TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 27TH MARCH 2022)
“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor is a servant or slave above his master.
It is sufficient for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant or slave like his master. If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub [master of the dwelling], how much more will they speak evil of those of His household.
So have no fear of them; for nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, or kept secret that will not become known.
What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered in the ear, proclaim upon the housetops.
And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; but rather be afraid of Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Gehenna).
Are not two little sparrows sold for a penny? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s leave (consent) and notice. But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Fear not, then; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Therefore, everyone who acknowledges Me before men and confesses Me [out of a state of oneness with Me], I will also acknowledge him before My Father Who is in heaven and confess [that I am abiding in] him.
But whoever denies and disowns Me before men, I also will deny and disown him before My Father Who is in heaven. Matthew 10:24-33 AMPC
WELCOME TO THE 86TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE
May our God be glorified for giving us another day.
We cannot thank Him enough for all He have been doing in our lives and families since we stepped into this year. He has not even allowed what we fear to fall upon us.
Not just what we fear, He has also never allowed the sword of the wicked to cut us down even when we deliberately open our lives up to the enemy, by selling ourselves for nothing. He has been a Heavenly Father to us. Indeed, as a father pities his Children, so the LORD pity those who fear Him.
It has been a fruitful 31-day with the Cry of His Holy Spirit on Righteousness, Purity and Holiness.
Righteousness is right standing with God. When we stand right with Him, His Holy Fire purifies us of all spiritual impurities, and make us holy in His sight. It is His purifying fire that is responsible for holy living.
GOD would not have said “be holy, for I am holy” without facilitating the process. He is not a man that He should do that. When He sets standard, He will give us the spiritual empowerment we need to meet the standard. But Man-made gods cannot do that.
When man-made gods place a demand on you, they leave you to yourself to fulfill it. But when GOD place a demand on you, He move to provide the resources or enablement you need to meet the demand. That is how you know if you are dealing with God or other gods in your spiritual walk.
Maybe, let me pause a little to share more about this important truth.
God will never place a demand that He will not help you fulfill on you. He will never give you an instruction He will not give you grace to obey. He will never ask you to walk in the Spirit without making His Spirit available so that you can walk in Him. He will never ask you to fear not, if He has not deployed Heavenly forces to protect you.
HE WILL NEVER SEND YOU ON A MISSION HE WILL NOT BE THERE TO HELP YOU EXECUTE.
He will never place you among roaring Lions to speak His word and save lives from the mystery of iniquity, if He has not paralyzed the ability of the Lions to hurt you.
Before He allowed Daniel to be sent to the lions’ den, He had a plan of what to do when Daniel gets there. God will never allow you into a lion’s Den without a plan against the lions. You may only need to ask Him to execute that plan whenever the lions roar at you, and see Him do it.
We are in the end time. The Bible says we are in seasons where people will insult, accuse, malign, persecuted, attack or even kill us and say they are doing GOD’s work. We are in season where many will not want to hear any word that expose the mystery of iniquity that are in partnership with.
Yes, We are in season of telling in the housetops what the LORD speaks to us in the ear, which people would not want to hear.
In season like this, people will fear for your life for saying the obvious. They will warn you to be careful for crying what the Holy Spirit placed in your heart to Cry against the spirit of the anti-Christ in the sick Church, and the dying world.
But you must understand that God will not give you a message that people are afraid to preach if He has not paralyzed the ability of haters of that message to hurt you.
Someone sent a message to my wife recently asking her to warn me, and saying foolishly that if I die, she will suffer as a widow. I did not know that some people are already wishing widowhood for her. But who says and it comes to pass when God has not spoken. What they do not know is, GOD will not give you a word against the servants of the roaring Lion, and not have a plan to protect you from them.
We serve a God who redeems our lives from destruction. A people whose very hair is protected do not worry about losing their hairs. A portion of our devotional text said;
“And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; but rather be afraid of Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Gehenna).
Are not two little sparrows sold for a penny? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s leave (consent) and notice. But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” Matthew 10:27-28 AMPC
That is why if you hear any day that God has given me over to their sword, it will be because my time of departure came, and my wife will never suffer, neither will my kids suffer because I know God has a plan for them.
BESIDES WE DID NOT GET MARRIED FOR FUN, WE GOT MARRIED FOR THIS VERY FIGHT.
So, you do not warn the prepared wife of a special forces agent to tell her husband not to go on the special missions their government sent him to go for. If you do that, you are either ignorant or you were sent by the enemy forces to paralyze her husband with fear, using her the way Job’s wife was used to extend the frontiers of the attack of Satan on Job.
Personally, I don’t know who I should fear; is it those who hate me and want me dead or the God who loves us and wants me in the battle ground? The Bible tells me that I should fear the God who loves me and wants me in the battle ground, not those who hate me.
An extended portion of the devotional text said;
“So have no fear of them; for nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, or kept secret that will not become known.
What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered in the ear, proclaim upon the housetops.
And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; but rather be afraid of Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Gehenna).” Matthew 10:26-28 AMPC
When God ask you not to fear, it is because He has a plan. When He ask you to speak His word, its because He has people whose hearts will be transformed when you speak.
When He sends you to spiritual leaders who have become like roaring lions and charging bears to rescue His sheep, it is because the appointed time for the salvation of the souls under their spell has come. Therefore, He will not give you over to the charging bears or roaring lions like He never gave David over.
YES, GOD IS NOT MAN-MADE. HE WILL NEVER PLACE A DEMAND ON YOU AND NOT HELP YOU MEET IT.
When He asked Abraham to demonstrate the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus on Mount Moriah (by offering Isaac), he never told him there will be a replacement. The calculations of Abraham were that God will raise Isaac again even if he kills him. But when the patriarch got there, he found a replacement. God enabled him to walk in unconditional obedience.
God will never give you an instruction He will not enable you to obey.
When He asked the widow of Zarephath to supply the need of His prophet, He gave her what to use in doing that. Personally, I have come to realize that in the area of kingdom stewardship, God will never ask us to give Him what He will not give us to give to Him.
He gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater.
If you read the Bible carefully, you will realize that the only food the widow of Zarephath placed before God’s mouth piece that was from her labor, was the first, and that was also the last. The rest of the food she placed for him to eat for three and half years, came by supernatural provision from GOD.
Sometimes, it may require that we use what we already have for God’s work, but God will never ask us to give Him what He has not already provided or what He will not provide if we take the first step. This characteristic of God as one who sets a standard, and help us meet us, or gives an instruction, and help us obey it, has been there from age to age.
It was even seen in the day of the earthly ministry of Jesus.
When He sent out the 70 to preach in ancient Jerusalem, He gave them preaching power. When He sent them out to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cleanse the lepers, He gave them the power to do so. The reason why the devil cannot send us back when GOD send us on an errand is because we do not go in our strength. We go in His strength.
As man, Jesus did not go about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil in His own strength.
THE BIBLE SAYS GOD ANOINTED OR ENABLED HIM.
That is why, if God ask you to do something that is impossible, do not say “No LORD, I can’t do it.” He knows you can’t do it. Say, “Yes, LORD, am ready.” Then enter the prayer room to use the prayer knee to collect what it takes to do it.
So, when God say, “be Holy,” we should not say, “No, it’s impossible.” As fishes cannot do without water, so we cannot do without sin. You know we are humans, No one can be holy. No one can be perfect.” Yes, He knows all that but still commands it because He wants to enable it.
God enables what He commands.
He also knows that without holiness we will end up in hell, and does not want that to happen, hence making His purifying fire available to us. His purifying fire, is something we should seek from time to time, with the whole of our hearts, else we will never find it.
So, responding in the negative, when God says be holy, will shut down His enabling grace from being poured upon us. It will shut down His purifying fire from working in our lives even if we are in an atmosphere of His Spirit. That is why you see all the no-one-can-be-perfect Churches and ministries full of sexual sins and all kinds of abominable practices – from the pulpit to the pew.
God will send His purifying fire to purify those who desire to obey His “Be Ye Holy, for I am Holy” command. But we must seek it like looking for water to bath for an important occasion. We must seek it from time to time because no one take his bath once a year or a month. If you are the clean type, you will take your bath twice a day.
So, we must seek His purifying fire on regular bases, or from time to time with the whole of our hearts. Which calls for fasting as well. The Bible says;
“Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:12-13 NKJV
As we bring this to a close, let me reiterate again that releasing His purifying fire to purify us is one way that Christ facilitates us to lead Holy and consecrated lives. If you understand that, you will ask for His purifying fire every day.
Do not forget, the Bible say these end time, He will operate as the purifier of the Sons of Levi. It is already established.
We will need to be seeking Him for fresh fire for holy living daily, which may call for attending church services or ministries who believe in, practices and teaches Righteousness, Purity and Holiness for encounters.
In our dispensation, whenever God commands or stir His servants to teach about Holy living, it is a sign that He has released His purifying fire to purify us. As we participate in fellowship, in studying, or in hearing His word, we experience His purifying fire.
Friend, We have been looking at the sanctification of the body of late, and have learned about the things that facilitates it. Today, the LORD showed us another kingdom force that facilitates it; the kingdom force of His purifying fire!
The vision of our 31-Day Journey with the Cry of the Holy Spirit on matters of righteousness, purity and holiness, has been to come out with consecrated Christian life. If you want that vision fulfilled in your life, you must add to all we have learned on this journey, this revelation – the revelation of retreating for God’s purifying fire, from time to time, to purge and cleanse you from any sin, or spiritual defilement that may spring up within you, from time to time.
It is my prayer that God will use these truths to build us up and give us an inheritance among they that are sanctified. Amen
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY!
“He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer to the LORD An offering in righteousness.
“Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem Will be pleasant to the LORD, As in the days of old, As in former years.
And I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness Against sorcerers, against adulterers, against perjurers, against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, and against those who turn away an alien— Because they do not fear Me,” Says the LORD of hosts.
For I am the LORD, I do not change; Therefore, you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.” Malachi 3:3-6 NKJV