PARTAKING IN A DIVINE AGENDA

OPEN HEAVENS DAILY DEVOTIONAL.

DATE : FRIDAY 31ST JULY 2015

THEME: PARTAKING IN A DIVINE AGENDA

MEMORISE:

And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
Luke 1:33

READ: Luke 1:31-33

31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.

32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:

33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

MESSAGE:

When God says He will do a thing, He is telling you what He has already done in the realm of the Spirit. It is already a settled matter. If He says He will give you peace, it means that peace is already released to you. Every good promise that God has made to you shall become reality shortly in Jesus' Name. When Jesus made this promise in Matthew 16:18:

"And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

He was simply saying something He had already done. He was telling Peter what He had already finished, long before Peter was born. Luke 1:33 declares that there is no end to the increase of God's kingdom. This means that whether the devil and the world like it or not, the Church will keep marching on. It also means that even when you do not know how to access the funds you need to build that local assembly to the glory of God's Name, God knows. He has already provided for all the churches that would be built in His Name, even before the foundation of the world was laid. This is why I know that you will not be stranded or frustrated over the assignment of enlarging God's kingdom on earth. God's provision for your assignment shall be evident this season in Jesus' Name.

Moreover, it is important to note that since God has set out to build His church, if you cooperate with Him, He can use you to build His kingdom. Building His church is God's agenda. God is looking for those who will cooperate with Him to establish His agenda of building His church. Are you willing to partner with Him? Long ago, God decided that He would take a general from the Syrian army and turn him into a worshipper of Jehovah (2 Kings 5:1-19). In today's setting, it is like saying God wants to take the Sultan of Sokoto (the traditional head of Muslims in Nigeria) and turn him into an evangelist or a pastor. Some people will say this is impossible, but with God nothing shall be impossible (Luke 1:37).

Once He has set out His plan, and His Word has gone forth, He will do it. To get Naaman to become a worshipper of the Living God, the Lord needed someone to cooperate with Him. It was a housemaid in Naaman's household who told her mistress that there was a prophet in Israel who could cure her husband's leprosy. Like this handmaid, are you ready to cooperate with the Lord in building His church?

ACTION POINT:

Every child of God has a role to play in building the kingdom of God. So, don't just sit on the fence!

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR : NEHEMIAH 4:1-6:14 and JOHN 7:1-24

AUTHOR : Pst E. A ADEBOYE

Wonderful Miracle

OPEN HEAVENS DAILY DEVOTIONAL

DATE: THURSDAY 9TH JULY 2015

THEME: WONDERFUL MIRACLE

MEMORISE: Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. Romans 15:19

READ: EZEKIEL 37:1-10

1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,

2 And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.

3 And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest.

4 Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.

5 Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:

6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

7 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.

8 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.

9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.

10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

MESSAGE

Miracles have a lesser degree of awesomeness when compared to wonders. Let us closely look at examples of these. It is undeniable that the raising of the dead through prayer is a great act of God. In 1 Kings 17:17-24, when the son of the widow of Zarephath died and Elijah was informed; he prayed, paced up and down, threw himself on the child about three times and the child came back to life. This was a miracle no doubt; but when dead bones cause the dead to be raised to life, it is a greater miracle.
This happened in 2 Kings 13:20-21. Someone died and was being conveyed to the burial site, but because the mourners sighted a band of enemy soldiers heading in their direction, they threw the corpse into a nearby grave. Coincidentally, that was where Elisha had been buried. Elisha's body had decayed, leaving only his bones behind. As soon as the corpse touched his bones, the dead man came back to life and ran after his fleeing relatives.
However, when you compare all these great miracles with Ezekiel's experience documented in today's Bible reading, you will conclude that they are incomparable in awesomeness.

What Ezekiel experienced was a wonder. Ezekiel was taken to a valley full of dry bones and God asked him if the bones could live again. This man of God immediately realised he had come face to face with a situation his faith could not handle. "Lord, this is beyond my faith. Only You can tell", he replied. God then said to him, "Don't pray, don't touch, just prophesy to them and say, Dry bones, hear God's word and come together, every bone to its bone as it was originally". Oh! That was easy to say, and he said it as he was commanded, even though he knew it sounded far-fetched.
How can you ask dead, dry bones to hear? Oh yes, they can hear, though not your words but God's Word.
This is why you should not stop speaking the Word of God to dead situations, people and things. They all have ears to hear God's Word and they respond to it.
Meanwhile, as the dry bones began to move to form their original bone structure, Ezekiel must have been saying, Wonderful! But God was not done yet; He commanded Ezekiel to prophesy to the wind. Now, this was a bit more outlandish! At least the bones he could see, but the wind he could not see. He however obeyed, and the wind began to blow. Breath came into the lifeless entities that had been formed from the dry bones. In no time, a valley full of dry bones was taken over by a strong and able army.
Always use God's Word to call up what you want to see in the Name of Jesus Christ, and it will be so.

PRAYER POINT:

Father, in my life, family, workplace and ministry, make us recipients of your wonders.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 CHRONICLES 28:9-29:30 and LUKE 19:41-20:18

AUTHO: Pst E. A ADEBOYE