A very BLESSED morning to you.

"Living on Lori Iro"

Was studying a few verses in the book of 1Sam. Chapter 4, and I am struck by a few occurrences which are still common in today's world, even as we continually live on self denial. The Lori Iro kind of thing. Nothing thrives

when we live in self denial. There is no fresh start without doing the needful.

Let's take a look at;
1 Samuel 4:2 MSG
The Philistines marched out to meet Israel, the fighting spread, and Israel was badly beaten - about 4,000 soldiers left dead on the field.
1 Samuel 4:3 When

the troops returned to camp, Israel's elders said, "Why has God given us such a beating today by the Philistines? Let's go to Shiloh and get the Chest of God's Covenant. It will accompany us and save us from the grip of our enemies."

The catch here for me is this;

The elders

were quick to blame God for the overwhelming defeat and shame at the hands of the "godless" philistines, and as if that was not enough, they tried to "USE" God, like, He, God, was in their pockets, ready to be used at all times and for whatever purpose. It did not matter if God

was "busy, asleep, playing etc-(just used those catch phrases literally. We know God cannot be caught in any of those)

The point here is that, defeat started for them early, even before the battle.

God had expressed His anger against the prophet over israel (Eli) and his 2

🔰 *WORD4TODAY* 🔰

*Acts 9:40 MSG*
Peter put the widows all out of the room. He knelt and prayed. Then he spoke directly to the body: "Tabitha, get up."
👇🏼
It's an entirely different ballgame when you speak directly to a situation.
👇🏼
There is tremendous power backing up the

Word of God when spoken directly at Anything tangible or intangible .

👉🏼Peter had nothing to offer the man by the beautiful game... He only had the Word and that made all the difference to the crippled beggar..

👉🏼 Ezekiel spoke to very dry bones & the bones were restored &

eventually became an exceeding great army. ( *Just think about it for a second* )

👉🏼With Elijah's word, the impossible happened. The sunk iron axe-head floated from the bottom of the river, while the wooden handle sank.

👉🏼By the spoken Word of Jesus, a gold coin was found in

the mouth of a fish to pay tax

👉🏼By His spoken Word directly to Lazarus, He commanded him to come forth, and, he who had been dead for four days came back to life.
👇🏼
Here's the catch...God has exalted His Word even above His name & He backs it up with His integrity.💪🏻

*Speak directly to;*
👉🏼Your business
👉🏼Your marriage
👉🏼Your health
👉🏼Your FINANCES
👉🏼Your Womb
👉🏼Speak to every dead, dying, crawling or confusing. You can even call forth those things that be not as if they were.
👇🏼
Today, as you speak directly, you will see a tangible

🔰WORD4TODAY🔰

Gen 16:13 MSG
She answered God by name, praying to the God who spoke to her, "You're the God who sees me!" "Yes! He saw me; and then I saw Him!"
👇🏼
Circumstances chased her (Hagar)out of her home, chased her out of the place she once felt safe & comfortable.😭
👇🏼

She was now at a place she felt rejected, dejected, abandoned, neglected, humiliated and depressed. No one saw her at this particular time of her life, no one saw her there, yet, God saw her.

📌In her rejection, God saw her.
📌In her dejection, God saw her.

📌In her abandoned state, God saw her.
📌In her neglected state, God saw her.
📌In her humiliated state, God still saw her.
📌In her depressed state too, God saw her.
👇🏼
Hagar was invincible to everyone, but, not God. God saw her.

📍She said, "I have seen the One who sees me"

*Genesis 16:13b MSG*
"You're the God who sees me!" "Yes! He saw me; and then I saw him!"
👇🏼
Many do not " *see* " God at times like these, and if truth be told, these are not easy times to focus. They can be overwhelming if one isn't sensitive.
👇🏼
*Good news today;*

1.
A very, very short message on "when God shows up"

The 3 Hebrew boys knew something others did not know. Infact, What they knew influenced their stance. It was, "if we perish, we perish..." Crazy I'd say.

They were resolute in their decision not to bow down to man made gods.

2.
They were indeed defiant and unconsciously playing to the gallery of their enemies, who without a doubt, wanted them dead.

Note, Defiance had consequences at this times.

The consequences of their defiance was death, horrible death, the slow kind of painful death, yet,

3.
they defied the most powerful king on earth.

This brazen act of bravado though, extraordinary, was nonetheless, unacceptable. No one defies the kings decree, least of all, Jews.

The king was duly updated by some "Tatafos" & under Persian law, decrees, once pronounced by the

4.
king and sealed with the royal seal, could not be reversed.

They were subsequently arraigned before the king and with what I call the guts of a meniac, they looked the king in the eye, and told him point blank, that on this issue of bowing to your man made god, we are not

5.
going to bow down. This was no longer a joke.

Daniel 3:16 KJV
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.

[17] If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning

"Lord, thanks for showing up, but where were You when we needed You most?"

A "sensible" and justifiable question we sometimes ask

Isaiah 58:9 MSG
Then when you pray, God will answer. You'll call out for help and I'll say, 'Here I am.'
Well, this time Lord, you were not around.

You dint "show up" as promised

Mary, one of Lazarus' sisters, knew too well from following Jesus, that He could heal the sick, the possessed, the blind etc, so, when her brother fell ill, there was no other person to call on, but, Jesus, their very dear friend. she then, quickly

sent words to Jesus before things got out of hand, before things became irredeemable.

John 11:3 MSG
 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Master, the one you love so very much is sick."

She was fully persuaded He would leave every other thing He was doing and come running,

afterall, Jesus was a close family friend, and besides, that's what friends do.  She recalled how they had sheltered Him, fed Him etc. " I know, He will be here soon," she said boldly and openly.

She sat all day by the window from sunrise to sunset, confident He would show up.

Day 1, no appearance of Jesus. Dint He get the message, or did they not tell Him what critical condition Lazarus was? 

Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, and by this time, hope had given way to hopelessness. She was, as it were, "mortally disappointed" how can Jesus do this to us, the ones

Have you done your 5mins daily Prayer for NIGERIA today?

Proverbs 28:12b NKJV
When the righteous rejoice, there is great glory; But when the wicked arise, men hide themselves.

Hmmmmm, when the wicked ARISE, men hide themselves.
Everyone seem to be hiding, threading softly.

Bandits, insurgents, kidnappers, ritualists, going on as if we are in a lawless society.

Thee are wicked people in positions of power benefitting from this misery.

These wicked people are let loose, because they have sponsors and backbones in Government.

Pray that God

break their backbones.
Pray that God unseat every wicked, inept and corrupt one in power.
Pray that God visit them in His indignation.

Lately, Statistics show that.

In the last one year;
International bodies have adjudged NIGERIA as the poverty capital of the world.

That

NIGERIA is the worst place on earth, and even the worst place to do business.

They have now put us in d same zip code as Yemen, Afghanistan, Libya, Sudan...Countries known for terrorism.

Inflation in NIGERIA is now at 17%
Unemployment at 33%
Death by terror this year alone is

1,245 (known figures o)
Those kidnapped this year alone 1,390

These are just official figures

In Kaduna alone, from January-March alone
Killed 323
Kidnapped 949.

We see Corruption daily being swept under the carpet.

NNPC, ports authority, civil service etc are all a cesspool

A SHORT EXHORTATION.

This scripture.

Ephesians 3:3 MSG
I got the inside story on this from God himself...

This scripture 👆🏽took me back in time as I was indulging myself in my morning Bible study this morning. It reminded me how God can give d inside story of what is about to

happen and make it plain before His children.

Can't remember the year now, but, I went for this Bank job interview and it turned out it was not an interview but a fun thing.

The night before the interview, I prayed with this scripture and as I fell asleep some minutes later,

I dreamt there wasn't going to be any interview...like seriously?

At first, I dint understand d dream, but, I still went shaa.

I was the 3rd applicant for my prearranged 11am interview.

As I stepped into the room, there were 3 men and a lady, all facing the door. We exchanged

pleasantries and I sat down expecting the panel to kick start the session.

While waiting, the only lady on the panel just startled me by saying, "so, you are an ARSENAL fan..." You can imagine how lost I looked. They all noticed how shocked I was and then one of the men helped

out by gazing at the lapel on my suit. Apparently, I forgot to take it off the ARSENAL LAPEL the night before. I made to remove it and apologized for wearing such to a formal interview, and all the 3 men just echoed in unison, "GUNNERS FOR LIFE" and I responded in like manner and

A LONG EXHORTATION

THEME - What if...

Woke up this morning with a puzzling question in my spirit. Dint pay much attention to it, but, as I got out of bed to begin my morning & daily drill of 60mins-90mins of Thanksgiving, that question again interrupted my thoughts 💬.

2.
The question was just packaged in two words....WHAT IF?

Before I could process the thoughts, a barrage of other questions began to roll in, and then, I knew I had to UP my game in my daily Thanksgiving drill.

You see, I do this Thanksgiving "drill" every morning before I

3.
progress to praying in the spirit and then in my understanding and with relevant bible passages. (Thanksgiving is key to my relationship with God, because, I Know this for sure...THE UNGRATEFUL CARRIES A MARK OF RESENTMENT)

NOW;

4.
What if you woke up this morning and you began to "knock" on the gates of heaven, and as you did, an angel appeared and told you, "hey, sorry bro/sis, God is still resting. He had a busy day yesterday, and cannot attend to anyone until 4pm...")

5.
What if you knocked on heaven's gate and was denied access because, the accuser of the brethren just used his reggae to spoil your blues the previous night

What if you needed to pour out libations before seeing God?

Suddenly, Jesus appeared on the scene.

Luke 7v11-17 MSG
Talks about a widow, whose life was filled with losses & misery. She lived in Nain.

She had no name.
Her misery was used to describe her.

Misery had indeed wrapped itself round her like a fitted garment

She had lost her

2.
hubby, probably a few months or years earlier, now, her only son was gone.

Soon, this widow of Nain was going to bury her only son.

There were people there pretending to be mourning, meanwhile, they were gossiping amongst themselves...

3.
When did she lose her husband that we are once again burying her only son?

Are we sure she is not a witch?

Is she the only one in town.

From one tragedy to another.

God must be punishing her for her sins.

By this time too, the grave diggers were waiting.

4.
They had completed the task of digging the sons grave, & only waiting to be paid their balance

The mourners at the graveyard were waiting too, but, suddenly, the Lord saw her...felt her pain & showered her with compassion.

5.
When the Lord was done, they were completely left aghast, with mouth wide open

Luke 7:16 MSG described it perfectly.

They all realized they were in a place of holy mystery, that God was at work among them. They were quietly worshipful - and then noisily grateful,

🔰 *WORD4TODAY🔰

*Isaiah 58:9 MSG*
Then when you pray, God will answer. You'll call out for help and I'll say, 'Here I am.'

*When God Shows Up -Day 2*

The whole of *Exodus 14* shows so much intrigues like no other place in the bible.
👇🏼
When the Israelites left 430yrs of

slavery In Egypt, they breathed a sigh of relief.💃🏼
👇🏼
Their joy was however, cut short when they confronted the reality on ground.🙆🏽‍♂️

👉🏼They were in a position that had little or no way out. They were in-between the massive Red Sea & the merciless soldiers of Pharaoh.🙆🏽‍♂️
👇🏼

They knew it was a dead end & Pharaoh & his army knew it too. There was no way out.😥

Exodus 14:3 MSG
"Pharaoh will think, 'd Israelites are lost; they're confused. d wilderness has closed in on them

👉🏼 Suddenly, God showed up in His Almightiness, in His power, in His Might
👇🏼

*Isaiah 43:2 MSG*
When you're in over your head, I'll be there with you. When you're in rough waters, you will not go down. *When you're between a rock and a hard place, it won't be a dead end* -
👇🏼
👉🏼No nation on earth could help the Israelites..
👉🏼No army in the world could

A SHORT EXHORTATION

Theme- ...God, you "Deceived" me -Prophet Jeremiah

Jeremiah accused God of deceiving him, yes, you read right. No he did not, you might say, o yes he sure did 🙆🏽‍♂️😱
📌
Jeremiah 20:7a KJV
O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived...

2.
Incidentally, he was in the "WILL OF GOD" doing exactly what God told him to do. He was speaking the mind of God, yet, he was arrested, thoroughly lashed and thrown in solitary confinement.

"What's going on here? " he asked.
"This can't be happening to me, I'm in the will of

3.
God for crying out loud" yada, yada, yada

How can a "whole Prophet" accuse God of deceiving him, we may ask. Well, he did.

Things were not going the way he thought they would. He had expected the hearers of God's message to be trembling with fear at the godly warning of

4.
impending doom he was dishing out.

He was largely frustrated and disappointed. "Lord, this must be a joke, and if it is, it ain't funny at all..."

You see, when one is in this "precarious state," all manner of stuffs may begin to manifest. While some will pray for strength

5.
to go on to the end, others may be nagging and complaining, and sadly, many fall into the latter category.

Well, we must understand that even in the will of God, unpleasant things do happen.

Even in the will of God, we can grow weary, tired, disappointed, discouraged,

A SHORT EXHORTATION

THEME -WHEN GOD REWRITES THE TEXT OF YOUR LIFE

1 Peter 2:4b MSG
...The workmen took one look and threw it out; God set it in the place of honor.

This may indeed be your story.

Experts took one look at you, and said, you were no good.

They took one look at you and concluded you did not deserve that promotion.

Took one look at you and concluded that ailment was terminal.

Took one look at you and concluded this one is barren, that this other one can never get a suitor.

They took one look at that struggling

business of yours and concluded that there is no way under heaven you will make it..

God is about to prove them all wrong.

They may know a lot about so many things, but, they forgot they are not "assistant god"...that, they do not have the final say.

Proverbs 16:33b MSG SAYS
Make your motions and cast your votes, BUT GOD HAS THE FINAL SAY.

God, and not man has the final say.
He can overrule,
He can overturn,
He can reverse the seemingly irreversible.

Your story is about to be rewritten.

Psalms 18:24 MSG
God rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes.

As you cry to God this morning, get ready.
He is rewriting the entire text of your life and setting you in the place of honor.

Things are about to take a new turn.
Many will be

It's Day 3 tomorrow morning (4am-5am or 5am-6am)-Praying in the Spirit

Are you in?
Are you still in?

The way you begin your month really matters

Day 3 theme-

1. Deut 28:8a NLT
“The lord will guarantee a blessing on everything you do . (It's on all you do)

2. Psalms 67:7 MSG
You mark us with blessing, O God. Earth's four corners - honor him! (Because you are marked...Esther 2v15b ESV
Esther was winning favor in the eyes of all who saw her... (You will keep winning favours throughout this month)

3. Genesis 27:27a NLt
So Jacob went over and kissed him. And when Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he was finally convinced, and he blessed his son. He said, “Ah! The smell of my son is like the smell of the outdoors, which the lord has blessed!

(The smell of your scent

will get the attention of helpers, in Jesus name)

3 awesome scriptures from the throne of heaven to mark the last day.

Not too late to join this season. 4am-5am or 5am-6am, praying in the spirit. (Check flyer for more details.

You entered April in Grand Style, in Jesus name


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#With God, you have nothing to lose

You see, when it's God's war, the battle strategies always look ridiculous. Seasoned Generals would argue against it. They will point out the foolhardiness of applying the strategy.

"This is ridiculous. Are you insane?

This is war and not child's play"

Many onlookers would murmur the same sentiments.

When it's God's war, you cannot comprehend it. The only thing you can possibly predict, is the outcome.

2 Chronicles 20:15b MSG
This is God's war, not yours,

God said to king Jehoshaphat when three kings united against him. All the king needed to do, was get the worshippers ahead of the soldiers and all, in one accord begin to praise and thank God.

That was it.
A battle strategy indeed. They dint have to lift a finger. God laid

ambushment against the three kings.

2 Chronicles 20:17 MSG
You won't have to lift a hand in this battle;

When the Israelites were delivered from Egypt and the shackles of slavery, they were caught between pharaoh's merciless army & the mighty redsea.

They dint have to lift a finger. God said, "Stand still, and see me in action. The rest they say, is history.

When God briefed Joshua on how to penetrate the fortress of Jericho, without a doubt, I believe Joshua must have said to God, "can You please repeat what You just said?

*This is a true story*

I title it;
*No more crossing of boundaries*

A certain young man named Bayo (not real name) was in a competitive market here in Abeokuta, selling similar items with a few people. He was doing well, infact, he was the envy of everyone in the market.

He made more sales on a daily basis, and most times to his amazement.

Suddenly, sales began to go down "south". He began to lose customers, debtors refused to honour their obligations and consequently, sales were now nothing to write home about...

Meanwhile, he just came

unannounced to my home alone with his wife and I innocently asked him, *how's business?" He said fine, but, his countenance was saying otherwise. His wife was quick to chip in, "Pastor, there is wahala o. We don't even break even, let alone, make profit. Sales has been so bad

lately..."(Thank God for great wives who have your back)

I dug deeper until he opened up himself and narrated everything to me. We said a short prayer & d Lord led me to this scripture...

1 Samuel 7:13 MSG
The Philistines learned their lesson and stayed home - no more border

crossings. God was hard on the Philistines all through Samuel's lifetime.

To cut the long story short, he called me a few days after our meeting and said, he needed to see me and discuss an urgent but strange occurrence with me..

He came a few minutes after the call and gave a

Are you ready for the DAY 2 Edition?

3 days of Praying in the Spirit for 1hr
(4am-5am/5am-6am/6am-7am. IN YOUR PRIVATE CLOSET)

AUG 1st-3rd

*Theme for Day* 2-(Tomorrow morning, Aug 2nd) IS GOD HAS A SURPRISE FOR YOU

The day before Samuel was to meet Saul,
Kindly RT

God had a private discussion with him (Samuel) about this unknown young man (Saul)

IN;

1 Samuel 9:15 MSG
The very day before, God had confided in Samuel

1 Samuel 9:16 MSG
"This time tomorrow, I'm sending a man from the land of Benjamin to meet you. You're to anoint him as

prince over my people Israel.

SAMUEL was already waiting for Saul on the APPOINTED DAY, which was the next day. He positioned himself at a strategic position.

1 Samuel 9:17 MSG
The moment Samuel laid eyes on Saul, God said, "He's the one, the man I told you about.

God is

confiding in Great men and women. He's told them what to do.

You may not know them, but, they now know you. Don't worry about a thing. They will know it's you, immediately they lay eyes on you.

Encourage others, friends, family members to join in too

A SHORT EXHORTATION

Theme -Never get to this point
1 Kings 11:11b KJV
...I will surely rend d kingdom from thee, & will give it to thy servant

Rending d kingdom from an individual cld mean a ship load of things

It cld mean taking away, a source of wealth, influence, affluence,

strength etc

It is never a thing of joy or something to be celebrated.

English dictionary defines
rend (plural rends) As a violent separation of parts

When God did some kingdom rending from kings in the Bible, it was because, they obviously crossed some red lines.

When Adam & Eve crossed the red line, (Garden of Eden) they experienced a rending.

Many kings too suffered the same fate.
King Saul had his kingdom rend from him. His disobedience not only cost him his kingdom, he "lost" his God.

1 Kings 11:11 KJV
Wherefore the Lord said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant.

You see, there is nothing more

painful than seeing what made you great being taken over or bestowed upon you considered "lowly"... That is a recipe for high blood pressure.

Rending is COSTLY.
Rending is PAINFUL
Rending is SHAMEFUL.

What God has blessed you with to glorify Him and benefit mankind, must never

#terrorism

This is the crux of the matter.

The judge asked the killer of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, 'Why did you kill Sadat?
He said to him, "Because he is secular!"
The judge replied: "What does secular means?"
The killer said: "I don't know!"

2.
In the case of the attempted assassination of the late Egyptian writer, Naguib Mahfouz, d judge asked the man who stabbed Naguib Mahfouz: "Why did you stab him?"
The terrorist said: "Because of his novel - The children of our neighborhood".
The judge asked him: "Have you read

3.
this novel?"
The criminal said: "No!"

Another judge asked d terrorist who killed d Egyptian writer 'Faraj Fara': "Why did you murder Faraj Fouda?"
The terrorist replied: "Because he is an unfaithful!"
The judge asked him: "How did u know he was an unfaithful?"
The terrorist

4.
replied: "According to the books he wrote".
The judge said: "Which of his books did you know he is an unfaithful?"

The Terrorist: "I haven't read his books!"
Judge: "How?"
The terrorist replied: "I can't read or write!"

*Hate never spreads through knowledge.

1
Written by Mrs.Bimbola Bamgbelu Oludipe.

*PARENTS IN d CHURCH, YOUR SILENCE WILL KILL THE YOUNG GENERATION!*

This Saturday evening, I went to a chemist to buy some drugs.There were lots of pple there. D shop had some chairs for customers to sit while waiting to be attended to

2.
When I came in, the man on one of the two seats was through and he left. I took the seat. A young girl like 15,16, was on the other seat, also waiting to be attended to.

In a few seconds, an old mama, looking 60ish, well dressed & looking educated came in. Her mien was that

3.
of a sick woman, exhausted and needing help. I noticed she was looking at the girl on the second seat with an expectation to do the needful... but i was faster in giving up my seat. She sat down, blessing me with prayers in her gratitude. It felt good. I noticed the girl

4.
pretended not to care. I was enraged with anger. I also noticed some askance on the face of the shop owner. It was clear to us all that girl was not sick but just not ready to give up her seat.

In a few minutes, an old man walked in. All his hair was grey. Only an idiot

5.
(I hate using this word in public space) would not honour such a 'dad'. He was looking here and there for something to hold or where to sit. The girl was still there pretending not to see the 'dad'. The shop owner motioned her to stand up but she just looked away... "I am also

🔰WORD4TODAY🔰

Isaiah 58:9 MSG
Then when you pray, God will answer. You'll call out for help and I'll say, 'Here I am.'

*When God Shows Up -Day 1*

*Luke 7v11-17 MSG*
Talks about a widow, whose life was filled with losses & misery. She lived in Nain.
👇🏼
She had no name.

👉🏼Her misery was used to describe her.
👉🏼Misery had indeed wrapped itself round her like a fitted garment. She was only identified as *THE WIDOW OF NAIN*
👇🏼
She had lost her hubby, probably a few months or years back, & now, her only son was gone.😥
👇🏼
Nonetheless, this widow of

Nain proceeded to bury her only son.
👇🏼
There were people there pretending to be mourning, meanwhile, they were gossiping amongst themselves..🤷🏽‍♂️

👉🏼"When did she lose her husband that we are once again burying her only son?

👉🏼Are we sure she is not a witch?

👉🏼Is she the only

one in town?
👇🏼
From one tragedy to another.

👉🏼God must be punishing her for her sins."
👇🏼
By this time too, the grave diggers were waiting. They had completed the task of digging the sons grave, & only waiting to be paid their balance

👉🏼The mourners at the graveyard were

waiting too, but, suddenly, the Lord saw her...felt her pain & showered her with compassion.
👇🏼
*Luke 7:14 MSG*
Then He went over and touched the coffin. The pallbearers stopped. He said, "Young man, I tell you: Get up."
*Luke 7:15*
The dead son sat up and began talking.