NO MORE STAGNATION
Luke 5:16-26

Paralysis is stagnation, and stagnation can be the result of sinning. Jesus was in a place where the power of the Lord was present to heal. “Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him. 19 And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus.” (Luke 5:18-19) The paralyzed man was being taken from one place to another. Without anyone moving him there would have been no motion, and he would have remained in a stagnant position. In his stagnant position, nothing moved and nothing change. In stagnant positions, motion is an enemy to the man. As a believer or non-believer, what has kept you grounded in the same position, and location, for so long? What is it that has been denying every kind of promotion in all, or some, areas of your life? God is a good God, He is a God of multiplication. With stagnation, gaining the motion to multiply is not a reality. The paralyzed man that was brought to Jesus had so much faith in the power of God that led to the tearing of a roof. The roof was torn on his behalf so he could be let down to Jesus for healing purposes. If not for this faith, he should have been taken back to where he was coming from. The crowd could not deny him, neither could the ability not to gain entrance was enough to send him back. The Bible mentioned that he was taken through the top of the house. When his bed landed through the tiling, into the midst of Jesus, it was recorded that Jesus saw their faith. Luke 5:20, “When He saw their faith, He said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” The paralyzed man had faith, but was still in the state of stagnation. As a believer, you have faith, you are eloquent in the word, yet you are motionless and stagnation is ruling. Just like the paralyzed man, sin could be the cause of stagnation. Sin from earlier generations or “self sin”. Jesus, having seen it, that he had faith, did not command healing first, but forgave him his sin. The point here is, Jesus spoke no healing to the paralyzed man, until after forgiveness was spoken into his life. What could be the root of your stagnation with all your faith demonstrations? Could it be, it is time to call on Him for forgiveness that will bring forth motion in all areas of stagnation? With the sound of forgiveness, and healing sound from the Word of God, paralysis the agent of stagnation, will loose its grip.
Prayer for today: My Lord and my God, this day I ask for forgiveness from my sin, and let me be delivered from every stagnating agent, in the name of Jesus.

STRIPER
Genesis 3

Sin and sinning will cause everyone that engages in it to be naked. Sin is a striper, and it has no exemption of whom to approach. Sin is disobeying the word of God, and means living according to the way that seems right to man. Sin is of the wicked one, it does not give life, and it only takes away life. Sin has its root in temptation; it will entice to entrap any of its victims. Genesis 2:15-17, “Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” God’s placement and provision for His children is a covering that surpasses man’s personal ability. When God put man in the Garden of Eden, there were no needs, and it was a place of abundance. God’s placement and provision upon Adam and Eve was a covering where nakedness had no place. God gave them the land to tend and keep, but not to trample on and violate. It was a blessing. Has the Lord placed any covering of blessings upon you lately? Adam and Eve failed to tend the land, and did not to keep what the Lord put in their care because they choose the way that seemed right to them. Both Adam and Eve ate from the tree they were not supposed to eat from, as commanded by God. Adam and Eve violated God’s command. “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”” Adam and Eve’s disobedience, to eat from the tree against the word of God, did nothing, but remove the covering of God upon the life of Adam and Eve. Nakedness became their portion because they had withdrawn from obeying God. Nakedness is being on your own. Any man without the covering of God is on his own. Adam and Eve were sent out of the garden and they were marked with death.
Prayer for today: Father, I ask that you search me and lead me to the way of life. O Lord, let me not become a vessel of failure in your calling for my life.

WATCH YOUR MOUTH
Numbers 14

Life is a journey. Everyone that has the breath of life is in the journey of life. He is a good God, not a wicked God. In the course of life’s journey, anyone that can walk in line with His commands will surely get to the final destination of life’s journey. God out of His goodness and mercy stated in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” The journey to the future is not of evil, but it is of good. For those that are willing to keep on calling on Him, and seeking Him in prayer. Of course, He is a jealous God and attention is the antidote of jealousy. Why would a creation not constantly give the Creator attention? Giving all your attention to God is denying the enemy to attend to you. When seeking Him with all of your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength (Deuteronomy 6:5) is in place in your life, anyone that seeks to destroy your life will have to seek to destroy God first, which is an absolute impossibility. Life is a journey, getting to the expected end is possible. Also, not getting to the expected end is not impossible. The major trap that can terminate any sojourner from getting to the expected end is evident in the journey to the Promise Land. The children of Israel, having been delivered from the bondage of over four hundred years, understandably had the tendency of carrying some of Egypt with them. However, for every Egypt to be flushed out for God to reign and rule overwhelmingly in their life, they saw a great move of His hand. They were able to walk on a dry land in the middle of sea, while the enemy could not. The journey to the expected end became terminated for the children of Israel because of complaints. God promised to take them to a land that flowed with milk and honey, but they failed to rest in the promise of God instead, they engaged in wrestling with His promise. God responded in Numbers 14:27, “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me.” Complaining is an act of rebellion unto God. Complaining terminated the journey of life when God stated, “The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above.” (Numbers 14:29). He hears complaints. Cease from all ways of complaining.
Prayer for today: Father I ask in Jesus name, deliver me from every spirit of complaining. Let me not be cut off from getting to the expected end.

GOOD HEART
Ruth 2

Out of the abundance of a good heart, good, noticeable actions will follow. This was the case of Ruth who was identified as a virtuous woman in a town that was not her hometown. Ruth came into the picture after she had persistently refused to back off from her mother in-law. Naomi was a woman that left her home country with her husband Elimelech, and had two sons to the country of Moab. In the country of Moab, she survived her husband and here two sons. When Naomi decided to go back to Bethlehem, her two daughter in-laws, Orpha and Ruth insisted on going back with her. Naomi persuaded them not go with her. Orpha decided to turn back, but Ruth, out of her good heart, could not be persuaded to turn her back on her mother in-law. In Bethlehem, with Naomi’s permission, Ruth went to the field that belonged to Boaz, in attempt to work. Ruth went and began to work on Boaz’s field where she became noticeable to Him. Boaz then ordered protection for Ruth, “So she fell on her face, bowed down to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” (Ruth 2:10) Ruth was overtaken with the favor she received from a man that she had never met before. Ruth did not realize that the seed of a good heart that she sowed was about to yield the fruit of a good life. In this world, one thing is certain, it is not possible to sow good, and reap bad, neither shall you sow a mango seed, and reap an orange. Here is the response of Boaz to Ruth, in Ruth 2:11-12, “And Boaz answered and said to her, “It has been fully reported to me, all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and have come to a people whom you did not know before.”” At every time that a believer acts on the conscience of a goodness of heart, by coming out of their comfort zone, to an uncomfortable avenue with the heart of doing good, God will always take notice. Ruth had no reason to go with Naomi and she had all reasons to turn back like Orpha did. Ruth had no hidden agenda that she was expecting to gain for doing good, but to be with her lonely mother in-law. Boaz the eventual husband prayed for Ruth, “The LORD repay your work, and a full reward be given you by the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.” (Ruth 2:12) In Ruth’s linage Jesus came to the face of earth. What kind of report are you generating to those that are far and those that are close to you?
Prayer for the day: Lord I ask in Jesus’ name, give me a heart that will constantly generate a favor provoking report.

RESPOND AND RECEIVE
Luke 1:5-38

As a believer that is constantly expecting to hear from God, the kind of response that you give when His Word comes will always have a direct effect on how you receive. The Bible recorded in Luke 1:5-7, “There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. 7 But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years.” It is clear; they had done nothing wrong before God, yet they were barren. As a priest, in the hand of God, prayers must have been rendered for an open womb at the younger age of Zacharias. When it was God’s time to move, an angel of the Lord visited Him, “But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.” (Luke 1:13) After the angel had told Zacharias all that would become of the child (John), “…Zacharias said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.” (Luke 1:18) After Zacharias’s questioning of the angel about how, the angel responded by identifying himself as the angel Gabriel from the presence of God, who has brought glad tidings. Having identified himself, Zacharias lacked an immediate response of acknowledging God and that triggered angel Gabriel’s response, “But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time.” (Luke 1:20) When the same angel visited the Virgin Mary with the announcement of conceiving Jesus, Mary also questioned the angel how it was going to happen to a virgin like her. The angel explained to Mary with details of how it would come to be, the angel confirmed to her that God was the one doing it. Just as Zacharias received the message from the angel, so Mary also received, but Mary’s response was with the acknowledgement of the Lord’s will and she stated, “Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.” (Luke 1:38) Zacharias’ response to receive was with no acknowledgement, and that could have been the reason that triggered the angel’s pronouncement that caused him to become mute. In the cases of Zacharias and the Virgin Mary, there is a lesson about knowing to better respond and receive at all of His visitations.
Prayer for today: Father, I ask You for a quickening mind that will constantly enable me with a response that glorifies You. Amen.