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

Open Heavens Daily 2017 Saturday 20 May 2017:- How often do you fast?

Posted: 18 May 2017 09:57 AM PDT

HOW OFTEN DO YOU FAST? – Saturday May 20^th 2017

Memorise: In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 2^nd Corinthians 11:27

Read: Matthew 6:16-18 (King James Version)

¹⁶Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

¹⁷But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face;

¹⁸That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

Bible in one year: Deuteronomy 33-34, Jeremiah 32:36-44, Hymn: Sing hymn 6

MESSAGE:

One of my sons was travelling with me for the very first time sometime ago, and after we had been together for two days he asked me, "Daddy, why do you pray so much?" He said he observed that before we left the room, we prayed; when we got into the car, we prayed; on arrival at our destination, we prayed; when we entered the venue of the programme, we prayed; when we finished the programme, we prayed; on arrival at our lodging place, we prayed; also, when he peeped to check on me, he still saw me on my knees. Saturday 20 May 2017. Well, I pray a lot because prayer is an activity we are commanded to always engage in (1^st Thessalonians 5:17). How often do you pray? Do you use every available opportunity to pray?

Apart from prayer, another spiritual activity you should regularly engage in to keep you spiritual fit and growing is fasting. Some people believe that doing a long fast for 30 days or 100 days is sufficient for one year. Open Heavens Daily 2017 Saturday 20 May 2017:- How often do you fast? While this is a good spiritual exercise, there is still the need to continue fasting in the course of the year. When the Lord addressed the question of why His disciples were not fasting often like those of John the Baptist, here is what He said in Luke 5:34;

"But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days."

Since the Master has been received into glory, it is clear from His words that we now are expected to fast often. Some people fast for a short period at a stretch and thereafter they want to feast for the rest of the year. This is not good enough. A better practice is to find or create some time monthly or better still weekly to engage in fasting. Fasting was not strange to the patriarchs of old. Fasting does you so much good spiritually, so it should be a part of your lifestyle. You can live a fasted life. While detailing his experiences in life, Apostle Paul in 2^nd Corinthians 11:27 said that fasting was a reoccurring activity in his Christian life:

"In weariness and painfulness, in watching often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness."

Most people who find it difficult to fast simply have a problem with discipline. They are so used to eating that they cannot sacrifice a few meals to seek God's face. Anyone who cannot control his or her appetite may remain enslaved to the body. Fasting helps to subdue or break the controlling power that the weaknesses and desires of your body have over you.

Action Point

Stop talking about your plan to fast; just go ahead and fast. You can start with one day per week.

Open Heavens Daily Devotional guide was written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, one of the largest evangelical church in the world and also the President of Christ the Redeemer's Ministries.
iOpenHeavens is the electronic version of the Hard Copy. The Open Heavens devotional application is available across all mobile platforms and operating systems: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Nokia, Windows Mobile and PC.

Open Heavens Daily 2017 Friday 19 May 2017:- Sacrifice overturns wrath

Posted: 18 May 2017 09:28 AM PDT

SACRIFICE OVERTURNS WRATH – Friday May 19^th 2017

Memorise: And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of sliver. 2^nd Samuel 24:24

Read: 2^nd Samuel 24:16-25 (KJV)

¹⁶And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand. And the angel of the Lord was by the threshingplace of Araunah the Jebusite.

¹⁷And David spake unto the Lord when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father's house.

¹⁸And Gad came that day to David, and said unto him, Go up, rear an altar unto the Lord in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite.

¹⁹And David, according to the saying of Gad, went up as the Lord commanded.

²⁰And Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him: and Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king on his face upon the ground.

²¹And Araunah said, Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the threshingfloor of thee, to build an altar unto the Lord, that the plague may be stayed from the people.

²²And Araunah said unto David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good unto him: behold, here be oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen for wood.

²³All these things did Araunah, as a king, give unto the king. And Araunah said unto the king, The Lord thy God accept thee.

²⁴And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

²⁵And David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord was intreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.

Bible in one year: Deuteronomy 31-32, Jeremiah 32:26-35, Hymn: Sing hymn 7

MESSAGE:

Sacrificial sowing can deliver an unending harvest to you, make your harvest irreversible, make you the talk of the town and even turn away God's anger from you. In 2^nd Samuel 24:1-25, we read about how God was provoked to anger by King David, thereby bringing God's judgment on the people. So many people died in the ensuing pledge. After the first wave of destruction, the angel was about to effect the second phase when God stopped him, while he was on Araunah's farmland. Todays Open Heavens Message. David's seer, Prophet Gad, came and instructed him to raise an altar to the Lord on Araunah's farmland, where the angel was last seen. On arrival, Araunah went to welcome King David and he offered him all he needed to make the sacrifice, but David politely declined it. Why? It is simply because he knew the importance of sacrifice and the power of sacrificial seeds.

"And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver."

2^nd Samuel 24:24

When David pleaded with God to temper His justice with mercy and judge him instead of his innocent people, God said, "Alright, I will do something about that. I will overlook your errors, I will forgive you and stop my judgment, but you have to first bring me a sacrifice." David agreed to give that sacrifice and he turned down Araunah's offer to make the offering an easy one. Open Heavens Daily 2017 Friday 19 May 2017:- Sacrifice overturns wrath. He said, "This sacrifice must cost me something. It is a sacrifice in sorrow so that I can go home rejoicing." Some of us have found ourselves in a similar situation as David, where it was required of us to make painful and costly sacrifices in order to achieve our heart desires. However, instead of going headlong into it, we rather sought and received help from the Araunahs of this world to make the task an easy one. Never accept an affordable or convenient alternative in the place of the sacrifice you need to make in order to enter into your desired breakthrough. If you can make the required sacrifice, you will receive the joy you so desire. If you can make the sacrifice, you can overturn God's wrath from yourself or your family. If you can stand in the place of prayer long enough and pay the price the situation you are facing requires, you will return with joy. Are you ready to do this?

Action Point

There is no alternative to a sacrifice that should be made. Just ask God for grace to do it.