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

TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 25TH JANUARY 2023)

“He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.

Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?

And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?” Luke 16:10-12 NKJV

WELCOME TO THE 25TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS!

Today we will be looking at a fresh law of visionary living. We will be looking at the law of being faithful in another man’s own.

The law of being faithful in another man’s own is a critical law that is very difficult to obey in a world where everyone wants to lead, be served and be known. Very few still want to be led, serve others and be behind the scenes.

But let us lay some foundation for this truth by looking at who you really are.

To start with, someone once said “within every man is a destiny waiting to be born.” Oh, how true! You are here to make a unique and valuable contribution to the divine evolution of the human race orchestrated by GOD.

You have a role to play, a need to meet, a people or person to serve.

Everything in creation is connected to a larger system that allows the whole to operate in harmony,” they say! Which is very true. If you look carefully at GOD’s creation, you will realize that everything is, in some way, a response to a need.

So, if you are part of GOD’s creation, then you are a response to a need. You are an answer to a prayer, and a solution to a problem. That is who you are! There is a reason for your being. The world needs you that’s why GOD created you.

Visionary living will involve finding and taking your place in the larger system that allows the whole to operate in harmony. It will involve finding the need GOD created you to be a response to, the prayer you were born to be an answer to, or the problem you were fashioned to be a solution to, and becoming all of that to them.

There are few Bible examples I want to highlight.

I know many scammers, thieves among us preachers, and charlatans have used her story to steal from naïve believers, but the widow of Zarephath was an answer to the prayer of Elijah for economic sustenance in his special mission to Sidon.

Yes, she was a response to his need, a solution to his problem. But she never knew it until she encountered God in the man of God.

When she never knew it, she was preparing to die. You do a lot to your self when you do not know, or cannot recognize the person whose problem you were born to solve, or need you were born to respond to, or prayer you were born to answer.

ELIJAH FOUND THE WIDOW GATHERING STICKS TO MAKE HER LAST MEAL IN READINESS TO DIE THEREAFTER, AND PRESENTED GOD’S PLAN FOR HER LIFE.

She would later understand her place in destiny as a solution to Elijah’s problem, an answer to his prayer, and a response to his need and take her place in the larger system of GOD’s kingdom, helping it to function in Harmony for three years in Sidon.

In the same way, you are an answer to someone’s prayer, a solution to a problem and a response to someone’s needs. When you find the person, your life will begin to experience a beauty that it has never experienced before.

The result of the widow’s visionary living was the taking down of the power base of Baal. God will also respond with provisions from unexpected ends for all the three- and half-year period she served as an answer to Elijah’s prayer, a response to his need, and solution to his problem.

On the other side of the coin, Elijah also served as an answer to her prayer, a response to her need, and a solution to her problem.

Do not forget, she was preparing for death when the man of GOD came, and she got life instead. Even her Son who was latter struck with death was raised by God through the man of God.

So, as she was an answer to his prayer, a response to his need, and a solution to his problem, so was Elijah an answer to her prayers, a response to her need, and a solution to her problem.

That is what visionary living does to all of us. It makes us solutions to each other’s problems, responses to each other’s needs, and answers to each other’s prayer.

If your life is not an answer to someone’s prayer, especially at the same time that someone’s life is an answer to your own prayer, you will never enjoy significant favors, blessings or outbreaks of GOD in life.

There is a prosperity system in God that only comes to you when you function as an answer to someone’s prayer (or a solution to someone’s problem or response to their needs) and someone also function as the same to you. That was the prosperity system that the widow of Zarephath keyed into to change her life.

YOUR LIFE IS THE NEXT TO BE CHANGED! YOU ONLY NEED TO MAKE THE RIGHT CHANGES TO EXPERIENCE THE CHANGE.

Today, there are prophetic and apostolic ministries GOD has commissioned and established to take down Baal in the present perverted church and cut him and his relatives off from the hearts of men.

The ministers heading these ministries needs some kingdom stewards who will serve as an answer to their prayer for all kinds of support for the work of GOD, while they serve as an answer to their prayer for life, provisions from unexpected ends, and other miracles or blessings.

You must find your place in this prophetic and apostolic whole and take it so that the kingdom of GOD will function in harmony and fulfill the mission. That is the only way your own life will be in harmony and rest round about.

I believe God is going about seeking for such men. It is my prayer that he finds you and I available for His use.

The Prophetic word says;

“So, I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.” Ezekiel 22:30 NKJV

If you have been wondering how to find your prophetic destiny or realize why you were born, I have just told you. Be a response to someone’s needs, answer to someone’s prayer, and solution to someone’s problem.

God may have created you to be a type of answer to prayer that the widow of Zarephath was to an Elijah. Which also means there is an Elijah out there created to be an answer to your prayers. But you will never find him looking for miracles. You will only find him looking for destiny.

Visionary living is not possible until you set your mind on destiny matters. To be faithful in another man’s own you must understand that.

It is indeed visionary to be faithful in another man’s own. It will never diminish you, but will rather build in you the capacity for greatness.

You can see the law of being faithful in another man’s own operational in the life of the widow and Elijah as well. They were both faithful to each other’s plight and peace, and the result was a synchronicity that made tremendous power, miracles and blessings available. Indeed, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in such unity.

THE LORD WILL NOT FAIL TO COMMAND HIS BLESSING UPON THEM.

Too many people are busy either being lazy looking for free things or meeting needs they were not created to meet, and being answers to prayers they were not created to be.

You find them serving as a response to needs that has no destiny in them. That is why they are not progressing.

If you want to progress you must make adjustments. The adjustment will allow you to be faithful in another man’s own; not just any man but a man or woman who falls into God’s plans for your life.

Our devotional text says;

“He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.

Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?

And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?” Luke 16:10-12 NKJV

There are some beautiful truths buried here. One of them is in the phrase “what is least”. Earthly riches or money called “unrighteousness mammon” here is what is least within context or by divine definition.

The word is saying, if we are not faithful in handing or managing money, or any other earthly riches, who will give us the true riches of destiny to handle or manage? Of course, we will ruin it. That is why you find people who cannot manage money, not being able to manage their lives and destinies even after it has been revealed to them.

Sometimes, it is not money we are given to handle in order to train on handling destiny but other people’s needs, prayers and problems. If we are not faithful in being solutions to the problems, effective responses to those needs, and powerful answers to those prayers, we will not come into our own. That is where the last verse of the devotional text comes in. It says;

“And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?” Luke 16:12 NKJV

The widow was faithful in responding to Elijah’s needs or answering his prayers, and by doing so she got her own needs met and prayers answered. Elijah was also faithful in responding to her need and answering her prayers, and by so doing, he got his own needs met and prayers answered.

THAT WAS A PERFECT SYNCHRONICITY.

If your life is not answering someone’s prayers, responding to someone’s needs, or serving as a solution to someone’s problem, be sure that your life prayers, needs, and problems will also not be attended to. That is the law.

Being an answer to another person’s prayer, response to their need, or solution to their problems is part of what visionary living is all about. Until you fit into it, you will keep diminishing in life.

Now, there are other people in scriptures whose lives speak the same truths to us, but we will take one more. We will look at Joshua.

Joshua was born to be a solution to Moses’ problem, a response to his need, and an answer to his prayer for an Assistant in a huge mission to birth a nation. He found it and stuck to them all faithfully. The result was him taking over from Moses.

Before he got there, he was so passionate about Moses that he never wanted any to break his rules in the camp. People must have spoken ill of him for being so passionate but he never cared about what they said.

When Moses would depart from the active presence of GOD to go talk to the people, he would remain behind watching over things and making sure everything behind the scene was in order.

He was not looking for visibility or attention but for the release of his destiny as Moses’ assistant or close quarter helper.

Close quarter helpers are usually unknown to the public.

They only become known when God reward them for their faithfulness by elevating them. Joshua was a close quarter helper. He only became famous when GOD elevated him in due season. Until then, he was loyal, and so loyal to God and to Moses that GOD found him worthy to lead Israel into the promise land.

All his days under Moses, he was a response to his need, a solution to his problem and an answer to the man of God’s prayer for a loyal, sincere, GOD loving, morally pure and very helpful close quarter helper.

Personally, this has been my cry and the cry of other servants of God I have met in recent years. Actually, we have so many people in our lives but few are willing to pay the price for us. The rest are selfish and very carnal.

MOST TIMES THERE IS NONE TO SERVE AS A CLOSE QUARTER HELPER IN THE WAR.

Those we bring in to serve end up manifesting carnal passions and sometimes wicked intentions that brings ruin instead of help. Very, very few Joshua members are available today for the many Moses around.

Child of God, there is a huge vacancy for some Joshua men and women to serve as response to the needs, solutions to the problems and answers to the prayers of some Moses men and women in end time correctional ministries like ours. The vacancy is so huge that sometimes we wonder what is wrong with the long queue of redundant church members who cannot find out if they are a divine response, a solution or an answer to a preacher’s cry for a Joshua, and begin to build character for it.

If the cry of a leader for a Joshua type of assistant strike your heart with divine concern, you could be a Joshua to a Moses somewhere in GOD’s present kingdom. Maybe you were created to serve a visionary leader like Moses, as a close quarter helper.

Visionary living involves you finding that out, the way Joshua did, and spending the rest of your days fulfilling it. Do not forget, you will never become great until you serve the great, and do so faithfully.

At one time in my life and ministry, the cry of my spiritual father for an assistant like Joshua, struck me with such a deep concern that I had to shut down my own ministry to go serve him. Though he turned it down because he felt I was doing a great work for the LORD in Abuja then and he would not want it to stop, but I am glad I did. The LORD used that to bless me greatly.

Today we cannot find same minds to help us do things we cannot delegate.

Yes, there are things you cannot delegate but you have no time to do them all the time. They will require people with your kind of spirit and intuition to do them. That was who Joshua was to Moses.

That was why GOD said to him;

“No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.” Joshua 1:5 NKJV

Many have not realized that sometimes in the Christian faith, God can only be with you the way He was with the person you have served. Meaning, there are dimensions of God’s favor, power, and prosperity that you will never see in life until you serve someone who prayed a prayer that GOD made you an answer to.

Yes, there are dimensions of GOD’s blessings you will never walk in until you discover and take over to serve the problem whose solution you are, fitting perfectly in your place in the system that allows the whole of GOD’s kingdom to function in harmony.

Time to stop being at ease in Zion and start living as a visionary, who is an answer to the prayer of someone, a response to a need, and a solution to a Kingdom need in the human race. That is what the law of being faithful in another man’s own entails.

LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!

“Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar.

And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.”

Also, I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” Isaiah 6:6-8 NKJV