Do not Despise the Holy Spirit

Tuesday 21 April
READ: 1 Thess 5:19 – 21
MORE LESSON: Eph. 4:29-30

It is a common practice among some believers that any where they see the Spirit of God in a way that they do not understand or have not seen before, they immediately take up a judgmental attitude and start condemning it. It is very important that we retain an attitude of openness and reverence to the manifestation of the Holy Spirit both in our lives and our congregations. When we see people moved by the Holy Spirit in our midst we should not be quick to brand them as wrong, weird or operating by strange spirits. The Church of Christ has become rigid against any move of the Spirit, because in a bid to be cautious against fake manifestations, we suspect every move of God. Caution for believers is strongly advised and necessary but we should be open to and encourage the genuine move of the Holy Spirit through tested and proven people and congregations.

In Matt 12:31-32, Jesus healed a man possessed by an evil spirit and some people started judging Him in their hearts that it was a demonic power that He used. He warned them that they were sinning against the Holy Spirit. Similarly, whenever you condemn the words, works or actions of a genuine servant of God acting under the direction of the Holy Spirit, you are despising the Holy Spirit. In the early days of my ministry, I preached on the Holy Ghost in a church where there was a very critical professor and his wife who ran down everything I preached. They stood up after my sermon and chided me and also condemned speaking in tongues and every manifestation of the Holy Spirit that I preached on. Even though some people started speaking in tongues in the meeting without me laying hands on them, some were skeptical and despised the move of the Spirit that day.

Two weeks later the man and his wife came to my house and started pleading that they were sorry for what they did. I told them not to worry because I didn't take it against them, it was God they opposed; not me. Then they opened up and showed me the arm of the wife which developed leprosy soon after their verbal attack on me in their church. When I saw the affliction, compassion welled up inside me, and I made them realize that I knew nothing about what happened to them, neither did I pray against them.

The truth is that despising the Holy Spirit is a very dangerous thing. They repented and told me that they now believed in the Holy Ghost. I didn't know what to say but I just pleaded with God for mercy and anointed them with oil. God is merciful: He healed that woman.

Today do not grieve, despise or disobey the Holy Spirit. And in case you have in any way despised any servant of God who acted or spoke under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, I want you to know that there is still mercy for you. God will show mercy if you repent.

Prayer/Action
* Ask The Lord to forgive you, if you have in any way despised the Spirit in word or action any time past.
* Ask God for divine wisdom to differentiate genuity of spirits and instructions.
* Say to the Holy Spirit, “I reverence and adore you”.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
I shall delight myself in the Lord, and He shall fight my battles and make my enemies His enemies always.

The Working of Miracles

Monday 20 April
READ: 2 Kings 2:9-22
MORE LESSON: 1 Cor. 12:10

Elijah was a man of God that experienced and had so many miracles performed through him by God. He was used to raise the dead and call fire from heaven. Ravens brought him food. He experienced unceasing flow of oil from a cruise of oil and so many other miracles. When he was to be taken miraculously to heaven in a chariot of fire, the double portion of the grace and mantle of the Holy Spirit upon his life was passed to his servant Elisha. Elisha went ahead to witness, experience and had so many more miracles performed through him that even after death; his bones still raised a dead man (2 Kings 13: 20-21). Moses also witnessed diverse and strange miracles operate through his ministry. These servants of God, among many others, are examples in the Old Testament of men that God gave the gift of the working of miracles.
One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to believers in the church is the gift of working of miracles. Miracles are God's supernatural intervention in the ordinary course of nature to do that which is naturally impossible or unexplainable. Miracles show the supremacy and sovereignty of God over natural laws and occurrences. The life and ministry of Jesus Christ was characterized by innumerable miracles. He healed the sick, raised the dead, walked on the water, multiplied food, turned water to wine, calmed the storm. There are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. John 21:25
I want you to know that miracles are your portion by faith in the name of Jesus. Every believer in Christ should experience and perform miracles as God wills. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. John 14:12-13. By faith in the name of Jesus Christ, you can command miracles.
In extension, there are some chosen vessels in the Body of Christ that are especially graced by the Holy Spirit such that miracles are worked through them in a higher dimension than the other believers. Such people are said to have the gift of the working of miracles. It is right to prayerfully desire this gift from God. But desire earnestly the greater gifts . . . . John 14:12-13 (ASV)
Salvation and faith in God are the most essential conditions for operating in the miraculous. If you believe today by the power of the Holy Spirit, signs and wonders will follow you, Jesus said- And these signs will accompany those who believe.... Mark 16:17
 
Prayer/Action
* Ask God for the gift of miracles.
* Ask that miracles will be a permanent feature in your walk with God.
Make a demand on God for a miracle and believe God for answer.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
Today, I shall hear the Lord’s voice of guidance behind me saying, “This is the way, follow it”, and I shall not miss my way.

Together with your Family

Sunday 19 April
READ: Josh 24: 15
MORE LESSON: 1 Sam. 8:1-5

When God calls a man to walk with Him or to do a work for Him, He expects the man to carry his family along. Any man or woman of destiny and purpose in the Lord should know of a certainty that his spouse and children are partners with him/her in destiny and purpose, and should treat them as such. When God called Noah out of the perverse world of his generation, he told him to answer the call with his family carried along. And the LORD said unto Noah, come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Gen 7:1
God recommended Abraham to be the carrier of His covenant because God was sure that he will bring his wife and children into a covenant walk with Him. For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. Gen 18:19

Joshua didn't just stand for the Lord, he vouched for his family to serve the Lord; . . . but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Josh 24:15

Many people who do great works of faith and of ministry do not have a good example to show in their marriages and family. This is not the will of God but the error of man. It is God's will that any man that serves him in whatever capacity should bring his spouse into the walk with God. Any vision you pursue should include your life partner. Some men believe that they are so anointed and competent that they think that the only contribution that their wife has to make in their life and vision is to cook meals, clean the house and give birth to children. Some women also never build capacity and develop themselves for the vision, purpose and ministry of their husband but think that once they get married and they can cook good meals, all is settled.

God's will is that couples be partners in life, purpose, vision and destiny. The responsibility to make this happen is on both the man and the woman. It is also each person's responsibility to add value to and develop the other for the destiny that God has prepared for them together. I pray that your family will be one in purpose and vision; the father, mother and children will all enter into God's prepared destiny for you. Your family will not be like Lot's family that one was godly and some fell by the way side in Jesus’ name.

Prayer/Action
* Pray for your pastor’s home that his family will not miss heaven.
* Ask God to grant His servants the wisdom to begin ministry from their own home and family.
* Pray that children like Eli’s children and Samuel’s children will not be the portion of our minister’s families

PROPHETIC PRAYER
The Lord is my sun and my shield, the Lord will give me grace and glory, no good thing will He withhold from me, in Jesus’ name.

Joshua: The Servant Made Leader

Saturday 18 April
READ: Exo 33: 11
MORE LESSON: Exo 24: 9 - 18

Moses was a man of God in a class of his own. The kinds of divine encounter and miracle that Moses experienced are rare in any other man on earth. When Moses died, God had to bury him by Himself so that no man knows his tomb. That was necessary because men would have turned his tomb to an object of worship (Deut 34:5-6). Indeed, Moses was an exceptional man of God. After Moses died, God needed a replacement for Him. God could have chosen any of the leaders and princes of Israel to step into Moses shoes but He chose the young man, Joshua whom the people didn't see as a leader but as simply 'Moses' servant (Num 11:28). There was a secret that took Joshua to greatness, and that secret is service.

Service gives a man the opportunity to encounter the greatness that he could not have encountered by himself. All the while when Moses was experiencing divine encounters with God, there was a silent figure that enjoyed these encounters with him – Joshua was present as a servant, experiencing the supernatural with Moses. Even in the legendary encounter when God spoke to Moses face to face, Joshua was there.

So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he (Moses) would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle: Exo. 33:11-12 (NKJV) Everybody talks about how Moses saw God but we forget that there was a silent servant that humbly followed him about and so was with him when he saw God.

Also, when Moses went up the mountain for forty days and was enveloped by the glory of God to receive the tablets of the law, his servant Joshua was there with him (Ex 24: 13 – 18). Even though Aaron and his sons were the priests and there were seventy elders that were ordained by Moses, it was Joshua, who didn't have any title, that had the opportunity to go up the mountain to encounter God. He didn't deserve to be there; he entered as a servant. He saw it all silently as he followed Moses around so he knew the ‘in and out’ of the work of the Lord. No wonder he later became a miracle worker too and when it was time for someone to lead Israel into the Promised Land, God told Moses to lay hands on him. Joshua went ahead to record great exploits and even succeeded where Moses had failed. Joshua was an ordinary servant who became an extraordinary leader. That is the benefit of service. You can decide to serve today and you will see God take you to the extraordinary place.

Prayer/Action
* Ask God to help you never to turn away from any God-given assignment.
* Pray that whatever God has done for others by service He will do also for you.
* Pray that you will not be slothful in business, but fervent in the spirit serving the Lord.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
Today is the day of my advance in grace and glory.