TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Wednesday 11TH August 2021)
“And he hastened to take the bandage away from his eyes; and the king of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets.”
“Then he said to him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Because you have let slip out of your hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore your life shall go for his life, and your people for his people.'”
So the king of Israel went to his house sullen and displeased, and came to Samaria. 1 Kings 20:41-43 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 223RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS!
Welcome to another great day. The book of proverbs 5:1-2 says,
“My son, pay attention to my wisdom; Lend your ear to my understanding, that you may preserve discretion, and your lips may keep knowledge.” (NKJV)
That is what we are set to do this morning. Yes, God is saying to us,
“My Sons, pay attention to My Wisdom; Lend your ear to my understanding, that you may preserve discretion, and your lips may keep knowledge”
If we actually lend our ears to understanding all that the LORD have been sharing with us from the first day of this year, we will preserve discretion and our lips will keep knowledge.
Today we will be refreshing our minds on the subject of Relationships.
Many people are foolishly under the pressures of hell. So many are under the pressure of hell because they are hooked up to wrong relationships in life. They are hooked to the wrong people expecting God to move in their lives.
The story of Samson made it clear that if you are hooked up to a Delilah, asking God to move in your life to save you from all that may be happening to you, God will not move. You are the one that will have to move away from her.
If your life has been under a siege, your breakthrough lies in walking away from the wrong people in your life, no matter the cost, not in sowing seeds or receiving special prayers from some men of God.
God is saddened by the number of people on pathways to hell because of wrong relationships. He is saddened by the huge number that is suffering just because they are with the wrong people – not with devils but wrong people.
Wrong people can be worse than devils because you can cast out a devil in minutes but cannot cast out a wrong person, sometimes even in years.
GOD WANTS EVERYONE OUT OF THE SNARE. HOWEVER, THERE ARE THINGS WE MUST UNDERSTAND!
First of all, I want you to understand that if your salvation is genuine you were translated into a kingdom by that encounter, not a Church per se.
The Kingdom of God, though spiritual in its nature and dynamic in its advance, is more real than the kingdom of men. It has rules that govern its citizens. The rules are not church rules but God’s rules.
For instance, Church rules may say;
“before you get married you must sow this seed and that seed to your pastor or prophet even if you are already sleeping together, there will be no problem.”
Though in the beginning it was not so! But God’s Kingdom rule is different.
It says you do not need to sow any seed to anybody to get married and you must keep the bed undefiled. Sex is after, not before marriage because it is a consummation of a covenant. Having it before marriage is sinful because you are consummating nothing. We can go on and on.
Though that was not the original intent of Christ when He established His Church, Church rules in many respect have become different from Kingdom rules. They ought not to be, but sadly they have become.
Secondly, the tradition of men is different from the tradition of God.
For instance, in some traditions, a man can marry as many wives as possible, but in God’s tradition, one man one wife. David or Solomon and their many wives, did not negate this tradition of God because in the beginning it was one man one woman. The standard of God for marriage was with Adam not David or Solomon.
God would later reaffirm this standard in the New Testament by saying in Ephesians 5: 25
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,”
Child of God, the one-man-one-wife principle of God is very clear in scriptures to everyone with a pure heart.
IN EPHESIANS 5:25, CHRIST IS SEEN WITH ONE WIFE, THE CHURCH; NOT MANY WIVES.
The born again Child of God is the image of Christ, and his marital life should be a mirror of Christ with His church, not David or Solomon with their wives. God’s original tradition for marriage remains monogamy not polygamy.
Again, in some traditions, what your family says should be respected more than what anyone including God may say.
In as much as it is to very good to listen to our families, we should never put them above God’s word and law. In God’s kingdom tradition, what He says is higher than what anyone may say and should be respected as such.
All these shows us that the rules of the Church (especially the present Church), and the traditions of men are different from that of God.
Genuine salvation encounter is actually a separation from the traditions and rules of men to that of God’s kingdom. It is a call to govern your life strictly by the rules and traditions of God’s kingdom. It is not the governing of a man’s life by a mixture of what men are saying and what God is saying.
Also in the kingdom of God divine will is to be enforced. It is not to be placed on tables of contemplations to see if it is to be done or not. It is to be enforced on everything that concerns a son or daughter of the KING of kings and LORD of lords, relationships inclusive. It is not to be subjected to human will or determination.
If God take a position on a relationship you may be involved in, and you refuse to take that position along with Him, your actions will separate you from the heritage of His Kingdom and you will no longer see His power and glory manifesting in your life; especially when adversity comes by reason of your decision not to align with Him.
Sadly, so many Children of God do not understand this, consequently sticking to even marriages that are clearly established on Church rules and the traditions of men that run contrary to God’s kingdom rules.
There are people that God have asked to leave certain relationships by allowing those relationships to move from one unredeemable Crisis to another that are still praying about it.
For instance, in the kingdom of God, if persistent unfaithfulness, deadly attacks on a spouse by the partner or adultery without genuine repentance set into a marriage, that marriage is over. By God’s standard it is over.
But certain Christians will still hang on there, believing God to change what His word has declared as close, consequently bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
THERE ARE COUPLES WHO HAVE DIED AND LEFT INNOCENT CHILDREN BEHIND BECAUSE OF THIS.
When the faithful refuse to leave the faithless, the faithful may die leaving the faithless behind. That is the danger! But let’s go to other forms of relationships because relationship transcend marital boundaries;
There is pastor member relationship; there is business relationships, and so on.
The good news is, irrespective of the form of relationship, kingdom rules on all kinds of relationships are basically the same. When God take a position concerning a relationship, and you refuse to take the same position with Him, your life will not know peace until obedience is complete.
The vision of GOD is to separate us from wrong relationships and connect us to the right ones. There are those who believe that every wrong relationship can become right if nurtured. But the Bible disagrees! If we AGREE with what the Bible DISAGREE with, we will be destroyed without remedy.
There is no place in the Bible where God asked a man to nurture a WRONG RELATIONSHIP. He has only encouraged the nurturing of YOUNG relationships; relationships with great potentials. There is a difference between WRONG relationships and YOUNG relationships! Do not confuse one with the other.
A wrong relationship is like a weed, and a good but young one like a seed. We all know that no good farmer nurtures a weed. Everyone nurtures a seed! A weed will always be a weed, and a seed will always be a seed.
IT’S A MATTER OF THE NATURE OR DNA OF EACH NOT THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF EACH.
If you change the circumstances of a relationship that is a weed by planting it in a more fertile ground, and nurturing it properly, it will indeed change but it will change into a weed-relationship; a very powerful one, bringing destruction to your life.
On the other hand, a relationship that is a seed may be young, weak and dying because of circumstances of life. If you take it to a more fertile soil, nurture it properly, it will grow into a very positive relationship, bringing joy into your life.
There are poor men who married very rich ladies and through the care and nurture of those ladies they became a great blessing to those ladies and their entire families. But there are also poor men who married same type of rich, caring and loving ladies who after they have been nurtured and made the men rich, they men rewarded them with woes.
I know one who started courting a younger lady, and brought his mother into the house, and killed the women who made him who he became. It could be the other way round. Men have raised very poor women and made them great, only to be destroyed by those women using the greatness they got from the men.
In our quest for relationships, we should never keep or cultivate weeds hoping they will become seeds, because weeds will always be weeds. Always remember that no relationship called wrong by God’s principles can become right through nurturing. Only right relationships can grow strongly and great through nurturing.
For God’s sake, what did Jesus do to Judas Iscariot that made him to betray Him? Nothing but nurturing!
He gave the man the first portfolio and what most leaders will consider the most important place in the ministry. The guy kept the money. But what did he get at the end? Stealing and betrayals.
He empowered him to be able to heal the sick, cast out devils and raise the dead. But the man rewarded him with conspiracy. The man even tried to stop a particular lady from honoring Him when she wept at His feet in gratitude, and poured some expensive oil on Him.
Jesus made Judas walk the roads with him and took care of all his needs for over three years. He gave him connections. No one knew Judas before Jesus came. He could now talk to the elite of the day until he became part of Jesus’ company. But what was the result?
JUDAS ISCARIOT USED THE SAME CONNECTIONS TO BETRAY HIM – HE SOLD HIS MASTER TO THE SAME PEOPLE HIS MASTER CONNECTED HIM WITH.
My heart is pained this morning seeing the same thing happening to me and many others in the battle field. People are using the resources and relationships they got from us to harm us very badly. Unknown people who have become known today because of affiliation with us are using it to cause us so much pain. Sadly, they do not know that what happened to Judas will be their lot!
Friend, weeds will never be seeds; even if you nurture them they will remain weeds. The Bible says,
“Let grace be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness; In the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord.” Isaiah 26:10 NKJV
This scripture is a rule in God’s kingdom. Sadly, many of us do not keep it. Jesus as man, broke it on divine purpose because He knew His betrayal will produce our redemption. But if we try the same, we may not even live to regret it because if God had not raised Jesus from the dead, what Judas did will have remained a disaster.
There are preachers in our days who have broken this rule on divine purpose too because God asked them to; and He helped them greatly when the people they broke the rule to invest in to make great became Judas Iscariot. God raised them and their ministries from the death their betrayers brought upon them like He did Jesus. Today they are shining from coast to coast.
IF WE BREAK THE RULE ON DIVINE PURPOSE THE CONSEQUENCES WILL NOT CONSUME US, BUT IF WE BREAK THEM ON A CARNAL PURPOSE IT WILL CONSUME US.
I know men who had the chance to marry rich ladies but decided to marry poor ones just to help the family of the poor and spread prosperity to a people who have not seen it. It was based on sentiments not the Holy Spirit. The ladies became rich and strong, but turned out to be cancer to the bones of the same men who made them.
Our devotional text today is very instructive. It contains a major principle that governs things in the Spirit realm of the earth that most Christians need to come to terms with. A major highlight in the text says;
“Thus says the Lord: ‘Because you have let slip out of your hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore your life shall go for his life, and your people for his people.'” So the king of Israel went to his house sullen and displeased, and came to Samaria.
The first thing we can glean from this text is that no Child of God will be happy living in a marriage God wants dead, a business partnership God wants dissolved, or worshiping in a Church God wants him or her to walk away from.
You can never be happy in any relationship God wants dead.
One of the ways God shows us you that He wants a thing dead is by withdrawing His manifest presence from it and refusing to answer prayers made to sustain it. Most relationship are facing this kind of rejection and disapproval from the LORD yet those involved are not aware.
The next thing we can glean here is terrible; if you do not let go a wrong relationship God wants you to let go, there is every possibility that your life will go for it.
He said to Ahab “for not killing who I have appointed to utter destruction, your life will go for it.” Sadly, the man repented, then reversed his repentance by repeating the same error again and died tragically.
There will more on these prophetic truths in our next devotional. But at this time it’s important to stop and say a word of prayer;
A PSALM AND PRAYER OF DAVID:
“Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood:”
“That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace:”
“That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store: that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets: That our oxen may be strong to labour; that there be no breaking in, nor going out; that there be no complaining in our streets.” Psalms 144:11-14 KJV