TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 29 MAY 2023)**
“ Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.
If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you on their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.
But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. 1 Peter 4:12-16 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 149TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OFSIGNS AND WONDERS!
It has indeed been His amazing grace provoking amazing acts in our lives. It has run our lives like oil in the engine of a car. To Him belong the glory in Jesus precious name.
When God spoke to us about His signs and wonders, from the scriptural point of view of that prophetic word, we knew some unpleasant things that we will come out from better, are going to happen. We also knew pleasant things will also happen. We understood that there will be battles with thorns of the flesh, that will require God’s amazing grace to deal with (Thank God for His prophetic word on amazing grace that preceded this word on signs and wonders).
Yes, words like that suggest that there will be messengers of Satan under our noses that God’s signs and wonders and amazing grace will help us neutralize.
There will be stealth enemy operations that His grace will help us to overcome. There will be close quarter battles, with messengers of Satan, that will be waged against us, because of the quality of revelation committed to our hands to make known to our generation.
Paul was given God’s amazing grace to help him out when he faced close quarter battle like the thorn in his flesh, the messenger of Satan that was given to buffet him. That enlightened us on what to expect when the LORD spoke to us about His signs and wonders and amazing grace.
The prophetic blessings God releases to a people, is always an indication of the kind of enemies they will face.
OUR APOSTOLIC FATHER, PAUL, SAID;
“And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.
Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 NKJV
Let me share this with you! It is easier to carry just the anointing than to carry the anointing of the Holy Ghost and high-quality revelations for your generation. The anointing may attract warfare to you, but the abundance of revelation you carry will attract more warfare to you. That was why Paul suffered more than the rest of the apostles.
Where they never bothered about Peter and the rest, the messengers of Satan could not let Paul rest. The man Paul is a message to us that any minister or ministry that God commits high quality scriptural revelation, to bring to a sick church and a dying world, will have messengers of Satan planted in very close quarters to buffet them.
To buffet means to batter, to bang, to hit with malice, jealousy, envy, or hate. Such ministries will be hit with malicious lies by people, on social media or any other media. People will hit it with envy, jealousy hate and all that, in any way they can find. The ministry will be buffeted strongly.
To buffet also means to blow with the hand or strike with a telling force. Did you see the strikes we have been receiving of late? Did you see what is being circulated on twitter? Though the LORD has been delivering us from they all.
To buffet also means to strike repeatedly, and we have been stricken repeatedly by the enemy; doing the same things but using different people, in and outside the church we pastor, and in different times. But from the life of Paul, it’s clear that the only way of survival is to cry unto God and receive sufficient grace for battle.
Yes, there are men and women of our age with rare apostolic truths for this generation; I mean the needed gospel. The Paul’s of the end time. The major attacks they will face will come from close quarters messengers of Satan planted in their lives, offices, marriages and etc. to buffet them.
HOWEVER, THE SURVIVAL KITS REMAIN THE SAME, BOWING THE KNEE TO CALL UPON THE LORD!
We can learn from God’ servant Paul, that when we are buffeted, we should learn to cry unto God for more grace to keep running with the word, until it prevails over darkness. Yes, we should ask for grace to overcome and keep running with the light of truth and the standard of righteousness, opening all blind eyes, turning them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that everyone may receive an inheritance among they that are sanctified.
That is the apostolic mandate hanging on every generation on the face of the earth.
Whenever we say such prayers under the attack of the messengers of Satan, God’s response will be released; more grace will come from His throne room. When His amazing grace is released, it will make the strength of the LORD perfect in our times and seasons of weakness.
It is important to note that the reason for close quarters battles with the messengers of Satan, is to hinder the needed exaltation and stop the increase of the needed capacity to reach more people with the word.
When spiritual capacity or exaltation increases, your coverage area grows, and you reach more people with the word. But when it is hindered successfully by a messenger of Satan, especially without any divine intervention from GOD, it will reduce your reach and hinder souls from coming to the knowledge of the LORD.
It is important to note that the attention of GOD on earth, is still on the lost who are perishing, both in the Church and in the world. God wants all the lost souls in a dying world, and the sick church to be reached with living truths. He wants us all transformed and made Holy.
NOW, IF YOU SAY THERE ARE NO LOST SOULS IN THE CHURCH, YOU ARE BLIND.
Even among us preachers, there are lost souls. Yes, there are sons of Eli who are gifted in sleeping with church members heading to hell. There are sons of Aaron who are good at offering strange fires to the LORD heading to hell. There are those God has cursed for doing His work deceitfully who are heading to hell.
There are those who are prophesying in His name, doing miracle in His name, and casting out demons in His name, but He does not know them. There are those of us calling Him “LORD, LORD,” but He does not know us. In fact, in certain circles, there are more pastors going to hell than church members. We hear of a lot of things happening in large denominations that just keeps the heart filled with sorrow.
There are a lot of us who call him, “Lord, Lord” but do not do what He says. We are saved with our mouths but lost in our hearts; heading to the same eternal destination with the lost world.
I know someone will say “judge not,” quoting Matthew 7:1-5, but they will forget to quote what the later part of the same chapter said.
The blindness in their hearts and biblical illiteracy is not letting them know that as a part of the body of Christ, we are not judging anyone outside the body, we are only judging ourselves. The Bible says we should judge ourselves, not the world, and amend our ways, so that we will not be judged by God. To judge means to examine ourselves.
In other words, if you are part of the body and speak of the evil that is happening in the body with the aim of making sure it stops, the body is judging itself, and the Bible says “if we do not judge ourselves, we shall be judged.”
So, in His mercies, God will use some He has washed and presented holy to Himself in the church, to judge those in the church who are resisting Him, so that all will escape judgment if they listen.
THAT IS THE SECRET, BECAUSE THE LATER PART OF THAT CHAPTER SAID;
“Therefore, by their fruits you will know them.
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 7:20-23 NKJV
The current emphasis, vision, or work of the Spirit that need to be done in the lives of so many today, is salvation with sanctification, while for very few others, it is sanctification with transfiguration. You may not understand these Bible mysteries, but they are truths that should be on the tip of the fingers of every child of God.
You see, in God’s redemptive plan, there is a prophetic plan of progression that says; in the outer court we are saved, in the holy place we are sanctified, in the most holy place we are transfigure or glorified.
In other words, in the outer court there is salvation, in the holy place there is salvation with sanctification, and in the most holy place there is sanctification with transfiguration. Sadly, over 80 percent of Christians today, need salvation with sanctification. And salvation with sanctification is only possible by the hands of apostolic teaching ministries, not motivational speakers, miracle workers, evangelistic ministries, or seers.
Yesterday we look at the mystery of sanctification through the baptism of fire. We shared that when we go through fire, we will come to the rich fulfilment of consecrated living. However, it is not everyone who has ever gone through fire baptism that has come out with a consecrated living.
Some even left the LORD and went back to Egypt, like the Israelites who attempted to do so, during the baptism of fire that GOD passed them through in the wilderness.
MAYBE LET ME SHARE THIS, BECAUSE IT WILL HELP YOU.
When Israel crossed the Reed Sea, they experienced water baptism; which was a good bye to Egypt. That was why Pharaoh and his chariot perished in the sea and got cut of from them completely when Moses stretch out the rod.
The message there is, Egypt will not be able to follow and hinder us from getting to the promise land, if we know how to stretch the rod of truth to the threat of a sinful life from Egypt. So, figuratively, at the crossing of the Reed Sea (not Red Sea), Israel experienced water baptism, but at the foot of mount Sinai they experienced Holy Ghost Baptism.
Then God’s final plan was for them to experience Fire Baptism in the wilderness. But most of them could not stand the fire part of the Baptism. Hence perishing in the wilderness. There is a fire part of our faith that we must endure. Paul Calls it hardness. That part tells us the baptism of fire is necessary for our edification.
It brings forth from us, dimensions of faith that would have not come out of us if we had not spent those spiritual seasons of our Christian life in the furnace.
So, when GOD allow fiery trials to come, count it not strange. The Bible says we should count it all Joy because it is working out for our good, and building our lives to become temples for GOD in the Spirit, especially, if we are planted in atmospheres of Grace and Truth. Our devotional text says;
“ Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.
If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you on their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.
But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. “
This scripture is clear, we are to go through tribulation not retribution.
Yes, we are to suffer but as born-again Christians not as murderers, thieves, evildoers, busybodies and etc. If we get a baptism of fire from any of these vices, it will consume us and we will not come out with a consecrated Christian life. We will come out with a bitter heart and desecrated life.
It is when our unconditional commitment to GOD generates a Baptism of fire that we come out well.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“Fools, because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, were afflicted. Their soul abhorred all manner of food, and they drew near to the gates of death.
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses.
He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.” Psalm 107:17-20 NKJV