TODAY’S DEVOTION (FRIDAY 23RD SEPTEMBER 2022)
“Therefore, He says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine (make day dawn) upon you and give you light.
Look carefully then how you walk!
Live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless, but as wise (sensible, intelligent people), Making the very most of the time [buying up each opportunity], because the days are evil.
Therefore, do not be vague and thoughtless and foolish, but understanding and firmly grasping what the will of the Lord is.” Ephesians 5:14-17 AMPC
WELCOME TO THE 266TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
Glory be to the LORD God Almighty for another weekend. It is His ever-new mercies that has made this possible.
How great is His goodness which He has stored up for those who fear Him? No end to His compassion that comes to us each day! We will not be blind to the reality of His unchanging will and plans for our lives. Indeed, He has not let the rod of the wicked rest upon us, that’s why we are here today.
To Him belong all the glory!
For twenty-three days today, we have been following the Cry of the Spirit on Biblical fasting. Truth upon truth has been shared and we have come to the place of understanding how to engage in result oriented fast. The best part, in my opinion, is the part we are sharing now; the fasting type called absolute fast.
Absolute fast in God’s design does not involve the intake of food or water. It is a fast where the glory of God works on our thirst and appetite, pausing everything until the period appointed for the exercise by the LORD is over. It is a fasting type that was common in the life of our Bible fathers, especially when they were young men and had very pressing issues to deal with in their lives.
It helped them to solve very difficult problems, increase their faith in God and to align with His will and ways. Today we will be looking at the life of one of them, David.
The man of God had a life that is common to most of us, especially from when he was a teenager to when he became King. He also struggled with the flesh like all of us, but at the height of His success in life and ministry as king over Israel he did something very sinful.
During that moment he fasted.
He was face to face with divine judgment when he did the fast, and we can draw lessons from there.
THE STORY OF HOW IT ALL BEGAN SAYS;
“It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold.
So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”
Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house. And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.” 2 Samuel 11:1-5 NKJV
This story led to so much trouble in the life of David that at one point he had to engage in an absolute fast.
First of all, the Bible says to cover his sin with Bathsheba he had to kill her husband with the sword of the people of Ammon so that it would appear as if he died in battle. Then he moved to marry his widow to further make it appear as if he was showing kindness to him.
But the LORD who sees into the deepest secrets of men saw it and sent His prophetic warning finger to him. The word says;
Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus, says the LORD God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.
I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more!
Why have you despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon.
Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’
Thus, says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbour, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’”
So, David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” And Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.”
Then Nathan departed to his house. 2 Samuel 12:7-15 NKJV
AS SOON AS NATHAN DEPARTED TO HIS HOUSE DAVID MOVED TO THE THRESHING FLOOR OF ABSOLUTE FAST.
The burden that moved him was a desire to seek the mercies of the LORD so that He can spare the child that His prophetic finger had decreed will die. The fast was absolute. But the response he sought was not granted. The Bible says;
“And the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became ill. David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground.
So the elders of his house arose and went to him, to raise him up from the ground. But he would not, nor did he eat food with them.
Then on the seventh day it came to pass that the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead.
For they said, “Indeed, while the child was alive, we spoke to him, and he would not heed our voice. How can we tell him that the child is dead? He may do some harm!”
When David saw that his servants were whispering, David perceived that the child was dead. Therefore, David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” And they said, “He is dead.”
So David arose from the ground, washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house; and when he requested, they set food before him, and he ate.
Then his servants said to him, “What is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate food.”
And he said, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who can tell whether the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’
But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” 2 Samuel 12:15-23 NKJV
The first lesson to draw from this story is this, there are things that our fasting and prayer cannot handle. And we will come to that. But what we can see here is, no matter how thorough and absolute our fast may be, if we are not fasting and praying according to GOD’s will, what we may be seeking God for will never be granted.
We can also see here that fasting cannot move God. God is already on the move. Our fast can not move Him, it should rather move us to align with His will.
IF WHAT WE ARE ASKING GOD TO DO IS NOT IN HIS WILL, OUR FAST CAN NEVER MAKE HIM DO IT.
It is therefore wrong to think that we can make God do things if we seek Him in prayer without eating and drinking for many days. A lot of us have gone into that kind of fasting. We heard teachings and testimonies that pushed us into it but came out very frustrated and even disappointed at GOD for not answering our prayers.
As earlier stated, it is very important to realize that there are things that fasting and prayer cannot handle. If we do not realize that we will present them to God in prayer and watch Him not responding to any.
The first is what we see in the life of David.
Fasting and prayer could not alter God’s justice system.
He decreed that the Child David had must die, and that was it. It was a decree of His justice system. The reason was much bigger than why David wanted him alive.
The second thing that fasting cannot change is this; whatever needs the application of natural laws to be taken care off, fasting cannot take care of it.
For instance, when I arrived here in Nigeria, I was truck with a terrible cold. It was so terrible that I spent most of the nights not being able to breathe properly. In fact, at a point I thought I was dying and began to reason with the LORD. Fear struck me!
Do not forget, I came for a small meeting and had been fasting for days even before coming. The power of God was there even in my hands but I was sick. When I stood to preach I stood with difficulty in breathing but people did not know.
I had to called my Sister,later, to ask for medical help when I was being used of the LORD to bless others while I myself was dying. Thank God the young man who was driving me is a medical doctor.
In fact, I did not know how my sister got a medical doctor to be my driver in this trip. I believe it was the hand of the LORD because my life was at stake. So, he went and got some drugs for me. I cannot remember if I paid him the money.
Then I was placed on medication.
I took the medication all through the days of the meeting and was finally healed.
Someone may say “man of God why did you take medication as a man of God? Why did you not believe God for your Healing?” I believed God for my healing that was why I took the medication for my healing. Period!
I WAS ASTHMATIC AS A CHILD, SO NATURAL LAWS DEMAND THAT I DO NOT ALLOW ANY COLD INTO MY SYSTEM.
But I did, and fell ill. That was not a demonic attack but a law that I broke. No fasting and prayer could have fixed that because no fasting and prayer can fix the consequences when we break natural laws and become sick.
We could even die and I was close to it.
It was just that I felt the presence of the LORD strongly in my spirit and new it was not my time to die.
I reiterate that fasting and prayer is good but fasting and prayer cannot cure or save everything. We must come to that understanding and not trade our lives on the platform of religion.
A lot of things in life are controlled by natural laws not the demonic, especially for us children of God who are keeping our lives clean and spending time in God’s manifest presence.
If the application of natural laws will save a situation, do not apply fasting and prayer to it. You will perish doing so. If I was rigid and say “God will heal me” I would have died during the meeting.
My enemies in Kenya would have said God killed me for standing against the oil and withstanding erring preachers. Those who have been praying for my death would have celebrated that the god of Ekron has delivered me to their hands.
But God gave me the common sense to ask for medical care and placed a medical doctor to be my driver all throughout my stay in Abuja.
He positioned the natural to take care of me because it was not a case for the supernatural to handle. Friend, we must come to the revelation that when the natural is ordained to take care of a thing, we should not seek to engage the supernatural.
WE ARE NATURAL BEINGS ALSO NOT ALTOGETHER SPIRIT BEINGS.
We must understand that if the demonic is not involved in a case and we go seeking God to arrest the demons behind the case, we may die seeking Him. I grew up in a fasting and prayer system and have seen few believers loose their lives trying to use the supernatural to deal with what the natural should handle.
Our devotional text says;
“Therefore, He says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine (make day dawn) upon you and give you light.
Look carefully then how you walk!
Live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless, but as wise (sensible, intelligent people), Making the very most of the time [buying up each opportunity], because the days are evil.
Therefore, do not be vague and thoughtless and foolish, but understanding and firmly grasping what the will of the Lord is.” Ephesians 5:14-17 AMPC
In our quest to seek the LORD through our fast, we must walk in wisdom. We must live purposefully, worthily, accurately, not as unwise and witless people who push things that do not require the supernatural to the supernatural. We must be sensible, intelligent, not vague, thoughtless and foolish.
We must know that there are things that fasting will never handle, no matter how we seek the LORD to handle them. It may not just be our health as it was in my case, it could be marital or financial. If you keep using fasting and prayer to solve financial or marital matters that need practical wisdom to deal with, you will lose your marriage or remain poor forever.
We must not keep making the mistake of trying to engage the supernatural in things that God created the natural to deal with.
We must engage the natural to deal with things God created the natural to deal with and the supernatural on things that can only be handled by the supernatural. We will keep living difficult lives if we do not do that.
It is my prayer that GOD will use this piece that we have shared this morning to bring a balance to our walk and talk with Him in Jesus precious name.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“Get wisdom! Get understanding! Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth.
Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you; Love her, and she will keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.
Exalt her, and she will promote you; She will bring you honor, when you embrace her. She will place on your head an ornament of grace; A crown of glory she will deliver to you.” Proverbs 4:5-9 NKJV