OPEN HEAVENS DEVOTIONAL BY PASTOR E.A. ADEBOYE - 23rd April, 2013

Tuesday 23 April, 2013

VIRGINITY AND TIMING

Memory Verse: 
I will praise the LORD according to his righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of the LORD most high. Psalm 7:17

Read: 
Psalm 71:16-17

Psa 71:16 I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only. 

Psa 71:17 O God, thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. 

MESSAGE
If you have accepted Christ as your Lord and personal Saviour, you are His virgin. A virgin is pure and undefiled. But being a virgin is not enough. In Esther 2:2, when virgins were to be brought to take part in the beauty contest at Shushan the palace, they were expected to be beautiful. The Holy Spirit must be allowed to beautify your life with His fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). Without this, you will be disqualified even as a virgin. Is your life beautiful? Does it reflect the love of God embedded in the fruit with nine parts? 

Besides beauty, another quality that must be met has to do with age. The virgins must be young (Esther 2:2). This means every virgin beyond a certain age was disqualified. True, they are virgins. True they are pure and have not been defiled. Yet, if they failed to meet up with the age requirement, they will not be called to the contest. This teaches us that age has a lot to do with our calling. In a number of recruiting organizations today, besides stipulating the academic qualification, the age requirement is clearly spelt out. Usually, they require young graduates preferably less than 25 years. As a result, you have those who satisfy the academic requirement but are over the age bracket disqualified. This has made some to lie concerning their age. From this we learn that Kingdom assignments must be done at the time stipulated by God. You do not do God's work at your time but at His time. His task has a time requirement attached. So it is not enough to be doing a particular thing for God; the issue is: are you doing it at God's appointed time? Another lesson here is that there are certain Kingdom assignments that must be done in your youth: If you don't do them then, you would have missed out of God's purpose concerning such tasks. There are certain things that are best done for God in your youth. As a youth, you have lots of energy which reduces as you grow older. God wants you to utilize your youthful strength for His glory. Also as a youth, you are very adventurous. God wants you to go on an adventure in the things of the Spirit. Are you a Christian youth? How are you engaged in pleasing God with all that God has invested in you? God is looking for teens and youths through whom He will manifest His glory. Do you qualify? Make yourself relevant today by putting your time at His disposal.

KEY POINT 
Ecclesiastes 12:1 says you should remember God now. But if you do so later, He can still use you but you would have cut off a chunk of opportunities that may never be regained.