DIVINE WORD MINISTRIES

BREAKFAST WITH JESUS A daily devotional Pastor Stanley 21st NOVEMBER 2024 SABBATH-REST IN CHRIST Mark 2:27-28 Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." (NIV) Like every of the law of Moses the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath. The law asked man to rest (sabbath) but sabbath shouldn't be master over him; he shouldn't become a slave to Sabbath. The Lord Jesus said that the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath, and that He Himself is the Lord of the sabbath. Being the Lord of the sabbath doesn't mean He is the maker of the Sabbath. Let us get something from His statement "So the Son of Man is Lord EVEN of the Sabbath." He is Lord even of the sabbath as He is Lord over all else. The Lord Jesus was not subject to anything or the law during His time on earth. He was Lord over all. He didn't have to be subject to a particular day for rest, whethe

BREAKFAST WITH JESUS A daily devotional Pastor Stanley 20th NOVEMBER 2024 THE REALITY IS FOUND IN CHRIST Colossians 2:16-17 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. (NIV) Think about all the things the old testament believers practiced, the Bible tells us that they were all shadow of what was to come; the reality is found in Christ.  In Christ we found the reality of the sacrifices they offered ceaselessly. Their sacrifices couldn't accomplished what they were offered for, because only the reality of such (the real deal) could accomplish that.  Let us read Hebrews 10:1,3-4,10 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming —not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to

BREAKFAST WITH JESUS A daily devotional Pastor Stanley 19th NOVEMBER 2024 DECLARED VICTORIOUS 1 Corinthians 15:57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (NIV) We have a given victory not an earned victory. We couldn't be victorious over satan, the world and its evils through our effort and strength. But Christ won for us and gave us the victory. And our victory over satan, the world and its evil is legal.  God didn't just declare us victorious over satan, the world and its evil, the Lord Jesus earned it for us. He took up our sins, He went to hell, He fought satan and his cohorts and defeated them completely, and we were in Him, He rose back to life and we were in Him and He gave us the victory.  Colossians 2:15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Jesus defeated and disarmed satan and his demons, triumphed over them by the cross, and gave us the victory. John

BREAKFAST WITH JESUS A daily devotional Pastor Stanley 18th NOVEMBER 2024 HE NEVER LEAVES Matthew 28:20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (NIV) The Lord Jesus Christ made the above statement assuring us that He is with us to the very end of this age. He is with us always whether or not we feel so. Don't find yourself asking if the Lord is with you just because things are not going well.  Good times and good things are not a determinant of His presence, but His Word. Only His Word guarantees His presence. And He says I am with you to the very end of the age. He never leaves! He didn't say I shall be with you, but that I am with you.  Hold onto His Word. What He says is the reality. He says never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. Live in this reality. Hebrews 13:5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will

BREAKFAST WITH JESUS A daily devotional Pastor Stanley 17th NOVEMBER 2024 ALWAYS GIVE THANKS Ephesians 5:20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (NIV) Giving thanks to God should be the lifestyle of every Christian. God wants you to always give Him thanks. It is His will and desire for you.  We don't give thanks only for the good times or good things. We don't give thanks to God only for what we can see. In fact, the main reason to give thanks is what we cannot see. The things you don't see are most important. Most importantly give thanks to God for the things you cannot see or do not know.  True thanks giving doesn't have earthly bearing or reason. You don't give thanks to God for a reason you can hold or see. You thank God for who He is. You thank Him because He says you should. Giving thanks to God is an act of obedience and every Christian should. You can notice in our theme verse that it says "always

BREAKFAST WITH JESUS A daily devotional Pastor Stanley 16th NOVEMBER 2024 HE BRINGS YOU FRUITFULNESS Hosea 14:8 Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? I will answer him and care for him. I am like a flourishing juniper; your fruitfulness comes from me." (NIV) Everyone wants to be fruitful in their endeavour. To be fruitful is to add upon continually. You are fruitful when you add upon your business, finances, marriage etc. But where does fruitfulness come from? No one wants his life or endeavour to be stagnant but to continually increase upon. And true fruitfulness comes only from God. God says "I am like a flourishing juniper; your fruitfulness comes from me." It is God who makes you fruitful. You might think it's your efforts but some people put in more effort than you did. You might think it's your knowledge but some people have more than you. Fruitfulness comes God.  We are agree that fruitfulness comes God. But why then is everyone Christian not fruitfu

BREAKFAST WITH JESUS A daily devotional Pastor Stanley 15th NOVEMBER 2024 HE BRINGS YOU PROSPERITY Psalms 4:6 Many, LORD, are asking, "Who will bring us prosperity?" Let the light of your face shine on us. (NIV) Prosperity is total wellbeing; that includes financial, mental, spiritual, emotional and physical wellbeing. Prosperity is more than riches; riches is included in prosperity.  The Psalmist in Psalms 4:6 says "Many, LORD, are asking, "Who will bring us prosperity?" And he also provided the answer. He said "Let the light of your face shine on us."  The light of God's face is the glory of God. When that glory shines on you it brings you prosperity and enables you to live in it.  When God taught the Priests how to bless the people the main thing was God's face shining on or turned toward them. Numbers 6:22-26 The LORD said to Moses, "Tell Aaron and his sons, ’This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: "’"The L

BREAKFAST WITH JESUS A daily devotional Pastor Stanley 14th NOVEMBER 2024 HE SURROUNDS YOU WITH FAVOR Psalms 5:12 Surely, LORD, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield. (NIV) One of the ways God blesses a righteous person is with favor. He surrounds him with His favor.  God's favor is God's acceptance. His favored one is His accepted one into a special class of special kind of treatment.  Every Christian is favored by God but every Christian doesn't experience the same level of favor. How one experience favor has to do with one's knowledge and recognition of favor. Some Christians never thought that to be a Christian is to be special and to be positioned for special things. And favor works by recognition.  To be favored is to be positioned in a position of advantage. No matter where you are, what you do and with whom you do them you enjoy favor with God and men. Only the one favored of God enjoy true favor with man. The Bible says &qu

BREAKFAST WITH JESUS A daily devotional Pastor Stanley 13th NOVEMBER 2024 THE NAME OF JESUS Matthew 28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (NIV) In the above scripture the Lord Jesus instructed His disciples to baptize in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. But throughout the new testament we do not find any record that they actually baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We only find several records where they baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ. That's very instructive. Acts 2:38 Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 8:16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS. Acts 10:48 So he ordered that they be baptized IN

BREAKFAST WITH JESUS A daily devotional Pastor Stanley 11th NOVEMBER 2024 RECEIVE MERCY Hebrews 4:16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (NIV) Mercy is God's tenderhearted love turn towards you absorbing of your wrongs and its consequences, and granting you grace, favour and blessings that you do not deserve. This simply means if you did something wrong or something go wrong in your life go to Him and receive mercy. If you need grace, favour and blessings to be ministered to you go to Him and receive mercy. And you can actually go with confidence. Our theme scripture, Hebrews 4:16 says "Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Receive mercy! Search within mercy the kind of grace you need for the situation at hand and be helped.  It is mercy that preserves you from destruction. It

BREAKFAST WITH JESUS A daily devotional Pastor Stanley 10th NOVEMBER 2024 YOUR LIGHT, SALVATION AND STRONGHOLD Psalms 27:1 The LORD is my light and my salvation — whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life — of whom shall I be afraid? (NIV) David said with boldness 'the Lord is my light and salvation, the Lord is the stronghold of my life.' That shows he knows the Lord for himself; that tells he had a relationship with the Lord. We too can say the same thing and even more because in Christ we have a greater relationship with God.  The Lord is your light and your salvation, the Lord is the stronghold of your life. Let this truth be your meditation.  The Lord is your light means He is your truth revealer, your illumination, direction and reality. Walking in His light is walking in His truth, illumination, direction and reality.  The Lord is your salvation means that He is your deliverer. He delivers or saves you from trouble and destruction. It also means riddance.

BREAKFAST WITH JESUS A daily devotional Pastor Stanley 9th NOVEMBER 2024 HE WORKS IN YOU Philippians 2:13 [Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight. (AMP) God does not intend for you to live life on your own strength. The Christian life is lived in the strength of God. For example, the things that we are required to do as Christians are not humanly possible. Let's look at Matthew 10:7-8, it says "As you go, proclaim this message: ’The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give." We can't proclaim the Kingdom, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leprous and drive out demons on our own strength. It has to be God working in and through us. And that's exactly what our theme scri

BREAKFAST WITH JESUS A daily devotional Pastor Stanley 8th NOVEMBER 2024 TAKE ADVANTAGE OF GRACE 1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them —yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. (NIV) In our previous article we said that "Grace is the working of the divine essence through a Christian, and that one can grow in it." Another important aspect is to take advantage of grace. It's one thing for grace to be available is another to take advantage of it. Every Christian has grace but not every Christian use grace. For example the Apostle Paul talked about the Israelites whom though God's righteousness was freely available and accessible chose to establish their righteousness. Romans 10:1,3 Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their

BREAKFAST WITH JESUS A daily devotional Pastor Stanley 7th NOVEMBER 2024 GROW IN GRACE 2 Peter 3:18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen. (NIV) Grace is the working of the divine essence through a Christian, and one can grow in it. All of the divine essence is resident in every Christian but how much of it works in and through a person is dependent on one's growth.  Though you have received grace there are things that grace can't accomplish for you unless you grow in it. Interestingly grace does not grow in you, rather you grow in grace. And our theme scriptures says to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. And this means that your growth in grace is solely dependent on you. So take action! Growing in grace is growing in knowledge. The more you know Him the more of His grace works in and through you, and for you. Give yourself to studying the Word and applying it in you

BREAKFAST WITH JESUS A daily devotional Pastor Stanley 6th NOVEMBER 2024 GOD'S POWER TO SAVE Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. (NIV) The Gospel is good news. Good news to the poor that in Christ they have been made rich. Good news to the sick that in Christ they have been made well. Good news to the weak and hopeless that in Christ they have strength and hope. This is so because Christ took man's place of sin and its consequences and gave man His life and its blessings.  When you preach to people preach the Gospel. Don't preach your experience, your knowledge or some story. Preach the Gospel! It is the only power by which God saves. When it says power it means right. Simply put "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God's right to save everyone who believes..."  God doesn't have the legal right to save anyone outsi

BREAKFAST WITH JESUS A daily devotional Pastor Stanley 5th NOVEMBER 2024 IT WAS BAKED 1 Kings 19:5-6 Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, "Get up and eat." He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. (NIV) It was supernatural that an Angel of God served Elijah some bread. One could think that the bread came from nowhere or from heaven, but it was not so. It was baked. It passed through a natural process. Some supernatural takes a natural process.  The Angel of the Lord baked the bread Elijah ate. He did not bring it from heaven. The Bible says Elijah look around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals. 1 Kings 19:6 He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. There was hot coals on which the Angel baked the bread. And

BREAKFAST WITH JESUS A daily devotional Pastor Stanley 4th NOVEMBER 2024 TIME AND EFFORT Ephesians 5:16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. (NIV) You probably have heard someone said "it will change with time" but that's not true. Nothing changes with time without effort. It is the effort you put in that bring about change in the course of time. Time produces result through effort. Time doesn't produce results on it own. Our theme scripture says "redeeming the time", to redeem means to exchange. Simply put "exchanging the time." Exchange your time for value. Everyone has the same allotted time each day and each year yet not everyone exchange their time for something valuable. Some play games with their time, some plan against others with their time, some criticize with their time, some complain, some hate, some plan, some invest, so on and on.  Time only give back to you what you put in. And it takes effort to put in. Time is like a plai

BREAKFAST WITH JESUS A daily devotional Pastor Stanley 3rd NOVEMBER 2024 DO SOMETHING WITH GRACE 2 Corinthians 6:1 As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. (NIV) Grace is the essence of the Divine within you. And it is for expression. People talk about the grace of God in their lives, and confess how much grace they have. Even though there are diverse manifestations of grace yet every grace is a responsibility because grace is an empowerment to do something. You are expected to do something with grace. Apostle Paul urged the church in Corinth not to receive God's grace in vain. There was an expectation on their part to do something with it.  There is no grace for idleness; there is no passive grace. Every grace is active. And there is no receiving only grace, every grace is for giving or serving. Grace makes you responsible and accountable. Apostle Paul tells us something beautiful, that grace is for work. 1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am

BREAKFAST WITH JESUS A daily devotional Pastor Stanley 2nd NOVEMBER 2024 SPIRITUAL EXERCISE 1 Timothy 4:7-8 Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives' tales. Spend your time and energy in training yourself for spiritual fitness. Physical exercise has some value, but spiritual exercise is much more important, for it promises a reward in both this life and the next. (NLT) We engage our body in physical exercises by walking, running, jumping, swimming etc but not many of us give time to spiritual exercise. Yet it is of utmost importance. Physical exercise makes one physically fit, without which there is no other way to get fit physically. In the same way spiritual exercise makes one spiritual fit, without which there is no other way to get fit spiritually.  Man is a spirit and lives in a body. Physical exercise is for the body, spiritual exercise is for the spirit. You exercise your spirit unto Godly expression. If your spirit is not exercised or trained you cannot ex

BREAKFAST WITH JESUS A daily devotional Pastor Stanley 1st NOVEMBER 2024 FINISH WELL 1 Corinthians 9:24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. (NIV) When we started the year it was like starting a marathon race. Some of us started really fast while others started slowly, but what matters is how we finish. And I encourage you to finish well. Our theme scripture implies that if you were actually running a race in the course of this year you would have to really run well in order to win. Maybe you did not start out the year well enough. Maybe things didn't go fast as you planned, but you can still finish well. Maximize the remaining months and days. With the Word and the Holy Spirit you can still achieve much. Your focus should be on how well you can round up the year. What and what can you do more? Don't take your focus too forward into January next year, no! There is more you could do in the remaini