TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 7TH DECEMBER 2022)
“They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.” Isaiah 11:9-11 KJV
WELCOME TO THE 340TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
This is the day the LORD has made, we shall rejoice and be glad in it. What else can we say, we are the evidence of His love, mercies, patience, tolerance, faithfulness and all you can think of.
He is the God of us, because He alone understands us. He alone understands what we go through. He alone understands our pain, our gains, our struggles, our successes, our inadequacies and adequacies, all in one.
He alone understands our battle with sin, Satan and the evil and corrupt system of this world. He alone does! Now I understand why David so personalized Him. There is a way you experience God that you become ‘selfish’ enough to personalize Him.
We believe all He has done for us these 340 days remains a pointer to what he will do in our lives in the next years that lies ahead of us, even as we look forward to the coming of the LORD. He will remain our God and we will remain the evidence of His amazing kindness and good deeds.
Today is the 7th day of our 31-day journey with the Cry of the Holy Spirit on the Presence of the LORD. I promised that we will pick from where we stopped yesterday. But before we go any further, I want to give a public rebuke and maybe counsel to those it concerns, while the rest of us listen.
Most times there are typographical errors in these devotionals. While the doctrine is straight and refreshing, it most times comes with typographical errors, Some very unforgiving.
Like yesterday, I wanted to type Isaiah 11:9-11, I typed Isaiah 49. Sadly, no one saw it. It made me wonder if the crop of Christians we have today still embark on double checking things they read. I also wonder if those serving in the church offices and television station, and those living with me read the devotionals.
Now if you are working in the church offices, television station or living with me but do not read what I write, you are a hypocrite.
YOU CANNOT BE SERVING WHAT YOU DO NOT CHERISH.
If you claim to be reading then why do you say nothing about the unforgiving typographical errors? Few of them just share but do not read. That is hypocritical.
We are all serving the mandate and it will only bless us if we cherish the teachings from the mandate we serve. That is why some serve and remain like accursed children with illnesses in their bodies and all that.
These things and many others happening have made it clear to me that many around me, if not all, do not truly serve the mandate, hence not even calling my attention to those unforgiving errors.
Sometimes it is a daughter in a foreign land that will call my attention to some of the errors. Yet, I care and invest in them regularly. It is really frustrating to be investing and caring about people who do not care or even invest their time to make sure whatever comes out of you is perfect.
For instance, yesterday a lot happened that made my day a trying one for me. I know those who hate me will be happy with that, but those who do not will be compassionate. Though I do not care! I need to be public with some things so that in case anything happens they will be no lies told and false assumptions made.
Things have been happening to me of late that have been opening my eyes to how lonely I am. Yes, I have beautiful people around me but am still alone, especially in the close quarters of life. Being alone in life, sometimes, is not being lonely but having people who are too selfish or self-centered to add value to your life.
It is having people who only care when they are in need and use that to water the ground so you can supply their need. It’s really frustrating!
I discovered if God had not been with me. I do not think I would have even been healthy enough to keep carrying the mandate. I have read of how preachers who stood for restoration of broken-down standards in time past, became exhausted spiritually for lacking genuine people. Some lamented to people who were very close, after a short while collapsed and died. Others started living in sin, then became diseased and shut down their flourishing ministries.
MUST THESE THINGS KEEP HAPPENING FROM AGE TO AGE? NO! KINGDOM MINDED PEOPLE MUST RISE TO SAY NO!
Some people will turn into snakes and begin to look for how to bring you down, like the one who was spreading slander to her friends about me and also reading my phones to find something scandalous or incriminating, as soon as responsibilities and honor of being so close are committed to them. While others will become too self-centered to offer true help.
Yes, I have people in my life but do not have people who have woken up to their GOD given responsibilities for my life as their spiritual leader, father, or whatever you might want to call it. They appear to be helping in the public eye, but some of them are actually my chief draining pipes.
I now understand why Moses prayed for Judah saying “LORD, bring him to his own people.”
Indeed, most of us in the fore front need people who will wake up to their purposes in our lives as we have woken up to our purpose in their lives. Personally, as it stands now, no one in my life seems to have waken up to their true God given purpose for my life. I mean no one; either in close quarter, or far distance, private or public. Maybe my kids will do when they grow up!
Every day my understanding of what Paul meant when he said “all have departed from me” grows deeper. They could be looking at you, working with you, living with you, but are not really with you.
If it was what I can train people to do, I would have done so.
But this is something that only the Holy Spirit can birth in people who have made up their minds for me. That is why if they are self-centered and hypocritical about my welfare and needs, or about adding value to me, He will not birth it in them.
I SAW IT IN THE LIFE OF SOME WHO JOINED DAVID.
The Bible says;
“Then some of the sons of Benjamin and Judah came to David at the stronghold.
And David went out to meet them, and answered and said to them, “If you have come peaceably to me to help me, my heart will be united with you; but if to betray me to my enemies, since there is no wrong in my hands, may the God of our fathers look and bring judgment.”
Then the Spirit came upon Amasai, chief of the captains, and he said: “We are yours, O David; We are on your side, O son of Jesse! Peace, peace to you, and peace to your helpers! For your God helps you.” So David received them, and made them captains of the troop. 1 Chronicles 12:16-18 NKJV
You see how it ought to be in this scripture? They said to David, “we are yours” by the Spirit of the LORD. Those with me have not experienced this, and I wonder why. Maybe it is because they are carnal, self-centered and selfish. Or maybe they just came to make their lives better and not to make mine better as I make theirs better.
This battle will not require mare volunteers, working staff, blood relatives or family members. People who just see you as an ATM or supplier of their spiritual and physical needs. It will require volunteers, working staff, blood relatives and family members, or spiritual sons and daughters who are really mine like, Amasai and the rest were to David.
The Bible says the Spirit came upon them after David probed them. They did not get offended when he questioned their loyalty, like some do today when I question their loyalty. They had made up their minds for David even before coming to him. Hence receiving the revelation of the Spirit on their role in his life.
These people who said to David, “we are yours” were among the thousands who were awoken to their responsibilities in the life of David. They were people who woke up to their responsibilities in His life. That was why He successfully fought the battles of the LORD without a scar, and recovered from the impact of his sin with Beersheba so easily, and never went back to that direction again.
THERE IS THE AGONY OF KINGDOM WARRIORS!
You may not like what I want to state, but I submit that every end time warrior or spiritual leader in the forefront will need people in their lives who have woken up to their GOD given assignment for them to succeed in battle. Yesterday I literally wept for hours on my bed for not having them; especially when I remembered the team that stated with me in 1995, after being two years in ministry, precious people who were indeed mine.
That was not my first time of weeping secretly for having close people who by their conduct are not mine around me. I know if that team was here with me now, I won’t be going through what I go through. They were so loyal until an elder in church poisoned them against the mandate that the LORD had given us. They departed and began to seek other things. One died after that. Sadly, the vacuum is still here till date!
So, if you see any errors in these devotionals or anything that will be of help about what I do in ministry, do not fail to communicate. Just call my attention to it. Do not think that the people I have will do it. No! They do not even read the devotionals.
Like I said, those who share do not read and the few who read do not read to help!
The devotionals come fresh, with no time to do a thorough proof reading. The meal has to be served hot. The only way out is to correct after being published.
Finally, I want to admonish all who have something to do with any man or woman of God in the forefront, either by blood, marriage, ministry, work, or any other form of spiritual or missionary alliances, to ask the LORD for a revelation of the very responsibility He may have assigned them for those vessels of His they are serving, being vessels of GOD also.
They will become a door to their ruin, no matter how helpful they think they are, if they do not find one. A lot of genuine preachers with fire in their bones have lost the fire, with many others even leaving the assignment the LORD gave them for other things, and some others suffering frustrations, for not having the right people.
MAY YOU BE THE RIGHT PERSON AROUND GOD’S MEN. AMEN!
Now to our devotional. Yesterday we were looking at the emergence of the flesh. We saw how the expulsion of man from the Garden of Eden thrust him into the Godless realm of the earth where he absorbed everything in that realm.
We understood that the realm has been ruled, and is still being ruled by Satan. We saw in God’s word that it is made up of the character of the devil described as transgressions; which we explained what they are.
We also saw that God gave the devil the very Godless nature that developed when man was expelled from the Garden as food. That is what He called dust. That is why in most cases, Satan will remain nonexistence in your life, until you begin to give him some dust to eat.
That is when you will begin to see his works in your life – killing, stealing, and destroying things in your life without remedy from GOD.
That is when his demons will begin to make life unbearable for you. That is when you cannot live in the “no hurt” zones of the spirit. That is when you run after prophets for prayers, collect this oil or the other water, or raise this altar or the other altar, use this salt for prayers or take this photo to that preacher or the other preacher.
That is when you will be restless.
A portion of our devotional text says;
“They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.” Isaiah 11:9-10 NKJV
This scripture and some of what we shared yesterday made it clear that successful spiritual attacks are products of living outside the hurt free zones that exist in the presence of God in the spirit realm. And that redemption from all spiritual attacks is by returning to the active presence of the LORD.
IT IS NOT BY SOWING SEEDS AND GIVING ANY MONEY.
That is why Isaiah 52:1-3 Says;
Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city! For the uncircumcised and the unclean Shall no longer come to you.
Shake yourself from the dust, arise; Sit down, O Jerusalem! Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion!
For thus says the LORD: “You have sold yourselves for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money.” Isaiah 52:1-3 NKJV
This scripture made it clear that there is power in shaking oneself free from the dust of the flesh. It is when we have shaken ourselves from free from the dust of the flesh that we can lose ourselves from the bonds on our necks. That is what the word said. That is how we get genuine deliverance. However, none of that will be possible if we are not awake unto righteousness.
That is why the word began by saying,
“Awake, awake! Put on your strength, o Zion; Put on your beautiful garments (of righteousness) or Jerusalem, the holy city.”
The idea is not just to deliver us but to make sure that what we are delivered from do not return again.
That is why the word concluded with “for the uncircumcised and the unclean (unclean spirits) shall no longer come to you!”
So, all this so-called deliverance we see in Church today that runs contrary to this process is Satan’s version of deliverance. That is why people are not genuinely delivered. The deliverances lack true deliverance.
True deliverance comes with divine preservation. As the scripture says, it comes as a product of awaking unto righteousness, and shaking yourself free from the dust of the flesh. It comes without giving money for it. The word says;
For thus says the LORD: “You have sold yourselves for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money.” Isaiah 52:3 NKJV
THERE IS NO DIVINE PRESERVATION IN SATAN’S VERSION OF DELIVERANCE.
That is why it is not true. You must keep going for the practices, keep giving this money, keep raising the altars, keep breaking them, keep using oil to protect yourself from your enemies, keep washing your feet, and keep anointing your business and all that.
Many do not know that the most common way Satan counterfeits God is by raising false preachers and baptizing even true but ignorant ones with his systems to conduct deliverance for the oppressed, using a mixture of Old Testament and occult practices.
He will never lead the oppressed to follow God’s way of deliverance, which is without money or such practices but by being awake to righteousness and shaking oneself free from the dust of the flesh.
Now, why is it without money? Why does it come by becoming awake to righteousness and shaking ourselves free from the dust of the flesh? The answer lies in the impact of that in our lives. The impact is the active presence of GOD it brings us into.
Once we get there, all devils and what they may be doing in our lives will disappear. We will begin to enjoy rest run about without the use of olive oil or any other deliverance inventions. Our resting places will become glorious because of the active presence of the LORD.
In closing, I want to admonish that if we make the flesh one number one enemy. If we make the flesh our number one enemy, it will thrust us into the presence of the LORD, and every other enemy will become nonexistence.
The question now is, how do we make the flesh our number one enemy? That will be left for tomorrow.
MEANWHILE, LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY!
“Depart! Depart! Go out from there, touch no unclean thing; Go out from the midst of her, Be clean, You who bear the vessels of the LORD.
For you shall not go out with haste, Nor go by flight; For the LORD will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.” Isaiah 52:11-12 NKJV