No Applause

Monday 18 December
READ: Matt. 6:1-4  
MORE LESSON:  Matt. 19:16-22

Giving and receiving are essential parts of the circle of life; for example, the rain gives the earth water, which it receives to produce food for man and others to eat and live. Man receives energy and strength from food to be able to give back in different ways of productivity to his immediate environment, family, community and society at large. Indeed, giving is essential and is so much built into our entire existence and daily survival that it must be done without expecting applause and accolade, especially when done in obedience to God's command and instructions, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering: Exo. 25:2.

In the world, when men give money for projects or charity, they are applauded but for us Christians, our attitude should be different. We must learn to give cheerfully with simplicity, without expecting human applause or appreciation. Remember Jesus’ words: Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven: Matt. 6:1. Even when men forget to applaud or announce your donations, be assured that your heavenly Father will reward you, which is of greater effect than the applause of men. The windows of Heaven will be open upon you such that there shall not be room enough to receive the blessing (Mal. 3:10).

My mother once told me an adage which literally translates to saying,  “if you labour at God's backyard He takes over the care at the front for you”. Nothing done for God in the secret will go without public reward. And God's public reward cannot be compared with men's loudest celebration. Even God's secret reward cannot be compared with men's public applause. I once read a commentary on the miracle of the multiplying of oil for a widow of the prophet, it says that the dead prophet was one of the prophets who hid and secretly fed seven thousand priests in the days that Elijah ran from Jezebel (I Kgs. 19:1-18). No wonder the wife was not abandoned in the day of trouble. The care of Jonathan for David was secret but the reward was public for his son, Mephiboseth (II Sam. 9:1).

Don't look up to men for reward, God can do more.    

Prayer/Action
* Pray that no earthly reward will replace your heavenly reward, in Jesus’ name.
* Ask that the windows of Heaven will be open upon you, in the name of Jesus.
* Command the devil to take his hands off your service for God, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY’S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Every register of death, accident, poison and affliction bearing my name this December, catch fire, in the name of Jesus.

Wilderness Training

Sunday 17 December
READ: Deut. 8:1-6 
MORE LESSON:  Heb. 12:1-3

Sister Kate left the pastor's counselling room weeping, and repeatedly asked herself: Why the wilderness? What am I supposed to learn from this challenge of life, which the pastor said is “wilderness training”? Five years after she graduated from the university with a Second Class Upper in Mechanical Engineering, she had not secured a job commensurate with her qualification. She had an interview two weeks earlier but the only reason why she was not given the job was because she refused to compromise her Christian belief to go to bed with the chairman of the interview panel who had invited her for a dinner at a hotel.

Sister Kate's experience is common among many believers looking for employment, admission to school or one thing or the other. Why will God allow His children to go through such unpalatable experience in the hands of some men in authority because of their faith in Christ Jesus?  Can't God, the all-powerful, cause us to get what we are entitled to without stress? Why do believers sometimes have to go through some pains to get some basic necessities of life? Kate's pastor called such experience wilderness training. It would not have cost God anything to take the Israelites to the Canaan land through the way of the land of the Philistines, which was shorter. But God understood His people more than they understood themselves. God said, ...Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt: But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea...:  Exo. 13:17-18.

In the Scripture reading today, God enumerated some of the reasons why He took the Israelites through the wilderness: to humble them; to test them in order to know what was in their heart, whether they would keep His commandments. But beyond the test, God fed them for forty years in the wilderness where the people did not cultivate or harvest. He caused their clothes and shoes to grow with them. God was also out to prove to them that He could supply all their needs without the people labouring. While it is necessary to work and earn a living, many believers do not know how to live beyond their salary. Some do not know how to wait upon God until He answers them. They are too quick to run after alternative solution. When God wants to train you to live beyond your labour, or to learn to wait upon Him, He may send you to some sort of wilderness.  I pray that you will not fail in God's training school.

Prayer/Action
* Ask for help to learn whatever lesson God wants you to learn from whatever you are going through now, in Jesus’ name.
* Pray that your wilderness training will lead you to your promised land, in Jesus’ name.
* Thank the Lord for His love and care for you, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY’S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Oh God, You who paid Israel generational arrears in one night , let the arrears of my destiny not pass this December, beginning from today, in the mighty name of Jesus.

The Blood in your System

Saturday 16 December
READ: John 1:12-13  
MORE LESSON:  1 Pet. 1:18-21

Two little sisters of ages 4 and 6 entered into an argument about who their 3-month old younger brother resembled in the presence of their parents. The 6-year old said the boy was like her; but the younger argued, “No, the boy is like me, he is also like daddy”. Then the older one turned to the mother, wanting to get her support, and said, “Mummy, is it not true that the baby looks like you and I?” Then the mother said to the two girls, “The two of you are alike”. On hearing this, the 4-year old exclaimed, “Then the boy looks like me, you, daddy and mummy!” “Yes”, acknowledged the 6 year old, “and that means you and I resemble mummy and daddy too!” At that point, the whole family began to laugh.

The three children resemble one another and their parents because it is their parent's genes (blood) that make up their body's systems. The scriptural passage says that as many as receive Jesus and believe in his name become children of God, Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God: v.13. Thus, they become sons of God. This means that at salvation, you take up new genes whereby the blood that now flows in your system is that of God.

The implications are far reaching. For example, if the blood that flows in your veins and arteries is that of God, it means you are healed of all blood related diseases. Since God's blood cannot carry sickle cell, leukaemia, haemophilia, HIV or any kind of blood diseases that people sometimes inherit from their biological parents, you are free from all blood related diseases. Believe this and claim your freedom today in the name of Jesus. It also means that no family curse or covenant can run in your life because your natural descent has changed. God cannot walk under a curse, and so His children. You are God's son; therefore, you are an heir to His kingdom and everything therein: righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. These are your portion forever, in Jesus’ name.  

Prayer/Action
* Declare that you reject every form of blood related disease in your body because you carry God’s genes, in Jesus’ name. 
* Declare that all things have become new, so no affliction is permitted to remain in your life, in Jesus’ mighty name.
* Ask that the blood of Jesus will purge your body systems of every potential threats to your health, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY’S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Jehovah God, You are not a man, do for me what no man can do this December, in the name of Jesus.

Receiving from the Body of Christ

Friday 15 December
READ: Eph. 4: 16 
MORE LESSON:  1 Cor. 12: 25 - 31

One of the vital lessons for experiencing miracles is to be  able to receive from other  people in the Body of Christ, those that God has set over you as custodians of a particular blessing for your life. I went to minister in Owerri, Nigeria, many years ago and a woman told me she had a stomach issue that had defied medical help for years. She had gone to several teaching hospitals and paid large sums of money to no avail. Being a pastor’s wife, she had prayed and done all she knew how to do for years and she felt she was close to death. She had excruciating pain that would not go and the medical doctors couldn't diagnose what was wrong with her.

She told me all that she was going through so I prayed for her on phone and, to God’s glory, she was healed instantly. She had been married for four years and the pain had been a threat to her life and the joy of the marriage. The Lord healed her when she shared the issue and asked for prayer. After the healing, the husband, who knew me well, called and said he was happy that his wife summoned the courage to tell me about the issue that had plagued  them. He confessed that before then he was just ashamed of sharing it.

The reason this testimony is very important is that many believers and good Christians carry unnecessary problems because they are ashamed to come for help from people that God has ordained for them. Some feel that if they come out to share their problems they will be seen as weak or unspiritual. You don't have to miss out of God's provision of deliverance and help for you through His servants in the Body of Christ by trying to contain and solve all your problems yourself.

What then is the use of the spiritual gifts if you cannot obtain supply from others in the Body of Christ. The fact that you need to be helped by another doesn't mean that you are no longer spiritual. The fact that you are a pastor or minister of God doesn't mean that you may not need to receive healing through another pastor that God has graced in that area. It doesn't make you less anointed or less a servant of God when you are prayed for by another to be healed. God has graced every one differently and the only way some problems will ever be solved  is to receive through the person that God has committed that grace to.

So don't become so 'spiritual' that you cannot receive spiritual help through another person. You are not less spiritual if you admit your need and go to obtain help from God through another vessel.

Prayer/Action
* Decree that you are disconnected from every militating mentality.
* Resist the forces hindering you from accessing help.
* I bind the fear and shame that deny me of my divine heritage in Christ, in the mighty name of Jesus.

TODAY’S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Father, though late, the glory of 2017 shall not elude me and my family, in the mighty name of Jesus.