TODAY’S DEVOTION (FRIDAY 12TH APRIL 2024)
“You will arise and have mercy on Zion; For the time to favor her, yes, the set time, has come. For Your servants take pleasure in her stones, and show favor to her dust.
So the nations shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth Your glory. For the Lord shall build up Zion; He shall appear in His glory. Psalms 102:13-16 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 103RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
With what has been happening at the Cry of the Spirit Ministries – the amazing acts, expansion of His word base, and the manifestation of God’s Glory, I can confidently say that when God spoke to us about this year being a year of Impact, we knew what He said but I doubt if we knew what He meant.
There is a beautiful cascade of God’s moves from His throne Room and a unique manifestation of His presence among us today, that I never thought was what God meant when He said, it will be our year of Impact.
I see things clearly, every time I experience the cascade of God’s manifest presence from His throne to the ministry. What I see obviously reveals that maybe, we never fully understood what He meant when He said, “IMPACT.”
But in all, we give Him the glory. It is a blessing to be a recipient of His mercies!!!
I have said it repeatedly that God does not speak English, Swahili, French, or any other human language. God speaks God, and then we capture it in human language. That is why when He speaks, sometimes, we will understand what He said but the weakness of human language will not allow us to capture what He fully meant.
The word of the LORD is a unique aspect of Him.
There are kinds of prophetic words He sends that are not dependent on human effort to see them come to pass. Such words are called sovereign prophecies. They come to pass either you understand them or believe in them or not.
The word of the LORD has a way of being stronger than a man’s doubt or ignorance; especially when God’s redemption plan is at stake.
There are moments when great men of faith like Abraham behaved as if they lost faith in God’s promise by seeking to have some Ishmael’s instead of waiting for God’s Isaac, yet God’s word came to pass.
FRIEND, THERE ARE PROPHETIC DECREES IN GOD’S KINGDOM THAT CAN STILL COME TO PASS, EITHER YOU BELIEVED GOD OR NOT!
You may say “wait a minute, what do you mean by all these”. What I mean is this, ignorance, doubts, and rejection of what God says sometimes does not stop what He says from coming to pass. It may stop you from benefiting from it, but can NEVER stop what God might have said from coming to pass.
We can draw truths from what happened in the days of Elisha, God’s chosen successor to Elijah. The Bible says,
Then Elisha said, “Hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord: ‘Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.'”
So an officer on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God and said, “Look, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, could this thing be?” And he said, “In fact, you shall see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat of it.” 2 Kings 7:1-2 NKJV
When God wants to do something based on His sovereign will, our doubts can never stop it from coming to pass.
If you look at this story, you will realize that what GOD said was welcomed by doubt but it did not stop it from coming to pass. It only sidelined the one who doubted it from benefiting from it when it came to pass.
The Bible says;
“Then the people went out and plundered the tents of the Syrians. So a seah of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the Lord.
Now the king had appointed the officer on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate. But the people trampled him in the gate, and he died, just as the man of God had said, who spoke when the king came down to him.
So it happened just as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, “Two seahs of barley for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour for a shekel, shall be sold tomorrow about this time in the gate of Samaria.”
Then that officer had answered the man of God, and said, “Now look, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, could such a thing be?” And he had said, “In fact, you shall see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat of it.”
And so it happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gate, and he died.” 2 Kings 7:16-20 NKJV
THIS STORY MADE IT CLEAR THAT NOTHING CAN STOP GOD’S SOVEREIGN WORDS FROM COMING TO PASS.
Not our doubt, impurities, ignorance, or bad behaviors. But they can stop us from benefitting from the fulfilment of the word. That is why it is advisable that we believe in them and live right so that they can benefit us.
In God’s will, He does not want us to be trampled by the fulfillment of His words. He wants us to be lifted by it, especially when they come as sovereign prophetic declarations. He takes delight when His word is fulfilled in our lives.
In fact, He declares a dance party in Heaven, so to speak. That is why His joy fills our lives on earth when His words come to pass. He loves us so much that it breaks His heart when His word comes to pass but it does not benefit or prosper us.
He does not want His word to trample on us when it comes to pass. He strongly desires that it lift us up. That is why in most cases He will never speak in anger, when we fail to align. He will speak out of a broken heart.
Yes, God can have a broken heart like we all, because we are in His image.
He once had a broken heart in the generation of Noah, and another when the false prophets of the days of Jeremiah were counter prophesying His will, and resisting Jeremiah.
So, God can have a broken heart.
He can speak out of a broken heart, and that is what He does when speaking to some of His own who resist His word from benefiting them at its fulfillment.
Again, our faith, knowledge of that word, or right living might not prevent His sovereign word from coming to pass. But can prevent us from benefiting from the fulfilment of what has come to pass.
THE REASON IS BECAUSE OF THE AUTHORITY BY WHICH HIS SOVEREIGN WORDS ARE SPOKEN.
They are beyond resistance. It is when God speaks at a lower level of authority that our faith, knowledge of the word, purity of heart, or right living will be required for the word to come to pass.
Any prophetic word that fails to come to pass in our lives, especially if it is true, falls in the lower level of God’s authority. At that level, our participation is required, and that is what will determine if they will come to pass or not.
But let me take you to something very prophetic.
We are right in days when God will be releasing prophetic declarations that will not be dependent on our faith or anointing to see them come to pass. They will depend on His glory.
The story of Elisha and the man on whose hand the King lean made it clear that when things become dire, God speaks forth redemption standing on a higher level of authority.
As it was in those Bible days, so has it become spiritually in our days. We are right in days when things have become dire in Zion.
There is a need for redemptive things to be spoken by the LORD from the realm of His sovereign authority. Part of the reasons for this is to beautify Zion and bring us all to a realm where the nations will fear Him.
Our devotional text says;
“So the nations shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth Your glory. For the Lord shall build up Zion; He shall appear in His glory.
This also calls for a fresh faith, purity, and righteousness positions, and also calls for revelation knowledge to guide our actions, so that we can enjoy the best of God this season.
Like we said earlier, God wants all He speaks into our lives to come to pass. He wants the fulness of His word to find a full expression in our lives. He wants all the redemptive words He will send our way in this prophetic season to come to pass.
We must therefore take the spiritual positions that will allow us to be lifted by the fulfilment of His word not trampled. The enemy is busy roaring in God’s sanctuary, and God wants that to stop. We are the sanctuary of the LORD! He wants to fill us with His own roar, and see it come to pass in our lives.
He wants the enemy to hear the shout of His voice in your life, again and again, like Balaam and Balak heard it millenniums ago, when they moved against Israel.
He wants the devil to scream again in frustration saying, “there is no enchantment against your life, family, or ministry, and that the shout of a king is among you.” He wants the best of His will to be fulfilled in your life.
He wants that Balaam and Balak system, spirit, dark force, or personality that might be militating against you to be able to look into your life and see the fulfillment of sovereign prophecies and then say;
“God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
Behold, I have received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it. Numbers 23:19-20 NKJV
I hope you are ready!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR TODAY
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.
“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
“For you shall go out with joy, And be led out with peace; The mountains and the hills Shall break forth into singing before you, And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; And it shall be to the LORD for a name, For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.” Isaiah 55:8-13 NKJV