OPEN HEAVEN 16 DECEMBER 2018 – THE FOURTH MAN IN THE FURNACE

OPEN HEAVEN 16 DECEMBER 2018 MEMORISE: When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. Isaiah 43:2

OPEN HEAVEN 16 DECEMBER 2018 READ:  Daniel 3:20-30

20 And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace.

21 Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.

22 Therefore because the king’s commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flames of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.

24 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king.

25 He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.

26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, came forth of the midst of the fire.

27 And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king’s counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.

28 Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.

29 Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort.

30 Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in the province of Babylon.

OPEN HEAVEN 16 DECEMBER 2018 MESSAGE WITH HYMN, PRAYER POINTS AND BIBLE READING

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ – RCCG SUNDAY SCHOOL STUDENT’S MANUAL LESSON SIXTEEN 16 DECEMBER 2018 – KNOWING GOD’S WILL IN MARRIAGE

Please Click Here To Read – Prayer Points On Today’s Open Heavens: (Sunday, December 16, 2018) – The Fourth Man In The Furnace

Our memory verse reminds us of God’s promise to be with His children whenever they pass through the storms, rivers and fires of life.

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ – RCCG SUNDAY SCHOOL STUDENT’S MANUAL LESSON SIXTEEN 16 DECEMBER 2018 – KNOWING GOD’S WILL IN MARRIAGE

We see this promise literarily fulfilled in the lives of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego when they were confronted with Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace.

For your own good, you need to understand that these words proclaimed by God in Isaiah 43:2 are not empty promises.

To the three Hebrew boys, the Lord who helped the Israelites walk through the waters during their exodus from Egypt was also able to deliver them from the fire of Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace in accordance to His promise.  Also Read – Open Heavens For Teens 16 December 2018 – Fruit Of The Spirit; Faith

In contrast to these young men, many people today would not want to take this promise of God literarily. However, the experience of the three Hebrew boys shows that none of God’s promise will go unfulfilled in our lives if we hold unto them.  Also Read – Open Heaven 14 December 2018

Let us consider what the young Hebrew men did to draw the presence of the Fourth Man into the furnace and see how it applies to each one of us. Essentially, they decided to be different and lived a separated life in the land of unbelievers.

OPEN HEAVEN 16 DECEMBER 2018

They took a collective decision with Daniel not to defile themselves with pagan lifestyles and delicacies (Daniel 1:8-17). A proverb in my native tongue says, “There is a tendency for a child to change his good name in a foreign land”.

This was not the case with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. For this reason, the Lord of Host Himself came to join them when they were thrown into the burning furnace. The forth man in the furnace was no other person than the Son of the Living God (Daniel 13:25).

Beloved, if God could fulfill His promise in Isaiah 43:2 in the lives of these men, He will also fulfill this promise to us. However, you need to ask yourself if you are living a separated life. Is there any difference between you and everyone else who does not know your God? Also Read – Open Heaven 15 December 2018

Do you behave one way in church and another way outside church? If someone spends time with you, can they indeed say that you have been with Jesus? You need to live a life that gives a positive answer to these questions.

I decree into your life today that the grace to live a separated life will come upon you in Jesus’ Name. the waters of life will not drown you, and the fire of the enemy will not burn you in Jesus’ Name.

OPEN HEAVEN 16 DECEMBER 2018 PRAYER POINT: Please Click Here To Read – Prayer Points On Today’s Open Heavens: (Sunday, December 16, 2018) – The Fourth Man In The Furnace
Sweet Holy spirit, I ask that You convict my heart to live a separated life daily.

OPEN HEAVEN 16 DECEMBER 2018 HYMN 5

I HAVE DECIDED TO FOLLOW JESUS

1. I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
No turning back, no turning back.

2. The world behind me, the cross before me;
The world behind me, the cross before me;
The world behind me, the cross before me;
No turning back, no turning back.

3. Though none go with me, still I will follow;
Though- none go with me, still I will follow;
Though none go with me, still I will follow;
No turning back, no turning back.

4. My cross I’ll carry, till I see Jesus;
My cross I’ll carry, till I see Jesus;
My cross I’ll carry, till I see Jesus;
No turning back, no turning back.

5. Will you decide now to follow Jesus?
Will you decide now to follow Jesus?
Will you decide now to follow Jesus?
No turning back, no turning back.

OPEN HEAVEN 16 DECEMBER 2018 BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Hosea 10-14 and John 12:9-26

² Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images.

³ For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the Lord; what then should a king do to us?

⁴ They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.

⁵ The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Bethaven: for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it.

⁶ It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to king Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.

⁷ As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam upon the water.

⁸ The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.

⁹ O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah: there they stood: the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them.

¹⁰ It is in my desire that I should chastise them; and the people shall be gathered against them, when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows.

¹¹ And Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught, and loveth to tread out the corn; but I passed over upon her fair neck: I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods.

¹² Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.

¹³ Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.

¹⁴ Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled, as Shalman spoiled Betharbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children.

¹⁵ So shall Bethel do unto you because of your great wickedness: in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off.

Hosea 11 King James Version (KJV)

11 When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.

² As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.

³ I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them.

⁴ I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.

⁵ He shall not return into the land of Egypt, and the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return.

⁶ And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches, and devour them, because of their own counsels.

⁷ And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the most High, none at all would exalt him.

⁸ How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.

⁹ I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city.

¹⁰ They shall walk after the Lord: he shall roar like a lion: when he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west.

¹¹ They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria: and I will place them in their houses, saith the Lord.

¹² Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit: but Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the saints.

Hosea 12 King James Version (KJV)

12 Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he daily increaseth lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt.

² The Lord hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him.

³ He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God:

⁴ Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us;

⁵ Even the Lord God of hosts; the Lord is his memorial.

⁶ Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment and wait on thy God continually.

⁷ He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress.

⁸ And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance: in all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin.

⁹ And I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast.

¹⁰ I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets.

¹¹ Is there iniquity in Gilead? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields.

¹² And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.

¹³ And by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved.

¹⁴ Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly: therefore shall he leave his blood upon him, and his reproach shall his Lordreturn unto him.

Hosea 13 King James Version (KJV)

13 When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died.

² And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.

³ Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.

⁴ Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me.

⁵ I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.

⁶ According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.

⁷ Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them:

⁸ I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.

⁹ O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.

¹⁰ I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes?

¹¹ I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath.

¹² The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid.

¹³ The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children.

¹⁴ I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.

¹⁵ Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the wind of the Lordshall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.

¹⁶ Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.

Hosea 14 King James Version (KJV)

14 O israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.

² Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.

³ Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.

⁴ I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.

⁵ I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.

⁶ His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.

⁷ They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.

⁸ Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.

⁹ Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.

John 12:9-26 King James Version (KJV)

⁹ Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there: and they came not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead.

¹⁰ But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death;

¹¹ Because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus.

¹² On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,

¹³ Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.

¹⁴ And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written,

¹⁵ Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt.

¹⁶ These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him.

¹⁷ The people therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of his grave, and raised him from the dead, bare record.

¹⁸ For this cause the people also met him, for that they heard that he had done this miracle.

¹⁹ The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is gone after him.

²⁰ And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast:

²¹ The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.

²² Philip cometh and telleth Andrew: and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus.

²³ And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.

²⁴ Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

²⁵ He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.