TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 27TH JUNE 2023)**
“When the righteous rejoice, there is great glory; but when the wicked arise, men hide themselves.”
“He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.” Proverbs 28:12-13 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 178TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
Welcome to a brand new day from the LORD. Truly, it is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed. I will keep stating that until our time on earth is over.
Mercy is a shield! Mercy is God’s catalyst for a new start!! Mercy is God’s way of telling the devil, “You can’t change my mind concerning my sons and daughters, no matter what you sway them to do; so long as there is repentance, you can’t have them.”
Mercy is the very reason why we will make Heaven. It is the repairer of the fall and the terminator of the works of the evil one in a man’s life. Mercy is the most potent weapon of war in the realm of the spirit. It is one weapon that makes sure the battle turns out for our good, even when the enemy has the strongest legal right one can think of against us. It has a way of telling him and all his demons to back out because there is a ransom.
The Bible demonstrates this when it says;
“Man is also chastened with pain on his bed, and with strong pain in many of his bones, So that his life abhors bread, and his soul succulent food.
His flesh wastes away from sight, and his bones stick out which once were not seen.
Yes, his soul draws near the Pit, and his life to the executioners. “If there is a messenger for him, A mediator, one among a thousand, To show man His uprightness,
Then He is gracious to him, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down to the Pit; I have found a ransom’; Job 33:19-24 NKJV
God’s mercy was the game changer for the man in this scripture. It was the weapon used against the executioners. It completely silenced them and paralyzed them cheaply. It does not matter how potent the forces of the enemy might be, once the mercy of God goes to work, there will be calm in our lives. The Bible made it clear that, God had to tell the executioners, “back off, I have found a ransom.”
That is how God’s mercy is deployed to save our lives, when the devil surrounds it with wicked men, spirits, or circumstances.
MAY IT BE DEPLOYED OVER YOUR LIFE AND FAMILY, IN JESUS PRECIOUS NAME. AMEN!!
Personally, if God had not told the devil to back off from my life, I wouldn’t be alive today. Daily, He keeps telling the enemy to back off, because of the ransom of the blood of Jesus that is speaking for me, and I feel the effects.
I know this is true of you and every other child of God.
If you have the revelation of what I am sharing about, you will not cease saying unto God, “It is of your Mercies that I am not consumed; because your compassion fails not.” You will not cease asking the LORD to deploy the weapon of His mercies in your life, against the enemy of your soul, against diseases that might want to take away your life, or against any form of executioners in the spirit realm.
The timelessness of God’s mercy is demonstrated in the scriptures that states that, God’s mercy is from everlasting to everlasting.
The reason is because, God lives in eternity and everything that proceeds from Him is eternal. His mercy for us is eternal and will speak eternally in our lives if we accept it into our lives, through a life of righteousness and peace with God.
The Bible is clear on how to accept God’s mercies and what will happen to us if we do not accept it the way the Word says we should accept it. It says we should accept it by giving our lives to Christ, obeying His word, walking away from all our sinful ways, and embracing His righteous ways.
The Bible is clear that if we do not withdraw God’s mercy here in time, we will never see it when we step into eternity in death.
Everyone must understand that the deception of sin will always hinder us from withdrawing from GOD’s mercies. It will preach another gospel to us, on sin and God’s judgment. It will tell us that committing this sin or that one does not matter, that the mercies of God are enough. But it will not tell us how to withdraw it with repentance.
Rather, it will make us bold in doing wicked things. But we keep doing what the mercies of God frowns at, and what would not let it speak for it, yet expecting that it speaks for us.
THAT IS THE DECEPTION THAT MANY ARE CAUGHT UP IN TODAY.
We forget that God’s mercies are eternal, but will never speak in our lives eternally because our earthly lives are not eternal. It is the mercies we get while alive that will speak in our lives when we step into eternity. If we do not secure God’s mercies while in this life, we will never have it in the next life, because there will be no mercies in our lives to speak when we get to eternity.
In clear terms, I want us to understand that, it is the mercy you and I secure here, that will speak in our lives eternally when we step into the next life. If we step into the next life without it, there will be none to speak in our lives when we step into eternity.
Repentance remains the only key to securing God’s mercies on this side of eternity, so that it may speak in our lives on the other side.
Talking about repentance, from scripture to scripture, it’s clear that repentance is the only force we can use in withdrawing or pulling down God’s mercy into our lives. Many have thought prayer and fasting or even sacrificial giving is the force. But the answer is no! Repentance is it.
It is only when you fast and pray in repentance that you will experience God’s mercies. In other words, God’s mercy is available to all but can only be accessed by those who have repented of their sins. And that can only happen here in time because only in time can men repent.
The Psalmist made it clear that there is no repentance in the grave.
In other words, when men step back into eternity through death (without repentance), they will lose the opportunity and maybe the heart capacity to repent; they will only be remorseful and regret for not repenting while they were alive. You see that in the story of the Rich man and Lazarus in the book of Luke 20:19-21.
In simple terms, it is not possible to repent after death. It is only possible to regret and be very remorseful of your sins but not possible to repent. Those who stand in the place of divine condemnation or are cast into hell, can only gnash their teeth in regret and remorse, but cannot repent.
If it’s possible for people to repent after death, then no one would have been in hell. Since God’s mercy is everlasting to everlasting, He would have taken them all to Heaven. That is why it’s very important to make use of God’s mercy here and now, by living a life of repentance from dead works, and faith towards our LORD Jesus Christ.
WHY ARE WE SHARING ABOUT GOD’S MERCY?
The flow of our devotional in recent days has been very enlightening. God has been showing us what our divine destiny will need to be fulfilled. God has showed us that if we will fulfil our divine destiny, we must have a consistent relationship with Jesus Christ, the LORD of our destiny.
Next, He showed us that we must be spending countless hours in His presence and learn to behave wisely like David, in matters of our divine destiny. And yesterday, He made it clear that if we will fulfil our divine destiny, we must not pursue His purpose driven by a passion to become rich.
We must not replace the love of God with love of money. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil in the Church and outside the Church. Many are pursuing destiny as a means to make money, that is why the glory of God is absent in their lives. But today Heaven is taking us a step further.
The next ingredient our divine destiny will need to be fulfilled is God’s Mercy. David made a profound discovery in one of his sessions with God and said;
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Psalms 23:6 NKJV
I believe, God’s goodness and Mercy should be the travelling partners of apostolic and prophetic people. They should be the travelling partners of those with a passion for God. They should be the travelling partners of people of divine destiny.
For instance, if God’s goodness and mercy were not the travelling partners of Samson, the day he was flopped by Delilah and imprisoned, that would have been the end of him. But mercy spoke and said no when he repented of his sins. The Bible says he would go to finish strong, by unleashing the totality of the content of his divine destiny.
If Mercy had not said no in the case of David and Bathsheba, there would have been no David after the act. The Bible made it clear that under the law, whoever does what he did was to be stoned to death. But when God saw repentance in his heart, God changed the law.
When it comes to the release of divine destiny, mercy is one of the greatest investment Heaven can make in your life to help you unleash it. But you must lead a life of repentance.
YOU MUST LIVE A LIFE THAT QUALIFIES FOR DIVINE MERCY FROM THE THRONE ROOM.
A major highlight in our devotional text today said
“He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.”
We cannot unleash our destiny without the manifestation of God’s mercy. That is why secret sins are the greatest killers of divine destiny. They have a way of shutting down the doors of God’s mercy, and keeping people in a realm where they cannot access the ever present, and much needed mercy of God for their lives.
He who covers his sins shall not prosper; it does not matter who he is.
He may prosper economically because even the wicked can be prosperous, but cannot prosper in health and in the place of having power with God. He cannot prosper in his walk with God. He cannot carry the fullness of God’s presence. He cannot advance in His walk with God.
He may be able to develop friendship with men and people of God and become one of their best, but will never be able to develop a personal friendship with God. He will be too filthy to live in God’s rest.
What is the message of our devotional today? The message is simple; your divine destiny will need God’s goodness and mercy to be fulfilled.
There will be seasons when you will sow to please your flesh and sin against God, so if you do not know how to confess to the right ears in those seasons and repent, if you do not live a life of absolute repentance from dead works; you will destroy your destiny.
If we want to see God’s mercies speaking in our lives every now and then, if we want to see His goodness fully made manifest, especially when our fallen nature pushes us to sin, and the consequences are everywhere, we must have a broken spirit, and a heart that trembles at the word of the LORD. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, the LORD will not despise.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest?
For all those things My hand has made, and all those things exist,” Says the Lord. “But on this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word. Isaiah 66:1-2 NKJV