TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 8TH FEBRUARY 2023)
“So he answered and said to me: “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the LORD of hosts.
‘Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!” Zechariah 4:6-7 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 39TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS!
We give God the glory for this beautiful day! We slept and woke up because they LORD kept us. He watched over us and made sure our cells are renewed. We give Him the glory for all that.
The Bible is clear that God’s mercies for our lives are fresh every morning, but those who make use of them enjoy the most of them.
It says;
“As a father pities his children, So the LORD pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.” Psalm 103:13-14 NKJV
This scripture made it clear that those who fear God enjoy the most of His mercies. Those who do not fear God, enjoy His mercies too, but not the most of it. The word did not say, “as a father pities his children, so the LORD pities those who do not fear Him.”
Those who do not fear God are not His children. The Bible made it clear that they are the Children of disobedience. They have made the evil One their father. Jesus, in the days of His flesh, once looked at some Jews and said to them;
“You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” John 8:44 NKJV
We do the desires of whose children we are. In other words, no one can just claim to be a child of God; the desires of the GOD, or god we do is what tells whose children we are.
For instance, the desires of the devil are sin, iniquity and trespass. He never desires that we live holy and righteous lives. He desires that we live wicked and sinful lives. But the desires of God are different. He desires that we fear Him, walk in truth, and obey His commandments. The Bible says;
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.
For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 NKJV
So, if we are sinful, wicked, rebellious or full of iniquity, we are doing the desires of the devil. We are his children, by what Jesus said. But if we walk in the fear of God, follow His ways and obey His Holy words and Holy Spirit, we are children of God.
SO, NO ONE CAN REALLY CLAIM TO BE A CHILD OF GOD BY A CHARISMATIC FAITH.
We are children of God by faith with fruits of righteousness as evidence. It is how we live that tells us whose Children we are, not the churches we attend, the gospel we preach and the things we claim.
For many of us who appear holy to others, it is our lives in secret places that really tell whose children we are. If our secrecies are dirty, filthy, sinful and wicked, we are children of the devil no matter how “children of God” we appear to others. This must be understood so that we can repent of all sins and evil.
Children of God can repent of sins but the children of the evil one cannot. Most are clever by half. They would accept they are sinful but will never embrace genuine repentance. They can be remorseful but can never repent. Others will rather justify themselves, or see no wrong in the sinful and wicked lives they are living.
One of the major things that separates children of God from children of the evil one, is in how they treat sin and sinful living. And what they do when confronted with the word by the LORD. Children of God trembles at the word, but children of the evil one does not. That is why Children of GOD enjoy the supernatural of God, and children of the evil one, the dark supernatural.
Today is the 8th day of our 28-day journey on supernatural living. We have 20 more days to go. God still have so much for us on this journey.
Understand that, the world that we all live in, has always had two sets of children. From the day Cain killed Able till date, there have always been two kind of breeds on the face of the earth; judging by people’s character and ways of life.
Most of the evil in this world, if not all, are perpetrated by the children of the evil one. Some are committed naturally, others are committed supernaturally. The Bible spoke about the world being under the sway of the evil one.
SOMETIMES WE WONDER HOW?
You see, all children of the evil one brings the world under his sway by the way they live. There are those who does it using the powers of the dark supernatural, other does it using the power of science and technology, some others do it using religion, while others do it using the economic and political power they possess.
One of the major reasons why a Child of God should walk in the supernatural of God, is for him or her to be able to escape the activities of the Children of the evil one. The Psalmist said;
Hear my voice, O God, in my meditation; Preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, From the rebellion of the workers of iniquity, Who sharpen their tongue like a sword, And bend their bows to shoot their arrows—bitter words,
That they may shoot in secret at the blameless; Suddenly they shoot at him and do not fear. They encourage themselves in an evil matter; They talk of laying snares secretly; They say, “Who will see them?”
They devise iniquities: “We have perfected a shrewd scheme.” Both the inward thought and the heart of man are deep.
“But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; Suddenly they shall be wounded. So He will make them stumble over their own tongue; All who see them shall flee away. Psalm 64:1-7 NKJV
FROM THIS SCRIPTURE, IT IS CLEAR THAT WITHOUT THE SUPERNATURAL OF GOD, WE WOULD NOT SURVIVE THIS WORLD.
The supernatural of God, is like arrows that shoot at the children of the evil one and wounds them. It makes them stumble over their own tongue and paralyzes their activities completely. We all need the supernatural of God to lead peaceful lives in an evil infested world.
We need it to survive the swords of the enemy, raise our children, get and stay married, survive the cost of living in foreign lands, survive the cost of living even in your own land, and all that.
Yes, we need the supernatural of God the way our lungs need air.
We need it to live righteous lives before God, we need it to overcome temptation and come out strong in trials of faith. In fact, we need it to live the Christian life. That is why as soon as we get saved, the next thing that stands before us, is the promise of the gift of the governor of the supernatural of God: the blessed Holy Spirit.
That is how important it is. Our devotional text says;
“So he answered and said to me: “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the LORD of hosts.
‘Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”’” Zechariah 4:6-7 NKJV
This scripture tells us what the LORD said to an ancient leader of Israel, Zerubbabel, who was saddled with the mantle of leadership after Israel returned to the promise land. It made it clear that nothing in God or on this planet succeeds by human might or power alone.
Everything succeeds by the supernatural, working with the natural most of the times. The word made it clear that, engaging the natural alone will not make things succeed. The supernatural must be engaged in partnership.
That is why we pray, fast, and seek the LORD for help before we do things as believers. We are trying to engage the supernatural of God to help us.
If you bring the same proclamation to the need to live righteous lives on earth; we can see that even being holy is not possible without the supernatural of God. Our human might and power alone cannot make us holy. We will never be able to live the Christ kind of life by a willingness to.
YES, THERE MUST BE A HUMAN WILL FOR ONE TO BE HOLY, BUT THE SUPERNATURAL OF GOD MUST PARTNER WITH IT FOR HOLINESS TO BE POSSIBLE.
If you willed to live a pure, holy and righteous life, and the supernatural of God is not there to help you, you will always fall back to sin. On the other hand, if the supernatural of God is there to help us but the will to live a pure, holy, and righteous life is not there, we will still not be able to live right. We will always be falling back to sin and wickedness.
Sadly, what is happening to many who cannot live right in Church today, is not an absence of the supernatural of God to help, but an absence of the will to live a pure, holy, and righteous life. And because the will is not there, we live in sin, and do not bother about it.
The will to live right is created by sound doctrines, not polluted grace teachings. Meaning, if we do not expose ourselves to living truths that confronts sin, and instill purity, we will never possess the will to be pure, holy, and righteous. It is that will, that Isaiah said God even use judgment to instill in man.
But, instead of exposing ourselves to sound doctrines, we hide under the law of positional righteousness, claiming we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, living very sinful and filthy lives, without bothering about it.
The supernatural of GOD will need our will to live pure, holy, and righteous lives to help us overcome sin, and lead divinely approved Christian lives on earth. Yes, it is not by might nor by power, but understand that it is by His Spirit, working with our grace and truth controlled human might and power, that the things will be done.
The fact that it is not by might nor by power, does not mean might and power will not be needed. It only means it will not be sufficient.
For instance, praying and fasting is we, demonstrating to God that our might and power are not sufficient. That, we will need His supernatural might and power to succeed. That is why we get amazing supernatural help each time we pray and fast. The Bible says;
“Thus says the LORD who made it, the LORD who formed it to establish it (the LORD is His name): ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ Jeremiah 33:2-3 NKJV
I THINK ENOUGH INSIGHT HAS BEEN SHARED FOR THE DAY.
God has been sharing with us about the secret of supernatural living in Him. He has shown us the role of consecration. Lately, we were looking at consecration patterns in the lives of those who were here before us. Yesterday we looked at a consecration pattern in the early church.
Today we decided to share some thoughts on a beautiful law of supernatural living in God: The law of making sure your human might and power is available for the supernatural to move. The human might and power must not be from the carnal realm. It must be born from the realms of God’s grace and truth. It is a law of your own role.
Most people are not experiencing the supernatural in God because they do not play their own roles for it to be unleashed upon them.
The supernatural of God has a partnership pact for His children to embrace before it can be unleashed. It is contained in the revealed word; God’s truth, the Bible.
We will never experience the supernatural of God, if we do not know the divine pact that governs the aspect of the supernatural, we may be looking for. That is why it is important to be very close to your Bible, and walk in the revelation of the living truths in it. If you are that close, you will be able to know what to do for God to act any day you need His supernatural move in your life.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.
Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”
Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” John 2:1-5 NKJV