MOUNTAIN OF FIRE AND MIRACLES MINISTRIES
International Headquarters, Lagos, Nigeria.
Sunday Worship Service
February 19th, 2023.
Topic: REMOVE NOT THE ANCIENT LANDMARK
Text: Proverbs 22:28, 23:10, Jeremiah 6:16.
Ministering: Dr. Daniel Olukoya (G.O. MFM Worldwide)
Our first scripture is our message and is the basis on which we are going to pray this morning. It is telling us not to remove the ancient landmark.
There is a heritage in Christianity which is being gradually taken away and as it is taken away, this generation is becoming more and more powerless; simply because we are removing these things we should have kept in place. We have a goodly heritage which we should preserve, but a lot of people are going the other way. My prophetic cry to all who are gathered here this morning is what the Lord is saying: “remove not the ancient landmark”. Herein lies the key to the powerlessness of our current generation.
By ancient we mean:
– Old.
– Something that happened or existed in former times.
– Something that was the origin.
A landmark is:
– a mark to designate the boundary.
– A fixed mark like a tree or stone by which something can be known.
– Something to designate or establish a boundary.
– What makes a boundary known and to be preserved.
So straightaway from the scriptures we have read now, we see that there are ancient landmarks. We must know these ancient landmarks. We must hold these ancient landmarks. We must oppose the removing of these ancient landmarks because if we do not do that, it will lead to powerlessness. If we do not contend for these ancient landmarks, powerlessness continues.
More than at any other time, this is the most powerless generation of Christians in church history, and many things are happening and the powerlessness is increasing; so we must arrest it.
Evil is becoming stronger and stronger everyday, and the children of darkness are increasing their technology everyday. But we that are supposed to stand and arrest these things are powerless to do so.
The church these days is becoming like Noah’s ark. You know, if it was not for the death outside, nobody could stand the smell of the animals inside the ark. So the church today is like Noah’s ark. It appears that what many Christians profess outside does not match what they do inside.
What we need these days is a John the Baptist kind of surgeon, and not a cosmetic surgeon. In many places they call the Christians the salt of the earth, but we do not even have enough salt to hinder corruption in our country. There is a disconnect between what people are reading in the Bible and what they are practising and this is a strange generation where you find Christians sing what they do not mean and pray what they do not mean.
We pretend to do what we do not do, and there are so many terrible things happening around us. The devil has increased his gear to number 5 and he is doing all kinds of havoc in people’s lives. I am afraid that unless most of us wake up from this terrible slumber, there will be many terrible things happening again, because the rate at which the camp of the enemy is growing now is alarming.
So the words of scripture are coming to pass that evil men and seducers shall wax stronger and stronger. Evil men are waxing stronger beloveth and it is all over the world.
In some universities now, they study witchcraft as a course. What do you do as a pastor when a father and son come to you and both father and son are sleeping with the daughter? What do you do when somebody is aggressively kissed from dream to real life and from that day the person develops asthma? The enemy is increasing in capacity and technology but unfortunately, those of us who are supposed to confront them are not growing.
The words of scriptures are coming to pass rapidly before our eyes that evil men and seducers are waxing stronger and stronger. It says “woe unto the earth and unto the sea. For the devil has come unto you in great wrath, knowing that he has a short time”.
What do you do when you see this rage of the enemy? And it is all over the world and it is increasing now, and there are powerless Christians who cannot confront them.
Our major problem is that we are removing the ancient landmarks, and as far as these ancient landmarks are being taken away, powerlessness is what we are going to face. So these are the last days and terrible things are happening all over the place; and some of them are completely unbelievable. But what kind of Christians can cope with these last days? It is obvious that we are not coping anymore.
Is it the type of believers who are dressed like demons and are comfortable? Is it the Christianity where an average Christian does not hear anything from the Lord? Is it the Christianity where believers are breaking the law of God without any atom of sorrow? Is it the Christianity where somebody has been born again for 5 years and for those 5 years he is still fighting the sin of anger? Is it the Christianity where pastors have abandoned the humble life of Jesus?
Is it the Christianity where people want the God of wonders but do not want to surrender their lives to the God of wonders? Is it the Christianity where you find people with gifts without the giver? People looking for salvation without the saviour? Looking for healing without the healer? People are pursuing charismatic manifestation but they do not have Christ-like maturity. People are looking for protection without the protector.
Is it the Christianity where pastors and ministers are moving about like parrots looking for money? Is it where believers are blowing powerless tongues and after blowing powerless tongues, the enemy still comes to press them at night? Is it that kind of Christianity? No.
The kind of Christianity that will address what is happening now has to go back to the ancient faith that was delivered to our fathers. This is a strange thing and is a very serious matter.
🔥 I pray that if you are here this morning and you are wrongly scheduled, that the Almighty will reschedule you, in the name of Jesus!
Unfortunately, most people hate changes but changes bring progress. Many people have been wrongly programmed. They have the spirit of religion but they do not really have what it takes to move close to God. A saint in the wrong place and a sinner in the right place are birds of the same feather. They will not receive blessings from the Lord. God cannot be modernized. God Himself is still Old fashioned.
I want you to understand this very well. When you want to stick to the faith that was once delivered to the Saints, get ready for people to laugh at you and call you names, but you know that it is you who do not want to remove the ancient landmarks.
A lamentation these days is this: the present day believers are yet to discover the route that the apostles travelled, let alone walk therein. Because now, Christians do not wish to look different from the world. They find it hard to discard jezebelian attachments. They try to correct God by colouring their hair and their nails. They wear all kinds of unholy dresses to the house of God. You see women with large belts like wrestlers coming to the house of God. Some come and the way they appear, they are not ready to sweat in prayer. They want to copy the white man whose spiritual environment is different from ours.
Present day Christians just want to go about with no spiritual gifts at all and they are comfortable. And many tell lies to cover up, and it is very sad. They are more worldly minded than heavenly minded which is very sad. Bottom line: we have failed to climb the same mountain of power that our early fathers climbed. The present day Christians are spineless and powerless and many are part time Christians, so they do not really serve God the way He should be served. I want you to understand this very well.
The devil’s crowd is going higher and higher to do what they have to do. The devil’s crowd agrees to sleep in a cemetery for 200 days but a Christian finds it hard to go for vigils. A child of the devil agrees to abstain from sex for 3 years because he wants satanic power, whereas a believer is busy running after the house help of the wife. A child of the devil agrees to go for a 201-day fast in order to go and destroy other people’s destinies, but a believer is complaining of hunger after 12 o’clock or after 2 o’clock. If we are still like this, we are not going to be able to confront the powers confronting us.
What are these ancient landmarks we are trying to remove now that is leading to our powerlessness?
1. The landmark of holiness of the saints. The Bible says “without holiness, no man shall see the Lord”. That landmark is being gradually eroded. Holiness within and without. There is no way you are going to look like a prostitute outside and you say you are a good Christian inside, it is not possible. The landmark of holiness is being bastardized and removed and called all kinds of names.
Most of the Christian shows you watch on television are a mockery of holiness. No wonder power is going down. This is very sad.
2. The absolute authority of the Word of God. You tell somebody “this is what the Bible says” and he says “but one cannot just be following everything like that now”. People are pushing the Word of God aside. That landmark is being taken out.
3. The landmark of aggressive praying. Thank God many Christians are now trying to pray but at the same time there are pastors who are criticising prayers, and they come to TV and say “there is nothing like prayer warrior” and they have plenty of people following them.
4. The landmark of Purposeful fasting. These people do not like to fast now unless it is compulsory or unless they have a bad dream.
5. The landmark of the expected return of Christ Jesus. You can go to a church and for a whole year, nobody tells you that Jesus is coming back again. There, they are telling sinners that they are going higher, they will fly, they will soar, they will overcome. But when the legs of these sinners have been broken by sin, how will they get there?
6. The landmark of aggressive witnessing. Many of us do not want to witness for the Lord again. Many are even ashamed to evangelise. It is a landmark that we are trying to take out.
7. The landmark of violent faith. Faith that can challenge any authority.
8. The landmark of intense brotherly love. It is always about me, myself and my family all around now.
9. The landmark of sacrificial giving. That landmark, believers are trying to remove and it is leading to powerlessness.
10. The landmark of complete obedience. Many obey the Lord at their own terms, not on His terms. Instead of saying “Yes Lord”, they say “Yes Lord, but…” Any “Yes Lord, but” is disobedience. This is a serious matter.
You have to have holy dissatisfaction with your present position. That is the first stage in getting out of this slumber. “I am tired of this kind of low spiritual life. I am tired of the kind of life that sees nothing, knows nothing, hears nothing in the spiritual realm. I am tired of this up and down kind of spiritual life”.
You need a holy dissatisfaction. After this holy dissatisfaction, you need now to pursue, overtake and recover what the enemy has been stealing from you.
This is the crux of our prayers here today. Many have the kind of power that cannot cope with the enemies they are facing and because of that, they are fighting and it is as if their strength is nothing.
So, if you know that in your life all these ancient landmarks have been swept out, or by teaching you have learnt the wrong things, you need a change.
Somebody said “the greatest illiterates are not those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot unlearn and relearn”. To go from where you are to where you have never been before, a change is necessary. Without that change, you cannot grow. Make up your mind here this morning.
PRAYER POINTS
1. Power from heaven, that cannot be insulted, locate me now, in the name of Jesus.
2. My Father, make me too hot to handle by the powers of darkness, in the name of Jesus.
God bless you🙏