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

TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 26TH AUGUST 2023)

“After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go.

Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.

Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals; and greet no one along the road. Luke 10:1-5 NKJV

WELCOME TO THE 238TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS

Indeed, it’s been a season of God’s amazing glory for us at the apostolic family of the Cry of the Spirit Ministries Global. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. The zeal of the LORD has been responsible for all we have been celebrating and experiencing.

The miracles, blessings, and covenant prosperity are becoming a weekly experience for so many. Everything is fast becoming a cloud of witness around us, made up of amazing testimonies. The glory of the LORD in our meetings makes that happen for all of us.

The graciousness of God has made sure that none of our services have ever gone incomplete; each has always been made complete by the amazing clouds of God’s glory. That reminds me! Someone asked me on a social media platform to enlighten her on what really make a service complete.

You know there is this money-spinning Philosophy in Church today that says, “a service is not complete without taking an offering.” Even preachers, one think should know better, sell this lie to their audience. There are so many money-making philosophies called prosperity messages in church today.

She sincerely asked me, if a service was not complete without asking people for offerings, since the philosophy, does not run our power packed services. Maybe she felt, people are being disconnected from blessings by what I was doing!

Well, that was “an honest heart” looking for “honest answers” so I did not beat about the bush at all. I told her the Bible truth.

My answer was simple; what makes a service complete is the presence of the glory of God in that service not offerings after the service. Like I have always maintained even on the media, any Church that makes giving the ultimate condition for getting anything from God, is a shop and not a Church.

MOST PASTORS, PROPHETS, APOSTLES, PROPHETESSES, AND MEN AND WOMEN IN GOD’S GARMENT ARE SIMPLY SHOP KEEPERS, NOT PREACHERS.

They either sell a prophecy, an empty preaching, or a prayer to you and you pay in form of seeds and sacrificial giving. Others sell miracle gadgets to you like water, oil, etc.

The truth remains, either we give or not, a service is incomplete if we gather and God did not gather with us. Jesus indeed said, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20 NKJV). Sadly, this scripture is not so in many church gatherings.

Many gather in prayer or fellowship, but God does not gather with them because of the evil motives behind the gatherings. What gathers with most assemblies today are devils and all kinds of unclean spirits. That is why their leaders – pastors, prophets, apostles, or prophetesses – talk more of the devils than the God they claim to have gathered to!

The motive for gathering is usually what determines the presence that gathers along with a people. Not really what they profess with their mouths. That is why at the Cry of the Spirit ministries we do not take it for granted when God gathers with us each time we gather.

To Him belongs the glory in Jesus name!

Let’s look at what the Bible says will gather with people, whose motives for Church or gospel ministry is money; especially those who believe and preach that services or ministrations are not complete without collecting money from people. Statistics have shown that, out of every 10 preachers today, 8.5 of them are driven by the love, crave, or need for money.

As we can see in our devotional text today, Jesus made sure His disciples never carried “money bags” (crave or need for money) into ministry when He sent them out. The reason was to prevent the money virus, from infecting their hearts, thereby soiling the execution of the great commission.

Many years ago, I preached a message titled; “THE GREAT OMISSION IN OUR EXECUTION OF THE GREAT COMMISSION.” One of the major things we have omitted in our execution of the great commission today lies in the realm of “motives for ministry.”

Amazingly most present-day preachers don’t even know what “the Great Commission” is. You see it in how they run their shops called churches. If they know what it is, their Churches and what they call prophetic or deliverance ministries would not have been administered like shops or commercial centres.

THEY WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN GIVING PEOPLE DELIVERANCE INVENTIONS.

Their gospel ministries would not have been places where prophecies, oil, water, salt, sticks, or perfumes, along with prayer, are sold out and the people (or victims) pay for them through what I call “The Seed Sowing Money Scooping System.” (TSSMSS).

Have you been a victim of the tssms system? I mean the seed sowing money scooping system? If you have not, you will never understand what we are sharing this morning. They will tell you to give this money and that property, to equate the sacrifices of your enemies in the spirit, for your freedom. That is a transparent scam, which is why you take it as divine.

A lady told me how she gave almost two million to an apostle here in Nairobi who came to her family house to dig a whole, pour in some salt and oil into the ground. At the end of 2 years, she lost three people in her family; all through mysterious circumstances.

Who told you there are no sorcerers in God’s garment? We have so many apostates today called apostles!

Anyone in God’s garment who collects money to solve a witchcraft problem, is a sorcerer or sorceress and not a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ as they may appear. No minister of Jesus Christ executes the great commission with a “money bag” in his or her heart. They move with the shepherd bag!

Money will ultimately become the motive for the gatherings in any assembly of devils being run like a Church! And it will not be long, you will begin to see all kinds of evil in that Church or ministry, because the love of money is the root of all evil.

You will begin to experience the evil called sorcery, satanic manipulations, divination, outright stealing and robbing in the name of GOD, etc. Wherever the root of all evil exists, the fruit of all evil will not be absent.

You will just be seeing all kinds of evil on display even using terrific demonic powers to astonish the naïve when it comes to seed sowing time. Time for giving will be full of coercing, intimidation, and manipulation.

THAT IS WHEN A FALSE PROPHETIC ANOINTING WILL COME UPON THE PREACHER.

He will be able to tell the amount of money ‘the LORD’ wants you to give, but cannot kill the desire for sin in you, or establish your heart in sound doctrine. You see, when preachers carry money bags into ministry, no service will be considered complete without money taken in form of one kind of offerings or the other, or one kind of sacrificial giving or the other.

What is a money bag in ministry? There is no space to exhaustively tell you what the phrase means.

But a major highlight in our devotional text this morning quoted Jesus’ commission to His disciples (and now to every preacher) saying; “Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals; and greet no one along the road.”

A money bag in the days of the Bible was like a purse for keeping money. That alone tells us that Jesus never intended that ministry be driven by a money-making spirit. Hence not allowing them to carry anything for money making or keeping.

It is money making venture that requires a purse for money keeping.

Today a money bag, is a heart that is full of all kinds of money-making tricks, and gimmicks in ministry. Sometimes it will involve the use of sorcery in place of prophecy, and divination in place of revelation, to collect or scoop money from church members.

Where sorcery is involved with other tricks, you will see the preacher performing what is called prophetic similitude; using either water, oil, salt, sand, sticks, brooms, or any other thing to pray for the ‘victims’ after collecting their monies. That is to further seal their minds so they may think they are dealing with GOD.

But where divination alone is involved, the preacher may accurately tell you how much you are worth, maybe call your name, telephone and even account numbers. Then give you some accurate stories of things that happened in your life or family, and bring you to the place of total zombification. Then move on to say what ‘the lord’ wants you to give, and then activate you with false prophetic hopes to make sure you respond.

WHERE NONE OF THESE IS USED, THE CHURCH WILL JUST USE SECULAR MARKETING STRATEGIES TO COLLECT THE MONEY.

However, it is the same robbery operation. It’s just that the first is supernatural robbery operation, and the later, a robbery operation with religious science as the robbery tool. The later takes place mostly in non spiritual churches, and in some main stream Churches.

What am I saying this morning?

God is not against giving to His work but He is against falsehood and wickedness. He is against the use of the systems of this world, sorcery and divination to transfer the wealth of His people to evil hands. That is why you see most preachers “very rich” and those who sacrificed to make them rich “very poor.”

We all know that no holy and righteous child of God will support, even if its sacrificially, the call of God on a true man of God with his or her resources, and become poor thereafter. I have been supporting ministries and know what I am talking about. It’s impossible!

Besides, the Bible is very clear on that. That is why you must be careful who you call man of God these days! When we carry money bags into ministry, even when we gather in the name of the LORD, the LORD will never be there. Other lords and gods will be present.
Like I said earlier, it is the motive that determines the presence or absence of the LORD in our meetings.

If He is the agenda, His glory will be so strong that we will not want to leave. But if money is the agenda, at best an anointing will be there for the sake of the naïve and innocent, but His glory will never be present. People will be made to give and give and give, and will remain the same or even become worst, thereafter.

As we bring this to a close, let me show you the presence people experience whenever they gather in a Church or ministry of a preacher with the “money-bag heart.” This may shock you; the “throne of Satan” is what they experience.

Sometimes it will manifest with all kinds of lying wonders. Other times it will just be silent in manifestation (Sadly, most of these preachers with a money bag heart do not know this). We see all that in the book of Revelation but we cannot go into it now.

Friend, if there is any time to examine the true motive of preachers before responding to their invitation, it is now. If there is any time to examine the motive of preachers before joining their Churches it is now!

I pray that God use these words to improve your “walk” and “talk” with Him in Jesus precious name. AMEN!

MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;

“If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.

Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.” 1 Timothy 6:3-11 NKJV