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

TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Wednesday 5th May 2021)

“I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me. A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will not know wickedness.

Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, Him I will destroy; The one who has a haughty look and a proud heart, Him I will not endure.

My eyes shall be on the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; He who walks in a perfect way, He shall serve me. He who works deceit shall not dwell within my house; He who tells lies shall not continue in my presence.

Early I will destroy all the wicked of the land, that I may cut off all the evildoers from the city of the LORD.” Psalm 101:3-8 NKJV

WELCOME TO THE 125th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS!

The LORD reigns, let the earth tremble. Let those who hate Him flee from before Him. He sits enthroned above the darkness of the earth, and fixes His eyes on the faithful among men; to show Himself mighty on their behalf.

Glory to His great name!

He functions as a stronghold for all whose hearts yield to Him. He manifests Himself as a weapon of war when the evil one comes in like a flood to stop His works. That is the God we serve.

When He increases the greatness of His own, He has a way of comforting them on every side, because of the cost of being great in His sight in a wicked and perverse generation.

To this God we bow and pay our allegiance; to Him we yield the totality of our worship. He has given us another day, for us to fear Him and serve our generation according to His will.

The book of Genesis chapter one and two makes it clear that man was created to serve. That was why the earth was created first, and that was why a Garden was planted for Him to dwell in and operated from.

Yes, we were created to serve the will of our creator and make sure it is done on earth as written in Heaven; both in our lives and the lives of others.

Serving our generation according to the will of God will make sure that His redemptive will is done in our lives and the lives of those He has placed under our influence, as written in Heaven; not as controlled by the flesh, or the evil and corrupt system of this world.

IT IS THOSE WHO ARE SERVING THAT ARE REFRESHED BY THE LORD.

God beautifies who serves Him. Even the life of Lucifer testifies of that. Yes, concerning the beauty God conferred on Lucifer befall he fell, the Bible says;

“You were the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The sardius, topaz, and diamond, Beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes Was prepared for you on the day you were created.

“You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones.

You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you.” Ezekiel 28:12-15 NKJV

You see, if God could beautify Lucifer who was just an angle, for serving Him according His will and ways, why won’t He beautify us who are His Sons for serving Him in His will and ways. We are His offspring you know; in his image and likeness, but Lucifer was not an offspring. He was just a creature.

We are in a position that should enjoy higher privileges than he did when he was serving in Heaven.

That is why if your life is ugly, despite of your services to God, you should carry out a check on yourself to see if you are serving in His will and ways. Because even in the midst of persecution, hunger, poverty or thirst, your life will not lack His glory if your services are in His will and ways!

THAT IS THE BIBLE TRUTH!

God’s people, servicing Him in His will and ways, will never lack God’s glory in their lives, even if they are sleeping in caves. They will never have a problem that will put them on deliverance queues. They will never be ugly in any aspect of life.

The Bible made it clear that Lucifer’s life remained beautified by the LORD until iniquity was found in him. The Prophet Isaiah, put it this way;

“How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations!

For you have said in your heart:

‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north;

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit.” Isaiah 14:12-15 NKJV

As we can see in this scripture, when iniquity was found in Lucifer, he began to render his service to God in his own will and way. He began to conceive visions and desires that ran contrary to God’s will and ways. The result was terrible; he was casted out of his exalted place in Heaven.

He was sent away from the place of God’s plans for him. Consequently, was brought low to Sheol or the abode of the dead. He descended into the lowest depths of hell.

Friend, our lives will not be different if we do the same.

That is why many who we considered faithful believers, because of what we considered as their services to the LORD, are many times found descending in life, to the lowest parts of Sheol, leaving our hearts wondering what on earth is happening to them. You find them begging and borrowing despite their so called services to the LORD.

If they are preachers, they will be troubling their members for tithes and offering; calling them on phone to send all kinds of monies to them, making beautiful prayers in pretense.

IN SOME CASES, SENDING THEIR ASSOCIATES TO DO THAT ON THEIR BEHALF.

Personally, I will never worship in a Church whose pastor calls people to send their tithes and offerings to him or the church. It’s a dangerous sign in the spirit.

It is a sign that the fellow has left God’s ways and will, and is now descending into the lowest parts of hell. He needs APOSTOLIC HELP to return back to God not tithes and offerings. But church people are ignorant of this Bible truth, hence walking in sentiments with their giving, and sending it to them, instead of walking in the Spirit with it.

You may hate me for saying this Bible truth, I do not care.

In fact, am not the first to be hated, neither will you be the first to hate people like us. We are getting close to the end. It has become unsafe to hide any truth from God’s people.

iniquity was found in the services that Lucifer was rendering then, and he began to loose spiritual momentum and descend. That was why he said “I will ascend…

A lot of us preachers are descending because iniquity is in our services to the LORD.

Church members must become careful of sending their giving to many of us in ministry. Our will and ways have gone opposite God’s will and ways, in marriage matters, money matters, spiritual matters, and etc.

You may not understand me, but I pray you do.

We now walk in iniquity, not just sin or trespass. Iniquity is when our will and ways comes in opposite direction to God’s will and ways; it is when we are no longer aligned with the LORD.

Sadly, just as you need equipment to tell when technical things are no longer in alignment, so will you need apostolic grace and truth to know when a preacher or a church member has lost alignment with God. Meaning, wherever it is missing, people will never know.

In other words, you will not easily tell when someone has lost alignment with God without an apostolic grace and truth, most times wrapped in a prophetic mantle.

THIS KIND OF SPIRITUAL CONDITION ONLY DEVELOPS IN A PERSON’S HEART.

The Bible says men look at outward appearance, only God sees the heart. That places us in a difficult situation.

The truth is, except the Spirit of the LORD, who sees the hearts of men, teaches us (maybe using His apostolic grace and truth), we will be very limited in knowing what may have happened in the hearts of those we take as servants of God; either behind our pulpits or on our pews.

That is why you see many people following preachers who have lost alignment with God, or sticking to fellow Church members whose services are no longer aligned with GOD.

If you look at Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:11-15 carefully, you will realize that Lucifer was the most beautiful angel when He was serving God, according to God’s will and ways, and the ugliest creature when he started serving according to his own will and ways. But the angels with him never knew that a dangerous development had taken place in his heart when it all started.

Just as Church members do not easily tell when the heart of their pastor is no longer with the LORD, so were those angels deceived. The anointing that covered the Cherub angel deceived them, until they joined him in fighting against God, like many church members do today in defense of their perverted pastors.

We must wake up to truth and stop walking in foolishness.

The anointing on the life of a leader has a way of blindfolding you to think that all is well in his heart, even after it has departed from the LORD. Sadly, in many cases, it usually remains that way until the man or women begin to descend to the lowest pits of life calling it the devil.

THEY CALL IT THE DEVIL AND ASKS YOU TO STAND WITH THEM IN PRAYERS, AND YOU BLINDLY DO SO.

But the idea of asking you to stand with them in prayers is not really to get back to GOD, but to keep the tithes, offerings, special giving for special projects, and sacrifices coming from you. That is why if does not come, they will send a message to remind you.

Personally, I put a question mark on any preacher who ask people to stand with them in prayers for things that I know, only happens when iniquity is found in a preacher’s heart.

Sadly, many do not know that you cannot stand in prayer with your pastor for what you know nothing about. You cannot stand in prayer with a preacher in descent whose evil secrets you do not know; someone who you do not know what he or she does in secret that angers God.

You know, we all appear okay before our members, even when we are not in our relationship with GOD. Sometimes, I pity the so called intercessor groups.

You are not even aware of what has happened in the heart of your papa, Bishop, Arch-bishop or etc. yet you are standing with him in prayers. If you understand the prayer realm, you will know that you cannot stand with him or her in prayers.

If he succeeds in pushing you into prayer and fasting, maybe using the prayer points he may have given you as some smart ones are good in doing, you will only be rendering the sacrifice of fools, because you will be praying amiss.

I remember a pastor who usually put his members on their prayer knee for him, while he travels around sleeping with every lady he could find. That is how bad the stand-with-me thing has become in so many churches.

The pastors sleep and snores and ask members who seems spiritual to be praying for them. And because the seemingly spiritual members are cut off from the voice of the LORD that would have told you the truth, they will keep praying, and even conceiving stupid visions.

You see, a man cannot be serving God in his carnal will and ways, and then put me on the prayer knee to be interceding for him or his Church. That will be wickedness on his part, and foolishness on my part if I respond.

WHEN YOU ARE SERVING ACCORDING TO YOUR OWN WILL AND WAYS, YOU ARE NO LONGER SERVING GOD, YOU ARE SERVING YOURSELF.

You will lose all the privileges of the kingdom. So praying for you while your heart has departed from the LORD and shifted to other things (may be money, power, material acquisition, fame, women, and etc.), is a waste of time. That was why Samuel was stopped from praying for Saul.

You could appear before men as a faithful servant, urging them to stand with you, but GOD cannot be deceived. The result of serving yourself will speak, and when they begin to speak, you will be descending into the lowest pits of life. And those who are standing with you, will join you in the descent or even go down first before you, because they have become accomplice to your wicked ways.

You see, a man of God only need to stand with God for his ministry to blossom. He does not need prayer groups to stand with him. I am a testimony of that. In fact, we are not designed to stand in prayers with preachers or people who are not standing with God. Period!

If you want me to stand with you in prayers, then stand with the GOD who will answer the prayer. It is as simple as that. Time has come to become true servants of God; serving Him in His will and ways, not our will and ways!

Now, there are also those church members who serve so well, and make us believe that they are doing things in God’s ways and will, while it is not so. When the result of doing things in their own ways and will begin to speak, those who think they were truly serving the LORD will begin to wonder why the evils are happening to them.

Some will even begin to speak against God on their behalf.

Again, you find this in the life and times of the angles who fought and fell with Lucifer. They fought with Lucifer against God because they thought God was not fair, casting out ‘his faithful’ servant from Heaven. They fell with him.

If you fight for one who is faithful in your sight, but not faithful in God’s sight, you will go down either with him, or for him. Don’t forget that!

YOU MUST UNDERSTAND THAT GOD DOES NOT FORSAKE FAITHFUL PEOPLE.

He approves those who walks perfectly in His ways and make them dwell in His presence. So He will never cast them away from His presence, or allow the enemy to have a final say in their lives. A major high light in our devotional text says this about HIM;

“My eyes shall be on the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; He who walks in a perfect way, He shall serve me.

He who works deceit shall not dwell within my house; He who tells lies shall not continue in my presence.” Psalm 101:5-6 NKJV

You see this scripture fulfilled in the life of Ananias and Sapphira. You see it fulfilled in every generation.

God does not cast those who are faithful from His presence. He makes sure they dwell with Him. But those who works deceit IN HIS HOUSE, will be cast out like Lucifer was. People who tell lies will not continue in His presence. That is why in the Cry of the Spirit Ministries, we have never seen such people take root among us.

I believe the message of today have been passed.

LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY;

“How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations!

For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north;

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit.” Isaiah 14:12-15 NKJV