TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 5TH JULY 2022)
“And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.
For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory,” 1 Corinthians 2:1-7 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 186TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE
Indeed, it has been a hundred and eighty-six days of GOD’s amazing grace. There is no treasure in God’s kingdom that has helped mankind like His amazing grace. God’s amazing grace is more than amazing. There are no words to describe its exploits in our lives.
From the day mankind fell in the garden till date, God’s amazing grace has been the reason the human race has not destroyed itself with its wickedness. For instance, in the days of Noah, the entire mankind would have been wiped away and the human race obliterated from existence. But one man found grace in the sight of God and here we are today. The Bible says;
“When men began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair, and they took wives of all they desired and chose.
Then the Lord said, My Spirit shall not forever dwell and strive with man, for he also is flesh; but his days shall yet be 120 years.
There were giants on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God lived with the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination and intention of all human thinking was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved at heart.
So the Lord said, I will destroy, blot out, and wipe away mankind, whom I have created from the face of the ground—not only man, [but] the beasts and the creeping things and the birds of the air—for it grieves Me and makes Me regretful that I have made them.
But Noah found grace (favor) in the eyes of the Lord.” Genesis 6:1-8 AMPC
Ordinarily, God would have cleansed the earth along with what was desecrating it, then forget about the human race and return back to how things were in the eternal past.
The Bible says He regretted for creating mankind and decided to wipe away mankind whom He had created from the face of the earth. The word said not only man, [but] the beasts and the creeping things and the birds of the air—for it grieved Him and made Him regretful that He made them.
BUT AT THAT POINT, HIS AMAZING GRACE CAME OUT OF HIM AND STOOD BEFORE HIM FOR THE HUMAN RACE.
That was Christ pre-incarnate. As soon as that happened, someone was found on earth called Noah; after which he was commissioned to continue the human race after judgment.
During his ministry, everyone was given the opportunity to repent and entered the ark of rescue that he was building. That ark represents Christ. But sadly, like many if us do today, they declined.
Grace caused Noah to stand before the people, preaching and building the ark for 120 years. But none of the damned souls cared to listen. None cared about what the grace of the LORD that was manifesting itself in the preaching of Noah was offering to them.
Their sinful hearts made them hardened. Sadly, we are now in the days of Noah as Jesus said. Same thing is happening. There is a lot if hardness of heart to thr authentic gospel. The flood of judgment is on its way, very few are recognizing and entering into God’s ark of safety.
Sadly, for the generation of Noah, the flood would come, and all of them would perish along with the Nephilim and the while beasts. Their souls would later be kept in hades waiting for the day Christ descended there to preach the very word they rejected to them, according to scripture.
What is the import of this message? The import is simple. A people who reject the grace of God has chosen the judgment of God in replacement.
We are on a journey of faith with the Cry of the Holy Spirit on Miracles. One of the major miracles available in God’s kingdom is the miracle of what His grace does to a sinner to avert judgment and consequences of his sins. That is why the greatest miracle in GOD’s kingdom is the transformation of human souls from sinner to Saint.
A people who reject the power and pardon of God for their sins, and the invitation to come to the LORD and sin no more, have chosen the pits in hell as their eternal resting place.
A people who reject the extension of God’s grace that do manifest in form of righteous preaching, sound doctrine, apostolic corrections in righteousness, prophetic rebukes for lawless deeds and presentation of empty religion and charismatic witchcraft as Christianity and etc. have chosen to accept the consequences of their actions.
GOD IS NOT WILLING THAT ANY OF US SHOULD PERISH, HENCE EXTENDING GRACE TO US.
But when we reject and resist His grace, we have chosen to accept what is not His will for our lives; the destruction of our lives and manifestation of the terrible consequences of our lawless deeds and rebellion.
I think our problems have been we not agreeing with how GOD choses to extend His grace to us and manifest His mercies in our lives. For Ahab, God chose an Elijah to extend His grace and manifests His mercy to him. But He called Him the troubler of Israel.
For the Pharisees, God first came by Himself in Christ and they killed him. Then he sent Stephen to them but they stoned to death. Then the rest of the apostles.
Our problems lie in us not accepting the methods GOD chose to use in reaching us with His grace and mercies. That is why many miss the miracles of His grace and mercies.
Here is what happened when God used Stephen to extend His grace and mercies to them. The Bible says;
“When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.
And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.” Acts 7:54-60 KJV
THIS WAS NOT THE FIRST TIME GOD’S EXTENDED HIS GRACE THROUGH HIS CHOSEN VESSELS TO THESE RELIGIOUS PEOPLE.
The most difficult people to lead to Christ are those who have accepted the anti-Christ as Christ and Judaism as the way to Heaven. They will attack you and call you all kinds of names while GOD is using you to extend His mercies to them.
Their religious pride and the arrogance steaming from the things they may have achieved wrongly or rightly, will cloud their minds and prevent them from yielding to the LORD. Some of them do not yield because if they do, it will lead to the losses of the prosperity they may have gathered from their intercourse with the antichrist and the importation of Judaism into Christianity.
For instance, the users of oil will not stop because of the relevance it gives them and the revenue the relevance brings. That is how they prevent themselves and others from receiving the miracles of GOD’s grace and mercies, consequently, unleashing the cost of lawless Christianity upon their lives.
The miracles of GOD’s grace and mercies prevented the human race from being wiped away. It can prevent any of us from being wiped away by our sins. So, like Ahab and Jezebel, the only problem many have today is the men GOD is using to reach them with His grace and mercies.
When God use unusual people to reach usual people with His grace and mercies, the usual people always have a way of declining by maltreating, resisting and rejecting the usual. This pattern has been since the days of the Bible as highlighted earlier. Severally, the nation of Israel found itself in the situation.
IN ONE OCCASION, THE BIBLE SAYS;
“Also all the chiefs of the priests and the people trespassed greatly in accord with all the abominations of the heathen, and they polluted the house of the Lord which He had hallowed in Jerusalem.
And the Lord, the God of their fathers, sent to them persistently by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place.
But they kept mocking the messengers of God and despising His words and scoffing at His prophets till the wrath of the Lord rose against His people, till there was no remedy or healing.
Therefore, He brought against them the king of the Chaldeans, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or hoary-headed; He gave them all into his hand.
And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the Lord’s house, of the king, and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. And they burned God’s house and broke down Jerusalem’s wall and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its choice vessels””. 2 Chronicles 36:14-19 AMPC
You find here the entire nation rejecting God’s vessels of grace and mercies to them (namely the prophets) and coming into the very judgment God wanted to prevent them from experiencing. They missed the miracles of God’s grace and mercies and exposed themselves to the very things it would have saved them from.
Their young men were slain with the sword, the house of God’s sanctuary was destroyed. The Bible says those who came to do all that had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or hoary-headed. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the Lord’s house, of the king, and of the princes, all these were taken to Babylon.
The destruction would have been prevented if the people had listened to those God sent with His word to extend His grace and mercies to them.
As we bring this to a close, I want you to understand that every miracle takes care of something unpleasant. Most times even things that would have destroyed a man’s life.
For instance, the miracle of divine healing takes care of diseases. The miracles of divine provision take care of financial hardship. The miracle of salvation takes care of eternal judgment. The miracle of divine protection takes care of whatever threatens our security, and etc.
Now, if every miracle in GOD’ kingdom takes care of an unpleasant situation, what then does the miracles of God’s grace and mercies take care of? They take care of approaching judgments. That means if something is about happening to us because of our secret sins, lawless deeds or persistent unfaithfulness, God will deploy His grace and mercies to call us to repentance.
If we submit to the call and accept the extension of His grace and mercies to us by repenting and turning from our ways, we will experience the miracle of His grace and mercies where what was approaching will be arrested. That is the word of the LORD for today!
May the LORD use these words to continue to build and give us an inheritance among they that are sanctified!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“Wisdom cries aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the markets; She cries at the head of the noisy intersections [in the chief gathering places]; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
How long, O simple ones [open to evil], will you love being simple? And the scoffers delight in scoffing and [self-confident] fools hate knowledge?
If you will turn (repent) and give heed to my reproof, behold, I [Wisdom] will pour out my spirit upon you, I will make my words known to you.
Because I have called and you have refused [to answer], have stretched out my hand and no man has heeded it,
And you treated as nothing all my counsel and would accept none of my reproof,
I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when the thing comes that shall cause you terror and panic— When your panic comes as a storm and desolation and your calamity comes on as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.
Then will they call upon me [Wisdom] but I will not answer; they will seek me early and diligently but they will not find me.
Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord, would accept none of my counsel, and despised all my reproof, therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be satiated with their own devices.
For the backsliding of the simple shall slay them, and the careless ease of [self-confident] fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkens to me [Wisdom] shall dwell securely and in confident trust and shall be quiet, without fear or dread of evil.” Proverbs 1:20-33 AMPC