Your daily devotional by Dag Heward-Mills (31st October, 2014)

October 31, 2014

COMPANY

Dag Heward-Mills

READ: 2 Corinthians 6:14-18

…Bad company ruins good morals.

1 Corinthians 15:33 (Revised Standard Version)

Experience in the ministry has taught me to take note of any Christian who keeps bad company. It is a very bad symptom, with a very poor prognosis. Bad company will eventually lead you to bad places. When you see a Christian who has bad friends, it is likely he will find his way out of church one day.

There is a saying, “Birds of the same feather flock together.” One Ghanaian proverb can be rendered: “Show me your friend, and I will show you your character.” This means that we can tell the kind of person you are by just looking at the kind of friends you have.

Within every large church there are smaller groups of Christians. When you observe these groups, you will discover that they are people with the same kind of “feather”.

The friends you move with will either lead you to church or to bad places. If you are a real believer and you want to remain in Christ, then you need to have good friends. They should be real born-again Christians, who attend a “born-again” church. They must believe the things you believe.

You must go to church together. Your friends must not have anything against your going to church. If they do, they must not be your friends!

Quote of the day (30th October, 2014)

“Freedom discovers you the moment you lose concern over what impression you are making or about to make.” – Bruce Lee

Your daily devotional by Dag Heward-Mills (30th October, 2014)

October 30, 2014

VALUED PERSONS

Dag Heward-Mills

READ: John 17:6-23

And the LORD hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee…

Deuteronomy 26:18

If a country places more value on athletes and beauty queens than professionals and nation-builders, do you think that these professionals and nation-builders will be attracted to the nation?

People are attracted to places where they are valued. Many organizations undervalue the people they have. Every person who feels undervalued will move away.

Every developed nation values its citizens. What you respect will come towards you. What you attack will run away from you. People are the most valuable thing a leader has. A nation that attacks its leaders will be void of leaders. A nation that attacks its wealthy citizens will be poor. All the rich people will run away to countries where wealth is not a hazard.

You must value people because people are more valuable than money. Invest in people financially and educationally. Pay people well and spend time teaching and training them. People are more valuable than buildings. See them as gifts from God. People are more valuable than computers. Try not to lose the people that God gives you. Do everything to prevent the loss of even one person. People can sense it when you value them (John 17:12).

See people as being worth more to you than objects and projects. Jesus saw His followers as gifts from God: “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word” (John 17:6).

Quote of the day (29th October, 2014)

“The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Your daily devotional by Dag Heward-Mills (29th October, 2014)

October 29, 2014

PRAYING AMISS

Dag Heward-Mills

READ: James 4:1-10

Ye ask, and receive not…because ye ask amiss…

James 4:3

Praying amiss means that you pray unacceptable, unsuitable, inappropriate, inadmissible, unsatisfactory and impossible prayers. God will not do things, which are against His principles.

Do not pray foolish prayers. Faith is very different from foolishness. Some people ask the Lord for ill-considered things. God is not a fool. Please do not try to make Him one. The fact that you are allowed to exercise faith does not mean that you should be irrational. When God takes no notice of foolish prayers, do not say that prayer does not work.

If you ask God for somebody’s husband, you are praying a foolish prayer. Some young men, starting out in life, ask the Lord for huge mansions and fantastically expensive cars. It is true that God wants to bless you, but do not expect God to promote you overnight. Look at your Bible carefully. All the people who were blessed experienced it over a period of several years. If you are a married person and you do not use contraceptives to prevent pregnancy, please do not bind the babies in your wife’s womb. God does not respond to foolishness.

If you have a job to do and you do not do it, do not pray that your boss will be struck with blindness so that he will not see the lapses in your work. That is an imbecilic prayer request! As you grow older do not bother to pray for your youth to return. There is a natural aging process, which you cannot bind or revoke by absurd prayers! I do not want the angels in Heaven to think that you are suffering from feeble-mindedness! Pray with wisdom.

Your daily devotional by Dag Heward-Mills (28th October, 2014)

October 28, 2014

DESIRES

Dag Heward-Mills

READ: 1 John 2:15-17

Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth I desire beside thee.

Demas loved the world. That is why he deserted Paul. If you love somebody, you will eventually gravitate towards that person. If you love the world–its money, its women, its men, its glitter–you will find yourself gravitating towards these things. It is therefore important that the Christian should not have any strange love in his heart.

I have one “love” for my Lord, and a second “love” for my wife. I cannot allow any other “love” to exist in my heart. Strong desires are dangerous. There are many Christian ladies who have such strong desires to marry that they will sacrifice all principles and all the rules in order to get married. To lust after something is to have a strong, excessive desire for it.

Usually, it is an uncontrollable, sometimes obsessive desire for a particular thing. One dictionary calls “lust” an animal desire. Be wary of any form of lust, whether it is financial lust, sexual lust or power lust. Lust corrupts. Remember the Scripture,”…Having escaped the CORRUPTION that is in the world THROUGH LUST” (2 Peter 1:4).

Often Christians feel they are missing out on something in the world – money, sex, glamour and so on. Apart from the love of Christ, if you have any other love in you, you need to be careful of it. If you have any strange lusts in you, you must kill them now, or they will grow up and take over your life. Kill them now, when they are small and harmless. If you allow them to grow and develop, they will destroy you one day.

Great moral lesson

Samira worked at a meat distribution factory. One day, when she finished with her work schedule, she went into the meat cold room (Freezer) to inspect something, but in a moment of bad luck, the door closed and she was locked inside with no help in sight. Although she screamed and knocked with all her might, her cries went unheard as no one could hear her. Most of the workers had already gone, and outside the cold room it’s impossible to hear what was going on inside. Five hours later, whilst Samira was on the verge of death, the security guard(TA) of the factory eventually opened the door and saved the life of Samira. Samira then asked the security guard(TA) how he got to open the door, as it wasn’t part of his work routine.
His explanation: “I’ve been working in this factory for 35 years, hundreds of workers come in and out every day, but you’re one of the few who greet me in the morning and say goodbye to me every night when leaving after working hours. Many treat me as if I’m invisible. Today, like every other day, you greeted me in your simple manner ‘Hello’ at the entrance when resuming for work, but curiously, after working hours today, I observed I’ve not heard your ‘bye, see you tomorrow’. Hence, I decided to check around the factory. I look forward to your ‘hi’ and ‘bye’ every day. To you, I am someone. By not hearing your farewell, I knew something had happened. That’s why I started searching every where for you.

Moral Lesson to reflect upon: Be humble, love and respect those around you. As life is too short! Try to have an impact on people in ways we can’t even imagine, especially the people who cross your path every day, you never know what tomorrow holds. Let this teaching warm all hearts!

Your daily devotional by Dag Heward-Mills (27th October, 2014)

October 27, 2014

TIME

Dag Heward-Mills

READ: John 7:1-13

Then Jesus said unto them, my time is not yet come: but your time is alway ready.

John 7:6

What is the time according to God’s clock? There are three times that are running simultaneously. These are “my time”, “your time” and “the time”. In the spirit realm, we all have different times. My time is different from your time. That is why Jesus said, “My time is not yet come but your time is always ready.”

“My time” speaks of where I am in the timetable of my life. “Your time” speaks of where you are in the timetable of “your life” and “the time” speaks of where we are in God’s overall timetable. Unknown to many people, this earthly life is very time-related. Many people think they are just biding their time and will take God seriously later. Do not be deceived! The expiry date of your grace period is fast approaching. Do you know the time? Do we know the time?

Sometimes God speaks to you, “Finance my kingdom.” Perhaps that comes along with a five-year period when you can obey Him.

One day, God is going to remove the element of time from our lives. This has been prophesied in the book of Revelation where He swore, “There will no longer be time.” But until then, everything we have and do is very much related to a ticking clock.

Dear Christian, if you think you have forever to please Him, you are living in the highest kind of deception.

Your daily devotional by Dag Heward-Mills (26th October, 2014)

October 26, 2014

WEEPING

Dag Heward-Mills

READ: Matthew 25:14-30

And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 25:30

The expression “weeping and gnashing of teeth” is a little misunderstood by most of us. We often think it refers to Hell. However, the Bible says that they will weep and gnash their teeth in darkness. Weeping speaks of sorrow and of pain associated with funerals. This Scripture could be warning all who claim to be servants of God that failure to obey could cost them their very lives.

Kenneth Hagin, a great prophet I deeply respect, often speaks of how ministers die before their time because they do not obey the Lord concerning their ministry. He spoke of how he broke his arm and was admitted to hospital. The Lord Jesus appeared to him in the hospital, and he discovered that his accident had occurred because he did not take an aspect of his ministry seriously.

Dear friend, doing the work of God is not a joke. People were made to experience weeping and gnashing of teeth because they were unprofitable. “Unprofitable” simply means “unbeneficial, running at a loss, unsuccessful and losing money(souls)”. When you are losing souls for the Lord, do not expect Him to be pleased with you. He may have to recall or replace you.

Dear friend, ministry is serious business. God does not take lightly the investment that He places in you. To whom much is given, much is required, (Luke 12:48)!

Credit: Your Daily Word http://www.daghewardmills.org/daily-devotional

Your daily devotional by Dag Heward-Mills (25th October, 2014)

October 25, 2014

DIVINE PROVIDENCE

Dag Heward-Mills

READ: 1 Samuel 26:1-25

…the LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.

Exodus 14:14

David was not stupid! He knew that for the prophecies concerning his kingship to come to pass, Saul had to die. However, he was not going to be the person to kill Saul. David gave three options about how his dream of kingship and freedom could come to pass.

First, he said that the Lord would strike Saul down supernaturally. The second possibility was that Saul would eventually die naturally. The third possibility was that the king could be killed in a battle, (1 Samuel 26:10). It is interesting to note that the Lord worked out the plan for David’s kingship through the third option. Saul was indeed killed in a battle.

The point that I am making is that David did not get involved in the implementation of God’s master plan. He left it to God and kept his hands clean! When you get involved and try to help God, you create Ishmaels who rise up to challenge your Isaacs.

Ladies, there is no need to throw yourself at a man for him to notice you. If God wants you to marry that man, it will work out. After four years of marriage, one man told his wife, “You forced yourself on me! I never even had the chance to think about it properly.” Perhaps this man would have found her anyway. But because she forced herself on him, he was wondering whether he made the right decision.

It is time to allow God to work things out Himself. Keep your hands clean!