11 AUGUST 2018 BODY OF CHRIST NEWS Breakthrough Anointing “Behold I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” — Luke 10:19 “Then he said to them take heed what you hear.” — Mark 4:24 “Therefor take heed how you hear.” — Luke 8:18 The first one said take heed what you hear. The second one said take heed how you hear. Jesus says to take heed what you hear. Take heed how you hear. There is a difference between what you hear and how you hear. The act of listen- ing is very important. Some people as soon as you begin to talk they are already conjuring the answer in their brain. And when they are answering it has nothing to do with the question because they just want to win an argument. Many times, I will tell certain people, “Just let me finish. You don’t even know what I am saying yet.” Jesus says to take heed how you listen. Don’t just listen any- how. And then take heed what you are listening to, because both are very important. Have you ever been around people that say, “I hear you,” and yet they didn’t hear nothing? “I hear you” and when they repeat what you said you will feel as though you were not even present, because what they are saying is totally different. In every relationship communication is very important. If you are going to make it in life communication is very impor- tant. The ordinary ability to communicate correctly can open doors for you that all your technological knowledge will not open. There were many competitors that were compet- ing with Bill Gates when he was going to launch Microsoft. There is something you can’t take away from Bill Gates: he is a good communicator. How many of you remember Netscape? Netscape was already out before Microsoft came. Through the power of communication Microsoft took the life out of Netscape. Remember when he brought in his Internet Explorer? And they both went to the Congress. The Netscape people did not even know what to say. It is not by a stubborn head but by accurate communication. When Bill Gates took the podium and was talking everybody was in awe. Even if you don’t want to like him, take heed what you hear, take heed how you hear. How are you hearing? What are you listening to? Because if I just talk to you and say, “Holy Ghost come upon them!” He will come, but what will you do with it? I’ve seen anointed people that are frustrated in life. Jesus is a master communicator; Paul, a classic communicator. When Paul wants to start he will say, “Grace and peace be upon you.” And he will begin to say what he wants to say by first of all paraphrasing where he was going. Everyone will be spell bound. Hearing involves sound waves, ear drums and thousands of tiny hair cells that turn vibrations into electrical signals. And those signals will now tell your brain you are hearing a noise and once you can identify that noise, com- munication starts. When you talk to some people they are not listening. You know you can be hearing and not listening. I can be lis- tening but I’m watching soccer. Some people bring this to church and say “Amen” at the wrong time. That’s not listening. You can be hearing but not listening. Sometimes you listen just to enjoy the story or the information they are giving you—just to enjoy it. It’s not that you want to learn from it—you are just enjoying it. Have you heard people that have selective listening? And when you ask them, “What did he say?” they say, “I don’t know.” But it was good. Then some will listen who are critical listeners. When you are talking they are already looking for holes; they are looking for what you didn’t say right. Give them the microphone and they can’t do half the job. But they are critical listeners. Their goal is to analyze what the speaker is saying, and they try to read into what he is saying to suit where they are. If they are happy then it’s good. If they are not happy then the person is not doing well. Critical listeners. Then you have relationship listeners. They are listening because they want to build relationship. They are empathetic listeners. They put themselves in your shoes. And they want to get exactly what you mean. The goal is to deepen relationship between the two of you. That happens between husband and wife and between friends. You want to listen so you can improve the relationship. At work this is very important. If I am a team leader I encourage relationship listening among my team, because if we just get the job done without relation- ship, all that needs to happen is one minor problem amongst us and everything will scatter. But if there is good relationship amongst the team we cover for each other. Then there are discriminative listeners. They look past what you are saying, “what is he trying to say?” “That message is for my husband.” It’s for you. “I wish my wife was here.” “I wish Bishop Ade would listen to this.” They carry the truth away from themselves. It’s always for somebody else. But some people can use discriminative listening to their own advantage to say, “I hear what they didn’t say.” A man of God built a four-bedroom house and he called his spiritual Father to come and dedicate the house. The spiritual Father got there and said, “this is the house that you built for five years, and you are calling me to come and dedicate this? I’m not coming in.” He jumped into his car and drove away. “When you build a house that befits your status call me.” The man was saying, “What kind of man is this?” But he was a discriminative listener. He said, “You see, I know what he’s trying do. He’s pushing me to a higher realm, he’s not trying to disgrace me, he’s pushing me to a higher level.” And this man went back and built a thirty-six-bedroom house with every room a suite in Lagos. Now, he could have been angered and got offended. The man of God said, “I sat down and I said, ‘Why would he say that? He saw greater things for my life.’” Now his spiritual father has been dead now for many years. When I go there now, it’s so big. What happened according to him is the four-bedroom took him five years to build and the thirty-six bedrooms took him one year. He said, “How it happened I do not know.” There is a grace that comes when you humble yourself. There is a favor that comes when you humble yourself. There is an anointing that rests upon you. Because the bible says that Jesus, although He was God, considered not equality with God something to be grasped. And He humbled himself even to the death on the cross. Therefor God gave Him a new name that is greater than any other name. That at the mention of the name of Jesus every knee shall bow of those in heaven on earth and underneath the earth. And every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord. The people that come to you and say, “Hear the way he talked to me” are not your friend. They are the Isis to your destiny. When Pastor Sunday came what did he not condemn? He con- demned everything! The following day a man from Colorado Springs came to me and said, “You are a very humble man. I could not allow anyone to talk to me like that on my pulpit.” I said, “I can. it’s for me.” Pastor Sunday said, “I could have called you into the hotel room and talked to you privately, but it would not have carried the same weight.” I went home, and I said, “This man loves me. I’m going to change.” And we changed. See where we are today. I’m not talking about people that are just cantankerous that just want to damage you, but of people that love you enough and are there. There is beauty in discriminative listening. Learn who your friend is. Learn who your enemy is; learn who wants you to progress and who wants you to stagnate. If you are a crab you will attract other crabs, and what happens to crabs? They pull each other down. That’s why you never see crabs swimming although they have their feet to swim. It’s called crab mentality: they just drag each other down. If you are a fisherman, you know crabs are the easiest water animal to fish, because if you throw the net you will gather a whole bunch of them. They always gather together. But if you meet an eagle in the air it’s because you are an eagle yourself. We are talking on Breakthrough Anointing, because what we have been told is that once we pray then anointing comes and everything will be ok. There are other things you must do. What type of listening do you practice? Do you listen dis- criminatively, looking for something to make you better or do you look for something to make you mad? You will find it in every conversation. There is no conversation that is either going to make you happy or sad. It depends on what you are looking for. Discriminative listening will help you to over- come little fights. If the anointing breaks yoke and destroys yokes, if the yoke is destroyed, you don’t want to open the door for yet another yoke to come from another place. There are battles that God has helped you with sometimes because we didn’t understand this little thing would allow the enemy to come in through the back door. In most corpo- rations there is what is called back office. This is back office information I want to give you. Micah 2:13: “The one who breaks open will come up before them, they will break out. Pass through the gate and go out by it. Their King will pass before them with the Lord at their head.” God said, “I God will lead you out. Then I God will bust all confinements and lead you out into the open. They will follow their King. I will be in front, leading them. I will bust all confinements; I will bust all obstacles. I will bust it!” There is an anointing called the Breakthrough Anointing that God is releasing onto your life. Breakthrough is identified by the fact that a powerful ruling evil presence over a territory, over a life, has been broken, and such breakthroughs will remove hindrances to you and to your receptivity, to the gos- pel and to the place God wants you to be! Ade Ajala By Bishop Dr. Ade Ajala SERMON There is beauty in discriminative listening. Learn who your friend is. Learn who your enemy is; learn who wants you to progress and who wants you to stagnate. If you are a crab you will attract other crabs, and what happens to crabs? They pull each other down.