TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 27TH AUGUST 2022)
“So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle.
And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the LORD talked with Moses.
All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door.
So the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle. Exodus 33:8-11 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 239TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
The LORD God has given us another day to fulfill. We appreciate Him for allowing His grace to run our lives for the 234 days we have seen this year. We trust Him for the rest of the year in Jesus precious name. Amen.
We have said it repeatedly that if God’s grace run your life, man’s attacks will never be able to ground your life. If God’s grace run your life Satanic attacks will not be able to ruin your life. If God’s grace run your life sin and wickedness will not be able to ground your life.
So many of us are Testimonies of these things.
God’s grace has been ushering in His mercies into our lives and making sure whatever come upon us leaves the word of the LORD standing strong in our lives. His grace has made His wonderful presence ever abiding and His glory that gives a man rest tangible.
He said in His word,
“My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” (Exodus 33:14 NKJV)
If this Scripture was not true, many of us would have rested in peace prematurely. It is the rest that His presence has been giving us that has kept us alive. That is why building your life around the presence of the LORD should be non-negotiable.
Life around the presence of the LORD was the life style of the early Church. That was why the thrived.
They never build their lives around people but around the presence of the LORD, who died on the cross and saved them from eternal judgment. If you do not build your life around such a Savior who else will you build your life around?
The Bible says, when the Church began to grow, things that had no eternal value began to creep in, threatening to take their attention. But the leaders of the Church knew that if they give the things the attention, they were calling for, they will lose the practice of building their lives around the presence of the LORD.
So, they said;
….“It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.
Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” Acts 6:2-4 NKJV
This scripture has inspired great awakening in the life of many people and shaped destinies from age to age, since the Church was born over two thousand years ago.
IF YOU ARE A SEED OF GOD, IT WILL SPARK A FIRE IN YOUR SPIRIT; A FIRE OF INTIMACY WITH THE LORD.
One of the most important battles you must fight and be victorious in is the battle of priorities. You must know what to prioritize as the most important thing in your life as a Christian.
You must fight everything that may come to distract you from making life in the presence of God your life style. You must prioritize building your life around the presence of the LORD like our fathers did.
If you allow what will not add to the grace to build yourself around the presence of God to become your focus or to steal your attention, you will have yourself to blame. We make the most of our Christian faith when we build our lives around the presence of the LORD.
The early church knew that well. That was why they fought against any form of distraction to maintain a faith position of having their daily lives around the tangible presence of the LORD.
They did not allow what looked very good to do to take their attention from doing the most essential. They did not allow serving tables to take them away from standing before God; they gave themselves entirely to the ministry of the word and prayer and experienced God’s tangible presence on daily bases.
In other words, they conquered that distraction, built their lives around the presence of the LORD and ended up blossoming like palms trees even in the midst of the one of the stiffest oppositions form hell, that a child of God can face.
The Bible says;
“Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.” Acts 6:7 NKJV
Like we stated earlier, you can only make the most of the Christian faith if you become one whose life is built around the presence of the LORD. You can only enjoy the most of God if you build your daily life around His tangible presence.
I have heard and read from so many preachers who preaches that an altar is responsible for all the problems people go through in life. I use to think and preach that way too. But there is no place in the Bible where we can find that.
I have come to discover that if you are growing in the faith, you will not hold on to things the Bible never teaches for too long.
YOU WILL DO AWAY WITH THEM. SO, I DROPPED SUCH MISLEADING INFORMATION WHEN I GREW UP!
The Bible did not say it is the presence of an evil altar that is responsible for the evils that may be happening to you, neither did it say the presence of a good and holy altar need to be in your life for good to happen.
The Bible is clear on why many in Church go through successful attacks and live very backward lives. It is because daily lives are built around religion and earthly pursuits but not around the tangible presence of the LORD.
God said to Moses,
“My presence will go with You, and I will give you rest”
He did not say, “break an evil altar and build a holy altar and you will have rest.” He said my presence will go with you.
In Acts chapter 6, the apostles did not say,
“seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; but we will give ourselves continually to raising, breaking and silencing of altars”
I have said before that if you see preachers practicing things the early Church never practiced, and using any acceptable scripture to defend themselves, you have seen the spirit of lawlessness in manifestation. You have seen the sick church standing before you. And the sick church cannot bring healing to a dying world.
If you are an altar raising, breaking, and silencing Christian.
I submit to you that you will never have the rest of God in your life until you stop doing that and start building your life around the presence of the LORD.
If you are an oil using, sand using, salt using, prayer cloth or mantle using, bracelets using, perfumes using, or miracle or holy water using person, I submit to you that you will never have rest in your life until you throw those stuffs away and start building your life around the tangible presence of the LORD.
The Bible says;
“You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:11 NKJV
PEOPLE WHO TRUST DELIVERANCE INVENTIONS INSTEAD OF THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD, WILL BECOME DEMONIZED.
I have met quiet a lot who were demonized and made dwelling places of unclean spirits by the water they were given to pray with, the oil they used and all that.
Babylon has fallen and have become the habitation of all unclean spirits. You must become careful what you collect from preachers for miracles. Many have collected and are still collecting unclean spirits from them.
Through preachers who give people things like, oil, bracelets and etc. many are now fathered by demons. You can never have rest if you do not build your life, career, business, and etc. around the tangible presence of the LORD.
We have been on a 31-day journey of faith with the Cry of the Holy Spirit on Spiritual fathering. We have been looking at patterns of ideal spiritual fathering in scriptures. Today we will be concluding our devotional with the Moses pattern, especially in his relationship with Joshua, his son in the faith.
In the Moses pattern of spiritual fathering, we see another fruit of having a spiritual father whose life is built around the Tree of life. That fruit appeared in the life of Joshua.
It is important to note that the fruit of any spiritual fathering, either good or bad, will appear in your life. Our devotional text says;
“So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle.
And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the LORD talked with Moses.
All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door.
So the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle. Exodus 33:8-11 NKJV
JOSHUA WAS CALLED HERE “SERVANT OF MOSES.”
But today we see it as a spiritual son because sons will serve to become what God has called them to be under fathers whose lives are built around the Tree of life.
As I looked at this scripture, I found something very remarkable. I found the fruit of proper fathering in the life of Joshua; a life built around the tangible presence of the LORD.
In those days to build your life around the tangible presence you have to be in the Tabernacle where the presence of the LORD was tangible and His glory seen. That was why Joshua did not depart from the presence of the LORD whenever Moses departed.
One of the major fruits of ideal spiritual fathering in the lives of ideal spiritual sons is a desire to be a person of the tangible presence of the LORD.
If the influence of your spiritual father is not making you a person whose life is built around the presence of the LORD, you are not in an ideal spiritual fathering system. To become people who will not depart from the presence of the LORD is one of the major reasons of fathering.
Now, I did not say people who will not depart from the Church building, I said people who will not depart from the presence of the LORD.
Yes, we experience God during services in our Church buildings but we cannot all be living there. Building your life around the presence of the LORD is not building your life around the Church building. Only an Ideal spiritual father can teach you that.
ONE OTHER REMARKABLE THING I SAW IN OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT IS FOUND IN THE FIRST VERSES OF THE TEXT.
It says;
“So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle.
And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the LORD talked with Moses.
All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door.” Exodus 33:8-9 NKJV
Why was it necessary that the people stand at the door of their tents to watch Moses enter the tangible presence of the LORD and watch God speak to him face to face? Fathering is also by observation. They were being fathered on how to make the tangible presence of the LORD a dwelling place.
God was stirring them to desire the same experience that Moses was having since His plan for them was for each and every one of them to be entering the same cloud and experiencing Him individually – a plan they turned down the first time they got to Sinai.
The pattern teaches us that spiritual fathers can serve as our motivation for Higher level of encounters with God. That is why when you have dead and expired fathers, you are in trouble. You will never be able to desire such in all your years with them.
For instance, the sons of the Old Prophet under Jeroboam were so useless to God that they could only bring gossips to their father – they could only bring report of things that would eventually lead to the death of the young prophet from Judah.
Being under dead or expired spiritual fathers is a curse that will hinder you from building your life around the tangible presence of the LORD.
As we bring this to a close, I want you to check if the fruit we saw in the life of Joshua under the influence of his spiritual authority Moses, is in your life. You have been under that spiritual authority for the period that you may have been; can you find the fruit? Is your life planted around the tangible presence of the LORD?
If the answer is no, you need another spiritual father.
Stop wasting your time under Trees that are not bearing the ideal fruits in your life. You will regret it eternally if you do not. Fire is going to come out of them to consume you one of these days! It’s just a matter of time.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOUR LIFE TODAY!
“Now therefore, if you have acted in truth and sincerity in making Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have done to him as he deserves—
for my father fought for you, risked his life, and delivered you out of the hand of Midian;
but you have risen up against my father’s house this day, and killed his seventy sons on one stone, and made Abimelech, the son of his female servant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother—
if then you have acted in truth and sincerity with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you.
But if not, let fire come from Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem and Beth Millo; and let fire come from the men of Shechem and from Beth Millo and devour Abimelech!” Judges 9:16-20 NKJV