DAY 19: MONDAY 20TH JANUARY 2014
DAY 19: MONDAY
20TH JANUARY 2014
FOCUS: THE LOVE OF GOD THROUGH THE POWER OF
THE HOLY SPIRIT
TEXTS: ROMANS 5:5; I JOHN 4:7-20
INSIGHT FOR EFFECTIVE PRAYING
Love, love, love, Love is an endearing and adorable virtue desired by all and sundry. It is an essential and a scarce commodity in our society. All Creature including, animals desire and understand the language of love. Everybody needs and wants it, but only few people have it to offer. On the other hand, God is an embodiment of it. God is love, inside out. His attitude and relationship with human beings are purely and fully in love. He loved the World so much that He gave us His only begotten Son. His love made Him to provide for the needs of all human beings. He made His rain and sun to fall and shine upon the good and the wicked. Our make-up and entire being is the product of His love. He made the earth and its fullness and handed it over to man without a charge. His love is higher, deeper and wider than human comprehension!
Human being is entirely opposite instead of love. Instead of love, man is full of wickedness against his neighbor, he hates, cheats, supplants, destroys, manipulates, degrades and disrespect fellow beings to say the least. Thank God for God’s greatest gift of love which is Jesus Christ. It is only in this divine gesture that the hope for love is restored to the fullest. It is through this divine love that sinners are restored back to God. It is in it that we pray and have answers from God. It is on this same platform that Jesus Christ sent the Holy Spirit to us as our counselor and comforter.
When the Holy Spirit comes, He arms Himself with this all-important virtue of love. When one becomes a child of God through Christ and is filled with the Holy Spirit, one distinguishing characteristics that must be glaring in the life of such a person is love. Why? When the Holy Spirit comes into our heart, He spreads the love of God abroad in our lives (Rom. 5:5). This love works both vertically (towards God) and horizontally (towards men). In the early days of our Church, love was the watchword among the brethren. The situation is not the same today again. Hatred, disunity, quarrelling and mistrust is the order of the day. All these are done under the guise of spirituality and holiness.
Majority of us in the Church today are very critical and judgmental. We are too legalistic when handling issues that affect the welfare of our brethren. All these are done under the pretence that we want to help the people to be holy. Many of us have adopted “holier than thou” attitude in our relationship with our brethren. Oh, how satan is using God’s children against one another. Paul said, in Gal. 5:13: “But if ye bite and devour one another beware lest you be consumed by one another”. This is not saying those who erred in the Church should not be disciplined, no. But where is love in the process of our activities as it affects those who erred and those expected to restore.
Can the members confess that they do enjoy love from the leaders as well as other members of the Church? Can all our Ministers in our districts and assemblies say with confidence that they are relating in love and unity? If love is not in full demonstration, let us not make any unnecessary excuse, let us seek for it and ask the Holy Spirit to baptize us once again. We need love!
LET US PRAY
1. We are sober today and unhappy that love is not in its rightful place among us again, please forgive us.
2. In whatever way that we and our leaders have failed to demonstrate love, please be merciful unto us.
3. We come to You today without excuse, that we are destitute of love, oh blessed Holy Spirit, baptize us with Your love.
4. We want to be like God as embodiment of love, dear Lord, fill us the spirit and power of love in Jesus’ name.
5. Perform Your operation in our lives and remove every bit of hatred element from our hearts oh God.
6. Dear father, make me an instrument of love to demonstrate the agape love to the Church and the World.
7. Make GOFAMINT as a Church an emblem of love and make our assemblies love arena. Let love be visible in our midst.
8. We pray today for every family, especially couples who are destitute of love, overwhelm them with the anointing of love oh dear father in Jesus’ name.
9. In whatever way some people in our midst have not been considerate in administering discipline, to the detriment of the welfare of those disciplined, intervene and remedy the situation, Lord.
10. Whoever that might have been brutalized or felt offended through miscalculated judgment, heal and restore them oh Lord.
11. Help our leaders at different levels of the Church to maintain standard and balanced it with compassion in their ministrations, Oh Lord.
12. Help our leaders at every level of the Church to be models of love within themselves as ministers and with their members.
13. Gal. 6:1-3: Grant unto our disciplinary committee at every level of the Church to handle every case with the spirit and mind of God.
14. Holy Spirit of love, cover us all and fill our lives and Churches totally. Help us to know that we miss nothing when we love and gain nothing when we hate others in Jesus name.
FAMILY VIGIL
DAY 3: MONDAY 20TH JANUARY 2014
THEME: THE HOLY SPIRIT AND MY FAMILY
(DIVINE TRANSFORMATION)
INTRODUCTION
Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are change into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord (II Cor. 3:18).
The Holy Spirit is the Author and Agent of Divine Transformation. We must notice that this transformation however takes place as we covet and encounter the visitation of the Lord and experience His holy habitation.
The visitation of God’s presence that releases spiritual liberty to the heart transforms a worshipper to the likeness of Christ more and more gradually. The visitation of the Lord, as in the day of Pentecost, usually transforms people and impacts homes, cities and nations (Acts 4:32, 5:14).
Also, the habitation of God’s presence heals homes, cities and nations, even when they have suffered God’s judgments. Repentance revokes the judgment and brings mercy (II Chro. 7:13-14). Discuss the extent of transformation we can experience by the Holy Spirit, using the above verse, if we can allow both the visitation and habitation of God in our homes.
DISCUSSION POINTS
1. How can we create the right spiritual climate and environment in our homes that will lead to positive transformation and turn our adversity to blessing, making us fulfill our divine purpose? (Gen. 28:15-17).
2. Our lives ‘overflow’ as rivers of living water for the transformation of others when we yield to the Holy Spirit. How does this river of living water (John 7:37-39) quench our earthly thirst and help us work “the works of Jesus?” (Remember Jesus said this to the Samaritan woman in John 4).
3. From the Upper Room to every living room, in all places and in every palace, the word of the Lord should bring forth transformation. How can our homes become God’s transformation ground for our communities? How can the miracles of Acts 2:42-47 be replicated in our homes today?
4. Using Ezekiel 47:1-5, discuss how we can progress in our own personal transformation by the Holy Spirit so that we can become prepared vessels of God for transformation of others. (Note that we must flow into the Holy Spirit until we are filled to the brim [river, that one can swim in].)
5. What advantages are available for us as we swim in this river in terms of economic, physical and spiritual transformation of our land (Ezekiel 47:6-12)?
6. The Holy Spirit has a unity of purpose in giving out His gifts (Eph. 4:11-12). What must be our role in cooperating with Him to enable His gifts through others to change and transform us for His overall purpose?
7. A people that befit the habitation of God can initiate repentance on behalf of a place and displace the wicked ways of the people by teaching them to live in righteousness.
8. God will honor your representation, repentance and effort in teaching the people to live with righteousness. He will heal the land in terms of granting good climatic conditions, healthy lives for people and livestock, high yielding crops, growth in economy, consciousness of moral value, wisdom and achievements, political stability, and favorable balance of trade.
What practical lessons can we derive from the above assertion in terms of the role of our families?
(a) The spiritual revival initiated by King Hezekiah in Judah re-established godly environment over the nation (II Chro. 32:21, II Kings 19:35).
(b) The EarlyChurch had very strong spiritual environment and offered constant prayers for Peter when he was put in the prison. He was delivered by an angel (Acts 12:5, 7:10).
(c) Moses was spiritually strong and fit for God’s glorious presence to manifest and delivered His people out of Egypt (Exo. 3-4).
9. How can our Church initiate revival that will transform our nations?
(a) Let the greatness of the River of Glory take over and carry you as God wishes it to flow, to change your perceptions and cause you to go deeper in new things (Ezek. 47:1-12).
(b) Get rid of every weight (non-productive activities and the old wineskins) to allow the present day move of God and swim deeper in His love.
(c) God wants to take you into the depths of His glory, enlarge your vision and make you capable of seeing clearer into His eternal realms. When you are in the midst of the flow of the river, everything suddenly becomes focused, and you will see the depth of life more clearly.
(d) Stand in God’s presence, praise Him until the spirit of worship comes, worship until the glory descends, then stand in His glory and look until you see what the Lord is revealing to you.
CONCLUSION: It behoves us to seek to be transformed in God’s presence before we seek to be God’s agent of transformation to others. We must be revived in the Holy Spirit (John 7:37-39) and then, we will have an ‘overflow’. This overflow will let the river of living water flow out through us to others.
LET US PRAY
1. O Lord, take us into a deeper relationship in our walk with You and let us have a new experience of glory with You in Jesus’ mighty name.
2. Let there be an overflow of anointing upon all our ministers and take us to river of glory for baptism and transformation in the mighty name of Jesus.
3. O Lord, cause us to progress in the temple river of Your glory day by day. Cause our paths to shine brighter and brighter in the mighty name of Jesus.
4. Take us to a deeper experience where we shall forget about ourselves and trust perfectly in Your name.
5. We receive the anointing to swim in Your miracles for our transformation in the mighty name of Jesus.
6. Father, let our lives be a reflection of Your glory and bring forth new fruits in the mighty name of Jesus.
7. This year shall be a year of mighty exploits among us O Lord, in the mighty name of Jesus.
8. O God, arise and rebuke every satanic agent against Your move and let the fan of the Holy Ghost blow against every evil wind working against our transformation into Your glory.
9. O Lord, let all the attitudes in my life standing between me and God be uprooted. I bind and cast out of my life every spirit of disobedience to the leading of God in the name of Jesus.
10. Father, remove the heart of stone from us and give us the heart of flesh to obey the voice of the Spirit so that the words of our mouths and counsels be established for Your glory.
11. Whatever will hinder Your move in our midst shall not prosper O Lord, rend Your Heavens for mighty miracles in our lives in Jesus’ name.
12. Lord, as we are being transformed more and more into Your image, let everything that has been dead receive life and every dry bone receive life.
13. Declare that neither mountain, nor valley, nor crooked path, nor any obstruction can hinder you from reaching your divine destination. Command heavenly bulldozer to clear hindrances to your breakthroughs in Jesus’ name.
14. Now make the following bold declarations for yourself:
(i) Father, let my life, ministry and prayer life be extremely dangerous for the kingdom of darkness from now henceforth.
(ii) Lord, anoint me specially such that all motionless spiritual gifts and talents in my life will begin to function for Your glory and for my blessing. I receive special revelational mystery that will make me advance Your Kingdom in Jesus’ name.
(iii) Lord, because Your grace is ever sufficient for me, I drink of the river of Your pleasure (Psalms 36:8) freely in Jesus’ name.
(iv) Let the angels of the living God, roll away the stones blocking my financial, physical and spiritual breakthrough in Jesus’ name.
(v) I bind and render null and void, you spirit of bad feet, bad luck, memory failure, costly mistakes and demonic delay in Jesus’ name.
(vi) Open to Isaiah 58:8 and make a declaration that the glory of God has now risen upon you; therefore, you will rise and shine in the midst of darkness of this world.
(vii) Open to Deuteronomy 32:12-13 and declare that God will make all impossibilities possible in your life from now henceforth.
15. O Lord, in this New Year, let there arise for me, special favour and mercy that will usher me into a life of excellence.
16. Father, let new relationship develop between me and those that will benefit me in life for my breakthrough. Any old, sour relationship that has affected my Rehoboth, be tuned to sweetness and love henceforth in Jesus name.
17. As a family, we commit ourselves to You. This year, we shall go on higher ground of relationship with You and serve You with all our hearts in Jesus’ name.
18. Begin to give thank to God that His glory upon your life has begun. Your life will never remain the same again.