TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 1ST MARCH 2023)
“So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.
Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.” Deuteronomy 8:3-4 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 60th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS!
We bless the Lord for His mercies and for enabling us to see yet another new month, and for giving us another chance to hear His word that comes forth to refresh and nourish our spirits, every morning.
We believe the refreshing word that comes to us each morning, will work for us. Yes, it is when the word works in our lives that our lives pick and reflect the will of the Father for them.
The Bible spoke about a generation that did not let the word work in their lives. The result was, they could not enter God’s rest.
Since the start of this year we have embarked on two journeys of faith that have blessed us immensely. If we allow the word we were taught in those journeys, to work in our lives, it will indeed be a year of signs and wonders for us!
Speaking of the word working in our lives, it is important to note that, nobody in their own strength can make the word work for them, because no human has the capacity to make that happen. We can only allow the word to work for us.
So, beginning today and for the next few days, we will be looking at *“The faith position for word carriers,”*as the LORD guides us on how to make His word work in our lives. This is one of the echoes of God’s mercy, that came to us, at the apostolic center of the Cry of the Spirit Ministries Global.
We will be having many of them this month.
God took Israel on a 40-year journey for them to learn only one thing; how to live by the word of the LORD and nothing else but the word. He fed them with only one type of food [manna] for those years in the wilderness.
The Bible made it clear that manna, was the food that angels ate in Heaven, and the food that we will also eat when we get to heaven. But despite this great delivery and beautiful miracle, it was not long that they began to grumble and ask God for another type of food; whilst making reference to what they had left in Egypt.
ACCORDING TO THEM, THE GARLIC AND CUCUMBER THEY ATE IN EGYPT WAS FAR MUCH BETTER THAN WHAT GOD WAS GIVING THEM IN THE WILDERNESS.
Now, they are not the only ones who have such propensity. Even we in our age have; God will give us one thing, and our carnal craving will be looking for another. The things our flesh tasted, while we were unsaved, will always come back to contend with what the LORD is giving us in the faith. Do not forget, Egypt here represents the flesh.
We will always destroy our blessings in Christ, anytime we return to what we usually consume while we were living a life of flesh.
Yes, you will always destroy a marriage God gave you, if you allow the Garlic of what you use to ‘enjoy’ in the sinful flesh to return to you. You will always destroy the financial miracles the LORD is building for you, if you return to the garlic of financial systems you were using to make ends meet while you were in the flesh of sin.
To make the word work for you, do not allow the taste of what you had while in the flesh (while living a life of sin) to return to your life. That is the first secret.
The next secret is to follow the LORD as He leads. If you do not follow, His word will never work in your life. If we follow faithfully, we will not yield to the taste of what we had while in Egypt.
You see, when the Nation of Israel opted for what they tasted in Egypt, instead of what they were having in their Journey with God, what they did not understand is that, they were ruining the potency of God’s word in their lives. They were weakening the prophecy they carried.
They weakened the prophecy by going back to feeding according to the cravings of the flesh. Our generation must understand that God does not feed us according to the cravings of our flesh, but according to the content and craving of our sanctified spirits; which is His Spirit in our spirits.
Even in matters of economic prosperity, God will not bless you outside the spiritual details of your prophetic destiny. That which will ruin His plans for your life, He will not give you. God will only feed us according to the content of our sanctified human spirits, and bless us according to the spiritual details of our prophetic destiny.
SO, WE MUST FOLLOW HIM, AND NOT US.
I believe strongly that He used the nation of Israel to teach us the principle of following.
The reason God took Israel out of Egypt, apart from to typify the process of Salvation for the us the Gentiles, was to make them His inheritance, and by that, glorify His name among other nations. So, when God say, “follow me,” He has an agenda, and that agenda is for His word to work in your life, and for you to be His heritage.
As they followed, He fed them with manna, and made it work in their lives.
Ideally, the manna they ate was not a natural meal; it took care of everything that concerned, not just their natural well-being, but their spiritual well-being as well. It kept them growing, strong, and healthy. They enjoyed an uncommon miracle of growth; they literally grew in the clothes and shoes they wore, till the manna cease.
That is a template of how GOD wants the word to work in our lives. Our devotional text says;
“So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.
Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.” Deuteronomy 8:3-4 NKJV
Do not forget, there were no shops in the wilderness or any boutiques, where they would have bought new clothes if their garments had worn out.
They literally enjoyed a unique form of economic prosperity which they had. The Bible made it clear that they had all the money, all the gold and silver in this world, but never used it on themselves to purchase anything.
THE WORD WAS LITERALLY WORKING FOR THEM; IT WAS WORKING FOR THEM BECAUSE THEY WERE FOLLOWING THE LORD.
God miraculously did things money would have done because they were following Him. Yes, He deliberately spared their money from being spent. He gave them prosperity all round, and made sure their money was not used on medication, rent, or any purchase.
If you follow the LORD, you will allow His word to work in your life. If you allow His word to work in your life, God will do things that money should have done so that you can have it spared for contributions towards the gospel.
In fact, they never even used the money in their hands to build the houses they lived in. The Bible says, “they inherited houses they never built.” That remains a message.
It is a message that, when we allow the word to work in our lives, by following the LORD, the prosperity it will bring to us from God, will bring Rest Roundabout with it, and ensure that our money is only available to push God’s kingdom agenda. That is a Characteristic of kingdom wealth.
Kingdom wealth is not something you spend on frivolities; it is not something you spend the way the prodigal son wasted what the Father gave him. It is something we spend on kingdom agenda.
Talking about another thing that hinders the word from working in our lives, we cannot forget the destructive power of ingratitude.
Ingratitude can cause God to speak a negative word in your life. If you don’t understand His process for your life, you will complain against Him instead of being grateful. By doing so, you will neutralize His word for your life, and consequently, delay your arrival at your appointed places.
IN THEIR INGRATITUDE, THEY FAILED TO PROTRACTEDLY ACKNOWLEDGE, OR UNDERSTAND ALL GOD WAS DOING FOR THEM.
They spoke spitefully of Moses, who fought the battle for their freedom, and accused him of bringing them to the wilderness to kill them. It was very bad!
At one point, they even took up stones to stone Joshua and Caleb, for trying to remind them of how God would fight for them against the enemies they thought were too strong for them. [Take time to read Numbers 13 & 14].
That Day, God seemed to have had enough of them. So, He descended in a cloud of glory before the assembly, and change His plan for their lives. The Bible says they used their ingratitude to frustrate the plan, and ended up not getting to the promise land.
At first, He wanted to wipe them away, but Moses interceded for them. However, it did not change God’s judgment, because they ended up perishing in the wilderness systematically.
When you use ingratitude to frustrate God’s word for your life, even intercession will not change the consequences of your decisions. And let me repeat this warning to all self-appointed intercessors. Be very careful when you intercede for people, because certain intercessions will wipe away your peace in life.
Moses never saw the Promised Land because of the people he interceded for. They pushed him to the limit, causing him to disobey an instruction that God had given him. Every one of them, from 20 years and above, that came out of Egypt, died in the wilderness despite the food of angels that they ate.
Only Joshua and Caleb, who refused to frustrate the word of the LORD for their lives, made it.
I believe the LORD has spoken to someone today. We have been looking at the faith position of word carriers. A word carrier must learn to allow the word of the LORD they carry to work in their lives. They must be like Joshua and Caleb, not the rebellious Israelites.
I have said it over and over, that we are prisoners of beautiful prophecies the LORD made for our generation. We are precious word carriers. We need to take faith positions that will allow the word of the LORD we carry to speak in our lives.
Mark those words, we said FAITH positions, not FLESH positions. Flesh positions are dangerous. There are what the Bible calls “the works of the flesh.” They will ruin us by hindering the precious word we carry from working in our lives.
The nation of Israel took flesh positions while carrying great prophecies in their lives. That was why only two of the millions who left Egypt got to the promise land. When we come back tomorrow, we will pick up from here.
MAKE THIS WORD AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOUR LIFE TODAY.
“Then the Lord said: “I have pardoned, according to your word; but truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord— because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice,
they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.
But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it. Numbers 14:20-24 NKJV