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

TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Monday 12th July 2021)

“So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”

“Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.” Deuteronomy 8:3-5 NKJV

WELCOME TO THE 193RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS!

The God of Heaven and earth Has been kind, gracious and merciful to us! One major attribute of this God that separates Him from all other gods is His mercifulness. Other gods have no capacity for mercy except our GOD.

His mercies have kept us for 193 days of this year. Yes, it has moved us from second to second, minute to minute, day to day, week to week and month to month. Every bit of this year have been blanketed by His mercies. With the many deaths around, God has indeed been merciful to us.

I consider God’s sure mercies as part of the greatest insurance package of God for mankind. Glory to His great name even as He continues to make us trophies of His mercies!

As it stands now, God is building Zion hence appearing in His glory. He has been showing the elects a lot or mercies because the time or prophetic season to favor Zion has come.

When the prophetic season say; “favor Zion,” God is not referring to favor as presented by greedy men and women of ‘God’ who wants to seduce people to give them money as seed. God is referring to the favor of taking away the dust of shame and scandals from the Church (Zion) so that those who have mocked the Church for all the nonsense that has happened and is still happening can be put to shame. The Bible prophecy says;

“Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.

For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof. So the heathen shall fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth thy glory.

When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in His glory.” Psalm 102:13-16 NKJV

When the prophecy says; God is building Zion, it means He is birthing for Himself a glorious Church on the face of the earth; a people without the spots and wrinkles that are usually created by iniquity, sin and trespasses. He is building a people that are to function as a temple for Him in the Spirit in a perverse and crooked generation.

And the prophecy said He is doing that by His glory which is very interesting because of the three dimensions of the supernatural.

HE IS NOT DOING THAT BY FAITH OR THE ANOINTING. HE IS DOING IT BY GOD’S GLORY.

The reason it cannot be done by the anointing or faith is because it is not being built by man but by God. If it was man that was building Zion, a church without spot or wrinkles, a people pure enough to be presented to Christ as a chaste virgin, then faith and the anointing would have been the building material. It is men that needs faith and the anointing to do kingdom things.

When God want to do kingdom advance things, He does not need faith or the anointing to do them. He just moves in His glory. Faith and the anointing are for earthmen to use in walking with, or for the glorious God.

The days of glory are indeed here because the days of building Zion are here. They are not going to come. They have come! You may not see spectacular things happening in the sky or any related thing but the days are here.

Just as it happened in the days of Jesus when He announced that the kingdom of God had arrived with many not understanding or coming into it, so it is happening today. Only those who are pursuing and camping around THE MORE SURE WORD OF PROPHECY are experiencing it.

If you are wondering why Jesus spent three and half years going through the streets of Jerusalem, casting out demons, healing the oppressed and doing all manner of miracles, let me share with you the reason.

IT WAS TO DEMONSTRATE TO THEM THE ARRIVAL OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON EARTH.

He did those many miracles, signs and wonders to prove to them that the kingdom of God has arrived and that they should enter into it. But sadly while many resisted the invitation into the kingdom others refused to acknowledge. Very few responded and later became apostles.

Then it was invitation into the Kingdom. Now it is invitation into the Glory of the Kingdom. It is therefore, dangerous to be pursuing prophets and camping around the false doctrines that many take as true doctrines, today. It is important that we pursue and camp around THE MORE SURE WORD OF PROPHECY else we miss the things that God is doing to build Zion into a glorious and Chaste virgin that can be presented to Christ at His return.

Invitation into the kingdom and the glory of the Kingdom has been God’s generational mandate to His Church from the date Jesus ascended into Heaven. In the days of Christ, it was by the demonstration of God’s power. But in our days it will be by the demonstration of both His power and glory. That is why the glory is here!

When we say glory we are referring to the fullness of God on display. And Jesus is that fullness. He is present among us demonstrating and manifesting His fullness.

Friend, like I have always maintained, these are no longer days of praying with bottles of oil in your hands. We have done that in time past and discovered that there is more in God. There so much to press into in our age that is bigger than the anointing Oil. It is called the fullness of God. This must be demonstrated to our generation as an invitation into the kingdom and glory of God.

If you are inviting people to a social event, a Church program, or any function at the human level, you pass a flyer or text message to them. Maybe you also announce it on the media. But if you are inviting people into the kingdom and the glory of the LORD, it is not in words but in power.

Paul said “For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.

IT WILL BE BY HIS POWER AND GLORY.

The power and the glory of God must be demonstrated to truly pass the invitation to the sons of our age. This is because of the gross darkness that has covered the people. We have devils in our days that never existed in the days of Christ and the early Church. That is why we need the glory not just the power.

Israel has a foretaste of the glory all their walk with God. They did not see much of power but all of the glory. You may not understand this statement. You see, because of the supernatural feats that generation saw, many of us have called it power of GOD but those things were glory products. Let me tell you a bit of the difference.

Power brings divine Healing but the glory brings divine health. Power brings financial miracles but the glory brings financial blessings. Power brings deliverance but the glory brings divine preservation. It was not power that parted the red sea but the glory.

It was not power that sustained Israel 40 years in the wilderness but the glory. The Bible says it was a pillar of fire by night to give them both spiritual and natural warmth, and a pillar of cloud by day to give them shed and condition the air because it was terribly hot.

A major highlight in our devotional text captured the impact of the glory on them in these words “Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.”

The very clothes and shoes they put on when they left Egypt grew with them and were not dirty. There were no streams for taking their birth yet they were not dirty. The glory bathed them both spiritually and naturally.

They took their birth once in Egypt and stepped into the cloud and remained clean for 40 years. That was not power that was the glory.

If our generation of terrible men and women will come into the kingdom to be saved, we in the body of Christ must step up in our faith and start announcing the kingdom to them by demonstrating the power and the glory of God. We must come into great demonstrations that Israel and the apostle saw and much more to pass the invitation into the kingdom and the glory to them.

THE HARVEST’S TODAY NEEDS THE KINGDOM AND THE GLORY

Don’t forget it is when people enter the kingdom that they are saved not when they stay in Church practicing religion. You cannot enter the kingdom and become part of the body of Christ on earth until you touch the power and the glory of the King of the Kingdom.

Sadly, many have not. They mystery of wickedness has laid hold of their hearts and knitted it so tightly to hell that it seems near impossible. For instance, in the Western World today you read people screaming “GOING TO HELL AND PROUD OF IT.” It is sickening to even think about these things.

Friend, God does not want any to go to hell. He wants us to pass the invitation into the kingdom and the glory to them. We have been trying to pass it in words now it is time to pass it in the power and glory of the King of the Kingdom, Jesus Christ.

God knows it will not work just by words because invitation into the kingdom is not by intelligent presentation of the gospel. That could bring someone to Church; but Invitation into the kingdom is by the demonstration of the power and the glory of the LORD!

It’s my prayer that GOD will use these words to stir us up this morning!

MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;

“Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:3-8 NKJV