DO IT YOURSELF (D.I.Y)

WORDS OF LIFE DAILY DEVOTIONAL 

February 11th, 2016 (Thursday)

[Topic] - DO IT YOURSELF (D.I.Y)

[Scripture] - Proverbs 6:9. "...You lazy people, how long are you going to lie there? When will you get up?"

[Message] - Good morning Beloved. For this God is our God for ever and ever.

The statement, 'do it yourself', is one many of us are familiar with. It is meant to get us to do somethings on our own and not rely on others to get them done for us. Many of us want the finished products and want to skip all the labour processes and hardwork. It's time to do it yourself. 

Laziness is one of the traps that the devil uses to keep people down and bound, especially the youths. As the saying goes, 'an idle hand is the devil's workshop'. God doesn't work with lazy people. He is rewarder of them that 'diligently' seek Him (Heb.11:6). Do you see a man who is 'diligent in his business, he willl stand before kings (Prov.22:29).  

I heard from a man of God that God will never substitute diligence for anointing oil. God has never blessed indolence is not about to start. We have got to get up and do something. Particularly, in the things that concern the spirit. Many times we just want to sit back and listen to sermons, read devotionals, and so on, and are never going in search of the Truth ourselves. 

Now that's not to say it's wrong. It's not, but there has to be a personal effort to create your own personal relationship with God. That what He want. I'm pretty sure you can't do that with other areas of your life. For instance, give someone the money to go on a vacation for you, then come back and tell you all about it, while you sit and save yourself the stress. Would you? NO! Would you give your wife/husband to someone else to help you take care of and then bring them when you're old to save yourself the stress. Would you? NO! 

Then, it's time to do the digging in the WORD of God for yourself! Do it yourself! 

#SELAH

PRACTICAL STEP :- A good place to start is with the Bible-in-one-year plan below. 

FURTHER BIBLE STUDY :- Proverbs 6:6-9, Matthew 25:14-30

BIBLE-IN-ONE-YEAR PLAN :- Mark 10:46 - Mark 12:40, Job 20: 1-19

Zoescripts.blogspot.com 

NEVER ENGAGE THE DEVIL IN A FIGHT

WORDS OF LIFE DAILY DEVOTIONAL 

February 10th, 2016 (Wednesday)

[Topic] - NEVER ENGAGE THE DEVIL IN A FIGHT

[Scripture] - 2 Chronicles 20:15 (KJV). "...for the battle is not yours, but God's."

[Message] - Good morning Beloved. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory. 

This is a serious one this morning. It deals with our every day activity. It addresses our struggles every blessed day. An awful lot of times, we face challenges and trials and temptations, where the devil brings sin wrapped and packaged with desire written all over it, when in the real sense, it's just lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and pride of life, enough to lead any man to hell. 

A not-so-pleasant news is that at the beginning of every year, or month or day, we wake up speaking to ourselves and gearing our spirits for a fight we are very sure to lose. We tell ourselves, 'there's no way the devil will get me to fall today', and we forget that this same devil knows our weaknesses, will hit us right in that spot, and then we come back bowing our heads in shame, while some even think God is not paying attention to them at all. 

We must get to the level where we understand that a battle with the devil is one we will never win, as long as we do the fighting. Our anchor scripture has told us the plain truth, 'the battle is not yours'. You're not meant to do the fighting. Like Moses told the Israelites, be still and know that He is God (Exo.14:14). 

Please go through your Bible again to Revelation 12:11, you would find out that the Bible says 'they overcame him BY the blood of the Lamb', and not '...WITH the blood of the Lamb'. You're meant to stand back, worship Him, praise Him, plead the Blood and throw scriptures in the face of the devil. 

This way, I bet you, there's no way the devil is winning. He already lost once (Col. 2:14-15), He will always lose to Christ. That's the way to win - leave the fight for God and trust Him while you do your own part. Don't fight the devil yourself, you won't win.

#SELAH

FURTHER BIBLE STUDY :- 2 chronicles 20

BIBLE-IN-ONE-YEAR PLAN :- Mark 9:14 - Mark 10:45, Job 19:13-29.

Zoescripts.blogspot.com 

WHO IS WITH YOU?

WORDS OF LIFE DAILY DEVOTIONAL 

February 9th, 2016 (Tuesday)

[Topic] - WHO IS WITH YOU?

[Scripture] - Psalm 16:8 (KJV). "I have set the Lord always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." 

[Message] - Good morning Beloved. We will sing unto our God because He has dealt bountifully with us. 

'Show me your friends and I will tell you who you are'. Oh how true that statement is. Many of us have placed little or virtually no importance on who our friends are, or who we choose as companions, until it's too late and there's almost no coming back. 

Psalm 1:1-3 gives us 3 categories of companions we must never associate with: the ungodly, sinners, and scornful. If we decide to move with them, it won't be long before they introduce us to their father, the devil (John 8:44). 

Proverbs 13:20 says that if you walk with the wise, you become wise, and a companion of fools shall be destroyed. In simple terms, 'you are who you walk with!' The people we walk with affect us so much they in the end, they either make or mar our destinies. 

David had Jonathan, Joshua had Caleb, Jesus had His disciples, Timothy had Paul, Daniel and the 3 Hebrew boys, and so on, and they made it. However, Ahitophel and Absalom, Korah, Abiram and Dathan had the wrong set of companions and it led to their failures. 

Those who are with you are either for you or against you. Don't make the mistake of thinking they are all for you. If God opens your eyes to see that you must drop some people, please do so fast. Who are with you?

#SELAH

PRACTICAL STEP :- Look at all of those you call friends and prayerfully and practically drop those who won't help your destiny. Friendship is by choice and not by force. 

FURTHER BIBLE STUDY :- Zechariah 3

BIBLE-IN-ONE-YEAR PLAN :- Mark 7:1- Mark 9:13, Job 18:20 - Job 19:12

Zoescripts.blogspot.com 

DEEPER RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD AS A NECESSITY TO SPIRITUAL GROWTH

The Holy Spirit helped me to prepare a seminar on the topic, "Deeper personal relationship with God as a necessity to spiritual growth." 

I will be taking this seminar under 5 major outlines: 

👉 Introduction 

👉 Spiritual growth 

👉 Measure of Spiritual growth 

👉 Key to Spiritual growth

👉 Conclusion 

So we take them one by one...

👌INTRODUCTION 

By way of introduction, growth is very important in any field or sphere of life: home, church, school, ministry, academics, marriage, finance, and so on. 

A child who is not yet walking or talking after celebrating a year old will draw attention.

A business that has not left the level it was when it started can surely never attend the gathering of those that have grown. 

 A student who's Cummulative Grade Point Average did not improve throughout 4 years, obviously has something wrong somewhere....and so on and so forth. 

This is just for us to understand the necessity of growth in our everyday life. 

If growth was not important to God, Jesus will not need to be born as a baby and would have just come a full grown man and launched right. into ministry. Just in case someone asks, 'between the age of 12 when Jesus went to the temple and age 30 when He began His ministry, what was He doing for 18 years?' The answer is this, 'HE WAS GROWING'. (Luke 2:52). 

Now, growth doesn't just happen. It is stimulated. Medically related scientists will confirm that there is something called Growth Hormone (GH), or Somatotropin, in the body and it functions to stimulate growth. 

So, something causes growth to occur. It's not just automatic. NO! You pay the price for growth, you receive the prize of growth! Capish! 

👌SPIRITUAL GROWTH 

Simply put, Spiritual growth means growing in the Spirit. 

As we all know, man is a tri-une being, consisting of body, soul and spirit (1 Thess. 5:23). Man is a spirit, that has a soul and lives in a body. So man is primarily a spirit. Yes! You're a spirit! ...And whatever happens in the spirit, affects both the soul and the body.

 That's why when the spirit of a man is regenerated (John 3:6...'Spirit gives birth to spirit'), the soul is renewed (Rom. 12:2), and the body is transformed (Phil. 3:21). 

👌MEASUREMENT OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH 

How do I know someone who has grown to a certain extent in the Spirit? How do I differentiate such person from someone who has not grown in the Spirit? 

Let us do a quick study together...

We know a tree that is growing through its production of fruits. That is, it takes nutrients from its root (you remember the xylem and phloem?), and takes them up. We do not know when this nutrient movement takes place but we know that they are moving. How? Because we can see fruits. 

Now, John 15:5 says, "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." 

According to our illustration, Jesus Christ is the vine (the root) and we are the branches. When we bring forth fruits, it confirms we are tapping nutrients from Jesus Christ and we display them on the outside for the whole world to see. What fruits are we talking about here? The fruits of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). The world doesn't need to know when you draw nutrients from Jesus Christ (it takes place in your secret), but they must know that you do, through your exhibition of the fruit of the Spirit, and that's how we measure a man's spiritual growth!!!

Any believer who is not meek, with anger issues, lack of faith, lack of perseverance, and so on, is not there yet.

Let's not make the mistake of measuring spiritual growth through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Its wrong. Don't forget the devil is also a magician, he can perform signs and wonders too...BUT an evil tree will never produce good fruits, NEVER! (Matt. 7:17-18) - the devil can never produce the fruits of the Spirit. 

Not every prophet you see performing signs gets it from God. May we never be misled! 

👌KEY TO SPIRITUAL GROWTH 

There are many keys to spiritual growth:

👉The Word (1 Peter 2:2, Acts 20:32)

👉Prayer (Jude 1:20)

👉Fasting (Matt. 6:16-18)

👉Obedience (John 14:23, NIV).

...and so on, like Suffering for Christ (Heb. 5:8), etc. 

But all of these come down to our topic: Deeper personal relationship as a necessity to spiritual growth. As a matter of fact, I would beg to amend the topic a little to, "Deeper personal relationship with God: the key to spiritual growth." 

...which leads us to our last outline...

👌KEY TO SPIRITUAL GROWTH 

Just like we have discussed, to grow in the Spirit, to produce the fruits of the Spirit the more, to become more robust in the spirit, the key is having a deeper personal relationship with God, and that entails those other things we listed above: Praying, fasting, studying the Word, and so on. 

Until we draw up nutrients from the well that won't run dry, Jesus Christ, our extent of growth will be limited. 

Now, let's do a quick diagnosis on ourselves. Just think on some things. It's a SELAH moment. 

"If Jesus were to be real, flesh and blood, to you, how would He rate your relationship with Him on a scale of 10? Tell yourself the truth, please... you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. 

How many times do you call Him, text Him, spend time with Him, listen to Him, read His letter to you (the Word), love His people (the gathering of the saints), love His house (the Church)...and so on."

Anything below 7 on that scale of 10, and it's not encouraging. 

👌CONCLUSION 

It's not too late! 

We can begin the process of growth today. Spend quality time with Him, develop your personal relationship with God, and it won't be long before you see positive changes in your spirit, and consequently, your soul and body.