TODAY’S DEVOTION (FRIDAY 1st SEPTEMBER 2023)
Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, 1 Timothy 4:1-2 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 244TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS
Welcome to a brand-new month; the 9th month of our year of signs and wonders. The number 9 represents a season one come into, after the divine forces of a fresh beginning have been activated in the realm of the Spirit.
Some have called it the number of harvest; and I can’t agree less because a harvest season is usually a season born out of fresh beginnings. A seed was planted, it died and germinated into a fresh life or fresh beginning. Then, that life grew and gave birth to a harvest.
Many of us have planted, and are still planting seeds of obedience, seeds of repentance, seeds of faith, seeds of purity, seeds of stewardships, mercy seeds, and seeds of prayer and fasting, even before we stepped into this year. We have labored and done few things with the LORD so far. We are now coming into a harvest designed to happen in time.
For those who can see and sense it, this month will bring forth a blessing as a result. If you have labored with the LORD this year, and still have your hands on the plough, get ready for something this month. The Break Through declaration has no expiry date. It will bring a dimension of blessing this month that we make you smile for laboring for the LORD so far, and still laboring.
It’s been 244 days of giving heed to the word of the LORD on this platform. That is not the work of a man, that is the work of God!
We bless the LORD God who always gives us counsel even in the night season and a word to internalize. Day unto day He has been uttering speeches, and night unto night He has been revealing knowledge.
It is important to note that you were designed by God to survive by what He utters and reveals to your senses. Understand that, we cannot be better than what has been revealed to our senses, either good or bad. That is why, what you give heed to, will ultimately determine how your life turn out.
So, giving heed to what God utters and reveal to our senses is important to us. If we do not like the way our lives might have turned out, we do not need to do anything, other than to check what lies in our senses.
CHECK WHAT YOU HAVE GIVEN YOUR ATTENTION TO FOR THE BETTER PART OF YOUR LIFE.
What we give heed to, will end up building its thought system within us. For instance, when we give heed to doctrines of devils, they will end up forming thought systems of devils within us. If we give heed to the doctrine of God over time, it will form the thought system of God within us! If we give heed to the doctrine of out earthly traditions, it will form the thought systems of our tribes and traditions within us, and so forth!
Come to think of it, the thought system of your earthly tribe and tradition will make your life an operational zone of what is known as ancestral forces. Sadly, when that happens (due of ignorance), people will not know that it is because of a thought system within them, that curses in their father’s houses are following them.
They will be made to engage in a spiritual wild goose chase. Doing things that only get the preacher or deliverance worker over them rich, or look called of God. People do not even know the danger of a dark stronghold, like the one formed by our traditions and godless cultures. One of the major reasons for tribalism is the formation of such a stronghold within us.
All these things tell us one major thing. That life is a product of what you hear over time or what you grow up to accept. The truth remains, what you gave heed to yesterday, is responsible for whatever your life has become today, either good or bad.
Thought systems or strongholds are very powerful. They are the most powerful forces on the face of the earth because they shape the lives of people. Our thought systems form the structure of our lives and determines who we really are.
The Bible made it clear that, “As we think in our hearts so are we.” You are exactly the kind of thought system or stronghold that lies within you. If you want a new life, it must begin with the formation of a fresh thought system or stronghold within you.
YOU CANNOT BE BETTER OUTSIDE, THAN WHAT YOU ARE INSIDE. THE WORD OF THE LORD SAYS;
“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he….” Proverbs 23:7 AMP
For instance, most of what we call poverty is not in anyone’s pocket but in the poor man’s thoughts. That is why in other for God to make you rich, He must reveal things to you. The purpose is to form a fresh thought system within you; a paradigm or stronghold that will make you do things that will allow Him bless you financially.
This principle is applicable to all other aspects of life.
In other words, it is the thought system of a poor man that makes him poor. That is why I teach the elects that poverty is not a pocket-thing but a mind-thing. The thought system of a poor man will make him see nothing, even when money making opportunities are presented to him.
For instance, he will see so many obstacles to selling a product that will bring the money he needs. His poverty mindset will make him a pessimist, instead of an optimist, whenever God present a money-making opportunity to him, hence keeping him poor all his life.
Sometimes he will conceive and bring forth lofty ideas that he can do nothing about and then organize a pity party for himself, most times remembering how this person or that other person refused to help him during the pity party!
We often blame others for what out thought systems are doing to us!
For instance, it is the thought system of a thief that makes him or her steal. It is the thought system within a harlot, that makes her use her sexuality for commercial or non-commercial reasons, instead of going to do something noble to earn a living. It is the thought system within a Christian that makes him or her to either depart or stay in the faith.
Your thought systems are responsible for who you are. As you think in your heart so are you! Your life will never change until your thought system changes. You cannot do better in life than the thought system within you. That is how man was designed to function by God.
Your heart may want to do great things or become better than you are right now, but if your thought systems are not changed in the direction of what you desire to become, you will never become what you desire to become.
EXCEPT THE PRAYER OF COMMUNION OF FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER FOR WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE, NO OTHER KIND OF PRAYER WILL HELP YOU IN SUCH CIRCUMSTANCES.
Sadly, many think just praying is everything. But I am here to state that though praying is good, not all forms of prayers are helpful. It is prayer accompanied with a change of thought system in the direction of what you are praying about that is everything.
Effective prayer will only change your life if it is accompanied by a thought system that will allow the prayer to be answered in your life! That is why God said, we are destroyed for lack of knowledge, not for lack of prayers. Knowledge from God will transform our thought systems into a thought system that will allow our prayers to be answered.
You must understand that if your thought systems run contrary to what you are asking GOD to do, give to you, or make you to become, your prayers will remain unanswered. Your thought systems will be moving you to do things that hinders answer to what you are praying about.
Most times people do not know how God answers prayers. God answer critical prayers by showing us things that will change our thought systems – especially when our thought systems will hinder answer to such prayers. That is why He said in His words;
‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ Jeremiah 33:3 NKJV
God answers critical prayers by dissolving contrary thought systems through the revelation of what we do not know.
I have come to realize that RIGHT PRAYERS are often hindered by WRONG THOUGHT SYSTEMS. We will say right prayers and pray until God assure us of victory, then we move on with a thought system that will not allow what God has assured us of to be released into our lives!
Sometimes when God moves to demolish them through teachings – sound doctrine and impartation of insights, we resist Him by listening but not internalizing and applying what He said.
THOUGHT SYSTEMS, EITHER GOOD OR BAD, ARE DEMOLISHED BY LISTENING, INTERNALIZING, AND APPLYING WHAT WE HEAR TO OUR LIVES.
If we listen but refuse to internalize through constant meditation and application of whatever we are meditating upon, we will never be able to make decisions that will change our lives! We will remain in decisions that keep a man’s life in rubbles.
The reason God gave us the shield of faith, is because of what happens in spiritual warfare. If the devil wants to kill you, he will send a thought system into your soul that will do the job. It is called “the fiery dart of the wicked.” If it is a dart on doubt, lust, or hate, and you respond to it, Satan has swayed you to do something without even being present with you.
But if God wants to save you, He will also send a thought system that will do the job. It is called “the word of faith,” or “the proceeding word.” others call it “the rhema word.” So, He might not come by Himself. His sent word will just be enough. Your job will be to find that word and internalize it, doing what it says until your change comes.
The Bible says,
“And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. “Then it shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land in those days,” says the Lord,…. Jeremiah 3:15-16 NKJV
There are times that God will have to send thought systems by the hand of His teaching shepherds to install them in our minds through discipleship, in order to change our lives. That is why when the Shepherds come, they feed us with knowledge and understanding. The vision is to form thought systems within us that will lead to divine multiplication and increase in our lives.
Now, these kinds of shepherds do not feed us with knowledge from the doctrines of devils. If they do, our devotional text made it clear that we will depart from the faith.
The text says;
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,”
No one will ever live a right life listening to a wrong doctrine. A wrong doctrine will form the wrong thought system within you and destroy your life – thought systems that might keep you fighting demons day and night and giving money to preachers to save your lives.
So many have been destroyed by wrong thought systems formed in them, because they gave heed to deceiving spirits, and doctrines of devils. Sometimes you try to help them, but you can’t, because the thought systems are too strong in them. The systems have become an integral part of their being, hence difficult to pull down.
Now, why are thought systems so powerful? They are powerful because, they are responsible for every decision we make in life. It is our decisions that determine our destination.
For instance, a man will remain in lack and poverty until he starts making the right decisions, not just praying the right prayers. Right prayer plus wrong decisions equals no prayer! It brings no other result in our lives other than frustration.
Until right decisions match our right prayers, we will never depart from the pools of frustration in life. Now, we make decisions in life based on our thought systems. Thoughts systems are formed by the words we give our attention to over time.
The essence of the ministry of shepherds after God’s heart, is to feed us with the knowledge that will form the thought systems that will change our lives. That kind of knowledge is not acquired in Ivory Towers, but in the School of the Spirit. The knowledge is called “THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY ONE.”
IT IS THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY ONE THAT GIVES US THE THOUGHT SYSTEM OF THE HOLY ONE. With the thought systems of the Holy One within us, we will never fail to have the manifestation of His works in our lives.
I believe the message of today’s devotional has been passed! If you allow it to shape your thought system even as this month begins today, you will begin a journey that will change your life for good.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY!
“Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser; teach a righteous man (one upright and in right standing with God) and he will increase in learning.
The reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is the beginning (the chief and choice part) of Wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight and understanding.
For by me [Wisdom from God] your days shall be multiplied, and the years of your life shall be increased. If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scorn, you alone will bear it and pay the penalty.” Proverbs 9:8-12 AMP