ARE YOU CONTROLLABLE

Friday 11 August                                        Bible in one year: Joshua 16-18

Memorise: My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me. Psalms 31:15

Read:  Genesis 8:1-2

Our God is a God of structure and order. He expects you to understand and heed the signs He sends to you. When He “shows you red”, know it is time to stop. When He “shows you yellow”, you have to be prepared and when He “shows you green”, then it is time to go. God is in charge of your life and He wants to control it. Control can referred to restricted flow. In Genesis 8:1-2, we see God controlling the rain. We all know that rain is good but too much of it is bad. In recent times we have seen the devastating effect of floods. If you have ever been a victim of flooding, whenever the rain is heavy and persistent, you will become too scared. Flooding occurs as a result of too much rain. The rain of God’s blessing that can adversely affect you shall not come in Jesus name. According to 1 Kings 17:1, there is something you can do to open heavens and there is something else you can do to shut heavens. Strive to always keep your heavens opened.

God controls the rain and He also controls blessings. In the parable of the talents recorded in Matthew 25:14-15, each servant was given talent according to their individual ability. God will not give you the blessings you cannot control. One reason God has not given some major breakthroughs to some is because He knows they will not give Him their first –fruits and tithes if the blessing is too big. By refusing to comply with God’s directives, many are cheating themselves. Will you want a life without control? As God blesses you, ask for the grace to keep the blessings in their rightful place and your heart in the Lord. God wants to be able to control you and your blessings. But what is His experience? For many of His children, the wealth the Lord has put in their hands has given them boldness or voice to speak to Him as they like without reverence. When God says give so much out of what He has given them, they will begin to argue with Him. David was not like that. He was fully yielded to God when he said my times are in Your hands (Psalm31:15), can you say the same?

PRAYER POINT: Everything in me that is resisting divine control, Father uproot it now.

Open Heavens by Pastor E A Adeboye

HARVEST: ANY PRIOR SEED?

Friday 10 August                                      Bible in one year : Joshua 13-15
Memorise: Be no deceived: God is not mocked: for whatever a man soweth , that shall he also reap . Galatians 6:7
Read: Isaiah 45:11-13
One of the promises of the Lord made to the church in Philadelphia was that He would keep them from the hours of temptation that would come upon the world.
Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation,which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.Revelations 3:10
The lesson here is that whatever you do to God has way of coming back to you.If you draw near to Him,He will draw near to you (James 4:8). If you obey all He commands faithfully , He will not only cause the work of His hands to obey you, but will also ask you to command Him and He will give life to your decrees (Isaiah 45:11). Some people issue decrees based on Isaiah 45:11 and Job 22:28 but are surprised when they are ignored. If you decrees are not honoured, it shows that there is something missing. You cannot reap where did not sow. If you have not sown total obedience to His commands, your own decrees will be ignored. Obedience is reciprocal . The way you treat the Lord and the things of His Kingdom clearly shows God how He should treat you. Since the church in Philadephia kept His word, He too promised to keep them. The Lord will keep you from every evil, but ensure you keep His commands.
In the same vein, you can sow seeds of patience and get a harvest from it. How patient are you towards God? Some people while in church, continuously check their wrist watches as if that is what will deliver their needed miracle to them. They are so impatient with God. They are too much in a hurry when they are praying to know God’s will in marriage. If they have not received the answer by the third or sixth months, they will walk out on God and go ahead to choose for themselves. “Who does He think He is anyway?” They would say in their hearts. It is how you deal with God that He will deal with you. King Saul  was very impatient with God. How can a man of God not keep to time? So he went ahead and did what he was not supposed to do . Some delays are designed by God to test you. If you are impatient, you will fail the test. No wonder God soon ran out of patience with him! However David was patient with God and when he messed up , God had no choice but to be patient with him.
ACTION POINT: Carefully write out how you want God to treat and respond to you. Go ahead and do so to Him.
Open Heavens by Pastor E.A Adeboye

LOVE IS UNQUENCHABLE

Thursday 9 August Bible in one year: Joshua 10-12

Memorise: Many waters cannot quench love; neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all substance of his house for love, it would utterly contemned. Song of Solomon 8:7

Read: Songs of Solomon 8:6-7

Although it is difficult to effectively define love, it is clear that love involves very powerful emotions. Solomon was a beneficiary of God’s love and he writes that love is equal to death in terms of strength (Song of Solomon 8:6). Most people fear death but very few fear love, yet they are equal in strength. Death and Love have a sense of finality associated with them. Those who really know what love is are always afraid of falling in love because once you really love someone; it does not matter what the fellow does, your love for that individual never dies. Song of Solomon 8:7 says
#
Many waters cannot quench love; neither can the floods drown it: If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.

Floods of adversity and difficulty cannot quench love. If you say you love and later say you do not love your spouse again because there is no money at home for food, or because of negative pressures form in-laws, that love is quenchable.

In Romans 8:35-39, Paul says nothing and nobody can stop the love of God from flowing to us. Love is unstoppable and unquenchable. It is difficult to offend someone who really loves you because love forgives all sins, wrongs and offences (Proverbs 10:12). Are you finding it difficult to forgive your spouse for falling into fornication? If you love that spouse you will receive the grace to forgive. There is no harm that is done to you that you cannot forgive if you love somebody. However, taking it for granted that your spouse will always forgive your sins is a dangerous thing because God Himself may take up the assignment of judging you. What happens when the one you love disappoints you? The three Hebrew boys before king Nebuchadnezzar stated that even if their God disappoints in delivering them, that will still love Him ( Daniel 3:16-18)? Many Christians will be offended when God does not grant their request; this shows their level of love for Him. When you are genuinely in love, it will be a thing of pleasure to make sacrifices for the one you love. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were ready to die in the fire out of their love for God. Do you love God to the extent of dying for Him, just like He loved you and died for you?

PRAYER POINT: Father, just as you have loved me to the point of giving Your Son Jesus Christ to die for me, help me to love You without holding back anything.

Open Heavens by Pastor E.A Adeboye.

IS THIS OF GOD?

Wednesday 8 August                                        Bible in one year: Joshua 7-9

Memorise: and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus  Christ is come in the flesh is not of God:and that is that spirit of antichrist , whereof ye have heard that it should come;and even now already is it in the world. 1 John 4:3

Read: 1 John 4:1-3

Moses had a supernatural experience in witnessing a bush that was on fire but was not consumed. As good as such an experience may look, it is important to know the person behind the experience.Some people erroneously believe that because they have a supernatural encounter during childhood or at some point in their lives, that they automatically become the child of God or His messenger. Nothing can be further form the truth! If all Moses saw was the supernatural sight,without encountering the personality behind the sight, he would have been no relevance. There are many religious leaders in the world,who have had some supernatural encounter but the question is :Who is behind their encounter? Some of them think it is God and say so, but their fruits are opposite that of Christ. A religion that is based on salvation by works cannot be the same with a faith that is based on salvation through grace. A religion where Jesus Christ is denied His place as the son of God cannot be of the same source with a faith where Jesus Christ is God the Son.Most religion of the world will claim their supernatural experience  came from God but 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 says the devil transforms himself into an angel of light whenever he wants to deceive people.

Even today , the devil is still behind quite a number of supernatural experiences . Some people see certain apparitions of Mary and believe it is Mary the mother of Jesus that they are seeing. 1 John 4:1 says
Beloved , believed not every spirit , but try the spirits whether they are of God: because may false prophets are gone out into the world.
Don’t just believe every assertion , test the spirit behind it! In many churches today, while the leaders openly call on the name of Jesus, they secretly call on the devil,who is the behind magical operations and deceptions taking place.If you are a true believer in Christ, if you see another believer in Christ,you will have a witness. Any experience of follow up of any supernatural experience that is contrary to the written Word of God makes that experience not of God. God cannot violate His words. Be wise ! Prayerfully test the spirits.

KEY POINT: If Satan brings fire in the sky, that does not change him from being Satan. And if God is silent on an issue that does not make him any less of who He is.

Same Standard

Tuesday 7 August                                                                Bible in one year :Joshua 4-6

Memorise : For i am the Lord , i change not;therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.Malachi 3:6

Read: Malachi 3:6-7

Immediately Elisha smote River Jordan , he asked for the God of Elijah.Though his spiritual father and mentor was gone,he knew the God of his father was still around.

And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him,and smote the waters, and he said , Where is the God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted and hither and thither: and Elisha went over . 2 Kings 2:14

There is a thin line between reverencing men of God and Idolatry. When your spiritual father dies, it is either you look for him expecting him to come back from grave to attend to your needs or you look out for his God. If you look for him, you will fall into error of Idolatry where many have fallen,but if you look for his God then you are on the right track. Who are you looking for:the dead or living God? Why do you think that after Moses died God buried on the mountain all by Himself? Nobody knew his grave. Why ? It was so that many Israelites will not start looking up to a corpse as their God and forget about the living God.Leaders must be very careful never to point the flock to themselves but to Jesus their Owner.

When a bona fide man of God passes on , remember that the God of that man remains.Our God is eternal,immortal and invisible (1 Timothy 1:17). Even when you cannot see Him, He is there. Elijah may be gone but God is still there. Malachi 3:6 says He does not change with time or with the fleeting customs of men. This is why i tell people that God is the most conservative Person in the universe. The dress(light) He has been wearing since the beginning of creation is still what He is wearing today. It is what is not good enough that is constantly changed, but if it is perfect there is no need for change.God does not bend His rule to suit anyone.Once He has spoken, it is a settled case. Many of us still believe that God needs to learn from modern man so as to adjust His standards. For instance,some people think that stress,traffic jams and modern challenges of urban cities are good enough reason for not meeting up with God’s expectations. Sorry to disappoint you, the word of God is settled in heaven and His foundations stands sure. Simply ask for grace to comply

PRAYER POINT: Ask God for grace to keep to His standards.

Open Heavens by Pastor E.A Adeboye

Trusting in your looks

Monday 6 August                                                Bible in one year: Joshua 1-3

Memorise : Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain : but a woman that feareth the Lord , she shall be praised .Proverbs 31:30

Read: Ezekiel 16:14-15

The expectations of believers sometimes fail because they are based on the wrong foundation. Expectations that are presumptuous would most likely fail. So also would expectations based on physical qualities such as an individual’s good looks, stature or charm. If you expectation for a husband or a good home is based on your beauty, it may be dashed. There are many ladies who are not beautiful but they are married to good husbands and there are many pretty ladies who earlier thought marriage would be the easiest thing for them; in fact, they become so choosy that today that have aged, but are without husbands. If you think beauty or handsomeness will give you a good home, you should have a rethink. Take a man like Absalom. As a man he was described as being beautiful. His kind of beauty was the type that would make any pretty lady green with envy. Apart from Lucifer, Absalom was another personality described as being perfect in beauty. Most ladies would fight to have him as a husband. But at the end they would have regretted that decision.

Imaging what he did? He murdered his half-brother who raped his sister, he spearheaded a rebellion against his father and toppled him, he openly slept with his father’s concubines and he planned to kill his father but for God’s intervention. At the end he died prematurely .His wife became a widow too. His three sons and daughter became fatherless. They lived the evil tag of being the children of a rebel who died shamefully (2Samuel14:25-27). If you think you are too beautiful or to handsome to marry the fellow God has chosen for you as a life partner, make no mistake, you will end up marrying the Absaloms and Jezebels of this world. Some men are equally languishing in regret in the confines of their homes because instead of going to the Match Maker and creator, they failed to pray effectively. They believed   their physical attractiveness would pull sisters to them, and they would find a good wife from among them. Any partner you get from God is the best you can ever have, no matter how imperfect the fellow is. Go to the Lord today!

PRAYER POINT: Father, in any way I have trusted in my looks and physique, have mercy on me. From today, I put all my trust in you.

Open Heavens by Pastor E.A Adeboye

Quality and timing of seed

Sunday 5 August                                     Bible in one year:Proverbs 4-7

Memorise: They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Psalm 126:5

One foundational truth about giving is that the way seed is sown will determine the type of harvest it will bring.The costliest seed opens the greatest doors.Do not sow anyhow but let your sowing be a deliberate effort,targeted at a definite result.This should guide you in sowing your seed : Before  you sow, determine the type of harvest you want,prayerfully consider the seed that can trigger that harvest,then go ahead and sow. If you want small harvest ,sow small but if you want some  big harvest,sow big. If you want an enduring harvest, sow regularly and continuously towards it . If you want a precious harvest or a harvest of high value, sow valuable and precious seeds. If you want harvest that people have received before , sow the seed that people have given before, but if you want a harvest that nobody has received before,then sow the seed nobody has given before. If you want God’s treasury to be open to you 24/7, open your treasury to God 24/7. If you want God’s all, give your all. The harvest you get is largely depended on you.

The timing of an offering is also very important.Some seeds you will be required to give may still be relevant after six months or a year.But there are some seeds you will be required to sow at an opportune time. If you fail to sow the seed at such  a time, even if you later do so, you would have missed heavenly promo or jackpot attached to it.God is the Father of all born again Christians. It is His duty to take care of us and He has promised to do so.Supposing a particular brother is in dire need of money and the fellow is holding onto God;in response , the Lord looks around and He finds you; He tells you to go immediately to meet the brother’s needs but you refused, feigning you do not know if it is God speaking to you. That need may not have been met because of your hardness of heart, and the brother will be discourage because God would have been painted as an unfaithful God by your inaction.But if you immediately responded and tell the fellow God sent you to him, he will be very glad and God will reward you for your obedience.

KEY POINT: if every believer will obey God promptly, credibility issues that are raised concerning God or His word will be drastically reduced.

Open Heavens by Pastor E.A Adeboye