OPEN HEAVENS DEVOTIONAL - SATURDAY - 19/10/2013 - IS HIS NAME REVERED? BY PASTOR E.A. ADEBOYE

IS HIS NAME REVERED?

MEMORY VERSE
He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name.
Psalm 111:9

READ
Psalm 111:9-10

Psalm 111:9 He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name.

Psalm 111:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endurethfor ever.

MESSAGE
When in danger or in an emergency, who do you call?

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
Psalm 20:7

The Psalmist here says some may call on chariots and some may call on horses but he will call on the Lord. If you must be victorious in life's battles, you must call on the name of Jesus purposely, deliberately, in faith and with lots of expectations. Some people use the name of Jesus without honouring Him; no wonder the name hardly works for them. If they miss a step, they shout Jesus! If the tea burns their tongue, they shout Jesus! If someone touches them from behind, they shout Jesus! The name has become an exclamation mark. Before they speak for three minutes, they will call the name several times devoid of honour. If you want that name to work for you, you must learn to call it with purpose, respect, honour and humility.

One of the things God frowns at is using His name in vain. Exodus 20:7says,

Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Ordinarily, you do not call the name of your father or mother anyhow. When you call their name, you do it with some sense of respect and honour. If you do so to mortals, how much more should you treat God's name with reverence? Psalm 111:9 says,

He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name.

God's name must be highly revered above all others because Philippians 2:9-11 says it has been exalted above every other name. Do you know that the way you call the name of Jesus indicates whether you have the fear of God or not? A wise person will call the name of Jesus with lots of fear and worship. If you call Him like you are calling a servant, if He answers at all, it will be out of mercy. Many of us cannot call God's servants the way we call God. What an irony! Repent, and adjust today. Begin to attach honour, fear and reverence to His name.

KEY POINT
When it comes to reverencing God and what He stands for, we can learn from the devotion of idol worshippers

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR
Exodus 11-13

OPEN HEAVENS DAILY DEVOTIONAL FOR OCTOBER 18,2013... THE LIGHT EXPOSES

THE LIGHT EXPOSES

MEMORY VERSE
For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
John 3:20

READ
John 3:19-21

John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

John 3:20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

John 3:21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

MESSAGE
The Holy Spirit gives light. If you ignite a fire, no matter how little it is, around the fire there will be light. In Genesis 1:1-3, in the midst of the darkness, emptiness and chaos, the Holy Spirit stepped in and light had to be created immediately. In other words, it was His coming that brought about light at the very beginning. The beauty of this is that the light of the Spirit exposes the hidden contents of darkness. This is confirmed by our Lord Jesus Christ when He said in John 3:20:

For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

The light has a way of exposing the enemy. We see this in Acts 28:3-6, when Paul gathered some firewood and lit it up, a serpent that was hiding in the wood suddenly reared up its ugly head, but Paul threw it back into the fire.

If the fire of God is really burning in your ministry, it will expose every evil person in church, and deal with them. When under the strong influence of the Holy Spirit, your personal problems will be exposed to you. Your greatest enemy is not the witch or wizard around but yourself. Not many of us think we are part of our problems. If you ask a student to mark his examination sheet, he will most probably award himself the highest grades. If you know that what is hindering your progress is in you, it is then important to deal with it. The fire in Acts 28:5 not only exposed the serpent, it also killed it. Every serpent that is hiding in any corner of your life shall be exposed and destroyed in Jesus name. Moreover, if you walk in the light of the Spirit, people will hate you. Don't be surprised that compromising brethren and church leaders would not only hate and persecute you, they may also want to get rid of you. If your presence does not allow them to steal, they will hate your guts. The more you allow the light of the Spirit to shine in and around you, the more difficult it is for your enemies to cover up their evil intents. This season, the Lord will expose all the hidden agenda of your enemies by the light of the Spirit.

PRAYER POINT
Father, increase the light of Your Spirit in me and expose and destroy the operations of the kingdom of darkness around me.

OPEN HEAVENS DAILY DEVOTIONAL, OCTOBER 17, 2013- BROTHERS AND FATHERS

BROTHERS AND FATHERS

MEMORY VERSE
Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;
Romans 12:10

READ
Genesis 27:30-35

Genesis 27:30 And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting.

Genesis 27:31 And he also had made savoury meat, and brought it unto his father, and said unto his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that thy soul may bless me.

Genesis 27:32 And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau.

Genesis 27:33  And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed.

Genesis 27:34 And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father.

Genesis 27:35 And he said, Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken away thy blessing.

MESSAGE
Your calling and divine destiny as well as your present spiritual build up add up in determining the kind of battles that will come your way. You cannot ask a featherweight to engage a heavyweight in the ring. When you consider David, you will observe the kind of opponents that he faced “ a lion, bear and Goliath, all these were heavyweights (1 Samuel 17:34-37). If you consider your life, you will realise that God has brought you this far because His purpose for your life is yet to be fulfilled. Many like me, should be able to say that if not for God, they would have been dead long before now. The Lord that has kept you alive will continue to keep you.

However, considering the life of Joseph, there is need to note the difference between a brother and a father. You will note that some brothers can kill. In Genesis 4:8when the first murder was recorded, it was committed by a brother. A brother can steal your blessing: if you doubt this, ask Esau and he will tell you of his experience (Genesis 27:30-35). Brothers can also try to kill your dream like it happened to Joseph (Genesis 37:13-20). This is why when it comes to the issue of making heaven; you cannot rely on anybody other than yourself and God. Are you a brother with a negative assignment to fellow brothers?

However, fathers are different. Thank God for fathers! They can bless and prophesy into your future. Genesis 49:1 relays when Jacob gathered his children together to prophesy into their future. When your father prophesies into your future, it becomes a settled matter. For this reason you must honour your father and mother so that you can live long on earth. Honouring your father is one thing that can sustain you amidst the battles of life. How often do you do this? To provoke the best from your father, you must please him and obey him. You must avoid what he hates and give him the good things that he likes. Lead him to Christ, and make his remaining days on earth worthwhile.

Key Point
You can be the ideal brother or sister to both your blood relations as well as fellow brethren in Christ

You

OPEN HEAVENS DAILY DEVOTIONAL. WEDNESDAY 16 OCTOBER 2013 THEME : WHAT GOES UP, COMES DOWN.

OPEN HEAVENS DAILY DEVOTIONAL. WEDNESDAY 16 OCTOBER 2013 THEME : WHAT GOES UP, COMES DOWN.
by lordpercyo

MEMORISE : The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing. Psalm 34 : 10.

READ : MARK 5 : 22 – 24

22 And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him, he fell at his feet,

23 And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live.

24 And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: EXODUS 1 – 4.

Another lesson from 1 Kings 18 : 41 – 45 is that it is what goes up that comes down. In other words the rain could fall because something had earlier gone up. Psalm 67 : 5 – 7 says when praise goes up, blessing will come down. You can load your cloud through offering high praises to God. Also, when worship goes up, healing comes down. Check the Bible and you will notice that almost everyone who got a major healing from God started by worshipping Him. In Matthew 8 : 1 – 3, the leper first worshipped Jesus before he was healed. Also, before Jairus asked for help, he fell down before Jesus and worshipped Him (Mark 5 : 22 – 24). If you don’t know how to give God quality worship, you will be robbing yourself of several benefits.

Similarly, when prayers go up, deliverance comes down. In Acts 12 : 5 – 11, after Peter was arrested, the church prayed without ceasing and deliverance came for Peter. In Matthew 15 : 21 – 28, a woman prayed and deliverance came for her daughter. If only you can pray, deliverance will come to your loved ones, your church and leaders. Such prayer is a demonstration of love and commitment to the one you are interceding for. In addition, to provoke a divine visitation, an uncommon offering should go up. An example here is Solomon who gave an uncommon sacrifice and God Himself came down (2 Chronicles 1 : 6 -15). If you are a miser, you will surely miss visitors from Heaven. When the giving of first fruits increase goes up, unlimited returns come down (Proverbs 3 : 8 – 9). Also, when first fruits sacrifice goes up, irreversible blessings come down. An example here was when Abraham set out to sacrifice Isaac and God swore to bless and multiply him (Genesis 22 : 1 – 18). Isaiah 1 : 19 says when obedience goes up, the good of the land comes down. When you seek the Lord, Psalm 34 : 10 says abundance would come down. When you seek God’s Kingdom, all your needs would be met. When repentance goes up, forgiveness will come down. What are you sending up?

KEY POINT :

What you send up should be determined by what you want to come down.

OPEN HEAVENS DEVOTIONAL - TUESDAY - 15/10/2013 - ARRESTING GRAVITATIONAL PULL BY PASTOR E.A. ADEBOYE

ARRESTING GRAVITATIONAL PULL

MEMORY VERSE

For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.

1 Corinthians 16:9

READ

Acts 3:1-8

Acts 3:1 Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.

Acts 3:2 And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple;

Acts 3:3 Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms.

Acts 3:4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us.

Acts 3:5 And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.

 Acts 3:6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.

 Acts 3:7 And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.

 Acts 3:8 And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.

MESSAGE

Flying is the best method of motion. It is faster and usually safer than road transport. However, before you can fly, there is a major force you must overcome: this is the force of gravity. The force of gravity is a force that is out there to pull down anything that goes up. Although this force operates in the physical realm, you have a similar force operating in the spiritual realm. There are three main areas that can pull you down spiritually as you attempt to climb up or to fly: first is sickness and disease. Many times, people would want to get up and fly for the Lord but sickness and disease will pull them back. In John 5:2-9, we read of a man who was held back for 38 years. For that length of time, he was restricted to the colony of the sick. Do you desire to fly for Jesus and to accomplish great things for the Master, but sickness or disease is holding you back? In the name of Jesus, that force of sickness and disease operating in your life is broken this minute! Remember as you receive your healing, it is for you to go and serve the Lord.

Another force that could keep an individual from flying is poverty. The man born lame recorded in Acts 3:1-8 was not only incapacitated by his inability to walk, but also by poverty, hence he begged all his life for alms until the day he was healed. It is usually the rich that mostly travel by air, most poor people cannot afford to fly. When Pharaoh agreed to let the Israelites go, he told them to leave their flocks and wealth behind. If you are born-again but poor, you may not be a great threat to the devil. In fact, he will even want to discourage you because you lack the resources to live and serve God. But if you are saved and wealthy, the devil will be scared because he knows that you will be able to serve God, sponsor Kingdom projects, help fellow brothers and sisters in need and use that money to win souls to Christ. Are you financially limited today! That yoke is destroyed today! However, pay up all your tithe and vows to God. Sow sacrificial seed into His Kingdom, release your faith and it shall be well with you.

PRAYER POINT

Every spiritual gravitational pull meant to hinder my motion, Father, uproot them today.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR 

MARK 14 – 16.

Unless you Guarantee Our Freedom

I have been added to many groups on facebook while I am an administrator of seven groups. I use my groups to show how it is to make people have freedom in a Society they belong to. I have demonstrated this by allowing people to air their views without unnecessary restrictions. Where correction is required, I make sure I come up with stronger argument to push my points home and still retain the friendship that exists in these groups. Ordinarily, you may not even know I am one of the administrators of these groups.

However, I wonder how the names of groups administered by youths be different from the attitude of the administrators. You bear DEMOCRACY, yet you insult contributors on your page? Are you really democratic when you dictate people's opinions? Are you really ready to fight corruption when people seek for your approval to express themselves? Sometimes, you go ahead to warn those that refuse to see things from your perspective. Are you really ready to live in a democratic Society when you lack simple points to disprove your critics?

If you can deny the people of their right of freedom of expression because you formed an ordinary group on facebook, you will surely be worse if the Society at large is handed over to you. You are worse than those you think you formed the group to fight against.

You criticize Tukur? Honestly, Tukur is better than you. I once found myself in a group administered by some Ghanians. All that are posted in this group was all about sexual relationships. One day, I made my own contribution. I acknowledged how good the expressions are but  there is need for us to read how people contacted their first STD and how painful the first abortion was. I also challenged them to explain how bad luck is transmitted through sexual intercourse. Honestly, before I could go to see their reactions, they had already kicked me out of the group. This was the reason for my article, WHY I WAS SACKED which still circulates on the web.

It is good we practise what we preach. Freedom and the war against corruption share a common boundary.

The Lesson Al Gore Teaches Nigerians

"There is certainly something wrong in a dance only one man is prominent."- Senator Chuba Okadigbo

How many times did Al Gore contest for American Presidency?  Does contesting once make him less important than these power drunk African RULERS? Why has he not been presented again by  the Democratic Party? Al Gore, why have you not formed your own party where you will be the sole owner of the presidential ticket?

Al Gore served as the 45^th Vice President of the United States of America. He sought to be President just like any other aspirant and was given the ticket to run the 2000 U.S. presidential election under the platform of the Democratic Party. Despite winning the popular vote, Gore lost the Electoral College to Republican George W. Bush. Bush’s victory was later upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Why did Al Gore accept the verdict? Why did he not make America ungovernable? Why did he not form his personal party? In his exalted wisdom, Chuba Okadigbo said:"There is certainly something wrong in a dance only one man is prominent."

One of the reasons why the Democratic Party has not made the party ticket Al Gore’s birth right as we have in Africa is because the party has ideologies. The party is larger than an individual’s ambition. Furthermore, America is larger and more important than any American. For having the opportunity to serve as a Vice President, Gore remains grateful to the party and the nation. Unless we start to see public offices as opportunities to serve, power drunk individuals will keep on making things difficult.

Al Gore is currently an author and environmental activist. He is the founder of Alliance for Climate Protection, a non-profit organization which seeks to protect the environment. It may interest you to know that Al Gore has received a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in climate change activism. You must not be a political activist after losing election. Receiving such a prize after his service means that he kept himself reasonably busy. In Africa, that could be an opportunity to show how powerful a political leader can be by joining another party. Even those in power should also learn to accept defeat in the interest of the nation.

As a future leader, don’t you think we have a lot to learn from Al Gore?