Honour God with your Possessions

Wednesday 10 August
READ: Prov. 3: 9
MORE LESSON: Psa. 50: 7 - 15

The Bible says The earth is the LORD's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein: Psa. 24: 1. If everything already belongs to God, then the issue of giving to God actually needs to be seen in the proper perspective. When a man gives to God, he is actually handing over what belongs to God back to Him. It is not wise to withhold what belongs to God from Him and it is criminal to use what belongs to God to fight Him. When a man refuses to give tithes and offerings to God, God counts it as robbery (Mal 3: 8). This is because what you are withholding from God actually belongs to Him. Prov. 3: 9 says, Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase. When you give God what belongs to Him, you are not helping Him; you are honouring Him – acknowledging that it actually belongs to Him. Remember what the Lord says that . . . them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed: I Sam 2:30. The reason many struggle is because they have refused to honour Him who owns all things.
A man cannot have anything unless God gives it to Him (John 3: 27). Anything means anything – nothing that you have is not God's property that He gave you. There is a name for a care-taker who holds back the house rent he collected from the landlord. Every man on the face of the earth only holds whatever he has in trust for the Almighty God – the Land-Lord. The things of God must be used to honour Him.
God is the owner of all that we have and so we should be careful how we use His property. We should learn not to use anything God has given us as a possession to do anything contrary to the Word of God. Honouring God with our possessions is not just about giving, it includes using the things that God has given you to bring glory to Him. If you use God's car that He graciously gave to you to carry a lady who is not your wife to go and commit sin with her, you have used God's property to contravene His law. It is a very serious offence. If you see God's child in dire need and you have something that God has given you that can help this child of His and you refuse, you are using God's property against Him. Everything on earth is God's property and He doesn't want you to use His property in a wrong way. Wrong usage includes using the things God has given you to commit sin or to offend Him. Everything you have belongs to Him and you must use God's property in your custody in a way that honours Him.

PRAYER/ACTION
* I am sorry Lord for robbing You in anyway.
* By the power of the Holy Spirit, I shall honour God with my life and possessions, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Whatever makes this month a minus, I minus it today from my destiny, in the mighty name of Jesus.

Look Inside II

Tuesday 9 August
READ: II Kings 4: 1 – 8
MORE LESSON: Prov. 3: 13 - 14

People live in poverty and perpetual debt because they are always looking outside to somebody to give them what they need in life. A beggar will always lack; a man who believes that someone out there is responsible for his well being in life will always live in poverty because he will never look inside to discover the wealth that is in him. Any time you have a need of money and you start to think of people you could go to and receive money, you have missed the key to riches. Your default setting should rather be to look inward and search for what you can do that will bring you money.
We started yesterday to examine the story of the widow in 2 Kings 4: 1 – 8, she needed money and the prophet pointed her attention to the fact that there must be something inside her house that was the key to her prosperity. She, like many others, first claimed that she had nothing that could bring wealth but then she remembered that she had little oil. The oil is the symbol of ability, anointing, skill and grace. I want you to know that there is a miracle in your house. There is a little something inside you that can bring about the abundance that you desperately cry for and are looking up to people to give you. When she eventually agreed that she had something little that she could use, the prophet of God told her to go and get vessels from her neighbours because the little vessels in her house could not contain the wealth miracle that was about to happen. This implies that her present capacity was not enough for the level of wealth she wanted. She needed to go to her neighbours for capacity development. She needed to go and get more information, counsel and strategies from people that already had oil vessels. Don't beg people for money, beg them for vessels. Getting more vessels means capacity development. You need to develop that little thing in you by consulting experts and going for more training where necessary.
After getting more vessels, she stayed with her sons in the house and filled the vessels with oil. She developed her skill and capacity, polished and packaged it. Then the prophet told her, ...Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest: 2 Kings 4:7. You will notice the prophet told her to go and sell the oil and not to give it out. God is not against you making profit from the ability in you. In fact He gave you so that you and your children can live on it.

PRAYER/ACTION
* Ask God to bless your gifts/talents and cause them to enrich you, in Jesus’ name.
* Ask God to grant you divine enablement to utilise your abilities, gifts, profession etc to launch you to limelight, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
I receive God's grace to function in this new month, in the mighty name of Jesus.

Look Inside I

Monday 8 August
READ: II Kings 4:1-8
MORE LESSON: Prov. 18: 16

A woman of Israel met Elisha and told him the story of her predicament: Her husband was a man of God who served God passionately and feared God but when the man died all he left behind was debt. The creditor was about to carry her two sons - the only joy she had left in life, and go and make them slaves to work for the repayment of their father's debt. Imagine that a man who was a child of God lived in poverty, died in poverty and left the problem of poverty behind for the next generation to cope with. This is why it is very important to learn and apply the principles that make for prosperity; or else a man could be born again and be poor if he does not apply God's principles for prospering.
Elisha helped the woman in the story by shifting her attention from the problem she had to the principle she needed to follow to get out of it. Elisha said to her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? 2 Kings 4: 2. Elisha was making her know that God had put something inside her house that was the solution to her poverty. God is not unfair; He has given everyone something that will take him out of poverty. That thing could be an ability, skill, idea or unique grace; whatever it is, it is the seed of prosperity. When Elisha asked this woman, she replied like most people I have met reply. She said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house...: 2 Kings 4:2. Eccl 5:9 says that Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field. God is thus pointing your attention to the fact that every man on earth has something in his life that he can harness for profit. In addition, he says that even the king that you admire is only using something in him that he has, you also have something in you. However, many languish in poverty because they refuse to look inside themselves to discover the seed of their prosperity but are busy envying people who have taken the diligence to discover what is inside them and are making profit from it.
Thank God for this widow, after she said that she didn't have anything like many people say, she added, save a pot of oil. She believed she didn't have anything and the only thing she had was insignificant – a pot of oil. What can it do in the midst of such a big problem? You might say, I don't have anything and I don't have any skill - but you can plait hair. It was inside that 'pot of oil' that the prosperity of this woman laid. You have something that can bring you wealth in life, find it and use it.

PRAYER/ACTION
* Ask God to open your eyes to the opportunities that are around you, in Jesus’ name.
* Ask God for insight into the giftings in you.
* Command all redundant gifts/talents in you to come alive.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
I advance my goodness to greatness today, no reduction, in the mighty name of Jesus.

Distractions II

Sunday 7 August
READ: Eph. 3: 4 - 14
MORE LESSONS: Heb. 12: 1

Distraction takes away from distinction. In the text, Paul gives a list of all his qualifications and achievement. He went ahead to say that he overlooked all these things so that he might press towards the mark of Christ’s calling. He knew that those things were gain to him but he counted them loss so that he might gain Christ. Past success could pose as a distraction for you in entering into your next level. No man is above pressing forward; whether a pastor, doctor, professor or rich man. There is something you have not achieved that you can press towards. When you get to the stage where they talk about pressing forward and you feel that is for the young boys since you have arrived, then you are finished. A wise man says that when a man stops growing, he starts dying. You didn't come this far to start dying, refuse to be distracted by past success, move forward.
At other times, past failures could be the distraction.
A man might try something and fail and each time he wants to do another, he remembers the last failure and cowers in. As a child of God, the last failure is the steppingstone to the next success. When you try something and fail, do not be discouraged. Go back to the drawing board in your secret place with God, draw your goals and plans, and then re-launch. Failure is never final; refuse to take no for an answer. Try again till you achieve your target; remember the Word of the Lord, ...let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not: Gal 6:9. Refuse to faint till you achieve what you want.
Some people distract themselves by being busy-bodies. A believer that goes around talking about people behind them is going nowhere in destiny. Do not distract yourself talking about other people's results; get your own. A gossip is ever distracted; he is trying to look at other people and so is not focused on anything of his own. A goalless man is always distracted; he is trying to be like everybody he sees making it. Know what you stand for and where you belong and then get to work about it. Keep moving in destiny, don't worry about those who talk about you. In fact, give them enough to talk about. Finally, don't be distracted by problems, rather, be a problem solver. May be you see a need in a brother/sister's life, why not let God use you to meet that need. Don't join those that go around talking about what is supposed to be done in church and is not done, locate problems in church and solve them. Make being a problem solver your goal from henceforth and you will realise that you will not remain the same in destiny anymore.

PRAYER/ACTION
* I receive the grace to focus in destiny, in Jesus’ name.
* Lord, make me a problem solver and not a creator of problem for others, in Jesus’ name.
* I shall not faint, but remain focused, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Today is my perfect day of all-round blessings, I rebuke whatever makes it less, in the name of Jesus.