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The word of God sets you on your feet in marriage, ministry, business or whatever endeavour you embark on. John 6:63 says:
“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

When you study the word of God and allow it to dwell in you, the Spirit in that word will fill you up. The Spirit will set you on your feet, breathe life into you, and then enable you to do some things that you were unable to do before. The word of God is so complete that whatever you need to get you on your feet in life can be found in it. In the word of God, you will find countless messages for a better marriage, many lessons to help you prosper in your business, academics, politics, relating with people, relating with God and anything relevant to life. Proverbs 2:6 says For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.

During the Coronavirus lockdown, someone said he spent his free time studying previous editions of the Open Heavens Devotional and discovered no message had ever been repeated for the 20 years since we had been writing the devotional. That is because the devotional is a Bible study tool and the wisdom in Gods word is inexhaustible.

When I was writing my Ph.D. thesis, I got to a point where I had one hundred and eighty-six simultaneous equations and couldn’t find a solution. One fateful day, I got tired of it all. I threw the project aside and picked up my Bible to do some studying. I read the passage where God parted the Red Sea for the Israelites to cross (Exodus 14:1-31) and the Spirit of God spoke to me saying, That is the solution to your problem. I took up the thesis again and this time around, I divided the equations into two categories one on the left and the other on the right, just as the Red Sea parted to the left and right. I then solved both categories separately and got my final answer soon afterwards. The word of God set me on my feet academically! When I presented my thesis to the external examiner, he had no questions for me. He only said to the authorities, "Give this young man his Ph.D"!
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

For the next few days, we will be studying just a few of the benefits we can enjoy from the word of God. Please don’t miss any of the lessons in this series. I pray the Lord will open our eyes and draw us into a deeper understanding of His word in Jesus name.

Jeremiah 15:16 says the word of God brings joy and comfort to a depressed soul. By reading the Bible with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit for interpretation, the realization that you are called by Gods name will come into your heart to remove depression and replace it with joy and rejoicing.

Let us picture an unemployed and depressed young man who suddenly discovers that the president of his country is his father and also that the man has been looking for him. Immediately this young man realises that his surname is about to change to that of the president, every bit of depression and sorrow will disappear from him.

When you read Gods word, you will see in it that you are called by the same name as the Lord God of hosts! He has carefully placed pointers all around the Scriptures to the fact that you are His child and everything that answers to Him answers to you too. This realization alone is enough to bring joy into the heart of anyone, no matter the challenge they are faced with.

When you find the word of God and eat it, it will bring you joy. You don’t find something without searching. You cannot get anything from the word of God if you do not dig deep into it. You have to search for the treasure in each passage. You have to ask the Holy Spirit to expound His word in your heart. When you have found the word, you will chew and grind that word of God by meditating on it deeply. Then you will digest it by believing it in your heart so much that it becomes your reality. Until what you found in the word of God becomes your reality, joy and rejoicing cannot come into your heart.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

I have heard many people say that there are multiple ways to heaven. I wonder if those who say these things are even Christians at all because the Bible is very clear about this as we see in John 14:6.

No one can get to the Father except through Jesus.

Acts 4:12 says:
Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

There is no salvation in any other person, religion or name except Jesus Christ. It is His blood that washes us clean and makes us qualified to spend eternity in Heaven – nothing else but His blood. Therefore, whoever does not get washed by the blood of Jesus and begins to live like Christ cannot enter the Kingdom of God.

When a fraudster wants to make a counterfeit currency or document, he will make it look similar to the real one. There are many beliefs and religions that bear similarities to Christianity; don’t be fooled. Jesus Christ is the only way to Heaven; the rest are mirages. Any belief apart from Christianity which promotes a relationship with Jesus Christ and the indwelling of His Spirit within Christians is a counterfeit.

Beloved, there is only one name under heaven given for man to be saved and that name is Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12).

The popular Scripture John 3:16 says:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

We can see from the Scripture above that it is only those who believe in Jesus that will have everlasting life. I congratulate you if Jesus Christ is already your Lord and Saviour. It means you have found the only way to reign with Him for eternity. However, if you are yet to surrender your life to Him, please do so today, as He is the only way to avoid eternal damnation. Choose wisely.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

You can never know God enough. Paul said:
“That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;”
Philippians 3:10

That is Paul – the great Apostle who God revealed so much of Himself to and this is evident in his writings which make up a significant part of the New Testament. Despite this, Apostle Paul still said he wished to know God more. You can never know enough of God because 1 Corinthians 13:9. says that we only know in part. Anyone who says he or she already knows all there is to know about God is a liar. Every believer must strive always to know more and more of God; it should be our daily yearning.

There are many benefits to knowing God. Firstly, it is only those who know God that can do exploits. The latter part of Daniel 11:32 says:
“but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.”

The more of God you know, the more the exploits you can do and vice versa. Seek to know Him more so that you can do more and more exploits.

Secondly, eternal life is in knowing God.

In John 17:3, Jesus defined eternal life as being about knowing God and His Son Jesus Christ.

If you know God, then you will begin to enjoy Gods Kingdom right from here. When a believer goes to be with the Lord, it is wrong to say that they have died because they crossed from death to life long ago. They are only sleeping (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14).

If you want to know God, you will spend time studying His word daily and you will gladly attend Bible Study. You will also pray very often.

When I just became born again, I was always the first to arrive at Bible Study meetings because I just wanted to know more about God daily. Up until now, I ensure that I pay attention and take notes anytime someone is talking about Jesus Christ. I just want to know Him more and more. What about you?
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

My beloved, if man makes a threat, circumstances can go against him so that he would not be able to carry it out. However, when God warns of impending doom and provides a way of escape, we had better pay attention to it because He is more than able to bring it to pass. Many people have scoffed at the warning of the impending eternal damnation that awaits sinners by ignoring the message of salvation. Such people are thinking that just because the return of Christ is yet to come, the message doesn’t matter. If man says a thing, it may not come to pass; however, when God speaks, thousands of years may pass by, but that word will still be fulfilled.

“But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”
Matthew 24:37-39

God threatened to wipe out the whole world with a flood and then instructed Noah to build an ark to save himself, his family and two of every other sort of living thing. For over a century, the flood did not happen, but Noah ensured he constructed the ark. When the flood eventually started, those who despised the word of God were doomed. There were many prophecies about Jesus Christ in the Old Testament but the fulfilment of His birth came thousands of years after. No matter how long it may seem to take, the word of God will surely come to pass. Those who scoff at the word of God now will eventually have themselves to blame. You may have been delaying your salvation to a later date, 2 Corinthians 6:2 says:
“For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

What makes you think that you will have another opportunity to repent before you are called home? This moment is the only one you are sure of; use it to get yourself right with God before it is too late.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Hebrews 11:6

Many people do not receive from God because they do not have faith. In one of our Holy Ghost Services at the Redemption Camp in Nigeria, God said He wanted to heal people with back pains, so He told me to call them out. When they came out, God told me to dance round them. Ridiculous as it seemed, I obeyed. I danced round them and at some point, God told me to stop. Then He said, Ask them to bend their backs now. I did so, and they could touch their toes; the back pains were gone.

You need faith to get miracles. You need to believe Him even when what He is saying seems ridiculous.

In Matthew 14:25-31, Jesus told Peter to come and walk on water and Peter jumped into the sea immediately. As long as he wasn’t considering the storm, he was walking on the water. The moment he considered the storm, however, he began to sink. If we want to enjoy miracles from God, we must shut our eyes and ears to the reasons why it may not happen. We must just believe God for what He has said and ignore everything else. If Abraham had considered his age, he would not have fathered a child, but Romans 4:19 says:
“And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb:”

In Mark 3:1-5, Jesus told the man with the withered hand to stretch it forth. If the man had refused to stretch his hand, he would have missed his miracle. Imagine if Peter had questioned the Lord when Jesus told him to cast his net into the water even though he had fished all night and caught nothing (Luke 5:4-6). You don’t need to bother your head about how God will do it; just obey and you will see the miracle, otherwise, you would lose it.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

One of the many beautiful things about the love of Christ is that it banishes fear. When you encounter God’s love and bask in it, nothing will scare you. What the devil does with fear is that he uses it to torment and rob people of experiencing the love of God.

Fear torments; it tells you that you cannot do something when The Most High God has said that you can do anything through Christ who strengthens you (Philippians 4:13). A person who is intimidated by fear cannot express the great potentials and abilities that God has given to him or her. Such a person would always look down on himself or herself and that gives the devil control over him or her. Don’t give in to fear so that the devil will not assume authority over you. As a child of God, take authority over fear in the name of Jesus Christ and stand your ground. You must push away the spirit of fear, so that it does not steal God’s precious promises from you. The only way to do this successfully is with the shield of faith.

Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Ephesians 6:16

Since faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17), then your shield of faith is just as strong as the volume of the word of God that you have dwelling in your heart. As the devil sends those fiery darts of fear, you block it with the word of God that you know concerning that matter. Now, if you are not a child of God, no matter how much of the Bible you quote, fear will keep overcoming you. Proverbs 28:1 says:
The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.

The righteous are bold because the Almighty God is the Shepherd and so they have nothing to fear. Your Shepherd will protect, provide for and guide you. However, if you are wicked, you have every reason to be afraid because the devil will torment those who belong to him with the spirit of fear. It is in your best interest to give your life to Jesus so that you will gain control over the spirit of fear and live to fulfil God’s will for your life.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

Fear not. Fear not because the devil is merely like a roaring lion. The only time he is able to bite is when he has instilled fear into a person with his roars. In other words, when you do not fear the devil as a child of God, he cannot harm you. 2 Timothy 1:7 says:
“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

As a child of God, the assurance you have from God is that you are free from the spirit of fear. God has set you in a place that is above every contrary spirit because you are now in Christ Jesus. Imagine that you have a son who obeys you and loves to spend time with you; can any enemy, whom you have power over, come to harass that son in your presence? It is not possible. God always keeps His own children safe because He is a good Father. Thus when the devil brings crazy imaginations to put fear in your heart, let the knowledge of who you are in Christ give you boldness. The Bible says that you must cast down any imagination that tries to exalt itself in your heart against the knowledge of God.

“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”
2 Corinthians 10:5

Let your knowledge in God rise above every fearful imagination that the devil brings to you. Fear is just a tool of the devil to keep you in bondage; you must not allow it into your heart.

Romans 8:15 says:
“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”

The Almighty God is your Daddy; you have absolutely no reason to fear because there is no one stronger than He. I say to you today: so long as you are a child of God, no matter what the situation may be, fear not.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

Every time people hear me saying "Be holy" emphatically, it is not because I don’t want you to enjoy your life, it is because I know the dangers of not living a holy life and don’t want you to suffer such. One of the dangers of not living holy is the law of substitution. This is a spiritual law that states that a life can be given for another. The people in the kingdom of darkness know this law and often apply it. The older ones in Africa will tell you that when someone is very sick and about to die, witch doctors are known to be able to transfer the death of that fellow to someone else and then the one who was sick will recover. Substitution is a spiritual law. God says in Proverbs 11:8 that when trouble is heading towards a righteous man, God takes him out of the way so that it goes to the unrighteous. If you don’t want to be a substitute for a righteous man, you had better be righteous yourself.

Many years ago, a woman came to me trembling. She said, Daddy I had a dream that my husband travelled and was brought back in a coffin. I asked her, Is your husband a child of God? She said Yes and then we prayed. Two weeks later, I saw an obituary in the papers with the surname of this sister. I thought, Lord, but we prayed about this. When I saw her the next Sunday, I asked her about the obituary and she said it was not her husband who died, but his relative. Death wanted to take the righteous one; we prayed, God took him out of the mouth of death and his relative who was not born again became the substitute. If you like yourself at all, you will live holy so that you don’t become a substitute for those who are righteous.

In Daniel 3:1-30, it was the men who threw Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego into the fiery furnace that were burnt. The three Hebrew boys who were thrown in came out unhurt. The furnace had to burn somebody. Since it could not burn the children of God, then it had to burn the children of the devil. In Daniel 6:1-28, when Daniel was thrown into the den of lions, God told them, You can’t eat this one. Don’t worry, I will get a replacement for you. The following morning, the king ordered that those who had plotted against Daniel, and all their family members, be thrown into the den of lions. Those people became the substitutes for Daniel. The law of spiritual substitution is real; you had better live holy so that you don’t get on the wrong side of it.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

Many people want great victories, but they do not want to make commensurate sacrifices. If you want to stay on the level of small victories, then you can continue making only little sacrifices. In The Redeemed Christian Church of God, we fast for at least forty days every year, sometimes we even fast for as long as 100 days. When some other ministries see us fasting, they laugh at us, but when the victories start pouring in, we will then be the ones laughing. The higher the mountain top you want to reach the greater the effort you would need to climb it.

I am tired of playing small, I am tired of small victories, I want great testimonies. I want victories that will wow the whole world for generations to come. If you want bigger victories too, then you must be ready to make bigger sacrifices. For every higher level you try to attain, there will be obstacles waiting to stop you. You must be prepared to fight to gain victory over them. The higher the level you are trying to get to the more prepared you must be for battle.

When a boxer is preparing for a boxing match, he trains harder to fight bigger opponents than he would when going to fight a smaller opponent. If you are going to fight the world champion, your training must be more rigorous than when you are going to fight a local one.

The level of greatness you want to achieve is what must determine the level of preparation you put in and the kind of sacrifice you make. If you keep living your life based on convenience-eating whenever you feel like, sleeping all night, spending a lot of time on entertainment and only praying when you are in Church or only working hard when you are instructed to, then you can only have small victories. However, if you are an ever-ready soldier who takes his body to the cutting edge of discipline, then there is no level of greatness you reach for that you would not be able to achieve. From our memory verse today, we see why Apostle Paul was the most prominent of all the Apostles.

If you want to be the most prominent person in your chosen field, be ready to put in more effort than anybody else there.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

Worse than those who only oppress the poor just because of their lowly status are the ones who do so in order to become richer. The Bible has this to say about them:
“He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want.”
Proverbs 22:16

If you have an allocation in your care to be given to the poor but you keep it all to yourself, the Bible says that you would surely come to want. Likewise, if you refused to pay your employees their salaries even though you are making money from that same work they are doing for you, you are oppressing them because they are poor and cannot fight you. The Bible says that you would surely come to want. God is passionate about poor people. Don’t oppress them. Proverbs 21:13 says:
“Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.”

If you have been ignoring the poor, at least for the sake of what you have read in Proverbs 21:13, stop ignoring them. Give of your substance to those who have not. The Bible says in Luke 3:11 that if you have two of anything and you see someone who does not have any, give that fellow one. These things should not be a big issue for Christians because the One who lives inside us is Love Himself. 1 John 4:8 says:
“He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love”

If you don’t love your poor neighbours enough to give to them, then that puts a question mark on your claim of being a Christian. When we read the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-24, we don’t see the rich man committing any sin as it were. The only thing that the rich man did wrong was that he blocked his ears to the cry of poor Lazarus. He ended up in hell where he cried and no one could hear him let alone help him. In Matthew 25:31-46, when Jesus was sending sinners to hell, one of their offences was that they did not help the needy. Be wise and give to the poor.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

God is very passionate about poor people and He does not like them being oppressed at all. In fact, in Proverbs 14:31, the Bible says that whoever oppresses the poor is reproaching God Himself.

In Matthew 25:45, God put Himself in the shoes of the poor and said whatever you do to them, you have done to Him. God is passionate about the poor and if you treat them badly, He will punish you for it. Psalm 10:2 says that the wicked who persecutes the poor will be taken in his own devices; in other words, the same persecution that he is giving to the poor will be given to him also.
“He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity.”
Psalm 10:6

The above verse is the thought of those who oppress the poor. They think that because they are high up there now, they can never become like one of the poor people, but that is a big lie. There are stories upon stories of people who were very wealthy, but somehow found themselves without any possessions after some time. Many of such people were brought down from their high positions because they did not treat the poor around them well.

Another thing that God can do is to leave the rich fellow where he is and then lift up the poor to become so great that the former would be like his servant. 1 Samuel 2:8 and Psalms 113:7-8 say the same thing: that God can take the poor out of the dust and set him to be amongst the princes of the land. That is what God did to the Potiphars. Mrs. Potiphar accused Joseph wrongly and because Joseph was too poor to get a lawyer to argue his case, Mr. Potiphar just threw him in prison without any trial. Before long, God raised Joseph up to be greater than the Potiphars in the same land.

Don’t ever oppress those who don’t have as much as you do, feeling that things will always be the way they are now. God is not sleeping, He is watching all that you are doing and says that, as long as you are oppressing the poor, you are reproaching Him. Don’t call for Gods wrath.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

No matter how terrible the demons that possess a person are, the fellow can be free in an instant by the power in the name of Jesus. However, anyone who is delivered of a demon will still be constantly checked on by that demon. The moment the demon sees that the fellow is not filled with the Holy Ghost, he will come with seven demons worse than himself to repossess the person. The state of the victim would then be worse than how he or she was during the initial possession. Failure to constantly study the word and fellowship with the Holy Spirit will open a person to be possessed or repossessed by demons. A word is enough for the wise.

Beloved, it is better to avoid being possessed than to be possessed and then delivered. When you get injured, the injury may heal, but the scar will remain. The mad man of Gadara became free from demons after he met Jesus, but the scars on his body remained. His reputation as the fellow who had been demon-possessed remained. All the years he spent in the cave could not be restored. You must therefore stay away from anything that can cause demons to possess you.

“And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ.”
Luke 4:41

In Mark 9:20, Luke 4:41 and similar passages, demons recognised Jesus and were terrified of Him. Philippians 2:9-11 says that every knee should bow before Him and every tongue should confess that He is the Lord. Jesus is the stronger man He talked about in Luke 11:22:
“But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.”

Only through the power of the stronger man can a demon-possessed person be delivered. Jesus lives inside His children, and greater is He that dwells in us than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4). When demons see someone in whom Christ lives, they bow (Acts 19:15). According to the mandate given to us by Jesus in Mark 16:17, as believers, we are to cast out devils in His name. Any believer who is filled with the Holy Ghost can cast out demons from a demon possessed fellow (Acts 16:16-18). Let us put that authority given to us to use.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

The worst of all demonic operations is possession – that is, when the enemy has taken over completely and is now dwelling inside the victim. Unfortunately, there are many people walking around with one or more demons inside them.

The mad man of Gadara was possessed by thousands of demons. He was seriously tormented by the demons, but he could not get rid of them. When Jesus sent the demons into the swine, the pigs preferred to drown themselves than to harbour these evil spirits inside them. In 1 Samuel 16:14-23, King Saul started acting like a lunatic when he was possessed by an evil spirit. The goal of demons when they possess a person is to use the fellow to carry out the agenda of the devil on earth and then ultimately destroy him or her. When they brought the child that was possessed with a demon to Jesus in Mark 9:22, his father said the demon was trying to destroy the child.

There are two types of demon-possessed victims; the willing and the unwilling. The willing victims are the ones who have submitted themselves as vessels to be used by the devil to perpetuate his evil work on earth. Witches and wizards are good examples of willing victims. The unwilling victims become possessed through two major ways. One is based on their associations. When people stay in places that are conducive for demons, the demons find them as hosts to stay in. I recall a time when a boy was brought to me for deliverance. He had gone somewhere and gotten loaded with so many demons that he could not kneel or walk by himself.

The second way many people become possessed by demons without knowing is through the things that they expose themselves to like worldly music, movies or sex with a demon-possessed fellow. My Father-in-the Lord – Pa Josiah Akindayomi always taught us that music invites spirits. He backed up this claim with 1 Samuel 16:23, where David played godly music to drive away the evil spirit from Saul. 1 Corinthians 6:16 says that you become one body with whoever you sleep with. Thus, if you sleep with a demon-possessed fellow, the demon gets the full right to possess you too. If however, there is any demon within you and you are willing to be delivered, I join my faith with yours and decree that such a demon or demons must leave you now, in Jesus name.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

A form of demonic operation - called Regression, is when the fellow tries to take one step forward, but finds himself going two steps backward. An unseen force just seems to be pushing the fellow back. This is worse than suppression because while suppression means that the fellow is staying on one spot, for regression, he or she is actually going backward.

We read about the woman with the issue of blood in Mark 5:25-29 and saw how she tried to get better, but kept getting worse until she encountered Jesus. Maybe you find yourself in a similar situation.

Maybe as hard as you try to get out of poverty, you seem to be going deeper into it. Today, the Almighty God will deliver you from the hands of the devil in Jesus name.

Many years ago, a very rich man and his wife had a disagreement. While they were exchanging words, she told him that by the time she was through dealing with him, he would be so poor as to have to resort to trekking whenever he had to go anywhere. He laughed at her statement because he had 14 vehicles so he didn’t think there was any possibility of him trekking, but he had no idea that he was married to a witch. Before long, his finances began to dwindle. He tried and tried but he just kept regressing. He sold all his cars except one. At last, he had 50 kobo with him and he was hungry. He thought, If I use this money to buy food, I won’t have anything to use for fuel and so would trek as my wife said. On the other hand, if I use it for fuel, I would die of hunger. At this point, he ran to the Church for help. God delivered him and all that he lost was restored.

Beloved, if you have noticed that you keep going backward instead of forward, then it is likely that there is a demon causing you to regress.

Today, I decree your freedom from such demons, in Jesus name.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

One other way by which demons operate is what is called suppression. Suppression is when the fellow being tormented is already down and the enemy is making sure he doesn’t rise.

The man at the pool of Bethesda was beside it, hoping to get his healing. Every year, he saw people get healed, yet he remained on the same spot. There are people who have been on the same spot for several years spiritually – in their careers, financially and so on. That suppression is over now, in Jesus name.

Many people take it lightly when they have been on the same spot for years. They don’t realise that they are giving an opportunity to demons to suppress them. The day the veil is removed from their eyes and they fight back, then they will move forward. You will move forward in Jesus name. The man at the pool of Bethesda was in front of the Lord Jesus Christ who could heal him, yet he didn’t ask for healing. I decree that the Lord will move you forward Himself today. You will begin to soar high, in Jesus name.

When I was studying for my Masters of Science at the University of Lagos, there was a man there who was an assistant lecturer. After completing my studies, I became a staff of the University, obtained my Ph.D. and got promoted to a higher level than this man. That man's experience is a classic case of suppression.

The solution to suppression is in God's anointing. Isaiah 10:27 says that anointing will break the yoke that the devil puts on a person to limit his movement. The man at the pool of Bethesda stayed there because he wanted to contact the anointing that flowed there once a year. Thank God he met the anointed One Himself and that day, the yoke was broken.

In Acts 3:2-11, on the day the man at the Beautiful Gate came in contact with the anointing, he began walking and leaping and praising God. Blind Bartimaeus had been in the same spot for many years too but screamed at the top of his voice for Jesus to have mercy on him. He did not stop until the Lord had mercy on him and broke the yoke of the devil in his life.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

Another operation of the devil is what is called depression. Depression is not just sadness. The word ‘depress’ can be simply described as ‘to push down’. When someone is depressed, he won’t be able to pull himself together to do anything. The devil makes a person depressed by manipulating the fellow’s perspective of things. He continually whispers lies into the fellow’s ears to make them see the situation as bigger and worse than it actually is.

If however, you let God show you the path of life, you will always experience fullness of joy in His presence (Psalm 16:11).

The best solution to depression is hearing the voice of God. When the devil starts making you feel depressed, get into God’s presence and don’t leave until you hear His voice. Psalm 119:130 says the entrance of His word brings light. As His word enters your spirit, it sheds light on that thing that the devil was using to press you down. You suddenly see that what you called a mountain was just a stepping-stone. Read your Bible and begin to pray in the Spirit. Soon, you will begin to feel a kind of joy that cannot be explained.

God’s presence also brings rest from all troubles. Exodus 33:14 says;
And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.

God Himself is calling on you to seek His face when you are troubled. He is yearning for fellowship with you. When you don’t have fellowship with God, the devil gets the opportunity to press you down with his own voice. Your confession must be like that of the Psalmist in Psalm 27:8;
When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.

In Jeremiah 29:13, God says you will seek Him and find Him when you seek Him with all your heart. As you surrender to seeking God with all your heart from today, depression is banished from your life in Jesus’ name.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

We will start a study on exposing demonic operations today and it will run for the next five days. I am believing God that by the end of this series, any operation of the devil in your life would have been destroyed in Jesus’ name. Please take the points in this series very seriously; pray them fervently throughout the day. Remember that it is the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous that avails much (James 5:16).

When we talk about demons operating in human beings, they come in various categories. There is the demonic operation called oppression. When somebody is oppressed, it is as if the fellow is carrying a very heavy load, yet he or she cannot put it down.

Acts 10:38 says;
How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power; who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

Oppression implies that the enemy is coming from outside to attack the fellow being oppressed. The devil’s agent carrying out the attack is usually someone very close to the victim.

Many years ago, we were having a programme and God said that there was somebody in the congregation whose mother was using diabolical means to prevent her from getting married. God said if the mother did not set her child free, she would die in seven days. The following day, a young lady who was over 30 years old and unmarried stormed into my office with her mother. The mother confronted me saying, “My daughter came home and told me you said if I don’t allow her to marry, I will die”. I responded that the message was not directed to her in particular but to anyone preventing their children from getting married. The woman, then asked her daughter to leave my office for a moment, before saying, “It’s not that I don’t want her to marry, just that she is the one taking care of me; what will I do when she gets married?” I said she should have told us and we would talk to the girl’s husband to ensure he takes care of her. The girl got married 6 months thereafter. May the Lord deliver you completely from any form of oppression, in Jesus’ name.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

1 Father, thank You for showing my nation mercy from the period when the Coronavirus came into the world to now. Thank You that my nation is still standing despite all the effects of the virus on the people and our economy.

2. Father, please speak peace unto my nation. Let there be no chaos in my country, in Jesus name.

3. Father, please scatter every evil gathering concerning my nation, in Jesus name. Liberate the country from the hands of people with selfish interests, in Jesus name.

4. Father, prosper my nation so greatly that we would begin to lend to other nations, in Jesus name.

5. Father, please raise godly leaders to take up all the leadership positions in my nation. Let everyone in political offices be God-fearing, in Jesus name.

6. Father, please calm any storm raging amongst tribes and races within my nation. Let all tribes and races within my nation live in love and togetherness, in Jesus name.

7. Father, please abolish every policy encouraging any form of sexual immorality in my nation, in Jesus name. My nation will not become a comfort zone for sin and demons, in Jesus name. Shed Your light all over this nation and remove all lawmakers who develop such policies this year, in Jesus name.

8. Father, in any way my nation has sinned in the past thus bringing judgement down upon us, please have mercy Lord.

9. Father, amongst other nations in the world, let my nation rise to be the greatest, in Jesus name.

10. Father, please raise great men and women who will shake the world positively from my nation. When a list of the greatest people in the world is compiled, let majority of them come from my nation, in Jesus name.

11. Father, bless the soil of my nation. Let our soil yield great blessings, in Jesus name.

12. Your personal prayer points for your nation.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

It’s very frightful thing to be defenseless in a hostile world. When a man is sick, he runs to the doctor for defence but what do you do if the doctor says "There’s nothing more we can do for you". If a man is in financial problems, he may run to the bank with the hope of borrowing some money to come out of the mess he is in; but what would he do if the bank says they cannot help him? It’s a terrible thing to feel forsaken by relatives and friends, but the worst kind of helplessness comes when the Pastor says, “I have prayed all the prayers I know and there’s nothing more I can do for you”. Thank God that at that moment, there is somebody who is called the Defence of the defenceless. Psalms 46:1 says:
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

No matter how big any trouble is, God is there to defend you. Once in a while, we face opponents that are too big for us to handle on our own. At such times when we feel defenceless, God is always there to defend us, so long as we belong to Him. During one of our Holy Ghost Services, God told me to tell someone in the congregation that he should not worry, he will laugh last. Apparently, there was a young man in the congregation who had just received a disengagement letter in his workplace. He came from the office straight to the programme with that letter, crying for God to help him. By Monday, all those who ganged up against him to be sacked were sacked and he was promoted.

In John 10:11 He is called the Good Shepherd. John 10:12 says:
“But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.”

The hireling referred to in the Bible reading for today is the devil. If you put yourself under his care, when the troubles of life come at you like wolves, he will leave you alone. Once you accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, you will come under the protection of the Good Shepherd, and He will defend you whenever an enemy comes against you.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

1. Lord, I thank You that, even with all the perversion in the world today, we still have youths in the Church who are burning for You.

2. Lord, let our youths marry correctly. Don’t let the devil deceive them to choose spouses who will become burdens to them, in Jesus name

3. Father, Your word says in Acts 2:17 that in the last days, You will pour Your Spirit upon all flesh. Please pour Your Spirit upon our youths and let them begin to prophesy and see great visions that will impact their generation greatly, in Jesus name.

4. Father, please give our youths supernatural wisdom to navigate all the hurdles of life that they may encounter as they grow, in Jesus name.

5. Father, for any of our youths that is confused about any area of their life, please give them the Spirit of understanding to walk on the path You have ordained for them, in Jesus name.

6. Father, speak into the ears of our youths like You promised in Isaiah 30:21 so that they will know Your will for their lives, in Jesus name.

7. Father, please give our youths the Spirit of might so that they can do exploits for You, in Jesus name.

8. Father, please make our youths hungry for the right kind of knowledge. Save them from activities that are time wasters in Jesus name.

9. Father, let our youths fear You in order to run away from sin.

10. Lord, don’t let the devil deceive our youths with flashy things. Let them not do abominable things for money and let them also not make marriage decisions based on money and physical appearance alone, in Jesus name.

11. Father, please kill every desire to go into internet fraud or other criminal activities in our youths, in Jesus name.

12. Your special prayer point(s) for the youths around you.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

In Mark 2:1-12, we read the story of a man paralyzed from the neck downwards. That is a situation far beyond the scope of medicine. He was incurable, but when this man got in contact with the Lord Jesus Christ, the Curer of the incurable, his paralysis was gone within seconds. God bless all doctors, but many a time, people go to the doctor and he or she looks at their situation and says, "Sorry, there is nothing we can do to help". There is however a Healer who is greater than any doctor and can change the medical report. On His behalf now, I am pronouncing that any negative report you have received from a doctor is changed in your favour in Jesus name.

I heard a testimony that made me want to jump and dance recklessly. The testifier said that a nail pierced his eye and the doctor told him nothing could be done to make him see with it again. The Curer of the incurable turned that report around and three days after he was told that he would never see again, he started seeing. Doctors can only try to repair body parts. My Daddy does not have to repair; He replaces body parts. Thus, when a part of the body is damaged beyond repair, the Curer of the incurable steps in with a replacement without leaving any traces that the fellow was ever sick. In the olden days, leprosy was incurable; even today, if you see a leper that has been healed, you would see traces of the leprosy because the fingers, toes and maybe even ear lobes would have been gone. However, when my God cleansed Naaman in 2 Kings 5:14, his skin came back to him like that of a newborn baby. I decree, every medical report that is contrary to your joy and well-being shall be turned around in the name of Jesus.

Jesus Christ can cure the incurable when you call on Him with a pure heart, but isn’t it better if you never fall sick at all? If the Curer of the incurable lives inside you, if sickness is coming into your body, it will be repelled by the power of Jesus Christ. Revelation 3:20 says He is standing at the door of your heart right now, knocking and waiting for you to open up your heart to Him. You may say, I have already given my life to Christ, why then has God not healed me? Check very well, are you really living holy? Are you living in complete obedience to the word of God?
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

Proverbs 21:1 says that the hearts of kings are in God’s hands and He turns them whichever way He pleases. This should tell you that the greatest connection you can ever have is the one you have to God. If you have God as your friend, anyone you need help from will have no choice but to favour you because their hearts are in His hands.

Many years ago, we wanted to get The Redeemed Christian Church of God registered in a foreign country. Everybody told us that it was not possible as that country does not register Pentecostal Churches. We insisted and asked them to just submit our papers. After some time, we got the registration papers. Some years later, we needed approval for a project and so we applied for it. The government officials then sent us a letter saying that we could not be approved because we weren’t even registered in the first place. We replied that we were registered, attaching our registration papers to the letter and they were all surprised, wondering how we got registered. I was just laughing because my Daddy is the one in control.

I prophesy into your life; wherever it is that you need favour, before the person in power realizes it, he or she would have favoured you already in Jesus’ name.

My God doesn’t only control kings, He controls other things. In Matthew 8:23-27, He controlled a raging storm. In Numbers 22:28-30, He controlled the voice box of a donkey. In Exodus 14:16-28, He controlled the Red Sea and made a path in between the sea for His people to pass through. The Bible says that the whole world is His footstool (Acts 7:49). In other words, you are under His feet. If you submit to His will, He will control things in your favour (Romans 8:28), but if you decide to fight Him, He can control things to go against you. Outside this world, He is also in control of the gates of heaven and hell. If you live holy, He will open the gates of heaven for you to come in but if you live a life of sin, He will shut the gates of heaven and the only other place such a person can go is hell. Which one would you rather go to – Heaven or hell?
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

Revelation 1:8 can be interpreted to mean that in God, the past, the present and the future coexist. As a result of this, He controls times and seasons (Daniel 2:20-21). Thus, if He wants, He can stop time like in Joshua 10:12-14. I remember when I was about to turn sixty years old and the assignment God had given me seemed to be far from being achieved. I groaned and cried to God, Lord, help me. I haven’t achieved all that You called me to do. There is still so much work to be done and now the sun is setting. He said, Son, I decide when the sun sets.

Yes, my God can stop time, but He can even do more than that; He can reverse it. In Isaiah 38:7-8, when He told a king that he was going to be healed, the king asked for a sign. The prophet said, Okay, which one do you want, should I ask the sun to move forward faster or to move backwards? The king said, Moving forward faster is easy, ask the sun to go back and the sun went backwards that day.

God can pick an opportunity that you think you have lost forever and bring it right back to you again. That was what He did in Genesis 18:9-14 when He said Sarah would have a son. Sarah must have been in menopause for about 40 years, but that didn’t matter to God because He can bring back that which appears to have been gone forever. I prophesy to you: every opportunity you have already lost shall be restored to you in Jesus name. Now, I don’t just want you to say an ordinary amen to that prayer. I want you to meditate on it for a moment. If the Almighty God could bring back the menstrual period of a ninety-year-old woman, do you think your case will be too difficult for Him to solve?

There was a lady who had given birth to children from different men before she surrendered her life to Christ. She believed that no man would want to marry her ever again but to her surprise, God brought a man to marry her and even told the man that though this lady had a rough past, He had cleansed her and given her a brand new beginning! God is still in the business of reversing the irreversible and He will bring back whatever you have lost in Jesus name.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

There are some differences between a prophecy and a decree. When a prophecy comes, that is a promise and when God makes a promise, He will definitely fulfill it at the appropriate time and with the proper conditions. However, when He makes a decree, the fulfilment is immediate and without any conditions. The prayer of every Christian should be that God should turn every prophecy into a decree in their favour.

Abraham had received the prophecy that he would be a father of nations, but somehow the fulfilment was taking time to manifest. The day Abraham invited God to eat, every prophecy concerning childbirth became a decree. That day, He brought what was yet to come to 'now'. In John 2:1-11, at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, Jesus mother told Him the hosts no longer had any wine. He told His mother, "My time is not yet come", but not long after that, "not yet" became "now". In 2 Kings 4:8-17, when Elisha decreed to the Shunammite woman that she would have a son, even though she didn’t believe him, it came to pass.

A decree sets aside your doubts and unbelief. It goes ahead to do what was spoken while a prophecy, on the other hand, requires you to believe and even pray sometimes for it to come to pass.

There is no prophecy God has declared concerning you that He cannot bring to pass because He is the Almighty. Matthew 3:9 says He is so mighty that He can even bring children out of stones. He is so mighty that He can literally reverse the irreversible because, in Romans 4:16-19, the Bible says that the womb of Sarah was already dead. If you want to see that prophecy manifest immediately, it needs to become a decree. How do you get God to turn His prophecies concerning you into decrees? Simple: offer unto Him what He delights in. Psalms 50:13-14 says Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High.

Sing praises to God, thank Him from the bottom of your heart, do His will. If you do these so much and so well that it touches His heart, He will turn prophecies to decrees in your life.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

“And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Ephesians 2:6”

That Bible passage above is not for everybody. It is for only those who live holy. Psalms 24:3-4 says: “Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.”

If you don’t live holy, you cannot even ascend to God not to talk of sitting with Him. Thus those who don’t live holy cannot be seated with Christ and since Ephesians 1:20-21 says that Christ is seated above principalities and powers, they cannot command principalities and powers. In a crusade, when the fellow leading prayers is asking people to bind the devil and his agents, and the ones who are still living in sin are also binding, what the devil does is torment and oppress them even more. If you don’t believe me, ask the seven sons of Sceva (Acts 19:11-16). They were not children of God and they were trying to command demons. The demons taught them a lesson that day. If you want to command demons, if you want the devil to leave you alone, then you must be holy.

1 John 3:8 says:
“He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.”

Who your father is determines who you can command. If your father is the househelp of a great man, you cannot command the great man’s children because they are indirectly your bosses. Rather, the children will command you. However, if you break free from their hold and you become greater than they, then you can command them.

I am giving you an invitation today to join those of us who are seated with Jesus Christ, far above principalities and powers. For us, the devil and his agents are our servants; we command them as we wish and they cannot oppress us.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

Some Christians are so gentle that they accommodate the devil and his agents in their lives, claiming the Bible says we should be gentle as a dove. The Bible says that it is only the violent that can take the Kingdom of God by force. The devil will do everything to ensure you don’t enter that Kingdom of God; it is with violence that you will take it. If you are at peace when you should be fighting, the devil will roast you.

You must be violent when the devil is confronting you with a situation that can kill you. Any situation that can destroy your destiny or your spiritual life is not one to toy with at all.

Many years ago, I encountered a woman who was a senior official of an Examination Council in West Africa. She was married with children that were doing well. Just looking at her, everything seemed normal, but she was a habitation of demons. She came to me one day and said, “Thus saith the Lord, you are my husband”. I said, “That can’t be; I’m happily married, I’m a man of God, and you know I am committed to a life of holiness”. She said, “You are joking, I’m going to marry you”. When we couldn’t handle it anymore, the matter was reported to the police and a restraining order was issued against her, to no avail. One day, I went to London on an official assignment and didn’t tell anybody I was coming. Just as I entered the house where I was to stay, the phone rang and this same woman said, “Welcome, I have been waiting for you. I know where you are staying and I will be there in fifteen minutes”. I told her the British police would be waiting for her at the door. Maybe because she knew there was a police station less than two minutes’ walk away from the house, she did not come, but she kept on calling. Now, I knew that I had a big problem and I needed to be violent. I went on my knees and cried to God to help me. God told me, “Son, you know the meaning of whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth is loosed in heaven. You know it means that whatever you allow is allowed, whatever you forbid is forbidden”. I said, “Yes Lord”, then He said “It’s up to you”. On hearing that I said, “Okay, then this mountain must move!” and it did move. If I hadn’t been violent that mountain might have killed me.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

Many at times, Christians give themselves headache over what should not be a problem at all. You have a Father in heaven who is the Almighty and owns the entire world and all that is in it, yet you bother your brain so much about your needs when you can easily ask Him and He will give you whatever you need. Many problems have lingered for too long because instead of praying, the fellow involved is worrying. The latter part of James 5:16 says:
“..The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

It did not say the effectual fervent worries will avail much. In fact, in Matthew 6:27, Jesus Christ said expressly that worrying will do absolutely nothing for you.

Don’t burden yourself with what you cannot carry; ask God and He will carry your troubles for you. He has put no limit to how much you can ask of Him. In John 16:24, He said you should ask so your joy may be full. Inversely, this also means that you cannot be filled with joy until you have asked Him.

Many people get angry with God unnecessarily. They would have gone to every human being they can reach and gotten frustrated, then turn to God and ask, Why me? Many Christians burden themselves so much because they don’t know how much God loves them and how willing He is to give them whatever they ask for. He loved you so much that He sacrificed His son for your sake; what is it that you can ask Him that will be greater than that? Why would He hold back anything from you when He did not withhold His only begotten Son from you?

“He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Romans 8:32”

He has given you a blank cheque. Instead of worrying and jumping around looking for solutions to your problems, go on your knees and write in the blank cheque which is found in Matthew 7:7-8.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

I have seen people experience challenges and they just keep struggling through them. They somehow find a way to survive as the challenge lingers. For such people, usually, a day will come when they will say, "Enough is enough". That day came for the widow in 2 Kings 4:1-7 when her creditors said they were coming to take her sons. Before then, the creditors must have been disturbing her and the prophet who had the solution to her problem had also been there, but she kept quiet and was just struggling with the situation. On that fateful day, she must have said to herself, "Enough is enough" then cried to the Prophet for help and it came. The day you decide to stop accommodating that problem, it will leave you alone; if you keep struggling with it, however, God will fold His hands and watch you.

Several years ago, a young couple suddenly realised that they were making money, but the money kept disappearing, thereby leaving them in poverty. They kept struggling with the problem for some time until one day when they said, "Enough is enough". That day, they prayed some violent prayers and all of a sudden, the relative that they brought from the village to help with house chores started screaming, I want to confess. He said he had instructions from the village that as soon as he got to their house, he should get one of the caps of the husband and send it back to the village. He did this and the cap in question was spiritually manipulated such that whatever money the man-made in Lagos was appearing in the cap back in the village. It was after he brought the cap back and it was set on fire that these people within a year bought their own land and built their house. They started making progress only when they said, "Enough is enough".

I don’t know about you, but I am tired of the level that I am on now; I want to move forward. Oh yes, I have achieved some success and I am grateful to God, but I am not yet where I want to be. Are you okay with being in the same spot for so long? Do you want to continue managing or do you want to break loose from the bondage of the enemy and fly? It is up to you. If you want to move forward, then pray today with great spiritual aggression.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

Every athlete on the race track is always looking forward to reaching the finish line. The Heavenly race is not a sprint but a marathon. We have been looking forward to the coming of Christ now for more than two thousand years. I, in particular, have been running this race for almost 50 years now, and I am still running. I don’t know how long you have been running, but I am quite sure that you are looking forward earnestly to the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, there is a way you can make Him return quickly - sharing the gospel of Christ and winning souls into the Kingdom of God. Matthew 24:14 says: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

Romans 8:19-23 says that all Children of God are waiting earnestly for that day when we will be transformed and reign with our Father in heaven, but the only way to hasten the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is to preach the gospel. Until people who have not heard the gospel hear it, Jesus will not come. If you want Him to return quickly so that you can reign with Him in paradise (that is, of course, if you are sure that you will make it to heaven), then you will preach the gospel. I am really looking forward to His return so I will win souls even in the most remote parts of the world. I have been to a country to win souls where they were so few in the whole country, everybody knew one another. Their prison inmates were allowed to go home on weekends to visit their families and come back the next Monday. That is how small the country is. I will go anywhere; as long as there is someone there who will hear about Christ and can become saved, I am ready to go.

Now, it may amaze some people that Jesus has not come yet because you think the whole world has heard about Him. I was preaching to a group of Ambassadors about God one day; after preaching for more than 30 minutes, one of them asked, What is God? I realized then that he didn’t understand all that I had been saying since. There are still people out there who haven’t heard about Christ and we will keep waiting for His coming if we don’t go out there to preach to them. Until they hear, He will not return. Thus, we must reach the whole world for Him if we want Him to return soon.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

Hebrews 4:12 says the word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. It says it can separate between joints and marrows. This implies that the word of God can perform surgical procedures that even the best among surgeons dare not attempt. An elderly man came to me several years ago, asking me to pray for the success of the surgery he needed to have to cure him of prostate cancer. I said to him, why don’t we pray that there will be no need for a surgery? He laughed and said, You are a young boy; you will not understand. Just pray that God will guide the hands of the surgeon. I said, Sir, I am not going to pray that kind of prayer; l’m going to pray that my Father will heal you. He responded that I should pray whichever way I wanted as he would still go for the surgery anyway. On the day of the surgery, a final check by the surgeon revealed that he had been healed and there was no need for the procedure anymore. Psalms 107:20 says:
He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

The word of God is quick and powerful enough to heal you or any of your loved ones of any sickness.

In Luke 7:6-7, the Centurion said he knew that if Jesus would just send a word to his servant, the man would be healed. The Lord sent the word and his servant was indeed healed. This Centurion gave us a template on how we can get a word from God. Firstly, he knew the Word Himself and then he approached Him in faith. Do you know Jesus Christ, the Word of God? How long do you spend studying the Bible? How much of the word do you memorise? How do you expect the word you do not know or regard to work for you? Get to know God's word by studying the Bible regularly.

The Centurion relied on the word with so much faith that Jesus Christ said He had never seen such in Israel before. When the word says in 1 Peter 2:24 that you are healed by His stripes, do you believe it? When the word says in Deuteronomy 7:15 that none of the diseases that fall on the Egyptians (unbelievers) will come to you, do you believe it? If you truly believe in the word of God, then your actions will align with your faith (James 2:17). Whatever challenge you may be faced with today, I decree: you will be victorious in Jesus name.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

In continuation of our inquiry from yesterday into why Peter denied Jesus, let us look more closely at why he even chose to sit with those who were persecuting Jesus.

And Peter followed him afar off, even into the palace of the high priest: and he sat with the servants, and warmed himself at the fire.
Mark 14:54

Peter sat with these people because he wanted the warmth of the fire which they had lit. Many times, the reason Christians stay in the congregation of the dead and end up denying Jesus is the warmth they get when they sit with them. The reason some people cannot stop conducting business with partners who make them deny Jesus is that they don’t want to lose certain benefits they get from those partners. Jesus however, said in Matthew 16:24
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

The one who will not deny Jesus must first deny himself or herself. If you are not willing to deny yourself of certain benefits you get when you spend time with unbelievers, you would end up denying Jesus like Peter did.

Nothing is more important than the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross for you, so you should never put any benefit above identifying with Him. Remember, Jesus said in Matthew 10:33
But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

If those 'benefits' are more important to you than Jesus Christ, then He will deny you before His Father on the last day and the people you are trying to please will not be there to save you from the pains and agonies of hell.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.