Friends of God

Sunday 22 January
READ:John 15:1-15
MORE LESSONS: John 14:23,

One of the greatest and most beneficial relationships on the earth is that of man becoming a friend of God. This relationship is most beneficial because it has both earthly and eternal blessings. It is also the highest level of relationship a man can ever have, relating with the Most High God as a friend.
Abraham was no doubt a friend of God and that was why God did not keep anything from him, And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do: Gen.18:17. Moses was even directly referred to in the Bible as a friend of God, And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend…: Exo.33:11.
This great privilege is, however, not received without a condition. John 15:14 says, Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Obedience, therefore, is the condition for a good relationship with God. If you want to become a personal friend of God like Abraham and Moses, then brace up for a life of total obedience to God in all things.
The starting point, however, is to accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, invite Him to be in total control of your life and He will come in. He says in Rev.3:20, Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. That is an open invitation by the Almighty for friendship. Be a friend of God, TODAY! Only friends of God will spend eternity with God in Heaven, but His enemies shall perish in hell. Even before going to Heaven, friends of God will enjoy the cover and greatness of Heaven on earth. God will be jealous for their sake, defend them, give them silver and gold and they shall not be feeble (Psa. 105:37).
They will call upon God and He will answer them, He will be with them in trouble, He will deliver and honour them, He will satisfy them with long life and at the end show them His salvation (Psa. 91:15-16). All these benefits and more are yours as a friend of God, so go for them.

Prayer/Action
* Jesus, I pledge to do Your will for the rest of my life; make me Your friend, in Jesus’ name.
* As a friend and partner with Jesus I will be obedient to my own part of the covenant like Abraham, in the name of Jesus.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
As the wind does not blow without effect on the trees of the forest, so I shall not have an ineffective year, in the name of Jesus.

Divinely Connected II

Saturday 21 January
READ: Gen 24: 12 - 26
MORE LESSON: Isa. 34: 16

The story of Abraham’s servant who was sent to get a wife for Isaac is a testimony of how God can divinely connect a person to his/her life partner in answer to prayer. The man prayed and God brought the right person at the right time to the right place.
This brings to mind the story of a lady that marriage eluded for a long time. Each time she was in a relationship and they went as far as printing the wedding card, the man would just dump her. This happened about five times. When she came and narrated the ordeal she was going through, the Holy Spirit ministered to me that the enemy changed her identity. Each time she was near getting married; the prospective husband would begin to see her as an old woman once the card had been printed. This meant that there was a spiritual mask that was put on her by the enemy that made each man lose interest in marrying her.
The lady was a bank manager who was wealthy, beautiful and successful but her marital destiny was held to ransom by the enemy; she was already fifty-one years old at the time I met her. The church where I ministered in that town was a very small church but she overlooked all her pomp and class and came to sit down in the small classroom church. Just like Rebekah in the Bible, it was that act of humility that made her miracle to locate her. She came after the meeting and I prayed for her, then the Lord broke the cloud of darkness over her destiny. It was her first time in that church and that same day there was a retired army major who was in church and was not married, he was a first timer. The man gave his life to Christ in that service and decided that he wanted to take a new leaf in life. So the first thing he decided to do was to marry and settle down. The long and short of the story is that the two of them are married to the glory of God; they are doing well and are blessed with children.
God is a specialist in connecting people. God located the woman, found a man and arranged for the two of them to come to the same church the same day. Both of them were first timers on that day and God divinely connected them as the answer to each other's prayers. I want you to know that whatever you are trusting God for, especially those waiting on God for marriage partner, there is a divine connection that God has for you. Today, God's Spirit will gather and connect you to the answer to your prayers and no one shall want his/her mate (Isa. 34: 16). God can do the same for jobs, careers, education, visas etc. Just ask God for a divine visitation and attention. God can do it again!

Prayer/Action
* Tell the Lord to connect you early for testimonies, in the mighty name of Jesus.
* Speak against every wall militating against your divine connection, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Father, in my lifetime, I declare I shall never lose my light to darkness, in the name of Jesus.

Divinely Connected I

Friday 20 January
READ: Exo. 2: 1 - 9
MORE LESSON: Heb. 11: 23

God had a great destiny for Moses to be the deliverer of Israel. He was born at a time when Pharaoh had declared that all male children of the Israelites were to be killed. In order to preserve Moses as a baby, his parents had to make a basket of bulrushes and keep him on the River Nile. Keeping a child in a basket to float on a river is a big risk; the child could be carried away to where he would not be found or he may even drown. However, Moses was divinely connected and so his destiny was preserved.
Pharaoh’s daughter came to the River to take her bath on the very day that Moses was kept on the river. The daughter of a king had all the best bathrooms at her disposal and could even command her attendants to go and fetch water for her if she wanted to bathe with the water from that river by all means. She must have been prompted by the Lord as she left all the luxury of the palace and trekked all the way to the river to take a bath. When she got to the river she found Moses and from there onwards, the destiny of Moses took a new turn.
There is someone that needs to find you so that your destiny can enter into the place that God has ordained for you. When God connects you to the person that He has appointed as the doorway for your next level, your struggles will be over in a moment. How do you explain what happened to Moses? His mother was called upon to take care of him and she was paid handsomely and regularly to train her own child. Moses became a prince who had access to the best of education, life and everything in the land. He was adopted as the child of Pharaoh and had a portion of the throne of Egypt. All these happened without him losing his eternal connection to the covenant of God with Israel as he was with his family to tell him the true story of his life and continually teach him about the laws and covenant of the God of Israel.
Moses grew up and was able to fulfil his destiny in God but it all started with a divine connection that God granted him as a child when he couldn't even arrange anything for himself. This shows that destiny is not fulfilled as a function of arranging human connections for oneself but by seeking God to divinely connect you with the persons He has ordained for you. It is your turn to be found, connected and lifted by God, in Jesus’ mighty name.

Prayer/Action
* Ask God to divinely locate you for destiny connection, in Jesus’ mighty name.
* Ask God for ceaseless divine connections.
* Announce the connection you are believing God for, in the name of Jesus.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
As the sunrays break forth without hindrance so shall I break forth into victory, in the mighty name of Jesus.

Sheep or Goat?

Thursday 19 January
READ: Matt. 25: 32 – 46
MORE LESSON: Psalm 23:1 - 6

Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Psalm 23 is a popular scripture that shows what the Good Shepherd has in store for His sheep. The blessings of the shepherd are for the sheep and not the goats. Goats make life difficult for the keeper but sheep are easy to lead. Goats are difficult to gather and lead while sheep are known for hearkening to the guidance and counsel of the shepherd. No parent wants children that are goats; such children are stubborn, rebellious, never at home and always causing trouble around the neighbourhood. Pastoring is problematic when goats are the ones gathered under you. It is a very worthy prayer for parents, leaders and pastors that those under you will not be goats but sheep.
I was surprised when I once saw a man taking pieces of water melon fruit with pen-knive and feeding them to a sheep. If you take water melon with knife and try to feed a goat, it will eat it all; water melon, knife and your hand. Psa 23: 1 – 2 says that the good Shepherd makes the sheep to lie down in green pasture. The problem with goats is that they never lie down in a place, even if the grass is green. They roam to someone else's house for foodstuff to steal and eat. The Good Shepherd willingly laid down his life for the sheep but the goats kill their keeper by the stress they give him. Sheep lie down in green pastures.
This talks about sustained relationship between the sheep and Shepherd. As sheep maintains good relationship with the shepherd; a sheep in the sheepfold of God also maintains good contact and relationship with the under-shepherd that the Great Shepherd has placed over him. This means that a sheep has good relationship and contact with God and with his/her pastor. Goats are not in good relationship with the fold; they don't lie down; they always wander around. Sheep stay with other sheep in the flock while goats roam solo. A believer, who isolates himself from the shepherd and the sheepfold, is becoming a goat and satan is at the verge of destroying such.
A church member who is always complaining about the church and not contributing his quota to the development and progress of the church is not a sheep. One who only subtracts from the church and does nothing to add is a goat; he is not useful to the church, he has become useless. I pray that you will be relevant and useful in your home, church, workplace and nation. In today's text, we see that the Kingdom of God is for the sheep and not goats. Jesus kept the sheep by the right hand side and the goats by the left. The goats were marked for eternal damnation. I pray that you will be a sheep and not a goat.

Prayer/Action
* Ask God for grace to be a sheep-like Christian, in Jesus’ name.
* Ask God to separate you from habits that can question your faith, in the mighty name of Jesus.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
I prophesy, lines will fall to me in pleasant places in glorious heritage, in the name of Jesus.