Bible In One Year-Day 134 (Wednesday, May 14, 2014)

Commentary: 2Kings15-17. These chapters are narratives of rebellious kings, mostly, of Israel. What Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the first king in segregated Israel, left behind as legacy became a stronghold for the descendants of Israel to sin against the God of their fathers;

2 Kings 17:22-23 “For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them;Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.”

God was lenient with them initially and sent messages to them by the prophets to repent.

2 Kings 17:13-14 “Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God.”

Unfortunately, they wouldn’t; rather, witchcraft prevailed in which they made their children to pass through the fire;

2 Kings 17:17 And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.

All these things they did and when God removed them from His sight, the enemy took them captive. They violated God’s command and followed other gods. God had warned them specifically against Molech, the god of sexual sin and children sacrifice just before they entered the Promised Land. The Israelites did exactly what God told them not to do.

Leviticus 18:21 And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.

The cry for repentance was the first message in the New Testament and the first preacher was John the Baptist. After the death of John the Baptist, Jesus continued the message;

Mark 1:14 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

The Apostles preached it; Acts 3:19 “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord”

As a matter of fact, the message of the cross is “Repentance”. Many are carrying witnesses about unconsciously which will eventually testify on the Day of Judgment. The image some are carrying on the neck which they call the cross of Jesus and the tie knotted are witnesses to every sinful thoughts. The rings on the fingers are witnesses to bloodshed, the bangles jingle at every evil stone thrown. Those seductive dresses will talk that day. We might think they are subject to perish before then; things could be called out from nothing just for the purpose of witnessing. The things that make a Christian become captive to the enemy are SINS. God loves us just as He loved the Israelites but sin is the problem. When you put anything between you and your God, that thing will eventually become your god. God’s message till today is repentance from all known sin. Human beings are experts in giving sin different colors, but before God, sin is sin no matter what color you paint it; freedom, liberty, right, free thinking, new world etc. To make matters worse, sermons are being preached to color sin. The preacher has the right to preach any message but you have the grace to live a godly life. May I live this with us; 1 Thessalonians 5:22 “Abstain from all appearance of evil”. The reading for today is 2Kings18-20. Keep the fire burning and alive. THE RULE against SIN HASN’T CHANGED; Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Deuteronomy 18:10 “There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,”

Romans 6:15 “What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.”

Romans 7:13 “Was then that which is good made death to me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.”

Bible In One Year-Day 133 (Tuesday, May 13, 2014)

Commentary: 2Kings12-14. In the book of 2Kings, so far, we notice a particular statement “the sins of Jeroboam”. Many of the kings of both Israel and Judah fell into this sin. What is the sin of Jeroboam? We recall that Jeroboam was King Solomon’s Secretary of Labor;

1 Kings 11:28 “And the man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valour: and Solomon seeing the young man that he was industrious, he made him ruler over all the charge of the house of Joseph.”

When the kingdom was severed from Solomon, Jeroboam was the fortunate one to be exalted by God to have ten of the tribes of Israel according to the prophecy of Ahijah;

1 Kings 11:31 “And he said to Jeroboam, Take thee ten pieces: for thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee:”

Unfortunately, due to the fear of losing the kingdom, Jeroboam defected from the approved way of worship by making idols and likened them to the God who brought them out of Egypt;

1 Kings 12:28-31 “Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi.”

This apostasy was the sin of Jeroboam. The shrines he built were the ones that the subsequent kings worshipped and these are the places referred to as the high places. These high places became points of evil decisions, witchcraft activities and satanic verdicts. As Christians, we need to do away and be totally separated from ancient worships and traditions that do not glorify Jesus. If we continue in them, we are living in the sins of our ancestors even though we claim to be Christians. Some don’t participate but indirectly support unholy traditions in one way or the other. An evil point of contact remains intact by any form of support or affiliation such as family names that still reflect idolatry.

Another way of applying knowledge of the sin of Jeroboam is that he cajoled his subjects with the idols in telling them that Jerusalem was too far for them to worship God “…and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem:…”

Many church heads are in the ministry of “feel good” thereby shying away from telling the flocks the truth. The fear of Jeroboam was that he might lose his throne and people to Jerusalem.

The only King who abhorred this worship was Jehoash (Joash), because he had a good spiritual father who guided him from a very tender age;

2 Kings 12:2 “And Jehoash did that which was right in the sight of the LORD all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him.”

Jehoash reigned for forty years. His love for God gave him the grace to contact Elisha on the sick bed where Elisha gave the last prophecy. Jehoash made the same statement Elisha made when Elijah was to be separated from him;

2 Kings 2:12 “And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.”

2 Kings 13:14 “Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.”

The interaction between Elisha and King Joash is a lesson for us not to give up in spiritual warfare. What happened in that room determined Joash’s victory over Syria and the number of times it would happen. The same manner, what goes on in your closet or on your prayer altar determines your physical victory. Elisha carried an anointing that sank to the bones; unfortunately, Joash did not utilize it to the fullness when it was available. We must learn how to use the anointing available at every prayer meeting to the utmost. This determines what happens next. Some write down prayer points rather than pray it with the available anointing at that moment. The prayer might not work later because the anointing for it had gone. Prayers work by reason of anointing and faith. The point at which Joash’s striking stopped was the point at which his victory stopped. A dead man tapped the anointing in Elisha’s bones and came back to life. Jesus’ anoint can revive you again, call upon Him now. The reading for today is 2Kings15-17. Keep the fire burning and alive.

Bible In One Year-Day 132 (Monday, May 12, 2014)

Commentary: 2Kings9-11. Ahab did havoc by shedding the blood of God’s prophets through witchcraft influence of Jezebel. The cup of iniquity of the house of Ahab was full when Jezebel schemed and killed Naboth and took his inheritance for Ahab. Elijah pronounced God’s judgment on Jezebel and Ahab;

1 Kings 21:23-24 “And of Jezebel also spake the LORD, saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.Him that dieth of Ahab in the city the dogs shall eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat.”

Ahab died three years after this pronouncement. Meanwhile, Jezebel still lived and even witnessed the reign of kings. We might be thinking why she had to live so long; this is for God to be justified as He spoke in Revelation 2:21 “And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.”

I have heard and read a lot of testimonies of those who had the grace and opportunity to visit hell with Jesus. The statement Jesus says according to these witnesses is that “I gave you enough time to repent, but you didn’t” Jezebel did not repent of her evil ways. She was a mother-in-law to some kings in Judah who did evil in the sight of the Lord; her evil influence prevailed (2Kings9:22);

2 Kings 8:26-27 “Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri king of Israel.And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did evil in the sight of the LORD, as did the house of Ahab: for he was the son in law of the house of Ahab.”

Since Jezebel remained Jezebel (i.e. unchanged and unrepentant), it was time for the pronounced judgment from the mouth of Elijah to be effected. We need to recall how powerful Jezebel was in the time of Ahab. As she grew older, her influence spread; kings of Judah were being influenced. To carry out this judgment, an ordinary person could not do it no matter how skillful such was in the military. It would require a special assignment, an anointed head to do it. This was what Jehu was called for;

2 Kings 9:6-10 “And he arose, and went into the house; and he poured the oil on his head, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I have anointed thee king over the people of the LORD, even over Israel. And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD, at the hand of Jezebel.For the whole house of Ahab shall perish: and I will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel:And I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah:And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the portion of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her. And he opened the door, and fled.”

Many pulpits are Jezebel’s tables in this dispensation. It will take a special empowerment to overcome such bewitchment. The spirit of Jezebel isn’t the spirit of God but the spirit that influences God’s own to follow Baal (god of material world, seduction and perversion). Jezebel is a symbol of great evil influence on the children of the Most High God. We need to pray to God to expose the activities of Jezebel to us. This influence could be in the form of prophecies that did not come from God;

Revelation 2:20 “Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols.”

God’s prophets are known for the truth they stand for and their prophecies cannot go down the drain;

Isaiah 44:26 “That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers; …”

Many people have been influenced out of God’s presence. But I pray that God will, in His infinite mercies, restore such in the name of Jesus. Homes have been broken by ‘Jezebelic’ prophecies and her gifts have perverted judgment. The spirit of Jezebel is an unrepentant and unyielding spirit, full of manipulations and controls. Watch out for that gift and the influence afterwards. Watch out for that information and the influence afterwards; it could be Jezebel’s bait. May His grace be with you. Our next reading is 2Kings12-14. Keep the fire burning and alive

Bible In One Year-Day 131 (Sunday, May 11, 2014)

Commentary: 2Kings6-8. When we read 2Kings3-5, we saw some difficult situations in which God spoke through the mouth of His servant, Elisha, in which the testimony depended on the recipient’s response. In chapters6-8, the situations were more intense and in them, God did not wait for the response of the people. In difficult situations, we need to seek the mind of God concerning it. When God gives His word concerning His intention for such situation, He could not be ridiculed. The King’s servant ridiculed God’s word that came out of Elisha’s mouth and he received the verdict of “seeing without partaking”; 2 Kings 7:2 “Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the LORD would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.” This is divine curse that came to be because of blasphemy. If the man had kept quiet and not verbalize his doubt, he would have saved his own life. The father of John the Baptist also made the same mistake in which he verbalized his doubt before the Angel of God and he received dumbness.

Luke 1:18-20 And Zacharias said to the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.And the angel answering said to him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak to thee, and to show thee these glad tidings.And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.

To doubt in the heart is a sin on its own; verbalizing it against the word of God is more grievous in the sight of God. If the word concerns you and you alone, doubting it can makes you to lose the testimony because you might refuse to take necessary actions to realize that. For instance, Naaman would have lost the testimony of his cleansing if he had totally refused to bath in river Jordan as instructed by the man of God. If God had summed up a plan in His economy and somebody speaks impossibility, one might be bargaining for something else. The birth of John the Baptist was not for his parent but to prepare the way for the coming King of kings; that was God’s plan towards the salvation of man. The doubt of his father in the temple made him receive what he did not bargain for; his head and mouth couldn’t agree to process data again.

In the case of Elisha, the situation was so bad that mothers started eating their children; it was a case that needed divine intervention. The king’s servant who was supposed to support the king was the one with a different heart. If you needed a friend to join you in prayers, make sure you prayerfully seek for the ones with like-mind with you; don’t pick based on sight suggestion. When God speaks, we must be careful how we respond even if there is doubt within us. You could ask God to help you just as the man cried out to Jesus in Mark 9:24 “And immediately the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” The word of God which was spoken by the mouth of Elisha came to pass without any hindrance. The amazing thing was that the connection to the fulfillment was through the rejected, the Lepers. God can use anything and any means to make His word come to pass. In many cases, men engage logics in figuring out how God solves problems; this is a failing factor, because it is the root of unbelief and doubt. The question put forward to Abraham in the scripture was “Is any thing too hard for the LORD? …” Gen18:14. It was very unfortunate that the famine in the case of Elisha rounded off with the death of the king’s servant (he didn’t start the famine, nor was he responsible for it) 2 Kings 7:20 “And so it fell out unto him: for the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died.” Remember that the woman with the jar of oil shut her door against doubters, speakers of impossibilities; you must learn to shut your ears against agents of impossibilities around. I pray that you will not miss your portion in God’s economy in the name of Jesus. Our next reading is 2Kings9-11. Keep the fire burning and alive.

Matthew 13:58 And he did not many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.

Jeremiah 32:27 Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?

2 Kings 4:4-5 “And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vesselsto her; and she poured out.”

Bible In One Year-Day 130 (Saturday, May 10, 2014)

2Kings3-5 are awesome chapters to read. How good it is to have a man of such anointing that sees beyond the physical or the situation. How best it is, on the other hand, to have great faith within us to utilize such anointing to the utmost. Faith is in different levels and it was Jesus who first made us to know this truth; little faith exhibited by His disciples whilst walking Him on earth and great faith as exhibited by the Centurion. There is another faith that is as little as mustard seed. The faith exhibited by His disciples was not as effective as that likened to the mustard seed otherwise they would have moved mountains before His ascension. The faith of the woman with the issue of blood was a ‘now’ faith that needed no attention of any other person; this is the type of faith we need to exhibit when we are in the congregation praying or listening to prophetic messages. However, all these levels of faith should be in those who need help. The one that God desires most is that called great faith and this is the faith that rests on the spoken word. Everything we get is according to the level of the faith inside of us;

Ephesians 3:20 “Now to him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,”

The power that is being referred to here is the level or the power of faith. Without faith we cannot obtain good testimony;

Hebrews 11:1-2 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.For by it the elders obtained a good report.”

Faith grabs from God whether He is ready or not, just like the case of the woman with the issue of blood. With faith you bargain beyond your imagination. In the chapters we read, there are six instances in which the WORD and FAITH played together in different ways. The level of individual’s faith justified the type of testimony obtained. The kings, for Jehoshaphat’s sake, got the word and believed it, they got water for strength and victory; 2 Kings 3:20 “And it came to pass in the morning, when the meat offering was offered, that, behold, there came water by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water.” The same water spelt woe against the Moabites, 2Kings3:22-24. Your testimony shall lead your enemies into self suicide in the name of Jesus. The widow in chapter4 heard the emphatic instruction of the man of God, 2 Kings 4:3 “… borrow not a few.” She borrowed to the level of her faith. Unfortunately, the oil ceased at the level of her faith which is the confirmation of Eph3:20, i.e. “according to the power that worketh in us” Oil is a symbol of anointing; it continues to flow and work for as long as there is faith to enhance it. When you leave a place of prayer and you doubt within yourself what was prayed about with prophecies received, the anointing that follows one out of that place ceases at that point of doubt. Doubt is horrible; it punctures the vessels of anointing that works miracles. Doubt frustrates. We could learn from this woman, nonetheless; she shut the door against discouragers and concentrated on the little faith she had. We must beware of discouragement whenever we are exercising our little faith. There are times we need to be quiet on some issues we had already talked or prayed to God about. Discouragers are agents of despair. As the woman shut her door, so we need to learn how to shut the door of our mouth. This was the problem of Joseph when he had the dream of his destiny. Naaman, on the other hand, would have lost his miracle if not for the encourager in his household. Though she was a captive and a little maid, she played a role in Naaman’s life; this is the type of person you need to pray to surround you. To build your faith, you need to listen to anointed messages of faith and read your Bible regularly;

Romans 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

May the Lord make His countenance to shine upon you in the name of Jesus. Our next reading is 2Kings6-8. Keep the fire burning and alive.