Quote of the day (5th August, 2016) #AirtelAdomPraiz

“We’re not Republicans, we’re not Democrats; we’re not black, we’re not white; we’re not liberals, we’re not conservatives. We’re Christians.” – ​Pastor Jim Cymbala (American author and pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle)

Your daily devotional by Dag Heward-Mills (26th June, 2016)

COMMUNION

Dag Heward-Mills

READ: 1 Corinthians 11:20-30

For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.

1 Corinthians 11:29, NIV

In the New Testament, Paul explicitly stated that people were sick and dead because they did not discern the Lord’s Body. Paul gave the reason for disease and death in the church.

“For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep [dead]” (1 Corinthians 11:29, 30).

To discern the Lord’s Body means to realize or discern that you are dealing with the Lord’s Body. All the sheep and little lambs are the Lord’s Body. They are the ones He died for on the cross.

If for instance, you knew that somebody’s finger was on the table, you would not strike it with a big hammer. You would not hit that finger because you know it is part of his body.

When you fail to realize that the church is Christ’s Body, you will get into trouble. Those sheep, those people, are the ones the Lord shed His blood for! They are His body! When you abandon them, it is like abandoning your mouth (a part of your body) by not brushing your teeth for months. You can imagine why.

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Your daily devotional by Dag Heward-Mills (25th June, 2016)

CREATIVE PEOPLE

Dag Heward-Mills

READ: Colossians 3:23-24

Work hard and cheerfully at all you do…

Colossians 3:23, The Living Bible

Creativity will make you enjoy your work. Most people who work in regular jobs get exhausted at the end of the day and dread the morning of the next day, especially after weekends. Now, an entrepreneur works all the time and thus puts all of his energy into his work. By working this hard, he enjoys whatever he does and because of this, whatever venture he puts his effort into, will eventually turn out to be a great success.

Work is often what one is forced to do. Creative people do things because they love doing them. Creative people do not work primarily to enjoy the pleasures of the rich. Getting to execute his ideas is what satisfies him. For a true entrepreneur, work is not a means to an end. It is an end in itself. The process is as rewarding to him as is the end product. Because an entrepreneur is consumed by his desire to work hard, he gets really no time to engage in trivialities of everyday life.

The best thing about a creative person is that he creates his own life and is in absolute control of his life. He does not have to report to anybody. He can take a vacation any time he feels he needs one. He gets to decide what can happen in his venture. Best of all, nobody can fire him. It is great to be your own boss and to create your own destiny.

Creativity will allow you to experience real success. Creative people accept the challenges, work hard to overcome them and when victory results, they savour the moment. Even when they fail in the beginning, they do not give up.

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Your daily devotional by Dag Heward-Mills (24th June, 2016)

RIGHTEOUS LIVING

Dag Heward-Mills

READ: Proverbs 4:11-19

I have directed you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in upright paths.

Proverbs 4:11, NASB

You must follow the Holy Spirit until He leads you into righteousness. Depend on the voice of God for the right church, the right friends and the right company. You must be led by the Spirit of God so that you live a righteous life.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Psalm 23:3

This Scripture shows how dependent you are on God’s guidance for righteous living. A sign that you are being led by the voice of the Holy Spirit is that you end up living a righteous life.

Many people end up as fruitless nonentities in the kingdom of God because they do not follow the leading of the Spirit into the perfect will of God. Many people join churches just because they live near the church. Others join churches because the pastor is handsome or because they like the pastor’s wife. But it is so important to be led by the Spirit when you are choosing a church.

It makes all the difference in the world! Most definitely, you need the guidance of the Holy Spirit to know where to go to church.

“I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances” (Ezekiel 36:27, NASB).

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Your daily devotional by Dag Heward-Mills (23rd June, 2016)

MODESTY

Dag Heward-Mills

READ: Deuteronomy 18:3-5

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

James 4:10

Tithing Christians fulfil the law of humility, which creates wealth. Wealth comes from God. Blessing comes from God. When a person tithes, he demonstrates his recognition of the God-factor in his very existence. He demonstrates his respect for God’s input in his life. He declares his gratitude to God for helping him. A person who tithes therefore fulfils the law of humility.

Humility has been shown to be an important factor in wealth creation. Arrogant wealthy empires have crumbled through their pride. Political parties have lost their power through pride and complacency. Successful companies have been wiped out when the management lost their original humble attitudes.

Paying tithes helps you remember that you did not make it on your own. Paying tithes causes you to bow your knees to your Creator each time you receive money. Paying tithes causes you to humble yourself before a priest whom you may have otherwise despised. Many arrogant and rich people have no time for priests or pastors. They see them as hyenas and vultures scavenging for the scraps of the successful and wealthy. When wealthy people have to pay tithes for the upkeep of these “irrelevant members of society”, it will help them to stay humble. Any businessman who stays humble will generate wealth for himself. Any Christian who maintains a humble attitude will create wealth for himself. Paying tithes forces you to humbly submit.

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Your daily devotional by Dag Heward-Mills (19th June, 2016)

PARTING

Dag Heward-Mills

READ: Galatians 2:20

But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

Galatians 6:14

Across releases the power that enables people to crucify the world to themselves.
Today, people that belong in the world are found mingling freely in the house of the Lord. Unbelievers feel at home in the church because the church makes no demands for sacrifice or for change. The desires of the world and the goals of worldly people have become the desires and goals of the church.

Pastors desire to be rich executives like managers of worldly companies. Women desire to dress and look like the models they see on television. The prevalent rates of immorality, fornication and HIV in the world are the same as in the church. Why is this?
Why is the world apposed to the church? Why are the aims, goals, aspirations dreams of the average Christian the same as the goals and aspirations of demonized unbelievers in the world? Why have we become so worldly?

Because the cross has been thrown out of the church and has been replaced with flowers, decorations and projectors. The cross of Jesus Christ released the power through which separation from the world could take place. Through the teaching of sacrifice and death to the world and its pleasures, Christians will once again rise up with the power to be separate from the world, its desires, its attractions and its ideals.

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Your daily devotional by Dag Heward-Mills (18th June, 2016)

SENSITIVE CONCIENCE

Dag Heward-Mills

READ: 1 Timothy 1:4-11

Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.

Hebrews 13:18

Shepherds must develop their conscience. The conscience is the still small voice that speaks from within warning you about right and wrong. Whether the conscience is the voice of the spirit or the voice of the soul, I cannot really tell. But what I do know is that it is the warning light from “within” that lets you know when you are doing something wrong.
Having a good conscience is like having a sensitive warning system deep within. If you set aside this warning system, you will expose yourself to untold dangers.

The recent tsunami in Asia took the world by surprise and left hundreds of thousands dead. The reason for the massive death toll was the absence of a deep sea warning system. Since the tsunami, they have developed special warning systems deep within the sea that can pick up danger signs and transmit warnings to offices thousands of miles away.

This tsunami warning system is expected to help in the event of another massive earthquake. In the case of the tsunami, it is easy to see how many people could have escaped if they had had five minutes of warning. That is why God put our consciences in us; so we could be warned by the Holy Spirit.

Like the tsunami warning system, the conscience can be more or less sensitive. The more sensitive it is, the more you will find yourself confessing your sins and praying for mercy every few minutes. The less sensitive the warning system, the fewer things you will confess.

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Your daily devotional by Dag Heward-Mills (13th June, 2016)

LIFE’S WORK

Dag Heward-Mills
 
READ: 1 Samuel 3:1-10

And the Lord came, and stood, and called…

1 Samuel 3:10

At five o’clock in the morning on January 1st 1987, I decided to obey the call of God on my life. It was in the early hours of the first day of that New Year when I decided to take up the mantle and become a pastor. I knew that I had been called, so I had decided to obey and become a pastor.

At the time, I was in the fourth year of medical school. I began the church with a few nursing and laboratory students in the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, where I was studying medicine. I had no one to direct or guide me so I struggled quite a bit during that first year.

By the end of 1987, many friends had expressed their lack of confidence in me and deserted me. I was criticized until I felt like killing myself, just to make my enemies happy. I had very little guidance, but I was sincere and had a lot of faith, and many enemies. It is amazing how people hate you when you decide to follow the call of God.

This was the precarious and doubtful beginning of my ministry. I started out by faith and began teaching and preaching what I knew. A few nursing students responded.

In the beginning, the church met in a little classroom at the School of Hygiene. After a while, many people left and some stayed. The little church stabilized with about forty members. You must persist as you serve God and obey the call of God. By and by you will begin to bear much fruit.

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Your daily devotional by Dag Heward-Mills (29th May, 2016)

ALARM

Dag Heward-Mills
 
READ: Numbers 12:1-16

…wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?

Numbers 12:8

I once had a vision in which I found myself walking down a long lonely with two other pastors. At a point, I made a comment about a great man of God, criticizing this man for something he had done.

Immediately, I noticed a creature like a hog begin to walk in my direction. It was miles away and behind us but I noticed that it had begun to make its way towards me as soon as I made the remark. Somehow, the complaint was the signal for it to start moving towards me. Initially, I thought the movement of that animal had nothing to do with me, but I felt uneasy and kept turning to see where it was. To my dismay, it kept coming towards me. I realized that I was in danger and I turned round with my friends to face the creature as it walked rapidly and determinedly toward us. Finally, the creature caught up with us. To my surprise, the hog ignored my friends and leapt towards me, heading straight for my chest. I screamed as it entered my chest and then I woke up.

The Lord said to me, “Any time you criticize my servants, you attract evil spirits to your life.”

These evil spirits bring sickness, disease and other plagues into your life. I realized that it was a very dangerous thing to speak against any of God’s servants. I was truly terrified by that vision. Any spiritual person will be hesitant to speak against God’s anointed. Miriam felt she had a good reason to speak against Moses and she was struck with leprosy.

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Your daily devotional by Dag Heward-Mills (27th May, 2016)

GOD REVEALED

Dag Heward-Mills

READ: John 14:21-23

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

1 John 5:3

There are two things that are often missing in a minister’s life: the manifestations of God and the presence of God. Supernatural guidance and obedience to God’s will are the keys to the manifestations and the presence of the Lord. You must relate with ministers not just by their good doctrines. You must relate with them because you sense the presence of God in their lives.

The key to the manifestations of God is obedience to His Word. Whether this Word came through the reading of the Bible or through a dream, you must obey it. It is the only thing you can do to show Him that you love Him. God will manifest Himself to you when you obey His instructions. Read for yourself the promise of the manifestations of God:

You must seek to obey the will of God when He shows it to you. It is the key to the presence of the Lord. The presence of God will come on you because you are obeying the words and instructions to your life. Read for yourself the promise of the presence of God:

“Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:23).

Credit: Dag Heward-Mills