REPENTANT OR NOT? -Daily devotional by Pastor E. A Adeboye

BIBLE IN A YEAR: Jer 13-16
REPENTANT OR NOT? Tuesday, December 14, 2010
MEMORIZE: “If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work” (2 Tim. 2:21) READ: Matthew 21:28-31 “But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor” (2 Tim. 2:20). God has two broad categories of sons - an Only Begotten Son - Jesus Christ and adopted sons. All the adopted sons are individually different.  Among the adopted sons, there are opportunities for golden sonship, silver sonship, wooden or earthen sonship. It is the duty of each adopted son to choose the type of sonship to operate in God’s Kingdom. Within God’s great house, you will find pastors, ministers and workers who bring honor and glory to God just as much as you will have sons who are black sheep of God’s family who will bring shame and dishonor to God’s name. If you look within your church, you will find some trouble shooters and rebellious people among the lot of godly ones. God allowed it so. If you do not want witches and agents of darkness to attend your church, you may not bother to ask God for the new wine. Why? Wherever fire is burning, moth must gather.  If you never have oppositions, difficulties, or people testing God’s power in you, you will be unable to fly.  They are there to put you on your toes, get you to see your need for the gifts of the Spirit and a higher level of the new wine to keep you burning hot. In today’s reading, we encounter two sons.  One was initially unwilling but later repented while the other was unreliable and deceitful. When asked to do something for God, can God count on you? Some sons are mouth-making sons. Tell them to go and do something and they will tell you, ‘Consider it done’ yet, they will not move an inch. If you accomplish tasks by mere words, then such sons are great performers. Can God rely on you? Can your pastor or leader depend on you? If you are unreliable, you are automatically a vessel that attracts shame and dishonor.  Are you a repentant and reliable son? When you make up your mind not to do what is right and you realize the folly in that, do you repent and return to the assignment? God wants to have sons whose hearts are pliable; those who can easily repent and make amends when He convicts them of a wrong deed or stand. Are you like this? ACTION POINT: The type of heart you have will either facilitate your repentance or otherwise. What kind of heart do you have? Thank God for all converts from Let’s-Go-A-Fishing right from inception.  Pray that this December’s edition will witness a greater harvest.  N.B: Have you supported the www.10millionexercisebooks.com project? You can join today.

ON ASKING- Open Heavens Daily Devotionals by Pastor E.A Adeboye

BIBLE IN A YEAR: Jer 9-12
ON ASKING Monday, December 13, 2010
MEMORIZE: “And if we know that he hear us,  whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him” (1 John 5:15) READ: 1 John 5:14-15 Jacob escaped from home for fear of being killed by his brother, and ran to Laban. After the latter consented to providing him with a job and roof over his head, Jacob took a step further by asking Laban for his daughter’s hand in marriage (Gen. 29:15-21). Laban - as we have already established typifies Christ. Jacob was not given a wife until he asked for it. You may not get any major thing from God until you ask for it. Thank God for all His promises. Yet, they may not reach you except you ask. Although power or anointing is available to all God’s children, yet it can only be released to those who ask for it. Even though prosperity was available, we could not access it in the 60’s and 70’s because we did not ask for it. It is only those who ask, seek or knock that Heaven will attend to (Matt. 7:7-8). You will be surprised that many people under-ask but over-expect answers from God. They prefer to ask fellow men for help or discuss burning issues with them than with God. It also happened in the Early Church. James saw this and addressed it in his general epistle: “Ye lust and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not” (James 4:2). Instead of fighting, lusting and killing in order to have, just ask! And while asking, ensure you fulfill Heaven’s conditions to the letter. According to John 15:16, win souls and ensure they are established before you ask. Also, get rid of sin and live in holiness (Isaiah 59:1-2). God will not answer a thief, fornicator or liar.However, the closer you draw to Him, the stricter and tougher He becomes on the issue of holiness. What God may ignore in baby Christians, He will hold mature Christians for. In addition, always pray in Jesus’ Name but not for Jesus’ sake. Ask in faith (Matt. 21:22; James 1:6). Let your request be in alignment with God’s will. Use scriptural promises to back up your requests. Let thanksgiving start and end your prayer requests. What should you ask for? Ask for salvation of heathens (Ps. 2:8); revelation of coming events (Isaiah 45:11); the faith of patriarchs of old (Jer. 6:16); also ask for the latter rain of God’s power and blessing (Zec. 10:1); Ask for the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13). What are you asking the Lord today? ACTION POINT: Father, I am tired of asking amiss. From today, help my prayer points to always hit the bull’s eye. N.B support the www.10millionexercisebooks.com project today. God bless you.

Entering a Turning Point- Open heavens devotional by Pastor E. A Adeboye

BIBLE IN A YEAR: Jer 6 - 8
ENTERING A TURNING POINT Sunday, December 12, 2010
MEMORIZE: “He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end” (Eccl. 3:11) READ: 1 Kings 17:8-16 There are certain factors that contribute to a turning point: The first can be taken from the story of the widow at Zarephath recorded in 1 Kings 17:8-16. You will notice that while the widow was preparing to take her last meal, God went ahead of her and sent His messenger of change. In that difficult situation you are in, the Lord will go ahead of you. While you are still thinking of what to do, divine help will locate you in Jesus’ Name. Also, the Lord intervened just before she exhausted her last meal. He knew she needed a seed through which her miracle will be delivered. Hence, He ensured she still had a meal He could multiply. The Lord will find something in your hand that can trigger off your turning point. If there is nothing in your hand that you can give, God may not be able to help you. But by His grace, the Lord will ensure you have a seed He will use as an excuse to bless you this season. The third thing was that the Lord gave the widow grace to down play sentiments and give God a chance even when the situation appeared impossible. The normal reaction was for her to have seen the man of God who is interested in sharing her last meal with her as greedy, selfish, uncaring and unthoughtful. If these sentiments had taken a toll on her mind, she would never have released her meal but rather abuses. God would grant you grace to play down unnecessary sentiments when you need a breakthrough. In addition, the man of God had to employ wisdom in introducing God’s message to the woman. If not, she could have turned it down and she would have missed her breakthrough. Do you know that poor or inefficient delivery of divine messages has been responsible for rejection and loss of divine intervention in the lives of many? As God’s servant, you must be very careful and ask God for wisdom in delivering certain sensitive messages to have the desired impact. Lastly, her son cooperated rather than hinder her. In some cases, either the spouse or one of the children would be the one to prevail on the fellow to ignore God’s command. In the day of your turning point, may your family and close associates cooperate with Heaven to facilitate your breakthrough. ACTION POINT: Ask that when at the threshold of your breakthrough, the Lord will cause everything and everyone to cooperate with Heaven for it to be beautiful (Eccl. 3:11).