It is with great delight that I welcome you to the month of July our month of Going Deeper. As we end the 1st half of 2024 and commence the last half, I guess it is time to appreciate God for his mercies and goodness. At the same time, it is time to reflect on our relationship with our Master - The Lord Jesus Christ. Do I have a superficial relationship with God, a floating relationship, or a solid relationship? 

 As we cruise to July and by extrapolation to December 2024 by His grace it is time to draw closer, reconnect with God, grow in Christ, focus on Him, do exploits for him celebrate Him and maximize our life. 

This is what the Lord says: “Don’t be afraid because I am with you. Don’t be intimidated; I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will support you with my victorious right hand.” Isaiah 41:10 May the Lord bless you.  

Let’s ponder on what Jesus said “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? 47Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: 48He is like a man which built a house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. 49But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great Lk 6:46-49 

You have accepted, Jesus you have done well, but you need to deepen your relationship with him. If you do not go deeper you cannot make the best of your salvation. If you have not accepted Jesus as Lord and savior do it now and enjoy the rest of the article! I know many people who took a long time to conceive, but what is the purpose of a fetus that did not grow to become a child? I know those who had children; joyful as it is after three to seven years if the child cannot walk or talk they have lost the joy over that child. One of the reasons for having children is to have joy and gladness (Lk 1:14). If you secure admission to college and have matriculation, you will be happy, relatives will be happy for you however if after matriculation you fail to go to school, you fail to study, you fail to attend class, your case becomes worrisome. The ultimate joy for a student and their parents is not just to be a student but to graduate from college, convocation is surely better than matriculation. 

Many analogies can be given in this regard, and one of the strongest ones was given by Jesus above. 

“And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say.” What Jesus is saying is be truthful to yourself. Pursue what you believe. Be practical. Be honest. Avoid hypocrisy. Maximize your relationship with me. Jesus in essence is saying if I am truly your Lord then you will do what I say. You will behave. Pastor Paul Fakunle said 'if you believe you will behave'. 

Jesus is saying it will be a temporary joy and ultimately a disaster if you build a house and you do not build it on a strong foundation. Because you would have spent a lot of money and energy on that house. Probably you have brought in your precious jewels, artifacts, clothing and certificates into that house and when the rain comes, you lose everything because of faulty foundation. The agony will be too much. The waste will be too substantial. Jesus was in essence saying your loss in life will be too terrible if you fail to go deeper after you were saved! On the other hand your gain too will be substantial if you can genuinely call me Lord that is go deeper with me. 

The world is tired of artificiality. Nobody is impressed by superficiality. If your marriage is a camouflage and not real or deep with your spouse it cannot last. If your Christianity is shabby and flabby it cannot benefit you, your world, family, church members, community, nation or your Lord Jesus Christ. If you have a job and you are insolent and indolent about it you cannot climb any ladder of promotion. It is not a witch or wizard you just don't have what it takes. To go deeper means to mature, be committed, become reliable, dependable and an asset. That is our goal this month. 

It is a waste of time to go to church and not be in church. People are tired of ' churchanity" (adding church attendance to ungodly life style) they are interested in Christianity (becoming Christ-like). A cocoa tree that cannot grow a deep root cannot produce a viable cocoa pod. 

The entire world is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. How can you manifest what you do not possess? How can you possess when you are loafing? A farmer with a farmland no matter how large if he does not plant, or even if he plants but does not go the extra mile of trimming, pruning the land of unwanted weeds cannot have a bountiful harvest if he has any at all. The way to success in every endeavor is determination, hard-work, persistence, consistency and perseverance, that is what is called going deeper. That must be your goal this month and beyond. Go deeper in your relation with Jesus! 

I used to live in a place called Warri, Delta State in Nigeria. To get water for borehole is very easy as it has a shallow waterbed. I recall a case when we went for a burial. The mandatory six feet is what the grave diggers were planning for but before reaching that, lo and behold they have reached water level. It is not so in Ekiti State. I was trying to get a well in my house many years ago in Igede-Ekiti, After ninety feet we were still digging yet to get water. How you go deeper depends on many factors. But the necessity of going deeper is our focus. 

The issue is how I can go deeper with God. How do I build a strong foundation for my Christian life? 

Avoid Faulty Spiritual foundation: Foundation is the basis on which something is grounded .If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do. Psalm 11:3. Christianity is a spiritual house. The foundation cannot be laid on sin. Jesus says if the foundation be faulty when the storm comes it will crash. Look around you how many marriages of so called Christians and even Pastors are crashing. How many youth are dropping out of school? How many children from broken homes are involved in terrible life styles? People do not just go to jail they go to jail because they have wrong values of life. Teenage pregnancy is not wishful thinking it is an act, an evidence of wrong foundation. Jesus is not speaking in abstract terms but in practical terms. If you want to last then build a strong foundation. It is not if the test will come it is when the test will come. Friends, as a Christian you will be faced with temptation. The only solution is to build a strong foundation. How do you build a strong foundation? Develop determination. Be determined to succeed as a Christian, seek the God you accept. Truly believe Him as your Lord and your master, no pretence. Do not play games with your structure and foundation. Do not cut cost unnecessarily. In house building you may cut cost on decoration not in the foundation materials that will be foolishness. How do you know good students? They are punctual in class. Meaning they are expecting to learn something new. They take notes they don't want to forget what they learnt. They value what they are learning. They concentrate in class and are focused avoiding all distraction. In the age of phones and social media they don't check emails or text or watch movies in class. They prioritize and maximize the time in class. After the class they do their assignments and further reading. They share what they have learned with others. They have laid a good foundation. Result is simple. They succeed where others fail. In business, lay a good foundation, do proper feasibility study before putting money on the business. Look for staff with integrity not just the certificate. In marriage watch before you say " I do." Many young people prepare only for the wedding not the marriage. Wedding is for a day marriage is for life. Lay a good foundation for your marriage that is the way to avoid separation and divorce. In spirituality, love Jesus genuinely. Be passionate about him. Your enthusiasm will sell products because people will love what you love. Envision your success. Imagine what you stand to gain in Christ, God's prosperity, peace, security, blessing on earth and in the world to come. Mk 10:28-30). Plan you life and get organized. Go deeper! 

Avoid false profession. Do not call Him Lord when he is not Your Lord. Do not call Him Lord when you are not willing to go all the way. Be genuinely converted. Jesus is saying the evidence of genuine conversion is accepting him as your Lord and Savior. Salvation is a personal decision. If you say you are a Christian the only way people can know is that you show it, by ensuring you are not making a false declaration. By your fruit you will be identified not just mere mouthy profession that has no backbone of a solid life style (Psalm 78:35-36 Pr 26:23, Ezekiel 33:31-32, Mt 7:21, Titus 1: 16). Salvation is free; however you must develop your spirituality. You must go deeper.  

Avoid Disobedience. "And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known." Deut 11:28 Friend, you will be fooling yourself if you think where there is a law and that disobedience to that law will not attract consequent sanctions and discipline. Not obeying the Lord will have its consequences in this world and in the world to come. If you say you are a Christian and you do not obey the Lord you are telling the Lord you are smart or smarter! You want to enjoy the blessing of Christianity and also enjoy the life of non-Christians, the pleasure of sin. God says that is not possible. You cannot enjoy sin and enjoy God's divine provision and blessing you will need to make a choice. Yes, God is willing to forgive your sins but will not pamper them. Can you continue in sin and say the grace of God should continue - God forbid the scripture declares." If you are willing and obedient you will eat the fruits of the land "not if you are disobedient and unwilling. For example the scripture declares "Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. 11Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him." 

Are you obedient in fellowship? Do you live a life of righteousness? Are you obedient in giving of your tithes and offerings? Are you obedient in winning souls? The Pauls, The Peters, The Johns you read about in the bible did not do extraordinary things, they just obeyed God. Even when they warned them not to preach the gospel what was their response, shall we obey man and not God? No wonder their ministry is characterized by signs and wonders! When last did you purposefully go out to preach to unbelievers? When last did you wake up in the night just to intercede for your community, the youth, the church the nations despite the Holy Spirit promptings? God gives general instructions but he also gives specific instruction. You accelerate your growth and deepen your relationship with God when you do both. Do you listen to God for specific instructions? Do you do what you are told? God instructed Saul to go and destroy the Amalekites but he fumbled and disobeyed God. God's response to disobedience today is still "Obedience is better than sacrifice" Instead of strengthening his dynasty and establishing his kingdom he lost it totally. Friends let us go deeper this month and beyond. Isaiah 3:10-11(I Sam 12;15; 15:22-23; Eph 5;6, 2Th1:8;ITi 1:9; He 2:2-3) 

Avoid inconsistency. As a Christian you cannot afford to be inconsistent. You need to be consistently consistent. There are five basic non negotiable ways that you can grow in the Christian way. If you are not consistent in this five you are operating on your own and you cannot grow deeper or bear fruit and if you do not bear fruit what is the point? Jesus will cut off such:  

Consistently read, study and meditate on the Word and practice the Word. (Jos1:8, Heb 4:12). 

Consistently pray. There is no substitute for prayer in this kingdom business. That you cannot pray is not any excuse. Learn to pray. Do you have a designated time each day to get alone and study your Bible and pray? If you do not, I would urge you to establish a specific time and get into this habit. Do not be too busy that you cannot pray. You might start with just a few words of prayer, for 5-15 minutes a day asking God to bless you until you graduate to praying for others. Even those who are praying are struggling to make it and overcome the battles of life. Imagine you that you just expose yourself to the onslaught of the devil. The devil is not afraid of you because you call yourself a Christian. He is afraid of you when you are on your knees. If you cannot pray you will become a prey! And you cannot pray alone. That is why you have prayer meetings in Churches and places of true worship. The era when you open the bible to Psalm 23 under your pillow and think the devil will run away is past. The devil is smarter. They know the scriptures; it is in your confession through prayer that you possess your possession. Matt 26:41, 1 Thes 5:17. Go deeper. Go the extra mile stop asking people to do for you what you can do for yourself and others. Pray. Pray until Something Happens (PUSH) 

Consistently fellowship with fellow believers. One of the major reasons the church exists is to help you to mature. You have to constantly go to church. Hear the word. Listen to testimonies. You cannot become a champion in any profession by just registering and not getting the requisite training. The church is your training ground. Heb 10:24-25 

Consistently witness. Notice I did not say consistently preach. In Acts 1:8 Jesus did not say go and preach but go and witness. You cannot witness what you did not experience otherwise you are an hypocrite. To go deeper in the Lord you have to consistently experience God and witness him, by your life style, words, fruit bearing, bringing people to Jesus and giving (Matt 7:3: LK 6:43;Rom 2:1,2:21; Ja. 2:15-16) 

Consistently give. If you cannot give when you are poor you cannot give when you are rich. If you cannot give God $1 out of $10, you will not give $1 million when you have $10million. It is not just giving you do not pay your bills inconsistently, learn to give God consistently. Pay your tithe consistently. Help people consistently. That is how to go deeper. 

Special Announcement: The International Gathering Of Eagles Conference this year is scheduled for this month from September 19-22, 2024 at 22-94 Kenhar Drive Toronto ON, M9V 4L4. The theme is: Transformed By His Power  

Admission is free but space is limited. Register now at www.igoeministry.com and www.cacbethel.com. Send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 647-430-8936. Anointed ministers from USA, Nigeria and other nations will be present to empower you. You are invited. 

Secondly, you can join our mission team from Nov 15 to Dec 5 to five Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Nigeria. Call for more details.