🔰 *WORD4TODAY* 🔰

*Ezekiel 16:9 MSG*
I gave you a good bath, washing off all that old blood, and anointed you with aromatic oils.
Ezekiel 16:11 I adorned you with jewelry: I placed bracelets on your wrists, fitted you out with a necklace,

Have you prayed at least 5mins for NIGERIA today?
It's the least we can all do.

Psalms 83:17 MSG
Bring them to the end of their rope, and leave them there dangling, helpless.

Wickedness will no longer reign in NIGERIA.

And to all perpetuating and sponsoring bloodshed, stealing

from our common wealth, Father, bring them to the end of their ropes.

Break the pride of their power Lord.

Leviticus 26:19-21 KJV
And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:

#Let their entire strength be continually

spent in vain.

[20] And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits. .

#With your help, leaders will rule well.

Prov 8:15 MSG
With my help, leaders rule, & lawmakers legislate fairly;

#Do you know God reads "letters?"
1.
There are some things we often think are beneath God to bother Him with.

We assume some mundane stuffs are to small to bother Him with. We panic because, we believe, God shouldn't be bother with small, inconsequential stuffs

King Hezekiah

2.
once received a letter from a king with a history of destroying anything and anyone that caught his fancy.

The king was greatly feared by all. There was no exception. He had conquered all known powerful kingdoms, their kings and their gods.

The letter brought fear and

3.
trepidation upon king Hezekiah and his subjects.
It brought panic.
It was a joy killer. Even the bravest of men trembled.
The letter turned everything upside down.
Everything was now at a standstill.
Hezekiah and his subjects were under siege.
The king did not know what to do

4.
out of the confusion that arose, but, he knew where to go.

Hezekiah did the unthinkable. He took the letter to the altar of prayer and spread it before God.

It seemed ridiculous to do such a thing.
It looked like something a confused man would do.

5.
It looked laughable, but, he did it anyways.

2Kings 19:14-15,20 KJV
And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord.
[15] And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said

Results of Secret Sin.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, loved practical jokes.
Once he sent a telegram to each of 12 friends.

All were men of great virtue and respected in society.
The telegram said, "Flee at once, your secret is discovered!"

Within 24 hours, the story goes, all twelve had left  the country!
There may be some playful exaggeration here, but the
point is usually true that many people, including
Christians, are not what they seem to be.

James 1:15 "Then after our desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death."

SIN GROWS.
Sin always takes you further than you wanted to go.
Sin Cost you more than you want to pay,
Sin keep you longer than you want to stay.

In a conservative southern church (name withheld) , the pastor's wife found pornography on her husband's computer. After confronting him with the evidence, he admitted downloading d images off d internet, even using d computer in his study which was located in d church itself. .

In another bible-believing church not far from my home, a Christian businessman sought investment capital from other Christian individuals & businesses. He promised to invest d money in new Christian enterprises & promised a high rate of return on their money.  Alas, however,

A SHORT EXHORTATION

THEME- KEEPING OUR FINGERS CROSSED
📌
You see, With God, keeping our fingers crossed connotes probability.

God doesn't make predictions. He makes promises and He keeps them. We must believe in order to receive.
📌

2.
Habakkuk 2v3 AMP
For the vision is yet for AN APPOINTED TIME and it hastens to the end [fulfillment]; IT WILL NOT DECEIVE OR DISAPPOINT. THOUGH IT TARRY, WAIT [EARNESTLY] for it, because it will SURELY come; it will not be behindhand on ITS APPOINTED DAY.

3.
I deliberately changed some very key words in the passage to CAPITAL LETTERS to really drive home what God requires.

1. AN APPOINTED TIME.
Yes, there is an APPOINTED TIME. It may look like your "time" has passed in your eyes and in the eyes of everyone around you,

4.
but, the truth is, who set the time, you or God?
Time may have passed, but, your SET TIME has not.

2. IT WILL NOT DECEIVE OR DISAPPOINT.
God's word neither deceives nor disappoint.
📌
Joshua 21:45 MSG
Not one word failed from all d good words God spoke to the house of Israel

5.
Everything came out right.

At your SET TIME, everything will come out right. All the discouraging stuffs you are seeing now are all working for your good. You will see clearly at the end.

3. THOUGH IT TARRY, WAIT [EARNESTLY] for it,

1.
What is right about going to your boyfriend's house to cook his meals.

When I hear guys invite women to their houses to help them cook, I get irked. Without gainsaying, I get pissed because I feel like it's a play down on my maturity as an adult that I can't cook d food I eat

2.
While I was a bachelor & staying alone, I never had any girl come to my apartment to cook for me, and even when some offered to give their culinary services, I rejected it.

Though, that's personal.

3.
But my aim of writing this RANT is to remind a lot of men reading this post that, it is not your girlfriend's job to cook for you!

A lady said to me sometime ago, that her boyfriend slapped her because she was a bit behind schedule to come cook for him.

4.
Imagine the guts!

To slap a lady because she wasn't at your place on time to cook for you?

I keep wondering how women put up with all these rubbish in relationships. Honestly, if I were a woman, many men will avoid me. I will take nothing less than a sensible man.

5.
I've always said that any man who cannot cook as a bachelor is probably or likely to fit into this category. Any man who cannot do home chores is not ready for marriage.

Many men marry because of their inability to cook, wash and do home chores.

A SHORT EXHORTATION

Theme- ...God, you "Deceived" me -Prophet Jeremiah

Jeremiah accused God of deceiving him, yes, you read right. No he did not, you might say, o yes he sure did 🙆🏽‍♂️😱
📌
Jeremiah 20:7a KJV
O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived...

2.
Incidentally, he was in the "WILL OF GOD" doing exactly what God told him to do. He was speaking the mind of God, yet, he was arrested, thoroughly lashed and thrown in solitary confinement.

"What's going on here? " he asked.
"This can't be happening to me, I'm in the will of

3.
God for crying out loud" yada, yada, yada

How can a "whole Prophet" accuse God of deceiving him, we may ask. Well, he did.

Things were not going the way he thought they would. He had expected the hearers of God's message to be trembling with fear at the godly warning of

4.
impending doom he was dishing out.

He was largely frustrated and disappointed. "Lord, this must be a joke, and if it is, it ain't funny at all..."

You see, when one is in this "precarious state," all manner of stuffs may begin to manifest. While some will pray for strength

5.
to go on to the end, others may be nagging and complaining, and sadly, many fall into the latter category.

Well, we must understand that even in the will of God, unpleasant things do happen.

Even in the will of God, we can grow weary, tired, disappointed, discouraged,

#With God, you have nothing to lose

You see, when it's God's war, the battle strategies always look ridiculous. Seasoned Generals would argue against it. They will point out the foolhardiness of applying the strategy.

"This is ridiculous. Are you insane?

This is war and not child's play"

Many onlookers would murmur the same sentiments.

When it's God's war, you cannot comprehend it. The only thing you can possibly predict, is the outcome.

2 Chronicles 20:15b MSG
This is God's war, not yours,

God said to king Jehoshaphat when three kings united against him. All the king needed to do, was get the worshippers ahead of the soldiers and all, in one accord begin to praise and thank God.

That was it.
A battle strategy indeed. They dint have to lift a finger. God laid

ambushment against the three kings.

2 Chronicles 20:17 MSG
You won't have to lift a hand in this battle;

When the Israelites were delivered from Egypt and the shackles of slavery, they were caught between pharaoh's merciless army & the mighty redsea.

They dint have to lift a finger. God said, "Stand still, and see me in action. The rest they say, is history.

When God briefed Joshua on how to penetrate the fortress of Jericho, without a doubt, I believe Joshua must have said to God, "can You please repeat what You just said?

Anytime God is involved..

Of a truth, everytime d Almighty God steps in, d outcome is predictable. Here I am studying once again, d book of Exo 14....it must have been a time of fear & trepidation for d israelites. they were indeed stuck
b/w d red sea & Pharaoh's merciless army

There was obviously no way of escape. The predictable end of that situation was either death for the Israelites or a journey back into slavery. Unknown to anyone at that time, God was setting the stage up to display His awesomeness & power again. Pharaoh must have felt real good

Having the advantage, but, he could only see as "far" as his eyes could see.
He thought to himself, "I have closed them in...
Exo 14:3 "Pharaoh will think, 'The Israelites are lost; they're confused. The wilderness has closed in on them.'
And here was God laughing there in heaven

Seeing how a mere man was acting like the aloha & omega.
The pressure was now in Moses to do something...only God knows what was going thru Moses' mind at that time, & while he was waiting in God, he heard God speaking again in

"don't wait in Me anymore, Move.. the deed is done."
Exodus 14:13 Moses spoke to the people: "Don't be afraid. Stand firm and watch God do his work of salvation for you today. Take a good look at the Egyptians today for you're never going to see them again.
What reassuring words

A very BLESSED morning to you.

"Living on Lori Iro"

Was studying a few verses in the book of 1Sam. Chapter 4, and I am struck by a few occurrences which are still common in today's world, even as we continually live on self denial. The Lori Iro kind of thing. Nothing thrives

when we live in self denial. There is no fresh start without doing the needful.

Let's take a look at;
1 Samuel 4:2 MSG
The Philistines marched out to meet Israel, the fighting spread, and Israel was badly beaten - about 4,000 soldiers left dead on the field.
1 Samuel 4:3 When

the troops returned to camp, Israel's elders said, "Why has God given us such a beating today by the Philistines? Let's go to Shiloh and get the Chest of God's Covenant. It will accompany us and save us from the grip of our enemies."

The catch here for me is this;

The elders

were quick to blame God for the overwhelming defeat and shame at the hands of the "godless" philistines, and as if that was not enough, they tried to "USE" God, like, He, God, was in their pockets, ready to be used at all times and for whatever purpose. It did not matter if God

was "busy, asleep, playing etc-(just used those catch phrases literally. We know God cannot be caught in any of those)

The point here is that, defeat started for them early, even before the battle.

God had expressed His anger against the prophet over israel (Eli) and his 2

🔰WORD4TODAY🔰
Penninah was said to have mocked Hannah on a consistent basis.

👉🏼Penninah mocked her because she was childless.
👉🏼She mocked her because she was unfruitful.
1Samuel 1:6 NLT
So Peninnah wld taunt Hannah & make fun of her b/c d lord had kept her from having children

👇🏼
Penninah wasn't as prayerful as Hannah, yet, she was fruitful.

👉🏼She wasn't as spiritual as Hannah, yet, she was fruitful.

👉🏼She made fun of Hannah, because, she was "ahead".
👉🏼She made fun of her because, she had the "advantage."

👇🏼
Maybe, there are things u ought to have achieved, but, they are looking impossible to achieve.

👉🏼Maybe, there are things that u ought to have attained unto & u are even light years away even right now.
👇🏼
This situation has made u a laughing stock amongst friends & neighbors.

👇🏼
You have nothing to show for all your regular church attendance, all your prayer meetings, all your tithing, all your offerings.
👇🏼
It's beginning to eat you up internally.😭
👇🏼
Just as Hannah was grieving and praying with tears dripping down her eyes during another church

service, the Bible said;
*1Sam 1v19b KJV*
...& d Lord remembered her.
👇🏼
Yes, the Lord *REMEMBERED her, & the rest, they say is history.
👇🏼
This week, the Lord will glorify u in d presence of your mockers.💃🏼

1Sam 2:1B NLT
...Now I have an answer for my enemies