Oluwafemi .The Word of God is a light to my Path.

  The God of the Now “I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” —Psalm 27:13 In 1978 when Jesus supernaturally manifested Himself to me in my bedroom in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, I instantly became aware of the fact that God was real, that He was alive, and that Yeshua was the way to Him. And ever since that time, my heart’s desire has been to experience the presence of God in my life. I’m not just waiting to die and go to heaven; I want to experience more of God here on earth. Sometimes people hear a gospel preached that goes something like this: “If you receive Jesus, you’ll be saved from your sins, and when you die, you’ll go to heaven.” So people go to the altar, repeat a prayer someone told them to say, and leave after being told their sins are forgiven. Then they pretty much think all there is for the rest of their Christian life is to study the Bible and wait to die and go to heaven. But in today’s v...

  The Power of God’s Word “The promise that I make does not return to me, having accomplished nothing. No, it is realized as I desire and is fulfilled as I intend.”  (Isaiah 55:11) God’s Word is powerful. Active. It accomplishes. Wherever it is sent, it prospers. To fulfill God’s purposes, we do not need more material resources. We need to absorb more of God’s Word. As we do so, we learn about God’s plans, purposes, and promises, and open ourselves to receive what he wants us to know and enjoy. No wonder we find these words in the Old Testament:  “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord ”  (Deuteronomy 8:3) Jesus said, “The Spirit is the one who gives life; human nature is of no help! The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63). It is in God’s Word that we find these promises that give us hope and direction: For the one who finds me has foundlife and receivedfavor from the Lord. (Proverbs 8...

  Loving God, teach me to be humble, to put my trust in you, and to ask what is in accord with your will. Strengthen me to resist the devil and draw me near to you. In Jesus’s name I pray, Amen

   God Performs His Word toward Us For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.  (Jeremiah 29:10–11) God told the people in captivity that he would visit them and perform his good word toward them, giving them both a future and hope. Even though this passage was written to the people of that time in captivity, the principles still apply today. Every time we experience the fulfillment of a promise God makes to us, we are experiencing his visitation and the performance of his good Word toward us. We need to have an expectation for the working of God in our lives. We need to realize, “Things that no eye has seen, or ear heard, or mind imagined, are the things God has prepared for those who love him. God has revealed these to us b...

  Lord God, guard my lips today from uttering curses and anything that is displeasing to you. May I sing your praises and offer words of thanksgiving, and may I speak only words of love and encouragement to others. Teach me to seek after wisdom from above that is pure, peaceful, and gentle. Amen.

  Thriving in a World of Spiritual Drought The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.  (Isaiah 58:11) As we look at our world, we see a spiritual desert. However, God has made provision for us to experience spiritual springs of water! How does he satisfy our soul in drought? He does it through his Word and through the Holy Spirit.  Scripture reminds us of the necessity of satisfying our soul on the Word of God: “So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3).  Psalm 107 reminds us: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, and his loyal love endures. Let those delivered by the Lord speak out, those whom h...

  So Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak rose up and began to build the house of God which is in Jerusalem; and the prophets of God were with them, helping them. Ezra 5:2 Rise Back Up In the book of Ezra, fifty thousand Israelite men had returned to Jerusalem from exile under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua to rebuild the temple. But opposition had arisen after the completion of the foundation, and for sixteen years all construction was halted until the prophets Zechariah and Haggai showed up. Despite year after year of discouragement, delay, and opposition, when the prophets said it was time to start rebuilding, Zerubbabel stirred up his faith. He got in agreement with God, got his passion back, and rose up to lead the people. Perhaps today you’re facing some delays, opposition, and setbacks to your dreams and desires. There are times when it seems as though the enemy gets the best of us and the bottom falls out. You’re right where Zerubbabel was....

  Strengthened with Son Power I pray that according to the wealth of his glory he will grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person, that Christ will dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, because you have been rooted and grounded in love,you will be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you will be filled up toall the fullness of God.  (Ephesians 3:16–19) The Holy Spirit is our great source of power, enabling us to successfully fulfill the mission God has given us. We can meet the challenges in our life as we allow Son Power to strengthen us.  It is impossible to be a Converterlator without the Holy Spirit working in us. He cleanses us and strengthens us so Christ himself can live in our heart by faith. His Word nourishes us, rooting us in the soil of God’s love.  As this occurs, we place ourselves in a p...

  We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!” Numbers 11:5–6, NIV What Are You Seeing? When God brought the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, He led them on a journey through the wilderness to the Promised Land. There were no stores or water towers, yet God provided them with manna to eat every morning and all they needed. They saw the hand of God daily, but all they focused on was what they didn’t have. Even God’s miraculous provision of manna seemed common, and what they had eaten as abused slaves seemed far better. God was in their presence, but they were ungrateful and ended up not going into the Promised Land. The key to the journey we’re on is what we’re seeing. If you focus on the negative—what’s lacking, how long it’s taking, what you don’t like—you won’t find joy in the journey, and doubt will come. You’ll start complaining and miss God’s be...

  Delivered, Delivers, Will Deliver We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us.  (2 Corinthians 1:8–10)  When life is hard, we often ask ourselves why our circumstances are so troubling. Or we ask the question, “Why is this happening to me?” I think the above verses give us at least a potential and partial answer.  Paul and his companions endured circumstances that were life crushing and beyond their human capacity to overcome. In fact, they thought they were going to die. But as a result, they came to the realization tha...

  There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. Exodus 3:2 The Best Is Coming For forty years Moses had lived in the desert for killing an Egyptian foreman who was mistreating a Hebrew slave. Moses knew he was called to deliver the Israelites, but he got out of God’s timing and had to flee for his life. He felt like he had missed his destiny. But one day God appeared to him in a burning bush. He could have come to him in a cloud, very peaceful, or at a lake, very serene. But God came to Him in a fire, and He didn’t say, “Moses, you made too many mistakes and missed your destiny.” No, God said, “You’re still going to deliver the Israelites.” The fire was saying, “Moses, you’re about to see new gifts and opportunities come out.” You may think you’ve failed too often, made too many mistakes, and missed your destiny, but God has not given up. You haven’t seen...

   Son Power Alone This is the Lord’s message to Zerubbabel: “Not by strength and not by power, but by my Spirit,’says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”  (Zechariah 4:6)  We must avoid trusting in our own strength to live the Christian life. For Son Power to work, we must continually receive revelation and understanding from the Holy Spirit. Son Power is the Holy Spirit at work in the believer. In fact, he is the divine power of God, the Lord Jesus Christ himself prompting us and empowering us to do his will. Living life for God is totally sourced in the Holy Spirit. It is not by any self-power or self-effort that we accomplish God’s plans and purposes. Trusting in self results in a dead end leading to failure. Jesus said, “The Spirit is the one who gives life; human nature is of no help! The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63). The Holy Spirit of God is the key. He is the helper that Jesus said he was sending to empower us. The Spirit is...

  Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19 Beyond the Flaws One day Jesus saw Peter casting his net into the Sea of Galilee and called him to be His disciple. Peter was a poor fisherman, not a religious leader, synagogue priest, or man of faith. He wasn’t refined and was hot-tempered, impulsive, and used bad language. Jesus already knew that Peter would deny Him three times. Yet God chose him to be one of the twelve disciples who would change the world. Why Peter? Because Jesus could see that in that poor, disadvantaged, uneducated fisherman was a world changer, a history maker. God looks beyond our flaws, our failures, our weaknesses, and He sees the masterpiece we can become. The enemy would love for us to go through life feeling inferior, focused on our weaknesses, weighed down with regrets, guilty from past mistakes, condemned, ashamed. But Jesus calls us to leave our nets and follow Him. Don’t let negativity limit your life. You are w...

  Son Power Possesses Our Entire Life “To what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use to present it? It is like a mustard seed that when sown in the ground, even though it is the smallest of all the seeds in the ground—when it is sown, it grows up, becomes the greatest of all garden plants, and grows large branches so that the wild birds can nest in its shade.”  (Mark 4:30–32) Those who do not have a relationship with God reject the principles of the kingdom of God. Satan, the god of this present age, does not want us to think about eternal matters. He only wants us to devote our time, talent, and treasure to the consumable things of this life which will have no value in eternity. However, when Son Power takes root in the heart of one who receives Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, they begin to experience transformation into a new creature. This transformation brings about new life, new behavior, new interests, and new goals. Son Power pene...

  That night the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. 2 Kings 19:35 Look Back and See In 2 Kings 20, soon before King Hezekiah received a promise of healing from God and then asked for a sign of assurance, he had seen the greatest victory of his life. The powerful Assyrian army was about to attack Jerusalem, but when Hezekiah prayed and asked God to help them, that very night an angel destroyed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. Hezekiah and the people of Judah were spared. You would think Hezekiah wouldn’t need a sign for his promised healing. He had just seen a supernatural victory. But how often do we forget what God has done? As with Hezekiah, God has shown up and turned things around for us. He’s healed us, protected us, freed us, promoted us. If you need a sign, look back at the goodness of God in your life. Look back at how He gave you strength, how He promoted you and gave you breaks, how he turned your child around, h...

  Plugged into the Power Source And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. (Ephesians 4:30)  To grieve the Holy Spirit is to live our lives in direct disobedience to the known will of God. Why is this so important for us to avoid? The Holy Spirit is the one who has sealed us for the day of redemption. However, we must remember that this sealing is just the  beginning  of a living and vital relationship with God through Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit has been poured into our heart to enlighten us about the will of God. The Holy Spirit gives us direction and a sense of mission. This is Son Power at work. The Holy Spirit reveals to us the secrets of the kingdom of God which those who do not know Christ cannot know or understand. He is the one who empowers us to live what Christ taught when he was in the world. He is the one who intervenes for us in our prayer life. When we grieve the Holy Spirit, we cut off our power sour...

  Lord God, as I seek to be obedient to your will, give me patience and understanding. Teach me to wait upon you, trusting in your judgments and mercy. Amen.