Birthing a Glorious Destiny

Text: 1 Sam. 1: 9-18
MORE LESSONS: Luke 22:40-44
Bible Reading in one Year: Psalms 16-18

When you go through I Sam. chapter 1 you see the take off of a destiny. The chapter begins with several characters but attention is on one particularly. The whole of the book from beginning to the end speaks about a man whose mother was barren, and the mother decided to go to God in Shiloh and pray alone at the altar until the priest took notice of her. The priest thought she was drunk with wine because it was after a feast and he asked her, but she answered ...I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD: v15, and the priest blessed her .

That woman is Hannah, and the child that came out of that encounter with God is Samuel. Chapter one ends with a testimony in verse 27, for this child I prayed...., so the life of Samuel began as a testimony; he was a product of prayer, and the mother was a testifier all her life. There is a glorious destiny that you must also give birth to. But it will not come on a platter of gold, rather you get it on a well orchestrated, deliberate, conscious and desperate prayer. Though Hannah's words of prayer were not documented in chapter one, in chapter two the Bible says, And Hannah prayed, and said...: v1. Some theologians have argued that 1 Samuel chapter 2 was a song, but the woman actually said it was her prayer. When you go through it, you will find how Hannah prayed.

There is so much to learn from this because prayer should not be a mere request. The only way to bring order to prayer is to consider how men and Jesus in the Scripture prayed and got results. Then you will begin to learn to pray by praying the way they prayed. Look at the Lord’s Prayer in Matt. 6:9-13, you will discover that it is organised, orderly and inspired prayer.

Praying is not just standing up from sleep repeatedly shouting Jehovah, I ask You, Jehovah, what? If you will pray prayers that will birth a glorious destiny , you can take such prayers as the prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane where, although He was in agony , ... he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground: Lk.22:44. It was few words but it got Heaven’s attention and an angel had to be deployed immediately to the earth to strengthen Him. That was destiny birthing prayer. Learn to pray the way men and women who received answer from God prayed when destiny was involved, and answer will come.

Prayer/Action
* Ask God to train your hands to war so that the bow of steel may be broken by your hands.
* Pray that God will give you grace to pray until something happens.
* Ask God to make your feet like hind’s feet, set upon high places.
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Replaced Destiny III

Text: 1 Sam. 3:11-19
MORE LESSONS: Lk. 2:40-52
Bible Reading in one Year: Psalms 13-15

I have asked myself on many occasions that when God was picking Samuel, where were Eli's children? They were adults and Samuel was only a child; perhaps they were even bullying Samuel, hitting him on the head saying that is not how to carry the ephod, sit down, that is not how to wear the minister's clothe, put your tie well, and possibly spank him for not doing things right in the temple. Yet God chose that little boy instead of them.

It pleased the Lord to attend to and prefer that boy above them; why? It is because they refused parental teaching. Eli did not handle his children in such a way that they could look like Samuel in the temple, so God sent a message through Samuel to tell him that He would strike Eli and his children in one day and they would die.

Each time I read some scriptures, I shiver. Look at one of them, In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end: 1 Sam. 3: 12. That is terrible, God said He would not spare but would do to Eli as He warned that He would judge his house forever, for the iniquity which he brought, which he knew, because his sons made themselves vile and he did not restrain them. Parents should not let their children go free when they do something wrong saying they are only children.

Because Eli did not restrain his children, he jeopardised their destiny and generations after him. In 1 Sam. 4:19 –21, his daughter-in-law delivered a child and named the child Ichabod, saying the glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father- in- law and her husband, from whom the glory departed and the destiny of the family was replaced. It is good for children to obey their parents in the Lord for the sake of their own destinies. Though Eli was not very strict about his instructions to his children, if the children were wise enough to yield to their father's words, they would have saved the destiny of their family.

Children can be the saviour of their family. Samuel was weaned early by his mother, yet he did not derail from his mother’s teachings even in the midst of the sons of Belial. Daniel was a young man also in Babylon but he purposed in his heart not to defile himself (Dan. 1:8). Even in the absence of your parents, you can still please the Lord and your destiny will not be replaced.

Prayer/Action
* Ask God for children that Heaven and earth will be proud of.
* Pray against any child’s wrong doing that could wipe away God’s favour from the entire family .
* Ask God to send more godly children to the earth through all waiting mothers in church.

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Replaced Destiny II

Text:1 Sam. 3: 1- 10
MORE LESSONS: Isa. 8:1-18
Bible Reading in one Year: Psalms 10-12

We started considering the issue of replaced destinies. In 1Sam. 2:18,the Bible says, But Samuel ministered before the LORD, being a child, girded with a linen ephod. Take a look at how this destiny took off; it was introduced first as a miracle child, next as a child that was weaned and submitted to the church, directly to the presence of the Lord, the next report we hear about him is that this destiny became a minister. Samuel ministered as a child. Samuel began his destiny by ministering to the man who brought him up. He brought a word from the Lord to Eli. Eli's children had become very rascally to the extent that God could not use them to replace their father.
One of the greatest things God can do for you in life is to help you raise children that are greater than you, who can pick up from where you stop and do greater works than you.

Eli forfeited that privilege and that is why the study of the home is important today. In the story of Lazarus and the rich man, the rich man remembered the life his younger ones were living and begged father Abraham, Please send someone to the face of the earth, that these people may hear the word of God and be careful because I don't want them to come and meet me here. But Abraham refused, Sorry, if you didn't teach them or whatever you taught them before you left that is the best they can get. If not let them listen to God’s servants that minister to them now. If they don't listen to them, they will also come to meet you where you are now.

How many parents can look back and be glad about their children? Now that you are alive and your children are in secondary school, away in the boarding house, it is not too much to watch over what they are doing; it is not too much to watch over things they do on the computer. They read and study all manners of material, some even stay at the internet cafe until 1a.m.

Somebody needs to watch over them because there is so much pornography and terrible things on the internet, and as a father you sleep in the house snoring while your child is inside the room in your house, sitting down with her computer and watching all manners of crazy things; that is asleep of death. Look at Samuel, his mother was proud of him forever, but Eli was not proud of his children. May the Lord make you and your children signs and wonders and not a shame in the land.

Prayer/Action
*Pray that the spirit of Belia l will not enter into youths to do wickedly.
*Pray against whatever makes young people to hate godly instructions.
*Ask that your children will be for signs and wonder sin the land of the living.

Replaced Destiny I

Text: 1Sam. 2:11- 12
MORE LESSONS: Prov.22:6
Bible Reading in one Year: Psalms 7-9

I always refer to 1Samuel chapter two as the “sunrise and sunset” chapter because Samuel's destiny experienced sunrise and Eli's destiny, sunset. The sunrise and sunset story here shows how two destinies were exchanged; one replaced the other. You don't know what you do to yourself when you do not give attention to things that God has committed into your hands. It is quite challenging that a man who is a priest, a minister of the Lord, will have children who do not know the Lord. It is not that Eli’s children were not involved in activities in the temple, supervising the sacrifices and offerings that went on there but that they did not know the Lord. God's perspective firs to fall is that they didn't know Him and as such were classed as sons of Belial. Every evil thing they did was a by- product of this very issue of not knowing God.

It was at this time that God began preparing a new destiny to replace that of Eli. God gave Eli several warnings but he would not respond. Be careful about the matters that God often brings to your notice. God does not joke, He means whatever He says and you must know that before Him no one is indispensable. He can afford to wait until the man that will do His will shows up. God permitted Eli to continue as priest until Samuel matured enough to replace him. Note that Eli's offence was not that he failed in his ministry. Infact, it was through his faithfulness to his ministry that this new destiny, Samuel, was birthed. Bu the failed in raising children for the Lord.

Today satan pays more attention to the families of God’s children more than any other sector because he knows that will serve his purpose. He knows that the root of everything God is doing on the earth is the family. When the family is bad the nation and the church cannot be good. When he could not get to derail Eli, satan gave attention to his children and he succeeded, and got Heaven to knock out Eli and his children in one day.

Even the glory of the family, which is the priesthood, was given to another who grew up in the same place. If you desire to keep your family glory as parents, begin to have a family devotional (family altar) regularly, start taking your children with you when going to church, replicate the attention you give to their academics in the spiritual, i.e get them Bible lesson teacher, ask what they learning Sunday school, do memory verse with the man don't hold back the stick when necessary . May your glory not be replaced!

Prayer/Action
* Ask God to reveal Himself to all your children/relations that are yet to know Him.
* Surrender all that you possess to the Lord afresh today.
* Pray that He will continue to speak to you and that you will continue to listen to Him.
* Ask God to help you walk in His purpose, and give attention to His warnings in order not to be replaced in destiny.