Topic: The Manifestation of Wisdom [Friday March 3, 2017]

Scripture: Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man’s wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed. Ecclesiastes 8:1

Thought For The Day: Supernatural wisdom is behind outstanding existence

From our anchor Scripture, we see that supernatural wisdom is behind outstanding existence. At the frequency of supernatural wisdom, Moses, David, Solomon, Daniel, Paul the Apostle, and Jesus Christ Who is Wisdom Personified, all lived outstanding lives.

Divine wisdom is not cleverness. We can see the manifestation of Divine wisdom in Solomon’s judgement in the case of the two prostitutes in 1 Kings 3:16-28.

Now, how do you know when a person is operating in wisdom?
1. Wisdom is manifested by human relationship skills. Wise people know how to relate with people in order to get the best out of them. One of the greatest secrets of a successful life is the understanding of people. Until you understand people, you cannot go anywhere in life.

2. A person’s value for information is a proof of his wisdom. Wise people have ears that are tuned to information. The reason a man and his wife may continue to quarrel forever is because one of them is not ready to listen to the other. They understand things in different ways. So, when her understanding collides with his understanding, it becomes a misunderstanding. That is a manifestation of wisdom bankruptcy.

Determine to exist in supernatural wisdom.

Remember this: Supernatural wisdom is behind outstanding existence.

Assignment (S)

1. Make demands for Divine wisdom upon your life.

2. Study the Word of God daily and meditatively in order to connect with the Wisdom of Christ.

3. Learn the act of listening; listen more and talk less.

FOR FURTHER UNDERSTANDING, GET THIS MESSAGE: THE MANIFESTATION OF WISDOM (PART 5).

Prayer: O LORD, baptise me with the Spirit of Wisdom. Help me to take my life’s decisions on the frequency of Your wisdom, LORD, in Jesus’ Name.

Daily Reading: Leviticus 27: 14 to Numbers 1:54, Mark 11:1 to 26, Psalm 46:1 to 11, Proverbs 10:23.

Quote: Foolishness brings disgrace to God and limitation to destiny. Culled from BE WISE AND RISE! by Dr Paul Enenche.

Amazing Fact: Women’s hearts beat faster than men’s.

Today In History: 03/03/1910 – Rockefeller Foundation: John D. Rockefeller Jr. announced his retirement from managing his businesses so that he can devote all his time to philanthropy.

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: Two Portraits [Friday March 3, 2017]

Read: John 16:19–24, Bible in a Year: Numbers 28–30; Mark 8:22–38

Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. John 16:22

Clutching two framed photographs, the proud grandmother showed them to friends in the church foyer. The first picture was of her daughter back in her homeland of Burundi. The second was of her grandson, born recently to that daughter. But the daughter wasn’t holding her newborn. She had died giving birth to him.

A friend approached and looked at the pictures. Reflexively, she reached up and held that dear grandmother’s face in her hands. All she could say through her own tears was, “I know. I know.”

And she did know. Two months earlier she had buried a son.

There’s something special about the comfort of others who have experienced our pain. They know. Just before Jesus’s arrest, He warned His disciples, “You will weep and mourn while the world rejoices.” But in the next breath He comforted them: “You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy” (John 16:20). In mere hours, the disciples would be devastated by Jesus’s arrest and crucifixion. But their crushing grief soon turned to a joy they could not have imagined when they saw Him alive again.

Isaiah prophesied of the Messiah, “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering” (Isa. 53:4). We have a Savior who doesn’t merely know about our pain; He lived it. He knows. He cares. One day our grief will be turned into joy.

Prayer: Lord, thank You for going to the cross for us. We certainly know trouble in this world, but You overcame the world and took our sin and pain for us. We look forward to the day when our sorrows will be turned into joy and we see You face to face.

When we put our cares into His hands, He puts His peace into our hearts.

Insight:

It was necessary for Jesus, who is fully God, to be made in every respect like us—fully human—so that He could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. Only by becoming a human being could He die, and only by dying could He break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. While on earth, the Lord Jesus “walked in our shoes” and, therefore, He fully knows and understands us. We are now to walk in His “shoes” and imitate His example of compassion and care. “In your relationships with one another,” Paul tells us, “have the same mindset as Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). How can you bring comfort to others today by walking in Jesus’s shoes?

This message was written By Tim Gustafson [Our Daily Bread Ministries.]

Topic: Called to Be Peculiar [Friday March 3, 2017]

I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. – John 17:15-16

Being peculiar. That’s not something most of us work to achieve, is it? But, you know, we should.

God has called us to be peculiar—to stand out from the rest of the world as living proof of His power and His love (1 Peter 2:9).

He doesn’t, for example, want us to share the ailments of the world. He doesn’t want us to share their sickness and poverty and failure. He’s never wanted that for His people.

He gave us a physical illustration of that during the time the nation of Israel was held captive in Egypt. Pharaoh had refused to set the Israelites free, so God had allowed a thick darkness to cover the whole land. The darkness was so dreadful throughout Egypt that no one moved for three days.

“But,” says Exodus 10:23, “all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.”

What a thrilling example of how God wants us to live. We should be glorifying God by the miraculously victorious lives we lead. We should constantly have people telling us, “I’ve heard how God healed you,” or “I’ve heard how God prospered you and saved your children!”

So don’t hold back. Put the Word of God to work in your life and dare to receive the rich blessings that belong to those who believe. Start using the Word to draw boundaries around your life, to paint spiritual warning signs for the devil. Signs that say:

Off Limits! According to God’s Word, I don’t belong to you anymore. My family doesn’t belong to you. My health doesn’t belong to you. My money doesn’t belong to you. My ministry doesn’t belong to you. I belong to a different kingdom. Now, back off in Jesus’ Name!

Does that sound a little peculiar? Good. That’s exactly what God has called you to be!

Scripture Reading: Exodus 10:20-29

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: Learn From Mistakes [Friday March 3, 2017]

Text: Ezekiel 23:22-36

Key Verse: “Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy mind is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side” (Ezekiel 23:22).

Many times, what get people into trouble are not big, but little things. They omit to do what is right. They indulge in little careless or reckless acts, including those they knew spelt disaster for other people. With the passage of time, they become self-confident in their ability to tackle issues their own way.

They dismiss pointers in their own lives, to things that caused misfortune for others, on the hollow belief that, ‘it cannot happen to me’. In the process, they seal their own misfortune. Aholibah or Judah in Israel, had witnessed judgment that came on Samaria (or Aholah) for turning away from God and embracing the nations that did not know the Lord. They were shipped into exile. Instead of learning from God’s retribution on evil nation, Judah became more sinful before God. They connived, formed alliance with heathen nations, exposed their treasure to them and served their idols.

God paid them in their coins: He turned their new friends against them who plundered their wealth and exposed them to shame, humiliation and disgrace. It is only reasonable to learn from the mistakes of other people and avoid things that brought them down. Where we find that the pursuit of power, wealth and pleasure took them away from God, we must flee from such. The lives of those around us who fell out with God should be a lesson to us to shun their ways.

Anything that will lull our minds in sinful enjoyment must be avoided. We must not wait to taste the judgment of God. Anything we must do to live right before God and avoid His rod of punishment, must be done now.

Thought for the day: Sin is deceptive and deadly, and those that toy with it have bitter tales to tell.

Bible Reading in one Year: 1 Samuel 10-11

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: God Is the Life Giver [Friday March 3, 2017]

He made the world and everything there is. — Hebrews 1:2 (TLB)

There are many arguments we could marshal to give evidence of the existence of God. There is scientific evidence pointing to God’s existence. For example, whatever is in motion must be moved by another, for motion is the response of matter to power. In the world of matter there can be no power without life, and life pre-supposes a being from which emanates the power to move things, such as tides and the planets. Or there is the argument that says nothing can be the cause of itself. It would be prior to itself if it caused itself to be, and that is an absurdity.

Then there is the law of life. We see objects that have no intellect, such as stars and planets, moving in a consistent pattern, cooperating ingeniously with one another. Hence, it is evident that they achieve their movements not by accident but by design. Whatever lacks intelligence cannot move intelligently. An arrow would be useless without a bow and an archer. What gives direction and purpose and design to inanimate objects? It is God. He is the underlying, motivating force of life.

Prayer for the day: Lord, I know that without Your power my life would be useless. Prompt me, by Your Holy Spirit, to glorify You in everything I do.

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 Comforter [Thursday 2, March 2017]

Memorise: But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. – John 14:26

Read: 2 Corinthians 1:3-10 (KJV)

3 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;

4 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.

6 And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.

7 And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.

8 For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:

9 But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:

10 Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;

Bible in One Year: Genesis 28-29, Isaiah 48:12-49:7

MESSAGE:

In addition to knowing God as the Father and as the Son, you also need to know Him as God the Holy Spirit. There are many marvellous things to know about the Holy Spirit. For example, He is the Source of our power (Acts 1:8), a wonderful Teacher (John 14:26) and a Revealer of secrets and of the future (John 16:13). Although all these characteristics are wonderful, one characteristics I find so fascinating is that He is the Comforter (John 14:26). If you have experienced Him as the Comforter, you will be able to comfort others in their time of distress (2 Corinthians 1:4). If you have not experienced sorrow, you cannot be of much use in comforting the sorrowful. When we encounter tragedies and sorrowful situations, the best people can do is to say comforting words like “take heart”, “sorry”, etc. in such situations, the ministry of the Comforter is needed to heal the hurt felt deep inside. Are you presently going through a sad circumstance? Are you so sorrowful that all human attempts at comforting you have failed? The Holy Spirit will reach out and comfort you today in Jesus’ Name.

In times of sorrow, people do not expect some of us who occupy certain positions to express sorrow. This should not be so. I once visited a family who suffered a great loss, and I began to shed tears after seeing what they were going through. Some people began to say, “You are the General Overseer, you are not supposed to cry. We have come here to comfort those who are mourning; we should not be mourning.” I simply told them, “Leave me alone. In a similar situation, Jesus wept. If Jesus can weep, I am free to cry also.” One of my sons lost his mother, and it was extremely difficult to comfort him. His mother had suffered to train her three children and these children had plans to take good care of her. She however passed on while they were still trying to find their feet. This brother began to ask God why He called his mother home at a time when they had not been able to do anything for her. The Lord simply replied, saying “Your mother has come to be with Me. Can you take better care of her on earth than I am doing here in Heaven?” On hearing these words, he dried his tears, apologised to the Lord and moved on. Are you in a situation where you need the comfort of the Holy Spirit? He will reach out and touch you today. He will dry your tears, calm your fears and give you a greater hope.

Action Point: Pray for believers going through sorrow everywhere, asking that they receive the soothing of the Comforter.

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.

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