The Bride of Christ

Monday 14 December
READ: Eph 5: 22 - 32
MORE LESSON: Matt 25: 1 - 12

The Church is called the Bride of Christ in the Bible. Jesus is the groom and the Church is the Bride. The relationship between husband and wife is a type of the relationship between Christ and the Church. In other words, every believer, male or female, is a wife and Jesus the husband. When we get to Heaven, this husband wife relationship between Jesus and the Church will be fully consummated. I suppose that women are going to find it easier to settle into this wife position with Christ; it is like they have been practising on earth what we all are going to be in Heaven! Being a wife here on earth is glorious; it is a foretaste of the role of every believer in Heaven. Jesus has paid the 'dowry' for the Church with His precious Blood. This is why you cannot live and do as you please anymore. You are under the authority of your Husband and you have to do His will. 1 Cor 6:20 says, For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

You will notice that there is no wedding service where the bride needs to be introduced among all the ladies present because in every wedding service, there is no confusion as to who the bride is. You automatically know the bride because she is distinguished by dressing, different in attitude and specially seated. The Church should not need introduction in the world; as part of the Church, you should be so different and distinct in living that everyone around you knows that you are the bride of Christ. The bride sits in a wedding service with all her thought and attention on the bridegroom. In fact, if the father or mother is not around, the wedding can still proceed but if the bridegroom is absent, the wedding cannot be done. The Church is the bride of Christ, we must not forget that Jesus is coming. Our whole attention and focus in life should be on His coming. If He comes today, will He find you ready? In Matt 25: 1 -12, we see some virgins that were not ready for the bridegroom's coming, they missed their eternal home. Jesus is coming back for His bride, only those who are ready will go with Him. I pray you will not miss Jesus' coming.

Finally the Bible says, therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing: Eph 5: 24. The wife should be submissive and obedient to the husband; as a part of the Church which is the Bride of Christ, you should obey every instruction of the Lord. You should give diligence to do whatever Jesus, the husband of the Church, assigns you to do.

Prayer/Action
* Pray that you will live a distinct, exemplary Christian life among your peers.
* Pray that you will not be distracted in preparing for the Lord’s coming.
* Pray that you will be a faithful bride of Jesus from this earth to Heaven.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
December will not close without divine assistance and connections that will turn my life around for good, in the name of Jesus.

Refuel Now II

Sunday 13 December
READ: 2 Pet.1:1-5
MORE LESSON: Col. 1:1-10

Yesterday we established the fact that every anointed man of God needs a constant refilling of the anointing in order to stay relevant and useful. The point is that anything in use must be serviced so that it can remain useful. This is true of both the human and material world; anything you use without refilling must finish.

However, usage is not the only way by which a resource can be depleted. It could also be by leakage, which is defined as the undesired and gradual escape of any material resulting in a loss. Anointing can leak as a result of a believer’s carelessness as it happened to Samson, a man highly anointed but who later fell into immorality. Samson's anointing actually leaked because he never knew power was escaping out of him until Delilah was done with him and he found himself empty, …And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him: Judges 16:20. Talkativeness, evil company, lack of self discipline, hatred, variance, wrath, emulation, strife, sedition, heresy, envy, murder, drunkenness, reveling (Gal 5:19-21), among others, cause spiritual leakage which a believer must avoid.

How do you practically avoid leakage of anointing? Purge yourself of all carnal/fleshly living and set your affection on things above. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness,…. Col 3:5. Our text adomishes us to keep adding, ...giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness II Pet.1:5-6. The addition leads to maturity, ...they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor untruthful …. 2Pet.1:8. It concludes in verse 9, But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off....

These are keys to a fruitful life. The anointing of God is for fruitful living and the secret of this is constant addition to whatever already exists. Refuel now; block any leakage and constantly add to your oil. Don't wait until you notice dryness before refilling; that may be too dangerous. The wisdom of the five virgins was in the extra oil they carried to refuel while waiting. Refuel now when the bridegroom is being awaited. Add, and don't ever stop adding until you see Jesus. Refuel now!

Prayer/Action
* Ask God to keep you thirsty for more of Him and help you never to think you have enough of Him.
* Ask God to end every spiritual leakage in your life.
* Lift your hands up and begin to ask the Spirit of God to pour His power upon you.
* Today, join hands with somebody of like mind to pray for your pastor/mentor.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
Father, as David secured an appointment in King Saul’s palace without an application or any human connection, so shall it be for me, in Jesus’ name.

Refuel Now I

Saturday 12 December
READ: Matt. 14:15-23
MORE LESSON: Ezek. 38:7

Anything that is in constant use needs to be topped up or else it will finish. This includes, but is not limited to, the anointing of God upon a person. In Luke 8:46 when the woman with the issue of blood touched Jesus' garment, Jesus immediately noticed and commented. That is a proof that each time Jesus ministers, there is a flow in the anointing, but the anointing upon Him is without measure. It is commendable that Jesus was sensitive enough to know that something left Him. The absence of such sensitivity has caused many church workers and ministers disastrous losses. Some work and do not realise that the anointing in them is reducing with every service until weakness begins to manifest. This is more with ministers who do not have spiritual back-up in form of prayer supporters.

Several times Paul repeatedly solicited for prayer: Brethren, pray for us 1 Thess. 5:25; Finally, brethren, pray for us…. 2Thess.3:1; Pray for us: for…. Heb13:18. Jesus, though God, never flowed in the anointing without refilling and topping up. In our reading, after the miracle of multiplying bread and fish, He refused to go into celebration. Rather, he withdrew for hours of prayer in order, to top up the anointing. (v23). In fact, He was there until about 3am in the morning (v25).

We all must learn from Jesus’ example. We must learn to pray not only before service/programme but also after. The prayer after must be as serious as the one before the programme. Praying after a service helps you to give the glory back to God, renew your strength and then begin the preparation for the next one.

A constant refilling after a programme is the secret of a greater tomorrow. This is important for the ministers/leaders of a programme as well as the co-workers. If you want your leader to last and do more, whether he asks you for prayer or not, pray for him; back him up. It is easier to pray before the programme than after. Often brethren savour the joy of victory and the sense of fulfillment. But Jesus overcame all this, and topped up after each miracle. I wish just a quarter of women who celebrated David after he killed Goliath went back to raise an altar of prayer him. If they had, his battle with Saul, occasioned by that victory, might have been avoided. Learn to refill and start the preparation for the next assignment immediately after the last one.

Prayer/Action
* Give thanks to God for being ever there to renew your strength.
* Ask God to help you to be more sensitive to the state of your spirit.
* Proclaim that you will not dry up and you will not be a spiritual disaster.
* Put your hands on your head and for the next five minutes focus on God and say, “Lord refill me now with Your Spirit”.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
Every area where I have experienced barrenness, famine, lack, opposition, stagnation, I command you to give way to new breakthroughs, in the name of Jesus.

Raised Altars II

Friday 11 December
READ: Exo. 30:1-9
MORE LESSON: Num.16:44-48

As altars are raised for cursing, so also altars or high places are raised for blessing. Examples of the two are Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim in Deut. 11:29, 27:12-13. When God wanted a sanctuary, fellowship and blessing of His people in Exo. 25, He included an altar in the pattern for building the sanctuary. God gave the altar's specifications and what should be done on it, teaching us some lessons about raising altars to God.

First, He said it is a place of meeting with Him regularly (Exo. 30:6). The more the altars you raise to God, the more of His blessings you will experience. There are many types: personal altar (quiet time), marriage/marital altar (by married people) and family altar.

Second, the altar is a place of regular burning of incense to God (Exo. 30:1, 8). The incense God wants to continuously receive on your altar is all kinds of prayer (worship, thanksgiving, petition, supplication and intercession).

Third, it is a place of using blood to atone for the sins of the people. God no longer requires the blood of bulls or rams on altars that are raised to Him. A better way has been given once and for all (Heb 9:11-14) through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary.

When you come to God by faith, applying the Blood of Jesus on your life for forgiveness and remission of sins, your prayers are acceptable, bringing down the blessings of God upon your life, destiny and family. Benefits of altars that are raised to Jehovah are many as evident in the children of Israel when they obeyed God's instructions in building an altar to Him (Exo. 40:27-28, 34-38). God's glory descends and protects, defends, preserves, favours and takes you into fulfillment in life and destiny.

The exciting thing is that the prerogative of raising altars is not in the hand of the enemy alone, the believer also can raise altars. When the enemies raise altars to curse, the believer can raise altars to reverse the curse and to pronounce blessing. More, we have an altar that is greater than the enemy's. It is the one raised by Jesus Himself at Calvary for which He paid the highest price ever, making it the most expensive altar in the universe. This altar speaks better things and can swallow any enemy's altar. This indeed is good news for all who know it. Prayer, fasting, prophetic declaration of God's Word are all altars that you can use to destroy any evil in your life. Raise an altar today.

Prayer/Action
* Ask God to make your life an altar of His presence.
* Ask God to turn every challenge in your life to an altar of prayer.
* Command every satanic altar against you to be swallowed up today.
* Ask God to strengthen your altar of prayer for great results.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
This month, old things must pass away in my life: old tears of sorrow, sinful habits, old afflictions, delays, pains, regrets, old songs must give way to new things, in the name of Jesus.