TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 17TH October 2023)
“So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.”
“Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord God. Ezekiel 22:30-31 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 290TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
It’s been 290 days of God’s mercies upon our lives. We are living proofs that God’s mercy is all a person needs in the kind of world we live in. We are proofs that when God arises to have mercy upon a person, you will see Him appearing in His glory and doing jaw dropping miracles in the person’s life. God’s mercy is designed to be the fuel of our lives.
That is why the greatest blessing available in the kingdom of GOD, is the blessing of the rest that God’s mercies bring. That was the blessing most of the Israelites missed in their walk with God. They came out of Egypt, but because Egypt never came out of them, they got themselves wrapped in things that got them wasted in the wilderness.
Sadly, the blessing of rest is the very blessing many in the Church today are yet to come into. Like the nation of Israel, most of us have come out of Egypt but that Egyptian life of sin is yet to leave us. We have normalized it. That is why many believers in Jesus’ queue for things they should not be queue for. The devil successfully keeps many under spiritual attacks.
But in the beginning, it was not so. The early Church had the blessing of rest that God’s mercies bring, even in the midst of great trials of faith and intense persecutions. Most local churches today are not facing intense persecutions, or trials of faith like the early church did. Our nations are not telling us not to serve Jesus; neither are they putting us in prisons for serving Him. Yet there is no rest in our lives.
GOD’S VISION IS THAT YOU AND I COME INTO HIS REST FOR OUR LIVES.
Concerning the generation of the nation of Israel, that could not come into the blessing of God’s rest, the Bible says;
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years.
Therefore, I was angry with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.'” Hebrews 3:7-11 NKJV
From this scripture, it’s clear that the Israelites who left Egypt, could not come into God’s true rest because, “they always go astray in their hearts, and have not known God’s ways.” This is a perfect description of the Church of our generation. It captures the true identity of many of us who profess to be born again. If our hearts are not right towards GOD, and if we do not know GOD’s ways, there will be no rest in our lives. I have always said that, what goes on in our hearts, sounds louder in Heaven than what comes out of our mouths. And because in the natural it is not so; we do not realize this Biblical truth.
In the natural, what goes on in our mouth, sounds louder to the ears, making us believe that the mouth produces the loudest sound from our bodies. But the loudest sound from our bodies proceeds from our hearts. God is not a man that checks the mouth. God checks the heart. The Bible says, He searches the heart. What goes on in our hearts is what gets His attention because that is where the real us exits. He hears the utterances of our hearts first before the utterances of our mouth.
That is why when you step into the God dimension as a Child of God, you can pick what goes on in people’s heart faster than what comes out of their mouths and come out with a proper judgment of who they really are. That is what Isaiah meant by, “not judging according to what you hear with your ears or see with your eyes.”
The Bible says;
“There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”
“His delight is in the fear of the Lord, and He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears;
but with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.” Isaiah 11:1-4 NKJV
What are we saying this morning; people who do not know God, people who go astray in their hearts, even if their mouths are presenting them to be a people who love the LORD with the whole of their hearts, will never come into God’s rest!
GOD DOES NOT GIVE REST TO EVERYONE WHO CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD.
He may give them relief but do not give them rest. God gives rest to all who call upon the name of the LORD with a heart that is perfect towards Him. That brings us one more time to the prophetic message in the number seven. The Bible says we should be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect.
Beautifully, grace has been supplied to us to help us achieve that in Christ Jesus. It’s just that people are not making use of it. Only people whose hearts are perfect towards God will be given rest. Only they can be counted upon by Heaven. And I want you to know that the need of the hour is men Heaven can count on to do things on earth. That is why our devotional text today is very vital.
A major highlight of it says;
“So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.”
There are very few people Heaven can actually count on today; very few who can be truly, selflessly and sacrificially committed to a move of God. Sometimes we wonder why there is no move of God in our Churches today; why there are only moves of men of God and not moves of God.
SADLY, THOSE WHO CELEBRATE SUCH MOVES DO NOT KNOW THAT WHAT THEY ARE SEEING ARE BASICALLY MOVES OF PREACHERS NOT THAT OF GOD.
A lot happens behind the scene that many are not aware of. Most of what we see today are just movies. Only eternity will tell how deep the deception people are trapped in is. The reason for all these things is simple; many commits to men of God but are not truly committed to God. One may wonder of committing to a man of God is not the same as being committed to God? The answer is no! It depends on what is driving the preacher and the spirit in him or her.
Most preachers are driven by other gods; the god of fortress, the god of fame, the god of gold and etc. You cannot be seen as committed to the one and only true God if you are committed to such preachers. If God did not show you mercy in this life and open your eyes, you will fulfill your days and step into eternity to discover that you never served God.
Preachers who are serving other gods but appearing to be serving the one and only true God, are easily known by what drives them. The Bible says, while they promise people liberty, they themselves are servants of corruption. And that is the breed most Christians love committing to because they promise them blessings and miracles that are tailored around their carnal desires.
Even when these pastors ‘zombies’ them and scoop millions from them, they will not care. At most if they did not see what they robber pastors promised them come to pass in their lives, they will leave their ministries and Churches looking for another preacher who will turn them into zombie and scoop money from them, so long as they get what they want.
I have come to discover that Christians who fall victims of false preachers and prophets; with huge sums of money taken from them, are not really people Heaven can count on financially to move things forward. Most of them are selfish and cannot lay down their money unconditionally to push the work of the kingdom forward.
SELF-CENTEREDNESS AND SELFISHNESS RULE THEIR LIVES. THAT IS WHY THEY ARE EASILY ATTRACTED TO DARK MINISTRIES.
When they get to where their money is truly needed, they no longer go out of their ways to push God’s move forward the way they went out of their ways for their dark prophets and etc.
God cannot count on self-centered people. He cannot count on people who give for selfish reasons. That is why they still will not have rest from the days of adversity. They will just have relief. God’s rest is exclusively for those He can count on. It’s not for everyone in Church.
The clarion call this morning is very clear. Can Heaven count on you to push God’s purposes forward? Are you really responding adequately to God’s needs? Why are you serving the LORD? Are you serving Him basically to have Him meet your wants?
I leave the answers to these questions to your conscience.
Your rest in life will be determined by how you answer these questions. God has not called us to be at ease in Zion or to be serving dark mantles calling them servants of God. Both will be counterproductive in your life, either in time or eternity.
These are not days of serving senselessly. These are days of testing the spirits in preachers before committing to them. Sadly, many do not have the spiritual maturity and truth to use in testing preachers. That is why spending time with your Bible, or worshiping in a Church that helps your understanding of the scriptures is important.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY;
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”
“He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.”
“If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.” John 12:24-26 KJV