Costly Pleasure

Wednesday 11 November
READ: Num 25: 1- 5
MORE LESSON: Prov. 7: 7 - 27

Balak king of Moab wanted to curse and destroy Israel but God fought for them and turned it to a blessing. Balaam, the hired prophet, could not curse Israel but he knew what he could do to turn the face of God against them. He knew he couldn't overcome them spiritually or physically so he decided he was going to make them do what God hates so that He would withdraw from them and then Israel would be vulnerable to attack. Balaam advised Balak to turn his girls loose to go and entice the Isrealites to sexual immorality. Even the unbeliever knew that the sure way for a child of God to lose the favour of God and be at the mercy of the enemy is to live in sin.

The Moabites had tried to war against the Israelites and they couldn't confront them. They also tried divination but it didn't work because there is a great God behind Israel. So they selected the most beautiful girls in their land and sent them into the camp of Israel. The girls approached the men of Israel and told them that they wanted to give them free pleasure. When the devil offers you free pleasure then know that that pleasure is going to be costly because what he will take from you will be too big compared to what he gives you. The pleasure of sin is too costly, please run away from it. This is what Moses understood that made him choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season (Heb 11:24-26). Job in the Bible also said, I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid? Job 31:1. But when Israel saw these girls from Moab, they rushed them. It was these free girls that finished Israel. The Moabites defeated Israel without using a bullet by sending fornication into their midst.

It is still this same strategy that the devil uses today, he knows that if he can get you to sin against God, he has finished you. So he sends free pleasure into your life. However, I want you to know that something free could be too costly. A daughter of God that gets free money from a man and loses her spiritual alertness will soon discover that gifts can be costly. Brother, when that girl comes with her gifts, in fact she may offer to buy her own drinks and pay for yours as well, she is enticing you to sin, please don't wait to consider her offer, run because that offer will cost you your life and eternity. It is too costly. Those free girls penetrated Israel and God was angry with them and struck them with a plague in which twenty four thousand died. Run from sin.

Prayer/Action
* Ask God to reveal to you and forgive every sin that can make you vulnerable to your accusers and enemies.
* Rebuke any form of sexual immorality in your life, from your thought to reality.
* Pray that sin shall not be found in you no matter how small.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
I shall testify of the eleventh hour miracle this month and my expectations shall not be aborted, in the mighty name of Jesus.

Everyday Renewal

Tuesday 10 November
READ: Lam 3: 22 – 23
MORE LESSON: Rom 12:1-2

Every man desires new things in life. Even God is a God of new things. God is not static in any way; nothing He created is static; the heavens, the earth, the sun and the stars are all moving. You also need to move. Lam 3; 22 – 23 shows us an important attribute of God. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. It then goes ahead to explain why the compassions of God have not failed: it is because they are new every morning (verse 23). So the reason why God's attributes have not failed is because they are renewed every morning. God's mercy is renewed every day; it is not the one He showed yesterday that He is showing today. Even if you spent His mercies yesterday, there is more this morning. No wonder it doesn't finish; He renews it.

This shows you a secret that if you must not fail like God's mercies and compassions don't, you must also be renewed every morning. No believer can be sustained living on yesterday's grace. If God constantly renews Himself every day, no man can afford to be on the same level relying on the previous graces he has accessed. We thank God for all the prayers, fastings, seeds sown and love you demonstrated for God in 'those good old days' but the question is, “What new things are you doing for God today?” You need a renewal; you need fresh fire and passion for God.

Another scripture that shows that God believes in daily newness is Psa. 68:19, Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah. God does not allow you to live on yesterday's supply, He gives a new supply for each day. This is the reason a man who serves God can never be static and stagnant: there is a daily fresh supply of grace, provisions, strength, direction and whatever you need. We thereby can see that, whether in the spiritual or the physical, God wants you to be renewed daily. He wants to bless you with all-round benefits not just occasionally but daily. Today, God wants to give you fresh grace and fire. As you create time to wait upon Him, you will be renewed as shown in the Scripture that those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint: Isa. 40:31-41:1 (NKJV). You will be renewed today and you will not faint or fail, in Jesus’ name.

Prayer/Action
* Ask God for grace never to be static in your Christian journey.
* Pray for courage to confront your weaknesses and deal with them.
* Ask God for a higher ground than you have found today.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
In going out and coming in this month, I shall not walk at the wrong time and evil shall be far from me, in the name of Jesus.

The Covenant of Wealth

Monday 9 November
READ: Deut 8: 18
MORE LESSON: Exodus 3:8

Wealth is a covenant you can obtain in God. In Deut 8: 18, we realise that God gave the power to get wealth to the children of Israel because of the covenant He made unto Abraham. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day: Deut 8:18. So wealth doesn't come by power or might, by toil or gimmicks(Deut 8: 17), it answers only to a covenant relationship with God.

When Israel left Egypt, we are told that God brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes: Psa. 105:37. The reason for the wealth they came out with was explained earlier in that chapter, He hath remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; and confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant Psa. 105:8-10.

So when God took Israel out of Egypt, He took them to the land flowing with milk and honey. And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey: Exo. 3:8. There is a land flowing with milk and honey that God has promised you. It is the place of covenant wealth.

The first time I went to Israel I thought I would see milk and honey flowing on the street but I realised it wasn't so. In fact, that they produce honey from Dates in Israel. Apparently, the milk and the honey God told them about are not physical and literal. They actually symbolised wealth. He was promising them a land where there was abundance and productivity. Israel has little rainfall as a nation as it is geographically located in a desert, but Israel exports water to the surrounding nations. So in the land flowing with milk and honey, whatever you do prospers irrespective of the environment. It is a land where divine ideas for productivity and prosperity come to you and you profitably execute them. As we have established, it is not a land where you sit back and money flows on the street to meet you, but a place where you are empowered by the covenant keeping God such that anything you lay your hands upon prospers and brings profit. Today the covenant of wealth will speak for you and the power to get wealth will come upon you in Jesus’ name.

Prayer/Action
* Command God’s covenant of wealth to take off in your life from today.
* Declare that the covenant of Abraham is your portion in life.
*Rebuke the strength and chains of poverty over your life.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
This month, I shall be evidence of answered prayers, in the name of Jesus.

Time Indicators

Sunday 8 November
READ: Matt. 24:6-7
MORE LESSON: Matt 24: 5 - 14

These are the end-times and the Lord will come any moment from now. Jesus gave several indicators to show that the end of this age is here. In the Matt 24 account, the first indicator given by the Lord is that no stone of the Temple would be left on top of one another. When He gave that prophecy, it was the Temple built by Herod for the Jews that was standing. That Temple was destroyed long ago (70 AD) in fulfillment of that prophecy.

In Matt 24: 6, He said, And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars. The reality of this prophecy is undeniable in our world today. From Syria, Egypt, Ukraine, Russia, Israel, South Sudan, to Central African Republic, we can't but see that what Jesus predicted is here with us. Many of the terrorist activities we see are wars in religious disguise, but Jesus, who prophesied these, also told us, do not be troubled for these things will come to pass. (verse 6). Do not run helter-skelter or be troubled even in the face of wars and rumours of wars for all these things must come to pass. They will not touch you but pass you. There may be no peace in the earth but there will be peace in your heart and life.

He then said that nation shall rise against nation. He added that there shall be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes, in diverse places. All these are happening in the world today. The pestilences predicted by Jesus are flying around in several forms; Ebola being a recent confirmation of this prophecy. How can these things be happening and anybody will claim that he doesn't know that the end-times are right here? It is amazing that that all these are happening as prophesied and many people are still not taking commitment to things of God seriously. How could you see all these happenings and yet come to church becomes so difficult for you? there is definitely something wrong. The cares of life have taken over people; more cars, better job, better livelihood; are the things they run after. As important as these things are, you cannot afford to place priority on them. Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all other things shall be added unto you: Matt 6: 33.

The point is all these happenings around us are indicators of the times that we are in- the last days. Those who would not give attention to this alert are in danger of being victims of the negative end time prophecy. Wake up friend the end is drawing near and laxity must be sacrificed on the altar of alertness and consecration unto God.

Prayer/Action
* Pray that you will not be overwhelmed by the spirit of the end time.
* Pray that your love for Christ at a time like this will not go cold.
* Pray for the church of Jesus, that we will not loose our zeal and commitment to Christ at this end time.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
Every satanic arrow meant for me in the month of November, in the name that is above every name, I send them back to sender, in Jesus’ name.