Open Heaven 3 January 2019 Thursday Daily Devotional By Pastor E. A. Adeboye – Lessons from the Sower I

Topic: Lessons from the Sower I (Open Heaven 3 January 2019)

Memorise: “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.”– Proverbs 4:7

Read: Matthew 13:1-9 (KJV)

1 The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side.

2 And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;

4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:

5 Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:

6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.

7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:

8 But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.

9 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Bible in One Year: Matthew 6-8, Isaiah 2:6-22

Open Heaven 3 January 2019 Thursday MESSAGE:

If you have heard or read the Parable of the Sower as told by our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, you must have learnt some lessons from it. However, if the Lord tarries, the Holy Spirit will be teaching us some more lessons from the parable over the next few days. The first lesson is that the sower was not prudent enough in the business of sowing. He sowed carelessly and in so doing, wasted a lot of good seed on inappropriate ground. This situation applies to the lives of many people who waste their energy and resources on unprofitable ventures because they are not wise enough to identify the appropriate business, places and people to invest in. It is unimaginable but true that some people sentimentally site their bakery in a village of less than a hundred inhabitants. Among such inhabitants, hardly would twenty people buy a loaf of bread in three days because not only are they used to their local foods, they are also not rich enough to afford a loaf of bread. The story was told of a poor fellow who was very loyal to his king’s business. Whenever the king called for volunteers to work on his farmland, this fellow was the first to show up and the last to leave; he was indeed very hardworking and dedicated. One day, the King decided to help him out of his poverty. He disguised a huge some of money in a big loaf of bread and gave it to him. “Take this bread home and let me see how it will transform your life for the better,” said the king. Incidentally, the value of the bread was enough to pay for the food that the poor man could eat for five days. To the disappointment of the king, the poor man sold the loaf of bread, not knowing what was in it, and that was how he lost the fortune of a lifetime.

Some ventures are like sowing among thorns or on stony ground. Initially, such ventures may appear as though they have prospects, only for diminishing returns to set in later. It is one thing to be hardworking and another thing to work wisely. It is one thing to keep busy and another thing to be busy doing something profitable. Even as minister of the gospel, you need God’s wisdom in the business of Church planting. It is counterproductive to build a three thousand-seater capacity auditorium in a community of 500 people. It is true that the souls of men are more valuable than money and that those souls in the village are not inferior to the souls in the city, but wisdom dictates that a congregation cannot grow beyond the number of people living in the community where it is located. This is the reason why the Holy Spirit inspired the words of today’s memory verse. Wisdom enables the soul-winner to engage in profitable methods of evangelism and church-planting. Praying for a miracle of any kind for an unrepentant sinner, apart from the miracle of salvation, may be equivalent to sowing by the roadside. I pray that the wisdom you need to experience breakthroughs in all dimensions of life will be given to you in Jesus’ Name.

Open Heaven 3 January 2019 Thursday Prayer Point:

Father, I ask for wisdom that is rooted in Your word for all aspects of my life in Jesus’ Name.

Also Read: Open Heaven 2 January 2019 – A Child of Issachar?

Open Heaven 3 January 2019 Thursday Hymn 3: Trust and Obey

1. When we walk with the Lord
In the light of His word
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will,
He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey

Chorus:
Trust and obey,
For there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus,
But to trust and obey.

2. Not a shadow can rise,
Not a cloud in the skies,
But His smile quickly drives it away;
Not a doubt nor a fear
Not a sigh nor a tear,
Can abide while we trust and obey.

3. Not a burden we bear,
Not a sorrow we share
But our toil He doth richly repay;
Not a grief nor a loss,
Not a frown nor a cross,
But is blest if we trust and obey.

4. But we never can prove
The delights of His love
Until all on the altar we lay;
For the favour He shows,
And the joy He bestows,
Are for them who will trust and obey.

5. Then in fellowship sweet
We will sit at His feet,
Or we’ll walk by His side in the way;
What He says we will do
Where He sends we will go
Never fear, only trust and obey.

Open Heaven 3 January 2019 Thursday Daily Devotional guide was written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, one of the largest evangelical church in the world and also the President of Christ the Redeemer’s Ministries. The Open Heavens devotional application is available across all mobile platforms and operating systems: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Nokia, Windows Mobile and PC. Open Heaven 3 January 2019 Thursday Daily Devotional.

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During a recent interaction, the founder of the Dunamis International Gospel Centre, Dr. Paul Enenche, gave a first-hand account of how his ministry built the 100,000 capacity Glory Dome in less than four years.

The building is believed to be the largest auditorium in the world.

He also hinted of the process involved in the God-directed project, the life-transforming effect of the construction and the great wonders to come.

Scroll down for more PHOTOS

Getting The Location

We thank the Lord for his goodness and mercy. The vision for the building of the Lord’s Garden and the Glory Dome is synonymous with the vision of the Dunamis International Gospel Centre.

The vision is: “To impact our world with the principle, presence and the power of God by saturating the earth with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the seas. And to have a base where that word would emanate from to the ends of the earth.”

God gave us that vision; with the vision, there must come location. That was how we began to pray and in the night I had a revelation where I was taken to a land along the airport road, with a landmark that showed me that land.

We looked for land but we couldn’t find one. So we decided to buy land somewhere else, almost a thousand acres and another almost 700 acres in another location. We were almost starting in one of those places when the Lord reminded me that there was somewhere else he showed me and that I should still go ahead and look for the place.

I then called one of the surveyors in our church and anointed him with oil and tasked him to go and look for the land along the airport. To the glory of God, within one week, he was back and said he had found a place. And when we got there, I said this was the place the Lord showed. And that was how we secured this place after almost ten years when it was first released via revelation.

The Design

What was obvious to me was what we wanted to do. We knew that whatever creative and gifting we needed was right there in the house, so I announced in church that I needed a building team––structural engineers, building engineers, mechanical engineers as well as quantity surveyors.

They came out en masse. We selected the architects and gave them the concept I wanted. I told them anything from 75,000 to 100, 000 seaters all under one roof. I asked them to go and develop the concept. We had about five different designs. The current design was what met the specification of what we wanted.

An Architectural Wonder

We ‘broke’ ground on September 14, 2014. Before the main construction started, we did a lot of excavations. By January 2015, the construction had started. In the course of construction, there were modifications that we made. For example, I needed the whole building without pillars and it was to be roofed. Originally, some of them were wondering how is that going to be possible, especially with the size of the building, but I told them it was possible. They went for consultations and realized it was truly possible.

There were things I would see in the revelation and would tell them and they would do it and it turned out to become excellent.

The building is a structural engineering wonder; as a matter fact, when the officials from the Nigerian Society of Engineers came here, they were very excited that the building was constructed indigenously without any external help. We had had architectural students from universities and even from the development commission here in Abuja on tours to see what is going on.

I could remember that at the beginning of the construction, the team of the supervisors that came were asked to stay for at least one week to monitor what was going on.

So, it is a masterpiece. We went down to the earth almost 8-12 metres with iron pillars coupled with concrete before we came out. It took us sometime before we came out, with hundreds of millions of naira spent. By the time you come out, you are faced with the gallery, it means without pillar going almost 12 metres. There are very few in the world. Then, you are again spanning 274 metres. A football pitch is 90 metres, that means two football pitches under one roof without a pillar. That is a wonder.

The roofing company said that this is their largest roofing in the world, and they are the foremost roofing company as far as dome structure is concerned worldwide. Then you come in through the front entrance, the north wing and you see the height of it.

Impact on the rest of Africa, rest of the World

We have seen visitors from all walks of life including the clergy and politicians during the construction.

I remember during the construction stage, a man came from Europe and was busy taking pictures. I asked him why, since he was coming from Europe where they have virtually everything and he said: ‘Sir, I haven’t seen a thing as this.’ We have had in our previous conferences delegates from various countries. Apart from the Glory Dome itself, we have the recreational park, that would make this place a holiday destination, a tourist attraction and a vacation location where people would come to and literally don’t want to go back.

There was a time the wife of Bishop Taiwo Adelakan of Victory International Ibadan came here and she said she was proud to be a Nigerian because there would be no need to travel abroad any more. We have people commending the glory of God on the dome and the entire garden.

Location of the Altar

Specifically, the altar is meant to be central where everybody would be viewing the minister at the same time. The main entrance facing the altar is architecturally important and spiritual so that the flow of the ministration is equidistant to everyone.

The dome is about 43 metres from the floor level. That is about the height of a 13-storey building. Imagine yourself standing, looking at 13 floors that are filled with anointed worship, the type that would make people roll on the floor in tears while worshipping God. That is going to escalate a thousand times in this place. It is going to be awesome.

Concerns and Challenges

I cannot say that there was any major concern. But I think the major concern of everybody is how it was going to be roofed. Personally, I’m not an engineer or architect, so I was also picturing how it was going to look like. It would interest you to know that the roof was knitted just the way we knit basket. It has 21,000 pieces of metals that were hooked together. So, I was just wondering how they were going to do that. But we overcame and it was beautifully done.

Building without Pressure or Stress

I think it is the scripture that says God would keep in perfect peace the one whose mind is stayed on him. This is not my building. If I were to build a house, I won’t build a house as big as this. So, it is for the Lord, and because it belongs to God, it can’t put me under pressure, because the owner is not under pressure. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. God has never been under pressure to do anything. So it is stress-less. This is a multi-billion project. The roof alone is in billions not to talk of the construction. But it was done effortlessly and without stress.

The church members are not even under pressure. We did not at any point call for general offering for the project in the church. In fact, so many times, we forget to take the offering in church and members would have to remind the pastor that offering has not been taken––and this happened often while a major construction was ongoing. The truth is, we have a supernatural supply. We cannot point at any man that he’s the financier.

A Project of Empowerment

If you come to this site, you would see thousands of workers: carpenters, iron benders, electricians, mechanical engineers, quantity surveyors, architects, structural engineers, site labourers––I cannot tell the exact figure, but I’m sure it is not going to be less than 5, 000. It was indeed a beehive of activities. These people were fed daily. In fact, so many people bought cars in the course of the construction. Some even had their own houses by what they were being paid here. This building was put together at a time when there was zero construction anywhere in the city. One of the supervisors who came to monitor the project confessed that this was the only project they were supervising as it were in the city.

People also acquired new skills. The roofing company came as a consultant, the installation of the roof was entirely our business and what we did was to get a group of Nigerians in thousands and train them on what it takes to knit the roof together and these people were trained to scale a height of 43 meters and knit.

Literally, thousands of people from all religions had livelihood, some on the minimum of three to four years, especially at a time when unemployment was a major issue in the country.

Artisans, electricians, plumbers, bricklayers, painters and many others got employed.

In fact, at a point, there were constructions going on everywhere at the main auditorium, Glory Dome, the school, Destiny Christian School, the duplexes, and the garden. The workmen were paid as when due. That livelihood was provided. One of the supervisors said the construction was providing employment for Nigerians at a time than anywhere as far as he knew because there was no project going on at this scale in the city at a point. Beyond that, there were people who acquired and learnt new skills. If we have another opportunity in Nigeria for this kind of roof to be done, we won’t need to look for technical people who can do that because they are available.

Scaling the Country’s Adverse Economy

That is where the supernatural and divine element comes in. I think it was strategic for us to make man know the possibility of God, that no human or governmental power was responsible because Nigeria was hit by the worst depression and recession in its history.

We started the project when one dollar was equivalent to 199 naira and we came to a point when one dollar equalled 365 naira and that multiplied the cost of the project. Whatever prices we were importing doubled, but we didn’t bother.

So it was massively supplied by heaven. That is what makes it a miracle. If this construction could happen when Nigeria was in an economic boom, it would have been said that it was easy. But given the circumstance under which it happened, it becomes a miracle.

In all this, we give glory to God.

Dunamis Glory Dome 100,000 Capacity Largest Church Auditorium