TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 13TH JULY 2022)
Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.”
So they saddled the donkey for him; and he rode on it, and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. Then he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” And he said, “I am.”
Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.” And he said, “I cannot return with you nor go in with you; neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place.
For I have been told by the word of the LORD, ‘You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by going the way you came.’ ” 1 Kings 13:13-17 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 194RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
Our GOD has given is another day. To Him belong all the glory for sustaining us and for keeping our breathing in and out all through the night to keep us alive.
A lot is happening in our world. But if you understand Bible prophecy you will not be surprised. The Bible did not promise us good times prior to the end of the age. It promised us a season of great trials.
It says,
“And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.
All these are the beginning of sorrows.” Matthew 24:6-8 NKJV
So long as Bible Prophecy is concern, seasons called beginning of sorrows will fall upon the world prior to the consummation of all things.
During those times, the Bible says there will be wars and rumors of wars. It also says Nations will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
One of the kingdoms that will rise against others this end time is the Kingdom of God – it will rise against the kingdom of darkness. This is the aspect of Bible prophecy that is unknown to so many.
It may interest you to know that the establishment of the Kingdom of God is the reason for the great commission.
That is why when the great commission was executed in the days of the Bible, there was an outbreak of kingdom power and glory, crashing cultures, melting traditions and defeating all human systems that are part of the Kingdom of darkness.
If you do not know what is happening even in the Church today, please understand that God is removing everything that offends and paralyzing lawlessness. In the midst of all these, we are going to witness a clash between the house of Saul and the house of David, the house of Jeroboam and the house of David.
Yes, there will be a battle between lawlessness and godliness. There will be those who will fight on the side of lawlessness and those who will fight on the side of Godliness.
YOUR REVELATION IS WHAT WILL DETERMINE WHERE YOU WILL FIGHT FROM.
Sadly, so many are ignorantly fighting on the side of lawlessness and resisting Godliness. Just as the Old Prophet fought on the side of lawlessness and ended up neutralizing the prophet from Judah. It is so sad that he successfully pretended to the prophet not to know the stance of God on what Jeroboam was doing.
He also successfully pretended to be part of the Kingdom of God. But from the rules God gave His servant before sending him there, the goal of Heaven was for Him to be protected from the Old prophet.
The story began when God sent His nameless servant to prophesy against the altars of Jeroboam. The altars of Jeroboam would later lay the foundation for Baal worship in Israel. This prophetic invasion was necessary for the wiping away of the sin of Jeroboam by a Josiah generation that will be born in due season. The Bible says;
“And behold, a man of God went from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.
Then he cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD, and said, “O altar, altar! Thus says the LORD:
‘Behold, a child, Josiah by name, shall be born to the house of David; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men’s bones shall be burned on you.’ ”
And he gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign which the LORD has spoken: Surely the altar shall split apart, and the ashes on it shall be poured out.” 1 Kings 13:1-3 NKJV
God sent His servant who the Bible never gave us a name, for the mission.
Why was he nameless? He was nameless because close quarter warfare where you need to do significant damage to the enemy are sometimes executed in a clandestine manner.
THIS WEAPON OF WAR WAS GIVEN A CODE NAME “THE MAN OF GOD FROM JUDAH” AND THAT WAS IT.
His root was not known. He came with fresh anointing released for the season and headed straight to the altar He was sent to deal with.
Our generation is facing similar threats; the sin of Jeroboam is among us today. But God has raised prophetic and apostolic voices to cry against it. Those who are hungry and thirsty after righteousness are going after the word of the LORD on their lips. But those who are blind are resisting it.
Some are doing it like King Jeroboam, while others are doing it like Old Prophet that the man of God from Judah met. Our devotional text says?
Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him; and he rode on it, and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. Then he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” And he said, “I am.”
Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.” And he said, “I cannot return with you nor go in with you; neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place.
For I have been told by the word of the LORD, ‘You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by going the way you came.’ ” 1 Kings 13:13-17 NKJV
Again if you look at this scripture, you will realize that God sought to protect His sent one from an Old one who was no longer in active duty for Him. He knew that rest, food, water and bread will be his ruin hence warning him not to go for them in the place of assignment.
BUT THE BIBLE SAYS,
He said to him, “I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’ ” (He was lying to him.)
So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water.
Now it happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back; and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying,
“Thus says the LORD: ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the LORD, and have not kept the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you,
but you came back, ate bread, and drank water in the place of which the LORD said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’ ” 1 Kings 13:18-22 NKJV
This is one of the amazing parts of the Bible. This man called the Old Prophet, successfully lied to the man of God from Judah, and would later get him killed by a lion or evil. That brings us to the next Throne Room Miracles – miracles God does through the instructions He gives.
The throne room of God is where divine instructions proceed from. When we obey them, we get miracles from that realm of God’s glory. The man of GOD from Judah tasted this kind of miracle when he had no broken the instructions the LORD gave Him.
These miracles appear when divine instructions are kept. They do not depend on our prayers but on our obedience; and do not forget, obedience is better than sacrifice and to harken than the fats of rams. Amazing miracles will always break out from God’s Throne when we are walking in obedience. The Bible says;
So it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, who cried out against the altar in Bethel, that he stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Arrest him!” Then his hand, which he stretched out toward him, withered, so that he could not pull it back to himself.
The altar also was split apart, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the LORD.
Then the king answered and said to the man of God, “Please entreat the favor of the LORD your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.”
So the man of God entreated the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored to him, and became as before. 1 Kings 13:4-6 NKJV
THERE WILL BE SUDDEN OUTBREAK OF POWER TO SAVE US IF WE ARE WILLING AND OBEDIENT.
When you see a child or servant of God suddenly destroyed after a moment of experiencing sudden and significant divine help, he or she compromised shortly after the sudden help of God.
In this scripture, you see the man of God unleashing the greatness of God’s power in his days of Obedience but losing his life completely in his days of disobedience. His obedience moved God to fight for him and his disobedience paralyzed God’s power over His life and hindered GOD from fighting for Him.
Miracles that comes when our obedience is complete are beyond what words can say a times. They render devils ineffective and allows God’s people to be beautified after a season of painstaking obedience. There is a way that they can be elevated to become blessings.
When we begin to walk in fulfilled obedience, we will begin to experience an outbreak of God that we have never seen. The arm of a King drying up as he wanted to cause harm to God’s servant shows what God can do or how far He will go to protect us when our obedience is fulfilled.
It is my prayer that God use this short word to add to the building blocks of our faith!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,
casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. 2 Corinthains 10:3-4 NKJV