Quote

Romans 8:7 Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.  

Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.
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Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/n/normanvinc132560.html#2xcF7j7RPiGrFMtk.99

Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/n/normanvinc132560.html#2xcF7j7RPiGrFMtk.99

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OPEN HEAVENS DAILY DEVOTIONAL: TIME TO WAR.

MEMORISE : For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven. Psalm 119 : 89.

READ : DANIEL 3 : 16 - 17.
16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR : NAHUM 1 - 3, HABAKKUK 1 - 3; PSALM 88.
There are times when you have to make war. Sometime ago, I was walking round our Camp ground praying and I saw two snakes. Would you say I should leave the snakes to go on their own? If I leave them to go, they would grow to become bigger and who knows, they could come back and attack me or any of my children. When I see a snake, that snake must die! Cancer is a snake; if it is in your body, I curse it in Jesus’ Name. Barrenness is a snake opening its mouth and eating the seeds of husbands. It shall die in Jesus’ Name. There are times we need to speak for miracles to happen. If you keep quiet when you are expected to speak, your problem will remain quiet with you. After all, silence implies consent. If you have a sickness and it is okay by you, the sickness will stay. If you have demons in the form of a house help and you are willing to keep them, all well and good. Wait until they have poisoned your husband or until they have destroyed your marriage; if that is okay with you, then it is fine. However, such is not fine with me. No evil shall remain in my home or in the church of God in Jesus’ Name. If you would satisfy some conditions, then you shall decree a thing, and it shall be established unto you. The condition is that you should remain holy. Whenever it is time to decree, just make sure you link Jesus Christ with your decree. Once He backs up your decree, it shall be established.
In Genesis 22 : 7 - 8, Isaac said to Abraham that he could see the wood and the fire but not the animal to be used as a sacrifice. Abraham said the Lord shall provide for Himself a lamb for the sacrifice. He linked the Almighty God with the decree and by the time he got to the mountain top, there was a lamb already waiting. In 1 Samuel 17 : 45, David said to Goliath that he had come to him in the Name of the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, who would hand Goliath over to him for him to cut his head. He did not say he would kill Goliath himself, but that God would hand Goliath over to him. So when it is time to decree over your enemies, do not just say, “I am going to step over you’’ but say, “God will make you a stepping stone for me”. Whenever it is time to issue decrees, do not talk as if you are the Almighty. Hide within Him and then use Him to make your decree. Spoken words can be extremely powerful. If a nation wants to go to war with another nation, they declare war by speaking. When the war is over, they declare peace by speaking. If you are yet to be born-again, I urge you to come to Jesus today. If you say you are born-again and there is no accompanying change in your life, you better go to Jesus and declare war against everything that is incongruent with the nature of God in your life.

PRAYER POINT :
Father, do something new in my life today.
AUTHOR : Pst E . A ADEBOYE.

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CHRIST FOR YOU

Memorise:
 

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Romans 8:31
Read: James 4:5-8
5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
Message
Apart from Christ being in you, another dimension of Christ in relation to you is “Christ being for you”. The phrase “for you” in this context signifies approval of or support for you. The implication of ‘Christ for you’ is encapsulated in Romans 8:31:
“What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?”
I pray that God will give you the revelation of this in your spirit. With Christ for you, you become an unstoppable juggernaut. Every opposition against your forward movement is bulldozed away. It is a great thing when God is for you because anyone trying to curse you would merely be wasting his time. We see this manifested in the life of the children of Israel on their way to the Promised Land. Because God was for them, all attempts to curse them failed. In opposition to their onward journey to the Promised Land, Balak the king of Moab hired Balaam – a prophet, to curse them. God dealt with the prophet by warning him against his mission through the donkey that spoke like a man. Besides this, three consecutive times, at the point of pronouncing curses, God intervened and in fact made Balaam to pronounce blessings upon God’s people.
“How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the LORD hath not defied? Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!”
Numbers 23:8&23
How then do you obtain His support? It is by drawing near to Him. James 4:8 says if you draw near to God, He would also draw near to you. This means that you don’t serve Him only with the mouth, but also with your heart. Drawing close to God means spending quality time in personal fellowship with Him. Fellowshipping with Him means you talk to Him and He talks back to you. Study how a man and woman in courtship get close to each other and apply this to your relationship with God. They talk to each other, they share moments of ups and downs together, they parade each other around, they express their feelings of love and dissatisfactionin songs, poems and letters, they study each other’s character and they shed relationships not approved of by their partner and several other things. If you apply this principle to your relationship with God, you will be shocked at how real He will become and for sure He will stand up in your defence just like a man will stand up for his woman if confronted by danger while in courtship.
 

Prayer Point
Father, fill my heart with your love, cancel any curse upon my life and bless me.

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OPEN HEAVENS DAILY DEVOTIONAL: WHERE ARE YOU?

MEMORISE : And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? Genesis 3 : 9.

READ : GENESIS 3 : 7 - 10.

7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR : JOEL 1 - 3 ; PSALM 82.

Where are you? I am convinced that this question God asked Adam long ago is still relevant today. It is not expedient to wait for God to ask you this question. Rather, as part of a self examination process, you should introspectively ask yourself this question. A sincere approach in answering this question would do you a lot of good both in this world and in eternity.

From the day of his birth, a man begins a return journey to where he is from ( Ecclesiastes 12 : 1 - 7 ). This is why, with regard to official matters, you are not asked “how young are you?”, but rather you are asked how old you are. No matter how young you are, you are growing old day by day. Hence, God Himself is asking you: where are you now? You should therefore ask yourself regularly, ‘how far have I gone in fulfilling the purpose of my creation and salvation?’

To answer this serious question, you need to first of all answer some other questions like: “where was I yesterday?” It could be last week, last year or when you first got born-again. Next, you need to answer the question: “where am I now?” Consider Samson, who went from being a terror to the enemy to grinding corn in the prison of the enemy. Ask yourself, ‘am I going on to greater heights, winning more souls than before for Christ?’ Materially, have you moved from thirty fold, to sixty fold or to hundred fold increase? Or is your case that of moving in the reverse direction?

Are you increasing spiritually or decreasing? Are you increasing financially or decreasing? It is God’s will and it is His plan for you to grow spiritually, financially and all-round.

“Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.” Psalm 35 : 27

If you are not growing, could it be that you have been eating your seed? Or maybe you are sowing sparingly ( 2 Corinthians 9 : 6 )? Perhaps, because you have been defaulting in your tithe, you are now working under a divine curse ( Malachi 3 : 8 - 10 )? As the Lord said to His people who experienced decrease in time past, He says to you now: consider your ways ( Haggai 1 : 5 - 7 ).

ACTION POINT :

Carry out a self-evaluation and cry to God about your findings.

AUTHOR : Pst E . A ADEBOYE.

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OPEN HEAVENS DAILY DEVOTIONAL: HEART: LIFE’S CONTROL TOWER.

MEMORISE : Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Proverbs 4 : 23.

READ : PROVERBS 4 : 20 - 23.
20 My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.
21 Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.
22 For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR : HOSEA 11 - 14 ; PSALM 81.
Physically, the heart’s role in keeping a man alive cannot be undermined. This organ is very crucial to human existence. In the non-empirical world, the heart of a man is that part of his soul that directs his physical actions. Jesus made this clear in Mark 7 : 18 - 23. It is this “heart” we are considering in this study. It is popularly said that “the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart”. This means that the core issues of life are matters of the heart. This is the crux of what our Bible reading today is saying in verse 23.
“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”
What moulds a life comes from the heart. Ordinarily, the Bible says the heart is evil – deceitful and desperately wicked ( Jeremiah 17 : 9 ). After a man experiences the salvation of Jesus, the heart is impacted and made available for working upon by the word of God. It’s supposed to be a dwelling place for the word of God so that it can be transformed to bring forth virtues, victories and success. For this to be experienced in reality, the child of God needs as a matter of duty to work constantly on the heart through studying, meditating and memorising the word of God.
Basically, the heart of a man can be in any of these four states :
1)The roadside heart
2)The stony heart
3)The thorny heart
4)The good heart
Our Lord Jesus Christ explained these states in a parable he defined as the key to all other parables ( Mark 4 : 13 - 20 ). The state an individual’s heart assumes is the choice of the fellow. The heart is the place to receive knowledge, besides the head. Until knowledge is obtained in the heart, a person will not benefit from it. What kind of knowledge do you receive into your heart?
A working relationship between the heart and the mouth charts the course of a man’s life – whether good or bad. The mouth is the outlet of the heart; thus, the issues that mould a life are coming out of the heart through the mouth. The state of the heart is the true identity of a man. It is the place God looks at to relate to a man ( 1 Samuel 16 : 7 ).

ACTION POINT :
Examine your thought pattern in the mirror of Philippians 4:8 and pray accordingly.
AUTHOR : Pst E . A ADEBOYE.

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OPEN HEAVENS DAILY DEVOTIONAL :CONFRONT THIS ENEMY – FEAR.

MEMORISE : For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Romans 8 : 15.

READ : ISAIAH 41 : 10 - 14.

10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

11 Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish.

12 Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.

13 For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.

14 Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR : HOSEA 6 - 10 ; PSALM 80 : 8 - 19.

The scripture is replete with statements of “fear not” from God to His people. Fear is one tool the enemy finds most useful in his hands in making the children of God suffer failure, pain and destruction of destiny. Often times, what people are afraid of is not real, but their minds paint an imaginary picture of the object or situation out of proportion and the enemy helps to blow it up. Thus people fear what they should not be afraid of.

On the other hand, there are some situations that are truly terrifying from a human perspective. Regarding such situations, the Lord our God still tells us not to be afraid. He expects us to know that with Him behind us and for us, no person, situation or thing can have us at its mercy. This is why in Isaiah 41 : 10 He says:

“Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”

Fear is an enemy; it paralyses the potential meant to be deployed for activities that lead to greatness. The Bible says fear has torment ( 1 John 4 : 18 ). Fear makes its victim disobedient to God. It deceives its victim into magnifying a challenging situation above God. Such was the case of King Saul who confessed that he had sinned because he feared the people and obeyed their voice against the instruction of God (1 Samuel 15:24). Being fearful is a sin that can lead to an eternity in the Lake of Fire.( Revelation 21 : 8 ).

“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

Of all the listed sins above, being fearful is number one on the list. You have no business being fearful. Jesus our Lord is greater than any human being no matter his status. He is greater than any witch or wizard; Satan their master is no match for Him. In fact, Colossians 2 : 10 says Jesus is the head of all principalities and powers. Isaiah 8 : 12 - 13 says we should not fear any gang-up against us, rather, God alone should be feared. Once we fear God, we would have no one else to fear.

ACTION POINT :

Confront anything, person or situation tending to make you afraid in the Name of Jesus. Command the spirit of fear to depart from you in Jesus’ Name.

AUTHOR : Pst E . A ADEBOYE.

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OPEN HEAVENS DAILY DEVOTIONAL : PEACE ALL-ROUND II

Memorise: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
Hebrews 12:15

Read: Hebrews 12:14-15
14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR : HOSEA 1-5 and PSALM 80:1-7
Message
Although there are different dimensions of peace, the highest level of peace a man can attain is peace with God through Jesus Christ. Know this however: the fact that you are a child of God and love God does not necessarily imply you will not have problems. A fearful situation automatically erodes peace of mind unless if as a child of God you put your trust in Him (Isaiah 26:3).
The character flaws of a Christian can be detrimental to the flourishing of the peace given by our Lord Jesus Christ. One character flaw top on this list is bitterness. Bitterness can grow and even take root in a heart. The root of bitterness stops the children of God from enjoying the peace of God. While the root of bitterness in the heart of an individual will affect other people around, a big chunk of the adverse effect of this evil root is on the individual harbouring it. The root of bitterness in a heart creates room for hatred, envy and anger; it is undoubtedly a harbinger of unforgiveness. It also makes for unhappiness. The phrase “root of bitterness” itself gives one an idea of what this stuff offers – all-round bitterness. It results in bitter experiences, smothering joy and peace. How does it originate? It comes when one feels unfairly treated by another person or an organisation. It comes from a feeling of being injured whether physically, emotionally or otherwise. For instance, a sister in courtship that is jilted, a spouse that is cheated upon by his/her partner, an employee that is short-changed, a case of great disappointment such that high hopes were dashed, death of a loved one, case of rape and others. All these are negative experiences that no one would desire, and I pray you will never experience anything of these sorts in Jesus’ Name. In case you are grappling with the root of bitterness resulting from whatever previous experiences you’ve had, please note that it is not in your best interest to keep it. Bitterness eats up its host; it affects the physical wellbeing of an individual, as well as causing a strained relationship with God.
There was a man whose wife died sometime ago, leaving behind an only daughter with a striking resemblance to the mother. The daughter was the only existing consolation to this man. This lady’s husband turned out to be something else, maltreating the lady to the point of threatening her life. The root of bitterness that sprang up in the lady’s father resulted in him becoming swollen, defying all medical care. He only became alright after forgiving his son-in-law.

Action Point
Check your heart to ensure no bitterness is taking root there. If there is any trace of it, let go of it and pray for the healing of your soul.
AUTHOR : Pst E. A ADEBOYE

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