Secrets to a Successful Home II

Tuesday 9 May
READ: Gen 2: 18 - 25
MORE LESSON: Eph. 5: 21 – 6: 4

Statistically 50% of the marriages in the United States end up in divorce. While the figures are much lower in Nigeria, it is growing and even creeping more and more into the Church. We have to fortify our marriages against the forces of hell. A lot of people go to psychology books, human ideologies and techniques for help. Some try to run their marriage by how their father and mother ran their home. Others follow cultural practices as the yardstick for their homes. However, only a home founded on the Rock will stand; all other ground is sinking sand. The home must be sealed together in the spiritual before it stays together in the physical. Praying together, studying the Word of God together, staying together under God's cover in the same assembly and being united in the spirit are key.
When God created the first home, it was entirely His idea. It wasn't the man that went to God to beg for a wife. God saw the man, decided that he needed a wife, created the woman for him and brought her to him. Everything about the home was initiated and executed by God. Removing God from the home that He authored is the root of all the problems that men face at the home front.
The first man and woman were not brought together by human ability. It wasn't by feelings, dating, match-making, Facebook or cultural similarity that was the basis of their marriage. It was the Spirit of God. The mode of the first marriage was by spiritual capability. Adam woke up from sleep and said what happened when he was asleep. He said, This shall be called a woman for God took her from me when I was unconscious; her bone was made from my bone and her flesh from my flesh. It takes a spiritual man to tell you what happened in his absence. Adam named all the animals and it was what God wanted them to bear that he called them. This shows that Adam's mind was connected to God's. For marriage to be successful, the man and the woman must be connected to God's mind.
When the father, mother and children in a home are in good contact with God, all things fall into their proper place eventually. The greatest key to a happy home is connection to the Almighty. When the father, mother and children are all connected to God individually, God becomes the pivot around which the home is built. Such a home will never crumble because it is held centrally by the One that cannot fall apart. No principle in this world can redeem a home whose parties are far from God. The secret to a successful home is for each party to be firmly connected to God.

Prayer/Action
* I rebuke the spirit of divorce over my home and my loved ones’, in Jesus’ name.
* O God, give me a Christian home, in the mighty name of Jesus.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
On the authority of God's goodness, I refuse to be enrolled in any register of misfortune this year, in the name of Jesus.

Secrets to a Successful Home I

Monday 8 May
READ: Gen 2: 18 - 25
MORE LESSON: Matt. 19: 4 - 6

A home is primarily a man and woman joined by God in the covenant of marriage. The children are products of the home. So the home consists of father, mother and children. The home also has a lot of people and environments surrounding and influencing it. Extended families, relatives, in-laws, neighbours, friends and colleagues are all influences around the home. Culture also is an influence around the home. Some cultural practices have bound the home together while some have destroyed it altogether. All the forces in the environment of the home are important and have their proper place. However, the spiritual - the Spirit and Word of God - is the singular most important factor that should rule our homes.
It is important to ask yourself what is influencing your home. Whether you are married or single, you have a home. If you have not started a home, you come from a home. The most vital of all the environments of the home is the spiritual. Our homes must be ruled by God from the spiritual and not by culture, in-laws, relatives or neighbours. The spiritual is the most important environment of the home because the home itself is foremost spiritual. The home is spiritual because the home is God's idea. God is a Spirit and so the home is spiritual. Man also is first and foremost a spirit who lives in a body. Adam was sleeping when his wife was created but he woke up and knew that she was created from his rib without anyone telling him. This is because he recognised her by the spirit and not in the flesh. The Author of the home is spiritual, the process of forming the home is spiritual and the people involved are spirit beings. So how do men think the home can work when they neglect the spiritual?
When there are issues in the home that need remedy, the greatest solution is to go to the spiritual and resolve the problem. By 'spiritual', we mean the applications of the Scripture and the place of prayer, the Word and the Spirit of God. There are many natural principles that have been postulated for making marriage work and there is nothing bad about them. Some of them include buying gifts for your spouse, being romantic, holding hands publicly etc. However, be it known to you that the spiritual rules the physical. When the marriage is worked from the spiritual, everything in the physical begins to fall into proper perspective. When the spiritual is missing, nothing works even if every other physical thing is in place. Psychology is not the key to the success of marriage; Jesus is.
The greatest secret and strength of the home is the revelation that the home is spiritual. Every other thing comes to play only after you run the home by the Word and Spirit of God.

Prayer/Action
* I declare that the spirit of righteousness will rule my home, in Jesus’ name.
* The altar of God in my home will not lack fire, in the mighty name of Jesus.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
This year, my hope shall not be dashed, every promise made to me shall be sure and fulfilled, in the name of Jesus.

Blossom in your Wilderness

Sunday May
READ: 2Sam. 17:27-29
MORE LESSONS: Psa. 6:8-9

In our text, David was going through a wilderness experience. He had been driven out of the palace in Jerusalem by his own son, Absalom; his trusted friend Ahitophel had taken counsel against him. His concubines had been defiled publicly by his son, Absalom. The king had been humiliated and driven into the wilderness together with his royal troop with no food, or provision. All was hot and dry.
Then God sent three men with abundant provision to refresh David in the wilderness. This is the way God works. When you find yourself in the wilderness of life for whatever reason, He sends provision to refresh you, so that even in the wilderness you can blossom. When Israel was crossing the wilderness into their inheritance in Canaan, God gave them abundance of manna, meat and water from the Rock that followed them, to refresh their souls. The Lord will never leave nor forsake His people. What is it that you have been going through? In what wilderness experience have you found yourself? The Lord is there for you even in the wilderness. He will supply all that you need. He will send helpers who will bring provisions that you need. Even in the wilderness, God is still a God of provision, He will furnish a table in the wilderness.
The only question today is, Who hath believed our report? Isa.53:1. Who is ready to believe that God can do all things, including turning a wilderness to a table of provision,
The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly…: Isa.35:1-2.
No matter the dry situation you are going through, call Jehovah to it. Hand over your position, debts, financial crisis to Him and leave them there with Him. If you believe in the power that makes the wilderness to blossom as the rose, you will see the miracle of the Lord.

Prayer/Action
* Lord wherever I find myself, I shall prosper and blossom, in Jesus’ name.
* I reverse every dry situation around my life today, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Today, every curse of back-to-square one working in my life and destiny, break now, in the name of Jesus.

Following Jesus

Saturday 6 May
READ: Matt.4:18-25
MORE LESSONS: Gen. 12:1

Following Jesus is not an adventure we choose but a quest that comes to us; we are called to it. Jesus, during His earthy ministry, called men with whom He fulfilled His mandate on earth, people like John, James, Peter and Andrew (John 1:40-43). As He did then when He was physically on earth, He is still doing today. However, most often, when God calls us, we are tempted to go only halfway with Him. I will follow you if you show me where you are taking me or I will go if I can still keep my boyfriend, my sinful lifestyle and if the pay will be reasonable enough. The call of God to man for fellowship is always complete, total and never an easy thing, but it is always for a life of fulfilment, …I will make you fishers of men: Matt 4:19. The call of God on your life is to make you what you are designed to be, which sometimes you may or may not know.
Moreover, following Jesus entails certain virtues and sacrifices as enumerated by the Scripture.
1. Self-denial (Matt 16:24): the call of God upon your life is a call unto sacrifice and discipline. The title “disciple” came from the word discipline; disciples are disciplined people, who are able to follow in all situations.
2. Your possessions (Luke 18:22): Jesus said … sell all.…That is to say, transfer its ownership. Everything you possess is for the purpose of your call, when you let it go for God’s work on earth, you will meet it in Heaven. Your possessions can stand in the way of your call if care is not taken. Following the Lord involves avoiding distractions.
3. Things that make for peace (Rom.14:19): being an agent of peace, as a believer means following the Lord, bridging the gap between God and man, and the gap between man and man. In following the Lord, you must follow peace with all men (Heb.12:14).
4. Righteousness and godliness (I Tim.6:11): any man who is following Jesus must also follow virtues like righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience and meekness.
The choice to follow Jesus is a choice to follow certain things and a choice to also run away from others. Jesus said that whoever follows Him must be ready to forsake “all” to be able to do so. A type of Christianity that allows everything, not being selective and discerning, is not true Christianity. We must do all things to be able to follow completely.

Prayer/Action
* Ask the Lord to rid you of any distractions from whole heartedly following the Lord, in the name of Jesus.
* Pray that Jesus Himself will hold your hand and lead you through the rest of life, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Satan, all your acts and plans for my life end with this day and this month, in the name of Jesus.