Are You There?

ARE YOU THERE?

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

We shall start this message by looking at three scriptures: Genesis 3: 9: “And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, where art thou?” Was it that the Lord could not see Adam? No. He could see him.

I King 17: 2: “And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.” In verses 9 - 10 of the same passage, God continued to speak to Elijah: “Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there, gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel that I may drink.”

II Kings 5: 9 – 12: “So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto him saying, go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shall be clean. But Naaman was wroth, and went away, (Naaman was angry, like all baby Christians) and said, Behold, I thought, he will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. (The sick man was becoming impatient and was also becoming the doctor). Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.” He wanted to go to Abana and Pharpar, but the Lord had no appointment with Abana and Pharpar but with Jordan.

The first passage says, “Where art thou?” The second and the third ones talk about men who wanted to avoid the place God wanted them to be because they thought they had a better place to go. It was not that God could not see Adam, but Adam was in the wrong place. This is why I always say that a sinner in the right place and a saint in the wrong place are birds of the same feather because both of them will not receive blessing. God was actually asking Adam the following questions: "Adam, is this your condition now? Are you in the place where I placed you? Is this our agreement? Is this what has become of you? Adam, why have you decided to wage war against yourself? When did you become a self-appointed criminal hiding yourself from the Almighty? Why have you allowed the enemy to catch you so cheaply? Why are you in this condition?" This is why one of the greatest prayer points you can pray for yourself is: “O Lord, let me be in the right place at the right time.” I think you should close your eyes and pray it.

A certain sister's mother made a covenant with God that if He gave her a child she would dedicate the child to Him. This sister happened to be that covenant child. She grew up doing quite well. When she entered the university, her colleagues made fun of her because she had small breasts while they had bigger ones. They called her names and gave her lectures on how she could enlarge her breasts. They told her that the reason her breasts were so small was because she was a virgin, that if she started committing fornication, they would grow big. Unfortunately, she listened to their lectures and sold off her virginity at very cheap value. The day it happened, she had a dream in which she saw four men in white garment pursuing her. They caught up with her and began to beat her. As they were beating her, she kept hearing a voice saying, “Where art thou?” She too, started screaming until she woke up. The following night, she had the same dream but this time, she asked them why they were beating her and they said: “You are a covenant child. God has ordained that you would produce four prophets but because of what you have done, joining yourself to satanic agents, God has replaced you with someone else." At this juncture, I think you should take the following prayer points:

1. O Lord, do not replace me with stones, in Jesus’ name.

2. Every anchor of evil replacement, be shattered to pieces, in the name of Jesus.