Being Like Jesus

 PHRONESIS DEVOTIONAL 30 DAYS DEVOTIONAL WITH PREACHER SAM September 25, 2023. Topic: RELIGION I (INTRODUCTION) Bible Reading: Colossians 2:6-10, 20-23 Verse for Meditation: James 1:27 NLT Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. According to some estimates, there are over 4,000 religions, faiths groups, and denominations that exist around the world today. Yet there is no universally accepted definition of the term, “religion” as there is no straightforward meaning. Some cultures view religion entirely separately from individuals or society. Others don’t distinguish those concepts enough to consider “religion” a meaningful category. A general definition of religion can be distilled from these widely varied experiences as “a range of social-cultural system connected to spiritual and/or supernatural components that uniquely impacts the adherent’s worldview, behaviour, beli...

 PHRONESIS DEVOTIONAL 30 DAYS DEVOTIONAL WITH PREACHER SAM September 24, 2023. Topic: WEALTH AND RICHES Bible Reading: 1 Timothy 6:3-11, 17-19 Verse for Meditation: Psalms 112:3 NKJV Wealth and riches will be in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. We don’t give so that we can be blessed, because we are already blessed (Eph. 1:3). In fact when we give, it shows that we are more blessed (Acts 20:35), but definitely not more than God; our giving to God is a way of worship. We don’t give so that we can have more, because we already have all things in Christ (1Cor. 3:21; 2Pet. 1:3). We give because we love God! The Bible says that Abel gave a more acceptable gift than Cain by faith (Heb. 11:4), so our giving is an expression of our faith. And the Bible also says that God rewards the faithful (Heb. 11:6). So there’s always a reward for giving out of love and faith (For example in Proverbs 3:9-10). But our eyes are not on the rewards but on the rewarder; this is what it mean...

 PHRONESIS DEVOTIONAL 30 DAYS DEVOTIONAL WITH PREACHER SAM September 23, 2023. Topic: DURABLE RICHES Bible Reading: 2 Corinthians 8:1-15 Verse for Meditation: Proverbs 8:18 KJV Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness. I had a dream in 2021 where I was beaten and I woke up with scars. That’s a spiritual attack, isn’t it? And in about three weeks later I had another dream where I was almost choked to death and in reality, I was battling with sleep paralysis for some minutes. And the causes of sleep paralysis were not what I faced prior to that time. That’s another spiritual attack, isn’t it? Then early this year I had a dream when I was dreaming in that dream, in that dream death was planned for one of my relatives, so I woke up in that dream and was praying against death when a voice asked me if I was praying against death because I had that dream? That was a distraction for me to leave praying for what was important; the salvation of souls. That the dev...

 PHRONESIS DEVOTIONAL 30 DAYS DEVOTIONAL WITH PREACHER SAM September 22, 2023. Topic: TRUE RICHES Bible Reading: Matthew 6:19-34 Verse for Meditation: 1 Timothy 6:6 NLT Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. About sexual temptation, if you are struggling to break free, you must first be saved so that you can be given the Holy Spirit to empower you to live above sin. But breaking free and living constantly above sin; especially sexual sins, it take discipline and consistency. You don’t stay fit on the first day you go to the gym to work out; it takes consistent exercise and discipline to achieve that, so does exercising ourselves towards godliness (1Tim. 4:7). When you fall, you need to rise again to continue with the exercise. It was a constant practice that made that sexual habit called addiction. So you need to deliberately keep at it constantly till the appetite to sin dies. Spiritual attack is real, but what we call spiritual attack is actually a lack of kn...

  PHRONESIS DEVOTIONAL 30 DAYS DEVOTIONAL WITH PREACHER SAM September 21, 2023. Topic: WINNING THE WAR AGAINST JEZEBEL IV (OVERCOMING SEXUAL TEMPTATION) Bible Reading: Proverbs 7:1-27 Verse for Meditation: 2 Timothy 2:22 NKJV Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Sex is good but only in the confinement of marriage. God who gave that instruction is all wise, and you cannot be wiser than Him. Most of the problem we are facing in our world is as a result of violating God’s principle of marriage. For example, some of the effects of forceful single parenting has led to increase in poverty, drug abuse, unwanted pregnancies, and has caused poor behaviour and bad societal relationship like lack of trust, low self-esteem, depression and emotional instability. Children raised by forceful single parenting are seven times more likely to be involved in a crime. Some people may feel like to opt in for the withd...

 PHRONESIS DEVOTIONAL 30 DAYS DEVOTIONAL WITH PREACHER SAM September 20, 2023. Topic: WINNING THE WAR AGAINST JEZEBEL III (SEXUAL SIN) Bible Reading: 1 Corinthians 6:13-20 Verse for Meditation: 1 Corinthians 6:18 NLT Run away from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. All forms of sin is grievous and offensive to God, but have you ever wondered why many preachers talk more on sexual sin as though it is like the unpardonable sin? You’d have to understand their hearts before you could understand why they talk the way they talk. It is not the unpardonable sin, instead it is the only sin that the Bible emphatically says that is against our own body. In John 8, a woman who was caught in the very act of adultery was brought to Jesus, and instead of Jesus to condemn her, He showed her mercy and spoke the words of grace to her, “Go and sin no more.” So sexual sin can be pardoned. And before I delve into ...

 PHRONESIS DEVOTIONAL 30 DAYS DEVOTIONAL WITH PREACHER SAM September 19, 2023. Topic: WINNING THE WAR AGAINST JEZEBEL II (STRONGHOLDS) Bible Reading: Revelation 2:18-29 Verse for Meditation: Revelation 2:20 TPT But I have this against you: you are forgiving that Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is seducing my loving servants. She is teaching that it is permissible to indulge in sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. Spiritual warfare is basically a fight for the knowledge of the truth. The greatest offensive weapon of the devil is ignorance; our greatest offensive weapon is the knowledge of the truth that is in the Word of God. When Jesus was tempted of the devil, he overcame his temptations through the declaration of the Word of God. As important as prayer and fasting is, you still need the Word of God to overcome the devil. What are strongholds? Strongholds are not generational curses, but they are fortresses which figuratively mean wrong ideologies. Th...