2022/2023 OPERATION 18-18 – THE BEST WAYS TO CELEBRATE JESUS I (A MESSAGE DELIVERED ON 25TH DECEMBER, 2022)

As long as Jesus remains upon the throne, we can smile at any storm. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, than the mighty raging of the sea. Are you passing through any storm? Go ahead and present it before God right now.

Pray –

• Jesus, I celebrate you. I celebrate your anointing, I celebrate your sovereignty. I celebrate your almightiness. I celebrate your power. I celebrate your grace. I celebrate your glory.
• I hand over all the battles of my life to you and ask you to stretch forth your hand, touch the mountains, let them smoke. Let your light shine in the name of Jesus. I lift up your name and enthrone you as the Lord of every storm in my life.
• Jesus, I hand over to you every storm of my life, do what only you can do. Let your light shine. Let your glory break forth. Let your name be magnified.
• Prince of peace let your peace reign in every area of my life. Have your way. Thank you ancient of days. You came that I may have life and have it more abundantly, release your abundant life in every area of my life.
• Anywhere the enemy is mounting pressure, Father, intervene, in Jesus’ name.

It is possible to celebrate this season the wrong way and unfortunately, that is what a lot of people are doing. I can understand when the world is doing it, but when people who are supposed to be knowledgeable about these things get carried away by celebration of superfluity of naughtiness, I get concerned.

“Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands. Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it. And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled: But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.”

Isaiah. 5:11-16 KJV

Take particular note of verses 12 and 13. These scriptures differentiate clearly the difference between those who celebrate aright and those who celebrate wrongly. It is so easy to get into the multitude. It is interesting to know that the heathen celebrate Christmas the most. If you pay a visit to most African villages on 25^th of December, you will notice the extent they go to celebrate the season with their masquerades and other fetish things.

Celebration of Christmas without Christ is celebration of absurdity of the highest order. We know from Church history that Jesus was not born on the 25^th of December. Nobody knows the birthday of Jesus. If it was a very crucial thing that must be celebrated, God would have made it known. The disciples of Jesus, the apostles and the early Church never had such a celebration. It was the syncretic and erroneous Church – the apostate Church that started all these things many years after the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They started celebrating the day. What exactly and how should we celebrate?

If you remove Christ from the word, ‘Christian’, what you have left is ‘ian’ meaning, ‘I am nothing’. Today, that is the greatest problem of Church goers who don’t have Christ in them. None of the signs that Jesus said should follow those who love him follow them. Instead they are following signs.

Anyone who is not growing in the Lord will definitely end up groaning in the world. It doesn’t matter how high such a person climbs in the ecclesiastical ladder or even become a bishop or an arch bishop but in the realm of the spirit, there is no Christ in him. It is Christ that gives meaning to life.

We do not celebrate the date, we celebrate the Person. We celebrate the fact of his birth. We celebrate the essence of his coming. We celebrate the substance of his life.

TO BE CONTINUED………