DATE: MONDAY NOVEMBER 13TH 2017
THEME: FASTING PREPARES THE GROUND
Memorise:
And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
Acts 13:3
Read: Acts 13:1-3
13:1 Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
13:2 As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.
13:3 And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
Message:
Just before He began His earthly ministry, our Lord Jesus Christ embarked on a 40-day fast. According to Matthew 4:1-2, He was led by the Holy Spirit into this exercise. Do you allow the Holy Spirit to lead you? Has He ever led you to do some fasting before? If He has, did you simply obey Him, or did you make excuses as to why you couldn’t fast? From the experience of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can see that fasting is necessary to equip us for the work of the ministry. When God commits a specific assignment into your hands, do you make out time to seek His face through fasting and prayer, or do you just jump into the assignment without necessarily seeking His direction, assistance, wisdom, protection and grace to succeed on the assignment? If you seek Him for assistance, it shows you realize your limitations and recognize that it is only through His power you can succeed in the assignment. In any case, Jesus clearly told us that we cannot do anything the way it should be done without Him (John 15:5). If we fail to seek His face, it shows we have confidence in ourselves, believing that we do not need Him to help us on the job. Beloved, you cannot do any divine assignment the way you are expected to do it without the backing of the One who sent you. From today, never embark on any assignment, be it spiritual or secular, without seeking God’s face in fasting and prayer!
In addition, when people are being prepared for the work of the ministry, prayer and fasting are needed to equip them spiritually. This was practiced in the early church. Acts 13:3 says,
“And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.”
When some prophets and teachers gathered themselves together to minister to God, the Holy Spirit selected Paul and Barnabas from their midst, to take the gospel to other nations. What did they do after this? They took time to pray and fast with them before releasing them to go and do the work. Even today, fasting is still needed to equip the various levels of the Church workforce. From the level of foundational classes for young converts and above, we should encourage praying and fasting as a means of equipping the saints for the assignments ahead of them.
Action Point:
Any good thing that you are to embark on must first be subjected to prayer and fasting.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:
Job 30-32
Amos 3:3-4:3
AUTHOR: PASTOR E. A. ADEBOYE
14: TAKE MY LIFE AND LET IT BE
1. Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in endless praise.
2. Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee.
3. Take my voice and let me sing,
Always, only for my King.
Take my lips and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee.
4. Take my silver and my gold,
Not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect and use
Every pow’r as Thou shalt choose.
5. Take my will and make it Thine,
It shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own,
It shall be Thy royal throne.
6. Take my love, my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee.
��� *LET US PRAY* ���
.. _*MONDAY, November 13, 2017*_
*PRAYER POINTS* :- _FASTING PREPARES THE GROUND_
1. *THANKSGIVINGS* .
2. *INTERCESSIONS/SUPPLICATIONS.*
3. *PRAYERS FROM OPEN HEAVENS DEVOTIONAL:*
----- Father, i thank you because *YOU ARE MY NUMBER ONE.*
*_---- Father, I thank you for saving me and for the salvation of my soul....._*
*_---- Father, I thank you for the grace to be alive, today;......_*
*_---- Father, I thank you for nothing happens without you;......_*
----- *_Father, please help me to live a fasted life , in Jesus' Name._*
----- *_Father, from today, please grant unto me the grace to take my prayer to a higher level, in Jesus’ Name......_*
*_Father, without you, I can't do anything, please be involved in every area of my live, in Jesus' Name......_*
----- *_Father, from today, please let every of my actions and activities bring honour to You, in Jesus’ Name......_*
----- *_Father, from today, please take preeminence over my life, in Jesus’ Name......_*
4. *PERSONAL PRAYERS REQUESTS:*
-- (John 16:23 - 24,
-- LUKE 18:1,
-- MATT 7:7 - 8 )......
---- FATHER, I thank you for the answers, for in *JESUS ALMIGHTY* Name I have Prayed.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR PASSAGES
Job 30: 1. But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock. 2. Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished? 3. For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste. 4. Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat. 5. They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;) 6. To dwell in the clifts of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks. 7. Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together. 8. They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth. 9. And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword. 10. They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face. 11. Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me. 12. Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction. 13. They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper. 14. They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me. 15. Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud. 16. And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me. 17. My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest. 18. By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat. 19. He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes. 20. I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me not. 21. Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me. 22. Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my substance. 23. For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living. 24. Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction. 25. Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor? 26. When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness. 27. My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me. 28. I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation. 29. I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls. 30. My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat. 31. My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep. -
Job 31: 1. I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid? 2. For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high? 3. Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity? 4. Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps? 5. If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit; 6. Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity. 7. If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands; 8. Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out. 9. If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door; 10. Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her. 11. For this is an heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges. 12. For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase. 13. If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me; 14. What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him? 15. Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb? 16. If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail; 17. Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof; 18. (For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother's womb;) 19. If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering; 20. If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep; 21. If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate: 22. Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone. 23. For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure. 24. If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence; 25. If I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much; 26. If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness; 27. And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand: 28. This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above. 29. If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him: 30. Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul. 31. If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied. 32. The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveller. 33. If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom: 34. Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door? 35. Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book. 36. Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me. 37. I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him. 38. If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain; 39. If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life: 40. Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended. -
Job 32: 1. So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. 2. Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram: against Job was his wrath kindled, because he justified himself rather than God. 3. Also against his three friends was his wrath kindled, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job. 4. Now Elihu had waited till Job had spoken, because they were elder than he. 5. When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, then his wrath was kindled. 6. And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said, I am young, and ye are very old; wherefore I was afraid, and durst not shew you mine opinion. 7. I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom. 8. But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. 9. Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment. 10. Therefore I said, Hearken to me; I also will shew mine opinion. 11. Behold, I waited for your words; I gave ear to your reasons, whilst ye searched out what to say. 12. Yea, I attended unto you, and, behold, there was none of you that convinced Job, or that answered his words: 13. Lest ye should say, We have found out wisdom: God thrusteth him down, not man. 14. Now he hath not directed his words against me: neither will I answer him with your speeches. 15. They were amazed, they answered no more: they left off speaking. 16. When I had waited, (for they spake not, but stood still, and answered no more;) 17. I said, I will answer also my part, I also will shew mine opinion. 18. For I am full of matter, the spirit within me constraineth me. 19. Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent; it is ready to burst like new bottles. 20. I will speak, that I may be refreshed: I will open my lips and answer. 21. Let me not, I pray you, accept any man's person, neither let me give flattering titles unto man. 22. For I know not to give flattering titles; in so doing my maker would soon take me away. -
Amos 3: 3. Can two walk together, except they be agreed? 4. Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing? 5. Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him? shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all? 6. Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it? 7. Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. 8. The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy? 9. Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, and the oppressed in the midst thereof. 10. For they know not to do right, saith the LORD, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces. 11. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; An adversary there shall be even round about the land; and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled. 12. Thus saith the LORD; As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus in a couch. 13. Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord GOD, the God of hosts, 14. That in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him I will also visit the altars of Bethel: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground. 15. And I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the LORD. -
Amos 4: 1. Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink. 2. The Lord GOD hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks. 3. And ye shall go out at the breaches, every cow at that which is before her; and ye shall cast them into the palace, saith the LORD. -
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