TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 26TH JULY 2022)
Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down. ….
And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, “LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word.
Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.”
Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench.
Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!” 1 Kings 18:30,36-39 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 207TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
Our LORD God has given us another day to be alive and well. The Bible says daily He loads us with benefits. It is out of what He has been loading us with on daily bases that we are alive today.
When we read the word benefits, our hearts are bound to go to several treasurable things of the earth. But Isaiah made it clear that as the Heavens are higher than the earth so are His thoughts higher than earthly or human thoughts. The word benefits have nothing to do with the earthly but the eternal that makes life on earth blissful.
Yes, God have been loading us with the benefits of His glory, His mercies, His grace and all that He died, was buried and rose to bring to us. He has been loading us with the benefits of redemption; yes, the benefits of spoiling principalities and powers; making a public show of them.
Some of these benefits do manifest as salvation, deliverance, healing, sustenance, peace, progress in life, blessings that comes to replace curses, divine protection, long life, mercies, compassion, victory in warfare and all that God offers to us to make life on earth blissful.
Yes, the benefits have also been coming to us as revelation knowledge. Especially through this platform.
We have been on a 31- Day journey of faith with the Cry of the Holy Spirit on Miracles signs and wonders and have decided to wrap up the Journey looking at the Cry of the Spirit on Catalyst of miracles.
We have seen two important catalysts of miracles – God’s mercies and God’s faithfulness. The two stands out because they are the foundation of all the miracles that God performs in the lives of men.
I remember a story told by God’s handmaiden Kathrine Kuhlmann years before I was born. She said she was in a meeting in one of those American Cities and a man who lost one of his ears during the first recorded world war was in the meeting.
He did not come to be healed. He was a man who never believed in GOD. He came to question all that will prove to him that GOD exist.
SO, WHILE HE WAS SEATED IN THE HALL, AND WHILE THE WOMAN OF GOD WAS MINISTERING, THE MAN WAS HEALED.
God did a creative miracle and restored back the entire ear drum that he lost in the war. That was even before prayer for the sick started. He just discovered that he could hear. What was the catalyst of this miracle? God’s mercies and faithfulness off course.
Like I shared the other day, there are so many things God has done in our lives, not because we deserve them but because of His faithfulness and mercies. The compassion that springs forth from His heart when He sees suffering humanity is always responsible for most of the miracles we see in our lives.
The Bible says,
“For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:15-16 NKJV
So, whenever we are suffering, we should remember that we have a compassionate God, who will never overlook our sufferings, no matter the cause. Then learn to be men and women of His throne room presence by regularly seeking for His intervention on our prayer knee.
If there is relationship with Him, we will get the answers. If there is none, He will lead us to establish one then bring the intervention we need.
Sometimes the intervention will come to us as wisdom to apply and get the result we may be looking for, other times it will come to us as power that produces the results we may be looking for. Which brings us to the next catalyst of miracles, “righteous prayers.”
There are miracles that comes from God by us just crying unto Him in desperation, and there are miracles that comes through righteous prayers.
Miracles that come because of our crying unto God in desperation happen because of God’s mercies or faithfulness. It does not matter if the one crying is saved or not. It does not even matter if He goes to Church or not, or if he lives right or not.
WHAT MATTERS IS, THE PERSON BEING A CREATURE OF GOD, LOOKING FOR HELP FROM HIS OR HER CREATOR.
And God does such miracles to either introduce Himself to the person or establish the introduction of Himself in the person’s heart. The miracles always result in an establishment or a strengthening of relationship between God and men.
Let me share two stories that will help us understand this category of miracles.
Many years ago, there was a fanatical Muslim who gave his life to Christ at one point and began to preach the gospel in the community he grew up in.
One day he stood before an Islamic scholar and requested that the man listen to the message of the Cross. But the response was a stiff opposition that was about claiming his life. When the people surrounded him to take away his life, he became desperate in his bid to prove that Jesus is real.
The Islamic scholar had a wife who had lost almost all her teeth due to Old age. In desperation the young Christian said to them that Jesus can restore back all her teeth to prove to them that He is real.
But they responded in mockery “if that happens then we will follow your Jesus.”
The man called the woman to stand in their midst but she refused. The people persuaded her to stand then she did, with eyes open. All of them said they will keep their eyes open so that the man will not run away because they knew he was going to ask them to close their eyes in prayer.
Then with everyone’s eyes open, and ready with their weapons he prayed a simple prayer of desperation, and in few seconds with their eyes open, and without anyone saying amen, they watched the old woman’s teeth restored. The teeth that was restored was sparkling white, unlike the brownish ones she had lost.
That was how God saved the situation and introduced Himself to those who would later give their lives to Christ.
THE SECOND STORY HAPPENED IN THE UNITED STATES.
A group of rebellious, sexually perverse fun seeking youths, where on a boat that they hired. Their mission was to ride through the coast of the Atlantic Ocean from one coastal city to another. But tragedy struck in the middle of their journey, and the boat drifted into the high sea with no one to help.
After few days many of them died due to the incident. It all started when one of them began to hallucinate and jumped into the sea. The sharks found him and came for others and eat some. Then those who were left could not stand it any longer, they began to die one after the other until only one was left.
The one that was left knew her days were numbered, but she remembered that her mother use to pray. So, she prayed a prayer of desperation. It was taken out of the LORD’s prayer. That night God sent a signal to a rescue sheep and as the day began to dawn, she saw a ship right before her eyes. She thought she was dreaming.
That was how she was saved.
I said to myself if all of them had done that earlier, perhaps they would not have died.
Even when one does not have a relationship with God, there are times Heaven will cause God’s rain of miracles to fall on the wicked too, just to start or establish a relationship with them.
Most times they will respond and get saved, other times they would not.
It is like courting a woman for marriage; one who is not interested in you. You will do good things to her until she becomes interested. But there are those who, no matter the good deeds you do to them, will still not be interested.
Miracles God performs when we are in desperate situations are like that. They do not depend on us, but on God. They depend on his mercies and faithfulness, but miracles God perform when we pray righteous prayer are different.
While the prayer we pray in desperation may bring spectacular miracles, the prayer we pray in righteousness brings both spectacular and significant results.
DESPERATE PRAYERS ARE PRAYED BY ANYONE OUT THERE BUT RIGHTEOUS PRAYERS ARE PRAYED BY RIGHTEOUS MEN AND WOMEN.
They are prayers we can only pray in good standing with God. They could unlock miraculous moves of God that can last for generations.
For example, Righteous prayers can turn entire nations to the LORD if accompanied by righteous preaching. But desperate prayers can never do that.
It is important to note that desperate prayers are limited because most times people do not get answers from God because of reasons we can’t talk about here. But righteous prayers are unlimited.
They always bring answers from God! That is why, people must learn to seek the LORD for help through righteous prayers whenever desperate prayers fail.
Righteous prayers are a major catalyst of significant and spectacular Throne Room Miracles. They do not fail because they begin from God and ends with God.
In simple sense, they begin from God, continue with us and end with God thereby bringing outbreaks of GOD. There are so many Bible patterns that shows us how they work, but we will look at the Elijah pattern.
When the man of God stood before the prophets and Baal and Asherah to call down fire, he first did something; he first figuratively put Israel’s heart right before God. He did that by repairing the broken-down altar.
The altar was a symbol of the hearts of the people of Israel as God’s holy nation under Heaven. What Elijah did tantamount to preaching, because it takes preaching to repair the broken-down altars of people’s hearts.
He began by saying to them; …
“How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him… (1 Kings 18:21 NKJV)
That was preaching.
After asking Baal to prove himself by the hands of its prophets and Baal failed, he moved to set things right. After setting things right, he then prayed righteous prayers.
OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT PUTS IT THIS WAY;
Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down. ….
And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said,
“LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.” Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said,
“The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!” 1 Kings 18:30,36-39 NKJV
You see here that there was no struggle or desperation. There was just intensity. That is the nature and texture of righteous prayers.
We can come to the Throne of Grace through desperate prayers, we can also come Through righteous prayers. But desperate prayers are limited. They do not bring help all the time. That is why we have seen people pray in desperation and what is seen as faith, without getting answers.
Many have died that way! They did not die because God never wanted them saved. They died because the prayers that were made where desperate but not righteous.
They died because of the catalyst of miracle they chose to use in activating the miraculous for their situation. If you use the wrong catalyst you will not get the desired result. You will need righteous prayers whenever desperate prayers fail you.
RIGHTEOUS PRAYERS BEGIN FROM THE PLACE OF THE PREPARATION OF THE HEART.
A prepared heart will connect the Throne of God where all righteous prayers are outsourced from.
It us important to note that unlike desperate prayers, righteous prayers are not outsourced from the earth.
Desperate prayers are sourced from what we are going through, but righteous prayers that brings the miraculous are outsourced from what God has already finished in Heaven concerning our situation. They are outsourced from the Throne of God.
If you want to come to the realm of righteous prayers, the first step to take could be planting yourself in a Church with a prayer mantle that is full of righteous prayers. You must not be part of those who download prayer points from the internet to pray.
Righteous prayers are downloaded from the Throne of God not from the internet. They are placed by the Holy Spirit in our hearts individually not on the internet by those you feel are closer to God than you.
That is the word of the LORD to us today. I trust you have found something to eat.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“O LORD, you know; Remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. In Your enduring patience, do not take me away. Know that for Your sake I have suffered rebuke.
Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.” Jeremiah 15:15-16 NKJV