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COZA Tuesday Service 'Activate'
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I want to share one central truth with you today: the help of man is useless. God uses men to bless men, but He does not expect you to look to man for help. Your help comes from the Lord.
Let me begin with Psalm 121:1-2. The psalmist writes:
I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence come my help. My help comes from the Lord who made the heaven and the earth.
This is profound. The writer had lifted his eyes to the hills—to his degree, his pedigree, his connections, his savings, his political relationships. But then he realized: this is not it.
Maybe you're listening right now, and your money has failed you. Your connections have failed you. Your uncle failed you. Your mother failed you. The school you attended failed you. Your friends failed you. You are in the middle of this realization.
Here's what's important: when human beings fail to help you, it's often not because they want to deceive you. They genuinely wanted to help. But something changed. Something happened. Plans changed. Sometimes God deliberately prevents people around you from helping because He wants you to look to Him alone.
Yes, He uses people. But when you depend totally on God—when He is your only source—you discover something remarkable: all your needs are met.
Notice the phrase in that verse: "the Lord who made the heaven and the earth." Why is that significant?
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If God made the heavens and the earth in six days, imagine how much time He has to work on your behalf before the end of this year. If you're anxious about something that will happen in December, there are more than seven days between now and then. God has time. Go to sleep. Go to rest.
Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
The things that are impossible for men are possible for God.
When you look to God instead of to the hills—to men and their promises—you position yourself to receive help that transcends human explanation. It will be like you know how to do it, even though you'll confess to people that you're not that smart. When God helps you, things will happen beyond your own capability.
Let me share my own story. There was a year when my wife and I trusted God for three things: a good house, a good car, and for our baby to come. But our car was stolen.
I thought, "What will I do?" But we continued trusting God for all three. Suddenly, God provided the house, and we moved in. My wife became pregnant around September or October. The enemy kept telling me, "This woman will give birth at night, and you don't have a car."
Then came December 27th. A friend of mine called me. He said, "Pastor Biodun, I'm trusting God to expand my church. I want to sell my car and put the money into church programs. Would you take my car?"
I had been calculating, worrying, planning—and here God was, working through someone else entirely. That friend gave me a car. That same week, everything turned around. By the end of that year, all three things God had promised came to pass.
Here's the key: God had to tell somebody in Lagos—far from my circle—because He knew that nobody around me could provide that car. We were all students. We had just finished school. That's when I learned: when your help comes from God, it comes in ways you could never orchestrate yourself.
We are living in what I call the era of multitude—not just a multitude of people, but a multitude of miracles. Things happen like water. I pray that what will excite you and silence the enemy will happen to you this year. Between now and December, God will do things for you that will amaze you.
In 2 Kings 6, we see Ben-Hadad besieging Samaria. People were starving so severely that mothers were eating their own children. A woman cried out to the king: "Help me!"
The king replied:
If God does not help you, where will I get help to give you?
That's the reality. If God does not help you, you have no help. A king with all his resources understood this.
Consider Proverbs 127:1:
Except the Lord build a house, they labor in vain that build it.
I've been around long enough to see people struggle despite having education, talent, and vision. There's a missing link when God is not in the equation.
I grew up in a place where there were twenty young men, all with vision, most claiming to be pastors. But today, when I check on them, I see the difference. Some were gifted—genuinely gifted. We used to prophesy together, speak in tongues together. One was so accurate we called him "prophet." But I pity gifted people. You can be beautiful, brilliant, talented, in ministry, and without God's help, none of it matters.
Hosea 13:9 says:
You have destroyed yourself, you have messed up. But in me is your help.
Not in people. Not in your schemes or lies or calculations. Your help is in God.
I prophesy to you: there is nothing so bad, so far gone, that it cannot be turned around. The things you have messed up—things may have been delayed—but I declare to you, things will turn around in the name of Jesus.
I remember a young man who came to Abuja. The person who promised to help him switched off their phone. He ended up living in a garage. Our evangelism team found him, preached to him, and brought him to church. When I began teaching about God's help, something clicked in him. The first thing that happened was a woman on the street invited him to sleep in her shop. That was the first step of God's help for him.
I prophesy: everyone who should help you, every blockage will be revealed and removed in the name of Jesus.
After this service, people who used to help you will be shocked at how you come out. Something great will happen to you.
There are rooms where you cannot contribute, where you have no connection. I pray that after this service, somebody inside one of those rooms will speak in your favor.
Remember Mephibosheth? He was a prince, but he was dropped and broke his spine. Yet David remembered him. David asked, "Is there no one from the house of Saul to whom I can show mercy for Jonathan's sake?"
Because of covenant, because of the connection to Jonathan, David restored Mephibosheth.
I prophesy: because you are connected to Jesus, your King will remember you. Your case will be different. Your story will change.
Hebrews 13:5-6 tells us:
Let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have, for He Himself said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." So you may boldly say, "The Lord is my helper. What will man do to me?"
There are people who form cliques and look at you as a nobody. But I tell you: the people who look down on you today, you shall be their savior. Some of you will save their marriages. Some will save their finances. Some will bail them out.
The grace of being a savior rests upon you. In your family, you will stand out.
You may come from a big family. Some get pushed aside—"Oh, you're from Lagos." "You're from London." "You're from Ilorin. Go, go." As a child, you think, "What happened to me?"
I've been there. My father went broke. I had to change schools—to a boys-only school where students would lock each other's lockers, where people sat by windows to receive lectures. Some came from the hostel without bathing. I saw things I'd never seen in primary or secondary school.
I used to think, "What kind of human beings are these?" But God changed my story.
God will give somebody here a new beginning. The changer will change your story.
Look at Hebrews 13:5 again in the Amplified Bible. It uses three negatives to emphasize God's promise:
I will never, I will not, I will not... let you down. I will not release my hold on you.
Relax. God will not abandon you.
You may feel like you're about to go back to what you used to do. You may think, "After encountering God, life doesn't feel realistic anymore." But God will help you. Things will change.
I know people who came to church thinking, "I'll just try this place." They encountered God. It didn't happen overnight, but God began to move. It starts when you rely on God totally.
Genesis 28:15 records God's promise to Jacob:
Behold, I am with you. I will keep you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.
That thing you're going through has an expiry date. When the enemy fashioned it, there was an expiry date built in. This day has come. Whatever was delayed, let it drop right now in the name of Jesus.
Isaiah 41:10 begins:
Fear not, for I am with you.
That's all you need. Jacob was sold into Potiphar's house, but the Lord was with him. He went to prison, but the Lord was with him.
When the angel appeared to Gideon threshing corn in fear, the angel said, "Mighty man of valor, the Lord is with you."
When Jesus came, He was called Immanuel—God with us. The Greek says, "God with us."
I pray: you will not be alone.
Continuing in Isaiah 41:
Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my right hand of righteousness.
This night may not feel safe. You may see obstacles, but you have been strengthened. I pray that nothing will take your strength away.
Look at verse 13:
For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, "Fear not. I will help you."
Tell your neighbor: "God will help you." That interview—God will help you. That exam—God will help you. Your marriage—God will help you. Your children—God will help you. Your career—God will help you. You will not be in limbo. God will not abandon you.
God sees your secret tears. He sees your secret prayers. He will reward you openly.
Isaiah 41:14-15 contains a stunning promise:
Fear not, you worm Jacob. You worm Jacob... I will make you a new threshing instrument with sharp teeth. You shall thresh down mountains and beat them small, and make the hills like chaff.
How does a worm—spineless, crushable—become an instrument of iron with sharp teeth? How does it thresh mountains and beat them into nothing?
It does not add up. But that is what will happen to you.
You've not seen anything yet. You have testimonies, yes. But you've not seen what God will do. Job said, "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You."
Every mountain before you shall be made plain.
Many people limit God through unbelief. In Egypt, people tempted the Holy One of Israel and limited Him. They didn't understand His language. What language does God not understand? Unbelief.
Psalm 60:11 declares:
Give us help from trouble, for the help of man is useless.
It's useless. God no longer comes down from heaven to do things Himself. He uses men to bless men. But when you turn to man instead of God, help becomes useless.
That's why you're disappointed when pastors' prayers fail, when promises break. You've replaced God with men.
Consider King Asa. He had access to the best medical service, but when he was sick, he depended on physicians instead of God, and he died. The Bible says, "Because he did not trust in God."
My teaching: use your medication, go to the hospital, but trust in God. Let your trust be in God.
I remember my grandmother. When she took her medication, she would pray in Yoruba: "In the name of Jesus, any adverse effect this medication is supposed to have, I come against you." She understood: trust God, use what's available, but don't depend on man.
Psalm 146:3 reinforces this:
Do not put your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
Don't put your trust in them. I've seen people disappointed because they bragged about their contacts, their connections to senators and dignitaries. But when they needed help, those connections failed.
We had a member living in a senator president's house. He was there every day, eating good food, but when he needed help from that relative, nothing came. Because the help of man is vain.
Jeremiah 17:5 is stark:
Cursed is the man who trusts in man.
You introduce a curse when you put your hope in man.
Someone may say, "My uncle promised to sponsor my wedding. Is that wrong?" No, it's not wrong. But don't put your hope in him. After this service, people who used to help you will be shocked at how you come out.
This is important: Don't let your security depend on your family's wealth or name. Don't live off your father's faith.
Yes, build on what your parents have established. Let their ceiling become your foundation. But then go higher. Do more. Dream more. Study more. Give more. Every generation must be an improvement on the former.
Solomon had a great father in David, but Solomon did not maintain that relationship with God. And it cost him. David told him, "If you abandon God, you will be doomed for life"—and that's exactly what happened.
Psalm 124:1 says:
If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, let Israel now say, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, men would have risen up against us. They would have swallowed us alive.
It's the shadow of death you see. If not for God, you would have been swallowed.
But here's the promise in 1 Chronicles 12:22:
At that time, people came to David to help him until it was a great army like the army of God.
That will be your story. Receive help in the name of Jesus.
God will use people. A stranger will take you as a brother. Someone will call and give you something you never asked for. Recently, someone gave my assistant one hectare of land—in Abuja, in a prime location—simply because they saw his vision and character.
That young man's car used to be his office. Now he has an office building. From nowhere.
I once received a car from a couple from the northeast who said, "Pastor Biodun, we don't even know your ministry that well, but we want to give you this." They flew down. Two days before, I had thought, "I want to bless this assistant with a car." God brought that car.
From nowhere. You are too calculative. Analysis paralysis. Be smart, but not with God. Be smarter.
This week, mark my lips: God will settle you in the name of Jesus.
Some of you think, "Pastor Biodun, I wish I had known this before. I've made mistakes. Things aren't working, and I know why."
Let me tell you this: you were everything for the enemy. But you prayed one prayer in church, and God forgave you. God changed your life. You were heaven-bound, on your way to eternity.
Do you now think that with Jesus Christ, God will not give you all things? There is nothing God cannot do for you.
When you were His enemy, He loved you. John 3:16 says:
For God so loved the world [His enemies], He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
When you became born again, everything begins to change. Not overnight, but it begins. You can't compare yourself with anybody else.
Many Christians have the form of godliness but deny the power. It's like an unplugged iron—it has the shape, but it doesn't do the job.
Make up your mind today: I will look to God. I will look away from man.
You've tried enough. You've tried business. You've tried everything. You go up and down like a yo-yo—fifteen steps forward, seventeen back. From today, let the mercy of God find you. Let things change in the name of Jesus.
Isaiah 40:28-29 promises:
God gives power to the weak and increases the strength of those who have no might.
Today, if Scripture is true, your strength is increased. Your connection is increased. Help is increased for you. Men will bend over backwards to help you.
In Job 6:13, Job asks:
Is my help not within me? Is success not within me?
Everything you're looking for is within you. God has placed eternity in your heart. The only thing you need is to depend totally on God.
Yes, work hard. Strategize. Be excellent. Network. But don't joke with God. Don't joke with this dimension of help.
If God be for you, nothing can be against you and survive.
I'm out of time, but here's the final word: if God be for you, nothing will be able to survive being against you.
You're here today. You're not born again, or you haven't experienced this dimension of God's help. Maybe that's made you go left, made you compromise. But listen: we work towards perfection.
If you are unstable as water, you will not excel. God is calling you today to be on His side. Don't trust in auntie's magic. Don't trust in water you pour into your drink to have your back. That will only complicate your life.
Woe unto him that depends on princes for help.
Depend on God.
In the name of Jesus:
God will help you in the name of Jesus. So shall it be.
Jeremiah 20:11 is your prayer:
But the Lord is with me as a terrible mighty one. Therefore, my persecutors shall stumble. They shall not prevail. They shall be greatly ashamed, for they shall not prosper. Their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.
Anything persecuting you—physical or spiritual—shall stumble. Instant judgment. They shall not prosper.
Pray with precision. Pray with understanding. Come against every trouble, every sickness, every delay.
Say: The spirit of Him that raised Jesus from the dead abides in this body. Let this body be revitalized. Let me be rejuvenated in the name of Jesus.
Command help from every direction. Any weapon formed against you shall not prosper.
If you haven't done so, confess Jesus as Lord and Savior today. Believe that He died, rose, and ascended. Everything He did begins to affect you. When men are casting you down, you shall see lifting up.
You are more than a conqueror. The grace of Jesus overflows in your life.
Walk out of this place and enter into unusual help. Enjoy it. So shall it be in Jesus' precious name.
God's goodness and mercy shall run after you all the days of your life. You will dwell in God's presence forever and ever. Amen.
