Topic: Your Source of Security [Saturday April 15, 2017]

“Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders.” — Deuteronomy 33:12 NIV

One way to know whether you really love yourself in a healthy, bal¬anced way or not is to ask yourself whether you are a relatively secure person or whether you struggle with insecurity. Simply put, insecurity is a feeling that you really aren’t “good enough,” or needing others’ approval in order to be confident. It has to do with whether your life is built on the unshakable foundation of God’s love or the faulty founda¬tion of what others think of you.

Your security does not depend on your bank account, your job, the way you look, other people’s opinions of you or even the way others treat you. I know this can be tempting in today’s world, but I urge you not to base your security on your educational or professional achieve¬ments, the labels inside your clothes, your car, or the house you live in. Don’t base it on whether you are married or single, or whether you have children or not. Don’t look for your security anywhere but in Jesus Christ and in Him alone. He is the only one whose opinion matters, and He is the only one who will love you forever and never change His thoughts toward you.

Re-read the scripture for today and be encouraged. You are the beloved of the Lord and you can rest secure in Him.

Love Yourself Today: Start working with God to develop a rock-solid sense of security. He loves you, and through Him you can do whatever you need to do in life.

Topic: Into Hell [Saturday, 15th April 2017]

(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? Ephesians 4:9

And He – Jesus – on the cross, said It is finished. And then died. Jesus died a sinner. And there is only one place a sinner will go after he answers the call of death, HELL! Referred to “the lower parts of the earth,” Christ went in, bound and led by the demons of Satan. He was condemned to eternal prison, or so they thought. But He went there as part of the eternal plan of God. God had other ideas why He allowed Satan take Jesus to hell. Hell had something that He needed to take. So, even if He appeared defeated to Satan’s demons, He was strong.

One thing you should know, Jesus Christ went to hell so that you and I will never perceive the smell from the flame. Jesus died a sinner and then went to hell, so that we won’t die as sinners and go to hell. Hell was not made for you, and as long as you’ve believed and accepted Jesus as Lord and remain in Him, you are not a candidate of hell. That’s one of the reasons Jesus went to hell.

Another reason he went to hell was to preach the gospel of the kingdom to those who died without hearing it. 1 Peter  3:19 says, “by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison.” This is very key because the Lord never wanted anyone born into this world not to hear the gospel of the kingdom preached. Hell was all part of God’s eternal plan for salvation. But blessed be God, we will miss the opportunity to go to hell, and beloved it is good missing. We are glad that we will miss hell, because Jesus have already went to hell on our behalf.

Keep winning daily.

Prayer:

Thank You Jesus for going to hell for me. I am so elated that I am going to miss hell, all because You went there for me. Thank you Lord, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Topic: And He Spent All [Saturday 15, April 2017]

Memorise: There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. – Proverbs 11:24

Read: Luke 15:11-14 (KJV)

11 And he said, A certain man had two sons:

12 And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.

13 And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

14 And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.

Bible in One Year: Numbers 1-2, Jeremiah 14:1-12

MESSAGE:

Many people do not know that the act of giving has principles that must be followed in order to get rewarded for it by God. Due to their ignorance, such people have become discouraged from giving because they had given in times past without getting the results which they rightfully expected. The truth of the matter is: giving has principles, and unless you follow these principles, you will have no result for your giving. For example, if you sow your corn or wheat on the sea, you will definitely get nothing. Therefore, we must learn the principles of giving in order to have the desired results for our giving. God will never owe any man; He gave us His word of assurance on this in Hebrews 6:10:

“For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.”

However, you must know the type of ground you sow your seed into. For example, it is an exercise in futility to sow your seed into a church ministry where the more money comes in, the more women the leaders acquire to his pleasure. Also, when you give to a ministry which you know diverts your seeds into private estates and into taking care of the body instead of using it for winning souls, do not expect any reward from God. Apart from being selective of the type of causes you give to, you must also learn to give intelligently. In today’s Bible reading, the prodigal son took all that he had, left the environment of accountability and spent everything recklessly. The result of his wild lifestyle is glaring in Luke 15:14:

“And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.”

It is an established truth that giving brings blessings upon the giver (Proverbs 11:24a). The Lord Jesus Christ Himself established this in His teachings (Luke 6:38). However, there is another truth we also need to pay close attention to in Proverbs 11:24b, which says:

“…and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty”

In other words, though we are not expected to “spend all”, we must not fall into the error of conserving more than is necessary. This is the word of God. Those who live a lifestyle of spending their all always become a nuisance to the body of Christ through excessive borrowing. Learn from the story of the seven years of plenty and strategy of conservation given by Joseph against the succeeding seven years of famine (Genesis 41:33-36). Also, learn from the ants how to manage your resources prudently (Proverbs 6:6-8). May God give you wisdom along this line, so that you can spend and give wisely.

Prayer Point: Father, give me wisdom to manage the resources You have entrusted to my hands.

Open Heavens 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.

iOpenHeavens is the electronic version of the Hard Copy. The Open Heavens devotional application is available across all mobile platforms and operating systems: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Nokia, Windows Mobile and PC.

In life, it’s important to learn to accept the things you can’t change because there’s nothing more tiring, draining and frustrating than trying to change what just can’t be changed. Jumia Travel, the leading online travel agency shares 8 ways to learn to accept the things you can’t change.

You First Need to Accept That Things Have Indeed Changed

This is a very important step. Trying to fight change is like wrestling with a brick wall. It’s useless. You need to first accept that things have changed before you can start thinking of how to deal with it.

Understand That Things Will Never Remain the Same

Once change is experienced, even if you’re able to successfully fight the change, things will never fully be what they once were. You need to accept this and the feelings that come with it, and then you have to deal with it. Lying to yourself or deluding yourself into thinking that things can be exactly as they once were, is ill-advised and frankly unhealthy. Learn to accept it, deal with it and move on.

Understand That Change is an Unavoidable Part of Life

Don’t dwell on why of all the people in the world, this change had to happen to you. You need to realize that change happens to everyone and avoid taking on a victim mindset. You’re not the only one to experience or suffer through change. Others, many others, have experienced it and are still living. Change is a part of life that happens to everyone, and yes it might monumentally mess with things in your life, but it also brings new opportunities, lessons and experiences that can be beneficial to you and others around you.

Try To Understand What Unsettles You So Much about The Change

It’s easier to deal with something tangible as opposed to something abstract and unclear. Ask yourself, search within yourself and try to answer this question – “What is it about this change that affects me so much?” If it’s the death of a loved one, could it be because you fear being lonely? Or could it be that you’ll miss the person’s guidance or companionship? Get to the bottom of the matter and understand what about the change affects you so much.

Learn to Adapt

When you know what about the change unsettles you, it will be easier for you to find ways to fill in the gap and adapt to the new reality. If it was a mother that was lost, think of someone in your life that you consider motherly and wise. Please this is not in any way meant to replace your mother, but to only fill in the gap. If you are the kind of person that has always thrived with motherly advice and guidance, losing that all of a sudden can be extremely difficult and unhealthy for you. It’ll be easier on you if you have someone to keep you grounded. If you are religious, turning to God can be a great help, especially if you have no one.

Moving on is a Process

Moving on is a process that, in truth, never ends. Once change has occurred, especially if it’s a sudden change, from that day onward you are and will keep moving on. Don’t expect that after a long while you will no longer feel anything. You will very much still feel things but they will not be as profound as they once were because over time you’ve become better at dealing with it.

Confide in Trusted Other(s) about Your Feelings

At the early stages of change and even during the moving on process, it is important to occasionally confide in someone you can trust about your feelings and struggles. It really helps more than you can imagine and is much better than trying to deal with it alone. Even if the person might not be able to fully understand your emotions, just being able to say it out loud or express it someone might just help beyond what you can imagine.

Give Yourself Permission to Be Happy Once Again

Happiness is a choice. Please try not to allow circumstances affect you so much that you actually let yourself feel some kind of guilt or unfairness about letting yourself be happy. Joy and happiness are what gives strength to deal with anything, no matter how terrible or messed up it is. Be happy not because you are happy at what happened, but because your body needs it and your mind needs it; be happy because life still continues so please give yourself permission to live.

By Damilola Ojo
PR Associate Jumia Travel
+2348101556883

Topic: Marked For Demolition [Saturday April 15, 2017]

Scripture: Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? 2 Peter 3: 12.

Thought For The Day: The degeneration of a generation is the reason for the demolition of that generation.

The word demolition connotes the act of pulling down, bulldozing or levelling a building or a structure beyond recovery.

It is critical to understand that the whole world and its evil systems have been marked for demolition. The degeneration of a generation is the reason for the demolition of that generation.

Our anchor Scripture makes it clear that the world and everything in it will one day fade away. These include the most valuable buildings in the world like the Aso Villa in Abuja, Nigeria, the Presidential Castle in Accra, Ghana, the White House in Washington DC, USA, the skyscrapers of Manhattan in New York, USA, those expensive cars and billions of money in your account regardless of the currency, the vanities of this world that people deceive and kill for, etc.; they will all be destroyed at the end of time.

So, to hope in a system that is doomed for demolition rather than JESUS CHRIST and ETERNITY with God is a signature for demolition with the system.

I prophesy to you, as you focus on Jesus, the Hope of Glory, you shall not be a victim of the demolition of this generation, in Jesus’ Name.

Remember This: The degeneration of a generation is the reason for the demolition of that generation

Assignment (S)

1. Consciously shift your focus from materialism and fellow human beings to Jesus Christ in every situation of your life.

2. Deepen your relationship with God at the place of prayer, the study of the Word, fasting and worship etc.

3. Ask the Holy Spirit to constantly impart you with the consciousness of eternity.

Prayer: LORD, I thank You for Your Word to me today. Deliver me from the vanities of this life and baptize me with the consciousness of the soon coming of Christ, LORD in Jesus’ Name.

FOR FURTHER UNDERSTANDING, GET THIS MESSAGE: MARKED FOR DEMOLITION

Daily Reading: Joshua 11:1 to 12:24, Luke 17:11 to 37, Psalm 84:1 to 12, Proverbs 13:5 to 6.

Quote: Carnality is the foundation for calamity; investment in the flesh is investment unto destruction. Culled from 365 WISDOM CAPSULES by Dr Paul Enenche.

Amazing Fact: Bed bug saliva has anaesthetic properties so that when they feed, their victim doesn’t feel their bite.

Today In History: 15/04/1793 – Bank of England issued first £5 note.

Dunamis International Gospel Centre (DIGC), is a powerfully anointed church, headquartered at Abuja, Nigeria, with Dr Paul and Dr Becky Enenche, as the Senior Pastors. It is a power-packed arena where God’s Presence, Principles and Power are at work for the salvation, healing and restoration of human destinies and dignities.

Topic: Live the Love Life [Saturday April 15, 2017]

But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. – 1 John 2:5-6

There is nothing—absolutely nothing—that is more important than learning to love. In fact, how accurately you perfect the love walk will determine how much of the perfect will of God you accomplish. That’s because every other spiritual force derives its action from love. For example, the Bible teaches us that faith works by love. And answered prayer is almost an impossibility when a believer steps outside of love and refuses to forgive or is in strife with his brother.

Without love, your giving will not work. Tongues and prophecy will not work. Faith fails and knowledge is unfruitful. All the truths that you have learned from God’s Word work by love. They will profit you nothing unless you live the love of God.

First Corinthians 13:4-8 paints a perfect picture of how love behaves. It’s patient and kind. It’s not jealous or proud. It doesn’t behave rudely or selfishly and it isn’t touchy. Love “beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”

Sounds like a tall order, doesn’t it? But don’t despair. You are a love creature. God has re-created your spirit in the image of love. And He has sent His love Spirit to live in you and teach you how to love as He loves. You can live the love life. Begin today.

Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

This message was written by Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, the leader of the Kenneth Copeland Ministries (www.KCM.org) that specializes in teaching principles of bible faith – prayer, healing, salvation and other biblical topics.

Topic: Evidence of Jesus [Saturday April 15, 2017]

I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore . . . — Revelation 1:18

Certain laws of evidence hold in the establishment of any historic event. Documentation of the event in question must be made by reliable contemporary witnesses. There is more evidence that Jesus rose from the dead than there is that Julius Caesar ever lived, or that Alexander the Great died at the age of 33. It is strange that historians will accept thousands of facts for which they can produce only shreds of evidence.

But in the face of the overwhelming evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, they cast a skeptical eye and hold intellectual doubts. The trouble with many people is that they do not want to believe. They are so completely prejudiced that they cannot accept the glorious fact of the resurrection of Christ on Bible testimony alone.

Prayer for the day: Lord Jesus, I know You are alive—for You live in the hearts of all those who love You!

Written by Billy Graham, Founder of Billy Graham Evangelistic Association(BGEA). BGEA exists to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ by every effective means and to equip the church and others to do the same.

Topic: The Price of Love [Saturday April 15, 2017]

Read: Isaiah 53:9–12, Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 27–29; Luke 13:1–22

He poured out his life unto death. Isaiah 53:12

Our daughter burst into tears as we waved goodbye to my parents. After visiting us in England, they were starting their long journey back to their home in the US. “I don’t want them to go,” she said. As I comforted her, my husband remarked, “I’m afraid that’s the price of love.”

We might feel the pain of being separated from loved ones, but Jesus felt the ultimate separation when He paid the price of love on the cross. He, who was both human and God, fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy 700 years after Isaiah gave it when He “bore the sin of many” (Isa. 53:12). In this chapter we see rich pointers to Jesus being the suffering Servant, such as when He was “pierced for our transgressions” (v. 5), which happened when He was nailed to the cross and when one of the soldiers pierced His side (John 19:34), and that “by his wounds we are healed” (Isa. 53:5).

Because of love, Jesus came to earth and was born a baby. Because of love, He received the abuse of the teachers of the law, the crowds, and the soldiers. Because of love, He suffered and died to be the perfect sacrifice, standing in our place before the Father. We live because of love.

Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away our sins, have mercy on us, and help us to extend mercy and love to others. Show us how we might share Your love with others today.

Jesus was the perfect sacrifice who died to give us life.

Insight:

Can you think of a time when you thought you would have been willing to do anything for love? Or, by contrast, have you known what it is like to avoid love—for fear of being hurt?

Living eight centuries before Christ, the prophet Isaiah had the hard job of letting the people of Jerusalem know that God loved them too much to let them continue to turn their backs on Him without consequence. Before confronting the idolatries of Ephraim, Assyria, and Egypt, Isaiah described the citizens of Jerusalem and Judea as dearly loved children who had rebelled against their Father (1:2–3). In chapter five it is evident that God cares too much about His people to let them continue embracing the false gods and futile hopes of other nations (vv. 1–7).

Woven through Isaiah’s warnings, however, are promises that the painful judgments of God have a merciful purpose. Beyond the consequences, Isaiah sees a future of restoration not just for Jerusalem but also for the whole world (2:1–5). Yet, until the day of Jesus’s resurrection, the means by which God would carry out that rescue was a secret of His love.

This message was written By Amy Boucher Pye [Our Daily Bread Ministries.]

Topic: Risen Forever [Saturday April 15, 2017]

Text: John 20:1-10

Key Verse: “Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him” (John 20:2).

Christ’s resurrection from the dead is a cardinal and fundamental teaching of the Christian faith. It is the hope of Christians that there is life after life. “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (1 Corinthians 15:19). Both death and grave could not hold Jesus Christ from resurrecting. Today’s text explains vividly the visit of Mary Magdalene and two other disciples to the sepulchre only to discover that the tomb was empty.

Mary Magdalene, having found the stone taken away, went back to Peter and John saying, “they have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.” The grave was empty, and the grave clothes left behind. If the enemies of Jesus took His body, they would have displayed it for all to see. If the disciples stole the body, they would not be looking for it. The empty tomb clearly reveals that Christ rose and that He is the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. When we are made alive from the deadness of sin, we must leave behind all the vestures of the corrupt old life and put on the true righteousness Christ imparts.

Despite Christ’s victory over the grave, many people still refuse to believe in a final resurrection for all human beings. The Bible clearly teaches that there is life after death. The body will die but the soul and spirit will live on. There will be two types of resurrection though; the first resurrection of life in heaven and the second of endless suffering in hell. Obviously, the disciples had forgotten the prophecy of their Master’s crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection.

They were used to seeing death and burial alone, with an entrenched mindset against bodily resurrection. Alas, the Lord rose from the dead to cancel that. This simply signifies God can turn an impossible case around for His glory. To qualify for the first resurrection, you must be born again, live a consistent and victorious Christian life and be ready for the rapture of all saints.

Thought for the day: He who dies in Christ will live forever with Him.

Bible Reading in one Year: Joshua 8-10

DCLM Daily Manna was written by Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi; is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church situated at KM 42 on the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Nigeria.

Topic: Face Your Fears [Friday April 14, 2017]

…Let not your heart faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them. – Deuteronomy 20:3

Never look or run away from what you fear.

Facing your fear is the only way to stop your fear.

Facing your fear is what phases out your fear.

The more you confront your fear the bolder you become.

If you run away from your fear it will pursue you and may even kill you someday.

But once you confront your fear you gain power over it.

If you don’t want your fear to kill you, face it and kill it.