OPEN HEAVENS 2017 THINK IN THE SPIRIT – Thursday June 29th 2017 Memorise:  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Proverbs 3:6 Read:  Proverbs 3:5-6 (KJV) 5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Bible in one year:  1st Samuel 3-5, Lamentation 2:3-13, Hymn: Sing hymn 15 MESSAGE Life in the Spirit is possible, even though for most believers it still a struggle (Galatians 5:25). To grow your spirit-man, you need to earnestly seek more opportunities to be refilled with the Holy Spirit after being baptized with Him (Ephesians 5:18-19). To live in the Spirit, you need to think in the Spirit. In our thought life, many of us leave out the Holy Spirit, and this is one of the reasons why we don’t go far in our walk with God. Whenever God is left out of an equation, it never balances. This is why today’s Bible reading sa...

REST IN GOD -PSALM 119:121-128 KEY VERSE: "Deal with thy servant according unto thy mercy, and teach me thy statutes" (Psalm 119:124). Faron Young, a famous American singer and songwriter, who was married for over 32 years, plunged himself into alcoholism. This badly affected his life and he got separated from his wife. The court ordered him to pay her a lifetime alimony of $l,000 every month. After years of loneliness, heartache and pain coupled with prostate cancer, Young shot himself. That was where he got it wrong, forgetting to surrender his challenges to Christ. The text, the prayer of the Psalmist, exposes his frailty, weakness and helplessness. It was a heartfelt prayer from someone, who was not pretentious but was in pain and suffering. He cried out his mind to God to get involved in his situation. He knew God abhorred sin and with it, no one would have access to Him. Therefore, he maintained a righteous life. He cried for God’s grace and mercy, being sure that ...

RHAPSODY OF REALITIES THURSDAY, 29TH JUNE.  http://bit.ly/2dZqtLQ BE FIRED UP TO DO MORE. Send us around the world with the news of your saving power and your eternal plan for all mankind (Psalm 67:2 TLB). In Revelation 22:7, the Master said, “Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.” Then in Matthew 28:19-20, He instructed, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” He’s coming back soon, and He’s given us the mandate to evangelize the world before He comes back. He said in Luke 19:13, “…Occupy till I come”; that means keep working; keep preaching; keep leading men and women into righteousness. There’s an urgency, a fervency in our spirits to share the ...

  June 29, 2017 Faith in Action Amy Boucher Pye James 2:14–26 Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. James 2:18 As a friend drove to the grocery store, she noticed a woman walking along the side of the road and felt she should turn the car around and offer her a ride. When she did, she was saddened to hear that the woman didn’t have money for the bus so was walking home many miles in the hot and humid weather. Not only was she making the long journey home, but she had also walked several hours that morning to arrive at work by 4 a.m. By offering a ride, my friend put into practice in a modern setting James’s instruction for Christians to live out their faith with their deeds: “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (v. 17). He was concerned that the church take care of the widows and the orphans (James 1:27), and he also wanted them to rely not on empty words but to act on th...

REWARD OF FALSE PROPHECY -JEREMIAH 28:10-17 KEY VERSE: "Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the LORD" (Jeremiah 28:16). Even though afflictions come from the devil, God, sometimes, allows them as a form of chastisement against His people for their wrongdoing. This was exactly the situation of the Israelites, as the text depicted, when they involved themselves in sin. Jeremiah, by the Spirit of the Lord, wore a yoke, which symbolised the Jews and other neighbouring nations’ subjection to the king of Babylon. It was not that Nebuchadnezzar was righteous, but submission to him was a form of punishment, which could prevent the extreme evil that would otherwise befall them. Hananiah, a false prophet, who stood against Jeremiah’s prophecy and made the people believe a lie, took the yoke from off Jeremiah’s neck and broke it. Jeremiah, as against conte...

RHAPSODY OF REALITIES WEDNESDAY, 28TH JUNE. YOU DWELL IN HIM. RHAPSODY OF REALITIES WEDNESDAY, 28TH JUNE.  http://bit.ly/2dZqtLQ YOU DWELL IN HIM. For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, "For we are also his offspring" (Acts 17:28). When you were born again, you were born into the environment called "Christ"; you dwell in Him. The Bible says, "...if any man be in Christ..." (2 Corinthians 5:17). Christ is a place, and He's also a person. He's your home. In Him, you're at rest and at peace! You're safe, secure, and fulfilled; your joy and satisfaction overflow. What a place to be! Ephesians 2:6 tells us that God has made us sit together in heavenly places, "in Christ"; that's your environment; an environment of glory. It brings to mind the account of the Israelites, as they journeyed in the wilderness for forty years. The heat didn't scorch them by day, neither di...

  June 28, 2017 Unfinished Works Amy Peterson Romans 7:14–25 Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!  Romans 7:24–25 At his death, the great artist Michelangelo left many unfinished projects. But four of his sculptures were never meant to be completed. The Bearded Slave, the Atlas Slave, the Awakening Slave , and the Young Slave, though they appear unfinished, are just as Michelangelo intended them to be. The artist wanted to show what it might feel like to be forever enslaved. Rather than sculpting figures in chains, Michelangelo made figures stuck in the very marble out of which they are carved. Bodies emerge from the stone, but not completely. Muscles flex, but the figures are never able to free themselves. My empathy with the slave sculptures is immediate. Their plight is not unlike my struggle with sin. I am unable to free myself: like the sculptures...