Welcome to the month of September 2017: Our Month of New Things

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2Cor.5:17

Beloved family, I welcome you to this glorious Month of September which the Lord has graciously tagged our month of new things. A look at our text scripture for the month discloses to us the effect of the new birth experience; it results in the effect of giving us a clean slate on the board of our destinies and providing us with the opportunity of living a new and different life. Just in the same way God takes away the old nature and enables us to activate divine nature so as to fulfill our individual destinies after we are born again, in this month of September, God has decided to sit on His mercy seat and grant us the grace to start all over again without the effect of even our mistakes from our past even as believers corrupting the outcome of our destinies.

My heart has been bursting forth with rejoicing since I got to understand that The Lord’s intention for us this month is that in spite of ourselves, He wants us to become and receive all that He intended for us this season. This month is one of the greatest opportunities I have ever seen God offer in my life and I am so grateful for this. The implication of this is that:

1.     All our sins which would have prevented us from fulfilling our purpose for this time have been forgiven because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and another opportunity has been given to us by God to live better to enable us fulfill our individual destinies and corporate destiny as a team.

2.     We are also given the opportunity to go over the word again to discover more and more who we are and what we are called to do and become.

3.     We are given another chance to act on this truth of our new creation status and fulfill divine expectations for us.

4.     Rejoice with the Lord over the wave of harvest He is bringing upon the world in these last days.

In light of the foregoing, this month, we shall be doing a study of the word that would enable us to understand what it means for humans to become new creations and why this is mandatory for everyone born into this world.

We are also going to be taking the time to look at the importance of cultivating the eternal life nature we have received from the Lord. I believe that all that heaven has in store for us for this year would be delivered to us without fail.

It is my heart felt prayer for everyone reading this that your days of mourning would terminate with the understanding we would be gleaning from our studies this month and that our lives would never be the same again. Indeed for your shame you shall have double and for confusion you shall rejoice in your portion; therefore in your land you shall possess the double and everlasting joy shall be unto you in this year of Rehoboth!!! See Isa.61:7.

Once again I welcome you into this great month of September: Our Month of New Things. Everything shall become new for you! No more sickness; no more shame; no more pain; no more sorrow; no more mourning and all that conflict with the covenant of grace.

In summation here, I want to quickly invite all reading this who is yet to become part of God’s great family bought with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ to make a choice for the Lord Jesus Christ right away by saying the following prayers after me in faith:

Heavenly Father,

Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name! Amen.

Congratulations! For more information and resources that would help you grow in this new life, please visit our website at www.kingdomheirsministries.org and our blogs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com and follow us on twitter at alero_nanna and on face book on www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl www.facebook.com/khmii2015; www.facebook.com/thewellbeingcenter. Or www.facebook.com/kingdomjointheirsfamily email:  jointheirsfamily@gmail.com.

Praying in the perfect will of God pt.3.

Messages for August 2017: Our Month of Divine Opportunities

Message for Sunday 27^th of August, 2017

Theme: Positioning for Divine Opportunities

Topic: Praying in the perfect will of God pt.3.

(Our discussion will be centered on Praying in tongues versus prophesying in tongues and praying in our understanding versus praying in the spirit)

Introduction: So far, we have established in the course of this series that praying in the perfect will of God can best be achieved by praying in tongues because when we pray in tongues, it is the Holy Spirit in us that takes a hold on our spirits to pray in the perfect will of God. See Rm.8:26 in the Amplified version of the bible. Also, we saw that praying in the Holy Spirit does not require as much faith as praying in the understanding to obtain the same results. Today, we are going to be looking at the differences between praying in the Spirit and praying in our understanding and also see the distinction between praying in tongues and prophesying in tongues.

Praying in Tongues and Prophesying in tongues: When we pray in tongues, we are praying in the Holy Ghost. Just like any other kind of prayer; praying in tongues addresses God or is made to God whereas prophesying in tongues addresses men and therefore is addressed to men. In light of this, let us note the following points about both kinds speaking in tongues:

1.     When we pray in tongues, we address God and not man whereas when we prophesy in tongues, we address man and not God because of the very nature of prophecy. See 1Cor.14:2-3 and 28.

2.     Every time we pray in tongues we need not interpret even though we do not understand what we are saying. The reason is that it is God who gave us the language supernaturally and he understand it and therefore does not require our interpretation. On the other hand, when we prophesy in tongues, we are speaking to men who may not understand what we are saying because they are mysterious to them. See 1Cor.14:2-3 and 1Cor.12:30.

3.     Everyone who is born again has a right to pray in unknown tongues as prayer addresses God alone and is therefore a mystery to others. In this case the person speaking in unknown tongues need not interpret. Not everyone who is born again may prophesy because the distribution of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is distributed by the Holy Spirit severally to every man as the Spirit wills. Thus the Spirit may choose to engrace a person to prophesy and choose not to engrace another with the same gift. This is why not everyone would prophesy in tongues. When people prophesy in tongues, they are expected to interpret it or have someone with the gift of interpretation of tongues interpret it. See the example of Daniel interpreting tongues in the Old Testament in Daniel 5:24-28 and 1Cor.14:12-13; 27-28.

4.     When we pray in tongues we edify ourselves but when we prophesy in tongues we edify the Church if we also interpret: Tongues are for personal edification or for building up ourselves on our most holy faith. Prophecy is for corporate edification. The purpose of prophecy is to edify, exhort and comfort the Church. This is why if we are prophesying in tongues we must also interpret the tongues. See 1Cor.14:2-3; Jude 1:20.

5.     When we pray in tongues corporately as a Church, we team up to release the power of God: In this case we do not need to interpret because this is not for message purpose but for corporate intercession to release the power of God for the edification of the Church. This is what the early Church fathers did in Acts 4:24-31. On the other hand, as a Church in a believers meeting, we can have a manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit as in Acts 13:1-3; the result of that meeting was thee manifestation of the ministry of Apostle Paul which legacy is still with us today. I am sure at that meeting, there was a manifestation of the gift of the word of wisdom. Although it is not indicated, that gift could have come through tongues and interpretation.

 Praying in the Spirit and praying in our understanding: Already we have seen that praying in the Spirit is when we pray in tongues as shown us in 1Cor.14:14. To pray in our understanding on the other hand is when we pray intelligibly in the language we understand. In Eph.6:18, Apostle Paul wrote to the Church that we should pray all manner of prayers in the spirit.

By this, he must have meant that we should first determine in our understanding what we want to pray about and then take the time to ascertain what type of prayer we would pray. Any kind of prayer we choose to pray, we should do so in our understanding first and then we should switch over to the spirit when we run out of words in prayer.

To pray in our understanding requires skill: The skill required here is the ability to know and use the right scripture for what you want to pray about. In this case, you cannot do this as a baby Christian as such. This is because the skilful use of the word of the Lord is a requirement and this does not pertain to babes. See Heb.5:12-14 and Gal.4:1. We cannot get to do this when we still feast on milk. Babies are supposed to feed on milk to grow up enough to be able to exercise dominion in the kingdom. On the other hand, all the skill you need to pray in the spirit is the little faith and will required to just get into prayer. See 1Cor.14:15  

To pray in our understanding requires spiritual maturity: A mature believer is one who has had their senses exercised to discern good and evil to the point of making spiritually informed decisions in line with the perfect will of God. This kind of person has grown to walking in the word of God in Rm.12:1-2. See Heb.5:14; Jas.1:21. On the other hand, a spiritually immature person would be carnal and unable to receive the things of the spirit of God although he may get some results here and there when he prays in the spirit, he will always have that old struggle between the flesh and the spirit within him. See Rm.7:14-25 and 1Cor.3:1-4. To overcome this struggle, Apostle Paul tells us in Gal.5:6 to walk in the spirit so as not to fulfill the lust of the flesh because there is a constant contention between the flesh and the spirit.

In summation, we must understand that access into the realm of prayer is by the new birth experience. In Jn.3:7 we are told that we must be born again because except we are born again we cannot see or enter the kingdom of God. See Jn.3:3, 5. Therefore if you are reading this and you are not yet born again, I have good news for you: this is our month of divine opportunities. Another opportunity is being offered to you to access the way He wishes to be accessed. He has said in Jn. That whoever comes to him would be accepted. He would not cast you out. If you want to choose him right away, you can say the following prayer out loud in faith and you will be born again and start to grow enough to experience answers to prayer always:

Heavenly Father,

Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name! Amen.

Congratulations! For more information and resources that would help you grow in this new life, please visit our website at www.kingdomheirsministries.org and our blogs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com and follow us on twitter at alero_nanna and on face book on www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl www.facebook.com/khmii2015; www.facebook.com/thewellbeingcenter. Or www.facebook.com/kingdomjointheirsfamily email:  jointheirsfamily@gmail.com.

Praying in the perfect will of God pt.2 - Benefits of praying in the Spirit

Messages for August 2017: Our Month of Divine Opportunities

Message for Sunday 20^th of August, 2017

Theme: Positioning for Divine Opportunities

Topic: Praying in the perfect will of God pt.2 - Benefits of praying in the Spirit

Introduction: “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but they Spirit itself maketh intercession for us in groanings which cannot be uttered”.  The Philip’s translation calls it: “groanings which cannot be uttered in articulate speech!’’

For many of us on the journey of destiny, a time comes when the trials that confront us become as though it is too much to bear and the enemy takes advantage of the situation to try to trade discouragement to us. This is the time we more than ever need to tune out of the natural realm to the spiritual realm. At this time our way of escape is to take advantage of the wonderful opportunity that God has given to us to pray and connect directly with him by praying in the Holy Ghost. At this time, the battle shifts from our feeble effort of prying in our understanding to praying in the spirit. This is when we really truly set ourselves up for victory in prayer. I believe this is one of the keys of the kingdom of God that the Lord promised to give to the Church in Matthew 16:19. With the keys of the kingdom of God, we can bind and lose on earth and have it enforced in heaven. See 1Cor.10:13; Rev.12:8-12 and Rev.5:9-10.

What does it mean to pray in the Holy Spirit? To pray in the Holy Spirit simply means to pray in tongues. In 1Cor.14:14 we are told that when we pray in unknown tongues, it is our spirit that prays but our understanding is suspended. In other words, we do not understand what we are saying as it is a mystery to us. This truth is brought out clearly in 1Cor.14:2. Please understand that every believer has a right to the prayer language of the Holy Spirit as a gift from God with which we are freely baptized by the Lord Jesus Christ. See Lk.3:16; Acts 1:4, 8 and Acts 2:32-33.

Please understand that this is different from prophesying in tongues which would require interpretation as shown in 1Cor.12:30 and 1Cor.14:5. Prophesying in tongues is giving a message to the Church and therefore addressing people. On the other hand, praying in tongues is speaking to God and therefore does not require interpretation as it is being addressed to God who understands what is being said even though it is a mystery to the speaker. See 1Cor.14:2 and verse 14.

What then do we stand to gain from praying in the Holy Ghost? The benefits that come from praying in the spirit is so much that we are still exploring the word for it on a daily basis. However, the few we have found has proven so beneficial that not exercising this great grace of God could be likened to abusing this great opportunity of cultivating intimacy with God that would not only benefit us for all our lifetime on earth but also transcend to a blissful eternity with our heavenly father. The following are therefore some benefits we gain from praying in the Holy Ghost:

1.     We pray the perfect will of God when we pray in the Holy Ghost meaning we have a guarantee of a hundred percent answer to prayer. In 1Jn.5:14, we are told that the confidence we have in prayer is that when we pray the will of God He hears us and that means answer to prayer. Why is this so? This is so because the Holy Spirit is the author of the bible which contains all the will of God for us. Therefore when He makes intercession for us, it will automatically be in line with the perfect will of God and for this reason, we are sure of answer to prayers. See Rm.8:26; 1Jn.5:14-15; 1Cor.2:11-12.

2.     Praying in tongues enables us to obey God’s commandment to us to pray without ceasing and pray all manner of prayers in the spirit. See 1Thess.5:17; Eph.6:18 and 1Cor.14:14.

3.     Praying in tongues is the means by which we build up our most Holy faith. The proof that the manifestations of power in our lives is of God is the purity of our message and style of delivery. To this end, we cannot be seen to be mixing the holy and profane; this is why we have to labor to build up our faith in holiness and purity. See Jude 1:20; Col.2:6-7 and 1Pet.2:5.

4.     Praying in tongues is the means by which the Holy Spirit helps us to pray when we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. See Rm.8:26 and 1Cor.14:18.

5.     Praying in tongues is the means by which the Holy Spirit helps us to pray in accordance with the perfect will of God and cause all things to work together for our good. Rm.8:27-28 and Jn.16:13-15.

6.     Praying in tongues is the means by which we legally gain access into the realm of the supernatural and are enabled to operate the gifts of the Spirit. See 1Cor.12:4-7 and 1Cor.14:2.

7.     Praying in the spirit is the means by which our little faiths can move mountains. This is because all the faith we need to have to pray in tongues is just the faith to believe enough to pray in the spirit. When we pray in the spirit, our faith is not required to believe for the answer because we do not know what we are praying. It is only the Holy Ghost who knows what it is we are praying and He has enough faith to pull it through no matter its magnitude. See 1Cor.14:2, 14 & Mk.11:23.

8.     Praying in tongues is the means by which we mortify the deeds of the body through the spirit and therefore overcome carnality and live spiritual lives so we can enjoy the life and peace God gives to us. See Rm.8:5-8; Col.3:5 and Rm.8:13.

9.     Praying in tongues is the means by which the Holy Spirit makes alive our mortal bodies to enable us live in health and peace on earth in this body. See Rm.8:11 and Eph.3:20.

10.                        Praying in tongues is the means by which we keep ourselves in the love of God thereby obeying the only commandment we are called to obey which is the commandment of Love. See Jude 1:21 and Jn.13:34.

11.                        Praying in tongues is the means by which we live ready for the soon return of the Lord Jesus Christ. See Jude 1:21 and Rev.22:17.

We shall draw the curtain here on today’s message for now. We shall continue along this line next week by God’s grace. Meanwhile, there may be someone here who is yet to make a decision for Christ and as such is unable to take advantage of this opportunity of getting filled with the Holy Spirit and being able to pray in the Spirit to the point of taking advantage of this great grace and reigning on the earth with the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are that person, this is your opportunity; you can take advantage of it by saying the following prayer out loud in faith and you will be born again and eligible to being filled with the Holy Spirit and therefore take advantage of all the benefits we have been talking about today. If you wish to do so right away, please say the following prayer out loud in faith and you will get born again and receive the promise of the Spirit:

Heavenly Father,

Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name! Amen.

Congratulations! For more information and resources that would help you grow in this new life, please visit our website at www.kingdomheirsministries.org and our blogs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com and follow us on twitter at alero_nanna and on face book on www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl www.facebook.com/khmii2015; www.facebook.com/thewellbeingcenter. Or www.facebook.com/kingdomjointheirsfamily email:  jointheirsfamily@gmail.com.

Praying in the perfect will of God pt.1

Messages for August 2017: Our Month of Divine Opportunities

Message for Sunday 13^th of August, 2017

Theme: Positioning for Divine Opportunities

Topic: Praying in the perfect will of God pt.1

Introduction: “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” Rm.8:26

While looking at the word of the Lord for the month, we saw from most of our examples that divine opportunities were made to happen as people prayed to God persistently. For instance, in the parable of prayer Jesus taught about in Lk.18, He said that the elect who pray to God day and night would have God answer them speedily even though he bears long with them as they persist in prayer in spite of resisting circumstances. We therefore understand from here that the circumstances that resist us are usually dislodged if we persist in prayer to God and we eventually get to stand in our dreams as ordained by God. Consequently, every of those circumstances would be working for our good eventually. See Rm.8:28 and Gen.50:20.  

For us to get into praying the perfect will of God we must understand that only the Spirit of God can tell us what the mind of God really is because He is the author of the word of God. As we let Him lead us, He will lead us into all of the mind of God regarding our destinies and cause us to walk in the ways of God to the point that our all will sync with God’s plans and purpose for our lives. The means by which he does this is getting us to pray in the Holy Spirit. To enable us to do this, He has sent Jesus Christ to baptize us with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, when we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, the Holy Spirit will make intercession for us and we will always pray in the perfect will of God thereby because when the Holy Spirit enables us to pray, we are only going to pray the perfect will of God.

Praying the perfect will of God is praying in the Holy Spirit: When God was to defeat man’s effort to ruin His plan for humanity in Gen.11:1-9, He changed their tongues by causing them to speak different languages thereby breaking their agreement so as to get them to spread around the world in accordance with His purpose in Gen.1:28. The question is what did the tongue have to do with the fulfillment of God’s purpose for man? I believe it has everything to do with it. The speech center is the control center of a person’s life. We see this in the book of Jas.3, Mk.11:23 and Rm.10:8-11 among other scriptures. Also, studies in science have shown that they control the life of a person. The tongue is the means by which we speak to God and speak the mind of God. This makes prayer the most powerful thing we can do.

Prayer is the place man comes into agreement with God for anything on earth: In Gen.1:28 where God blessed man and declared His dominion, He also declared the ambit of His influence there when He said what man was to dominate. The sphere of the influence of the man and woman did not include each other. Every man is expected to be able to have power with God. Sadly, the fall brought man the woe of attempting to rule beyond the ambit of his influence and the result is the chaos we see in the world today. To help us understand prayer that would deliver, let us therefore note the following points:

1.     Man was god of this world until he lost his place to the theft of Satan by disobedience to God. Gen.1:26; Lk.4:5-8 and 2Cor.4:4.

2.     Since the creation of man on earth, God gave man authority on earth so that only his voice would be heard by God on behalf of the earth. See Ps.115:16 and Mt.18:18.

3.     The means by which man’s voice can be communicated to God and every spirit and everything on earth, is speech. This is why we can believe with our hearts but can only possess that which pertain to us by speech. See Rm.10:9-10; Mk.11:23; Jas.3.

4.     When God wanted to change man’s status so that he could be restored to his place with God, He changed man’s speech by blessing him with a new tongue by the Holy Spirit. This is why on the day of Pentecost and every time people received the Holy Spirit, they received a new prayer language to match. See Acts 2:1-4; 10:44-46; 19:1-6.  

What happens when we pray?

Prayer grants us access to the presence of God as we approach Him in gratitude first. When we are thankful, it is the beginning of prayer. This is why it is always our first prayer point when we pray petition prayers. See Ps.100:4 – on the contrary, unthankfulness is viewed by God as rebellion. This is why it is going to be the habit of the rebellious in the latter days as shown us in the word of God in 2Tim.3:2 where we are told that men shall be unthankful among many things in the last days.

When we pray:

1.     We honor God on earth as He is honored in heaven. Mt.6:10.

2.     We permit God to be able to do things on earth as He does in heaven. See Ps.115:16

3.     We display the judgment of the prince of this world. Jn.16:7-11

4.     We stop the operations of the kingdom of darkness – Mt.18:18

5.     We get to discover God’s plan for the earth. In the place of prayer, we receive the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God. This enables us to know what God’s plans are and what to do for their fulfillment. Dan.9; Job 22:27-28 and Mt.7:7-8.

6.     We enforce the plans and purposes of God for our lives and the earth. Dan.9:1-27.

We shall stop here for today for want of time and space. Next week, we shall continue by looking at the second part of this message: Praying in the perfect will of God. Meanwhile, there is someone reading this resource now who is yet to become a part of God’s family. Without becoming one of God’s own, we have no access to this great opportunity tool called prayer. But I have good news for you. You can belong right away by saying the following prayer out loud in faith and God will admit you into His family:

Heavenly Father,

Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name! Amen.

Congratulations! For more information and resources that would help you grow in this new life, please visit our website at www.kingdomheirsministries.org and our blogs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com and follow us on twitter at alero_nanna and on face book on www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl www.facebook.com/khmii2015; www.facebook.com/thewellbeingcenter. Or www.facebook.com/kingdomjointheirsfamily email:  jointheirsfamily@gmail.com.

What are divine opportunities and how do they come?

Messages for August 2017: Our Month of Divine Opportunities

Message for Sunday 6^th of August, 2017

Theme: Positioning for Divine Opportunities

Topic: What are divine opportunities and how do they come?

Introduction: One day thousands of years ago, our covenant father Abraham sought to settle his son Isaac after the demise of the latter’s mother, he called his servant and committed the task of going back to his native country to get a wife for his son. I believe from staying with Abraham, the said steward already learnt to walk in faith which came in very handy at this time because he just got an opportunity to prove his loyalty to his master Abraham.

When he got to his destination at the outskirt of town, he did the most likely thing Abraham would have done if he had gone by himself; he prayed and as soon as he did, his answer came in form of the desire of Abraham for his son and the end result was the marriage of Isaac to Rebecca. This is one good example of divine opportunities as the Lord has shown me this month. See Gen.24 for this account.

What then is Divine opportunity?

Divine opportunities are possibilities due to a favourable combination of circumstances put together by God or ordained by God even if he did not put them together by Himself. These circumstances are used together by God for the good of His lovers. A look at the book of Romans in chapter 8:28 would show that all things work together for the good of certain people.

Who are these people? These people are those who love God and are called according to His purpose. This truth opens up the following questions to any person who wants to know if they are qualified for divine opportunities; these questions are as follows:

1.     Do I really love God? The standard by which we can correctly answer this question has been set for us by the Lord Jesus Christ in God’s word in Jn.14:21-24; Jn.15:12-16 and 1Jn.4:20-21. Therefore, to tell whether you really love God, you will be committed to doing His word and loving people for whom He gave His all.

2.     Am I called according to His purpose?  Let us again turn to the word of God to enable us answer this question correctly. The book of Jeremiah 1:4-5; Eph.2:10 and Isa.43:7 shows us that each of us is created by God to fulfill His purpose. It really does not matter how you were born into this world, you are created to fulfill a purpose for God. The day you discover that purpose and begin to run in it, this truth of all things working together for your good become activated. As you follow on this path consistently, by the time you are ending your journey on earth, you will be able to say like the Lord Jesus Christ when his time came that you have glorified God because you have finished the work He gave you to do. This was also the testimony of Paul in 2Tim.4:6-8 and Peter in 2Pet.1:13-21.

3.     Do I know my purpose: You must know your purpose because you did not create yourself. However; for you to know your purpose, you have to first discover it from God through vision because He is the one who knows why He made you and the means by which He discloses His reason for making you to you is called vision. Vision can be known if God chooses to show it to you on His own like He did with Saul in Acts 9. It can be known through the burning passion He puts in you that you cannot let go of like He did with Nehemiah in Neh.1. Finally you can receive a vision of your purpose through answer to your prayer request to God to disclose to you why you were born. A good example of how this is done is revealed by Habakkuk in Hab.1:1-3.

4.     You must embrace divine guidance: The revelation of your purpose to you, alone however; does not guarantee that all things will work for your good even when you love God; you must be given to divine guidance. It is only through the leadership of the Holy Spirit that we can enjoy divine opportunities all the time. To be led by the Spirit, you have to be a friend of God and friends of God are meek men and women who can be described as people of faith. See Num.12:1-12; Ps.25:9, 14; Gen.12:1-4; Isa.51:1-2; 1Cor.2:13-14; Gal.5:16-17; Jn.15:15 and Rm.8:5-8, 14, 16.

If the above describes you, then you qualify for divine opportunities. As a truth that cannot be brushed aside, your life and legacies can only be described as blessed. Abraham’s life is a good example of what we are saying. See Gen.24:1.

How Divine Opportunities come:

The first step to divine opportunities has been taken by God and that first step is the provision of Salvation for all through the free gift of the Lord Jesus Christ. He made the promise in Genesis 3:15 when He said that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent and this came to pass on the Cross of Calvary when he said in Jn.19:30 that it is finished and on the resurrection morning when He arose from the dead. See Lk.24:1-8; Jn.3:16-19; Eph.2:1-10 and Acts 4:10, 13:26-39.

The second step to divine opportunities is the decision to receive the free gift of God to be saved and the actual faith in it. See Rm.10:6-10 and Mk.16:16.

The third step is to truly embrace eternal life by cultivating an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit. See Jn.17:3; 10:27-29; 14:15-21. When we cultivate a relationship with the Holy Spirit, we grow spiritually and become students of the Holy Spirit who helps us to begin to walk with the mindset of Christ. The more we grow up spiritually, the more we know God and are known of Him. Anyone in Christ can become spiritual by cultivating the following habits with the intention of knowing and pleasing God:

1.     Seek God in prayer daily just like Jesus did. This will help us to get to know God’s heartbeat on a daily basis and align with it. That is a manifestation of divine opportunities. See Mk.1:35; Lk.18:1; Eph.6:18 and 1Thess.5:17.

2.     Read the word of God daily with the intention of getting to know and understand the ways of God and growing to be able to walk in it. See 1Tim.4:13-16; Deu.6:4-9.

3.     Meditate on the word of God daily until it hatches understanding which in turn builds your faith and enables you to prevail in the affairs of life. See Jos.1:8; Ps.1:1-3; Pr.4:20-22 and Jas.1:21-25.

4.     Do the word. The blessings of time and chance [Eccl.9:11] or divine opportunities are reserved for the doers of the word. See Jn.14:21-23; Heb.5:11-14 and Jas.1:22-25.

If you make a habit of living this way on a daily basis, you will definitely be spiritual and would not fulfill the lust of the flesh. You will also find yourself loving the Lord and not the world. The blessings that would be yours would be so much that your legacies would speak for all eternity.

We shall draw the curtains here on our series for today for want of time and space. Next week by God’s grace we shall continue by looking at more on this series. Meanwhile, there is someone reading this material right now who is yet to embrace the free gift of God for his or her salvation. Please if you wish to take advantage of this opportunity to be saved, please say the following prayer out loud in faith and you will be born again:

Heavenly Father,

Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name! Amen. 

Welcome to the month of August 2017: Our Month of Divine Opportunities

“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth the them all.”

Beloved family, I welcome you to this glorious Month of August which the Lord has graciously tagged for us: Our Month of Divine Opportunities! For us to fully take advantage of the importance of this month, let us first unpack the meaning of divine opportunities. To help us do this, I like to take the words apart first and define each of them separately before bringing them together.

First, Divine means that which is of God. Opportunities on the other hand; are the plural of opportunity which the Farlex English dictionary defines as: 1. “Fit or convenient time or situation; a time or place permitting or favourable for the execution of a purpose; a suitable combination of conditions; suitable occasion; chance. 2. Convenience of situation; fitness. 3. Importunity; eagerness etc.

From our definitions here, we can gather that divine opportunities are possibilities due to a favourable combination of circumstances put together by God or ordained by God even if he did not put them together by Himself. These circumstances are used together by God for the good of His lovers. A look at the book of Romans in chapter 8:28 would show that all things work together for the good of certain people. Who are these people?

All things work together for the good of people who love God and who are called according to His purpose. If you really love God and are in His purpose for your life, all things are ordained by God to work for your good.

Another word I would like to highlight in our definition above is the word importunity. The Lord used this word in His parable of the persistent friend in Luke chapter 11:5-13 when He was teaching on the importance of persistence in prayer for the gift of the Holy Spirit and the truth that God gives good gifts and not evil gifts to those who ask from Him. This word can also be inferred in the parable of “The Unjust Judge” in Luke 18:1-8 where the Lord was teaching about persistence in praying night and day. Whereas the parable of the persistent friend teaches about the importance of the midnight prayer, the parable of the unjust judge teaches about the importance of praying always without ceasing. We learn from this parable that if we can be described as God’s elect, one of the evidence is in our persistence in prayer even if the resultant answers to our prayers; seem to be delayed or denied. In fact God said in this place that He would answer us speedily even though he exercises His patience as He usually does.

Another truth that is clarified by these parables is that we do not get our prayers answered just because we are God’s friends but because of our persistence or importunity as the case may be.

When we refer back to our text scripture in Ecclesiastes 9:11 above, it becomes very clear that the word chance has taken a whole world of new meaning. Chance in association with time that happens to all that make some people get the best out of life; is not just what happens on its own, it can be made to happen through our persistent prayer. Therefore, even though the race is not to the swift, nor battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; there is a caliber of people to whom God ensures that everything will work for their good even when good things are not happening for others. Who are these people?

The unique people:

As the world draws closer to its end, prophetically, many things will be befalling the world and its people that would make things so difficult for man that they would be seeking solution at all cost. At the same time, a people would be raised by God as solution providers to the general need of mankind and these people would be holy to God and separate from the world in their ways. These are the people described by Joel in Joel chapter 2 as a great people. In the book of Isaiah chapter 60 these people are described as those who will arise and shine as darkness covers the world and gross darkness covers the people of the world. They are described by the Lord in Matthew 5:13-16 as the light and the salt of the earth. Finally, Apostle Peter describes them in 1Pet.2:9 as a chosen generation; a royal priesthood; a holy nation designed by God to demonstrate the praises of His who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. These people are the solution providers to the world and its people. They are a people raised by God to answer the confusing questions in the hearts of people about the times and seasons that have befallen the people of the earth and making it more and more difficult for people to live better lives by the day. A word that best describes these people is the Church of Jesus Christ. They are not just a gathering of people in a physical structure but a gathering of people by the Spirit of God ordained for a time like this to meet the need of mankind and its environment just like Joseph was raised by God to solve the problem of world hunger crisis in his time. In the same way, Daniel was raised by God to dissolve doubts; interpret dreams and clarify hard sentences by the Spirit of God upon His life during his lifetime.

These people are:

1.     The Church of Jesus Christ/The Church of God. Acts 20:28; 1Cor.1:2; 10:32 and Gal.1:13.

2.     The bride of Christ – Rm.7:4; Rev.21:9.

3.     The blood bought of the Lord Jesus Christ- Rev.1:5-6 and Acts 20:28.

4.     The blood washed saints of God separated from the world in all of their ways. Rev.1:5-6 and 1Pet.2:9

5.     The body of Christ – 1Cor.12:27

6.     A strong people against whom the fiery trials of the times have no power like the fiery flames of Nebuchadnezzar had no power over Daniel’s three friends: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego thrown into the fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 3. See also Joel 2:1-8.

If you belong to this group, God is calling us to draw closer to Him so that He could reveal things to us to enable us stand in our place in these end times to provide the much needed solution to the world. What is our place? Our place is the place of priesthood and royalty. We are called to be priests and kings unto our God and to reign with Christ Jesus on the earth. See Rev.1:6; 5:9-10 and Rm.5:17. God has fulfilled His part of this deal by sending the Holy Spirit to dwell in us and through us provide solution to the world’s problems and bring about the salvation of as many as will receive Jesus Christ so that more people can be drawn out of the decay of the world and into the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. [Jn.16:7-13; Acts 2:1-4; Rm.8:26; Jude 1:20-24 and 1Cor.12:1-11]. However, many people pray without results, but many more; even though they pray and get brief spells of results; do not have sustained results.

To this end, this month, we shall be doing a study I want to tag: Praying in the perfect will of God. By the grace of God, this month we shall be looking in-depth into this great tool of God for mankind to determine the value of his destiny. In Genesis, we see the story of Abraham’s servant using this means to get a wife for Isaac speedily with the help of God in Gen.24:1-51. Also, in Acts 9:3-6 we see Saul who later became Apostle Paul finding his divine purpose simply by asking the Lord what He would have Him to do. Also, we later got to know that the means by which He got His prayers answered was praying always. This is why he told the Church at Thessalonica to pray without ceasing in 1Thess.5:17 and of himself; he said in 1Cor.14:18: “... I speak in tongues more than ye all.”  

Someone is reading this that is asking without himself or herself without certainty whether they can truly qualify for the people described above as the Church even though they desire to be so described. I have good news for you if you are that person. You can become certain of this at once by saying the following prayer out loud in faith and you will become born again:

Heavenly Father,

Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name! Amen.

Congratulations! For more information and resources that would help you grow in this new life, please visit our website at www.kingdomheirsministries.org and our blogs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com and follow us on twitter at alero_nanna and on face book on www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl www.facebook.com/khmii2015; www.facebook.com/thewellbeingcenter. Or www.facebook.com/kingdomjointheirsfamily email:  jointheirsfamily@gmail.com.