Discover and Surrender

Wednesday 24 January
READ: Jeremiah 1: 4 – 12         
MORE LESSON: Jeremiah 29: 11

Your destiny is not for you to decide; it is for you to discover. You don't make your destiny happen; you partner with God to let it happen. If you try to work your destiny out by yourself, you will make a mess of it but when you surrender it to Jesus, God will bear you until you arrive at His desired destination for you. Jer 29:11 says, For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
The Lord called Jeremiah when he was very young as recorded in Jer. 1: 4 – 12. He obeyed and began to serve the Lord and this assurance came from the Lord that His plans for him were of good and great ending.

Similarly, if you follow God, He will make greater things out of your life than you can ever make on your own. When God calls a man into an assignment, he should obey no matter how bleak the future looks in the face of the assignment. Every man that follows God's call always ends well. Don't do another man's work in a bid to design something that looks good for yourself.  Do not go another man's direction because you feel that the chances of success are greater in that direction. Stay with God and discover His path for your life. When you have discovered it, lay yourself down in surrender.

There are two important things for destiny fulfilment. The first is discovery and the other is surrender. When you have heard and discovered what the Lord wants you to do with your destiny, you need to lay yourself on the altar of sacrificial obedience. It is after you have laid yourself down to obey that the Holy Spirit comes upon you to empower you to fulfil the assignment . It is only the Holy Spirit that can help a man fulfil his destiny, and the Spirit will only perfect what He initiated. This is why it is absolutely important to discover what the Holy Spirit wants you to do with your life before you start pursuing selfish paths and ambitions. The greatest gift you can enjoy in destiny is the partnership of the Holy Spirit. The infilling of the Holy Spirit is received by faith but the partnership of the Holy Spirit comes through a life of surrender.

Have you taken time to wait on God to discover His plan for your life? Have you surrendered to the Holy Spirit for Him to have His way in your destiny? Don't be like Jonah who tried to run away from God and drowned his destiny. Surrender to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to lead you safely to the land of destiny.    

Prayer/Action
* Ask God to make known to you who He wants you to be.
* Ask for grace to walk in God’s purpose for your life and to fulfil your destiny.
* Pray that as clay is in the hand of the potter God will mould you into His perfect will for your life.

TODAY’S PROPHETIC PRAYER
2018, from start to finish, it's testimonies and thanksgivings to the glory of the Father, in Jesus' name.

Cast out the Culprit

Tuesday 23 January
READ: Jonaah 1: 1 – 17     
MORE LESSON: I Corinthians 15:33 

The Lord sent Jonah to go and preach His message in Nineveh but he ran off from God's assignment. He boarded a ship with merchants heading off to Tarshish.  In the middle  of the sea, pandemonium broke out as a very violent wind  raged against the ship and all  on board were about to be lost. It is dangerous to enter into the same ship with a man who has incurred the anger of God. As a leader, you need to ensure that all who are inside your 'leader-ship' follow God, so that no one will cause the whole ship to capsize. 

Jonah caused the storm which lasted for days. While the captain and all the other sailors were panicking and calling for help, Jonah was sleeping at the bunker. It was only after the captain, out of fear for his dear life, woke him up and interrogated him that they realized he was the culprit who put all of them in such trouble. They cast Jonah out of the ship and the storm subsided. Prov. 22:10 says, Cast out the scorner, and contention shall go out; yea, strife and reproach shall cease. There are people and things that could make your destiny capsize. No matter how much you like such things, you need to cast them out. Cast out all the enemies of God within your life and around your vicinity, so that you can have peace like a river.  These enemies could be habits, desires, relationships or even people.

Jonah's sin was that he went contrary to God's assignment for his life. Anything or anyone who causes you to go against God's assignment for your destiny is not to be accommodated. Any relationship that jeopardizes God's assignment for your destiny is to be severed. Your assignment is more important than comfort and any emotional relationship. God is speaking to you today; do not jeopardize your assignment by wrong relationships.

Jonah was cast out, and after staying in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, he repented and was able to go back to do God's assignment for his life. Therefore, it eventually happened to be to Jonah's advantage that he was cast out. There are people who it is only after they have been cast out of certain things and places that they will discover and fulfil God's assignment for their life. For example, a man may not discover his purpose and calling until he loses the job which got him so busy that he didn't even have time for God. A young lady, also, may never enter into her prophetic destiny until the wrong relationship she has with a man is shattered and her heart broken. I pray that God will not spare you of all He needs to do to you so that you will fulfil His divine purpose for your life, in Jesus name. 

Prayer/Action
* Pray that you will not company with men that will incur the anger of God.
* Pray that God will get you out of every relationship that will jeopardise your God’s ordained destiny.
* Pray that God’s mercy will not be taken away from you.

TODAY’S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Only the counsel of the Lord shall stand in my life in 2018, in the name of Jesus.  

It is a Test

Monday 22 January
READ: Hebrews 11: 8 - 19     
MORE LESSON: Genesis 22: 1- 18 

The Lord promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. Abraham and Sarah left their native land in obedience to godly instructions and walked with God into the unknown. When they were called, they didn't have a child of their own and they had to wait on the Lord for twenty five years before they eventually got Isaac.  When the Lord spoke to Abraham one more time and asked him to lay down Isaac his only son, it was a sacrifice one too many.

Have you ever gotten to a point in your Christian walk where it looks like the cross you are asked to carry is too heavy and you do not have the strength for it? When God demanded for Isaac, there were many questions in Abraham's mind. Why Isaac and not Ishmael?  Why did You give me a son that You would take back? Abraham didn't have the answers to all his questions but he still obeyed. Abraham is called the father of faith because he obeyed God even when he didn't understand all the details.

Faith is obedience to the Word of God even when you don't know how He will work things out for you. Faith is when, like Jesus, you say, …Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done: Luke 22:42.
Abraham took Isaac to the mountain, tied him up and raised the knife but God quickly called out of heaven and told him that it was a test of faith which he had passed. Abraham got a promise of blessing that was sealed with an oath. God had something great in mind all the while he was making Abraham pass through the difficult road.

I want you to know that God has something great in mind for you no matter the situation you are going through today. You might have left all to serve God in the ministry and things seem as if they are not working. You have believed God's word for fruitfulness and the children are yet to come. You may have a calling of excellence over your life but right now you are struggling in your academics. You may even be serving God and there is no evidence of results in your own life.  I want you to know that God has a backup surprise for you. Just keep walking on in faith even if you do not know how He will come through for you. This phase is a test and when you pass the test of obedience and faith in the face of challenges, you will see God rise up and give you that which is beyond your wildest dreams and expectations. It is a test! 

Prayer/Action
* Give God thanks because He has you in mind in all you are going through.
* Pray that your present test and trail of your faith will end up in glorious testimony.
* Pray that you will not fail in the test of your faith.

TODAY’S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Thank You Jesus for these 365 days of 2018, it's a gift from You, I shall be a victor and not a loser, in Jesus’ name.

Contending for your Destiny

Sunday 21 January
READ: Numbers 27:1-7            
MORE LESSON: Matthew 13:24-25    

There was a man in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital, who when the government came to demolish his house said, I built this house with my pension and it is everything I have at the age of seventy. I invested into this house. This is everything I have worked for all my life. If you want to demolish this, I'm not stopping you but I will stay inside; demolish me with the house so that after the demolition, I won't be around to feel the pain. The authorities had demolished several big houses but for this man's small house, they negotiated and paid him his money. He was also able to salvage some of the building materials, and was better off because he contended for his house.

The reason why the enemy is still   planting in your life is because your Christianity lacks the power of contention for ownership. You don't contend for what is yours which is the reason for the gradual encroachment into your destiny and you stand as a spectator saying, 'It is well.'  In fact, sometimes some believers say, 'May be it is the Lord's will'. But it is not the Lord's will for you as a human being to, for example, be swimming in your dream. You need to speak concerning that your business, and it will not collapse; whatever it takes- fasting, prayer or sacrifice. If you have to reduce the food you eat so that you can plunge back the profit into the business, or if it will take going back to learn from others, do everything you need to do. That is contending for ownership. Even when you hear testimonies of what is happening to other believers who accommodate oppression, insist that oppression is not okay with you.

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints  Jude1:3.
When it comes to your matter declare: “I know who I am; I know what belongs to me, and I will not allow satanic encroachment one inch”. Don’t allow the enemy to plant trees in your life so that you will not end up looking for how to uproot them. In medicine, prevention is better than cure; dealing with mosquitoes is cheaper than  buy anti-malaria drugs.

Like the Zelophehad daughters, take your case before the Judge of all flesh and you will have as much inheritance as you deserve.              

Prayer/Action
*Ask the Lord to release His fire and thunder against forces contending with you.
*Insist in prayer that life will turn to you the good side, and lines shall fall for you in pleasant places.
*Declare your life, destiny and home a no go area for the devil.

TODAY’S PROPHETIC PRAYER
I am a planting of the Lord; no man born of a woman shall be able to uproot me from the land of the living in 2018, in the name of Jesus.