INVITATION PLUS ATTENTION
John 2:1-11

A miracle of the third is not what any believer wants to miss at any given time. The miracle of the third has to do with redemption, resurrection and provision of abundance. Moses was redeemed from the ark by his arch enemy on the third month. On the third month of hiding Moses from the death sentence of king Pharaoh, Moses ended up in the compassionate care of the murderer’s palace when his mother, “…Hid him for three months.” (Exodus 2:2I) It was on the third day that Jesus our Lord and Savior chose to stun the devil when He resurrected. The miracle of the third cannot be undermined, God does nothing by accident. In the area for provision for abundance it is clear what Jesus did on the third day at the Cana of Galilee wedding occasion. “On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. 3 And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”” (John 2:1-3) It cannot be imagined how Jesus could be invited to any occasion (wedding) and such an occasion would suffer from an embarrassing situation of lack. If you have invited Him into your life and ignore His presence in your life, you are on your own. Also, if you have invited Him into your life and choose to suffer lack in any area of your life, it could be the evidence of ignorance. Are you ignorant of not knowing whom you have invited or the evidence of limiting the One that you have invited? The Wedding at Cana of Galilee could have been a flop or a failure had it been there was no one on standby to identify what Jesus could do to save the wedding from failure. Mother of Jesus interceded for help from Jesus, by calling Jesus’ attention to the embarrassing need and she backed up her interception by pointing out to the servants, “…Whatever He says to you, do it.” (John 2:5) There are so many celebrations in life such as Marriage, childbearing and new position in life that are suffering from different types of lack because they lack invitation extensions to Jesus. What is missing in your own celebration of life? Have you invited Jesus? Do you still suffer lack with Jesus being invited? Could it be you have lost focus of Jesus being there for you or your act of ignorance is having its place in your life? Just like the mother of Jesus’ approach to Jesus for help you go ahead and ask Him for help with persistency and do whatever He asks for in His word. Your invitation to Jesus and your attention will attend to every area of lack.

Prayer for today: Deliver me O Lord from every demonstration in all occasions of my life that lack understanding.

STUBBORN HEART
Ezra 1

A claim to have heard God speak His command is not enough, neither is it complete until the command is done. When it was time for God to deliver the children of Israel from the bondage of over four hundred years, Pharaoh repeatedly heard from God through Moses but failed to do exactly what the Lord was commanding him. Exodus 7:14-16, “So the LORD said to Moses: “Pharaoh’s heart is hard; he refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning, when he goes out to the water, and you shall stand by the river’s bank to meet him; and the rod which was turned to a serpent you shall take in your hand. 16 And you shall say to him, ‘The LORD God of the Hebrews has sent me to you, saying, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness”; but indeed, until now you would not hear!” Pharaoh had ears but could not hear because the heart that commands hearing was hard. The heart has the greatest effect in hearing and doing and when it is hard there will be no respond to God’s command. Cyrus the king of Persia could not have known God more than Pharaoh but he was able to hear and do what the Lord commanded. In the case of Cyrus, it is written concerning Cyrus, “Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, 2 Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah.” (Ezra 1:1-2) Evidently, Cyrus, the king of Persia was able to hear and do because the Lord stirred his heart. Pharaoh failed to hear because his heart was not stirred; he had a heart of stone. Many have heard from Him and not been able to do because of the state of their heart. Equally, many are hearing and doing because of the state of their heart. What is the state of your heart? Have you been getting commands from Him and not been able to do? To be stubborn is not of God and it does not have a place before God. 1 Samuel 15:23, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king.” In stubbornness, there is no minor neither is there major stubbornness. Avoid taking the way of iniquity and idolatry. Release what or who needs to be released by you or be reduced by God.

Prayer for today: Father, stir my heart to be totally obedient to your command.

EXPLOIT
1 kings 17:1-7

Many times believers are quoting the Word of God without a depth of understanding. As a result, it does not produce the expected result. If you lack depth of understand in the Word, it will not produce result. God is not a God of accident. James 5:17 describes how “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.” It is true that Elijah was a manlike ours and just because he was a man like ours is not a license for us to do what he did if we lack what it takes to be accessible to God. The Word is an encouragement to the fact that what Elijah did is not impossible to be done today. Three points in the word enable Elijah: First, he recognized God for whom He is when he demonstrated understanding of Jeremiah 12:16, “And it shall be, if they will learn carefully the ways of my people, to swear by my name, ‘As the LORD lives,’ as they taught My people to swear by Baal, then they shall be established in the midst of My people.’” Once you sacrifice your time in learning and understanding His words then operating His word will set you up for exploits. Secondly, your stand before God is very important and it will be the determinant of the exploits you carry out in His Name. Do you have the understanding of what it is taking a stand before Him? Psalm 24:3- 4, “Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully.” Thank God for Jesus Christ; for shedding His blood to allow accessibility to the throne of Grace. With the grace of God being in place, living just as prescribed by the Psalmist is not impossible. Any acclaimed believer that lives with clean hands, pure heart and no any form of idol should be able to stand before Him just like Elijah did. Having a pure heart is what will bring you to the face of God. Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Lastly, Elijah carried out the exploit because he had the boldness and the character. His boldness was in the living God and he recognized that His God is alive. His character was doing what it takes to stand. He had clean hands and a pure heart. The combination of boldness and character will make a winner out of you on any given ground, to the glory of the Almighty God.

Prayer for today: Ask Him to wash your hands; not just your hands but from your head to the soul of your feet.

PRAYER IS WEAPON
Luke 22:39-46

Prayer is the weapon of destruction over every destructive force that surface on the face of earth. As a believer that wants to stand on the ground of calling, it is impossible to be asleep and be awake for prayer. A believer that is often asleep is constantly at risk. Prayer will cease and gaining entrance to heaven could be a failure. The ten virgins were all purposeful in their agenda. They all went out to meet the bridegroom. Matthew 25:3-5, “Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. 5 But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.” Having gone far in their pursuit to enter with the bridegroom, sleeping should have been avoided by getting busy in their waiting. They fell asleep and foolishness became their identity. How are you waiting? Can you tell if and when your oil is running out? You have come too far in this journey to begin to entertain foolishness. How would you have known that your oil is running out when you are asleep and not awake? A believer that is on ground of prayer and goes down, away from prayer into sleeping is having a sorrow sleep. Disciples of Jesus were on prayer ground at Gethsemane, when they were asked by Jesus to pray so that they would not enter into temptation (Lk.22:40). They all slept and could not hold on in prayer. Jesus came back and found them sleeping. He questioned them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation” (Luke 22:46) Are you awake? The only way for you to avoid temptation is to be awake in the Lord. It does not matter how long you have been walking in the Lord, you need to stay awake and be alive. Peter walked with Him, dined with Him, but sleep sneaked up on him when he slept in the prison. Peter had people praying on his behalf. Can you boast of anyone praying on your behalf when you do not even have any prayer partner or group? Where there is no prayer sleep has taken the front seat, prayer is in the back seat while temptation is the reigning driver. The biggest trap that is involved in sleep is temptation, just as Jesus emphasized. A believer that takes prayer serious will pave the way for his or her heaven right here on earth. Daniel is one of few examples. In Daniel’s life, prayer was made a captain over captivity. While in captivity, he outlived four different rulers that did not know God: Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius, and Cyrus. He was able to prevail because prayer was his major weapon.

Prayer for today: Ask the Father in Jesus name to endue you with the grace that makes a believer become constant and consistent in prayer.

REMOVE AND MOVE
Genesis 11:27-3, Genesis 12:1-5

What is it that needs to be removed from your life before you can be moved to the center of God’s assignment for your life? In anyone’s life, whenever hindrance is set in place, man will be offset from getting settled in his placement for life. Terah, the father of Abraham was a clear example when he was set to move from the land of Ur to Canaan but failed to get to Canaan. Genesis 11:31, “And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there.” In truth and indeed, Terah removed himself but was not able to move to his final destination. To begin a journey and not complete is worse than not getting started on a journey. Terah could not remove himself fully in order to move to his final destination in life. There was no documentation in the Bible that specifically revealed the reason for Terah’s stagnation of not getting to the center of his journey. It was the same Canaan Land where he had decided to move to that Abraham eventually departed to when God called him out of his family. What could have caused Terah’s stagnation from getting to his desire in life? What is it that is stopping you from moving to your center of assignment? Could Terah’s stagnation be a result of comfort instead of commitment? Also, Could distraction be a factor that derailed his desired plan to get going on the journey of his life. There was no clear evidence of why Terah did not get through but it is clear that where he stopped was not his final destination. Life is a journey but getting to final destination is as important as getting the journey started. At every step in the right direction there will always be a need for things or entanglements to be removed so as to get to the final destination of the journey. Whenever there is a failure to remove what needs to be removed, getting through suffers by becoming stagnant. The Bible stated, “So the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.”(Genesis 11:32) Terah died in Haran despite many years on his side to complete the journey that he started. He failed by not moving to his ground of destination. Unlike Abraham, Terah was not called by God to move. Despite that, it is absolutely a lesson of consciousness for every believer to know to focus on every journey in order to disallow stagnation. Moving into our desired ground is directly rooted in total removal from our past.
 

Prayer for today: Ask God, for whatever it is that will not allow your getting to the center of God’s assignment for your life to be terminated.