RIDING ON PROSPERITY WITHOUT TEARS

Riding on Prosperity without tears

LAST UPDATED AT Thu Feb, 10 2011By Emeka Umejei,Reporter, Lagos

The prophetic declarations of Nigerian preachers at the turn of each New Year have remained a strong source of encouragement to many. Such declarations made the recently concluded annual convention of Liberty Gospel Church, held at Ikot Ansa, Calabar, really tick. The fulfillment of such declarations would make 2011 a wonderful year for the well over 5,000 persons that attended the convention.

Film producer and General Overseer of the church, Apostle Helen Ukpabio told the delegates that the year would bring them abundant progress in life even as their lives would run without the usual hiccups they used to experience in the past.

In a sermon entitled “Prosperity Without Tears,” Ukpabio told the delegates “During the year, whatever you put your hands to do will prosper. Whether there is rain or not go and plant, for it will germinate, this being the season of prosperity.

“All those that used to give you trouble will be dealt with by God. Young women who desire to marry in 2011 will do so. They will be blessed with children. Poverty and sickness has ended in your lives.

“There shall be no financial distress. You will have so much money that I get worried how you will manage it. You will enjoy divine health in 2011 and many good things in life,” she said.

She said in one of the night services, “Tonight the Lord tells me that all He has said by the mouth of the old and present prophets, shall now be fulfilled in your lives,” even as the people gave a long “Amen”

Ukpabio spotted a man in the crowd and told him: “All the chains that you had on you, which made things hard for you in the past, have today been broken. Today is your day as the Lord has cleared you.”

She read from Joshua 21: 43-45 and said under Joshua, the children of Israel received all the promises of God, saying the delegates would receive all she said would be their lot during the year.

To another delegate Ukpabio said, “Before you came here, you were in all kinds of pains, family problems and financial bondage. Nothing was working for you and your husband. But the Lord says I should tell you that you have been cleared.”

She continued, “I have seen packages handed over to 11 people. The spirit of the Lord whispers in my ears that it is a house. You have been given keys to own your own property.

“I see somebody with a serious abdominal problem. Whenever it comes on you, you would swallow drugs upon drugs. Don’t take them again as God has healed you today.

“God is placing 49 persons where they belong, 21 of them missed the mark in life, but God has restored them.

“Someone had some serious problem in the eyes. The eye irritation came from the spirit realm. You were to become completely blind by December 31. But because you came here, God has healed you and the irritation will not last beyond three days,” she said. The declarations were followed by loud, long shouts of “Amen” by the crowd.

Speaking on “The Outpour from Heaven,” Ukpabio lamented that many believers were not baptized in the Holy Spirit since they believed. She said the baptism was for this age even as it was for the apostles of Jesus. She spoke about the functions of the Holy Spirit in the life of a man to include the provision of energy, power and direction for daily spiritual and other endeavours.

She also told the delegates: “The Bible says there was a virgin in the city of Galilee. One day, an angel was seen greeting her and telling her, “You are highly favoured, you are pregnant and will give birth to a male child” this, she said, made the birth and personality of Jesus Christ unique.

“The same Holy Spirit dwells in our midst and so any of us can be overshadowed and empowered by him,” Ukpabio said, adding, “In this service I see a lot of people that are going to be conceived with he Holy Ghost.”

According to Ukpabio, when the Holy Spirit comes in, ordinary fishermen would become conference speakers. Men who were never learned would stand up and address a congregation on deep insightful spiritual things. She said in the days of Peter, people marvelled at the things he said and did because he was not educated.

“When the Holy Spirit is in your life, sickness will have no place there. When the Holy Spirit comes on you your prayer life will change. Every prayer you offer will have anointing. When you receive the outpouring, fire will follow your prayer. Without the Holy Spirit, you will oppose the power of God. You will oppose the church, and the work of God.

“When the Holy Spirit enters into a woman, she gets energized and not give the many excuses other women give for non-performance.

She narrated this story: “One day I was on board a plane and there was turbulence. People were very scared. Then one man wrote something in a piece of paper and gave another person to give to me. I did not see the man well for he sat behind. The note said, “Madam, this is a very trying moment in my life. But when I look and know that you are in this flight, I am consoled that nothing will happen. Then I bent over and said, ‘Nothing will happen. My God is in control.’ “Before I knew it, all the other people said “Amen”. Ukpabio said the turbulence ceased and the journey went on smoothly.

She later conducted a session of Holy Ghost baptism and hundreds of people fell under the anointing of the Holy Ghost. The workers brought them to the front with many of them speaking in tongues. She said the anointing had come to sharpen the understanding of those baptized and to awaken in them a sharper spiritual understanding. Ukpabio asked such persons to lead holy lives to sustain the baptism.

Speaking on the topic, “Benefits of loving the church,” she said the church was a called out people and a general assembly of believers. According to her, the world was in its last days and the spirit of the age was fighting against the church. She read Exodus 32:6 and pointed out that the children of Israel were displaying a bad spirit in church, by going about their daily businesses without reference to God.

She lamented that the church today was wallowing in backsliding and entertainment with people preferring to go to the clubs and to watch worldly films rather than go to church or for evangelism.

Prayer, Bible studies and choral displays were some of the other features of the weeklong event, attended by people from various locations of Liberty Gospel Church in Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroun Republic.





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