There is a battle going on over your life.

There is God, on the one hand, beckoning on you, knocking on the door of your heart and the devil on the other hand constantly seeking to dominate your mind and your will. Ultimately, your actions, inactions, thought pattern and behavioural tendencies determine who you approve of in your life.

In the race of life, there is no middle ground. You are either for God or for the devil. Even as a professing Christian, it is imperative that you pause occasionally to reassess your spiritual state. The Apostle, Paul, said, "Examine yourself as to whether you are in the faith." (2Corrinthians 13:5)

At every stage, you should assess yourself to know if you're still on the side of the Truth. The reason is that in these last days, the devil is intensifying his efforts of keeping people as far away from the truth as possible by twisting Scriptural facts and presenting falsehood as the truth so that even those who know God intimately may be deceived.

In Paul's second letter to Timothy, he admonished Timothy to; "Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching." (2Timothy 4:2). 

Why did Paul emphasize the need for Timothy to Preach the truth he had received with all amount of seriousness and commitment? The next verse answers this question.

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables."

2Timothy 4:3-4 

Paul was preparing Timothy for the time - and I believe that time is now - when men will turn their ears from the truth, listening instead to seductive teachings and doctrines of the devil. People want to be deceived and the devil is taking full advantage of the popular disdain for the truth to propagate teachings that are clearly at variance with the message of Christ.

In the end, Paul said to Timothy, "But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist,  fulfill your ministry." (2Timothy 4:5).

Don't be deceived. Stay vigilant and focused. Hold on to the truth of God's word till the end because when Christ returns, only those who are on God's side will spend eternity with Him in heaven.

OPEN HEAVENS DAILY DEVOTIONAL.

DATE: THURSDAY 3RD DECEMBER, 2020.

THEME: EVERYONE HAS ENEMIES.

MEMORISE: “But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.”  Exodus 23:22

 

READ: Psalms 7:1-11 (KJV)

1. O LORD my God, in thee do I put my trust; save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me;

2. Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.

3. O LORD my God, If I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands;

4. If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy;)

5. Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honour in the dust. Selah.

6. Arise, O LORD, in thine anger, lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies; and awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded.

7. So shall the congregation of the people compass thee about; for their sakes therefore return thou on high.

8. The LORD shall judge the people; judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me.

9. Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just; for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins.

10. My defence is of God, which saveth the upright in heart.

11. God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.

MESSAGE:

It is always funny to me when I meet people who think they do not have enemies. 

As long as you are alive, you have enemies. If you think because you have nothing for anyone to envy, you don’t have enemies, it means you have not yet read Proverbs 14:20 which says that the poor is hated by his own neighbour.

If because you are rich and successful, you think that you have no enemies, you must be joking. 

Many years ago, one first-class chief invited me to his palace and he said I don’t know why I have so many enemies; can you help me? I responded “Your majesty, everybody wants to be number one.”

Only a few people pray for the person who is in the number one position.

Thank God because while the enemies are plotting at night, you have a God who never sleeps nor slumbers watching over you. 

Even though you have enemies, I don’t want you to worry about them because your God is bigger than them all put together. In Psalm 23:5, David said:

“Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.”

God prepares your table not behind, but in the presence, of your enemies. The enemies were there, they were alive, but God paralyzed them. They could not come near David. This is because David knew how to use the most potent weapon against enemies praises to God. 

The Bible says in Psalm 68:1: 

“Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered: let them also that hate Him flee before Him.”

How do you make God arise? Through praise and worship. Psalms 22:3 says He inhabits the praises of His people. In other words, when one of His children is praising Him, He will get up to stay with the fellow. 

As He is rising, all the enemies of that fellow will scatter. That is why I don’t lead people in prayers to bind demons before every service.

Instead, I say “Let somebody shout Halleluyah”. 

The moment God hears us shouting Halleluyah, He arises to come to our midst and all our enemies scatter.

In (2 Chronicles 20:21-22), when three great enemies came against Jehoshaphat, all he and his people had to do was to praise God and the enemies helped kill one another.

KEY POINT:

Everyone has enemies, but the enemies of those who praise God are powerless.

AUTHOR: PASTOR E.A ADEBOYE.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 2 Corinthians 1-4

HYMN 19: MY HOPE IS BUILT ON NOTHING LESS.

1. My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly lean on Jesus name.

CHORUS:

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand,

All other ground is sinking sand.

2. When darkness seems to veil His face,

I rest on His unchanging grace;

In every high and stormy gale,

My anchor holds within the veil.

CHORUS:

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand,

All other ground is sinking sand.

3. His oath, His covenant, and blood,

Support me in the whelming flood;

When all around my soul gives way,

He then is all my hope and stay.

CHORUS:

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand,

All other ground is sinking sand.

4. When He shall come with trumpet sound,

Oh, may I then in Him be found;

Dressed in His righteousness alone,

Faultless to stand before the throne.

CHORUS:

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand,

All other ground is sinking sand.