TODAY’S DEVOTION (Thursday 5TH November 2020)
“Yes, in the way of your judgments, O Lord, we have waited for You; the desire of our soul is for Your name and for the remembrance of You.
With my soul I have desired You in the night, Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek you early; For when Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
Let grace be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness; In the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord.” Isaiah 26:8-10 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 308TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
This morning, we will be looking at the subject of divine backing. God did not create a world that man can live and survive in without Him. Even those who deny His existence are kept by Him.
His air is keeping the blood He created in us circulate. His sun shines upon us and make our lives beautiful. Our food is cooked from His plants. His water is what keep us healthy.
In fact, there is nothing in or about us that belong to us. We are His. It’s just that many have denied Him that right of ownership, hence are presently owned by the evil one.
So, God did not create an earth where one can live without Him! That is why anyone of thing that lacks divine backing will end up in the valleys of trouble, sorrows, regrets, disappointment and etc.
Peter before the cross, comes to mind at this point. He toiled all night and caught nothing. But the few minutes Jesus backed Him, he had the greatest catch of fish in his life.
One act of divine backing is all we need to became significant or successful in life. John the Baptist said,
“A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven” (John 3:27 NKJV).
If your life is full of struggles, toiling, and all the ills of this world, check whatever you may be doing. It’s a sign that you lack divine backing. If you are backed by the LORD, you cannot be turn back by men or devils, except you surrender and refuse to fight.
MOST TIMES, DIVINE BACKING IS RELEASED WHEN WE RESIST THE ENEMY, OR CONFRONT HIM IN BATTLE.
People who give up easily in life may never see God back them in anything. God does not back fearful and lazy people. You will hardly see God fighting for you if you are not a fighter in life. God works with, and for those who are working with, and for Him. I hope you understand that.
If you can stand, you will see His backings. That is why, if the mercy of the LORD is upon your life, you should not give up easily in any battle of life. Learn to stand. If you learn to stand you will soon discover that when God shows you Mercy in what you may be doing, you will begin to enjoy divine backing.
There is something else you need to know, and here is it; Divine backing is a blessing only for those who are in divine will. I grew up to discover that God will never release mercy to manifest as divine backing in our lives until we step into divine will.
In other words, if our marriages are not within divine will, we will never see “GOD’s mercy” manifesting in it, consequently missing divine backing in our marital experiences. There will just be unquenchable troubles and all kinds of wars in it.
If your economic life is not governed by divine will and ways, you will be toiling all day or night, depending on what you may be doing. If perhaps you finally get the money, something will always happen to eat it up away. I have heard people call that a curse. But it is not always a curse.
Yes, financial curses exist. They are responsible for the poverty of some people. But we must also understand that if a man’s ways please the LORD the curses on his life will be turned into blessings.
Like I put it one of those word sessions we had, I think the real curse in people’s lives, is not the presence of the curse itself but the absence of divine backing in their lives!
IF YOU LACK DIVINE BACKING, YOU WILL NEVER MISS DEMONIC BEATINGS!
The reason for toiling all day or night, and yet not coming out well economically is simple. So many of us are not living our economic lives in symphony with divine will and ways hence not experiencing divine backing in our economic ventures.
Divine backing is always the missing ingredient in the life of anyone who may be suffering any form of economic hardship. It is the missing link in the life of anyone who may having any of these questions;
1. What in the world is happening to me?
2. What am I not doing right in this ministry, marriage or business?
3. Why are things no working for me?
Sadly, most preachers blame these things on curses and evil foundations. They are blind to the things of God hence teaching the things of Satan. Again I sate that the real curse in anyone’s life is not the presence of any curse itself, but the absence of divine backing in the person’s life. Nothing else!
What most call curses are simply products of activities that lack God’s backing!
I have come to realize that your “Christian mouth” may be full of prayers, positive confessions, and your hands full of giving, but if there is no divine backing in your life, it will still be full of troubles. That is why I teach that one must first secure divine backing before even opening his mouth to pray or confess anything positively.
Life will remain negative (in spite of being positive) if there is no divine backing. And like we shared earlier, divine backing is a child of God’s Mercy released upon a life that is in symphony with God’s will and ways.
A generation that want to spend their days enjoying God’s mercy must learn to spend their lives within His will and ways. Everlasting mercy is for those who are involved in the activities of the everlasting God. People sold out to the will and ways of the LORD!
TALKING ABOUT DIVINE WILL AND WAYS, I REMEMBER DEDICATING AN ENTIRE MONTH ON THAT IN ONE OF OUR DEVOTIONALS.
God’s mercy cannot be released to back us in things that are not God’s will or done in His ways. God’s mercy does not GROW lives that are doing things their own ways. The Church must understand that.
Because of His just nature, God does not release mercy on people who are doing things in their will and ways. That is why you cannot find Him pouring His mercy on the wicked. Except they repent, He is angry with them every day!
The only act of mercy you see God pour on the wicked is the restraining of His Spirit not to judge them, and the release of His word to exhume repentance from them. He does not show them mercy by solving their personal wickedness related problems.
For instance, here is a man or woman with another person’s wife or husband, or even with a woman or man he did not marry in God’s will and ways, having troubles in life, and trusting God for mercy to sought them out for him or her.
The truth of the matter is it will never happen. God will never solve his or her problems even if he gives the greatest offerings or does the longest fasting in Church.
God does not justify the wicked. We must first repent of our evil ways, and return back to Him in repentance before we can secure His great mercies. That is one lesson you can glean from the story of the prodigal son.
He did not remain in the land of his rebellion and sin when he needed mercy. He returned to the father before he secured mercy.
Many of us do not return yet we want GOD to have mercy on us.
You find people in their pools of sin and sorrows crying unto God to have mercy and take away their sorrows. It does not work that way. We will never secure it. That is why the message of repentance is what all suffering sinners need to be free from their sufferings. Not enemy killing, curse breaking, or seed sowing gospel.
Until the sinner repents, he stands unjustified before GOD. Justification by faith is a child of repentance from dead works, not a child of reciting the sinner’s poem called “sinners prayer.”
WHAT IS THE MESSAGE OF OUR DEVOTIONAL THIS MORNING?
The message is simple. Life will be full of miseries if we do not have divine backing. And divine backing is not a child of prayers, fasting, or giving. It is a Child of GOD’s Mercy.
GOD’s everlasting mercy is not a blessing Heaven places on everyone. It is a blessing Heaven releases on those who have repented of their sins and doing His blessed will on earth in His blessed ways.
In other words, God does not have mercy on the wicked. The Bible makes it clear that He is angry with the wicked every day. Not merciful on them!
I am yet to see a place in scriptures where God spoke kindly to the wicked and all those who take delight in living in wicked ways. His just nature will never let that happen. He is merciful but at the same time just!
Truth and mercy must meet together for lives to experience divine backing.
It is our genuine repentance that activates His Mercifulness not to give us any judgment we deserve. Lack of repentance activates His just nature to give us what we deserve. We must understand that!
Sometimes correctional judgments are released even while we are alive because if His judgments are not on the earth, the inhabitants of the world will not learn righteousness!
That brings us to our devotional text this morning. A major highlight of it says,
“For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Let grace be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness; In the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord.”
It’s my prayer that GOD use this word to sustain you in your walk and talk with Him, so that you will not be found following the counsel of the wicked, standing on the ways of sinners or sitting on the seat of the scornful.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. Psalms 1:1-6 NKJV