Be a Carrier of Good News

Sunday 19 June
READ: Isa 52:7
MORE LESSON: 2 Sam 1: 1-16

There was a newspaper that was always full of obituaries; the other news in it was scanty as the paper read more like a collection of who and who died in the country. The media is replete with news of hunger, wars, earthquakes and recession. So we have companies and organisations built on and profiting from selling and dispensing bad news. But as believers in the Lord Jesus and citizens of the Kingdom, our task is to publish good news, How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! Isa. 52:7. There are different dimensions to publishing good tidings. The first is to publish the good news of redemption and salvation that Jesus has purchased for the world. Preach the Word and let ...your feet be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Eph 6: 15. The word 'evangelism' is a derivative of the Greek word which means 'good news' and has the same root as the word 'gospel'. So the message we bear as believers is naturally of good tidings.
This also extends to your relationship with people. Don't be the mouth piece for propagation of unfortunate happenings. When evil happens, it is not your duty to broadcast it, Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? James 3:10-11. Slander, backbiting and gossip should never be heard from your mouth. When people make negative remarks about others, churches, or the government and they ask for your opinion, just find at least one thing to praise God for in that person or situation.
Finally, be a giver of hope by the kind of news you carry. Some people are so good at giving current statistics of death, accident, poverty, layoff and unemployment. They know all the number of people that attempted something and failed and they won't hesitate to dish out their statistics to anybody they see that wants to try to succeed in that same thing. That is not befitting for a believer, But speaking the truth in love, you may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: Eph 4: 15. You should speak with all honesty and frankness, but they must be words that encourage and impart grace to the hearer, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers: Eph 4:29.
I pray as you make the commitment to be a carrier of good news, glad tidings will not cease from your life, in Jesus’ name.

Prayer/Action
* Prophetically shut the door on negative news coming to you for the rest of this year.
* Pray that you will be good news where you enter and you will be a giver of same for life.
* Pray that you will not fail God in the compulsory assignment of spreading the goodnews about Jesus.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
My Father and my God, turn the good, the bad and the ugly events in my life in 2016 to my decoration tools, in the mighty name of Jesus.

The Prodigal Son

Saturday 18 June
READ: Luke 15:11 - 23
MORE LESSON: Hos. 6: 1 - 3

In the text of today, we have the popular Bible story of a certain man who had two sons. The younger one asked the father to give him his own portion of inheritance, that he wanted to start spending it. Normally children share the inheritance of their father after they die but it seemed to me that this younger son had been waiting for his father to die and when the man refused to die, he walked up to him, and demanded that the man give him whatever he was planning to will to him at death. Surprisingly the father didn't argue with him as he gave the boy what he was asking for.
Then the boy took his portion and went to a faraway country, where nobody would control him or ask him how he was living. This boy is not alone in this, many believers feel that it is a burden to have someone guiding their lives. They feel they want to be free to live their life. When a man chooses to live a life outside of godly control and correction, he lands in problems. So this boy went far away to where no one could caution him, and he began to live what the Bible calls a 'riotous life'. He squandered all he had in wasteful living, then a famine came and he had to take up a job to work in a piggery and he had no food to eat. The son of a wealthy man began to desire to eat with pigs.
God is such a wonderful Father that even when you demand your own way, He will not force you to do His will. Nevertheless, anyone who chooses to live outside of God's control and lordship will one day pay dearly for it. The prodigal son paid dearly for his reckless living. If you live a reckless life, you will pay dearly for it. This is a call back home for all that have wandered away. Check yourself, are you still at home with God or have you gone to a faraway land? Are you under the control of God or have you sought freedom from godly control? Can your spiritual leaders still correct you? As a child, can parents correct you? Is it the Word of God that controls you now or you have gone to where you can control yourself. You need to return before the day of reckoning comes. The prodigal son returned and the father had mercy on him. Today is your day of mercy, come back home to the Father. He will assuredly forgive you and celebrate your home coming.

Prayer/Action
* Give God thanks for not giving up on you.
* Ask God to forgive and restore you to Himself in anyway you have wondered away.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
Lay your hands on your head and declare, my head, my life, family and destiny, I command you, reject evil labels from today on, in the name of Jesus.

Covenanted for Peace

Friday 17 June
READ: Num 25: 1- 13
MORE LESSON: Psa 69: 9

God can take you to a place where He will swear on oath to ensure that you live in peace. It is a place where God decides that no crisis will ever prevail over you. You can move the heart of God to the point that He is determined that whatever comes your way, you will prevail. Crises and plagues may reign in the land where you dwell and people run helter-skelter but God will give you peace, ease, and comfort. God can make a covenant for enduring peace with you.
This happened to Phinehas in the Bible during the journey of the children of Israel from Egypt to Canaan. God vowed to give him a covenant of peace (Num 25: 12). The Israelites had got to a place called Moab and the men of Israel began to commit whoredom with the women of Moab, they were engaged in sexual immorality and God was angry with them. God vented His anger at the immorality of the Israelites and the elders of the land were mourning. Then in the midst of that situation, an Israelite took a Midianite woman into his tent to commit fornication with her. It was at this point that Phinehas got touched by that which touched God and took action. He took a javelin and pursued the two culprits-the Israelite man and the Midianite woman-and pierced them through.
One would wonder what the justification was for what Phinehas did, but it was obvious that he did the right thing as God commended him. This shows that it is scriptural to be touched by what touches God. Even though in the New Testament, no man is permitted to kill another because of his passion to avenge God, it was allowed in the Old Testament. That is why Phinehas was commended by God for what he did. Just as the Scripture says, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me. Psa. 69:9.
The bottom line was that God entered a covenant of peace with Phinehas because he was moved by what moved God. When God’s wishes become your command, His business your passion, His kingdom your priority and His burden yours, He will covenant Himself to your well-being. God will covenant that no crisis will prevail over you and even if a whole nation of people is being destroyed, H e will see to your safety. This is what He did for Phinehas and He is willing to do the same and even more for you. However, you must also be passionate and zealous for God's business and be willing to stand for God in the midst of this wayward generation. You are covenanted for peace as you stand for God from today.

Prayer/Action
* Receive grace and passion to be touched and concerned for whatever touches and concerns God.
* Ask that the zeal of God’s house will consume you.
* Ask God to grant you and your lineage an eternal covenant of peace.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
Father, thank You for adding another year to Bishop David Bakare today, grant that he, his family and ministry will continue to live in Your mercy, favour and grace until he sees You face to face, in the name of Jesus.

Redeemed from the Power of the Grave

Thursday 16 June
READ: Psa 49: 15
MORE LESSON: 1 Cor 15: 55 – 57

As long as you are in Christ, the power that kills men has no power over you. The redemption from sin that Jesus purchased for you also includes redemption from the power of the grave. I want you to live life with the consciousness that you cannot be a victim of untimely death because there is a power that watches over you which is greater than the power that cuts men off in the prime of their life. If the enemy had power to kill you, he would have done it long ago. Each time you sleep, the powers of darkness don't want you to wake up. If you woke up this morning, it was because the greater power intervened. That same power that wakes you up despite the activity of the enemy for all the many years you have lived, will not fail now. Death has no power over you.
Psa. 49:15 says, But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah. Grave has power but redemption through Jesus Christ has placed you above the power of the grave. This is why you shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord (Psa 118:17). A man noticed that he was deteriorating physically and he couldn't understand why. He met me and asked for prayers, I prayed over a bottle of oil and told him to go use the oil. He asked me how he was to use the oil. I said he should use it anyhow. He was later informed by his wife that she had put poison in his food but that the power in his anointing oil saved him, else he would have been dead. If a man's wife wants him dead, I submit to you that nothing but the power of God can save him. There is a power that is greater than the power of the grave and that power is working for you and in you.
Many people would come to me that they had a dream where I died, so I should not travel, should not do this or that. I delightfully continue serving my God because no death can touch me till I fulfil my assignment of destiny. There was even a time I went for a burial and afterwards I started seeing myself in the grave. When such happens, that is not the time to panic. I took a fast and used my mouth to shut up the power of the grave over my destiny. Learn to use your mouth to declare that you shall not die. You have no business with death until you have finished all your assignment in ripe old age and the Lord takes you home to be with Him. You have been redeemed from the power of the grave.

Prayer/Action
* Declare to yourself: I shall live and not die anyhow, in Jesus’ name.
* Command every grave to vomit your destiny that has been swallowed, in Jesus’ name.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
Father, let Your name and blood answer for me now, everywhere the enemies are gathered about my destiny, Answer Lord, in the name of Jesus.