OPEN HEAVENS DEVOTIONAL
DATE: THURSDAY DECEMBER 21 2023
TOPIC: YOU CAN’T BOX GOD IN II
MEMORISE:
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.
Ephesians 3:20.
READ:
ISAIAH 55:8-9
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
MESSAGE:
Some people think they have God all figured out. They think they know all that there is to know about Him and how He does His things. After several encounters with God, a lot of sufferings for His work and even episodes of being stoned and left for dead while preaching the gospel, Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:10: “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death”.
When you go for a service, how much you get from it can be limited by your expectations. If you expect that the Pastor will mention your own particular case and he doesn’t, that is not proof that God has not answered your prayer. God can decide to work loudly or quietly; all He requires from you is faith, not an analysis of how He will work. He expects us to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).
There was a testimony of a lady who was born with so many abnormalities – including having one lung instead of two, and her heart being on the right side of her chest instead of the left. As such, she struggled with her health from the day she was born.
Finally, somebody recommended a hospital in Dubai, but she decided to go to the Holy Ghost Service first but nothing special appeared to happen in relation to her case during the service. Afterwards, she went on to Dubai as she had planned. When she got there, the doctors examined her and had to ask what she actually came in for, because they could not see anything wrong with her.
She thought the people there didn’t know what they were saying so she went to another Hospital in Dubai. They also examined her and said there was nothing wrong with her. The Doctors could not believe that she was the same person they had read her case note from Nigeria because they could see her heart on the left and she had two lungs, not one. If she had assumed that, because I had not mentioned her case at that Holy Ghost Service, then God was not interested in her, she might have missed her miracle.
Don’t try to box God in so you don’t lose your miracle.
PRAYER POINT:
Father, please help me not to live by sight, but by faith in You at all times, in Jesus’ name.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:
JAMES 1-5
AUTHOR:
PASTOR E.A. ADEBOYE
HYMN 16
PRAISE HIM, PRAISE HIM, JESUS OUR BLESSED REDEEMER
1. Praise Him! Praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer!
Sing, O Earth, His wonderful love proclaim!
Hail Him! Hail Him! Highest archangels in glory,
Strength and honour give to His Holy Name!
Like a Shepherd, Jesus will guard His children,
In His arms He carries them all day long.
O ye saints that dwell on the mountain of Zion.
Praise Him! Praise Him!
Ever in joyful song!
2. Praise Him! Praise Him!
Jesus our blessed Redeemer!
For our sins He suffered, and bled and died.
He, our rock, our hope of eternal salvation,
Hail Him! Hail Him! Jesus the Crucified!
Loving Saviour, meekly enduring sorrow,
Crowned with thorns that cruelly pierced His brow;
Once for us rejected, despised and forsaken.
Prince of Glory, ever triumphant now.
3. Praise Him! Praise Him!
Jesus, our blessed Redeemer!
Heav’nly portals loud with hosannas ring!
Jesus, Saviour, reigneth forever and ever;
Crown Him! Crown Him! Prophet, and Priest, and King!
Death is vanquished! Tell it with joy, ye faithful.
Where is now thy victory, boasting grave?
Jesus lives! No longer thy portals are cheerless,
Jesus lives, the mighty and strong to save.