The Oscar Ajoku Blog: Daily Vitamin Devotional

DAILY VITAMIN - The Essence Of Having "As for the rich in this world, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on uncertain riches but on God who richly furnishes us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good deeds, liberal and generous (1 Tim 6:17-18 RSV)          What I'm about to tell you now is the greatest discovery of all time. Many mighty people never knew this, and so were drowned before they could even swim in the very ocean of glory. It will teach you how to live better. The prophets knew it; the wise men were aware of it; and till date God still inspires us to accept it - and that is the truth that the essence of having has always been-and will always be-giving.           A seed is useless if it's never going to be sown. Its value lies in its cultivation. Jesus said unless it falls to the ground, it abides alone. In other words, until what you have leaves your hands into another, it ...

DAILY VITAMIN - Miracles Abound Within You "..I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13)      A man with God, they say, is always majority. This is because beyond whether or not he has the numbers physically, he naturally dictates the events of life. As said in the Revised Standard Version of Job 22:28, he decides on a matter, not the the circumstances presented; and whatever he proclaims as so, shall be so.      In 2 Kings 6, we see an illustration of this under the Old Covenant. Elisha was a walking miracle. He was in every place he went a miracle waiting to happen. First, we see how he brought forth steel out of river (v.6). Even science can't explain that till date. Later on, we see how he single-handedly delivered Israel from the Syrian' plot, leading its entire cavalry to his capital in surrender. And we cannot forget the miracles he performed in Naaman, the Zarephathian widow and how he never lacked even in a fa...

DAILY VITAMIN - Put God First "And he will give them to you if you give him first place in your life and live as he wants you to" (Matthew 6:33 TLB)      Where we place God in the itinerary of our lives is where we place ourselves in His itinerary. That’s what that scripture says. How you value Him is synonymous to what value we expect and receive of Him. In short, you can't be greater than the position you give God in your life. Meaning that if you give Him first place, you can't be anything lesser than first in life; and if you give Him last place, you can't be anything greater than last in life.       This is what the scriptures meant when it said they that are first shall be last, and they that are last shall be first (Mark 10:31). Peter had just asked about what would happen to them who forsook all to pursue His good pleasure, and Jesus said in this world they shall have manifold times all they thought they had lost and in the world to come eve...

DAILY VITAMIN - Secret Input, Open Output "And your Father who knows all secrets will reward you" (Matthew 6:4 TLB)       The King James Version of our theme verse says that "...thy Father which seeth in secret himself will reward you openly". That's really quite interesting, isn't it? What it means is that while men may never recognize the good things you do, while it may be hidden from men as Paul suggested in 1 Tim 5:25, God will always recognize them. Nothing is ever hidden from Him. The scripture says He will not forget or ignore our works and labours of love (Hebrews 6:10).      But let's go further. He says that even when you do a kindness secretly such that no one else catches notice of it, He will and bless you for it. He says that even when you pray in your inner closet where no one can hear you, He will and answer you. I have seen a lot of people who give up because no one honoured them. I have seen a lot of ministers who refused to sp...

DAILY VITAMIN - Understanding The Word "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God". (John 1:1)        The Word of God is Christ - the wisdom and power of God; the first cause of all things; and God's personal expression of Himself to men. With this, we can say that for every time we meditate on the Word, we inundate ourselves in Christ. For every time we practise the Word, we practise Christ. For every time we understand the Word, we understand the mind and the will of Christ. With the Word actively in us, we'd be walking in the very mind of Christ. His experiences become our experiences, and His expectations become our expectations.       Remember, the Spirit through the apostle Paul tells us to adopt the mind of Christ (Phil 2:5). He already had told us that we have this same mind (1 Corinthians 2:16). But you see, the first is said because even after being born of the incorruptible seed of God, this incor...

DAILY VITAMIN - Overcoming Offences "So if you are standing before the altar in the Temple, offering a sacrifice to God, and suddenly remember that a friend has something against you, leave your sacrifice there beside the altar and go and apologize and be reconciled to him, and then come and offer your sacrifice to God. Come to terms quickly with your enemy before it is too late and he drags you into court and you are thrown into a debtor's cell, for you will stay there until you have paid the last penny" (Matthew 5:23-26 TLB)       We must be wiser than the enemy, for we are not ignorant of his devices. He is called the accuser of the brethren for a reason, and he will prosecute any offense incongruent with the standard of the Word until he can granulate the offenders to nothingness. The scripture says that offenses are inevitable but woe to the man who causes others to drown in its bitterness (Luke 17:1).       Our opening scripture tells us that ...

DAILY VITAMIN - No Limitations "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Phil 4:13)      There is no limitation to what you can do or become as a believer. I'm not trying to get you excited. That's what the scriptures say; and that's how Jesus lived. Knowing this to be true, Paul tells us we can do all things (Note: no exceptions; no limitations); and by seeing how he also lived, we know it's true.      It is said of Jesus that "the report of his miracles spread far beyond the borders of Galilee so that sick folk were soon coming to be healed from as far away as Syria. And whatever their illness and pain, or if they were possessed by demons, or were insane, or paralyzed - he healed them all" (Matthew 4:24 TLB). This portion of scripture gets me every time. Please highlight the words "whatever their illness" and "he healed them all". Those words are the backbone of the entire story of Jesus. They speak volume...

DAILY VITAMIN - Walking After The Spirit "Wherever their/[the] Spirit went they went, going straight forward without turning" (Ezekiel 1:12 TLB)       Nothing gets you closer to the reality God always had planned out for you than letting yourself be guided by Him. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit is a teacher that shows us the right way to go in order to be profitable before the Lord and towards men (see Isaiah 30:20-21). And Jesus said He would guide us into all truth. But it's one thing to be guided and another to follow.       Galatians 5 cautions us not to ever be satisfied with just living in the Spirit, but to go further and walk in Him to experience a truly victorious life (v.25). Living in the Spirit is what we do naturally now that we are born again. We are born of God by the Spirit; and so our life force have moved from our blood to the Spirit. However, to walk in the Spirit is to lead our lives by His direction. And this is the only wa...

DAILY VITAMIN - Take Full Advantage Of Your Identity "I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the Most High" (Psalm 82:6)        If you were asked about yourself, you might say "I'm Kevin from Suffolk"; or "I'm John from Hawaii"; and if you're like me, you might say "I'm Oscar from Lagos". A lot of people say this and some things we don't even want to hear. Well, what you succeed in revealing to them is simply who you think you are, not who you really are.       There is a difference between your identity and your personality. Your identity is who you are or whom you were created to be, while your personality is who you think you are or whom you appear to be. There's a big difference there. You might be a doctor, a writer, or a surgeon; but that isn't you. That's just whom you appear to be on the earth. It doesn't mean you made a mistake; but you can't just identify yourself with t...

DAILY VITAMIN - Living In The Light "Don't hide your light! Let it shine for all; let your good deeds glow for all to see, so that they will praise your heavenly Father" (Matthew 5:15-16 TLB)       Christianity is a visible practice. People saw Jesus' everyday life and commented that He had done all things well (Mark 7:37). So, in other words, they were visible proofs of whom He said He was. And it wasn't because He rode the most decorated or sophisticated mule, but because He went about doing good.       The Bible says that now that we are of the light, we must behave like those of the light (Ephesians 5:8). And you can't be in the light, and be a source of darkness to others. The Bible calls God the Father of Lights in whom there is no variableness. And so, we can't have God in us and be anything different from Him. God is good, and as soon as we are abiding in Him, we walk in the same light of goodness and godliness.      More so...

DAILY VITAMIN - Enjoying Supernatural Health "And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity" (Isaiah 33:24)      God will never promise a thing He cannot fulfill; He will never reveal a truth He isn't ready to enforce. And here He is affirming your natural divine right to supernatural health. Remember, He has already told us that healing is our heritage. That is, whenever we are down, we have the right to get back up stronger and better. Jeremiah 30:17 says "For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds..." So it is a confirmed truth for the believer.      Yet now He gives us something greater. Now He says you won't be needing any healing again because you won't be getting sick again. Our theme verse was referring to the people of Zion- God's saints, and that includes you and I.      I won't lie to you, since I fully acknowledged and accepted the...

DAILY VITAMIN - The Power Of Humility "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time." (1 Peter 5:6)      'Humble yourself before the Lord and He will lift you up'. That to me sounds like the easiest way to a successful life, but history has shown that it is the most difficult for men to comply with. The unburned ego of many men keeps them in a constant and ceaseless flux of arrogance and conceit towards other men and God Himself. And we know God never associates Himself with the proud; and wherever God doesn't abide, the enemy will always have a field day.      This constant derogatory nature of mankind is what gives the humble man the degree of respect God has for him (Psalm 138:6). It's so marvelous that He says that even when every other person fails in life, the humble man shall not (Job 22:29). However, a greater mystery is that it works perfectly the same for all men regardless of their faith. ...

DAILY VITAMIN - Let God Have His Way "This plan of mine is not what you would work out, neither are my thoughts the same as yours! For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours, and my thoughts than yours." (Isaiah 55:8-9 TLB)      When the scripture tells us that all things work together for the good of those that love God and are called according to His purpose, it doesn't mean that everything will work out as we planned every time. No! But it does mean that everything that we need to become all we need to become will happen. No matter how gloomy the situations are, He says it will always lead to that.       As much as we love how beautiful some pearly ornaments are, if we were in their place before they were made, we wouldn't like to be made so, because while the product is magnificent, the process it took to make it so isn't always so fascinating to the eyes. God promises to bring the gold out of His people ...

DAILY VITAMIN - The Golden Rule "Do for others what you want them to do for you..." (Matthew 7:12 TLB)       It has been proven times without number that whatever you sow daily is what life gives back to you. It's an eternal principle that is valid both before God and man. God promised that seed time and harvest shall never cease; and whatever you sow is what you reap, however you judge is how you shall be judged, and whichever way you act is how you shall be acted upon.      Matthew 5:7 tells us that those who are kind and merciful towards others shall receive the same kind of treatment in their time of need. This alone should gear you up to participate in living a good life that favours both divinity and humanity; because even God responds towards us in the light of how we respond to others (Psalm 18:25-26).      Lamentations 1:3 tells us that Judah was only receiving what she had served others for years. It says "Why is Judah led ...

DAILY VITAMIN - Stand On Your Past Testimonies "I have been young, now I am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread" (Psalm 37:25)        In our theme verse, we can see that David was using his understanding of God's unfailing power as seen in the wonderful experiences he had prior to that moment as a medium of assurance that He can still do the same and more. An act which is completely different from what Elijah, as well as a lot of us, did when his moment of trial came. 1 Kings 19 tells us about how Elijah who had just performed a set of wonders that had never be seen in the whole of Israel before, thereby demystifying the deceits of Baal, ran away at the threat of the queen. But he didn't just run, he also requested to die. This was a man who destroyed 950 men in one night, but now he was fretting because of a single woman.       Does this remind you of yourself? A lot of us act like that every day. We shak...

DAILY VITAMIN - The Believer’s Authority "Yes, ask anything, using my name, and I will do it!" (John 14:14 TLB)       The Christian is not just any other fellow. He is not an ordinary man. He has been recreated and reborn. He is God's ultimate prize, endowed with all of Him to operate in the power and standard of the God-kind. This is what Jesus achieved on our behalf.       You see, in Noah God reinstated the authority Adam had lost (Genesis 9:1-2), but one thing that wasn't reinstated then was man's sonship to God. As a result of this development, man remained a slave to sin and servant to Satan, thus making his authority over the devil of no effect, because no slave can ever overpower his master. It's an eternal and scriptural principle. But in Christ Jesus, man received the most important gift of all- sonship with God, sealed by His Spirit within him. He identified with him to share in his sin, and identified him with Himself that he might share...