TODAY’S DEVOTION (Saturday 5th February 2022)
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Mathew 6:19-24 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 36TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE
It’s been 36 days of God’s love, mercy, forgiveness, compassion, provision, revelation and grace. Yes, its been 36 days of keeping us healthy, fit, protected from our enemies, preserved beyond the reach of the dragon and its influences and delivering us from all evil.
To GOD, creator of Heaven and Earth, and giver of life, belongs the glory!
We set our faith foot on a 28-Day journey at the beginning of this month to get our prayer fire kindled or increased. Since, prayer is not a monopoly of God’s kingdom, we made it clear that the prayer fire we are looking at is the fire of Righteous Prayer.
There are several fires on this side of eternity because of the different kingdom that rules here, and it is important that we focus on that today. The fires are responsible for how the passions of men and women burn.
Those whose passion burns after sexual recklessness are under a fire that is not from God’s kingdom. In other words, if your heart is burning after an opposite sex who you are not married to, for sexual gratification, you are under a fire that is not from God’s kingdom. Sadly, so many of us even in church burn with this kind of fire.
If your heart is burning after someone of same sex, to sleep with them, you are under a fire that is not from God’s kingdom. There is a kind of Judgment that comes on you if you allow fires like that to burn in your heart; if you start desiring and sleeping with people of the same sex with you. The Bible says,
“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.” Romans 1:26-27 NKJV
From this scripture, it is clear that God did not create sex to be between people of same sex. He did not even create sex to be between just any man and any woman. He created sex to be between a husband (male) and his wife (female).
THE MESSAGE BIBLE PUTS THE SAME SCRIPTURE IN THIS CONTEMPORARY WORDS;
“Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn’t know how to be human either—women didn’t know how to be women, men didn’t know how to be men. Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men—all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it—emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches.”
Fires that are not from God’s kingdom are called, evil flames, strange fires and etc. in the Holy Bible. They are described as evil and strange because they make people do either evil or strange things as described in the scripture above.
They burn in the hearts of men to desire to sleep with men, and women to desire to sleep with women, making them inhumane.
Yes, that scripture said the people who burn with it have lost what it means to human. Meaning, same sex marriages and intercourse are animalistic. People who engage in such acts are no longer humans. They are on the same plane with animals. That is why they look like wretched things instead of human beings.
If you burn with this kind of evil flame and pray, except you are praying for God’s mercy upon your soul and for your deliverance from practicing such terrible acts, your prayer will be an abomination in the sight of GOD. That tells us the prayer destiny of those who are headed by gay bishops and lesbian prophets.
It also tells the kind of fire that power their ministries and churches. Especially, those who operate prophetic ministry. People who sit under gay preachers and lesbians, calling them their spiritual fathers or authority are under this evil flame. Their lives will not be free from evil occurrences.
THEY WILL NEVER BE FREE FROM STRANGE THINGS.
There is also the evil flame that burns in people to become terrible liars. Believe it or not, the hearts of people whose tongues cannot speak the truth; who are great at speaking a lie in the language of truth, are under a strange or an evil flame. And do not forget, there is a way that a lying tongue destroys a prayer life, because the tongue is the ultimate prayer tool of mankind.
The Bible says,
“Come, children, listen closely; I’ll give you a lesson in GOD worship.
Who out there has a lust for life? Can’t wait each day to come upon beauty? Guard your tongue from profanity, and no more lying through your teeth.
Turn your back on sin; do something good. Embrace peace—don’t let it get away!” Psalm 34:11-14 The Message Bible
We have seen two kinds of fires so far; the third is the fire of righteousness that burns in God’s kingdom. It powers righteous prayers. It is the fire of the Holy Spirit. If We use our tongues to profane or pollute others, or lie through our teeth, as this scripture warns, we will not see good in our lives. Besides, our prayer lives will go off over time (and that is if it is powered by the fire of the Holy Spirit).
The reason is because, the fire of the Holy Spirit cannot share us with any other fire. And since the Holy Spirit is sweet and gentile, He goes quiet as soon as our hearts becomes kindled with other fires, and walks away after a long time of ignoring Him. That is when you find yourself not being able to pray righteous prayers; you will be able to pray any other but righteous prayers.
The only prayer you can pray when GOD’s fire leaves you, is any prayer that is powered by evil flames or strange fires, and the only prayer meetings you will enjoy will be prayer meetings powered by evil flames or strange fires. Sadly, so many prayer meetings in Church today are powered by evil flames and strange fires. That is why you see more of Baal worship than God worship.
You find strange things happening to them even after prayer meetings and all that. Because their hearts are burning with strange fires.
Sometimes you can also be in a good Church where the glory of God is present and have your heart burning with strange fires like the Sons of Aaron where because of your hypocrisy. If your heart burn with strange fires while you are in a good Church, strange things will be happening to you while blessed things are happening to others. That is why it is very dangerous to have an evil heart if you are in a good Church.
CONCERNING THE SONS OF AARON, THE BIBLE SAYS,
“Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them.
So fire went out from the LORD and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.” Leviticus 10:1-2 NKJV
I have had Church members who offered strange fires before the LORD among us who got destroyed. It is dangerous to be where God dwells and ignore His warnings.
Some of these guys where warned for many years. You see, God is patient and kind, but we can be wicked and rebellious, hence coming under judgment. If you are not ready to be in the right Church, please remain in the wrong one. Because it is not cheap to be in the right Church. It will require having a pure and holy heart before the LORD. You may not get there with one, but it will be required that you don’t remain there without one.
This prophetic discourse is coming to us with one aim; that every strange fires and evil flames be extinguished from our hearts, and the fire of Righteous Prayers Kindled in replacement, so that we can offer unto our God righteous prayers. Since fires burn in hearts (or human spirits), the journey begins from the heart. That brings us to our devotional text for the day.
Our text began by speaking to us about where our treasure should be. Jesus said it should not be in this realm but in the Heavenly realm, because where our treasure is there our hearts will be also. The entire chapter began with a special teaching from the LORD Himself on prayer!
IF THE ONE WHO ANSWER PRAYERS TALKS TO YOU ABOUT PRAYER, YOU MUST LISTEN. IF YOU DON’T THEN YOU ARE STUPID OR WISDOM DEFICIENT!
He warned that our hearts should not be on riches, and if you read further, He warned that it should not even be filled with worries. The reason is, there are things that when they fill our hearts, will get them filled with the strange fires He called darkness.
Jesus made it clear that the realm where our hearts live from, or are connected to, is the realm that determined what fills our hearts.
If our hearts are connected to the realm of Glory (God’s Heavenly realm), the realm will fill our hearts with content from the Throne of God; making it very easy for us to pray righteous prayers. If they are connected to the realm of the earth, where moth, rust and thieves exist, they will be filled with content from there, making it impossible for us to pray righteous prayers and bringing sorrow to us.
When a man’s heart is not connected to the realm of God’s glory, it will be filled with darkness. Sadly, that darkness will be seen as light by the very person. A major highlight in the text says;
“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
In this scripture, you find the LORD asking, “if the light that is in a man’s heart is darkness, how great is the darkness.” That is why “Let there be light” is what you should go for if you want to come to the realm of righteous prayers. Revelation knowledge like the ones we are absorbing in this prophetic discourse is what we must seek.
The truth remains, if what is in our hearts is darkness, it will affect what is in our lives and make our prayers unacceptable to God. It may not just make the prayer of someone an abomination but even sin before God. And when prayer becomes sin in God’s sight, then one is in trouble. One person whose prayer became sin committed suicide. His name was Judas Iscariot. The Bible says even his remorse was not heard in Heaven.
Our hearts must not be on things that will fill them with strange fires and evil flames. They should be on things that will fill them with Heavenly light and God’s Throne Room content. That is the message of today’s journey with truth.
If our hearts are to be filled with the Heavenly while living in this wicked world, we must be careful not to expose our souls to things that gets men’s hearts filled with darkness. Because the lamb of the body is the eye. We must be careful what we look, see, or hear.
That is why you sit to watch a movie from this world and loose the prayer fire of the Holy Spirit thereafter. But if you sit to watch a gospel movie or a message from a true minister of the gospel, it kindles some fires of the Holy Spirit in your heart, and sets you aflame in prayer. You find your heart burning with measures of revival from the Throne of God and spreading everywhere as you speak to God in prayer.
Learn to keep your heart with all diligence from what will not set it on fire with flames of the Holy Spirit or leave it burning with flames of the Holy Spirit. Protect your heart from any of such defilements and your life will be filled with good.
May the LORD use these words to add to the building process of your prayer life in Jesus precious name!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY!
My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings.
Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh.
Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth, And put perverse lips far from you.
Let your eyes look straight ahead, And your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the path of your feet, And let all your ways be established.
Do not turn to the right or the left; Remove your foot from evil. Proverbs 4:20-27 NKJV