Saturday, 4th December, 2021
Bible Reading: Genesis 27: 1-40
Memory Verse: Honour your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged and that it may go well with you on the land which the Lord your God gives you. Deuteronomy 5:16 (NIV)
Rev Uma Okpai once shared a personal testimony: “I wasn’t my father best son. Of all 13 children, I was the only one with nuisance value. I had a good sense of criminality. At a very tender age, I could do something that would baffle you. If my father flog me, I will go out to hunt for toad or lizard and put it inside his water and close it and when my father would open the cup to drink water, only to see a toad inside. I did a lot of criminality. I was notorious. I can’t say so many things.
The day my father was going to die, he wanted to bless his first son who was a gentle man, but he was a footballer. He said to my father that “I will not come because my team is about to win this match. Why can’t you wait?” He did not know why my father was calling him. My father really wanted to bless somebody. When he looked around, the only person he could see was me, a bad boy. My father said to me, ‘You stupid boy, kneel down, let me pray for you’. I said ‘Yes sir’. I did not even know the meaning of my father blessing me.
To me, I only wanted to obey a dying man. He said, ‘From now henceforth, you are the leader of this family, your name will go across the world, whatever you touch shall be money. You are going to prosper more than anybody in this family and in the extended family. In prosperity, remember your other siblings, build houses for them, take care of them. As I speak, I am still amazed that everything my father said has come to pass. I bought 4-bedroom flats for his first son. I have bought flats for my sisters. That my father’s declaration changed my life.”
Lessons:
1. Fathers are custodians of the family heritage: Many are yet to fully understand the spiritual authority in the heart-felt prayers of their father. Children, make sure you honour your parents no matter what might have happened in the past. Humble yourself so that God will lift you up in due time.
2. The day Isaac will be most willing to bless your Esau, may you not consider other things as more important.
3. Destinies can be exchanged.
Quote: There is a mysterious authority God has conferred on fathers. You draw from it by honour.
Prophetic Decree: Powers that turn fathers against their children, your time is up, die, in Jesus name.
Prayer Focus
1. Father of all spirits, I adore You.
2. I come against the spirit of rancour and offence that pitch fathers against their children, in Jesus name.
3. I receive a heart of humility to let go of the pain my father had caused me, in Jesus name.
4. I receive a heart of humility to let go of the pain my children had caused me, in Jesus name.
5. I receive spiritual and emotional intelligence to eat the good of the land, in Jesus name.
6. I cancel any curse working against my life as a result of dishonour to my parents, in Jesus name.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 2 Corinthians 1-4
