WHAT IT MEANS TO TRULY LOVE GOD (1)

TEXT: John 21:15-17

It was a question Jesus asked Peter three times that left him wondering the message the Master was trying to pass across. As Christians we must look inward, x-raying our hearts and intentions to see how much of true love for God dwells in us. There are people who profess love for God but their lives speak the opposite.

SPIRIT SWORD DEVOTIONAL today examines four (4) ways to confirm true love for God.

(1) If you love God you will obey His commandments written in His word or preached to you not partially but absolutely (1 John 5:3; John 14:15).

If you are struggling to surrender to God’s will, you are confirming your love for Him is fake or defiled. Those who refuse God’s will deny God’s love.

(2) If you truly love God you will love other people without condition (1 John 4:11).

To love only those who love you confirms you don’t love God. Jesus said: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). If you can pray and worship for24 hours but you cannot do these, you do not love God.

(3) The ability to make sacrifices for God and for others is a confirmation of love for God.

Also your passion for God’s work; how much effort you can put for God’s work and how far you can go for Him confirms your love for Him. If your money cannot be given for God’s work, you love money more than God.

(4) When you can let go what you love for God, you truly love God.

There are things people have which they value above God. Some people value their relationship with their friends, business partners or fiancé/fiancée above their relationship with God. They would excuse God to satisfy their colleagues or fiancé/fiancées. Others would “keep God on hold” so as to be able to talk latest gist or watch their favourite movies or football. Is watching football wrong? No. But when you value football more than God, it is an idol to you and can implicate you eternally.

Having seen these points, let us put ourselves in Peter’s shoes and imagine the Master asking us: “Lovest thou me more than these?” Do you love God more than what He has given you – job, business, money, career, family or friends? Or do you need to let go some of those things that have taken the place of God in your heart? Whatever you attach value to more than God has become your idol. You must repent of idolatry because no idolater (whether of money, material, moulded images, fashion, sport) will make Heaven (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

TO BE CONCLUDED TOMORROW

PRAYER:

Lord, I repent of any sin of idolatry. Come and take the first place in my life and increase my love and zeal for you in Jesus’ name. Amen.

(SPIRIT SWORD DAILY DEVOTIONAL – Thursday, 3rd April, 2014. YOU CAN READ SPIRIT SWORD DEVOTIONAL AT: www.drwilliamsbukola.blogspot.com OR Visit www.treasuredhouse.org)

YOU DO NOT KNOW IT ALL

TEXT: Acts 18:24-28

If you take time to read the text for today’s message you will find the following positive characteristics about the young man of God called Apollos;

(1) An eloquent man

(2) Mighty in scriptures

(3) Instructed in the way of the Lord

(4) Fervent in the spirit

(5) He spoke and taught diligently the things of the Lord

(6) He spoke boldly without fear or favour in the synagogues

Those were qualities and spiritual virtues of brother Apollos.  He was teaching and everyone was getting blessed. But the Bible pointed out something about him: “knowing only the baptism of John”. He was anointed and doing exploits, but he still did not know many things; his knowledge was incomplete. He wouldn’t have known everything and needed matured believers to teach him. And God brought Aquila and Priscilla his way and they helped him “and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly”.

Apollos was humble and teachable. He didn’t feel on top of the world as if he was perfect and complete in knowledge. He accepted correction and embraced counsel and in the end he did greater impacts. His impact was so huge that some people ‘carnally’ compared his work with Paul’s work (1 Corinthians 3:3-6).

Today, there are people who carry a ‘little’ knowledge of the Bible and they feel and live above correction. They assume a ‘never-wrong’ attitude. They see themselves as knowing so much of the faith and being so long in the race that their knowledge puffs them up and they live with a negative ‘superiority mentality’. They can correct others but can never be corrected simply because they believe they are always right, can never be wrong and should never be faulted. This “unteachable” attitude is what has made them unreachable by people who could have helped them.

Apostle Paul could have been waylaid and killed but God used a small boy to save his life. The boy had a ‘spiritual information’ which Paul with his previous vision (in the same chapter) never knew (Acts 23:11). Paul was humble and listened (Acts 23:14-35). Don’t let your “bigness” be the reason you won’t end well. Come low, be humble and accept you need the counsels, corrections and wisdom of other people to live life and end well. Let us learn from Paul.

(SPIRIT SWORD DAILY DEVOTIONAL – Wednesday, 2nd April, 2014. YOU CAN READ SPIRIT SWORD DEVOTIONAL AT: www.drwilliamsbukola.blogspot.com OR Visit www.treasuredhouse.org)

LET GOD TAKE THE LEAD AND YOU FOLLOW

TEXT: Psalm 23

Welcome to the beginning of a new month and another quarter of the year. As the year rolls on eternity draws closer, and so more than anything else we must press on towards “the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14). This month will be better than all of January to March put together in Jesus’ name. That pending promise shall come to pass; the long awaited miracle shall manifest and you shall walk in the fullness of God’s grace and holiness and no devil is able to stop you.

April 2014 is a way we all have not gone before. But we know He who knows the way because “He is the way” and as we commit our ways to Him He shall lead us and guide us through. On SPIRIT SWORD today we consider four (4) reasons why you must follow the ways of God now just now but always.

(i) He knows the place were treasures are located. He knows the location of what you are looking for. If you follow His ways and leadings you won’t struggle where others struggle (Isaiah 30:21)

(ii) When we go His way we enjoy angelic association and divine preservation (Psalm 34:7; Psalm 91:11)

(iii) He knows the road to where you are going (divine destiny and Heavenly eternity). When you go His way you are sure to fulfil His purpose for you, finish strong and end well (Jeremiah 31:9)

(iv) He knows the places were the enemies have set their traps. He can on one hand quench the traps, or lead us another way or even leave the trap and take us across to shame the devil. And for temptations, He supplies the grace to overcome. And that is why I am convinced that as many of us that will commit our ways to God we are more than conquerors (Psalm  27:11).

In this new season, be conscious of God’s presence and let divine direction be your most treasured asset. The Lord ministered to me sometimes back: “the farthest you can go without me is backward.” If you want to go far in life and go past the pearly Heavenly gates, you must live in God and live for God. And as you do, lines are falling for you in pleasant places. It is your season. God bless you.

(SPIRIT SWORD DAILY DEVOTIONAL – Tuesday, 1st April, 2014. YOU CAN READ SPIRIT SWORD DEVOTIONAL AT: www.drwilliamsbukola.blogspot.com OR Visit www.treasuredhouse.org)

18 TRUTHS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR DESTINY

CULLED FROM THE BOOK ‘DESTINY FORCES’, THE LATEST IN THE SERIES FROM TREASUREDHOUSE

(1) God is interested in taking you into your destiny here on earth and at the same time more concerned about giving you a place in Heaven. This is God’s decision on you and the devil’s opinion of you does not count. To “make” it on earth but fail to make it to Heaven is the worst thing to happen to a man.  

(2) The fact that there are positive prophecies concerning your destiny does not mean there shall be no negative forces and oppositions against your life. You must take advantage of the power available in God to power and propel your future. To go to sleep because you heard sweet words about your life is to be at risk of destiny coup and enter a struggling future.

(3) God is a destiny specialist; He made an outcast called Jephthah a generational champion; He reversed the genetic identity of Jabez and gave him an irreversible destiny of greatness. God took Abraham from being a nonentity and liability at age 75 and gave him an identity and responsibility. Your life may have many bends and you might have experienced untold ups and downs, but God can change your life if you let Him. Sometimes, your greatest enemy is not a flying witch or an old woman in the village; it may just be you!

(4) If you can be on God’s fire and live in holiness, then you would have condemned the devil into the status of a permanent street wanderer with no access to your life, destiny or eternity.

(5) The devil disguises as a friend in order to bring down his foes. When you choose your friends be watchful so that you are not picking your enemy and handing him a licensed access to your destiny and eternity.

(6) Never let any dream that displeases you pass away without you enforcing correction in the place of prayers and God’s word. Never leave the house until you have cancelled any negative dream you had. If the devil had his way he won’t allow you see that thing in the dream. God has revealed to redeem.

(7) Life will present you several opportunities in the name of ‘Open Doors’. But not all ‘Open Doors’ are from God. Some doors look colourful and well packaged and appear as answers to your prayers, but they are satanic setups and traps to pull you out of God’s will. It is not all that glitters that is gold; it is not all that looks good that is God’s. Some people have chased “greener pastures” but didn’t know they were stepping into “Destiny Bermuda Triangle”…they never return to tell their stories. Their lives folded up and destiny shut down.

(8) Many people who could have broken forth into success gave up at the verge of their sweat turning sweet. Their destiny was paralyzed by “Near Success Syndrome.” That you didn’t achieve something at first attempt does not mean God is not in it. Behind some delays in life lie the greatest testimonies yet unseen. Don’t let one blow of failure land you a technical knock-out in life. As long as trying again is not a sin, go ahead and try.

(9) A life of disobedience is never compatible with the life of greatness. Disobedience fractures purpose and cripples destiny and those who live in it move behind in life. Where obedience is, greatness happens!

(10) Many things that happen in the physical are engineered in the spiritual. Your problem may not be that somebody in that place does not like you but someone somewhere unknown to you has put your life under spiritual manipulation. This is one reason why some people put in so great effort but get so little to show for it.

(11) Anyone not going your direction is a distraction to your destination. Who you follow determines how far you will go. If you follow someone without a roadmap, you will get missing in the future. The same way, who you listen to and receive counsels from determine how your life turns out.

(12) The TV is a two-edged sword: it can break or make. The eruption of ungodly soap operas, talent hunts and shows, Big Brother Africa show and several others is a danger to the divine destiny and eternity of many.

(13) To be unnecessarily attached to the past is to be unavoidably detached from the future. The voice of the past if not silenced can kill the voice of hope for tomorrow. As long as the past is still speaking out, the future cannot start picking up. Move away from the past!

(14) If you don’t know the place of prayer, you cannot find the way to greatness. When you know how to bend your knees in prayers, you will race through life at the frequency of excellence and at a supernatural wavelength no devil can stop.

(15) There is a time interval between the outset of a divine promise and its onset in the physical; it is called waiting. One of the times in your life that you must never miss is the time to wait for God. Anytime it looks like you do not understand what is happening and it appears like all God promised are not (yet) coming forth; trust in God…He has never failed and you cannot be the first.

(16) The best association in life is to be associated with God. The farthest you can go without God is backward. The best you can do without God is zero. You also need people ahead of you, on same plane with you and even those below you. If you value destiny, you will value relationship.

(17) Purpose is the backbone of destiny. The way it is not possible to live without a backbone, the same way life becomes really impossible without purpose.

(18) You need greatness, you need destiny, but you need Heaven more. Don’t do anything for greatness that takes Heaven away from you.

CULLED FROM THE BOOK ‘DESTINY FORCES’, THE LATEST IN THE SERIES FROM TREASUREDHOUSE MEDIA & PUBLISHING

DESTINY FORCES

Author: Dr. Bukola Williams

Publisher: TreasuredHouse Media & Publishing

Printed in Nigeria by: Asbot Graphics, Lagos

Pages: 176

Price: N800

To order ‘DESTINY FORCES’ within NIGERIA, call 08151433007 or e-mail: contact@treasuredhouse.org

NOTE: You can order for more than one (1) copy. And if you own a Christian Bookshop anywhere in Nigeria you can also arrange to receive copies of DESTINY FORCES through above contacts.

Visit www.treasuredhouse.org