TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Friday 27th August 2021)
“God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well.
This will happen when the LORD Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with His powerful angels.” 2 Thessalonians 1:6-7 NIV
WELCOME TO THE 239TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS!
God has been mindful of us, that is why we are not consumed. He has placed us in the spiritual traffic zone of His glory, that is why our enemies have not had us for dinner. To the LORD belong all the glory for the great things we have seen Him do in our lives.
It’s been a journey this year; a journey made easy by the waves of His kingdom, power and glory.
Today we will be looking at the revelation of GOD’s Justice system under the true grace of GOD, which is not an excuse to sin but an empowerment to sin no more. I hope you are ready for another time of feeding on what comes out of the mouth of GOD!
You see, God has an amazing justice system that if you truly understand will make your life exciting irrespective of what may be happening on earth. It is the very system He uses in ruling over the earth as the judge of all.
I remember sharing some of these truths in our morning show on the Morning Cloud Television; Prophetic Insights!
The first lesson the Holy Spirit will pass you through in teaching you about the justice system of God is profound; He will teach you that “God is Just!” That is the lesson!
Those three words holds eternal truths that has resounded on earth for generations. The lesson can only be understood in the realm of glory not the realm of humanistic philosophies or empty religious definitions of what God’s love is.
Yes, we need to understand that our God is a just God. Because if He was not just, our salvation would have been impossible.
God has a justice system that made it possible for the dead of Jesus to be the satisfaction or propitiation for our sins (a blessing we unlock through genuine repentance from sin). The Bible says;
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
whom God set forth as a Propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His Forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,
to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” Romans 3:23-26 NKJV
THERE IS SO MUCH IN THIS SCRIPTURE TO BE UNCOVERED.
It will require more than a devotional to do so. However, one thing we must understand is this; the faith in Christ Jesus that justifies us before God is the faith with fruits of repentance. You see that clearly in James chapter 2. God will manifest as the justifier of those who have faith in the finished works of the Christ if their faith produces fruits of repentance from dead works.
Once you are justified, sin and Satan can no longer hold you captive because the judgment that would have come upon you will no longer come due to what Jesus went through on the Cross; His redeeming death was the full payment for all penalties of sin.
As a just God, He will not allow what Jesus paid for to come upon any whose faith in Christ finished works has fruits of repentance as evidence. By repentance we mean repenting from satisfying the desires or sinful passions of the flesh.
For instance, Jesus paid for all transgressions (sins, iniquities, and trespasses) in the human race. If we commit any of them, even if they have curses, death or destruction as the penalty, none of the penalties will speak in our lives if we return to the LORD in genuine repentance. That is how just our God is.
The enemy will be pointing to our transgressions and the consequences that should come upon us in the court of divine settlement, and God will be pointing to the Cross and the forgiveness that came upon us. Hallelujah!
But this beautiful manifestation of God’s mercy will not happen if we grandstand while living in sin, and refuse to fall down in repentance before the Throne of God when confronted or convicted by the LORD. That is why the Bible says;
“He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. Happy is the man who is always reverent, but he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.” Proverbs 28:13-14 NKJV
IT IS VERY DANGEROUS TO HARDEN YOUR HEART AFTER SINNING AGAINST GOD. IT IS BETTER TO BE HUMBLE OR REVERENT!
If you harden your heart after sinning against God, you will not feel any pain for what you have done. You will just be remembering the pleasure of the sin and be desiring to go back to it. And that is dangerous because it will never allow you to enjoy the benefit of the death of Jesus on the Cross as explained earlier.
God will not be able to point to the Cross when Satan points to you sins to demand for justice or punishment in the court of divine settlement. Most oppressions in the life of those who live in sin happens because of that.
We allow the pleasure of the sin we may be living in to take us back to it again and again, and keep us sinning until we run out of humility or reverence for God and become very hardened or pure in our own eyes.
That is how people come into the spiritual season of tapping into the just nature of God, the nature of rewarding evil deeds accordingly. The Bible says;
And he said to me, “Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.”
“And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”
Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.
But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.” Revelation 22:10-15 NKJV
Scriptures like these should make us tremble. Because in the Church today we have preachers and church members who profess born again but are sorcerers, sexually immoral, murderers, idolaters; we have so many of us who love and practice lies.
THE BIBLE CALLS US DOGS! MEN MAY CALL US BISHOPS, APOSTLES, PROPHETS AND ETC., BUT WE ARE DOGS IN GOD’S SIGHT!
I repeat, if you say you are saved but are involved in sorcery, sexually immorality, murderers and idolaters, or the practices of lies, you are not a son but a dog, according to scriptures. You are outside the grace of God. You are not under the covering shelter of what Christ did on the Cross even if you are a preacher.
Again that should make us tremble!
The justice system of God requires that we be rewarded according to our deeds, either good or bad. Not according to our titles in Church or the perception people have about us. Not even according to the image we have painted to the world, but according to our deeds.
Dogs will be rewarded according to their deeds (according to the deeds of dogs) and sons will be rewarded according to their deeds (according to the deeds of sons). There are no two ways about it!
We must understand that born again is a Child of repentance and not continue in our wicked ways after professing Christ. God has not lost His hate for sin that is why people still go to hell. He remains a just God whose eyes cannot behold iniquity.
He is still as just as He was in the days of the Bible and will make sure that we get only what we deserve.
Where we deserve mercy He will show us mercy. Where we deserve purging, He will purge us, using the power of His grace. Where we deserve chastisement He will chastise us. And where we refuse to repent of our sins He will also give us what we deserve – the sorrows of sin.
The first few sentences of our devotional text today say, “God is just: He will pay back…” That to me holds the message.
God is just, He will pay back or reward everyone according to our deeds. That is a major call for good deeds to become our hallmark; a call to yield to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to work in us, until the practice of sin is taken away so that the penalty of sin will not fall on us.
As you embrace the 27th day of the 8 month of the year, let this devotion be your meditation.
God is just. He is so just that He will not allow one who lives in persistent sins to go on in their wickedness. He is so just that He will not bring any of the ex-sinners in His kingdom into judgment because of what he or she did in the past.
He is so just that He blesses the bread and water of those who serve His will and bring those who are bound but are pliable in His hands into prosperity. Except your life is in conflict with His will, God will not leave you in trouble because He is a just God.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE A MEDITATION FOR THE DAY ALONG WITH THIS DEVOTIONAL!
And he said to me, “Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.”
“And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”
Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.
But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie. Revelation 22:10-15 NKJV