Open Heaven 24 April  2022 Daily Devotional By Pastor E. A. Adeboye –Topic: FOLLOW JESUS CLOSELY I 

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Open Heavens 2022
Date: 2022-04-24
Topic: FOLLOW JESUS CLOSELY I

Memory Verse: Mark 14:54 – And Peter followed him afar off, even into the palace of the high priest: and he sat with the servants, and warmed himself at the fire. Mark 14:54
Bible Reading: Mark 14:50-72

Message: Many churchgoers these days are merely paying lip service when they call themselves Christians. If you were to really check, you would discover that instead of carrying their cross to follow Jesus closely, many are only following Him from afar. The moment things get a little bit tough, they deny Him. Peter was an ardent follower of Christ; he was also very vocal about his beliefs, thus he was the last person one would have expected would deny Christ. We need to really enquire about what happened that day in Mark 14.

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And Peter followed him afar off, even into the palace of the high priest: and he sat with the servants, and warmed himself at the fire. Mark 14:54

Take note of the first clause in the passage above – Peter followed Jesus from afar. How closely are you following Jesus now? So many Christians are following Jesus from afar, hence they deny Him over and over again. Peter had boasted of how impossible it was for him to deny Jesus in Mark 14:27-31, but in Mark 14:54, he followed Jesus from afar and ended up denying Him. Why did he follow Jesus from afar? This is because he did not want to be associated with the persecutions of Jesus Christ. Are you also running away from the persecutions of Jesus? You don’t talk like a Christian in the office because you don’t want anyone to tag you with Christ. You go for business meetings and even though you are prompted by the Holy Spirit to pray before the meeting starts, you subdue the prompting because you don’t want the people you are meeting with to know how seriously you take God. You don’t preach the gospel to those you interact with daily because you don’t want them to start calling you a Christian fanatic.

When you let them know from the onset that you are a child of God, there are deals and suggestions that they would never bring your way. On the other hand, if you are following Jesus from afar, they will bring those temptations to you because they have never known you to be serious about your faith. In Church, when you are engulfed in the presence of God and boasting that you will never deny Him like Peter did, ask yourself, “When I get out there in the world, would I be following Christ closely or would I be following Him from afar?”

Hymn: When We Walk With The Lord
Points: The only way you will not deny Jesus is if you are following Him closely and everyone can easily associate you with Him.
Bible in one year: 2 Kings 21, 2 Kings 22, 2 Kings 23

Title: When We Walk with the Lord.
Chorus: Trust and obey!
For there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus,
But to trust and obey..

  1. When we walk with the Lord, 

In the light of His word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will
He abides with us still,
And with all
who will trust and obey.

  2. Not a shadow can rise, 

Not a cloud in the skies,
But His smile quickly drives it away;
Not a doubt nor a fear,
Not a sigh nor a tear,
Can abide while
we trust and obey.

  3. Not a burden we bear, 

Not a sorrow we share
But our toil He doth richly repay;
Not a grief nor a loss,
Not a frown nor a cross,
But is blest
if we trust and obey

  4. But we never can prove

The delights of His love,
Until all on the altar we lay,
For the favour He shows
And the joy He bestows
Are for them
who will trust and obey.

  5. Then in fellowship sweet

We will sit at His feet,
Or we’ll walk
by His side in the way,
What He says we will do,
Where He sends we will go,
Never fear, only trust and obey.

Open Heavens 2021 Daily Devotional guide was written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, one of the largest evangelical church in the world and also the President of Christ the Redeemer’s Ministries. The Open Heavens devotional application is available across all mobile platforms and operating systems: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Nokia, Windows Mobile and PC.

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