CONTUNITY      Daniel 1

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Adversity and challenges will produce faith or fear that will make or break you in the race of life. Remember, know your God for who He is, continue to hold on to Him, and He will do it at His appointed time. Continuity is the rule of the race, while a purposeful heart is the official. Imagine Daniel and his three friends, at a young age, held captive at foreign land, yet there are no records of complaints or despising their God. Instead of despising or complaining they did not give up. Continuity was the rule and a purposeful heart was the official. In attempt to build Babylon in them, the king ordered the best of the best for them by making them qualify to be set aside with the kingÕs delicacies. DanielÕs environment was bent in changing Daniel and his three friends, but God, in them, took a stand to disallow the environment from changing them. What about you? Suddenly situations seem to be on your side and you are starting to allow your environment to bring changes and affect your stand in the Lord. Ask God to help you, continue in the Lord with a purposeful heart and you will be like Him when you continue in Him. When Daniel was supposed to resume feeding on the kingÕs delicacies he refused. ÒBut Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the kingÕs delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. 9 Now God had brought Daniel into the favor and goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs.Ó (Daniel 1:8-9)  Daniel continued in the race with a purposeful heart and he gained the favor of God and the goodwill of the chief eunuchs. Continue with a purposeful heart and you will be like Him, you will become His extension on the face of earth and what cannot touch Him, will not touch you; what cannot happen to Him will not happen to you. Daniel 1:19, ÒThen the king interviewed them, and among them all none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; therefore they served before the king.Ó God will never forsake His own, and if you continue in Him you are definitely His own and no one can lay a claim on your life. There is none that walks in line of Him and fall outside of Him. Jesus came and died for us that we may have life. He was persecuted, died on the cross, rose on the third day and lives as king forever. You continue in Him and when all that Jesus went through comes your way, you should never be discouraged nor discontinue in the race of life. Continue in Him and He will get you to where he went to prepare for us.

ASSOCIATES    < ?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>2Kings 9:1-13

God is worthy to be praised! After crossing the Red Sea, Moses and the children of Israel sang and spoke, ÒWho is like You, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, Fearful in praises, doing wonders? (Exodus 15: 11) He is indeed and in truth fearful to be praised. He is the Great I Am that I Am. When you praise Him, He will raise you above and beyond your expectation. Why not give yourself unto praising the Lord as the days, weeks, months and years go by? Praising Him will make you to be raised above the plans and purpose of the enemies concerning your life. Praising God can be done anywhere, any day, and anytime as long as you praise Him with your whole heart. God does have His way of rising whom he chooses to rise. When it was time for Him to raise Jehu, Elisha instructed his servant, ÒNow when you arrive at that place, look there for Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, and go in and make him rise up from among his associates, and take him to an inner room. 3 Then take the flask of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, ÔThus says the LORDÕ: ÔI have anointed you king over Israel.Õ Then open the door and flee, and do not delay.Ó (2 Kings 9:2-3) No man can determine the move of God because determination will fail. It is only the move of His Spirit that will continue to and will always pass. Nothing qualified Jehu but God Himself qualified him so man could disqualify him. Why not take to praise as your avenue to be raised by God? The way He moved for Peter is different from that of Paul. He is not a stagnant God. Praising God with understanding will always bring the presence of God. Jehu was raised from among his associates right after the anointing, ÒThen each man hastened to take his garment and put it under him on the top of the steps; and they blew trumpets, saying, ÔJehu is king!ÕÓ (2 Kings 9:13) Jehu was made to rise up from among his associates to become a king. In your sacrifice of praise that is reasonable to God, you too can also be raised. Praise God and ask Him to raise you up from every ungodly associate, every association of failure and every associate that is slowing you down or delaying and disrupting you from what God has called you to do in the name of Jesus. Praise God all the time and He will extend His outstretch hand to raise you above and beyond every confronting issue. Keep on praising Him because He is faithful and He will not fail in raising you.

MONTH OF PRAISE2 Chronicles 20:1-30

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Praise is the way to bring God to you and it is also the way for you to get to God, but it has to be through a conscious understanding. In any attempt to get to a king that is on throne, there has to be a process and the process is in traveling through the gate that will lead to the court where the king sits and reigns as the king. The psalmist clearly understood this when he stated in Psalm 100:4, ÒEnter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His name.Ó Is there any other means that is better and faster than praise? Our God is the Almighty King of kings and the Lord of lords! All that is required is praise that is guided by understanding and not praise that is guided by noise making or emotional roller coastal. Psalm 47:7, ÒFor God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with understandingÓ. Have you thought about what the understanding could be beside knowing the words and singing it with your heart? Hebrews 13:15, ÒTherefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.Ó Praise is a sacrifice. Sacrifice is not what you want to throw to God anyhow or in just any form because you want Him to accept your sacrifice as a reasonable sacrifice. Romans 12:1, made us to understand that there is a reasonable sacrifice and there is unreasonable sacrifice, ÒI beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.Ó Let your sacrifice be a living and holy one because God is a living and Holy God. Jesus already paid the price for us to get to Him and when we choose not to go through Him and rather go through by our own determination or religious activity, we end up not going the distance with God. If you will forget yourself and gather unto Him in thought and in sincerity and render your praise unto Him without self-distraction, you will find yourself in the presence of God. He is not a distant God. He is a Father that has thoughts and concern for His children. As you continue in your daily journey, praise Him continually and you will see Him move consistently. Praise will deliver you; it will make God to ambush your enemy. The king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, needed to get rid of his enemies that were mightier than him and praise became his weapon. 2 Chronicles 20:22- ÒNow when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated.Ó Praise Him continually with understanding and He will come and raise you above and beyond in all walks of life.

WRONG ASSUMPTION< ?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>Numbers 16:1-40

Assumption can be consuming and permanently terminates anyone who engages in its wrong. Many times we have assumed wrongly and come out of it without getting hurt or without being consumed. Coming out of wrong assumption without any hurt is not a sign for anyone to make it a habit, but it is a sign that a proper care has to be taken to avoid assuming wrongly and if possible, not to entertain assumption at any time. Proverbs 3:5, ÒTrust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.Ó  Korah, Dathan and Abiram resume a wrong assumption and they were consumed in their assumption. When anyone assumes what he has not been called to be. such person will become that which he hates to become. Numbers 16:1-3, ÒNow Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men; 2 and they rose up before Moses with some of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty leaders of the congregation, representatives of the congregation, men of renown. 3 They gathered together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, ÕYou take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?ÕÓ In your church, home or among any of your gatherings or at your workplace, can any of your thoughts or actions be likened to that of Korah and his group or rebellious ones? Have you been thinking you can be of better service to the congregation than your pastor or your boss at work? Do not assume what He has not called you to be. The move of Korah was not a pleasurable one for Moses as he went before God and requested from God to show the difference between which He has called and those that are assuming he was not called. Moses requested from God to do the unusual that would determine and demonstrate who He called from the ones He did not called. Numbers 16: 31-33, ÒNow it came to pass, as he finished speaking all these words, that the ground split apart under them, 32 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men with Korah, with all their goods. 33 So they and all those with them went down alive into the pit; the earth closed over them, and they perished from among the assembly.Ó Ask God to help you and deliver you from every wrong assumption in every area of your life so that your story will not be like that of Korah and his rebellious team.