TODAY’S DEVOTION (THURSDAY 26thOctober 2023)
“Of what use is money in the hand of a [self-confident] fool to buy skilful and godly Wisdom — when he has no understanding or heart for it? A friend loves at all times, and is born, as is a brother, for adversity.” Proverbs 17:16-17 AMP
WELCOME TO THE 299TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
Our God has been faithful to us. It’s been a month full of the manifestation of His love, amazing goodness, and unfailing power. It has been our month of great visitations from the LORD!
There are those He turned their captivity around and there are those He favored beyond expectations.
There are those He forgave sins that if we were in the Old Testament, they would have been stoned to death, and there are those He did not allow the enemy to prevail against, despite breaking God’s hedge of protection over their lives and creating legal rights for him to use against them.
It has been a month of God’s wonders! The wonders of His grace and mercies.
In fact, we all have one signature of His grace and mercy or the other. He did so many things we do not deserve and protected us from things we deserved. To Him belong the glory.
Now, with just five days to go, we can align with this Bible based song that says; “there is none holy like the LORD, for there is none besides Him, neither are any gods like our God, there is none holy like the LORD.” This song was created from the lips of King David and have been demonstrated in the lives of those who fear GOD from generation to generation.
I know God has proved Himself faithful to you in some way or the other this month. It is important that we give Him Praise! You can pause a while at this point, and sing some songs of gratitude to the LORD. Return the glory to Him, for His greatness and marvelous moves in your life. Hallelujah!
We have remained the trophies of His grace and mercies.
I think at this point, it is important to understand how God’s grace and mercy works. God’s grace is you and I receiving what we do not deserve, while His mercy is you and I not receiving what we deserve. I hope you understand me!
God’s grace will give you what you do not deserve, while His mercy protects you from what you deserve. The purpose is for you to fulfill your days, His predetermined plans for your life, and live a life that fears Him and eschew evil.
Our lives will be nothing without God’s grace and mercy. Let no one confuse you about it. We need His grace and mercies daily. In fact, they are the greatest needs of our lives, especially in this terminal generation. You should ask for them every now and then.
GOD GIVES THE TWO FREELY, AND UNCONDITIONALLY BECAUSE OF THE DEATH OF JESUS CHRIST ON THE CROSS.
He did not put the administration of His grace and mercy under the control of any prophet, apostle, evangelist, pastor and teacher. He did not put it under the control of any prayer warrior or church elder.
They might have some authority because of what God might be doing through them, but the administration of God’s grace and mercy is completely under God’s command and control. That is why if a preacher become aggrieved with you unjustly, you are safe. His grievances could be seen as just by everyone, but until God sees it that way, you are safe.
Let me reiterate again that, God’s grace will release to you what you do not deserve, and His mercy will withhold from you what you deserve. His grace gives us underserved miracles, blessings, peace, progress, prosperity, faith, victory, etc. While His mercy withholds from us the judgments and consequences of sins that we so much deserve.
When God make a promise to you, His grace will be deployed to fulfill that promise by putting His Spirit and angels to work. On the other hand, the Bible says, “hand join hand, no sinner will go unpunished.” But when mercy speaks, it takes away the punishment that would have come upon us for sinning.
The vision is not to strengthen our hands in sin, but to foster deep repentance and a life of purity.
The Bible also said, “whatsoever a man sows, He shall reap. If He sows to please his carnal nature, he shall reap corruption.” But when the mercy of the LORD speaks, it will make sure the seed we sow dies and not yield the corruption it would have yielded into our lives. That is why if you take away God’s grace and mercy from a man’s life, that life is gone.
It is better for a man’s job, family, friends, opportunity, health, wealth, or whatever you feel, to be taken away from him, than for God’s grace and mercy to be taken away. It is better to take away a man’s visit to the white house in America, job in the United Nations, or privilege to become the president of His nation, than to take away God’s grace and mercies from His life.
Sadly, people will prefer losing God’s grace and mercies to having the privileges mentioned above. They will rather reject God’s grace and mercy in their lives than lose these things.
IT IS REALLY SAD THE KIND OF CHRISTIAN GENERATION WE HAVE TODAY!
But God’s grace and mercies are not what you trade for anything. They are rather what you trade everything for. I can boldly say, take away all I have, but leave God’s grace and mercies in my life, and I will come out more prosperous than before.
Friend, you could lose all that makes your life worth living like Job did, if the grace and mercy of God is on your life, you have not really lost anything.
Both will work together and restore double of what you may have lost to you. They will lift you up beyond your imagination, and place you on dimensions of God’s moves that you never dreamt possible.
Now, the realm of the spirit has its own currency, and that currency is faith. The realm of man has its own currency too, but that currency is relationship. It is not money! If you have good relationships, money will not be a thing of concern in your life, because a good relationship is more valuable than money.
Why am I sharing this? What connection does it have with God’s grace and mercy?
I want you to understand that one major thing that God’s grace and mercies will bring to your life, is a network of destiny partners. I have said that the only destiny helper God gave us is the Holy Spirit. So, the teaching that points people to be our destiny helpers is wrong.
If you know what destiny really is, you will realize that people can only be our destiny partners.
They can only provide either a one-time destiny partnership like in the case of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, or a prolonged one, like in the case of Samuel and David, or Naomi and Ruth. No man can be your destiny helper; only the Holy Spirit can be.
One major area that God’s grace and mercies will impact in our lives, is in the area of relationship, or destiny partnership. This is because of the importance of relationships to our lives on earth.
NOW, THERE ARE DIFFERENT KINDS OF DESTINY PARTNERSHIP.
There are those God will bring into our lives to be our life partners. This category is unique. Until you get married to them, you will not be able to unleash what God has called you to do on the face of the earth.
Talking about marriage, I want to submit to you that one of the many reasons why marriage has become a curse in the lives of many of our brethren, especially in the body of Christ, is simply because most are not married to people that God pre-planned and prepared to be their destiny partners.
God did not create your marital life to be occupied by a man or woman who is not your destiny partner. If you erroneously give that holy place to the wrong person, you will live in hell all your life.
Destiny partners also come as long-time friends – some call it covenant friends as in the case of David and Jonathan.
Jonathan was a covenant friend and a destiny partner to David. His partnership saved David at one time from premature death. He pitched a tent with David, when Saul his own father wanted David dead. Your divine destiny will need such people to be fulfilled. Our world is full of evil, you will need them. Let no one deceive you.
You will need selfless people who have made it their responsibility, to see that you come out well in life, or succeed in God’s assignment for your life.
Come to talk of Jonathan and David, I once heard a man with a depraved mind saying that they were gay. Really sad how people dare God with their wicked thoughts; David’s soul cling unto Jonathan’s not because they were gay. It was the clinging of a covenant friend. Something that God’s grace and mercies makes possible in our lives.
That is what happens in destiny partnership. You find God knitting their souls together for kingdom advance. God does that so that they can give to each other the necessary support they need to bring forth their individual prophetic destinies.
THERE ARE OTHER FORMS OF DESTINY PARTNERSHIP IN SCRIPTURES
Sadly, many are clothed with friends who do not know how to support them to unleash their divine destiny. They only know how to advance their economic lives by scooping money from them. They are adding nothing to their divine destiny!
You will never be able to fulfill your divine destiny if those who surround your life are self-centered and selfish. I was stuck with them for over 15 years, so I know the pain of having such people around. Sadly, I still find few around me today.
It is so sad to say that most well-meaning servants of God, are usually clothed with members who are parasites and unkind. Instead of helping to quench adversity in the lives of their man or woman of God, they help them to create adversity. They gossip and say all manner of things that leave one wondering.
May God’s grace and mercies protect His servants from such people.
A major highlight in our devotional text today says, “A friend loves at all times, and is born, as is a brother, for adversity.” Destiny partners are among other things, placed in our lives to function as crisis extinguishers. They know how to help us quench the fires kindled in our lives, by our decisions, other people’s decisions, or even the devil.
May the LORD fill your life with His grace, to give you what you do not deserve, and His mercies, to withhold from you all the ruins, judgment, or harvest of bad things you may deserve. May both dimensions assemble to you the relationships you need in life. Amen!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
“Your sons shall make haste; your destroyers and those who laid you waste shall go away from you. Lift up your eyes, look around and see; all these gather together and come to you.”
As I live,” says the Lord, “You shall surely clothe yourselves with them all as an ornament, and bind them on you as a bride does.
“For your waste and desolate places, and the land of your destruction, will even now be too small for the inhabitants; and those who swallowed you up will be far away” Isaiah 49:17-19 NKJV