Rules in Engaging Year 2018

Monday 1 January

Happy New Year and Welcome to 2018
It is our Year of Divine Authority  ...the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force:  Matt 11:12. And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open: Isaiah 22: 22.

To exercise divine authority demands that we recognize that:
1. We are people of power.
2. Our authority stems from the power of God.
3. We represent God, the Owner and Possessor of Heaven and the earth, here in the world; therefore, the earth must hear us this year.
4. As the children of God who owns the earth, we have the right to govern and direct the earth.
5. By the privilege of redemption, we can exercise God's authority over everything on the earth.
6. By our sonship in Christ, we do not beg situations and circumstances; we command them.
7. There is a giant in us that must not live like a toy.
8. The only thing we cannot own is what we cannot command by divine authority.
9. This year will respond only to those who take it by force.
10. We have a dominion mandate by which we can rule 2018 by His Word for the year

TODAY’S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Oh year, year, year 2018, hear the voice of the Lord, you shall be for my joy and fulfilment, in the mighty name of Jesus.

The Ten Lepers

Sunday 31 December
READ: Luke 17:11-19 
MORE LESSON:  1 Thess. 5: 18

Ten lepers approached Jesus and prayed Him to heal them. He asked them to go and show themselves to the priest, and as they went, they were healed.  It was the step of faith that they took as they went to meet the priest, according to the Word of the Lord, that released the power of God for their healing. A leper ordinarily was not supposed to appear before the priest, but becasue they went in faith according to the Word of Jesus, the leprosy disappeared before they met the priest. Therefore, they were healed not because of their qualifications but because of faith in the Word of God.

After they noticed that they had been healed, one of the lepers immediately returned to the Lord to give thanks. When he went back to Jesus, the Lord gave him an extra blessing - he made him whole. The others were merely healed but he was made whole. It was faith in God that healed them all but it was gratitude that sustained and perfected the healing of the one leper who returned to give thanks. The other nine lepers were forgotten but the one leper that returned to give thanks was noticed. Gratitude makes you to be noticed; it brings you to limelight.

The other nine lepers displayed their ignorance through their ingratitude. An ungrateful person is ignorant of the Person and principles of God. An ungrateful person belittles the blessing of the Lord and therefore is disqualified from more. The nine lepers made light of the fact that the leprosy had disappeared. They therefore missed the greater blessings that the Lord had in place for them after healing their leprosy. Don't take the 'little' blessings you receive for granted, thinking until you hit that major miracle before you give thanks and testify. At the end of this story, the other nine lepers lost their blessing because of ingratitude. Ungrateful people are always losers.

Gratitude can be learnt and can be taught. In fact, it should be taught from childhood. Gratitude starts from the home and from childhood; we should therefore teach children to be thankful and grateful so that they grow up to be grateful people.  Choose gratitude!

Grateful people are few in life; usually there is only one grateful person out of ten people. You must make a deliberate choice to be the one out of them. According to 2 Tim. 3: 1 – 2, one of the signs of the end time is ingratitude. We should make the deliberate choice not to be overcome by the spirit of ingratitude that holds sway on people in the world today.  Ingratitude shuts the doors of blessing against men while gratitude opens the door for greater blessings. Be like the one leper that returned to give thanks.

Prayer/Action
* Repent of any form of ingratitude.
* Pray to God that you will not be an ungrateful individual.
* Pray that your gratitude to God will never be short of a substance.

TODAY’S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Imela! Nagode! Jesu E sseun!! Hallelujah!!! 2017 ends today, thank You for sunshine, in the mighty name of Jesus.

No Thanks, No Extra

Saturday 30 December
READ: Luke 17: 12 – 19 
MORE LESSON: Psa. 103: 2

There is no one that God has not blessed, there are only people that think He has not blessed them enough. If you think that there are some things you have not got and so you refuse to give thanks, then you are missing on a very vital spiritual principle. God's principle for receiving more is thanking Him for the ones you have already. If you are prevented from thanking God for what you have because of what you don't have, you will be denied receiving those things you don't have yet. In other words, the extra you want is in thanking Him for what He has given already and so no thanks, no extra. I charge you today, if you want more of God's blessings, begin to thank him vigorously and sincerely for all He has ever done for you.

In Luke 17: 12 -19, we see ten lepers healed by Jesus and only one returned to give Him thanks. The other nine hurried away to pursue the next blessing; they were focused on going to the priest so that they might be restored to their families and communities. But the one that was more focused on giving thanks for what he had been given went back to the Great High Priest. The result was that Jesus said to him, ...Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole: Lk. 17:19. The others were just healed but he was made whole. Being made whole means that the sickness was not just removed, every loss he had experienced as a result of the sickness was reversed and all blessings the sickness denied him were endowed on him. He was given total restoration as an extra over the others because he gave thanks.  

The following are ways to thank God so that you can connect with the extra from Him:
1. Constantly give testimonies of God's goodness to you. A testimony is a tool for duplication of miracles. When you tell of what God did yesterday, He will do more tomorrow.

2. Write down the things God has done for you and praise Him for them. Many people have books where they write what they want God to do for them but no book to write what He has done.

3. Create a memorial of what God has done. You can immortalise what God has done for you by doing something that each time you and others see, there will be a remembrance that God did something for you.

4. Make a sacrifice to God that you will always feel. When God gave Samuel to Hannah, she brought him back to God- that is a sacrifice. God gave her other wonderful children as an extra. When you give something that 'creates a scar' on your bank account, time, energy or property, then you are making a sacrifice.

Today is the day to thank God and as you do, extra blessings are on your way.

Prayer/Action
* Proclaim that you will not be silent about God’s goodness in your life, in Jesus’ name.
* Pray that the spirit of ingratitude will not take over you, in Jesus’ name.
* Pray that the blessing of gratitude will not elude you, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY’S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Jesus, You are the power that held 2017, January- December, thank You for not allowing it to drop off. Oh for a thousand tongues to thank You, thank You Jesus for the clouds and the sunshine but particularly that the clouds did not overtake the sunshine, in Jesus' name.

Be a Light

Friday 29 December
READ: Matt. 5:11-16 
MORE LESSON:  Dan. 5:1-17

Regardless of colour, race, tribe, background or other human differences, everyone loves light. Light is vital to every good and crucial activity on earth; for example making food by plants is impossible without light. In fact, all life of man and animals depends on light. God is light; in Him there is no darkness (I Jn. 1:5). The period of darkness that prophet Isaiah said would cover the whole earth is now. Despite the great technological progress and scientific knowledge of this age, there's great darkness in men's lives in all the nations. New diseases are being discovered and combated daily; however, some, such as HIV, cancer, have defied solution. For this and other reasons, Jesus was manifested and is calling on His followers to be light in this dark world.

Being a light means to live radiant and reflective life. It starts with accepting Jesus the Light into your life, In him was life; and the life was the light of men: Jn. 1:4. This acceptance must be evident by allowing the life of Christ to reflect through you in the following ways: First, share your redemption testimony with others around you like the woman of Samaria (Jn. 4:39). Second, be an example of godliness wherever you are (Phil. 2:15). Let people around you see and testify of the virtues of integrity, honesty and the likes in you.

Third, manifest the joy of the Lord in all situations, for the joy of the Lord is your strength (Neh. 8:10). Allow God's unquenchable joy to manifest in you to give hope to the hopeless, encouragement to the downcast and joy to the sorrowful. This is possible because you have God the source of all joy inside you. Let joy radiate through you and draw men to the experience of God's love. Negative confessions, pity party, expression of hopelessness, down-cast acts, dejection, faithlessness, suicide tendencies and the likes are not acts of the light. No child of God must indulge in them come what may. They negate the light and will not attract anyone to Christ.

As lights, believers must rise above board, confront challenges and not give in to them. Light is attractive when it's bright, not dull. Believers must be bright at all times, including in difficult times because, ...weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning: Psa. 30:5.
Child of God, be bright and positive enough to be the light that you are meant to be.

Prayer/Action
* Pray that the glory of God will reflect through you this year, in Jesus’ name.
* Declare that you are a son of light, you will not walk in darkness, nor manifest works of darkness, in the name of Jesus.
* Ask God to defend the light of your destiny, in the mighty name of Jesus.

TODAY’S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Father of all good things, thank You for giving me a day that is guaranteed beyond the present, I will rejoice and be glad from year to year, in the mighty name of Jesus.