Thank You, thank You Lord, thank You Lord thank You Lord for everything You have done. Great is the faithfulness, Great is Thy Faithfulness morning by morning new mercies I see, all that I needed Thy hands has provided, Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto Thee.
Great indeed is Thy Faithfulness Lord. Thank You for this great day You have created and said we shall rejoices and be glad in it. We are most grateful that we can move our body, we can pass our waste without help, Father we are entirely grateful to You Lord. Thank You for watching us all through the night and fighting every secret battle the enemy is wedging against us. Receive all glory and adoration in Jesus Name
Beloved, are you joining me in thanking God for this great favour. Only Him can bring this to pass, free of charge and without delay. Your Father is not limited by time, space or distance. He is everywhere at all time. Sometimes we limit our God by our human thoughts, thinking that why God is yet to answer us is because there is a long queue in front and before it will get to our turn possible what we are asking will be exhausted, so often times we try to help ourselves.
Know you today that our God is Mighty. He has no beginning; He has no end. He is everlasting. So rest in Him and you are secured.
You must be born-again was our key emphasis in yesterday discussion and I have a strong conviction that so many who are yet to come to Christ did accept Him but if you are yet to take a decision I also believe the Holy Spirit will help you to take that decision as we are also going to look into why it is important to do so. Today we will be considering “Acceptable time.”
When God calls you or send you, when is it right to obey Him? In our topic, we have it written as “Now” but I don’t know if you agree with it or you have a different answer.
What we will be considering today is “Now is the acceptable time” however if you have a different opinion, please do let us know and we will consider it along and draw a conclusion favour of any using bible as our guide but before we start receiving your opinions, come let us consider what God is saying to us. Praise God:
…………Now Is the Acceptable Time
The Spirit of the Lord God is on Me, because the Lord has anointed Me
to bring good news to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and freedom to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of our God’s vengeance; to comfort all who mourn.—Isaiah 61:1–2
God’s timing is perfect! When He speaks, the time to respond in obedience is now. We often act as if we have all the time in the world to obey Him, but history doesn’t wait on our commitments. There is no such thing as postponing a decision with God. Either we obey, or we disobey. It is either faith or unbelief, obedience or disobedience.
When God announces that now is the acceptable time, what you do next is critical. How often people have been unprepared when a word came to them from the Lord. God said, “Now is the time for you to respond to Me” and their response was, “But I’m not ready. I have some things I need to do first. I’m too busy!” (Matt. 8:21). God’s timing is always perfect. He knows you, and He is fully aware of your circumstances. He knows all that He has built into your life until now, and He extends His invitation knowing that His resources are more than adequate for any assignment He gives you.
That is why Scripture tells us God is concerned with our heart. If we do not keep our heart in love with Jesus, our disobedience when God speaks could affect the lives of others. When God speaks it is always out of the context of eternity. We don’t have to know all the implications of what He is asking. We just have to know that it is a word from almighty God. “Now” is always the acceptable time to respond to the Lord!
Moses in the book of Deuteronomy told us how to be in readiness to say “yes” to God. He instructed us thus “Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. And with all thy Might. He also commanded us to put these words in our heart and teach it to our children.
We talk about it while sittest in thine house, walkest by the way, and when thou liest down and thou risest up. He did not stop there. He instructed us to bind them on our hand, and in the front of thine eyes. Write them on the post of the house, and on thy gates (Deut 6: 5-9).
Beloved, when you diligently obey all these, you don’t need to struggle about obey God. Why? Because you are in constant fellowship with Him, obeying Him will not be any issue to you at all.
Looking at the next text you see that when you diligently doing what is listed above, beloved, you will not let sleep in your eyes that will make you slumber. Is a warming to us, please let adhere to it.
“Let us not sleep, as do others.” 1Thessalonians 5:6
There are many ways of promoting Christian wakefulness. Among the rest, let me strongly advise Christians to converse together concerning the ways of the Lord. Christian and Hopeful, as they journeyed towards the Celestial City, said to themselves, “To prevent drowsiness in this place, let us fall into good discourse.” Christian enquired, “Brother, where shall we begin?” And Hopeful answered, “Where God began with us.” Then Christian sang this song—
“When saints do sleepy grow, let them come hither,
And hear how these two pilgrims talk together;
Yea, let them learn of them, in any wise,
Thus to keep open their drowsy slumb’ring eyes.
Saints’ fellowship, if it be managed well,
Keeps them awake, and that in spite of hell.”
Christians who isolate themselves and walk alone, are very liable to grow drowsy. Hold Christian company, and you will be kept wakeful by it, and refreshed and encouraged to make quicker progress in the road to heaven. But as you thus take “sweet counsel” with others in the ways of God, take care that the theme of your converse is the Lord Jesus.
Let the eye of faith be constantly looking unto Him; let your heart be full of Him; let your lips speak of His worth. Friend, live near to the cross, and thou wilt not sleep. Labour to impress thyself with a deep sense of the value of the place to which thou art going. If thou rememberest that thou art going to heaven, thou wilt not sleep on the road.
If thou thinkest that hell is behind thee, and the devil pursuing thee, thou wilt not loiter. Would the manslayer sleep with the avenger of blood behind him, and the city of refuge before him? Christian, wilt thou sleep whilst the pearly gates are open—the songs of angels waiting for thee to join them—a crown of gold ready for thy brow? Ah! no; in holy fellowship continue to watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation.
Beloved, depart from iniquities and run to obtain your crown of glory which will be given you at the end. Hold sweet fellowship with one another, don’t play alone ranger in Kingdom’s affair. Don’t isolate yourself nor be holy than thou. Because where you are going is a mansion, how lonely it will be if you will be there alone. It will be boring too, so bring others to Christ and make the journey a sweet one as you chat along, sing, and mediate in all you need to get to heaven (Phil 3:17).
Beloved, Apostle Paul was sure of where he is going while here on earth (1 Cor 9: 26-27). What is happening to us? You here things like this “is only God that know those who are His”. “Is only God that knows if I will go to heaven and many like that. But this beloved Apostle and his likes knew where they were going. They are so sure and convinced that heaven is their final abode.
Let me conclude with Phil 3:20-21, we are upward looking and heaven is our destination, there, these our mortal bodies will be change into a glorious one. Am sure you will not want to miss out on that.
So get born again. When? Now! And don’t fall into slumber as walk along, loitering is not allowed either.
Remain blessed in the Lord
