TODAY’S DEVOTION (Saturday 13th November 2021)
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 316TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS.
Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised for giving us another day to live and serve our generation according to His will.
Indeed, it is out of His mercies that we are not consumed. Our enemies have not had us for dinner because His mercies endure forever. Our lives have been save from the swords of our secret and open sins, because His mercies endure forever.
He took us from the pits of hell dug by our persistent sins, and poured revival in us and made us His spotless and blameless children, because His mercies endure forever. He protected our bodies form diseases because His mercies endure forever. He delivered us from sorcerers and magicians, because His mercies endure forever. You are what you are today, because His mercies endure forever. The Bible says;
“Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.
Oh, give thanks to the God of gods! For His mercy endures forever.
Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords! For His mercy endures forever:
To Him who alone does great wonders, For His mercy endures forever;” Psalm 136:1-4 NKJV
These scriptural verses tell us that it is God’s mercies that is designed to run the affairs of human lives. And that they are from everlasting to everlasting; meaning they span through a man’s life time.
The implication of this is bad things should not defeat us when they happen to us. The enemy should not successfully oppress us. But sadly, the opposite is the case with many humans. And the question is why?
You see, there is s generation that specializes in frustrating the mercy of God. If you are part of those who frustrate the mercies of the LORD, you will not enjoy most of what God’s Mercies is deployed into human lives to do.
The generation that frustrates god’s mercies is called “the generation of God’s wrath” or simply put, “vessels of wrath.”
YOU COULD CHOSE TO BELONG TO ANY GENERATION, BUT PLEASE DO NOT CHOOSE THIS ONE.
This generation is a generation of those who do not know how to respond positively to God’s mercy. They see it as a right instead of a seed. They do not make use of it to turn from wicked ways and do the right things. Others sees it as something that should keep flowing as they keep living ungodly lives. But we deceive ourselves.
The Bible says;
“Our God is the God of salvation; And to GOD the Lord belong escapes from death. But God will wound the head of His enemies, the hairy scalp of the one who still goes on in his trespasses.” Psalm 68:20-21 NKJV
Escape from death is a function of God’s mercies. Whenever death is deployed, God deploys His mercies. If it is deployed at the end of our days, God will deploy His mercies so that His angels, rather than death, carry us home to be with the LORD.
However, it is a heritage of those who gave their lives to Christ and are not continuing in their trespassing. The breed is called vessels of mercies.
Vessels of wrath continue in the ungodliness even after God has shown them mercies, but vessels of mercies do not. While God wounds the hairy scalp of vessels of wrath, He initiate escape from death for vessels of mercies; either escape form premature death or escape from eternal death.
God wants us to be part of the vessels of mercies not vessels of wrath. He wants us to be part of the generation of God’s mercies not the generation of His wrath. It all depends on how we use the mercies He is showing us on daily bases.
Those who do not know how to use it are good at returning evil for every good God has done to them, even to the point of becoming lesbians and gay. Others who do not know how to use His mercies call the killing of unborn babies “evacuation” “medical procedure” “flushing” “a woman’s right to choose” or “abortion.”
They give beautiful names to very abominable acts so that people will not realize the weight and gravity of their sins before God. So that when they finally face the consequences in hell, they will be accusing God of being unfair to them.
It is when you do not know the gravity of your sins that you accuse God of being unfair when the consequences come upon you!
THE GENERATION OF GOD’S WRATH IS GROWING FAST IN EVERY CORNER OF THE EARTH TODAY.
That is why if God is calling you into ministry, you must brace up for work not for wealth. Yes, if you are looking for what to get from ministry, you will never get any soul genuinely saved. You will not be a laborer but a master; one eating all the tithes and offerings calling himself Melchizedek.
Today I looked at a financial report that was sent to me of how much we have spent in ministry since we were eligible to own an account, and I saw figures that scared me. Then I said to myself “so we have spent this much and I do not even have a house or any treasure of my own anywhere in the world?”
To be honest, in the flesh I felt stupid knowing that I have the right to use some of the money for my own needs also having labored and suffered all these years, but in the Spirit I rejoice for spending all on the ministry without thinking of myself. That is why those the LORD has used us to touch and changed completely are everywhere today, to the glory of God.
Beautifully, the bulk of the money went into media.
So, if you will make any impact in the fields of the souls of men this end time, you must not come into ministry hoping to own the most beautiful houses in every city of the globe, like many of our so called fathers of faith have done. You will loose God.
God and mammon cannot coexist. That is why their ministries are dead spiritually, and are now smelling with scandals and all kinds of ungodliness, with no impact on the moral fabric of the society.
When we began this month’s devotional, we did share that God’s Mercy will be our focus. God want us to teach this generation how to respond to His mercies through repentance.
SADLY, MANY PREACHERS ARE TEACHING PEOPLE TO RESPONSE THROUGH SILENT OR CONCEALED REBELLION.
Our generation must be told that God’s mercy is a seed and not just a need. Those who do not understand that will take His mercy for granted and end up being grinded.
They will turn it into a fertilizer for sin and wickedness. That is why you find a young lady who aborts the first Child successfully, going for another round of sexual rascality bolder than before and then using contraceptives this time around.
They do not think of repentance after God suspend the punishment or consequences of their sins.
You find people who get involved in wicked acts without an immediate consequence going on in their wickedness. You find men and women who have become callous to God’s word and ways because of His mercies upon their lives not even remembering His severity.
Again, I repeat, if you are going to be successful in ministry by God’s standard, you must be ready to reap these depraved souls into the kingdom by being a ministry who is not in ministry for the wealth but for the work. God need such ministers these end times.
This generation need to understand that when God show a man mercy, He expects something in return and that thing is not money or any material offering. What God expects in return is repentance! He expects a repentant heart not a fat offering.
If you feel compelled to give a fat offering in appreciation for His mercies, it must not be a replacement for genuine repentance. It may come much later but not at the very time the LORD needs a repentant heart from you. You must be sensitive to when the pastor may want a sacrifice from you but God does not want a sacrifice form you. The Bible says;
“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; My ears You have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.
Then I said,
“Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart.” Psalm 40:6-8 NKJV
OFTEN TIMES GOD WANTS HIS WILL DONE WHENEVER HE SHOW US MERCIES.
The intent of all forms of Divine mercies is the prosperity of God’s will in our lives as written in Heaven.
A repentant heart will do God’s will and not argue about it. And what is God’s will for the repentant, that he or she do not go back to their iniquities. That is the hidden message in the story of the woman who was caught in adultery in scriptures.
The Bible says;
“Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.
Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.
So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”
And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” John 8:3-11 NKJV
When this story is told in Church, the preachers major on the part that says
“He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first”
because of the lack of willingness to live a righteous life.
A lot major on the minor because many are living in sin and not ready to be rebuked or corrected. But the most important part of this story so long as the mercy of God is concerned, is the last part.
JESUS LOOKED UP AND SAID TO THE WOMAN, NEITHER DO I CONDEMN YOU “GO AND SIN NO MORE.”
That was a seed of Mercy sown into her live to reap a harvest of repentance. If God was not interested in a harvest of repentance, He would not have charged her to go and sin no more. You see grace and truth in action here.
Grace told her “neither do I condemn you.” Truth told her “go and sin no more”
Yes, Grace does not condemn because you do not condemn the condemned. Grace imparts a man to do walk out of condemnation of sin upon his life by doing truth. That is why I tell people if you say you are under grace but live in sin you are not under grace but under grass.
Again, grace said to her “neither do I condemn you” and Truth said “go and sin no more.”
Truth will urge sinners to repent and rebukes them when they repeat their sins instead of repenting from them.
Truth will TELL you not to repeat your folly again, and grace will IMPART you to do what truth said. That is why a balanced gospel will be full of grace and truth, not grace alone and not truth alone. Remember Jesus came full of grace and truth.
But, to many Christians today, when Jesus said that woman caught in adultery “neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more” it was a divine approval for wicked conduct. They do not see, the go and sin no more aspect. They just see, “neither do I condemn you.”
Hence when you rebuke them for sins, they are secretly or openly involved in, they scream at you saying “you have no right to condemn me, we are all sinners.”
AND MY RESPONSE TO THAT KIND OF A GENERATION HAS ALWAYS BEEN THIS; “WE ARE NOT ALL SINNERS.”
If we are all sinners, then Christ died in vain and the Holy Ghost is not on earth. Some of us have been blood washed and enabled by grace to obey the word of truth and righteousness.
The adulterated grace mentality is the greatest killer of most Christians.
But if we begin to see God’s mercy as a seed, we will have the revelation to return back the harvest. Repentance is the first harvest God expects from us as beneficiaries of His mercies, but there are other harvests.
The next is living “a life of forgiveness and mercy” towards others.
Our devotional text today is a unique one. It is the shortest devotional text we have seen so far but holds maybe the longest lesson and principle of the kingdom. It says,
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”
That reminds me of the parable of the unforgiving servant.
The Parable makes it clear that an unforgiving spirit always leads to bondage. It reveals why many in church today are in bondage and shows us that if God show a man mercy, apart from repentance from sin, He expects that man to extend same mercy to others who needs his mercy as well.
The man God may have shown mercy will undo it if he withholds mercy from those who needs it from him the way he needed it from GOD. The Bible says,
“Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.
And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made.
The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.
“But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!
‘
So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt.So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done.
Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’
And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.
“So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.” Matthew 18:23-35 NKJV
If you look at this scripture, you will discover that two people ended up in prison. The one that refuse to extend mercy to the other and the one he withheld his mercy from. Jesus said God will do the same to us if we withhold mercy from people who have offended us.
The truth is God has delivered many to spiritual torture because they refused to extend mercy to their fellow men.
I believe the message of today’s devotional has been passed. May the LORD use these words to improve your walk and talk with Him in Jesus precious name! Amen!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.
“Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.
Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
“Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:14-21 NKJV