Open Heavens 20 April 2024 Saturday Daily Devotional By Pastor E. A. Adeboye – Your Noon
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MEMORISE: "David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years". 2 Samuel 5:4
READ: Ecclesiastes 11:9 (KJV)
9 Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 2 kings 9-10
Open Heaven For Today 2023 MESSAGE
Specifically, the morning of a man stands for his youth.
In 1 John 2:14 “I have written to you young ones because you are strong.” The major characteristic of youths is their strength.
I know most youths see their youthful days as days to enjoy themselves.
This is true, according to Ecclesiastes 11:9-10:
Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth…but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment…
Note that the above passage also says that youths will account for the seeds they sow later in life.
Those that spend their youthful days engaging in all sorts of vices will reap plenty of trouble later in life (Galatians 6:7).
In Genesis 49:1-4, when Israel was about to die, he called his children together and began to prophesy about their future.
He said concerning Reuben, “Mighty Reuben, excellency of strength…but you will not excel.”
Why did he say this? In Genesis 35:22, Reuben did something that he should not have done, and his father heard about it.
Now, when his father was about to die, he told him he would not excel, even though he was the firstborn.
When you read Revelation 7:1-5, you’ll be amazed that by the time they were listing the children of Israel who were sealed, Reuben was no longer the first.
Beloved, if you are young now, meaning that you’re less than 30 years old, make good use of your youth.
Be careful of the kinds of seeds you sow now because you will reap their fruits later, and the harvest is always greater than the seed sown.
…l have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.
1 John 2:14
The above passage does not only say that you are strong as a youth, but also that the word of God is to abide in you, and you are to overcome the wicked one.
Your youthful days are the days to soak in the word of God like never before.
This is the time to memorise as many scriptures as possible.
Now is the time to build your spiritual strength to stand against the devil and overcome him.
Use your strength to do a lot for God because a time will come when you will discover that being a youth does not last forever.
Key Point
Spend your noontime wisely; don’t mismanage it.
HYMN 30: When We Walk With The Lord
1. When we walk with the Lord,
In the light of His word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will
He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.
Refrain:
Trust and obey!
For there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus,
But to trust and obey.
2. But we never can prove
The delights of His love,
Until all on the altar we lay,
For the favour He shows
And the joy He bestows
Are for them who will trust and obey. [Refrain]
3. Then in fellowship sweet
We will sit at His feet,
Or we’ll walk by His side in the way,
What He says we will do,
Where He sends we will go,
Never fear, only trust and obey. [Refrain]
Open Heaven For Today 2024 Friday Daily Devotional By Pastor E. A. Adeboye – Your Morning
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TOPIC: Your Morning
MEMORISE: "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;" Ecclesiastes 12:1
READ: Lamentations 3:27 (KJV)
27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
Open Heaven For Today 2023 MESSAGE
Specifically, the morning of a man stands for his youth. In 1 John 2:14
“I have written to you young ones because you are strong.”
The major characteristic of youths is their strength.
I know most youths see their youthful days as days to enjoy themselves. This is true, according to Ecclesiastes 11:9-10:
Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth…but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment…
Note that the above passage also says that youths will account for the seeds they sow later in life.
Those that spend their youthful days engaging in all sorts of vices will reap plenty of trouble later in life (Galatians 6:7).
In Genesis 49:1-4, when Israel was about to die, he called his children together and began to prophesy about their future. He said concerning Reuben, “Mighty Reuben, excellency of strength…but you will not excel.”
Why did he say this? In Genesis 35:22, Reuben did something that he should not have done, and his father heard about it. Now, when his father was about to die, he told him he would not excel, even though he was the firstborn.
When you read Revelation 7:1-5, you’ll be amazed that by the time they were listing the children of Israel who were sealed, Reuben was no longer the first.
Beloved, if you are young now, meaning that you’re less than 30 years old, make good use of your youth. Be careful of the kinds of seeds you sow now because you will reap their fruits later, and the harvest is always greater than the seed sown.
…l have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.
The above passage does not only say that you are strong as a youth, but also that the word of God is to abide in you, and you are to overcome the wicked one. Your youthful days are the days to soak in the word of God like never before.
This is the time to memorise as many scriptures as possible. Now is the time to build your spiritual strength to stand against the devil and overcome him. Use your strength to do a lot for God because a time will come when you will discover that being a youth does not last forever.
Key Point
Dedicate your youth to knowing and serving God without limits.
HYMN 7: I Am Thine O Lord
1 I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice,
And it told Thy love to me;
But I long to rise in the arms of faith,
And be closer drawn to Thee.
Refrain:
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,
To the cross where Thou hast died;
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,
To Thy precious, bleeding side.
2 Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord,
By the pow’r of grace divine;
Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope,
And my will be lost in Thine. [Refrain]
3 Oh, the pure delight of a single hour
That before Thy throne I spend,
When I kneel in prayer, and with Thee, my God,
I commune as friend with friend! [Refrain]
4 There are depths of love that I cannot know
Till I cross the narrow sea;
There are heights of joy that I may not reach
Till I rest in peace with Thee. [Refrain]
Open Heaven For Today 2024 Thursday Daily Devotional By Pastor E. A. Adeboye – Your Day
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TOPIC: Your Day
MEMORISE: "In the morning it flouriseth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth". Psalms 90:6
READ: Genesis1:1-5 (KJV)
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 2 kings 4-5
Open Heaven For Today 2023 MESSAGE
In Genesis 1:1-5, God called the light ‘day’ and the darkness ‘night’. The combination of both gave us the first day. When you dig deeper, you will discover that a day is broken into three parts – morning, afternoon and evening.
In Psalms 55:17, David said,
“Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.”
Day is God’s unit of measuring the time of man on earth.
Psalms 90:12 says,
“Teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.”
Proverbs 10:27 tells us that although God can lengthen a fellow’s days, He can also shorten them.
According to the memory verse for today, the morning is the time for growing up, and it is the time for joy (Psalms 30:5).
When you are growing up as a child, you have no responsibilities. When children wake up in the morning, they want breakfast to be on the table, and how it gets there is none of their business. Listen to a child laugh, and you will also begin to laugh because their laughter is right from the inside.
The afternoon is when you are at your peak, and the sun is at its brightest. Job 11:17 talks about age being clearer than the noonday. The noon is the peak of life.
The evening is when things begin to become dim, and the sun is about to set. 1 Samuel 4:15 says that Eli was 98 years old and his eyes waxed dim.
Psalms 104:23 says that man goes to his work and begins to return home in the evening. Your evening is when you begin to round off your life.
It is pertinent to know which part of your day you are in so that you can act wisely and make the best out of it. However, if you don’t know, you could be trying to achieve good results with the wrong method.
This is why those who fear God are called wise because even though they grow old, they have wisdom and can still do what strong people cannot. There is a time to use strength primarily, and there is a time to use less of strength and more of wisdom.
There is a time to run and a time to pass the baton. You must recognise your times and seasons to make the best out of your life.
Reflection
What part of your day on earth are you currently in?
HYMN 28: Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah
1 Guide me, O my great Redeemer,
pilgrim through this barren land;
I am weak, but you are mighty;
hold me with your powerful hand.
Bread of heaven, bread of heaven,
feed me now and evermore,
feed me now and evermore.
2 Open now the crystal fountain,
where the healing waters flow.
Let the fire and cloudy pillar
lead me all my journey through.
Strong Deliverer, strong Deliverer,
ever be my strength and shield,
ever be my strength and shield.
3 When I tread the verge of Jordan,
bid my anxious fears subside.
Death of death, and hell’s Destruction,
land me safe on Canaan’s side.
Songs of praises, songs of praises
I will ever sing to you,
I will ever sing to you.
Open Heaven For Today 2024 Wednesday Daily Devotional By Pastor E. A. Adeboye – Divine Favour
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TOPIC: Divine Favour
MEMORISE: "And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the Lord: possess thou the west and the south". Deuteronomy 33:23
READ: Esther 2:12-18 (KJV)
12 Now when every maid's turn was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, after that she had been twelve months, according to the manner of the women, (for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours, and with other things for the purifying of the women;)
13 Then thus came every maiden unto the king; whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto the king's house.
14 In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king's chamberlain, which kept the concubines: she came in unto the king no more, except the king delighted in her, and that she were called by name.
15 Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, was come to go in unto the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king's chamberlain, the keeper of the women, appointed. And Esther obtained favour in the sight of all them that looked upon her.
16 So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.
17 And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.
18 Then the king made a great feast unto all his princes and his servants, even Esther's feast; and he made a release to the provinces, and gave gifts, according to the state of the king.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 2 Kings 1-3
Open Heaven For Today 2023 MESSAGE
When you hear the expression ‘God is smiling on you,’ it means you are enjoying divine favour and grace. In Numbers 6:24-26, God said that the sons of Aaron were to pronounce a blessing on the people, and the blessing went thus:
The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
When God’s face is shining upon you, it means the Lord is smiling upon you and you will enjoy divine favour everywhere you go. It also means that every darkness around you will be consumed, and you will be basking in His light.
When God decides to show you favour, you will achieve more than somebody who is working extremely hard without divine favour. When God shows you favour, miracles happen.
For example, Genesis 24:63 says that Isaac went for a stroll and in the 67th verse of the same chapter, the Bible says:
And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.
All the background work in getting Isaac a wife was done by some other people. When you compare Isaac’s experience to that of Jacob, who laboured for 14 years without pay before he could get the woman he wanted to marry, you will see the difference between favour and hard labour to get what you want.
I decree that from now on, God will show you favour.
Not too long ago, all the universities in Nigeria were ranked, and Redeemer’s University came second.
The first was the University of Ibadan, the oldest university in Nigeria, founded in 1948. Redeemer’s University was only 17 years old at that time, and we beat universities that were more than 60 years old. How could this be? The only explanation can be divine favour.
The question now is, what can you do to always enjoy divine favour? You can find a good answer to this question in Proverbs 3:3-4 which says:
Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.
To draw God’s favour to yourself, always tell the truth and show mercy to others.
Action Point
Always tell the truth and be merciful
HYMN 19: Rock Of Ages, Cleft For Me
1 Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
let me hide myself in thee;
let the water and the blood,
from thy wounded side which flowed,
be of sin the double cure;
save from wrath and make me pure.
2 Not the labors of my hands
can fulfill thy law’s demands;
could my zeal no respite know,
could my tears forever flow,
all for sin could not atone;
thou must save, and thou alone.
3 Nothing in my hand I bring,
simply to the cross I cling;
naked, come to thee for dress;
helpless, look to thee for grace;
foul, I to the fountain fly;
wash me, Savior, or I die.
4 While I draw this fleeting breath,
when mine eyes shall close in death,
when I soar to worlds unknown,
see thee on thy judgment throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
let me hide myself in thee.
Open Heaven For Today 2024 Tuesday Daily Devotional By Pastor E. A. Adeboye – Power Makes Noise
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TOPIC: Power Makes Noise
MEMORISE: "And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him". Joshua 6:5
READ: Joshua 6:15-21(KJV)
15 And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they rose early about the dawning of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner seven times: only on that day they compassed the city seven times.
16 And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the Lord hath given you the city.
17 And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the Lord: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.
18 And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.
19 But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the Lord: they shall come into the treasury of the Lord.
20 So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.
21 And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 Kings 21-22
Open Heaven For Today 2023 MESSAGE
Many Christians don’t pray aloud anymore, and this is one of the reasons we are seeing fewer demonstrations of power among us.
During the first service I attended at RCCG, we were asked to shout hallelujah, and the fellow beside me shouted so loudly that l almost ran out of the church. Where there is power, there must be noise.
The Concorde, a plane that could take you from London to New York in about three hours, was grounded partly because people said it was noisy.
With its powerful engine, it was bound to be noisy.
These days, many Christians have to be cajoled to shout ‘hallelujah’.
I remember many years ago when I was asked to preach during a Christmas carol at Aso Rock, and all the high and mighty were there.
When I asked them to shout hallelujah, they shouted like sophisticated ladies and gentlemen, until I said,
“The next fellow to shout hallelujah is the only one who will see the new year.”
This time around, they really shouted. Real Christians do not have to be threatened to praise their Father.
Many years ago, I was walking and praying within Redemption City in the middle of the night, hungry and thirsty for the power of God. I had been crying,
“Lord, I told You from the beginning that I don’t want to be ordinary. I was serving You as much as I could when I was still lecturing at the university, making some money to do Your work, but you pulled me out. Now, You have made me a General Overseer, and I lack the power to do the work that must be done. Father, either empower me or take me home.”
As I prayed, the ground under my feet shook violently.
There was an earthquake that was felt from as far as ljebu-Ode – it was in the newspapers.
An earthquake is not quiet. Noise is necessary for power; stop trying not to be noisy.
Don’t hinder the move of God with your so-called sophistication.
I am at a point in my life where I need other people to carry more fire than me so that when I am leaving, I will know that I am leaving commandoes behind that will take the work of God farther than I did.
Stop forming, as the youths will say, when you are in the presence of God.
Be free to make a loud noise that will shut the devil out and let the power of God flow.
Action Point
Shout a very loud hallelujah!
HYMN 6: I am so glad that our Father in heav'n
1 I am so glad that our Father in heaven
Tells of His love in the Book He has given;
Wonderful things in the Bible I see,
This is the dearest, that Jesus loves me.
Refrain:
I am so glad that Jesus loves me,
Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me;
I am so glad that Jesus loves me,
Jesus loves even me.
2 Jesus loves me, and I know I love Him;
Love brought Him down my poor soul to redeem;
Yes, it was love made Him die on the tree;
Oh, I am certain that Jesus loves me!
3 In this assurance I find sweetest rest,
Trusting in Jesus, I know I am blest;
Satan, dismayed, from my soul now doth flee,
When I just tell him that Jesus loves me.
4 Oh, if there’s only one song I can sing,
When in His beauty I see the great King,
This shall my song through eternity be,
“Oh, what a wonder that Jesus loves me!”
5 If one should ask of me, how can I tell?
Glory to Jesus, I know very well!
God’s Holy Spirit with mine doth agree,
Constantly witnessing Jesus loves me.
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