TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Tuesday 22nd June 2021)
“So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.”
“Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord God. Ezekiel 22:30-31 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 173RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS,
This is the day the LORD has made, we shall rejoice and be glad in it. Marvelous are His works. That our souls know very well!
Today we want to begin with the message of God’s kingdom in the number three. Three in God’s numbering represents resurrection, restoration, or revival. It is the number of Christ.
Jesus died and after three days He came back to life. He was restored, revived and raised. That brought us salvation. That is why the greatest blessing available in the kingdom is the blessing of salvation and rest on every side. That was the blessing most of the Israelites missed in their walk with God.
They got miracles, economic and marital blessings. They got the blessings of Child bearing and many other blessings but missed the two majors. Consequently, many did not enter the promise land.
Sadly, the blessing of salvation and rest is still the very blessing many in the Church today are yet to come into. That is why they queue for deliverance, prayers, breakthroughs and all that.
Consequently, we now go to Church basically to be free from enemies not really to know God and walk in His ways. But in the beginning it was not so. The early Church had rest even in the midst of great trials of faith and intense persecutions.
As stated previously in many of our teaching platforms, most departments of the end time Church today are not facing persecutions or trials of faith. Our nations are not telling us not to serve Jesus; neither are they putting us in prisons for serving Him. Yet there is no rest in our lives.
Concerning the generation of the nation of Israel that could not come into the blessing of God’s rest, the Bible says;
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years.
Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.'” Hebrews 3:7-11 NKJV
THERE IS SO MUCH HERE THAT WE CANNOT UNCOVER IN ONE DEVOTIONAL.
From this scripture it’s clear that they could not come into God’s true rest because they always went astray in their hearts, and refused to known God’s ways. This is a perfect description of the Church of our generation. It captures the true identity of many of us who profess to be born again. That is why there is no rest in many lives.
I have always said, in the spirit what goes on in our hearts sounds louder in Heaven than what comes out of our mouths. And because in the natural it is not so, we do not realize this Biblical truth. In the natural what goes out of our mouth sounds louder to the ears and men cannot pick what goes on in the heart.
But God is not a man to operate that way. He is not natural but Spiritual. He therefore hears the utterances of our hearts first before the utterances of our mouth. That is why when you step into the God dimension as a Child of God, you can pick what goes on in people’s heart faster than what comes out of their mouths, and come out with a proper judgment of who they really are.
That is what Isaiah meant by “not judging according to what you hear with your ears or see with your eyes.” The Bible says;
“There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”
“His delight is in the fear of the Lord, and He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears; but with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.” Isaiah 11:1-4 NKJV
What are we saying this morning? People who do not know God or people who go astray in their hearts, will never come into God’s rest.
However, it is God’s perfect will that we come into His rest. But there is something you must know;
THERE IS REST AND THERE IS RELIEF!
If your heart is not right towards God the best you can get is relief. God does not give rest to anyone who calls on the name of the LORD with an impure heart. He may give them relief but will never give them rest. God gives rest only to those who call upon His name WITH A HEART; a heart that is perfect towards Him.
Which brings us again to another prophetic number in God’s numbering – the number seven. It’s a number that represents completion. As we have seen in most of the teachings of the LORD, the 3rd day of Christ is actually the seventh number of God. It also means perfection.
The Bible says we should be perfect just as our Heavenly Father is perfect. Beautifully, grace has been supplied to us to help us achieve that in Christ Jesus. It’s just that people are not making use of it. His Holy Spirit is there to help us achieve that.
Only people whose hearts are perfect towards God will be given rest and made pillars in His kingdom. Only they can be counted upon by Heaven. the need of the hour is men and women Heaven can count on to do things on earth. That is why our devotional text today is very vital.
A major highlight of it says;
“So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.”
There are very few people that Heaven can count on today; very few who can be truly, selflessly and sacrificially committed to a move of God.
Sometimes we wonder why there is no move of God in our Churches today; why there are only moves of men of God, and not moves of God. Yes, so many so call moves of GOD are moves of men of God; some networking with unclean spirits.
A GENUINE MOVE OF GOD WILL ALWAYS PRODUCE THE MIRACLE OF THE MIND.
The many so called moves of GOD today are rather stealing the minds of the people and making them charismatic witches and wizards. Youths are being thrown demons upon, and made to operate like diviners in the many so called moves of GOD. Those who are genuinely seeking GOD are finding counterfeits instead.
Genuine moves of GOD, among many other things, will restore back the sanity of GOD’s people and make them unconditionally committed to the LORD. it will expose error, break the many codes of deception paraded by false prophets and heretic teachers. It will neutralize the spirit of lawlessness.
The church today is full of people who can commit to men of God but cannot commit to God Himself. They can commit to their papas and mamas not to the truth of GOD’s word as contained on the pages of the scriptures. They can commit to doctrines of devils, and not sound doctrines.
They can commit to raising altars of sacrifice and not offering themselves as a living sacrifice holy and accepted to GOD. They can commit dream interpretation ministries, and not to ministers who expound the word and bring accurate scriptural interpretations to us. They can commit to seed sowing instead of becoming the seed of GOD to be sown in the nations of the earth.
Most preachers serve money and fame; they serve the sex goddess and the money god but put on the appearance of servants of God. These misguided souls can commit to them. They can commit to Simon the sorcerer but not to Paul the apostle.
The Bible says while they promise them liberty, they themselves are servants of corruption. And that is the breed most Christians love committing to because of the promises they make to them.
They tailor their messages to their carnal and feed their gullible nature. Even when they are scammed millions they do not care. They do not care until the python spirit begin to eat them.
I have come to discover that Christians, who fall victims of false preachers and prophets – with huge sums of money taken from them, are not really people Heaven can count on financially to move things forward.
In fact, most of them are not born again!
Others are selfish and cannot lay down their money unconditionally to push the work of the kingdom forward. When they get to where their money is truly needed, they no longer go out of their ways to push God’s move forward the way they did in assemblies of Satan.
God cannot count on them the way those preachers and prophets counted on them. That is why they still will not have rest from the days of adversity. They will just have relief. God’s rest is exclusively for those He can count on. It’s not for everyone in Church.
The clarion call this morning is very clear. Can Heaven count on you to push God’s purposes forward? Are you really responding adequately to God’s needs or you are serving Him based on your needs? I leave the answers to these questions to your conscience.
God spoke to us yesterday about making proper decisions in the remaining months of this year. One of the decisions to make is the decision to become one of those Heaven can count on. The decision to be that seed that can fall into the ground of GOD’s will and die to self, sin and the system of this world, so that GOD can use him to multiply Himself in the nations of that earth.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY;
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it dies, it bringeth forth much fruit.”
“He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.”
“If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.” John 12:24-26 KJV