OPEN HEAVENS DEVOTIONAL - FRIDAY- 25/04/2014 - GREATNESS IS COSTLY BY PASTOR E.A. ADEBOYE

GREATNESS IS COSTLY

MEMORISE

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

Acts 10:38

READ

Judges 13:2-5

2 And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and bare not.

3 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son.

4 Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing:

5 For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.

MESSAGE

God is in the business of making champions out of men and He is already making some people champions. However, there are some people who may not want to become champions. You may wonder why. It is because the cost of becoming a champion is very high! In those days when I used to be a boxer, when you are preparing for a tournament, there were certain things you had to do. For example, you would wake up by 5 a.m. and do some road walks. You beat the air while you jog. You cannot eat certain foods when you are preparing for a championship. To be a champion is not an easy thing. To remain a champion is even harder. When you become a champion, there are several people who will be seeking to dethrone you.

It is beautiful to be a champion but it is better to be made a champion by God. It means having God as your coach and that means every little thing you do, God as your coach will magnify it into something big. In the scripture, we find champions who did little things, but God decided to magnify whatever they did. In Exodus 14:21, Moses lifted his hand over the Red Sea and went to sleep. By the time he woke up the following morning, the sea had become an expressway. In 1 Samuel 17:45-50, David slung a stone and the next thing we discover is that Goliath was dead. To become a great person therefore, all you need to do is to allow your Senior Partner and Coach breathe into your little effort and all that represents Goliath in your life will begin to fall. As a champion being moulded by God, if God asks you to go out and preach, you must go out and preach. If He asks you to follow-up converts, you must obey. If he asks you to fast, you must fast. If He says He does not want you to fast, you must obey. You should do exactly what He wants. There is no room for you to be directed by any other person apart from Him. In Matthew 6:24, He said if you are going to be great, there is no room for divided loyalty.

”No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

As a divine champion, after you prosper, your prosperity must not replace God. The only way to ensure this is that as you make it, you must be willing to let it go. If you want to be great, you must realise that the blessing is not for you to begin to build material things around yourself. No matter the opposition to your greatness, you will always win and sing joyfully.

KEY POINT

A great person sees every mountain as a potential testimony.