Open Heaven For Today 2024 Thursday Daily Devotional By Pastor E. A. Adeboye – The Challenges of Being Anointed 2
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TOPIC: The Challenges of Being Anointed 2
MEMORISE: "But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more". Luke 12:48
READ: Mark 6:31-34 (KJV)
31 And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.
32 And they departed into a desert place by ship privately.
33 And the people saw them departing, and many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent them, and came together unto him.
34 And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 Kings 8-9
Open Heaven For Today 2023 MESSAGE
In continuation of my discussion yesterday, one of the challenges of being anointed is that anointed people are perceived to be stronger than they really are.
Because they pray and God answers immediately, people think that they don’t need prayers themselves.
Also, because they lay hands on the sick and the sick get healed, people think that they are superhuman and can never be weak or tired.
Because they preach and souls get saved, there is a tendency to think that they never get tempted, whereas they probably face temptations more than other people.
Moses made just one mistake in 40 years of leading the Israelites, but God said he would not get to the promised land.
He had been interceding for Israel whenever they did terrible things, and God had been forgiving them.
Now, in his own case, there was nobody to plead for him.
Do you want to be heavily anointed? Be ready to work endlessly. When I discovered that the Bible says that we should earnestly covet spiritual gifts, I was happy.
I asked for double the anointing on Elisha, Peter, Paul and Jesus Christ when He was on the earth and then asked that all should be combined and doubled again.
God warned me then that I was asking for a dangerous thing because people would not let me rest.
When people see that you are anointed, they will bring all their problems to you. Even after you minister to them from the altar, they will still want to see you personally.
You cannot send them away because the purpose of the anointing is to serve.
When I employed a personal assistant, and he asked,
“What are our work hours?”
I said,
“We start the day at 5am and only God knows when we will close.”
This is why raising other people who will also become anointed is necessary.
RCCG is in over 190 nations in the world. How will I cope if every member comes to me with their problems?
This is why each local assembly has anointed pastors that can pray for the members; only the cases they can’t handle come to me.
God has also made things easier by making it possible for me to pray from the altar and anoint handkerchiefs, which are used to perform the miracles that people would have called the General Overseer to pray about in the past.
A lot of responsibilities and challenges come with being anointed, so if you desire to be anointed, you should be ready to embrace them.
Key Point
The anointing comes with challenges and responsibility.
HYMN 23: Take My Life, and Let It Be
1 Take my life and let it be
consecrated, Lord, to thee.
Take my moments and my days;
let them flow in endless praise,
let them flow in endless praise.
2 Take my hands and let them move
at the impulse of thy love.
Take my feet and let them be
swift and beautiful for thee,
swift and beautiful for thee.
3 Take my voice and let me sing
always, only, for my King.
Take my lips and let them be
filled with messages from thee,
filled with messages from thee.
4 Take my silver and my gold;
not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect and use
every power as thou shalt choose,
every power as thou shalt choose.
5 Take my will and make it thine;
it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart it is thine own;
it shall be thy royal throne,
it shall be thy royal throne.
6 Take my love; my Lord, I pour
at thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be
ever, only, all for thee,
ever, only, all for thee.
Open Heaven For Today 2024 Wednesday Daily Devotional By Pastor E. A. Adeboye – The Challenges of Being Anointed 1
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TOPIC: The Challenges of Being Anointed 1
MEMORISE: "And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them". 2 Kings 2:24
READ: Numbers 20:1-13(KJV)
1 Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.
2 And there was no water for the congregation: and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.
3 And the people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord!
4 And why have ye brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there?
5 And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink.
6 And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces: and the glory of the Lord appeared unto them.
7 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
8 Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.
9 And Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as he commanded him.
10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?
11 And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.
12 And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.
13 This is the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the Lord, and he was sanctified in them.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 Kings 6-7
Open Heaven For Today 2023 MESSAGE
Do you want to be heavily anointed? The one who generates the anointing has more than enough for everybody.
Psalms 23:5 says,
“Thou anointed my head with oil, my cup runneth over.”
He has more than enough for everybody, but are you willing to pay the price?
Are you willing to go through the challenges that come with being anointed?
Hebrews 1:9 says that if you love righteousness and hate iniquity, God will anoint you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.
Yesterday, I mentioned some benefits of being anointed, but it is also important to note that the anointing also comes with some challenges.
The major challenge with being anointed is that power can corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The more anointed you are, the more careful you must be because of the tendency to misuse the power.
In Numbers 20:1-13, especially verse 10, Moses said to the people,
“Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?”
Only a few minutes before then, he was on his face before God, asking for a solution to the problem.
The moment God told him what to do, he turned to the people who had been provoking him, called them rebels, and spoke as if the power to bring water out of the rock was from him and not from God. In verse 12, God said that because he did not sanctify Him in the eyes of the people, he will not enter the promised land.
I have always told pastors in The Redeemed Christian Church of God that no one must ever feel as if he healed anybody.
Left alone, you cannot even heal a rat! It is God who heals, and you are only a vessel through which the healing takes place.
You must always see that as a privilege. Since the power to perform miracles is not yours, God can use anyone else to do it.
A man of God once said that if you remove God from him, there will be little left.
I was surprised because, in my own case, if you remove God from me, there will be absolutely nothing left.
Beloved, never forget that without God, you are nothing. Anyone who thinks that he or she can be something without God is clearly on a path to destruction.
No matter how anointed you are, never allow yourself to think that you are all-powerful. Ensure that you remain humble.
Key Point
Never forget that it is God who works miracles, not you.
HYMN 1: All Hail The Power Of Jesus’ Name
1 All hail the power of Jesus’ name!
Let angels prostrate fall.
Bring forth the royal diadem,
and crown him Lord of all.
Bring forth the royal diadem,
and crown him Lord of all!
2 Let highborn seraphs tune the lyre,
and as they tune it, fall
Before His face Who tunes their choir,
and crown Him Lord of all.
Before His face Who tunes their choir,
and crown Him Lord of all.
3 Crown Him, ye morning stars of light,
Who fixed this floating ball;
Now hail the strength of Israel’s might,
and crown Him Lord of all.
Now hail the strength of Israel’s might,
and crown Him Lord of all.
4 Crown Him, ye martyrs of your God,
Who from His altar call;
Extol the stem of Jesse’s Rod,
and crown Him Lord of all.
Extol the stem of Jesse’s Rod,
and crown Him Lord of all.
5 Ye seed of Israel’s chosen race,
ye ransomed from the fall,
Hail Him who saves you by his grace,
and crown Him Lord of all.
Hail Him who saves you by his grace,
and crown Him Lord of all!
6 Hail Him, ye heirs of David’s line,
Whom David Lord did call,
The God incarnate, Man divine,
and crown Him Lord of all.
The God incarnate, Man divine,
and crown Him Lord of all.
7 Sinners, whose love can ne’er forget
the wormwood and the gall,
Go spread your trophies at His feet,
and crown Him Lord of all.
Go spread your trophies at His feet,
and crown Him Lord of all.
8 Let every tribe and every tongue
before Him prostrate fall,
And shout in universal song,
and crown him Lord of all.
And shout in universal song,
and crown him Lord of all.
Open Heaven For Today 2024 Tuesday Daily Devotional By Pastor E. A. Adeboye – Benefits Of The Anointed
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TOPIC: Benefits Of The Anointed
MEMORISE: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised," Luke 4:18
READ: 2 Kings 2:15-22 (KJV)
15 And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him.
16 And they said unto him, Behold now, there be with thy servants fifty strong men; let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master: lest peradventure the Spirit of the Lord hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley. And he said, Ye shall not send.
17 And when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said, Send. They sent therefore fifty men; and they sought three days, but found him not.
18 And when they came again to him, (for he tarried at Jericho,) he said unto them, Did I not say unto you, Go not?
19 And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught, and the ground barren.
20 And he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him.
21 And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land.
22 So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 Kings 3-5
Open Heaven For Today 2023 MESSAGE
The anointing makes you a blessing to all kinds of people. In 2 Kings 4:1-7, Elisha was a blessing to a poor widow.
You can put an end to someone’s poverty because you are anointed. Also, you can become a blessing, even to the rich and powerful.
You can sit in your room and tell a rich fellow, “Go and wash,” as Elisha told Naaman, and if the fellow obeys, he will be healed.
It is important to note, however, that if an anointed person blesses others solely for monetary gains, the problem of the rich will become the fellow’s problem as Naaman’s leprosy came upon Gehazi (2 Kings 5:20-27).
The anointing gives you the power to put smiles on the faces of people who would otherwise have been sorrowful.
When I turned 80, I insisted that I wasn’t throwing a party. However, some General Overseers gathered in my office after the Holy Ghost Service that day.
When they were asked to share testimonies, one of them, a medical doctor who is now a General Overseer, said two of his daughters became terribly sick.
One was already gasping for breath when all of a sudden, he thought, “I have prayed, and nothing has happened, at least I know someone whose anointing is more than mine,” so he called me that night.
When he told me what was happening, God asked me to tell him to do some things.
When he started doing what l asked him to do, the other doctors that were with him started wondering what he was doing.
He told them this wasn’t medicine, but an instruction that came from Redemption Camp.
The children survived miraculously, and today, one of them is a doctor, and I think the other is an engineer.
If you want to be able to turn sorrow away from families, pursue God’s anointing.
The anointing also gives you divine security. Our God is like a coin that has two sides, He is Love (1 John 4:8), and He is also a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29).
When He says touch not my anointed, He is saying, “Don’t touch fire.”
In Africa, we have a saying that even when a dog is mad, it still recognises fire. No matter how crazy a man may be, he will never walk into a fire.
When you are anointed, you become too dangerous for the devil to touch.
Key Point
Seek the anointing of God.
HYMN 2: Amazing Grace
1 Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch; like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
2 Through many dangers, toils, and snares
I have already come
This grace that brought me safe thus far
And grace will lead me home
3 The Lord hath promised good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures.
4 Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
and mortal life shall cease:
I shall possess, within the veil,
a life of joy and peace.
5 The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
the sun forbear to shine;
but God, who called me here below,
will be forever mine.
6 When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we first begun.
Open Heaven For Today 2024 Monday Daily Devotional By Pastor E. A. Adeboye – Judging The Anointed?
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TOPIC: Judging The Anointed?
MEMORISE: "Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand". Romans 14:4
READ: Numbers 12:1-16 (KJV)
1 And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
2 And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it.
3 (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)
4 And the Lord spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out.
5 And the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth.
6 And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.
7 My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house.
8 With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?
9 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them; and he departed.
10 And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous.
11 And Aaron said unto Moses, Alas, my lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned.
12 Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother's womb.
13 And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee.
14 And the Lord said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? let her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in again.
15 And Miriam was shut out from the camp seven days: and the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again.
16 And afterward the people removed from Hazeroth, and pitched in the wilderness of Paran.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 Kings 1-2
Open Heaven For Today 2023 MESSAGE
Yesterday I made it clear that the anointed is not to dishonored for any reason.
Now, the question someone may have in mind is, “What do we do with ministers of God who we believe to be erring?”
This is a very delicate situation that requires God’s wisdom and direction.
For example, in our Bible reading today, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of something they believed he did wrong.
At the end of the day, Miriam became leprous, and Moses had to pray to God for her to be healed.
It is not in your place to judge God’s servants; leave their judgments to their Master.
In Romans 12:19, the Bible says clearly that vengeance is His, just report the matter to God, and He will deal with His anointed as He pleases.
Anointed ministers of God cannot hide under the canopy of being God’s anointed and begin to treat His sheep the way they like.
Hebrews 10:31 says that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God; believe me, a fellow should not experience God dealing with him or her Himself.
The reason we discipline erring workers is to shield them from God doing it Himself.
When a pastor misbehaves, and the General Overseer suspends him, it is so that the Consuming Fire Himself will not be the one to do it.
So, if a pastor overlooks a fellow’s wrongdoings because of his or her contributions to the church treasury, that pastor is doing more harm than good because God Himself will come in, and nobody wants to fall into the hands of the living God.
In 2 Samuel 11, David used his position to snatch another man’s wife and also got him killed.
Nobody could punish him as there was no one who was superior to the king. God had to step in to punish him.
From that point on, there was no peace in David’s home. Not long after, one of his sons, Amnon, raped his half-sister, and then another son, Absalom, killed him.
Later, Absalom rose up against his father. To date, the sword has not departed from Israel on account of the Lord’s judgement over David (2 Samuel 12:9-10).
When a person is anointed by God and uses that anointing to cheat others, when God punishes that fellow, the punishment might last throughout his or her lineage from generation to generation.
Key Point
No matter how anointed you are, never dishonor another anointed fellow.
HYMN 31: Yield Not to Temptation
1 Yield not to temptation,
For yielding is sin;
Each vict’ry will help you,
Some other to win;
Fight valiantly onward,
Evil passions subdue;
Look ever to Jesus,
He will carry you through.
Refrain:
Ask the Savior to help you,
Comfort, strengthen and keep you;
He is willing to aid you,
He will carry you through.
2 Shun evil companions,
Bad language disdain;
God’s name hold in rev’rence,
Nor take it in vain;
Be thoughtful and earnest,
Kindhearted and true;
Look ever to Jesus,
He will carry you through. [Refrain]
3 To him that o’ercometh,
God giveth a crown;
Through faith we will conquer,
Though often cast down;
He who is our Savior,
Our strength will renew;
Look ever to Jesus,
He will carry you through. [Refrain]
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