The Mystery of Praise I

Monday 2 January
READ: Psa. 103:1
MORE LESSONS: Psa. 150: 1-6

It doesn't matter what you are going through right now, if only you dare to praise the Lord, I tell you it is only a matter of time before the Hosts of Heaven will visit your life with power and deliverance. The original Hebrew word translated, “Lord” in the anchor text is ad-o-noy' and it suggests “the controller, master or commander of an army or troop”. This is why we often see the same word appear in other scriptural texts as Lord of hosts or Lord of the heavenly hosts. So when we offer praises, it is the Lord God of the armies of Heaven that arises on our behalf.
The hosts of hell cannot stand the slightest sway from the Lord of the armies of Heaven. No wonder at Jericho, God instructed His people to make a shout of praise and as soon as they did, the walls of that great city came crumbling down because the Lord and His Host of armies came into the scene. We see the same manifestation of the Lord and His hosts in the prison where Paul and Silas were chained; at the sound of their prayers and praises, there was a great earthquake. The gates flung open and the chains and shackles fell loose from their hands and feet. If you must experience the mighty touch and transforming power of God in your life, you must consciously cultivate the heart of praise. Psa.34:1 says, I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
The heart of praise is one that is persuaded that the Lord deserves the praise irrespective of what is going wrong in the immediate surroundings or who is looking on, And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose: Rom.8:28. He who offers praise is fully persuaded of the promise of God. The Bible says in Heb.10:23, ...for he is faithful that promised. That's why he who praises can go to sleep in a storm because the Lord of Host said in His Word, ...I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee: Heb.13:5b.
There are two categories of praise offered in the Kingdom of God; conditional praise and unconditional praise. The power, provision and protection of the Lord of Host are always at the disposal of people with unconditional praise on their lips. We were created to give God praise. And as we do what we were created to do, God does for us what gives Him pleasure to do; to intervene in the matters of our life. Praise Him NOW!

Prayer/Action
* Pray that God will open your heart to comprehend the mystery of praise, in Jesus’ name.
* Pray that as you praise God today and ever, your destiny will take a new turn, in the mighty name of Jesus.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
2017, I am the evidence of a shining light as the Lord lives, in the mighty name of Jesus.

Shout of Praise

Saturday 31 December
READ: Isa.12:6
MORE LESSON: Psa.98:6-9

Some years ago, as a student in Kwara State School of Basic Studies, I was facing a particular situation that made me cry for sometime. Then I decided to go to an open field to shout praises to God for about 30 minutes. Friend, that problem did not last for two days before I got the victory. Next time there is no one around to share your problem with, shout praises to God. I once asked our father Daddy E.A. Adeboye this question, “Why shout hallelujah?” He replied that satan hates the shout of hallelujah. Give your enemy what he hates. When you shout praises because negative things are happening around you, satan is defeated.
One of my excitements in praise is the secret of it that I understand. There are a few things I know about praise and many things it has done in my life. If there is a multipurpose tablet in the Christian world, that tablet is praise. It reverses the enemy's activities. I have not seen anything that is needful for God that praise is not useful for. Praise is useful for all times. Praise is a singular multi-faceted tool that God has given us. The dimension of praise I want to share with you today is SHOUT.
The Bible admonished in the Old Testament that the priests be clothed with righteousness and the saints shout for joy. Praise can be done in form of shouting. Isa.12: 6: says, Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee. In this scripture, there is a command; Shout. Why? Because of joy. Shout is an expression that goes with joy. In this scripture, it is so clear that one of the ways we can express the presence of God in our midst is with a shout. God's appearances in most occasions in the Old Testament were heralded with shout. When God comes into a situation, there is a shout. This means you can do a shout of praise to invite God into a situation.
Why do we have a shout when God is involved in a matter? This is because the presence of God brings great intervention into a matter. David said, Shout for the presence of God in your midst is great. This is because something extraordinary has entered into your midst. You can either use shout to invite the presence of God into a matter or to celebrate God in a situation. These are the two things you can do with shout. As you shout praises to God, the Lord will arise and destroy your enemies, in Jesus' name.

Prayer/Action
* Lord, let the situation I am going through end in praise.
* Father, all through the year, the shout of praise shall not cease in my mouth.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
My Father and my God, You are the reason for my seeing today, I praise You and dedicate my life afresh to Your praise! Thank You for 2016, in the mighty name of Jesus.

War against Worry II

Friday 30 December
READ: Hos.7:8-9
MORE LESSONS: Judg.16:1-30

I prophesy that you will be mighty in Jesus’ name. Where are the mighty men of our time? Just to take a fast or attend Bible study once a week is a problem for many. Every Bible study you miss in the year reduces the strength of your destiny. So, calculate how many you have missed this year and see what you are left with. Every time you refuse to do your quiet time, you become less; the beginning of that day is on the negative. Everyday you can't say this is what I read and learnt from the Bible, everyday you have no meditation nor revelation from God, you become less.
Mighty men are teachable and sacrificial. They don't only have an idea and vision, they work towards it. Don't always dream, don't always talk, work the talk. If you want to be a lawyer, make friends with lawyers, talk with people who read law, ask questions from those who are practising and sometimes go to the law court and see lawyers at work. Buy and read the books and one day it will happen. Do not ever plan to be a small person in life. There is nothing wrong in starting small but don't stay small and in order to avoid staying small, work at greatness. Be teachable, be disciplined, add knowledge, add value to your life every day. Let something in you cry out, “In the name of Jesus, I must be mighty. I receive grace to manifest”.
At 75 Abraham just started, so don't think you are too old to become mighty. Greatness should follow a man till he enters the grave. Don't think you are too small, Samuel started as soon as he was weaned, probably at age five. There are some things that will not allow a man to manifest the might of God. Tell them to catch fire. Some of such things are laziness, procrastination, early gratification of pleasure, evil company, sin, ignorance and disobedience.
Say now, “Father in the name of Jesus, I step into a mighty life; I shall not be small but I shall be mighty. In the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, I am a mighty man, anything contrary to might in my life, I command it to catch fire. I command the mighty man in me to arise and manifest. I prophesy that I shall not die small, I shall be a mighty man. The anointing to manifest mighty things fall upon me. Anything that prevents mighty things in my life, die, in Jesus’ name.”

Prayer/Action
* In the name of Jesus, I shall be great and I shall manifest greatness.
* In the name of Jesus, I shall recover lost time and become all that God has ordained me to be in destiny.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Father, by You I have run through a troop, and to Your glory I have leaped over the wall in 2016. I give You praise, in the name of Jesus.

War against Worry I

Thursday 29 December
READ: Matt.6:25-32
MORE LESSONS: Phil.4:6-7

What you spend your thoughts and minds upon determines what dominates your life. Your thinking determines your experience, your mind is the control panel of your life because according to Prov. 23:7, For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.... So there is unquestionably incredible power in the kind of thoughts that you allow in your mind because it determines the direction of your will and ultimately the course of your actions.
Man is naturally programmed to worry about his needs and wants. The wants and needs of man are unending so that the more you have, the more you want to have. The things of this world cannot satisfy and this is why man is unsatiable. And as the needs, wants and desires continue to grow, the worry and anxiety for them also develop roots in man's heart leaving the soul drained and parched from the unsatisfied yearnings.
This force of unending worry becomes the god of man because he is motivated by his worries and not by God's Word. Behavioural scientist and psychologist Abraham Maslow who, after studying the motivations of human behaviour(actions) concluded that all human behaviour is driven by the same basic "hierarchy of needs" such as food, drink, clothes, housing, protection, security etc.
Jesus is speaking emphatically in our text about these worries of mankind and how to overcome them. The key word in the passage is …take no thought…. The original Aramaic rendering of that phrase means “to think with anxious distracting solicitude over a matter”. Therefore, it will be a total misunderstanding of the context of the instruction of Jesus to say that we are not to be prudent, careful or even thoughtful in the matters of life and well-being. The point is that you must never let your desire distract you from the focus of the Christian life which is the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.
God promised that if you re-arrange your priorities to align with God's Kingdom, all the things that people worry about will be yours on a platter of gold because God is able to provide for your needs. You can win the war against worry and anxiety if you will cast all your cares upon the Lord daily. Re-arrange your priorities today, put God first and watch Him bless you beyond boundaries.

Prayer/Action
* Release yourself from every thought that has kept your mind and life in bondage.
* Lord, I align my heart to Your Word, let all things needed for life and godliness be released to me.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
God will arise and favour me, for my set time has finally come, in the name of Jesus.