TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Monday 22nd March 2021)
“Come, behold the works of the Lord, who has made desolations in the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariot in the fire.”
“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” Psalms 46:8-10 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 81ST DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS!
Welcome to another day from the LORD. It’s being our month of School of Eternal Life, and GOD have been unfolding things to us that are improving our personal relationship with Him. To Him belong the glory in Jesus precious name, Amen.
Yesterday, the LORD helped us with some lights on Relationships. It was a refreshing experience, and today we will be going a step further on the same direction.
As I sat down to reason over the subject of “Right Relationships” I discovered that the word “Right” sometimes make most of us think that having Right Relationships does not require any work on our part. Hence after praying about them (that is if we care to), we go sit waiting for God to move like someone out of control, to bring them to us! It does not work that way!
The kingdom Life was not created to favor people who just wake up and sit waiting for things to happen. The Kingdom life was created to favor those who will work with God, doing the right things over times, until what He says concerning them comes to pass.
Jesus put it this way,
“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” Matthew 11:12 NKJV
This rendering actually need to be understood perfectly because the law or principles of God are universal – meaning they can be applied on every aspect of life, including relationships. And we all know that except you want to destroy, you don’t apply violence in matters of Relationship, because relationship is not by “force” but by “Choice”.
Sadly, like many other scriptures, we have twisted this one to our own destruction. Many now use it to validate anger out of control. We now hide under it to operate in carnality, become violent and destructive even in matters of Relationship.
BUT GOD WAS NOT TALKING ABOUT VIOLENCE IN OUR DEFINITION OF VIOLENCE, WHEN HE SPOKE THAT WORD.
If you read the same scripture in other renderings, you will realize that God was simply saying
“the kingdom of God is forcefully advancing, and it will take forceful men to take it.”
Men who are forceful in applying the truths of God’s word to their lives and making radical changes that agrees with God’s immediate present will for their life.
Men who are forceful in looking at what “is not God” and turning away from it the way Joseph was forceful in turning away from sin when Potiphar’s wife gave herself freely to him. Men who are forceful in peacefully parting ways with wrong relationships to allow Right ones to come in.
Sons of the kingdom who are forceful in following what is right and turning away from what is wrong without inflicting pain on anyone.
If we are forceful in dealing with anything that may be affecting our prayer life, cultivating spiritual sensitivity, and doing to others what we wish that they do to us; we will lay a solid foundation for receiving and retaining right relationships in our lives.
And if we go a step further to keep anyone the LORD brings as a result, through healthy communication, God will use that to grace the relationship with a protective age.
We must understand that if God blesses us with a Right relationship for a spouse, a friend, a business, a boss, an employee, or a ministry partner, or one who is sent to father us into success places in Christ Jesus, we are responsible under GOD for their continuous stay with us.
If we sow to please our flesh all the time when in a right relationship, thinking nothing will happen to it, we will one day wake up to reap corruption, which will manifest as the loss of that relationship. In simple terms, we will lose it to someone who will keep it by sowing right seeds into it.
Right relationships are sustained by sowing right seeds into them. Do not expect to reap GOOD THINGS from any Right Relationship you did not SEED Right things into.
Sadly, when we are talking about seeding or sowing, our hearts quickly goes to the money we give in Church or what perverted prophets collect from us. But the seed faith principle transcends money. It is the very principle that our earth survives on.
EVERYTHING ON THIS SIDE OF ETERNITY BEGINS WITH A SEED AND ENDS WITH A HARVEST; RIGHT RELATIONSHIPS INCLUSIVE.
For instance, you don’t sow money into a prophet’s ministry to keep a right relationship. You sow Godly conduct, God’s manifest presence, and sometimes all that gives your life a meaning to keep it. This is a very important point to take note of.
What have we shared so far? It’s been made clear that the word “Right” in a relationship does not excuse us from doing the right things to keep it right. People who take the word to be all the relationship needs will not be able the keep who the LORD has given them.
And most times we take that word to also mean that all is bound to go on well so long as it is Right, that is even if we do nothing for it to remain right. That also is wrong!
In God’s kingdom, nothing goes well if we do not “let” them go well. And let me quickly say that, if you are in a Right relationship you don’t “make” things happen because God has already made them to happen. You “let” them happen.
Not letting them happen is the reason Right Relationships fail.
The difference between a wrong Relationship and a Right one is that you will have to make a wrong relationship work. But a Right one is not made to work because it has already been made by God. You let it work. That is the difference!
If a marriage is Right, FOR INSTANCE, you do not make it work. You let it work! If a business relationship is right, you do not make it work, you let it work. If a pastor-member relationship is right, you do not make it work, you let it work. If any relationship is right, we do not make it work, we let it work.
That is the secret.
Personally, I do not read anything that tries to teach me how to make things work in my life as a Christian. I read things that will teach me how to “let” them work. Only a people who will let things work will not struggle. They will just be riding on the wings of the GOD who have already made them work. But those who are taught to make them work will struggle.
So many books have been written on making marriage and all other kinds of relationships work. But very little or even nothing on “letting marriage” or other forms of relationship work!
BY GOD’S GRACE ALL THE TEACHINGS AT THE CRY OF THE SPIRIT MINISTRIES ANCHORS ON “LETTING” THINGS WORK, NOT “MAKING” THEM WORK.
Our problem as present day Christians has been the desire and drive to make things (that God designed that we “let” happen) happen, instead of let them happen. There is so much that can be gleaned from this one prophetic truth.
And let me shock you with this; God did not originally designed relationship to be “made” to work. God designed that relationship be “allowed” to work. Meaning there are established codes of conducts to fall in line with. It is when we do not fall into alignment with them that we run into trouble waters in marriage and all relationship matters.
A blind generation like ours will always be trying to MAKE things that were originally designed for us to “LET WORK” work, leading to untold relationship problems. Friend, there is a difference between letting things happen and making them happen.
A major highlight in our devotional text this morning says,
“…He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariot in the fire. Be still, and know that I am God;…”
Sometimes I wonder why we serve a prince of peace and the only God who make wars to cease and still have ceaseless relationship problems among us as individuals, and corporately as a church. Our interpersonal relations with each other are zero.
Our marriages break down like biscuits. Harmony rarely exists even among those who should know. Very few really walk in love! If we are truly serving the only God who make wars to cease, then He is telling us that He cherish people living in harmony.
But let’s go a step further.
When you read or hear God saying to you “Be still and know that I am God” it means whatever you may be going through cannot be solved by “making” things happen. They can only be solved by “letting” them happen.
When God says “be still” He does not mean become lazy or enter a “pause mode.” He simple mean locate what will let things that He wants to do happen. Don’t attempt to make them happen. If God is the one in charge, you don’t make things under Him happen. You let them happen!
Like I always share, we can go on and on but this is not a book but a devotional.
May God use whatever have been shared in this devotional to give you an inheritance among they that are sanctified! AMEN!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
“Through wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; By knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.”
“A wise man is strong, yes, a man of knowledge increases strength; for by wise counsel you will wage your own war, and in a multitude of counselors there is safety.” Proverbs 24:3-6 NKJV