UNIMAGINABLE
John 20:1-18

Mary of Magdala, known as Mary Magdalene, became a close follower of Jesus after Jesus healed her. Mary, who was healed of evil spirit and infirmities, became the first who encountered Jesus after His resurrection. God is not a God of partiality, it is the level at which anyone seek Him that He would be found. The testimony of Mary Magdalene is evident to the Word of God in John 9:31, “Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him.” Mary was the first to get to the tomb of Jesus on the resurrection day, “Now the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.” (John 20:1) Mary could not stop seeking Jesus, even after He had been crucified on the cross of Calvary. In her discovery that the tomb was empty, she was the first to go and tell Peter, and other disciples about the empty tomb. By virtue of Mary Magdalene’s report, “Peter therefore went out, and the other disciple, and were going to the tomb. 4 So they both ran together, and the other disciples outran Peter and came to the tomb.”(John 20:3-4) At the empty tomb, Jesus’ closest friends, and other disciples that had been through it all with Jesus, did not stay long enough before they went back to their own homes. “But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb.” (John 20:11) Mary went an extra mile in her attempt to see the body of her Savior. When she refused to leave and go back to her home like the disciples did. Mary had ran, watched, waited, and while she was weeping, angels that attended to her could not satisfy her desire to see her Lord and Savior. “Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus.” (John 20:14) Mary’s persistency to see the Lord yielded, and she became a testimony to the world as the first to announce the resurrection of Jesus while the disciples were in too much of a hurry to go back to their own homes. Who would have said that, among all that encountered Jesus, Mary Magdalene, who was formerly possessed, would become the news breaker of the greatest news? In any situation, waiting and watching for the Lord will never be a waste.

Prayer for the day: The grace to keep on waiting and watching for your visitation in every area of my emptiness, Lord, let it have its way in my life.

ARE YOU SLEEPING?
Matthew 26:36-46

“Then He came to His disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.” (Matthew 26:45) When Jesus took three of His disciples, Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, with Him to a place called Gethsemane, it was for the purpose of praying. Jesus wanted them to watch and pray when He specifically said to them, “…My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” (Matthew 26:38) The three disciples could not stay awake to watch and pray just has Jesus requested. The three that were the closest to Jesus, the ones that had been through it all with Jesus, could not keep up with Jesus’ request. Three times Jesus went back and forth to keep them awake, but they slept through the whole time that was left for them to watch and pray for Jesus. The reason why the disciples could not keep up in watching and praying was because their eyes were heavy, “And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy.” (Matthew 26:43) When there is spiritual heaviness the whole body that includes the eyes. Sleeping when you are most needed to stand in gap for the Lord is the demonstration that determination, love, or wisdom will fail. In the days that are here, how much sleep are you having? Before taking Peter and Zebedee’s two sons to Gethsemane, Jesus had just talked about the Parable of the Ten Virgins whereby he emphasized that, “…While the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.” (Matthew 25:5) Among the ten virgins, the five that did not have what it takes to make the wedding could have made it, if they had been awake to see the need for oil before it was too late. The evidence of sleeping is a demonstration of the lack of adequate preparation. Inadequate preparation is rooted in lack of prayer in the life of a believer. Believers that constantly sleep, in place of prayer, cannot prevail when the betrayer strikes. The three disciples could not stay awake, until Jesus’ betrayer was at hand. What is sleep taking away from you today? In the world of today, the chief of all betrayers, the wicked one, has not stopped, but is working hard to inflict as much damage as possible. Just as it was when Jesus walked the face of earth before His arrest, so it is today. Today is not the time for sleeping, but it is the time of waiting and watching on for Jesus so as to stop the move of the chief betrayer.
Prayer for today: O Lord have mercy on me and deliver me from sorrow sleep. Help me to be awake. Keep me alive doing the business of the Kingdom, when the bridegroom comes and shuts the door.

DESIRE
Luke 19:1-10

“One thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple.” (Psalm 27:4) This is the confession of King David about his desires. David desired to dwell in the house of the Lord, not to be coming and going from the house of the Lord with nothing to hold onto. What is your desire that you will seek, or the one that you are seeking? It only takes seeking what is desired, for it to be deposited in one’s life. Having said it a number of times, that God is not a slave master, it is always better to remember Him as a saving God, and that He will not deposit what you don’t desire in you. What do you desire in the Lord? Zacchaeus, whose name means pure, with a pure and sincere heart desired to see Jesus. Zacchaeus had some hindrances that could deny him of his desires such as: being a tax collector and short in stature, in the midst of crowd. Despite his hindrances, the Bible says in Luke 19:4, “So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way.”Zacchaeus is an example of someone that knew what he wanted, and how to get what he wanted from the Lord and Savior. Zacchaeus could have ran ahead and stayed a head of the crowd, but he decided to run and climb into a sycamore tree. It can be extra difficult for a short man to climb into a tree, but the purity and sincerity of Zacchaeus’ heart to see who Jesus was energized him to go all the way for his desire. The apostle Paul declared that, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”(1 Corinthians 15:10) Labor is what it takes, not laziness to go the extra mile in getting desires deposited in the life of a believer. Zacchaeus did not labor in vain because Jesus noticed him. And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham.”(Luke 19:9) Indeed and in truth, Zacchaeus lived up to the meaning his name. Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Zacchaeus did not just see Jesus, but hosted Jesus in his house because he sought him.
Prayer for today: Enable me O Lord with the grace to seek you, with all that you have given me so that hindrances will fail in my life.

NO EXCUSE
1 Samuel 15:1-23

An excuse for disobeying the Word of God is an excuse to be denied from the blessings of God. From the beginning of creation, there has been no record of reasonable, or acceptable, excuses for disobeying God. Adam had the best of all excuses, but it failed to matter before God. Adam did not ask for a companion when God decided to give him one that dragged him into disobeying the word of God. Genesis 2:18, “And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”” The comparable helper was Eve. When Eve fell to the deception of the serpent by eating from the tree that God required not to eat from, Adam was also given some of the fruit. After eating from the tree of life, the Lord came down into the garden to call on Adam. God found out in Adam’s response that he had eaten from where he was not supposed to eat from. Genesis 3:11-12, “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?” 12 Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”” There was no better excuse for disobeying God that could be better than Adam’s. Indeed, Adam did not ask for a helper, but God gave a helper that made him sin. What kind of help are you receiving from an identifiable helper of yours? God commanded King Saul, “Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’” (1 Samuel 15:3) Saul took the command and failed to respond fully. At the time when Samuel came to inquire Saul about the operation, Saul gave a reasonable excuse. One that was reasonable in his own eyes, but not to God, “And Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the LORD your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.” (1 Samuel 15:15) Saul did not fully comply with God’s commands and there could not have been a reasonable sacrifice from the spoil of the war. Samuel pointed it out to Saul, “…To obey is better than sacrifice…” (1 Samuel 15:22) Think of the command before you do it, and if it is not in full compliance, no acceptable sacrifice will come out of it. Disobedience to the commands of God is equal to rejecting God. Rejecting God will cause man to be rejected likewise by God.

Prayer for today: Father, deliver me from every conscious, or unconscious, way of disobeying your command that your name will be glorified in my life.

SHUT DOWN?
John 20:19-29

Right after the resurrection of Jesus, fear shut the disciples up where they had assembled. John 20:19-20, “Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.”” Despite all that Jesus had impacted on the disciples, and the power of resurrection that had just taken place, fear was able to lock the disciples up, by having them shut up doors on themselves. Fear, when allowed in our space, will take the whole ground with an attempt to build up where it should be knocked down. Fear is not of God, and it is the opposite of faith. The disciples were the ones that were used by the enemy to shut doors. Many times we have allowed ourselves to be used in shutting ourselves down because of fear, and not faith. The apostle Paul and Silas were once locked up in a prison when they became a threat to the kingdom of the wicked. The apostle Paul and Silas refused to be victims, or subjects, of pity in the hand of enemy. The apostle Paul and Silas did not see Jesus in the physical, but by virtue of what had impacted their life, through the word of God, they took a step of self-deliverance by praying, and singing, to God. Acts 16:25-26, “But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed.” Now it is clear that the power in self-deliverance can be as powerful as being delivered under a messenger of the word of God. In the case of the disciples their deliverance was not manifested until Jesus came to speak the word of deliverance, “Peace be with you”. Your deliverance might be self-deliverance like that of Paul and Silas. Praying and singing hymns to God will bring you out of any situation where you are locked up or shut down.
Prayer for today: Lord have mercy on me according to you multitude of mercy. Let your word of deliverance sound in my direction.