BE MINDFUL OF GODMark 8:27-33

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It is written in Isaiah 26:3, ÒYou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.Ó A heart that stays on God will be mindful of God. To be mindful of God requires a constant meditation on the Word of God because the Word of God is God. Moses was mindful of God through out his leadership over the children of Israel. When it was time to pass the mantle on to Joshua, God laid the foundation of meditation in JoshuaÕs life by stating, ÒThis Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.Ó (Joshua 1:8) A mind that stays on God will be at rest and will not rust. Peace is the identity of any mind that stays on God. A mind that stays on God will remain standing where tens and hundreds are falling down. Where is your mind? If you cannot identify where your mind is staying, it is an indication that you have lost it. Are you mindful of God or the things of man? Are you one of those who make plans before taking it to God in prayer or are you one of the kinds who will pray before making plans? If you are mindful of the things of man, there is a need for you to keep your eyes on your back because the deceiver of man might be having a place behind you. Jesus wanted to find out from His disciples what men had to say about who He was. ÒNow Jesus and His disciples went out to the towns of Caesarea Philippi; and on the road He asked His disciples, saying to them, ÔWho do men say that I am?ÕÓ (Mark 8:27) The disciples responded and let it be known to Him what He was being called. Jesus went further to hear it from Peter who he thinks He was. Peter answered and said to Him that He was the Christ. As a result of PeterÕs answer, Jesus went and taught about all the sufferings that were ahead of His life. Peter could not take this teaching of the suffering that was ahead of Jesus lightly and he rebuked Jesus. Jesus responded to Peter, Ò É Get behind Me, Satan!Ó For you are not mindful of the things of God but the things of men.Ó (Mark 8:33)  Satan is not mindful of the things of God and that makes it impossible for Satan to be mindful of us if we are mindful of God. Set your mind on God. Be mindful of Him and Satan will have no clue of your mind. God will have mercy.

GRACE IN HIS SIGHTExodus 33:12-23

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The life of a believer can be likened to the one who enters into a wilderness journey. The world we live in can be compared to a wilderness and for every believer who has decided to move from a sinful life (by the grace of God) into walking the Word of God, by virtue of salvation through the blood of Jesus, can be considered as entering into a wilderness journey. A wilderness journey is an unpredictable journey. A wilderness journey represents a place of lack, a place no return, a place of no direction. The children of Israel, coming out of Egypt into a journey through the wilderness, can be likened to a believer coming out of sin and taking a journey into where God has a place for possession. Moses, the leader for the children of Israel, was to take them through a journey that is not familiar by his leadership. Moses needed help and he called unto God, ÒThen Moses said to the LORD, ÔSee, You say to me,Õ ÔBring up this people.Õ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said,Õ ÔI know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.ÕÓ (Exodus 33:12) Moses needed to be equipped for the journey. By his understanding, the package for his journey was yet to be completed, but God was making him to realize that grace in His sight was available to Moses and God confirmed this when He stated that, ÔYou have found grace in my sight.Õ This indicated that the grace was there for Moses to take to but he went further and prayed in response to God. ÒNow therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.Ó(Exodus 33:13) In MosesÕ prayer, it is clear that knowing the way in the journey is inhabited in the grace that is in the sight of God. There are so many ways in the journey but only the Way will get us to where the Lord has ordained for us to be in the journey of life. Where have you been looking for your way? There is no way in the map reading neither is there any way in manÕs reading. Getting to the Promised Land, GodÕs ordained destination according to His divine plan in our life will require constantly going back to Him for direction. The way of God can be easily read, but it can be difficult to execute or operate. Which way are you taking? Do not follow man or any way that seems right to you because, ÒThere is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.Ó (Proverbs 14:12) Just as the Lord said, there is a need for grace in His sight that will reveal the way for us to take. Just like Moses, pray that you will find grace in His sight and that you may know His way. Remember what Isaiah said: ÒThe way of the just is uprightnessÉÓ (Isaiah 26:7)

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Genesis 18:16-33

Friendship with God is enmity with the devil. Friendship with God is the departure from everything that is not in line with God. Also, friendship with God is to depart from all possible ways of the wicked and not to enter or dwell in any way that is contrary to the Name of God. Friendship with God is the grace to be consistent and consciously be working and walking in every way of God. Friendship with God is to know and have the understanding that God is around and within you all the time. Friendship with God is to constantly carry the fear of God and when we carry the fear of God in our life, He will always go before us so that we will not know sin. Sin and sinning is what separates a believer from God and to be separated from God is to be operating outside of God. Are you a friend of God? Do you desire to be a friend of God? If it could happen that there were some that walked in their walk as a friend of God, it is also possible to have such people that can be a friend of God today. God is not a partial God. Moses is among the ones that can be identified as one of the friends of God during his days. It will require a friendly relationship to be in a back and forth conversation with God. Moses conversed with God as a friend will converse with friend. Number of times, he had to plead to on behalf of the children of Israel by having conversation with God. Moses made himself available to enter into conversation with God in Exodus 33:11, ÒSo the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.Ó Also, Father Abraham had conversations as friend to friend with God. A friend will not hide his plan from his friend; especially any plan that could affect the friend directly or in directly. God could not hide His plan of destroying Sodom and Gomorrah from Abraham.  Genesis 18:17, ÒAnd the LORD said, ÔShall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, 18 since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?ÕÓ God knows who His friends are and He will not deny Himself in their lives. In the New Testament, Jesus, by extension, called His entire disciples friend. ÒNo longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.Ó (John 15:15) God is not a difficult God; He alone is our Father in heaven whose eyes will not depart form us. Do you desire a friendship relationship with God?

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2Kings 4:8-37

ÒNow faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.Ó (Hebrew 11:1-2) Do not consider this for a later adoption to your pending situation or pressing need. Now and not later, go ahead and apply faith knowing that God is still in the business of honoring His Word. Faith is heart-activated and mouth-operated. Faith is a God pleaser and it will provoke God to move on your behalf. Faith will move the hand of God if indeed it is activated and operated the way it should be. God cannot be deceived when you fail to activate and operate faith; failure will activate and operate itself whether you like it or not. God knows our heart and knows when faith is activated more than we know it and that is why Hannah said in her prophetic prayer in 1 Samuel 2:3, ÒÉFor the LORD is the God of Knowledge; and by Him actions are weighed.Ó What is your action concerning you pending situation? How are you going to activate what will bring you out of your dilemma? The only and better choice is to lay it on God and watch while you wait to see how God will move in on your behalf. From this moment on, begin to confess positivity to your situation. Begin to see victory in the place of defeat; begin to see breakthrough in the face of hindrances and also begin to see life in the place of death. Let your faith announce your wellness and not the surrounding situations. The Shunammite woman had no son and her husband was old. This testifies to the fact that there could be no way for her to have a child except if a miracle took place. When Elisha came into the Shunammite woman, he activated the faith from his heart by operating with his mouth when he spoke to her, ÒThen he said, ÔAbout this time next year you shall embrace a son.Õ And she said, ÔNo, my lord. Man of God, do not lie to your maidservant!ÕÓ (2 kings 4:16) The Shunammite woman had a child just as Elisha spoke it. The child grew and one day he was sick and he died; he was not just sleeping. As a result, the Shunammite woman went and looked for Elisha with heart-activated faith for Elisha tol pray the child back to life. All through her trip to Elisha she activated faith in her heart and operated faith with her mouth by confessing that all was well with her even in the midst of her going through and having lost her only child to death. Elisha responded to the Shunammite woman as she approached Elisha by sending his servant, ÒPlease run now to meet her, and say to her, ÔIs it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?Õ And she answered, ÔIt is well.ÕÓ (1 kings 4:26) The Shunammite woman maintained her heartÕs activated faith and repeatedly operated faith by her mouth throughout her ordeal. Elisha went with her and the dead child was brought to life. The same miracles are everywhere today where faith is having its reign because of GodÕs rule and reign over all His creation. Ask God for the Spirit of faith to have its reign in your life and for His Name to be glorified.

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1 Samuel 1

In every sickness, there is a different prescription of medication by the doctor. Also, the degree of pain will call for different prescription of painkillers. A patient that is experiencing pain in his leg will not receive the same prescription of painkiller like the one who comes out of surgery. This is to say every situation of hindrance demands a different approach of gaining a breakthrough. When you have received a command with a key in your hand to insert, turn and push a door and all you could do is insert and not turn nor push, you are bound to waste away and destiny could be altered. Hannah was loved by her husband ÒÉalthough the LORD had closed her womb.Ó (1 Samuel 1:6). Without any distraction, she was able to ask, seek and knock to have her door opened by GodÕs mercy. Hannah had all the comfort from her husband Elkanah that could have kept her silent from seeking God to open the closed door, but she refused to waste away because she needed to possess her possession in the Lord. Think of this for a moment, the same God that closed HannahÕs door is the same God that commanded in Luke 11:9, ÒSo I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.Ó God meant all of what He said and the ones He is still saying for those that will take to working and walking in His word. God wants His word to be received and to be operated for an effective and infallible result that cannot be denied. When God said ask and it shall be given, He knew exactly that there is provision for the need but asking is what will bring forth the provision. He also said seek because He enjoys being sought for in times of desperation and that is why He alone is God. In your seeking Him, He will not hide from you if you seek Him diligently. He asked us to knock when there is a need for us to gain entrance or receiving a breakthrough in every area of closed door. Many times we have limited ourselves by asking only and not seeking or seeking and not knocking when our situation actually demands asking, seeking and knocking. Hannah had been going to Shiloh every year with a pressing need, but her situation changed when, ÒÉher rival also provoked her severely, to make her miserable, because the LORD had closed her womb. 7 So it was, year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, that she provoked her; therefore she wept and did not eat.Ó (1 Samuel 1:6-7) Hannah stepped up in her seeking solution to the closed door when she became miserable due to the unchanging situation after years of asking. It is time that you stop begging. He commanded us to ask but not beg for what He has already given to us.  Begin to get violent in your asking, seeking and knocking. He will not fail in His Word.