Independence: Not Negotiable

MEMORIZE: “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel” (1 Tim. 5:8)



READ: 1 Timothy 5:7-8



Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Gen. 2:24). The one who wants to get married must be independent of his or her parents. Marriage is about maturity. It suggests that the man and woman going into it are saying, “Daddy, mummy, you have been taking decisions for us since we were born. But now, we have come of age and are capable of taking decisions for ourselves”. Some men marry and bring their spouse into the family house. This is wrong. That woman will soon become the slave of the family. No matter how close the family house is, when married, keep your distance from it, and take an independent apartment for you and your spouse.



You will visit the family house periodically. When the child takes ill, even before their husband knows, some women would have told their mothers. Stop bothering your parents! Let them have peace as they get advanced in age.



If the above scripture is anything to go by, it is that it presents a foundational but hard truth: The extent to which the couple are mentally, physically and financially detached from their parents is the extent to which they can cleave together. This tells us therefore that over zealous parents who always poke their nose in the homes of their children, may be the stumbling block to a vibrant and fruitful home. If you are concerned about your children, take it to God regularly in prayer. If you need to take a step, He will guide you.



How will you feel if, when we get to Heaven, the Lord tells you that you were responsible for the failure of your son or daughter’s marriage? Do not stand in their way! Do not take sides. Be fair as much as possible but take more time to pray. Even when you have an idea of their desired solution, pray about it and if the Lord gives you the go-ahead to convey it to them, inform the two of them. Let it be a suggestion, not a command. After all, they will be held responsible for their actions and decisions as adults. The only issue you can be firm about is what the Bible says on a given situation. You can lovingly refer them to such passages.


ACTION POINT:
Ask that every negative influence over your children and wards will wane. Pray that Christ will be fully formed in their hearts... Pastor Adeboye

A New Body

MEMORISE: 'The glory of this latter house shall be greater Than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts; And in the place will I give peace, Saith the LORD of hosts.' (Hag 2:9)
READ: 2 Peter 1:13-14

'The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former, saith the LORD of hosts; and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts' (Hag 2: 9). The scriptures say the children of God are living stones, built together to form a habitation for the Most High God. This means that those who are born again are called houses or temples of God. 'What? Know ye not your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and are not your own?' (1 Cor 6:19).

Our bodies are temples or tabernacles of Holy Ghost. Shortly before peter went to heaven, he said it had been revealed to him by the Lord Jesus that he would soon put off his present tabernacle. But, you may ask, after he drops his present body, does he remain without a body? 2 Corinthians 5:1 states: 'For we known that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.'

This tells us that God has reserved a special eternal body for us in Heaven. If this present one dies and decays, he will give us one to wear for the rest of eternity. The former house therefore refers to the present body we have, while the latter house refers to the eternal body we shall receive. Job looked beyond his body that was being destroyed by sickness. He looked and longed for another body that God would give to him after his present house was destroyed (Job 19:25-27).

The new body you will be given is a very special body. It never wears out. It does not die. It is not subject to the pains and limitations of the present body. It enables you to enjoy without limitation. But for those who are headed for hell, the bodies they will be given will adapt to the fire without being burnt to ashes, yet making everyone who wears them feel the terrors of fiery pain for eternity! You have a choice to make. Which body do you choose?

ACTION POINT
Thank God for the new eternal body he has prepared for you.Let nothing hinder you from wearing it.

STEPPING INTO BREAKTHROUGH

MEMORISE: ‘And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.’ (Luke 5:5)
READ: Mark 10: 46-52

To obtain your breakthrough, you have to do something. Breakthrough are not designed for lazy, idle and nonchalant people. They are meant for those who are agile, trusting and ready to take necessary action to trigger off their desire. After God instructed Abraham to go, he packed his belongings and left immediately. God told Sarah she would have a child. She laughed, considering her age, yet she yielded to her husband and nine months later, Isaac was born. After Hannah asked God for a child at Shiloh and the man of God prayed for her, she believed him and from that moment onwards, she was no longer sad. Nine months later, she gave birth to Samuel.

You desire a breakthrough in your life: what have you done about it? You say, ‘I have prayed.’ What kind of prayer have you prayed? In our reading, Bartimaeus was blind for many years but was not unhappy. After all he was able to access money through begging. He had initially resigned himself to fate, saying it was God’s wish he should be blind. I disagree! It is not God’s will for you to remain in poverty, sickness, barrenness, failure, oppression and the manipulative control of witches and wizards. You have to change you midset (Rom 12: 1-2).

One day Bartimaeus became tired of his blind state and of begging. He thought of the honour he could have as a seeing man. Then he began to rebel. Until you rebel against poverty, do not expect to be rich. The situation will not change until your whole being revolts against the negative state you are in. once he has you trapped, Satan does not like to open the gates for your release – you must revolt and break them open by force (Isa 14: 17).

Bartimaeus began to listen to news of Jesus and all the things he had done for so many and his faith began to grow. Then one day, as he sat begging on the street, he heard a noise from a crowd. On inquiring, he discovered that Jesus was passing that way. Oh boy! That man shouted! He cried out so desperately and loudly that in spite of the racket, Jesus heard him. You can pray to God with such vehemence and desperation that the God of breakthroughs has no option but to answer you.

ACTION POINT
What steps have you taken to achieve your desired breakthrough?
If the result is undesirable, reconsider your action plan... Pastor Adeboye

Advice on Marriage: By Pastor E.A. Adeboye

I want to spend some time talking to the youth and parents on the choice of a life partner, on behavior during the period of courtship. Because I have discovered that ;this is a very a challenging area for youths and even for parents. Some parents that you think will know better, don't even know as much as the youth themselves.So my beloved children please listen to me carefully, I have been married for forty one years so I know what I am talking about.

1. Never chose an unbeliever as your future partner, I mean never, never ever. When you say you will convert him later, that is the most dangerous gamble that you can ever engage in. James4v13-15 makes it clear, you don't know tomorrow. Only God knows tomorrow. Oh! He is very nice, only that he is not yet born again. Oh she is a very courteous girl, only she is not yet born again. Don't choose the devil. But let me tell you the truth my children; if you marry the right person, then heaven have started for you on earth, if you marry the wrong fellow, hell have started for you on earth.I Am praying for all the youth here tonight, you will not marry the wrong fellow in Jesus name.

You are a child for God, you are standing on the rock and somebody is in a miry clay and you say I will pull him up. Let me tell you mathematically you are standing on the rock and somebody is a miry clay, the probability that you will pull him up is fifty, the probability that he will pull you down is also fifty, fifty and if he is stronger than you good bye. Never, don't even think about it, don't choose an unbeliever.

2. Don't choose a baby Christian. He got born again two months ago. You want to marry a [baby]? You don't even know whether his salvation is genuine.

3. I will take a step further and this is for you my daughter[s]; a man is at his best during courtship.
A man is at his best during courtship; You are my sweetie, you are my honey, That is what you are suppose to hear during courtship. Immediately after marriage all his hidden faults comes to the surface. There is a saying; they say love is blind; it is marriage that opens it eyes. That man that is pretending to be an angel," there is nobody like him, he is very generous, very caring, very patient" wait till he gets what he wants.

So if somebody is suppose to be at his best during courtship and during courtship he begins to quarrel with you. You should know straight away that there is no way here. The elders have a saying; they said the eye that will last till the evening, it will not begin to give trouble in the morning. So if you have already entered into a relationship, if you are in courtship and you are already settling two or three quarrels go and pray again. To before warn, is to before harm.

4. When you are going to chose and he/she says is a Christian, he has been born again for three years or more. I beg you chose within the fold. You know why? So that you will be speaking the same spiritual language.

Because born again doesn't mean the same thing everywhere, there are born again robbers, there are born again 419(fraudster). Let me give you an example, some years ago in one of the universities where I go normally to go and teach them and fellowship with the. We declared a fast and then one day one of the "born again lecture" was testifying, he said I have been fasting; I use to smoke 17 cigarettes per day now I smoke only fifteen.

Abraham said in Gen24v1-4, he said to his servant, don't get a wife for my son from among these people, go and get from among my people. Marry within the fold; so you will be speaking the same spiritual language.

5. Now my daughters, whatever a brother may say. Keep yourself pure and holy during courtship. I will tell you why.

(A). there will be plenty of time for sex after marriage.

(B). don't sell yourself cheap. Am a man I am talking to you as a father, men don't have regard for women, when they say let's do it and she says yes. They will say what [is] the difference between this one and a harlot? Hen! but we are going to marry any way, listen to me my daughter, you are not even sure of marriage until the very day, until the pastor says you are husband and wife, you cannot be sure.

(C). Not only that, sin committed during courtship, always hinder prayer after marriage. You sinned during courtship, you got married, problems/challenges comes and then you kneel down to pray and the devil will say "with what mouth are you praying"? Can't you remember this, this and this. Sins committed during courtship will be waiting for you during marriage.

That is not to even mention there is something called AIDS. I saw one advert; it says HIV AIDS never show for face. That beautiful sister, do you know the kind of danger lying under, that brother, do you know what he is carrying. Don't kill yourself.

6. There are some of you who say, well I know how to discern who to marry, and we will just toss a coin. And then you select two sisters and say God, the light complexion one is the head and the black complexion is the tail. So I want to toss the coin, whichever is the two you have chosen for me and you are tossing the coin between a witch and mummy water[mermaid]. Don't do it that way that is not the way God chooses. I pray for you once again, you will not choose the wrong fellow in Jesus name.

7. Now there is something that you have learn[ed] now, I don't know where you learn[ed] it from, you call it dating, it is a way of checking you out, let's go and eat somewhere and I will check you out. How can you be so childish; you are dating me, you want to check me out, and do you think I will be so stupid as to show you my ugly side? How can you be so childish?

We are just dating, we are just seeing ourselves specially, and before you know it you are in the trap of the enemy. Don't check out, pray instead, call to the one who knows all details, call to the one from who m nothing can be hidden. What if we call on him and he didn't answer, I preached a sermon [s]ome fifteen years ago, titled when God is silent. I have told one of my sons to make one thousand copies, so those of you who are youth can get one somehow. Because many a times when you say God is not speaking, God is speaking only it is you that you are not hearing. You don't want to hear, this is the fellow I want [you] to marry, so you are saying if you want to talk say yes. Get the tape it will help you, to know what happen when God is silent.

8. Let me tell you my children, marriage is for keeps. As far as the word of God is concerned, it is only death that can separate them according to roman7v2-3. But the court can divorce us, it is the court that did its own, God has not done. The word of God says those who God has join together, let no man, no woman, no parent put asunder. Marriage is forever. you are old fashion daddy, after all you've been Married for 41 years.

Okay let us assume that divorce is allowed, at least you will agree with me that divorce, destroy your C.V. when they day are you married, single or divorced? If you marked divorce, you signal to your employer; here comes a failure. They may not say so, but the moment they see divorce, they know here is somebody who could not make marriage work. Every marriage has its challenges, but divine love gives victories, Turns every challenge to testimonies. Once you marry, you are married forever until either of you dies.

9. Now let me say a word to those of us who are of marriageable age but are not married. Some of us who thinks we are getting up in age, therefore we should hurry up;

Now let me tell you those of you boys who are of marriageable age who are still checking people up. Let me tell you, time will pass you by, there is an age a man gets to and it is of no longer any consequence.

So let me tell you boys, if you are of marriageable age, you have a good work, don't marry if you don't have a job, job comes before marriage. Those of you who marry, and it is your wife that is feeding you, go and pray again. The bible say two are better than one, you boys go and marry. Bible says if two agrees concerning anything on earth, it will be agreed in heaven. The bible say one will chase a thousand; two will put ten thousand to flight.

As for you girls, who think maybe you are getting on in age, I agree that two are better than one, but believe me honestly, it is better to be single in Christ, than to be married to the agent of the devil. There are some lazy boys out there; no job, nothing, no responsibility and they are looking for girls who will become bread winner for them.

They will sit down at home watching TV, the girl will go and work and you said, once they call you Mrs. No be Miss. Be single and be confident. You never can tell, God may be preserving you for someone special. It will be well with you in Jesus name.

Do you still like me? Because I didn't hear your amen.
Alright If I don't tell you that, nobody else will do so... Pastor Adeboye

Pastor E. A. Adeboye, Now The Most Powerful Man In Africa, 49th In The World - Newsweek

You may never have heard of E. A. Adeboye, but the pastor of The Redeemed Christian Church of God is one of the most successful preachers in the world. He boasts that his church has outposts in 110 countries. He has 14,000 branches—claiming 5 million members—in his home country of Nigeria alone. There are 360 RCCG churches in Britain, and about the same number in U.S. cities like Chicago, Dallas, and Tallahassee, Fla. Adeboye says he has sent missionaries to China and such Islamic countries as Pakistan and Malaysia. His aspirations are outsize. He wants to save souls, and he wants to do so by planting churches the way Starbucks used to build coffee shops: everywhere.

"In the developing world we say we want churches to be within five minutes' walk of every person," he tells NEWSWEEK. "In the developed world, we say five minutes of driving." Such a goal may seem outlandish, but Adeboye is a Pentecostal preacher: he believes in miracles. And Pentecostalism is the biggest, fastest-growing Christian movement since the Reformation.

One of the strangest images from the 2008 campaign was the YouTube clip of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in church, head bowed, palms turned up toward heaven, standing silently as Thomas Muthee, a Pentecostal preacher from Kenya, prayed for her freedom from witchcraft. The clip (and a NEWSWEEK article about it) triggered its own little culture skirmish, with secular observers calling Palin a "wack job" and conservative Christians responding "There's nothing wrong with her church!!!" Few commentators on either side noted how normal that scene was to hundreds of millions of Christians around the globe.

The world now has about 600 million Pentecostals, the largest group of Christians after Roman Catholics. In Asia, the number of Pentecostals has grown from about 10 million to 166 million since 1970, according to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. In Latin America, Pentecostals have expanded from 13 million to 151 million; in North America, from 19 million to 77 million; and in Africa, from 18 million to 156 million. By 2050 most of Africa will be Christian, estimates Grant Wacker, professor of Christian history at Duke University—and most of those Christians will be Pentecostals.

Modern Pentecostalism was born in America in the early 20th century, when a former Methodist minister named Charles Parham began teaching that Christians who were filled with the Holy Spirit could, like the disciples of Jesus, speak in tongues. (The sound, for those who have not heard it, is extraordinary: like crooning or keening or jibber jabber.) From the start, the faith appealed across ethnic lines to the poor and the marginalized. Its lack of denominational structure meant "you didn't have to have a highly trained and educated clergy with a long graduate education," says Vinson Synan, dean emeritus of the divinity school at Regent University. "Common people [were] pastoring common people." Televangelist healers like Oral Roberts helped keep the movement growing.

Pentecostals believe that the Holy Spirit is always at work in the world and that certain people possess its gifts: speaking in tongues, the healing touch, the power to cast out demons and witches. An emphasis on prosperity and healing attracts converts without savings accounts or health insurance. The emphasis on Biblical inerrancy and on rigid social rules—no drinking, no smoking, no premarital sex—offers structure for people whose lives have been devastated by addiction or illness. In places like Africa (and indeed, like Palin's Alaska at the turn of the last century), Pentecostalism finds fertile ground among adherents of native religions who already believe the world is alive with spirits.

By Pentecostal standards, Adeboye is mainstream. Formerly a mathematics instructor at the University of Lagos, he began working at RCCG translating the previous pastor's sermons from Yoruba to English. He took over the congregation in 1981. His success, he says, is rooted in his message. "Pentecostals have such an impact because they talk of the here and now, not just the by and by, he says. "We pray for the sick, but we pray for their prosperity, for their overcoming of evil forces and so on. While we have to worry about heaven, there are some things God could do for us in the here and now." At a recent revival meeting in London, Adeboye and his ministers preached 12 hours straight to a crowd of 30,000. At the altar call, hundreds of people rushed toward the stage from every corner of the arena, visibly filled with euphoria. They call their pastor "Daddy."

Behind Adeboye's extraordinary success is his reputation for honesty. While other Pentecostal pastors (including some Nigerians) have been accused of financial misdeeds or faking supernatural powers, Adeboye remains above the fray. Nigerian government leaders seek his input on pressing social issues. He recently made a public-service announcement condemning discrimination against people with HIV. He distributes his message globally through Facebook and MySpace, a self-published magazine called "The Mandate," and a digital-cable channel called Open Heavens TV. His appearance is straitlaced: he always wears a pinstriped suit, a gleaming white shirt and a bow tie.

Adeboye experienced a miracle recently on a long and dangerous stretch of highway near Lagos, he says. His car was out of gas, and the gas stations were empty. Then God spoke to him, clearly, and said to keep driving. Adeboye drove 200 miles on empty. Could his gas gauge have been broken? No, he insists, God intervened "because of the need … in a crisis." Adeboye knows well what some in the West have forgotten: in today's world, everyone needs a Daddy... The News Week

Dear Beloved

Dear Beloved,

It is with great joy that I welcome you to this information gateway of The Redeemed Christian Church of God. Established in 1952, we are a growing Church with many branches all over the world. There are resources here designed to enrich your spiritual life, such as great devotional messages, The Open Heavens and many other resources.

As we moved into the Year, 2009, our great Father will watch over you, support you and enrich your life with Joy Unspeakable . Your time of promotion has come. The Lord from whom promotion comes will give you wisdom to work with your Divine Partner that will result into Joy Unspeakable for you and your family.

The Lord is set to perform that which He has promised you in this year and your time of rejoicing has come. Your presence here is not an accident for "all things work together for the good of them who love God, and them who are called according to His purpose" (Rom 8:28). The One who has brought you is able and faithful to do as He has said.

Just focus on Him as the Holy Spirit takes you through every minute of the year, JOY TO THE WISE.

You are welcome in the precious name of Jesus, AMEN.

PASTOR E. A. ADEBOYE
General Overseer