Tamar was desperate to mother a seed from Judah’s line. You must have an eye for a good seed that you can successfully groom into something amazing in the future. It is worth waiting and preparing for long periods of time just to contribute to the nature and nurture of a godly seed.

Jesus went ahead by prayer. We can also only go ahead by prayer.

Jesus asked the woman at the well to get honest so she could walk away from her failing pursuits of love and marital relationships which wouldn't work, though with six different men. She needed grace to face the truth that True Love for her would only be found through her relationship with her Saviour. Pray for grace to have every stone rolled away from your face so you can face the bold truth you need to know for your total freedom.

Genesis 19, Amos 5:1-6

The difference between Abraham and Lot was that Abraham knew that blessing on his came from the Presence of God with Him. On the contrary, Lot believed more in being in places where he thought or estimated carried God's presence and power, yet all his choices, including staying at or near Sodom, and later moving to the little town of Zoar, were all fraught with dangerous sins which he found it hard escaping from. Beloved, God doesn’t want us to moving from place to place because the Presence of God is advertised to be there. God is always near the broken and contrite in heart. So long as you are meek and apologetic and humble, the Lord can meet you right where you are at any time and put a blessing on you. Let us move away from believing ultimately in people and places that we feel are anointed, and let us rather come closer to the Holy Presence of God which can provide us with any blessing we need.

Anastasia Bruce

Footstool Colour

This message was preached at Assemblies of God Campus ministry, Korle-Bu, Accra.

God wants us to be broken and become useful to Him. When we begin to have an unquenching desire to appear all made up, all perfect and well- rounded as if we do not have any needs for which we need God's help through prayer,we become something detestable to God. Instead, the Lord wants us to come to Him just as we are, with our difficult issues and troublesome situations, and not be too shy to ask Him for help.

Jezebel wanted to always appear sorted out. She put a lot of effort into making up appearances of perfection, even if it meant killing or stealing from a poor man called Naboth or putting makeup on her face as the main preparation for going to see the man who had just slain her son! Her level of pretence was just too much and unfortunately, many children of God live in this kind of guise- not ready to call a spade a spade and open up and speak of their limitations so that they can receive the needed help. In the ened, Jezebel’s death ended up with her body parts scattered all over the place. If you don’t allow yourself to be broken down in this life, you will soon be broken in some unexpected calamity that the anger of God will mete out to you. May the power of Christ that enables us to repent and surrender the broken pieces of our lives strongly energise us to throw away our shyness about our infirmities and weaknesses so that the power of Christ will rest on us. Amen.

Anastasia Bruce

Footstool Colour

Matt 28.

After the Resurrection, Jesus anointed his people to go and teach others to observe all His teachings- whatever He has ever directed to be done. The Lord wants us to be diverse in our work and usefulness in His vineyard. Just like little butterflies move from plant to plant, pollinating flowers in a seemingly uneventful manner, yet contributing a great deal to their eventual fruitfulness, we too must give ourselves to many little relevant things or activities or errands that the Lord sends us to do. We must refrain from thinking that we only become useful in the hands of God when we are seen doing gigantic works or gathering large crowds to preach to. Yes God moves in those big ways, but He also does move in many little relevant ways to get His work done.

Instead of giving ourselves to multitasking many little irrelevant and inconsequential activities,we must get into the full time activity of doing many little relevant things that help increase fruitfulness in God's house. Be anointed for this in Jesus name. Amen.

Matt 28.

Until your fear of lack or want or need is totally replaced by the fear of God and the great joy that proceeds from His presence, you will never be able to step into your high calling of being a successful female preacher who is totally free from the cares of this world. The cares of this world choke the word of the Kingdom, making it unfruitful. Mary and the other Mary were at the tomb of Jesus and found weeping sorely, basically out of fear that their Lover was gone forever. We are faced with some of our greatest darkest hours when we allow the fear of never being loved or wanted to overcome us. To become a successful fearless woman preacher, you must be able to face the fear of rejection straight in the face and paralyze its lies with an undying faith in the truth that " HE LIVES, AND BECAUSE HE LIVES I CAN FACE TOMORROW AND ALL FEAR IS GONE". Never stop believing, never stop hoping, never stop praying, never stop waiting, never stop trusting God even if physical circumstances suggest that you throw your hands in the air and quit believing God. Believe because Jesus is alive, and HE is not a man that He should lie.

The reward of a fearless woman preacher is the ability to preach and turn even brothers to zeal and the pursuit of God. It also holds the promise of bequeathed authority and power for global preaching, discipleship making and terrestrial influence.

LIKE-MINDED

Live Daily Footstool Devotional

Read Romans 15:1-7

Romans 15:5 KJV

Now the God of patience and consolation(comfort) grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:

You will be amazed how somebody's burden can just be lifted off because of your accepting them. People are destined to belong to groups. That's how God has made it. Imagine if your leg ever said to you that it didn't belong to your body. The rest of your body will not be happy and whole by not having that one leg and that leg will also become diseased by being alone. Every one will not be happy by not belonging to each other as determined by the Maker. Because we really belong to each other, when God brings us together, we must find ways of becoming like minded towards one another. Otherwise, some people will never find consolation from the longstanding rejection they may be suffering from.

1 Peter 2:4-5 NIV

As you come to him, the living Stone —rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Jesus came to accept the rejected. Because He himself was rejected, He knows what it means and feels to be rejected, and even better, to be accepted. Let us accept one another for who we are in Christ. It is what the Lord has done and what He wants. Let us offer Him the one mouth and one mind in praises that He desires. Amen.

Be alive today!

Prayer: Oh God of patience and consolation, you are Holy. Please grant unto us, within our supernatural groups and regroupings, the grace to be likeminded toward one another and to receive one another, providing the physical, spiritual and emotional support that each of us can give to the other’s needs. May we never lose sight of the power of love, patience and the grace to console and accept others that God brings to us. In Jesus name. Amen.

Anastasia Bruce

Footstool Colour

HOW TO CELEBRATE YOUR BIRTHDAY 1

Desiring Mercy Footstool Devotional

Wednesday, 3rd April, 2024

Read Job 3

Job 3:1-4 AMP - After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 And Job said,

3“Let the day on which I was born perish,

And the night which announced: ‘There is a man-child conceived.’

4 “May that day be darkness;

Let God above not care about it,

Nor light shine on it.

Birthday celebrations are a thing we have come to meet in this world. But are they significant at all? Do we need to celebrate our birthdays? If yes, does God have any directions on how we are to really celebrate our birthdays? Yes, he does!

The power of depression and sadness is to remind us of the hopelessness of our troubles and drive us into rejection, seclusion, loneliness, despondency and eventual death. But the truth is that the divine purpose of the emotion of sadness is to drive us to the cross where we surrender all our lives and the things we don’t understand to the Lord. When we misuse the gift of sadness, we make it an open door for demons that inspire suicide and all kinds of death to enter our lives and destroy us.

When Job had his troubles, he responded like any natural man would, at first. His troubles brought him sadness, and in Job chapter 3, we see that he misused the gift of sadness that God allowed for him to have. Remember that Job’s troubles were not deserved per se, but they were allowed to come upon him because of his difference- he feared God.

Job 1:8-9 AMP - The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered and reflected on My servant Job? For there is NONE LIKE HIM ON THE EARTH, a blameless and upright man, ONE WHO FEARS GOD [with reverence] and abstains from and turns away from evil [because he honors God].” 9 Then Satan answered the LORD, “Does Job FEAR GOD for nothing?”.

There are troubles and repeated tests that you will suffer in this life, difficult situations that will force you to question why God will allow you to experience all that. But God’s answer to all your “Why me?” questions are that “It’s because you fear God.” And your personal fear of God is the key thing that makes for “none like you on the earth!”. You will be truly special up to the degree to which you fear God!

Sadness is a feeling that you must relearn how to handle. People often know what to do when they feel excited and loved. They respond by making moves to, for example, be kind to others or be more easy- going. In the same vein, God wants us to relearn how to approach and handle feelings of sadness. God wants us to relearn how to receive troubles. God wants us to be re- educated on how to see our differences and individual peculiarities so that instead of it driving us into oddity and loneliness, it can rather be redirected to release the biggest forces to drive our light and shine on this earth.

One of the things that define your specialness is the day and time you were born into the world. As an anesthesiologist, I often get blessed to witness the birth of babies either in the labour ward or in theatre. And in theatre, it is often either the anaesthesiologist’s job or the midwife’s to note the specific time that a baby came out of the mother’s womb. In the records books, it is one of the things that are used to signify the uniqueness of a newborn baby( many newborn babies look alike, you know, and we have got to put measure sin place to recognise who is who, one of which is the time of birth).

When Job became oblivious to what made him a special man, being a spiritual man, he knew that if he could attack the day of his birth, he could fast track his cataclysmic end and extinction. Birthdays hold powers to either dim your light or make it shine brighter. You have to learn how to maximise the power of your difference if you’re going to overcome whatever seeks to put you down and out.

Prayer: Dear Jesus, I thank You for My difference. I receive the grace to celebrate my uniqueness, specialness and my ....