TODAY’S DEVOTION (FRIDAY 3RD MARCH 2023)
“The Lord loves the gates of Zion [through which the crowds of pilgrims enter from all nations] more than all the dwellings of Jacob (Israel).
Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. Selah [pause, and calmly realize what that means]!” Psalm 87:2-3 AMPC
WELCOME TO THE 62ND DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS!
It is the 3rd day of the 3rd month, and it is prophetic!! Someone should tap into it, and ride on the power of the prophetic meaning of the day. Hallelujah!
Our GOD has been faithful, that is why we are alive. His Spirit has made us, and His breath keeps giving us life. I do not know about you, but if you see me breathing, just know that it is not my breath that is keeping me alive, but the breath of the Almighty. It is the breath of His mercies, compassion, kindness and marvelous deeds that has been keeping me alive.
If the LORD should mark iniquity, no one shall stand. But there is forgiveness with Him that He might be feared.
We have been looking at one of the echoes of God’s mercies, that came to us in one of our services, at the apostolic Center of the Cry of the Spirit ministries here in Nairobi; The Faith Position of Word Carriers.” God has been faithful in pointing out to us the difference between faith positions and flesh positions.
Yes, there are faith positions and there are flesh positions. If you are a carrier of the word of the LORD, you will only see what He may have spoken into your life, or shown to you come to pass if you maintain faith positions for the word.
Jesus, when He was physically on earth, was a major word of the LORD planted into the live of the then Jewish people.
All who were sick, oppressed of the devil and lost; who maintained the faith position that was required around Him then, got healing, deliverance and divine visitations from Him. But those who did not maintain the required faith positions, but chose flesh positions, missed their day of visitation.
THE BIBLE SAYS HE WAS THE WORD THAT BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG THEM, YET THEY MISSED THE BENEFITS.
They did not allow Him to grow in their lives and beautify them because of the faith positions they refused to take. They chose flesh positions. It is a great lesson to us all. Jesus made it clear that they were ignorant of things that made for their peace.
They actually repeated exactly what their fathers did in the wilderness, like most of us are repeating today. The word says;
“For indeed we have had the glad tidings [Gospel of God] proclaimed to us just as truly as they [the Israelites of old did when the good news of deliverance from bondage came to them]; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because it was not mixed with faith (with the leaning of the entire personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness) by those who heard it; neither were they united in faith with the ones [Joshua and Caleb] who heard (did believe). Hebrews 4:2 AMPC
You will never understand that this scripture is about Joshua and Caleb, and the generation of the Jews who came out of Egypt, until you read it in the Amplified version. That generation, like we saw in previous devotionals, heard the word of the LORD planted, or seeded into their lives, but it did not profit them or produce in their lives.
In other words, they did not let it grow, and beautify them with the intent of God for sending the word to them. The flesh positions they took hindered them. It made it impossible for them to lean their entire personality on God, in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness.
They saw things through the eyes and feelings of the flesh, consequently, making remarks and doing things that hindered the word from coming to pass, thereby destroying GOD’s plan for their lives.
The Bible says, they could not unite in faith with Joshua and Caleb, who took a bold faith position even before Moses, and got the intention of GOD fulfilled in their lives.
LETTING THE WORD OF GOD TO BE FULFILLED IN OUR LIVES BY AVOIDING FLESH POSITIONS, IS IMPORTANT.
Our devotional text says;
“The Lord loves the gates of Zion [through which the crowds of pilgrims enter from all nations] more than all the dwellings of Jacob (Israel).
Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. Selah [pause, and calmly realize what that means]!” Psalm 87:2-3 AMPC
If we pause indeed, and calmly realize what this scripture means, we will see so many things that we cannot write on this devotional; so many prophetic and apostolic truths. But I want to say this; the word says
“Glorious things are spoken of you, or City of God.”
Matthew chapter 5 tells us that we are that City of God. Jesus Himself said;
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a peck measure, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16 AMPC
This scripture made it clear that we are the Cities of God today!
Now, if we are the City of God today, glorious things should be speaking in our lives automatically. That is why, if you are a child of GOD, and are not seeing God’s glorious things germinate in your life, especially as you walk with the LORD, just know that you are killing them through the flesh positions you are mixing with your faith.
We are carriers of glorious prophecies spoken concerning us, we are soils for the growth of beautiful words that can turn our lives into the Garden of Eden in a wicked world.
BUT THERE ARE FAITH POSITIONS TO MAINTAIN AND FLESH POSITIONS TO ELIMINATE TO SEE THAT HAPPEN.
Yes, there are faith positions that must be uncovered and maintained, and flesh positions that must the pulled down for the power of GOD to act on the life changing words, and destiny shaping prophecies in our lives, and make us a people to be feared in hell and respected in Heaven. We must live lives that will allow God’s power to act on His word in our lives and make us what He wants us to be.
The Bible is very clear that the word of God has an inherent power to fulfill itself, that is why, once GOD has planted a word in your life, or made you a carrier of His precious prophecies, you do not need to worry about how they will come to pass. Just maintain the faith position that will bring them to pass, and eliminate all flesh positions that will hinder them.
The truth remains; if we take away our flesh positions, and replace them with faith positions, we will see the inherent power of the word to fulfill itself, bringing every bit of what GOD sent it to fulfill or accomplish in our lives, fulfilled or accomplished. The Bible says;
“For as the rain and snow come down from the heavens, and return not there again, but water the earth and make it bring forth and sprout, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return to Me void [without producing any effect, useless], but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:10-11 AMPC
This scripture made it clear that the word spoken into a man’s life, can grow on its own accord and produce a miracle, a deliverance, a blessing, or anything wonderful in the person’s life. The person only needs to maintain the faith position, and make sure there is no flesh position.
With proper faith positions and no flesh position, the word of the LORD can accomplish anything the LORD pleases in our lives; it can prosper in the thing for which God sent it. If we are going to be successful word carriers in this generation, we must understand that no force can hinder the word we carry from coming to pass in our lives except the force of the flesh.
THAT IS WHY THE FLESH MUST BE CRUCIFIED.
The flesh must not be kept alive after God’s living word has been planted in our lives. That is the message of the first three days of this devotional on precious word carriers.
As we bring this to a close, understand that the word of the LORD is like a seed, and our lives like the soil. If the soil is good, it will grow and produce fruits of blessings. But if the soil is bad, it will die and produce nothing in our lives. What makes the soil good or bad is the way we live. We can cancel any prophecy God may have spoken into our lives by our own selves.
The sons of Eli did that when they started sleeping with the women that came to worship God and abusing the offerings of the LORD. Sexual immorality and lack of respect for God’s holy things, were the flesh position they took that stalled the fulfilment of God’s word in their lives, and for their age and time.
The Bible says;
“Now Eli was very old, and he heard all that his sons did to all Israel and how they lay with the women who served at the door of the Tent of Meeting.” 1 Samuel 2:22 AMPC
This was the flesh position they took that ruined the precious word they carried in their age and time. A precious word that had been fulfilled in every generation, failed to be completely fulfilled in their own generation. And that was because of the flesh positions they took.
Child of God, the way we live is what determined if the word of the LORD will produce in our lives. If we take faith positions after receiving the word, that word will grow and produce blessings in our lives. But if we take flesh positions, it will die and produce nothing in our lives.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!!
“Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, says, I did promise that your house and that of your father [forefather Aaron] should go in and out before Me forever. But now the Lord says, Be it far from Me. For those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.
Behold, the time is coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your own father’s house, that there shall not be an old man in your house.
And you shall behold the distress of My house, even in all the prosperity which God will give Israel, and there shall not be an old man in your house forever.
Yet I will not cut off from My altar every man of yours; some shall survive to weep and mourn [over the family’s ruin], but all the increase of your house shall die in their best years.
And what befalls your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be a sign to you—in one day they both shall die. [Fulfilled in I Sam. 4:17, 18.]
And I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest (Priest), who shall do according to what is in My heart and mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall walk before My anointed (Anointed) forever.
Everyone who is left in your house shall come crouching to him for a piece of silver and a bit of bread and say, Put me, I pray you, into a priest’s office so I may have a piece of bread.” 1 Samuel 2:30-38 AMPC