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[The Glory Unveiled ]

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! ( Ezekiel 37:4 )

Could it be that your next testimony is a prophecy away? The Bible says life and death are in the power of the tongue. The book of James calls it “a small part of the body that makes great boast” (see James 3:5). So there is so much good we could do with our tongue as much as evil. But today we want to talk about the good we could do with our tongues. Our commentary was introduced with a question, could it be that your next testimony is a testimony away? Usually what separates us from what we envision are, our words and our actions. The words we sow into our daily life is very important to our daily growth or stagnation. Ezekiel was confronted with some dry bones but instead of God doing something about the situation, He asks Ezekiel to prophecy to the bones. Now we must understand that prophecy is the word of God spoken out by man. It means repeating or reporting what God says. And so Ezekiel begun to do as God commanded him. Ezekiel told the dry bones to hear the word of the Lord. God created the world and all that is in it by the word of His mouth, as such every created thing knows and recognises the word of God when spoken. The only reason why any created thing would respond to a major change like the one Ezekiel was undertaking was the word of God. Speak the word of God to the circumstance of life confronting you. Say to that situation what God says and it would pay heed. The key is to speak consistently with the word.

Prayer_Bead: Creator of all things and sustainer of all. Teach me to realize that any situation that confronts me is an opportunity to manifest your glory to the world.

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[The Glory Unveiled]

You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you.'” ( 2 Chronicles 20:17)

Battles are always approached with strategic mental attitudes and planning; the ultimate goal being to win over perceived enemies. Usually, each side does an under cover investigation to know the man strength and amunition power of their opponents to prepare in advance. But here in Israel, at the time of King Jehosaphat, the army of Israel didn’t follow the laid out military protocols. They have been instructed by a prophet of God to follow a certain procedure he had disclosed to them. This was an approach foreign to their enemies—something that would naturally throw them out of course. They would have carried the battle from the physical sphere to a spiritual arena. As such their opponents were ill prepared for that kind of combat. The best way to win over any battle, even life’s battles is to change the battle plan and mode of engagement. That way the opposing group is thrown into confusion. You would then not have to fight just as the Israelites didn’t have to fight to conquer their enemies. All they did was to take their spiritual strategic positions as instructed by the prophet and then they stood firm [had faith]. They went out to face their enemies but not to fight them but to look upon their destruction. This is what happens when we fight our physical battles with spiritual arsenals. Stop fighting your battles by yourself. There is an army stronger than all the world’s armies ready to fight on your behalf. Engage them and let them do your bidding.

Prayer_Bead: Jehovah Overdo, thank you for the spiritual and physical provisions and supplies. I hand over my battles to you. As I take my position in praise, rise against my adversaries.

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[The Glory Unveiled ]

So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. ( Joshua 10:13)

Five Kings of the Amorites came up against Gibeon and overpowered them in battle. And so the Gibeonites sent word to Joshua and his men to help them fight the Amorites. It was during this battle that Joshua prayed and the sun stood still like frozen water and the moon stood motionless like a statue. It may be quite difficult to appreciate this great miracle in our day because Science has convinced us that the sun is already stationary. But even if that were true,  then it means for the sun not to “move” in our scientific interpretation, we would understand that the earth did not revolve around the sun nor spin (rotate) on its axis for that number of hours [then—instead]. Making it rather a beautiful miracle. The reason for considering this scripture is to appreciate what length God would go to protect His name and glory. He did not want to disappoint His people so He had to come through for them. If God would make the sun stop for someone then He could and would make every scorching situation cease in your life. Anything that steals our joy and robs us of the peace of God is hereby stopped in Jesus’ name. God would do whatever He would do to display His glory and kindness to the world through us. Does your situation seem insurmountable? Call upon the God who surmounts the insurmountable, He who stops the lion’s mouth, calms the storms and speaks to fishes. He is the same God today.

Prayer_Bead: God of wonders and exceeding miracles, thank you for your sovereignty and power. Lord, do in my life what would demonstrate your glory and power to the world today.

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[The Glory Unveiled ]

“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten–the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm–my great army that I sent among you. ( Joel 2:25)

Fortunately for us as believers, there is no apparent loss in our walk with God. Whatever we lose can be restored to us in a split second. There is a provision made available for us to chance upon when we experience a loss of any sort. The grace of God and the sovereignty of God is able to make the impossible possible. God is able to work through all our past pains and hurts and losses to bring us to where He wants us. And then when we get there, He is also able to restore unto us all we have lost. God made the above promise to His people that He would repay (restore) what His army had destroyed. So it means the destruction was permitted by God Himself. He allowed it in order to correct and reroute His people from going the wrong way. And then when they were awakened to the right path, He restores what was lost to them [now that they have found their way back to where He wanted them to be]. Beloved, whatever we have lost can be restored to us. But first of all, could it be that God has taken what He took in order to get our attention and to lead us to the right path? We need to exam ourselves to know why we experience the loss in the first place. After we discover the reason, we need to now align ourselves and then the restoration becomes automatic.

Prayer_Bead: Father of all lives, My God who called light out of darkness and the things which are not as if they were, please order my steps in your word and restore whatever I lost through disobedience and negligence.

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[The Glory Unveiled ]

He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.” ( Ezekiel 37:3 )

The Lord had taken Ezekiel, the prophet into a valley full of dry human bones. And there in the valley the Lord asked him whether the bones could receive life and live again? Ezekiel responded thus, only God knew. Now that statement right there set the tone for what would happen next. Sometimes in a crisis, we make negative confessions. We say things out of fear or anxiety and such words go to hinder the outcome we would have hoped for. A typical example was a  statement made by an Officer of the King in 2Kings 7:19. He said God could not do anything about the famine crisis in Israel even if the floodgates were opened. You know the rest of the story. He actually saw the miracle happen but he didn’t partake of it because of his confession. But here, in the valley, Ezekiel made the right assessment of the situation and realized that he couldn’t help the situation thus only God could.  Whatever situation we are confronted by, we must always live in the consciousness that God knows all things and He can change any and every circumstance. Ezekiel could have said that “Ah Lord, you know these bones cannot live again, why bother me?” And that statement would have denied him the opportunity to see for himself the power of God at work. He wouldn’t have learnt these lessons from that experience too. God can get the best out of the worst. Remember He calls light out of darkness and order out of disorder and chaos. He is God over all things, both living and dead situations. Our assignment is to put our absolute trust in Him.

Prayer_Bead: Father of creation, thank you for your Sovereignty and your love for humans. I pray that you’d help me to trust you even against the odds as Ezekiel did.

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[The Glory Unveiled ]

In the first year of his (Darius son of Xerxes) reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. ( Daniel 9:2 )

The word of God carries within it the knowledge that represents our freedom. Some Israelites had been exiled from their home country, and sent to Babylon. After a long time, some begun to find a new home in the foreign land. They had almost forgotten that they had come from another place. While others diligently waited for the deliverance of the Lord. And yet that deliverance seem to be forever away from them. After some years, Daniel decided to refer to the scriptures for solution. He found out that God had said something to them on the matter: their predicament was for a period of seventy years. But did you know that if they had spent a little over the seventy years it would have been their doing? [Some extra biblical materials suggest it was over seventy years]. Now what does that mean to us today? God is telling us today to discover for ourselves His promises and plans for us in the Scriptures and act accordingly. The solution or freedom we seek is only guaranteed in the confines of God’s Word. But we cannot know it unless we discover it and act by them. Like Daniel, let us go back to the scriptures to discover what God is saying about our current circumstances and current world events.

Prayer_Bead: Jehovah God, my Lord and King, teach me your statutes and your precepts. Order my steps in your word. Help me to discover your plans for me in your word.

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[The Glory Unveiled ]

“Ah, Sovereign LORD,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am only a child. [ Jeremiah 1:6  ]

Behind the scenes, fear is the real excuse for non performance and neglect of the call of God upon us. Underneath all the beautiful excuses people give for not wanting to carry out their calling is fear. The fear of what could be and what may not be. It is nothing other than what “ifs”, “I can’ts” “whys” etc. These questions and statements we give permission to stop us from acting are actually the voice of fear. When God called Jeremiah as a young boy, he too like many others before him was afraid and wanted to reject the call. But in verse 8 of our focal chapter, we see God talk about Jeremiah’s problem; fear. The Bible says we have not been given a spirit of fear [by God]. So anytime we become afraid, we must be quick to realize that the devil is at it again, trying to dissuade us from following the path of God for us. Fear has stopped many great dreams from seeing the light of day and many desires and aspirations failed because of this same plague. If we would let go of fear, we would see God’s glory. We would manifest dimensions of God’s glory the world is yet to see. But the first step is to let go of fear as it is not of God but the devil. Like light, when faith appears, fear (darkness) flees. The two cannot stay together. God tells Jeremiah that He (God) is with him so that he could have faith and not fear. The same is true in our case. God is with us. We can do whatever God says we should do.

Prayer_Bead: Father in Heaven, thank you for your word. Help me to trust in your word. Let fear be far from me as the east is from the west so that I may fulfill my calling.

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[The Glory Unveiled]

Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. ( John 13:17 )

There is a common statement that says there is nothing free, even in Freetown. Usually, whatever we see to be free cost someone else something. So in that regard nothing can actually be free in the “free” sense of the word. In the body of Christ, the concept of free has excused many of us from our responsibilities, making the majority of believers lazy. There are those who still believe that manna would just fall from heaven into their laps—yes, miracles do happen. But a General of the faith once said that more miracles happen with a prepared mind. Jesus had just taught His disciples a very important lesson that needed emulation. But He (in our focal verse) tells His disciples that knowing about the lesson is not enough. Because mere knowledge wouldn’t permit the blessings to come upon a person. What allows the blessings is the doing of what we have been told to do. Almost every believer knows of the blessings of God recorded in scripture and often claim them by word of mouth. But it is only a few who dare to go beyond “I receive” to doing what is required to acquire it. In the Old Testament (Ezra 9:12) the LORD told his people that they would eat the good of the land if they do not do certain things. So even then, the blessing came with a responsibility. Responsibilities protect the blessings of the Lord against abuse. So that any one willing to take responsibilities for the blessings could partner in it. We would be blessed if we do what we know to do that God impresses on us to do. We participate in the blessing by partaking in the responsibility.

Prayer_Bead: Awesome God, Faithful Father, thank you for your words. I pray that you will guide me by Your Holy Spirit to do all that is required of me to partake in your blessings.

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[The Glory Unveiled]

Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” ( John 12:28 )

In the shadow of the cross, few days to His crucifixion, Jesus had a short but intense conversation with God in the presence of other people. He had prayed the words of that first line in the verse of scripture we are considering for today’s devotional study. And then immediately, almost as in a dialogue, God [the father] responded to the Son in the hearing of the people present; even though most of the people could not decipher what was said or who said it (verse 29). In the verse 30, He said that the voice of the Father was for the benefit of the crowd. Now, that goes to mean that Jesus wanted us to learn a thing or two from that encounter. The account teaches us that God is a relational God. He loves to commune with us when we pray. God speaks, God responds to us when we pray to Him. Anytime we pray to God, there should be a response from the other end of the conversation. When we truly engage in prayer, God would respond to us. He hears, He knows, He loves. When we pray, we need to be assured that God hears us. Irrespective of our location, once the terms of the conversation is met, God hears us. And if we have this assurance that God hears us, we must approach our prayer closets with confidence from hence forth (1John5:14). This should give us settled and absolute knowledge (trust) that God would do what we ask. God would glorify Christ in us when we fellowship with Him in the sincerity of heart.

Prayer_Bead: Creator of all created things, both visible and invisible, Lover of my soul, thank you for communing with me when I pray. Teach me to recognize your voice when you speak.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.