OPEN HEAVENS DEVOTIONAL - SUNDAY 14/07/2013 - SELF PROPHESY BY PASTOR E.A. ADEBOYE

SELF PROPHECY

MEMORY VERSE

Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.

Joel 3:10

READ

Mark 5:25-34

Mar 5:25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,

Mar 5:26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,

Mar 5:27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.

Mar 5:28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.

Mar 5:29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.

Mar 5:30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?

Mar 5:31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?

Mar 5:32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing.

Mar 5:33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.

Mar 5:34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

MESSAGE

What you say about yourself and about your situation in the midst of a crisis is of keen interest to both God and the devil. When the Israelites kept speaking of dying in the wilderness when confronted with little challenges, it got to a time that God gave them what they had been confessing – death (Numbers 14:26-39). On the other hand, the Shunammite woman kept confessing that 'All will be well', and later that 'All is well' and her dead child came back to life. What are your confessions? Stop complaining, murmuring and grumbling as these will never help you. Rather, confess what you want about the situation. Mark 11:23-24 says if you command the mountain to relocate and you doubt not, it will be so and you will have what you say. When people are saying trouble is coming, reply them by saying 'All will be well'. It does not matter what anybody may say: what matters is what God hears from you, which will determine your future. What are you saying in God's ears?

Some people take note of what other people – particularly experts are saying about health, economy, etc. but they hardly ever say something good to themselves. The statement – 'All will be well' from the Shunammite woman was only a self prophecy and God honoured it. She did not wait for Elijah before speaking prophetically into her life. Why don't you learn to prophesy into your life? When I wake up in the morning, I go before my mirror and begin to prophesy to myself: 'It is going to be well with me', 'I will find favour from God and men', etc. When things took a negative turn in the situation of the woman with the issue of blood and there seemed to be no way out, she resorted to self prophesy. She said, “If I can only touch the helm of Jesus' clothes, I shall receive my healing”. She touched and she was whole. Some people see self prophesy as self deception. They will query it by saying: How do I say all is well when all is not well? Joel 3:10 says that is how to engage words: confess strength in time of weakness, health in time of sickness, wealth in time of poverty, freedom in time of bondage, etc. Use your words to beautify your life by confessing what you desire. The Lord will honour your confessions.

KEY POINT

Your confessions affect your receipts. Some people are receiving bad things today and they wonder why. They have forgotten that in some recent or distant past, they used their mouths to call such things to themselves