SEE IT AS IS THERE
Proverbs 4

“My son, give attention to my words; Incline you ear to my sayings. 21 Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; 22 For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh.” (Proverbs 4:20-22) In regard to the scriptural verse above, it is thoughtful to say that the word of God that one hears with ears and not able to see with eyes will not stay in the midst of one’s heart. The Bible makes us realize that the words of God are life and not just letters. John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” 2 Corinthians 3:6, “…For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” How much does it require of you to begin to receive the word of God as life and not just letter? It is how you receive it that determines how it will answer for you. If the word is received as life just as you receive a direction to navigate your way to a destination, life will be straight forward at every juncture of direction and redirection from getting lost. This is an example of how you receive the word with your ear and see it with your eyes: If in getting to point “A” direction is being laid down for you by the one directing you and you are able to hear with your ear when and where to turn before getting to point “A”. Having heard with your ear, you begin to see in the midst of your heart where and when to turn. Your response to the one giving you direction will be “oh yes I see, I see” When you begin to see before getting there, then it means that the word of direction has entered your ear, your eyes have seen it (before getting there) and it is already programmed in the midst of your heart. What makes it difficult to receive the word of God the same? A film director or producer that presented the movie, Passion of Christ was not alive when Jesus went to Calvary. However, he was able to receive the word with his ear and it became a picture which could be seen as if he was there. The picture that he produced was fitting and almost true to life. After the separation of Abraham from Lot, when God told Abraham to see, Abraham must have seen it for it to become for Him. “For all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants for ever.” (Genesis 13:15) The word that you receive and are able to see as being there will determine what you become. Give attention to the word you receive, let your heart retain it and you will keep His command and have life abundantly.

Prayer for today: Ask God to feed you with the knowledge of His word in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

LAND OF NOD
Genesis 4:1-16

The place of sin in the life of every man should be outside of every man and not inside. Sin is always waiting for the opportune time to pounce in to the inside. Jesus, our Lord and Savior, experienced the threat of the devil after His forty days wilderness period, “Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.” (Luke 4:13) Devil that sought for an opportune time with Jesus will seek for a place in every man’s inside. Sin is always at the door of people with angry and deceptive spirits. When Cain failed in his offering before God, an angry spirit rose in him and God responded to him, “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.” (Genesis 4:6) God could not have said it wrongly. Sin is always at the door waiting for its opportunity to enter. When Cain killed his brother Abel, sin entered and the presence of God departed from him. The Bible said as a result of Cain’s sin, “…Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.” (Genesis 4:16) Cain ended in the land of Nod, the east of Eden. Are you in any way that leads to land of Nod? It is possible to be a regular church going believer and be on the way to the land of Nod. Manifestly, it is not all that enter into the house of God that actually dwell in the presence of God. If you have departed from His presence, it is possible to be entering into the house of God and not be in His presence. It is not the ground of worship that matters but how you are grounded in the Lord. Have you let sin into your house lately? When there is life there is hope, do not take yourself out of His presence but take your place in His presence by amending your ways. God spoke to Jeremiah, “…Hear the word “Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the LORD!’” 3 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.’” (Jeremiah 7:2-3) In God’s warning to Cain, He made to us know that we have the power to rule over sin. The warning of God is the evidence that the key to the door is in our hand to use in denying sin from gaining entrance. Jesus is our key to victory over sin.
 
Prayer for today: Ask God to deliver you from every force that leads to sin gaining entrance through your door. 

SOW RIGHT AND REAP RIGHT
2 Chronicles 24

It is written in 2Chronicles 24:1-3, “Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba. 2 Joash did what was right in the sight of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest. 3 And Jehoiada took two wives for him, and he had sons and daughters.” Obviously the young king Joash had all the support for his right doing in the sight of the Lord through Jehoiada. Jehoiada was upholding him in every department of his functioning. Right after the death of Jehoiada the story changed and things were no longer the way they were supposed to be. The Bible recorded, “Now after the death of Jehoiada the leaders of Judah came and bowed down to the king. And the king listened to them. 18 Therefore they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served wooden images and idols; and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem because of their trespass.” (2 Chronicles 24:17-18) Jehoiada’s pass onto death was Joash’s pass into failure before the Lord God. Joash rejected God’s warning when he killed Zechariah. Zechariah was the son of Jehoiada that built up and establish Joash’s reign as King. In this world, it is possible for wickedness to persist but it will not prevail. Wickedness can last but it will never outlast righteousness. Indeed, there is none that will sow orange seed and reap from a mango tree. Joash forgot all that Jehoiada did for him and could not restrain himself from killing Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, when God sent a warning to him through Zechariah. 2 Chronicles 24:22, “Thus Joash the king did not remember the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but killed his son; and as he died, he said, “The LORD look on it, and repay!” As mentioned above, whatever a man sows he will reap it in due time. Joash sowed a wrong seed by killing one that had served him successfully and he reaped from the same plot when, “…His own servants “And when they had withdrawn from him (for they left him severely wounded), his own servants conspired against him because of the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and killed him on his bed. So he died. And they buried him in the City of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings.” (2 Chronicles 24:25) In this world, there is no minor or major act of wickedness, wickedness is wickedness and the fruit of it is bitter and it could lead to eternal termination. How are you living life? Consider the command of God, pray for your heart to retain it that you may do what is right and live.

Prayer for today: Ask our Lord God for His enablement to live life according to His commands.

PURPOSE OF COMMANDMENT
Deuteronomy 6

The fear of God is the reason and the purpose of God’s commandment. Deuteronomy 6:1-3, “Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the LORD your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, 2 that you may fear the LORD your God…” God wants to be feared. Fearing God is to love Him. Inhabited in loving Him is obeying all His commands. Failure to obey God is a failure to fear Him and not to love Him. God expects us to love Him just as it is recorded in His word, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:5) God is not a slave master, He is Almighty Saving Creator and He does not demand what cannot be done in all of His word. Root of sin simply came from His command not to eat of one tree out of numerous varieties of trees. Again, man continues to eat from the “do not eat” tree so sin continues to prevail since the time of Adam to present day. God simply demands for us to love Him with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength. Abraham loved the Lord God as it was commanded by God. It takes loving God with all to rise and depart to a strange land without holding you back. At age seventy five, in a comfort environment, with no child, packing and moving to a strange land by virtue of God’s command, requires a true loving of Him in all as commanded. God testified about Abraham in Genesis 22:12 when he fully complied with God’s command for using Isaac as a burnt offering. At the time Abraham was about to slaughter Isaac for the offering, it was evident that Abraham complied with the command of God. As a result of his obedience, the Angel of the Lord called on Abraham stating, “And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” (Genesis 22:12) God declared and decorated Abraham when He pointed it out that Abraham feared Him by not withholding his only son from Him. The ability of not withholding from God is in the grace of full obedience and compliance unto God’s command. Abraham demonstrated it by the grace of God and we are also expected to be able to demonstrate such love by His grace. Seriously, how are you serving Him with all your love? True love for God is to truthfully fear Him by knowing that nothing; absolutely nothing should ever be held back from Him. 

Prayer for today: O Lord my God, let my heart retain Your words; that I may keep Your commands and live. (Proverbs 4:4)  

EXPECTATION
Acts 3:1-11

At the time Elijah took his stand and prayed for rain to cease, it was with expectation and indeed there was a manifestation when rain ceased to fall for three and a half years. Elijah said to King Ahab, “As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.” (1 Kings 17:1) Elijah was full of expectation by his declaration that there would be no rain except at his word. Indeed and in truth, God honored Himself in the declaration of Elijah that stated “as the Lord lives” (a power provocation in the move of God’s hand) When it was time for rain to fall, the same Elijah prayed again with expectation and there was manifestation as the rainfall. The persistency in the prayer for rain to fall was demonstrated in the period of going back and forth of Elijah’s servant, under the command of Elijah to check on the cloud of rain, “Then it came to pass the seventh time, that he said, “There is a cloud, as small as a man’s hand, rising out of the sea!” So he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you.’” (1 Kings 18:44) Manifestly, rain fell because the man of God operated with a doubtless expectation that brought forth undeniable manifestation. The same God in the Old Testament and the New Testament is still in the business of answering prayer. Are you seriously expecting Him to do His miracle in your situation or you are only respecting when you see what He is doing in other peoples’ situation? There have to be a conscious and deliberate expectation to come out of deliberate exploitation of the wicked one. A certain lame man, satisfied with small alms, condemned to the gate of the temple, had an expectation before his story was changed for good. The Bible recorded that this certain lame man at the juncture of his miracle; saw Peter and John on their way going into the temple but without expectation for healing he asked for alms as usual. What you have been asking is the evidence of your level of faith that is directly relevant to your limitation in life. The certain lame man was redirected from just receiving alms, “…Look at us.” (Acts 3:4) When you ask without looking you have lock out of your miracle while opened to just alms. As a result of the redirection of his attention, “…He gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them.” (Acts 3:5) Asking without looking up to Him is asking with no attention for expectation. The certain lame turned around to look in his asking by giving attention, expecting to receive. Choose His precepts, practice the word you will prevail in the world of challenges.

Prayer for today: Let Your hand become my help, for I have chosen Your precepts (Psalm 119:173)