TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 3RD JULY 2023)**
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?
Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:43-48 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 184th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
I stumbled into a devotional I wrote in 2016 to mark the anniversary of my Dad’s death and felt the power of that word is still needed today if we would fulfill our divine destinies. You know, spirit birth truths do not lose their power. This one still holds strong virtues for us.
Though short, it will produce a long-lasting effect in our hearts even as we read a little story of my life on which the devotional is built. It is my prayer that the Spirit of the LORD will use it to show us one more thing that our divine destiny needs to be fulfilled.
A WRONG GOSPEL, MY FATHER’S DEATH, AND ME! (25THJUNE 2016).
One of the worst things to have ever happened to me was the death of my biological father. Today (25th June 2016)marks the 15th anniversary of his death.
It was on a Monday. I didn’t know how Heaven felt, perhaps hell must have shouted in wild jubilation. I didn’t know how Heaven felt because I was travelling with the “fall down and die gospel,” hence (as I know now) was cut off from certain communications of Heaven.
God will never talk to you about anyone you hate, He will never send you to them with a message of peace because of your hate frequency. Only hell will be talking to you, most times as God, concerning the person. That was why Jesus instructed the disciples not to go preach to the Samaritans.
The Jews hated the Samaritans in Jesus’ day, hence the disciples were told not to go preach to them because they will not make any impact on their lives. You cannot impact who you hate! And I have come to realize that most times God will never give you a message for a people you hate; neither will He send you to them.
Hate has a way of cutting us off from certain communications of Heaven for those we should have loved with the love of the LORD. So what happened to me that season will remain ever green in my memory.
I had just finished a City-Wide Crusade meeting that day, where I was the guest speaker, but did not know that my father; the man whose seed I am, had passed away that day.
As I am writing this piece my heart is in tears for my Dad; not because he died but because he died without Christ. He died without Christ because the hate within me did not let me preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to him. He died without Christ because I did not present Christ to him when Jesus brought him to me months before his death to be reaped into the kingdom.
Heaven had revealed his death to me, and because I was angry with him for abandoning us when we were kids and leaving to an unknown destination, I did not give it the required prophetic attention.
Sadly, my hate for him, was actually cooked with the flames of the-fall-down-and-die and enemy killing gospel, that shaped my perspective then. And because we do not know how hate feels like sometimes, we do not know we are walking in hate asking GOD to kill our enemies.
SO, MY HATE FOR HIM, DID NOT ALLOW ME TO SENSE WHAT GOD WANTED ME TO DO ABOUT THE REVELATION.
So, when the LORD brought him physically to our dwelling for divine rescue from hell months before his death, I couldn’t even open my mouth to preach the gospel to him. The rest is now history! What I am sharing with you this morning is, your destiny will need Love for even your ‘enemies’ to be fulfilled.
I did not fulfil my destiny, as the one designed by heaven to save my household because of hate for my Dad. He had abandoned us and left for home because of what I know now as the peril of fatherhood. If Christ is not at the center of your life, you will not be able to withstand the perils of fatherhood.
Now that I am a father, I have come to realize what he truly faced, because given the same circumstances, I would have also run if God was not my peace. Sometimes we are harsh at men who abandon their families. We forget that not all of them are bad people. They did what they did because the pressure was beyond them, and they do not have the God of truth to guide them.
There are men who abandon their families because they are just irresponsible. There are those who do so because of a poverty situation that they cannot overcome. Some of them would move to another nation to work, only to get caught up in other dark things.
There are also men who abandon their families because some women took them away from family values. I have also seen men who abandon their families because their wives are terrible. One of the terrible things such women do, is to spread hate to their children, and influence them to treat their fathers with a terrible hate.
Now, no matter the reason why men abandon their families, it is not God’s will that a man abandons his family. However, when it happens, we must walk in unconditional love. If we do not love people unconditionally, we will not be able to save people by the unconditional grace of God.
Divine destiny is all about saving ourselves and others from eternal damnation and the activities of hell. I painfully grew up to understand that if I do not add love for my enemies to my destiny, it will not be fulfilled in God’s design.
A major highlight in our devotional text today says;
“..I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you?”
I doubt if people still read this part of the Bible. That is why we do not see it practiced. We rather pray against those who curse us and do evil to those who hate us, and then treat with spite those who treat us with spite and persecute us. In fact, we threaten them with scriptures and all that. We do not live like our Heavenly Father commands us, hence putting our divine destinies in jeopardy.
I want to suggest to us that whenever we are upset with someone, we should go read Matthew chapter 5, else we will slip into hate and begin to do what the Bible says we should not do.
The body of Christ today has become very guilty of breaking this golden rule of the kingdom of God in our devotional text. We pray prayers that ask God to kill people we are destined to bring to salvation. We see prophets behaving like witch doctors and exposing things that tear families apart. Yet, we do not know they are driven by the spirit of hell and not the Spirit of God.
We have become a church generation that does not know how to separate the real enemy we are all called to deal with, from the Pseudo enemies we create for ourselves.
What is the message this morning? If we will fulfil our destiny, especially these perilous times, we must train our hearts and submit to the God (who is love) to impart our hearts to love even the unlovable. If we do not add love for even our enemies to our divine destinies, it will not be fulfilled!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURES AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.
“If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.” Matthew 5:38-43 NKJV
“Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; 11 not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;
rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.
Be of the same mind towards one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men.
If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.
Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”
“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:9-21 NKJV