NO EXCUSE
1 Samuel 15:1-23

An excuse for disobeying the Word of God is an excuse to be denied from the blessings of God. From the beginning of creation, there has been no record of reasonable, or acceptable, excuses for disobeying God. Adam had the best of all excuses, but it failed to matter before God. Adam did not ask for a companion when God decided to give him one that dragged him into disobeying the word of God. Genesis 2:18, “And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”” The comparable helper was Eve. When Eve fell to the deception of the serpent by eating from the tree that God required not to eat from, Adam was also given some of the fruit. After eating from the tree of life, the Lord came down into the garden to call on Adam. God found out in Adam’s response that he had eaten from where he was not supposed to eat from. Genesis 3:11-12, “And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” 12 Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”” There was no better excuse for disobeying God that could be better than Adam’s. Indeed, Adam did not ask for a helper, but God gave a helper that made him sin. What kind of help are you receiving from an identifiable helper of yours? God commanded King Saul, “Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’” (1 Samuel 15:3) Saul took the command and failed to respond fully. At the time when Samuel came to inquire Saul about the operation, Saul gave a reasonable excuse. One that was reasonable in his own eyes, but not to God, “And Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the LORD your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.” (1 Samuel 15:15) Saul did not fully comply with God’s commands and there could not have been a reasonable sacrifice from the spoil of the war. Samuel pointed it out to Saul, “…To obey is better than sacrifice…” (1 Samuel 15:22) Think of the command before you do it, and if it is not in full compliance, no acceptable sacrifice will come out of it. Disobedience to the commands of God is equal to rejecting God. Rejecting God will cause man to be rejected likewise by God.

Prayer for today: Father, deliver me from every conscious, or unconscious, way of disobeying your command that your name will be glorified in my life.

SHUT DOWN?
John 20:19-29

Right after the resurrection of Jesus, fear shut the disciples up where they had assembled. John 20:19-20, “Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.”” Despite all that Jesus had impacted on the disciples, and the power of resurrection that had just taken place, fear was able to lock the disciples up, by having them shut up doors on themselves. Fear, when allowed in our space, will take the whole ground with an attempt to build up where it should be knocked down. Fear is not of God, and it is the opposite of faith. The disciples were the ones that were used by the enemy to shut doors. Many times we have allowed ourselves to be used in shutting ourselves down because of fear, and not faith. The apostle Paul and Silas were once locked up in a prison when they became a threat to the kingdom of the wicked. The apostle Paul and Silas refused to be victims, or subjects, of pity in the hand of enemy. The apostle Paul and Silas did not see Jesus in the physical, but by virtue of what had impacted their life, through the word of God, they took a step of self-deliverance by praying, and singing, to God. Acts 16:25-26, “But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed.” Now it is clear that the power in self-deliverance can be as powerful as being delivered under a messenger of the word of God. In the case of the disciples their deliverance was not manifested until Jesus came to speak the word of deliverance, “Peace be with you”. Your deliverance might be self-deliverance like that of Paul and Silas. Praying and singing hymns to God will bring you out of any situation where you are locked up or shut down.
Prayer for today: Lord have mercy on me according to you multitude of mercy. Let your word of deliverance sound in my direction.

DECEPTION AND WRONG INFLUENCES
Genesis 3:1-7

Deception and wrong influences are relative to each other; both are agents of the devil and not of God. The purpose of deception or wrong influences are to cause man to act in disobedience against the confirmed Word of God that has been deposited or released into a believer’s life. After God had put Adam in the garden of Eden, “…The commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”” (Genesis 2:16-17) God gave His Word of command to Adam, and to Adam alone, because at the time God was giving His word of command, Eve was yet to be created. After the word of command, “And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” (Genesis 2:18) When the word of God was being deposited into the life of Adam, Eve was not there yet, and she had no idea that God had spoken to Adam. When the enemy of man discharged his agent of deception, it was Eve that came up with a wrong influence in the life of Adam. Falling for a wrong influence frequently comes from the closest one, and that is not to say it does not come from distant ones. As a believer, you know exactly what the Word is requiring from you. You alone were there when the word of direction or command located you by God. As a result, there is a great need to stand still, and not be moved by whatever comes from the closest of the farthest ones. “Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4-5) Eve, having fallen for the master of deception, now influenced her husband. Genesis 3:6, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.” Eve fell for the deceiver, and Adam fell for the influencer that was in his life. It should not have been so for Adam, because Eve was not around when Adam received his word of command. Who is influencing you? Think before you take an influenced jump. Adam’s sin does not seem to be serious, but it turned out to be the worst sin ever committed.
Prayer for today: Father deliver me from every agent of deception and all that represents wrong influences in my life, in the name of Jesus.

LIVING WATER
July 08-08

It is recorded of Jesus in John 4:4, “But He needed to go through Samaria.” Samaria, then, was not a place that any Jew would want to go to, just as Jesus did. Knowing Jesus, who came for everyone, and most especially the rejected and the sinners, he decided there was a need for Him to go through Samaria. Does He have a need to go through you today? His going through you will leave a mark of deliverance, and reservation, for all that will allow Him to go through them. In His going through Samaria, He met a woman who had come to draw water from a well where Jesus was waiting for His disciples, who had gone to buy food. Jesus asked for water from the woman and the woman responded, “…”How is it that You being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.””(John 4:9) Obviously, the woman had no prior idea of whom she was talking to, but Jesus did point out to her reluctance in giving water, by Him offering the woman the living water. Jesus went even further and said to the woman, “…Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”(John 4:13-14) When the woman heard Jesus, she asked for Jesus to give her the water that will not make her thirsty any more. From the moment of her asking, Jesus was able to reveal all, her life history that could be likened to the living water running through her life, flushing out all the “flushables” and wetting all of her dryness. The woman that was initially asking for what to use in drawing water, began to carry the living water around without a water pot. “The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, 29 “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30 Then they went out of the city and came to Him.” (John 4:28-30) Going out, witnessing, and bringing sinners to the Lord is the greatest way of scoring for the Kingdom of God. Jesus also revealed in John 7:37-38, “…“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” The Samaritan woman believed and she flowed, as living water, to many in her city. It was a demonstration of soul winning dryness, not to be witnessing and winning souls for the glory of God. Can you account for the number of souls that have come to the Lord through you in the past one to twelve months? The living water is a life giver, restorer, and repairer. Above all it revives life. 
Prayer for today: Ask God to fill you with the living water that will terminate every representative of dryness in areas that the Lord has called you.

GRACE TO GRASS
Exodus 2

Moses was born in due season for God’s divine purpose. At the time of his birth, grace was in place for him to be delivered from the commands of Pharaoh. At his birth, Pharaoh had given the command, “…When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” (Exodus 1:16) Grace kept him and delivered him to be raised in the palace when the daughter of the Pharaoh picked him up in the river as an abandoned child. Moses had as much as a prince could have had while in the palace. Moses became an Israelite-Egyptian. Moses lived in the palace for forty years, and did not lose his statues as prince, until he ran away for the murder he committed. In his attempt to defend an Israelite being beaten by an Egyptian, he killed the Egyptian with the hope that no one saw him. In another of intervention between two Hebrew men, a reference was made to the murder he had committed. Exodus 2:15, “When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian; and he sat down by a well.” After forty years of living in the palace, Moses fled for salvation to the land of Midian. While in Midian, he became a shepherd. Moses moved from grace to grass, as he became a shepherd in the land of Midian. God is a God of purpose, whatever situation or condition you have found yourself in, there is nothing to do, but to continue to thank God. Ephesians 5:20, “Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” What giving thanks to God will always do is that it will make, “… all things work together for good…” (Romans 8:28) There was no record of regret or lamentation as regard to how Moses caused himself to slide from grass to grace because of his concern for his Hebrew brethren, rather it was recorded in Exodus 2:21, “Then Moses was content to live with the man, and he gave Zipporah, his daughter to Moses.” If you did not like your situation or where you are now, know that God is in control and it might be that He is leading you to a great assignment that will elevate you for the Kingdom’s glory. Above all, Moses’ contentment was evidence that he was in a training to learn to be abound and abase. 1 Timothy 6:6, “Now godliness with contentment is great gain” Indeed and in truth, Moses in all his life did not experience God’s visitation, neither was he visited by God until after it was recorded of him that he was content to live in Midian. God was preparing Moses for a position as a great leader and Moses eventually became one of the greatest leaders in the history of mankind. Moses went from grace to grass, and from grass to greatness in the hand of God. Believe it, that you are under God’s construction for His kingdom glory.
Prayer for today: Lord, help me not to loose focus in every situation or condition that I go into, or in the ones ahead of me.