Contend for your Destiny

Sunday 18 October
READ: Num. 27:1-7
MORE LESSON: Jude 1:3

There is a man in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital, who when the government came to demolish his house said, I built this house with my pension and it is everything I have at seventy. I invested into this house. This is everything I have worked for all my life. If you want to demolish this, I'm not stopping you but I am inside; demolish me with the house so that after the demolition, I won't be around to feel the pain. The authorities had demolished several big houses but for this man's small house, they negotiated and paid him his money. He was able to salvage some of the building materials. He was better off because he contended for his house.

The reason why the enemy is still planting in your life is because your Christianity lacks the power of contention for ownership. You don't contend for what is yours otherwise why the gradual encroachment into your destiny and you stand as a spectator saying, 'It is well.' In fact, sometimes some believers say, 'May be it is the Lord's will'. But it is not the Lord's will for you as a human being to be swimming in your dream. You need to talk to your business that it will not collapse. Whatever it takes, by fasting, by prayer or by hunger, if you have to reduce the food you eat so that you can plunge back the profit into the business, if it will take going back to learn from others, do everything you need to do. That is contending for ownership. I hear testimonies of what is happening to other believers. It is okay for them to accommodate oppression, but it is not okay with me.

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints: Jude1:3. When it comes to my matter I know who I am; I know what belongs to me. And I will not allow satanic encroachment one inch. Don’t allow the enemy to plant trees in your life so that you will not be looking for how to uproot them. In medicine, prevention is better than cure. That is to say that dealing with mosquitoes is cheaper than going to buy anti-malaria drugs.

Like the Zelophehad daughters, take your case before the Judge of all flesh and you will have as much inheritance as you deserve.

Prayer/Action
* My life is a no go area for the devil as from today, in Jesus’ name.
* Oh Lord, hedge my life round about with Your presence, let not the enemy have access to it any longer, in Jesus’ name.
Plead the blood of Jesus 21 times over your entire destiny before noon today.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
I shall operate under an open heaven today, and I shall be unstoppable, in the mighty name of Jesus.

The Help that You Need

Saturday 17 October
READ: 1 Chron. 12 : 22
MORE LESSON: Gen 2: 20 - 22

Every man needs help and it is God's desire to give help to man. In fact, help is God's idea; in the beginning it wasn't man that realised his need for help, it was God that identified man's need for help and gave him the help that he needed. There are various ways by which God gives help to a man. The first help that God can give you is to give Himself to you. This is expressed in Ps 121: 2, My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. When you have God, you have help because He is the source of all help. The next help that God gives man is other men. God gave Eve to Adam as the help that he needed. The man needed the woman and the woman needed the man. So by a single act, God helped them both by giving them to each other. The man who hitherto had been lonely began to enjoy company and the woman also began to enjoy the joy of sharing. So everyone needs somebody. A man can be blessed and lonely, a man can be rich and without genuine friends and relationships. Such a man needs the blessing of true relationship with people who have sincere interest in him. It is only God that gives a man that kind of relationship. So today you need help no matter who you are or what you have and the help you need is first God and then, people. God will fill every gap in your life today, in Jesus’ name.

David also got help from God and from men. In 1 Chronicles 12:22, it is recorded that day after day men came to help David, until he had a great army, like the army of God: 1 Chron. 12:22 (NIV). God sent men to David to help him on a daily basis. That means a minimum of 365 helps in a year; he could have two or more help per day but there was no day that nobody came to help him. No wonder his army was as mighty as the host of Heaven; when God sends men to help you, you become a phenomenon.

I pray that God will add help to your blessing. Whether financial, material, marital or academic; whatever you need to be added to the blessings that you have already will be given to you by the help of God. Whatever has been a source of secret pain for you will be removed by the help of God. When men are commanded by God to help you, they help you both in their convenience and inconvenience. From today you will be helped by God and man, in Jesus’ name.

Prayer/Action
* Ask God to fill every gap and vacuum of your life by His divine help.
* Ask God to speedily intervene in every area of your life that needs help, which you are ignorant of.
* Ask God for daily help until you see Jesus.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
Today, I declare God’s Word over my life: the sun shall not smite me by day nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve my life now and forever more, in the name of Jesus.

Grace to be Helped

Friday 16 October
READ: Rom 9: 10 - 16
MORE LESSON: Heb. 4: 16

The Bible says in Prov. 22:2, The rich and the poor have this in common, The Lord is the maker of them all. If the rich and the poor are made by the same Creator and they both come into the world without anything in their hands, then what later differentiates them? The answer to that question is 'help'. The difference between a rich man and a poor man is help. One comes into the world and enjoys help, the other lacks help.

It is help that takes a man to the place of wealth, greatness and influence. It is comforting to know however that the opportunity to ask for help is available to all men, including you. This can be understood from the Bible, Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need: Heb 4:16.

When a man finds grace, he is helped in his time of need. It is grace that qualifies a man for help as no man can qualify for God's help by his own work; it is an act of His mercy and grace. That is the reason why He says, . . . I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy: Rom 9:15-16. When the mercy of God locates you, you become a beneficiary of His help. A good prayer to pray each day is, Lord let me find grace and be helped today. When you see God helping another man, don't get jealous, just ask for your own help from Him. I declare that you shall be helped, in the mighty name of Jesus.

It was the grace of God that Jacob found even before he was born. Esau and Jacob were still in Rebecca's womb and had not done anything right or wrong when God said, . . . and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger: Gen 25:23. God also said, Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated . . .: Mal. 1: 1 – 3. Jacob was the cunning man that always found a way of tact against people; he married two daughters from the same man and then joined two maids from that same house to his collection. What can qualify a man like Jacob for help to become one of the Patriarchs of the covenant of God? It is only because he found grace with God and so God helped him. God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called; it doesn't matter your weakness and imperfection, you will be helped when God's grace locates you. Pray that you will enjoy grace to be helped from cradle to the grave, in Jesus’ name.

Prayer/Action
* Ask God for the help that overlooks weaknesses.
* Pray for the help that changes a man’s life tangibly.
* Ask God for mercy, grace and help for the day of need.
* Plead for help that makes destiny easy.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
The shout of the King is in my tabernacle; I shall not see defeat or shame this month, in the name of Jesus.

Exceptional Help

Thursday 15 October
READ: Jn.5:1-15
MORE LESSON: Mark 9:17-27

Exceptional help refers to God reaching out to do what is beyond man’s ability. It is God doing beyond your limits, that is God by-passing your limitations to help you. In the story of the man at the pool of Bethesda, there were a lot of helpless and impotent people who waited for angelic visitation to stir the pool, and the first man to jump in got healed. Jesus came around one day and singled out a man for exceptional help. This man had been sick for 38 years and every attempt to jump into the pool ahead of others proved abortive until Jesus passed his way and gave him exceptional help. Jesus by-passed his limitation and reached out to him. The man was still struggling to explain why he was still sick and down, but Jesus just interrupted and asked him whether he wanted to be made whole. Then He told the man to take up his bed and walk, and immediately the man was made whole.

God can still do the same in your life. He will by-pass your limitations and struggles and give you help that will baffle others. Exceptional help does not only deal with acquiring material things; it also deals with the intangible issues such as demonic dirt that stick on to one. In Mark 1:21-26 there was a man who attended meetings at the synagogue yet an unclean spirit was troubling him. One day he sat down, clothed and looking good but under the control of an unclean spirit, and suddenly exceptional help came his way. As Jesus was speaking the Word with authority, the unclean spirit cried out and was cast out that same day. The man went home light, having received exceptional help from the Lord.

Concerning whatever is troubling you which cannot be seen on your face, but is a nuisance to your life, I declare you a candidate of exceptional help today. Jesus will reach out to you and deal with every parasite that has stuck to you and is draining your goodness.

To enjoy exceptional help, you must do the following things:

i. Position yourself for the touch of God in the same way the two people cited above positioned themselves where Jesus could reach out to them. Cease from hiding from church meetings and complaining; arise and go to where He will be able to reach out to you.

ii. Focus on Jesus as the giver of exceptional help and stop saying, “I have no man”. Human connection or not, God will lift you up by His exceptional help.

Exceptional help is also the “kindness of God” to a helpless man as seen from Mephibosheth’s experience in II Sam.9:3. By exceptional help he got back lost wealth in the same way the widow and her sons in II kings 4:1 cleared her debt.

Prayer/Action
* Lord, I am a candidate for exceptional help today; reach out to me Father as I look up to You .
* I position myself for the help from the Lord today and I will not miss it.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
The blood of Jesus speaks for me today, so every evil must pass over me, in the name of Jesus.