TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Sunday 9th May 2021)
“Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.” Mark 4:39 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 129TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS!
God is faithful. He has brought us, not just to another day but another week in the 52 weeks that makes up this year. It’s been week after week of experiencing His mercies, receiving His message, and learning His methods.
The kingdom of God is all about God’s method of doing things. Another word for His methods is His ways. The Bible says,
Thus says the LORD: “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ Jeremiah 6:16 NKJV
The vision for learning God’s ways is to find rest for our souls in time and eternity. But our minds and souls have a way of resisting the ways of the LORD because of how they conflict with our own ways.
Often we find ourselves saying to God by our actions “we will not walk in it” and coming into the consequences of such dangerous choices.
Those who are second wives are saying, “we will not walk in God’s standard for marriage established in Genesis 1 and 2” by their actions. We will go by Lamech’s method of one man, two or more wives. They do this siting David and Solomon.
Those who are living in adultery and fornication are saying to the LORD “we will not walk in your ways” by continue in their sinful pleasures despite knowing the warnings of the LORD. Those who are stealing, lying, cheating, deceitful, and those who are following false prophets and teachings, are saying the same thing to God by their actions, “We will not walk in your ways” they say!
Someone must make up their minds this morning not to be part of this generation. Yes, we must make up our minds not to continue in the things God has confronted us with.
We must eat every message from the LORD by swallowing it. We must keep listening to the sound of the trumpet until we are changed or translated into glory at the end of our days.
The watchmen God has set over us with His prophetic word, to teach, train and guide us in matters of righteousness must be honored and their messages accepted, if want to have rest in time and eternity. The Bible says,
Also, I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not listen.’ Jeremiah 6:17 NKJV
WE MUST NOT BE PART OF THE “WE-WILL-NOT-WALK-IN-IT” OR “WE-WILL-NOT-LISTEN” GENERATION.
It is very dangerous not to walk in God’s ways or listen to the sound of His trumpet. The sound of the trumpet today is not the shofar horn that you see preachers blow and feeling everyone with goose bumps. That is the shadow; today we have the substance.
The sound of the trumpet today is Jesus Christ and His testimony in the more sure word of prophecy called “the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
God wants us to pay full attention to what the LORD is saying to us through His teaching prophets and apostles, who teach the Bible not use the Bible; and through His Holy Spirit.
Of late God have been speaking to us on matters of not having a casual relationship with Him. I hope we have been listening to the sound of the trumpet. We have seen a few things of what a casual relationship with God meant and its devastating effects on our lives.
Often a casual relationship with God lacks commitment to Him or His ways.
You find people today hoping form one preacher to another, one man of God to another, without having one pastor given to them by the LORD. They seem confused on what they really want in Christ. These are also fruits of causal relationship with God.
People who are committed to God and His ways, are usually found under one GOD given man who have understanding in the visions, revelations, and ways of the LORD as contained in the Holy scriptures.
But in a world of one man many women, you find these believers leaning unto the spirit of Ahab, who had many prophets instead of submitting to one who was truly raise for him by the LORD.
The very spirit that makes one man want to commit to many women is the same spirit that make one sheep want to commit to many shepherds. That sheep is out of order. It will never be significantly raised or blessed by the LORD.
ACTUALLY, IT IS WAKING IN DELUSION THINKING IT CAN BE SITTING UNDER MANY SHEPHERDS AT THE SAME TIME AND STILL FULFILL ITS DESTINY.
Social Media today has made many people to become sheep with many shepherds. They listen and submit to this man of God, the other man of God, and that man of God. Through YouTube and Facebook, they eat from different type of pastures and submit to so many spirits and end up with spiritual stomach aches.
How do you know you have spiritual stomach ache? When your spirit is always troubled by this and by that and worried about this and about that.
Today you are worried about marriage, the other day you were worried about money, and tomorrow you will be worried about your kids not doing well in school, or business not moving, and all kinds of earth driven worries.
You are not settled on a particular path created for you by the LORD. For some you find them doubtful of this man of God, the other man of God and etc. You find them not really having a spiritual house they call home. Casual relationship with God can manifest that way!
If your relationship with god is deep, you will be given a Samuel or a Nathan or even an Elijah to lead you. But if it is not, you will be unsure who God has actually sent to you.
You see, if one is moving from one preacher to another to find your fold, it is in order but if we are just doing as fun or because we feel that is the right thing to do, then we must know that our spirits are our stomachs and we will be troubled someday.
Our spirits are designed to have one shepherd who leads us under the chief Shepherd Himself, Jesus Christ. They become healthier and function powerfully in the Spirit if we locate that shepherd and submit to. God will first set the solitary in family before bringing them into prosperity.
YOU MUST FIND YOUR SPIRITUAL FAMILY AND STOP BEING A SHEEP WITH MANY SHEPHERDS.
No sheep has capacity for many shepherds. It is shepherds that have capacity for many sheep. A sheep that has many shepherds is actually a lost sheep. It has not found its fold. But a shepherd with many sheep is in order. That is God’s standard. He said in His word;
“And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.
“Then it shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land in those days,” says the LORD, “that they will say no more, ‘The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ It shall not come to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they visit it, nor shall it be made anymore. Jeremiah 3:15-16 NKJV
This scripture should not be new to you if you have been following the LORD. He will give us appointed shepherds or pastor with capacity to feed us until we become the ark, where Heavenly power to dispensed through our life styles to change moral landscapes.
Yes, He will give us appointed shepherds or pastor with capacity to feed us not to fool us. The enemy will give you one that will fool you, but Jesus Christ will give you one that will feed you.
We can tell a shepherd who fool sheep from one who feed them by the fruits of their ministries in people’s lives. Jesus said by their fruits we shall know them. One puts souls in the Broadway that leads to eternal death by using the Bible. While the other puts men in the narrow way that leads to Heaven by teaching and expounding the Bible.
This end time, there is a clarion call to you and I to go deep with Jesus and get closer to God than ever to God. But the kind of preachers we have today in so many places cannot help us. You can never get deep with the LORD with a preacher who talking about your problems sitting over you.
No one gets deep with the LORD making his earthly needs the focus of their faith. That is why you can never find people who are truly established in Christ in Churches that are seeker sensitive and human needs oriented.
I listened to a Nigerian Bishop recently who I use to listen to in those days and found out that he has not progressed in his revelation. He still preaches the “God will bless you” messages.
THEN I ASKED MYSELF WHEN WILL THEY BE BLESSED. IT HAS BEEN LIKE THAT SINCE 1997.
You see, human needs will not come to an end, that is why you should not make meeting them the focus of your faith, neither should you sit under preacher who do. We need preachers who will take us from us to God, and make Christ the center and focus of our faith. That is how we can get truly deep with the LORD and close to GOD.
Closeness to God or deep intimacy with Him makes Jesus “go active” in our lives, animating us with His glory.
And talking about Jesus going active, I have come to discover that Jesus is alive and active in His glory only in the lives of few Christians. The lives of many are not experiencing Him at all. They experience His wonders and miracles but do not experience Him as a person.
To them and their pastors His wonders is Him. But no one has told them that His wonders is not Him. Our devotional text today made it clear that the disciples experienced one of His wonders when He rebuked the storms and the sea became camp. It says;
“Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.”
Yes, they experienced this but did not experience Christ Himself until after His resurrection. That was why Peter could deny Him and Judas could betray Him after seeing this and other miracles, signs or wonders.
You cannot deny a Christ you have experienced, no matter what.
If you look at how we deny the LORD and betray Him because of money, pleasure, and comfort you will realize that many of us have not experienced Him. So many in Church today have experienced His wonders but have not experienced His person. And it is very dangerous to lead our Christian lives that way.
I just ask that you read this devotional over and over again until you experience a shift in your faith.
What kind of relationship with God do you have? Have you really experienced Christ in His glory or you are taking His miracles that you are experiencing as Christ?
If you have not experienced Christ, you will not be able to lead a living Christian life like Paul, Peter and the rest of the post resurrection believers did. Your version of Christianity will be different form the one you see in the Bible.
Time to seek the LORD until we begin to experience Him in His glory!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR TODAY;
“Seek the Lord [inquire for Him, inquire of Him, and require Him as the foremost necessity of your life], all you humble of the land who have acted in compliance with His revealed will and have kept His commandments;
seek righteousness, seek humility [inquire for them, require them as vital]. It may be you will be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger.” Zephaniah 2:3 AMP