Open Heaven 11 August 2023 Topic: Why God May Be Silent
Memory Verse: Jeremiah 29:11 – For I know the thoughts I think towards you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end.
Bible Reading: John 5:1-9
1 After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, there is a pool, which is called in Hebrew, “Bethesda”, having five porches.
3 In these lay a great multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, or paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water;
4 for an angel went down at certain times into the pool and stirred up the water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.
5 A certain man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years.
6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been sick for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to be made well?”
7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, another steps down before me.”
8 Jesus said to him, “Arise, take up your mat, and walk.”
9 Immediately, the man was made well, and took up his mat and walked.
Now it was the Sabbath on that day.
Open Heaven 11 August 2023 Message
Several years ago, when I was a very young-preacher, there was a good campground in Nigeria called the ‘Youth Camp’.
We would often go there for retreats. One day while we were there for a retreat, the owners told me they wanted to sell the place for N100,000.
We had nothing close to that kind of money then, but I had faith that God would buy the place for us.
I gathered my people together and we prayed round the camp, confessing that it was already ours in line with the word of God in Joshua 1:3 – “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you“.
Later on, when the owners saw that we were not forthcoming with the money, they sold it to a bigger ministry. We were devastated.
We turned to God, “But Lord, we prayed, we used Your word”. All through, He remained silent. He remained silent because He had something bigger in store for us.
He knew that forty acres of land would be too small for where He was taking us. By God’s grace, the auditorium we now call the Old Auditorium sits on over forty acres of land.
Our new auditorium is now 3 kilometres by 3 kilometres. If you have prayed, praised God, and are sure of your faith, but God remains silent, it is likely because He has something bigger in store for you than what you are asking for.
He is a God who takes pleasure in exceeding His children’s expectations. The Bible says in Ephesians 3:20: “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,”
In our Bible reading for today, the man at the pool of Bethesda was explaining his predicament to Jesus, hoping that He would help him get into the water. Jesus however ignored him and gave him something greater.
This is the case many times when you are praying and it looks like God is ignoring you; He may just be preparing something greater for you.
Don’t give up hope; trust Him. Isaiah 55:8-9 says: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
RCCG Open Heaven 11 August 2023
Points: When you have done everything right on your end and God is silent, He is most likely preparing something bigger for you.
Hymn: Blessed Assurance
Bible in one year: Jeremiah 25, Jeremiah 26, Jeremiah 27