MOVE ME LORD
Luke 24:1-12

In the physical, it only requires common sense to see and understand that when a stone of hindrance is removed from where there is stagnation, gaining motion will have its way. It will also take spiritual eyes to see, and understand, there is a need for hindrances to be removed before there can be a move into a breakthrough. When Jesus approached the tomb where Lazarus was positioned after his death, there was a stone laid against the tomb. For the One that was going to raise a dead man, He does not have a need to call for the stone to be removed. Jesus could have called Lazarus to walk out of the tomb through the stone and that could have easily been done. Instead, “Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”” (John 11:39) In every ground of hindrances, there will be stagnation and when there is stagnation, motion cannot possibly have its way. As a result, failure becomes eminent. With failure in place, progress becomes an alien to every victim of stagnation. Just as it is in the physical, so it is in the spiritual realm, but it takes anyone that is in a deep relationship with God, to see or hear where there is a need for motion. Jesus, coming out of death into resurrection, did not have to roll the stone before coming out, because all the power in heaven, and on earth, belongs unto Him. When His tomb was approached by the women who had followed Him from Galilee, “…They found the stone rolled away from the tomb. 3 Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 And it happened, as they were greatlyperplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments.” (Luke 24:2-4) Jesus had to remove the stone before He moved forward. Can you identify what has become a hindrance for your breakthrough? Common sense might not have the right answer, but taking everything to God for a divine intervention, will be the solution for the reason of stagnation. The bottom line is that, the stumbling block has to be removed before stagnation can be converted into motion. Before Lazarus could come back to life, from death, when Jesus Christ was coming out into resurrection, the rolled up stones at the entrance of the tomb had to be rolled away from the tomb. It does not matter how long you have been experiencing stagnation in certain areas of your life, but it does matter that something has to removed for your breakthrough move to become a reality.

Prayer for today: Ask God in the name of Jesus: Every agent of hindrances and stagnation in my life, God, let them be removed for your name to be glorified in Jesus name.

GREAT GRACE
1 Samuel 9

Salvation, in the blood of Jesus Christ, is great grace and is rooted in the love of the Almighty Father. Our God is worthy of all praises and adoration because He is faithful, and He remains to be faithful, until eternity. It is good to take silent moments to acknowledge and magnify His holy name. God’s package of great grace made a young shepherd boy put an end to a terrorizing agent of the wicked that pestered the life of His children for forty days, both morning and night. The young shepherd boy permanently silenced an uncircumcised Philistine who was defying the armies of God. Saul became the first king for the children of Israel, because grace was in place for him. The first time Saul was approached, by Samuel about what God was going to do with his life, Saul confessed, “And Saul answered and said, “Am I not a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then do you speak like this to me?” …” (1 Samuel 9:21) The confession of Saul was a testimony to the fact that grace was in place for him to become king. It is a wonderful thing to be riding on the grace of the Lord, but it can also be a great disaster to abuse and be dropped out of the great grace of our Lord God. The same King Saul that enjoyed the great grace of God did not fair well when he ended up at the opposite side of His great grace. It was not long after he became the king that he put the garment of disobedience on toward the Word of God. Saul, having repeatedly disobeyed the Word of God, God sent Samuel to him, “I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments…” (1 Samuel 15:11) The grace of God is great, and He is worthy to be greatly feared. The apostle Paul testified in 1 Corinthians 15:10, “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.” Just like the apostle Paul, you are what you are by the grace of God, and not just because you know how to labor that makes it possible for the grace of God toward you not to be in vain. Unlike the apostle Paul, the grace of God toward King Saul was in vain and he lost the presence of God. The Word of God is written for our learning, learn today and do not run out of the great grace of God by any act of disobedient.
Prayer for today: Lord, have mercy on me, let me not abuse your grace over my life, and let your grace toward me not be in vain in Jesus mighty name.

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.