Giving to the Lord

Monday 3 April
READ: Psa. 50: 10 – 12
MORE LESSON: Mal. 3: 10

In several portions of the Scripture, God calls His children to give to Him. He asks men to give offerings, tithes, vows, sacrificial gifts and seeds. In all these givings, we must never forget that God has not called us to the place of giving because He is in need but because He wants to bless us. God created and owns everything in all universe and all resources are at His disposal. In Psa. 50: 10 – 12, God says, For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.
God is never stranded because of needs; rather, He invites men to give to Him so that it can be an opportunity for them to be blessed. The Kingdom principle is that you can only receive after you have given. You do not qualify for a harvest from God until you have first given to Him. So God always creates opportunities for people to give and in fact, makes demands on them to give to Him so that He can have a platform on which to bless them. We must never forget that even that which we give is given to us by the Lord. So God provides for us so that we can give to Him in order to receive more from Him. This is captured by the scripture that says God gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater (Isa 55: 10). God knows that you can't have a harvest until you sow a seed, so He gives you seed. He then calls on you to give the seed to Him, so that He can multiply it and bring it as bread for you to eat and also have more seed to sow. Therefore, actually it is what God gives that you are giving back.
The only way to receive from God is by giving to Him. Your giving is the rail line on which the train of your provision runs. Any man who refuses to give to God shuts the door of provision to himself. Giving is a bridge to cross to the land of your provision. When you give, a bridge is built to connect you to where the provision is. The work of God is fully provided for by the Lord Himself who is the Possessor of Heaven and Earth. The reason why God invites people to give in church is because He wants them to get access to His blessings.

Prayer/Action
* Appreciate God for the privilege of giving.
* Ask the Lord never to let your giving go unnoticed, in Jesus’ name.
* Ask for the heart that gives the best to God, in the name of Jesus.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
My glory shall shine globally like the sun in 2017, prevail over darkness like the stars and burn my enemies like fire, in Jesus' mighty name.

Beyond my seed

Sunday 2 April
READ: 2 Cor. 9:10
MORE LESSON: Gal. 6:9-10

When a seed is planted, there is need to nurture it by weeding, applying fertilizer, watering, and doing every other thing needed to ensure a good harvest. A farmer who plants and goes to sleep will soon find himself begging for bread no matter how skillful he is in planting. There is a place of skill in every profession but there is also a place for work. For a famer, planting the seed is not the end. After planting, there is more to do if he must harvest. Harvest doesn’t just come; it is worked for. It is possible for a person to plant a seed and not see harvest if he does not follow up the planting with continuous nurturing and tendering of the plant until it is mature.
At the beginning of the year, many decide to do and achieve a lot of things in the year but it should not be left at that; you are to continue to work towards it. Andrew Murray, a renowned man of God, once said God’s desire is to accomplish the desire He has in your heart if the ideas and the plans are according to His will. But the onus still lies on you to work out the results you want.
In between the planting and the harvest is a time to work on that which was planted. I pray for you that your seed will not die and your harvest will not waste. Things that we blame the enemy for at times may be a result of our negligence of what we should have done but didn’t do. You should not be ignorant of the fact that things don’t just happen; people make them happen. And that is the message I have for you this morning. If you want to be able to say that God has blessed your effort this year and has made all your plans to prosper, then you must be ready to work at it. It is not too late to do the right thing and the Lord will bless what you do. I believe you have planted your seed; it is now time to nurture that seed to harvest.
Nurturing your seed involves: living right, doing the will of God, confessing positive things in the face of negative things and living by divine instructions among other things! Take note of those who refuse to obey what we say in this letter. Stay away from them so they will be ashamed: 2 Thes. 3:14 (NLT).

PRAYER/ACTION
* My seed shall not die, my harvest shall not be corrupted, in Jesus’ name.
* I reject negligence after sowing, in the mighty name of Jesus.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
I am of the seed of Abraham, root of David and offshoot of Jesus, no man born of a woman shall be able to uproot me from the land of the living in 2017, in the mighty name of Jesus.

Parenting: Father and Mother

Saturday 1 April
READ: Psa. 127: 3-5
MORE LESSON: Eph. 6:1-5; Deut. 4:9-10

A father has priestly role in the home. The work of a priest is to bless the people and represent them before God. A priest is the cover for the people he represents because he appears before God for them. So a father is a burden bearer of the home. He carries the burden of all his family members before God and intercedes on their behalf. A priest blesses the people he represents and prays against any curse that might be placed on them. A priest also guides and leads: the leadership of the father should first be seen in creating a spiritual atmosphere where the wife and the children can grow. He leads them in the way of the Lord by first being an example for the whole family to follow. The Lord says of Abraham, … I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD… Gen. 18:19. This is the role a father should play in the home.
Doing the will of the Lord should not be a matter of choice for the wife and the children; it is what the father should command to be done. The days we live in are days where there are laws and regulations that have collapsed the true nature of the family institution that God created. Many of our fundamental rights are totally against the Bible. A child in some developed countries can get his parents arrested for correcting him for doing what is wrong. This is the situation today; but we should not forget that we are Christians and are not of the world.
The father is an instructor, who should not spare the rod. The Bible says in Pro. 13:24, He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him quickly. The little things you ignore today may later hunt the future of the child you spoilt. A son who is without chastisement is like a bastard. Children have their excesses and most times these are not to be ignored. There are stories all around of parents who go to their children’s school to fight because a teacher disciplined them. Discipline does not kill but ignoring discipline does (Prov. 23:13-14).
Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying: Pro. 19:18. When you truly train up a child in the way he should go, you have secured the future for him because he will not depart from what he has learnt. Children are God’s heritage and we have the responsibility of raising them for the glory of God. Parenting is not limited to fathers alone, it is an assignment for fathers and mothers together. Since it took the two to bring forth, the two must also build their offspring. Fathers must carry their wives along in building the children and leading the home. The consequences of a divided home can only be imagined. A home comprises of the father, mother and children and all have a God-given role to play in the making of a good home.

PRAYER/ACTION
* Lord, help our fathers and mothers to always work in the unity of purpose, in Jesus’ name.
* Let division and strife seize in our homes, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
The windows of Heaven shall not be shut against me this year, the dew and the rain shall come to my land in its season and my harvest shall not fail, in the name of Jesus.

Parenting: The Father

Friday 31 March
READ: Gen.18:19
MORE LESSONS: Eph 6:1-5, Deut. 4:9-10

Fatherhood is a blessing because a lot of things culminate into maturing a man to the position of a father. A father has the oversight because he has seen what others coming after him are just seeing or about to see, … keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen…especially the day that thou stoodest before the LORD thy God: Deut. 4:9-10. A father is a bundle of experience with man and God. A father, as the one in our text, should be able to share with his children certain experiences, especially the ones where he encountered God. It is not enough to be called a father because a man is able to impregnate a woman. Experience goes with fatherhood. It is by the experience garnered over the years that a father can lead others to becoming fathers.
A person who fathers without experience will fail in his role. The experiences God has taken you through as a father are not for fun, they are proofs of God's faithfulness and should be taught to the younger generation. Fathers should tell the younger generation about the faithfulness of God and His ability to perform His counsels. The revelations of God that the fathers have received are to be taught to the children so that the children can in turn seek God and have something to teach the generation after them. That is the plan of God as we can see in our text.
A father is also a provider. The providing ability of the father comes from trusting God for supply. When a man ceases in his responsibility to provide for his own house, that moment he ceases to be a man of faith and he's worse than an infidel, for the just lives by faith. A father has the responsibility of teaching his children to trust in God for the supply of their need. Though most of the things the children need come directly from the father, he should use this to teach them that God is the Jehovah Nissi like Abraham told Isaac when he asked for the ram for the sacrifice. Our children should be taught the faithfulness of God in providing their need.
A father is the defender and protector of the family. He is the Chief Security Officer of the home. This is not only physically but spiritually. He must be sensitive to the things that happen around him. He must keep his home from intruders and make sure that every member of his home is secure. He has the spiritual oversight of the home and must do all to be on guard at all times.

Prayer/Action
* I speak glory and honour over my spiritual/biological fathers, in Jesus’ name.
* All that makes a father a father shall not be missing in them, in the name of Jesus.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
I break the yoke of stagnation, I receive power to advance and I gain speed from today on, in the name of Jesus.