TODAY’S DEVOTION (Friday 6TH November 2020)
“So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”
Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”
He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.
So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.”
And Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! Genesis 4:6-13 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 309TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
Day unto day mankind gets closer and closer to the final consummation. But many are not aware; yes, billions are not aware of the imminent consummation of all things.
Our personal needs consciousness has blinded us and limited our vision from seeing what we ought to be seeing about the final moments of the earth.
The power of our selfish and carnal desires has consumed us terribly.
We now grope in spiritual darkness like the lost! Exception of the religious things we do and say, there is not much difference between us and the dying world.
We allow the very winds that blows them to blow us like they do instead of the prophetic winds of the Spirit of truth. That is why we suffer what they suffer and are as eternally damned as them, yet calling ourselves “born again.”
But the mercies of the LORD are from everlasting to everlasting.
If we will make use of them and wake up from this slumber now that it is day, things will be different, because the night comes when no man can work.
Sadly, but surely, that night is fast approaching! When it finally comes, mankind will know that they have been deceived by the forces of evil not to make Jesus Christ their LORD and savior, and eternal things their greatest attention in this life.
Yesterday we shared about the power and impact of divine backing. We discovered that it is one of the blessings that God’s Mercy places on objects of His mercy. Today the LORD will be taking us a step further.
First of all, I want to reiterate again that God’s Mercy is a Seed! You may not agree with me, but God’s mercy is more of a seed than a need.
THAT IS WHY MANY ARE NOT MAKING PROPER USE OF IT.
For instance, if Cain had known that God’s Mercy is a seed he would have made a good use of it and raise a seed of righteousness on the face of the earth instead of the seed he raised. Many do not know that the people God regretted creating in Genesis Chapter 6 were offspring of Cain.
If their ancestor Cain had made use of God’s mercy when it was available to him, they would have escaped God’s judgment. God’s mercy is a seed not necessarily a need!
Even the offspring of Cain that were caught up in the judgment of the flood of Noah received a deposit of God’s Mercy.
But because they did not see it as a seed, they could not make use of it. Because they saw it as a need (or what they deserved like their father did), none of them made use of it to escape the judgment. If you do not see God’s mercy as a seed, you will never be saved from what GOD sent it to save you from.
At this point, let’s back track a little and look at the life of Cain again.
Our devotional text presents the story of a man who sinned against God by violating offering principles.
When God rejected his offerings it was an act of mercy. There are people God will reject their offerings and yet they will not even know. The pastor will accept it but GOD will reject it. But not Cain – God was so merciful on Him that He told him why His offering was rejected.
But instead of making use of that he moved further into sin. He killed who God gave him to keep – His brother. The Bible says,
Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”
He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.
IF YOU ARE NOT YOUR BROTHER’S KEEPER, ONE DAY YOU WILL BE YOUR BROTHER’S KILLER!
A generation that does not make use of God’s mercy will move from sin to sin and from wickedness to wickedness, and sometimes it will be doing so on its knees asking God for mercy and forgiveness without making use of the mercy He has made available to repent from their sins.
When Cain was chastised by the LORD with a rejection of His offering, he did not make use of God’s mercy that manifested as a divine rebuke. He went ahead to kill his brother and the blood of his brother began to cry against him from the ground.
When mercy came again to reveal to him the consequences of his sins, his response became more terrible. He again did not make use of it to repent but rather did what many of us do!
He said to God “My punishment is greater than I can bear!”
In other words, he was saying to GOD “I deserve mercy irrespective of what I may have done!” That is the worst way to relate to GOD. We do not deserve mercy if there is no repentance from sin and wickedness!
Like earlier shared, Cain’s offspring will later grow up destroying all moral principles and filling the heart of GOD with so much pain, consequently bringing about the first global judgment of sin and wickedness.
Mercy is a seed not just a need! If GOD sow it in our lives and we do not allow a harvest of repentance to spring up from us, we will never escape what GOD seeded it into our lives to save us from.
Sometimes God will seed mercy into our lives to save us from earthly perils like premature death, natural disasters, demonic attacks, lack or poverty, sudden destructions, unknown enemies, sicknesses or diseases. Other times He will seed it into our lives to save us from eternal perils like eternal judgment – an eternal life in hell fire.
Let me reiterate again that if God “seed” mercy into our lives and we do not allow a harvest of repentance from sin and wickedness to spring up from us we will not escape what He seeded that mercy into our lives to save us from.
Finally, I want to let us know that we are in the days of God’s mercy – that is as many of us that are alive. Very soon the curtain will close on each and every one of us and mercy will be over. We will come face to face with GOD to answer before HIM.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY!
“But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?
Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” 2 Peter 3:8-13 NKJV