TODAY’S DEVOTION (THURSDAY 28TH JULY 2022)
“Having arrested Him, they led Him and brought Him into the high priest’s house. But Peter followed at a distance.
Now when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them.
And a certain servant girl, seeing him as he sat by the fire, looked intently at him and said, “This man was also with Him.” But he denied Him, saying, “Woman, I do not know Him.”
And after a little while another saw him and said, “You also are of them.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not!”
Then after about an hour had passed, another confidently affirmed, saying, “Surely this fellow also was with Him, for he is a Galilean.” But, Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are saying!”
Immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.”
So, Peter went out and wept bitterly. Luke 22:54-62 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 210TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
This is the Day the LORD has made, we shall rejoice and be glad in it. The faithfulness of our God is the reason we are alive and well. He has watched over us all this year. Has protected us freely from evil. He has provided for us as our Lilly in the Valley.
Indeed, our God has protected us from evil and made sure we are alive to see this day. To Him belong the glory!
When the Disciples asked the LORD to teach them to pray like John the Baptist taught his disciples, one of the prayer lines that came out was “Deliver us from evil.” If there was no evil to deliver us from and if prayer was not necessary when it comes to deliverance from evil, Jesus will not have added that line.
Over and over again, you see the same prayer spirit reflected in the life and times of the early Church that faced so much evil in their days. It will not be out of place, therefore for us all to develop the righteous character of bowing the prayer knee, and asking the LORD to deliver us from evil.
There are things we cannot fight and even respond to; things only God can fight and respond to. If we do not bow the prayer knee and ask the LORD to deliver us from them, they may consume us.
In times like this, the miraculous is needed more than before.
Child of God, with the many things that are happening and the many people becoming more wicked and mean, it is obvious that our earth is gradually getting to its expiry date. But it please the LORD to allow us to be placed on earth in a time like this, where miracles, signs and wonders from His throne will be needed for survival to be possible.
Yesterday we took a little dive away from looking at what the Cry of the Holy Spirit said about the catalyst of miracles, and visited His cry on the Miracles of New Beginning. Like we say yesterday, one-way God insure our lives from the destruction of sin, iniquity or trespass is by giving us the miracle of new beginning.
NO ONE WOULD HAVE BEEN SAVED IF THERE WAS NO MIRACLE OF NEW BEGINNING.
Even Enoch would not have been able to please God and get so close to Him until the glory sucked him away from the earth, without the miracle of new beginning. For me, it is the most important miracle from God’s Throne.
It is the reason there are ex sinners in Heaven and there will be more. It is the reason for our redemption and the reason why GOD do not kill us as soon as we commit any sin.
It is important to note that, each time we sin against God, judgment is not the first thing that comes to His mind, New Beginning is the first thing that comes to His mind. And all that is because of Christ.
Until you understand that you will keep following the error of Cain who saw a door of mercy opened but chose to follow the door of correctional judgment.
That is why even in the midst of temptation, He makes a way of escape for us. Most times that way of escape is not seen because of overwhelming carnal desires. We are usually blinded to it, consequently falling into sin.
When we fall into sin, new beginning becomes the next way of escape, but this time escape from being punished or destroyed by our sins.
Friend, Sin has consequences. The Bible says,
“Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished: but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered.” Proverbs 11:21 KJV
In another portion of the scriptures, it says,
“But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.” Number 32:23 KJV
These two scriptures have one underlining truth; the ability of sin to bring ruin to us.
It is that ruin that GOD moves to prevent when we are given the miracle of New Beginning. God cannot be happy seeing us ruined by our sins. That was why He forgave David and gave him new beginning as soon as he did the right thing.
DO NOT FORGET, THE MAIN SIN DAVID COMMITTED WAS HUGE; HIS ADULTERY WAS NOT JUST THE MAIN THING.
His Killing to cover up was the main issue; it was the sin that would have destroyed his throne forever and shifted the blessing of bringing forth the messiah to another lineage. He would have lost it like Saul did. But he knew the power of the miracle of new beginning and sought it.
The Bible says he prayed saying;
“Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightiest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:4-10 KJV
The prayer of people who seek New Beginning after sinning against the LORD runs like what we have just read. If flows from the depth of a repentant heart, looking for the door of new beginning to be opened to it.
The last lines of the verses teach us that there cannot be a new beginning without the creation of a clean heart. That was why David asked the LORD to do just that.
It reminds me of the power of circumcision; proper circumcision is the creation of a new heart and a new spirit. That is why it leads to separation from whatever stimulates a life of sin, and people who will take one back to an old life.
IF A NEW HEART AND A NEW SPIRIT HAS NOT BE CREATED, YOU WILL REMAIN WITH THE OLD HABITS AND THE OLD PEOPLE.
You will remain in the old struggling to make things that will never happen to happen. New Beginnings begins from within not without. Until the internal is changed the outward will remain the same.
That is why you do not seek the miracle of new beginning if you are not on the Threshing floor of repentance like David was. It must begin with sorrow for sin.
If you do not sorrow for the wrong things you may have done, whatever you may do to seek a new beginning will never work. As we can see in our devotional text, that was what gave Peter before the Cross, a new beginning.
The Bible says he denied knowing the very Jesus he walked with and even took aside to rebuke for saying He was going to die.
Do not forget how he even took a sword to cut off the ear of a servant of the high priest who was among those who came to arrest Christ. He even boasted that he will never forsake the LORD.
But that night, before the cock could crow once, he had denied knowing the LORD thrice. That would have brought his walk and talk with the LORD to an end and destroyed a glorious future.
We would not have had a man whose shadow was destined to heal the sick as part of the Church. We would have missed this man who was destined to write a wonderful part of the Bible that warned us against false teachers and prophets.
There would have been no 1st and 2nd Peter in the Bible.
The miracle, method and process of becoming part of the body of Christ would have remained unknown because only Peter fit into the description. There is so much about this father of faith that would have remained unknown if not for the miracle of New Beginning that he got from the LORD.
But it was not without sorrowing for his sin.
A MAJOR PORTION OF OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT SAYS;
And a certain servant girl, seeing him as he sat by the fire, looked intently at him and said, “This man was also with Him.” But he denied Him, saying, “Woman, I do not know Him.”
And after a little while another saw him and said, “You also are of them.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not!”
Then after about an hour had passed, another confidently affirmed, saying, “Surely this fellow also was with Him, for he is a Galilean.” But, Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are saying!”
Immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.”
So, Peter went out and wept bitterly. Luke 22:56-62 NKJV
What made the difference in all this man did is in the last verse “so, Peter went out and wept bitterly.” We know Peter was a tough man. Tears do not flow out of tough people except tears that comes from a heart stricken with deep sorrow.
Obviously, Peter was stricken with deep sorrow for his sin. This has become a rare occurrence today. The reason why people are stagnant is not because of causes from their father’s houses. The reason why people are stagnant is not because of evil altars as they call them. It is not because their stars are stolen because we do not have stars, we are stars ourselves.
The reason people are stagnant in life is because they do not know how to enter into new beginnings. They do not know how to position themselves for new beginning miracles. Hearts have become too hardened to sorrow for sins. People will commit terrible sins and downplay them as nothing.
If they are told to repent, at best they claim forgiveness but no repentance comes out of it. If given another opportunity you find them going back to it again. It is hardness of heart that hinders the flow of new beginning miracles.
What hardness of heart has caused the human race will only be understood in full in the next life.
IT IS THE REASON FOR THE MANY SOULS IN HELL AND THE ONES THAT ARE ON THEIR WAY THERE.
I believe it is not our sins that unleash hellish situations upon us but the state of our hearts after we may have sinned.
Nobody can surprise God by their sin. In other words, you will never commit a sin and fill the heart of God with awe or disappointment. People who see you as a person of high moral standard may be surprised or disappointed but not GOD.
What really surprises GOD is what we do after we have sinned. The hardness of heart we walk in and the desire to go back to it again and again, especially even after showing us the consequences, is what surprises GOD.
The reason why Saul could not enter into the New Beginning of God for his life after disobeying God for the first time was because of hardness of heart. His heart was so hardened that he could kill God’s servants – the priests of nod.
If you heart is hardened, you will have no genuine respect for true servants of God. In fact, you will fear Charlatans but disregard true servants of GOD. Saul respected the witch of Endor but disregarded the priest of the Most High God. That is what men and women with harden hearts are good at doing, thereby falling suddenly under divine judgment.
But David was different. He was a man with a humble and a contrite heart. He understood that men and women with a broken and a contrite heart do not loose GOD irrespective of what they may have done. He prayed to GOD saying;
O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise. For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.
Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem. Psalm 51:15-18 NKJV
If there is no hardness of heart when seeking GOD for mercies after sinning against Him, God will respond by doing good to us and re-building the walls of honor, respect, value for us, truth in our spirits, protection, and preservation that our sins and recklessness might have broken down.
It is part of new beginning miracles to have our walls rebuilt. That is why it is important to have a humble, or broken and contrite spirit before GOD and men.
As we bring this to a close, it is important to note that a person with a humble and a contrite spirit will always tremble at the word of the LORD, but one with a hardened heart will not. That Was why David never grandstand whenever Samuel came, but Saul did.
A man or woman with a humble and contrite hearts will tremble at the word of the LORD and become His dwelling place.
I believe the LORD God has spoken to us. May every form of stagnancy be removed from your life in Jesus precious name. Amen and amen!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY.
Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest?
For all those things My hand has made, and all those things exist,” Says the LORD. “But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word.” Isaiah 66:1-2 NKJV