Open Heavens 2022 Daily Devotional Messages, By Pastor E.A Adeboye.

NEGATIVE LIVING? Memorise: The Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him: but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! Good were it for that man if he had never been born. Mark 14: 21  Life comprises of positive and negative elements. As a matter of necessity, it is not good for someone to opt for negative living. The fact that Jesus Christ was destined to die for the sin of the whole world does not exonerate Judas Iscariot from the evil that led him to the idea of betraying the King of Glory. The question is “why should it be him?” Judas Iscariot’s negative disposition to life pushed him to the deadly idea which turned out to be a suicide mission. The Bible says he was a thief; always stealing from the treasury (John 12:4-6). The Bible therefore enjoins us to mortify our members which push us to do abominable things in the sight of God (Colossians 3:5). Sins such as covetousness and greed that we can easily entangle ourselves with must be avoided. Examples of peo...

IN MEMORIAL Memorise: Verily I say unto you, whosesoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her. Mark 14:9 Jesus Christ was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper. As He sat down to eat, a woman came with a costly perfumed ointment and poured it on his head. Some hypocrites saw it as a waste of resources because they felt the ointment could have been sold for a great deal of money which could have been given to the poor. Jesus saw their ulterior motives and in Mark 14:6-7 said: “….. Let her alone; why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.” It is amazing to see people think that whatever someone does for his or her Maker is a waste, as we see in this story. To the  surprise of those who were present at that place, Jesus said the woman shall forever be remembered for that...

BEFORE YOU GET ANGRY Memorise: For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Jeremiah 29:11 Yesterday we learnt it is not right for us to get angry with God or to take offence against Him, even if we experience the deferment of our hopes. The example of John the Baptist who earlier acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, but later doubted His because of his painful experience in incarceration is a warning signpost to us that if care is not taken, following the asking of questions, offence towards God might begin to reside in our heart. Going forward, we need to ask ourselves the question: who do we take offence, get angry or feel irritated by the way God deals with us? We shall look at three answers to this question. In the first instance, we children of God sometimes tend to overestimate ourselves as human beings (James 4:13-14). Some people of God in olden times realised this, hence Job 25:6 calls man a wo...

ANGRY WITH GOD? Memorise: And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 When deferred hope prompts a person to issue queries to God, it is an indication of the person taking offence towards God. We have to settle it in our hearts as children of God that there can never be justifiable grounds for us to pick a fight with God. You can ask God questions to seek clarification of issues, but to query Him, that is a no-go area. The case of John the Baptist in our Bible reading is one glaring example of this practice which some of us also indulge in. john had himself acknowledged Jesus to be the Lamb of God that takes away our sins in John 1:29. But much later, in the midst of his trouble with King Herod, who imprisoned him because he spoke out against Herod’s taking of his brother’s wife, he sent his disciples to Jesus. This time, it was not to complement Jesus, but to air his doubt about who he had r...

JESUS IN YOUR BOAT Memorise: And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. Psalm 50:15 No doubt, life in a sense is like the sea. A characteristic of the sea is that storms of varying degrees arise, putting the lives of those sailing on it in jeopardy of being drowned. In Jesus’ Name, the storms of life will not be able to drown you, your family and your business. While literal storms are natural phenomena, the storms of life are often generated and directed to an individual by enemies. Whether it is by enemies in the flesh or in the spirit realm, every situation that would constitute a storm in your life shall be disappointed in Jesus’ Name. Jesus was in the boat with His disciples on a mission across the Sea of Galilee . His Father’s business that should bring deliverance to the mad man in Gadara , who the devil had been afflicting with chronic insanity, beaconed. The devil had an idea of this and decided to thwart it, but he is never a match...

BE FULL OF PRAISE Memorise: I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. Psalm 34:1 The incident that led to the fall of man in the Garden of Eden was a complete loss of all that is beautiful. Prior to the fall, man wasn’t fearful of his environment or of the presence of God. But after the full, for the first time. Adam was terrified by the presence of God which he previously used to anticipate. With this came the universal culture of complaining, murmuring and grumbling. The awesome glory of God over his life and destiny was destroyed. Glory to God that Jesus as the second Adam has come to undo the evil the devil subtly brought on man. David in our Bible reading for today reveals the importance of eulogising God. He was confessing who God is to him: his rock, his fortress, his deliverer, his strength, his buckler, the horn of his salvation and his high tower. In his praise of God, David was also expressing his confidence and trust in God. God enjoys...

GLORIOUS EXPECTATION Memorise: But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his external glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered while, make your perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. 1 Peter 5:10 A child of God has every right to expect a glorious tomorrow, even if the present situation does not in any way make such optimism look realistic. In the face of uncertainty and the total economic collapse of country, the believer who knows his God will still rightly expect a change for the better, because he knows he serves a God who specialises in giving pleasant surprises to His children. The story of 2 Kings 6 & 7 is not fictional, through it may look incredible. The famine that resulted from the siege of Samaria by its enemies became so devastating that mothers were surviving on their own children. What a terrible thing! Have you ever through about it: even Elisha the great man of God was in the midst of the situation as others? One thing you can be sure of is t...

CHRIST IN YOU Memorise: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Colossians 1:27 When someone is carry on the inside of him can go a long way in affecting his destiny and that of other people around him. Some people possess demonic spirits which empowers them to wreak terrible havoc on fellow human beings from the spirit realm. These are referred to as witches. Some others are possessed by demonic spirits in order to torment them and make life miserable for those around them. Such was the mad man of the Gadara (Mark 5:1-5). He was made mad by reason of the demons inhabiting him. According to our Bible reading today, children of God are carrying Jesus on the insider of them. As a child of God, what you have on the inside of them. As a child of God, what you have on the inside is infinitely greater than whatsoever a possessed person can have. Hence 1 John 4:4 declares: “…Greater is he that...

The Reliable God Memorise: For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off. Proverb 23:18 one of the divine attributes of God is Truth. He revealed himself as the Truth in John 14:6. He is truth personified. It is impossible to expect God to lie or to be deceitful (Titus 1:2). The Bible reading for today tells of an occasion after the birth of Jesus, where He was brought to the temple for dedication. Simeon, a devout man had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen Jesus born. Just as he was promised, at the exact point in time Jesus was brought to the Temple as a babe, this man turned up. From his statements, this singular event was all that was left for his life to be fulfilled as purposed by God, and it came true exactly as he was told. Has the Lord made any promise to you at any time before? Be rest assured that He will surely bring it to fulfilment in due season no matter what may be. Beside a personal promise specifically made t...

Life in abundance 1 Memorise: The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. John 10:10 Under normal circumstances, no human being desires to be a nonentity. The various forces in world however, are responsible for many people spending their entire life amounting to nothing and dwelling in the valley of not-well-to-do persons. The Almighty God Himself in making man did not intend for him to be a scourge of His creation, but rather the master piece of His creativity. “And God said, let us make in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” Genesis 1:26-27 This passage clearly reveals love and goodwill par excellence on the part of God toward man. When ...

Friday feb 21 st Life in abundance 11 Memorise: whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither know him. 1 John 3:6 Truly, the genuineness of God’s concern and His interest in the well being of man is established in the giving of His Son to die, thereby making provision for their redemption. According to the word of God, such individuals that therefore surrender their lives to Jesus Christ are now children of God.  “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:12-13 if believers in Christ and children of God as the Bible clearly reveals, then it means that they possess some measure of divinity, a divine DNA. It implies further that divine abilities are at their disposal, just as the passage above indicates that these people are given power to become sons. On this note, it ...

Fit for divine favour. Memorise: Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16 Do you know that even the Africa elders have a saying that they have seen princes become slaves and slaves become princes became slaves and slaves become landlords? This saying of the elders in philosophically aligned with the Bible (Ecclesiastes 10:7). Many times, the fact that a person is very energetic and hard working is not necessarily an indications that the person will be successful and great in life. In human prowess and efforts were really the automatic yardsticks to great heights, then many of those people still struggling up the ladder of achievements would already be on the mountain top of success. The Bible spells this out in Ecclesiastes 9:11: “I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of skill; but...

Divine champion 11 Memorise: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31 Yesterday we discovered that our Lord Jesus Christ is the number one champion and that He makes His people champions. We saw also that a divine champion is a person raised up and supported by God. One attitude of a champion is strength. The divine champion is one who receives divine strengthening. 1 Samuel 2:9 says be strength (i.e. human ability) shall no man prevail. The required divine strength for success, achievement, getting to the top etc is supplied tot eh divine champion by God. Hannah, who by inspiration of the Holy Spirit proclaimed those words in prayers, had that experience. She became a champion by divine strengthening. She received strength to put an end to her barrenness, thus her shame and reproach were taken away. Every marks that turning point in the story...

Divine champion 111 Memorise: Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Psalm 51:6 The divine champion is one that is made wise by God (Daniel 2:20-21). Wisdom can be defined as having the fear of God. As a matter of fact, the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Also, it is the correct application of knowledge. This knowledge itself must be the right and pure knowledge. In this context therefore, wisdom is the substance by which a solution is proffered to problems and unpleasant situations or experience of men, individuals, institutions, organisations and nations. Wisdom make way for progress and success. Daniel as a divine champion largely gained stardom by presenting solutions to puzzles of kings. These came by God revealing to him the meaning of mysterious dreams and the strange handwriting on the wall during the reign of one of these kings. As you become a divine champion, God would graciously reveal to you the ca...

Fruits or leaves Memorise: Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:11 When hungry, a person instinctively makes moves to have the hunger assuaged, which is normal. I had an experience in my early years when I had to go get firewood to sell to have money for my basic needs (food primarily). One day, I got stung by bees after climbing a standing dry tree. I however refused to come down until I felled dry wood from the tree. I endured the terrible pain because I knew that no wood to sell meant no food to eat. May you not be poor on the Name of Jesus. In the morning of a particular day, the Lord Jesus while returning from Bethany to Jerusalem was hungry; He needed food. Just at that moment, a fig tree was in sight; hope and expectation arose in Him. Food for a  hungry tummy is a necessity, a basic one for that matter. However, on getting to the fig tree, it was all leaf and no fruit. This fig tree had t...

Be strong Memorise: Finally, my brerhren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Ephesians 6:10 You don’t charge someone to be strong if there is no task to be performed or if pressure is not required, either for motion or putting up resistance against an opposing force. In the physical realm, mere movement requires strength. This explains why a sick person or a person just recovering from an aliment find it difficult to walk. Spiritually you need to be strong. In today’s Bible reading, the Lord commands us to be strong, and He gives two reasons why we should be: 1.      that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 2.      that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day. There are evil forces that went to short-change a child of God’s life regarding the good things that God has in store for him or her. These spiritual forces are listed in Ephesians 6:12 as: principalities, powers, rules of the darkness of this world...

God sees you Memorise: Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Psalm 139:2 As child of God, the fact that God knows all about you should give you assurance and confidence, especially in the time of crises. While God sees and knows in details what is going on around and inside of you, the devil does not have such ability. The Psalmist says: “Thou knowest my downsiting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.” Psalm 139:2 God knows all that you are passing through now and He knows the history of your life. Sometimes, what you consider to be the origin of your problem is not.  There was this young boy whose father had stolen the Raleign bicycle of another man before he was born. So painful was  this curse on the generations of the person that stole his bicycle. The man who stole the bicycle had died and his young boy had gone to school successfully completed his national youth service program. However, the young man...

What kind of vessel? Memorise: If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the masters use, and prepared unto every good work. 2 Timothy 2:21 Vessels are simply containers. God identified His children as vessel in order to bring up one crucial fact about His dealings and workings on earth. The Bible in Psalm 115:16 says: “The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’S: but the earth hath he given to children of men.” Because God has given the earth to men, in order to carry out His works on earth, He does not get it done with out involving men, particularly His own children. The reason is, those in Christ are co-workers with the Father (Romans 8:16-17), I Corinthians 3:9). The heavenly resources by which the work will be accomplished will need to be carried or contained in us as vessels. The purity of these resources, virtue, power and gifts of the Holy Spirit are highly essential if results are desired by God will be obtained. ...

God of purpose. Memorise: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of him who workth all things after the counsel of his own will. Ephesians 1:11 Our God is a God of purpose. He created man for a purpose. He declared His purpose for man even before creating him in His own image. The Bible in Genesis 1: 26 says, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. Therefore, know that you were born for a purpose, you are not an accident, even if your parents were no longer expecting children at the point they had you, just like it happened in my own case. It could even be that you are a child out of wedlock. Notwithstanding all these, the fact that you came and you survived despite all the forces against you, and that you became exposed to the...

Meet me on the mountain Memorise: For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a  contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Isaiah 57:15 Through mountains are usually regarded as symbols of problems, obstacles and obstructions to progress, they can also be a place for great achievements. Elijah set the stage for an explosive encounter with top agents of the devil on Mount Carmel . He brought down revival and God was glorified on this mountain. A mountain can have good or positive uses. In Exodus 17:10-13, Moses demonstrated that a mountain can be a suitable place to direct battles. As you get on the mountain with God, every battle of life confronting you shall be crushed just as the Amalekites were routed and crushed before Israel while Moses was on the mountain.  The mountain top is a pla...

Accepted time 11 Memorise: Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come. John 7:8 God is never too early, and He is never too late. His time table is set on purpose is not only for your sake but also for His. In all things, His name shall be glorified. No doubt, He would have been glorified healing Lazarus of his sickness, but this cannot compare to raising him from the dead after four days. God works according to His own time-table. His timetable is the perfect one and not yours. Your case will soon become a testimony that will bring you great joy and celebration; your testimony that will also bring great glory to God, in Jesus’ Name. keep resting in Jesus, keep trusting in Him, and don’t shift your focus from Him. You are on the verge of God turning the table in your favour and turning it against your enemies. The attribute of God’s nature such as omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience are demonstrated in the way His timetable works. ...

Accepted time 111 Memorise: For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2 Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth did not give birth to John the Baptist until they had grown old. Yet the Bible says this of Zachariah the priest of God and Elizabeth his wife in Luke 1:6 “And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinance of the Lord blameless.” In spite of their right standing with God, John was not born until the time was set in God’s timetable. This was on purpose. The one that would be the forerunner of the Messiah (Jesus) was only going to be older than Jesus by 6 months. God had reserved for His righteous servants the honour of becoming the parents of this fellow who would be the forerunner of the Lord, and who would also be the greatest of the Old Testament prophets (Matthew 11:11). The same applies in the cas...

Accepted Time I Memorise: To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: Ecclesiastes 3:1 God in His perfection has His own ways of doing things. One of such ways is that He has a timetable by which He works, and He fellows it strictly. This is demonstrated in the way He handled the case of Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha (John 11:1-8). The Bible says He loved this man and his two sisters. Because of this love, the sister of Lazarus were in no panicky state at all when he fell sick because they knew that all they needed was for Jesus to hear that His friends was sick and He would rush to the scene and heal him immediately. How mistaken they were. However, God knew of the condition of Lazarus even before it happened. The Bible says: “Know unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.” Acts 15:18 Larzus’ sisters waited for Jesus to come till the time they concluded it was all over. They were not disappointed at the end because when i...

Your first love Memorise: Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Revelation 2:4 As a Christian, your heart ought to be aglow with genuine love for Christ, unless you are not genuinely saved as a result of having not truly repented from your even though you have confessed Jesus. At the new birth experience, the Holy Spirit regenerates our spirit and fills it with deep and pure love for God. However, often times, we do not diligently watch to ensure the flame of this love is kept aglow, rather we gradually give prime attention to some spiritual exigencies at the expenses of our first love, forgetting that this first love in itself has a way of propelling and driving us into the activities required of us by God. It  disastrous when we get to a state where we consider as less important, the condition of our first love. God did not hesitate to point out the mistake the church at Ephesus made by falling into the state. He told them that in spit...

The paradox of Christian life. Memorise: And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:6 There are people with dual citizenship in this world. Some others migrate and renounce the citizenship of where they are coming from to take up that of another land. The nature of a believer is close to this. Before becoming born-again, you were born to exist in this physical world, but when you give your life to Christ, you now exist at a higher spiritual realm of God in addition to being present in this physical world. John 1:12-13 says: “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” This dual contrasting existence of every child of God poses some challenges especially in a world that is hostile to the ways of our native land. The ways and manners of our native land are ou...

Appointment time Memorise: thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon zion : for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come. Many times, the prayers we importunately make to God are like clouds are gathering together. They gather together over a period of time until thick layers are formed. Heavy the torrents of rain will then begin to fall over the area where the clouds were formed. The Bible indeed says: “If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.” Ecclesiastics 11:3 From this illustration, we observe that the result of cumulative prayers can be great at the appointed time. However from our Bible reading for today, the time to you – a child of God, is declared to be now! The use of the phrase: “ is come” arrest to this. It therefore fellows that you can fast forward your time for actualising God’s favour to the present. Such was the case of ...

TRAIN UP YOUR CHILD 11 Memorise: Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not they soul spare for his crying. Proverbs 19:18   These days, even the children of pastors are not exempted for the degeneration prevalent among youths. You are expected to train up your children on the word of God. Some pastors could say one thing in church and another thing at home, hence the children become confused, leading to their rebellion against God. Children, if your parents are pushing you aright, glory be to God. If they are not, you can chart a course in life that goes through God’s principles. My own mother did her best on me. She pushed me; thank God I allowed her to push me. You must be hard working if you are not banking on bribing your way through life. Bribing your way through can only take you some distance. There is one thing that takes one to the top in life – hard work. God is not going to promote lazy fellows. “There is no royal road to success” they say. The elders will tell yo...