Lessons from King Asa

Text: 2 Chron. 16: 1-14
More Lessons: 2 Chron. 16: 9
Bible Reading in one Year: Revelation 7-9

Asa, a descendant of David, was a good king of the two-tribe kingdom of Judah. He sought God with a perfect heart (2 Chron 15:17-18) and destroyed all the images and high places of idol worship in his territory (2 Chron. 14: 2-3). When millions of Ethiopian soldiers came against his small army , he cried to God had divine intervention (2 Chron.14: 9-12). For the first thirty five years of his reign, the Lord subdued his enemies under him and he had peace and prosperity.

Then Baasha, king of the 10-tribe-northen-kingdom of Israel came against Judah; Asa had succeeded and prospered so much as king that by this time, he felt he knew how to handle any situation. Asa took gold and silver from the temple of God and sent it to the king of Syria so as to make Syria break his alliance with Israel and support Judah instead. And it worked, Ben-hadad of Syria turned from allying with the northern kingdom of Israel and attacked Israel instead. King Baasha of Israel quickly withdrew his troop from Judah. Asa was celebrating his victory when the Word of God came to rebuke him, Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? yet, because thou didst rely on the LORD, he delivered them into thine hand. For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him...: 2 Chron 16:8-9.

Many times when we are just starting out, we are so dependent on God for everything we do but as time goes on we become so self confident that we develop our own strategies for handling things, independent of God. Several worship leaders, teachers and preachers in the early days of their ministry would fast and pray each time they are to lead a song, preach or take a function because they feel insufficient and need God. But soon they begin to get results and become so good at doing these things that they could just come straight from any activity and go ahead and deliver wonderfully; they no longer cry to God to help them perform anymore. They knew and even the people around them knew that they could function anytime anywhere.

Then Asa had a disease in his feet; and as usual; he gathered for himself a team of competent medical doctors that he didn't see a reason to seek God for healing. It was a foot disease that killed Asa the great king. He got to a point where he thought he had grown so much that he could handle things on his own and didn't need the help of God anymore.

Prayer / Action
* Ask God for His presence always with you.
* Promise the Lord that you will not be too familiar with Him to do anything without His inspiration.
* Destroy every arrow of pride and false self-confidence in your life and ministry.
Purpose not to study the Bible, pray or wait on God only when you have an assignment.

Who Misled You?

Text: I King 13:1-24
More Lessons: Prov. 20:18.
Bible Reading in one Year: Revelation 4-6

Who are your advisers? Who are your friends? Who are the people you really listen to? Often in life, where a man is today is as a result of who his advisers are. Advisers determine the road map of your destiny; they tell you whether you should go to the right or to the left. Having advisers is not bad but there are bad and evil advisers; in fact, the Bible says: ...in the multitude of counsellors there is safety: Prov. 11:14. But know that, if a fool counsels you, you are going to land where you may regret.
Wrong advisers can make a father to hate his children, they can make a father to use his child for rituals. Wrong advisers break a home; they are capable of creating enemies among friends, homes, church members, even a whole country to collapse through their advise.

If you hand over your life to a wrong adviser, everything in your life and destiny will be wrong. If you run your home through wrong advisers, if how you run your home is dependent on what those wrong adviser tell you, then, the journey you have embarked on is a journey without assurance of safe landing; it is a journey without future. You may never get there because there is a wrong adviser in your affair.

Can you quickly flash back. Was there a time when your father told you to face your studies and do away with those your friends that used to drink and smoke, but you told him to forget and you took to the counsel of your friends? Could that be the reason why you are where you are today? The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise: Prov. 12:15. The kind of counsel that you listen to is the kind of shape that your destiny will form.

It is time for you to begin to hearken unto God's voice. Now is the time for you to begin to hear the voice of God through the man of God that God has set over you otherwise, the devil will pick you up and mislead you. It does not cost him anything; in fact, he is in the ministry of leading people to wrong direction that they may never be fulfilled.

There are so many things that indicate that you are being misled: Whenever you ignore any godly advise, then you have just misled yourself. Any time you prefer your friends’ advice to your godly parents’ advice, then you have just done a business transaction with the devil to mislead you. You have just told the devil to take proper control of your life and destiny. Nobody has misled you so far; you misled yourself by disregarding every godly counsel that came your way. I hope its not too late for you like it was for Esau; pray to God today.

Prayer / Action
* Pray that you will not fall into evil counsel in the name of good company .
* Ask God for the spirit of discernment to be able to avoid evil ways and counsel.
* Pray that God will not hand you over to lying spirits.

Like and share!

When Jesus was Born

Text: Matt. 2:1-12
More Lessons: John 1:29
Bible Reading in one Year: Revelation 1-3

Christmas celebration is always full of fun and joy. At Christmas, people go out of their way to make sure they are happy. New clothing, house painting, shopping, carol services and different other ways of expressing joy are always on display. But the contrary was the case when Jesus, the object of our celebration at Christmas, was born. The whole world could not unanimously welcome Him because He did not come the way the world was expecting; He came in the way He could solve the problem of the world. He came a Saviour, born in the lowest place, looking so helpless to identify with our situations. Jesus came to forgive us. Lewis says “forgiveness from Jesus Christ is like a tape-recording of your life wiped completely clean”. This is exactly what Jesus came to do, and He did it; when Jesus was born, God gave all we need in one package called Jesus Christ.

Although when Jesus was born, the world could not celebrate His birth as we do today . Certain men had full details of what he came to do. Some examples are:
1. The Sheperds: Lk.2:8-13,
2. The wise men: Matt.2:1-12 says ...where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him: This group of people from the east saw the star of Jesus, followed it and brought gifts; GOLD which signifies his kinship and the best, FRANKINCENSE which is a symbol of prayer, a desire to communicate with God and a symbol of entering into a relationship with Him, MYRRH which is also a symbol of death acknowledging what He came to do.
3. Herod: Herod having been told the purpose Jesus was born sought Him to kill Matt. 2:4-8, says, …Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also: v8. Herod decided to kill Jesus, but he could not. And because Herod could not kill Jesus, Christianity cannot be stopped. Even though some church buildings are sometimes burnt, the church will remain.

All these people did what they knew to do when Jesus was born. And as we celebrate the birth of Christ again, what will you do about it? The shepherd heard the tidings of His birth, they went and spread the glad tiding. The wise men brought Him gifts. Herod sought to kill Him. Do something about the birth of the Messiah today. Happy Christmas to you, in Jesus’ name.

Prayer / Action
* Give God praise for sending a messiah to redeem us all-once and for all.
* Ask God for grace to spread the good news of the saviour-king to all. Brace yourself, win a soul for the saviour today.

Share

Distraction III

Text: II Sam. 1 1:1-2
More Lessons: Jam.1:21-25
Bible Reading in one Year: Jeremiah 49-52

Let me begin with this truth. In the grave yards today, you will find many bodies of people who had gone down to the grave prematurely because the devil distracted them. World leaders are among them, presidents, governors, prime ministers, ambassadors, great men of God and many others are there in the grave. The bullets of the enemy got them and they could not fulfill their God-given destiny.

There are governors today who are supposed to be pastors and there are pastors today too who are supposed to be governors. Quickly trace it back and check where exactly the enemy got you. There are many business men today who are so confused and are not finding fulfilment because they yielded to wrong calls. Know this for sure that, whenever God calls you, the devil will also call you and his aim is to distract you. If you yield to his call, you will never get where you are going to.

There are pastors today who were meant to be missionaries and there are evangelists who were supposed to be bishops. There are bishops today who were supposed to be arch bishops. You can keep on and on, the list is very long. But I want to ask you “Don't you think that the devil has succeeded in distracting you by the reason of where you are today? Don't you think you are a local champion where you are today? You are the local government chairman of your area today in your state, don't you think you were supposed to be the president of that country?

Don't go to the grave without fulfilment. It doesn't matter the distraction of the enemy in your life, you can make it again. May be you are a car mechanic today and hardly can you get 1000 naira in a day to feed your family. All you need to do is to trace the track back and identify where the enemy got you and be who the Lord has ordained you to be. There are so many market women today selling all manners of goods but among them are supposed presidents wives, doctors,ministers, virtous wives and so on. But sometimes ago, in the course of life journey , the enemy distracted them and they were not careful enough, so they fell victim of distraction and are where they are today . They are now mean women in the market working like donkeys and will do with very little to result. Except you consistently look into the perfect law, you will not be able to overcome the distraction of the enemy.

Prayer / Action
* Rebuke every force and agent of distraction in your destiny.
* Ask God to forgive and restore you wherever you have missed it in life.
* Ask God to defend your destiny by the power of His Word and Spirit.

Like and share!