DAILY DEVOTION

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.( Hebrews 11:6)

It is important for those who approach the throne of God to pause and acknowledge that God is. Most of the time we are in such a hurry to accomplish the religious duty of prayer that we never recognise who it is we are speaking to. Most of us have an imagination of a cloud, or the crucifix hanging on our wall or the image of a really old man high in the sky.
To approach God as God, the soul must rest in the fact that God is not who we think He is. Even our most generous imaginations are still way short of His glory and splendour. Therefore we ought to worship Him not as we think Him to be but as He knows Himself to be. We must believe that GOD IS ! That God exists.
To pause before prayer and acknowledge the one before whom we stand, will even rearrange our prayers; from requests and needs to worship. We see our smallness and His greatness. Our faith grows and we receive peace.

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

John 1:4 In Him was life and that life was the light of men.

God preaches to men by making the man the message. He fill the messenger with life and that life becomes the light to others. For the carrying out of the perfect will of God, there can be no distinction between the man and the message; the man IS the message. Of John the baptist, the bible declares, " there came a man sent from God".
God is more interested in the vessels than the anointing. The world is not in need of better preaching, just better preachers. Witness that produces holiness is one that comes from holy vessels. The light of this world is the life of Christ in us. The cry of our hearts should be God make us consecrated vessels, the life is already there.

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

He was with God in the beginning.(John 1:2)

Jesus' identity was-He was with God. How blessed it would be if when people speak of us the first thing they acknowledge is our fellowship with God? The identity of a believer is in God. It is not what people say about us, it is not what the environment dictates, it is not what we think of ourselves, but we should identify ourselves as being found in Christ and in God.
The power of Jesus Christ was in the fellowship with the Father. He walked this earth without ever drawing from His divine capacity. He was effective because He was 'with God'. For us to be able representatives of the kingdom of heaven, we must pursue and guard diligently our personal fellowship with God.

DAILY DEVOTION

(John 1:1)In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The Word is Jesus Christ. He existed and was with God from the beginning. In this we learn the progress of becoming like Him. Being, being with and finally becoming. First we are believers, then we are with God in constant fellowship and then ultimately it can be said that Christ is perfected in us.
Precious time spent in God's presence shapes our hearts to be like the heart of God. No man becomes like the master by wishing. It entails spending time in sweet fellowship where our hearts and His begin to beat as one. Jesus becoming God is presented as a progression born out of fellowship. while we can not fully understand the mystery of the holy trinity, we are allowed to see the unity and fellowship.
The reason for salvation is not to go to heaven, it is to become. To be like Christ.

PRAYER

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.(Romans8:26-27)

The need for the Holy Spirit in a believer's life, especially the prayer life cannot be overstated. As we approach the throne of God, we know not, how to approach, we know not the will of God, but the Holy Spirit does. It is therefore imperative that as we bow to pray to honor the Holy Spirit and ask for His help in prayer.
He alone knows the mind and the will of God and His role is to take those things that be of Christ and make them known to us. In humility let's ask for revelation and guidance in our prayers.

PRAYER

Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.( James 5:17)

In time, God makes power available to obedience. One of the greatest and oft repeated commands of our Lord is, ‘that men ought to pray without fainting’. As Elijah prayed when he faced Ahab and Jezebel, may we pray without fainting. This fainting does not mean we will not feel tired; but rather that we shall not succumb to it. It means that we shall struggle through the night with Jacob the mighty prince of intercession that we shall stand with Daniel as he calls heaven for his people.
It is important that we approach prayer as work. In fact the greatest work entrusted to the church. Just as we clock in to our jobs whether we feel like it or not, so must we approach intercessory prayer. There must be a resolve that I will not leave the feet of the throne until I receive the blessing of the one who hears me.

SEEKING GOD

Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.' Jer. 33:3

This is a promise of a Father to His children. It is a loving declaration that those who seek the Lord do not do so in vain. The business of prayer is one which is carried out in absolute trust and commitment by heaven.
Brethren, let us not faint in calling the Lord. Let us approach His throne boldly and cash in the promissory note He has given us. He has said He will hear and answer us. This is the word of a gentleman, we can rest assured that He will not fail.
Let the bold souls not relent in their pursuit of God, let them not be discouraged in the noble task of calling heaven on Earth. Let them push forward until the Glory of the Almighty one be established on Earth.
Pray, pray, brethren let us commit ourselves to prayer; much prayer.

PRAYER

Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.'


Prayer is not a matter of feeling whether God is hearing you or not. It is not dependent on our mood, it stands on the promise of God by faith. He has promised that when we draw near to Him He will draw near to us. Instead of checking our feelings, may we thank Him when we approach Him in prayer because He has already promised to be there listening and to answer us. When we approach the throne of Grace by faith, emotions will follow suit.

PRAYER & FASTING

As we repent of our sins, it is important to know that God does not condemn you. He does not see anything wrong with you. This is because He has dealt with sin and you are already dead to sin in Christ Jesus. God is not trying to fix you, He just wants you to realize your new nature and walk in it. The Holy Spirit's work is revelation. To those who receive revelation, they are empowered to claim their inheritance in God by faith. Once we realize that we are the righteousness of God, sin will not be a factor in our lives.(Romans 8:31)

DYING TO THE FLESH

Man’s fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless.(Eccl.3:19)

Flesh is only able to live in the past or the future. It can neither understand nor appreciate the present. Because of this, the flesh can never carry out justice because it only works through experiences. The sense of yesterday's guilt and tomorrows apprehension leads to despair making the preacher say that there is no difference between man and animal. In the flesh the purpose of life is lost because eternity is hidden in the NOW.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end(Eccl3:10)

On the other hand, those who walk in the Spirit and are dead to the flesh are able to fully participate with God in the miracle of the present. This is because God is not worried about tomorrow and is not hindered or dictated by what happened yesterday. Dying to the flesh releases a soul to enjoy the adventure of walking with God!

DYING TO THE FLESH

In Eccl. 2:18, The preacher examined determination in life and effort. He says,

I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.

All the effort and self determination to be ahead and independent and self reliant, is vanity when it is not done in the view of eternity and as service to God.

FASTING AND PRAYER

If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. (Psalms 66:18)
In our repentance, let there be no places forbidden to the eye of God's Spirit, let Him fully expose the dark corners of the heart so our prayers will be unhindered. If we have places and sins we would rather keep, our prayers will not be listened to. Let He who searches the mind of God and the hearts of men, examine us and cleanse us thoroughly.

FASTING AND PRAYER
consecration


As we begin the 21 day fast, let's begin by confessing and repenting our sins. Lets not be content with what we know about ourselves for the Bible says that our hearts are deceptive, let the Lord's Spirit Himself search us; and when sin is revealed, let us confess and repent it.

Psalms 24:3-5, Jeremiah 17:9, Lamentations 3:40, Psalms 26:2, Psalms 139:23, Psalms 51,Lamentations 2:19-22

DYING TO THE FLESH

In Chapter 2, Solomon indulges the emotions and fully explores the pleasures of the world. He says in vs.10 "I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;I refused my heart no pleasure". But in the next vs. he declares, "Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve,everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;nothing was gained under the sun."
After heaping onto himself pleasure, he found no real joy.In indulgence of the emotions and feelings there is nothingness. To explore pleasure and laughter, to amass to oneself the delights of the flesh is meaningless. There is no satisfaction found in them. True joy is only found by faith in the Son of God

DYING TO THE FLESH

The process of sanctification is really the death of the flesh and the crucifixion of self. Flesh is mainly the soulish part of man; mainly:- the will, the emotions and the mind. Nowhere in the bible is the flesh revealed in its glory as in the book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon writes the book from the perspective of "under the sun". This makes man the center of the universe as opposed to God and this this is the hallmark character of the flesh -ME!
In Eccl.1, The teacher, the son of David, King in Jerusalem tries to understand the purpose of life. He tries the mind and the experiences of life. He finds that there is nothing new under the sun. Its nothing but a dreary exercise in monotony. What is, already was! When he applied to know wisdom and gather understanding he became vexed and disillusioned.
The wisdom of man and the experiences of life in the flesh are vanity of vanities in trying to understand the purposes and the will of God.