MONDAY 13.12.2017
TOPIC : THE CHOICE OF OBEDIENCE
TEXT : MATTHEW 3:15-17
From Genesis to Revelation, there were occurrences of the experience of heaven or windows of heaven being opened. Open heaven is not an automatic blessing or synonymous to blessing; open heaven can bring you abundant blessing or abundant judgment, depending on you.
Though God is the one who opens the heaven, but the type of heaven you want to see God open is your choice. It depends on you not on God. It depends on your obedience or your disobedience.
In Deuteronomy 30:19, God says :
"I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live"
When you believe, trust and obey the Lord, heaven will be opened to pour the rain of blessing on him. But when you fail to believe, trust and obey the Lord, there will be no rain of blessing but the rain of judgement.
In the time of Elisha in 2 Kings 7:17 and 18, when there was a severe famine, king Joram’s right-hand man disbelieved and scoffed God’s word when Elisha said there would be plenty of food within 24 hours. This officer would not believe and trust God’s word for open heaven of blessing, so he experienced judgment from the open heaven; while others feasted, he was trampled to death.
THE QUESTION ASKED TO YOU TODAY IS : WHAT KIND OF HEAVEN DO YOU CHOOSE TO SEE GOD OPENED FOR YOU?
OPEN HEAVEN OF JUDGMENT
The first experience of open heaven in the history of the world was during the time of Noah, this open heaven was not a pleasant one, because it did not bring blessing, but fierce judgment upon the disobedient. This is what we read in Genesis 7:11, 12,
“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. 12 And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.”
Another experience of open heaven after Noah was also an open heaven of judgment. God rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah. In Genesis 19:24, 25, the Bible says,
“Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens. 25 So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all theinhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.”
OPEN HEAVEN OF BLESSING
The windows of heaven can open and pour blessings upon us when we trust God for what He says and obey what God says. The Lord God makes it clear in Deuteronomy 28:1/12,
“Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today…… The LORD will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.”
Jesus Christ the Son of God himself experienced open heavens in His earthly ministry after He fulfilled all righteousness, that is after he has chosen to follow the path of obedience. We read it in Matthew 3:15-17,
“But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” [...] and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, ...”
PRAYER FOR AN OBEDIENT HEART AFTER THE ORDER OF JESUS CHRIST
PRAYER 1 | We learn of the Son's obedience because He never sought his own will but the will of the Father. He says in John 5:30,
"I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me" .
PRAY THAT YOUR WILL BE SUBJECTED TO THE WILL OF CHRIST
PRAYER 2 | We see Jesus' obedience in the Gospels when even in his prayer, he was not forcing his will to be done but rather the will of his father to be done
In Matthew 26:39 we read this from his prayer to his Father,
"My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will."
PRAY THE FATHER THAT HIS BE DONE IN YOUR LIFE AND NOT YOUR OWN.
PRAYER 3 | Jesus' coming to earth was an act of obedience to His Father. His life and ministry focused on the will of the Father. It is written,
“That the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do” (John 14:31).
“Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come . . . to do thy will, O God’” (Hebrews 10:7).
PRAY THE FATHER THAT YOUR WHOLE LIFE BE MARKED BY OBEDIENCE.
PRAYER 4 | All that Jesus did and said was exactly what His Father wanted Him to do and say.
“For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me commandment, what to say, and what to speak” (John 12:49).
PRAY THE FATHER TO INSPIRE YOUR WHOLE LIFE.
SO SHALL IT BE!
JESUS IS LORD!
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