TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 5TH SEPTEMBER 2022)
“Therefore, do not worry and be anxious, saying, What are we going to have to eat? or, What are we going to have to drink? or, What are we going to have to wear?
For the Gentiles (heathen) wish for and crave and diligently seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows well that you need them all.
But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.” Matthew 6:31-33 AMPC
WELCOME TO THE 248TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
This is the Day the LORD has made, we shall rejoice and be glad in it. We give God the glory for a bright and beautiful day from the LORD. It is our prayer that it remains bright and beautiful the way the LORD has presented it.
Actually, there is nothing like a bad Day. Days are gifts from God, and the Bible says every gift that comes from the LORD is good and perfect; including the days He allow us to see. It is what we fill them with that determine if they will become bad or evil days.
The Bible indeed spoke of evil days, and the Bible also make it clear that it is not the day that is evil but the unpleasant events that happens in the days that make the day evil.
So, having a good or bad day depends on the events that happen on that day, it is not the day itself that is good or bad. Days by creation are not bad or evil.
It’s a 30-Day journey of faith with the Cry of the Spirit on Biblical Fasting, and we are on the 5th day of the Journey.
The LORD has already kindled our hearts with revelation knowledge on certain aspects of Biblical fasting. We have seen one of the most critical scripture on the subject that have been used in recent decades to ruin the lives of people and institute religious fast for them.
Yesterday, the LORD opened our eyes to one of the benefits of Biblical Fasting – its ability to bring us into realms where His word can come to pass in our lives. Many of us have pending promises from God that are yet to come to pass. But through Biblical fasting that can change.
One thing I want to add is this; the realms we are talking about are also realms where only the word of the can be performed in our lives. Meaning evil words cannot happen in our lives if we live from those realms.
How important it is to live in a realm of the Holy Spirit where only God’s word can come to pass in your life.
Friend, we live in a world where people issue curses and all kinds of demonic sentences over others to ruin their business, health, marriages, ministries, careers, joy, success and even families and entire lives because of grievances.
If we do not live in the realm of the Holy Spirit where such things cannot come to pass in our lives, we will become ashes in a wicked world.
IF THESE EVILS WHERE HAPPENING ONLY IN THE WORLD, ONE WOULD HAVE SAID JOINING THE CHURCH IS ENOUGH SAFETY, BUT THEY HAPPEN IN THE CHURCH ALSO.
In fact, there are certain types that only happens in the church.
For instance, when a so-called spiritual father becomes angry with you for not giving them one thing or the other, they will move against you. When you live their churches for a better place of worship, you are in trouble. They will issue sentences and make prayers that are geared towards destroying your life.
Not living in realms where evil prayers, curses, and demonic sentences can not work in your life will make you vulnerable to these class of wicked men and women both in the Church and in the world.
Sadly, many are not living there, hence the ruin they face.
Yesterday we saw one way we get there; the path of Biblical Fasting. But a day before, we had explained the revelation behind the words, “this kind cannot go out except by prayer and fasting.”
We discovered that Jesus was not referring to a kind of a fast but a kind of a faith. We have been made to believe it’s a kind of a fast, leading to so much religious fasting in the Church.
You see, the misunderstanding of that scripture has made people in church to believe that there are problems that can not be solved until we engage in certain types of praying and fasting. But that is the mantra of religious cults not the body of Christ.
In religious cults, they are made to believe that the tougher the fast, the greater the move of the supernatural in their favor.
In Christ we do not operate that way. Without diminishing the power and necessity of Biblical fast, I want to submit to you that in Christ you can get even the greatest blessing from GOD without a fast. But very few seems to know that hence engaging in religious fast.
Doubtlessly, religious fasting has always been a ruin to sons and daughters of GOD. It is Biblical fasting that has been a raise to many of us.
The word fasting or prayer has always been treated as divine words. But they are not always divine depending on the spirit behind it. People forget that fasting or prayer is not an exclusively preserved of the kingdom of God. In other kingdoms people fast and pray too. I was told of men and women who go to grave yards to fast for months for wealth.
IT IS PART OF THE RITUAL THEY ARE USUALLY GIVEN TO PERFORM IN OTHER TO GET WEALTH.
They make them believe that those who died and are buried there left untapped wealth behind, so that can tap into it through their fast and become rich.
Sadly, the devil has indeed made some rich through this act of necromancy. But they die shortly after or become diseases at a particular age. People who are born by them, who also use the wealth, are brought under satanic bondages as well.
Talking of worshiping the devil for wealth, there is so much people do to make money supernaturally. We hear a lot of stories and see a lot of things.
Personally, I have received calls from people who said they want to sacrifice their children to the devil for money because their suffering is too much. The first time it happened, I almost dropped the phone from my hands.
Almost all of humans believe that money cannot just come to one naturally. There must be a supernatural engagement to have money. Actually, the first person I see in the Bible to be tempted on that line was Jesus Christ Himself, in the days of His flesh. The Bible says;
“Then the devil took Him up to a high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the habitable world in a moment of time [in the twinkling of an eye].
And he said to Him, To You I will give all this power and authority and their glory (all their magnificence, excellence, preeminence, dignity, and grace), for it has been turned over to me, and I give it to whomever I will.
Therefore if You will do homage to and worship me [just once], it shall all be Yours.
And Jesus replied to him, Get behind Me, Satan! It is written, You shall do homage to and worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.” Luke 4:5-8 AMPC
JESUS WAS BEING ASKED HERE TO DO SOMETHING FOR THE WEALTH OF THIS WORLD.
He was being asked to become a worshiper of Satan to receive the power, authority and glory of this world in return. And this happened after His fast. I brought this to our attention because there is a word of caution to glean from it.
The dangers of religious fasting cannot be over emphasized. Its ability to deceive people and make them submit to realms of darkness that appear as realms of light is unquestionable. We must be careful of what we hear in the realm of the spirit and submit to during or after fasting.
If Jesus was not armed with truth, He would have taken what the devil said to Him to be the voice of God sent to Him for a blessing because of His fast. In Religious fasting, people seek to use their fasting to make God put a blessing on them or do one thing or the other. That is a dangerous trap.
If Jesus’ fast was a religious one, He would have bowed to the devil thinking He was dealing with God, especially since it would have looked like an answer to prayer.
Religious fast is dangerous because its human needs oriented, and can prepare a man’s heart to become submissive and loyal to religious spirits that comes as the Spirit of God to meet their needs.
Do not forget, every unregenerate human craves for the very things Satan presented to Christ after His fast. If human needs were what drove Jesus to fast, He would have failed each and every one of those three temptations.
If He was on a religious fast, He wouldn’t have even known Satan was the one asking Him to bow. He would have thought God was the one asking Him to bow to receive the power, authority, glory, magnificence, excellence, preeminence, dignity and grace of this world. And like many believe, “if it is good, it is God” Jesus would have taken it to be God.
Today, believe it or not, many preachers and serious-minded Christians have bowed to devils and received all he offers the unregenerated men to stick with him. You see it the fruit of their fast and even wealth.
For those who fast gave money, or wealth. The LORD describe what they got as wretchedness, misery, poverty, blindness and nakedness (Revelation 3:17)
I reiterate again that one of the many dangers of religious fasting is its ability to make a person to submit to demons that comes in as angels of light (by their utterances or voices) to meet their needs. That’s why, for example, most people in marriages they took for God’s will yesterday groaning today.
If you are earthly needs conscious, you are the wrong person to fast. You will be made to submit to a leading of a spirit you will take to be a leading of the Spirit.
THE PRINCIPLE OF BIBLICAL FASTING IS GUIDED BY WHAT JESUS SAID IN OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT.
He said:
“Therefore, do not worry and be anxious, saying, What are we going to have to eat? or, What are we going to have to drink? or, What are we going to have to wear?
For the Gentiles (heathen) wish for and crave and diligently seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows well that you need them all.
But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.” Matthew 6:31-33 AMPC
If you look at this scripture intently, you will not need anyone to explain what it says to you, except for the revelation knowledge buried in what it says. The Bible indeed made it clear that no human needs should be the reason for serving God. None should be what we seek or seek GOD for.
It says we should not worry of what we will eat, drink or wear. Not obeying this principle of Christ is the reason for the many who engage themselves in religious fast.
If our fast is govern by such worries we will not know when a religious spirit is offering it to us, the way Christ was offered the power, authority and glory of the kingdoms of this world by the enemy. We will take it as answer to prayer and open our lives up to unclean spirits that we have taken for the Holy Spirit.
Jesus says it is the heathen, Godless and idol worshipers that seek the supernatural to satisfy their carnal cravings and take care of the mundane things they worry for. Meaning, when you see a Christians doing the same, he or she has departed from the faith. They need to be brought back to the faith.
WHICH, BY GOD’S GRACE, WE ARE DOING THROUGH THIS PLATFORM.
Biblical fasting is initiated, governed and propelled by the Spirit and Truth of God’s kingdom. The Spirit and Truth of the Kingdom says
“But seek or aim at and strive after, first of all God’s kingdom and His righteousness – meaning His way of doing and being right, and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.”
The Spirit and Truth of the kingdom will make our fast GOD’s kingdom oriented, not man’s needs initiated. It is this Spirit and Truth of the Kingdom of God that births the burden for fasting in the lives of genuine kingdom citizens. Jesus was driven to the wilderness because of it. He was not driven to go fast for the mundane.
Yes, in other to have faith for God to meet our needs, we may need to fast, but it is not the fast that makes God meet our needs but the faith the fast produce. Meaning, if we can walk in faith without a fast, we can have our needs met without a fast. That is what I am saying!
Fasting is a necessity for walking with God effectively and fruitfully, not a necessity for God to meet our needs.
Every kingdom citizen knows GOD can meet their earthly needs without their fast, just as the lilies and birds do not need to fast to have their earthly needs met. That is why genuine kingdom citizens do not fast for the mundane, they fast for the eternal.
It is my prayer that God will use these precious truths to add to the building blocks of your faith in Jesus precious name. Amen!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
Therefore, I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy (anxious and worried) about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink; or about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life greater [in quality] than food, and the body [far above and more excellent] than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father keeps feeding them. Are you not worth much more than they?
And who of you by worrying and being anxious can add one unit of measure (cubit) to his stature or to the span of his life?
And why should you be anxious about clothes? Consider the lilies of the field and learn thoroughly how they grow; they neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his magnificence (excellence, dignity, and grace) was not arrayed like one of these.
But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and green and tomorrow is tossed into the furnace, will He not much more surely clothe you, O you of little faith?
Therefore, do not worry and be anxious, saying, what are we going to have to eat? or, What are we going to have to drink? or, What are we going to have to wear?” Matthew 6:25-31 AMPC