Alone With God (OPEN HEAVENS Devotional)

OPEN HEAVENS Devotional – Sunday May 15th 2016

TOPIC: WHEN THE HOLY SPIRIT COMES I

Memorize: And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: John 16:8

Read: John 8:8-14,

⁸ And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.

⁹ And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

¹⁰ When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?

¹¹ She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

¹² Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

¹³ The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou bearest record of thyself; thy record is not true.

14 Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go.

Bible in one year:  2^nd Kings 19:8-21:18, Proverbs 24:21-34

MESSAGE

In the story of creation, the Bible talked about the earth being without form and void, and darkness being upon the face of the deep. In the midst of darkness and apparent confusion, the Spirit of God stepped into the scene, the God said, “let there be light” and there was light. We can then safely say that when the Holy Spirit comes into any situation, He brings light. If you ignite a fire, no matter how little it is, there will be light around the fire. In the midst of the darkness, emptiness and chaos, the Holy Spirit stepped in and light had to be created immediately. In other words, it was His coming that brought about light at the very beginning. The beauty of this is that the light of the Spirit exposes the hidden contents of darkness. This is confirmed by our Lord Jesus Christ when He said in John 3:20:

“For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deed should be reproved.”

In Acts 28:3-6, when Paul gathered some firewood and lit it up, a serpent that was hiding in the wood suddenly reared up its ugly head, but Paul threw it back into the fire. If the fire of God is really burning in your ministry, it will expose every evil person in the church, and deal with them. When under the strong influence of the Holy Spirit, your personal problems will be exposed to you. Your greatest enemy is not the witch or wizard around, but yourself. Not many of us think we are part of our problems.

If you ask a student to mark his examination sheet, he will most probably award himself the highest grades. If you know that what is hindering your progress is in you, it is then important to deal with it. The fire in Acts 28:5 not only exposed the serpent, it also killed it. Every serpent that is hiding in any corner of your life shall be exposed and destroyed today in Jesus’ name. Moreover, if you walk in the light of the Spirit, People will hate you. Don’t be surprised that compromising brethren and church leaders would not only hate and persecute you; they may also want to get rid of you. If your presence does not allow them to steal, they will hate your guts. The more you allow the light of the Spirit to shine in and around you, the more difficult it is for your enemies to cover up their evil intents. This season, the Lord will expose all the hidden agenda of your enemies by the light of the Spirit.

It is obvious that without an encounter with the power of the Spirit, many will remain trapped and live far below their expected potentials. To fulfil your destiny, you must partner with the Holy Spirit. Another character who realized his potential was Peter. If you compare Peter before the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost with the Peter after Pentecost, you will notice some sharp differences. Before Pentecost, Peter was full of fear. He found it difficult to stand on his convictions. Even a maid could make him deny the Lord, but after Pentecost, he became so bold that not even the council’s threat stopped him. Before Pentecost, Peter realized his leadership potential but lacked the fire, zeal, direction and divine backing of the Holy Spirit to fulfil it. As a result of this, he went back for fishing after Christ’s death (John 21:1-3). But after Pentecost, he was able to perform according to Heaven’s expectations.

Prayer Point

Father, ignite the Holy Ghost fire in me that I may reach my full potentials in Jesus’ name.