Raising Generations II

Tuesday 14 February
READ: Est. 2: 5 - 7
MORE LESSON: Acts 9: 36-39

In 1994, I was on a 14-hour-flight to one extreme end of the world in Asia. We landed at the airport, then someone greeted me and said, 'Daddy, what are you doing here?' I actually wasn't expecting to meet anybody I knew. I was surprised and wondering whether it was a dream. He explained that he was a member of our church as a student in Zaria, after being impacted and he graduated, he became a missionary and he was posted to that part of the world. I had never been happier seeing someone who knew me because while other travellers were struggling to find their way around, the man took me anywhere I wanted to go. I have noticed, to God's glory, that there is no part of the world that I go and there is nobody to receive me. Virtually everywhere I go, I always find someone whom I have been a blessing to, who welcomes me.
Life is all about raising people; it is one of the most important things you can do in life. Impacting and affecting the lives of people positively is the reason you exist and are blessed by God. The picture of our future will only be beautified by the people we have raised. As children of God, we should go out of our way to stretch hands of love to people. It is beyond occasional acts of charity; it is about finding someone who you will assume responsibility to make sure that they will become something in life and get to where they are going because you exist. It is not about sowing so that you can glean a harvest; it is about looking for someone who can't even pay you back and raising those who look helpless today.
The people you raise may be your glory tomorrow. When your hands are feeble and weak, they could be the strength that stands up to defend you. The Bible talks about children being arrows in your quiver who will answer the enemies at the gate (Psa. 127: 43– 5). This is not just about giving birth to many children; that scripture refers to people you raise that God will use to stand for you in the future. This is why I passionately believe in taking people who others call 'those who sprang up from the rock' and re-planting them around me to refresh them with the streams of water in my life.
We have to raise people around us; across culture, race and gender. The people we raise will be our memorial, not the cars we have, the houses we build or the certificates we acquire. There are people whose children are grown up and gone to be on their own. I see the man and woman eating alone with plenty of rooms in their big house and I wonder what they are using them for. Why not invest into other people's lives by raising responsible children.

Prayer/Action
* Give God thanks for everyone He has used to raise you, in the name of Jesus.
* Pray that God will help you to also raise someone as you have been raised, in the name of Jesus.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Today, I am blessed and highly favoured, no bad news shall distract my day, in the name of Jesus.

Raising Generations I

Monday 13 February
READ: Isa 61: 1- 4
MORE LESSON: Psa. 145: 4

A dear brother in Christ went to be with the Lord and I was at his wake-keep, where the preacher asked his immediate family to come out for prayer; his wife and son and another young man came out. The young man was a Hausa boy from the Northern part of Nigeria while the man that died was an Easterner, so the preacher re-iterated, 'I want only the immediate family of the man; the wife and the children'. The wife and the son knelt and the young man knelt closely besides them. When the preacher noticed that nobody said anything contrary and the wife and the biological child seemed to agree that the other boy is as much part of the family as they are, he continued the prayer. I was excited by that singular incident and it showed that the departed undoubtedly lived an impactful life. I quickly remembered that when I went to see him in the hospital before he died, it was the young boy that I met with him, taking care of him.
We are called by God to raise generations. This is not just about giving birth and raising biological children. Those that raise generations and repair the desolations do not just live for themselves and their biological children. They are people who take others in and raise them. The man actually went to a village and took a boy that by the reason of the generation he came from wouldn't have had hope in life, and he repaired the desolation of the boy's generation by making the boy to become one of his own children. The only proof that we passed through the earth will eventually be the impact that we make in the lives of men.
Our only excitement in the future will be the memory of the people we have impacted today. Go out of your way to look for human beings to impact. The Bible says, You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven: Matt. 5:14-16 (NKJV). Until you do something in someone's life that makes the person to thank God that a person like you exists, you are not yet light. Being light is about making impact in other people's destinies and giving them hope in life. If you are in a place, and you are not doing anything to raise fellow human beings, you're not light.
Today, raise generations by impacting someone that your existence will make all the difference in their life, destiny and generation forever.

Prayer/Action
* Father, as You helped David to serve his generation, help me to live an impactful life in my generation, in the name of Jesus.
* Father, beginning from my home, raise generations of great people through my life, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Father of light and glory, I ask you to fast-forward my miracles this year and cause me to be satisfied early, in the name of Jesus.

The Strongest Point in prayer

Sunday12 February
READ: Matt. 6: 9
MORE LESSON: Psa. 65: 1 - 2

Jesus gave us a prototype of prayer that is acceptable to Heaven. In Matt. 6: 9, Jesus taught the disciples to pray by addressing the Father who is in Heaven. The very first statement He taught them to say to the Father is, ...Hallowed be thy name. If in all the long lines of the prayer, the very first thing that the Lord taught them to do was to praise God's name, then praise and thanksgiving must be the most important part of prayer. In ranking of things, the highest is always put first. When you say a thing is number one, it means that it is the most important and the best.
Even in writing exams, it is good to give your strongest points first. You should first attempt the question you know best because when the examiner marks your first point and he is already impressed, it will motivate him to make sense out of the rest of your points as he already has a good impression of you. Who knows, some examiners might even be too impatient to read carefully through your work, they just scan through your initial points and judge your entire work based on your initial points. This is why your strongest point should always come first.
In prayer, your strongest point should come first. However, contrary to what many think, the strongest point is not praying about the most pressing problem. Your strongest point is simply to say 'thank You Jesus.' Jesus taught the disciples to pray by giving the strongest point first and the strongest point was Hallowed be thy name. That is the equivalent of saying, “Thank You Father.” Giving thanks is the highest point of prayer. It doesn't matter how pressing the problem is; whether you are sad or happy; come what may, the first and strongest point in prayer is to thank Jesus. Thanking God in prayer should not be a religious prelude that one routinely skims through so that one can get into the 'real prayer'. Thanking God is not the introductory part of prayer as many use it today; thanking God is the real prayer.
Jesus showed us this in the prayer that He taught and the prayers He prayed. When Jesus was faced with a situation of feeding thousands of people with a few loaves of bread and fish, He simply blessed God and the food multiplied (Matt 14: 19). When Jesus was at the tomb of Lazarus, He simply said, “Thank You Father,” and he who was dead for four days came back to life (John 11: 41). Thanksgiving is the heart and height of prayer. This is why saying “Thank You Jesus” should be a part of your daily life. Start your day by saying it and end your day saying it. Say it both formally and informally, say it consciously and unconsciously. Thanksgiving is the most important prayer and it is the strongest point in prayer.

Prayer/Action
* Give God thanks for the gift of a new day, in the name of Jesus.
* Thank the Lord for the things you believe He will do for you today, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Father, in the year of shining light, my life shall not be barren of glory, in the mighty name of Jesus.

The Five Fingers of the Word

Saturday 11 February
READ: Rom. 4: 17-22
MORE LESSON: Matt. 7: 24 - 27

There is no faith outside of the Word of God. Real faith is based upon what God has said. A man can be optimistic and believe that things will turn out well but that is not faith. Faith is when that conviction that things will work well is based on a revelation from the Word of God, spoken or written, that you have received.
This is why you need to keep on hearing the Word. The more of the Word in you, the more faith you have. The more faith you have, the more the quality of your life. There are five things you must do with the Word of God for it to benefit you. They are like the five fingers that work together for a good grasp of anything in the hand. The five fingers are hearing the Word, reading the Word, memorising the Word, meditating upon the Word and doing the Word. You need to do all these five with the Word: hear, read, memorize, meditate and do the Word. When you do all these, your profiting will appear to all, as written in 1 Tim 4:15-16, Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.
It starts by hearing the Word but if you merely hear and don't meditate on what you hear, you will soon lose it. Meditation is creating time after hearing the Word to think and ponder upon it. Reading the Word is also important, you can hear someone preach to you, however when you read the Word, God gives you revelations that are very personal to you. A great Word-life is not built on just hearing what others read and preach to you, you also need to personally read and thereby get personal revelation which will benefit you, and you can even share with others. Memorising the Word is storing up scriptures in your mind, making the Word available in the soft copy of your thinking so that it can be available for use at all times. The last finger which, many times, is missing in people's life is doing the Word. No matter how much you hear, read, meditate or memorise, until you do the Word, there will be no change in your situation.
The Word of God is the sword of the spirit (Eph 6: 17). To be able to use it to defend yourself and attack the devil, you need a firm hold on it. The five fingers of the hand are needed to firmly hold a sword in battle. The five fingers are needed for the Word of God to build strong faith in your spirit. This will make you to be mighty in battle and a conqueror in every area of your life. The sword of the spirit will not fall from your hand, in Jesus’ name.

Prayer/Action
* Pray that the Word of God will have its full course in your life, in Jesus’ name.
* Pray for grace to be a doer of the Word, in the name of Jesus.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Shepherd of my soul, I give You full control of my destiny; rule and reign in my life unhindered, in the name of Jesus.