The Good Soil

Thursday 16 February
READ: Luke 8: 5 - 15
MORE LESSON: Prov. 3: 1- 8

Almost everything in life is a seed. Your time is a seed; when you sow it by investing it in right things and people, you reap a harvest. Your words are seeds, when you sow the right words, you will reap the right harvest. Your money is a seed, when you sow it into God's kingdom and into building lives, you have a reward. Jesus came as a seed; so when He was sown by dying on the cross, He brought many sons as fruit to God. You are a seed, you must bring forth fruit unto the Sower. God's Word that comes to you is also a seed.
It is a matter of fact that good seed is at the mercy of good soil. If the soil is bad; it makes the seed to be non-potent. This is the reason farmers cultivate and fertilise the soil they plant on in order to have a good harvest. In addition to a good seed, you also need to have a good soil. The text shows us that the good soil is an honest and good heart. It is the heart that determines your success in the Christian life. Prov. 4: 23 says, Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. A preacher can preach but if your heart is not good and well cultivated, everything can amount to a waste. You can give your time or money to do God's work, but if the motive of your heart is wrong, it will not bring eternal fruit. On the other hand, when the soil is good, even if the wind mistakenly blows a seed its way, it will germinate and bear fruit. This is how some people with a pure heart and good motive benefit from a Word from God that is intended for someone else; they just receive it and it profits them.
Prov. 4:4 says, He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live. A good heart is one that retains the Word of the Lord. Such heart will always produce a harvest whenever the seed comes upon it. Retaining God's commandment in our hearts and keeping His Word fixed on the tablets of our heart is what helps us to live a successful Christian life.
Today, you should search your heart and commit it afresh to God. Let Him cleanse your motives and fill your heart with His Word. As you do so, you will bear your fruit in its season. Your leaves will not wither, your flower will not fall off and every seed of your life will bring forth and become a mighty forest for God's kingdom, in the name of Jesus.

Prayer/Action
* Father, make me pure in heart and let my heart be receptive to Your Word, in Jesus’ name.
* In the name of Jesus, the Word of God will always mix with faith in my heart.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Father, I prophesy, no curse shall have power to perform any more in my destiny, in the name of Jesus.

Raising Generations III

Wednesday 15 February
READ: Est. 2: 5 – 7
MORE LESSON: Est. 10: 2 - 3

Mordecai was a Jew in exile in the Medo-Persian Kingdom. He had humble means as he was a gateman at the palace in Shushan. Mordecai took Esther, an orphan, under his care and began to take care of her among his own children. Esther was Mordecai’s niece. There would have been no hope or future for Esther if not for Mordecai who became a father to her and made her a part of his nuclear family.
A time came when King Ahasuerus wanted a queen, he ordered all the young girls in the kingdom to be paraded before him, perhaps he would find one that suited him to be his queen. Mordecai told Esther to go for the pageant and helped her to prepare. Mordecai not only provided for Esther's need as a parent but also opened her to opportunities that would take her high in destiny. Mordecai probably had other daughters that were his biological children. But as the father, he knew all of them, and knew that it was Esther that had what it took to win the pageant and become queen, so he supported Esther. The favour of God was with Esther and she became the queen over the realm of over 127 provinces and cities that Ahasuerus ruled; spanning India in Asia to Ethiopia in Africa. The orphan girl of yesterday that Mordecai
raised had become the wife of the most powerful man in the world.
In raising Esther, Mordecai probably didn't know that he was raising and preserving the whole generation of Israel. When Haman wanted to eliminate the Israeli race from the world, it was because Esther had been raised that the life of Mordecai and every other Jew was preserved. That wasn't all. When Esther finally disclosed her identity and lineage as a Jew, Mordecai had to be recognised as the father of the queen and so was given a pride of place in the kingdom. Through Esther, Mordecai advanced till he became the second in command to the king. For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame went throughout all the provinces, ...for this man Mordecai waxed greater and greater: Est. 9:4.
The best you can do with your life and resources is to invest in people. Invest in your children and invest in other people's children. Let your life be a ladder that raises men irrespective of their tribe, family, gender or race. Just go out of your way and look for people to raise, you may not know the full implication of what you are doing now but the future will tell. God will give you grace to raise generations of people, in Jesus’ name.

Prayer/Action
* Pray that the opportunity you need to be raised and raise others will not elude you, in the name of Jesus.
* Pray that your seed shall be greater than you, in the name of Jesus.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Father, I banish every spirit of sympathy visit this year, in the name of Jesus that is above all names.

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.