TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 11th NOVEMBER 2023)
“It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord:
I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven.
And I know such a man—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
Of such a one I will boast; yet of myself I will not boast, except in my infirmities.” 2 Corinthians 12:1-5 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 315TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
The LORD God has been so good to us. His Holy Spirit, the greatest Heavenly treasure given to mankind, has been so gracious in our lives, as well. We will ever remain grateful for all His wonders.
Our mouth will not cease from talking about His faithfulness.
As we wine up this year, it please the Holy Spirit that we refresh our minds on matters of visionary living, so that we will all spend the coming year, our years on impact living visionary lives.
We have seen some laws that governs visionary living; such as laws of visionary residency, laws of visionary hearing, and laws of visionary relation. We have also seen one of the greatest laws of visionary living, the laws of what to die for. If you ask me, that was the best of the best.
Today we want to see what to walk in in other to operate the laws we have seen so far. It is another law; the law of walking in visions and revelation of the LORD.
This one covers the roles and purpose of dreams, visions, revelations and all forms of prophetic communication in God’s kingdom. Everyone who will lead a visionary life must walk in this law. It is also called the law of divine communication. It is all about spending your days walking in visions and revelations of the LORD for your life.
Let me make something clear at this point.
Visionary living is more than seeing visions and dreaming dreams. But visions, revelations, and dreams from the Holy Spirit,will be needed from time to time for a successful visionary living.
Visionary living involves following God’s plan, purpose, vision, goal, and routes for your life. It will take walking in the visions and revelations of the LORD to understand all of that.
A MAJOR PART OF OUR DEVOTIONAL SAID,
“It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord:” 2 Corinthians 12:1 NKJV
Coming to the realms of visions and revelations of the LORD is very necessary for us on this earth; a realm full of moral and prophetic darkness that is spewing out all kinds of dark visions, dreams, and revelations to mankind that seems divine.
So many have accepted the dark as the divine because of Satan’s capacity to counterfeit God. The flesh can also act God, hence the fall of many into this dark pit of deception.
We live in a realm that has flesh and hell-controlled visions and revelations. They run the lives of many. Under this law, we are to avoid all kinds of prophetic and spiritual communications that are not from God.
We are to learn how to separate between the divine and the dark that presents itself as the divine.
It is important to note that the flesh and the spirit of hell generates their own streams of prophetic flow. Sadly, some comes out through religious people,and some comes out through spiritual leaders. The essence is to make those who may want to lead visionary lives to do so swimming in this false prophetic flow that appears to be coming from God.
Obviously, there are people who have been misled and misguided in life by dreams, visions and revelations that are not of God, and have invested their entire lives in what was not truly from God.
This group is scared to be told the truth. Sadly, they will wake up in the evening of their lives, to discover that they were supposed to accept the truth of how much they have been misled, when it came to them.
To those of us who have once been misled by false prophetic hearing in life, thisword from God through Jeremiah willmake sense. The word says;
“Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless; They speak a vision of their own heart, Not from the mouth of the Lord.” Jeremiah 23:16 NKJV
How would you know if a preacher you so respect and take as an oracle of God is peaking a vision of their own heart? It can be difficult, yet that is what most of people in ministry do to people.
I HAVE BEEN A VICTIM OF ALL THAT IN MY SMALL LIFE, AND I HAVE THE SCARS TO SHOW.
The necessity of personally coming to the flow of visions and revelations from the LORD cannot be over emphasized. It is the only alternative to the flow of visions and revelations from the flesh and the evil one.
I was shocked to discover that all falls religions started with visions, dreams and revelation encounters that their founders had. I never knew such things were possible outside God.
I was reading a book on that in the 90s when I stumbled into it. That is why their followers believe all they teach, and make people follow them, or help them kill those who do not agree with them.
If you want to lead a visionary life, be careful of the realm that your visions, dreams or revelation come from. Satan has a history of misleading people. We must be careful of what we are hearing or seeing; we must be careful of our dreams, visions or revelations.
Here in Kenya, erring preachers and their sympathizers have always dreamed of seeing one thing or the other about me or about those who follow the LORD’s words on our mouth.
Some of the preachers who sleep with Church members, steal in the name of God, or are close to those who do, have people among them who prophesy to them that “I am not of God.”
Some use cooked up dreams, induced visions, or revelations to do that. They sound so convincing to those they have fooled.
But in reality, what the preachers, prophets, and apostles are really saying to themis, “I am not of the god they have presented to them; the Baals, Ashtoreth, Tamus, and etc. they belong to.”
They are just saying to them, “I am not of the dark gods they have presented to them as the true God.” Which should make sense to a wise Christian, especially those who understands the word and know how Christianity should be.
The law of walking in visions and revelation of the LORD, is a law that places a huge responsibility on each believer to know how to judge prophecy and all forms of spiritual and prophetic communication with the written word of the LORD, the Bible.
IT CALLS FOR MATURITY IN THE THINGS OF GOD.
Sadly, many cannot judge visions, revelations and other forms of prophetic or spiritual communication with the word. They have not been discipled and are very immature in the authentic things of God, but established in what look like the things of God.
That is why many are not walking in the visions and revelations of the LORD, but are walking in the visions and revelation of their flesh, or the satanic that they touch.
Majority of believers are in infantile states.
It is so sad that, many have huge titles and intimidating positions in Church, but have no maturity or spiritual stature to match. About 90 percent of believers today, do not even have the stature to judge prophecy and recognizedeception among preachers or fellow church members.
The Bible says;
“Do not quench (suppress or subdue) the [Holy] Spirit;
Do not spurn the gifts and utterances of the prophets [do not depreciate prophetic revelations nor despise inspired instruction or exhortation or warning]. But test and prove all things [until you can recognize] what is good; [to that] hold fast.
Abstain from evil [shrink from it and keep aloof from it] in whatever form or whatever kind it may be.” 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 AMPC
Dreams, revelations and visions, are some of the tools for visionary living because they help us to see into God’s plans and purposes for our lives.
Joseph for example, started having them at a young age. And they did so much to shape his life. He can be a guide in helping us understand the role of visions, dreams and revelations from the LORD in helping us live visionary lives, and fulfil God’s plans.
The Bible says;
“Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a [distinctive] long tunic with sleeves.
But when his brothers saw that their father loved [Joseph] more than all of his brothers, they hated him and could not say, Peace [in friendly greeting] to him or speak peaceably to him.
We [brothers] were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright, and behold, your sheaves stood round about my sheaf and bowed down!
His brothers said to him, Shall you indeed reign over us? Or are you going to have us as your subjects and dominate us? And they hated him all the more for his dreams and for what he said.
But Joseph dreamed yet another dream and told it to his brothers [also]. He said, See here, I have dreamed again, and behold, [this time not only] eleven stars [but also] the sun and the moon bowed down and did reverence to me!
And he told it to his father [as well as] his brethren. But his father rebuked him and said to him, what is the meaning of this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers actually come to bow down ourselves to the earth and do homage to you?
Joseph’s brothers envied him and were jealous of him, but his father observed the saying and pondered over it.” Genesis 37:3-11 AMPC
THERE SO MUCH HERE THAT WE CAN UNPACK. BUT THIS IS A DEVOTIONAL!
The word of the LORD that was coming to Joseph in form of dreams, would later prove him, and help him to be on tract with his destiny, until he became the prime minister of Egypt, a father to Pharaoh, a minister of treasury and Agriculture, and a savior of lives in the ancient world.
If you go through the story of his life, you will discover that at each point of his life, visions, dreams or revelations from God guided him. You and I will need the same guidance to succeed.
The message this morning is simple. We should not be moving in the flesh or based our wants on it. We should be moving in the Spirit, and responding to life challenges based on our divine destinies.
It is my prayer that God will use these few thoughts to add to our wisdom bank on visionary living, in Jesus precious name. Amen
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“Moreover, He called for a famine upon the land [of Egypt]; He cut off every source of bread.
He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold as a servant. His feet they hurt with fetters; he was laid in chains of iron and his soul entered into the iron,
Until his word [to his cruel brothers] came true, until the word of the Lord tried and tested him.
The king sent and loosed him, even the ruler of the peoples, and let him go free. He made Joseph lord of his house and ruler of all his substance,
To bind his princes at his pleasure and teach his elders wisdom.” Psalm 105:16-22 AMPC