TODAY’S DEVOTION (FRIDAY 15TH NOVEMBER 2024)
Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you.
The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
“Lift up your eyes all around, and see: They all gather together, they come to you; Your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side.
Then you shall see and become radiant, And your heart shall swell with joy; Because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you. Isaiah 60:1-5 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 320TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
God’s amazing grace has been the secret of the impact of His word, power, presence, mercies, love and compassion on our lives this year.
The Bible teaches of the presence of dark invisible kingdoms that control things in our visible world. These kingdoms sometimes place things beyond our control, so that their evil plans against us can come to pass, either we desire them or not. But God’s amazing grace have been keeping us, that is why we are still hear.
This morning, the LORD will be speaking to us. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD. I hope we are ready to receive.
Let me begin by saying there are ancient mysteries and forces that lies behind the things we see happen in the natural realm. These mysteries and forces are in the unseen realm. They shape cultures, traditions, decisions, and lifestyles using the power of sight and sound. They also use our feelings.
Another thing they do is making people godless and lawless by removing the sense of accountability to God, from the hearts of people who are exposed to the things they create and offer. There is a culture of terminating the sense of accountability to God from the hearts of even people in Church.
That is why there are so many perilous people around who are disobedient to righteous spiritual and biological authority.
It seems to me that the worst attack that we are facing is in the area of submission and accountability to God, His word, His Spirit and His delegated authorities.
PEOPLE NO LONGER WANT TO BE ACCOUNTABLE. THEY JUST WANT TO BE LAWLESS.
The mysteries and forces that lies behind these developments are deleting the sense of accountability to God, His word, His Spirit, and His righteous authorities from people daily. We hear His word, but do not obey. We sense His Spirit on our lives, but do not yield to Him. We are placed under righteous authorities, but are not accountable to them.
That is why lawlessness is on the rise. It is in fact an end time Bible prophecy. Jesus says;
“And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” Matthew 24:10-12 NKJV
In other words, this Bible prophecy was saying that, there will be a time when the sense of accountability will be lost from the hearts of many, leading to an increase in lawlessness. But everything will begin from the valley of offense, then continue in the pits of betrayal and hate.
Then results in the rise of false prophets, whose ministries will kill the love of many – their love for GOD. The valley of offenses is presented here as the breeding ground for the rest of the things the Bible says will develop. Indeed, once a person become offended, they go lawless.
Personally, I looked at my life to check times I had gone lawless; seasons I had not obeyed the word of the LORD, His Holy Spirit and righteous authority. Most of the seasons were seasons when I was offended. Indeed, there is a connection between getting offended and becoming lawless.
Sometimes, when we face delay in the manifestation of certain things in our lives, we become offended. Other times, when people do very bad things to us, we become justly offended. I have come to discover that offense could be just, but it will still generate lawlessness in our lives.
Either justifiable or not, getting offended is not good for our spiritual health. Yes, be it a justified or an unjustified offense, all offenses create same negative impacts on our spiritual lives.
Offenses make people seek for vengeance, and when they do not find it, they become lawless. It also makes people to no longer desire to be accountable. It makes people seek a freedom that has captivity in it, and that freedom is lawlessness.
IT MAKES PEOPLE BETRAY ONE ANOTHER, HATE ONE ANOTHER, AND CREATE THE ENVIRONMENT FOR FALSE PROPHETS TO RISE.
One thing we must all watch against, is offense. The Bible says they must come. So, we must build a resistance against them, and in most cases, be prepared for them. If we do not do that, they will come and flaw our relationship with people, dent our faith, and influence us to hate accountability and make us lawless.
I have come to realize that lawlessness and wickedness are children of a heart that has lost its sense of accountability. They result from a heart that is out of the control of the fear of GOD. When you lose the sense of accountability, you are no longer controlled by the fear of God.
Now get this straight my friend. It is when the fear of GOD controls our hearts that it fills us with the sense of accountability to GOD.
It is that sense of accountability that His Holy Spirit puts in us, that convicts a sinner of judgment and gets him or her converted to the LORD, the Judge of all.
A lot is happening in the unseen realm that is affecting the seen realm very badly. The darkness that is covering our earth, and the deep darkness that has covered so many people is crippling. That is why we need God’s amazing grace as never before.
There was this place in the Bible that Paul had it rough with some of these elements of darkness. But God’s amazing grace helped him to come out well.
The man of GOD would later write to the Church at Corinth saying,
“And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.
Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.
And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 NKJV
THIS SCRIPTURE PRESENTS TO US ONE OF THE EXPLOITS OF GOD’S GRACE.
It made it clear that, only God’s amazing grace can help us neutralize these mysteries and forces in the unseen realm. When we are kindled with it, we can begin to rise and shine the light of Christ into the underlying darkness, destroying its influence completely.
That brings us to our devotional text. The Bible says;
“Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you.
The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
“Lift up your eyes all around, and see: They all gather together, they come to you; Your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side.
Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall swell with joy; Because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you.” Isaiah 60:1-5 NKJV
One of the major impacts of God’s grace is what we see in this scripture, divine distinction. It neutralizes any influence of the enemy in our lives, and makes us shine to the point of becoming radiant, despite any darkness around our lives. It serves as an antidote to all elements of darkness by increasing the light of Christ in our lives in the midst of any darkness.
The scripture is also an end time Bible prophecy, and the prophecy is about an end time people that Christ, the glory of the LORD, will rise upon because of the darkness that will cover the earth, and because of the gross darkness that will cover the people.
THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY IN THAT BIBLE PROPHECY.
We, the end time believers, happen to be that end time people that God’s glory want to rise upon. The Bible spoke about the rise of the Church that is holy, blameless, and without spot or wrinkle. We are to be that Church by virtue of the grace and glory of the LORD upon our lives.
The kingdom intent is for Christ to rise over us, from within us, to impact the dark lives of those who are trapped in the gross darkness of our age and time.
He wants to use our kindness, forgiveness, love, mercy, endurance, holiness, sacrifices for others, integrity, consistency, patience with the spiritually weak, compassion, prayer lives, faithfulness to others, self-control, discipline, sexual purity, faith, and other kingdom values we demonstrate and live, to deliver them from the grip of the gross darkness they are under.
The question now is this, will He find such virtues in us to use? Are our lives having these kingdom values?
Sadly, the answer for many of us is no. That is why God is calling on us to wake up in grace and truth, and provide Him with kingdom values to use in touching the lives around us. There has been so much intelligent preaching but so little kingdom values, that is why many are still in the grip of gross darkness.
God wants us to be like that fig tree that the LORD will check and find what to use, in quenching His hunger of bringing souls out of the grip of gross darkness. We should not be like the fig tree that is full of leaves but no character fruits; no kingdom values for Christ to use to genuinely bring perishing souls out of the gross darkness of our age, to His shining light.
He said in His word;
“For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field are Mine.
“If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all its fullness.” Psalm 50:10-12 NKJV
We can glean a great truth from this rebuke God sent to Israel when they thought the sacrifices they were given are for His benefit. In fact, some of them thought they were feeding Him; they thought He was eating the roasted meat.
THAT WAS WHY HE SAID TO THEM, “IF I WERE HUNGRY, I WOULD NOT HAVE ASKED YOU.”
If He were hungry, He would have just reached out to the animals by Himself, and take some to roast and eat.” Do not forget, He is the consuming fire. So, He would not have needed a fire to roast them.
The truth I want us to examine is buried in the statement that’s says “If I were hungry, I would not tell you.”
The question is, is GOD hungry now? Yes, He is; and what is He hungry for? Well, God is hungry, and He is hungry to see His will done on earth as written in Heaven. He is hungry to see the souls covered in gross darkness come to light.
He is hungry but our lives lack what can satisfy the hunger – our lives lack the kingdom values He is looking for. It lacks the practical Christian living that He needs to change the lives of many.
The Christian values that His Holy Spirit needs to fish perishing souls from the dark waters of sinful and wicked deeds are absent in most lives. We have so much preaching, prayer and etc. but that will never be enough.
God need Christian values to use.
Is it not shameful that with Churches everywhere, there is still no reduction in sinful living? We have been made to believe that it is our songs, preaching, prayers, fasting, church services and religious activities, that will save the world.
But as good as these things are, Jesus teaches differently. He teaches that our Christian values will save the world much more. That is why He called us the salt of the earth.
Our calling is to be the salt of the earth, and the light of the dark world. We are to salt the earth with Kingdom values, and lighten the world with purity, holiness, righteousness, integrity, faithfulness, and etc.
THE BIBLE TEACHES THAT IF WE DO THAT, WE WILL GET MANY SAVED.
It says we will become fountains of God’s blessings on earth, and Heaven will bring many to us to experience moral transformation and become saved and sanctified. The wealth of the nations will also come to us, eliminating any lack and poverty in our lives.
It says,
“The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. …. Your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side. ….
Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall swell with joy; Because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you.”
You can see in this scripture how many are hindering their economic prosperity by not being Christians with values. Many are Christians with vices but not Christians with great moral values.
We have been taught that, it is when we give to the preacher, that we will have the wealth of the wicked transferred to us, but we forget that God will never transfer wealth from the wicked to the wicked.
Time to wake up from slumber! Time to be a Christian by kingdom values. No more Christianity with worldly vices wrapped in religious practices and hypocrisy. Amen
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR TODAY!
“Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry.
And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.
In response Jesus said to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.” And His disciples heard it.” Mark 11:12-14 NKJV