TOTAL PRESERVATION

READ: PSALM 91:1-10

From today’s devotional passage, we can deduce two kinds of evil: physical evil (illness, disease, poverty, accidents) and the evil that has to do with the soul. The passage teaches that not only will God preserve us from all evil; He will also preserve us from the evil that is spiritual in nature. To preserve is to eliminate elements of corruption, permanently. So God is saying that he would remove, permanently, anything that stands to deform you. For example, if God wants to preserve anyone, He would first arrest the corruption that may already exist in him, and then eliminate it. Thereafter, He ensures that those elements of corruption do not return into that person. For example, if God wants to preserve in divine health, the first thing He will do is heal the sufferer, just the same way we preserve meat by first removing the maggots in it. If you are ill, God will remove the bacteria of the illness from your system and heal you by His stripes, according to 1 Peter 2:24 “Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness –by whose stripes you were healed.” He can also heal you by His words, according to Psalm 107:20, “He sent His word and healed them and delivered them from their destruction.” Healing is a gift from God and it is not something we struggle for. If you want to receive healing, you can have it today. He has to heal you before He can preserve in divine health. After healing you, He will make sure that illness and disease do not return to you. He has promised to do this if you obey Him. The Lord says, in Exodus 15:26, “If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will not put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.”He is saying that, after healing you, He will make sure that sickness does not come t your body again provided you obey Him. God wants you to go from the realm of healing to the realm of divine health. Maintain a healthy relationship with God and you will begin to enjoy divine health.

MEMORIZE: 1 PETER 2:24 –Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness –by whose stripes you were healed.

SATANIC DECEPTION

READ: GENESIS 3:1-6

Deceit is dangerous. If you choose to be a sinner, God would rather have you be a chronic one than a deceiver. Likewise, should you elect to be holy, He expects you to be totally so. In other words, our god detests double-dealing. If the idea of going to heaven holds no appeal for you, you’d better forget about going to church. Instead, you may well settle down fully into sin and really enjoy yourself so that when you get to hell you will know that you really deserve to be there. Don’t let the devil deceive you. He is sure to keep telling that God is the Father of all of us. He would even tell you to love your neighbour, and also teach you the law of Karma, that is, reaping what you sow; he will however, not tell you about salvation nor remind you that the Bible says all our righteousness are like filthy rags. It is also very much like Satan to tell you that only your heart can justify you as to whether you are good or not. That is the satanic “gospel”. On the contrary, however, Jeremiah 17:9 says: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” The heart is deceitful and wicked. How then can it tell what is good or correct since it is the same heart that instigates people to do evil? Your heart cannot be your tabernacle of faith. Do not trust your heart. The days are evil. The world is filled with deception as Satan daily feeds men and women with damnable heresies. He is encouraging people to engage in self-deceit and hypocrisy. He is busy telling those who publicly confess Jesus Christ to indulge in secret sins. Don’t ever let Satan deceive you.

MEMORIZE: JEREMIAH 17:9 –The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?

DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY

READ: JOHN 13:13-15

God has favourites. This may sound antithetical. Those who bear resemblance to the nature and the character of God are close to His heart. Our text reveals the fact that God knows the true disposition of all who claim to follow the Master. The disciples wanted to know the identity of the man who was going to betray their master. They asked John to ask the Lord who the man was. Because John was the “disciple whom Jesus loved”, Jesus spoke to him directly and told him that the guilty man would be the one to whom he handed the sop. Jesus took a piece of bread, dipped it into the dish and handed it to Judas Iscariot. Immediately, John knew who the potential betrayer was, though none of the others knew. John was aware because he was the Lord’s favourite. You have to be holy to be a favourite of the Lord. Some say that the Lord does not have favourites because the Bible says God shows no partiality (Acts 10:34). While it is true that God shows no partiality for anyone, He does make distinction between persons. He tells us that He knows His sheep and they in turn know Him (John 10:14). He knew which one of the disciples would betray Him, which one would deny Him three times, and which ones would desert Him in His greatest hour of need. He also knew which disciples would follow Him all the way to the cross. It was to that disciple alone that He revealed the identity of His potential betrayer. That one disciple whom Jesus favoured (through His sovereign knowledge) was John the beloved. Moreover, one thing is true: God is Sovereign. He is the Almighty, the king of kings and the Lord of lords. He does whatever pleases Him. In Romans 9:15, He says: “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” If God decides to make a person His favourite nobody can challenge Him or accuse Him on unfairness. I am happy to tell you that the Lord God Almighty is willing to make you His favourite provided you satisfy the conditions of receiving His favour: you must be as pure as light. Do you know that God is watching every step taken by you? He will make you His favourite if your conduct conforms to His word.

MEMORIZE: ACTS 10:34 –Then Peter opened his mouth and said: In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality.

MIRACLE OF SALVATION

READ: PSALM 42:1-11

There are many types of miracles, but the miracle of salvation is the greatest. In Matthew 8:1-3, we have the story of a leper who approached Jesus and fell down at His feet as the Saviour came down from a mountain to. He asked Jesus to make him whole. This man had neither money nor a helper. He was sick, sad, lonely and hopeless. He was not even sure that Jesus Christ would be willing to heal him. But the day he met the God of breakthroughs, he got breakthrough. In Mark 2:1-12, we meet a man who was paralysed from the neck downward. He was helpless, as he could not move himself. He depended on others for everything. He had four good friends who heard that Jesus Christ could do everything. To get to Jesus Christ they had to take the man through the rooftop. Seeing their faith, Jesus told the man that all his sins were forgiven. This gave the man his breakthrough as he walked home rejoicing and glorifying God. In John 5:1-14, we meet the man at the pool of Bethesda. The man had been waiting here for thirty-eight years. The day his breakthrough came, the man took his position among the so many disabled people waiting to receive their miracles from the Lord Jesus. When the God of breakthroughs came around, this man was singled out for a breakthrough. In Mark 10:46-52, Bartmaeus was sitting by the roadside sick, poor, and sad. He had heard of the God of breakthrough but he could not see, as he was blind. Nobody was willing to take him to Jesus Christ. However, when he heard that Jesus was passing by he cried out loud unto Him. The Lord heard him and gave him his breakthrough –he regained his sight. Before you can get your breakthrough you have to be cleansed. Naaman was cleansed and the sin of the leper was forgiven. Bartmaeus cried out and God had mercy on him. If you are born again, you cannot receive your breakthrough. Your sins have to be forgiven or you will keep on suffering. You need the miracle of salvation today. Get saved and your existence on earth will become a rhythm of miracles.

MEMORIZE: PSALM 42:1 –As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God.

THE VINE

READ: JOHN 15:1-7

A tree with luxuriant branches is beautiful to behold. There is life in the branches for as long as they remain attached to the tree. Cut off the branches from the trunk and you have nothing but firewood. When you come across a real child of God you will behold the glory of God in him or her. But when the same believer departs from grace, he becomes reduced to “firewood”. My prayer for you is that may nothing separate you from the love of God. Without God there is very little or nothing we can do. As a matter of fact a man without Christ is practically useless. This is why Jesus said, in John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” Any man who does not have Christ is zero. Any branch that is not attached to the vine will end up as firewood. This is why Jesus Christ said in John 15:6 “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.” If anyone has been separated from Jesus Christ and he fails to return to him fast, such a person risks hell fire. When a Christian changes for the worse, he or she becomes not just an unbeliever but also a backslider. The devil does not joke with backsliders. A backslider is an easy target for the devil as such a person no longer has the power of God with him. This gives the devil the opportunity to retaliate, especially if he had been a chief tormentor of the devil. In 1 Samuel 16:14, the Bible tells us that the moment the Spirit of God left King Saul; an evil spirit came to torment him. Here was a man who had prophesied before and people respected him for this. God thereafter departed from him. He lost touch with God and the enemy tormented him. Remember, you remain a flourishing branch only when you are in constant fellowship with the Lord.

MEMORIZE: JOHN 15:16 –You did not choose Me, but I choose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain.