If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Scripture Reading:
SCEPTRE OF HIS POWER
Memorise: But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Hebrews 1:8
Read: Esther 5:1-3, 5 Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king’s house, over against the king’s house: and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the gate of the house.
2 And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, that she obtained favour in his sight: and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther drew near, and touched the top of the sceptre.
3 Then said the king unto her, What wilt thou, queen Esther? and what is thy request? it shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom.
Bible in one year: Numbers 3, 1st Corinthians 16
MESSAGE!
The dawning of your day of favour causes God to beckon to you. God beckons to you to bring you close to His power. In whatever way the Lord is beckoning to you, may you not be insensitive or blind to it in Jesus’ Name! The sceptre that the king stretched towards Esther in today’s Bible reading is a symbol of power. When Esther went near the king, she touched the sceptre. When you touch the sceptre of the King of kings, not only will your history be rewritten, the history of your entire race will begin to change at the same time. According to Esther 4:11, anyone who went before King Ahasuerus uninvited would be executed instantly, regardless of who they were, except he lifted his sceptre towards them. by lifting the sceptre towards Esther, the king changed death to life for her.
During a Holy Ghost Service held in the first auditorium at the Redemption Camp, the Lord said that there was someone in attendance whom the enemies had planned to kill, but because the fellow had come to the programme the night, death had been cancelled. Everybody said “Amen” without knowing who God was specifically referring to. In the congregation that night was a particular woman to whom some people were heavily indebted. When these debtors felt they could not pay, they decided to kidnap and kill her so that they could be free from their debt without repaying. After the programme, they kidnapped her, bound and threw her into the boot of their car and began to drive towards a forest in Badagry (a border town between Lagos and the Republic of Benin), where they planned to kill her. On their way, they came across a police checkpoint. That was not supposed to be a problem, as they had already packaged cash brides to be offered to all the policemen they came across along the way. But because God had already cancelled the plan of death for this woman, when they offered the money to the policeman, he turned it down and said he wanted to see what was in their boot. That they increased the bribe offer, but the policeman declined and insisted on seeing what was in their boot. When they saw that their game was up, they fled. The police man opened the boot, saw the woman and released her. Just as He did for this woman, today, the Lord is stretching His sceptre of power towards you. Wherever the enemy had planned something against you, the Lord will make a way of escape for you. Praise the Lord!
Prayer Point
Father, stretch Your sceptre of power to me; let it touch me and thwart the plans of the enemy against the glorious destiny You have for me.
Man’s success is tied to being in the centre of God’s will for His life.
God is attracted only to those who live in the centre of His will.
Things fall apart when the centre no longer holds but things falls in place when the centre is intact.
Remain intact in His will and everything around you will remain and abide intact.
Heaven shifts its head quarters and tabernacles and gravitates towards and revolves around wherever God’s will is celebrated on earth.
Heavens shifts towards just anyone and everyone who shifts towards divine will.
by Joyce Meyer – posted October 05, 2015
When we talk about a willing heart, we are basically talking about “want to.” Without it we will never do anything.
“Want to” is a powerful thing. With it you can lose weight, keep your house clean, save money, get out of debt, or reach any other goal in life you may have set for yourself. You don’t really like to face the fact that your victory or defeat has a lot to do with your “want to.”
We like to blame everything on someone or something else. But you need to sit down and take a good old-fashioned inventory of your “want to.” You need to be honest enough to say, “Lord, I didn’t win the victory because I really didn’t want to.” Tonight, ask the Lord to give you plenty of “want to.”
What laws was God referring to when He said, “I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts”? He was certainly not referring to the Ten Commandments, known as the laws of the old covenant, since He said that He found fault with that covenant and declared it obsolete. (Hebrews 8:7–9, 13)
The laws that God puts in our minds and writes on our hearts refer to the royal law of love (Matthew 22:37–40), the perfect law of liberty (James 1:25) and the law of faith. (Romans 3:27) These are the laws of the new covenant.
You live according to the laws of the new covenant when you are conscious of how much God loves you. And the more you are conscious of His love for you, the more your heart is filled with love. When that happens, you will love God and the people around you supernaturally and effortlessly. That is God writing on your heart the royal law of love—that we love because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19)
Secondly, when you know that you are perfectly accepted by God because of Jesus’ sacrifice, you can have the courage and liberty as a child of God to come boldly into the presence of your heavenly Father. And in His presence, He is able to write on your heart new desires. You will find yourself wanting to do the right thing at the right time. You will live life victoriously from the inside out. This is the perfect law of liberty operating in your life.
Thirdly, when you sense what God is writing on your heart and putting in your mind, and as your faith is activated causing you to trust Him and His love for you, He calls it obeying the law of faith. When that happens, whatever you believe, you receive!
My friend, God has made it easy—and you will find that it is exciting—to live life under the new covenant!
You live according to the laws of the new covenant when you are conscious of how much God loves you.
Scripture Reading:
STEALING FROM GOD
Memorise: For ye are brought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. 1st Corinthians 6:20
Read: 1st Corinthians 6:18-20, 18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Bible in one year: Leviticus 25:8-26:13, 1st Corinthians 14:26-15:11
MESSAGE!
The Bible makes it clear that aside from stealing from men, it is also possible to steal from God. Malachi 3:8 says:
“Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.”
Your tithe is one tenth of your income, increase or profit. It belongs to God and should be set aside for God immediately after the provision comes. Not paying your tithes can introduce a curse from God into the blessing He has given you. If a man curses you, someone with a higher spiritual authority can break the curse. For example, if your pastor curses you, the general overseer with a higher spiritual authority can break it; but if God curses you, to whom will you run? It is important you pay back to God 10% of everything He gives to you. It is also important you do it the way He expects it to be done. Your tithe must be brought into God’s storehouse, and God must be given a free hand to spend it as He directs. Some people believe that as children of God, they can use their tithes to rescue someone who is in need or in critical condition in the hospital. No! You don’t have the right! If you spend your tithe like that, in God’s record, you will still be a debtor.
In addition, you can also steal from God by denying Him access to, or using inappropriately, whatever part of you He has claimed ownership of. In today’s memory verse, we see that God has claimed ownership of our body and our spirit. He therefore expects that anything we do with our body will be such that will bring glory to His Name. Doing otherwise is stealing from God. For example, overeating, or taking any substance that can destroy your body, makes your body unavailable to its Owner; this amounts to stealing from Him. Anytime you engage your body in any sinful act, you are guilty of inappropriate use of God’s property and therefore a thief. Also, God demands access to your spirit in the place of prayer and meditating on His word. If you deny Him this, you are stealing from Him because He has claimed ownership of your spirit. If at the time you should be fellowshipping with God in your spirit, you are busy watching television or engaging in any other type of activity that does not connect your spirit to God, you are stealing your spirit away from God. In what ways have you stolen from God? Repent and restitute today.
Prayer Point
Father, in whatever ways I have stolen from You, I ask that You forgive me. I repent of these and ask for grace to glorify You with my body and spirit at all times.
There is no plateau in the school of knowledge.
Unless you put behind what you ever know you’ll never access what you ought to know.
And if you don’t know what you ought to know you’ll never attain the height you ought to attain. Stagnation results from obsolete knowledge but forward movement answers to current knowledge.
Currency of knowledge is what validates relevance, being current puts you ahead of others.
It is new things that makes news. Striving to know naturally catapults people forward.
Have you ever realized that God was never known as “Father” until Jesus came to earth and revealed Him as such? In His prayer to His Father, Jesus said, “And I have declared to them Your Name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:26) What name was Jesus referring to? It was the name “Father”. If there was anything close to Jesus’ heart, it was to introduce God as “Father” to us.
In the Bible, Jesus said, “Therefore, do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’…For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.” (Matthew 6:31–32) Once, He said, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11)
Jesus wants you to always have this image of God in your mind—that He is your Abba, Father. Why? Because He wants you to know that there is nothing more important or too insignificant for the Father when it comes to His children.
Imagine a father playing with his five-year-old son, when he notices a splinter embedded in his little boy’s thumb. The concerned father asks, “When did you get this?”
“A few days ago,” the boy answers.
“Why didn’t you tell Daddy about it?”
“I thought you were too busy and that I shouldn’t bother you.”
If you were that father, wouldn’t it break your heart to hear your child say this to you?
A splinter in one’s thumb may be a small thing, but there is nothing too small when it concerns your child because if it affects him, it affects you too. Now, no matter how old you are today, you are still God’s child, so don’t think that your problem is too small for God. If it is important to you, it is important to your Father too. Beloved, always remember that He is your Abba, Father!
If it is important to you, it is important to your Abba, Father!
by Joyce Meyer – posted October 02, 2015
Focusing on good things makes us feel good, excited, energized, and enthusiastic. When we focus our time and attention on things we find to be bad, we feel sad, angry, or anxious. That’s why it’s so important for us to “fix our thoughts on Jesus” and keep our focus on Him. God has given us the ability to choose happiness no matter what is going on around us. I am not suggesting we ignore our problems, but there is a big difference between focusing on them—worrying about them—and working to solve or resolve them.
A negative person cannot be happy, and a persistently positive person cannot be unhappy, at least not for any lengthy period of time. Choose to have a happy life by focusing on Jesus. Do what you can do to take care of any responsibility you have with your problem, and while you are waiting for God to do what you cannot do, you are free to go ahead and enjoy your life.
Power Thought: My mind is focused only on Jesus and good things.
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I don’t know about you, but I am not satisfied with just knowing that I am righteous by faith. I also want to get to know the One who made me righteous. I want to have an intimate relationship with my Savior!
Abraham was such a man. He was righteous by faith, but he also had a close walk with God and was blessed by God in all things. (Genesis 24:1) His nephew Lot, on the other hand, although righteous too (2 Peter 2:7–8), had no heart for God. He ended up losing a lot when Sodom, the city he dwelt in, was destroyed along with Gomorrah. He was saved by the skin of his teeth!
My friend, do you want to be a Christian like Lot, righteous but always finding yourself in trouble, or do you want to be a righteous-and-blessed Christian like Abraham? Then, like Abraham, have a heart for God.
From place to place, Abraham would build an altar to the Lord. And in between altars, he grew very rich! (Genesis 13:2) There is no biblical record, however, of Lot ever building an altar to the Lord.
What is an “altar” in today’s context? It is a place where you know that you have a close relationship with God. For example, when my late father was in the hospital, I was worried and did not know what to do. I remember driving down the road and crying. After a while, I just threw my cares to the Lord. When I reached the hospital, I just laid my hands on my father and said, “Be healed in Jesus’ name.” And he was healed!
Till today, I can remember the place where I had cast my cares to the Lord and leaned on His love for me. That is my “altar”. And it is not the only one.
We have got to have this kind of relationship with God, one full of “altars” that remind us of His love, goodness and faithfulness. Let’s not live the Christian life like Lot, saved by the skin of our teeth. Let’s walk closely with God as Abraham did, and be richly blessed in every area of our lives!
Choose to have an intimate relationship with the One who made you righteous.