Open Heavens – Saturday 8 February

ACCEPTED TIME 2.

MEMORISE : Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come. John 7 : 8.

READ : JOHN 11 : 39 – 44.

39 Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.
40 Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?

41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.

42 And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.

43 And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

44 And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: ISAIAH 19 : 16 – 23 :18; PSALM 34 : 1 – 10.

Message
God is never too early, and He is never too late. His timetable is set on purpose; the purpose is not only for your sake but also for His. In all things, His name shall be glorified. No doubt, He would have been glorified healing Lazarus of his sickness, but this cannot compare to raising him from the dead after four days. God works according to His own time-table. His time-table is not necessarily in tune with your own time-table, even when it concerns situations or issues of your life for which you desire His intervention. Being the perfect God that He is, His time-table is the perfect one and not yours. Your case will soon become a testimony that will bring you great joy and celebration; your testimony will also bring great glory to God, in Jesus’ Name. Keep resting in Jesus, keep trusting in Him, and don’t shift your focus from Him. You are on the verge of God turning the table in your favour and turning it against your enemies.

The attributes of God’s nature such as omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience are demonstrated in the way His timetable works. His love moves Him to seek the good of His people and to desire their peace, joy, fulfilment, health etc. By His omnipresence and omniscience, He sees and knows all that is going on, even to the smallest detail. Through His omnipotence, He has the ability to effect the required and desirable change – for example, He can make a ninety year old woman conceive a child, as was the case with Sarah. He can bring back to life a decaying corpse, as was the case of Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary ( John 11 : 39 – 44 ). He can also make a woman to have natural birth after three previous births by caesarean section, as He did for my wife. God, by His omnipotence is even able to bring back lost opportunities, such as in the life of Abraham, who in spite of working out his own plan to fulfil God’s purpose for his life, still received the true seed of promise, though his action and expectation should have aborted God’s original plan for his life ( Genesis 17 : 16 – 19 ).

What more can we hope for? When God is at work, the impossible becomes possible, the irreversible becomes reversed, and the hopeless becomes hopeful. He can rewrite history with your life. For someone using this devotional now, your accepted time is now. Your story is changing from a shameful or reproachful one to an enviable one. You will forget quickly the pain and sorrow of your past by the change of events which will occur soon in Jesus’ Name.

ACTION POINT:
Extol God for all His attributes: love, power, faithfulness and others. Tell Him you love and will serve Him with all your heart. Then tell Him what you want Him to do for you.