MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - 8/02/2024

THURSDAY - 8TH FEBRUARY, 2024

MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO

LOOKING FOR AN OPPORTUNE TIME

Read Luke 4:1-13

Luke 4:13, KJV

"And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season."

There's a Christian hymn that reads:

"Christian, seek not yet repose,

Hear thy gracious Savior say;

Thou art in the midst of foes:

Watch and pray.

Principalities and powers,

Mustering their unseen array,

Wait for thy unguarded hours:

Watch and pray."

That hymn reminds us of our enemy, Satan who seeks whom to devour. Without seeking to instill in us any fear of him, it also tells us not to seek rest, becoming too comfortable or sluggish as to be careless to give Him the upper hand. 

"Christian, seek not yet repose,

Hear thy gracious Savior say..."

In today's reading, the devil keeps coming to Jesus in order to compromise Him. In three times symbolic temptations, Jesus was tempted but refuted sin. After Jesus' victory however, the Bible notes of the devil to have departed from Jesus just for a season. A "season" passes for awhile there. It means that one victory of Jesus won't always keep the devil at bay. He'll still look for moments, opportune times when he could come back again. 

The devil might leave you to yourself for a season. He might allow you have a victory over him after much struggle. However, his thought are still of evil and not of good towards you. This one time surrendering of his is not an all time surrendering. He's still in pursuit of one thing - bringing you down. Many a times, once in a while personal victory over Satan and his temptations do cool Christians down and instills them with a sense of arrival or achievement that they have made it, and are now immuned to temptation or falling away. On this note, they just go to sleep. However, the title of Daniel Everett's book, the linguist and once a time missionary to the Amazon, "Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes..." ought come alive to them.

If you're in a reptile invested area, knowing how dangerous that is, I don't think you'd allow dizziness to descend on you once. The reason is simple. You want to watch out for your life by yourself. You're not waiting for someone to tell you, "watch out, that's a snake or a crocodile!" You want to have eyes that sees, senses that sense and mind that'll be prompt to take action. You want to keep awake to stay sharp and be able to beat the danger posed by those wild beasts. That's how sharp we ought be in spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare is ongoing. Those of you who have once survived Satan because you once had food at home and could afford to live comfortably might be broken at a season of economic downturn if you'll give in to the pressure of the devil. The devil is like a football team that wants to equalize and so would begin to mount pressure on the opponent. What he's looking for is just a little mistake, an opening or inroad he can take to cause damage or wreck serious havoc. He's in need of an occasion; a foothold that you must not for once grant him. Because of that, the devil has mastered persistence. He goes to and fro to always come back. If he departs from you for a season, please don't mistaken it for an eternity. He's at the corner watching your steps and filing information on how to trip you down. Look at how persistent and constant madam persuaded Joseph on sleeping with her.

Genesis 39:7, 10, KJV

"7 And it came to pass after these things, that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me.10 And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her."

That's pressure. Satan will give you pressure. If your mind and your spirit can't withstand that pressure, you'll simply fall in that day of adversity. It's God's will that you triumph and beat the devil now and then and everyday he comes to you. The repeated triumph of Jesus over the devil in the wilderness provides a classical example of how Christians must always return in beating the devil when he blows or keeps it hot. 

However, we're called to an observation. Satan only departed away for a season. He'll soon be checking in. Madam once spoke to Joseph and she seemed to have quiten down but she soon reoccur on Joseph's page making same old request, "come, lie with me". We are not commanded to befriend the devil who lurks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom to devour. We are rather told to rebuke or resist him firm in the faith.

I Peter 5:8-9, KJV

"8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith..."

I pray for you that you won't have a price. The devil won't be able to buy you. He came dangling pleasure and reward of being promoted before Joseph; dangled the world and its glory before Jesus too. However, they didn't fall for it. They resisted the devil still. May God grant you grace to resist still. No matter the intensity and repetition of the temptation, may you not succumb. May you keep waxing valiant in battle against the devil instead. May you always find succour and Word with which to resist the devil. I am praying for you just like Jesus, our intercessor is. Go, go against the devil. Keep holding the fort. 

PRAYER: Lord, give me perseverance to resist the fierce and repeated temptations of the devil.

BIBLE IN A YEAR: Exodus 23:14-25:40, Matthew 24:29-51, Psalm 30:1-12, Proverbs 7:24-27

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MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - 4/02/2024

SUNDAY - 4TH FEBRUARY, 2024

MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO

NO MORE DILLY DALLY

READ John 4:25-35

John 4:35, KJV

"Say not ye, there are yet four months and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields: for they are white already to harvest."

You may be expectant of a season but still be oblivious of it when it comes. That may be because you're not actually as expectant as you seem to be. It may also come upon you without any change in action because you've become complacent or weary having waited for long. 

There's a saying that, "four months and there comes the harvest". Four months to the minds of Jesus' disciples is a very long time. They were living in that illusion of "it's not now. We still have time. We could therefore indulge in other businesses of eating/drinking and taking our ease." As at the time Jesus speaks to them, none of them perceives that the time has neared for the harvest of souls to be done. As a matter of fact, they were trying to persuade and win Jesus to their side. They began by asking him to eat. When he didn't and  he told them He has meat/food to eat that they don't know, they were all amazed asking if any had brought Him food to eat. However, what meat was Jesus talking about if not to rank the Father's work above any other thing including earthly or personal pleasure? For that reason, Jesus told them, "say ye not that there are four months then comes the harvest? Behold, look now, the fields are already white for harvest". 

May God bring you and I into rightful understanding. May we have a grab of what season we are in or we have entered. If not, we can stand in hope for the season of harvest to come and we may lack discernment when it does. It'll just pass by quietly. It was passing the disciples by quietly until Jesus sensitized them to the time that has come upon them. That's why we need the prophetic in our midst to sensitize us to the times and seasons we are in. Or else, you can't take advantage of times and seasons. Jesus is the sensitizer of the disciples here. He's awakening them to what as well is their expectation. However, they are lost in the now - having spoiled themselves with physical food. They therefore failed to see what is the urgent consuming business that a man should plunge himself into at the time. No wonder, they debated Jesus! When Jesus talks of doing God's will and pine after that, they talk of mere food which they'll like Him to give attention to. Yet, they don't know that there's a pleasure that comes from having done the Father's will and eaten it all. Jesus focuses on that and calls them to that. 

Wake up you sleeper. The dawn is here and darkness is becoming light. We can no longer wait. No more dilly-dally. It's time for action. The Gentile nations are ready for harvest. Jesus could perceive that as He spoke with this Samaritan woman in John 4. Like He said of the field being white and ready for harvest, so we see a corresponding act because an entire city came to believe in Him later (John 4:39). What are you expecting but which you're thinking is still far away? Wake up! Here's it at your door. Are you a student anticipating an exam? Stop saying it's four months between planting and harvest. That saying will cool you down if not outrightly blind you to sensing the time. See! See that it is closer to you than when you first anticipated. This is the season of harvest. Jesus is as well telling us we'll be prosperous if we cast our net or hook into the water. He only knows when the timing is right. He told Peter, "launch out into the deep and let down your nets for draught" (Lk.5:4). This was after Peter had toiled and had caught nothing. However, He saw the harvest and He predicted it. Peter didn't have anything different from that prediction. By saying, the fields are ripe also, it means we have an opportunity to take. It means we have been availed an open door. It means we won't have to stress ourselves very much before conversion of souls are done. It'll happen beyond our expectation and that's because it's the season of harvest. Souls await to be saved. There's a longing in their own souls already. They are wishing and willing for salvation. That's why that woman herself said, "I know the Messiah comes. When He comes, He'll teach us all things" (John 4:25). Those Gentiles are not totally void of God's knowledge you know. We're being expected. However, they need a preacher to preach the gospel which they'll believe to them. What are you doing therefore? Or are you still deceived to say, "it's still four months between the planting and the harvest". Be warned! The Spirit of the church is saying, "now is the time. The field is ripe'.

PRAYER: Father, sensitize me to the current work you're working on the earth. I am a soul winner and I shall not be drunk with wine or debauchery when the field is already ripe.

BIBLE IN A YEAR: Exodus 13:17-15:18, Matthew 21:23-46, Psalm 26:1-12, Proverbs 6:16-19

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MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - 3/02/2024

SATURDAY - 3RD FEBRUARY, 2024

MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO

EACH MAN, HIS DREAM

Genesis 40:5, KJV

"And they dreamed a dream both of them, each man his dream in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison."

Say, "it is each man his dream". Yes, exactly that! Our dreams will differ. So will its interpretation and so will its fulfillment or ending. 

It is always, "each man, his dream". God has not left each and everyone of us without witnesses of what to do or become. Our prophesied future is written all over us if we let the inner voice guide us and reveal itself to us. God at our Creation has written in us who we should be or become. This may manifest in our motivation, talents and what we just love doing. I've proven this with many proofs hinting at the two brothers - Esau and Jacob and how their temperaments, talents and natural inclination  put them in the fields they colonized (Gen.25:27). This may turn into an aspiration. It may become a dream. However, how it's doing you may not be how it is doing me. What is pushing you may not be what is stirring and seeking to direct me. We can both have dreams but... You can have a dream - not necessarily of images of the subconscious while asleep in the night but of who to become and what life's endeavour to pursue. However, these dreams would always be different from one another.

We may want to start looking at this from the life of the butler and baker of Pharaoh. They both had a dream the same night but the Bible has this to say concerning them. "And they dreamed a dream both of them, each man his dream in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream..." They not only dreamt differently but interpretation as influenced by their dreams and as echoed by Joseph also differs. We all know that a dream would differ in interpretation from another if in storyline and plot it is different. God has not given to us equally. The Bible even wrote, "and He gave some, apostles; and some prophets; and some, evangelists; and some pastors and teachers". I hope you know with these different offices goes different gifts and abilities. It's those that'll make men of different callings. He has not dealt to us the same dreams even if we all have a call. He might have given to us marks in our souls of who to become and pursue but we are motivated differently by different motivations. I've argued it over the years. I couldn't have become a Mathematician though my father was good at that and taught me a great deal - helping me with assignments. Why didn't I aspire or got obsessed after Mathematics? That's because I have no natural or God given inclination towards it. No special love for it. It is that special love for a subject, field or life's endeavour that eventually could transform into a dream and life that a man can pursue. 

It is each man according to his dream and each man according to the interpretation of his dream. Our call which differs is what tells us what to do. We won't all have the same ending as it concerns which field or life's endeavour we pursue. The destiny of the baker is different from the butler's and they weren't the ones who decided it. Guess what did? The dreams they had. Their dreams sent one back to the palace and hung the other. Joseph while interpreting their dreams said, "yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore thee unto thy place; and thou shall deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manner when thou wast his butler...(Gen.40:13). However, things didn't answer for the baker this same way. Yet in three days, his own head was lifted up from him (Gen. 40:19). While our own end is good and not evil, for we have read that God's thoughts towards us are of good and not of evil and to do one thing to us - to give us an expected end (Jer. 29:11), yet our dreams and where they'll lead each of us in order to become who we should become are different. 

What is my prayer? It's that each of us won't break rank. We'll stay where we should stay. You and I must stay within the dictate of our dream. May that Bible verse that says, "each man his dream" come to pass in our lives. May your dream not convert me to itself and may mine not be able to convert you to its pursuance. May we rather stay true to our dreams and to its interpretation/fulfillment - where it'll lead when fully subscribed to. However, I can bear witness. It'll lead to an expected end because God's thoughts are good towards us. Hold unto that. "We dream differently and so we become differently". It'll forever be, "each man his dream; each man according to the interpretation of his dream". God has not given all of us to go one way. He has spread us all around. But what decides that is our passion, talents, obsession which are never the same. That's why someone may want to colonize the space by going there and another may be interested in only writing about space in an imaginary way. This is why it is calling that chooses us and not we choosing calling. Look, it is "each man his dream and each man according to the interpretation of his dream".

PRAYER: Lord, I submit to the dream breathing inside me. I shall not be persuaded to take another's lane. I follow and I have its intent done unto me. I see the glorious day.

BIBLE IN A YEAR: Exodus 13:17-15:18, Matthew 21:23-46, Psalm 26:1-12, Proverbs 6:16-19

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MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - 2/02/2024

FRIDAY - 2ND FEBRUARY, 2024

MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO

IS LIFE NOT MORE THAN MEAT AND THE BODY THAN RAIMENT?

READ Matthew 6

Matthew 6:25, KJV "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?"

What is the purpose of life? For what reason was life given? We should ask that question in order to better ourselves and have an inkling which may then become a firm resolution on why we were created (given life or God's breath) and how then we ought live our lives. 

The Bible says, "is not the life more than meat" and "the body than raiment?" So, what's the purpose for which you were given life and currently lives? For what purpose and to what end did God gave the human body to you with which to relate and contact in this world? Is it to pursue food, clothing and shelter solely? Is the very purpose of life (that invaluable resource) only meant for meat and its pursuit? Or what else should we account our lives to be useful for?

God wants you to see that you're too valuable to waste the endowment of life and being made flesh on mundane things that pass away. You're rather being called to a higher life and purpose. Many people have not found a value or fair exchange for the life God gave to them. Some just existed in the human body to gulp up food and to have a wardrobe of clothes. No dream, vision or purpose to attack and live for. However, that place says, "life worths more than condescending it and spending it on such mundane things". Those ones are too petty. How could you use your life (as precious as it is) only to acquire properties and goods of this life without using it to fulfill the higher calling for which you were sent here? Look, life is more than meat now! When Christ says, "is life not more than meat and the body than raiment", He's trying to protect and preserve you for purpose. God wants purpose and the pursuit of it be the only and worthy thing you'll commitedly spend your life for. As for clothes, materials or properties,  they'll diminish. Therefore, they ought not to be your life's priority. While you need them to live life, you must ensure they don't take the first place in your life. If wealth becomes your pursuit instead of purpose, you're not wealthy. Moth and rust even corrupt and even robbers could break in to cart away (Matt.6:19-20). However, when you live for purpose, it transcends your life here on earth and goes into the eternal or the everlasting. 

Life is more than meat. Life is more than raiment. No one could have received the human body without first having been given life. It means, "life and body" in that usage are working as synonyms and so could replace each other. Tell yourself that life is more than the pursuit of bread or raiment. All these fine fine things you see on display as  attractions are actually distractions from purpose if you can't master it. That's what the thought and lives of some people revolve around. He keeps aspiring and living for the repeated purchase of man's goods thinking in them there is fulfilment and value for his life. This kind of life brings no glory to God in any way. Why constantly look for what to wear, what next car to buy, what next party to go flaunt your money, what next pride of girls to go out with, what next tourism and adventure to explore etc. Imagine! Look at the debris they are living for. Nothing more than these? Life is more than these. It's more than sex. It is more than any pleasure or pleasurable thing that's outside purpose of a man in this life. 

Brethren, God wants to ask you a question. On what would you spend your life? On meat and raiments or on the pursuit of the higher life? Higher life is your calling and the pursuit of why God gave you life and put you in a human body. You have that choice to make. The choice of what to live or give your life for.  May you not be F.F.O. (For Food Only) on the surface of the earth. May you not be an earth roamer but an intentional living being who doesn't depreciate the essence and value of the life and body given him by God. While God intends he'll use his life (his time) in the body given him to fulfill a part of His will and gain rulership over the earth in Science, Technology, Ministry, Music, Education, Agriculture etc by bringing discovery, innovation and advancement, this man has condescended and played down the value of life to the pursuit of bread only. May you be redeemed from such lowly life of yours. May you see the essence of life that it is more than meat and more than raiment. I ask you, "what is meat or raiment to life?" Could God have sent each of us to the earth only to earn millions, dine and wine, sleep with our spouses, buy all the goods and then die? That's not God. Satan or your personal self may have been involved - redirecting the essence of life. God knows the significance of life. He did not give it for us to squander it on what is inconsequential. May you see indeed that, "life (which you already have) is more than meat and the body (in which you dwell) is more than raiment that has become your goal, life's vision and pursuit now." Once you see you're created for value and to live for a high ranking value, you won't be enslaved by these petty deceptions and human worries again. Something in me resist such living. No significance is attached to it. It's too common. Don't live such too. Abhor it and let your life worth more than meat and raiments.

PRAYER: I understand that life is more than meat and the body than raiment. Help me keep my eyes on the higher call of my existence. May I not be distracted by meat and raiments and brought to low living.

BIBLE IN A YEAR: Exodus 13:17-15:18, Matthew 21:23-46, Psalm 26:1-12, Proverbs 6:16-19

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MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - 24/01/2024

WEDNESDAY - 24TH JANUARY,  2024

MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO

PARENTS, CAN YOU SMELL THEIR OCCASIONS?

Judges 14:3, KJV

"Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well."

In the book, Fences by August Wilson, Troy refuses to allow College Recruiters have his son, Cory for football. Though the young man is very skillful in the sport and has been spotted by them yet Troy does all to frustrate this very dream of Cory as he refuses to sign up Cory as the authority figure in his life. Rose, Troy's wife and mother of Cory begs to no avail. Even Jim Bono, friend to Troy does to no end. At the end, this boy's dream gets broken and exchanged for another because a father couldn't sense that times have changed. 

Oftentime, parents don't smell the divine moments and opportunities of their wards. It is not enough to give birth to them or groom them. You must seek to maintain an active role in helping your children to discover themselves and become who God wrote them to be at heart when they were created. The parents of Samson provides us with a good example to study this morning. They both received from the Lord consequently upon each other how the Lord would visit them for a son and what manner of lifestyle the boy should cultivate to remain a Nazarite of the Lord (Judges 13:3,13). However, when the very reason for which Samson came into the world arrives and is being lowered for him to take, they were hindering him from "rising, killing and eating" it. They said, "are there no daughters among your people that you go after an uncircumcised Philistine?" The Bible only replies with, "and they know not that God was involved, seeking an occasion against the Philistines." On this note, God is calling parents to know on with the Lord as it concerns who and how their children would manifest. You can be fighting how your ward should manifest because you don't know all the details of it. 

Rebekah when in darkness went to enquire of the Lord why she is thus. Unfathomably, she gets a pleasing answer of two nations being in her womb and two people who would be divided against each other from the womb (Gen.25:22). This attempt made her know these two boys and learn from the onset something about their destinies and then expected end. When confused and at a crossroad, Christian parents have the responsibility of taking their wards' matters to the Lord in prayer for enquiry. Samson's occasion came. A time he's been waiting for eventually arrives for which the Lord would fling open to him a great and mighty door by which he would begin to deliver Israel, yet Manoah and his wife never detected or smelled it. At times, your wards are correct and they may be moved and directed by their sense of destiny into the right choices than you could fathom. They need your consent and support if their dreams and God's given task won't be jettisoned. If not for the tenacity of Samson, who knows whether it'll have to take God another occasion or chance for Samson to begin to deliver Israel. Thank God he insisted saying, "get her for me, for she pleases me well." May God's invisible hands stir your wards towards their destinies. May they be tenacious about what is life to them. That's one thing you see about those with a definite call or particular destiny to fulfill. There's a tenacity of pursuit that follows. Most times, they are hard to persuade out of their choices of calling. Doing so forcefully might result into a shattered individual who'll being disconnected from his purpose and his very life. 

Therefore, let parents be on the same page with their children. You're called to help them find expression and fulfill God's calls on their lives. It therefore becomes your responsibility to enter into them and feel like they are feeling, see like they're seeing so you'll be able to decipher their motivations and by this judge things/them rightly. God can raise further occasions but if Samson had missed this one, who knows when the Lord would bring another again? Opportunities or occasions are scarce. This fact is encrypted in the fact that the angel that troubles the water doesn't come daily. He does so once in awhile and that awhile no one can predict. If he comes today, who knows whether it'll take a year or even years before another visitation to stir the pool of Bethesda? On this note, it becomes important that having found out the placement of your ward, you help him in fulfilling his dream and destiny by helping him to leverage all the occasions that can avail him the platform for doing so - especially the God given ones. 

Mind this, if you miss the stirring angel now, you may need to wait for another while. It is the cumulative missing of divine occasions by a man by the pool that made him to have spent 38 years unhealed. May you not wait or stay for such donkey years unrealized. That won't be because God is unmerciful but because you can't sense your time and take it. Act differently. Sense the time and rise with the tides. 

PRAYER: Father, grant us a special sense of our ward's destiny and the timing of accomplishment. May we not fight what you orchestrated.

BIBLE IN A YEAR: Genesis 46:1-47:31, Matthew 15:1-28, Psalm 19:1-14, Proverbs 4:14-19

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MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - 23/01/2024

TUESDAY - 23RD JANUARY,  2024

MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO

CAN YOU SMELL THE SEASON?

Judges 14:3, KJV

"Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well."

One of the greatest forces on the earth is the destiny force. If you're destined or fated to become something or somebody, one major characteristic that you'll exhibit is a strong sense of fate or pursuit of that thing unlike others. You'll just have a revelation of your life not being ordinary; of something being ahead of you that must speak or burst forth to the world to see and be blessed with. More importantly, irrespective of your background, race, gender etc, you'll believe in the possibility of its fulfilment. In this way, you'll be unrelentless but seeking avenues and watching out for opportunities that you can latch unto for what you have implanted in you as a sense of destiny to be manifested and poured forth like a drink offering for your world. A strong sense of destiny can direct and ordain what you do per time. There would be people who having smelled what they should be are quietly waiting for a season and an opportunity to become that. They are like a pretending reptile who seems to be dead but very much awake to every passing prey. It immediately sucks and gulps it in. In like manner, some are waiting in preparation, prayer and hope that their days would come. They have long been waiting on the queue of destiny but it seems nothing is happening for them. Such people have now become desperate to fulfill their inner sense of destiny which is troubling or demanding them to burst forth. You can no longer persuade them to wait any longer. You can't smooth talk them to delay further or have them exchanged the glory of their callings or destiny which they have tasted for something ephemeral or other than that. 

On this note, they become a Samson who smells the season, smells an occasion even in seemingly unclear event and would refuse to let it go but take it. Samson is like a surfer. He sees the waves gathering and he rides on it. Many times when people hear of someone in the main stream causing waves, what they don't know is that such fellow has been in that vocation for long. He only was not revealed earlier like he is now. However, his day came when what he has been doing in the secret or preparing for has now come to everybody's notices. When has the Lord been stirring, preparing and getting Samson ready for a war and fight with the Philistines? Long time ago at camp! A long time ago from his adolescent before he ever thought of getting married. 

Judges 13:25, KJV

"And the Spirit of the LORD began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol."

However, around what time did Samson begin to manifest his calling?  At a very much later time - at adulthood when God sought an occasion for him to pick a fight with the Philistines. 

What God is bringing to you today is the issue of DESPERATENESS. The Lord is saying, "if you have tarried longer waiting to burst forth, when you sense a leverage that would make it happen, you wouldn't let it go. You'll rather cling to it." That's the story of Samson. He saw a Philistine woman who pleases him. The parents suggested considering somebody of his tribe or of his nation. However, Samson persisted. His reply to their refusal and wanting to turn him away from the occasion that would launch him into ministry was, "get her for me, for she pleases me well." He rather became more ardent, tenacious, affirming again what he had seen. He wouldn't let that season and occasion that it took years to cook or bring to him bypass him. That's why he reinforces his speech to them again by saying "for she pleases me well." When you near what you've for your life waited for, you won't let it go. On smelling the season, you'll know this is what you've been waiting for. Do you know why people are careless and are having opportunities bypass them? One, they are not prepared or ready for manifestation. Their time is not yet at all and they know on their own insides. Also, they haven't gotten to an edge where it is important to live out what they have been pining after. I know people who are given to purpose, who have been training but with little opportunity to make their waiting become a manifestation. Such people are those you can't dissuade to back off from the opportunity that'll make them something once sighted. Imagine all those invalids at the pool who had stayed there for donkey years trusting to be healed. Do you think such are those you can dissuade not to compete for the troubled water once they sight it troubled! Obviously no! They'll never agree to take their ease. They'll rather spring up to compete to enter first and be healed by that once and for all healing virtue in the pool (John 5). 

What season are we in? A season of harvest but in which Jordan has also overflowed his banks (Joshua 3:15). You'll meet with resistance but there'll be an opportunity for you to take. Will you fight the resistance to leverage that once in a lifetime opportunity?

PRAYER: Lord, I remain tenacious in hope. I shall not waste the occasion and deride the season that you have sent to bear me up.

BIBLE IN A YEAR: Genesis 46:1-47:31, Matthew 15:1-28, Psalm 19:1-14, Proverbs 4:14-19

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MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - 22/01/2024

MONDAY - 22ND JANUARY,  2024

MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO

STEPPING INTO AND MAXIMIZING YOUR OPEN DOOR

Read Judges 15

Judges 14:4, KJV

"But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel."

We had seen how the Lord gave Samson an open door and made right an occasion or opportunity for him to start ministry - begin to deliver Israel. Prophecy had gone ahead of him even before he was birthed that he'll begin to deliver Israel and God bears witness to it (Judges 13:5). However, when the time came for this deliverance to begin to happen, God had to sovereignly look for a launch pad for Samson. He couldn't have started just like that. He couldn't have gone to pick a fight with the Philistines without a cause. It wouldn't make sense. An excuse had to be provided and indulged him. So, God organized a cause for which Samson could begin to fight the Philistines. 

This cause began with the strange desire of Samson to marry a Philistine woman. The Bible records that the parents were against it because they didn't know the Lord was involved - seeking an occasion or opportunity against the Philistines who at that time ruled Israel. This occasion or opportunity was eventually granted like I said in yesterday's devotional. When granted, Samson wasn't slack to take it all. His responses to those situations were what God was expecting. He recognized it as his open door. He sees it as his passage way to achieve an intent and he walked right into it. Do you know that God can give you an opportunity or open door to begin to do something and you may still not take that door. There are many people that their divine moments came yet have no discernment that here's that moment they have long waited for. They therefore become like a fish caught in an evil net because they know not their time (Eccl.9:12). They are therefore caught unawares by such opportunity of a lifetime that they should have been ready for. I pray for you that when the Lord is ready to grant you an occasion to do His will and fulfill the call, desire and destiny on your head, you'll as well be ready. You'll at that time be full of ears round your body and on tip toes anticipating such time. 

People rarely see any good quality in Samson or his life. However, Samson never lost sight or made nonsense of the open door God granted him. From the dubious dealing of the Philistines in deciphering his riddles to the giving away of his wife, he never allowed those events slip but to rightly cling to it as reasons to take revenge on the Philistines. And even after these first sets of events that opened the door, Samson didn't stop leveraging this wide door that was opened to him as it continues to avail him more opportunities. For instance, after he had burnt down the farms of the Philistines and they had revenged by burning his wife and wife's father to death, he also went on another rampage slaughtering the Philistines on and on. In this way, Samson not only stepped into that tiny, little and once slightly opened door or granted opportunity God made available to him that first instance, he rather maximized it to its possible fullest. Samson maximized all the yields that sprouted from that one time opportunity. He didn't let it slip or shut on him. He rather sought its enlargement and from just that one occasion God granted him against the Philistines, he took advantage of all the opportunities that stem from it in order to justly pick a fight with the Philistines and recompense them justly. 

Brethren, your life depends on your awareness and leveraging of opportunities. If the Lord grants you an occasion no matter how tiny it may be, can you smell all that it can avail you in the now and in the nearest future? Can you cultivate the Samson's tenacity and maximization of just an open door and the cultivation of it to its highest level where all the blessings of that one open door is derived and totally enjoyed. Today, may you have a heart and nose that smell opportunities. God can give you an occasion like He gave Samson and that one door may be source for many other opportunities. There's always a door that leads to other doors. I call it the master door. We do know that God lowered a sheet from heaven to Peter and in that one sheet were diverse animals - just all sorts. So, it's possible for a door to open that leads or can open to you many other doors. A door can avail you with many opportunities. You can have a sheet with many animals to "rise, kill and eat." God can give you many choices this way. This is the unlimitedness God is giving you. God is ordaining a door for you like He ordained a lamp for His anointed, David. That door is a passage way that will lead to other doors and blessings. I see a door that opens other doors. May you take it right early. 

PRAYER: Lord, I walk into all you want me to see and take. I take and maximize my master door that avails me other opportunities.

BIBLE IN A YEAR: Genesis 44:1-45:28, Matthew 14:13-36, Psalm 18:37-50, Proverbs 4:11-13

Powered by Morning Wings Ministries. Share with others in English, French, Arabic, Swahili and Chinese. 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