

EMERGE

Personal Revival Devotional

By

### Oluwatobi Adelusi

EMERGE

© 2020 Oluwatobi Adelusi

The author has reserved his right to be identified as the owner of this work.

Reach Oluwatobi Adelusi by clicking any of these links:

Email, Twitter, Facebook, Mixlr, Castbox

Published by Roe's Medleys

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# DEDICATION

To The Holy Spirit

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# ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Sincere appreciation to my wife, Tolulope Adelusi for the labour of love on this book, thanks for all your support. God bless you.

To Daniel Oluwayose for the back design and my dearest brother and co labourer Oluwaseyi Ige (The Prelate) for a quick response on the production.

The Lord bless you both.

# INTRODUCTION

Praise the Lord friend! I am excited about the season of revival that is about to come in our generation, I am more excited at the fact that you came across this devotional. I am glad to tell you that God is raising an army for himself at this time and the fact that you came across this tells me that you are numbered amongst us.

The Holy Spirit began to quicken me recently to pray for a revival that God is set to bring in our generation. He also gave the inspiration to put this devotional together as I began to pray. This manual will no doubt communicate the burden of God to you at this time as you use it in your devotion in the days ahead.

The church is in dire need of revival and the Lord said the Corona virus pandemic is a distraction, the lockdown it has occasioned in any case is a great opportunity to still the world and refocus the attention of men to seek the Lord. The next most important thing in the agenda of God is a revival that will move through our nation and generation bringing about a harvest of souls to the kingdom.

The Holy Spirit communicated that many will not believe in the message, hence when the revival comes, they will not maximally benefit from the refreshing moment from God.

I want to step out of your way and allow you get busy as you ask the Holy Spirit to quicken you and revive your prayer life as intimacy with the Holy Spirit becomes expedient in the days ahead. Kindly join the "EMERGENCE" as we rise to a new dimension in God.

We urge you to kindly share this resource freely with believers in your cycle of influence, our prayer is that the Lord breathes upon us all and count us worthy for what He is about to do in our days.

Yours in His service,

Oluwatobi Adelusi

Canada

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# DAY 1

## FELLOWSHIP IN THE BEGINNING

_Genesis 3:9_

Understanding things from the beginning gives us the right perspective to issues. Many things can be traced to the beginning. One of such things is the idea of fellowship. After God made man, he did not just leave man here on earth. The Bible says that God came in the cool of the day, every day, and had fellowship with man. Have you ever taken time to consider what was so important that made God take out time of his throne on a daily basis to visit the earth?

Adam was not created to be a pastor, an evangelist or a preacher; he was simply created for communion with God. It is good to have this perspective because we often think that prayer is an activity that is reserved for pastors, apostles and prophets.

Adam was a part of God, because God breathed into Adam the breath of Life. Without the breath of God which made Adam a living soul, Adam would perhaps just have been a moulded clay. The quantum of breath or life that God gave Adam needed continuous communion with God for Adam to continually be a living soul. Also, for him to continually exist in the correct configuration, he needed access and continual fellowship with God. Are you aware that the difference between an angel and a demon is fellowship, an angel is a spirit just like the demon, the difference between them is that one has fellowship continuously with God, while the other one (demon) is separated from God.

The devil was strategic about getting man to rebel against God. The focus of that attack was to get man to be alienated from the presence of God. You will remember that after Adam sinned, as soon as God began to walk in the garden in the cool of the day, it was time for the daily communion and Adam ran away from the presence of God. God called out to him, Adam where are you?

This is the question that God is asking a lot of us who are absent without leave from God's presence. Outside the presence of God, we can't secure the commitment of God.

Communion was made to sustain the very life that man carries in him. There is a connection between the fellowship you have with God and the quality of life that you have in him. Man was not made to be independent of God. The day man lost fellowship with God in the garden was the day he died. That separation from the communion of God is like cutting a blood vessel in a man's body. It's just a matter of time, his death will eventually manifest. The proof that you live in the spirit is that you have an organic and growing relationship with God.

We have been able to establish that fellowship is essential to the life we have in God, and that fellowship is not primarily for what we can get from God but that we might continue to have the very life of God in us. It's in our fellowship with God that our life is renewed every day.

According to Psalm 84:7, they go from strength to strength, everyone one of them in Zion appeareth before God. The strength that we derive from the presence of God is supernatural. This is why Bible says "they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. There is a renewal of the life that comes from just being in the presence of the Lord.

Do you know that if you fellowship with life, you have life, and if you fellowship with death, you have death. This is why the devil wants to get us busy with things of death. Things that have the capacity to purely entertain and gratify our our flesh are the things the devil tries to get us to concentrate on and these things becomes an instrument in his hands to lock down the spiritual life and possibilities that are in us.

Make a commitment to begin to consciously fellowship with God from today.

**Action Plan** \- Commit to a consistent time of staying with God in fellowship daily

**Further** **Reading -** 1 John 1:3, John 17:23

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# DAY 2

## DOMINION BY COMMUNION (1)

Genesis 1:28

One of the most important verses in the Bible is Genesis 1:28 God blessed them and said to them _, "Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over everything that moves upon the earth''_.

This verse encapsulates the dominion agenda that God put in place for man. As Gods extension on earth, man was to be in charge of every other thing. All things, situations and circumstances was expected to be in subjection to man. What would guarantee this dominion, however, is man's continuous communion and submission to God.

The devil once enjoyed constant fellowship with God and he lost his beauty when he was excommunicated from God because of his rebellion. He envied the relationship of man with God, and that was why he found a way to break the submission of man to God, thereby breaking the continuous fellowship that man had with God. The course of nature was in subjection to Adam for as long as Adam was in tune with God and in fellowship with him. Things went out of alignment when the fellowship between God and man was broken.

Are you aware that Adam was a spirit in eternity before he became a man in the flesh? The process of creation was actually a reduction process that put a spirit in a container of clay. By that process, the spirit put in the container loses some of the functions and abilities it had because of the new container. The process was necessary because spirits couldn't not effectively live on earth without bodies.

For example, Daniel 4:33 reveals that God drove King Nebuchadnezzar to live among animals for a time, and his hair grew like eagle feathers and his nails like bird claws. That process reduced the complex operation of Nebuchadnezzar in his original nature because he had been put in the likeness or form of an animal. Some of his functions such as speaking was lost while in that state.

However, if you expose that reduced man continuously to the fellowship of another man in his true state, eventually the reduced man will discover his inherent abilities as a man because functions locked up inside him will begin to get activated and itch for expression. This is the power of communion.

When God made man and reduced his spirit into the body, the idea of constantly fellowshipping with Adam was to expose Adam to the realities of the spirit realm from where he had been existing before now so that he could continue to exercise the life of the spirit in the flesh. There are endless possibilities in the spirit realm that are limited in the physical man except he is exposed to the realities of the spirit.

One of the reasons why God, the father of spirits, fellowshipped with Adam was to expose him to realities or possibilities in the spirit. Gods meeting with Adam was a spiritual meeting aimed at enlightening Adam on how to superimpose his spirituality upon the physical environment he now existed in.

For as long as that fellowship continued and Adam was enrolled in the school of the spirit and in subjection to God, he had dominion over everything.

In his submission to God, every other thing was in submission to him, he had authority to deal with every rebellion because his own obedience was total. He was drawing from school of the spirit in order to superimpose his supernatural dominion upon the earth.

So you must understand that prayer is not just a place to ask for physical things, it is place where we draw the spiritual strength to be in control in our daily lives. The more we stay in submission and communion with God the greater dominion we have over the devil and the world.

James 4:7-8 gave us a revelation into how submission and communion works towards granting us dominion in life.

**SUBMISSION:** The first part of verse 7 of James 4 says _"Submit yourselves to God_ ". This is a short saying, but it is the basis upon which every other part of the verse is hinged. Our submission to God is a sign that we acknowledge the power and supremacy of God. Are you aware that what turned Lucifer to the devil was his plot to exalt himself? The idea was a refusal to submit to the authority of God. It was pride and the idea of independence that caused Lucifer a great fall.

No man can walk with God unless he is submitted to God. The exercise of human will outside of submission to God is what becomes rebellion. Roman 8:7 says the mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God, it does not submit God's law, nor can it do so.

Jesus exemplified a life of submission to God even though he was God in the flesh. Philippians 2:6-7 says who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage, rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

Are you aware that what Jesus got by submission to God was what Lucifer wanted to get by attempting to exalt himself.

1 Peter 5:6 " _Humble yourselves, therefore under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time"._ The office of the Christ where everything was in subjection to the name of Christ was won by Jesus submitting himself to God.

Are you also aware that the model that led to the fall of Satan was what he sold to man in the garden of Eden that led to the fall of man? The devil in Genesis 3 sold the idea of eating the fruit to man towards the end of becoming like God. So why eating the fruit was the act, becoming like God was the goal. You must understand that the goal is what inspires the act. If man had no ambition to become like God, the fruit wouldn't have been of any attraction to him.

Every believer must therefore consciously learn to live in submission to God in humility, seeking his will, government and kingdom.

**Action Plan** \- Be deliberate about having communion with God

**Further** **Reading** : Genesis 39:2-6, Daniel 6

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# DAY 3

## DOMINION BY COMMUNION (2)

James 4:8

James 4 verse 8 leads us to the communion part of the equation 'come near to God and he will come near to you, cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double minded'

This is the picture of communion, our coming near to God and drawing life and power from God is a key that grants us access to the dominion given in God. Have you wondered why many Christians despite quoting the dominion mandate still live in subjection to devil's, situations and circumstances in life? Many people are bowed by the situations in their life because they have not understood the dominion that is available through communion.

2 Corinthians 3:18 explains the power available in communion. It says: _"But we all, with unveiled faces behold as in a mirror the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image from glory to glory''_

When we show up in the place of communion and we begin to fellowship with the Lord, what happens when we stay there in commitment is that the communion moves out of the physical realm, as we in the spirit show up at Zion where we are strengthened by the glory of God's presence.

The understanding of this spiritual dynamics to prayer and fellowship with God will help your mind when the devil wants to play a fast one on you and discourage you from fellowshipping with the Lord.

When we come in fellowship with the Lord truly in the spirit, we move to a new level. You remember that in the Old Testament you had to open your window and face Jerusalem for your prayers to ascend to God. Something similar to that happened in the New Testament prayer protocol according to Hebrews 12:22-24. It says _"But ye have come to mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. To an innumerable company of Angels. To the general assembly and church of the first born, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect. And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel"_

Glory to Jesus! Do you see what great fellowship and company you come into in communion? This is the most important assembly in the whole of heaven and earth. This is where your importance is marked in eternity. If you are not in this fellowship, you are not important at all. This is why those who stay in communion with God have power with men on earth. If you have this understanding, you will prepare for prayer like you are going to a party. Glory to Jesus!

So when you open the window of communion via your altar this is where you come to in the spirit. There is a communion that is constantly going on in heaven. In those days I remember we used to sing a song "Do you know there is another fellowship in heaven"? This is the revelation of that fellowship.

What happens when you show up at this fellowship is recorded in the book of Psalms 84:7 _"They go from strength to strength, everyone of them in Zion appeareth before God."_ Hallelujah! Did you see that? There is a benefit in coming to the presence of God in communion, we go from strength to strength without any discrimination, everyone of us as we appear in Zion.

So let's juxtapose everything together according to James 4:7-8 When we submit ourselves to God and we come into the place of communion with God, we receive the strength to resist the devil and his works. The strength is also present in us to exercise our dominion upon the earth.

Let me quickly show you an example of the possibilities that is upon to us when we draw strength from the presence of the Lord. Jesus in Matthew 14 after feeding the multitude with bread and fish told his disciples to go to the other side, then he went to the mountain to fellowship with the father. Matthew 14:23 said he went up on a mountain side by himself to pray, later that night he was alone and the disciples were going through a turbulence on the sea. When Jesus got down from the mountain there was no boat that could take him to the other side. So Jesus deployed his supernatural dimension and started to walk upon the water. When the disciples saw him they said it is a ghost and he didn't dispute it, he just said it is I. That dimension he exposed them to was a spirit dimension of him; it was not natural for a man to walk upon water. What Jesus was teaching us was that the situations that troubled others could be something that you will walk upon as a conqueror if you utilize the power of communion.

The same thing was what happened when Daniel was taken from the place of prayer and thrown in the Lion's den, the supernatural dimension of him came to play, the Lions couldn't eat him because God was at work in him and for him. Those Lions that could not eat him over the night were the ones that destroyed the flesh of all his accusers before they hit the floor of the den.

Get into communion and continue to exercise dominion upon the earth.

**Action plan** \- Consciously get into submission and see dominion at work through you.

**Further** **Reading** -Isaiah 55:22-27, Hebrews 10:19-22

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# DAY 4

## THE WAY OF THE ALTAR

Genesis 4

After losing the connection in Eden, the devil got man to rebel against God and God had to shut the way to the garden of Eden so as to make sure that man does not have access to the tree of life in the middle of the garden. If man had gotten access to the tree of life, his fate would have been irredeemable just like the fallen Angels.

That lack of access to God was the worst thing that happened to Man, the access was the key to the dominion that man had over the earth and since the devil got man to lose that access, man began to find a way to get back to God.

Adam must have told his two sons how that he enjoyed fellowship with God in the garden and how that heaven kissed the earth every day in the evening until they lost it. So the children began to find the protocol to access God and eventually Cain found out that he could make an offering to God. It is interesting that when men set their heart to seek God, the residue of the reception of the spirit that lies within man always finds a way to access God. This is function of seeking God with all of our strength, our heart and our mind.

As soon as Cain made the discovery, he began to put up an offering to the Lord, Abel also made an offering to God, interestingly, although it was Cain that first discovered the way of making an offering to God, he trivialized the revelation he had and didn't have sufficient faith to give the best of him to this God he wanted to sacrifice to.

Hebrews gives us an insight that it was by faith that Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice unto God. The way of faith and the altar goes hand in hand, no man can make a quality altar to God without firmly believing in God.

Since it was about burning an offering to the Lord, it would appear that these men had to make a platform like an altar to place their sacrifice on. Interestingly we learnt a lesson from here that we cannot relate to God anyhow. He is not going to accept just anything from us in the name of worship. One of the reasons why we don't sustain the hand of God on us even after finding the access to him is that we often don't give quality attention to the windows of access that God grants unto us. The greatest tragedy that can befall a man is to trivialize his access that God.

Please understand that no man can find God except God reveals himself, for Cain to have found the way of the altar, God must have been interested in men finding him and he showed grace to Cain to find him.

Interestingly when the altars were made and offering laid on it, it was Abel that gave an acceptable offering unto the Lord. Genesis 4:4 said the Lord accepted the offering of Abel, he had respect to the offering but rejected that of Cain. Cain got angry and his countenance fell. Then God spoke to Cain. This is the first time I saw God making an explanation to man, I feel that God loved Cain so much probably because he was the first seed of man. God explained to him the way things work in heaven, there is no respect of persons with God, the just and righteous nature of God determines what is acceptable without any bias or partiality.

God came to Cain explaining in Genesis 4:6 and the Lord said to Cain, why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? Verse 7 _"if thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?"_ God attempted to give some education to Cain on the way of the spirit with respect to acceptability to God when we come to him. We cannot afford to come to him anyhow or present sacrifices that are not of quality. God does not just take anything. If a man rightly finds God, God will be found of him.

Apostle Peter explained this to us in Acts 10 when the Holy Spirit led him to Cornelius. Cornelius was a gentile who was praying and doing alms, God then sent a revelation to Peter because of Cornelius. Then Peter explained in verse 34 of Acts 10 that he perceived that God is not a respecter of persons but in every nation whoever fears him and works righteousness is accepted by him.

Despite the explanation of God, Cain went ahead to kill his brother. Again, God returned to ask Cain for the whereabouts of his brother, Abel. Have you paid attention to how contemptible and dishonoring the response of Cain was to God? In my estimation, a properly trained son should not even talk to his father that way. After the punishment, the Bible says Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. He went to establish a civilization under the influence of the devil.

Cain lost every opportunity to operate under the civilization of God and the devil took control of his life. Don't take the access of God for granted, a man outside the civilization of God is useless.

**Action Plan** \- Worship the monarch of heaven with referential fear in your heart

**Further** **Reading** \- Exodus 30, Leviticus 10:1-3

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# DAY 5

## HE WAS NOT FOR GOD TOOK HIM

Genesis 5:24

There is no way we can have an effective relationship with the immortal God and remain the same. When you cultivate your relationship with God, you cannot remain the same, as you build communion and intimacy with God, there is a transformation and exchange that occurs in your life.

Walking with God is a hard thing, the highway of God demands a high responsibility upon the mortal man. The ones who succeed in their walk with God pay heavily for it with their life. There are protocols of working with a spirit that demands a high price from you.

Abraham became a friend of God by the way of faith. He had to learn to trust God and his voice despite not seeing him physically. It took a long time for Abraham to master that way. The demand for perfection increased in the life of Abraham until he became intimate with God until he earned the friendship of God and became the father of faith.

Enoch was 7 generations from Adam who lost his walk with God. Enoch found out God and built an intimate relationship with God. Enoch's life was summarized as one who walked with God and he was not for God took him. I had over the years read that scripture plainly to mean Enoch disappeared after sometime because God took him. A few days ago as I prayed in the Holy Spirit and meditated, I understood by revelation that every day of walking with God takes a part of you. If you walk with God long enough, He takes you and what is left of you is Him.

You cannot walk with God and not lose yourself. He was not, for God took him, as stated in Genesis 5:24 is a revelation of how God takes away the fleshly you and exchanges you for himself.

It is a sacrificial pathway that makes you dead to things. When you start walking with God, he may take your sleep, you will need to love Him more than sleep. When you walk with God, he will take anything from you that contends with his government over your life.

The reason why God asked Abraham for Isaac was to make sure that Isaac was not more important than God in the heart of Abraham. Considering the journey to getting Isaac, he had the tendency to become a god in the heart of Abraham. God gave the instruction to Abraham and he had to make a trip to the mountain God would request. This gave Abraham enough time to ponder on Gods demand of him, and to decide whether to obey or not. When he lifted up the knife to kill Isaac, it was proof that he died to Isaac in his heart and God accepted the sacrifice of Isaac. Isaac did not need to die a physical death on the altar. He became a living sacrifice.

If you commit to a walk with God, God will take your passion for football, he will re-channel your passion for any other thing which is hitting deep into your heart to himself. When Paul said ' _I die daily_ ', this was what he was talking about. As he walked with God on a daily basis, he began to die to the many other things he used to attach great importance to in his life. He died to his knowledge so that he could be exposed to the abundant revelation of Christ which he got. According to Philippians 3:8, Paul said for his sake I have lost all things and consider them rubbish, so that I may gain Christ.

You cannot gain Christ and not lose all other things. This is the way of death, Enoch was not because he died to himself and became alive unto God. If you claim to be walking with God and nothing tangible to you after the flesh has been lost, God is not taking you yet or better still, you are not releasing yourself to him yet.

God will take your pride, your love for social media, your need for acceptance and your fashion. There are things that the church labours to impose upon men by way of rules, meanwhile these things will naturally fade away if we teach men to walk with God. God has his way of dealing with men by the workings of His Spirit.

There will be so much transformation in your life when you truly walk with the Lord, it will be so visible that the blind around you will be able to see it. Your walk with God is the conduit by which God exchanges you for himself.

Are you aware that God's method of transforming man is not to change us but to exchange us? Paul's life exemplified for us how God can take a man from the abyss of sin and convert him to a saint. By the time that Paul had walked with God over the years he concluded in Galatians 2:20 by saying " I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life that I now live in the body, i live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. This is the exchange that happens when a man walks with God.

The journey with the immortal, the invisible is a walk in the path of the Cross, it will have you crucified to your will. Men who walk with God long enough are humbled by the process. God will ask you to apologize to a man who offended you, your obedience to such humbling instruction, when you are infact right, is a death to something.

This is the pattern of walking in God and having an exchange of your mortal life for his immortal and eternal life. If you want to walk with God, God will take you.

**Action Plan** \- begin to pay attention and evaluate changes in your life as you walk with God

**Further** **Reading** \- Deuteronomy 8:6, Romans 13:13, Luke 10:27

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# DAY 6

## WHEN YOU PRAY

Matthew 6:5-6

Having an insight into what happens when we pray can be a motivational factor for us to pray. Men being products of feelings often do better when they know what effect their activity is producing, interestingly prayer is not a physical activity although our body is involved in it. The effects are spiritual hence every actor needs to operate by faith knowing that our prayer produces mighty effects in the heavens.

If you look at the snapshots and insights provided by the Bible on the subject matter of prayer and prayer possibilities, you will discover that prayer is indeed powerful, it moves the hands of God, it sends Angels on assignments, displaces the devil and his demons.

Secrets are revealed when we pray, deliverance is given.

Miracles are made possible by prayers, provision is occasioned and we are connected to heaven.

What you do by not praying is that you cause unemployment for the Angels. The word of God gives us an insight into the behind the scenes of what happens when we pray and it is important to study this so that next time you get down on your kneels to pray and it appears that nothing is happening, or you are not feeling anything, it doesn't mean that something is not happening.

You must learn to study and get into catching of insight into what is happening the other realm when you pray. Elijah taught us this principle when he was praying in 1 Kings 18. As he began to pray, as a man of experience in the place of prayer Elijah knew that prayer was not an activity of fun but faith and that things happen when we pray. So as he prayed, he put his head between his kneels and laboured to give birth to the will of God in his generation. As he prayed, he sent his servant to go and see what was happening in the cloud.

That is a classic example of a man who had an understanding that something happens when we pray. His understanding that something happens when we pray kept him in the place of prayer until what the prayer was doing in the background became obvious in the cloud.

You know why many of us don't pray? It is because we don't expect things to happen. When the Bible said "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much, that's exactly what God means to say. Maybe because it says it avails much is why you don't understand it. The Amplified Bible translation says it _"makes tremendous power available (dynamic in its working)''_. Physics taught me that power is the ability to do work. Many of the things we labour to make happen in the flesh are things that needs to first be sorted out in the place of prayer.

So beyond our understanding of prayer, Jesus found space to teach us how to pray as his disciples came to ask him, master teach us how to pray and Jesus said when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for the love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. This explanation of Jesus is our first error as a generation, many of us have not come to the understanding of the fact that prayer is not a "if" it is a when, it's not something you do if you can, or something you do when you want. The other thing that Jesus quickly said is not how not to pray or what true prayer is not, He said don't be like the hypocrites, those who've to pray in the public to be seen of men and yet have no private communion of prayer before the Lord.

Are you aware that it is hypocrisy to do in the public, infact fervently, what we don't do in the private. Many of us put up a reputation of a prayer giant when we come to public prayer in the church while there is no alter in the private. Are you aware that leading prayer in church or being a prayer leader is not the same thing as having a prayer life. Everyone who has an opportunity to lead prayer wants to vibrate and make an impression while there is no intimacy with God personally.

While corporate prayer is great, the model of Jesus is that we all first have a prayer place in the secret. A vibrant prayer life in our closet is what makes God show up when we pray in the public. Do you know why we don't see God showing up in our pubic prayer is because we have not been with him in the private. The principle is that that when you pray in the private, he answers in the open. When your prayer in the secret becomes effective, your prayer in the public as an apostle of God will begin to attract public affirmation.

When you go through the pattern of prayer that Jesus taught starting with our father who are in heaven, you will understand that the proof that that you have a father is that you cry Abba Father, the instrument to build the relationship of father and son after salvation/adoption is to cry Abba father consistently. Until you have started praying and communing effectively with the father, you are not a position to exercise your sonship.

The most important prayer that came in after hallowing the name of the Lord is to be a good son seeking the interest of the father at all times. This is the proof of our true sonship. The responsibility of the father covers our need for provisions. The Lord knows what we need before we ask him hence that cannot be the fulcrum upon which the need for prayer is based. Seeking to fellowship with the father is the very idea of prayer. It is our means to communicate with the father and get his heart beat as to what he wants to do on earth. It is in our ambassadorial calling to extend the reign of God's kingdom, hence our main prayer point as kingdom sons is _"thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven"_

This is our primary responsibility as to extend the dominion of God to the earth through the exercise of our priestly office in prayers. Unfortunately, our concentration has been "give us this day our daily bread". The great awakening is a shift of our focus to the important things since God takes care of the lilies of the field and the evil fathers know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more our father who art in heaven. The pattern that you will find out as you begin to pray the kingdom is that God takes care of the bread as you begin to focus on the matters of the kingdom.

I show you an example, as Elijah decreed that there will be no rain in the land just to advance the interest of God amongst an idolatrous generation, he didn't just decree, as he made the verbal declaration, James gave us insight that the assignment was really executed in the place of prayer where Elijah prayed Elijah that it will not rain until these men understand that the Lord He is God. When famine hit the land, provision was always supernaturally made for the prophet who was after the interest of the kingdom.

The consumer mentality of just asking for bread will not take us anywhere. The focus is on the kingdom as revealed by Jesus Matthew 6:33 seek ye first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and all other things shall be added unto it. Every other thing follows the kingdom, wherever God sees a kingdom son seeking the interest of the kingdom, the resources of the kingdom are left at his disposal.

If indeed we carry the burden of the kingdom like God wants, the blessings follow where the burden is, you cannot have a burden and not pray about it. The reason why we are at ease in Zion is because we do not share in the burdens of the kingdom. When last did you grieve in your spirit at the number of unbelievers in your vicinity? When last did you feel burdened about the spate of iniquity and godlessness in our times? When last did you cry to God to a revival of the church?

If you think that there is nothing to pray about, it will show that you don't understand the mandate over your life. Psalm 2:8 " _Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession"_.

Are you aware that there are single men who have practically prayed down the hand of God down in their generation. John Knox was the one who prayed "Give me Scotland or I die" and his prayers occasions a revival in the land. Many other men abound like that brought the hand of God to bear upon their generation. This is our responsibility in prayer and every day as we wake we up, we must show up at our duty post making prayer demands upon the kingdom of heaven to be established on earth.

Our priesthood is fast becoming a joke as everyone only looks for his own bread while the work of the kingdom is left undone. It is time to return to the place of prayer and begin to pray the kingdom to come upon the earth.

**Action Plan** \- make a commitment to make kingdom pursuit the centre of your prayer everyday

**Further** **Reading** \- Luke 18:1-14, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, 1 John 5:14, 2 Chronicles 7:14

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# DAY 7

## SHOULDERS FOR THE ARK

Exodus 25:12-14

In the Old Testament church, the most important thing that represented the presence of God physically in the earth was the ark of God. Hebrews 9:4 states that the Ark contained "the golden pot that had manna and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. The eternal relevance of the Ark was revealed in the book of Revelation. Revelation 11:19 says the prophet saw God's temple in heaven opened and the ark of his covenant was seen within the temple.

The ark made the supernatural power of available to the Israelites during their journey. When they needed to pass through Jordan, the instruction was that the Levites who bore the ark were to step their feet in the river first and when they did, the river parted.

In the scheme of God's plan, the ark was not something that anybody could touch anyhow, because it contained the presence of God. Hence there were divine protocols that guided how the ark was carried. God choose a people who would carry the ark. They were a people who had the Lord as their inheritance, Levites and Priests. While every other tribe had inheritance of land, the Levites had God for their heritage. The protocol of carrying the ark according to 1 Chronicles 15 verse 2 and verse 15., and Numbers 7 verse 9 was that 6 men would put down their shoulders and bear the weight of the ark upon their shoulders. The ark wouldn't look so heavy but because the glory of the Lord rests upon it, it was heavy.

The people who will carry the presence of God in any generation must be men of consecration, men separated unto God. The things of God are sacred and must be treated as such. I am going to bring two stories to bear quickly so that we can understand how to bear the presence of God effectively in a generation.

In the days of Eli there was a battle between the Israelites and the Philistines in 1 Samuel 4, the Israelites suffered defeat and the elders came together to deliberate on why they suffered a defeat. Eventually they came to a conclusion to bring the ark of God from Shiloh as the game changer. So the Israelites decided to introduce the game changer in the battle.

The ark of God came into the camp and there was a great shout to the extent that the earth rang, everybody went hysterical. At this point victory was guaranteed, the presence of the Lord had come into the camp of the Israelites. The opposing camp heard the noise of revival and they in fact caught the scenario that the game-changer had come and they acknowledged that their woe had come, for according to them this were the gods that destroyed the Egyptians. However, the Philistines encouraged themselves for the battle saying let us fight as men so we don't become servants to the Isrealites.

So the battle was set in motion with the presence of the ark of God in the Israelites camp and unfortunately despite the presence of the ark the philistines won the battle. Thirty thousand footmen fell amongst the Israelites that day and to make matters worse, the ark of God was taken and two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas were slain. These were the men that brought the ark into the camp.

Have you ever bothered to ask why the Israelites lost unprecedentedly despite the presence of the ark? It was because the men who carried the ark were men of unworthy lives. A quick look at the story of Hophini and Phinehas showed that they were men of high immorality. They were the sons of the prophet yet sleeping with women at the gate of the temple. Their level of disdain for God was unparalleled so even though they carried the ark to the battle field, the presence didn't work. After the two of them had died, the wife of one of them gave birth and named the child Ichabod, meaning the glory has departed.

Her understanding was that the glory had departed, but the glory didn't just depart with the ark being taken by the enemies, it left the moment those who handled the presence of God became ungodly in their dealings.

Nothing wastes the presence of God in our lives like to begin to meddle with sin. It has the capacity to interfere with the anointing and presence of God from being a game changer. You may carry a title, wear a collar and still have the shaking of the body like Samson with some acts following, but the glory walks away gradually until a final destruction shows that the glory had departed.

I like you to also study 2 Samuel 6 when David decided to bring back the ark and the ark was brought out of the house of Abinadab, they put the ark upon a new cart while Abinada's son Ahio and Uzzah drove the ark. As against the heavenly protocol of bearing the ark upon the shoulder of consecrated men, they put it upon a cart. There is a difference between these two processes. The ark upon the shoulder of men determined the speed of those men, the weight of the glory determines how fast and how far the men could go, but to put the ark upon a cart, instead of the glory of God driving men, it would be men driving the glory of God. This is against the protocol of God. Men shouldn't use God; it is God who uses men.

David and all the house of Israel rejoiced with great music and that again shows that you can be doing things wrongly and singing high praise. Praise and worship will not suffice to bribe God when the divine order of bearing his presence is not respected amongst us. Why would place the presence of God upon animals when able men were merely involved in dancing and jumping.

As the dance party proceeded, Uzzah who had been familiar with the ark in his father house stretched his hand to touch the ark because the cart shook and God struck him to death. Listen you will die if you attempt to touch a glory you haven't paid a price to bear. There is no shortcut to accessing God than to take the prescribed route. What Uzzah did is what a lot of us are doing. We are trying to help God when we have refused to release our shoulder to carry His presence.

I round up with this scripture, Lamentation 3:27 " _it is good that a man bears his yoke while he is still young."_

**Action** **Plan** \- Start to take responsibility for carrying the presence of God upon your life

**Further** **Reading** -Judges 16:1-31

#

# DAY 8

## THE DESIRE OF MOSES

Numbers 11

The man Moses was one who received grace from the Lord and was a great carrier of the power and glory of God. He was the one used of God to bring the Israelites out of Egypt.

Leading the whole army of Israel out was a great task. At a time, it became obvious that one man couldn't sustain the burden of being the conduit pipe for connecting men to God, hence God instructed him to take 70 men and a part of the spirit upon him would be put upon them. Eventually the people gathered unto Moses and Moses' spirit came upon them. However, according to Numbers 11 verse 26, there were two people who were not in the impartation service yet the spirit of the Lord came upon them.

A lad ran to tell Moses what was happening, these two men had refused to come to the assembly despite their name being on the list. Joshua supported the motion that the two men should be stopped apparently because they did not show up at the gathering, and he felt were not supposed to come in contact with the spirit of God upon Moses.

When the report was brought to Moses, Moses expressed a desire, asking why Joshua was so jealous for him. He said Would God that all the Lords people were prophets? This important desire expressed by Moses, I believe was a prophecy. The desire of God is infact to make us all prophets of God to our world by his spirit.

This desire and prophesy was what Joel gave validation to in his prophecy Joel 2:28-29. It says, _"And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophecy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit."_

This is the intention of God that Moses gave a voice to, the least of us becoming a vessel of God by His spirit, there is no excuse for any of us not to be filled with God since he already gave himself to us.

Do you notice that the people outlined in the prophecy were a set of unnamed and faceless people?

ALL FLESH- The intention of God is to break out upon us and use us to reach others, it is an all-inclusive plan to make God known to all flesh. It is important that we begin to have a kingdom orientation, not a church orientation, the covenant with Abraham is that all nations shall be blessed of the Lord thought Abraham.

SONS AND DAUGHTERS - God's interest is in young men and woman. We often neglect our children in the scheme of God's event. Gods plan is to perfect praise in the mouth of babes, both Male and female.

OLD MEN-The outpouring of the spirit won't leave out the old men, perhaps you missed the touch of God as a young man, there is a second chance on the way.

Don't miss out on what God is doing at this time as God is building his army of valiant men and putting his spirit upon them for a revival.

YOUNG MEN-After a general outpouring on sons and daughters, young men have an emphasis, the youths are strategic to the plan of God in any generation. There is a double portion for us hallelujah.

SERVANT & HANDMAIDS-Servants and handmaids are also qualified for the outpouring of the spirit. The outpouring has no plan to isolate based on social status, both the rich and the poor will qualify.

God intends to use us as his voice to the lost world by the empowerment of his spirit. The perfect plan of God is not for one man to be the only one who carries the spirit of God acting as the Oracle to the others.

That was a prophetic picture of the Apostolic release of the spirit of God in the old testament, it was upon 70 people in the days of Moses. Under the Law and the Prophets, the King, priest and prophet were the main men who had the anointing of God upon them but the model changed in the new system. Luke 16:16 The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.

Now you and I have a duty to press into the provision of God for our lives. We are included in the prophetic agenda of God but the responsibility is on us to press into it. The 120 people who received the baptism of the Holy ghost were men who stood in the place of prayer for not less than 10 days tarrying in the presence of the Lord until the power came.

**Action** **Plan** \- Desire and pray for the outpouring of the spirit upon you

**Further** **Reading** \- Acts Chapters 1-6

#

# DAY 9

## ALONE WITH GOD

Mark 6:30-32

The church has emphasized the idea of church gathering so much, and this is good, however, another part of the equation which has not been so emphasized is spending time alone with God. While corporate gathering of believers makes power available, the power available is actually a function of what power is generated in the place of personal communion and being alone with God.

While it is true that God likes public display, there cannot be a public display of God without a private intake of God. God is a God of the secret place. One of the beautiful phrases of Elijah that catches my attention is 'Before the Lord whom I stand'. Anytime Elijah made a public pronouncement and mentioned this phrase, he was alluding to the fact that he was backed up by the God of his secret place. "Before the Lord whom I stand" is a word of testimony regarding the effectiveness of his secret place. He had a rich background of being alone with God.

In 1 Kings 17 verse 1, Elijah gave a word to Ahab that there would be no dew or rain, except at his word. Elijah did not just say a word, he gave a decree, and the authority that gave performance to that word was based on his relationship with God in the secret place.

Great men are made in the secret place of the Lord. What we do most time is to quickly breeze into the presence of the Lord but we don't have a dwelling there. Our inconsistency in staying with God alone, accounts for our inconsistency in our manifestation of him.

The secret of encountering God is in encountering God in the secret place. While it is easy for God to pour out his spirit upon us in the public worship, every major encounter with God is a product of being alone with God.

To maximize access to God and draw on all that God has for us effectively, we must learn to be alone with God. One model that Jesus exemplified in his earthly walk was constantly being alone with God. He had to deal with people and it was not easy for Jesus to be alone. People sought him out, the sick needed him, his disciples were looking for him, Pharisees needed him, but In the midst of being hardly pressed after, Jesus found a way to be alone with God.

At the beginning of his ministry after his water baptism, he was led into the wilderness for forty days to spend time with God. My father in the Lord, Daddy Adeboye recently in an interview said if you spend time with God in the private, He will spend time with you in the public.

After the miracle of feeding the multitude with bread and fishes, he sent the multitude away, sent his disciples to the other side but he himself went into the mountain to pray.

I feel that in our preparation for getting alone with God there are lessons to glean from the approach of Jesus. You must be deliberate about sending the multitude away. There are so many things that constitute multitude in our life, they basically draw from us just like the multitude came always to draw from Christ. They take our attention, sap our energy and then leave us exhausted in the spirit.

Everyone who will effectively get alone with God in prayer must learn how to deal decisively with the multitude. The distractions of social media in our generation has become hydra headed, just after we conquered Facebook, Instagram came up, now the busy street is twitter, Movies are easy to stream on mobile devices and if you are not careful, you will be held down from ascending to the mountain because of the multitudes in the valley.

So Jesus went alone to be with God and was greatly impacted such that while the disciples were struggling with a storm on the sea he went walking over the sea by what he contacted from being alone with God.

Genesis 32 gave us an account of Jacob returning home after his sojourn with Laban, the fear of what Esau could do to him was palpable, so Jacob began to strategize, which is what we do when there is a challenge. Jacob made plans in the flesh, organized his family into companies and sent them ahead, after all the strategies were put into place, Jacob from verse 9 of Genesis 32 began to pray to the God of his fathers. By the time he got to verse 24, he decided to be alone with God and when he got alone, he had an encounter that changed his life.

Jacob was a man whose life was full of activities, he was always a schemer, making things happen for himself and not allowing God to help him. What had kept Jacob was the covenant blessing of God with his fathers which was upon his life. The only other time that Jacob had an encounter with God was when he was younger and running from Esau, he stumbled upon a place and used a

stone for a pillow which had been a part of an altar raised by Abraham and Jacob had an encounter with God.

**Action Plan** \- Be deliberate about being alone with God. Set time and place apart and expect God to visit you

**Further** **Reading** \- Luke 4:1-2, 14-15, Matthew 14:1-13, Luke 6:12-13

#

# DAY 10

## VISION 20/20

_Isaiah 6_

The number 2020 is a term used to express normal vision acuity (the clarity or sharpness of vision) measured at a distance of 20 feet. The Prophetic implication of our entering this year is that God wants to sharpen our vision and give us accurate perspective of our lives and the kingdom of God.

One of the wow moments I have come across in the Bible is the story of Isaiah who was operating in the prophetic and prophesying to the nations, he was operating out of a gift, he was accurate in his utilization of his gift of seeing and he was promptly declaring the word to the nation. The events that happened in Chapter 6 confirms to us that the visions of Isaiah were not sharp and perfect.

So in Chapter 6 of Isaiah, a 20/20 vision came to Isaiah and the vision only came after something had happened. The story started with "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and his train filled the temple"

Have you ever taken time to study the life of King Uzziah in 2 Chronicles 26? He became King at the age of 16 and God was with him. 2 Chronicles 26:5 says for as long as Uzziah sought the Lord, the Lord prospered him.

If you read that chapter, you will discover that the economy of the land so much prospered under Uzziah, they developed machines, had scientific breakthroughs, infrastructural development, military development and verse 15 said he was marvellously helped and his name spread far abroad.

Unfortunately, when Uzziah was strong, verse 16 said he was lifted up in his heart, he became proud, went into the house of the Lord in contempt for the priestly office and burnt incense upon the altar of incense. Azariah and 80 other priests who were described as valiant men went in to withstand the error of Uzziah, they told him it was not his honour to offer incense unto the Lord because it was the consecrated calling of the Levites.

Uzziah became angry, he was so proud in the presence of God and God became angry, suddenly leprosy broke out upon his head. So the priests thrust him out of the temple, he himself hasted also to go out. He was a leper till the day of his death.

He appears a prophetic picture of the humbling of nations and the raising of a new prophetic voice. So in the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah had a new revelation of God. For our personal consumption, the flesh needs to die for us to have a fresh revelation of God. This prophet saw a new vision of God and for the first time he saw a true perspective of his own life.

When we humble ourselves before God, and have fresh encounters with God, he reveals us to us. The message of Isaiah changed from woe to the nations to _"woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips"_ The Lord then sent an angel to purify the tongue of Isaiah. It was after this encounter that Isaiah properly heard the Lord's call and was commissioned.

We will need to deliberately hewn the flesh before the Lord for us

**Action Plan** \- Putting the flesh under subjection is a must if we will be accurate in our reception from the Lord

**Further Reading** – 1 Corinthians 9:27

#

# DAY 11

## WHEN YOU FAST

Matthew 6:16 -18

The contemporary Christian is the kind of Christian who wants to build the spirit yet feeds the tummy always. Apart from having fellowship in prayers and studying the word of God, the only other ingredient that creates a move of the Holy Spirit for the believer is the practice of a fasting life. While many people have raised issues as to the necessity of fasting, many see fasting only as something that needs to be done because there is a big problem to tackle or only at seasons when the church corporately commands it.

The idea of fasting is to deny the flesh and supply nutrients to the spirit. It is starving the flesh to stuff the spirit. It a process of insulating yourself from responding from the flesh. Jesus in preparing for temptation began a fast, so that by the time the devil came firing from all angles, Jesus was too ready. Jesus was already dead to the flesh and alive in the spirit before the tempter came. If you study the temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4, you will discover that it was all about flesh but the response of Jesus was all from the spirit.

Jesus in Matthew 6:16 -18 said _''When you fast"._ This is a word from the scripture that emphasizes that fasting is not something that may be done, but something that must be done. This was in the same teaching session where Jesus taught the disciples how to pray, if it wasn't a necessary corollary to the subject of prayer God wouldn't have introduced it in that series. Jesus taught the protocol of fasting as something that must done unto God in the secret and your father which sees in secret will reward you openly.

Fasting is a spiritual enterprise that must done in secret but the reward comes in the public. A Father in the Lord said you cannot be foodful and be fruitful. You cannot always lay your hands on _eba_ and _poundo_ and lay the same hands on the sick or use the same finger to cast out demons. Believers are not just meant to feast, they must fast also.

The news testament church showed us that fasting is an exercise of the spirit. Just like we feed to make the body healthy, we fast to make the spirit healthy.

Acts 13 verses 1-2 mentioned a typical gathering of believers in the Apostolic church, certain brethren in the church in Antioch came together to minister to the Lord and they FASTED. They didn't gather to do comedy, they came together to worship the Lord and fasted, then the Holy Spirit saw certain men that had come of stature to be sent on a kingdom mission. The Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

Jesus went on the mount of transfiguration with 3 of his Apostles and 9 robust apostles are left at the feet of the mountain. Mark 9 verse 28 and 29 said a demon made a mess of the disciples, all nine of them apparently attempted to impose their anointing upon the demon and he demon refused to go. It was in the presence of a great population, so it was a humiliating experience especially because those men have experienced the supernatural prior to this encounter. They must have been so distraught. Interestingly for them when the father of the child brought him to Jesus, just by coming into the presence of Jesus, the demon manifested and Jesus cast it out.

The disciples were embarrassed, so they came to Jesus and asked a fundamental question, why could we not cast it out? Jesus in his response, gave them an advanced hint in the school of the spirit that there is a price that needs to be paid in the flesh so that faith can thrive in our spirit.

Jesus demonstrated that there is a dimension called "This kind" which does not go out except by prayer and fasting

There are certain dimensions of God that we won't see manifest until flesh is thoroughly dealt with in our life. Don't forget that meat for the belly, the belly for food, all shall likewise perish. (1 Corinthians 6:13)

Mark 2:18-20 The disciples of John came unto Jesus saying John's disciples fasted but his disciples did not fast, Jesus didn't say there was no need to fast, he said they won't fast when the bridegroom is around but after he is gone they will fast. He didn't say they may fast, they will fast.

The verb fasting comes from the Hebrew term _tsum_ , which refers to self-denial. Jesus started his journey into ministry with 40 days of fasting and in his conversation with Satan, Jesus brought to the fore the importance of self-denial when he said that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Matthew 4:4.

**Action Plan** \- Be conscious about denying the flesh so that you spirit can be alive to God.

**Further** **Reading** \- 1 Corinthians 7:5, II Corinthians 6:5, Ezra 8:23

#

# DAY 12

## THE RIVERS OF LIVING WATERS

John 4

The plan of God is to break through us to the world. Every day, God looks out to encounter men so that he can use such men of encounter to touch the world around them. So in the scheme of eternity, Jesus decided to encounter a woman who had been thoroughly abused by the world.

She had some water in her and been serving it to men, but because the water she gave was not a living water, men being unsatisfied by her water, ended up abusing her. I am sure you know how important water is, but nothing can be disappointing than to be thirsty and get to a body of water only to find out that the water cannot quench your thirst. This was the kind of experience that the children of Israel had in Exodus 15 when they got to Marah and there was an excitement that they had seen a water body that would quench their thirst. You can imagine their disappointment when they realized that water was bitter. It took the hand of God to make the water sweet and good for their use.

The Samaritan woman needed the hand of God upon her life just like everyone who has not had encounter with God to convert our water to something a whole nation can drink from. God's intention is to cause a river of living waters to flow from within us, which he can use to satisfy the thirst of the world. Please understand that the world is thirsty, this is why you see men hooked on to different things trying to quench their thirst, some to alcohol, others to sex, pornography, drugs etc. What we all must realize is that those things won't satisfy anybody, hence God needs to pour out his water through our lives to the world.

Jesus sat on the well of Jacob, he found a good spot for the encounter that he wanted to give to that woman. He was the real living water sitting on a well. Heaven plans encounters for us, so that our lives can be a blessing to the world.

When the Samaritan woman came, Jesus struck a conversation with her asking her to give him water.

Her response was so proud because she believed she had something to give him. Jesus appeared helpless, didn't have anything to fetch water with and was all alone by himself because his disciples had gone to the city to buy food.

The woman had no idea who Jesus was, so at the beginning of the conversation she simply generalized him, and said "How is it that you, being a Jew ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" John 4 verse 9 shows us that she simply categorized him as one of those other Jews. This is the way we often react to Jesus when he approaches us and we don't have a revelation of who he truly is. It is so easy to just make Jesus one of the Jews when you don't have a revelation of God. He just becomes a part of every other thing you are doing, he occupies another compartment in your life like your education, job and social life. At this level in your personal life, you could in fact be going to church, but it's just an extension of your social function. You really don't know who God is.

From her response it was clear to Jesus that the veil had not been lifted off her face so Jesus continued in verse 10 saying if you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, "give me a drink', you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.

Let me quickly mention to you that the reaction of the woman is common to the average man who thinks that when God is trying to get him, it is because he has something to give or offer God. Listen friend, when God asks for your life, it is not because he needs your life, he actually gave his life for you. The value of your life is in God's life. So, when God asks for your life, he is seeking to give value to your life.

So, when Jesus responded to the woman in John 4:10, and spoke about the living water, her tone changed. In verse 11 she said "Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water? There are some important things to consider from this question. First, physically Jesus had nothing to draw with and that was deliberate, because the well that Jesus was talking about doest need a bucket. The second thing that the woman mentioned is that the well is deep. If the well of Jacob was deep, you need to know that the well of the spirit is deeper.

In verse 13 Jesus answered and said to her, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. Jesus by this conversation was creating a thirst in the spirit of the woman. By the time she replied in verse 15 the woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw. That's to confirm what Jesus was saying. Although she was drawing from that well, the water kept on finishing and she always needed to come back to the well. It was never enough for her, not to talk of satisfying the thirst of others around her.

Everyone must come to a point of thirst and asking the Lord, give me this water that I may not thirst. Until you are thirsty and asking, you won't get a supply. The principle of being filled is to thirst. _Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled_ (Matthew 5:6)

When the woman asked for the water, Jesus took the conversation further, saying "Go call your husband and come here." The woman then replied i have no husband. Don't forget the progression of this conversion. Jesus had moved from being referred as 'one of the Jews' to 'Sir'. At this level, she simply perceived Jesus as a man who could be a benefactor to her, perhaps she categorized Jesus as another man who could give her something and get something in return just like the 6 other men who had been in her life. They must have come into her life because they offered to give her something but they also got something in return.

When she said I have no husband, Jesus took the conversation further when he said 'you have well said', You have had five husbands and the one whom you now have is not your husband. This statement from Jesus changed the dynamics of this conversation. This was a man she had just met for the first time who began to give her a download of all that had transpired in her life.

By verse 19 the woman's perspective about Jesus changed, again she said sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. May I take a moment to say here that do you realize that this continuous discussions and fellowship with Jesus by this unbelieving woman began to change her perspective of Jesus, the more they talked, the better picture of Jesus she had. This is the power of fellowship. They were all alone, just having a talk and she was growing in her knowledge, her spiritual senses were being developed. In this conversation in a short while, she had grown from being a woman who judged one after the flesh to one who perceives the spirit that another was operating in. The moment Jesus switched to the prophetic, this woman perceived it. The key to your development in the spirit is communion.

When Jesus went in the prophetic dimension the woman again changed the conversation in verse 20, our fathers worshipped on this mountain and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. It appeared that the devil discovered that something was going down here, the woman was getting exposed to the prophetic dimension of Jesus, so he inspired her to discuss religion and again she generalized Jesus as "you Jews'. This happens when the devil realizes that faith is finding root in your heart. He attacks your heart with religion and brings doubt. The reply of Jesus was instructive in verse 21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.

Listen friend, God is not interested in your being religious, worshipping God in the mountain or in Jerusalem. In fact, Jesus explained the tragedy of religion to this woman in verse 22 when he said _"you worship what you do not know, we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews"._ How many people go to church and yet do not have a knowledge or revelation of the God they claim to worship.

As we wrap up this, Jesus answered an important question that the woman had asked before, when she said what will you draw with from the deep well? The kind of well that God wants you to draw from, is a spiritual well and the only way to draw is to draw with your spirit

Verses 23 and 24 helps us to answer this, but the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the father is seeking such to worship Him. God is a spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.

This revelation instructs us on how to fetch the wells of God. The father is the owner of the well, just as Jacob is the owner of the physical well but instead of using bucket to fetch this well, Jesus said what you will need to fetch from the Father is your spirit.

Do you understand that in the Old Testament, man was worshipping God with their body which is a picture of a physical container? There was a spiritual separation between God and man the moment God sent man out of the garden. So if you pay attention to the protocols of the Old Testament, you will see that in order to approach God in the Old Testament, they had to do a lot of washing and sacrifices to be able to approach God. There was a limitation to our exposure to God in the Old Testament because the spiritual separation was active and the blood of animals could not take care of that separation. So Jesus said the hour comes and now is when the true worshippers will worship God in the spirit. Jesus said that because the hour was drawing near when he would be crucified and resurrect and bring the spirit of man back in union with God.

Kindly note that the human body is not the man; it is a container that man lives in. The true man is a spirit who lives in the body and by believing the death and resurrection of Jesus, our spirit is made alive and reconnected to God for fellowship.

The trend you will discover is that as the fellowship continued the woman grew in her level of understanding. As Jesus kept conversing with her, they were both raising the bar of the conversation. By verse 25 Then woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ) When He comes, he will tell us all things. Verse 26 Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am He.

Glory to God, they got to the summit of the encounter. This was the end goal of the encounter. The idea was for this woman to see the revelation of the Messiah. She had started from 'you Jews', to 'Sir' and then the perception that he is a prophet, only to be finally confronted with the revelation of the Messiah. When she jumped into the messiah conversation, Jesus didn't elongate the conversation, he quickly confirmed himself as the expected saviour that this woman had been waiting for and looking for.

After this revelation, the woman left her jar of water. She left the unsatisfying water when she came to the revelation of the true water, and then she ran to town to announce to the people, come see a man who told me everything I ever did, could this be the Messiah? This is why God encounters us, that we might be the instrument of his encounter to others.

I have read my Bible, and I think every man God encounters is used as an instrument to touch others. Encounters are for private assimilation but they end up in public manifestation. Take a look at the Bible, everyone encountered by God is sent. This woman became Gods instrument to move a whole town to Jesus. Do you remember the mad man of the Gardarenes in Mark 5 who, after being healed by Jesus, wanted to follow him, but was instructed to go and tell his friends what Jesus had done for him and he became an Evangelist to Decapolis (Ten cities)?

As the river of living water began to find expression in this woman, she became an instrument of revival to the town. Did you notice that the intention was for Jesus to pass through Samaria but he never entered Samaria? This woman that was encountered outside the town was the instrument that Jesus used to get through to Samaria.

**Action Plan** \- You are encountered to be sent, let others see your light and drink from your well.

**Further** **Reading** \- Luke 5, Mark 5:1-20

#

# DAY 13

## PROFITING FROM BARRENNES

_1 Samuel 1_

I am going to be drawing some prayer lessons particularly from the story of Hannah in 1 Samuel 1. However, permit me to quickly point your attention to the fact that there were 3 great men in the bible whose mothers were barren before those men emerged.

Samuel son of Hannah was a great prophet such that the bible said God didn't allow any of his words to fall to the ground. Heaven so much honoured him.

The second was Samson, a one-man army and a powerful warrior. God used Samson mightily to deliver Israel from her enemies, while the third was John the Baptist, the son of Elizabeth who was a mighty preacher, and forerunner of Jesus Christ. While John did no miracles, his words carried so much conviction that it brought the whole land to his baptism.

All these women were barren and sought the Lord for a long time before the children came forth. We will focus our study on Hannah.

Hannah was a good woman who had no reason to be barren. Even though Hannah was beloved of her husband, year after year, she remained barren. She saw the other wife Peninnah dropping babies so cheaply. In our days, there are married women desperate for the Blessing of a child, while some prostitutes get pregnant without much effort. Some even abort the baby.

There are times in our lives when we see things happening easily for others while those things do not happen for us. The plan of God is that such things should make us to desperately approach God in prayers. Whenever there is any sort of barrenness in our lives, there is an opportunity for God to birth something for the advancement of his kingdom through us.

In our ignorance unfortunately often times, the things that should have drawn us closer to God in prayer are the things that we allow to draw us away from God. At other times, we resort to self-help just like Abraham and Sarah did in their strategy with Hagar and they produced a burden and thorn in their flesh and to the kingdom of God.

Hannah as our case study began to press more into God, going to Shiloh every year but all she kept on saying was that she needed a man child, however in heaven's agenda there was a need for a prophet. This is why it is important to understand that prayer is not just imposing our will upon God, it is a means to download the will of God to the earth through our lives. You cannot by your faith impose anything on God that is not in the will of God. The true model of God is "thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven".

Hannah continued yearly without any result until one year when she eventually learnt a vital lesson in the school of prayer and came into alignment with the will of God. This is something you will learn in the place of prayer if you wait upon the Lord enough.

1 Samuel 1:10 said she came in the bitterness of soul and wept before the Lord. She practically became intense in our prayer, this year she came to pray a fervent and effectual prayer. Her prayers were so intense that the Prophet Eli thought she was drunk. She practically was travailing in the place of prayer, such dimension of prayer was what Isaiah 66:8 described as "As soon as Zion prevailed she brought forth a man child".

The import of thinking she was drunk while praying suggests the kind of intensity that comes to play when we pray under the influence of the Holy Spirit. You remember when the Holy Ghost came upon them at Pentecost, people thought they were drunk too. Romans 8:26 Likewise the spirit also helpers our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the spirit itself maketh Intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered.

She then said Lord if you give me a man child, I will give him to you a prophet all the days of his life. I imagine the Angel burst into joy that Hannah finally had learnt the lesson of praying in alignment with the will of God. I believe it wasn't the first time that God was nudging her heart to that dimension she just must have struggled with the idea because she wanted to have the baby to herself after a long time of barrenness, at least to console herself.

This is where you will discover that God is not emotional but intentional and that our success rate in prayer is only guaranteed by our praying the will of God. When you notice that things that should naturally be yours are not being delivered easily, let it push you to the place of Intercession, God might be willing to birth something extraordinary through you.

Don't ever give up on God. Zechariah and Elizabeth stayed faithful to God in their devotion and kept on serving the Lord until the Lord gave them the greatest prophet under the law, John the Baptist who prepared the way for the Lord.

**Action Plan** \- praying in the Holy Ghost is the safest way to pray in the will of God. Make a practice of it as the Holy Ghost gives you utterance from today.

**Further Reading** \- John 16:21, Romans 8:22, Matthew 6

#

# DAY 14

## A SHEPHERD LIKE DAVID

1 Samuel 13:14

David was a man of grace with a unique introduction from God. God introduced him as a man after his own heart, he is the only one who earned that kind of testimony from the Lord. There was something about his life that resonated with the heart of God and I perceive that it the kind of sacrificial heart that David demonstrated in his journey.

Bible gave a peep into the heart of David while David was reading his own resume in 1 Samuel 17 verse 34 to 36. He was tending the flock of his father as a young man and on two occasions, there was an attack against the flock. A lion came in the first instance and attacked the flock, David rose up in defense of a sheep and staked his life for the sheep. At another time a bear came to the flock and attacked a sheep, David again rose up as a faithful shepherd and rescued the sheep staking his life for the sheep.

This is a nature after the heart of God. This character is consistent with the character of God. When the Bible was explaining this dimension of God in Romans Chapter 5 from verse 7 it said 'for scarcely will any man die for a righteous man, though for a good person one might possibly dare to die, verse 8 says "But God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners he died for us". This is what David did twice, he laid down his life for an animal, he demonstrated the heavenly characteristic of the shepherd of our soul. God then decided to pitch his tenth with David, that Jesus shall be called be son of David and every prophetic intercession by Samuel for Saul was rejected. God had taken his time to seek out David.

In David's journey, one of the spectacular things that happened to him was that his life, by the anointing of leadership upon him, attracted men to him. At the time they came to him, these men were described by the Bible as vain men and charlatans. 1 Samuel 22:2 describe them as distressed, indebted and discontented men. As the men submitted themselves to David over time, they moved on from being distressed men to men (1 Sam 27:8). As they continued under the leadership of David, they later become mighty men (2 Samuel 23)

So much transformation had happened to the men under the ministry of David, such that those indebted men had become mighty men. David had an Apostolic leadership unction that produced greatness in this men. He accepted them, helped them to discover themselves and developed them into mighty men.

The Bible gave us a few insights into the resume of this men, Adino the Eznite was one who used a spear to kill 800 men. Eleazer the son of Dodo took on the Philistines single handedly and fought them until his hand clave to the sword. After him was Shamah the son of Agee, there was a day the Philistines came and people ran from them, Shammah stood in the middle of the ground and defended it and the Lord wrought a deliverance through him.

Many others amongst these men were nameless but they were all mighty men, men of stature. One day David longed to drink water from behind enemy line, three of this men went through the philistine's garrison, broke through a host and drew the water for David. When David got the water, he poured out the water unto the Lord reckoning it as the blood of these men. They were indeed mighty men. These men jeopardized their lives just to satisfy an almost unspoken desire of their king. They show a prophetic picture of those who will break through enemy lines to do the will of the Lord.

My emphasis today is on the kind of shepherd that God wants to give us in this times according to Jeremiah 3:15 _"And I will give you shepherds (Pastors) according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding"._ The knowledge and understanding of God is what makes us mighty men in the hands and kingdom of God.

The Body of Christ today seems to be filled many shepherd not after the heart of God who are feeding men with junks and spices, our knowledge and understanding of the almighty seems to be shallow. Not many amongst us are mighty because we are mainly seeking the hand of God, and not the face of God. We are a consumer generation, looking to get all the blessing.

Since Gods plan is to give us shepherds after his heart who will feed us with knowledge and understanding, it is our responsibility to align with the will of God in finding and submitting to such men who have the capacity to build us up to maturity and becoming mighty men under God.

**Action Plan** \- Commit to finding men after Gods heart who can feed you with knowledge and understanding, prioritizing your development

**Further Reading** \- Judges 11, Mark 3:14-19

#

# DAY 15

## BECOMING STRONG IN THE SPIRIT (1)

John 1:80

According to John 1 verse 80, the child John grew and became strong in the spirit and was in the wilderness until the days of his manifestation to Israel.

The spirit is Gods platform for relating with man and no man can host God more than the capacity of his spirit. When your operating system is small, the amount of God that can be at work in you and through you is directly proportional to the strength of your spirit.

In our focal scripture, the Bible says the child John grew. From this scripture, we can see that the first thing that happens to determine your strength, or the pathway to being strong in the spirit is growth. Good growth and being strong in the physical happens by feeding on good diet and exercising the muscles.

Growth in the spirit also comes by feeding on the word, drinking from the rivers of living waters and exercising your spirit.

I quickly paint a few scenarios for us: -

(A) A child born into a wealthy family grows well because he is fed with good food

(B) A child born into poverty will have a stunted growth because he is not well fed

(C) A child feeding well but not exercising the muscles will grow but will be weak

There are areas of concentration in our lives that determines whether we will be strong in the spirit.

INTENSE FEEDING

To be strong in the spirit, we must consciously feed on the word of God beyond just a religious attendance of church services. So much as the ministry of teaching priests are needed in the body of Christ, you have a personal responsibility to feed yourself. My 3-year-old son is beginning to feed himself, just as a child in the spirit must also begin to learn how to feed himself. Your pathway to strength in the spirit is responsibility; you will need to take responsibility for your feeding. Your transition from milk of the word to the meat of the word is your personal responsibility.

It's okay that if you just gave your life to Christ, you desire the sincere milk of the word of God. (1 Peter 2:2) The milk is an expression of already processed revelations by other men, which is good for babies, but you can't dwell on that for long. One of the things that happen to you as you grow out of babyhood is that you desire meat; something that you can process yourself. The more you grow, the more you want to find out where the revelation is coming from for yourself.

Listen, if all you depend on for your growth is what the pastor preaches on Sunday and Wednesday, your journey to being strong in the spirit will take a long time. There comes a time when you have to be deliberate about your own feeding else you starve to death.

We are the generation that seeks three square meals daily; feed the flesh all manner of junks, music, movies, comedies daily. Then we listen to sermons occasionally, fast only when there is a problem, don't read the word at all. This is how we become strong in the flesh and when a battle arises between our spirit and the flesh, the flesh wins easily. There is no shortcut to being strong in the spirit; you cannot grow your muscles when you outsource your feeding and your exercise.

There is a price to pay to be strong in the spirit, those who want to be strong in the body, do exercise and visit the gym often. They carry weights and toughen their muscles by pushing themselves outside the comfort zone.

**Action Plan** \- Commit yourself to the ministry of the word like the Apostles, it is the secret to shinning the light.

**Further** **Reading** \- Joshua 1, John 1

#

# DAY 16

## BECOMING STRONG IN THE SPIRIT (2)

John 1:6-7

Our focal scripture made it known that John was a man sent from the Lord, whose assignment was to come as a witness bearing witness to the light, that all men through him might believe. There had been a prophetic silence in the land for about 400 years and for John to fulfil his destiny as the voice of one crying in the wilderness, he must be strong in the spirit. To be able to carry the needed authority to capture the spiritual atmosphere, John had to go through a school of the spirit.

Kindly understand that your destiny fulfilment in the kingdom of God is something that goes beyond potential. There is the need for us to become strong in the spirit if we will be all that God wants us to be.

John was born in the old age of a priest yet he ended up a prophet with the spirit of Elijah, he was made in the wilderness, eating locust and wild honey. He was an intense man who became strong in the spirit and became a principality in the land at whose voice the whole land repented.

We take a look at two other ingredients that will help us to become strong in the spirit

  * INTENSE PRAYER & WORSHIP

According to Leonard Ravenhill "No man is greater than his prayer life. The Christian who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. The pulpit can be a shop window to display one's talents; the prayer closet allows no showing off".

Poverty-stricken as the Church is today in many things, she is most stricken here, in the place of prayer. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few prayers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing in the ministry of prayer, we fail everywhere.

  * JOHN IN THE WILDERNESS (SEPARATION)

One of the things that made John strong was his separation to the Lord to learn the way of the spirit. John was in the wilderness, as it were, he was basically separated from the distractions of the world. There is no way to build intimacy with God without being separated from the distractions that the devil had placed in the world. The married people know that for you to be intimate with your spouse, you need to be switched off from every other distraction.

Many of us are too hooked to our television, phones, computers, now we must not be ignorant of the device of the devil. Those devices despite their advantages can be a distraction. You must in fact know how to use those devices to your advantage of being strong in the spirit. We have more resources available to us in our generation than our fathers had and we have no excuse not to manifest.

Our call is to strength because our ministry is battle and our destiny is victory. Ephesians 6:10 says "finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might" we are not called to be weaklings whipping and running from the devil and his agents. We are called to be warriors, we are soldiers and not civilians. God is raising an army not a party.

**Action Plan** \- Make a commitment to be separated unto the Lord as you become strong in the spirit.

**Further** **Reading** \- Isaiah 40-29-31, Ephesians 3:16

#

# DAY 17

## EFFECTIVE PRIESTHOOD

Leviticus 6:12

And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it, it shall not be put out: and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning and lay the burnt offering in order upon it and he shall burn thereon the fat of the peace offerings.

God has called us all to be priests unto God (1 Peter 2:9), the blood of the new covenant makes us all priests unto God. It is our responsibility to understand how to effectively stand in the priest's office and minister unto God.

1 Peter 2:5 says you also as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

All our lives, we were told that we are a royal priesthood but perhaps like myself, you were not told that priesthood is not a title but a position of service to the monarch of heaven. A priest has a huge responsibility of a life that is regulated by the spirit he ministers to. Have you considered the great responsibility that was upon Zechariah the high priest, who despite being barren and in his old age, was still faithful in his service of priesthood to the Lord in the temple? Priesthood is such a high calling that God places upon a man and his generation such that they are tied irrevocably to the covenant of offering sacrifices to the altar of that spirit.

This is our responsibility as kings and priests on earth. Our priesthood comes before our kingship. We extend the rule of God on earth as kings after we have fulfilled our priestly calling by ministering to God. The protocol of appeasing God and attracting his attention on earth is the altar. From the Old Testament to the new, there is no new way in the pathway to attracting God, save the way of the altar and sacrifices.

Our focal scripture lays a responsibility upon the priest to raise an altar every morning. Leviticus 6 verse 12 says and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order upon it; and he shall burn thereon the fat of the peace offerings.

The fact that God insists that this must be done morning by morning is ensuring that God comes first in the affairs of the priest. Effective priesthood comes with a responsibility. Things cannot be done haphazardly with God. God as the monarch of the universe has his own protocols that must be followed for us to deal with him. Many of us are too busy to prioritize God, although we have time for mundane things every day, yet we come to the altar once or twice a week. We cannot attract God with such irresponsible attitude at the altar.

The next important thing that you see about the altar is that everywhere the altar comes up, the bible always talks about putting the wood in order. Genesis 22:9 then they came to the place of which God had told him, and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on the top of the wood.

See 1 Kings 18:33, Leviticus 1:7

The sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar and arrange the wood on the fire and put it in order. It is important to know that the things of the kingdom come with order, for God is not the author of confusion. In 1 Corinthians 14:40, Paul admonished us that everything should be done decently and in order.

God is attracted to order. This is why the men who attracted God in their generation had a pattern, specific time of fellowship with God, heaven is already familiar with their appearance in heaven. You cannot have a disorganized altar and effectively attract God. Everywhere you see God talking about altar, order is a constant factor. When Elijah in 1 Kings 18 was rebuilding the altar to bring about revival in the land, Bible said he lay the wood of the altar in order. This is why the devil tries hard to distract us from the place of fellowship and altar so that we don't have order in our altar.

After laying the wood in order, the next thing was for the flesh to be laid on the wood. Romans 12:1 says I beseech you therefore, brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable sacrifice.

Are you aware that what happens when you come to fellowship with God is that the Lord works on you when you yield yourself to him? In effective priesthood, what you offer to the Lord is your life, your appetites and your will.

To be a living sacrifice is to be conscious in pouring yourself to the Lord as an oblation. Are you aware that the story of Abraham and Isaac is a picture of God and Jesus the son? Both Jesus and Isaac were willing to lay down their lives on the altar of sacrifice, while God and Abraham did not withhold their best gift. They were both living sacrifices unto God. This is the pattern that God wants to take, yielding our appetites and flesh to God upon the altar.

Paul calls this act of laying down our lives on the altar as our reasonable service, in the light of what God has done for us in his own sacrifices of giving his son. It is in our service of laying our body upon the altar that our minds are transformed by the Holy Spirit.

**Action Plan** – Be deliberate in demonstrating your love for God in unreserved worship and obedience in your daily life.

**Further Reading** – Romans 12:1, Genesis 22:1-19

#

# DAY 18

## DIGGING TO REHOBOTH

Genesis 26:15

There are depths in God that we must reach before revival breaks out in any land. The digging of wells in the Old Testament is a metaphor for seeking God in a dry land. Psalm 63 verse 1 says O God, you are my God; early will I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.

A well in Bible times is a symbol for community. Metaphorically, the well represented all the social resources of the community that were necessary to endure and thrive in a land. The true mark that you could survive in a land is that you dig till you find water. If a well that sustained the people fell into disrepair or was polluted, it affects the very life of the people in the community.

So Abraham as the father of a generation dug many wells. The spiritual picture of that was the many encounters that Abraham had with the Lord. As he found water for his family for physical sustenance, he also found God the source of all life and it was obvious to his family members that God was the source of the blessing.

Previous moves of God amongst men all over the world were occasioned by men who took the responsibility upon themselves to find God like Abraham. If there were tombs headstones till today for the patriarchs, that of Abraham would have read "Abraham-The father of faith, all the nations of the earth are blessed because of you. What qualified Abraham for that title was the faith, effort and commitment he had put into walking with God.

While the church of today mostly desires the blessings transferred from previous generations, we often don't find men of stature who will continue the responsibility that great men undertook in their days to demonstrate God in their own days.

So after Abraham died, the enemies covered the wells that Abraham had laboured over. In Genesis 26 verse 18, Isaac dug again the wells of water, which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father; for the philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.

Please know that the enemy is at work in the business of covering the wells dug by the fathers, he is aware of the damage the men of old did and he is trying to make sure that the children do not continue in that route.

It is our responsibility to redig the well of our fathers and bring the Lord to bear upon our generation. Did you see that Isaac named them after the names that his father had called them, that's to let you know that God has not changed his name, He is the same yesterday, today and forever more (Hebrews 13:8)

The dimensions of God revealed in the days of our fathers is still what he wants to be called in our days. Let's not be the ones who will change the name of God in our days. God is still the God of miracles, signs and wonders, the one who heals diseases and saves to the uttermost.

This is the dimension of God that the devil is attacking in our world. He doesn't want the revelation of God through us like in the days of our fathers. When Isaac dug the first well the enemy came to strive for it. He dug the second one and the enemy came for it. The word strive means to struggle or fight vigorously for something. It is to make great efforts to achieve or obtain something. This is what the devil is doing in our days, vigorously struggling to stop us from rediging the wells.

All of what the devil is doing today in the nations of the world particularly amongst young people is an attempt to stop the move of God in our days.

Thank God for Isaac, he was a fighter, strong in the spirit, the more the enemy strove and contented with Isaac over the wells, the more Isaac dug more and deeper until he came to point where the enemy gave up over him. Genesis 26 verse 22 says _"And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, for now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land"._

Beloved, our key to reviving the nations and bringing forth fruits for God is to be ready to redig the wells. We must be ready to contend with the enemies and be persistent at it until God breaks out like a fountain upon our generation. Where our great fathers stopped is where God intends that we begin from. We cannot do any lesser than what the fathers did.

There are mantles waiting to be caught but they don't fall easily, Elisha had to press deeply more than surface commitment to possess the mantle. At several times we saw Elijah asking Elisha to go back for the Lord has sent him to another place, Elisha followed hard, putting pressure upon Elijah until the double portion of Elijah's spirit rested upon him.

**Action Plan** \- Commit to pursuing hard after God, press deeply until you get to Rehoboth

**Further Reading** – Jeremiah 29:13, Psalm 63:1, Psalm 34:4

#

# DAY 19

## THE POWER OF THE INTERCESSOR (1)

Esther 3

The book of Esther presents to us a great picture of Intercession and the power that we have with God to bring salvation to men. It shows us the power available to the believer in the place of prayer and how that we make tremendous power available to destroy the scheme of the enemies.

An enemy of the people of God in the land had cunningly devised a scheme against the people of God getting a warrant to destroy them. Haman is vividly described as the enemy of the Jews, although his problem was personally Mordecai in the palace who had taken his stand as a Jew yet he sought to not only destroy Mordecai but all the Jews. He was going to be fulfilling the ministry of the devil, to steal, kill and destroy.

THE POSITION OF AN INTERCESSOR

In any case God had strategically positioned Esther in a place where she could access the throne of the mighty King Ahaseurus who had an expansive territory from India to Ethiopia. Let me quickly stress that the positioning of Esther is a demonstration of the position of an intercessor.

An intercessor occupies an important place in the scheme of God's event, he/she has power with God to rescue the life of men. That had also been demonstrated in the life of Mordecai, the king had been saved by the strategic positioning of Mordecai when two people plotted together to kill the king.

This is why we cannot afford to shirk away from our priesthood and position as intercessors because the life of men hang over our necks. You cannot underestimate the power of one intercessor who is rightly positioned with God. This is why God was seeking for a man to stand in the gap for the people in Ezekiel 22:30 so that the people will not be destroyed. The intercessor has a ministry of life, and to shirk in the responsibility is to open the door to death and hell.

Intercession is an important ministry to which every believer is called, he made all of us not some of us Kings and Priests, to embrace the Kingship and shy away from the priesthood is spiritual irresponsibility, which God needs a lot of us to repent from.

KINGS AND PRIESTS

Esther is a perfect picture of a believer operating properly in the King and Priests office. Revelations 1:6 said "and he hath made us kingd and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen

According to the above scriptures, the believer's calling is to be a king and a priest. Incidentally, the church has emphasized the kingship part without a corresponding emphasis on the responsibility of priesthood for us as believers. The expectation of God in placing us upon mountains and spheres of life is that we might come in as kings utilizing our priesthood office upon that mountain to exercise our ministry of offering to the Lord on behalf of the people until the people are saved.

**Action Plan** \- Begin to walk in the reality of your kingly and priestly office

**Further Reading** \- Obadiah 22, Esther 3

#

# DAY 20

## THE MINISTRY OF INTERCESSION (2)

_Esther 4_

TOOLS OF AN INTERCESSOR

Prayer is essentially the obvious tool of trade of an intercessor however it is important to pay attention to some other things that are in effect more important to bring about the effective utilization of the instrument of prayer.

PERCEPTION

In Esther Chapter 4, after that the kings command had been given expression and set in motion, the assignment was being executed with speed because it had a wicked sponsor who infact put his personal wealth at the disposal of the king's servant to execute death upon the people.

Esther Chapter 4:1 opened with an important statement that Mordecai perceived all that was set in motion to be done. My emphasis is on the word "perceived" there was a sensitivity that Mordecai had that put him a vantage position to know the things that the enemy has planned ahead of the execution.

A story in 2 Kings showed the ability to perceive at work in a woman who happened to be the intercessor for her family.

2 Kings 4:9 _"And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God which passeth by us continually."_

The prophet was not introduced to her but she caught the revelation of the prophet at a wavelength of perception, not only that he is a prophet but a holy one at that.

Jesus in Luke 8:46 perceived that virtue went of him.

The lack of perception is something terrible that can occasion a mighty destruction. Acts 27:10 _"And said unto them, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage not only of the leading and ship, but also of our lives"._ That was Paul picking up ahead of time what was locked up ahead that others could not see, not by seeing a vision, but by perception.

Perception is simply described as a way of regarding, understanding or interpreting an impression. God wants you to come to a place where you pick up in your spirit things that God has in stock for you and what the devil also has planned to do. This is a very important tool for the successful execution of our intercessory ministry. Many of us would have felt guilty after the things we perceived but did nothing about eventually came to pass.

Mark 4:11 said as disciples of God we have been given grace to understand the mysteries of the kingdom but to those outside everything is done in parables.

BURDEN

When Mordecai perceived the evil that was to be done, he took responsibility for it. Intercession is premised upon the burden that a man has to see the hand of God move over a situation. Mordecai cried and raised an alarm over the situation. He took personally responsibility for the tragedy that was to befall the Jewish people. I recently read of one Daniel Nash who was described as 'Prevailing Prince of Prayer' who took personal responsibility for Intercession in the ministry of Charles Finney. When God gives Finney instruction to hold a meeting somewhere, Nash would slip quietly into such town getting two or more people with him into the covenant of prayer. He kept on praying and often won't attend the meetings but occasioned the hand of God as an intercessor.

It was the intercessor ministry of Mordecai that woke up the intercessor ministry of Esther. The mighty words sent to Esther by her uncle jolted her up from being at ease in the palace and taking responsibility for her priesthood in the palace

Esther 4:13-14 _"Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the King's house, more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this."_

Kindly understand that you were saved and bought into the kingdom for an assignment. Your priesthood is your most important function in the kingdom. The fact that you are seeing things happen in the kingdom is because certain priests are taking responsibility to make those things happen. Mordecai stressed it to Esther that if she does not rise up in her priesthood to intercede for the Jews, salvation will arise for the Jews from somewhere else.

The sacrifice that priesthood demands is a great one. Just as the sacrifice of the priesthood of Christ delivered us from death, this is what God wants us to do.

FAST

The next instrument of Intercession came up in Esther's reply to Mordecai and it is the instrument of fasting (which has been discussed earlier in the study for Day 11). Esther requested that Mordecai get the people to fast for her, she was going to fast also with her maidens. Esther 4:16

FAITH

The next important instrument of an intercessor is boldness or what I call the audacity of faith. Esther said and I go in to the king which is not according to law and if I perish I perish. That was a mighty revelation that just opened up to me. Esther said she would go in to the King which is not according to law. The way to enter into the presence of God is not according to law but by faith. Hebrews 11:6 He that comes to him must believe that he is and that he is a rewarded of them that diligently seek him.

Hebrews 4:16 says _"therefore, Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need."_

This is exactly a picture of what happened to Esther and she showed up with faith in the king's inner court in the time of need.

**Action Plan** \- Approach the throne by confidence, God is your father.

**Further Reading** Esther 5, Genesis 18

#

# DAY 21

## MINISTRY OF THE INTERCESSOR (3)

Esther 5

WAITING UPON THE LORD

When you read Esther Chapter 5, there was an approach used by Esther to approach the king after the above instrument had been deployed. She put on her royal apparel and stood in the inner court of the Kings house.

The intercessor must learn the power of waiting upon the Lord. We cannot run in to the king's palace, read our prayer points as contained in our prayer booklets and rush out. This is what we do most times.

Please understand that the prayers that deliver results are prayers done in the spirit, prayers after the flesh just wearies us. Ephesians 6:18 _"praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, and watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints."_

To pray in the spirit is the most effective way to access the presence of God. As we gather ourselves into the inner court and begin to wait upon the Lord according to Isaiah 40:31 _"they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall work and not faint."_

This is where your fleshly weakness is substituted for strength. If you ever have prayed in the spirit, you will discover that strength is made available to you.

Esther stood in the inner court, she moved out from her room and came into the inner court. The implication of this was that Esther was in the spirit, your flesh is your outer court. Prayers done in the flesh is a struggle, worship in the flesh is a struggle. This is why Jesus said _"the time comes and now is that they that worship the Lord shall worship him in truth and in spirit"_ (John 4:24)

The outer court is a place of many activities and distractions, when you succeed at getting into the inner court and start to wait upon the Lord there is a quickening that comes from the Lord. Please understand that despite the fact that Esther made up her mind to seek the audience of the king, she could not break in. The guards at the gate of the king's presence take instruction from no other, hence no man can come to God except God calls him to come.

Esther 5:2 said _"and it was so, that when the King saw Esther the queen standing in the court, that she obtained favour in his sight, and the king help out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand, so Esther drew near, and touched the top of the sceptre."_

The wordings of the above scripture demonstrate the passing of time. Esther had to stand in the court and wait. This is how you wait upon a King, and it was so that when the King saw Esther the queen standing, that she obtained favour in his sight. This is the scenario described by Hebrews 4:16. _"Let us come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need."_

The king then extended his invitation to bring Esther into his immediate presence which is a picture of the Holy of Holies where the Shekinah glory of God is. According to Psalm 80:18 there was a quickening that wouldmgive5 Esther the platform to eventually make her request known.

The joy of Esther making it into the King's presence is as contained in the Songs of Solomon 1:4 Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee.

This is what happens when you enter into God's presence, there is a gladness and joy that fills your heart when you get into God's presence. _"In your presence there is fullness of joy and at thy right hand there are pleasures forever"_ (Psalm 16:11)

Now that Esther was in the presence of the King, there was assurance that her petition will be granted to the half of the kingdom. There is no point praying from outside the presence of God. After Esther had secured the presence of the King, she made her case and upturned the execution judgment upon the Jews while Haman was hanged on the gallows he had prepared by himself.

It's time we all get into our priestly office and execute judgment upon the enemy while delivering Gods people from destruction.

**Action Plan** \- Commit yourself to prayer and intercession

**Further Reading** \- Acts 12, Isaiah 62:6-7, Genesis 18

#

# DAY 22

## STAND UPON YOUR WATCH

Habbakuk 2:1

_"I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me and what I shall answer when I am reproved"_

Habbakuk appears to be writing from the perspective of a servant waiting upon a master to get an instruction and run with it.

STAND UPON MY WATCH

He said I will stand upon my watch. To stand upon a watch means to be in an elevated place. Cities used to have a high tower or watch place where security men will stay and have the advantage of seeing afar.

It is important to also stress to you that apart from the literal meaning of standing upon an elevated plain, walls or high tower to monitor, another possible explanation of the term _"watch"_ is like a security man's shift. Every believer has a shift, this is why Jesus said "watch and pray". The first time Jesus said it was in Luke 21 when he cautioned his disciples to live as though the end of days was just around the corner. He says many people will be caught by the things of the world and there is a need to tap into prayer power.

The night before crucifixion in Matthew 26:41, Jesus again reminded the disciples to watch and pray when he saw them sleeping on their watch. His lamentation was that they couldn't watch with him for just one hour.

There is a need for us as believers to stand upon our watch in the place of prayer. It means to be vigilant, being aware of the snares and devices of the world. In Matthew 26:41, Jesus said the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. By extension Jesus was warning us to be on the lookout for anything that will take us away from our standing and relationship before the Lord.

1 Peter 5:8 warns us to _"Be soberminded, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour"_. Hence the need to be upon our watch, praying and always giving thanks according to 1 Thessalonians 5:16.

STAND

My revelation of STAND is to pay Serious Timeous Attention to Necessary Details. Many people miss out on God and fall prey to the devil because they do not pay attention to details. Many indeed come to the place of prayer but are so distracted to get the important things they need to pick in the atmosphere of prayer.

To stand means to be at attention, ready for action and not in a compromised position where one can be caught unawares. So it is our duty to stand, not sit. To stand is to be ready, to be prepared and set to take instruction in the place of watching. If you have seen security men sleeping on duty, it will be clear that you can be sleeping upon your watch. Ephesian 5:16 talks about redeeming the time for the days are evil.

SEE WHAT HE WILL SAY

The next instructive word from those verses is that after standing upon my watch, I will see what he will say to me. The use of language in this text is instructive. He didn't say 'I will hear what he will _say_ to me', he said 'I will _see_ what he will say to me'.

This speaks of catching a vision with our lives as we tarry in the presence of the Lord. Life is basically built upon the foundation of vision. The very first thing that God commanded at creation was light. Gen 1: 3 " _Let there be light"_. Man is nothing without vision, as a matter of fact, all of life tends towards light.

Light is an essential part of God. He dwells in light. Many people look very few people see. We don't see the future with our eyes, we see with our hearts. The optic nerves only see facts; truth is perceived with the heart. Many things will grab your attention in the course of life but not all that grab your attention, inspire your passion.

What gets your attention is not your vision, it is what inspires your passion that is your vision and future.

You must be able to distinguish the two or else the things that attract your attention will cause your confusion.

A believer who doesn't stand upon his watch cannot catch a vision or perspective of God about his life.

THAT HE MAY RUN THAT READS IT

Habakkuk, after he had stood upon his watch and caught what the Lord said to him, the Lord told him to write it down that he may run that reads it. Years ago the Lord explained to me that the first one who reads what is written is the one who wrote it down. Hence you are the one to run with the vision given to you before others join you to run the race. This year I am particularly serious with writing down the vision because it is time to run.

Hebrews 12:1-2 says we should run the race that is set before us. Many people unfortunately attempt to run the race that is not set before them. This is what Paul meant when he said in 1 Corinthians 9:26 _"I run not as uncertainly"._ He was saying he wasn't running aimlessly. He was running his peculiar errand. He didn't just have speed, he had direction, which is a very important factor.

This year, beloved, is the year to ask questions in the place of prayer if you have not discovered your errand. Life is an errand. It will be unfortunate to return to eternity and be informed that you ran another man's errand on earth. May we not have the misfortune of that colossal waste of a divine investment.

**Action Plan** \- Seek the Lord not just for bread but getting answers to the issues of life

**Further Reading** \- Jeremiah 1, Jeremiah 33:3

#

# DAY 23

## DESPERATE SEEKERS (1)

Luke 19:1-10

Jesus was passing through Jericho and a multitude of people were with him and then the Bible said there was this man who wanted to see Jesus. Zacchaeus was described as chief among publicans and he was rich. Publicans were public contractors in those days who helped government with some services, Zacchaeus was in charge of tax collection as Chief, they were perceived as corrupt and sinful. They were despised Jews because they collaborated with the Romans in those days. Many people came and walked along with Jesus but Zacchaeus was described as wanting to see Jesus for who he was.

Please pay attention to the intention of this man who wanted to see Jesus. Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus for who he was not for what he had or what he could or would give. The motive for seeking Jesus was one of the reasons why this story, I believe was highlighted for us. He wasn't the only one who wanted to see Jesus, there were many who came to see Jesus because they had a problem or the other, others came simply because they had a great noise in town that someone special was passing but Zacchaeus came to see him for who he was.

Many people come to church today only to see Jesus for what he can do, which is okay, but many unfortunately do not know God for more than what he can do for them. This is due to the fact that many preachers make other things the subject of their messages such as prosperity, deliverance, blessing and then make Jesus the means to getting that subject.

One of the greatest mistakes I think the body of Christ has made recently is introducing Jesus to people only on the basis of what he can do and not who he is and what he already did. This is the key between the generation of old believers who followed hard on Christ not as a way to get something, but possessing him as all that matters in life.

Between Moses and the Children of Israel in the old testament, Moses knew the ways of God, the children of Israel knew the acts of God. Psalm 103:7. It is the difference between knowing who a man is and just knowing what he can do. It makes a whole lot of meaning in the final analysis as to the nature of our faith whether as people who know the Lord just as one who can bless or knowing him as the blessed one.

We merely end up as users of God when we know him for what he can do and not who he is. The men who carry God in their generation had intimate relationship with Christ learning of him not for what he gave them physical but a revelation of himself as the son of God.

In Luke Chapter 5, Peter totally left the blessing of fishes to seek more intimacy with the master.

Can we repent of seeking the Lord and our saviour only for the sake of the things we can get from him without appreciating who exactly he is to us?

**Action Plan** \- Make God the center of your pursuit and follow hard upon him

**Further Reading** \- Deuteronomy 5:23-27

#

# DAY 24

## DESPERATE SEEKERS (2)

Luke 19:1-10

We were introduced to one man amongst the multitude of men who sought Jesus but peculiarly because he wanted to know Jesus for who he was, but he was a man of a small stature and could not access him. Instead of giving up, joining the crowd or going home, he developed a strategy to achieve his goal of seeing Jesus.

I like to paint a vivid description of what had transpired in that scene and make a picture out of it and its significance to our personal commitment to seek after God. So Zacchaeus came and saw men of mighty stature, some were very tall, some moderately tall, some were really big and they hindered the access of a short man to God. Years back when the Holy Spirit spoke to me about the scripture, he referred me to Romans 3:23 _"for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God"._ Zacchaeus could be a picture of the sinner who wants to come to the knowledge of a saving saviour or a young believer who wants to mature in his faith yet the mighty men of stature already established will infact, unknowingly to them, use their status to block the short Zacchaeus.

Thank God for men like Zacchaeus who would not be satisfied with knowing Jesus from afar, seeing or having other people's explanation of Jesus would not suffice or satisfy the yearnings of Zacchaeus. This is where many of us have settled over the years, taking copious notes from men who have seen Jesus for themselves, yet we do not seek to know Him for ourselves.

Bible said Zacchaeus ran ahead of the crowd, listen friend, the way to Jesus is not to be lost in the crowd or in a church congregation as the case maybe. Please understand that there is no bonafide mass movement with God, everyman must know God for himself.

He went ahead of the crowd with a plan in his heart for proper positioning where he could see Jesus. Everyman will need to seek Jesus out by himself, for as many as we are, Jesus identifies us individually. The times we are in are desperate times and desperate times deserve desperate measures. You cannot just wait and expect that the revelation of Jesus will suddenly come upon you.

Zacchaeus had to put everything he had and had become on the line, he was a recognized big man in town, yet he started running and went to climb a tree. That was a humbling experience for Zacchaeus, he had to leave all of his reputation as a big man and humbly seek after the Lord.

If there is anything you must know, it is that God cannot resist a humble man, but he obviously is not disposed to walking with or revealing himself to proud men. Psalm 51:17 _"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise"._ The action of climbing trees is an activity reserved for children, for the sake of seeking Christ, Zacchaeus reduced himself to a child. For the sake of gaining Christ like Paul said, he counted his reputation as nothing for the excellency of a relationship with Christ.

In Matthew 18:1-5, Jesus explained how becoming like a child is the way to seeking and finding the kingdom of God.

He didn't mind what others would think of him, his obsession was seeing Jesus for who he was. When Jesus got to the tree whereon Zacchaeus stood he located him and asked him to come down, saying salvation enters his house on that day and he would abide in the house of Zacchaeus. You must be deliberate about seeking God for Him to be found by you

**Action Plan** \- Humble yourself and seek the Lord

**Further Reading** \- Matthew 18:1-5

#

# DAY 25

## KNOWING OF REVELATION

Mark 10:46-52

The journey through Jericho was that of encounter, scriptures said as Jesus was moving out of Jericho, a lot of people were moving alongside with Jesus. Please understand that heaven is constantly on the move but only men who can discern the move of God can find God.

As I came upon the scripture, one of the things that first dawned on me was that it is so easy for men to be present during the move of God and still miss out on the God of the move. It is so easy to miss out on God when there is a move of God. You can be lost in the emotion and the fireworks that accompany the move of God and yet miss out on God.

God messed up with the theology of Elijah in 1 Kings 19:1-13 when Elijah was standing before the Lord on the mountain. He had been used to the fire dimension of God apparently, he was answered by fire just recently on Mount Carmel yet in this encounter God allowed strong wind that rent the mountains and broke rocks in pieces, but the Lord was not in the wind, after the experience of the wind there was an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, there was a fire and God was not in the fire.

These three dimensions are what we are obviously exposed to in the church today, the public God without any emphasis on seeking God personally. We often see the boisterous, loud and dynamic happen in church yet many do not have a discernment of God in the many moves.

Many are lost in the crowd, they cry during worship and pray loud during prayer sessions yet they do not have a personal encounter with the Lord. The last thing Elijah experienced was a still small voice and therein was the Lord he was waiting for. When Elijah picked up the signal of God in that small voice he covered his face with his mantle, he appeared to have been stupefied at the fact that God was not in the previous boisterous moves that preceded the still small voice.

There is no doubt that there were many in the crowd who will have no personal revelation of who Jesus was, yet they were seriously involved in the movement. This is the picture of a lot of people in the church, they come to church, many are infact workers but I can attest to the fact that you can be in the church of God and not personally know the God of the church.

Many know men of God but don't know the God of such men, interestingly, the times we are in is one that will mark a difference between men who know their God and those who know their pastors. Daniel 11:32b _"and they that know their God shall be strong and do exploits."_

In the midst of that crowd of people who had eyes, it was a blind man called Bartimaeus who caught the attention of Jesus. He was a desperate seeker. He cried out saying "Jesus son of David, have mercy on me. It is interesting that Bartimaeus knew the prophetic lineage of Jesus, many of those who obviously formed the crowd would have known him as Jesus the son of Joseph and Mary but Bartimaeus knew him as Jesus the son of David.

The man who catches the attention of Jesus in this circumstance is the one who knew him not just after the flesh but knew him by revelation and pursued after him intently. There is a knowing of revelation that Bartimaeus had that many in the congregation did not know. Despite the crowd and noise, Bartimaeus the blind caught heavens attention and brought it to a standstill. He was one who was desperate at catching heavens attention.

In Matthew 16:13-20, Jesus asked his disciples who do men say I am? He got various answers as echoed by the disciples, 'some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets'. Jesus went ahead to direct the question to his disciples, who do you say that I am? The disciples looked at each other, it was an open question with an open answer, everybody knew that he was the son of Mary and Joseph, his profession was carpentry. However, if the question was still being asked in the light of the obvious answer, it made everyone dumb. Until Peter broke out saying "You are the Christ, the son of the living God". Jesus quickly replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood but my father in heaven".

You cannot know God by gathering information about him, you need a revelation of him.

DEALING WITH THE DISTRACTIONS

As we continue the study of Bartimaeus' story, you will discover that on a quest to seek God there will be distractions.

There is always an attack from the pit of hell when a man sets up his heart to seek the Lord. Bartimaeus heard that Jesus was coming and he made up his mind to get the attention of Jesus, he faced one of the stiffest opposition of his life.

I like you to see that as Bartimaeus began to cry out to Jesus, many people charged him to stop. This were the same people who had always pitied him, gave him money, helped him out in one way or the other but when it became critical the most, they told him to keep quiet. This is what happens when a man sets his mind to seek the Lord, the world attacks his resolve to find him. If there is anything the devil is afraid of, it is not a man who is blessed, educated or goes to church; it is a man who is desperate in seeking the Lord.

I show you an example. When Daniel made up his mind to seek the Lord, all hell broke loose. Daniel 10, he made up his mind to seek the Lord and his desires to have understanding of the visions of God occasioned conflict in the heavens. An angel was dispatched with an answer to his prayers the very first day he began to pray but the spiritual principality over the atmosphere withstood the angel.

Daniel 10:11-12:

" _Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chastened thyself before thy God, they words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia"._

You will see the mention of Prince and King in that scripture, the demonic hierarchy over Persia understood how strategic it was for a man to seek understanding and set his face to understand the mysteries of the kingdom. If you read verse 14, the things to be revealed to Daniel were matters concerning the last days. It was not the first time he would be praying but when the Devil saw the depth of the revelation that was to be released to Daniel by virtue of seeking the Lord, all hell broke loose.

One thing guaranteed when we begin to seek the Lord is that our eyes will be opened to the mysteries of the kingdom. The devil is not afraid of you being blessed with a car, a house or a good job. Unbelievers also have all of that and for as long as your prayers stay at the level of give us this day our daily bread, you are not likely to be the target of conflict.

The good thing about Daniel was that Daniel was relentless in his search for God, he practically held on in prayers until he got a feedback from God. Same thing with Bartimaeus, despite the great opposition that came against his resolve to see the Lord, he was relentless. Despite the many oppositions who attempted to shut down his resolve to seek the Lord, Bartimaeus prevailed in his search until he got the attention of God.

**Action Plan** \- Set your face as flint and concentrate on finding God irrespective of the many distractions

**Further Reading** \- Isaiah 6:1-5, 2 Peter 3:18, Jeremiah 33:31-34

#

# DAY 26

## IF YOU SEEK HIM

Jeremiah 29:13

One guarantee that we have of God is that if we seek him, he will be found of us. I love the revelation from 1 Chronicles 22:19 Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the Lord your God. Begin to build the sanctuary of the Lord God, so that you may bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord and the sacred articles belonging to God into the temple that will be built for the Name of the Lord.

Seeking the Lord is an exercise of devotion that involves the totality of your being, heart, soul and spirit. The revelation of what the above scripture says is a methodology of attracting the presence of the Lord into your life. As you set your heart to seek the Lord and you begin to pray, what happens is that you begin to build an altar unto the Lord a technology that allows you to host the presence of God. The presence of God does not come in a vacuum. Man must be available to host the presence of God on earth.

As you begin to seek the Lord with your heart, there is a spiritual altar that is built in your heart, the idea is that you may bring the ark of the Lord into that tabernacle that you have built. I believe you know that the ark was a symbolism of the tangible, manifest presence of God in a place. Until the altar is ready the presence of God is not hosted in our lives.

We have an assurance from the Lord in Jeremiah 29:13 you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Did you pay attention to the words of that verse, the condition for finding him is when you seek him with all your heart. You cannot seek God part-time and find him full time. Matthew 6:33 gives us the explanation of the methodology of seeking him with all of our heart when it says "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, the word first is what I like you to pay attention to. Many of us attempt to seek the Lord, it's just that He comes after many other things in our lives.

We seek the pleasures of life first, we give more time to other things in our lives, social media, Television, work, gathering with friends, social networking, what we then do is to turn to the Lord when we want to sleep because we believe he alone can keep us through the night. That is not the kind of seeker that God is looking for. Men and women who run through a day with God absolutely absent from their thoughts only to say a five or ten-minute prayer at night will never find God.

Our hearts must constantly be in tune with God, longing out for the Lord. I know that you are busy and that you go to work and have to do your business, yet God has made it possible for the duality of your existence as a spirit first, and then as a body, that you will be able to seek God even while you are running through the day. Psalm 105:4 says _"Look to the Lord and His strength, seek His face always"._ If it were not possible to seek the Lord always, the Bible wouldn't have asked us to.

God doesn't look for anything in this world, all he seeks according to the testimony of Jesus is men and women who will worship (seek) him in truth and in spirit. Seeking him for who he is not just what he gives.

**Action Plan** \- Make your mind up to satisfy the condition of seeking and seeing him.

**Further Reading** \- John 4

#

# DAY 27

## BE NOT DRUNK WITH WINE

_Ephesians 5:18:19_

If you read Ephesians 5:18 Paul by the spirit said "be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the spirit.

Beyond the theology of whether you can drink a little wine or not, my concentration on the focal scripture is to draw a deeper meaning that I feel the Lord is communicating to us from that text. The wine has a deeper meaning than a fermented liquid contained in a bottle. In the context of that scripture there is a revelation of something that excites the flesh which is wine as against the in filling of the Holy Spirit.

As far as life is concerned, there are two opposing forces, good and evil, flesh and spirit. Galatians 5:17 for the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you please. You cannot be filled with the wine of this world and be filled with the spirit of God at the same time.

You can only live under the influence of one dimension, the flesh or the Spirit. I believe that the world has her own wine that it serves, and the agenda of that system is to take control of our heart so that we cannot be under the influence of the Holy Spirit. I will paint a picture from Daniel. When Daniel and his three friends were brought to Babylon (please understand that Babylon is a prophetic picture of the world system under the devil's reign), the system changed their names, and attempted to change their menu. Daniel 1:5 _"and the king appointed them a daily provision of wine and meat",_ the meal was to be served consistently for 3 years so that the Jewish boys would have gotten hooked on Babylonian menu and lost their connection to God. The ultimate plan was to change their Gods, a test that Daniel and his friends passed.

The portion of the king assigned to them had the capacity to defile them and break their Jewish consecration unto God. Daniel 1:8 informed us that Daniel purposed in his heart not to defile himself with the portion of the king's meat nor the wine which he drank. The deep seated revelation in Babylon's meat and wine is that it is a subscription to pleasure so that we can break our consecration to God because of the defilement that Babylon's meal had the power to bring to people's lives.

The reason why Daniel and his friends survived Babylon and colonized it for God was because they did not subscribe to the wine of Babylon, they subscribed wholeheartedly to God, they were not drinking the wine of the Babylonian king but were filled with the spirit of God.

Listen friend, for us to be filled with the spirit of God we must be deliberate about dealing with the pleasures of Babylon. If there is anything that has taken us away from God and left many of us empty of the spirit of God, it is our subscription to the pleasures of Babylon.

Many of us got filled with the Holy Ghost when we first subscribed to God just like the disciples in Acts of Apostles Chapter 2. It is important however to know that there must be a consistent subscription and a deliberate consciousness to deal with the distractions of the world for us to continually be filled. James verse 20 said building up yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. We must continually drink from the cup of the Holy Spirit in the place of communion for us to continue in our consecration to him and not be drawn.

**Action Plan** \- Beware of the wine of this world and stay consistently subscribed to the Holy Spirit to be filled with him.

**Further Reading** -Daniel 1, James vs 20, 1 Corinthians 13:14

#

# DAY 28

## ROYAL PRIESTHOOD

_1 Peter 2:9_

Seeing the spirit behind the letters of the old testament helps us to have a better understanding of the new testament. While 1 Peter 2:9 explains that _"we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people that we may show forth the praises of him who has called us out of darkness into his marvellous light"._

Behind this New Testament reality is the Old Testament foundation of priesthood. If you study the Levitical priesthood, God had chosen the people of Israel unto himself, called them his first born. Yet he went ahead to choose the tribe of Levi unto himself. Deuteronomy Chapter 18 explained that God separated the tribe of Levi unto himself, they were not given an inheritance in Israel, God was their inheritance. Deuteronomy 18:2

The responsibility of the priests was to minister to the Lord before the altar and bear his presence. Deuteronomy 10:8 At that time the Lord separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister unto him, and to bless in his name, unto this day. Deuteronomy 18:5 also says _"for the Lord thy God hath chosen him (Levi) out of all thy tribes, to stand to minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons forever"_

In the old testament every priest was a Levite, but not all Levites were priests. There was also only one high priest also who entered the Holy of Holies once a year to sacrifice unto the Lord.

The Israelites and particularly the priests were to be holy unto the Lord. Deuteronomy 14:2 _"for thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth"._

If you look intently you will see the very words that Peter was quoting in 1 Peter 2:19, he was bringing in the New Testament reality of our priesthood to us. While in the Old Testament, the general assembly was the whole nation of Israel amongst whom you had a King, Prophets and ordinary people, then you had the tribe of Levi separated unto the Lord. In that tribe you also had 3 levels, the ordinary members of the tribe of Levi, the priests and one High Priest who was the only one who could approach unto the presence of the Lord albeit only once a year.

All of that was done away with by the blood of Christ in the New Testament as Christ became our high priest and has by his blood granted us all access to the presence of God. Hebrews 10:17-19 explains our access to God by the blood and then encourages us to come boldly into the holiest by the blood of Jesus because he has used his flesh as a way of granting us access to the father.

Revelations 1:6 brings us into the revelation that all of us hath been made Kings and Priests by Christ unto the father. This combination of Kingship and Priesthood is what we are ordained to in Christ and it has a pattern in the Old Testament. Genesis 14 gives us an account of the appearance of a man called Melchizedek to whom Abraham gave tithes before the law was infact enacted. Genesis 14:18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought bread and wine: and he was the priest of the highest God. _(See Hebrews 7:1)_ This is the full picture of our royal priesthood.

In the New Testament, all of us without excluding anyone have been made a King and a priest unto God. There is a divine empowerment that we all received in Christ to be ministers unto God under the New Testament

2 Corinthians 3:16: _"who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killers, but the spirit gives life"._

Understanding that we all are ministers and priests unto God will change our disposition to Christianity, many of us have felt that ministry is a job for Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers. A study of Ephesians 4 told us those offices are given for the equipping of the saints so that they can do the work of the ministry.

God is set to re-awaken us to the consciousness of our priesthood so that we can be functional ministers unto God.

**Action Plan** \- Do further study on your priesthood

**Further Reading** \- Genesis 18, Leviticus Chapter 1- Chapter 8

#

# DAY 29

## THE ALTAR & THE FIRE

_Leviticus 6_

The life of the priest in the Old Testament was a life of devotion, consecration and dedication to the ministration of the altar unto the Lord.

The priest was responsible for standing before God and making various types of offerings unto the Lord. Out of the 5 types of offering, the burnt offering was the most complete in the sense that only a small portion of other sacrifices was burnt on the altar, the rest is consumed by the priests. The burnt offering in its case is to be entirely consumed by flame as a sweet aroma unto the Lord (Leviticus 1 vs 4-9,13 & 17)

The priest had a commitment to minister to the Lord on behalf of the ordinary Israelites and more importantly to make sure that the fire does not go out upon the altar.

Leviticus 6:9 _"Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering: it is the burnt offerring, because of the burning upon the altar all night unto the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be burning in it."_

Leviticus 6:12-13 And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it; it shall not be put out: and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order upon it; and he shall burn thereon the fat of the peace offerings. The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.

Many of us are aware that we are a royal priesthood but not many believers are awake to the responsibility of their priesthood. Being a Priest is not just a name, it is a responsibility. In the light of New Testament reality, we all as Christians have a priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:5 _"Ye also as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ"._

Our ministry unto the Lord in the New Testament as priests include a private life of devotion before the Lord in worship prayer and study of the word of God before we step out into the public ministry of the believer as Kings influencing men for God into the kingdom and taking dominion of different territories for God. Our place of private devotion and standing before the altar is what a lot of us have jettisoned. We of a truth prioritize other things with perhaps no emphasis on having a personal altar. The fire upon many altars have altogether gone into extinction.

God is calling us to rebuild the altar like Elijah did in 1 Kings 18 as God is willing to release His holy fire upon our altars. There is a quickening to come back to the place of prayer and dedication like the disciples in Acts 2. As they tarried and waited for the Lord, the Holy Ghost came upon them with a tangible appearance of cloven tongues of fire.

The fire upon the believer's altar as released in the upper room encounter is only sustained by our continuous fellowship with the Holy Spirit. To get baptized in the Holy Ghost and run away from the altar, abstaining from our devotion is to allow the fire to go out upon the altar. If you ever had the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire, you will recall that it came with fervency and fervour, a quickening to the place of prayer, a passionate love for the word of God, but in my experience all of that can go down if you do not pay attention to the continuous fellowship with the Holy Spirit, and a constant appearance at the altar to fan the fire in the place of prayer and worship.

It is not enough to be filled in a one-time encounter with the Holy Ghost. If you study the book of Acts of Apostles, you will discover that the Holy Spirit baptism is not a one-off experience. While the first one comes with the evidence of speaking in tongues, refilling and recharging is continuous as we stand at the altar of prayer and worship fanning the flames upon our lives.

The account in Acts Chapter 4 saw the authorities that be harassing and intimidating the Apostles not to preach the gospel. The went back to the place of prayer and Acts 4:31 says _"And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness"._

Do you see that, these were men who were already baptized in Acts 2 verses 1-4, yet as they continued in the place of prayer again after some time, the Holy Ghost filled them. If you were ever baptized with the Holy Spirit and you remember what your experience was and the tangibility of the fire it brought to your spiritual life, you will be able to evaluate yourself whether there is still fire upon your altar.

If you have not been baptized before, this is a good time to ask for the Holy fire of the Holy Spirit to come upon your life. He makes all the difference in our Christian lives. Don't forget after you are baptized that the secret of keeping the fire upon the altar is to constantly ensure that you appear at the altar and make wood available to keep the fire burning. You will need to make sacrifices at the altar constantly to ensure that the fire does not die out.

**Action Plan** \- Organize your day to have a regimented and constant time of fellowship with the Holy Spirit

**Further Reading** -2 Chronicles 7:14

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# DAY 30

## THE EMERGENCE

1 Kings 18

In the appearance of Elijah and the execution of his revival ministry, he succeeded at reinstating the Lordship of Jehovah as the true and living God of Israel. A study of the text in 1 Kings 18 showed that revival is God given but the execution is men driven. God needs men to execute the intended revival upon the earth.

After that Elijah had jumpstarted the revival and killed the prophets of Baal, he went to the mountain and prayed down the promised rain. After that, he got the message of Jezebel the priestess of Baal threatening to kill him. It appeared that the message had an enchanting power that took off the fire in Elijah. At the word of the woman, this man of fire took off and ran as if he was not the one mightily used upon Mount Carmel.

When Elijah took off, it led him to a place where he finally encountered the Lord. As he began to advance his reasons for wanting to die, he mentioned that he was the only one remaining of all the prophets, so the Lord ordered him to go anoint 3 people: Elisha, Jehu and Hazael to carry on the revival against the enemy. God went ahead to inform Elijah that he was not the only prophet of God left, there were in fact 7000 men in Israel whose kneels had not bowed to Baal. 1 Kings 19:14-18

The prophetic plan of God in the last days is to execute his kingdom upon the earth not by the ministry of one Elijah but by the release and emergence of many sons in the kingdom. Joel 2:28 says " _And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions"._

The agenda of God in this end times is to use all of us for his revival, you cannot afford to be on the sideline in what God is planning. God wants to use all of us in the end time revival and heaven is waiting for our emergence, a great army of God as pictured in Ezekiel 37. God is planning to put his breath in our dry bones and raise us as a great army unto himself.

I like you to take time to study the book of Ezekiel 37 and see the prophetic picture of the raising of an army by the spirit of the Lord. We all will need to enroll in the school of the spirit in this times so as to be a part of the EMERGENCE that is about to come.

**Action Plan** – Be deliberate about pressing into the kingdom and being part of the end time army

**Further** **Reading** – Joel 2, Acts Chapters 1-4

# The Author

Oluwatobi Adelusi is undoubtedly a man of grace, called of God as a teacher. He is an author, public speaker and Pastor.

He is a prolific writer who has authored more than 10 books, with the latest being _EMERGE._

He is an inspiration to the younger generation. A trained gospel minister and student of the Holy Spirit. He is married to Tolulope Adelusi and they are blessed with children. They make their home in Ontario, Canada.

Email: oluwatobiadelusi1@gmail.com

He is on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

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Other books by the author are available on request. Send an email to mailto:oluwatobiadelusi1@gmail.com
