OPEN HEAVENS DAILY DEVOTIONAL BY PASTOR E.A.ADEBOYE 24/10/2016

OPEN HEAVENS DAILY DEVOTIONAL...

DATE : MONDAY 24 OCTOBER 2016

THEME : 
OCCUPYING WHILE WAITING?

Memorise: 

And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. Luke 19:13

Read: Joshua 13:1-6, (KJV)

1 Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the Lord said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.



2 This is the land that yet remaineth: all the borders of the Philistines, and all Geshuri,

3 From Sihor, which is before Egypt, even unto the borders of Ekron northward, which is counted to the Canaanite: five lords of the Philistines; the Gazathites, and the Ashdothites, the Eshkalonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites; also the Avites:

4 From the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that is beside the Sidonians unto Aphek, to the borders of the Amorites:

5 And the land of the Giblites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrising, from Baalgad under mount Hermon unto the entering into Hamath.

6 All the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon unto Misrephothmaim, and all the Sidonians, them will I drive out from before the children of Israel: only divide thou it by lot unto the Israelites for an inheritance, as I have commanded thee.

Message

The parables of Jesus sometimes were directed to the multitude and at some other times are directed to the disciples in particular. The parable of Jesus in the memory verse for today was directed to the disciples who were being prepared for the great commission (Mark 16:15-16). They were being told to occupy till He comes.

Sometimes we think the word “occupy” means “keep yourself busy” alone; it means more than that. We must not keep ourselves busy doing nothing substantial. To understand the import of Christ’s command in Luke 19:13 we must take a look at the Bible reading of today. The Lord gave a not too good assessment of the journey to the Promised Land under Joshua, which should be a food for thought for the Church of the 21st century.

“Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the Lord said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.”


Joshua 13:1

One lesson we must quickly learn from the above scripture is that Joshua was now old and there was no more strength and energy to lead the battle against the inhabitants of the land which God had given to them. They failed to occupy the Promised Land. In the same vain, when Jesus Christ told His disciples (and us by extension), to go into the world and preach the gospel to every creature, He was actually saying that we should go and occupy the land for Him and the Kingdom of His Father. It is beyond keeping ourselves busy just for its sake. The question now is, “Are we really occupying while we await His second coming?” Another food for thought is, in our evangelistic and missionary efforts, can we say we are occupying both the geographical and spiritual landscape and atmosphere of the world? What can we show for all the money spent on missions and evangelistic efforts? Have we taken a break in our efforts to occupy the nooks and crannies of world kingdoms like the disciples of old? We must remember that our mandate is to make disciples of all nations.

Beloved, we must not lose grounds any more. As a matter of fact, the grounds we have lost to the enemy must be taken back. Like David encouraged himself in the Lord after the raid of his barrack at Ziklag, we must summon courage to go after the enemy and recover back the Kingdoms that once belongs to the Church. The cathedrals that have been turned to bars must be brought back for the worship of the King of kings and the Lord of Lords. Christian nations that have turned secular must be revived and brought back to the light of the gospel of the Son of the Living God. May the Lord help us in Jesus’ name.

Action Point:

Let us set a strategic plan to go to the “garrison” of the children of the bondwoman and take what belongs to our God back to Him because He is the God of all flesh.




AUTHOR : Pst E. A ADEBOYE 

HYMN 11: STANDING ON THE PROMISES OF CHRIST OUR KING

Standing on the promises of Christ my King,
Through eternal ages let His praises ring,
Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing, Standing on the promises of God. 

Chorus:
Standing, standing,
Standing on the promises of God my Savior;
Standing, standing,
I’m standing on the promises of God. 

2. Standing on the promises that cannot fail,
When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
By the living Word of God I shall prevail,
Standing on the promises of God. 

Chorus:

3. Standing on the promises I now can see
Perfect, present cleansing in the blood for me;
Standing in the liberty where Christ makes free,
Standing on the promises of God. 

Chorus:

4. Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord,
Bound to Him eternally by love’s strong cord,
Overcoming daily with the Spirit’s sword,
Standing on the promises of God. 

Chorus:

5. Standing on the promises I shall not fall,
List’ning every moment to the Spirit’s call.
Resting in my Savior as my All in all,
Standing on the promises of God. 

Chorus.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR : Micah 1-4 and Psalms 86

Micah: 1. 1. The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. 2. Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord GOD be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. 3. For, behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. 4. And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place. 5. For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem? 6. Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof. 7. And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot. 8. Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls. 9. For her wound is incurable; for it is come unto Judah; he is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem. 10. Declare ye it not at Gath, weep ye not at all: in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust. 11. Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Saphir, having thy shame naked: the inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Beth-ezel; he shall receive of you his standing. 12. For the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good: but evil came down from the LORD unto the gate of Jerusalem. 13. O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the swift beast: she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion: for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee. 14. Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moresheth-gath: the houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel. 15. Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel. 16. Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee. 

Micah: 2. 1. Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand. 2. And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. 3. Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks; neither shall ye go haughtily: for this time is evil. 4. In that day shall one take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, and say, We be utterly spoiled: he hath changed the portion of my people: how hath he removed it from me! turning away he hath divided our fields. 5. Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the LORD. 6. Prophesy ye not, say they to them that prophesy: they shall not prophesy to them, that they shall not take shame. 7. O thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the LORD straitened? are these his doings? do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly? 8. Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy: ye pull off the robe with the garment from them that pass by securely as men averse from war. 9. The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have ye taken away my glory for ever. 10. Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest: because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction. 11. If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people. 12. I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold: they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. 13. The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them. 

Micah: 3. 1. And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment? 2. Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; 3. Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron. 4. Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings. 5. Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him. 6. Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them. 7. Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God. 8. But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin. 9. Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity. 10. They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. 11. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us. 12. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest. 

Micah: 4. 1. But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. 2. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 3. And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. 4. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it. 5. For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever. 6. In that day, saith the LORD, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted; 7. And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever. 8. And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem. 9. Now why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no king in thee? is thy counseller perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail. 10. Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies. 11. Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion. 12. But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor. 13. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth. 


Psalm: 86. 1. Bow down thine ear, O LORD, hear me: for I am poor and needy. 2. Preserve my soul; for I am holy: O thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee. 3. Be merciful unto me, O Lord: for I cry unto thee daily. 4. Rejoice the soul of thy servant: for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. 5. For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. 6. Give ear, O LORD, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications. 7. In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me. 8. Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works. 9. All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name. 10. For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone. 11. Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name. 12. I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore. 13. For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. 14. O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul; and have not set thee before them. 15. But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. 16. O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid. 17. Shew me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because thou, LORD, hast holpen me, and comforted me.