PRAISE AND WORSHIP LEADS TO EXPANSION

Psalm 22:3 says but You are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel.

One way to get the attention of God is through praise and worship. In Mark 5:1-17 is the story of the mad man of Gadara. For one reason or the other demons just took interest in this man and made his body their abode. The demons inside him invited other demons and before you know it, he was loaded with a legion of demons (over 6000 demons). This man lost control of his life to these wicked demons .A demon is enough to destroy one’s life talk less of legion of demons. One day this man saw Jesus from afar, he ran and began to worship. By the time he finished worshiping; Jesus was already standing by him. The demons were forced out; he got his deliverance and life back. If nothing works try praise and worship. When everything failed in Acts 16:25 -26, Paul and Silas resulted to singing Hymns to glorify the name of the Lord. There was an earthquake and before you know it all their chains were loosed and all the doors in the prison were opened.

When you praise God, He takes His position in your life. Psalm 22:3 says but You are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel. To enthrone means to occupy a throne or take up a seat. When we praise the Lord, He occupies His throne in our life or He takes up His seat in our life. Once the Lord occupies His throne, the first thing He does is to establish His kingdom. Once He establishes His kingdom in our life, favor, mercy, protection, promotion, victory, abundance, fruitfulness, good health e.t.c will become a daily occurrence in our life. In His kingdom there is no defeat or loss. There is no purposelessness, stagnancy or bareness. Everything in His kingdom function to His will. The will of God for you is to have life and have it in abundance, John 10:10. When the mad man of Gadara began to worship, Jesus enthroned Himself in His life and all the six thousand demons had to run. Immediately Paul and Silas began to sing hymns, God enthroned Himself in their challenges and the chains that stood as bondages fell off. Once God enthrones Himself in your life, your battle becomes His battles. Why do you think the children of Israel marched around Jericho once for six days blowing the trumpet to praise God (Joshua 6:1-21)? They were preparing God’s throne. On the seventh day, they marched around Jericho seven times and lifted up their voices and began to make joyful noise to God. Immediately God took His throne in their lives, the wall came down.

ACTION POINT: Enthrone him today in your life by spending quality time to sing praise and worship to Him, before you know it everything hindering your expansion will begin to give way.

PETER WALKED ON WATER

Matthew 14:29 – and He said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.

BIBLE STUDIES: Matthew 14:22-33

Fires and waters are often used in the scriptures to denote calamity or challenges. When we talk of Peter walking of water, we are talking of Peter walking on his challenges or overcoming his challenges. The fact that we are now born again does not exempt us from challenges. Peter had a relationship with Jesus yet he had to walk on water. The assurance we have as believers is that we have the Prince of Peace with us so no matter what happens; there will be peace at the end.

Present in the boat were twelve disciples, on the same waters, how come only one managed to get out of the boat and walked on water? How come while others sat in the boat, Peter was able to get down and walk on waters? Firstly, when Peter saw Jesus walk on water, he saw an opportunity for the glory of God to be manifested in his life; he saw an opportunity to walk on water. Others saw ghost and were troubled when they saw Jesus walking on water. The other disciples saw the end but, Peter saw the beginning of a special walk with Jesus. When the storm of life begins to blow, whatever we see will determine the outcome. Everyone who came across Goliath saw defeat, but David saw an opportunity to become the King’s son-in-law and not to pay tax again for life, 1 Samuel 17:1-58. When challenges come, please see an opportunity for testimony not disgrace. Secondly, Peter’s confession was different from that of the other disciples. When the other disciples saw Jesus walking on water towards them, they cried out of fear. They began to say things like they were doom, they were finished and so on but Peter said ‘Lord if it is you, command me to come to you on the water ‘meaning I know only you can make me walk on water, help me to walk on water. Believe me, whatever we confess during challenges is what will come to past. The Lord says in Numbers 14:28 “as you have spoken in My ear so shall I do”. Thirdly, while other disciples focused on the sea and the storm, Peter set his focus on Jesus. Whatever we focus on becomes big. If we focus on Jesus long enough, He will become bigger than our challenges but if we focus on our challenges long enough, they will be bigger than Jesus. The reason why the faith of many grow weak during challenges is because they focus so much on the challenges not Jesus. We experience fear as a result of focusing on the outcome not Jesus who decides the outcome. Fourthly, Peter accepted the invitation but others ignore it. When Jesus said ‘Come’, what He meant was come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, Matthew 11:28. Peter left the boat with his challenges and went to Jesus, others held unto their issues and challenges in the boat. While Peter was walking on his challenges, they sat with theirs in the boat battling with it.

KEY WORD – To walk on the storms of life or overcome any challenges, you must : 1 – see an opportunity for God to glorify Himself in your life; 2- you must confess victory ;  3- focus on Jesus alone not the challenges ; 4- take the matter to Jesus .

HOW TO WALK ON WATER

Matthew 14:29 – so He said “Come”. And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.
To walk on water is a great feat in Jesus. Peter is the only man recorded in history to have walked on water. This man achieved something his fellow disciples could only dream off. He achieved something no man in the history of this world had achieved. The bible is filled with examples of men and women of God who achieved something no man in history achieved. For example, Abraham is the only man in history who cooked for God and God ate his food. Joshua is the only man in history who was recorded to have paused time. He told the sun to stand still upon Gibeon, and the moon in the valley of Ajalon, Joshua 10:12.There are others like Daniel; Shadrach, Meshach and Abed- Nego; Joseph to mention a few. How were they able to achieve this? What was in the life of Peter that was missing in the life of the other disciples?
Firstly, Peter was a man who knew how to take advantage of opportunities. The opportunity came to Abraham to entertain God and he took it. Joshua had the opportunity to work for God and lead Israel; He grabbed with both hands. The opportunity came to twelve disciples but only Peter took it. There are opportunities today to entertain God; opportunities to walk with God; opportunities to work for God please grab them with both hands. Secondly, Peter had faith in Jesus. Mark 9:23 says all things are possible to him who believes. Faith is free and you do not have to pay for it. Faith is not something you look for, you have it already in you, and all you need is just to deploy it. It took a lot of faith in Jesus for Peter to make that request to walk on water with Him. It took a huge faith in God’s ability to save for David to take on Goliath – a giant and a champion. In the history of the world, no man had ever walked out of fire without even his clothes getting burnt except the three Hebrew men. Their strong faith in God made this happen. Thirdly, Peter was willing to step out of his comfort zone. Sitting quietly in the boat was more comfortable than walking on water. The reason why many have not been able to achieve great feats for Jesus is because they love their comfort zone. It is more comforting not to try at all than try and fail. Abraham first had to leave his comfort zone – his land, family and father’s house to an unknown place. Anyone who wants to achieve anything major in Jesus must be ready to get out of his comfort zone. He must be ready to move out of been an ordinary church member to become a worker; from praying for few minutes to praying for at least an hour and also conducting night vigils at home; from just paying tights and offering to giving God gifts that cost them ; and from  been shy to witnessing about Jesus in the public. The three Hebrew men proudly talked about God to the most powerful man on earth – Nebuchadnezzar. Lastly, Peter was able to achieve this feat because he was obedient to Jesus. When Jesus said “come”, He was referring to all the disciples but only Peter came. The other disciples acted like they did not hear Jesus when He said “come”. They Ignored Jesus but Peter did not.
KEY POINT: To achieve anything major in Jesus, you must be ready to: 1- take advantage of the opportunity to work for God; 2 – have faith in Jesus; 3 – move out your comfort zone and 4- obey Him.

JESUS IS LORD

Romans 10:9 - That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

Lord is a differential appellation for a deity or person who has authority, control or power over others. When we say Jesus is Lord, what we are saying is that He has authority, control and power over everything. By authority we mean influence or command. According to Matthew 28:18, all authority in heaven and on earth is His. He has authority over non living things, He told a storm 'be still' and it stood still, Mark 4:36-41. He has authority over all living things, which is why at the mention of His name all knees bow, Philippians 2:10. He has or is in control. He has control over all the demons and witches in the world. That is why He Is called the Lord of Host. He presides over the entire host in heaven ,earth and hell, which is why He was able to tell the legion demons who had possessed the man in Gadara to leave and they left without grumbling, Mark 5:1-20. Lastly Jesus has power. Psalm 33:8-9 says let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him, for He spoke and it was done; He commanded and it stood fast. According to Isaiah 13:13 , He is able to shake the heavens and the earth will move out of its place .Nahum 1:4 says mountain quake before Him, the hills melt, and earth heaves at His presence. Because He has power, He is able to bring back to life a corpse that began to decay, John 11:33-45.Every time you say “Jesus is Lord”, what you are doing is you are putting everything that pertains to you under His authority, control and power. By admitting Jesus Lord, what you are doing is you are submitting your challenges and everything bothering you at His feet. The challenges are no longer yours; He is free to do whatever He pleases with them.

A Lord is also someone to be obeyed. When a Lord speaks over an issue, you do not have opinions, you do not question it, all you do is just obey. When it comes to judgment, the Lord can overrule a verdict or a ruling out of mercy. The woman caught in adultery was guilty no questions about it but Jesus out of mercy overruled the verdict to stone her to death. When He said go into the world and preach, it is not negotiable. Whether you like or not you have to do just that because the Lord has spoken. When He says forgive, that is final. So before you put your challenges before Him as the Lord, you must be ready to carry out all His instructions. When He says ‘jump’, you do not ask why? What you say is ‘how high Lord’. When He says ‘go into the world and preach’, your response will be ‘yes Lord’ and off you go. As you carry out His instructions, you will see that He will begin to exercise His authority, control and power over all the issues of your life.

PRAYER POINT: Father, I am ready to carry out your instructions, please exercise Your authority, control and power over the challenges of my life.

ATTRACTED BY CHARACTER

Psalm 147:10 – He does not delight in the strength of the horse; He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man.

Heraclitus once said “Character is destiny”. There is a difference between morals and characters. It is possible to have good morals but bad character. There a lot of people with good moral upbringing, they will never tell a lie or steal but they lack integrity or you cannot trust them with secrets. There are people in the churches today who will never smoke or commit adultery but when it comes to keeping their promises or vow they need help. There are people who will never rob God in tithes and offerings but will talk behind their pastor’s back or gossip about fellow Christians. Although they have good morals yet they lack good character . Saul for example had good morals. There was no record of Saul stealing someone’s donkey or committing adultery but he lacked good character. Two hundred and thirty thousand men volunteered to go to war with him (1 Samuel 10:5-9 ), after winning the war he kept only two thousand and sent the rest ( two hundred and twenty-eight thousand men) back home with nothing (1 Samuel 13:1-2). This is bad character. Another example is Uzziah in 2 Chronicles 26:1-2. He had good moral upbringing, never cheated anyone, the bible recorded nothing bad about his morals but he lacked character. He had no regard for common men or the prophets. When he became very powerful he began bully prophets in the temple. At the end Saul was demoted and Uzziah became a leper.

One criteria God uses in selecting people for important assignments or blessing is good character. Psalm 147:10 says He does not delight in the strength of the horse; He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man. That is why at times we wonder why God will pick a person like David to be a man after His heart or Rahab to be the great great grandmother of David or Abraham to be His friend or Paul to write more than half of the New Testament. We all know David needed help in the area of morals. In 2 Samuel 11:1-17 we see David committing adultery with Bathsheba and then killing her husband to marry her. Although David struggled with his morals, he had excellent character. He was very humble and full of integrity. Psalm 78:72 says he shepherd Israel with the integrity of his heart. In 2 Samuel 22:2, Vagabonds and world rejects gathered around David and he made them mighty men that shook the world. This is good character. In Joshua 2:1-17 is the story of Rahab the prostitute from Jericho, morally she needed help but she had good character. She never stole from the spies; she kept her promise to protect them. Through her God delivered Jericho into the hands of the Israelites. She later became the great great grandmother of David. Jesus came from the lineage of David! Today many Christians struggle as a result of bad characters. There are many beautiful sisters and well to do brothers who are yet to find their life partners all because of their character. Good character brings favor; it opens door; and takes you the top. To keep the door open or keep you at the top you need good morals. Good character took David to the top but bad morals almost destroyed him. Good character took Rahab to the top but she worked on her morals and became a responsible wife.

KEY WORD: Good moral without good character leads to frustration. Good character without good moral leads to shame. Good character will definitely open doors but good moral is needed to keep the doors open.

JESUS SAVES

Acts 4:12 neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Jesus saved, Jesus saves and Jesus will continue to save. In Matthew 5:21-34 is a popular story of the woman with the issue of blood. She had been sick for twelve years. She started life as a rich woman but as years passed she spent all her money trying to get a cure for her sickness. The sickness stole her joy, peace and strength. According to the Law of Moses, a woman with the issue of blood is to be set apart, Leviticus 15:19-29. Anything she touches is rendered unclean, anywhere she sits is unclean! If this woman in Matthew was married before this sickness started, she will not be able to go near her household or be able to fulfill her duties as a wife to her husband. If she was single, she would have to remain single for life unless if she is cured. In any way you look at it, for the period of twelve years she was set apart and I do not need to tell you she was lonely. Loneliness for a month is unbearable not to talk of been lonely for twelve years. To make matters worse, it was her responsibility to inform everyone around of her sickness. Failure to inform them could incur death penalty, so she had to warn them so as not make them unclean. This meant she had to personally go from house to house to tell them of her secrets – her sickness. Not only that, she would have to inform visitors and strangers too. If she was visiting an area, she would need to inform them of her sickness. She went through all these for twelve years. I bet she must have considered suicide but one day she heard that the savior was in town. She made up her mind to receive salvation; she touched the hem of the garment of Jesus and was saved. Jesus took away her shame and gave her glory. He took away her sickness and gave her health. He took away death and gave her life. This woman had no future. What kind of future will a woman in that condition envisage? She was not only stagnant but regressing in life. Jesus saved her and gave her a future. He put a smile on her face and took away the source of her loneliness. What a good Jesus! He is interested in your case just like He was in the case of the woman with the issue of blood. The woman tried Jesus with her faith and she found Him to be the savior.

In John 8:1-11 is another popular story of a woman caught in adultery. The Pharisee brought only her to Jesus to pass judgment and left the man. There was no need for them to bring this woman to Jesus because according to the Law of Moses she was guilty and the penalty is death by stoning. The opinion poll said she should be stoned to death. Mercy was the last thing they thought of because they had already condemned her. By the time they brought this woman to Jesus, she was few minutes from a horrible death. What did Jesus do? He saved her. I bet the woman herself must have been shocked by the judgment of Jesus. The woman who was few minutes to death received life. They dragged her to Jesus, spat on her, and beat her. They exposed her sins to Jesus but He simply covered up. Indeed Jesus saves. What are you going through today that looks like the end of the world? Jesus saves. He is right besides you .He wants to save you. He said “I have come that they may life and have it in abundance”, John 10:10. He did not come to give you eternal life alone, He came to restore life to that dead situation.

ACTION POINT: Do not miss the opportunity to be saved, take all those issues and run to Him and He will save you.

MY GLORY AND THE LIFTER UP OF MINE HEAD

Psalm 3:3 -But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.

One of the names of our Lord is King of glory, Psalm 24:7-8. To truly understand the meaning of the word glory, one needs to consider its opposite which is shame. Shame is a very terrible thing. A man that knew shame like the back of his hands was Naaman, 2 Kings 5:1-17. He was a decorated general. He had all the badges a Syrian army could have. He had respect of the king and everyone in Syria. He had everything an average Syrian could dream of. He had the brains, name, connection, fame, and everything you could think of but he was a leper. This leprosy cancelled all his life achievements. Because he was a leper, he had to live in Leper’s colony in the thick forest. He could not come near his family or else he would infect them. He could not stand before the king or anyone. Although he had everything money can buy, he was very lonely .I do not need to tell you that Naaman walked with his heads bowed. One day he came across the agent of the King of glory –Elisha, and his story changed. He was cured of his leprosy and the head which was down was lifted. The man whose residence was leper’s colony in the thick forest began to live in the best part of town. Naaman who was not allowed anywhere in the city began to ride on chariots in the city. Naaman who had not smiled in years suddenly began beam with smiles because his shame had been replaced with glory.

Colossians 1:27 says Christ in you the hope of glory. Jesus Christ is the king of glory. Once He enters any life, shame vanishes. One He takes residence in a man, His glory will begin to radiate in the man’s endeavors. One thing common with people who have failed at something or suffered defeat is that they walk with their heads bowed. To be defeated means to lose a battle to someone or something more powerful and stronger. No one looses a battle and walks with his head high. Sorrow causes him to walk his head bowed. If someone fails an examination and begins to jump for joy, you know something is wrong somewhere. Shame and sorrow causes a man who has just failed an examination to walk with his heads bowed. The man at the pool of Bethesda was now used to defeat having suffered defeat on thirty –eight occasions, John 5:1-16. Every time the angel of the Lord came to trouble the water, someone faster, stronger, and quicker got to the pool before him. One day the King of glory paid him a visit and without trying he received his healing. To fail simply means to work very hard and have nothing to show for it. Peter tried all night but had nothing to show for it, Luke 5:1-10. While he was washing his nets with his heads bowed, the king of glory visited him and the same river he had cast his net all night , he cast his net once and caught so much that two boats began to sink. It is shame that keeps a man’s head down but once the shame is taken away;God’s glory begins to radiate and the head that is bowed down will automatically go up.This is why you need to give your life to Christ so that the glory of God will radiate in your life.

PRAYER POINT: King of glory let your presence be felt in my life.