WHO SHALL ABIDE?

Text: Psalm 15:1-5

Becoming more and more like Christ and becoming a truly consecrated worshipper is all about abiding. This is a Psalm of the presence of God; a psalm of integrity, of character and of sanctification. The more sanctified you are, the more powerful and the more consecrated you will be.

Verse 1- “Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle?” It is very important to abide. One of the hinderances to answered prayer is uncommitted heart. God knows when you mean business with him. the word ‘abide’ is a very powerful word. It is not like perching, it means to dig in and resist every opposition to what you believe. You don’t have to worship God from afar this year, you need to get closer, you need to cross the outer gate and enter into the holy of holies. That is where the glory is. Don’t be a courtyard Christian this year, press into the holy of holies; seek to behold his glory.

“Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?” Not who shall visit but who shall dwell? This year, retrain your mind from being visitation minded to being habitation minded; become a habitation minded Christian. Seek to be a carrier of the very presence of God.

The Psalmist begins to enumerate the qualities of those who dwell. You may ask, ‘why do I need to abide? Why do I need to dwell? Study Psalm 91, all the blessings enumerated in that Psalm are predicated on your abiding/dwelling. “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty … with long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.” The one that makes a habit of dwelling in the secret place of the most high is the one that shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. If you can understand this Psalm, you are already pressing towards becoming a consecrated worshipper. The only person the devil dreads is a consecrated worshipper. These are the steps to take if you want your prayer to fly at the speed of light.

Verse 2 – “He that walketh uprightly.” You must straighten your path; straighten your way and your walk with God. According to Psa. 84:11, if you walk uprightly, God will not withhold any good thing from you, all your prayer points will be answered. Make it a habit to walk uprightly. Pray – Lord, straighten my path, help me and show me the areas of my life that I need to straighten up. Lord, I want to walk with you, I want to walk uprightly and Lord I know that if I walk uprightly, you will not withhold any good thing from me. Lord, help me to walk uprightly, remove every crookedness from my heart, do not allow me to get involved in any transaction that is not straight forward, please help me in Jesus name.

“… and worketh righteousness” There is righteousness that you need to work; there is imputed righteousness and there is righteousness that is not imputed, there is righteousness that is progressive. There is righteousness that are acts of goodness, acts of kindness, acts of charity; touching people’s lives in a positive way. “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness: therefore, God thy God, hath anointed thee with oil of gladness above thy fellows.” Psa. 45:6-7. If you want the anointing of God to flow in your life, you need to live in righteousness and hate iniquity. “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” Acts 10:38.

Your righteousness this year must speak loudly. How many people are you going to lift? How many people will your Christianity touch this year? Let the light of God shine through you. That is the true meaning of life. Acts of righteousness are not just passive righteousness, let it show and touch lives. Be a Christian indeed, be an ambassador of Jesus Christ. It will be part of your evangelism and the name of the Lord shall be magnified. Pray – Lord, help me to work righteousness, help my righteousness to be active this year, let it be obvious, let it be loud. Help me to touch lives; there are destinies that need to be lifted, there are destinies that are tied around me, Father, do not allow me let them down. May Christ be seen in me in Jesus name. Flow through me, shine through me Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.

“… and speaketh truth in his heart.” Nobody can be a true child of God who is far from truth because Jesus is the truth; the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth. If you say you are a Christian and you are not full of truth, you need to check yourself. The centre of this truth is in the heart. Psalm 51:6 says, “Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts.” The worst spiritual suicide anybody can commit is to be a liar to himself. Why should somebody go to Church and refuse to change but instead decides to be selective about what to take and what not to take. This is the element of lie. The first thing the devil attacked in the Garden of Eden is the truth side of love and from that point on, man began in the garden of his heart, to have issues with truth. The snake is still speaking in the garden of the heart trying to twist the word. He lied to me many years back  ”how is it that it is only Christians that will make heaven?” I reasoned.   For five years, I was a backslidden Christian. I started searching for the truth. Thank God for giving me a second chance; I had an encounter with Jesus where he handed over the Bible to me and I screamed, ‘so you are the truth I’ve been searching for.’ From that moment, the Bible became real to me and I began to hate lie.

Your heart can be speaking while your mouth is shut. The heart has a mouth. It was the heart of Lucifer that deceived him. Lucifer said in his heart ‘I will’, he never voiced out his intentions but God banished him and his supporters because of the rebellion in his heart. One of the routines you need to cultivate on a daily basis is to put the blood of Jesus in your heart because the blood speaks and when your heart begins to speak anything that is contrary to the voice of truth, the blood of Jesus will shut it up and begin to speak better things. Pray – Lord, in any way that my heart has deceived me, I am sorry, please forgive me and grant me dominion over the voice of manipulation. Let every voice of deception be silenced in Jesus name. May I never be a victim of my lies. Please, cleanse my heart. I receive the grace today from you to always speak the truth at all times in all situations, always in my heart in Jesus name.

Verse 3 – “He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up reproach against his neighbour.” The worst thing to do is to backbite because backbiters will always be at the back. When some one backbites you, know that you have left that person behind. Backbiting is one of the ministries of satan – the accuser of the brethren. It is also one of the marks of the beast. Pray – Lord, please help me never to backbite, forgive me in any way that I have ever used my tongue wrongly. I soak my tongue in the blood of Jesus. Help me never to do any evil either to my neighbour or to anyone at all. Lord, in the name of Jesus Christ, help me never to take up a reproach against my neighbour. Grant me the grace to be perfect in my relationships this year and to walk with you honestly, in holiness, in righteousness and in wisdom. Thank you, faithful God, in Jesus name.

Verse 4 – “In whose eyes a vile person is contemned.” True holiness is not just loving God and stopping there, it goes beyond that. It is loving God and going out of your way to do what pleases him and secondly, it is loving God and loving what God loves and hating what God hates. Who are your associates? Break away from the things that defile and damn the soul. You need to clean up, this is progressive sanctification. 1 John 3:2-3 says, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” Jesus is our standard of purity. Purity is power. God can never use a vessel that is not consecrated. Pray – Lord, I repent of ever celebrating vile people. Help me Lord, to hate what you hate and to love what you love, help me Lord, in Jesus name.

“But honoureth them that fear the LORD. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.” This verse is talking about a person of integrity. Pray – Lord, help me never to celebrate a dishonourable person in my life again but help me, O Lord, to honour those that fear you in the name of Jesus. Help me to celebrate your grace in their lives. Lord, help me to be a person of integrity, help me to be full of truth and to be consistent with it in Jesus name.

Verse 5 – “He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.” What is your relationship with money?  Imbibe integrity in your business relationships. Integrity is the consolidation of character. Don’t worship money so that you can have it like dust. It is good to have money but it is a terrible thing for money to have you. Pray – Lord, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, cleanse my heart. I repent of any way that I may have worshipped money. Any crooked deal that I have ever been involved in, I am sorry, have mercy on me. Please remove every defilement in  my heart and in the things that I do. All my transactions this year, Lord, I dedicate to you, please guide me to honest transactions and bless the work of my hand. Let the doors of opportunity, let the doors of blessing swing open. Let the blessings of open heavens be manifest in my life. Make my efforts this year abundantly fruitful in the name of Jesus. Thank you, Heavenly Father, as I proclaim that the gates of blessing shall never be shut against me anymore in Jesus name. Amen.

This is operation ‘ASK’ (Matt 7:7) ; You may now present your requests to God.