OPEN HEAVENS DEVOTIONAL: SUNDAY, AUGUST 27TH 2017- DON’T RESIST; RUN!

Memorise: For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. 1st Corinthians 6:20
Read: 2nd Timothy 2:22-23
22 Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
23 But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes.
Bible in one year: 1st Chronicles 13-15, Ezekiel 32:1-15

1. While it is important for you to admit your mistakes with sorrowful heart, it is also important that you learn from these mistakes. Ask yourself: “How did I get here? What did I do wrong? How could I have avoided this outcome?”
2. To live triumphantly in this world, you need to pay very close attention to what the word of God says and follow it to the letter. 1st Peter 5:8-9 says you should steadfastly resist the devil, so if you resist, but do not steadfastly resist, you will surely fall.
3. On the other hand, in 1st Corinthians 6:18, we are commanded to flee fornication. In this case, God does not require resistance from you, but that you should take to your heels! If you then try to resist instead of running, you will surely fall.
4. Similarly, 2nd Timothy 2:22 says, “Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” Clearly, there is a time to stand and a time to run.
5. If you stand when you should run, you will most likely fall.
6. Sometimes ago, I told male pastors not to have female secretaries, but some of them who thought they were wiser than I, called it gender discrimination. I told them that after they had become causalities of their wrong decisions, they would remember that I had earlier warned them. One of my very good sons, who knew the Bible very well, hired a female secretary. I asked him, “What are you doing? How can you be in the same office with this lady smiling at you? Eventually, you will end up working late with her. Go and ease her out.” He dragged his feet on this. Today, this same person is out of the ministry, out of his home and jobless. If not that he lives in a country where the government provides food for the jobless, he would have starved.
7. Some leaders are still toying with danger.
8. Some piglets once asked the mother pig, “Why are you always grunting? “The mother pig replied, “When you are as old as I am, you will know why.”
9. Avoid any source of temptation!
10. Resist when you should and run when you should.
11. Some people take it as an act of cowardice to run from those they feel sexually attracted to. No! It is not cowardice, it is wisdom!
12. God knows how He wired your body, so if He says you should run in a particular situation, please run for your dear life!

For every believer, to heed is better than sacrifice. “And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord ? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 1 Samuel 15:22” Whenever God tells us to do something, it is wise for us to do without any delay or extra thought. This is because His precept is the best to follow. He knows the end from the beginning and desires for us to be safe away from the devil’s wiles. The small prophet that disobeyed God’s instruction ended up being killed. (1 Kings 13) By running after resisting is therefore profitable to anyone who will. May God bless Pastor E.A Adeboye for this great devotional and renew his strength in Jesus name.

Action Point
The Bible has the antidote to every situation; apply it diligently and you will never fall.
HYMN
Deeper, deeper in the love of Jesus
Daily let me go;
Higher, higher in the school of wisdom,
More of grace to know.
Refrain:
Oh, deeper yet, I pray,
And higher every day,
And wiser, blessed Lord,
In Thy precious, holy Word.
Deeper, deeper, blessed Holy Spirit,
Take me deeper still,
Till my life is wholly lost in Jesus,
And His perfect will.
Deeper, deeper! though it cost hard trials,
Deeper let me go!
Rooted in the holy love of Jesus,
Let me fruitful grow.
Deeper, higher, every day in Jesus,
Till all conflict past,
Finds me conqu’ror, and in His own image
Perfected at last.
Deeper, deeper in the faith of Jesus,
Holy faith and true;
In His pow’r and soul exulting wisdom
Let me peace pursue.
 

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