Open Heavens Daily Devotional Messages, By Pastor E.A Adeboye.

THE POWER OF THE MISSIONARY MANDATE – Sunday January 10th 2016
THE SECRET OF DIVINE BLESSINGS – Saturday January 9th 2016
DRESS IT AND KEEP IT – Friday January 8th 2016
DAY SEVEN BLESSING – Thursday January 7th 2016
DAY SIX MIRACLE – Wednesday January 6th 2016
DAY FIVE MIRACLE – Tuesday January 5th 2016

THE POWER OF THE MISSIONARY MANDATE – Sunday January 10th 2016

Posted: 03 Jan 2016 04:55 AM PST

THE POWER OF THE MISSIONARY MANDATE

Memorise: But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye

shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Acts 1:8

Read: Mark 16:15-18, ¹⁵And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

¹⁶He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

¹⁷And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

¹⁸They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

Bible in one year: Deuteronomy 1:1-2:25, Job 1:13-19

MESSAGE!!!

The power of the missionary mandate has been trivialized in many quarters of the church. We need to constantly remind ourselves of the inevitability of this qualification. It is amazing that the letters of the New Testament have been reduced to mere words of counsel and not the law. We are so scared of the phenomenon called the "law" that we try to avoid mentioning it, not to talk of enforcing it. The "freedom gospel" that the devil preached to our first parents has become the order of the day in the Church. The effect is our not paying close attention to the inescapable instructions given to us by Jesus Christ who is Himself, Grace Personified.

"And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge… wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do those things, ye shall never fall:"

2^nd Peter 1:5, 10

When our Lord Jesus Christ was going to be with His father, He gave us a mandate to reach the world with His gospel. However, He was not presumptuous and we should not be too. We cannot afford to jump the gun. He said; "wait for the promise of the Father …" (Acts 1:4). Pursuing missionary mandate without the power of the Holy Spirit is suicidal. This is the reason why we have casualties among the modern day missionaries because some of them are not spiritually equipped. They have zeal without knowledge; the type Uzzah had when the Ark of Covenant was in transit.

"And when they came to Nachon's threshing floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen shook it. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God."

2^nd Samuel 6:6-7

Presumptuous sin killed Uzzah. This is the reason David prayed that God should deliver him from presumptuous sin (Psalms 19:13); the type that destroyed King Saul when he performed the sacrifice before the arrival of the designated priest, Samuel (1^stSamuel 13:9). We need to be endued in the Holy Spirit before we can be effective missionaries. The irony of this is that the missionary mandate must be kept by genuine children of God. So, this fact leaves us without the option of whether or not to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. I pray that as many as are thirsty for the baptism of the Holy Spirit will be satisfied with it today in Jesus' name.

Action Point

Ensure you rid yourself of all impurities that may hinder Him from coming into your life today. The Holy Spirit is willing to baptized you if you are willing.

THE SECRET OF DIVINE BLESSINGS – Saturday January 9th 2016

Posted: 03 Jan 2016 04:53 AM PST

THE SECRET OF DIVINE BLESSINGS

Memorise: I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same

bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Read: Deuteronomy 7:12-18, ¹²Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers:

¹³And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.

¹⁴Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.

¹⁵And the Lord will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.

¹⁶And thou shalt consume all the people which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them: neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto thee.

¹⁷If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?

¹⁸Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the Lord thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;

Bible in one year: Numbers 34-36, Job 1:6-12

MESSAGE!!!

When God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness", little could an uninformed person know that this goes with a lot of responsibilities. For instance, by this divine decision, man is made responsible for his actions and inactions because he is a god. This is the reason why man, consciously or unconsciously takes his life in his hands and works out his own well being; even to a fault, and Jesus Christ warned us against this extremism.

"Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or, What shall we drink? Or, wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

Matthew 6:31-33

The scripture above reveals the secret of divine blessings. Although man is a responsible carrier of God's image, however, he is dependent on the God whose image he is carrying. At the creation of man, when man lived in accordance with God's instruction, he lived in all-round abundance, because God bestowed His blessing upon him and his wife. With little effort, man got great harvest. Therefore, Man must live according to the dictates of God to enjoy divine blessings. Jesus Christ, the incarnate of the Almighty God pointed this out in our memory verse of today.

For us to be divinely blessed, we must make Jesus Christ our Lord; we must be born again; that is, we must admit what the scripture says in Romans 3:23: "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" and quickly do something about it. What we must do is to repent according to the admonition of Peter:

"Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord."

Acts 3:19

It is high time all men, particularly the children of God, understood the secret of divine blessings; that is abiding in the Son of the Living God, the True Vine. Let us stop being anxious of what we want to become. The Bible says:

"For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich."

2^nd Corinthians 8:9

With His benevolent act which was climaxed at the Cross, we are abundantly blessed without any addition of sorrow (Proverbs 10:22)

Prayer Point

Father, please open my eyes to see the secret of divine blessings and let me align myself with it.

DRESS IT AND KEEP IT – Friday January 8th 2016

Posted: 03 Jan 2016 04:51 AM PST

DRESS IT AND KEEP IT

Memorise: And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it

and to keep it. Genesis 2:15

Read: Deuteronomy 18:9-13, ⁹When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.

¹⁰There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.

¹¹Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.

¹²For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.

¹³Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God.

Bible in one year: Numbers 23:33, Job 1:1-5

MESSAGE!!!

The almighty God is the most efficient conservationist. With Him, there is no wastage or corruption unlike many so-called children of God. Right from Genesis, we read about how God commanded Adam to make sure the beautiful garden did not suffer decay or any pollution. There are many ways in which one can preserve or pollute a God-given gift. The 'land' can be polluted by sin of all sorts particularly idolatry and/or witchcraft. In the text of today, we are confronted with the seriousness God attaches to the preservation of His creation.

"When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or an enchanger, or a witch."

Deuteronomy 18:9-10

According to Exodus 20:3, idolatry is the most grievous sin against God. Adam automatically chose another god for himself when he decided to obey the devil rather than God. This is what many people don't know; they think until they put an image on the ground and they begin to bow to it, they have not committed idolatry. It is obvious that there are idolaters in the Church; they always attend Church programmes but they never do what God wants them to do. The Bible says:

"And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness."

Ezekiel 33:31

By disobeying the Word of God, people pollute the land and bring eternal curses upon themselves and generations after them. this was exactly what the first man did and God cursed the land for his sake (Genesis 3:17). To keep the land which the Lord has given us to inhabit, we must obey Him and live according to His Word. When we do this, our land will be free from evil and it will yield great increase for our pleasure (Deuteronomy 28). I encourage you reading this devotional to give your life to Jesus Christ today and begin to live according to His Word from now on. The seemingly barren or polluted land upon which you are living will turn out to be fruitful and blessed.

Action Point

Think about how you have lived your life in the past; see if you have polluted the land in anyway, repent and call on God for forgiveness so that God's time of refreshing will come upon your life.

DAY SEVEN BLESSING – Thursday January 7th 2016

Posted: 03 Jan 2016 04:50 AM PST

DAY SEVEN BLESSING

Memorise: And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had

rested from all his work which God created and made. Genesis 2:3

Read: Genesis 2:1-3, 2 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

²And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

³And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Bible in one year: Numbers 30-31, Psalms 149-150

MESSAGE!!!

Rest is the divine blessing which God bestowed upon His creation, particularly man. Even the land He gave to man to inhabit must enjoy sabbatical rest (Leviticus 25:2-4).

Many people do not know that rest is a divine benevolence which God Himself demonstrated as vital to good life and longevity. It is also obligatory for us to observe sabbatical rest.

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter , thy manservant, nor they maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it."

Exodus 20:8-11

Some children of God are not benefiting from this sabbatical ordinance because they are obsessed with the goal they have set for themselves. While it is good to set goals for yourself because the Bible in Proverbs 10:4 says; "He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich", at the same time, you must not set the goal that makes you a sabbatical law breaker. You must take time to rest as at when due.

Another reason God would want us to observe our sabbatical rest is that we may find time to enjoy the fruit of our labour. God desires that man should enjoy the labour of his hand. Our benevolent God sees it as evil when a man labours and dies from lack of rest and someone else enjoys the fruit of his labour. Solomon said:

"There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.

Ecclesiastes 2:24

I pray that you will not labour and miss out on the fruit of your labour in Jesus' name. This prayer can only be answered if you respect the sabbatical law and always find a day to rest and commune with your God who gives you power to make wealth.

Action Point

Choose a day of the week when you rest from all your labour.

DAY SIX MIRACLE – Wednesday January 6th 2016

Posted: 03 Jan 2016 04:48 AM PST

DAY SIX MIRACLE – Wednesday January 6^th 2016

Memorise: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male

and female created he them. Genesis 1:27

Read: Genesis 1:24-31, ²⁴And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

²⁵And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

²⁶And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

²⁷So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

²⁸And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

²⁹And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

³⁰And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

³¹And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Bible in one year: Numbers 27:12-29:40, Psalms 148

MESSAGE!!!

Man is the major miracle of the sixth day of creation. On this day, God decided to create the chief of all His creations – man. This was in order to make man the overseer of His created order. God is the most perfect Creator and Administrator of both animate and inanimate creation. However, as the perfect Administrator who knew the magnitude of the universe He had created, He decided to make a "small" god (a similitude of Himself) to rule the earth on His behalf (Psalm 82:1-6, John 10:34). To be called "gods" is marvellous; it is indeed a miracle to make a "god" out of the dust of the earth.

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattled and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepth upon the earth."

Genesis 1:26

God created man in His own image, blessed man and inaugurated the dominion of man over all other creations. However, this was not withoutclear-cut instructions on how man should exercise his dominion. This, of course, is where the first couple missed it when they craved for unlimited dominion (Genesis 3:5-6). It is unfortunate that the 21^st century man is guiltier of this than any other generation before them. it is even more unfortunate that the 21^stcentury Church is guiltier of exercising unlimited freedom, thinking that Jesus Christ saved us into lawlessness and unguided freedom. This is the reason why human beings must live up to God's expectation as gods to other creations. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ asked rhetorically.

"What shall we say? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?"

Romans 6:1-2

We must jealously guard our position in God's creation and redemption. Our first parents lost it; we found it in Christ, so we must be careful not to take the grace of salvation for granted any more. The divine assessment of the entire six day effort is: "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good…. "Every perfect thing that has gone bad in your life will be restored today in Jesus' name.

Action Point

Find out those things that God declared good in your life that have gone bad. Pray that God who redeemed you will restore those good things today in Jesus' name.

DAY FIVE MIRACLE – Tuesday January 5th 2016

Posted: 03 Jan 2016 04:46 AM PST

DAY FIVE MIRACLE

Memorise: And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in

the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. Genesis 1:22

Read: Genesis 1:20-23, ²⁰And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

²¹And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

²²And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

²³And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

Bible in one year: Numbers 25:1-27:11, Psalms 147

MESSAGE!!!

Our God is not just the God of creation; he is also a God of abundance. When God creates, He does not create sparingly. This is why the provision He made in the universe has not been exhausted.

"And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven." Genesis 1:20

The Almighty created moving creatures because He Himself is dynamic. In other words, stagnancy is ungodly; it is evil. I pray for someone using this devotional; an end has come to your stagnation today in Jesus' name. if lower creatures were created to move about, human beings, especially children of God, must not suffer stagnation. Our God is also a God of variety and abundance. He created both great and small in different shapes and colours. This knowledge must have informed Paul the apostle to assuredly tell the Philippians that the Almighty God would supply their needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19)

Another lesson we can learn from today's Bible reading is that God blessed His handwork to be fruitful and to multiply. Therefore, we see how foolish anyone would be if he or she agrees with the devil that God hates him or her. Our God is interested in the prosperity of His creation! The Psalmist understood this and wrote: "… Let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant." (Psalms 35:27). Nobody cares more about us than God. His care, mercy and love are incomparable. Jesus said:

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

John 15:13

The Bible also says: "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). This is why Jesus said in the gospel according to Luke:

"And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you"

Luke 12:29-31

The God of abundance will meet all your needs this season in Jesus' name.

Prayer Point:

Father, meet me at the point of my needs today according to your riches in glory by Christ Jesus.