Day: August 28, 2020

You were created to give pleasure to God with your life, so you don’t live just to please yourself. You don’t live to please society, and you don’t live to please the devil; you live to please God, your Maker.

SCRIPTURE: Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Revelation 4:11.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: You cannot live with God in eternity if you cannot live for Him on earth. 

Yesterday, we saw that one of the things that constitute our readiness and preparedness for eternity with God in heaven is being born again.

Today, we shall look at yet another thing that constitutes readiness and preparedness for eternity with God in heaven.

It is living to please God with your life

You were created to give pleasure to God with your life, so you don’t live just to please yourself. You don’t live to please society, and you don’t live to please the devil; you live to please God, your Maker.

In Philippians 1:21, Paul the apostle said, For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Concerning Jesus Christ, God says, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:17

This is also corroborated by Matthew 17:5 which says, While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.

Live to please God with your life.

Beloved, endeavour to answer the following questions objectively: Who is your life giving pleasure to, God, yourself or the devil? What you do with money, who is it giving pleasure to? Can God say that He is pleased with your life based on the way you are living? Can God say He is happy with you? Someone is happy with the way you dress or appear, who is that person, God or the devil? 

Now, why is it necessary to live to please God? Revelations 4:11 says, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

You are to exist to please God because you were created for His pleasure. So, you cannot say, “I can dress the way I please. I will live the way I want”. No! You don’t have the license to live the way you want.

If God created you for His pleasure and you don’t live in this world for His pleasure, how will you end in eternity? You cannot live with God in eternity if you don’t live for Him on the earth. 

So, live to please God with your life, not the devil, society or yourself.

Remember this: You cannot live with God in eternity if you cannot live for Him on the earth. 

ASSIGNMENTS:

1. Refuse to live for yourself, the devil, or society. 
2. Make up your mind to live only for God.

PRAYER:  O Lord, from today, I refuse to live for myself, the devil or society. I receive the grace to live for You only, Lord, in Jesus’ Name.

FOR FURTHER UNDERSTANDING, GET THIS MESSAGE: LIVING WITH ETERNITY IN VIEW

QUOTE: And if there is anyone that is trusting God for success and breakthrough on earth, a major key to that is to be determined to give God pleasure. Culled from “WHO ARE YOU?” by Dr Paul Enenche.

DAILY READING: Ezekiel 7-9

AMAZING FACT: The chemical compound in the body which causes feelings of ecstasy (phenylethylamine) is also contained in chocolate.

PROPHETIC DECLARATION/WORD: Receive the grace to please God with your life this day in Jesus’ Name. 

As a Christian, it is crucial to live with a conscience that is tender and alive. That is living with a conscience that makes you to know when you have done something wrong. 

SCRIPTURE: And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence towards God, and towards men. Acts 24:16

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: A living conscience equals a healthy spiritual life. 

In our previous studies, we saw two things that constitute readiness and preparedness for eternity with God in heaven. We saw that being born again and living to please God are necessary requirements for eternity with God in heaven.

Today, we shall look at another requirement for guaranteed eternity with God in heaven. 

It is living with a clear conscience that is void of offence before God and man. 

As a Christian, it is crucial to live with a conscience that is tender and alive. That is living with a conscience that makes you to know when you have done something wrong. It is a conscience that has the ability and maturity to say “sorry” to both God and man when you have done the wrong thing. 

Acts 24:16 says, And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence towards God, and towards men.

Do you know that even unbelievers who don’t know God have conscience that can either accuse them or excuse them? Romans 2:14-15 says, For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;).

 So, peoples’ conscience either accuses or excuses them, even though they are not born again or go to church. 

There is nobody who kills a person and does not know that he has done a wrong thing. Nobody needs to go to church to know that stealing is wrong.

When you conspire against someone, there is a conscience to hold you accountable. This conscience becomes more active and lively when you become a Christian.

1 Timothy 1:19 says, Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:

That is to say, when you throw your faith and conscience away, you make a shipwreck of your destiny. When you walk contrary to your conscience you make a shipwreck of your destiny. 

It was Rev. Samuel Wesley who told his son, John Wesley, “The inward witness, the conscience, that is the greatest sign of Christianity”. Let me put it this way: A living conscience equals a healthy spiritual life. 

Beloved, ensure that your conscience is alive and tender always.

Remember this: A living conscience equals a healthy spiritual life. 

ASSIGNMENTS:

1. Ensure that your conscience is alive and active always.
2. Don’t do anything that will kill your conscience.
3. Repent promptly when your conscience accuses you.

PRAYER: O Lord, I ask that You give me a lively, active and tender conscience. Help me not to engage in anything that will desensitize or kill my conscience, Lord in Jesus’ Name.

FOR FURTHER UNDERSTANDING, GET THIS MESSAGE: LIVING WITH ETERNITY IN VIEW

QUOTE: Anything that attacks your conscience, attacks your preservation. Anything that reduces your confidence in God (which sin will do), also reduces your security from God. Culled from “15 KINGDOM STRATEGIES FOR SURVIVAL” by Dr Paul Enenche.

DAILY READING: Ezekiel 10-12

AMAZING FACT: The human heart pumps blood at such pressure that it would be able to raise blood up to the fourth floor of a building.

PROPHETIC DECLARATION/WORD: Grace to maintain a pure, clear and lively conscience be released on you in Jesus’ Name. 

LEVITICUS 18:23-30

And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.(Genesis 2:20)

Whatever God has not given you, there will be no tenable excuse to God for either having or using it. You better be careful of how you gather! All you need to have in life should be what God has given you. Mind you, there is nothing you really need in life that God won’t give you. If you haven’t had it, it may be that the time you really need it is not yet ripe. All things being equal, when the time is ripe, your needs would be provided by God. We have been told to believe God according to Philippians 4:19 which says, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Do you need anything, please don’t be too desperate to get it. Desperation has always been one of the ways that devil uses to manipulate people to claim what God is not freely giving them. Don’t be too desperate in life! If David was too desperate about becoming a king, he would have killed Saul at the slightest opportunity he had, but mind you, his time to become a king had not ripe and so he wasn’t desperate about becoming a king. There are times that desperation can make you appear before your time and when that happens, you will be held responsible for whatever calamity you expose yourself to. Hear me! To every exposure that God orchestrates, there is a level of equivalent armour. God won’t expose you to any breakthrough without first equiping you equivalently. There are different arrows that are designed for every level of glory and if God has neither trained nor equip you enough to handle such fiery darts, He won’t allow you to manifest. Only desperation can allow you break God’s protocol of timely manifestation. Therefore, don’t be too desperate in life! Be patient with God and with life. Don’t let the devil motivate you. He is a professional motivational speaker! He often uses the word of God to motivate anyone against his or her time. Don’t allow any motivational devil push you against time. Devil may tell you to be desperate like Jacob! He may even go as far as quoting for you a desperate language that Jacob made in Genesis 32:26 “And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.” Yes, it is good to hold on to God, but that is different from being desperate. You see, every act of desperation always end up in a deficiency like what is written in Genesis 32:25 “And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.” Desperation can damage you before that which you are anticipating even comes. You must discern your appropriate time before becoming too desperate about anything. Now, why am I saying all these? It is to cause you to understand the intent of what is written in Genesis 2:20 which says, “And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.”

You see, God’s time is the best. If you settle this in your mind, you will have rest. You must understand that, with God, your time cannot pass. You must believe that God have you in mind as long as you are in His presence doing whatever He bids you. If you are busy for God, most especially in His presence, desperation will not be what would get anything that you need from God for you. Without being desperate, God will give you your need when He is through. Now, see Adam as an example; he was busy giving names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field, but mind you, for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. You know why? With God, everything is turn by turn! It was not yet the turn of Adam’s help-meet. And as you know, God always give the best at the last. That is the principle He followed in Matthew 20:8-12 “So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, BEGINNING FROM THE LAST UNTO THE FIRST. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it, they murmured against the good man of the house, Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.” You see how favour brought the last to the front! Don’t be too in a hurry when God has not answered you, it may be that God wants to favour you. Thank God Adam didn’t relapse in his duty of giving names to all animals even when God had not given him his own partner. He would have been trapped in the danger of desperation if he had done that. Hear me! It is not that Adam didn’t know that there was not a help meet for him among those animals that God was creating two by two, yet, he was still patient. He saw that he was the only one that God had not created a partner for. He knew that there had not been a female gender created for him, yet, he maintained his rest, believing God’s time is the best. And when God finished with the animals, lo and behold, his time came. May you not leave in desperation before your time comes! Now, do you care to know where I want to point your attention to that made me go roundel? It is that, God knows that none of those animals He created was meant for Adam and even Adam knew. And since Adam knew that those animals were not created for him, he did not also expect God to give any of them to him as his partner. Hear me! God has never given any animal to man as partner, therefore, He says this in Leviticus 18:23 “Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.” Hear me! Confusion is a manifestation of abomination. Anyone you see committing bestiality is in a confused state. Everything is in confusion about such a fellow! Whatever God is not giving you would end you up in a state of defilement and abomination. Beginning from Adam, God has not given any man an animal as sex partner and He will never give anyone. Therefore, anyone who takes what God has not given him for use has committed abomination. Bestiality is an abomination that defiles, simply because God has not given animals to man to lie with. If anyone does it, such a fellow would end up in a state of confusion; he will be defiled and be tagged abominable. God bless you.

Prayer: Oh God my Father, may I never be too desperate to get whatever is not in your mind for me, in Jesus name.