TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 3RD MAY 2022)
Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you.
The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
“Lift up your eyes all around, and see: They all gather together, they come to you; Your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side.
Then you shall see and become radiant, And your heart shall swell with joy; Because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you. Isaiah 60:1-5 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 123RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE
We are now on the 5th Month of the year and we can say our God has kept His word; He has showered our lives with His amazing Grace.
We have seen that God’s amazing grace is the secret of His amazing acts. It is responded for taking care of the visible and invisible.
Like we saw in the first day of our May 2022 Prophetic Apostolic Training School, the school of Eternal life, there are invisible kingdoms that control things in our visible world. They place things beyond human control so that what they have pre planned can happen either humans want it or not.
Friend, there are ancient mysteries and forces that lies behind the things we see happen in the natural realm. These mysteries and forces are in the unseen realm. They shape cultures, traditions, decisions, and lifestyles, some times using the power of sight and sound. They also directly use our feelings.
Another thing they do by the same principle is making people godless and lawless. They remove the sense of accountability from hearts that are exposed to the things they create and offer, making them lawless.
There is a culture of terminating the sense of accountability from hearts even in Church. That is why there are so many perilous people in so many local assemblies who are disobedient to all forms of spiritual and biological (parents) authority.
It seems to me that the worst attack that we are facing is in the area of submission and accountability. People no longer want to be accountable. We just want to be lawless. The mysteries and forces that lies behind these developments are deleting the sense of accountability from people daily. That is why lawlessness is on the rise.
IT IS AN END TIME BIBLE PROPHECY. JESUS SAYS;
“And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.
Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” Matthew 24:10-12 NKJV
In other words, this prophecy is saying that there will be a time when the sense of accountability will be lost from the hearts of many, leading to an increase in lawlessness. But everything will begin from the valley of offense, then continue in the pits of betrayal and hate. Then results in the rise of false prophets, whose ministries will kill the love of many – their love for GOD.
Let me share something about offense at this point. Offense make people not want to be accountable. It makes people seek a freedom that has captivity in it, and that freedom is lawlessness.
It makes people betray one another, hate one another, and create the environment for false prophets to rise. I have come to realize that lawlessness and wickedness are children of a heart that has lost its sense of accountability. They result from a heart that is out of the control of the fear of GOD.
It is when the fear of GOD controls our hearts that it fills us with the sense of accountability to GOD. It is the sense of accountability to GOD (and sometimes men in spiritual authority, that God delegated to act on His behalf), that His Holy Spirit puts in us, that convicts a sinner of judgment and gets him or her converted to the LORD, the Judge of all.
Friend, a lot is happening in the unseen realm that is affecting the seen realm very badly. The darkness that is covering our earth, and the deep darkness that has covered so many people is crippling. That is why we need God’s amazing grace as never before.
There was this place in the Bible that Paul had it rough with some of these elements of darkness.
BUT GOD’S AMAZING GRACE HELPED HIM TO COME OUT WELL.
The man of GOD would later write to the Church at Corinth saying,
“And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.
Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.
And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 NKJV
This scripture made it clear that only God’s amazing grace can help us neutralize these mysteries and forces in the unseen realm. When we are kindled with it, we can begin to rise and shine the light of Christ into the underlying darkness. Destroying its influence completely.
That brings us to our devotional text and also the subject of our 31-day journey – practical Christian living. The Bible says;
“Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you.
The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
“Lift up your eyes all around, and see: They all gather together, they come to you; Your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side.
Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall swell with joy; Because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you.” Isaiah 60:1-5 NKJV
When the Cry of the Holy Spirit teaches us about becoming practical Christians, one of the prophecies it seeks to fulfill is the one in the scripture above. The prophecy is about an end time people that Christ, the glory of the LORD, will rise upon because of the darkness that will cover the earth and the gross darkness that will cover those He wants saved from eternal damnation.
WE HAPPEN TO BE THAT END TIME PEOPLE, SO LONG AS OUR GENERATION IS CONCERN.
Christ wants to rise over us from within us to impact those who are trapped in gross darkness. He wants to use our kindness, forgiveness, love, mercy, endurance, holiness, sacrifices for others, integrity, consistency, patience with the weak, compassion, prayer lives, faithfulness to others, self-control, discipline, sexual purity, faith, and other kingdom values we demonstrate and live to deliver them from the grip of the gross darkness they are under.
The question is will He find them to use? Are our lives having the kingdom values?
Sadly, the answer for many of us is no. That is why God is calling on us to wake up in grace and truth, and provide Him with kingdom values to use in touching the lives around us. There has been so much intelligent preaching but so little kingdom values, that is why many are still in the grip of gross darkness.
God wants us to be like that fig tree that the LORD will check and find what to use to quench His hunger of bringing souls out of the grip of gross darkness. We should not be like the fig tree that is full of leaves but no character fruits; no kingdom values for Christ to use to bring perishing souls from gross darkness to God’s shining light. He said in His word;
“For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field are Mine.
“If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all its fullness.” Psalm 50:10-12 NKJV
We can glean a great truth from this rebuke God sent to Israel when they thought the sacrifices they were given are for His benefit. In fact, some of them thought they were feeding Him; they thought He was eating the roasted meat. That was why He said to them, “if I were hungry, I would not have asked you. I would have just reached out to the animals myself, and take some, roast and eat.”
DO NOT FORGET HE IS THE CONSUMING FIRE, SO, HE WOULD NOT HAVE NEEDED A FIRE TO ROAST THEM.
The truth I want us to examine is buried in the statement that’s says “If I were hungry, I would not tell you.”
The question is, Is GOD hungry now? Now, if yes, what is He hungry for? Well, God is hungry, and He is hungry to see His will done on earth as written in Heaven. He is hungry to see the souls covered in gross darkness come to light. He is hungry but our lives lack what can satisfy the hunger – our lives lack the kingdom values He is looking for.
The Christians values that His Holy Spirit needs to fish perishing souls from the dark waters of sinful and wicked deeds are absent in most lives. We have so much preaching, prayer and etc. but that will never be enough. God need Christian values to use. That is why we must become practical Christians, with Heavenly values that the LORD can use to pull these perishing souls unto Himself.
Is it not shameful that with Churches everywhere there is still no reduction is sinful living?
We have been made to believe that it is our songs, preaching, church services and religious activities that will save the world, but Jesus is saying something different. Being the salt and the light of the dark world is what He is saying.
It is not a Call for more preaching. Good preaching has its own role. But this is a call to put on Godly values – life changing Christian values. If we do that, our devotional text says;
“The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. …. Your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side. …. Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall swell with joy; Because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you.”
You can see in this scripture how many are hindering their economic prosperity by not being Christians with values. They are Christians with vices. Time to wake up from slumber! Time to be a Christian by kingdom values not by worldly vices wrapped in religious practices and hypocrisy.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY!
“Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry.
And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.
In response Jesus said to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.” And His disciples heard it.” Mark 11:12-14 NKJV