ojaysjoel blog

The Lord is close to those who are of a broken heart and saves such as are crushed with sorrow for sin and are humbly and thoroughly penitent. Psalm 34:18 AMPC https://bible.com/bible/8/psa.34.18.AMPC Devotion: David wrote this psalm when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech who drove him away and he departed. David was running away from King Saul, he pretended to be mad. Yet Abimelech drove David away and there was imminent danger but God delivered David, he wrote the song of praise for deliverance from certain death. (Read the whole psalm 34) David was genuinely penitent and he praised God.  In the spiritual realm if you confess your sin know that God is nigh unto you to welcome and deliver you from your sin; God is at the door (Revelation 3:20).   In the physical when you are broken either by a terrible diagnosis, financial loss or something bad instead of self pity all you need to do is to surrender to God, tell him Lord this is your battle and be faithful. God w...

This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. John 15:12 NKJV https://bible.com/bible/114/jhn.15.12.NKJV Devotion: We hear the 4 letter word frequently and most use it without thinking it out if they really understand what it means - to love.  Let's try to understand Jesus' love - it is intense and emotional eg His love for Lazarus(John 11:35), it is deep eg His love for John the beloved(John 13:23), it is beyond measure eg Jesus' love for you and me cannot be quantified; He cares eg He fed 5000 in the wilderness(Mark 6: 31-44). Jesus' love is selfless eg He loved till He was crucified on the cross for you and me. Jesus' love has no end - He is pleading for you and me till date, in heaven.(1John 2: 1-2)  The kind of love described above is what Jesus prescribes for you and me, to love one another just as He loves us. To give love and importantly to love ourselves and receive love. If you give true love you'll also be loved. Amen. NB-this...

that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9 NKJV https://bible.com/bible/114/rom.10.9.NKJV Devotion: Many people tell us they are saved, born again or that they were born into Christianity but their character do not not show them as truly save children of God. The reason is simple - they believe in Jesus they don't really know.   Some will tell you Jesus is just a prophet, not a son of God, not God and even deny His ascension to heaven,(Matt 16:13-16) yet such person call themselves Christian. No, they are not they are something else and that is why they use occultic powers to draw people to their churches, their end is destruction.  To be truly saved you have to confess that Jesus is the son of God, God himself turned to man to experience what you and me experience and paid the price for our sin on the cross. You have to believe that God raised Him from death and He ascended...

Ephesians 3:16  That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.  Devotion: Apostle Paul prayed for the young Ephesians church that they may be strengthened with might by Holy Spirit because he knows that it is impossible to do God's work with human strength.   We are nothing without God so it is right to ask God for power to do His work and wisdom to live right. I urge you to ask for strength before you embark on your daily duty this morning so that you will easily accomplish that which God set before you to do.    Dearly beloved, we are talking of power of the Holy Spirit here, ask for it and you'll soon begin to testify of God's goodness. Hallelujah.  Written by Dr Joel Olanrewaju, reach me on gbemide09@gmail.com for questions, suggestions and prayer requests. For more devotionals check ojaysjoel.blogspot.com. 

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, I Peter 5:6 NKJV https://bible.com/bible/114/1pe.5.6.NKJV Devotion: Humility is an attribute of Jesus Christ, who being God yet came in human form to reconcile man with God (1Timothy 3:16 & Colossians 2:9). We as followers of Christ must learn from him and be humble under God's mighty hand.    We're know the story of Peter who being humble took the advice of Jesus to dip his net into the sea (Luke 5:4-7). He could have argued as expert fisherman but Peter did just as Jesus told him to do. He caught so many fishes that his net began to break.    Solomon wrote that pride comes before destruction (Proverbs 16:18) which is very correct, we have read or seen many great men whose end was disgraceful because of pride.(Nebuchadnezzar)    To make it in life one must humble oneself, I did when I went back for residency after 20 years of graduation. Most of my trainers wer...

Oh, give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples! Psalms 105:1 NKJV https://bible.com/bible/114/psa.105.1.NKJV Devotion: David in his wisdom wrote the verse above which encapsulate the whole essence of the commission of Christ given to us in Matt 28:19.   It is not just about witnessing to the people but firstly Praising God for what he has done, doing presently and will do. It involves worshipping God for who He is - mighty God, everlasting father, I am that I am, omnipotent, omnipresent and onmnificent God (add more). Secondly - Do not shy away from calling the name that is above all others, the name JESUS. In modern times some may not want to offend some others because of religion and therefore say something like "in your name I pray" no you should be bold enough to say "in Jesus name I pray".  The third element is that you should be able to tell people what God did for you when you call on His name. People want to hear your...

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28 NKJV https://bible.com/bible/114/rom.8.28.NKJV  Devotion: Are you into the work of God? How successful are you in the work? Let me try to define success as I understand it. In ministry success is the number of heaven bound souls you win for God, how many souls won by you are actively winning souls for God.  Success is not how big your church is, not the number of congregants, not the number of cars in your fleet, not the houses you amassed for yourself but how many souls. You may not have a church, you don't need it but the fruits of your labour are all over the places actively working for Christ according to Matt 28:19.   If you are truly called then everything will be in place according to the definition above. Everywhere you go you will easily win souls for Christ. If you called yourself as many have done, pretending that God calle...