MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - 9/08/2023

WEDNESDAY- 9TH AUGUST, 2023

MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO

MANASSEH AND EPHRAIM

Genesis 48:8-9, KJV

"8 And Israel beheld Joseph's sons, and said, Who are these? 9 And Joseph said unto his father, They are my sons, whom God hath given me in this place. And he said, Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them".

As typical of aged people, Jacob asked (as if he was never privy of them), "who are these?" Joseph replied, "they are my sons whom God has given me in this place". "In this place' means "here in Egypt". 

One landmark and unforgettable experience in Joseph's life is his travelling to a foreign land. It defined a lot about him and was even the heart of the fulfilment of his call (which he saw in dreams afore time). However, our deliberation is on how these two sons derived their names. 

Genesis 41:50-52, KJV

"50 And unto Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, which Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On bare unto him. 51 And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house. 52 And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction".

He called the first, "Manasseh" and thereby attached the purpose of his calling to it. He said, "because God has made me forget my toil and all of my father's house". That is necessary! All of us know Joseph is Jacob's most beloved. Joseph knows what the father's love is and if there's ever one thing he misses while in servitude, it'll be his father's house, the comfort and shelter it has to give. Now, he's nothing but a slave. He's exposed to every form of inhumanity which makes him remember and reminisce in often flashbacks to the comfort with which his father comforted him. However, God who reigns supreme over all creations made him forget his father's house and whatsoever care it has had to offer. God compensated Joseph by the promotion and blessing of favour which culminates in his becoming a governor over the entire Egypt. A man who every knee bows to. On that note of having being comforted and greatly recompensed, he opens his mouth and calls forth his first born as "Manasseh". It means God has made me forget my father's house and all my servitude toils". Now is compensation and recompense time and I have been blessed and over blessed until I'm now swallowed up by blessing itself. May God supremely let the better swallow the bitter in your life. God is a payer. He's a restorer and He could pay you back according to the days you have wept or mourn. No loss in God. He'll so much recompense you that you'll forget all your toils and esteem less what used to give joy compared to what God would now give you. 

The second name of Joseph's son is Ephraim and he as well attached a purpose to that. He said, "because God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction". It's not everybody who survives the lands of their affliction. The Blacks all over the world survived their different lands of affliction either in Brazil, U.S.A or the Caribbean. They rose from having endured much diminishing to growing into great people who owns businesses and does their things. Yet, despite all the hindrances. The same could be said of the Jews worldwide. They're always thriving people irrespective of the soil you plant them into. So, Joseph in reminisce named his second born Ephraim because God has multiplied, increased and given him a bounty even in the land of affliction. What I quickly want you see is that the expression, "affliction' contradicts "fruitfulness". In affliction, fruitfulness is stunted or all together exterminated but there's a testimony that can follow you which is to multiply and give your increase even in affliction and when strictly curtailed. The Israelites did and that's the Christian's experience if interpreted. Even when you're pressed on all sides, you're destined to still bring forth your best and rarest of wine. See.

Exodus 1:12, KJV

"But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel".

Did you read, "the more they afflicted them; the more they multiplied". That's very oxymoronic! It so much contrasts itself. No one naturally grows under affliction. They're pressed, choked and left to die but these ones survived. Joseph did also. He not only survived but he was fruitful or floral with initiative, wisdom and nuggets for nation/economy building and even in the fruits of his body. It's in Egypt he acquired a family and got satisfied with every good thing any longing soul desires. So, he names his second born "Ephraim". 

God will do two things for you this morning. He wants you to forget your toil and be comforted over having lost your greatest source of happiness. God does this by raising a better fountain for us. If you have lost something that should comfort you yet you have experienced much toil in this life, first you'll receive a restoration that's better, so much more that you'll forget your toil. Hear me, you can forget your toil. When people forget their toils, it is experiencial experienced in the fact that even though they've once been inside the furnace, the furnace will not in any way be smelt on them anymore. They'll be all cured and recovered from the power and harm of their hardships. 

Secondly, God wants to make you a fruitful vine. Jacob identified Joseph as that when he says, "Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall" (Gen.49:22). Did you see that? Imagine a plant whose branches runs over the wall. He also identifies he has been grieved and worried by archers but sustained and made strong by God's mighty hand (23-24). All these are God's acts which you'll receive today. You'll forget that evil past because a good tomorrow shall supplant it! I see you spreading your tentacles - a great manifestation of florallness. 

PRAYER: Lord, I thank you because you have made me forgotten my toil and my past. I see and receive a new future. I grow like a fruitful bough.

BIBLE IN A YEAR: Ezra 8:21-9:15; 1 Corinthians 5:1-13; Psalm 31:1-8; Proverbs 21:1-2

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MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - 17/07/2023

MONDAY- 17TH JULY, 2023

MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO

WHEN THEIR SOULS SEEK SAFE PASSAGE - At Old Age Series 001

READ Gen.48

Genesis 48:1, KJV

"And it came to pass after these things, that one told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick: and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim".

What makes you a partaker of blessings is that you're not insensitive even on ordinary days. Great things happen on ordinary days. Special announcements of what might eventually be won't always go before you but you must be a discerner of seasons and times. Apart from this, I also pray that you will be on time and be guided by the Almighty's hands to where the carcasses has fallen. You won't miss any provision you should be its partaker in Jesus' name. Rather, you'll feel like visiting or being somewhere. Until you experience why you've felt being there, you wouldn't testify that's where you should be. If you won't miss heaven's provision however, you must lock up into the blessings specifically allotted for release and distribution at such period. You must smell that something is about happening and then you must seize that time. 

After arrival from the compulsory one year National Service to my fatherland - Nigeria, I got a call from my mother to visit my paternal grandmother. I had a special tie with her. She adopted me for being my father's first born male and one with his resemblance. I didn't have much at hand then. I had only secured a job in a primary school. I felt indebted to her and so went in the company of my immediate younger brother to see her. She had relocated from her great estate in Balogun (near Ibeshe in Yewa South where her sawmill was located to the farm house in Yewa North (not even to her house in Sawonjo, Yewa North, Ogun State). I took the advice of my mother and bought some beverages as present. We met her that day. We talked a lot and from what we shared, I could tell if the time of somebody is up for departure. She blessed us that day and I was satiated that I had visited her (though unhappy) with some decisions she took concerning some properties. She probably did so any won't fight us later. It was the week following my mother called me she had passed on. I can bear witness that somebody could hold his breath until he or she sees a beloved child who he wants to custody something to. It happens that way. 

That passage above says, "and it came to pass after these things that one told Joseph, behold thy father is sick...". That is what God owes you. He'll give you information that you must latch unto. He'll let a chariot pass before you but He'll leave you to take it. One told Joseph that his father is sick. We don't know whether that one was specifically sent to bear to him that special message or he just got wind of it and thought it wise to tell him. However, one (an uncertain and undesignated) fellow availed Joseph the opportunity that he took. Now, what did he do when one told him his father was sick? The Bible records that upon hearing that, he took his two children: Manasseh and Ephraim with him to behold his father. Should this be the response of Joseph to his father being sick? Are those two kids medicines to bring healing to Israel? One might think this is a vain effort. You may begin to wonder why Joseph would take two minors with him to see an aged old man - someone whose world is far distant from those two upcomers. However, Joseph has ears to hear. He has learnt the wisdom of the aged. He knew that the time might be near. He knew that Jacob might be seeking safe passage to depart from this shore in peace for arrival in the next in love. At least, we know he's already an aged man. On that note, he not only went, he carried his own down-lines and representatives (after himself) with him. He wants to seek to establish a connection and a link between today (in his children) and yesterday (in his father).

While I was a campus president and I was to handover in all the three places I was a president, there were special visitations made to personalities (fathers of the land/alumni) just like there were handing over of documents and other necessary information to the newly elected president for continuity. This is what ensures the flow is not broken. What Joseph does here is to bring his children and connect them with a man significant enough as a generation. Israel is a direct heir to the covenant God cut with Abraham. He's a partaker of flows from his own father, Isaac as inherited and given to him by his own father, Abraham. No wonder, in blessing these lads, Israel says, "the Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth" (Genesis 48:16, KJV).

That's what Joseph got in return for that act of taking his children with himself to visit a dying grandpa. 

Genesis 48:8-9, KJV

"8 And Israel beheld Joseph's sons, and said, Who are these?  

9 And Joseph said unto his father, They are my sons, whom God hath given me in this place. And he said, Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them".

Israel collected these two children for himself and then blessed them. Something significant do happen on people's death bed that you must be aware of. Fathers want to divide inheritance and give the final blessings. And at times, the best is reserved for the end. It's then secrets are muttered and prophecies are delivered. Heaven do open then. The sensation is always strong. If you'll be sensitive as well and watch life's events unfold even after their death, you'd see that some of what they said are prophecies coming to pass. When the time of your own elders are up, it's a blessing being with such flames to hear their journeys and receive their blessings. It is also a good thing going with your kids. It must be the endeavour of all fathers or parents to connect tomorrow with its yesterday. How we do that is by creating a bridge by which our children could connect with their grandparents. Never dissociate your children from your parents. When you visit home, do make endeavour to go with your kids (especially he or she you've discovered by ordination of God as your heir). Begin to take them on journeys of understanding and relation with elders and those that matters. Let some of your children even do service to your parents. Let them trigger their blessings. Begin to develop in them the importance of having in their arsenal and as a backup spiritual people. Such exposure would train their faculty to respect elders and crave to have the blessings that could only be imparted by them. You know, one major experience hasn't left me. My father once took me somewhere to visit an elder one time. While he was on his belly prostrating to that man, I was on my feet watching. I was just amazed and carried away by other things. So, he told me to greet by prostration as well. Then, the man blessed me. Elders know that their times are up. They have a gun pointed at their heads. What they seek to do is to continue living through/in other people. They know they can't live for ever. For this reason, they raise those who could have their spirit and continue after them. What a blessing to hear one father say to me one day that, "I am his seal and the proof of his ministry". I was warned not to make a mess of that.

The Bible says, "a good man lives inheritance for his children's children" (Prov.13:22). Jacob did just that when he adopted and made his own these two children of Joseph. This adoption made them to be honoured so even with inheritances later in time (Joshua 16:4). Be full of discernment. Ensure you collect from the past what the future could run with before its departure. Bring your children to the hole from which you're dug and from the rock from which you're hewn and let them belove them with blessings. May the prophet prophesy over them. May they not lose their inheritances. May you have yours as you position to be a beneficiary of what fathers carry. Something happen at departure, deportment of blessing it is called. May it fall on you all. 

PRAYER: Lord, bless all fathers to bless all fathers. We receive awareness to be present at moment of blessings. 

BIBLE IN A YEAR: 1 Chronicles 24:1-26:11; Romans 4:1-12; Psalm 13:1-6; Proverbs 19:15-16

Powered by Morning Wings Ministries. Click TRANSLATE on the blog & read in your own language. Enquire or counsel through +234 80 77 63 85 50 or +234 8137 04 68 12 II morningwingministry@gmail.com & Blog @ http://morningwingsministry.blogspot.com