THE CRY OF THE SPIRIT DEVOTIONALS – BY RICHARD E. S. TAKIM

TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 14TH JANUARY 2023)

“By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,

esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.

By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible.” Hebrews 11:24-27 NKJV

WELCOME TO THE 14TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS!

Glory be to God that we have seen the 14th day of this year, according to the Gregorian calendar. With the whole of my heart I want to thank the LORD for helping me to see the 14th day of this year.

If you thank God for allowing you to be alive to see the 14th day, He will surprise you with more days. As a result, you will wake up one day to thank Him for keeping you for the entire year. Thanking God for what people consider small things, will prepare you and your private spirit realm for what they consider as big things.

Yes, everyone has a private spirit realm. It is our private spirit realm that determines what happens in our private lives. What we do with God and righteousness or with the devil and sin is what determines what fills or happens in our atmosphere. When we live the God kind of life it will fill our private spirit realms with God’s presence and all of His blessings.

Appreciating God is one way we live the God kind of life, and it has a way of filling our private spiritual atmospheres with the power of God. It will help us to be happy in our faith, rejoicing and having a glad heart always, and not ceasing in prayer. The Bible says;

“Be happy [in your faith] and rejoice and be glad-hearted continually (always); Be unceasing in prayer [praying perseveringly];

Thank [God] in everything [no matter what the circumstances may be, be thankful and give thanks], for this is the will of God for you [who are] in Christ Jesus [the Revealer and Mediator of that will].

Do not quench (suppress or subdue) the [Holy] Spirit;” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-19 AMPC

THIS IS ONE SCRIPTURE THAT SHOULD GUIDE OUR CONDUCT IN A WICKED WORLD LIKE THIS.

A lot of us live under intense pressure from things we cannot change. If we do not do things stated in this scripture, thanking God always and keeping the Spirit aflame instead of quenching Him, we will be swallowed by pressure.

We quench the Spirit by suppressing and subduing Him; his will, his promptings, his leadings, his influence in our lives, and his convictions.

What we are saying this morning is, thanking God is presented in this scripture as the will of God for those of us who are in Christ Jesus. We should never let the perils of life to take that away from us.

We have been on a 31-day journey of faith with the Cry of the Spirit on visionary Living. The LORD has been refreshing our spirits with life giving thoughts on the matter. Some of us have learned a lot already and are yearning for more.

There are things you will never know how to do until you learn the laws that govern that thing. There are blessings in GOD that you will never experience until the laws of the LORD (or principles) that govern them are known and applied.

For instance, there are laws that governs the blessing of getting and staying married. Going to preachers for deliverance is not one of them, that is why many are either single or married but single despite going for deliverance for the same. Drinking olive oil, or using it as directed by preachers has not helped many either.

Doing weird things, they call prophetic acts are not the laws either. I have seen a lady who belonged to a church that teaches their members to wear wedding gowns at night and pray some prayers to get married. By the time I met her she was pursuing a man to marry her who only ended up sleeping with her for some time marrying someone else.

There are those who are told by their apostles and prophets to dedicate their marriages monthly and give some money for it. They have been fully fooled and made to be practicing that from age to age so that the preacher can keep smiling to the bank.

ALL THESE METAPHYSICAL CULT PRACTICES ARE NOT THE LAWS THAT GOD ESTABLISHED TO GOVERN GETTING AND STAYING MARRIED.

You will never get the blessings of following the laws of the LORD practicing these things. You may get what looks like them but will never get the original. You know, Satan manufactures things that look like blessings by the hand of preachers who give people his acts to practice. He does that through a manifestation of his spirit called the antichrist.

Jesus spoke about our age and warned us about such preachers. Paul also did and Peter also. Understand that when the devil finds a preacher, whose passion is not to form Christ in men but to give them miracles and make money in return, he will use that preacher to express his power in church.

He can use him to manifest his great power, with all sorts of pretended miracles and signs and delusive marvels. That is what happens when you get miracles by the use of oil, feet washing, seed sowing, unholy holy communion, water, salt and any of the metaphysical practices in Church instead by Christ who should live in us. The preacher who gave them to you have just been used by the devil to give you those things.

The Bible says;

“The coming [of the lawless one, the antichrist] is through the activity and working of Satan and will be attended by great power and with all sorts of [pretended] miracles and signs and delusive marvels— [all of them] lying wonders— 2 Thessalonians 2:9 APMC

There is so much in this scripture, but we will leave that for another day. What we are saying this day is, God has laws that govern the manifestation of His blessings in our lives. The metaphysical practices you see in Church today are not one of them. There was a time that none of them was in Church. They were just in black witchcraft and occult centers worldwide. But now we find them in the Church.

THE BLESSING OF VISIONARY LIVING HAS ITS LAWS TOO. WE HAVE SEEN ABOUT FOUR OF THEM.

Yesterday we began with the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus; another law that guides visionary living. Previously, we have seen the law of visionary residency, the law of visionary hearing, the law of visionary relations, and the law of freedom.

Yesterday we laid the foundation for what we are sharing today with the role of the Holy Spirit, the custodian of the law of the Spirit of life, in helping us live visionary lives. Today we are going further to uncover what that law is.

In very clear but limited terms, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is all about a saved and sanctified soul living and walking in the Spirit, and being led by the Spirit of Holiness. That is what frees us from the law of sin and death, which is all about walking according to the sinful and godless nature (the spirit of lawlessness), that God’s justice system condemned.

The Bible says;

“Therefore, [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live [and] walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit.

For the law of the Spirit of life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law of our new being] has freed me from the law of sin and of death.” Romans 8:1-2 AMPC

This part tells us that if we spend our earthly lives living according to the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, it will result in a life that is not dictated by the flesh. When that happens, we will not be condemned or adjudged guilty of wrong in this life or the life to come.

In other words, we will be free from the penalty and practice of sin in this life, and the presence of sin in the life to come.

Now let us look at how the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus helps us in visionary living. As earlier stated, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is all about a saved and sanctified soul living and walking in the Spirit, and being led by the Spirit of Holiness. There can be no visionary living without living and walking in the Spirit and without being guided by the Spirit of Holiness.

The Bible says blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Without seeing God, you will never be able to lead a visionary life because visionary living is all about being led by God, and you cannot be accurately led by God if you cannot see God.

THE SPIRIT OF HOLINESS WILL HELP YOU SEE GOD!

God is invisible. It is when you see Him by sensing Him that you can walk with Him and allow Him to lead you. You will never disconnect from other forms of living if you have not seen or encountered GOD. Visionary living is all about being led by the GOD you have encountered. We can find that in the lives of so many people in scriptures.

Moses, for example, was living a rich life in the palace of Egypt, fighting wars for Pharaoh and succeeding greatly in Egypt. History has it that GOD gave him great victories and one would have thought, that was God’s vision for his life. That is why the fact that God is helping you succeed in a thing does not make it His vision for your life. It could be an invitation to step into His vision for your life.

Moses would have grown up and died as a commander of the military forces of Egypt or at best a Pharaoh of Egypt. But none of that was GOD’s vision for his life. A day came that the vision entered his heart and he did something that would take him away from Egypt for 40 years, where he met the invisible God through visible encounters. Our devotional text says;

“By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.

By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible.” Hebrews 11:24-27 NKJV

Visionary living is all about walking in the Spirit and seeing Him who is invisible leading you through and through, until you get to the finish of your life on earth. When you see Him who is invisible, you separate from all that has nothing to do with God’s vision for your life, no matter how prosperous they may be.

Yes, you will begin to esteem Christ greatest riches than all the treasures in Egypt, so to speak. You will forsake this world and all its treasures and cling to the LORD Jesus Christ, the King of the world to come, and allow His Spirit of Holiness to begin to lead and carve out a successful life that is not of this world for you.

There is so much in this stream of revelation but that is how much we can take for the day. When we return tomorrow, we will look at another law of visionary living. Until then let these living thoughts from the living word of God keep resounding in your spirit.

MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!

“For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You In a time when You may be found; Surely in a flood of great waters they shall not come near him.

You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, Else they will not come near you.” Psalm 32:6-9 NKJV