Resources

Bullet 7

Hear, Listen

Mark 4:24,25; Luke 8:18
Solomon in his opening lines of the book of Proverbs places emphasis on hearing as being paramount or important to learning. In the above scripture, Jesus places serious emphasis on what you hear and how you hear. What you hear determines what you eventually become. The process is quite simple; hearing builds either faith or fear. What we call fear is actually faith in what the devil is saying. Hence, hearing builds faith in something. What do you give yourself to listening to? Jesus said the measure (of thought and study) you give (to the truth) you hear will be the measure (of virtue and knowledge) that will come back to you and more than that measure will also be given to you. Paul testifies of the same to the Romans that faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. There are two basic ways of hearing; listening to anointed men and women called by God to teach or preach, and by reading the bible out to your hearing.

However, there is also dangerous clause made by Jesus, he who does not take time to hear the word of God, what he already knows will be taken away from him and given to someone else. Beloved, there is no stagnancy in our walk with God. There is no sitting on the fence. You are either building faith or growing fear. You are either increasing in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus or you are learning the ways of the devil. The choice is yours to make. All you need do is listen. LISTEN

_______________________________________

Bullet 6

Be Watchful and Thankful

Col 4:1-6
This is a year full of glory and divine promises of God. This year revealed that   sons of God will manifest the glory of God for the world to know that the will of God prevail. It is through that the Lord Almighty had released many things onto us as Christians, but in what way will these manifests in our lives? The Bible revealed many things to us concerning the people of God. But what is the power behind their success? One thing I want you to understand is that throughout the word of God the great people in the word of God devoted themselves for prayer. There will find Jacob wrestling with angel(Gen.32:24-28), what about Daniel who prayed three times daily facing the location of Jerusalem(Dan. 6:10), what about brother Paul Silas who prayed in prison (acts 16:24-26), and what about the church who prayed for peter’s released(acts 12:5). What do these teach us but the sacredness importance and necessity of prayer? Many are promises of God for us this year but we need to devote ourselves for prayer. Charles Spurgeon said in one of his books that “A prayerless soul is a Christless soul”. The people of old who fulfilled destiny in the word of God prayed their ways through into the presence of God. We need to devote ourselves for prayer. God had called us to present our petition before Him. Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful was the cry of Brother Paul to the Church at Colossae (Col.4:2). Prayer is the breath, the watch word; the strength of Christian. We need to be on guard in prayer so that enemies will not steal our joy and peace. God had called us to pray; Ask, Seek; Knock is a call for action in prayer. As we journey this year, let us be watchful in prayer.

PRAYER IS YOUR WEAPON TO RECEIVE WHAT YOU NEED FROM YOUR FATHER!

Bullet 5

Who Am I? (5)John 1:19-23

We shall spend one more day considering the life of John who baptised. There are one or two more things we must learn from the life of John especially as it concerns choosing a career (a job to do) and fulfilling one’s purpose. Jobs are what we do in the physical while purpose is that specific mandate by God that we are meant to fulfil. One may decide to give up a job or change between jobs but one is not supposed to give up on purpose.

The people asked John, that if he is not the Christ, why he baptises. His response to this was that he did not know the Christ who he was to testify about. In other to fulfil this, he by the help of the Holy Spirit chose the job of a baptiser, that he might fulfil his life purpose – testify about the Christ.

We must therefore draw a clear disparity between our job and our life-work (purpose) and prioritise them. John could have been given another job specification if baptising will not suit his life purpose. You must ask God; first, what is my life’s purpose? Second, what job am I to do to fulfil this purpose? It is my prayer that you will fulfil purpose in Jesus name.

Action Point: Blessed is the man who makes his life-work his job.

Bullet 4

Who Am I? (4)John 1:19-23

There are a few things we must learn from John’s accurate knowledge of his identity. I believe that if we understand and don these these things, we will like John be able to say with full assurance that this is my identity.

1.      He was a reader – For John to have re-echoed Isaiah’s prophecy of him (John) with so much accuracy, he must have given himself to the reading of the Prophets i.e. scriptures, or the Bible as we have it today. Hence, we must spend ample time with God’s word to unravel our identity.

2.      He Had Revelation – Yes, John was a reader of God’s word, but what should cross our mind next is how did John know that the prophet Isaiah was referring to him, he must have had revelation. It must have been revealed. Hence, we need some things to be revealed to us before we can access them. Remember that the secret things belong to God, it is only that which is revealed that belongs to us Deut. 29:29 we need to seek to know who we are as prescribed by God. Such knowledge can only be revealed by God’s spirit, the Holy Spirit 1 Cor. 2:10.

Action Point: Begin to ask you Maker today what he has made you to be and let His Spirit grant you revelation as you dig into the Word of God.

 __________________________________________________________________

Bullet3

Who Am I? (3) John 1:19-23

It is funny to see how identities stick faster and longer rather than what the correct identities is. Hence, we must be careful to know with all clarity and precision and have a correct perspective on who we are being different from what we do.

Today, John is known by everyone as John the Baptist, but that is certainly not what God called him and that is not what John said of himself either. The Lord speaking through the prophet Isaiah concerning John called him “the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight the way of the Lord” Isa.40:3. John also testified of himself as the voice of one crying in the wilderness Jn. 1:23. Hence, it is obvious he had a correct understanding of his identity and the destiny he was to fulfil. Where we got John the Baptist from remains unclear but it is certainly not from God, nor from John, nor from the Bible itself. Baptising was what John did, ‘the voice of one crying in the wilderness’ was who he was.

I want you to ask yourself, ‘Who am I?’ as it has been revealed to you in God’s word. John knew who he was from scriptures, who are you?

Prayer Point:Lord, reveal my true identity to me from your word.

 __________________________________________________________________
Bullet 2

Who Am I? (2) John 1:19-23

Sometimes when people, the world or the devil questions us on our identity, they have ready-made answers based on what they’ve seen us do. For John, suggestions were that he was Elijah, or the Prophet but his answer was no. For Christ, there were a lot of suggestions about Him. But like Christ, we are not meant to determine who we are based on the testimonies of men but of God. Jn. 5:37; Matt. 3:17.

Now, some of the reasons why we must not live by the testimonies of men are that sometimes such testimonies are either over-rated or under-rated; it is not a correct and precise description of who we truly are. For John, calling him Elijah will be undermining his task i.e. the forerunner of the Christ. At the same time calling Christ one of the prophets is many miles below who he really is.

At other times, ‘who are you questions’ do not really come as questions but as circumstances that question our knowledge of who we are and otherwise suggesting to us another identity. As a student, worker and so on, when your boss or lecturer asks you for sex to either promote or make you pass, he is simply asking you, do you really know who you are. For David, the Israelites and Goliath, it was just a battle of identity. Goliath was simply asking for a man  who knew who he was and David was that man who understood his identity (Israelite) as well as that of Goliath’s (Uncircumcised Philistine). Never let human suggestions or circumstances determine who you are.

Prayer Point: Lord, I thank you for starting me up this year on the question of my identity. Lord, let me know your testimony about my life.

________________________________________________

 Bullet 1

Who Am I? John 1:19-23

As we begin this journey of another year, one major question we must ask ourselves as Christians and seek to answer with all sincerity is the question of Identity – Who am I? For many of us, we have never sought to know who exactly God has made us to be in purpose and destiny. The knowledge of who we are truly is paramount to manifesting glory in this year; hence we must with all dexterity seek to know who we are in destiny.

As in the case of John, the baptiser, the Jews sought to know who he was and so they sent Levites and priests to gather that information. Men will always want to know who you are. Remember the sons of Sceva were also asked by the demon possessed man who they were. Unlike John, they had no answer yet for that question and they sure regretted their ignorance afterwards.

So the challenge to us is, will you have the answer to that question when you are asked like John or like the sons of Sceva, would you be dealt with by the issues of life because of the ignorance of who God has called you. Think about it. 

Prayer Point: Lord, I thank you for starting me up this year on the question of my identity. Reveal your original intention for my creation and help me pursue and live it