AENEAS
Acts 9:32-35

 What is it that you have and it is also having you? Is there any kind of negative habit or sickness or disease that you are having and it is also having you? You have no control over your situation and your situation is controlling your life. If you are having it and it is also having you, there is a need for a divine intervention and you do have a need to be found by God. Nothing is impossible neither is there any situation that is too late for you to gain your deliverance. Acts 9:32-34, “Now it came to pass, as Peter went through all parts of the country, that he also came down to the saints who dwelt in Lydda. 33 There he found a certain man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years and was paralyzed. 34 And Peter said to him, ‘Aeneas, Jesus the Christ heals you. Arise and make your bed.’ Then he arose immediately.” In this particular trip when Peter went through the country, there must have been other miracles but not much was documented like the miracle of Aeneas. This miracle was meant to minister to someone then and also today. The Bible said Aeneas was bedridden for eight years. Aeneas was paralyzed to the point of being bedridden. Aeneas was having paralysis and whatever it was that got Aeneas paralyzed was also having him. He had paralysis and the paralysis was having him so he became bedridden. There is no man that wants to be in such a situation but that is where the devil wants to keep every man. Apostles Paul was talking when he stated in 2 Corinthians 11:23, “…In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often.” Paul was having all kinds of affliction, but none of the afflictions could have him neither could they hold him down. Aeneas had paralysis and he was paralyzed. Aeneas was eventually found before he could come out of his paralysis. Peter, by the grace of God, found out Aeneas. Your testimony can be like that of Aeneas by asking God to find you out. God will not come down in person, but you can bring Him down by your prayers and He will move by the extension of His hand for your deliverance. Aeneas’ miracle could not elude him when Peter found him. He came out of the paralysis; he could no longer be held down. He rose and made his bed up for good. Whatever you have that is also having you, it could be financial paralysis, emotional paralysis, or anything that is representing paralysis, if you will believe and desire to be found out by the hand of God, you will surely rise and move above, ahead, and beyond it to the glory of God just like it was for Aeneas. 

HAVE YOU SEEN HIM?Acts 9: 1-31< ?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>

After Saul had his encounter with Jesus on the way to Damascus, his attempt to join the apostles was scary. ÒBut Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. And he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.Ó(Acts 9:27) It could be absolutely impossible to see the Lord and not accept or receive Him; especially the way Saul saw Him. Saul was on his way to go and cause damage to the body of Christ in Damascus. He had all the permission that was needed to bring anyone that was for Christ to Jerusalem bounded. Just as he was going, Jesus showed up to him in the form of light shinning from heaven. Saul did not just answer the call, but he responded to the call. ÒAnd he said, ÔWho are You, Lord?Õ Then the Lord said, ÔI am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.ÕÓ (Acts 9:5) If you are one of those that have seen Him but yet remain at the position of questioning Him, it is time for you to learn from SaulÕs experience and answer the LordÕs call with no further questions. It could have been that the questioning of Saul is what kept him in dark for three days when he lost his sight. The condition of not having your eyesight for three days without even knowing whether or not it would ever be regained could be devastating. Saul gained his sight back but the bottom line of it is if you have been called and havenÕt responded by moving, it is time to respond. Many are seeing Him daily or weekly (on Sundays) in His Word through the pages of Scripture, but yet they are not paying attention to Him. How long does it have to take before you accept Him by answering His call? When you see Him and receive Him, you will become a force that cannot fail in any area of life. Although, challenges will come, you will overcome all because He that calls you will back you up if you do not back out of Him. Have you answered and felt left alone since you have answered Him? If that were the case, you have to check from within yourself. It could be that you have not answered with your whole heart. With Jesus there is no middle ground between answering and serving Him and answering and serving the world. You are either for or against Him. Saul answered with all his heart and he had a transformation in every area of life. His name was changed to Paul and all of his writing in the New Testament is a testimony to the fact that Paul was more sensitive to the Holy Spirit more than the ones that walked with Jesus (including the Apostles) while He was on earth. Ask Him to pour out the fire of His love in your heart. 

HARDNESS OF HEARTPsalm 95:8-11

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Being unforgiving, bitter, malevolent and being unable to let go can be a demonstration of  hardness of heart. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, was a good example among those whose heart was hardened in the Bible. After he had given the children of Israel freedom by virtue of the miracles in the hand of Moses through God, he could not let go because of the hardness of his heart. Exodus 14:8, ÒÉAnd the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of IsraelÉÓ (Exodus 14:8) In this pursuit, Pharaoh lost everything that he put out to pursue the children of Israel. The Lord was responsible for the hardness of his heart. It is worthy to pray to God and ask God not to let this be your portion as you continue in the wilderness journey of life in JesusÕ Name. Ask God to deny in your life all that could cause a man to operate or to be available as a vessel of dishonor. God encouraged us to ask, seek, and knock. The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh and he was marked for destruction to the glory of God. The situation of Pharaoh calls for prayer by using the Psalm of David. David stated in Psalm 141:4, Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men who work iniquityÉÓ The children of Israel, before their failure, became evidence in the physical, but it all started in the heart. God testified, ÒFor forty years I was grieved with that generation, and said, ÔIt is a people who go astray in their hearts, and they do not know my ways.Õ  11 So I swore in My wrath, ÔThey shall not enter My rest.ÕÓ(Psalm 95:10-11) A heart that goes astray will not see the warning signal against destruction when it comes. It will fail not to stop when there is a need to stop; it will not find its way back to where it started when he wants to go back and correct it self. Indeed a heart needs to focus on God in prayer against forces that can easily be filtered into the heart for destruction. Have you been holding on to bitterness, anger, and malice against any of your colleagues or brethren? Are you finding it difficult to let go of what has been called off? Could it be that you are operating a hardness of heart? It could also be that your heart is on the verge of going astray. All care needs to be taken by learning from what has been documented in the pages of Bible in regard to how destructive hardness or a strayed heart could be. Also, prayer is the key that can deliver every man from becoming a victim of a vulnerable heart to any of the life terminating forces.  Psalm 139:23-24, ÒSearch me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; 24 and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.Ó Prayer is the ÒcheapestÓ way that will enable you to keep your heart with all diligence. Our Lord God will have mercy in Jesus name.

WHOLE HEART

Jeremiah 17:5-18< ?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>

ÒThen I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.Ó (Jeremiah 24:7) Ask God today to give you a heart that He has promised to give you. Ask Him for the heart that will never be accessible to Satan anymore and in anyway. The same Jeremiah described the heart in Jeremiah 17:9-10, Ò The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? Without any doubt, the heart seems to be the prime target for the enemy to take over the life of a man. How are you keeping yours from becoming a victim of Satan? Once, Ananias, having sold his possessions in the spirit of blessing fellow believers, he allowed Satan to enter his heart. Acts 5:3, ÒBut Peter said, ÒAnanias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself?Ó Satan is a trick master and is always after the heart as his playground. Thank God we have the Truth master in Jesus, and He is always in place for us when we call on Him. It was also reported that Satan entered Judas, ÒThen Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve. 4 So he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him to them.Ó (Luke 22:3-4) There is no other place that Satan could have entered in Judas that could have been more effective than the heart. Both Ananias and Judas died an untimely death because their heart became the victim of Satan. GodÕs promise of giving a new heart included the fact that after giving a new heart, there shall be a return to Him with a whole heart.  A whole heart is what it will take to get to His Promised Land; a whole heart is what it will take not to doubt Him, a whole heart is what it will take for man not to complain against Him, a whole heart is what it will take not to die in the wilderness journey. Whole is all that made Caleb not to confess negative after spying on the Promised Land and it is also what gave him life where thousands of people failed to get to the expected end. There is no man that can follow God fully except if the heart is guided against the moves of Satan. A heart that follows God fully is a whole heart and whole heart is what God has promised to give. Caleb followed Him fully because of his whole heart and God testified in Numbers 14:24, ÒBut My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.Ó Ask Him to give you a heart to be whole in Him.

WHAT’S YOUR NAMEActs4:36-5:1-11

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It is recorded in Acts 4:36-37; ÒAnd Joses, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles (which is translated Son of Encouragement), a Levite of the country of Cyprus, 37 having land, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostlesÕ feet.Ó This report was recorded for a purpose, and it speaks volume to any man that will pay attention. The meaning of Joses was not reported for the purpose of story telling, but to call to attention the man whose name means encouragement, which was indeed an encouragement to the body of believers. Joses was living to the meaning of his name, and that can be seen as being in the center of his calling. Right after the documentation of Joses, Ananias and SapphireÕs case came up. Ananias, whose name means Yahweh, had been gracious sold his possessions just like Joses, but he kept back part of all that he got from the sale. Ananias failed to live up to his name. Ananias refused to be gracious when and where he needed to be, and as a result, he removed himself from the center of his assignment, and died an instant and untimely death. Anytime there is a failure of not living by what you are called to be, it will lead to a passage of what you are not called to be. The son of encouragement will live to answer to his name. As a result he could not pass unto what was not meant for him to be. Names can either work for you or work against you. If your name means ÒseparateÓ, and you bluntly refused not to be separated where there is a need for separation, you will miss the center of your assignment, and that could be a permanent termination. The name Lot means separation, when it was time for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, God made a way of separation for him, but he struggled not to be separated. Lot which means separation could have ended up not being separated, ÒAnd while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wifeÕs hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the cityÓ (Genesis 19:16) What does your name mean, and how is it promoting you or delaying you from where God wants you to be? What are you being called to do? Living outside the calling is living up to what you are not called to be. Joses, son of encouragement, lived by his name and he had life. Ananias lived outside of his name and he lost life. Is your name relevant to what you are currently going through? Your name will work for you or against you. If there is a meaning in your name, be conscious of the meaning and do not wait till it fails you.