The Oscar Ajoku Blog: Daily Vitamin Devotional

DAILY VITAMIN - Breaking The Limits "Nathanael answered him, [Nazareth!] Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip replied, Come and see!" (John 1:46 AMP)    First of all, a soon-to-be disciple of Jesus wondered if He could be the Messiah simply because of His geographical origin; then the Jewish leaders also tried to make a contravention against His identity on the basis of the same ground (John 7:52). It may be a social convention to believe that some men can be written off based on their family background, societal class, financial history, and academic laurels; but it is never the Kingdom's.    In the Kingdom of God, it's not about what men think, but about what God has said. It is not about what you presently have, but who you eternally are in Christ. Not about the number of buts on your profile, but about He who can make something out of nothing through your life.    And so in this light, God says that your limitations will never mean yo...

DAILY VITAMIN - Never Settle For Less "Then Terah took his son Abram.....and left Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; but they stopped instead at the city of Haran and settled there." (Genesis 11:31 TLB)    Never give up when you should be striving on in order to stay thriving. Never forget that!    In the light of that, the children of Israel in the days of Samuel the Judge said that they desired "to be like the other nations" (1 Sam 8:20), even when God had already made them greater than all the other nations. Can you believe that? And does that already remind you of someone you know? Remember, generations ago, they had assumed they were like grasshoppers in contrast to their adversaries when in God's eyes it was really the other way around.    Ironically, that's still exactly how a lot of people behave today, even Christians. We tend to accept the available at the expense of the desired; thereby settling for less than what God says...

DAILY VITAMIN - Righteousness Has Its Rewards "He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises gain from fraud and from oppression, who shakes his hand free from the taking of bribes, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes to avoid looking upon evil. [Such a man] will dwell on the heights; his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks; his bread will be given him; water for him will be sure." (Isaiah 33:15-16 AMP)    There is always a place at the top for the righteous. He is bound by a covenantal promise to walk upon the high places of the earth. This covers both the nature of righteousness (which we have in Christ) and the practice of righteousness (which we must indulge in as now in Christ). This in its own right sets a man up for everlasting rewards; and today we'd be focusing on some of these rewards that can be found on the path of righteousness. The same rewards God has in store for us:   1. The Revelation of God...

DAILY VITAMIN - Visibly Transformed " For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of Light [lead the lives of those native-born to the Light]." (Ephesians 5:8 AMP) The day we became born-again, our spirit received renewal by the Spirit of God, and were endued with capacity to live above the limitations of our carnal flesh. However, as we give ourselves more to His fellowship, we are gradually transformed in the state of our minds and in the actions of our bodies. Remember, what Paul said the more we behold the reality of the glory of God in Christ "we are transformed from glory to glory by His Spirit." (2 Corinthians 3:18). Nevertheless, it doesn't stop there! In Matthew 5, Jesus said that now that we have been made like Him (v. 14), we must begin to live expressly in that image (v. 16). It is never enough to be something, we have to become it by living as it entails. A lion is not a lion because it looks like a lion...

DAILY VITAMIN - There's Life In The New Covenant "I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, the person whose ears are open to My words [who listens to My message] and believes and trusts in and clings to and relies on Him Who sent Me has (possesses now) eternal life. And he does not come into judgment [does not incur sentence of judgment, will not come under condemnation], but he has already passed over out of death into life." (John 5:24 AMP)    All through the Old Testament, God seemed hard to reach. People could only exercise one feeling before Him- fear; and there was no actual proof that men were saved. But then the breach was broken, the veil removed, and the obstruction to our worship deposed; all comeuppance that were experienced in our communion with God were put aside, as the Son was now being offered and His Spirit given.    Those old days encouraged a regime of fear and wrath that hindered many from enjoying the fullness of God's love; but that...

DAILY VITAMIN - Sowers And Reapers "Already the reaper is getting his wages [he who does the cutting now has his reward], for he is gathering fruit (crop) unto life eternal, so that he who does the planting and he who does the reaping may rejoice together. For in this the saying holds true, One sows and another reaps."         (John 4:36-37 AMP)   We are all Sowers and reapers in the sight of God. It is a responsibility He has offered unto us for our own good. For a long time, we may have thought that Jesus meant God was the sower, but by reading through and juxtaposing one scripture with another you'd realize that that was only what we thought. Men are the Sowers, and men are the Reapers; all God does is give the increase (1 Cor 3:16). It is our duty of love to take the gospel to the ends of the earth until men not only hear about this word of life, but also believe and receive it. Thousands may have heard the gospel, but record is taken into account in ...

DAILY VITAMIN - There Is No Shame In Waiting "Wait for and expect the Lord and keep and heed His way, and He will exalt you to inherit the land; [in the end] when the wicked are cut off, you shall see it." (Psalm 37:34 AMP) Waiting on the Lord is never a vain exercise; nor a waste of time, because God will always do what He has promised to do. And so we don't wait unto frustration but unto manifestations. In it, we are equipped with all the grace to be resilient as eagles (Isaiah 40:31) so as not to lose any ground by Him who is able to cause us to have everything we could ever need (2 Cor 9:8). If this be so, then why do we shriek at the place of waiting for God? I know God has given you promises, and perhaps they haven't all come true yet, nevertheless that's not a reason to fret, but one to rejoice in; because God's promises can all but stay unfulfilled as long as we are where and doing what He expects of us. Let these words of His through Isaiah encou...

DAILY VITAMIN - Move Beyond Wishing "By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones), and [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength". (Ephesians 1:18-19 AMP) Many people wish they could do many things. They wished they could go to an Ivy League College, own a house on the French Riviera, marry a great spouse, and so on and so forth. It seems kind of harmless, right? Since as we say it is just a wish. Well, wishing for what you don't have may be harmless, but when all is yours, it is stupid. The scriptures tell us that all things are ours (1 Cor 3:21-23), because God has made us sit in heaven in Christ far above all powers (Eph 2:6), having blessed us with all the ble...

DAILY VITAMIN - Disobedience Kills "But [Neco] sent ambassadors to [Josiah], saying, What have I to do with you, you king of Judah? I come not against you this day, but against the house with which I am at war; and God has commanded me to make haste. Refrain from opposing God, Who is with me, lest He destroy you. Yet Josiah would not turn away from him, but disguised himself in order to fight with him. He did not heed the words of Neco from the mouth of God, but came to fight with him in the valley of Megiddo. And the archers shot King Josiah, and the king said to his servants, Take me away, for I am severely wounded". (2 Chronicles 35:21-23 AMP) Nothing ruins a man before God faster than disobedience. It doesn't matter what our identities are, disobedience will make any man fall. Look at the first men, Adam and Eve, made in the perfect beauty of the Lord's love and rooted in His endless blessings, but because of this fatal flaw they lost everything that was their...

DAILY VITAMIN - You Will Beat This Condition "When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up- the flames will consume you" (Isaiah 43:2 TLB). What an awesome news it is to know that no matter how hard times may get, we will always come forth as more than conquerors. Being more than a conqueror means being way better at the end than we were at the beginning. It is not going to be an escape, or a mere survival strategic success; it is going to be a conquest. He says that we are going to completely overcome our hardest circumstances. He promises to give us the capacity to beat the great troubles that may attempt to cause us to sink into despair and acute distress. He promises to help us stay afloat when the floods of difficulty overwhelm our everyday life. He says we won't drown, and neither would we strive; but tha...

DAILY VITAMIN - God Will Help You (2) "Let Him have all your worries and cares, for he is always thinking about you and watching everything that concerns you" (1 Peter 5:7 TLB) The most comforting words that can be said to any man is that ''Jesus knows about your troubles, and He feels your pain, but most importantly that He cares for you''. To a lot of people, it might seem like a regular cliché they are tired of listening to, but to those embedded in the truth of the Word which I presume you and I should be counted among by His grace, it should be an ever coolant to fuse out the sorrows, pain, and burden we bear as if it was never there. The Bible says when Jesus saw the widow of Nain, though they had no previous acquaintance, but on seeing her predicament, He felt her pain, and it was recorded ..''He had compassion on her'' (Luke 9:13), and said to her 'weep not'. And the aftermath of His compassionate words was a healing that tu...

DAILY VITAMIN - Who Can Understand The Lord Completely? "Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as His counselor has taught Him? With whom did He take counsel, that instruction might be given Him? Who taught Him the path of justice and taught Him knowledge and showed Him the way of understanding?" (Isaiah 40:13-14 AMP) There is a character God exhibits that I believe all men should also be careful of, in order not to jump into conclusions about Him. And this character is the Unpredictability of God. You see, it is an easy task to guess what a man would do next after a series of study about him; It is also easier to guess what animals and plants would do next after a series of experiment with them. In fact, it is easy as well to guess what the devil would do next after several encounters with him, but no matter how much study we have done of God - whether millennial or centurial studies, we can never easily say what He might do next....He remains a Mystery unto the wi...

DAILY VITAMIN - Be Courageous, And Take A Step "He said, Come! So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water, and he came toward Jesus." (Matthew 14:29 AMP) Most times, all we have to do to see the product or the end point of our faith is just to take a step. This is because while all things are possible, only the ones you believe are enough to act towards will be possible for you. For instance, when Peter and John saw the lame man, and declared wholeness into his life in the name of Christ Jesus, they took a step before they saw in physical the end product of their faith. That is, their lifting up the man, who had no fitted legs as to walk was a sign of faith on their part (Acts 3:7) , while the leaping up of the paralyzed was a sign on his part (vs 8). Note, the Word of God was given to you and I by the inspiration of God, whether centuries ago, or just last night; but note as well, it wasn't given to just inspire you; No! It was given also to transform you-...

DAILY VITAMIN - God will Help You (1) "I am holding you by your right hand- I, the Lord your God- and I say to you, Don't be afraid; I am here to help you. Despised though you are, fear not, O Israel; for I will help you..." (Isaiah 41:13-14 TLB) We are never alone; neither are we ever forsaken. It doesn't matter how hard things may get, we can be rest assured that we have help coming. And God has made Himself responsible to make it happen. Isaiah 41 says "When the poor and needy seek water and there is none and their tongues are parched from thirst, then I will answer when they cry to me. I, Israel's God, will not ever forsake them. I will open up rivers for them on high plateaus...In the deserts will be pools of water, and rivers fed by springs shall flow across the dry, parched ground. I will plant trees...on barren land. Everyone will see this miracle and understand that it is God who did it..." (Isaiah 41:17-20 TLB). Can you believe that? Your l...

DAILY VITAMIN - Delay Is Never Denial With God "But these things I plan won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, do not despair, for these things will surely come to pass. Just be patient! They will not be overdue a single day!" (Habakkuk 2:3 TLB). Many a times, it is usually very easy how we unanimously agree that God has forsaken us when things don't go our way even when we were confident that we had His backing that it would. But guess what? One thing I have learned over time, and one thing the Bible consistently and continuously teaches is that God will never leave nor forsake His own in their time of need (Hebrews 13:5). The scriptures call Him the very present help in times of need (Psalm 46:1). Now, if this be so, then what happened to the people of Israel as they marched against their brother city of Gibeah? In Judges 20, after the Benjaminites had condoned a despicable act ...

DAILY VITAMIN - It Will Be " He carries out and fulfills all of God's promises, no matter how many of them there are..." (2 Corinthians 1:20 TLB) The Bible says that God is able to complete all that He has begun in your life (Phil 1:6). As such, that means that you are not intended to live a half-baked life. God is going to perfect His already perfect recipe on you. Ephraim, we are told, as a tribe appeared half-baked (see Hosea 7:8-9); but not the redeemed man in Christ- for we are COMPLETE in Him who has the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:10). Anyway, here is the part I want you to concern yourself with today. In The Living Bible translation of that verse, we are told that God "...will keep right on helping you grow in his grace until his task within you is finally finished on that day WHEN JESUS CHRIST RETURNS". Wow! Did you get that? What He means there is that there is so much in you to be seen and explored than you know. It is like what S...

DAILY VITAMIN - Winning With God "All nations (the surrounding tribes) compassed me about, but in the name of the Lord I will cut them off! They compassed me about, yes, they surrounded me on every side; but in the name of the Lord I will cut them off!" (Psalm 118:10-11 AMP) Sometimes, the challenges we face may pose a great threat to our faith; and as such lasso us into a state of endless panicky and fretting. However, I want you to know that the same thing happened to Hezekiah. The Assyrians had the numbers, the weaponry, the expertise of war, the confidence, and the ravaging countenance on their faces; but it didn't mean that they had the advantage. They had told the people of Judah that God couldn't save them nor could any man help them because they [the Assyrians] had never lost a war before. Well, while the statistics may have sounded right from a distance, it doesn't mean they were right. In our own lives, we have almost, if not, the same kind of adver...

DAILY VITAMIN - Spread The Word "Until I get there, read and explain the Scriptures to the church; preach God's Word." (1 Timothy 4:13 TLB) Every believer is called to be a Sower of the seed. Just like how cutting down a tree is much easier and less time consuming than the process of planting one, refuting the Word is easier than spreading it. In fact, doing nothing might be enough to refute the Word that had been received by the public, but it's never enough for spreading it. Spreading the Word is a conscious act, and a very important one at that, and that's why Jesus emphatically urges us to go and preach it in as many places and direction as possible. God's Word is a seed; and without being planted, the world would eventually die of impoverishment. God’s Word is the only hope this world has. This is because the only way to change the world is to spread the Word. It is the only way to know where true salvation and peace lies- God. The Bible says "C...

DAILY VITAMIN - Jesus Will Give You Rest "In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength" (Isaiah 30:15) Complaining has never done any man good other than reminding him of far away he is from the ideal life he presumes should be his. In fact, there is actually one thing complaining does- it reveals just how much doubt you have in God. And that's why He loathes complaining and murmuring, because it reflects doubt rather than faith. However, how does this then affect us? Every time we complain or murmur, we get bitten (Numbers 21:5-6). Every time we let it rule over us, we let doubt sink us under, thereby keeping us from realities that were and could have been ours. So, how do we overcome these bites and retrograding occurrences the compliant syndrome brings? God gave the answer as the only way out to the Israelis. And that is, by looking unto the One who was hung for our sakes- Jesus; for as many as look unto Him live. ...

DAILY VITAMIN - You Are Blessed! "You are not to curse them, for I have blessed them!" (Numbers 22:12 TLB) When the Bible speaks of how we are no longer under a curse, but have been redeemed by grace, many a person don't still understand how extreme it is. Well, let me show you. As the Lord took Israel from one conquest to another, a fear gripping king sought for a way to distort their progress. So, he had a council meeting with the leaders of Midian, and decided to have a prophet curse Israel so as to impede their growth and success rate. They went to Balaam the seer with money in order to coax him into performing the act, but God would not let him. They came again with a greater amount of treasure for him, but God sternly warned him against it. Again and again, they increased the reward and made the conditions of his work more favourable, but God would not permit it saying, "There shall be no enchantment against Jacob, and no divination against Israel" (...