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Open Heavens: Noisy But Peaceful

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RCCG Open Heaven Devotion 2012 – Pastor E. A. Adeboye (ISBN: 978-36079-4-4)
Download Open Heaven – iOpenHeaven , www.m.openheavensportal.net
(Previously available online @: http://www.rccgna.org/Resources/BibleStudy/Devotionals.aspx)

Thursday 20 December

Bible in one year: Psalms 146-150

NOISY BUT PEACEFUL

Memorise: And out of the throne proceeded lightening and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Revelation 4:5

Read: Exodus 19:16-18

John the Beloved said out of the Throne of God was lightning, thundering and voices.

And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Revelation 4:5

If you have studied God’s presence in the Old Testament, these would not be strange to you. For instance when God was to give the Israelites the Ten Commandments in Exodus 19:9-18, these were present together with smoke, a thick cloud and earthquakes. Heaven is also a very noisy place. Some people think that when they get to Heaven, it will be such a calm, quiet place. Sorry to disturb your ideology. If you are looking for such a quiet Heaven, you may have to manufacture one. God’s Heaven is noisy, very noisy but peaceful. It is also perfect. If Heaven is noisy then the church should not be like a grave yard. Anywhere that is always cold, cannot accommodate our God. If you are full of life, you cannot be quiet for too long. Are you bubbling with the life of Heaven?

In addition, John saw a sea of glass like crystal. In the Bible, the word sea is often used to connote human beings. If it is a restless sea, it presents the true picture of human beings. But the sea before the Throne of God was at rest, with no storms. Bible scholars have interpreted this as the picture of all saints, all dressed in white, at rest before God. When we get to Heaven we will have no more problems. There will be no more power outage, no accident, nothing that causes sorrow. In Heaven, you will enjoy true and eternal peace. That doesn’t mean that all you will be doing will be to sleep. No. When you know God’s nature that He is very hard-working and that there is no lazy person in Heaven, you can be sure everyone will be busy doing one thing or the other. Working conditions under the Most High God in the greatest planet – Heaven is truly incomparable with the best that earth has to offer. You must make it to Heaven!

KEY POINT:

The noise in Heaven does not disturb its serenity, peace and progress but adds to them.

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Open Heavens: Miracle Factor

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Wednesday 19 December

Bible in one year: Psalms 143-145

MIRACLE FACTOR

Memorise: He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the LORD’s, and he hath set the world upon them. 1 Samuel 2:8

Read: Exodus 2:11-15

As a Mathematician, I will try to explain the miracle factor in God’s promise to Abraham in mathematical terms. There were two variables – Abraham and Sarah, and God promised to multiply them to produce a result as uncountable as the sand on the sea shore. That was the first equation. In the second equation, the Lord promised to multiply the two variables who were rooted in obscurity (completely unknown), to produce a result as glorious and numerous as the stars of heaven. Usually, God’s major promise to an individual may be in his or her greatest area of need although other promises may cover other areas. If you compare Joseph and Abraham, you will find that God promised Joseph greatness by exalting him among his family but he had to wait to receive the promise. His waiting period took him to a strange land, slavery and prison yard before he actualised the promise on the throne of Egypt as the prime minister. On his part, God promised Abraham a child, a land and a seed through whom the whole world would be blessed – Jesus Christ. But he too had to wait by moving from place to place, facing different challenges to his life, wife and household in the process.

One thing is certain: your present location cannot hinder the fulfilment of God’s promise in your life. God can lift anybody up, even from the prison to the throne like He did to Joseph; He can delist the barren from barrenness and make her a joyful mother of children like He did to Hannah. The Lord can break the status of poverty and move the fellow into abundance. Moses too had to wait for God to fulfil His promise to liberate the Israelites from Egypt. Initially, when he was too hasty and decided to jump ahead of God in his zeal, he got into a problem that could have cost him his destiny, if not for God’s mercy and power. While he waited, Pharaoh resisted his mission until his waiting period was over and the King of kings broke through Pharaoh’s resistance and set God’s people free. As you wait on Him, your time will come and when your time comes, nothing can hinder the fulfilment of His promises in your life.

ACTION POINT:

Ask God to lift every member of His church worldwide from the dung hill to the throne.

Open Heavens: Effects of Sexual Sins

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Tuesday 18 December

Bible in one year: Psalms 138-142

EFFECTS OF SEXUAL SINS

Memorise: Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body 1 Corinthians 6:18

Read: Judges 16:16-21

After his hair was shaved, Samson thought of arising like in times past to stir up the Spirit, but little did he know that the Holy Spirit had left him. It was acrobatics without power. It was motion without unction. It was all noise without the Noise Maker. The wheat had gone and all that was left was the chaff! Sexual sins are great robbers! Samson lost so much to sexual sin. When he fornicated with a harlot and the anointing was still there to uproot the city gate of the enemy, he thought nothing was lost (Judges 16:1-3). But a lot had gone even as at that time. This is the deception of sin. When you sin and it appears all is still well, you will be tempted to continue in sin thinking all will remain well. If you do, you would have been deceived. There are many pastors, evangelists, prophets, teachers and even apostles today who are living in sexual immorality and because they still feel the anointing in some measure or still hear from God or are still able to perform their assignments well, they think all they have is intact. No! They have lost a lot!

By the time Samson got to Delilah in Judges 16:4-21, what the first prostitute started, Delilah completed and he was totally drained. A man of God who had slept with some sisters observed that after fornicating with them, certain gifts of God upon his life ebbed while those gifts were later developing in those two ladies. Those you are sleeping with are stealing your power, although sometimes, what they took out of the fornicating leader could also cause great harm in their own lives and families. A time will come when the fornicator will be totally empty. Through fornication, your sex partners are shaving your hair – your anointing. Soon, you will also lose your eyes – spiritual sight. A blind leader is a useless one because he will end up in the ditch. As a fornicating pastor, you are in bondage to the ladies you are sinning with as the fear of being reported to your superiors will push you further into that pit. Also, you can no more preach holiness whenever they are around. You are also in bondage to your enemies and you will end up working for the devil if you do not repent (Judges 16:21). All your gains in ministry could disappear because of sexual immorality! Repent today!

PRAYER POINT:

Father, uproot and roast every iota of immorality and lust operating or hibernating in my life.

Open Heavens: Agent of Joy

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Monday 17 December

Bible in one year: Psalms 133-137

AGENT OF JOY

Memorise: Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked. Psalms 82:4

Read: Psalms 82:2-4

It is important to assist the poor because when you do, you will receive what money cannot buy. Proverbs 14:21 says there is joy awaiting those who help the poor. That means, as you sow happiness into their lives, you will reap joy. The poor and needy are good grounds to sow. Money cannot buy joy. The best money can bring is temporary happiness. The devil exploits men’s need of joy by offering them alcohol so that when they drink, they will have a little euphoria of happiness. Why do you think people smoke Indian hemp and what kind of people engage in such behaviour? Those who are sad and frustrated engage in it to have a taste of happiness; so also are drug addicts. Why don’t Christians drink alcoholic beverage? It is because they have the joy of the Lord, which is original and is always present.

Sometime ago, while travelling to Kwara State (Middle Belt Nigeria), I saw a young boy weeping by the road side. So I asked the driver to stop so that I can ask what was amiss. He told me he had lost 50 kobo and his mother would “kill” him if she heard of it. I gave him the money he lost and immediately, you could see the joy on his face. He was so carried away that he bolted without even saying a “Thank you”. All the same, throughout that day, I was very happy with myself because I was a channel of blessing to a child. Do you know you can generate joy in your heart by putting smiles on the faces of the hungry? I know you can reach out to someone today and let his or her soul bless you. Visit those in prisons and preach Jesus to them. Visit those in the hospitals and show them some love. Give to the needy. Pray for your leaders. Encourage the distressed, hurting and discouraged. However, prosperity is not only in monetary terms. If you have money but lack good health, you are poor. If you have money but lack joy, you are poor. This is why those who are truly prosperous are those who have Jesus Christ because they have peace, joy and hope for tomorrow. They are secure because they know God will take care of them. Are you a child of God?

KEY POINT:

Look out for five people you can put joy into their lives and families.

Go ahead and do so.

Because He is Involved

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Wednesday 31 October

Bible in one year: Psalms 114-118

BECAUSE HE IS INVOLVED

Memorise: To the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men. Daniel 4:17b

Read: Daniel 4:4-8, 17

When you are given a promise, before you believe it or otherwise, you will first consider the character and ability of the one who is making the promise. Basing your expectations on the promise of someone with questionable character or a liar or one who lacks the means is like pouring water into a basket. Every drop of such expectations will be lost. Who is the one making these great and precious promises to us? It is the One who told Mary, a single lady, “You will have a son without meeting a man”, and it was so. We are talking about the One who told Abraham he would have a son at age 100 and it was so. Has He made a seemingly impossible promise to you? As long as you are living righteously and have determined to continue with the Lord, the promise

shall surely come to pass.

God has a purpose for everything He does. When He gave Nebuchadnezzar a dream, He kept back the interpretation for His son Daniel to declare. This tells us that God is totally in control of all His messages and revelations. If He wants to keep anyone in the dark concerning a particular revelation, He is free and nobody can query Him. When He gave this dream, it was to establish the fact that no king or kingdom is entirely sovereign. They all dance to His bidding even when He leaves them to do whatever they like. No king ascends the throne of any kingdom without His knowledge or permission, irrespective of their religious standing. God being God can allow something that would destabilise an organised setting just to make way for you and then re-organise the system with you at an advantaged position. That was what He did to Joseph. You may think you are most useless in a situation, but when He steps in, He will suddenly shore up your relevance. This season, the Lord will destabilise organisations and use that to bring you into a place of prominence in Jesus name. God is more than highly dependable.

PRAYER POINT:

Pray that believers in your nation will bear fruits of righteousness that will make unbelievers to identify them as the light of the world.

He is All Glorious

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Tuesday 30 October

Bible in one year: Psalms 109-113

HE IS ALL GLORIOUS

Memorise: Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Psalms 24:7

Read: Psalms 24:7-10

Everything about the King of glory is glorious. The Bible says the heavens showcase God’s glory (Psalms 19:1). When Jesus was born, the angels sang, “Glory to God in the highest” (Luke 2:14). God’s Son was reported to be full of God’s glory (John 1:14). What of His residence? 1 Timothy 6:16 says:

Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.

He covers Himself with light as a dress. Everything about Him carries His glory.

When you see whatever He does or whatever comes from Him, you will see a mark of His glory on them. According to Ecclesiastes 3:11: He makes all things beautiful. Anything He does is simply perfect. When He heals, He leaves no scar behind unlike what we experience through medical science. You remember when He healed Naaman of his notorious leprosy? His skin became like a baby’s. There was no trace that he had ever been leprous all his life! (2 Kings 5:14). An African proverb says: When a mad man is cured, there will still be a little trace of madness in him. But this is not so with the King of glory. When He delivered the mad man of Gadara, who was somewhere at the peak of madness, He turned the man into an evangelist (Mark 5:1-20). Nobody will believe that it was the same violent mad man they had been fleeing from that was now bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to them. What of when He sets you free from slavery? You can be certain He will not let you go empty-handed. When He set the captives free from Egypt, He made sure they plundered the wealth of Egypt. All their unpaid wages for over 400 years were delivered to them in one night. In one night, the average Israelite, who was a poor slave, became a millionaire because the King of glory stepped in (Exodus 12:35-36). In your life, the King of glory will step in. Invite Him in to make everything about you glorious.

ACTION POINT:

Command every gate in your life to be lifted so that the King of glory may usher in an era of glory into your life.

Power of a Seed

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Monday 29 October

Bible in one year: Psalms 106-108

POWER OF A SEED

Memorise: Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. Isaiah 32:16

Read: Isaiah 55:10-13

According to Isaiah 55:10, both seed and bread come from God. It takes sowing a seed to be able to get bread. Many people cannot access bread

and are starving because they either failed to sow their seed or ate them. Do you remember to sow your seeds? Another thing we learn here is about the power of a seed. There is tremendous power buried inside that tiny little seed you often look down on. When you plant a grain of corn or two, within a few months, the harvest can provide enough corn in the curbs to fill your stomach. This simply confirms scriptures that a seed will give you bread if it is sown.

Why do you have to sow your seed? It is to enable you realise its full potential. For every seed, the immediate potential is a tree and the remote potential is a forest.

Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. Isaiah 32:15

This implies that, what you need to change your entire destiny is how you handle your first seed and the subsequent seeds it gives you. In 2 Kings 4:1-7, a poor widow was disturbed by her creditors. ”What do you have?” Elisha asked her. “Nothing, but a pot of oil”, she replied. “That is a seed. Pour it out!” He said. She could have objected that she could not part with the only thing she had left. If she had, her seed would have been there but she would have lost her two sons to the creditors and she would have died in poverty. She did not know that in her seed, the pot of oil, lay the money to make her debt free. She did not know that in her seed was her dream of becoming a multi-millionaire, and a business tycoon. In her seed lay her future. Thank God she poured it out. Part with your seed today, because as long as you keep it in your bank account, it will not release its full potential to you. Your future lies inside your seed. This is why only the wise fellow will continue to sow at every point in time without complaining, because he or she knows what the seed can do for him or her.

KEY POINT:

Your seed is a means to convey you into your dream of a glorious future.

Love Birds 2

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Sunday 28 October

Bible in one year: Psalms 103-105

LOVE BIRDS – 2

Memorise: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. Genesis 5:24

Read: Genesis 5:22-24

True lovers enjoy each other’s company and fellowship. When one lover has the opportunity to spend time with the other and for any reason missed that opportunity, he will not feel comfortable. God loves to fellowship with man. This has been so from the very beginning. God created man to fellowship with Him. This was why He created man in His own image and likeness. He wanted fellowship from man and not from animals or inanimate objects. He enjoyed coming to meet and fellowship with Adam in the cool of the day. How He cherished it! It became a daily appointment He never missed. Then imagine His disappointment when He came one day to the same place of meeting in the garden and Adam was nowhere to be found. So He began to search for him (Genesis 3:8-10). In spite of Adam’s fall, fellowship was what made God to shed blood so that he could be forgiven. After that, God needed another person to continue from where Adam stopped. He kept searching until He found Enoch.

And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. Genesis 5:24

In Genesis 5:22-24, it was repeated twice that Enoch walked with God. He walked with God for at least 300 years! The fellowship was so intense that God had to call him to glory to continue the fellowship there. During Sunday school, a child was asked to explain the story of Enoch and he said whenever God comes to visit Enoch, the latter will escort God. And when it is time for Enoch to return home, God will escort him. Then one day, they just kept walking until they got so close to Heaven that God told him not to go back. They walked together into Heaven. It may sound childish but any seeker of truth will know that this is a revelation from God. How is it with your walk with God? Do you have a regular time to fellowship with God? Some believers of several years do not have a standing altar of fellowship with God as a family. This is wrong. God wants to be intimate with you. Open yourself and family to God and create time for regular fellowship with Him.

PRAYER POINT:

Ask that every hater of God in your church and extended family be turned into a God lover.

Let Gift Reflect Occasion

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Saturday 27 October

Bible in one year: Psalms 100-102

LET GIFT REFLECT OCCASION

Memorise: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Hebrew 9:14

Read: Hebrews 9:11-22

You need to understand one important fact about giving; which is that your gift must agree with the particular occasion for which it is meant. In Genesis 4:1-7, when two brothers came to offer to God, one was accepted and the other was rejected. Hebrews 11:4 says;

By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.

After the fall of Adam and Eve, God introduced them to receiving forgiveness through the shedding of blood. He demonstrated it to them and thereafter used the animal hide to clothe them (Genesis 3:21). They must have passed this information to their children. Cain and Abel would have been told of what to sacrifice to obtain forgiveness but Cain decided to do something else. He offered the fruit of the ground to God for the atonement of his sins. Ordinarily, if it were to be a regular offering, it would have been received but for sin, tubers of yam, fruit and other farm produce cannot atone. Moreover, the earth had been cursed and so tendering produce from a cursed earth equally made his offering unacceptable.

Just as Cain’s offering was rejected because it failed to satisfy the requirement for the atonement of sin, the offerings of many across the world today are still being rejected. If you give God money or material things or you sacrifice goat, ram, your body or any human being for the washing away of your sins, that offering will be rejected. Hebrews 9:22 says blood must be shed for sins to be forgiven, so Abel’s sacrifice and those done under the Mosaic covenant were accepted for the covering of sins only (Psalms 85:2, Psalms 32:1); that was why there was need to do them over and over again. But such shedding of blood could not wash away or take away sins (Hebrews 10:4); only the blood of Jesus can wash away sins (Revelations 1:5). He has brought a better covenant which He sealed with His righteous blood (Matthew 26:28). In some religions today, when someone sins and desires forgiveness, he or she will be served some penance – punishment. No penance can take away your sins! When such an individual dies, he will find that all the sins he was told had been cleansed were still intact. Only the blood of Jesus can save a soul. No ram’s blood can cleanse you from the slightest of sins.

KEY POINT:

The blood of animals cannot truly erase sins. Without appropriating the blood of Jesus, sinners will remain in their sins.

Focus on the Real Dressing

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Friday 26 October

Bible in one year: Psalms 97-99

FOCUS ON THE REAL DRESSING

Memorise: He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. Revelation 3:5

Read: Isaiah 61:10-11

The way you dress is the way you will be addressed in church and in the world. But it does not stop there; God is also concerned about what you are wearing spiritually. The day you were born again, God tore off your rags of sin and clothed you with a garment of salvation. God has the best sense of dressing you can think of.

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God: for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61:10

At salvation, you were given the garment of salvation and a new man was created in you. This new man has the nature of God which is righteousness and true holiness, but you have to put on this new man as a rope over your garment of salvation.

And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Ephesians 4:23-24

How do you wear the new man? The answer is in verse 23 above: by renewing your mind with the word, by allowing the Word of God to have its way in you. The rope of righteousness marks you out as nobility and is a mark that you have appropriated the finished work of Christ in making you righteous at salvation and that you are bearing the fruits of righteousness (Philippians 1:11).

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 2 Corinthians 5:21.

Also, after your salvation, God wants you to be decked in the jewellery of the Holy Spirit – mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, etc. (Colossians 3:12-17; 1 Peter 3:1-7). Eventually, when we are to get wedded to Jesus, we will be wearing our robes of righteousness and He will put on us glorious jewellery like today’s reading says. Are you focusing on your spiritual dressing or on the physical? The Laodicean church focused on their physical dressing and became spiritually naked.

KEY POINT:

Outline the character you are manifesting that negates the nature of the new man in you.

Begin to renew your mind on each one by meditating on, confessing and praying the word of God concerning each of them.

Open Heavens

Open Heavens Devotional

Author Archives: admin

Open Heavens: Noisy But Peaceful

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Open Heavens: Miracle Factor

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Open Heavens: Effects of Sexual Sins

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Open Heavens: Agent of Joy

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Because He is Involved

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He is All Glorious

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Power of a Seed

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Love Birds 2

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Let Gift Reflect Occasion

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Focus on the Real Dressing

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