BLESS THE LORD< ?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>

Psalm 103

With sincere honesty to God, when was the last time that you have taken a timeout to bless the name of the Lord despite all forms of confrontations before you? When was the last time? It is not a question of blessing His name inside the church or among the gathering of believers. It is a question of when was the last time that you, yourself have actually blessed His name not because of what is at hand but when what is expected to be at hand is not at hand. David, the writer of Psalm 103, exhorted himself to give praise to the Lord with his whole being. Will you learn from David today by meditating on some of his words as recorded in Psalm 103:1-5, ÒBless the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagleÕs.Ó If you can testify to any of the above pronouncement in your life, God is due for another round of praising His name regardless of where you are. Being in an office setting cannot stop you because it will not take a noise making for you to get into praising Him. Believe it that if you are able to read through by yourself then you are a testimony of the fact that God has done great things. He is still doing great things and He will do greater things. Bless the name of God. Before this day, do you know that you have been crowned? Let it be registered in you that having been redeemed from destruction, having been healed from sickness and diseases and having been forgiven. He crowns us with loving-kindness and tender mercies. God is constantly and consistently worthy of our praise. He alone is faithful and worth to be worship. Pray that the crown that He has placed upon your life will not fall off. Ask Him to keep you in keeping His testimonies so that you will seek Him more for His name to be glorified in your life. Do not delay but deliver unto Him praise because He alone is worthy to be praised. Bless the Lord with all your heart for He is the King of all the earth so let your praises be with understanding.

NAME OF JESUS< ?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>

Acts 19:11-20

So many knows about Him and many know Him. Knowing about Him does not cut it and will not get you far in the journey of life. Knowing Him is not enough if you are not known in Him. If in your knowing Him, you are not known in Him you are limited on dangerous grounds. Many are very conversant in calling the Name of the Lord Jesus but the name is not known in their life only at the tip of their lips. Some know His name as the name that delivers, the name that heals and they have always been taking it upon themselves to call upon that name. Have you sincerely set yourself aside to determine your relationship with the Word of God or the world around you? Are you just a part of the crowd or the crowd is part of you? The book of Acts described in Acts 19:13, ÒThen some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, ÒWe exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches. 14 Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish priest, who did so. 15 And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know: but who are you?ÓÓ Can you identify yourself in the name of Jesus or can you be identified with His name? Where do you stand? It is not enough if the living Word of God is not living inside of you. If the Word of God is living inside of you then you are an authorized carrier of the Name. The name that you do not represent will not answer for you in times of confrontation. Acts 19:16, ÒThen the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.Ó Playing around in the name of Jesus is not a child play and it should not be a religious activity: it is Jesus reality. Those that know His name and in whom the name is alive are qualified to exercise the power. They are the one with a covering that is power and protective.  Have you been getting away by toying with name of Jesus for a long time? It is time and now is the time for you to let Jesus have His name implanted in you from the inside to outside of you. Be His representative and His name will be presenting you as an over-comer against all forms opposition. With the name of Jesus as your covering, you will never be naked like the itinerant Jewish exorcists that took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus that was not known in them.

JOY ALWAYS< ?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>

1 Samuel 30:1-20

ÒYou will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.Ó (Psalm 16:11) At the time of writing Psalm 16, David knew what was to be gained when one is joyful at every moment and in every situation. Having been displaced from his home and his place of comfort, David ran for his life against the wiles and evil devises of King Saul. All that celebrated DavidÕs defeat over Goliath had also left him except his family and those that the society considered as the wicked and worthless men. David, a champion in the hand of God, now lived as a fugitive when he did not commit any crime. He became the champion and the leader for the rejected. In his leadership role, he encountered an inflicting defeat when the Amalekites invaded Ziklag where David and his entourage were using as home base. The Amalekites took away wife, children and all that belongs to David and his men. The Bible recorded, ÒNow David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.Ó(1 Samuel 30:6) David did not waste time in the state of being distressed. As an acclaimed child of God is there any situation that has trapped you to be in a state of distressed?  Can your situation be worst than that of David? He could have taken a seat to count on the woes and lost that continue to locate him despite having been anointed to be the king, but he strengthened himself in the Lord.  What you need to do is get yourself out of distress and get into motion by taking to what David did. David strengthened himself by getting into joy and joy got him accessible into the presence of God. Habakkuk 3:17-18 is the confirmation of what David did and it is also what will get you through into your break through. ÒThough the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls- 18 Yet I will joy in the God of my salvation. 19 The Lord God is my strength: He will make my feet like deerÕs feet, And He will make me walk on my high hills.Ó (Habakkuk 3: 17-19) If you will believe, the word of God will work for you. Joy is what will grant your access to the presence of God and He will give you the grace of total recovery.  In His presence, there is all you need to recover all like David. You will recover all that the enemy stole from you in Jesus name. Rejoice always.

DRAW ME NEAR < ?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>

1 Samuel 28

ÒAnd when Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by the prophets.Ó(I Samuel 28:6) Saul had it all when he was anointed to be the first king of Israel. When he entered the vehicle of disobedience, however, he ran into a roadblock and could not regain the control of his vehicle. Disobedience to the Word of God is a displacer from the presence of God. Saul failed to obey God when he was asked to ÒGo 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.ÕÓ (1 Samuel 15: 3) Saul went and carried out the command as he saw fitting and not as was commanded by God. Are you trying to help God advance His work in a more colorful way? If you will do all that He asked for and not put yourself into a self-destructive vehicle go ahead and do exactly what He has commanded you to do. After the death of Samuel whom the Lord had been using for Saul, there was a need for Saul to hear from God in regard to a confronting war against the Philistines. Saul inquired of the Lord, but there was no answer because there was no longer a bridge between him and God that would connect him into the presence of God. Disobedience had taken over in place of the bridge and distance was ruling. King Saul needed to hear from God desperately because he was afraid and his heart greatly trembled because of the war. Saul now turned to another medium through which he could inquire of the Lord about the war. Saul had lost it where he could have been keeping it with the One who called him to be the first king over His children. The fact that it was God who called Saul to be the king and not Saul calling himself was not an excuse to escape his act of disobedience. Whenever a believer receives a call of His command, there is also a need for grace that will keep the called believer to focus on carrying out the command of God as He had called for. Samuel was called back from sleep through the medium that did not represent God; but it added nothing unto Saul. Going to the medium rather took away from him. Samuel awoke from sleep and declared the defeat and the end of Saul. Disobedience of Saul created distance and with distance there was deportation from the presence of God, which brought destruction unto Saul. Ask God to have mercy on you if there is any way that you are distancing yourself so that destruction will not overtake you.

AWESOME GOD< ?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>

Exodus 1:15-22, 2:1-10

ÒThen the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah; 16 and he said, ÒWhen 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.Ó (Exodus 1:15-16) There is no work of God that is accidental. Right after king Pharaoh had put in place a plan to kill all the Hebrew sons, a boy was born by a man and woman from the house of Levi. PharaohÕs plot was to kill and to destroy while the hand of God was in place to heal and to deliver. In the physical eyes, by manÕs calendar and the season they were living in, Moses seemed to be born at the time of destruction, but to God it was a time of deliverance. It could be that the people around you have begun to see your situation differently from how you are seeing it. It does not matter how they see your situation, but it does matter for you to believe that the God who delivered Moses at the time of destruction will have a way of seeing you through. After three months, the parents placed him in an ark of bulrushes to hid him from the being killed by Pharaoh. As God will have it for Moses, the ark ended up in the hand of PharaohÕs daughter and that called for a need to have someone to take care of Moses. ÒThen his sister said to PharaohÕs daughter, ÒShall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?Ó 8 And PharaohÕs daughter said to her, ÒGo.Ó So the maiden went and called the childÕs mother.Ó (Exodus 2:7-8) As God would have it for Moses, the same ground where judgment was passed for the killing of Hebrew sons was the same ground where he received favor. He was delivered into his motherÕs hand and he did not have to miss the early infant age from his mother. When the mother took over the caring contract, ÒThen PharaohÕs daughter said to her, ÒTake this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.Ó So the woman took the child and nursed him.ÓÓ (Exodus 2:9) God did not only deliver Moses, but He also preserved him. The house of Pharaoh was responsible for all of MosesÕ provision. God does have His own way of operating and no man or situation can derail the operations of God. God is an awesome God. He will deliver you and preserve you for His glory in Jesus Name.