TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 30TH JULY 2022)
“The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me.
For I have kept the ways of the LORD, And have not wickedly departed from my God. For all His judgments were before me, And I did not put away His statutes from me.
I was also blameless before Him, And I kept myself from my iniquity. Therefore, the LORD has recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands in His sight.
With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful; With a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless; With the pure You will show Yourself pure; And with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd.
For You will save the humble people, But will bring down haughty looks.” Psalm 18:20-27 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 212TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
It is another last day of the week, after a successful walk through another week in our year of amazing grace. God has indeed been good to us and His faithfulness has been our help.
The month has been salted by His mercies and blessed with His compassion.
A lot was hurled at us this month from both expected and unexpected quarters. But God saw us through.
The most painful attacks are not necessarily from expected places. The most painful and devastating attacks are usually from unexpected places. From those you may have rescued at one point or the other.
Some of us are almost getting used to attacks from those we rescued at one point or the other.
Genuine gospel ministry is a rescue mission. You will find yourself rescuing people who are condemned to eternal death, dying under the yoke of diseases, plagued by financial or marital crisis. You will find yourself in all kinds of rescue operations.
You see, each part of the earth has its own unique rescue that is needed. There are parts of the earth that you have to rescue people from drugs and other forms of addictions and all that.
There are parts that the rescue has to be from bad relationships and all forms of slavery. And there are parts you have to rescue people from being homeless, fatherless, and etc.
In Kenya, rescue operations vary. It could be just spiritual, it could be just physical. It could be just helping someone not to be thrown out of their home for lack of rent, supporting someone’s education, helping one find a small-scale business to do, giving someone a job, and etc.
It is beautiful if you offer such help and you are appreciated with kindness but very painful when the same people you rescued became the proverbial cub that ate the one who rescued it after it became a lion.
The reason why many have become mean and wicked is simply because of that. They fear the dying cubs around them may become dangerous lions and eat them up if they rescue them.
YES, GREAT MINISTRIES HAVE BEEN DESTROYED BY THOSE IT RESCUED.
Great marriages have been destroyed by young men and women that couples who were in thriving and succeeding in their marriages decided to save from the perils of life.
Kind people are often, slandered, maligned, lied against, misunderstood and then destroyed by those they showed kindness to. Very few I have shown kindness to have spared me. Many, especially those under my watch have severely dealt with me.
I just discovered that, everyone who has shot me at close range, have either worked in my office or been close to me in life or ministry one way or the other.
Here in Kenya, it is often some of those who I decided to bring to serve with me in the Church office or assign responsibilities to in church that becomes lions after growing up. My initial reason for bringing each one has always been to better their lives. That is why I take my time to train them in the job I want them to do, excerpt for very few.
Even after sacking them we still pay some allowances until they find jobs. But what some of them have done and are still doing, is capable of destroying lives and making one mean if God do not intervene.
Am almost developing a phobia on this; Sometimes I get afraid of rescuing those who need help. But the job demands that men be rescued. You cannot preach or demonstrate the gospel of Jesus Christ without executing rescue for those who needs it.
Sometimes one is struck with awe by what this once-upon-a-time-dying-cubs do. It make one wonder if they are influenced by the charlatans who are against us to do or say what they do and say.
One cannot ask God to strike them because they are not demons, neither are we willing that any of them should perish. One can only ask God to vindicate and save someone from all they may be doing or saying.
It seems, as you hit the devil and snatch lambs out of his mouth, he uses anyone around you he can find to strike back. If there was no divine vindication in God’s kingdom, I marvel what our lives would have turned out because of these attacks.
THAT BRINGS US TO THE THRONE ROOM MIRACLE I WANT TO SHARE TODAY.
It’s been 30 days since we started this journey and the God of mercy has been helping us with living truths on miracles, signs and wonders on daily bases. Like we shared yesterday, we will not be able to exhaust everything about miracles on this journey. Just get set for our August Special Schools of Miracle signs and wonders.
The Throne Room miracle I want to share today is called Divine Vindication. We have shared something about this in time past, but we have not seen the angle we want to look at today.
I once defined divine vindication as God using time to clear the lies that your mouth could not clear because you were overwhelmed.
Divine vindication is a throne room miracle that sometimes manifest in form of signs and wonders. It is one of the many ways GOD uses in making sure wickedness do not take root on the earth.
Divine vindication is a major catalyst of kingdom advance. It is a heritage of the blameless. It is God showing Himself blameless to the blameless.
The divine vindication of a minister or ministry, for example, can lead to the salvation and deliverance of others. In other words, when GOD vindicate you, people may experience salvation and deliverance from what happens depending on what He vindicated you from.
Divine vindication is God testifying and verifying you to be honest, truthful, and right after a season of being treated as dishonest, untruthful and wrong. I have seen this in my life over and over again.
I have been lied against terribly from childhood. So, I know what I am sharing with you. People will take your facts, and use them to cook unbelievable lies and sell them successfully to others, leaving you in tears. I have been there!
So many people in Kenya, for example have confessed to us how they never liked me and what I preached. They said they took me for one who attack other ministries and Churches until the LORD visited them and showed them the truth of what He has placed in our hearts to do.
THAT WAS WHEN THEY DECIDED TO JOIN THE MINISTRY.
Others have confessed how they never wanted anything to do with our TV Channel, the Morning Cloud Television, and how they operated in hate against us. They spoke ill of us to whoever gives them a listening ear. But one day the LORD met them and today they are in the ministry.
All these are manifestations of divine vindication.
When God testify and verify you to be honest, truthful, and right after a season of being treated as dishonest, untruthful and wrong, you have been vindicated. That is why I do not allow lies I cannot clear to move me. I only clear the ones I can under God, and leave the ones I cannot to Him.
It is difficult to clear a damaging lie that is dressed in many facts. Those are the kinds of lies that some who serve with us in Church, either at the office or in the work force, usually tell.
When you are told one damaging lie that the liar carefully and craftily wraps in many facts, it is difficult not to believe. That is why the potential liar will always want to get close to you and your family; like in my case, even checking my phones.
They do that because they are looking for facts to use in cooking their lies. They know if one lie is carefully wrapped in many facts, people will believe the lie and condemn the pastor, thereby hindering the work.
But thank God for the miracle, sign and wonder of divine vindication. It has always come through to help the blameless. It is a Kingdom advance defense force that brings amazing verification of truth and debunking of lies. It comes after people have believe the lie and passed severe judgment on you.
I want to admonish you this morning to always strive to be blameless in life.
If what people are saying you did is not true, just relax and go on with your life, or the kingdom assignment the LORD has given you. You will be rewarded according to your righteousness when the time comes.
MAKE SURE THERE IS NO WICKEDNESS IN YOU.
In fact, when people are speaking ill of you that is when to be on the Threshing floor to make sure there is no wickedness in you. That is the time to tell the LORD to search you and see if there is any wicked way in you and lead you to the way everlasting. That is the time to make sure you are upright before GOD.
Do not forget you will be rewarded according to your righteousness. It is important that you be at the Threshing floor during those painful days!
Our devotional text says;
“The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me.
For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all His judgments were before me, And I did not put away His statutes from me.
I was also blameless before Him, And I kept myself from my iniquity. Therefore, the LORD has recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands in His sight.
With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful; With a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless; With the pure You will show Yourself pure; And with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd.
For You will save the humble people, But will bring down haughty looks.” Psalm 18:20-27 NKJV
Yes, God will save the humble people and bring down haughty looks that is why I say be on the Threshing floor when you are being lied against. Do not be in the court of public opinion defending yourself, except you are prompted by the LORD to do so.
NOW, THERE IS THE MYSTERY OF VESSELS OF VINDICATION AND VESSELS OF CONDEMNATION THAT I WANT TO SHARE WITH YOU AT THIS POINT.
Around every mandate and messengers of God, you will find vessels of vindication placed by GOD and vessels of condemnation placed by the evil one. Obviously, one is there to do God’s will and the other is there to do Satan’s will.
Vessels of condemnation are those who get close enough to gather facts about the private life of GOD’s messengers, relationship with their families and other details about his GOD given mandate for the purpose of cooking and developing damaging lies to condemn and ruin the reputation of God’s glorious one.
That is why they check their phones and twist text messages sent to them to cook their lies.
Now, let me make this clear; There is exposing of evil going on in church today which is divine judgment, but there is something the devil is doing to hurt GOD’s people that looks like what God is doing. He does that using vessels of ruin.
Where there are no scandals to report vessels of ruin will attempt to create them. But vessels of vindication are different.
They are God’s vessel of redemption. They are good people God uses in damaging the lies told against the blameless in the day of vindication. I have seen this happen around me over and over as well.
I want to admonish all who are privilege to serve genuine messengers of God and divine mandates closely, to choose to be vessels of vindication not vessels of ruin and condemnation.
Understand that just as the devil plant bad guys around us to gather facts and use them to cook damaging lies against us, so does God plant sons of peace as well to gather facts that will help in defeating damaging lies that may be told at appointed times against us.
Chose to be one God will use in the day of vindication not one the devil will use in the day of destruction.
Be a vessel that will defeat lies because, those who will be used by GOD to defeat lies will be blessed over time and the ones who cook and establish them will be cursed over time. Understand that God use people to vindicate people, and be a vessel of vindication not a vessel of ruin like the liars around.
LASTLY, I WANT TO SUBMIT TO US THAT DIVINE VINDICATION DOES NOT ALWAYS MANIFEST IN PEOPLE DYING OR GETTING SICK.
It does not always manifest tragically.
Do not forget what Jesus said about the Spirit we are made of. It does not destroy men’s lives, but saves them. That was why those who killed our Bible fathers and made the earth hot for them did not all end tragically, some got saved and became messengers of GOD.
While we all want God to vindicate us tragically, it is not the tradition of His kingdom to always vindicate His own tragically. There are different manifestations of divine vindication and it is important that we know them so that we can recognized when God is vindicating us and stop praying about it.
For us at the Cry of the Spirit, we are vindicated when once antagonist people encounter the LORD and begin to understand us and become part of the ministry. When the attacks are in-house, God vindicate us by pouring more of His presence in our services, and doing amazing miracles among us.
He vindicates us by making sure we grow faster and stronger during the seasons of attacks. The greatest leaps in our growth has always come when am under severe attacks from those I have served and rescued. That is when the voice of the LORD becomes more closer and clearer, the revelation on our lips more out of this world, and the transformation of lives instant.
Understand that vindication will not always be tragic. He will vindicate you by keeping the people alive to hear the stories of your liftings from year to year.
I believe enough has been shared for the day. Enough to help us be what God has called us to be not what the enemy has planned that we be. May our lives never lack the miracles we need in the day of adversity in Jesus precious amen. Amen!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY!
“I will love You, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies. The pangs of death surrounded me, And the floods of ungodliness made me afraid.
The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me; The snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry came before Him, even to His ears.” Psalm 18:1-6 NKJV