Open Heavens 9 January 2016: Saturday daily devotion by Pastor E. A. Adeboye – The secret of divine blessings

Open Heavens 9 January 2016: Saturday daily devotion by Pastor E. A. Adeboye – The secret of divine blessings

Topic: The secret of divine blessings [Saturday 9 January, 2016]

Memorise: I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. - John 15:5

Read: Deuteronomy 7:12-18 (KJV)

12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers:

13 And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.

14 Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.

15 And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.

16 And thou shalt consume all the people which the LORD thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them: neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto thee.

17 If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?

18 Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;

Bible in One Year: Numbers 34-36; Job 1:6-12

MESSAGE:

When God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness", little could an uninformed person know that this goes with a lot of responsibilities. For instance, by this divine decision, man is made responsible for his actions and inactions because he is a god. This is the reason why man, consciously or unconsciously takes his life in his hands and works out his own well-being, even to a fault, and Jesus Christ warned us against this extremism.

“31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." -Mathew 6:31-33

The Scripture above reveals the secret of divine blessings. Although man is a responsible carrier of God's image, however, he is dependent on the God who image he is carrying. At the creation of man, when man lived in accordance with Gods Instruction, he lived in all-round abundance, because God bestowed His blessings upon him and his wife. With little effort, man got great harvests. Therefore, man must live according to the dictates of God to enjoy divine blessings. Jesus Christ, the incarnate of the Almighty God pointed this out in our memory verse today.

For us to be divinely blessed, we just make Jesus Christ our Lord; we must be born again; that is, we must admit what scripture says in Romans 3:23:" For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" and quickly do something about it. What we must do is to repent according to the admonition of Peter:

"Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord". - Acts 3:19

It is high time all men, particularly the children of God, understood the secret of divine blessing; that is, abiding in the son of living God, the True Vine. Let us stop be anxious of what we want to become. The Bible says:

"For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich." - 2 Corinthians 8:9

With His benevolent act which was climaxed at the cross, we are abundantly blessed without any addition of sorrow(Proverbs 10:22).

Prayer Point: Father, please open my eyes to see the secret of divine blessings and let me align myself with it.

Open Heavens Daily Devotional guide was written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, one of the largest evangelical church in the world and also the President of Christ the Redeemer's Ministries.