Discipline of God

Wednesday 5 August
READ: Heb. 12:5-11
MORE LESSON: Prov.29:15

As a young man in Secondary school, I never liked to hear the word “discipline” because it was most often used when you are to undergo punishment for an offence. At that time, discipline meant receiving strokes of the cane on your buttocks, or kneeling down with hands in the air for a period, or cutting grass. At home, it was also punishment; you were deprived dinner or made to kneel down or stay inside the house while your mates played outside.

When I first read the Scripture passage of today some years ago, I was not comfortable because of my concept of discipline. How can it be that the one God loves He chastises (discipline)? We are punished, whether at school or home, because we are seen as “bad” boys/girls or stubborn children. Those who discipline us are never our friends, and we run away from them because we think they don't love us. If God will also punish me, why should I endure it and see Him as my Father? But with maturity and better understanding, I have come to appreciate this scripture and what our parents, elders and teachers were doing to us when I was in school. I have come to understand that discipline is actually meant to make you conform to set patterns that will make your life orderly and meaningful.

The rod is applied to drive away the “foolishness” that abound in the heart of a child (Prov.22:15). Discipline is meant to inculcate behavioural patterns that will make you a better person to yourself, society and humanity in general. I have also come to know that those who discipline us actually want the best in us to come to limelight. They do so because they believe in us and truly love us. Those who are robbers, vandals and perpetuating violence on our streets today were either not disciplined (corrected, chastised) when they were young, tender and malleable, or they did not take to discipline.

God's chastisement is much more encompassing in accomplishment. Today’s Bible passage tells us why God chastises His children. Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but later on it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it (Heb 12:10 -11 NIV). Note the following benefits of discipline and remember them for life:

1) God's chastisement makes you share in His holiness. 
2) It is a training that will produce a harvest of righteousness and peace for you. Will you still resist chastisement today?

Prayer/Action
* Lord, please forgive me of hating those who disciplined me in time past; bless them and their children wherever they are today.
* Lord, do not hold back Your discipline and help me to respond appropriately.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
Father, in your mercy, use my life to advertise your glory this year, in the mighty name of Jesus.

Race of Faith

Tuesday 4 August
READ: Heb. 12:1-4
MORE LESSON: 2Cor.5:10

We are all running a race in this life and the finishing line is at the judgment seat of Christ. There, every man will be rewarded for the way he ran his race. The essence of the race before us is not about who comes first, second, third place. It does not matter what time you arrive at the finishing line because no two persons start the race at the same time or on the same mark. We only have one finishing point. Whenever you arrive at the finishing line, you will be made to stand before the Chief Umpire and be assessed on your own merit. There are some peculiarities about this race.

1) We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses- a host of others who successfully ran the race and were commended. Some of these witnesses are those listed in Hebrews Chapter 11. So if you fail, it is not because you are the first to run this race or that you have no example to follow. Your failure will be because you did not run according to the rule. There are many others who ran the same race and succeeded.

2) Several things can easily distract, pre-occupy or frustrate a man's performance in this race. The Bible refers to them as weights and sins which easily ensnare. These include burdens, worries, anxieties, labour, daily runs that are natural but do not give you time to fellowship with God. Some may be abominable practices that the world system deliberately instituted to trouble, entangle, and ensnare believers. Examples include: institutional corruption, falsification of receipts, inflation of contract sums, sexual immorality, etc. Everyone in the race is confronted with weights and besetting sins, but you must lay them aside and run to finishing line. Jesus said all that labour and are heavy laden should come unto Him and lay their weights at the cross. You must do this if you want to run the race without excess baggage.

3) You must run this race with endurance, and the consciousness that you are in for a very long distance race along hills and valleys.

4) Keep your focus on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. He is the one who sets the starting and finishing points of the race. He is also the one that rewards. This same Jesus endured hostility and contradictions from sinful men without avenging Himself. His blood was shed that you may be free.

5) The race may cost you your blood. Be prepared to pour it as an offering if need be in the same way Apostle Paul testified of. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing: 2Tim.4:6-8.

Prayer/Action
* Lord, help me to run my race to the finishing line and be celebrated by the cloud of witnesses.
* I denounce every known and unknown weight and sin that ensnare and prevents me from running well, in Jesus’ name.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
August 2015, you will respond to me positively and all the goodness in you shall be opened to me, in Jesus’ name.

Demand a Change

Monday 3 August
READ: Luke 16: 19 - 31
MORE LESSON: Matt 11: 12

Do not be satisfied with mediocrity in life. Your situation can be better; you can be more blessed than you are now. When things are not yet the way you want them to be, don't sit down with your legs crossed and say, 'Well if is the will of God, it will happen. It will never happen that way. Remember that from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force: Matt 11:12. For example, a good way to die fast is to be sick and lie down hopelessly saying, 'If God says I won't die, then I won't die but if God says I will die, I will die.' I assure you that you will die and it will happen real fast. Instead, get on your feet and shout to the hearing of men, the devil and heaven; I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord: Psa. 118:17. Then you mean business and I can assure you, based on the integrity of the Word of God, that you will not die.

In Luke 1: 19 – 31, you will find the story of the rich man and Lazarus. Lazarus was the righteous beggar who sat under the table, full of sickness and poverty and waiting for crumbs from the rich man's table. He lived all his life with sores on his body, poverty ruling him, then he died and made heaven. Do you know that a man can live under a curse, get born-again and preach to others but the curse remains unbroken till he dies and goes to heaven? Such a man will go to heaven but he would not have lived a fulfilled life on the face of the earth.

Lazarus went hungry and sick all his life on earth but went to heaven. The question that should be asked is that if God could not feed him during his short life here on earth how will He be able to feed him in heaven for eternity? So, it wasn't that God couldn't feed him but he didn't care to know and demand more from God beyond the fact that he will go to heaven one day after his suffering on earth. He never got up one day and said; 'Whatever it will cost me, I renounce this curse of poverty and sickness today'. He was more interested in begging for food from the rich man than in rising up, a healed man, to go and preach to the rich man. So it wasn't as if God could not prevail for Lazarus. The issue was that Lazarus never got to the point of rising up and demanding that his situation must change.

If you will rise up and place a demand, your situation will change. Your destiny is in your hand to fulfil. Take hold of bow and arrow and ask heaven for help until your change comes.

Prayer/Action
* Raise a standard against every force working against your success in destiny by the blood and in the name of Jesus.
* Command a change of every stagnant negative situation prevailing against your life.
* Ask God for divine direction and speedy turnaround over every burden and challenge of your life.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
I decree that the dark clouds of August shall be neutralised and great blessings shall come down as rain for me and for my family, in Jesus’ name.

Above the Enemies

Sunday 2 August
READ: Isa. 49: 25 - 26
MORE LESSON: Psa 110: 1 - 2

A man that is committed to serving God has no fear of the enemy. The most dangerous position any man can be is to be an enemy to a committed child of God. As you continue to serve God with all your heart, any one working against you is courting the wrath of God. God has made several promises as to what He will do against those who work against you. If your enemy knew God's verdict concerning him, he would have left you alone. God said, . . . for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children. And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood...: Isa 49:25-26. You should never fear because of your enemy; rather, hand him over to God and watch what the Lord will do with him.

God told Abraham, I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee...: Gen 12:3. That is dangerous! When God Himself curses a man, I wonder who will help him revert it. So when a man decides to stand against you as a child of Abraham through faith in Jesus Christ, he is signing up a confrontation with The Almighty. This is the consciousness I want you to carry through life; don't join those that run helter-skelter because of enemies, both real and imaginary. A child of God is above his enemies. The Lord said to my Lord sit down at my right hand until I make thy enemy your foot stool: Psa. 110:1. The Lord is saying, 'Relax my son/daughter; I will handle your enemies by Myself. When I am done, I will bring them to you and put their necks under your foot. You just keep being busy for Me.’
When you give your life to Jesus and dedicate your life to Him, you have God on your side. So, anyone who takes sides against you in unrighteousness has signed up for the greatest battle of his life. He has signed up for a confrontation with God! Today, enter into rest, as the Lord of Hosts rises up and deals with your enemies; He has set you above and put them under your feet. This is your heritage as God’s child and your righteousness is from the Lord, amen. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD: Isa. 54: 17.

Prayer/Action
* Today anoint yourself with oil and declare over your life that God will contend with everyone who contends with you anywhere.
* Declare them blessed that bless you, and cursed, them that curse you, past, present or future.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
August will bless, restore and fulfill me in every way and in the mighty name of Jesus, there shall be no devouring experience.