THE CRY OF THE SPIRIT DEVOTIONALS – BY RICHARD E. S. TAKIM

TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Monday 1st March 2021)

“Hear my cry, O God; Attend to my prayer. From the end of the earth I will cry to You, When my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in Your [b]tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of Your wings.” Selah Psalm 61:1-4 NKJV

WELCOME TO THE 60TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS!

It is the first day of a new month! God have been faithful and has kept us all through the month of February and now brought us safely to a new month.

It is a great thing to serve a God who is always mindful of us. No matter the circumstances we find ourselves, He remains mindful, reachable and loving.

Sometimes it is difficult to meet your pastor for even a moment of counseling but this God has no such protocols for meeting Him.

Unlike us, He can be with you even in your bedroom to hear the prayers of your inner most being. He may use us to reach you with a word from His throne but it’s important to develop the faith to have Him minister to you right in your bedroom.

As we move into this new month I want to share a word I feel we need to travel through this month safely. Moses said to God (that is the Pre incarnate Christ);

“LORD, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” Psalm 90:1-2 KJV

Man was created, not to live on earth. Man was created to live in God on earth. The two are not the same. You can be living on earth and you can also be living in God on earth.

If you live on earth, you are not safe, and God knew that. The reason is because the fallen angel was already on ground before man was created.

So the security of mankind from this fallen angel and his cohorts was top in God’s agenda during creation. That was why He created man to live in Him on earth. If you carry out a check, you will discover that a lot have been happening to mankind for not living in God while living on this planet.

We left that hiding place when Adam and Eve sinned, and all hell broke loose on the human race. Death, diseases, destruction, and all that darkness offers was upon us. Then the first global judgment came to cleanse the earth of some of the evil and give mankind relative peace.

BUT IT WAS NOT LONG, THINGS RETURNED BACK TO ABNORMAL MODE AGAIN.

Evil was on rampage again. Killings, destruction and all darkness can offer was unleashed on the human race again. Then God activated His redemptive plan that had been before the foundation of the world to cushion what was happening. The nation of Israel was born to play a major role in the plan.

He walked with them until He came down in the flesh through them and walked the earth for 33 and half years. After which He paid the ultimate price for our redemption, opening the gates to the very hiding place man was before the fall. Today, we can be totally protected until our days are fulfilled.

The hiding place then was His manifestation as the LORD GOD. The hiding place today is His manifestation as Christ.

If anyone be in Him, he or she is not just a new creation. If anyone be in Him, he or she will be hidden under the rock where the devil can do him or her no harm. A major Highlight in our devotional text says,

“Hear my cry, O God; Attend to my prayer. From the end of the earth I will cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” Psalm 61:1-2 NKJV

I believe this is one prayer we have to travel with this month. God answers prayers! This is one prayer that should no depart from our hearts this month and as we seek to fulfill our days within this month, serving our generation according to the will of God.

There will be seasons when our hearts will be overwhelmed by events. Yes, there will be season when winds, storms, and floods will come. When they do, we must yield to the Holy Spirit allow Him to lead us to the Rock that is Higher than us. If we are not led, we will be destroyed. It is when we are led that we are sheltered.

The rest of the text says,

“For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in Your [b]tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of Your wings.” Selah

Jesus remains the Rock higher than us. He remains the Rock to hide or be led to when we are overwhelmed by the issue of life. He remains our shelter!

I believe, in a year of higher heights; we must learn to always hide in the Rock that is higher than us. His Holy Spirit is here to help us; yes, He is there to guide us and show us how to hide under Him from time to time.

TODAY, OUR WORLD IS GETTING DANGEROUS BY THE DAY.

So many do not know where to turn to. But we know! We have a Rock to always turn to. We have a Rock to live in. We must all learn to do just that. If we do not learn how to live in this Rock of Ages, our God who formed us in our mother’s womb as we pass through this month, we may not survive. He spoke to us saying;

“But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you.” Isaiah 43:1-2 NKJV

We must believe in the word of the LORD this morning of we have Him as our advocate not a prosecutor or an enemy. Remember the message that was taught yesterday. Jesus want to be our advocate but we have a way of making Him our prosecutor or enemy.

He wants to be with us when we pass through the waters, and through the rivers so that they will not overflow us. Yes, He wants to make sure that when we walk through the fire we will not be burned; that the flame will no scorch us. But all that will only happen if He remains our advocate.

Child of God, there seems to be fresh demons loosed into the planet each hour going by the things that are happening. We need Him as our advocate now more than ever. We do not need Him as a prosecutor hence should not be hypocrites. We cannot withstand Him as an enemy who will turn to fight us hence should not be rebels like Saul was.

Remember, when he fought Saul as pre incarnate Christ, the Bible says the man began to consult witches and would finally die in battle. He lost all the protection He once enjoyed from the LORD.

We cannot live on an earth that is regularly infested with demons without the protection of God over our lives. We cannot live on an earth that is full of all kinds of unknown enemies without being under the covering shelter of our advocate, who can manifest in our lives as the Rock that is higher than us. We will be destroyed in moments. We need Him on our side!

We need Jesus Christ our advocate not as an enemy or prosecutor!

WE CANNOT HAVE THIS ADVOCATE AS AN ENEMY OR A PROSECUTOR.

No one will be able to afford it. As an enemy the scriptures tells us that He will fight against us, and as a prosecutor the scripture says He will ask us to contend with Him, put Him in remembrance, state our case or present a strong reason whenever we need help from Him. And that is not good! My Father should not do that to me.

The prophet Isaiah puts it this way;

“Put Me in remembrance; Let us contend together; State your case, that you may be [a]acquitted. Your first father sinned, and your [b]mediators have transgressed against Me. Therefore, I will profane the princes of the sanctuary; I will give Jacob to the curse, And Israel to reproaches”. Isaiah 43:26-28 NKJV

From this scripture, it’s clear that it is very dangerous to be persecuted by the LORD. When Christ becomes a prosecutor He will begin to ask you to put Him in remembrance and state your case; He will begin to invite you to come contend with Him. But the Bible says woe is he who contends with his maker.

Sadly, we have been taught by evangelistic ministries who have no true understanding of this scripture, to contend with God, to always put Him in remembrance and state our case. I did that too when I was listening to some of our spiritual fathers in Nigeria; evangelists by content.

A whole generation of believers grew doing that; you can now see the result on all of us. We have Christianity without Christ; forms of godliness without power. Our greatest need is to be delivered from one demon or the other. Friend, it is dangerous to be invited for contention by the LORD.

Proper relationship with Christ will not put you in a position where you would have to put state your case, show why you must be justified, contend with Him by putting Him in remembrance, before He does anything for you.

IT IS HYPOCRISY THAT PUTS US IN SUCH A STATE.

It is our false worship that puts us in such a state. If you profess with your lips that you know Him, but deny Him with your character, you will be put in this sorry state.

Let me reiterate again that hypocrisy will put Christ in a position to be our persecutor instead of advocate, losing all the protection we need from the LORD in days of adversity. It will hinder us from having Him as the Rock that is higher than us when our hearts are overwhelmed.

I believe with the whole of my hearts that if these scriptures (e.g. Isaiah 43:26-28) where properly presented, we would not have been in the spiritual state we find ourselves today, as believers. We all seems to be ignorant of the fact that the Bible was written by the hands of apostles and prophets. And that only apostolic and prophetic frequencies (by content not titles) can decode it for us.

The lack of apostles and prophets by office in the body of Christ has made us to swallow wrong teachings that have not helped us. For instance, someone may look at what is happening in the Nigerian Church and elsewhere and say we have prophets. Yes, we have many false prophets and few true prophets, but the few are PROPHETS BY GIFT only not by office.

That is why we have not had accurate presentation of truth from age to age. We have just had prophecies and prayer points; sometimes coined out of misunderstood scriptures.

No prophet by gift can properly decode the mysteries in the scriptures. They can only flow in the gift of the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom, prophecy, and maybe discerning of spirits.

That is why they were designed to sit under apostles and prophets by office and function as Church members market place ministers of the gospel, not as apostles, pastors, bishops or whatever they may be calling themselves heading churches.

May God give us apostles and prophets by office to help us uncover more mysteries in the Holy Scriptures.

Child of God, as we bring this to a close, I want you to understand that God wants us to have the LORD on our side as an advocate, not a persecutor or an enemy. And this month can be one of the best months of your life if you spend it retaining Christ as your advocate, and making sure you do not Put Him in a position where He will become either your prosecutor or enemy.

I advise that you order for the messages that were preached yesterday in the first and second services. You can call 0706370792 to know how you can get them. It can be sent to you online if you can afford it. We will only need a functional email from you.

Happy New Month!

LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY

“My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. 1 John 2:1-2