy Spirit is speaking expressly of what he wants to do in this present time, despite the level of wickedness that is going on from different lands and in different nations. Yet when God has decided to do that, the next thing we saw God doing is to locate men and women that he will use in that particular move. And in this particular situation, we saw God coming to recruit a young man, a young man called Gideon.

We saw God coming to his situation. Even though where he was, everything looked hopeless. Even he said he was just on his father's farm, the wine press of his father, just to trash some wheat and quickly hide it from the Philistines, I mean from the Midianites.

Because what the Midianites does is that when the people have done their farms and they have done their plantings, just when it's time for harvest, they bring all their cattle, they bring all their animals to ravage the place. They will harvest what they did not plant and they will impoverish the people to the extent that the children of Israel were living in dens and in caves. If they want to eat anything from their labor, they have to do it over the night and have to go and hide it.

This was the situation which Gideon found himself. And he was a man asking questions, questions in his heart. He's asking questions.

So when the angel came and saw him, and the angel greeted him in a peculiar way and said, Oh, thou mighty man of Valor, the Lord is with you. Gideon was not willing for that kind of a seeming cajole. How can you say the Lord be with us? And all this trouble, all this confusion, is this how God used to be with people? Is this how God that we have read about, who brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt, is this the limitation of his power that we are seeing in our own time? And I see that several of you sitting in these classes, in these centers, and those of you that are following this meeting this weekend, I know there are agitations in your heart.

I know you are asking, can God be better than this? Can walking with God be sweeter than what we are finding? Can't we see the miraculous and the manifestation of the power of God again? I know there are questions. And those questions, God himself has heard it. God himself has responded to the quiet cries of your heart.

Sometimes a contradiction, sometimes you are wondering, what is this imbalance between what you have read in the word of God and what your eyes are seeing? Sometimes some of you, you are agitated. What is the reason why the pulpit is saying something, but the pastors on the pulpit are doing different things? And you are asking questions. Others will think that you are rebellious.

Others will think that you are just being agitated for nothing. But I want to assure you today that God has noted it. And God is arising to do something.

And so as we begin this meeting, I'm coming to you with a deep assurance that God is about to release young men and women, students on campuses, in different professional areas. God is about releasing them with freshness to go and bring a change. A transformation is about to break forth among us.

An unstoppable release of the power of God is about coming. And something that we are going to see as we go through this meeting. And I'm trusting God that you will be part of that.

I first want to thank God that you are already here, and you are seated knowing that God is about to do something in your time, in your days, in your land, in your nation, but much more, much more particularly through your life. God is about to do something by your hand. God is about to do something by your life.

That is the essence of this meeting. And that's why God is saying, go in this your might. And so I'm praying that as this meeting progresses, each one of you that God has drawn, I want you to know that things is about to change.

A new season is about to break forth. A new release of the glory of God is about to come. And God has considered you.

God has thought about you. And God is thinking about you. Even though the challenge may look unsurmountable, the challenge may look so elaborate, the problem in your nation may look like an hydra-headed problem that you don't even know where to start or where to end.

The challenge may look so difficult that you are wondering, what can a mere man like yourself do? But I want you to hear God speaking. Go in this your might. Go in this your might.

Even when God said that to Gideon, Gideon could not even see whether there's any might in his life. He couldn't see whether there's anything in him that could make a change. He kept looking at himself.

He said, I'm the least in my father's house. My father is the least in our tribe. Our tribe is the least in this tribe.

Everything about Gideon is the least, is the least, is the least, is the least. But when it is God about to move, about to walk, he uses the ordinary things of the earth. He uses what is not to shame what is mighty.

He uses the weak things of the earth to disgrace those who thought that they are the potentates of this world. And that's where we're about entering to. And I want all of you to hear me.

And I'm praying that the Holy Ghost will give you understanding. Things are about to change. Yes, some of you, you are being in nations where our leaders are like oppressors.

And they seem to be sitting tight as if this is their own family inheritance and nothing will happen. And they are not doing anything to bring development, to bring release to the life of the people under them. Things are about to change.

God is about to move again. God is about to take his flock from the hand of wicked shepherds. God is going to appoint new shepherds for his people.

God is about to do a new thing nowadays. And where is God going to get his vessel? This is the reason for this weekend. This is the reason why we are gathered.

This meeting is so serious in our heart and we realize that we are at a very precarious moment and the Holy Ghost is about to do something. Now, and God is about to walk. I find the story of Gideon as a very critical illustration of what the Holy Ghost is about to do now.

We are trusting that the Holy Spirit will bring understanding. And that you, though you are a student today, though you are just a young man today, and it looks as if, can anybody hear my voice? Get ready for a divine explosion. Get ready for something that is beyond you, that God is going to be walking through you.

The methodology that God has decided to use may be unconventional. It may be beyond what people have been used to. But God is out to do a new thing.

God is out to do something deliberate because this thing has to happen before the last trumpet will come. This thing has to happen as we see the Antichrist organizing and mobilizing and doing several things in the world around us. As we see all kinds of new definitions that is coming in different ways.

As we see wickedness being displayed as if it is legal. As we see aberration of men's hearts being brought on the platform of glory. God is about to do a new thing.

God is about to walk in our time. Because as we move and the ears of men that will hear it, it will tingle. Men will wonder, how did this kind of thing be? But the Holy Spirit is saying, there are vessels that he is preparing.

And these vessels, they are not highly experienced. They are not ancient of days. They are not the Methuselahs of our world.

They are going to be young people. He said, according to his promise, he said he has ordained strength in the mouth of babes and sucklings. God has spoken, said, in the days of his power, he will have the dew of his youth.

God is rising. And we cannot but rise with him. In whichever nation you are seated, in whichever country you are representing, in whichever place you are standing, in whichever professional calling God has located you at this time, something new is about to break forth.

And heaven is calling on you. And say, go, in this your might. But this night, as a charge, as a beginning, I just thought I need to examine some few issues.

The might of the youth. The might of the young person. What is the might of the youth? When God was looking at Gideon, I said I'm not dealing with that tonight, God was seeing a young man.

And God looked at him and said, he's a mighty man of valor. Now, he has not fought a battle, I want you to know. He has not killed even a rat, according to the scripture we have read.

He was simply just threshing the guinea corn in his father's winepress. And how does a boy that is just pounding guinea corn in order to separate chaff from the wheat, how do you call him a mighty man of valor? But you see, when God looks at a young man who is facing a correct direction, God sees a mighty man there. God sees valor that men may not understand.

And so when God said, you mighty man of valor, God was not just talking about his past experience. God was not just talking about what is behind him, because honestly speaking, as you look at Gideon, there was nothing behind him. There was nothing.

His curriculum vitae, his CV is almost empty. There was nothing behind him that would say, okay, because of this, because you have done this, because you have done this, you are a mighty man of valor. That's not how God rates men.

God does not rate his men from history. It is human beings that rate people from history. When people look at a man, they say, oh, this is a great man.

All they are saying is the history of what he has been before. They are not talking about what he is presently, and they are not describing what he can become tomorrow, because they don't know about that. They can only speak about history.

So when people say, oh, this man is a powerful man, if it is human beings saying it, I want you to know that they are only speaking because of what they thought he used to do or what he had done before. They are dealing with history. So every time people introduce you, they are only introducing your past history.

They are not introducing your future. But when God comes to speak to a young man, God is speaking to your future. God is speaking to what has never been.

So it does not matter what you have done before or what you have not done before. God is not talking about history. God is not talking about your past.

God is speaking about a future that he has seen concerning you. So if God says, you are a mighty man of valor, I want you to know that that's what heaven sees about you. If he says, go in this your mind, I want you to know that this is what God has seen about you.

And if you will only put your hand in the hand of the Lord, and you say, oh God, this thing that you are saying concerning me, even though I don't know how to walk into it, even though I don't know how it will be, but be it unto me according to thy word. I'm praying and I'm desiring that God will grant some of us opportunity to see the outbursts of the glory of God in several of your lives as you are listening to me today. I'm praying that heaven will break forth upon you and you will do things that will baffle men, will bring men on their knees and they say, when did this thing come to this young man? Just like the people were surprised.

When suddenly overnight, Gideon became a different person overnight. Overnight, and before you know it, a bondage of many, many years that nobody could attend this inexperienced Gideon. This Gideon that nobody ever knew to be a commander of any army.

Suddenly things changed because God had come to spring forth inside of him something that is needed at this time. But now, two things I would like you to consider with me. How do you handle the might of the youth? What do you do so that the might that God is seeing about you is not wasted, is not confiscated, is not destroyed? And two stories had come to my mind that I want to use to paraphrase our discussion this night as the Lord will permit me.

And it came to me and it has been so heavy in my heart because I am looking at men that could be great for God. They were born to be excellent but something happened in their youth that forever cut them short, that made them non-entities and a shadow of what they should have been. And I felt that since God is turning his eyes to the young people, since God is saying go in this your might, I need to do something quickly tonight and I use the word quickly because I felt if there's anything that will disqualify you, if there's anything that will evaporate your might, we need to quickly stop it.

We need to quickly deal with it because the day that God is breaking forth now is supposed to be your day, supposed to be your day of glory and not your day of disgrace. Now follow me quickly to read from the book of Genesis. And today I would have loved to read a long passage but I could not.

I will just take a summary. Genesis chapter 49, Genesis 49, Genesis chapter 49. I would like to read from verse 1 and I'll get down, I'll be reading it gradually.

I think I should because if I read it too long, you might not follow me again. So I'll be reading it gradually. Genesis chapter 49, verse 1, And Jacob called his sons and said, Gather together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days.

Gather together and hear, you sons of Jacob, and listen to Israel, your father. Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. Unstable as water, you shall not excel because you went up to your father's bed, then you defied it.

You went up to my coach. Let me stop in verse 4 before I go ahead. There are a few things I need to quickly deal with in this story so that by the time we are praying tonight, I trust that every obstacle on your path, heaven will put it in the name of Jesus Christ.

Even if you made mistake before now, God has come in order to correct that past mistake so that that will not become the history that determines the future that God is looking for in your life. Now, what was the matter here? Jacob had come to the point in which he was about to give up the ghost, he was about to die. And the story of Jacob itself is another story to reserve for another time.

Jacob himself had had a lot of difficulty in life because of wrong choices he made when he was young. But that is not what I want to deal with now. I want to go ahead and look at a man who is supposed to be a man of might, a man of grace, a man of strength, a man of excellency, excellency or power, and then they said, he will not excel.

What did he do? What will make a man of great opportunity? Not to excel. Jacob called his sons and said, gather together that I may tell you what shall before you in the last days. Now, the first thing that was curious to me is that Jacob has come to a position now that is not just speaking about the past.

He was speaking about what we before these his sons in the last days, which means this man was about to pronounce to them a prophetic word that will govern their lives for the rest of their years, which means what he was about to say now, he said that I may tell you what shall before you in the last days. What he meant was overwhelming to my heart that, oh, so Jacob is going to sit down here now and begin to marshal out what will be the destiny, what will be the conclusion of each of these children, not only just now, but he said in the last days. And my understanding of the last days means even when these brothers, Reuben, Levi, Simeon, Judah, when they will have died in their own lifetime, everything about them, all their children, their children's children, their great-grandchildren will have to fit into this thing.

And I was saying, oh, can a young man do something that will either make him and all that will come out of his life have a legacy of blessing, a legacy of growth, a legacy of excellence, or can a young man make a decision in his youth that will finish every opportunity he could ever have in life? That became a matter that I thought I must raise as I begin this meeting tonight as a church. Now, as I gather together, hear you sons of Jacob and listen to Israel, your father. Again, I have so much I would have loved to be saying to you about this while they are speaking about Jacob and speaking about Israel in one verse.

But that's not the concern for me this moment. The moment, I mean the issue for me now is what is it that shall befall them in the last days? And why will it be so? And why was Jacob going to make this kind of statement just before he would be gathered unto his own fathers? Now it began. But the first thing that touched me is that he said, gather together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days.

So all of them gathered together, all of them. It was not that he was calling them one by one. It was not a private discussion.

All the sons, they are all gathered and they are sitting like this as if they are having a family meeting. And their father now was going to begin to speak. And I imagine how they sat.

They sat according to their ages. Because Reuben was the first born, he sat in the place of the first born. Even though Joseph was a big man in their midst, he wasn't the first born.

He sat in the seat of the eleventh born. That's how it was. But now, when Israel, Jacob began to speak, he said, listen to Israel your father.

And then it began as he ought to. He started with the first and he was going to go according to their ages, according to their birth. Now he said, Reuben, Reuben, Reuben.

And you know as I imagine the way he called him, Reuben. I imagine how Reuben would have either stood up or sat up and said, yes dad, yes dad. Not knowing what is going to come out.

I'm sure he prepared himself for something glorious. Being the first born, being the first in the family, he was expecting that things would be released to him so that he would be the custodian of all that is in the family of Israel. But now he said, Reuben, you are my first born.

There's no doubt about that. There's no argument about that. You are my first born.

And nobody will contend that. You are the first born. You are my first born.

And as my first born, you are my might. I was looking at how Jacob was speaking, saying you are my might. You are the first expression of my might.

You are the beginning of my strength. You are the beginning of my strength. You are the outsourcing of my strength.

What I woke up to do as a young man, you are. What I began to pursue as a young man, you are. You are my first born.

You are my might. You are the beginning of my strength. You are the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power.

That's what you are. And that's what you should be. That's what I conceived when I was bringing you forth.

That's what I was longing you to become, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power. But the discussion went on. Unstable as water, he began to bring out some things in Ruben that we never knew was there before.

He said, Ruben, you are my first born. You are my might. You are the beginning of my strength.

You are the excellency of dignity. You are the excellency of power. But you are unstable as water.

And immediately as I read that, I remember that in our elementary definition of science, when we start talking about substances, we talk about solid liquid gases. And one of the things we knew about liquid is that liquid, even though it has weight, it does not have shape. It only assumes the shape of the container.

It's not stable. It's a fluid. It's always flowing.

You can't keep it in one place. It can't be stagnant. If you will keep water in one place and it will not move about, it means you have constrained it.

It means you have kept it because it does not have its own shape. It does not have its own. It cannot determine anything.

It only flows where you push it. Unstable as water. Even though there's a might in your life, it is my might.

It is the beginning of my strength. The excellency of my dignity was meant to be in you. The excellency of my power is supposed to be resident in you.

But something has cut you short. Instability. You are unstable as water.

There are young people listening to me this moment. The great things that God will have done in your life is beginning to wane off because you are not stable. As soon as you went to campus, did you see what has happened to you? You have already assumed the shape of the environment.

You're already flowing about, even though you don't, you cannot say, this is where they are flowing with my life. You cannot maintain a shape. You thought that it is youthful to flow with everybody.

You thought that it is youthful to give yourself unnecessary peer pressure. You thought that to take a stand and maintain your shape and maintain your own personal conviction as a young man, you think that maybe you are going to be looked upon as old-fashioned. When a young man is unstable with his conviction, is unstable with his decision, is unstable with his virtue, is unstable with his value in life, that man is going to waste the might that God could have put in his life.

Unstable as water. You are always, you know, changing your shape. You are not known to stand for anything.

You are not known to maintain a particular focus in life. Unstable as water. He said, you shall not excel.

Even though you are supposed to be the excellency of dignity, the excellency of my power, but because of this instability in your life, and I'm talking to you as a young person, I'm talking to you today as a young man, I know, listen carefully to me, if I were talking to adults, those who are already old, those who are in their 60s and in their 70s, I would not be talking about this because why? Whatever has happened to them has happened. They have now become stable. Some of them now, they have stabilized their lives in foolishness and there's nothing you can do about it.

Instability will not be with you for life, forever. The place of instability is usually the temptation of the youth. The place, I mean the temptation of instability only faces the young man.

When you get old, you find that you have already made your choices. Whether you like it or not, the choices you made when you were young has become your permanent choices. It has finished your chances.

You can't do anything else because you have made your choice. But you see, as a young man, when your strength is still fresh, when God is putting a might in your life, when the excellency of dignity is still available to you, if you remain unstable, if you can't make up your mind on what you want to be, if you cannot let your yes be yes and your no be no, if you cannot stand even though several of your classmates are misbehaving and say, well, others may do that, I cannot. If you cannot be a man of your words, if once you meet people, they change your mind quickly, then you are beginning to jeopardize the might of your youth.

Then you are beginning to make it difficult for you to excel. Now, you said because you are unstable as water, you shall not excel because you went up to your father's bed. Wow! You know, I was wondering, when did he do it? How did he do it? How did Brother Ruben become so overcome with immorality? That he was not only chasing girls of his age, he actually decided to go and sleep with his father's concubine, his father's wife, Bilha.

I don't know what has happened to him. Maybe he was not thinking of a future. He decided to confiscate, to jeopardize his future over, I don't know how long, I don't know how many minutes of so-called enjoyment he was having with that lady.

And I don't understand why it was appealing to him to uncover his father's bed. I don't know what was the level of addiction that came upon Ruben that he went to do this. But you see, when you go to read where it happened, in Genesis 35, the Bible said while they were moving, while they were moving, let me help you to check that.

Genesis 35, the Bible said, and in verse 22, I read 21 until, Now the sons of Jacob were 12. Now you see, even the curiosity with which that Bible verse was introduced was a matter to my heart. What was it? That Israel journeyed, spread his tent beyond the Tower of Edah.

This was after the death of Rachel. This was after Rachel had to be buried because she died in childbirth. And I was wondering, a terrible disaster had just happened in the family.

And I wonder whether Ruben was excited that he wanted to celebrate the death of Rachel by sleeping with Beha. I don't understand. I don't understand whether that's what he wanted to do to comfort his father, who is mourning about his wife whom he loved so much.

I don't know what happened. But you see, the point is that the Bible said, and it came to pass. When it came to pass, I said, Lord, may it not come to pass that I will be involved in something that will finally destroy my opportunities for the future.

May it not come to pass that you'll be involved in doing something maybe for a short while and yet the repercussion of it will have destroyed all the might that God would have wanted you to go forth with. May it not come to pass at any time. But you see, it came to pass.

Ruben went and lay with Beha, his father's concubine. And Israel heard it. Israel heard about it, but it didn't talk because it was not time to talk.

It did not say anything. And you see, the way the Bible put it, they said, now the sons of Jacob were 12 and the sons of... And they began to list. And I would say, why did they bring that verse 22 into this narrative? It was not meant for that chapter.

It was meant for chapter 49. The chapter of reward. The chapter of destinations.

The chapter when what will be for your life will now begin to, you know, be marshaled out. That's when this secret verse 22 was going to come out. And I'm saying, my brother, are you a young man? What is it that you have done secretly that you thought nobody heard? Has it come to pass that you, you, listen to me, you went and slept with your junior sister.

You impregnated your junior sister. Nobody heard about it. And you are doing as if you are going far.

When it is time for God to set your life, you know, in the way it should be, that matter will come up, unless you are going to confess it now. Are you involved in doing terrible things that eyes and ears must not hear? It looks so bad that everybody says, just keep it. Don't let anybody know about it.

Don't let anybody know about it. Are you the one flipping about with your uncle's wife? And you are saying, well, you know, let nobody, she loves me, she loves me. I don't know when this day came and Israel was now bringing it out.

I wondered, where Bill Howard would have put her face? How Bill Howard would have thought and Bill Howard's children were sitting there and they would be wondering, say, hey, Ruben slept with our mother? What? And we did not know about it. Not knowing that everything you do now as a young person is as if you are investing for the future. Everything you are putting your life into now is as if you are planting a seed for a future.

I want to call on you as we pray together. What is it that will destroy your might? What is it that will puncture your might? What is it that will evaporate your might? What is it that will make you unstable in life that you will not be able to excel? And yet it is usually a mistake when you are young. When you thought we can just treat life anyhow.

And so the Bible said, it said to him, it said, you will not excel. Even though you are my firstborn, you will not be first anymore. Because the dignity, the excellency of my dignity, the excellency of my power, the dignity of my strength, the might of my youth, which you represented, has been destroyed.

You went on my couch. It may be a 30 minutes enjoyment. Now it's going to be 300 years of confusion for Reuben and his family.

Now please go with me to 1 Chronicles 5 and see how the Bible reported that. I mean 1 Chronicles 5. There they were just listing, listing the family of the house of Jacob. Now they said, chapter 5 verse 1. All of you please, if you can.

Now the sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel. Listen. He was indeed the firstborn.

But because he defied his father's bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel, so that the genealogy is not listed according to the birthrights. My brother, what are you doing that we destroy and dislodge your genealogy? The Bible said, even though he was indeed the firstborn, but because he defied his father's bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph. You cannot understand the meaning of that.

What could have belonged to Reuben was given to the grandchildren. I don't know how you understand it now. It was not even given to Joseph.

It was given to the sons of Joseph. What it means that the sons of Joseph, they are now the one that is taking the birthright of the firstborn, because Uncle Reuben. And they call him Uncle Reuben.

I hope you understand. Manasseh, Ephraim, they would normally call Reuben uncle. And don't become a useless uncle, my brother.

Don't become a useless, you know, a toothless uncle. You are supposed to be the eldest in the family, but your decision, your choices, your behavior has reduced you to nothing, has brought you down. The might of the youth must be preserved.

The might, the strength of the youth must not be used carelessly. I know it is when you are young that something pushes you, say, let's just go there. Let me just do this.

Let me just move there. Let me just taste that. Let me just drink that.

My brother, I want you to join me in prayer tonight and say, oh God, I will not do anything that will confiscate and jeopardize my future. And those who are supposed to hold me in high esteem, we are supposed to excel and demonstrate the excellency of dignity. Don't allow me to become a mere ridicule, a useless nonentity because of a wrong decision.

Now, as we stop on that, he said you will not excel. And that was it for Ruben. And I found that throughout life, Ruben could not excel.

Wherever Ruben went, he was not to excel. When you go to George's chapter five, you will see what even Deborah, Deborah had to say to the House of Ruben. They can't excel.

When it was time for them to go and collect the land of Canaan, you remember Ruben. Ruben said, let me not cross to the land of promise. Let me stay in the land on this side.

And where he stayed became the investment and the place where he was invested with demons. Ruben never became anything because a terrible choice for giving himself, giving his might to pleasure. I'll stop here for now.

The next set of people that Jacob was addressing, again, if you go back to 49 that we were reading, chapter 49, Genesis 49, quickly. And you know, I stopped in verse four. Then he moved to verse five.

Simeon and Levi are brothers. Instrumental cruelty are in their dwelling place. Let not my soul enter their council.

Let not my honor be united to their assembly. For in their anger, they slew a man. And in their self-will, they hamstrung an ox.

Curse be their anger, for it is fierce. Again, I saw another temptation of the young man. Temptation of excessive anger.

Temptation of excessive cruelty. Some of you, you can just enter into a fight because something has offended you. This was what we saw with Simeon and Levi.

Levi and Simeon would not have become anything because of anger, because of their cruel anger. They used to have a secret meeting to plan riots. They would sit down and they would plan what they would do.

They may be smiling on the surface, but something is boiling in their heart which is tending to wickedness. This moment as we are going to pray and as we are going to be speaking unto God, I want to ask you, what is it that you think will strangulate you? What is that thing that will not allow you to break forth the way you should be, my dear brother? Well, don't say I'm a young man. The truth of the matter is that there is a might in you as a young person.

There's a strength in you as a young person. God actually looks at you as a mighty man of valor. But what you do with your valor is the matter.

I met a young man many years ago. He was just in the university. And I was preaching somewhere and God arrested his heart and he came and told me, he said, sir, tonight I want to, can Jesus forgive me? I said, what? He said he made a decision that he was going to sleep with 200 women before he would be 21 years of age.

And he was pursuing it. He slept with girls, he slept with married women, he slept with people like his mother. I said, how were you able to do that? How did you approach them and they agreed? He said, that's very easy, that's very easy.

We know how to do such things. And I was looking at a young man who is very adventurous. A man that has valor, but he wants to use his valor for such kind of immorality.

What are you using your valor for? Some of you are very brilliant. God bless you with great intelligence. But what is your intelligence all about? To plan evil, to work out things, to trap, to plan parties, and to get people drunk? Is that what you are using your intelligence for? Or you are using your intelligence for gambling? You're a mighty man of valor, God is saying.

But again, we want to find out. What are you plowing your valor into? What are you investing your heart into? What are you investing your opportunities into? What do you want to be remembered for now as a young person? And so he said to Simeon and Levi, my soul must not come near their counsel. They are wicked.

And so all that could have happened, thank God for Levi. Thank God that after several years, he took a different decision to hand over his life to the Lord. That's why Levi became the family of the priest in Israel.

Because he took a decision. Because he decided that, look, I will not go on with this kind of lifestyle. God had to change his story.

God can do that. I wish I could go with you towards the end of that passage. Chapter 49.

Yes, let's quickly go to the end of chapter 49 and see what he said about Joseph. Because at the same time, he was talking about what will befall them in the future. What will happen to them.

And I want to note what he said. Go with me to chapter 49, verse 22. He said, Joseph is a fruitful bough.

A fruitful bough by a well His branches run over the wall The archers have bitterly grieved him They shot at him and hated him But his bough remained in strength And the arms of his hands were made strong By the hands of the mighty God of Jacob From there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel By the God of your father, who will help you And by the Almighty, who will bless you With blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath Blessings of the breast and of the womb Blessings of your father I've excelled the blessings of my ancestors Unto the uttermost bound of the everlasting East They shall be on the head of Joseph And on the crown of the head Of him who was separate from his brothers Now I was looking at that. When did this foundation That they are building for Joseph, when did it start? When he was also a young man. I was wondering how Reuben went and slept with his own father's wife And how Joseph refused to go and sleep with his master's wife, Potiphar.

Both of them faced the same temptation of the youth. You may say, maybe Bihar was the one that attracted Reuben. I don't know.

But the question is that he fell into that temptation. But you see, look at Madam Potiphar. She is also making face for Joseph.

But Joseph said, no, I can't do that. I'm going on. I can't do that.

And so you see, when you take a decision to say no to sin. There is a blessing coming. When you take a decision to bow to sin.

There is a problem coming. God is saying, I'm turning to the young people. I'm saying, go in this your might.

But if you have already destroyed your might. If you have already perforated your might. If you have already punctured your might by wrong decision.

How can you go? How can you go? How can the might. He said, look at the way they put it. They said, his bow remained in strength.

And the hands of his hand were made strong. By the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. So when we talk of the might of the youth.

It's actually the might of the God that stands with you. That supports you. That lives in you.

This moment, as I stop here to pray. Heaven has turned. I see the Lord saying, I'm turning my eyes to the young.

I can see mighty men of valor in their midst. I can see them going in their might to do great things for me in the coming days. I can see their bow remaining in strength.

I can see the arms of their hands being made strong by the mighty hands. The mighty hands of the mighty God of Jacob. The God of your father will help you.

And by the almighty who will bless you. I can see God wanting to pronounce something that will be for you at the last day. Even what they are saying to Jacob here.

They were saying, this is what will be for you at the end of days. Can I ask you? What's your choice today? What will be fetched for you at the end of day? So I will be stopping here at this moment. But I found a joy in my heart.

What is the joy? It is that Jesus has turned his eyes to you. And he's willing to step into your life now that you are young. Whatever mistake you have made.

If Reuben had confessed in chapter 35. It will not reoccur in chapter 49. There was a Judah that was being blessed here.

When I look at the life of Judah, I find that Judah also is slain with his own sister-in-law. I mean daughter-in-law. But why was Judah going to be blessed? He confessed it.

He said, oh, you are more righteous than myself. I was the one who did it. I was the one who misbehaved.

Please forgive me. Because he repented. God had mercy upon him.

Now, that you failing to see is not the problem today. But that you are covering it. That you are not willing to confess it.

You are not willing to say, yes, I did it. I made a mistake. I was the one who did it.

But Lord, I'm coming to you. I'm coming for the blood of the Lamb that cleanses from all unrighteousness. Give me a clean slate.

Help me to start afresh. Help me to begin my life afresh. Help me to walk with you afresh.

And you see, whatever culture you come from, you know the atrocities in your life. You know the secret sin that is cutting you short. Some of you could have been first-class students.

But you gave yourself to Internet sex. And that has destroyed your life. Nobody knows that that is what is beginning to dig a grave for your dignity.

You could have excelled, but you cannot excel again. You are unstable. Your mind is scattered.

But you see, I look at different persons. The only reason why Reuben could not make it at last is because he did not confess his sin. Judah became what he became because, not because he never sinned.

He did atrocities. But God forgave him because he was willing to confess. And he was willing to face, you know, what will appear like shame.

You know, I forgot to have mercy on him. And we saw a Joseph who conquered in the secret. Who said, no, I cannot do this.

I cannot do this. He was laying a foundation for a great future. As I stop here to pray with you this moment, and as I call on the Lord on your behalf, can I ask you, wherever you are, this is a meeting of destiny.

This is a meeting that I perceive the Lord himself has decided to select several of us. But God has decided that because this matter concerns you, and because you have a role to play in the coming move of God, he has brought it to your door mouth. There are centers on campuses so that you don't say, well, I couldn't travel.

God made it possible that you can just walk out of your old cell and go and sit down and encounter God afresh. This night, how dare I conclude this meeting without giving you a chance to quickly undo the wrong thing. To quickly confess the secret thing that you're hiding.

To quickly say, oh, God, this habit, this addiction, this thing that has been happening in my life is about to destroy my future. It's making me not to excel. Lord, I surrender it.

And I want you to know that Jesus, if he did not intend to forgive you, he would have kept quiet. I was asking, why did Jacob hear it and he kept quiet? I thought he was keeping quiet because he expected that Reuben would be responsible enough to come and say, dad, I made a mistake. Dad, I did what I ought not to do.

Dad, I was lured into doing something wrong. Is there a way for you to have mercy on me? Can you please forgive me? And the matter would have been dealt with. The sorrow of the death of Rachel would have been extended to the sorrow of this.

And it would have been ended at that time. And chapter 49 would have been different. But because he did this, he kept it, he hid it.

The next thing I saw as I look at the chapter was his misbehavior all the time. He kept doing the wrong thing. Can I ask you tonight, if you will only confess your sins, if you only say, Lord Jesus, I cannot go from this meeting tonight, leaving, you know, an issue buried that will jeopardize the future you are planning for my life, I must expose it to you today.

And Jesus said, yes. Yes, yes, come. There is a fountain that will dissolve every stain of sin.

And that fountain is filled with the blood of the lamb. And Jesus said, I shed my blood because of you. I shed my blood so that you can find a place to take a bath, to come under the shower of the blood of the lamb that will cleanse you completely and take away every sin, every stain, every mistake, so that that will not define your future.

Don't let your past define your future. The only way for your past not to define your future is to let that past be buried in the blood of the lamb, to be buried in the sea of forgetfulness when you confess it. When you come to Jesus and say, Lord Jesus, even though I have done this, I'm hearing that you can forgive me so that a future you have for me can be reset.

God wants to do that now. And without taking more time, because our time is finished, I would like you to stand and pray with me in whichever place you are. I want you to recognize that God is saying, you're a mighty man of valor.

There's something in you that heaven is banking upon. You are supposed to be the excellency of his power. God is actually planning you to become excellent.

In God's eternal plan, he wants you to be excellency of dignity. God wants you to be the one that expresses his might. God would have wanted you to be the beginning of his strength.

The strength of the God of Jacob is supposed to be your strength to do that. But this moment, I wanted to genuinely and openly talk to God. Is there anything that you have done or that you are doing? Is there any habits? Maybe you started it when you were just in secondary school and it has not left you.

Now you have finished university, but it has become an addiction. And yet God is saying, but that's not what I plan for you to be. I don't intend you to become a failure.

I want you to rise and become what I want you to be. You are a mighty man of valor, but your valor is being punctured. It's being punctured.

It's being punctured by the needles of sin. By the needles of hypocrisy. By the needles of unconfessing this moment.

Please, rise where you are and let's pray together. Call on God and say, Lord, today, what I'm supposed to be, my little past will not destroy it. You are just 18, you are just 19, you are just 20, you are 25.

How can you allow 25 to destroy the many, many, many years ahead of you? You are planning that by the grace of God, you will live up to 80. How can 25 years spoil 55 years for you? This moment, I call you to pray with me. I want you to call on God with me.

I want to say, Lord Jesus, because of your plan for my life, whatever wrong thing I've done in the past, I want to surrender it. I want you to forgive me. I want you to cleanse me.

I want you to give me another chance. Now, old people can pray this prayer and say, Lord, give me another chance. They can ask God to give them another chance at 70, that's okay.

But you see, what is the other chance, except chance to go to heaven? But you, at 20, at 21, God is saying, it's not yet fully, completely spoiled. If you can correct it now. Can you stand before him and say, Lord, this meeting must turn my life around.

I'm not going to be a Reuben, I must excel. I must excel, Lord, you will help me. Thank you, Father.

Thank you. Lord Jesus, thank you because of this opportunity of prayer. Thank you for what you are doing in the life of young people.

Thank you for speaking to us about your plan. That, yes, there's a might. There is a might with which your people will go.

They are mighty men of valor, as you have seen them. But God, is that something the devil has done? To puncture and to reduce them. To bring them down, to deflate their lives.

That when the time of stepping into glory comes, they will not bring the record that had been hidden. And say because of this, he can no longer excel. Even though he indeed is the firstborn.

And the rest of the firstborn could have been his. But because he did this, because he did that, and he did not confess it, he did not dispense it, for that reason, let his birthright be given to his nephews. Oh, my God.

This night, oh, God, I pray that you will respond to our cry. And for every brother, every sister, every young man that is speaking to you, and opening their heart to you, and confessing things to you, please, Lord, have mercy upon us. Give us your mercy this moment.

Let the blood of Jesus speak on their behalf. Now, as I pray for you, wherever you are, you want to make things right this night. I say I have to do this quickly, because I perceive this meeting will be releasing your might.

But if your might has been punctured and is not corrected, sometimes we stand against you and say, this one cannot be used. That's why tonight you cannot keep quiet. And so if you are there, and the spirit of God has been speaking to your heart as you are hearing me, and you are saying, Lord, that's me, that's me, that's me.

Your school fees that your dad gave, you spent it on girls. And now you have been up and down, in and out, and you are not where you are supposed to be. You can't accept because you are entranced.

Today, the Lord wants to correct that. Jesus wants to forgive you, wants to cleanse you, wants to step into your heart, and he wants to make you a new man, and he wants to become the might of your life. Where are you? Lift up your right hand, wherever you are.

In whichever center, from Namibia to Niger Republic, from Senegal to Rwanda, from Cape Town, even to Belize, wherever you are all over the earth, I think God is causing you to hear his voice. And if you hear his voice today, the Bible says, I denote your heart. Where are you? Lift up those right hands and say, Lord, it's me.

It's me, Lord. It's me, Lord. I need a touch.

I need a help. I need you to correct my life. I need you to give me a new beginning.

God bless you. Now, if you have lifted up your right hand and you are praying, this is not the time to look left or right. This is the time to face your own destiny and say, Oh God, I cannot become an unstable man after this meeting.

I will request you to please stand and step out towards the altar. Just come out. I'll be standing together with you in prayer, and the Holy Spirit will stand with you out there.

The hand of God is straight forward already. God bless you. Just walk out towards the altar and say, Lord, it's me.

I just need your touch now. I just need your help now. I just need you not to allow me to be wasted.

Don't allow sin to finish me. God bless you, my brothers. God bless you, dear sisters.

Keep coming out, please. Run out, run out quickly because time is not on our side at this point. God bless you.

Please come out. Wherever you are, step out. If you are alone where you have been watching this message, go on your knees now and say, Lord, nobody is here in this room, but I am here before you.

Change my story. God bless you. Keep coming out, please.

Keep coming out. Keep coming out. God bless you, my sister.

God bless you, dear brother. And as you stand before God, as you are stretching that hand and say, Lord, it's me. As you are touching others, Lord, do not pass me by.

As you are helping others, Lord, do not pass me by. Now I want you to raise that hand above your head because I'm going to be calling on God for you. God bless you.

God has seen your tears. God has seen your cry. God has seen your desire.

The Holy Spirit is going to do a new thing with you from this meeting. In whichever nation you are, heaven has opened upon you, and your story is not going to remain the same again. Thank you.

Let me see that hand lifted above your head and just say, Lord, just as I am, without one plea, I'm coming to you, Lord. I'm coming to you, Lord Jesus. There's this song one day.

The Holy Spirit is charging you and saying, tonight is your night. This night is your opportunity. Step out.

Don't ever be ashamed and say, I will not do it now. If you don't do it now, when will you do it? Thank you, my dear sister. Thank you, my dear brother.

Thank you, my young man. Step out before God and say, Lord, today is my day. You must do a new thing for me.

Are you sitting down there in Liberia? And you'll be saying, tonight is that night I gave you an opportunity. Step out there and say, Lord, tonight help me. Yes, the thing you did in time past, you may explain it away, but the Holy Spirit is saying, if you only uncover it today, we will flush it out and I will give you a new slate.

May God bless you. I pray now. I pray now with all those that are standing and kneeling down and lifting up their hands to heaven.

All those that are stepped out to the various altars, I pray for you right now. Father in heaven, you promised to answer prayer. You said, come unto me, O ye that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest.

You promised, O God, that our sins and iniquity you will remember no more. You promised that he will confess our sins. You are faithful.

You are just to forgive and to cleanse from all unrighteousness. And I stand, Lord, as your servant, stretching forth my hand, O God, unto you on behalf of my friends, on behalf of my brothers, on behalf of my sisters, regardless of their tribes and tongues, regardless of where they are standing, and regardless of what has happened to them. Some of them have fallen into several pits, but that's not the issue tonight.

The issue is that you are able to save to the uttermost. Lord, put your hand on their lives tonight and speak peace into their heart. Speak forgiveness into their lives.

Let the blood of Jesus, the blood that speaks better things than that of Abel, let it speak for them tonight. The blood of Abel was pleading for vengeance, but the blood of Jesus is speaking for mercy. Let your mercy prevail tonight.

Now, Lord, I ask a new heart, you say I will give you, a new spirit will I create within you. I will take away from you the heart of stone. Lord Jesus, tonight, do it.

Do that miracle for us. Walk in our midst in such a way that these hosts of men and women, young people, students, they will have been set for the great and glorious thing that is lying ahead of us in the name of Jesus. And so, Father, I ask that having confessed themselves, having confessed their sins, Father, pronounce upon them today forgiveness.

You are the Redeemer, redeem them. You are the Savior, save them. Father, I'm asking every yoke of satan on their lives, let it be broken right now in the name of Jesus.

The yoke of sin, the yoke of sickness, the yoke of addiction, let it be broken by the reason of the anointing. The Bible says by the anointing, every yoke is broken. Lord, let every yoke be broken.

Every yoke be broken in the name of Jesus. Yokes of ancestral spirits, yokes of family bondages, let it be broken over their lives in the name of Jesus Christ. Yokes that they enter, either they joined a court or they were lured into a secret court, this day I break the yoke by the reason of the anointing in the name of Jesus.

Be free to serve the Lord. Be free to excel in life. Be free to occupy your position as God has ordained it.

So will it be unto each one of you. Thank you for hearing our prayer. In Jesus Christ's name we have prayed.

Amen. Amen.