TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 9TH NOVEMBER 2022)
“When the messengers of John had departed, He began to speak to the multitudes concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?
But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed those who are gorgeously appareled and live in luxury are in kings’ courts. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet.
This is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’
For I say to you, among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”
And when all the people heard Him, even the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John. Luke 7:24-29 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 313TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
The Spirit of the LORD has made us; the breath of the Almighty gives us life. We have seen His mercies again this morning. To Him belong the glory!
If mercy and truth were not the foundation of His through, the foundations of our lives would have become out of course. The reason why Jesus came as the Truth, and the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth, is because of our freedom.
We shall know the Truth, and the truth we know and apply, shall set us free! Free from what the truth came to address! Free from sin, iniquity and trespass. Free from the Satanic and the demonic. Free from the power of the flesh that seek to nail us to the paths of eternal damnation. Free from the consequences of sin and all that came upon the human race due to the fall of man.
Free from deception. Yes, free from deception. You see, Truth is God’s antidote to deception. If you are not filled with the Truth of who Jesus is, and the Truth the Holy Spirit brings, you will be a victim of deception. You will be vulnerable to all deceptive practices form the gates of hell.
There are forms of deception to conquer these days. From the deception of the spirit of the anti-Christ in Church and other places today, to the deception of the horrors of the last days, to the deception of an un-regenerated heart and all that, the list is endless.
Jesus said, the first sign of the end times will be hyper deception, and we are on the end time. That is why truth must become your ultimate pursuit these days.
Do not forget, deception was what took Eve from her exalted position to where the human race is today. If she was not deceived, she wouldn’t have eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Clearly, deception led to the fall of man. Deception is always at the root of every fall, even the deception of sin.
The enemy of our soul is called the deceiver. What he uses to fight, or let me say, his weapon of war, is deception. All that should tell us why God made Truth the foundation of His Throne, and manifested as Christ, the Truth, and sent the Holy Spirit to us as the Spirit of Truth. It should tell us why everything about God is Truth.
These eternal redemptive manifestations of GOD are geared towards dealing with all forms of Satanic manifestations in time. That is why the most cherish treasure you should go for today is the Truth His Holy Spirit came to guide us in.
Jesus said;
“Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things tocome.” John 16:13 KJV
WHEN WE ARE GUIDED INTO ALL TRUTH BY THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH, OUR LIVES WILL NOT BE BUILT AROUND ERRORS.
Errors are from the spirit of the antichrist. The Spirit of Christ neutralizes errors, that was why Jesus had it rough with the Pharisees whose lives and ministries where establish on the law of Moses, which had become erroneous and was no longer required at His coming.
If you establish your beliefs and Christian practices in what is no longer required, you are in error! Yes, like we have been screaming, one of the many things that is no longer required today is the use of olive oil, the use of salt in prayers, use of candles. All Old Testament practices are no longer required.
People who use them are in error and will attracts unclean spirits, especially oppressive and deceptive spirits, to their lives.
Also, if you are following teachings on raising, silencing or breaking of altars, you are in error. If you are still giving first fruit offerings, you are in error. If you are still killing animals to sacrifice for any form of deliverance, you are in error. If you are still dedicating your star, your marriage, your car, your land, your shoes, your this and that, you are in error.
Once you are saved, sanctified and filled with the Holy Spirit, everything about you is dedicated. The preachers who ask you to dedicated things after that are just after your money. The only thing you dedicate to the LORD are your new born babies, nothing else.
sadly, I have come across believers whose lives have been ruined by the preachers who ask them to dedicate things and that. You will always be in need of deliverance if your life is established on erroneous teachings and practices.
There are errors that Christians who are not fully dedicated to the LORD follows. In fact, all errors in Church today are followed by Christians who are not fully dedicated to the LORD. They are followed by gullible Christians who are willing to follow anything, (even if it comes from hell), that seek to grant them their mundane desires.
I HAVE ALSO SEEN VERY SERIOUS AND DEDICATED BELIEVERS FOLLOWING CERTAIN ERRORS TOO.
The error of over spiritualization of things and not walking in practical wisdom is one major error that serious-minded and dedicated believers walk in. Which brings us to the subject of our journey of faith this times.
For 8 days we have seen some of things we need to know about practical wisdom. Today is the 9th day of the 30-day journey. Of late, we have been looking at the things that will never happen to us if we are not walking in practical wisdom. We have been looking at “honor” and some related Bible truths that surrounds it. It has really been enlightening.
The word made it clear to us that honor is not fitting for a fool. If you are not walking in practical wisdom, shame and dishonor will always be your portion. God’s cure for shame and dishonor in life remains a walk in practical wisdom. He promised in His word saying;
“ And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed.” Joel 2:26 KJV
If His people will eat plenty and be satisfied, if we will never be ashamed, then we must learn to walk in practical wisdom. That is why He is speaking to us about that this season of our lives.
Yesterday, we saw the practical wisdom of sowing seeds of honor into the lives of any parental figure in our lives, even in tears.
We have previously seen how Abraham sowed seeds of honor into the life of Melchizedek. I consider it a seed he sowed in tears because he was coming from the war front. It unlocked a spiritual honor on Abraham.
Our devotional text yesterday said “they that sow in tears will reap in Joy.” Those who continually goes forth bearing seed for sowing, will doubtlessly fill their lives with great rewards because of the harvest that will continually come to them.
Your life will always be filled with the harvest of the seeds you sow, so be careful of what comes out of you to others. Let me share this with you!
WHATEVER WE DO TO OTHERS IS A SEED, AND IT WILL BRING BACK THE HARVEST TO US ONE DAY.
Sowing of seed is beyond giving money to preachers as seed. Seeds are beyond that. They are acts and deeds that comes from our lives to others. God designed life to be a product of what others receive form us over time. Understand that we can determine how our lives turn out by our actions.
We can determine if our lives will turn out well or unwell by what we do to others or seed into life. Jesus said;
“So then, whatever you desire that others would do to and for you, even so do also to and for them, for this is (sums up) the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12 AMPC
This scripture make it clear that if you do not like what you are seeing in your life, check what you have been seeding into it. Our lives where designed in such a way that we only see what we seed into them. It is therefore, practical wisdom to always check what you are seeding into life.
For instance, you cannot seed vices and all forms of sexual immorality into our lives and not see diseases, heartbreaks, difficulties, economic hardship, lack of peace and etc. in life. If you want to see peace, the prosperity of the righteous and related blessings in life, you must seed righteousness, hard work, Spirit led actions, and Heavenly things into your life.
We can only see in life what we seed into life. So, seed good deeds into your life by sowing good seeds into the lives of others, especially the seed of honor like our fathers did, and you glory will be your portion. You will never reap shame in life.
Yes, Sow the seeds of honoring God into His divine purposes and you will never lack honor from above.
Sow the seeds of honoring men and women God has blessed, sow the seeds of honor into those GOD commands that we honor (parents, His true prophets, young believers in Christ, men in righteous authority, husbands, wives, and etc.) and your life will not lack honor.
Jesus also sowed seeds of honor into the life of John the Baptist, I think I need to bring that to our attention at this point.
OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT SAYS,
“When the messengers of John had departed, He began to speak to the multitudes concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?
But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed those who are gorgeously appareled and live in luxury are in kings’ courts. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet.
This is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’
For I say to you, among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”
And when all the people heard Him, even the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John. Luke 7:24-29 NKJV
This was a seed of honor Jesus, as man, sowed into the life of john the Baptist. In my opinion, He sowed the seed in tears (if you understand what that means). The reason was, the circumstances were tough when He was saying the things we just read.
John the Baptist had been thrown into prison years after sowing seeds of honor into Jesus at the river Jordan. It was the seed of honor he sowed into Christ that led to the first elevation of the earthly ministry of Christ. Now, he was in trouble and Jesus did not come to visit him. He became offended.
In his offense he began to doubt who Christ really was. He sent his disciples to ask if he was really the messiah. We usually do the same things whenever we find ourselves in the valley.
You find many of us doubting even our salvation, prophecies the LORD has spoken into our hearts, and sometimes even genuine servants of His, that He may have affirmed to us to be His true servants and all that. But I won’t go into that today.
So, it was in the midst of being offended at Christ and casting doubts about Him that John got the seeds of honor sown into his life by the same Christ he was offended at.
The very person he had affirmed as the Lamb of God to the whole world few years back was now being seen as not the lamb of God again. Jesus had to sow that seed of honor into John’s life, teaching us how to respond to people who were once believers in us but are now offended at us.
Personally I have failed in this. People who once believe in us who now castigate and doubt us have not all been treated the way Jesus treated John by me. As the LORD shared these things with me I felt so sad and decided to be doing that from hence forth.
If I do not have the feel to say anything good about them, I will just be keeping quiet no matter what they may saying about me.
Jesus showed us that we should understand what such people may be going through, that may have created offenses in their hearts so as to say whatever they may be saying about us and sow seeds of honor into their lives instead. But if we cannot, practical wisdom suggest that we be quiet because sometimes things could be very grievous. I know this is tough but its necessary.
THAT IS WHY IT IS CALLED “SOWING IN PAIN,” THAT IS THE ONLY WAY WE CAN REAP IN JOY.
I want to close this with a deeper truth the LORD laid in my heart about His general, John the Baptist.
Do not forget, we have said “it is what you seed into life that you see in life.” The reason why many do not like doing the authentic will of God is because of what they will see in this fallen life if they seed their lives doing God’s will.
The Bible made it clear that we will never have a peaceful time with darkness or men and women who are trapped in, or by it, if we seed our lives doing God’s will. John the Baptist seeded his life doing the will of God in a perverse and crooked generation and saw imprisonment as a result. Though He was offended at Christ for not going to visit him, he earned a great reward in heaven.
We should not forget that there is life after this life.
When seeding seeds of honor into life, we should not forget to seed our lives honoring God by doing His blessed will. People may hate and imprison us like they did to John, we should not relent, but rather fix our eyes on the eternal reward of doing so, which is the glorious things that we will see in the next life.
Do not forget, there is a next life, and it is what we seed into this life that will determine what we will see in the next life. That is the message!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’
And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ Matthew 7:21-23 NKJV