Who are your Friends?

Text: Mk. 2:1-12
More lessons: 1 Kings 12:1-14
Bible Reading in one Year: Psalms 137-142

I have discovered in life and destiny that, whoever you are, you need help. Most of the time, the supernatural help of God comes in display or manifestation through men. The man sick of palsy needed to be carried from the point where he was to the point where Jesus must see him and help him. He could not help himself, if he could help himself, he would have not remained in that condition for that long. Oftentimes in some life's situations, a man may lose all the ability to help himself. There are so many leprosy situations in peoples' life that cannot be seen physically but they are there. We read about how some four men helped the sick man to get to Jesus. A man who stands alone is in danger of falling. The Bible says Two are better than one… but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up Eccl. 4:9-10. Good friends are assets in times of trouble. You need people to help you. Friends can be source of encouragement in times of trouble. Also, bad friends can be the undoing of a man. So the friends you keep have either negative or positive effects on your life.
The friends you keep can make or mar you. The type of people you keep around you or hang up with will determine how you may likely end up. Y our purpose and goals in life should determine the type of friends you keep. Friends have influence on your journey in life and they can determine if you will get to your destination or not. It is wisdom to identify each of the friends you have and what effect they have on you. Whoever is in your life and does not have anything to do with the plans and purposes of God for you could not have been by the plan of God, he is an extra luggage and will slow you down. This man's friends made every effort to bring him to Jesus. As soon as the major assignment of bringing him to Jesus was performed, we never heard about them anymore. The friends you keep should take you closer to Jesus. Any type of friendship that does not take you to Jesus will take Jesus from you. But for the good friends of this man he would have died in his infirmity. His friends were tools to his deliverance and healing.
God desires healthy relationships for you. God has placed people around you who can help you reach your goals and heights He has destined you for. You need to identify them and know the part they are to playing in your destiny. Cherish relationship, cherish the people around you, you may need them in your days of trouble when no one is there to help.

Prayer/Action
* Ask God to turn away every negative company masquerading as friends around you.
* Ask God to lead you to friends of life not adventures and friendship merchants.
* Pray that you will be a productive friend in all your relationship.

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The Heart, not the Message

Text: Luke 8:4-15
More Lessons: John 8:31-36
Bible Reading in One Year: Psalms 133-137

A friend once asked me why there are so many churches and powerful preachers in Nigeria, yet unrighteousness abounds. Before I could pose an answer, he concluded, I think there is something wrong with messages that are preached. It is either the preachers are not preaching the right stuff to change the people or the messages lack power to convict men of sin, righteousness and judgment. My friend may be right, but I also think there is something more as the Scripture reading explains. The sower planted the same seeds at different locations, but what influenced the performances was the nature of the land. Those which fell by the way side were trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured the seeds. Some fell upon a rock and as soon as they sprang up, they withered because there was no moisture. Some fell among thorns and were choked up by the thorns that sprang up with it. Yet others fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bore fruit a hundredfold.
In the explanation of the parable, Jesus says the seed is the Word. No one can doubt the potency of God's Word. If the Word fails to produce result, it is not the inefficacy of the Word or of the sower, but the land, and in this case the heart of men that influences the performance of the seed. It is unfortunate that some listeners in church have the hearts that are vulnerable to birds of the air. Such hearts are those that wonder about when preaching is going on. They hardly hear anything in church. Even if they hear, the Word does not get home with them. The enemies of their souls simply pick everything. Some others have hearts that cannot stay upon God's Word for a season. Although they hear and even respond to altar call, when their flesh demands for things contrary to the Word they hear, they easily submit to their flesh. These are believers who cannot resist temptation because they are not deep rooted in the Word. Some other believers have hearts full of the cares of this world. Although they seemingly love God, they also love the world. They are those who use the Word as a cloak for covetousness. You never can be a friend of the world and please God in anyway, as the Scripture cannot be broken (1John 2:15-17). The cares of the world will stunt the growth of the Word. It was the same seeds that fell on fertile ground and produced fruit in thirty, sixty and hundred folds. Anytime God's Word finds a fertile ground, the fullness of its potential will manifest. God's Word is perfect, converting the soul. It is a lamp to the feet of men, a light to the path of them who believe. Make your heart ready today for God's Word, and the preaching you hear daily will produce effect in your life.

Prayer/Action
* Lord, make my heart fertile for Your Word.
* I declare that the Word I hear daily will profit me.
* I receive grace for obedience to God's Word.

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By the Word of Your Testimony

Text: Matt. 8: 1- 4 
More lessons: Rev. 12: 1 1
Bible Reading in one Year: Psalms 127-132

I am still amazed at how much we can learn from this leprous man. The man said to Jesus: I know you can do it, and Jesus said ‘‘oh sure, you belief I can, sure I will do it for you’’. So for testifying to Jesus I know you can, he was simply testifying against his leprosy, and of course his leprosy bowed to the word of his testimony. There is hope for a tree, the Bible says, even if it is cut down. Hope for a tree that is cut down? When you cut down a tree you will think that is over for that tree, but Job said no, there is hope for that tree, even if it is cut down. And then I love the next verse that says even if its root becomes weak in the ground. Job 14: 7 says there is hope. You too can join the team of testifiers. That verse that, for there is hope of a tree, if it been cut down, that it will sprout again. I love that. Of course the man who was testifying was a man who had been cut down. In one day, everything about him disappeared; his wealth, his children and all. He became a shadow of himself only within few days, a man people came to reverence and to greet in a beautiful sitting room became a man sitting inside ashes. 
He was cut down, his wife said to him, “curse God and die, it is better to die than to see you like this. We don't want to see you like this, we prefer to bury you and say you die than people to come and see you like this.” He was a man cut down, so you better listen to him because he was speaking from experience. I love this word that there is hope for a tree if it be cut down, that it will sprout again and the tender branch thereof will not cease. 
When trees are cut down, the branches, and the root dried up in the ground can just smell water, it didn't receive the water, it only perceived the water, it said just with a smell of water, it will bud. This means with the slightest connection with God, there is hope for a hopeless situation. And what is the slightest connection? Y our testimony, what you say to your situations. People are good at saying when they are sick that, “Ahh, this thing will kill me”. Have you heard women in the maternity before, it can be a terrible place and you know the funniest part of it, you hear certain women pronouncing curses on their husbands. You must testify the word of God always, because that is the way by which we connect with God and then overcome. So go ahead and testify. Tell your mountain I will see your end, I see you moving away, you will not terminate me, I will prevail over you. I hear God saying. ...just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: Num. 14:28.

Prayer/Action
* Command your matter to speedly respond to the word of God in your mouth. 
* Call every storm around you by name and command them to be still right now.
Take the following scriptures to God in prayer- Psa. 18:29, 33, 37-38.

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Get Desperate for a Change

Text: Matt. 8: 1- 4
More lessons: Luke 19: 1- 10
Bible Reading in one Year: Psalms 120-126

In this passage, the Bible said that a young man walked up to Jesus and said I know you can heal me if you want. There are two issues in that place, one is what the man knows about the Lord Jesus and secondly, he was desperate for a change. I am sure you know that leprosy was a terrible disease in Israel. If you have leprosy in those days, you were set aside somewhere away from the city. No matter who you were, immediately leprosy was noticed in you, you are taken out of the camp. When even Miriam became leprous, as the sister of the President and the Commander- in- Chief, she was taken out of the camp. If a leper had to come to town in Israel, he must tie a bell on his leg and as he carries each leg, he must shout ‘‘unclean’’. So when you hear a leper is coming, you jump into the bush and allow him to have the way, and after he had passed, you will allow the atmosphere to clear before you come out to continue your journey. But this man struggled to get into the temple in town, I am sure he hid behind the door because nobody would have allowed him by the rule in Israel to sit in the congregation with other people. He must have hidden himself somewhere.

And as soon as Jesus showed up, he pounced on him and said, “Look, just one word, if you choose to, you can heal me”. That was the beginning of the change of his situation, he was leprous, and he desired to prevail over this terrible sickness. His dream and his longing was to see a change and restoration of his destiny .The first step he took was to meet the Master. He did everything he could like Zacchaeus, the bible says Zacchaeus was a short man, and if he was going to stay in the midst of the people, there was no way he would be able to see Jesus because he was too short to be identified in a crowd. But with all his wealth, and because he was determined to experience a change in his life, he went and climbed on a tree.

When you are desperate with your situation, solution will come. The reason we fail over obstacles of life is because we are not desperate for results. Get desperate, and don't mind what people will say. Express your confidence in God by the steps you take based on the conviction you have about Him and watch Him step into your situation for a change. A desperate man does not complain about the price of result, he simply determines to go the whole length at all cost scripturally possible.

Prayer/Action
* Ask God for the wisdom, direction and strength to do all that is needful for a change.
* Ask God for speedy result in the place of prayer.
* Ask God to help you never to quit in the race of destiny.

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