Pastor Mary Fayemi stated that believers need not be afraid for years ahead, especially 2022 because it would be a year for them to bring forth.
She made this declaration while speaking from Isaiah 35:1-10 at the December 29 Thursday Showers service at The Fountain of Life Church, Ilupeju.
The clergywoman, who noted that 2021 had been a year filled with good and bad, posited that one could look at 2022 with fear, but it will be better as long as God is on the throne.
According to her, “No matter what happens, Halleluyah will not cease from our mouths even if we will be singing it crying, it shall not cease from our mouths.”
The cleric suggested that the wilderness, wasteland, and desert, as mentioned in Isaiah 35:1, meant terrible situations, but it would end on a joyful note just as it ended in verses 2-10.
“No matter how barren or deserted your situation may be, you will still rejoice and not be put to shame. You may be coming out of 2021 looking gloomy and sorrowful, you might have tears, but you will because there would be a divine visitation.
“Whatever has taken you far away, there will be a divine drawing you back home, and there shall be a restoration in Jesus’ name,” she declared.
Quoting Proverbs 30:12, 12:25, Pastor Mary Fayemi argued that sadness makes one’s heart weary and fear sets in, but God is aware of the weaknesses of his children and the weariness in their hearts because of the seeming negative occurrences happening around them and that he knows how to help them.
The pastor reminded Fountaineers that there is work to be done between the promises and fulfilment, and they need to encourage themselves in God’s Word (Jeremiah 29:11-12).
“If you want to realise the promises you have heard from God, you must always go to Him in prayers. Do not move out of God’s presence because of the way you are feeling.
“Your feelings are not permanent, so do not depend on them. Instead, trust in God and go back to Him by His words. Do not be so downcast that you turn away from your Father. This is the time to hold onto His garment and call Him like never before for the transformation and visitation,” she added.
Pastor Mary Fayemi, therefore, assured the congregation that the Lord is mindful of them no matter what has happened to them in the year, urging them to continue to praise God and sing to Him because no matter what, God is still good, just, and faithful.
“It does not matter what you see, how you feel, and what you hear; God is mindful of you,” she said.
Pastor Babatunde Ladipo to Fountaineers: ‘Pray Always’
As expected, the first Sunday in 2022 was welcomed by Christians all over the nation with praise and thanksgiving to God for His faithfulness.
Members of The Fountain of Life Church (TFOLC) joined the body of Christ across the world to praise God at the January 2 Sunday service, which was the first Sunday service in 2022.
During the first service, Pastor Ladipo Babatunde said that Christians are never to have a vacation in praying, noting that Jesus has instructed believers to pray always.
According to the cleric, prayer has a prescribed dosage, and that dosage is always as prescribed in Luke 18:1-8.
He stated: “Anything short of that prescribed dosage will seem like it is working, but it will not work because the prescribed dosage is ‘always’.”
Further, addressing Fountaineers from Ephesians 6:18 and Acts 1:14, Pastor Ladipo Babatunde asserted that prayer itself is not the weapon of war; prayer is the real battle for life. He added that continuous prayer is vital in Christian life.
In sharing a personal life experience of how he became born again and was baptised into prayer, the pastor revealed that God does not need one’s ability or inability to be qualified to pray, but their willingness and availability.
“Continue to pray until it becomes part of you. Prayer has a prescribed dosage, and if you change the prescription, you do that at your peril because you will not get the answer you are supposed to get,” he stated.
Pastor Ladipo Babatunde also noted from Romans 12:9-12 and 1 Thessalonians 5:17 that the devil will always try to attack a believer’s prayer life, and if he can get it, he has got the believer.
Continuing steadfastly in prayers, he said, is the antidote. He added, “Satan is not bothered that you prayed once a week, but when you wake up night after night to pray, he knows he is in trouble.”
The clergyman, therefore, urged them to set a time and location for prayer because “you will never be able to pray by default. It will never happen. Be consistent and see the heavens open on you.
“When you are consistent in prayer, you are building altars, and then, you would attract angels, and your hearing would be sharpened.”