Bible In One Year-Day 94 (Friday, April 4, 2014)

Commentary: Joshua19-21. In these three chapters, inheritance was distributed to the Israelites by lots. Also, we could see the power of blessing and effect of ancestry on destinies. Birthright is quite important and powerful. When it comes to the issue of blessing, it does not go by age, position in the family or by education but in whom God has taken special delight. Blessing does not look at what you have, who you are but just divine favor. Blessing solves the problems we cannot solve. Jesus blessed five loaves and two fishes, it fed five thousand people with left over of about twelve baskets; which means that blessing is prayer answered beyond our thinking or asking. By right, Reuben was supposed to be given the first lot of the inheritance, but this was not so. Joseph had the first lot instead. This is because of Jacobs pronouncement on Reuben in Genesis 49:3-4 “Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.”

The beauty of Reuben’s destiny was first remarked, and then Jacob cursed that destiny that it shall not excel. That curse changed the beauty of the destiny. The curse became an evil river flowing in the lineage of Reuben for any child born into that line to drink. Moses’ blessing in Deut33:6 did not cancel this curse but it only gave him the grace to enjoy long life under this curse. That was what affected his lineage;

1 Chronicles 5:1 “Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel, (for he was the firstborn; but, forasmuch as he defiled his father’s bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph the son of Israel: and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright.”

An ancestral error could put the whole generation unborn into serious trouble. The other side of curse is blessing. Joseph received this in Gen49:22-26. This blessing changed the position of Joseph in the family. When you are blessed, your status changes, the prison becomes too small for you to stay, the pit of the enemy rejects you and people that matter calls you for solutions. When you are blessed, the seat of destiny is not by the road side but in the palace of the king. The blessing on Joseph made heaven and earth to cooperate to yield excess to the point of swallowing seven years famine. When you are blessed, you don’t have enough space to store and you can’t count what you have because it meets the need of difficult and impossible situations;

Genesis 41:49 “And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering; for it was without number.”

The amount you have in the bank is not the measure of heavenly blessing. In most cases, it is foolishness due to ignorant. It can dry up any time. But blessing outlives a man from one generation to the other. A blessed man increases in the face of famine;

Genesis 26:12-13 “Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year (year of famine) an hundred fold: and the LORD blessed him.And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great:”

God, in His infinite mercy and unquantifiable abundance, has given each family their lots on earth. But some ancestors had traded in with the devil, some messed it up, some went to the grave with it and those who are supposed to be enjoying it now are suffering. You must claim your own lots back from any ancestral grave if you really want to enjoy life and change the history of your family;

Matthew 11:12 “And from the days of John the Baptist, until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”

Nothing else to do but to pray yourself out unrelentingly; i.e. don’t agree for a lesser bargain than claiming them because Jesus had paid the price. Consider the hymn

And now complete in Him
My robe His righteousness,
Close sheltered ’neath His side,
I am divinely blest.

Refrain

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow

Today is 94^th day of reading the bible together and, as you move into the second quarter, may the heaven over your destiny tear open for the out pour of God’s unquantifiable blessings into your life in the name of Jesus. Our next reading is Joshua22-24. Keep the fire burning and alive.

Bible In One Year-Day 93 (Thursday, April 3, 2014)

Commentary: Joshua16-18. When God blesses, it is for every member of the family. The distribution of inheritance used to be from father to the sons while female children were left out because they believed that the name of their father would be forgotten if given to them. There was a man among the descendants of Manasseh named Zelophehad, who had no son but daughters. This daughters changed the rule of distributing inheritance;

Numbers 27:1 “Then came the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of Manasseh the son of Joseph: and these are the names of his daughters; Mahlah, Noah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Tirzah.”

When these daughters went to Moses in protest, Moses in his usual attitude went to God and God told him what the new rule was;

Numbers 27:6-8 “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,The daughters of Zelophehad speak right: thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father’s brethren; and thou shalt cause the inheritance of their father to pass unto them.And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a man die, and have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter.”

This is a lesson to the children of God that through fervent prayers the rule can be changed. These daughters of Manasseh changed the rule in the spirit realm first through prayer, before the actual realization in Joshua17. For the mere fact that you are not seeing result now does not mean you have been denied. The rule was changed in the time of Moses but the result came in the time of Joshua. If those ladies had kept quiet, the unfair rule would still be there. This is the reason why you should pray without ceasing; in difficulties, pains, sickness, hardship, even in comfort. Let not the rod of your prayer be broken and the fire on the altar of your prayer not burn out. There is only one thing that God will mark as “speak right” before Him and that is prayer that is made in righteousness. Our next reading is Joshua19-21. Keep the fire burning and alive. JESUS IS AT THE CORNER

Bible In One Year-Day 92 (Wednesday, April 02, 2014)

Commentary: Joshua13-15. A while ago, I received a post on the facebook which talked about enjoying the coffee in the cup rather than thinking about the design on the cup. A man commented on it “I am 76 years old now, I wish I knew this when I was 25”. Whichever way he meant to enjoy life does not matter to me, but when I looked at the difference in the years, he is regretting the way he spent 51 years out of his own life. When you hear many people telling you “I have experience of life” it is not really experience they have, it is regret in life just like this man on the facebook commented. Moses would have lived such a life if not for God’s grace that eventually called him out of purposeless hard-work and plugged him into the power of purpose.

Joshua13:1 is worth thinking of;

Joshua 13:1 “Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the LORD said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.”

The question is “how are you spending your life as a Christian?” How will you feel if, at old age, God tells you that there are more to be done than you have ever done? This is why the Apostles, then and now, have no time to waste fighting or keeping malice because they have a lot to do. If God increases the hours of the day from 24 to 48, will it still be enough? Hear what Jesus says in John 9:4 “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.”

Every man has two moments of the day; the day while the Sun shines (youth) and the night (old age), which is time to go to sleep. That is why the bible calls the death of the righteous “sleep”. Joshua found himself in this situation. God showed Joshua what remained to cover. Unfortunately, the first place mentioned became the problem of the Israelites till this day. When you see a man living in regret, all it means is that he had left what ought to be done undone and had used his time to do what ought to be left undone. In this wise, there is no profit, reward or compensation. This is hard. What needs considering is to make hay whilst the sun shines. Jesus urged us to make use of the day. If the dairy you have is the dairy of offenses, bitter, malice, rivalry, jealousy, resentment, pleasing men, seeking for positions, unforgiveness and the like, it is absolutely a waste of time. These will not add any meaning to life; either yours or those who have offended you. Neither does it keep the devil away. The only thing that defeats the devil is to burn such dairies. Jesus said on the cross “Father forgive them …” Even Jesus didn’t want to hold any grudge against any person for Him to complete His assignment in life. This statement broke the backbone of Satan’s rage against the Kingdom of God. Without any contradiction, Joshua was hard working; he served Moses and he served God with fear. A Christian life is about service just like Joshua. God gives greatness in this wise;

Matthew 20:26 “But it shall not be so among you: but whoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;”

You must touch a life each day. Whatever you know how to do best to affect life is a pointer to purpose. When you face it without any distraction, you will realize that there is work to do and at the end of it all, you will be full of joy. On the other hand, loosing focus will build resentment, envy and jealousy, which are strongholds for the devil. There are lots of beautiful structures called religious houses now but inside is full of decay. Whereas some people don’t have churches but are meeting the needs of the poor on the street by becoming dogs leaking the wounds of various Lazarus lying about on the streets. In Galatian2, we could see Paul’s attitude when he realized that if he didn’t get out for the assignment, the people he was associating with (un-appointed regulators, Gal2:4) would disturb and distract him, he pulled out;

Galatians 2:6 “But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man’s person:) for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me:”

Positions could be given due to earthly relationship with authority or how long in you are in a ministry. This is different from heavenly relationship which is what Paul is arguing here. He said those with leadership reputation added nothing to him. His heavenly relationship added life to mankind. Moses and Joshua had heavenly relationship; they worked and built the kingdom of God and not of man. Kingdom work is about heavenly relationship. Would you assess yourself and see where you are in God’s agenda? Each time you check your head and see a tuft of grey hair, instead of shaving or dyeing it, ask God “where am I in your agenda?” A night will soon come when no man can work. Our reading for today is Joshua16-18. Keep the fire burning and alive.

Bible In One Year-Day 91 (Tuesday, April 01, 2014)

Commentary: Joshua10-12. There is a hymn which I love

’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
And to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
And to know, “Thus says the Lord!”

Refrain

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust Him more!

To be taught about God in the Sunday school is not enough as to experience Him, and to experience Him is not as good as to have a revelation of Him. When you receive His revelation you carry Him about. Joshua was at that stage. At a point in time, Joshua fought a kingdom, but in chapter10, God accelerated Joshua’s conquer by stirring the heart of five kings (Josh11:20) to confront Joshua;

Proverbs 21:1 “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.”

However, He told Joshua not to fear them and that not a man of them shall be able to stand before him, i.e. their knees were weakened and legs paralyzed as far as heaven is concerned. This is great grace. Conspiracies against God’s children shouldn’t border them for as long as they still remain in the covenant and the pattern of the vision given on the mountain is not changed. In the Bible, we could see different scenarios in which this happened, but God was glorified in all. He will be glorified in your situation also in the name of Jesus. It is a dangerous thing to gang up against God’s own;

Psalms 125:3 “For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous; lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity.”

So far, in Joshua’s case, God used different tactics for different battles. This is a lesson to spiritual soldiers, let the Holy Spirit give the tactics. The devil is not staying in one place and so a child of God shouldn’t fight wars with a particular pattern. The anointing was so great on Joshua that he gave the Sun and the Moon assignments to do in this particular battle and the bible testified to it in Joshua 10:14 “And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.”

Unusual weapons were used in this battle, such as hailstones. The five kings that conspired against Joshua ran into captivity just to fulfill Revelation 13:10 “He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.”

From the look of things, it was as if the dealing with the five kings were not in the agenda for that day because Joshua locked them up where they were hiding and went to finish some other works before returning to deal with them, Joshua10:17-21. The kingdoms began to form clusters against Joshua, but all in all, God laughed them to scorn. We need to ask for the grace to trust this JESUS and to take Him at His words. If He says He has delivered your enemies into your hand, just take Him for that, His faithfulness will bring it to pass. He is awesome and indescribable. His smell is in His words; you need to take Him by His words because He will not fail you. Our reading for today is Joshua13-15. Keep the fire burning and alive

Bible In One Year-Day 90 (Monday, March 31, 2014)

Commentary: Joshua7-9. There is power in praising God. The Angel assigned to welcome the Israelites only needed them to praise God for an accomplished job; Joshua 6:2 “And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour.”

As far as heaven was concerned, Jericho was already marked “destroyed”, i.e. it was a past tense. All that the Israelites needed to do was to effect the heavenly order in praises. This is what praise is all about. It brings down God’s presence into the midst of His people and judgment into the camp of the His enemies, Psalm149. God takes residence in the praises of His own;

Psalms 22:3 “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.”

Wonders and miracles cannot cease where God is highly exalted and His praises is deeply rooted in pure hearts;

Exodus 15:11 “Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?” (Psalm9:11).

If you know how to pray, you must learn to be better in praising Him. David said he prayed to God three times a day but he praised God seven times a day; you must beat the record of David. There are two things God hates, sin and doubt. He was with the Israelites in battle against Jericho but not with them in battle with Ai, a smaller people than the well fortified Jericho. Imagine how sin could make us fall in little battles. Things went wrong in two ways; the sin of Achan and Joshua who never asked God before going into battle with Ai. Joshua forgot that it was God, who gave the strategy to conquer Jericho, but because of the victory, he considered Ai to be smaller and he needn’t consult God. We need to check our steps if God is in it or not. What is written in the Bible and what God will say are different considerations even though they work together. When God speaks concerning the next step, the Spirit refers you to the scripture for encouragement, and this is how the Rhema and Logos work together. Jesus says “He will guide you INTO all truth”. That which is written in the scripture is what you stand on to confront the devil. The devil will want to use the Bible to confuse you, but the Spirit of God will guide you with it. Moses took the smallest matter to God. Each time you find yourself being ridiculed in small things, you need to do like Joshua who cried to God for the reason, Josh7. Sin should be dealt with as Achan was dealt with, i.e. do not have pity for sin, no matter how beautiful it appears, do away with it. Sin successfully nailed the SON of God to the cross, squeezed blood out of His body and fed Him with vinegar. Sin, in this context, blocked the progress of a whole nation and ridiculed them before a little set of people. You need to bury sin in the Valley of Achor, i.e the Valley of Trouble; this is the valley where sin is separated from God’s agenda. The story changed in chapter8 when they had taken care of the sin in their midst; their point of defeat became the point of victory, point of shame became the point of praise and point of ridicule became the point of award;

Joshua 8:18 “And the LORD said unto Joshua, Stretch out the spear that is in thy hand toward Ai; for I will give it into thine hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand toward the city.”

Compare this with Deut8:18. Evidently, God loves His people but outright hates their sinful acts. It was not the faithfulness of the Israelites that brought them into the Promised Land but the faithfulness of God. A whole church can be stagnant if there is any unrevealed sin among the workers; consider the seven churches of Asia manor in the book of revelation. A whole family line can remained bound under the yoke of sin. The first battle a converted Christian should win is the battle with sin; Christianity could be frustrating if this is not won. Let sin be removed from the path of a Christian and you will see an untouchable Christian.

Psalms 125:3 “For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous; lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity.”

God will not forsake a repentant sinner. Jesus said salvation had entered the house of Zacchaeus after he decided to repent from his sinful ways and make restitution where necessary. Salvation is given to sinners, but the kingdom of God is offered as reward to those who maintained their repentance and allowed the Holy Spirit to work on them. According to Webster dictionary, repentance is to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one’s life. After Achan had been removed from the congregation, the defeat of the Israelites was capsized and they soared in victory. There is a great lesson we must learn from Joshua in this second battle with Ai;

Joshua 8:26 “For Joshua drew not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.”

Every spiritual warfare requires perseverance, persistence and determination; don’t give up until mission is accomplished, however, abstain from all appearance of evil (1Thes5:22). Have no fellowship with unrepentant sinners but admonish them to abstain from their unrighteous ways. Don’t withdraw your spear of prayer until you have totally destroyed the works of the enemy, because that which you do not effect judgment upon might grow to become the seed of vengeance. All those running errands for the spiritual king (strong man), and the strong man, i.e. the authority behind the problem, must be wiped out totally. May the Lord grant you the grace to share a better testimony as we move to the next reading today in Joshua10-12. Keep the fire burning and alive.