The gospel is the preaching of the cross — and the cross settles three things at once: that God loves you, that His love protects you, and that He answers you because of it.
"In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God."
John 16:26–27
Bishop Wale Ajayi
Miracle Centre, Benin City, Nigeria · global evangelist, Church of God Mission International
Opening session · 45 minRecording coming soon
The video and audio for this session will appear here once published.
He asked the room to take the session "like Sunday school" before the service proper began, and he spoke to the house about its future: the turbulent phase is past, and what follows is growth, expansion and increase — a multinational, multiracial outreach church whose impact is felt in every sector of the city. He pointed to his own congregation in Benin, which received a letter of commendation from a judge for paying the fines of prisoners held over sums as small as ₦200,000, and which runs a free primary healthcare centre eight kilometres from the church.
From 1 Corinthians 1:17–18 — Christ sent Paul to preach the gospel, "not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God."
He closed by numbering them himself, with hands lifted across the room. Everything in the message runs toward these three.
And He proved it rather than merely saying it — while you were still a sinner, not a repentant one.
No hex, no magic, no power of darkness can work against you — because He loves you.
Your prayers are answered because He loves you — not because of what you have done or how long you fasted.
In the Greek the article before gospel is always definite. "A man" could be any man; "the man" is one particular one. So not every message from the Bible is the gospel. When you preach it and I preach it, we must sound the same — there is no "to me" about it, because it is one message given to us to deliver. And he added the sobering part: our reward when Jesus returns is our fidelity to that message.
1 Corinthians 1:17Paul was sent to preach "not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ be made of none effect" — which tells you the gospel is about the cross. If you are preaching and the cross is not in the message, you have not preached the gospel; and if the confidence of the people you are preaching to is not resting on the cross, you have not preached it either. By "the cross" he meant the whole body of work: His death, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension, and His intercessory work before the Father. One word that summarises everything Jesus did.
1 Corinthians 1:17–18"The preaching of the cross is the power of God unto salvation." The Bible was not written in English, and the Greek word is soteria — one word that encompasses the whole of God's intervention toward man. Saving you from eternal damnation is salvation. Healing your body is salvation. Providing for you is salvation. Protecting you is salvation. Preserving you is salvation. So the gospel is God's power to do every one of those things.
Romans 1:16 · 1 Corinthians 1:18This has to be settled in your heart, he warned, because if it is not, you start entertaining the alternatives that false prophets offer — a particular sound from Jerusalem, a certain candle or oil, something you can touch or hold. There is no second mechanism. The gospel is what God's power to save actually is.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God — and the word that generates it is the gospel. Notice that Jesus never once said "my power has made you whole," though Acts 10:38 records that God anointed Him with the Holy Ghost and with power. What He said was your faith has made you whole. The power is always available, but faith is what connects to it and pulls it in your direction. An appliance sitting right beside the socket will not run until it is plugged in.
Romans 10:17 · Acts 10:38 · Mark 5:34God did not love us by telling us so; He demonstrated it. "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" — notice the word: not repentant sinners, not sinners contemplating repentance. Still sinners. Verse 10 goes further: while we were enemies we were reconciled by the death of His Son. And enemy is not a name; it is something you did. So the question stands: who kills his own son, because that is the only way his enemies can be saved from his wrath? Isaiah says it was the Lord's will to bruise Him — the Message renders it crush Him. There is no culture under heaven where that is defined as love. But that is the love of God.
Romans 5:8, 10 · Isaiah 53:10 · 1 John 4:9–10He asked the room how many had a father who looked at them and said "I love you." Almost no hands went up. That, he said, is the problem of Africa and of the world: they show it — you have eaten, you have a roof — but they do not say it. Yet God told Jesus, repeatedly and out loud: at His baptism, at the transfiguration. And that was the confidence Jesus carried to speak to mountains and trees and to walk through the earth — the confidence of the Father's love. Satan's attack, at bottom, is simply to make you doubt that love, arranging circumstances so you will question it. So the proof is never how you feel or what is happening to you. The proof is the cross. To undo God's love for you, you would have to undo what Christ did.
Matthew 3:17 · Matthew 17:5"He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Buy a device and every accessory needed to make it work comes in the box — you do not buy them separately. When God gave you Jesus, everything God has to offer came along with Him. So check the box. Healing is in the box. Favour is in the box. Power is in the box. God has nothing left to give that He has not already given along with Jesus.
Romans 8:32 · 1 Corinthians 2:12Balaam was hired to curse Israel and could not, and he explained exactly why: "How shall I curse whom God has not cursed?" A projected curse has to attach itself to a curse God has already pronounced in order to operate — and where God has not cursed, it has nowhere to land. And God has not cursed you, because He exhausted every curse on the cross: "cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree." That is why the crucifixion had to be the manner of His death. Balaam went further still — "I have received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it" — and "there is no sorcery against Jacob, no divination against Israel", which the NLT renders flatly: no magic has any power against Jacob. So stop being afraid of powers of darkness and of people trying to bewitch you. It cannot work.
Numbers 23:8, 20, 23 · Galatians 3:13 · Deuteronomy 21:23 · Ephesians 1:3Deuteronomy explains what actually happened: the Lord would not listen to Balaam, "but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you." It is good that the curse did not work; it is better that the curse becomes a blessing. Which led him to a conclusion the room had to sit with: if every curse turns to a blessing, then praying against curses is short-changing yourself. The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied. And the right response to the threat of the enemy is not tears, fasting or a phone call to a prophet — the One who sits in the heavens laughs at the plot of the kings of the earth, and you are seated together with Christ in heavenly places. So laugh. He also drew the sharp edge of it: God loved Israel before they knew it and before it was ever demonstrated, and His loyalty to them was not a reaction to their good works — it was because Christ had to come in the flesh through them. For you, Christ has already come. The love has been demonstrated.
Deuteronomy 23:3–5 · Psalm 2:1–4 · Ephesians 2:6 · Exodus 1:12 · Psalm 91The verse he said would change us forever: "In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you" — and then the reason — "for the Father Himself loves you." Jesus is saying that Him speaking to God on your behalf is unnecessary. Weigh that: you do not need prayer contractors. Stop connecting to altars; the whole industry rests on the impression that certain people have more access to God than you do, and that is idolatry. Asking "in His name" is not about interjecting the word Jesus into your sentences — it is His authority, the name He was given at the resurrection, which was placed on you when you were joined to Him. Our relationship with God is not deity and worshipper, master and servant, or creator and creature. It is a loving Father and dearly beloved children, which is why we cry Abba. He told of taking his daughter to a prayer meeting where a Bible school graduate was praying impressively, and telling her: don't mind him — talk to God the way you talk to me. She understood that prayer is not an art. Faith is confidence in the Father's love. And Hezekiah proves the point: praying for his life he recited his own record — "remember how I have walked before You in truth" — but once the miracle came, his testimony changed entirely: "in love to my soul You delivered it… You have cast all my sins behind Your back." Where is God's back? At the cross, where Jesus cried, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?"
John 16:26–27 · Romans 8:15 · Isaiah 38:1–3, 17 · Matthew 27:46"God loves me — and the proof is not how I feel, but the sacrifice of His Son."
"I am preserved, and I am protected by His love."
"I am provided for. My sins are forgiven. I am healed by the love of God."
"I have the same access to God as Jesus has."
"No hex, no magic, no power of darkness can work against me."
"Everything came in the box — healing, favour, power. I will check the box."
He closed by having the room pair up, ask each other what they needed, and pray for it by name — telling them not to ask vaguely for "financial settlement" but for the exact amount, and not to shrink the request: "let us ask God for big things." Then: "Father, I thank You, because I have received what I asked for. I give You the glory."
Work through these alone or in your small group. Try answering before you open the answer, then check it against the scripture.
