BETRAYAL WITH FASHION
John 18

The time of His betrayal did not come without expectation. Jesus knew when and how it was going to be but the ones that followed Him did not know when and how they were going to betray Him. While He was in the garden with His disciples for prayer, “…He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. 46 Then He said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.” The disciples that had fellowshipped with Him day and night in operating the business of the Kingdom of God failed to wait with Him in prayer. The disciples demonstrated the level of their love in obedience when they fell asleep instead waiting along with Him in prayer. Jesus began to experience a fashionable betrayal at the hands of His closest ones. Betrayal was not over with the sleeping. The Bible recorded, “And while He was still speaking, behold, a multitude; and he who was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them and drew near to Jesus to kiss Him. 48 But Jesus said to him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?”(Luke 22:47-48) Betrayal continued with kissing. The ones that were called, the ones that know Him betrayed Him in a different fashion; they could not give it all but they gave in to all kinds of means to sell Him cheap so He could die a costly death. Among the fashionable betrayals was that of Simon. When Jesus revealed to him how he was going to deny Him three times before the rooster crowed, Simon declared, “Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death.” The words of Jesus to Simon were true and consistent when Simon denied Jesus three times in the face of prison and death. Simon denied Him with fashion just before the cock crowed. All those who surrounded Jesus, all that knew Him and walked with Him day and night; all that ate and drank with Him in fellowship denied Him with fashion. Just as it was with His disciples then, so it is with those that claim to be His followers now. Clearly, manipulation, deception and lying, were evident in the three forms of betraying Him in the garden. As an acclaimed believer, do you have any fashionable way of betraying Him? In the eyes of Pastor of pastors, King of kings, the only One that matters, are you betraying Him in any fashionable way? See if there is any fashionable way of betraying Him in your walk; seek for mercy and He will heed your cry.
 
Prayer for today: O Lord, search me and see if there is any way that I am betraying you. Do not withhold your mercy from me o Lord.

KEEPING DISTANCE
Luke 22:54-63

As an acclaimed believer in the Living Word of God, have you been reducing or increasing in keeping your distance to the living Word of God? Keeping your distance away from the Living Word of God will keep you away from standing in Him. Inability to stand in the Word will cause you to fall and deny Him. Peter saw and heard it all in his walk with the Lord Jesus Christ yet, he entered into a big stumble. Keeping distance from the Living Word of God is an indirect request of a believer’s life by the Satan. Luke 22:31, “And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.” Jesus revealed the purpose and program of Satan for the life of Simon. Jesus gave Peter the details, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know Me.” (Luke 22:34) Jesus warned Peter ahead of time but Peter could not avoid denying Jesus. Indeed and in truth Peter denied Jesus not once but three times just as the Lord revealed. Peter spent time with Jesus, he was a man that witnessed the miracles of Jesus and yet Peter denied Jesus. The warning and stumbling of Peter demonstrates that the race of life is only by grace. It will take only the grace of God to keep a believer from stumbling where stumbling is eminent. If a man like Peter could deny Jesus, what will happen to believers of today when challenges show up? Peter’s denial had a gradual process and it was not sudden. Luke 22:54, “Having arrested Him, they led Him and brought Him into the high priest’s house. But Peter followed at a distance.” Peter’s denial started at the point when he began to follow Jesus at distance. As a believer, are you experiencing any life challenges that are threatening and intimidating o your well being? It is not the time to keep distance but the time to take a stand by keeping closer to the Living Word of God. At every time or in every situation that you choose to follow the Living Word of God at distance, you have taken a deliberate step into a big fall in the race of life. Today, do not let your situation or your challenges dictate how or when you will spend time in the Living Word of God. If you will turn to the pages of the Scripture, then you will eliminate distance and be able to maintain your stand and not fall in the race of life. The Word of God is True and Amen. 
 
Prayer for today:Ask God to deliver you from every force that causes man to take a distance position in walking with Him.

JUDAS
Luke 22:1-6

Jesus declared in John 10:10, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” The thief that Jesus was talking about was active then and is still active and alive today. Jesus was not talking about imaginary thief but the thief that is moving around and looking for one to devour, regardless of that one’s stand in the Lord. The thief is actively active more than ever before. Two things a thief will put in place before his strike are: A thief will not announce time or the way he will take in his attempt to strike. Secondly, when a thief comes, he will have a need for an entrance into the ground of his strike. In order for thief to gain an entrance, an opening will have to be in place or he will create the opening if you allow him. That thief is the Satan himself. When the thief visited the disciples of Jesus, he was looking for whom to use in selling Jesus. In Judas, the thief was able to locate an opening that granted him entrance for his agenda, Luke 22:3, “Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve.” Satan was able to enter Judas because there was an opening for him in Judas. Judas, a disciple of Jesus, left himself opened for Satan. Are you having any opening that Satan could enter into? It does not matter who you are or how long you have been following Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, when the thief locates an opening, he will hesitate to operate from your inside until you loose your number among those that are called. The effect of Satan’s gaining entrance into Judas is stated in Luke 22:4, “So he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him to them.” Satan’s entrance caused Judas to go out of the Way into his own way. The entrance gained by the thief made Judas to step outside of the Way into the way that seems right to him. There is only one way that leads to life and every other ways, including the one that seems right to you does not have life to offer but death. Proverb 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” Judas took to his own way and he conferred with Satan and his agents on how he was going to betray the one and only Master of all masters. Are you seriously paying attention to your self so that there will be no any conscious or unconscious opening that will give a place for the thief? Stay close and not walk outside of the Way He will lead you into life.

Prayer for today: Ask for God’s presence to fill every opening in your life.

BE RELEASED
Luke 19:28-36

In every area of life, when there is a tied down situation in place, stagnation will have its way and it will reign. Without motion, to become a vehicle of service is impossible. This applies to every moveable or moving object. This is can also be said of a believer that is not available to serve in the area of calling. Jesus was to ride into Jerusalem and the vehicle of service was somewhere tied down. A colt on which no one had ever sat on was the vehicle that was to take Jesus on His glorious ride into Jerusalem. Jesus sent His disciples in Luke 19: 30-31, “saying, “Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Loose it and bring it here. 31 And if anyone asks you, ‘Why are you loosing it?’ thus you shall say to him, ‘Because the Lord has need of it.’” Jesus knew that the colt was tied down and without Him speaking to the direction of the colt; it would have not been possible for the colt to serve as destined. The word that Jesus sent in the direction of the colt was a word of deliverance and breakthrough for the colt to enter into divine agenda. Have you been rejecting His word of direction? Jeremiah 13:10, “This evil people, who refuse to hear My words, who follow the dictates of their hearts, and walk after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be just like this sash which is profitable for nothing.” Does this speak of you? There was a need for the colt to be able to fulfill divine schedule. The colt was released and the glory and honor that was rendered to Jesus during His ride became part of the colt. As a believer, do you have an idea where the Lord is having a need for your service? Can you identify if you have been tied down from moving forward in your area of service unto the Lord? Just at the Word of Jesus, the colt was loosed. Luke 19:34-36, “And they said, ‘The Lord has need of him.’ 35 Then they brought him to Jesus. And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him. 36 And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road.” He is having a need for our service and He has made provisions for us to enter into serving Him.

Prayer for today: Ask God today for the word of deliverance and the word of release to sound in your direction so that your serving Him will be manifested.

SEE RIGHT
Exodus 2:1-10

“And a man of the house of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi. 2 So the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months.” (Exodus 2:1-2) The child was born at a time when every other parent could not see beauty because of the killing of the Hebrew sons. As a believer, it is important to know that out of the abundance of the heart not only does the mouth speak but the eyes see. Speaking, seeing and every other provoking agent of blessings should be rooted in faith. Whatever is seen with the eye is processed in the heart and the heart is where God holds us responsible. This can be confirmed in the word of Jesus, “But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Mathew 5:28) What Jesus is saying here is like see with your eyes and sin in your heart. However, if one could get on the bad side (sinful side) of the Lord just by looking, one should also be able to get on His good side (blessed side) just by seeing. How do you see when all are seeing ugly? At the time Moses was born, Pharaoh had commanded the killing of every male born by a Hebrew family in Egypt. The mother of Moses saw that her son was a beautiful child. She saw him as, unqualified for death and found it unacceptable for him to be killed. The mother had faith in what she saw and hid him from untimely death. Unlike every other woman that must have lost her child or children, she refused to give up her beautiful child. After she could no longer hold on to him in hiding, she set him up in an ark in the direction of where he was picked up by the daughters of Pharaoh. At the time he was picked up every identity revealed that the baby belonged to a Hebrew family yet Pharaoh’s daughter had compassion on the baby. “And when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby wept. So she had compassion on him, and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” (Exodus 2:6) Moses that was supposed to be killed was raised and cared for by the house of Pharaoh. Have you been marked for a situation that is not your portion, and there is no way out for you? God that changed the command of Pharaoh over Moses, from death to life is still on the throne. If you will begin to see life in the place of death, whatever is bringing down tens and hundreds around you will not touch you in Jesus’ name.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace of enablement to constantly see right and not wrong in every situation.