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.

Jesus Joy

Thursday 28 December
READ: Jn. 8:56-59   
MORE LESSON:  Lk. 10:17-21

The dictionary defines joy as having great happiness. Happiness means having or feeling pleasure of satisfaction. Joy goes beyond being happy. Usually, when men are happy they possess something--they are newly married, just built a house, bought a car, gave birth to a baby, acquired a new wardrobe, got a new job or promotion at their place of work or have enough money to buy what they desire. These are good things of life that God the eternal Father delights to give to His children (Matt. 7:11). As a Giver of good things, He will surely give you good gifts this year, in Jesus' name.

Yet this type of joy is limited because when joy is tied to the possession of material things it implies that when those things are absent or taken away, the joy comes to an end. This is temporary joy. However, Jesus joy starts from within and is permanent. Apostle Peter in I Pet. 1:8 calls it unspeakable joy. It's a joy that starts with reconciliation and peace with God. It's the joy of having hope for eternity with one's name written in the Book of Life (Lk. 10:20); of having victory over the devil, the world and the flesh (I Jn. 4:4). It is the joy of knowing that eternity is secure for further glory and rest with God in a new world that is free of crisis, pain and sorrow (Rev. 21:1-4). This type of joy is for now and eternity.

It manifested in the Hebrew boys that defied one of the greatest kings of their time and entered the fiery furnace. From biblical times to contemporary time, this joy is present in tribulation (Jn. 16:30) and it defies external pain. Paul the apostle was one man who suffered severally for the kingdom of God, including physical assaults and pain. On one of such occasions he declared, ...the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy…: Acts 20:23-24.

Such is the joy of the Lord that no external or internal pain can quench it.  That is where all men should seek for joy, in Christ Jesus. For all other sources are temporary, transient and short lived. The greatest joy a man can ever have is the joy that your name is written in the Book of Life! What is your joy, Jesus or other things?

Prayer/Action
*  Ask the Lord to fill your heart with overcoming joy, in Jesus’ mighty name.
* Pray that the joy of the Lord shall be your strength, in Jesus’ name.
* Rebuke every seed of sadness and bitterness that can deprive you of joy, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY’S PROPHETIC PRAYER
By the peace of the Lord that passes all understanding, I shall end this year in peace and not in pieces, in the name of Jesus.