Rightside Up

Tuesday 28 November
READ: Luke 19:1-9    
MORE LESSON:  Phil. 3:9

Being born again is not just about going to church or being baptized. It is an experience. There is this story of a man who tried to grow spiritually before he was born again; he was born into a pagan family but grew up going to church. He went to a secondary school where he served as a leader in many Christian organizations, which made him believe that he was a Christian. But after it became very clear that he was not saved, he started drinking and doing many terrible things openly and without shame until he became very miserable.

Then one day as he was singing, he became convicted by the words of the songs. He knelt down, confessed his sins, then God began to change his life, and he got the assurance that he was truly saved. He immediately joined a group for Bible study, and started to learn more about the new life in Christ Jesus. He also began to share with others what Christ has done in his life.

Being saved or born again is not a theory or a story but a life changing experience. Confession without change is false. Have you seen any changes in your life? What are they? If none, then confess your sins afresh, ask for pardon, and the joy of salvation will bubble in your heart. Thereafter, a new life in Christ Jesus will begin immediately in you.
That is the right order of walking with God and not the other way round. Apostle Paul got it wrong early in life. He was religious but not born again:

Circumcised the eighth day, of the  stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal,  persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless: Phil. 3:5-6. He was not born again until he met Jesus on the road to Damascus (Act. 9: 1-8).
In contrast, Zacchaeus’ case was a different order; he came as a sinner to see Jesus. Then he had got an encounter, confessed his sins and received Jesus into his home and life. Please crosscheck today. Are you are religious or saved?

Prayer/Action
* Father, give me a new life, in Jesus' name.
* I receive the right spirit to serve God today, in the mighty name of Jesus.
* Dear Lord, reveal yourself to me in all that I do, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY’S PROPHETIC PRAYER
I proclaim that the season of famine is over; I release my rain in abundance now, in the name of Jesus.

Balm of Gilead

Monday 27 November
READ: Jer. 8: 22 
MORE LESSON: Isa. 53: 4-5

The Lord is the great Healer. Where medical science fails, the Spirit of the Lord is able. As a covenant child of God, it is not you who should be a slave to sickness and a regular customer of the hospital. The Bible asks a question, is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there, why then is the health of the daughter of my people not recovered? Jer. 8: 22. Is it because there is no healing power in God that you have become a specimen for the medical lab? I curse every sickness in your body in Jesus’ name. Child of God, there is a balm in Gilead.

However, you must become desperate enough to come to God and demand His healing touch. Talking about desperation, after a healing service in church where several people were healed, a young lady came to meet me in the office, bringing some other people along. She told me that she had a sore on both sides of her thigh and that the sore had been there for six years. When people become desperate, they forget about decorum, she came with people but she said she wanted to show me the excruciating sore.  I told her that was not part of what I wanted to see, but she was crying and pleading that I had to see it. I refused, so she brought out her phone and said she would show me the picture. I said I was not interested in that as well, so she started crying helplessly in front of the people present. She had gone to hospitals and there was no help for her. She only stopped sobbing when I told her that I didn't need to see it before the great Physician would heal her.

Under the unction of the Holy Ghost, I asked her to sit down, stretch her two legs and open her two hands on her laps. After a while, she screamed. I was surprised as everyone else, I had not even prayed. The truth is that she had never been able to sit like that for years and immediately she sat that way, the boils burst. I didn't know that the altar that afflicted her carried a taboo, and the taboo was the sitting position she just assumed. She got relieved and her healing came immediately.

Today, an end has come to every anti-covenant activity that has brought sickness into your life. I apply the balm of Gilead to every source of pain in your body and I command that your health speedily appear, in Jesus’ name. As the Lord lives whom I serve, every altar that speaks sickness to you is swallowed by the fire of the Holy Ghost, in Jesus’ name.

Prayer/Action
* Ask God to heal you of any sickness, physical or spiritual, in Jesus’ name.
* Declare with confidence, “By His stripes I am healed”, in Jesus’ name.
* Reject any negative report over your health and claim your healing, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY’S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Every power that says my time of release has not come, die by fire today, in the name of Jesus.

It is by Grace

Sunday 26 November
READ: Rom. 11: 5 – 6   
MORE LESSON: Rom. 9: 15 – 16

A highly respected servant of God once told us that if God were to make a choice based on qualification, it shouldn't have been him. All of us were stunned because we actually saw him as a person that was high in the esteem of God and man. But he told us that his mother was not the first wife in his father's house, and so by biblical implication, he was born in adultery. If God was to choose by human qualification, He wouldn't have chosen him. He also said that he borrowed shoes to graduate in secondary school. So if God's election was to be by a good financial  background, he would not have qualified. He is great and highly placed today by the grace of God.

I have also found that the highest qualification of man does not impress God. It is only who He decides to have mercy on. Being chosen and distinguished by God does not leave room for human pride; it is not the making of man. It is by the election of God's grace (Rom. 11: 5 -6). No man should take credit for the work of God in his life because he can’t pay for it, neither is it because of his capacity; it is the gift of God. Today, be like-minded, that whatever God is doing through you or has given you, you should not brag about it. After all, ...who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? 1 Cor. 4:7 (NKJV).

It is foolish for a man to go around in pride because God is using him. God's power and grace on any man is a gift that  God put there. Some people are proud of being 'Men of God', forgetting that the man is not important, it is the God behind the man that matters. Take the God away, and the man becomes nothing. Today, whatever God has helped you to achieve or is helping you to do, I want you to maintain a humble posture and not see yourself as more spiritual or better than others around. Recognise that it is only by His mercy and grace that you are who you are. It is because God delights in you that He elected you to stand in that place. Do not give in to pride because if you do, the delight of God will be turned away and that favour will be removed and you will realise that on your own, you are nobody. I pray earnestly that God will never move His grace from your life, in Jesus’ name.

Prayer/Action
* Pray that grace will lift you above every high standard, in Jesus’ name.
* Pray that God will not forbid His grace from increasing in your life, in Jesus’ name.
* Ask God to help you live a life of humility, in Jesus’ mighty name.

TODAY’S PROPHETIC PRAYER
As the Lord ordered the release of the donkey (Mk 11:1-10) because he needed it, so I declare my own release today from everything tying me down because the Lord needs my life for His glory, in the name of Jesus.

No dry Day

Saturday 25 November
READ: Jer.17:7-8    
MORE LESSONS: 1 Kings 17: 1-16

Elijah was a man very zealous for the Lord. When Israel forsook the way of the Lord and turned to idols, He single-handedly declared drought upon the nation, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, but according to my word:1 Kings 17: 1. When there is no rain and dew, the plants cannot thrive and famine sets in. So Elijah triggered a national famine. Did Elijah overlook the fact that if Israel experienced famine, he would partake of it? Did he forget that if there was no food in the nation, there would be no food for him as well? No, Elijah knew but he understood something that we need to understand today, The LORD knoweth the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be forever. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time: and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied: Psa. 37:18-19. As it turned out, Elijah was fed throughout the period of famine.

You need to get to the point where you sincerely know that rain or no rain, God can take care of you. Salary or no salary, connection or no connection, job or no job, He can ceaselessly supply your needs. In Elijah's case, God led him to the brook Cherith and sent ravens to bring him food daily. But it was not the brook and the ravens that were the source of his provision, it was God. So when the brook dried up, God the source of the supply opened another channel. Next time a man
closes a door on you, don't run helter-skelter; God is your source and He will open another means.

God sent Elijah to a widow in Zarephath and did a miracle so that the cruise of oil in the widow’s house did not dry throughout the famine. There was famine in the land but they didn't know a single dry day; that shall be your portion, in Jesus’ name. You need to know how this happened to Elijah so that you could apply it to your life. As earlier said, Elijah was zealous for God, he was a God-addict. He didn't start seeking God because of the famine, he had been irrevocably committed to God. It is possible to experience surplus and abundance no matter the economic problems in your nation, but you must be relentlessly committed to God. Secondly, Elijah's trust was not in the rain, brook, ravens or the widow; he understood that these were just channels. His trust was in God. As you trust God with all your heart, you will not experience a dry moment anymore, in Jesus’ name.

Prayer/Action
* Ask the Lord to give you exceptional portion no matter the prevalent evil in the nation, in the mighty name of Jesus.
* Declare that your provision shall not stop even in the time of famine, in Jesus’ name.
* Ask God to help you trust Him in every situation, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY’S PROPHETIC PRAYER
I am a servant of the kingdom of God; I shall not serve the devil, sin or the world, in the mighty name of Jesus.