TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 21ST APRIL 2024)
“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.”
“And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.” Acts 4:13-14 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 112TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
Being uneducated and untrained in matters of the law was the only minus the council of elders in Jerusalem saw in Peter and James that fateful day. Their lives demonstrated a kingdom culture that says, God does not choose the qualified, He qualifies the chosen and then uses them to His glory!
Welcome to a glorious Sunday.
It is the first day of the week, for us at the apostolic family of the Cry of the Spirit Ministries, it is a day of destiny, as we embrace the grand finale of our 10th Anniversary apostolic summit, graced by God through our Spiritual father, who has been with us for days now.
It is a season of receiving fresh fire and faith for the next decades that are lying ahead of us. It is a season of receiving from the mantle of a grace that is uncommon in our age and time.
Our generation is not even aware of the existence of this grace in the body of Christ today. Join us in this service wherever you are on the face of the earth and get an uncommon seed of the Holy One planted in you.
Use all the platforms of the ministry; both social media platforms and etc.
Join us as we seek the LORD with the whole of our hearts. The Bible says if we seek Him with the whole of our hearts, we will find Him; and that is what we intend doing. I ask that you join us in spirit and in truth so that we all will experience this God in a fresh way.
As always, God has a word for us today.
Have you ever received a prophecy directly from the Spirit of God to your spirit, or through a true man or woman of God, that never came to pass? I have! I guess many others have also.
Anyone who says failed prophecies do not trouble them is a liar; especially when they speak concerning our deliverance from some yokes, significant blessings, or some major things God wants to use us to do.
How do you deal with things that are true, words that truly came from the LORD, but did not come to pass? How do you handle authentic prophetic promises that actually failed, despite their authenticity?
WE ARE ALL TROUBLED WHEN GENUINE PROPHECIES CONCERNING US FAIL!
Mark the word “genuine” because I am not referring to false prophecies or the things we just pick from realms that look God but are not God. Neither am I referring to the things some prophets and pastors prophesy upon us to look anointed, or express to show that our fat offerings are acceptable to them.
You know, when you give some good money to money controlled prophets and preachers, it could stir out a prophecy. Understand that I am not referring to such prophecies. I am referring to genuine word of promise from the LORD that came to you either directly or indirectly.
God wants every word of deliverance, blessings, lifting, or visitation, He sends directly or indirectly to us, to be fulfilled. If He never wanted His words to be fulfilled, He will not send them. God is not a talkative. He says what He means and means what He says.
That was why when Zachariah doubted the word He sent through Gabriel in Luke Chapter 1, his mouth had to be shut to prevent him from saying anything further that might spread doubts and hinder the word of the LORD from coming to pass.
In fact, God deals with obstacles that man or devils try to put on the way of His word to make sure they come to pass. He neutralizes obstacles that are capable of preventing His word from coming to pass, and make sure they are removed from the way!
We are in a season of receiving genuine words from the LORD through His Spirit among us. It is very important that we identify some obstacles that the LORD identifies and deals with on our paths, in order to bring His word to pass.
The first set is made up of doubt and lack of confidence in what He might have said. It is very difficult to believe prophetic promises of the LORD that seems unbelievable, if you have a carnal mind. The Bible says;
“For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Romans 8:6-8 NKJV
YES, THOSE WHO ARE IN THE FLESH CANNOT PLEASE GOD.
They cannot even believe what He says because their minds react against it, creating doubts.
Even when they are hearing like others, what their carnal minds will be saying to them is, “How can this be true?” or “How can this be?” It will be questioning everything, and resisting it.
It will be questioning the authenticity of what the LORD may be saying, right there before the LORD, and will have no fear about it.
Sadly, there are people who have a very strong spiritual mouth but also carry a very impenetrable canal mind that resist the Spirit and word of the LORD, and cannot come into the realm of faith.
If the mouth or minds of these kind of people are not stopped or touched by the Holy Spirit, they will become the greatest hindrance of their own blessings.
In the days of the Bible, God had to shut up the mouth of this priest, Zachariah, to prevent further ‘confessions of doubts’ from coming out of his mouth. That is how serious our God is in making sure what He says does not fall to the ground but on our lives.
There is confession of faith and there is confession of doubt. Which one do you always make after hearing from GOD? The confession you make, as soon as a word proceeds from God to you, matters to Him.
In second Kings Chapter 7, a special adviser to the King of Israel on economic matters made a confession of doubt after a word from the LORD was spoken. And Elisha said to him, “In fact, you shall see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat of it.”
The wrong time to make a confession of doubt, is when a word has proceeded from the LORD to you, and the wrong place to do it, is before a genuine vessel God may be using to transmit the word to you. Do not forget that, and do not add it up.
Understand that, when God speaks, He speaks from opened portals of Heaven. It is those portals that releases the power to perform what He says. They make it possible for His word to come forth with an inherent power to perform or bring it to pass.
THAT IS WHY ISAIAH WROTE SAYING;
“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. Isaiah 55:10-11 NKJV
The word of the LORD does not return to Him void.
In other words, it does not lack the power to perform itself in the lives of people. Any confession you make therefore, at that place and time is being made under an opened portal.
A confession of doubt will shut the portal over your private life and prevent the word from coming to pass in it. But a confession of faith, especially the one backed by a commitment of faith, will keep it open until it brings the word to pass.
Sometimes, a confession of doubt is not made verbally. It is voiced internally. It is developed from a paradigm that prevents a genuine word from God from coming to pass. That was what happened to Zachariah the priest, and the economic adviser to the King of Israel.
It’s just that they voiced it out.
But there are those who do not voice their own out. However, the point is, either you voice it out or not, except in the day of His mercy, all forms or gravities of doubts, carry the same sentence from God.
God hears unspoken words louder than spoken words because He is more interested in what goes on within us than what goes on without. I have always said that, “What goes on in our hearts, sound louder in Heaven, than what goes on in our mouths.”
Now, how do we turn genuine prophecies or promises from GOD into manifestation? A major highlight in our devotional text today, has something interesting that is worthy of our consideration.
It says,
“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.”
BEFORE JESUS LEFT, HE HAD TOLD THESE MEN THAT SIGNS WILL FOLLOW THEM.
That in His name, they will heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and bring timely interventions to many. That was a prophecy. But it never came to pass in a large scale until they spent time with Jesus.
Spending time with Jesus turned these men who were un-educated and untrained in matters of religion into super men; it turned them into miracle workers as the LORD had said. That gives us one major key to use in turning genuine promises from God, or prophecies into manifestations.
That key is the key of being with Jesus!
My spiritual father will call it, school of knee-ology; his way of describing the intense prayer sessions in God’s kingdom, that refines and prunes us, to among other things, allow God’s word come to pass in our lives.
In other words, being a man or woman who spends his or her days on the prayer knee, is the key to seeing what God may have spoken directly or indirectly come to pass!
Friend, let us learn to treat every authentic prophecy as a call to the prayer room, or the school of kneeology. If we do not treat genuine prophecies that way, a lot of things God says to us will never come to pass.
We need to wake up from slumber and realize that if God speaks a word of prophecy to us, He is sending us to the prayer room to wait on Him until His word comes to pass. That is why only those who wait upon the LORD or tarry before Him, see His word comes to pass.
Waiting upon the LORD is not being in a state of inactivity as it sounds, but being on the prayer knee until the word of the LORD comes to pass in your life.
The only person to be with after God may have spoken to you is Jesus not the pastor or prophet Heaven may have used to say that word. But sadly, most of us run after the vessels to be with them instead of Jesus, consequently defeating the word of the LORD in our lives.
You could start drinking from the fountain of the vessel God may have used to speak to you if he or she has a ministry, but the only one you truly need to run after and be with, until the word comes to pass, is Jesus Himself.
THE LORD’S CALL IS UPON OUR LIVES; A CALL TO TARRY WITH HIM.
If we add to being with the LORD, to taking off of our eyes from us, and fixing them on God’s redemptive plans for mankind, we will realize that many prophecies about major moves of God on earth, have not been fulfilled because there are no people to lock themselves up in prayer until they come to pass.
I once read a book that said that before the ministries of men and women like Katherine Khulman, Charles Finney, Maria Woodworth Etta, and the likes sprang up, people locked themselves up in chain prayers, and prayed some scriptural prophecies into performance.
They did that for 100 years.
Meaning they prayed until they died handing over the prayer mantle to the next generation, who also prayed and died, handing over the same passion to the next generation. It went on and on, until God’s word came to pass.
Permit me to add that, the kind of prayers you pray to move prophecies from the realm of promise to the realm of performance, is not the one you pray with prayer books, but with the prayer spirit.
Deep must call unto deep. The burden of seeing that word come to pass must be the reason behind the prayers. That is the only way you can stay strong and long enough on your prayer knees, until the word become flesh, or is performed.
I believe the message of today’s devotional has been passed. Be the doer of this word and not just a reader, and your life will not remain the same.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY!
“For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.
And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.” Isaiah 62:1-2 NKJV