The Grace to say 'No'

Saturday 11 July
READ: Titus 2: 11 -12 NIV
MORE LESSON: Prov. 1:10-15

One important thing a person on route to destiny must learn is how to say 'no' to some things. As a Christian, you should be nice but that doesn't mean you should not be able to take a firm stand and say 'no' to things that you cannot accept. Some believers accept everything from everybody because they do not want to displease anybody: you don't have to try to please everyone and so displease yourself and God. Learn it today that it is not everything that you must do and it is not everything you must accept or agree to. If a precious friend or relative makes a demand on you to do something that doesn't enhance your destiny, say a ‘no’ to it. If you are in a courtship and the partner demands to commit sin with you, say a firm 'no', even if that is what will end that courtship. There is a grace to say 'no' and you should develop that grace. This is explicitly expressed in the Bible; for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "no" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, Titus 2:11-12 NIV.

Apart from ungodliness, there are also other things that are not out rightly sinful that you must also learn to say 'no' to. Sometimes you have to know how to say 'no' when people make requests from you, if you sincerely won't be able to meet the request. I like to just help everybody out of a compassionate heart, but after having several consequences, I have gradually learnt that there are some times and situations when people make requests from me that I just have to look them in the face and say, 'I'm sorry, I can't do that'. Not that I don't want to help the person, just that I can't and so I have to let the person know. I have seen people who don't have the financial capacity to help another person's situation take up a responsibility that crashed them as they become poor in the process of trying to help the poor. That is not correct.

You don't need to become poor trying to help the poor, if you do, you will only succeed in increasing the number of the poor that need help. It is part of Christian maturity to know what you don't yet have the capacity to do even though it's good and say 'no' when demanded upon to do it. This, of course, is not an excuse for those that can help but don't want to. But the point is that there are certain times that it is saying 'no' that keeps you alive. You should learn to say it so that you can live.

Prayer/Action
* Ask God for the wisdom to discern between good and evil at all times.
* Pray for courage to do only the good things.
* Ask God for grace to reject ungodly requests and to live righteously.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
I scatter in advance every evil meeting that has been planned against me throughout the nights of July - December 2015, in Jesus’ name.

It must be God's Way II

Friday 10 July
READ: Exo. 2: 11-15
MORE LESSON: Luke 4:1-13

The devil is never happy to see a man receive a vision from God and successfully implement it. He will attempt to stop you and most times, he won't do it by preventing you from receiving the assignment from God. He will not even stop you from going on the errand for God, but he will attempt to make sure that you do not succeed in that assignment by corrupting the way you do it. This was what he attempted to do to Jesus as we examined yesterday (Lk 4: 1- 13), and it was also what he planned to do to Moses.
Moses had a vision and purpose from childhood that he would lead Israel out of slavery in Egypt. The devil didn't try to convince Moses not to deliver his people but he suggested to him that he could use a method that God did not approve of. He told him to kill the Egyptian (Ex 2: 12). When Moses attempted to fulfill his God given vision using a way that was not ordained by God, he got himself into trouble. This cost him a wilderness experience of forty years. When Moses died, the devil tried to claim his body (Jude 1: 8). He may have argued that Moses was a murderer and angry person so he (the devil) had a claim in him.
This makes us know that if the devil suggests an alternative method to us and we accept that option, he will eventually accuse us and discredit our work on the basis of that same method that we accepted from him. This is the reason making sure you achieve your vision strictly God's way is non-negotiable in destiny. Has God promised you academic excellence, prosperity, marriage, children or success in ministry? Well, how you get them matters, it must be God's way. Don't say because God has promised you success and then you cheat to achieve the success and then proceed to come give testimony that you have achieved the success God promised you. God may have promised you a child but it is important that the child comes God's way.
Men will come and tell you to use your own initiatives in fulfilling God's promise and assignment. What they call 'initiatives' most times are contrary to the way of God. That is the devil trying to corrupt the vision so that it is not done God's way. Today the word of God to you is that you must insist on following God's way in achieving that promise and vision that He has given you.

Prayer/Action
* Pray that you will not fall into the snare of the devil as you pursue God’s purpose.
* Ask that you will walk closer with God as you work for him.
* Ask God for divine guidance and help for all your destiny assignments.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
I declare that in 2015, my blood is out of the reach of all blood sucking spirits; suck your own blood, in the name of Jesus.

It must be God's Way I

Thursday 9 July
READ: Luke 4: 5 - 8
MORE LESSON: Luke 12: 50

Jesus had a vision to go and die on the cross and resurrect. He needed to die and resurrect so that He might win the whole world back to God and strip the devil of the authority he stole from man. The Cross was the way to redemption. It was the divine method and strategy for bringing man back to the life that he lost. Jesus' death on the Cross of Calvary is God's way of redeeming man.
But the devil came to Jesus and tried to convince Him, 'I know your vision and goal. You want to take the key of life from me and restore the dominion that man lost. Well, that is fine. You don't have to go through the horror of death of the Cross to achieve that. Let me propose another way of fulfilling your vision. Just worship me and I will give you the whole world and its dominion.' When the devil told Jesus to worship Him and have the dominion of the whole world, that temptation was not just about materialism. The devil was actually tempting Jesus with an easier alternative of fulfilling His vision. He was proposing to Him to choose bowing rather than dying as the means of achieving His destiny of becoming Lord of all.
It is a very difficult temptation when you are presented with an option that will take you to where God has promised you but the option is not God's predetermined way of taking you there. This is because it is not enough to insist on fulfilling God's vision for your life, you must also insist on fulfilling it only in God's way. There is always a cheaper way of achieving a vision. But a person who is determined to please God will insist that it is only the way that God endorses that he will take even when all the other ways look like they will lead him to where he wants to go.
So Jesus knew how God wanted Him to achieve His purpose and nothing would deter Him from doing it that way. He made up His mind that He was going to follow God's methodology – the Cross. It was because of this determination that He defeated the devil. Know today that the devil may not even wrestle with a man about his vision but he will be ready to do all to get you adopt the wrong way or method of achieving it. God gave you a method and a way, you had better follow it. If other people are succeeding by their methods, thank God for them. But stay on the one God gave you. It is not mere succeeding that is the most important thing, it is succeeding by God's way. Be careful to follow God's way in fulfilling your God given vision and don't give the devil any chance to mar your testimony.

Prayer/Action
* Ask God for grace to insist on God’s will and grace in all things.
* Ask God to help you face challenges with courage and trust in God’s promises.
* Ask God for wisdom to do His Will.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
God of Boaz, Abraham and Jabez overturn every arrow of impossibility in my life and make me an amazing testimony, in the name of Jesus.

Grace for Impact

Wednesday 8 July
READ: I Cor. 15:10, Titus 2:11-13
MORE LESSON: Jn. 1:17, Rom. 5:1-2

Grace is defined as the free and unmerited favour of God as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the blessings of God bestowed on man. Grace is the ability of God which is made resident in man and makes him to do things beyond human capability. Impact, on the other hand, is a marked effect or a strong influence on someone or something. A man can make impact when the force of power that rules the universe, that is the power of God freely given to man by grace, is behind him.
To make impact therefore, you must do the following:
1. Value your prayer life, (Jer. 33:3, Mk. 1:35) and sharpen your prayer life. Your life cannot progress more than your prayer life. Show me a man of prayers and I will show you a man of exploits. If Jesus Himself had to pray so much while on earth, you can't do less.
- The disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray.
- Jacob prayed to prevail against Esau's army.
- Hannah prayed to remove the stigma of barreness.
- Daniel prayed and became reknown; he succeeded and ruled in a land of captivity.
2. Value God's Word. You can’t be better than the information you have. The Bible says to let the Word of God dwell in you richly. Your success and prosperity are attached to the Word of God (Josh. 1:8). It is only the Word of God that can order your life so that iniquity will not prevail (Psa. 119:133). The Word of God must be regarded more than your physical food (Lk. 4:4). It is the level of God's Word in you that helps your prayer life.
3. Live a life of unconditional obedience. Abraham became the friend of God because of his unconditional obedience to God.
4. Live a sacrificial life, giving up everything for God and the Kingdom of God.
5. Live a selfless life. Always look beyond yourself and your circumstance and you will live beyond your generation.
6. Your intimacy with God determines your ability to attract His grace, mercy and composition which will make you to experience His benevolence. This is what characterized the life of David; and no wonder his impact remains till date.

Prayer/Action
* Lord, please intervene in my life; make me a man/woman of impact.
* Lord, remove from my life every form of selfishness so that I can flow to others.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
Father, before the end of this month, send additional help to my destiny, in Jesus’ name