OPEN HEAVENS DAILY DEVOTIONAL FOR TEENS AND CHILDREN WEDNESDAY 16TH MAY 2018: SACRIFICE

MEMORISE: I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1

Please read: Romans 12:1-2

MESSAGE:
As a child of God you are to offer service to God. According to Romans 12:1, your service can only be acceptable when you present your body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

Your body is the temple of God, and as such, you are supposed to keep it free from sin of whatever form. You must avoid lying with your lips, you must avoid stealing with your hands, you must avoid walking with your legs to places that are not God glorifying, and you must also
keep your body pure from any form of sexual sin.

To be a living sacrifice for God involves separating yourself from the world in order to have a beautiful relationship with God. It involves denying yourself of worldly pleasures and all forms of worldliness so that you can be pure and pleasing to God. Open Heaven 18 May 2018

Once you are able to achieve all these, your service will be reasonable and acceptable to God, and He will be pleased with you. How reasonable is your service?

KEY POINT:
If you don’t offer an acceptable service to God by keeping your body pure and free from sin, your chances of being raptured are non- existent.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:
2 Kings 15-17
John 6:1-21

Hymn 7
1. I am Thine 0 Lord, I have heard Thy voice,
And it told Thy love to me;
But I long to rise in the arms of faith
And be closer drawn to Thee.

Chorus
Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord
To the cross where Thou hast died;
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessed Lord,
To Thy precious, bleeding side.

2. Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord,
By the pow’r of grace divine;
Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope,
And my will be lost in Thine.

3. Oh, the pure delight of a single hour
That before Thy throne I spend,
When I kneel in prayer, and with Thee, my God
I commune as friend with friend!

4. There are depths of love that I cannot know
Till I cross the narrow sea;
There are heights of joy that I may not reach
Till I rest in peace with Thee.

Open Heaven May 16 2018 – Hospitable?

Open Heaven May 16 2018 Memories
The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.
Proverbs 11:25

Open Heaven May 16 2018 Bible Reading
2 Kings 4:8-17 (NIV)

The Shunammite’s Son Restored to Life

⁸ One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat. 

⁹ She said to her husband, “I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. 

¹⁰ Let’s make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us.”

¹¹ One day when Elisha came, he went up to his room and lay down there. 

¹² He said to his servant Gehazi, “Call the Shunammite.” So he called her, and she stood before him. 

¹³ Elisha said to him, “Tell her, ‘You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?’ ”She replied, “I have a home among my own people.”

¹⁴ “What can be done for her?” Elisha asked. Gehazi said, “She has no son, and her husband is old.”

¹⁵ Then Elisha said, “Call her.” So he called her, and she stood in the doorway. 

¹⁶ “About this time next year,” Elisha said, “you will hold a son in your arms.” “No, my lord!” she objected. “Please, man of God, don’t mislead your servant!”

¹⁷ But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.

Open Heaven May 16 2018 Bible in one year: 2 Samuel 7-9, 1 Peter 3:8-4:11

Hospitality is the act of generosity and friendship shown towards strangers , and it includes the responsibility of protecting the interest of those received as guests. God admonishes His children to be hospitable as part of our duty to others and in gratitude for the salvation, favour and mercy we have received from Him ( Exodus 22:21).

Several passages of scripture emphasise hospitality as a godly virtue ( Romans 12:13, 1 Peter 4:9). Hebrews 13:2 says
“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

Furthermore, the Bible mentions hospitality as one of the preconditions for becoming a leader in the church (1 Timothy 3:2). Hospitality has played a very important role in the Redeemed Christian Church of God right from its very beginning. It forms part of our core beliefs and practices.

Open Heaven 18 May 2018

We teach that you don’t to be rich to look after visitors. You can entertain four people with a single orange by slicing it into four parts and presenting it nicely on a decent plate with glasses of water. May you receive the true spirit of hospitality today in Jesus’ name

Open Heaven May 16 2018

The Bible admonishes that since we naturally desire to receive hospitality from others, we should show it to others well. The Lord in Matthew 7:12 says,

“All things whatsoever yo would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”
‎Even when describing the type of fast that God finds acceptable, the Holy spirit in Isaiah 58:7b said :

“Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast our to thy house?”

Deuteronomy 26:12 also speaks about feeding the stranger, the fatherless and the widow. All these verses of the scripture show that we are duty-bound as children of God to provide for the needs of these classes of people regularly. Open Heaven 19 May 2018

More importantly, Jesus clearly teaches that hospitality is going to be a major criterion that will be used to separate the sheep from the goat on the last day (Matthew 25:33-35). This means that it will be practically impossible for anyone to enter heaven without being hospitable. Open Heaven May 17 2018

Jesus expects every Christian to love their neighbour as themselves. He expects us to use hospitality as a tool to spread the love of God and the good news of the gospel all over the world. I pray that you will yield yourself an instrument of spreading God’s love everywhere through hospitality in Jesus’ name

Open Heaven May 16 2018 Action point
Think of how you can use hospitality to spread the love of God and thr message of the gospel in your locality. Draw up a plan and implement it.

Open Heaven May 16 2018 Hymn 12

How sweet the Name of Jesus sounds

Verse 1

In a believer’s ear!

It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,

And drives away his fear.

Verse 2:

It makes the wounded spirit whole,

And calms the troubled breast;

’Tis manna to the hungry soul,

And to the weary, rest.

Verse 3:

Jesus! My Shepherd, Husband, Friend,

 O Prophet, Priest and King,

 My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End,

 Accept the praise I bring.

Verse 4:

Weak is the effort of my heart,

 And cold my warmest thought;

 But when I see Thee as Thou art,

 I’ll praise Thee as I ought.

Verse 5:

Till then I would Thy love proclaim

With every fleeting breath,

And may the music of Thy Name

Refresh my soul in death!

Open Heaven 19 May 2018 – A Child of Abraham?

Open Heaven 19 May 2018 Memories
Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
Galatians 3:7

Open Heaven 19 May 2018 Bible Reading
John 8:39-43

39 They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.

40 But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.

41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.

42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.

43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word

Open Heaven 19 May 2018 Bible in one year: 2 Samuel 14, 2 Peter 2

Open Heaven 19 May 2018 Message

The Bible documents several declarations of God’s covenant promises and blessings to Abraham, which are intended to overflow to his children (Genesis 17:2,Genesis 12:2-3, Genesis 22:16-18). Although God spoke these words to Abraham several thousands of years ago, generations from that period till now have continued to see His pronouncements manifest in very dramatic fashion. Let us consider two of God’s pronouncements on Abraham. Open Heaven 18 May 2018 

In Genesis 12:2-3, He said
“And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shall be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

Also in Genesis 22:17-18 , God said :

“That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven , and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed…”

The fulfilment of these words in the lives of Abraham’s direct descendants (the Jews) and in the lives of Christians , who are partakers of these promises by adoption, has resulted in a situation where people from all nations of the world seek to be numbered among Abraham’s children.

However, claiming to be one of Abraham’s children does not confer this status on anyone; only fulfilling the necessary requirements does. Romans 9:6-7 explains that in the sight of God, not even all of those who descended from Abraham biologically are children of Abraham for the purpose of receiving God’s covenant blessings.

Being a child of Abraham does not come through genetic connections. Galatians 3:7 tells us what confers this status on a person:
“Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.”
You can therefore see that it is only men and women of faith that are true children of Abraham, and so only they are recipient of Abraham’s blessings.

Open Heaven 19 May 2018

In other words, faith is what qualifies a person to inherit Abraham’s blessings. Are you truly one of Abraham’s children? The word of God in Galatians 3:6-9 tells us that irrespective of whether you are a Jew or a Gentile, rich or poor, male or female, white, black or brown, old or young,you can become one of Abraham’s children and gain access to the blessings promised to them if only you live by faith.

Some may ignore or reject this truth because they have no idea what it means to be a child of Abraham, or because they see no value in the awesome blessings promised to Abraham’s children.

This altitude is not surprising, because the things of the spirit of God are foolishness to the ordinary person (1 Corinthians 2:14). I pray that the Lord will open your eyes to the truth of his word so that you can gain access to all of your inheritance in God in the might Name of Jesus.

Open Heaven 19 May 2018 Prayer point
Father, impart my spirit with faith to appropriate all of my blessings in you in Jesus’ Name.

Open Heaven 19 May 2018 Hymn 10

RCCG HYMN 10: THERE SHALL BE SHOWER OF BLESSING

1. There shall be showers of blessing:
This is the promise of love;
There shall be seasons refreshing,
Sent from the Savior above.

Open Heaven 18 May 2018 – Seeing the Invincible

Open Heaven 18 May 2018 Memories
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints
Ephesians 1:18

Open Heaven 18 May 2018  Bible Reading 2 Corinthians 12:1-4

1. It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.

3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)

4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

Open Heaven 18 May 2018 Bible in one year: 2 Samuel 12-13, 2 Peter 1

The Bible tells us about the reality of both the physical world, which is the natural habitat of human beings, and a spiritual world that is ruled and controlled by the Almighty God. Although God created mankind and gave us access to the spiritual realm for the purpose of fellowshipping with Him, we lost that access when Adam and Eve sinned (John 4:24, Genesis 3:8). Open Heaven 16 May 2018

However, the moment a person becomes born again, the access to the realm of the spirit is immediately restored. Unconverted souls remain permanently disconnected from the heavenly realm. That is why 1 Corinthians 2:14 says 

” But the natural man recieveth not the things of the spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them , because they are spiritually discerned.”

The spiritual world is very Much as real as the physical world, but only those who have access to it can see the sights, hear the sounds and even participate in the activities of heaven. I pray that God will sanctify you and grant you express access to the realm of the spirit in Jesus’ Name. Open Heaven 17 2018

Living in the spirit requires faith. Just as the eye produces conviction about the reality of objects in the physical world, so does faith produce the same conviction about things in the realm of the spirit, which are invisible to the eye. Faith manifest itself by producing the assurance that what we hope for will happen.

It also provides insight to the reality of things in the unseen spiritual world. These unseen realities from God offer an effective power for daily living to every man and woman of faith. Speaking about the faith of Moses, Hebrews 11:27 says :

“By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king:for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.”

Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable and receives the impossible. This is the testimony of every great child of God who has walked on the face of the earth, such as Abraham, Moses, the prophets and the apostles.

Open Heaven 18 May 2018

They all saw things that others could not see and they believed them until they were manifested physically. This is also the testimony of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. My father in the Lord saw some things through the eyes of faith that were practically impossible to believe at that time , but they have become history today.

When I became the General Overseer of the church, we could only afford a one-bedroom apartment; I therefore started praying to God for a suitable home to accommodate my family. God then spoke to me one day that I should stop praying for a house because He had decided to build me a city.

I received it by faith and today , this city has become a reality, and God is not done with us yet. I pray that you will begin to see the invisible form today in Jesus’ Name

Open Heaven 18 May 2018 Prayer Point
Father, please sanctify me and open my eyes of faith today in Jesus’ Name

Open Heaven 18 May 2018 Hymn 10

Sing Hymn 10: There shall be showers of blessing

1. There shall be showers of blessing:
This is the promise of love;
There shall be seasons refreshing,
Sent from the Savior above.