TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Thursday 7TH October 2021)
“Defend the poor and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy; free them from the hand of the wicked.”
“They do not know, nor do they understand; they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are unstable.”
“I said, “You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High. But you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.” Psalms 82:3-7 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 280TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS!
We give God the glory for keeping us alive and bringing us to another day. This is the day the LORD has made, we shall rejoice and be glad in it. Daily He has been faithful to us, daily He has been speaking to our hearts. We owe Him thanks for all His kindness and marvelous deeds. Amen and Amen!
Our devotional text today is one of the most powerful scriptures in the Bible when it comes to stirring the heart of one with a call of God into ministry. It was one of those scriptures that God used in stirring my heart into Evangelistic ministry.
If you are truly called of God, scriptures like the one of our devotional text will set your heart on fire for Him. They will network with the baby inside the womb of your spirit to stir you into kingdom actions.
When I was younger – between age 15 and 20 – I was involved in a lot of Evangelistic works both in the place we lived and in rural areas. All the kingdom advance actions were products of the fire scriptures like Psalm 82 set in my heart.
We never mind about anything other than being Children of the Most High God, with spiritual capacity to bring deliverance to the captives of the devil and salvation to those speeding to hell.
Today, when you look at SOME who claim to have a call of God, you can’t find that zeal (that is USUALLY associated with a divine call) in them; you can’t find the zeal to preach men and women out of hell pathways to Heaven high ways in them. You only find mouths full of heavy claims, people in suits of spiritual pride, and hearts looking for established ministers to recognize them, or give them pulpits to preach.
In our days, things were different. No one ever went about telling established ministers or fellow believers, “you see, God has called me to be an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, a pastor or teacher” we just went around manifesting the fire set in our hearts by scriptures. Then people saw it and said, “I think these boys are called of God.”
The first time a preacher looked at me and said, “you are called of God” I rejected it strongly and said, “please sir don’t put that on me sir. I don’t want to do the work of God.” The man just laughed at me because I was already in the field doing what I said I do not want to do.
WE WERE COMING BACK FROM A POWERFUL CRUSADE WHERE BOTH OF US PREACHED.
At that time, we were holding crusades in few villages that were invested with witchcraft, sin and Satan. What was driving us was not to be an apostle, prophet, evangelist, or whatever, but to be sons of God who could cast out demons, heal the sick, and do all that Jesus said can be done in His name.
Personally, I just wanted to burn with the fire that the Holy SCRIPTURE was setting in my heart; the fire to seek and to saved that which was lost.
Child of God, every divine call manifest that way. If you say you are called of God, and your heart is not on fire to seek and to save that which was lost, you are not called of God.
In those days, we stood on the scripture of our devotional text and few others to receive strength for the vision for each Evangelistic trip and the prophetic details we needed from God for the people we were going to meet. Ours was prophetic house by house evangelism and rural Crusades not what we have today.
Today gospel crusades have been polluted.
Most Evangelistic Crusades are driven by either the financial need of the evangelist, greed or covetousness, that is why people do not really experience genuine salvation or Holy Ghost Baptism. God do not show up in meetings when the motives are defiled; other spirits may show up but not GOD.
In other cases, the preacher just preaches with a mindset to be excellent and great on stage. He looks for a polish thing to wear instead of an anointing from the LORD.
If you preach that way, you will just be a performer on stage, seeking to shine like a star. Your suit, shoes, hair do, and moves will be the attention. The commendation of friends and well wishers will be your focus. But if you preach with a righteous burden in your heart, most times you will be preaching with tears.
I remember crying on stage in one of those villages and people wondered what was happening to me. I preached until I broke down at the unbelief of the people. Even here in Kenya, sometime tears will fill my heart, especially when on national broadcast, but I will be controlling myself.
The burden for souls put in your heart by the Spirit of God has a way of bringing strong tears or fiery teachings or preaching out of your heart.
Friend, preachers in our days of beginning were burden carriers.
They preached with heavy burdens for souls in their hearts, that was why Church was not a money making machine. Crusade were not for the financial welfare of the evangelist. They were for the salvation of souls; genuine salvation – and God honored them with His mighty power and presence.
IN ALL OUR CRUSADES WE DID NOT COLLECT AN OFFERING. THE BURDEN WAS TOO HEAVY TO DO THAT.
We just saw God pouring Himself on people. We preached with tears filled in our hearts by the LORD, and watched the Holy Ghost fall on people while we preached.
We did not conduct Holy Ghost baptism as people do today. We just watched people Baptized in the Holy Spirit. He just spoke through us and got those who believed baptized before we said anything, like it happened in Acts 10.
Today things have become different. it is not just people with no righteous burden you see going about preaching the gospel, but people who are ignorant of the basics of salvation; some with no genuine Holy Spirit in their lives. Just voices they claim to be hearing from God.
I once met a preacher here in Kenya who never knew what the Holy Ghost Baptism was until we spoke to her. She had been going about preaching before then.
We forget that the condition for preaching the gospel of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ in the days of the Bible was having the Holy Ghost Baptism. Jesus told His disciple, “wait until you are endued with power from on high” but this one did not even know that scripture existed until we spoke to her, yet she was a pastor.
It is important for our generation to know that in the early Church, none was considered saved until they received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. When you go about preaching without Him, you are like an unsaved soul seeking to save unsaved souls.
That is why you will just lead them into what you call “the sinners prayer” and declare them saved while before God they are still lost. After which, you will ask everyone around to sow a seed for one breakthrough or the other.
Child of God, what we have today is not kingdom advance but pocked advance; so many evangelists just wants to be using preaching as a decoy for getting some money since there are no jobs to do.
There is so much to be corrected in the body of Christ today but they cannot be corrected if we do not go back to intensive Bible study to discern where we have fallen and what we must do.
A lot of people are in the dark of critical Bible truths. Being in the dark about something important is one thing that should never happen to any human on the face of the earth. God does not want us to be in the dark on anything in His plans for our lives. He wants us to be like the sons of Issachar. He wants us to get back to how it was when our Bible fathers first walked with Him.
When Jesus Christ did His crusades, He did not collected Money from anyone. If you read through the four gospel you will find out there there was no collecting of offerings in all His meetings, yet He had money. That was what guided us! We never collected offerings in our meetings, yet the power of God was always present to heal, save and deliver the oppressed. And we never lacked!
Present day preachers of the gospel on crusade grounds, must go back to this pattern. God miraculously provided for us, before, during or after each meeting. I personally was doing menial jobs and studying whenever I was not preaching, not going about with a Bible asking people to sow seeds.
If you are saved and sanctified, you will be driven with the passion to help others get saved and sanctified too. You will set your affection on the LORD and the those He wants saved from sin, Satan and eternal damnation.
There is a connection between love for God and the preaching of the gospel to rescue lost souls. Jesus said to Peter; “do you love me more than these?” referring to the provisions He made available for him to eat. Peter said “yes.” Then Jesus responded, “feed my sheep.”
In other words, prove that you love me by loving my sheep enough to rescue them from eternal damnation.
Love them enough to feed them. Love them enough to care for them, and make sure they fulfill their divine destiny. Do not love their tithes and offerings, claiming you love them. Love their souls and preach them out of hell to Heaven. That was the message He passed to Peter. That was why Peter’s ministry was different from what many of us have today.
Sadly, so many are in hell fire now and others are on their way there. How many preachers love God enough to preach these precious souls out of eternal damnation? Many of us rather ask them to sow seeds and be free from their problems. We have turned the great commission into a money making venture.
Many are not being warned of the false grace that is taking people to hell. Many do not know that they should set their lives in order now because they have few, days, months or years to live. We do not have many preachers with righteous burdens for souls, warning precious souls of what awaits them in the next life if they die without the LORD in their lives.
On the other hand, most of those who claim divine calling just wants to join the Elites’ Preachers Club (EPC); driving posh cars, living in palaces, and travelling round the world like a demon. There is need for great change today else we will continue to be a wasted generation in God’s sight.
That is why God’s is raising apostolic and prophetic teaching ministries to kill the scourge and bring us back to the Old Rigged Cross, where our fathers lived from. It is my prayer that you hear a word from the LORD this morning, and be instructed on the right way to go as an end time saint. Amen!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with my eye.
Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you.” Psalms 32:8-9 NKJV