MOUNTAIN OF FIRE AND MIRACLES MINISTRIES
International Headquarters, Lagos, Nigeria.
Sunday Worship Service
April 9th, 2023.
Topic: THE COMPANY OF HOLY ADDICTS
Text: 1 Corinthians 16:15; Ephesians 5:18; Jeremiah 20:9; Matthew 22:36–37
Ministering: Dr. Daniel Olukoya (G.O MFM Worldwide)
Take your Bibles and listen to me very carefully.
1 Corinthians 16:15 tells us the kind of Christians God is looking for. It says, “I beseech you, brethren, (ye, know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints.” – They became addicted themselves. They became Jesus addicts. It was a decision they made to become addicts themselves.
Ephesians 5:18 (KJV) says: “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.” – It says you should not get addicted to wine, but to the Holy Spirit. If you want to even get drunk at all, be drunken with the Holy Ghost.
Jeremiah 20:9 (KJV) says: “Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.” Jeremiah could not hold it in anymore.
Paul said:
1 Corinthians 9:16 (KJV): “For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” – That is addiction. He was cursing himself if he did not preach the gospel.
What Is Addiction? Addiction is:
– an inability to stop doing something.
– the ability to stop needing something.
– A need or strong desire to need or have something.
– A very strong liking for something.
– A compulsive habit.
– A compulsive behaviour or activity.
– To be strongly inclined towards something.
An addict is a slave to a particular thing. The person is deeply devoted to that thing. He is an enthusiastic follower, an advocate of something.
Addiction is from a Latin word that means “to hand over, to give up, to hand a debtor over to a creditor, giving up somebody or something.” We are supposed to be holy slaves, but it is sad but true that the church is full of other negative habits.
There are many who come to church who are internal slaves. When a liquid is controlling your life, you are in trouble. When an activity is controlling your life and your destiny, you are in trouble. There are many Christians who are slaves to masturbation, gossip, idle talk, polluting habits, wrong attitudes, wrong eating, and wrong drinking.
More than at any other time, God is calling for holy addicts—those who are addicted to God. “Thou must love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” That is addiction.
Those who are addicted to God are those who, even if they are persecuted, do not notice it. The apostles were gathered and seriously beaten. They were told, “Do not let us hear you preach in this name again. Do you want to place this man’s blood upon us?” But the Bible says that as they were beaten, they were rejoicing, they were glad, they were happy, and they were counted worthy to be beaten for the sake of the gospel.
There are many who run away from church, and nobody has even beaten them. When you ask them why they stopped coming, they say “somebody said something.” People always say this, so it is for you to not allow whatever they are saying to direct your destiny. When they say things that are not in line with your destiny, let it go through the right ear and come out through the left ear.
Those who are God addicts are those who are:
– lost in another realm completely. When you are still operating in your realm, the person is already over that realm.
– Addicted to the word of God.
– Addicted to prayer.
– Addicted to all the things of God.
Those are God’s addicts. Make up your mind. Do you want to be in the secret army of the Lord? Do you want to be part of the executive council of heaven? Then become a divine addict. Those who are God’s addicts have decided to become a clean, secret pipe through which the power of God flows down to others. They have decided that they want their lives to be vessels for controlling other people’s lives for the better. People sometimes may not understand the God addicts.
They sometimes wonder whether they are crazy. What would make a person park his latest Mercedes Benz at a bus stop in Yaba, enter a bus going to Obalende, stand in the bus, and begin to preach the gospel? He preached all the way to Obalende, preached back to Yaba again, came down, entered his car, and drove off.
Now, looking at it, you will say this person is crazy. You will not understand it because you are not an addict. But once you are an addict, you will understand what the person is going through.
You cannot understand why a person who is so educated is now preaching the gospel, or why a very beautiful woman is preaching the gospel. It is because the company of the holy addicts is made up of those who are heavenly-minded.
As we are in church today, we are in four different categories concerning our minds. Some are:
1. Blank or neutrally minded. If you ask them to sin, they will. Ask them not to sin, and they will not. They are just like zombies—very blank. If their preacher comes to church next week and has lipstick on his lips as a man, they do not mind; they will rub theirs the next Sunday. They have no roots.
2. Religiously minded: They are just practising religion. They do not have a living experience of the power of God. They have never encountered Jehovah. They are just coming to church, no encounter. And that is why, when the service closes, that is all. They do not go back home and begin to think about the message they heard, the hymn that they sang, or the testimony that they listened to. They do not turn it over. That is all.
3. Earthly-minded: they are captivated by the things of the world. It is what they are doing in the world that is before their eyes. It is the way the world is dressing that is in their eyes. It is the way the world sees things that is in their eyes. It is the way the people of the world want their eyelashes to look, and that is what they want theirs to look like. Unfortunately, many of them have never seen a demon before in the spirit realm.
If you have seen a demon before in the spirit realm, or if you have seen marine powers in the spirit realm before, some of the dresses you are being asked to stop wearing will make you stop immediately because you do not understand that you are dressing like demons. They cannot see. But if they see it once, they will know the origin of what they are doing. Unfortunately, everything you are running around for in this world, the Bible categorises under “Vanity upon vanity, all is vanity.”
A former Miss Nigeria with all her beauty just suddenly ran mad at the bus stop. They were wise enough to package her to church here. After prayers, she calmed down. As she was kneeling down and thanking us, I asked her a question. I asked, “When all of a sudden you could not control yourself again and you were saying things you could not control, was your beauty or lipstick or makeup able to deliver you?” She said, “No, sir.”
4. Heavenly-minded: they become a pipe through which the power of God flows.
It is unfortunate that in our present generation, the devil has convinced so many Christians that if they completely sell out their lives to Jesus, their lives will be completely dull and boring and full of endless days of fasting and prayer. Some of the young ones even believe that Christianity is boring. But Christianity is not boring when it is your passion and you are a holy addict.
There are so many types of drugs in our world now, from marijuana to cocaine and the rest. There are also other drugs. I have seen plenty of drug addicts, and I have watched some of them and cried. They have no control anymore. They inject and inject and inject until the whole body is full of sores. Some sell off all their properties to buy drugs, and when they finish spending all their money and are now homeless, they start begging people on the streets for money to buy drugs. The same thing is destroying their lives. They give up everything for the drugs.
Some even sell their parents or their children for drugs. This is a very serious matter. That reminds me of what happened many years ago. A man and a woman were travelling somewhere by plane. They held a baby inside the aircraft. But one of the air hostesses was very observant. She was a mother, so she took note. As they were two hours into the journey, she noticed that the baby with this couple never cried. Nobody fed the baby. They just held the baby in a shawl in their hands.
The lady wondered what kind of baby that was. So, before their landing, she phoned the police and asked them to investigate that couple and baby. The police were waiting for them when they landed. They then discovered that the baby was dead, but they had cut the insides of that baby and filled it with hard drugs.
For somebody to kill a baby to move drugs, you can see what we are talking about. Some of them forsake their career and family for drugs. I have seen respectable people become vegetables, thieves, and murderers because of drug addiction.
Years ago, a medical doctor was being buried, and a lot of people gathered for that burial, but a strange thing about the burial was that the wife was not crying. She just kept a straight face. And being a curious person, I asked, “But, madam, your husband is being buried, and you are just looking like this.” She said, “See, ask his family members how many times I have gone to report to them that their son is taking drugs. The drugs have killed him now.” A whole medical doctor.
Just like hard drugs and alcohol, there are some other drugs that people get addicted to. They are those who are addicted to:
– accumulation of properties. They never have enough.
– religion: They just enjoy practising religion.
– football.
– Facebook.
– social media.
– television.
– gambling.
The thing they are addicted to has totally captured their lives. This is the kind of bond, but in a positive way, that God wants us to have with Him. “Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind with everything in you.”
Again, Paul said, “For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of; for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16). Those are the kinds of addicts God is looking for.
The Bible spoke about an addict called Enoch. The Bible says in Genesis 5:24 (KJV): “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” The man was so addicted to God, and, as you know, God is constantly looking for people who will be totally committed to Him. This man walked with God. If you check the Bible very well, Enoch preached prophetic messages and knew more about the second coming of Christ, even though he existed in Genesis.
“Walked with God” means that Enoch had a very intimate relationship with God. God was first in his heart. God and God alone were ruling in his life. And because of that movement that he made with God, Enoch cheated the grave. He was addicted to God. He lived in the presence of God for 300 years—not once a week, not just in the morning, not just at night, not just for a few minutes, but all the day.
I read a story about a little boy in the Sunday school whose teacher asked him, “What do you understand by “Enoch walked with God and was not, for God took him?”” He replied in his innocence, “Sir, you see, Enoch and God were friends.” So, God would visit Enoch, and they would discuss for very long. When God was going back, Enoch would escort God and then come back, and then God too would escort him home. One day, Enoch escorted God back to His house and decided to stay there.” That is how the little boy interpreted it.
God is always faithful to those who are addicted to Him. The disciples of Jesus were addicted to Him. When Jesus asked them, “Will you also go away?” They said, “There is nowhere else to go; you are here.” Paul was addicted to Jesus. Those addicts are those who can say:
“I have decided to follow Jesus; I have decided to follow Jesus; I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back.
Though no one joins me, still I will follow, Though no one joins me, still I will follow, Though no one joins me, still I will follow, no turning back, no turning back.
The world behind me, the cross before me, The world behind me, the cross before me, The world behind me, the cross before me, no turning back, no turning back”.
That is the addiction we are talking about. Think about it. You have to be addicted to God to be part of His army of disciples. You have to be addicted to the presence of God, the Word of God, and prayers. When we say somebody is addicted to something, we mean they can hardly wait to get alone with that thing and begin to experience it. In the same way, if you are addicted to God, you can hardly wait to get into His presence. You do not rush from the presence of God.
Addicts find themselves daydreaming about their habits. The same thing with God. Addicts regularly turn to their habits when they are troubled. They get very upset when they cannot engage in their addiction. Right now, we are talking about holy addiction. When you are a Jesus addict, you will crave Him. You will need Him to come through. You will need Him to be with you all the time. If you are a Jesus’ addict as a man, your wife will not be pressuring you for family prayers. The very fact that they are begging you to do family prayer shows that something is wrong with you.
You must get addicted to:
– Scriptural reading.
– Praising God.
– Praying without ceasing.
– Evangelism.
– Being in the presence of God.
– Studying the Word of God. This is a very serious situation, and this is the message to you this morning.
People with addiction wake up in the morning with just one thing in their minds, which is their addiction. They do not care how much they have to put in to get their addiction. They do not care who they have hurt or who they have to annoy to get what they want. This is how we ought to be in our relationship with God. Jeremiah tried to hold the consuming fire, but he could not hold it. Are you that kind of believer that can hardly wait to get into the presence of God? Do you find yourself wanting to get alone with God? Do you get upset if you don’t have enough time to stay in the presence of God?
You must get addicted to:
– Praising God.
– Prayers.
– Fellowshiping with God’s people, like we are doing now.
– Sharing of the word of God.
– Being in His presence all the time.
My prayer is that there will be somebody here today who will say, “Father, register my name in the school of Jesus addicts. Register my name in the book of Holy Addicts. I want my name to make an impact on earth and in heaven.” It is only Jesus’ addicts that demons recognise. Those demons told the sons of Sceva, “Paul we know, Jesus we know, but who are you? Your name is not in our register of those we should respect.”
PRAYER POINTS.
[Before Message]
1. Every witchcraft embargo, placed on my moving forward, scatter! in the name of Jesus.
2. Powers that have vowed to die, instead of seeing my greatness, you are liars; die! in the name of Jesus.
3. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Arise! Fight against those fighting me! in the name of Jesus.
4. Powers hating my laughter, arise, destroy yourselves! in the name of Jesus.
[After Message]
1. (Lay your right hand upon your head.) My Father, my life is available; overshadow my life in the name of Jesus.
2. (Lay your right hand upon your head.) I bind and cast out every spirit of death and hell! in the name of Jesus.
3. My spirit man, hear the Word of the Lord, receive fire! in the name of Jesus.
God bless you