OPEN HEAVENS DEVOTIONAL - THURSDAY 25/07/2013 - COPYING METHODS? BY PASTOR E.A. ADEBOYE

COPYING METHODS?

Memory Verse

Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. 

1 Corinthians 11:1

Read

Acts 19:11-19

Act 19:11 And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul:

Act 19:12 So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.

Act 19:13 Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.

Act 19:14 And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so.

Act 19:15 And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?

Act 19:16 And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

Act 19:17 And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

Act 19:18 And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds.

Act 19:19 Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.

Message

While some servants of God can lay a demand on the anointing of God upon their lives, and God will immediately answer, some others cannot because they really do not have any credit in their heavenly account. Take for instance Gehazi who was the servant of Elisha. In 2 Kings 4:29-31, Elisha gave Gehazi his rod to go and place it over the dead son of the Shunammite woman. As soon as he received it, he did not even wait to pray but rushed off, only to return to tell his master nothing happened. Gehazi spoke like his master and tried to configure things, yet nothing happened. This tells us that it is possible to be on the same bed with one who is on fire and not catch that fire. It is not the anointing oil, it is not the staff of office; it is not in how well packaged the words are; it is not in your oratory abilities. You can have all these but if you do not have any credit with God, all these will fail you. It is easy to talk the talk but walking the walk is what is most important.

In Acts 19:11-19, when the sons of Sceva saw the miracles that Paul did, they became interested. Unknown to him, they began to study the ‘methodologies’ and at the end, they tried to replicate what they saw, but because they lacked the relationship with the Person of Jesus Christ, they paid dearly for the abuse of His name. Never copy others by prophesying except when God has spoken to you, or you will pay dearly for it. Today, some pastors who do not have the word of wisdom or knowledge, and are not prepared to pay the price for these gifts, are gradually imitating those who have it. They want to belong to the class of spiritual leaders by applying guesses and common sense. The things of the Spirit do not work like that. If you copy the methods but lack the Spirit, you can never get the result of the Spirit. What are you copying? Is it from men or from God?

Prayer Point

A copy cannot be the same as the original. Why copy when you can have the original?

Bible in one year

Deuteronomy 13-16