The sixthday of creation was the mother of all days.
God created animals of all kinds and again commanded them to multiply.
Gen. 1:25 ICB So God made the wild animals, the tame animals and all the small crawling animals to produce more of their own kind. And God saw that this was good.”
He went on further to create man
Gen. 1:26 ICB Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image and likeness.
He saw the need to put someone in charge of the whole earth He just created.
Gen. 1: 26 “…And let them rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky. Let them rule over the tame animals, over all the earth and over all the small crawling animals on the earth.”
He commanded man to rule the earth, name them as he deemed fit.
So, the last day was the day that birthed both man and his control over the whole creation.
Just imagine for a moment…what if God hadn’t created man? Who would have been in charge of it all? Why were animals and man created last?
God is a God of process. He follows through one step at a time.
Creation not only tells us about what God created but, how He did it, why He did, and for whom?
May the Lord continue to strengthen you. Amen.
Prayer point: Thank you Father for the whole day of creation. You made it all for me. Thank you.
Action point: Try to imagine how the earth was at creation.
12 Demonic Strongmen That Must Be Overcome (Part 2) was taught by Rev. Dunamis Okunowo on the 16th of June 2021 at Shouts of Grace Center, Joke Plaza, Beside Trans Amusement Park, Bodija-UI Road, Ibadan. Read Part 1 of this teaching HERE
In his teaching, Rev. Dunamis made mention of the following important points:
It doesn’t take sex to defile your soul; it takes uncleanliness.
You have the responsibility to decide for God. Don’t live your life as though you own it; live it for God.
12 Demonic Strongmen (cont’d)
4. Spirit of Heaviness
To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”
Isaiah 61:3 (NKJV)
This spirit is in charge of mental illness, fatigue, hopelessness, depression, oppression, exhaustion, despair, paranoia.
It is manifested through rejection, suicidal thoughts, excessive mourning, broken heart, self-pity, insomnia, dejection, etc.
When you bind this spirit, you then loose the spirit of joy.
5. The Spirit of Antichrist
and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
1 John 4:3 (NKJV)
This spirit controls every cult, creed, or religion that rejects Jesus as LORD and Saviour, and rejects the trinity.
It manifests in disturbance of service, causing strife among members, opposing evangelistic efforts, and driving members away with their habits and carelessness.
6.The Spirit of Whoredom/Harlot
My people ask counsel from their wooden idols, And their staff informs them. For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray, And they have played the harlot against their God.
Hosea 4:12 (NKJV)
This spirit controls competition with God, ambition in the workplace if used to put others down, good looks and beauty including cosmetic surgery, the love of money, material possessions and corruption.
It manifests in chronic dissatisfaction, love of money, fornication, idolatry, excessive appetite, unfaithfulness/adultery, spirit prostitution (jumping from one church to another), soul prostitution (emotional adultery), body prostitution (actual physical prostitution – fornication, adultery, etc)
You must learn to bind the operation of these demonic strongmen in your life.
To listen to messages of Rev Dunamis, go HERE or HERE
I want to show you some things this morning from God’s word. By taking heed to these things, you can appropriate all necessary to make God answer your prayers and prepare yourself for an exuberantly beautiful love life.
The ways of God are not our ways! In fact, the ways we think and process things are far different from the way God thinks and processes things. The challenge is that our success in relationship, marriage, and life is the degree to which our thoughts and ways are aligned to God’s ways and thoughts!
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9 KJV)
When a man begins to think like God, it is the beginning of incredible success and astounding victories in life. No wonder the Bible says, we have the mind of Christ.
So here are few things, though not exhaustive, that you need to take heed to in your bid to maximize your relationship with God and to get aligned to the ways and thoughts of God. This will help improve your love life significantly.
1. Your relationship with God This comes top on the list. It is the first order of things. Without this, you cannot really go far in God! There has to be a relationship with God before your relationship or marriage can work the way God wants it to. It is this relationship with God that fraternizes you with the thoughts and the ways of God. Have you consciously accepted Jesus into your life? That is the beginning of success in your relationship and marriage! There are no two ways to it!
2. Your love for God Then, of course, your love for God is important. It is your love for Him that propels you and fuels you to go after Him! Your love for God should be reciprocal to His love for you because He actually loves you first!
As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. (Psalms 42:1 KJV)
3. The motive of your love You don’t develop a relationship with God because of what you want Him to do for you or what you want to get from Him, you develop a relationship with Him because you love Him! You need to get this! God does not look at actions first; He looks into the heart. He goes to the deepest intricacies of your heart and locates the motive for every action. Nobody can fool God; nobody can succeed at fooling God.
4. Your love for His word Your love for God drives you into His word. As you search His word, it fuels your love for Him the more. It is like an endless cycle of knowing God more through His word. As you know more of His word, you begin to know how He thinks and how He acts.
5. Your obedience to His word As you become a student of the word, He will begin to show you a lot of things. When you make up your mind to obey in pragmatic ways, you begin to learn His ways. It is in stepping out on His instructions that you start learning what works and what doesn’t work with God.
But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. (Hebrews 5:14 KJV)
6. Your refrain from iniquity Your decision to stay away from any wrong has a long way to go in determining your answers to prayers. There is no way you can get anything from God if you are habitually stuck in something you know God does not want. The life of God that you have in you will not make you comfortable in habitual sin. It is one thing to make a mistake; it is another thing to be living habitually in sin.
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world (1 John 2:15-16 KJV)
7. Your disconnection from the old One of the reasons our prayers are not being answered is because we hold on to the old ways of doing things and old ways of thinking. But in order to move forward, we have to disconnect from mindsets and established routines as a result of our experiences in the past. You cannot use your experience to conclude on the ways of God. That one particular prayer point was not answered for eleven years does not mean you cannot get the next prayer answered in a few days!
Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. (Isaiah 43:18 KJV)
8. Your acceptance of the new Your ability to think out of the box, to think beyond the norms, and to not box God will go a long way in determining your success in the things of God.
Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:19 KJV)
God is about to make a way. It is different from the ways you know. You must be willing to believe and accept that which God wants to do in your life, and He will be able to do it. That is faith.
9. Your confessions and utterances Your words and utterances must be aligned to God’s word in your heart. Your mouth becomes your might in the things of the Spirit. You cannot be saying you believe something and yet your utterances contradict your supposed disposition. In the things of God, your confession is a profession; it is work because it is working out something!
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) (Hebrews 10:23 KJV)
10. Your associations and covering Lastly, disconnect from all ungodly associations. Do away from people that suffocate your faith and inject fear into you instead. Surround yourself with encouragers and people that lift your spirit with God’s word. Get somebody over your life to serve as a spiritual covering.
May God grant you more understanding.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I prioritize my walk with God so my love life does not suffer
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Ask for wisdom to balance your love life
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:19 KJV)
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY Is your love life under attack? Talk to your mentor
There are five levels of communication in marriage. Communication is simply talking, but of cause, there are more things involved than just talking. A healthy conversation involves not just what is said but what is heard.
In essence, communication is a two-way conversation that involves speaking and hearing. The two spouses must form the conscious habit of allowing the other spouse to express himself or herself. While he/ she speaks, the other partner should be actively listening.
Not listening for pleasure, not listening for information but should practice empathic listening. This is putting yourself in the conversation. Trying to understand and feel the impulse of the speaker.
It is unhealthy to dominate a conversation without waiting at intervals to get feedback, to check whether your hearer is hearing the right thing, to know how he/she is processing the information. The aim of your conversation, especially in marriage, is for your partner to understand what you are saying and then obey you.
Listening should not also be done with the intention of giving a reply that will defend your status or what you represent in the marriage covenant.
I think we cannot also have a good conversation with our spouse if our interpretation of what marriage is, is defective. Until we see our marriage from the viewpoint of it being a covenant relationship, every other thing becomes loop-sided.
What we see most couples practicing is a contract and not covenant marriage. This is so important. It is a contract (which could be unwritten and informal) when the marriage is based on mutual benefit. That is, we are both doing something for each other.
For example, I will be nice to you, if you bring in enough money. Or, if you help out in the house, I will prepare the meals. The opposite obtains if your spouse doesn’t do what is expected. I will be very cold and unresponsive to you if you hurt my feelings. I will be uncaring to you if you disrespect me.
Marriage is a covenant in which each partner takes up his/her responsibility. The wife is to submit fully. The husband takes up his responsibility to love her like Christ does irrespective of what she does. It is the aim of a covenant relationship to please and serve the other person despite what he/ she does.
It’s kind of difficult right? Very hard. Especially if you have been to some school of hardknocks where you have been deeply hurt.
If you are starting on a clean note and you have this understanding, how blessed you are.
No matter how farther away we have gone, in Christ there is always a way out. He shows us and leads us in the way since He is the way.
We need to retrace our steps and in humility, accept what works. When a marriage is not working, both partners are responsible. It is not just one person’s fault but the two parties have their contributing factors.
Tomorrow, I will attempt to summarize the five levels of communication. A further read is encouraged on the subject of communication especially by the best-selling author Gary Chapman.
I am sure you will find it rewarding and worth your while.
God bless your marriage.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I know how to communicate with my wife
Not everyone around you is saved. Some people still don’t know about Jesus Christ. They may never have heard about Him before. They could have heard but not accepted Him as their Lord and Saviour.
Some of these people may not even be around you. They could be far from you, maybe countries away. Though you can’t reach them, your prayers can.
Spend time daily in prayers for the unsaved. Pray that they will meet with Jesus Christ in one way or another. Ask that God will send His spirit to convince them or that they will meet with someone that would introduce them to Jesus. People get to meet Jesus in many different ways.
In the story of Phillip and the eunuch, the Holy Spirit took Phillip straight to meet the man in his carriage. If the disciple had not met the man, he wouldn’t have been born-again. He was reading what he couldn’t understand and needed someone to explain to him.
Some people may have heard about Jesus Christ but need to learn more about Him. Your prayers can make them get such knowledge through someone. It’s called intercession. Your interceding on their behalf, asking the Holy Spirit to convict and convince them of who Jesus is.
May the Holy Spirit give you a heart of intercession. Amen.
Prayer: Lord, I commit the unsaved into Your hands. Let them meet with Jesus. Amen,
Action Point: Say a prayer for the unsaved today and always.
