Daily Devotional
Open Heavens
OPEN HEAVENS: GOD HAS A SUBSTITUTE | 13TH JANUARY 2014
Monday, January 13, 2014Omoba
Memory Verse: “And Samuel said unto him, The LORD hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou.” 1 Samuel
15:28:
Read: 1 Samuel 16:1. 1 Samuel 16:1:“And the
LORD said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have
rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I
will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among
his sons.”
One important thing we
need to learn in today’s reading is that God always has a substitute. If God
says He wants to use you, rejoice! However, be careful, because even as He is
choosing you, He has already prepared a substitute. 1 Samuel 2:27-30 tells us
about Eli. God chose Eli and his family to serve Him. God later changed His
plans because He only honours those who honour Him. One thing about God’s
rejection is that the devil takes the place of the resultant vacuum that is
created. This was what happened to king Saul. We also have the case of Judas
Iscariot in John 13:26-27. He was a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
moment God rejected him, Satan entered him and he ended up hanging himself.
Psalm 75:6-7 tells us something:
“For promotion cometh
neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the
judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.”
Whenever God gives you
an opportunity to serve Him, please, humble yourself. It is better for God not
to use you at all than to use you and then push you aside. Once He pushes you
aside, this gives room for the devil to come in. I pray that God will never
substitute you with someone else.
In today’s reading we
see the rejection of King Saul and his replacement by David. No one would have
heard of David if King Saul had not lost his crown and position; just as nobody
would have heard of Esther if Vashti had not lost her position. God has given
us these examples so that we can learn a lesson. God told Samuel to stop
mourning over King Saul because He had already rejected him. He told Samuel to
fill his horn with oil and go anoint one of the sons of Jesse as king. Samuel
said Saul would kill him if he found out about his mission. This is an
interesting statement because it shows clearly that Saul had degenerated so
badly that he could kill a servant of God. It is a terrible thing to backslide.
This is why you must never touch sin.
We need to study the lives of the people that God rejected in the Bible so that we can learn one or two lessons from their cases. We have to know what God saw in their lives to make Him reject them, so that we can run away from their mistakes. Why was Esau rejected? The Bible tells us in Hebrews 12:15-17 that he was rejected because he could not control his appetite. I pray that your stomach would not send you to Hell. Some people have never fasted since they became Christians. I pray that your appetite would not put you into trouble to the point where God would reject you in Jesus’ Name.
We need to study the lives of the people that God rejected in the Bible so that we can learn one or two lessons from their cases. We have to know what God saw in their lives to make Him reject them, so that we can run away from their mistakes. Why was Esau rejected? The Bible tells us in Hebrews 12:15-17 that he was rejected because he could not control his appetite. I pray that your stomach would not send you to Hell. Some people have never fasted since they became Christians. I pray that your appetite would not put you into trouble to the point where God would reject you in Jesus’ Name.
PRAYER POINT
Father, have mercy on
me. Help me not to embark on a path that will lead to my rejection and
replacement in Jesus’ Name. If I’m on such a path, please salvage me from it
now.
Bible in one year: 2
Corinthians Chapter 10 to Chapter 13; Psalm 15-16
Open Heavens Daily Devotional
Written by: Pastor E.A. Adeboye
Written by: Pastor E.A. Adeboye
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