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

TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 18TH FEBRUARY 2023)

Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole earth: ‘Every thief shall be expelled,’ according to this side of the scroll; and, ‘Every perjurer shall be expelled,’ according to that side of it.”

“I will send out the curse,” says the LORD of hosts; “It shall enter the house of the thief and the house of the one who swears falsely by My name. It shall remain in the midst of his house and consume it, with its timber and stones.” Zechariah 5:3-4 NKJV

WELCOME TO THE 49TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS!

Glory be to the LORD God Almighty for His marvelous deeds and great mercies towards us. It is the last day of another week; we give God the praise for allowing us to see it.

Life is all about God, the giver of it. If you do not live it that way, you will ruin it. God did not give us the human life to make anything apart from Him the reason for living it. It is important that we all understand that. He did not even give us the human life for us to live it our own way.

If we live the human life our own way, or put anything outside God, at its center, the human life will be ruined and destroyed. You see all that in the scriptures.

The reason why some people hate Jesus Christ, the Bible, and the kingdom of God, is because it puts God at the center of human lives. When you truly surrender to the LORD, you are taken out of the center of your life, and God is placed there. That is what it truly means to be saved.

You do not get saved and remain the focus of your life. The Kingdom of God will become the focus. Making the owner of the Kingdom, God, the center of your life. The Bible says;

“But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.

So do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own. Sufficient for each day is its own trouble.” Matthew 6:33-34 AMPC

This scripture shows that, when you get born again, it will result in a shift that will make it uncomfortable, for God not to be at the center of your life. You will no longer be satisfied with a self-centered life.

IN OTHER WORDS, YOU WILL LOSE YOUR SELF-CENTEREDNESS WHEN YOU MEET THE LORD.

In fact, the life of a man called Zacchaeus tells us that. Though he needed to climb a tree to facilitate things, as soon as he experienced salvation, he lost his self-centeredness. He became GOD centered. That was why, he could return whatever he took unlawfully, or stole. It is called restitution. The Bible says;

“Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.”

And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:8-10 NKJV

This scripture is full of beautiful truths. We can see clearly that your life will not remain the same if salvation enters it. Salvation entered the life (house) of Zacchaeus, and he lost his self-centeredness. He became a new being without even reciting the sinner’s prayer, but by renouncing the sinner’s life.

In scriptural sense, Jesus fast forwarded him into the grace dispensation that was due to hit the earth, few weeks from that day! That is why, in true Christianity, restitution is a fruit of salvation. It remained that way for some times until people arose, and made it a form of religion without power.

During those days, it was hijacked, and became a rule to obey, either you are saved or not. After which, some people arose and stood on that to bury it completely. So, today, out of every ten Christians, maybe none know about restitution.

But in those days, once you get saved, you lose your self-centeredness, once you lose your self-centeredness, you will begin to return all you stole and took from others without anyone talking to you about it; you will not even know you are practicing the doctrine of restitution.

The import of all these is, once we get saved, we lose our self-centeredness and become God centered. The life of Zacchaeus teaches that. If you still retain your self-centeredness after salvation, then you either went back to Egypt after meeting the LORD, or you never left Egypt at all.

That brings us to the subject of supernatural living in God that we will begin to consider from today.

WE CALL IT “THE LAWS OF THE SUPERNATURAL OF GOD.”

Restitution is one of the laws of the supernatural of GOD. I have seen it unleash the supernatural on people and healed them of diseases. It can bring the power of God down, on anyone who is under the bondage of the dark supernatural. I have seen it restore back the kidney of a man who was scheduled for an operation in India.

I met this man in a meeting, after his sister in-law requested that I pray for him. While doing so, the Spirit of the LORD opened my heart to know something supernaturally. I understood that he stole something that he must return. It was church offerings, stolen over a period of time. He admitted to what the LORD said, and returned all the monies.

I did not need to pray for him after that. The supernatural of God broke forth in his life and he got healed.

The interesting part of the story is, he was not having all the monies as of the time we met. He returned it in installments. Each time he returned a portion, the supernatural of God will touch him proportionally, and he will experience some recovery. It continued that way until he returned all.

The man could not walk when we met. He gained strength each time he returned a part of the money, and the trend continued that way until he returned all. By the time he was returning the last part, he was complete healed. Restitution is a beautiful law of the supernatural of GOD.

IGNORE IT TO YOUR OWN DETRIMENT.

For instance, you cannot be staying with another man’s wife or husband, and expect the supernatural of God to work in your life. It is the dark supernatural that will be working in your life, that is if you seek to move in the supernatural. Anything stolen, will hinder the supernatural of God from breaking forth in our lives; be it money, certificates, another person’s wife or husband, landed properties, laptop, earrings, or whatever treasure.

Our devotional text says;

Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole earth: ‘Every thief shall be expelled,’ according to this side of the scroll; and, ‘Every perjurer shall be expelled,’ according to that side of it.”

“I will send out the curse,” says the LORD of hosts; “It shall enter the house of the thief and the house of the one who swears falsely by My name. It shall remain in the midst of his house and consume it, with its timber and stones.” Zechariah 5:3-4 NKJV

This scripture is about the curse God sends into the houses or lives of thieves, perjurers, or liars. That means if we steal, or walk in lies, deceit or craftiness, we will never experience the supernatural of GOD. We will be experiencing the dark supernatural.

That is why I wonder which supernatural a preacher who walk in lies, deceit, and craftiness, or steal from people using the name of God, is walking in. It makes one wonder the kind of supernatural people who operate the spirituality of dark men of God like the raising of altars of sacrifice, sowing of this seed or that seed, selling of water, oil, prayer clothes, or prophecies to are walking in. It cannot be the supernatural of God.

Yes, when a child of God is departing from the ways of God, he or she can still move in the supernatural of God for a while, but most of what we see today in the lives of believers walking in the spirituality of dark men of God, is not the supernatural of God.

The law of restitution is a very strong law of the supernatural. Sometimes, you may not need to restitute but to just return what does not allow the supernatural of God to work in your life. Yes, there are things that when we are in possession of, will not allow the supernatural of God to move in our lives.

THOSE THINGS MUST GO FOR GOD TO MOVE.

Some of them are, stolen items, things we acquire through deceit and lies, proceeds of harlotry, materials taken from shrines, objects of demonic worship, and things dedicated to God that we took for personal use, etc. The supernatural of God, is such a clean supernatural that it does not work where anything that is unclean exist.

Except to purify and cleanse them, it will never work where people are contaminated by accursed things. That is why, there have been cases where oppressed and demonize people could not be free from their oppression by prayer, until they had returned certain accursed things in their possession. That is why our fathers stayed away from idols and any other thing the supernatural of God resents.

The story of Achan and Joshua is a typical example.

The Bible says when Achan had the accursed thing in their midst, the whole nation of Israel lost the supernatural of God, leading to the death of some of the Soldiers of Israel. Joshua had to find him, and apply the justice system of their time, to restore back the supernatural of God to the nation.

The story of Achan is one pathetic story in the Bible. But it holds a great lesson for us. It is my prayer that we will not allow anything that the supernatural of God resents to find a dwelling place in our lives, in Jesus precious name.

When we return tomorrow, we will go into the second law of the supernatural of God that we want to look at.

LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY!

So the LORD said to Joshua: “Get up! Why do you lie thus on your face?

Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. For they have even taken some of the accursed things, and have both stolen and deceived; and they have also put it among their own stuff.

Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they have become doomed to destruction. Neither will I be with you anymore, unless you destroy the accursed from among you.

Get up, sanctify the people, and say, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, because thus says the LORD God of Israel: “There is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel; you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you.” Joshua 7:10-13 NKJV