======================================================================== DEVOTION 1 by Gbile Akanni ======================================================================== Summary: Gbile Akanni challenges young believers to resolve in their hearts to walk in holiness, possess their spiritual inheritance, and actively engage in God's battle against the enemy. Duration: 36:26 Topics: "Faith and Obedience", "Spiritual Warfare" Scripture References: Genesis 22:15, Daniel 1:8, Psalm 110:1, Psalm 110:2, Job 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In this devotional sermon, Gbile Akanni encourages young believers to embrace their God-given potential and strength to overcome spiritual challenges. Drawing from biblical examples such as Abraham, Daniel, and Samuel, he emphasizes the importance of holiness, active faith, and personal resolve. The message calls the youth to rise up, possess their spiritual inheritance, and stand firm in God's battle against the enemy. Akanni's passionate delivery inspires listeners to commit fully to God's purpose for their lives. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for the privilege you've given unto us to sit at your feet, even this day, to receive instructions unto righteousness. Thank you, because of the privilege you have given unto us, you could have done your work without us. It has pleased you to involve us. Father, we need help from you. Thank you even for this money, for this devotional challenge. We ask your presence amidst us that has started already to continue with us. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for hearing us. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Let's take our Bibles and turn to the book of Genesis, chapter 22. Genesis 22. I'm reading from King James Version. I will start reading from verse 15. And I read, And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thy only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sun which is upon the seashore, and thy seed shall possess the gates of its enemies. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice. I want us to take the second scripture reading from Daniel, chapter 1. And I read just verse 8. You are Bible students, so you will understand where we are coming from. So let me just take verse 8. But Daniel professed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. May God bless the reading of his words. I welcome all the youths, all the students, all the young men all over the world to this meeting once again. I know I envy several of you. I keep praying the prayer that God will not answer. I keep wishing that God would rewind my years, maybe 30 years back, with the understanding I have now. But it's not possible. Many of you will not pray that prayer because you are still young. Some of you are sitting here, you are in your teens. Some of you are less than 30 years, and you are encountering this divine truth. The whole world is at your disposal to become exactly what God wants you to become. God came unto Abraham in Genesis chapter 12, and he made a promise. He told Abraham what to do with him, that he was going to make him great. After the promise, and when Abraham commenced the journey, God tested Abraham's soul. He tested him a lot. He proved Abraham, and it's like the final proving was when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, his only son, that son of promise. And Abraham resolved in his heart. He said, God is able to raise Abraham if he wants to. If he does not want to raise him, to take him away, God is my portion in the land of the living. A child is not what I will pursue in life. God is what I will pursue in life. When God saw that in Abraham, God now said, okay, now he has reached a point where I will now allow you to possess the land. But as Abraham was dying, he had not yet possessed the land, but God gave him a promise. He said, your children, your seed, they will do it. They will possess the land. Well, let's leave Abraham at that point. God came again in the Mosaic Psalms, in Psalm 110, verse 1 and 2. And he assured Jesus, when he has come and done all that he needed to do and gone back to heaven, God said, I will make, he said, sit down at my right hand until I will make thy enemies thy footstool. He assured Jesus that he should sit down, even though the time you are coming back, it looks as if nothing has happened, but just sit down. I will surely make thy enemies thy footstool. I'm going to raise some young men and young women. All will clothe themselves in holiness. All will not be enticed by this world. All will go ahead and conquer for you and possess all that the enemy is claiming illegally that it is his. And so on. So God declared this unto the Lord Jesus. Now, coming to us, God came and declared a rohobot season for us. You know that we are in a season now. And then to crown it all, God gathered all the youths of the world. Men that have the strength, men that have the energy, men and women that have the potential. And God said, this is the rohobot season that I will expand. And whatever the enemy is still laying claim on, the youth of the world, they will expand. They will bear fruit. They will possess, you know, the gates of the enemy. The enemy has no gate anywhere. He did not make the whole world. The Bible says that the earth belongeth unto the Lord. The fullness thereof belongeth unto the Lord. There is nothing the enemy is claiming that is his own. Nothing is his. So we are legally right to stand up and face any gate and say, look, this is our possession. And you see, God is not going to old men. The old men could have done this. Look at Caleb. He stood up at what age? At that 85 years of age, he said, I am strong. But the Bible says the pride of a young man is in his strength. So we are the ones actually God is looking on to. We carry the potential. We carry all it takes. We will run and we will not faint. We will fast and we will not faint. We will run around, we will move everywhere and we will not faint because we carry the strength. And this strength is heaven. So it's a time of fulfillment of what God assured Abraham that his seed would do. It's also a time of fulfillment of what God said to Jesus to sit down at his right hand and we make his enemies his footstool. This is the time for it. So God wants to challenge the enemy now. We don't know what is happening in the spirit realm, but I can recall that in the days of Job, something was going on in the spirit realm. God met the devil and he said, OK, you've been complaining about my children. What about Job? God got somebody that could challenge the devil and he challenged the devil. The devil was disgraced. The devil did not come back to God. He went away quietly because God got a man. Can God get a young man and a young lady across the globe in this meeting whom he can challenge the enemy for all the days that the enemy is claiming that belonged unto him and that illegally? Can God get any of us? Can someone resolve and say, look, I am ready. God, here am I. You are sure, Jesus, and I know you will not lie. Your word can never fall on the ground. You told him that you are going to raise the rose of his strength. So we are going up in the strength of the Lord Jesus, not in our feebleness, not in the weakness of God or Jesus. Even if it were in the weakness of Jesus, that is strong enough and more powerful than any strong strength anywhere in the world. He boasted in the days of Job. Can we allow God to boast in our own time? Can God boast because he has found you and I? Then God came to say, God, I throw an advert unto us. It's an advertisement. That is a parcel of land. It's a gate somewhere. Different kinds of gates. Gates among the youths. Gates of the old men. Gates of politics. Gates of academia. Gates of head sector. He said, I want to possess these gates. Gates of sports. Gates of politics. I want to possess it. He said, who is on the Lord's side is declaring, is making that an announcement. Can you sit there as a young man with strength, with great potential, and you hear God shouting, who is there? And you are quiet. Can you sit there and be quiet and hear God say, who is on my side that I've got a battle to fight? And God has assured us that if you are going in the strength of the Lord Jesus, you will be the role of his strength. That's what God is saying. So what have you resolved to do? And you see, despite the fact that God has made this announcement, he has made it several times. In the days of Gideon, he made the announcement, he said, who is on the Lord's side? That the Amalekites were occupying a gate that was wrong. And he was looking for men that would go with him into that battle. And he got a Gideon. He said, Gideon, go and make an announcement. Who is on the Lord's side? Let's go. And 32,000 persons came out. Oh, we don't have time to be looking at these 32,000 people that came out to go and possess the gates for God. But we discovered that later, after the screening, majority were disqualified. Just a few were qualified to go on. He has always been doing that. God has come now. He says it's time to possess the gates. The gates of our times. And he's looking for young men with potentials. Who has strength. There's no young man that does not have strength. Every young man has a deal. Every young lady has a deal. Every one of us carries something. There's a potential in us that God wants to use. But you see, God is not a tyrant. He doesn't bulldoze his way to force anybody. He's looking for the one who will resolve. Who will be determined. Who will propose in their heart and say, here am I. If God were to force his way, it's very easy. As we're sitting here, God will just tune the song to the right-hand side. The engineering in Babylon got to a point where they could increase the temperature of the burning furnace several times. Even human beings would do that. Can God increase the temperature of the sun several times or even much more? And by the time we start crying, God will say, well, I'm not going to stop it until all of you respond to me. You know, if God were doing that, he would be bulldozing his way. But God wants us to come to him in love. If he does not want to tune it to the right-hand side, he can tune the song to the left-hand side. And by the time it is minus 15, minus 60, minus 70 degrees centigrade, and we are all shouting and crying, saying, God, what should we do? He will say, you have to respond. I have a battle to fight. But you see, God doesn't behave like that. God wants all of us to come to him in love. Can we have young men and young women today who will say, look, I have resolved. I am determined. Don't bulldoze your way. It is not your way of doing things. We are ready. We are ready to face that mountain. Can we have young men and women today who will face the challenge and say, here am I. You don't need to go far. We are here. In our center, we are here. Can you say, here am I? And when you say, here am I, you won't say, send them. You will say, send me. So I want to ask you a question at this point. What is the resolve of your life? We read one verse about a man known as Daniel. Brethren, nobody becomes anything by chance. Nobody becomes anything by accident. It's what you resolve to become. It's what you determine to become. As a young man, you can waste your potentials. As a young lady, you can waste your potentials. Nobody becomes anything for God by accident. Nobody becomes anything in life at all by accident. It doesn't just come, it's what you resolve to become. If you resolve to be useless, you will become useless. If you resolve to become something, you will become something. I pray that in this meeting, you will resolve to become something in the hand of God. So Daniel, the Bible says, he proposed in his heart. He resolved in his heart. He determined in his heart. What did he determine? That I will not defy myself. And when you make such a declaration, loneliness faced him, but he still determined. Persecution faced him, he was still determined. He still proposed in his heart. Come what may, the young man, as Daniel was a young man, he still determined. In the midst of adults, he still determined. In the midst of affluence, he was still determined. In the midst of the name that came to him, he was still determined. In the name of, you know, in the face of all the gays around, before the young man, he was still determined. What are you determined to do with your life as a young man? What are you proposing in your heart that you want to do with your life? With the great strength and potential that God has put inside you, the ingenuity that is inside you, what have you resolved to do with it? So Daniel determined in his heart. He said, look, I will not defy myself. You know, when God was speaking to Jesus, do you know what he said? He said, those young men, those rogues, they will clothe themselves in holiness. They will clothe themselves in holiness. And yet they will not defy themselves. Are you a young man? Do you love righteousness? Do you love holiness? Or you are caught up with a strange gospel of hyper grace that just believe. Once you believe, that's all. Believe what? A believing that is just passive. A believing that is not active. As you see me, I believe that if I drink concentrated acid, I will die. So to show that I believe, I will not play with acid. I believe that if a snake will bite me, I'm likely going to die. To show that I believe, I will not play with snake. When I see it, I try to kill it, and if I cannot, I run away. Why? Because I believe that it can kill. What kind of belief or grace that has come on you that you just say believe, and it's just passive, it's just active. There's no responsibility attached to it. That's a strange doctrine. That's not the kind of thing where a young man should be pursuing. Why would a young man not be responsible? Like Daniel said, I have resolved in my heart that I am not going to define myself. So these men that will possess the gate for God, they are men who are walking in holiness. They are young men and women who are walking in holiness, who have clothed themselves in holiness, who have clothed themselves in righteousness, and yet they have determined in their heart, they have resolved that I'm not going to define myself. Look at those that became something in the Bible. We have looked at Daniel, or he resolved that he will not define himself. He proposed in his heart, a determined devil has not been given authority to force pleas. Since the cross, the death and resurrection of Jesus took place, the devil has no authority to force anybody. So the Bible said, sin shall not have dominion over you. Sin can only plead and beg you. If you say no, sin cannot knock you. It cannot give you a knock and say, stand up and commit me. You have the right, the potential, the strength to say no, and you will stand your ground. Daniel did this, and as he did that, he possessed the gate of Babylon. Nobody could stand against Daniel and prevail. Persecution came and he could not prevail on him. Because Daniel resolved in his heart that I will not define myself. Can a young man, can a young lady resolve this day and say, look, I have resolved for God. I have resolved that I will possess the gates around me for God. Can we have a young man do that? Can we have a young lady resolve like that? Look at Ezra as a young man. At that age, the man determined that he would be a teacher of the word of God. He determined that he will study. Then he will obey it. Then he will teach it in Israel. Time will not permit us to be looking at Ezra. But when he resolved, when he determined, when he proposed his heart on what to do, according to the word of God, the whole nation submitted to him. He possessed the heart of people. He possessed the gate. The people came to him, confessing their sins. Because the man resolved in his heart. What have you determined in your heart? Can you imagine a young man like you, you are boasting that you are a court member. And you are boasting that you have power. I invite you today, come to Jesus, where the real power is. There is no power in courtesies. That power is passing away. It's fake. And that's what you are getting proud of. Were you made for courtesies? The Bible says, give unto Caesar that which is Caesar. You were made under the image of God. Give your life to God. What are you submitting your life unto? Look at people who grew up in bad environments like Samuel as a young man. He grew up under adulterous priests in his time. He sold blue tongues in the church. As a young man, Samuel proposed in his heart that he would not defy himself. He chose to serve God. Time will not permit us to be looking at Samuel, what he accomplished. By the end of it all, the Bible says the whole nation, from Dan in the northern part of the kingdom, down to Beersheba in the southern part of the kingdom, all of them acknowledge that God has raised a prophet and a priest and a man here. But his environment was very filthy. Very filthy. What environment are you growing around that you are complaining? Was it as terrible as this one? It was so terrible that even women would get drunk and go to church. So when Eli saw Hannah praying, he assumed it was one of those drunken women. And he shouted at her and said, oh Lord, will you continue to be drunk? If he hadn't seen women who got drunk and came to church, would he be saying that to Hannah? That's how the environment was. So whatever is the state of your church, your environment, your campuses, your villages, wherever, can you dare to be a Daniel? Can you dare to be a Ezra? Can you dare to be a Samuel? In a filthy environment like that, can you dare to be one of them? Look at somebody like David. 17 years of age. Look at the people sitting before me here. How many of you are less than 17? I'm sure those that are less than 17, they will not be up to 10% here. Everybody seems to be above that. And that young man already resolved on what to do. What have you resolved to do with your life? What are you determined to do with your life? What are you proposing your heart to become? At 17, a young man has already resolved on what to do. And had testimonies of how God was with him. That he could face a lion or he could face a deer at age 17. What have you resolved to do? And this young man was growing up in an environment where the Eder brothers were not right before God. Where the Eder brothers were disqualified. So he was not growing up in an environment where he could be called to become righteous. But the young man decided. He resolved. He was determined. He proposed in his heart. How can we have youths, young men and women moving endlessly? A young man that is above 17 does not know what to do with his life. But he knows what to do for the devil. He has begun to learn how to fornicate. He has learned how to smoke. He has learned how to join court. It's only the truth. The devil sees you so early in life. I call on you this day. I say come to Jesus. Propose in your heart. Determine that today I'm coming. Ah, this is the day. This day must not pass you by. If men like Daniel. Young men like Daniel. If young men like Ezra. If young men like Samuel. If young men like David. Who achieved this feat in their time. And look at Jesus. Look at Jesus. When he took on humanity. What was the resolve of his life? What did he determine to do with his life? What did he resolve to do with his life? He said in the volume of the books. It is written concerning him. He searched the scriptures. As a young person. At age 12. He was already speaking. It's because he resolved. You may say, boy, he was Jesus. But the Bible says he was a man. He took on humanity. He didn't come as an angel. He didn't come as a spirit. He came as a man. A man of light and passion. And at age 12. At age 12. Scriptures began to dwell in him richly. Why at your age? The will of God is dwelling in you scarcely. At age 12. Oh, this is a challenge to the youths of our generation. Ah, at my age. Something is dwelling in me scarcely. Which is supposed to control my life and the whole age and everything around me. And he could boldly say. My meat is to do the will of him that sent me. Your we, your own we. Is it alcohol? That's what you take every morning to be charged. Charged with what? Don't you know that you could be charged with Holy Ghost in the morning? You are getting charged with something wrong. You are getting charged with immorality. You are getting civilized with wrong things. That is a wrong civilization. Why the man is saying my meat is what? Is to do the will of him that sent me. Ah, is that youthful aid? Is that the zeal of the house of my father? It has consumed me. You, it is a zeal for parties. Strange parties. Strange gatherings. Night gatherings. Look at you. Maybe your father was a man of God or a missionary or somebody that served God. You are carrying art. You are carrying weapons. You are going for initiation, for assignment. Ah, can't you go for assignment for God? I want to tell you that if you don't serve God, you will serve useless things. If you don't determine to follow God, you will follow useless things. You will follow things less than God. You will follow mundane things. Why can't you, as a young man, as a young lady, resolve this moment that at this cycle, 2022, I will resolve. I will determine. I will propose in my heart that I will follow God. Ah, I will become like a Daniel. I will dare to be a Daniel. I will dare to stand alone. I will dare to make my purpose fair. And I will dare to make it known everywhere. Can you determine like that? In this cycle, God has called this meeting for you. You are not here by accident. The Holy Spirit drew you and brought you here for something. Don't allow that purpose to pass you by. Don't allow your heart to be beaten as if it were caught. It's not a beating of the heart. It's for you to raise your heart this morning and say, Here am I. I'm determined. I'm proposed. I resolve. But what are you resolved? Don't resolve vaguely. It must be pinpointed this morning. What have you resolved to be called for God? All these people, they decided on what to do. Look at somebody like Esau with great potential. Esau stood up and said, What will this bait ride do to me? Eh? If I die of hunger? As if Esau was walking on the streets and picking dead bodies on the ground. Who died of hunger? That he became so afraid of hunger that he could hand over the bait ride? Is that all you are handing over your bait ride cheaply in order to pass the exam? What is exam? In order to get money, what is money? When your soul is destroyed, where will you spend the money? Look at you as a young man getting involved in things that weakens your soul. Are you an Esau? Are you a profane person? Are you a thoughtless person like Esau? And look at Judas. Look at such a man. He sat under the best teacher that ever lived. And that man proposed in his heart. And he proposed negatively to pursue money. To become rich. To have silver and gold. Under Jesus. He determined to have money. Whatever happens, Judas wants to have money. If you set a fire and put food there, and the fire is burning and you put money in the other side, something tells Judas, I can cross over and carry the money and come back and nothing will happen. If anything happens, I will use the money and treat myself. That's the kind of Z, strange Z that you have for what is wrong. And Judas destroyed himself under Jesus. Look at you, you are in church. Must you be destroyed in church? Must it be under the nose of Jesus that you be destroyed? I put this question to you this morning. What have you resolved to become? What have you resolved to become? The character of the men and women who possess their gates. They were not in the majority. Joseph was not in the majority. Daniel was not in the majority. Esther was not in the majority. David was not in the majority. All of them were not in the majority. And yet, they possess their gate. Because they determined in their hearts. They proposed in their hearts. They resolved in their hearts what to do. Don't leave this meeting with vagueness on your heart. There must be a determination, a resolution, and a firm purpose in your heart of what to do, what to pursue. You may have been a Christian. Don't be a general Christian after this challenge. You must determine in your heart what you must do. Time will not permit us to look at men like John the Baptist. What they did in their youthful age. And what took them hope. It's not how long I lived that matters. It's how effective, how useful I was. It's not how long. You may be a matricular here. But your life has been a life of unfulfillment. That's not good enough. May God grant us help. As we round up, I want to ask you. What have you proposed in your heart to become? What have you resolved to become in your heart? What have you determined to do with your life? What have you determined? What is inside your heart? How can you just be a man playing those movies with an empty heart? With nothing conceived on it. No body, nothing you are pursuing. What have you resolved to do with your heart? God is talking about possessing the gift. But it's not a tyrant. He won't force you. You must be the one to determine. As you take your hymn book and look at hymn number 10. As we sing it, as we round up. I am resolved. No longer to linger. Charmed by the world's daylight. Faced at a higher. Faced at a nobler. Face of a love my side. I am resolved to go to the Savior living. He is the true one. He is the just one. He has the words of life. I will stand to him. I will stand to him. Jesus, greatest higher, I will come today. I am resolved. ♪ Our hope will go with me, come friend without delay ♪ ♪ Taught by the Bible, led by the Spirit, we walk the heavenly way ♪ ♪ Our way has turned to Him, His saints of blood are free ♪ ♪ Jesus, greatest, highest, are we come today ♪ Father, we thank you. Thank you this day for reminding us that we carry strength. We have potentials and a credit, a promise is hanging on Jesus and on Abraham and on several partners that served you. And we are the ones who are privileged to possess the gates and cause the earth to become a footstool of the maker. Lord, what a privilege. If they didn't call angels to do this job, they could have done it with precision, but it leads you to call us young men and young women and make this advert unto us. May none of us go away from this place without determining what to do, without resolving, without being purposeful in what we are pursuing. Thank you, Heavenly Father. We know you are more than able to do this that we have prayed unto you this day. Thank you for hearing us. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. ♪ Jesus, greatest, highest, are we come today ♪ ======================================================================== Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/gbile-akanni/devotion-1/ ========================================================================