Daily Devotional With Murphy Eyenike

Before saying two more prayers for the believers in Ephesians chapter three, Paul tells them about this mysterious plan of God for them; "And this is God's plan: Both Gentiles and Jews who believe the Good News share equally in the riches inherited by God's children. Both are part of the same body, and both enjoy the promise of blessings because they belong to Christ Jesus." Ephesians 3:6 For all...

The message of grace is so profound and Paul explains it right here in chapter two. He says that our salvation and calling from start to finish, including everything that comes after it is a product of grace. Grace implies that it is a gift, a free gift. It is given, not earned. Good works can't accomplish this one. Grace implies no one can take credit for it, there is no boasting, every accomplis...

We begin studying the book of Ephesians today. Chapter one has some of the most powerful prayer points I ever prayed for myself as a young believer. In praying these three sets of prayers, I found out some amazing things began to happen to me; I understood my Bible whenever I read it. Bible reading were no longer boring times, they were captivating and inspiring. It felt like the words jump out at...

"Don't be misled - you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit." Galatians 6:7-8. The key word for me here has to be "LIVE";you either live to satisfy your own sinful nature...

Spirit versus flesh, Spirit nature versus sinful nature; essentially the one that dominates you will determine what kind of Christian life you will have and how successful it is going to be. Your sinful nature or the flesh like some version calls it, wants to animate you just as much as the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has his own desires, following them, will certainly place you in the centre of...

Our faith in Jesus is what makes us children of God. And the fact we are now children of God also means we are now heirs of God, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ actually. We are no longer slaves, no, we are children of the promise. And even though we are growing to become like Christ everyday, we have the freedom of the Spirit to live to the glory and praise of God.

There are two paths available to everyone seeking to become righteous; through faith or the law. The scriptures declares, "it is through faith that a righteous person has life" Habakkuk 2:4. This way is very different from the way of the law, which says, "it is through obeying the law that a person has life." Leviticus 18:5. Paul's argument is simple, no one can be made right with God by trying to...

Paul wrote to the churches in Galatia because of two major reasons. This young believers were beginning to lose their faith in Christ because some Jews who had secretly sneaked in were telling them that for their conversion to Christianity to stand, they had to first convert to Judaism and then become circumcised. Paul's answer was swift and simple; "For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned...

We conclude the book of Corinthians with these advices from the apostle Paul; "Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you." 2Cor 13:11. At a time when it looks like there is nothing to be joyful about in our world; wars and rumours of war, the economies of nations are failing, the very fabric of society is failing,...

Giving for some strange reason has been somewhat contentious recently, anyway, it was a bit problematic during the early church, and should have been clearer after these many years. For many of these new believers and some converts from Judaism, giving in the New testament was strange; it wasn't out of compulsion or duty anymore like the Pharisees used to demand understand the Levitical priesthood...

You are the temple of the Holy Spirit. This has huge ramifications. The fact that God lives inside you has to count for something; you are not your own person any more, you are consecrated to God. Whenever I think about this point, I thank God for Jesus and for the New covenant. Imagine if we were God's temple and the rules of the Old testament applied? I am not sure there would be many of us left...

The New testament is amazing, it tells us that we now belong to Christ, this is what guarantees our righteousness and right standing with God. When you truly understand this, you will realise the futility at wanting to live and be justified by the old covenant. Paul tells us; "This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun. And all...

Why does bad and unpleasant things happen to good people? If you've never asked this question before, then you are part of a very few. I remember when my brother passed on, I was like, God, why? You might even be in the same state this morning as you read today's devotional. Paul tries to give us two perspectives as to why he thinks these things happen as he start this second letter to the Corinth...

"Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. And do everything with love." 1Cor 16:13-14. I find these two verses Paul shares as his most compact message. We ought to stand guard because we know our adversary, like a thief in the night, is looking to break-in to steal, kill and destroy. We must be watchful and prayerful. We stand firm in the faith because we know our faith will...

Paul says; "three things will last forever - faith, hope, and love - and the greatest of these is love." 1Cor 13:13. Your faith, hope and love will follow you into eternity. That means they will last you forever. When the Bible speaks about us giving account of our times here on earth, these three things are what we are going to account for. However, Paul says love trumps the other two. Actually,...

Most people who read the book of Corinthians find Paul's opinions in chapter 11 somewhat controversial and derogatory of women. Let me attempt to make this chapter clearer. My advise is that when reading chapter 11, instead of seeing this as Paul's opinion about women in general, realize first of all that he is referring to married women. Secondly, read chapter 11 with the understanding that Paul...

Would you have followed Jesus when he walked, lived and fulfilled his ministry? The majority would immediately claim; certainly. However, I am not so sure. My opinion is that the majority of Christians around today would have rejected Jesus just as the Jewish people did. They called him a wine bibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners (Luke 7:34). How many of us would truthfully have moved wi...

The Corinthian Church faced many struggles, and Paul has addressed a few already in the book; divisions, siding with church leaders against one another, avoiding sexual immorality and taking one another to court. Paul continues this pattern in chapters 7 and 8 where he gives the church instructions on marriage in light of the difficult times they were living in, and then how they should handle or...

The apostle Paul has some strong words for those who think they can live however they choose and especially since they now have liberty in Christ, Paul says; "don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honour God with your body." 1 Cor 6:19-20. Some...

Paul continues to address the divisions and infighting in the Corinthian church. In their case, the division was happening as a result of them comparing Paul's work with them to Apollos'. We often feel the need to compare so that we can take sides. Paul however warns us that there are no sides here, there is only Christ. We are all building on the same foundation and each one of us, one day will h...

Paul's first letter to the Corinthians is such a profound and useful lesson for us today. Corinth was a big cosmopolitan city which also impacted the church as it was full of Greeks; the rich, the poor, illiterate, learned, etc. For a background of Paul's first encounter with the Corinthians, please read Acts chapter 18. Paul had lived among them for about two year along with Priscilla and Aquila,...

The gifts of the Spirit enables us in a ministry situation to exact the will of God and see people healed and liberated from the bondage of the devil. With the gifts of the Spirit, we are able to demonstrate God's power. Like Jesus in Acts 10:38, we are able to go about doing good and healing everyone oppressed by the devil. Today, I am going to tell you how to see the these nine gifts work freely...

In my opinion, the inspirational gifts are the most misunderstood and I mis-applied of all nine spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit. The inspirational gifts are; the gift of prophecy, speaking in diverse kind of tongues and the gift of the interpretation of tongues. The gift of prophecy is often used to wrongly manipulate and control people, the gift of speaking in diverse kind of tongues is often...

Today, we discuss the sets of spiritual gifts referred to as the Power gifts. The Power gifts of the Holy Spirit enables the believer in a ministry situation to act, to do something on behalf of God. The Power gifts are; the Gift of Faith, the working of Miracles and the Gifts of healing. The gift of Faith enables us to have assurance or confidence that God will prove his power in the moment we ar...

In today's devotional, we continue our discussion on the spiritual gifts with a focus on the revelational gifts. The Revelational gifts comprises; the gift of the Word of Wisdom, the gift of the Word of Knowledge and the Discerning of Spirits. The gift of the Word of Wisdom reveals something in God's plan in the future and helps us position favourably. At times, it comes simply as a warning so we...