TODAY’S DEVOTION (FRIDAY 16TH FEBRUARY 2024)
“We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.”
“We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”
“And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.” 1 John 5:18-21 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 47TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
The LORD has kept us for 47 days already, despite our enemies and all who hate us with passion. To Him belong the glory.
I have come to discover that in the battles of life, our enemies are not actually our problem. Lack of divine presence in our lives is always our problem. If you have the presence of God, the presence of your enemies will do you no harm.
You will enjoy a backing from God in all you do, and that backing is called divine backing.
That is why I tell all who are always harassed by devils and people, if we can secure divine backing in anything we want to do, if the presence of God is with us, it will never matter who may be against us, or who will not be with us.
We will see God doing wonders and moving swiftly against whatever comes against us.
This morning we will be refreshing our minds again with a proceeding word I shared seven years ago on divine backing. “Man shall not live by bread alone,” says the creator, “but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
Oh, how much we need divine backing today!
The single need divine backing to get married. The married need divine backing to stay married. The poor need divine backing to become rich. The rich need divine backing to remain rich.
The threatened needs divine backing to overcome what or who may be threatening them. The vulnerable need divine backing to survive predators.
The sick need divine backing to be healed of their diseases. The healthy needs divine backing to remain healthy. The youths need divine backing to grow successfully, fulfil their destinies, and get to old age. The old needs divine backing to age gracefully.
Those who are dead, need the divine backing they secured while alive through salvation and knowing Jesus as LORD and savior to make Heaven. Those who are alive need divine backing to fulfill their days.
DIVINE BACKING IS A NECESSITY OF LIFE! IT IS A CHILD OF HAVING THE MANIFEST PRESENCE OF GOD IN YOUR LIFE.
In a chaotic world like ours, if you are not backed by God you will be beaten by hell.
Divine backing is God standing by man in every endeavour of his life to offer him all the support he needs from Heaven. It is supernatural support from a loving God to a people who seek Him.
It is God standing by you as a Mighty Terrible One (an MTO), to help you come out victoriously in the battles of life.
When Jesus was in the flesh as man, he never did anything without divine backing. He was able to raise the dead, heal the sick, come out terrible storms, walk upon the water and do all He did because the Bible says, “God was with Him.”
If God is with you, nothing can successfully be against you.
Divine backing is God being with you! If God is with you it does not matter who is not with you. If God is with you, He will take over your battles, showing Himself mighty on your behalf.
You will just stand by to pick the spoils of war while He fights your life battles. Friend, do not spend your energy on having people on your side. Spend it on having God on your side, and He will put people by your side.
Divine backing is God taking over, putting people by your side, and showing Himself mighty on your behalf. It is Him making sure you pick the spoils of every war Satan prepare against you.
When you come to the place in God, where people pick the spoils of every war Satan prepares against them, the battles of life will become an asset to you, no longer an adversity. The place of Divine backing is that place.
Again, concerning the redemptive sacrifice, Jesus as man, never followed the path of dying, getting buried, and resurrecting without first securing divine backing. The Bible made it clear that though He was in the will of God, He still prayed and cried unto the Father (His source) with strong cries for back up through the process.
HE CRIED TO HIM WHO WAS ABLE TO SAVE HIM FROM DEATH, AND THE RESULT WAS DIVINE ACTIVATED.
When divine backing was activated, it brought Him to the realm where Death could not hold Him captive. So, after His death and burial, death lost Him on the 3rd day. Today, Jesus is Alive.
He came out of the grave victoriously, freeing us from the pangs of spiritual, eternal and natural death forever. That is why today, to those who are saved and spirit filled, death is no longer a threat, but a horse to use in riding to the next life!
The point I am making is this; if Jesus needed divine backing to pay the ultimate sacrifice and do the will of God, we will be stupid not to crave for divine backing in anything we may want to do in His kingdom.
In the world we live in today, you will crash and come out terribly beaten without divine backing. The enemy will hinder you in all fronts! So, it will take divine backing to do anything meaningful on the face of the earth.
Let me repeat this little story of ours, that I have shared over and over again. It is always new in my spirit. I call it our own little divine backing story in East Africa.
When we first came, we knew no one. We were not sent by any missionary group. We were just God and my Wife.
I remember worshiping in a particular Church and meeting a couple that asked my wife and I, when he got to know that we were here for ministry, which organization sent us. We said, “none!” In fact, I was not even aware that organizations send people to missions’ field. I thought God sends them.
Then they responded, “wahoo… you will not be able to do anything meaningful here without foreign backing. That is terrible.”
Now that meeting took place at a time that we had no money in our hands. We could not even pay our rent. All that we brought was already lost. So, it left me very frustrated and discouraged.
But I remembered what I said many years ago while preaching.
I remembered saying to an audience that, “if God throws me into an Island with just my Bible in my hands, with no support from anyone, I will fill that Island with people and provision, through prayer.”
SO, THE HOLY SPIRIT BROUGHT THAT WORD TO ME AND PUSHED ME TO WORK IT OUT NOW.
Then we bowed our knees in prayer to God, who alone we had and still have; the God who called and sent us to East Africa, without external support from anywhere.
We sought Him and listened to the little steps He asked us to take in response.
With a divine decree not to beg, borrow, or go into any money-making business, we soldiered on; seeking Him to make way for us to preach His word, and execute the apostolic mandate he brought us here to execute.
Glory to His great name, today we have so many friends, sons and daughters in the LORD; all birthed by the Spirit of the LORD, through the prayer knee.
We are a living testimony that, “one with God is indeed a majority.”
What is the message of our devotional today? The message is simple. Don’t go into anything without divine backing.
If you step into a thing with all the human backing you need, you will achieve little or nothing. But if you step into things with all the divine backing you need, you will achieve much more than you can ever imagine within a short time.
With divine backing, you will not be running in your own strength.
You will be running in the strength of the almighty. People will be wondering why you are making such great strides and gaining such great speed. But those who can see, will know it’s not you, but something and someone bigger than you.
I have discovered that a man who try to copy or compete with those God is backing, will end up frustrating himself.
When you run against men, who are not running spiritually with their natural feet, but the feet of God almighty, you will just weary yourself. The race is still not to the swift, and the battle is still not to the strong. It’s God’s divine backing that makes the difference.
You will need divine backing to marry that man or woman, or to succeed in that business or ministry. You will need divine backing to go through school and come out well. You will need divine backing to live in a foreign land like we do.
YOU WILL NEED DIVINE BACKING TO ESCAPE FROM THE SWORD OF YOUR ENEMIES.
There are no words to accurately describe what your life will become if you lack divine backing as a child of GOD, especially in whatever you may be pursuing or doing. Marriages will break down without divine backing; Businesses will fail without divine backing.
Churches and ministries will fold up without divine backing. God will open a great door for you but without divine backing, you will not be able to enter.
Paul the apostle wrote down in one of his letters saying;
“For a wide door of opportunity for effectual [service] has opened to me [there, a great and promising one], and [there are] many adversaries.” 1 Corinthians 16:9 AMP
Every door God open for man, is usually surrounded by adversaries. You will need divine backing to enter the doors, because it is impossible to deal with the many adversaries that surround divine opportunity without divine backing.
Friend, our present world is under the sway of the evil one.
He will sway people to speak ill of you, hinder you from achieving, withhold good from coming to you, and build a wall against those God may have raised to help you, basically to prevent them from reaching you.
But if you have divine backing, you will still achieve meaningfully in spite of the odds.
A major highlight in our devotional text today says; “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”
If you do not have divine backing in whatever you may be doing, the enemy will sway people against you and there will be no help from God to conquer them.
THE QUESTION NOW IS HOW DO WE SECURE DIVINE BACKING?
There are so many ways we can secure divine backing. But the most powerful and effective way is to seek God’s will before doing a thing. Everything in God’s will have been blessed already. It’s easier to do what God has blessed than to do what you will need to pray for Him to bless.
If you are not in God’s true will in whatever you may be doing, you will never secure divine backing. You will never live a blessed life.
I have said it over and over again; God does not back what He did not start. He will not bless those who are not doing what He has already blessed for them to do.
He does not prosper what He did not initiate. If you want God to prosper you then allow Him to start it. If you want Him to back you up, don’t be the alpha and omega. Let Him be the alpha and omega – the beginner and finisher.
Jesus came into the world in God’s will, that was why His prayers unlocked divine backing wherever He went. He never did what the Father never willed Him to do, hence enjoying divine backing even in death.
We came into East Africa in God’s perfect will. By His grace we are doing things in His way, and following His timing. We are not in a hurry. That is why He is backing us.
Many are not happy with us for not doing things man’s way. Some do not even believe in us as from God, but who cares. Our greatest goal is to keep Heaven backing us not men happy with us, or applauding us!
Friend, God is eager to help us; His greatest Joy is to see us enjoying great backings from Heaven. It is to see His angels deployed for us. The Bible indeed said He want to show Himself mighty on our behalf.
The question now is, will we let Him?
Many of us are not letting Him. We seem gifted in doing foolish things that weakens His outstretched hands, and takes away divine backing. But it’s my prayer that all that will change this morning.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY
“And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said to him: “Because you have relied on the king of Syria, and have not relied on the Lord your God, therefore the army of the king of Syria has escaped from your hand.
Were the Ethiopians and the Lubim not a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet, because you relied on the Lord, He delivered them into your hand.
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. In this you have done foolishly; therefore from now on you shall have wars.” 2 Chronicles 16:7-10 NKJV