Pleasant Places

Friday 8 April
READ: Psa. 16:1-6
MORE LESSON: Psa. 78:53-55

Today's reading is a psalm of great encouragement to the saints of God. The saint of God is the one who has believed and received the Son of God and is following Him (Jn.1:12). To such people the Lord gives them the experience of pleasant places in all vocations and endeavours of life. Another version puts Psa.16:6 this way: Fair places are marked out for me, I have a noble heritage. God marks out specific places for His children. These are ordained, appointed, set out places and in such places His children thrive and flourish. Even if it is in the desert, when God is the one who marked the place for you, prosperity will locate you there. If you want to be successful, happy, joyful and fulfilled, locate God's marked place for your life.
There are several reasons why men fail and do not have the experience of pleasant places.
1.) When you are not in God's marked place for you; labouring in another man's field brings no harvest. Locate your field.
2.) Laziness can make a man miss pleasant places experience, Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: so shall thy poverty come as one that travelled, and thy want as an armed man: Prov.6:10-11. Sometimes laziness has a spiritual root. The force of the evil one must be broken in order to come out of apathy, drowsiness and laziness.
3.) Pleasant places can also be missed because of ignorance of what is yours, what to do and how to do it. You must know what is marked for you as your portion and go for it, The Lord shall open unto you His good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand; and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow: Deut.28:12. God has a good treasure for you; pray that your eyes will be opened to it. Take your place by knowledge; no man is greater than what he knows. Add value to your life by self- development, train up and increase your capacity.
4.) Pleasant places can be missed because of wrong company (I Cor. 15:33).
5.) Pleasant places can be missed by refusing to seek the Lord. Seeking the Lord brings a man into the experience of pleasant places, And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God; and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper: II Chron.26:5. Here is a king who was just sixteen years of age but entered into the experience of pleasant places because he sought the LORD. Seeking the Lord gets God to work for you in this world and you enter into pleasantness effortlessly.

Prayer/Action
* Lord, let the lines fall unto me in pleasant places and give me a good portion.
* I reject the attitude of laziness, drowsiness, etc that makes me miss my pleasant places.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
Agents of spiritual slumber and compromise, get out of my life now, in the name of Jesus.