LIVING EXAMPLES OF FULFILLED PROMISES

READ: GALATIANS 3:13-14

In Genesis 12:1-3, when God called Abraham, He gave him seven promises with three condition attached. He said: “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing; And I will bless them that bless you, and curse him that curses you, and in you shall all families of the earth be blessed” (verse 2-3).
As at this time Abraham was a nobody and was a celebrated barren man. After all, if a man cannot have a child at 75 years when will he ever have one? It was even easier for God to heal his barrenness at 75 than at 100 years but God chose to perform the miracle when all human efforts have failed so that the testimony will give Him greater glory. For a reader of this Devotional, the Lord will intervene in your situation and turn things around not when you think you need it most but in accordance with His timing, so that by the time you are sharing the testimony among other testifiers, yours will stand you out. God’s intervention in your life will not be too late. Just hold on to His promises and He will fulfil them in due season.
In 1981, I was praying for God to provide me a decent accommodation because I was living in one room which was barely adequate for me especially when my family visited me from Lagos. In His answer, the Lord said He will give me not just a house but a city. That sounded impossible for a man living in a room just as His promises to Abraham appeared far-fetched to a super barren. But has His promises not come to pass today? Every promise the Lord has given to you will be fulfilled in Jesus name. Several years ago, God told me He was going to give me three aeroplanes. If God has made you a promise, no matter how impossible it may sound, if it is God who said it, celebrate because it must surely be fulfilled as long as you live right before Him. Some people truncate the establishment of God’s promises in their lives through sin, doubt and unbelief. Do you know that Abraham’s original blessings are now ours according to Galatians 3:13-14? How many of them do you claim and live by? Or do you think they were just for Abraham? God used Abraham as an example to affect us so that we too can become living examples of the fulfillment of such promises to our generation. To what extent has Genesis 12:2-3 been fulfilled in your life?

MEMORIZE: GALATIANS 3:29 –And if you be Christ’s, then are you Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

EQUIPPING END-TIME WORK FORCE

READ: 2 TIMOTHY 3:14-17

“A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain to wise counsels” (Proverbs 1:5).
In God’s kingdom, knowledge plays a significant role in the lives of children of God at all levels. Whatb distinguishes the outstanding from the ordinary believers is what they know and how they are able to utilize it. Knowledge is the foundation of wisdom because you can only apply what you know. Proverbs 10:14 says it is only wise men who continue to acquire knowledge. Knowledge is power and it provides strength to its recipient (Proverbs 24:5). The want of knowledge is the greatest robber of God’s people today (Hosea 4:6).
“But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and for ever. Amen” (2 Peter 3:18). God expects us to grow in knowledge of God. You need to move from one level of knowledge to a higher level. To ensure that the workforce being prepared to cope with the expansion of the kingdom is thorough bred and adequately equipped for ministry, church leaders must take the issue of knowledge more seriously. Sending half baked workers, ministers and pastors endangers the work of the ministry. Due to lack of knowledge such workers may indulge in shameful acts capable of undermining God’s holiness and thereby being disgrace to the Church and God’s kingdom.
In planting parishes, pastors should give out their best. Parishes are not established just to increase the number but to positively affect lives. Never establish a parish to die. You will account for it. Some pastors plant parishes but deny them basic facilities. It is wrong! As you recruit workers from the congregation, mobilize and encourage them to take advantage of the church’s training programmes so that they are better equipped for the task ahead. These include the believers class, the Workers-in-Training, the School of Disciples, The Redeemed Christian Bible College, The School of Missions, the School of Deliverance, workers and ministers conferences, Holy Ghost services, Conventions, Congresses, etc. The more workers are exposed to these, the higher their knowledge and the better their service delivery. As a church leader, any minister or worker under you that remains static in knowledge will draw you back. Prayerfully play your role by mobilizing them to become workers and ministers of distinction!

MEMORIZE: 2 TIMOTHY 2:15 –Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

FROM HARVEST TO LOSS

READ: JOHN 4:31-38

“Say not you, There are yet four months, and then comes harvest? behold, I say to you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest” (John 4:35).
In receiving a harvest, time is of great essence. This is because there is a limit to which a ripe harvest can endure. Ask the farmers. When the harvest is ripe and you do not take it in quickly, some could become over ripe and spoilt and in that process become lost forever. Some unbelievers have become over ripe and therefore unharvestible because we failed to harvest them at the right time. Each time you procrastinate or defer the day to evangelize to a soul moves the fellow closer to the staet of being overripe.
For example, some unbelievers have made conscious efforts to enter God’s kingdom. They have tried good works, alms giving, and self righteousness. Some have suffered so much hardshi and met with several disappointments while trying to solve a particular problem. For others, certain believers have continued to sow good deeds, kindness, prayers and a good example of the Christian life into them. That has weakened the resistance of such people to the Gospel. They are very near the kingdom of God. All you may need to do is go and tell them of the love of Jesus and they will come into the kingdom. But if you fail to harvest these, Satan can send in his helmsmen to introduce them to some deceptions of Eastern cults and fake gospel. And in the long run they would be deceived and either totally lost or it will really take God’s grace through persistent intercession to bring them out of the claws of darkness.
I was invited to preach in Ethiopia sometime ago. The time was slated for 6 pm but the pastor there asked us to go at 6.30 pm because he was not sure people would have come by 6 pm. But on arrival at 6 pm, there was already 1000 people hungry for the Word. This was the first time in a long while I preached and wept. After the programme, a pastor accused us of selfishness. He said, “How can you spend only two days when Nigeria has kept you to themselves all these years?” Go out to where you are needed. Your services are required in buses, train stations, villages, your communities, work places and neighbourhoods. Each time you delay, you are moving a ripe harvest towards a spoil, a gain towards a loss.

MEMORIZE: EPHESIANS 5:16 –Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

FORCES AGAINST ESTABLISHEMENT

READ: 1 SAMUEL 13:11-13

Any blessing received without a further blessing of divine establishment will be ephemeral. Some people appear to forbid being established. Just when God is about to establish them, they will do something that will make God change His mind. May the Lord never change His good thoughts and plans for you. May anti-establishment spirits waiting at very crucial points of your destiny never catch up with you in Jesus name.
Adam was blessed and highly favoured by God. He is still the only man to have lived in a perfect world. Just when he was about to discover and eat the fruit of the tree of life and thereafter be established never to die, he went and ate of the forbidden fruit and lost Eden perpetually and sold creation into spiritual slavery (Genesis 3:22-24). He was not alone. Anti-establishment forces also played a fast one on Eli. This time it was the force of his flesh. Eli had a great start that made God to vow that his household should produce priests forever. Then his flesh pushed him to ignore the atrocities of his sons to the point that he lost everything just when he was about to be established (1 Samuel 2:30).
In 1 Samuel 13:11-13, Saul who had been crowned king was just about to be established when the forces of his flesh pushed him into overstepping his bounds. He had become corrupted and too big for the man who anointed him. Not long after he became too big for Samuel, he equally became too big for God to handle. Then the ceremony that was slotted to establish his throne was the one used in dethroning him. Worst still, he and all his sons died on the same day. Have you gone through a situation where your blessing was eroded instead of being established? The Lord will make a way for you. Call on Him today. Is your flesh pushing you out of God’s will? Are you fighting against the lust of your flesh? If so, prayerfully subdue it. Deny ot some muscles through fasting and prayer. If it is spiritual forces of darkness, take authority over them, plead the blood of Jesus on yourself and paralyze them in prayer. Ask God to establish your blessing today. You will not fail or be cut off from your blessing. Every anti-establishment force against your blessing is paralyzed in Jesus name.

MEMORIZE: 1 SAMUEL 13:13 –And Samuel said to Saul, You have done foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you; for now would the LORD have established your kingdom upon Israel for ever.

IN SEARCH OF A WIFE

READ: 1 PETER 1:18-20

In eternity past, long before human history began, the Trinity-in-Council held a crucial meeting chaired by God the Father who also was the Legal Adviser (Isaiah 9:6). His advice was, “Come, let us make man in our image” (Genesis 1:26-27). That was how man was created in God’s image and began to multiply. But what was God’s original intention for creating us on earth? It is because God wanted to marry. Isaiah 54:5, says, “For Your Maker is your husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and Your Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall He be called”.
After the human race multiplied, God the Father decided to pick a nation as His wife. He chose the nation of Israel. In Isaiah 4:1-4, God paid the bride price. He drowned the army of Egypt in the Red sea as part of the bride price for Israel. He killed all the first born in Egypt as part of the bride price. He also allowed Ethiopia and Seba to be wasted because of this. How valuable Israel was to the father for Him to have paid so much a price! Similarly, in that heavenly council meeting, it was agreed that after the Father had chosen His bride from a particular nation, God the Son would randomly select His bride from all the nations of the world – from every tribe, tongue, colour, nation, etc. when we get to heaven, we will meet His bride from all nations (Revelation 7:9-10). Will you be there?
“No man can come to Me, except the Father which has sent Me draw him; and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:44). In that heavenly council meeting, it was agreed that God the Father will be the Chief Recruiting Officer who must scrutinise before approving those who who will be part of the bride of Jesus. Moreover, there was a consensus that since God the Father paid a bride price, God the Son must follow suit. How much would Jesus pay? He would have to pay with His blood. This is why our reading and 1 Corinthians 6:9-20 says that as a believers you have been bought at the cost of the blood of Jesus. How valuable you must be to Jesus! The first time Jesus came to earth some 2000 years ago, He came for the marriage introduction and to pay the bride price. When He comes again it is to take us for the actual wedding. And from that wedding on and throughout eternity, we will be united and physically remain in His presence. Jesus is coming for me. Are you His bride? If not, give your life to Christ today.

MEMORIZE: ISAIAH 54:5 -For Your Maker is your husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and Your Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall He be called.