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.

HIS PRESENCE
Exodus 3:11-22

“Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, ‘The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me, saying, “I have surely visited you and seen what is done to you in Egypt; 17 and I have said I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.”’ (Exodus 3:16-17) God was speaking to Moses here. The children of Israel were in bondage and God had already visited them and saw all their trouble. God’s visitation was an open door to deliverance. God was there and they remained in there bondage because there was no one to lead them out with His word. The door has been opened, but they remained trapped. God’s visitation is like Jesus saying in John 10:10, “…I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Here Jesus was not saying ‘I will come’, what Jesus was saying was “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” With the children of Israel, God’s visitation was there for their miracle of deliverance. With the church, Jesus’ coming has been in place for the believer’s salvation, what is it that is holding believers up in bondage? In God’s message to the children of Israel, through Moses, God repeated His promise of what He had said, “And I have said I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.”’ This is clear evidence that what He says He would do always become a done deal at the time of His saying. He alone is the Almighty creator, the only One that inhabits eternity; God is the Unchanging changer that changes situations from ugly to beautiful. Have you received any of His promises through the pages of the Bible or from the mouth of a prophet, and you know that He is speaking to you? If there is any confirmation of His promise, begin to move in His promise do not waste. He must have visited you because the word of God is God, and God cannot lie. Remember, God is beautiful for any situation regardless of how ugly the situation is.
 
Prayer for today: Have mercy Lord and let me not be a waste, let me be quickened when you visit me in Jesus’ name.

CRY TO HIM
Exodus 3:7-10

Exodus 3:7-8, “And the LORD said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. 8 So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.”” Four things happened when it was time for the children of Israel to come out of over four hundred years of bondage: 1) God Saw their situation. 2) They cry to Him. 3) God knew their sorrow. And 4) God came down to them. God, whose eyes cover the whole earth, sees every situation around the clock, and He expects to hear from you at your time. In His seeing the situation, He heard the cry of the children of Israel. In their cry, He knew exactly the level of pain in their situation. As a result of their demonstration of pain and crying, God came down to deliver them. Whatever pain you are going through, the extent of such pain is what will escalate your crying. When your crying escalates, it demonstrates to God that your deliverance time is set. God’s move in response to your cry will then bring forth deliverance. The book of Isaiah 58:9-10, described how God responds to crying of His children when He is not violated in any of His word. Isaiah 58:9, “Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am …’”God is a caring God and He will not look away from any of His children when they cry or call unto Him. God emphasized on His deliverance package by repeating Himself in Exodus 3:9-10 “Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” Every time there is emphasis in the word of God, there is a need for an emphatic attention that should call for the need to tap into the word for a believer’s deliverance. Can you think of any situation that has been “having you” like the Egyptians “had” the children of Israel in bondage? It is time to cry unto the Lord for your own deliverance.
 
 
Prayer for today: Father, You are the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I ask in Jesus’ name for the same hand of deliverance on my behalf.

DO IT ALL
Matthew 7:21-23

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21) What could it be that will make anyone that is calling on His name not enter heaven? Jesus concluded that any one that does the will is the one that will enter the Kingdom of heaven. It is right to conclude that not everyone that calls on His name does His will. It can also be concluded that not everyone that is prophesying in His name are set for heaven. Jesus said, “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’(Matthew 7:22-23) Jesus was referring to many that were doing miracles in His name. He was also talking about those that were doing wonders in His name. Jesus did not deny their work; neither did He deny the fact that they knew His name. What Jesus was saying here was that He would declare that He did not know them. Jesus did not know them because the part of the word that was not obeyed by those doing wonders in His name, were the ones that would count against them. As a believer, it is possible to be occupied by doing all kinds of good work as the word required, but the part of the word that is neglected consciously or unconsciously will count against every believer that neglects it. God is looking for a spotless church as it is written in 1Timothy 6:14, “that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing.” In the word of God, there is no lowering of expectations because He has given His word and no one shall fall on the ground without performing it. God gave all that makes it possible to live up to the word, but the world is offering all that it takes not to live up to the word of God. He is not coming for the ones that blow hot and cold, obeying God requires doing all. He mentioned in Revelation 3:15-16, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.” Be warned, despite all the miracles that you have been doing in the name of Jesus, He will not grant you a ticket to the Kingdom of God except if your obedience is without wrinkles. It is the word that you fail to do that will prevail against you and will make Jesus declare that He does not know you.
Prayer for today: O Lord, have mercy, let me live to the fulfillment of my calling in Jesus name.

 DISTRACTION FROM DIRECTION
Jeremiah 42, 43

“The LORD has said concerning you, O remnant of Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt…”(Jeremiah 42:19). The children of Israel were seeking a way that seemed right to them because of the fear of the Chaldeans attack. As a result, they went to Jeremiah, “And said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Please, let our petition be acceptable to you, and pray for us to the LORD your God, for all this remnant (since we are left but a few of many, as you can see), 3 that the LORD your God may show us the way in which we should walk and the thing we should do.””(Jeremiah 42:2-3) Jeremiah did as they had requested and the Lord gave the direction, but the remnant redirected themselves. Has the Lord been speaking direction to you directly or indirectly? When God’s direction is redirected, it leads to nowhere, but to disaster. Despite the condition on the ground, the remnants were in a safe hand and they should have had no reason not to obey and accept the promise of God to keep them from the Chaldeans’ attack. The remnants initially knew what they would do before sending Jeremiah to ask from God. Jeremiah warned them, “Then hear now the word of the LORD, O remnant of Judah! Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘If you wholly set your faces to enter Egypt, and go to dwell there, 16 then it shall be that the sword which you feared shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt; the famine of which you were afraid shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there you shall die.”(Jeremiah 42:15-16) Jeremiah pointed out the reason for asking, or seeking God, for direction and not taking to God’s direction is “wholly setting of eyes on one’s own direction”. The remnants of Judah were running away from war, and failed to listen to God’s word of direction through Jeremiah, as a result, they ended up in self destruction, “…So Johanan the son of Kareah, all the captains of the forces, and all the people would not obey the voice of the LORD, to remain in the land of Judah” (Jeremiah 43:4) The remnant had wholly set their eyes on going to Egypt. Believers can always remember that God always has a better plan for His children. The God that has brought you this far does have better plans to see you further, because faithful is He that calls you.

Prayer for today: Father, I ask that You deliver me from every agent of distraction that causes man not to obey Your direction.