TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 10TH MARCH 2024)
“Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” 2 Peter 3:3-4 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 70TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
Monday will mark 24 years since I was commissioned into independent ministry. That was after seven years of being involved in Crusade evangelism and working under an authority.
I had started a year earlier, after the LORD spoke to me, and after going to see my Spiritual father. But He said I was not ready and after one year he came.
As earlier stated, prior to that time, I had been in ministry for seven years. During that period, I was working under authority besides the Crusade meetings I was doing.
But that day, Saturday the 11th day of March 2000, my spiritual father commissioned me, after ministering from the 9th to the 11th.
I am grateful that no oil was used because the oil of the LORD was already flowing in my life. The commissioning was according to the apostolic order established by our Bible fathers.
It is sad that our present fathers of faith have destroyed the order.
Now, they pour loads and loads of olive oil on the heads of those going into ministry.
But under that order, no one poured oil on anyone. That is the New Testament order. It’s always saddening to watch the ways of God perverted by those who are supposed to uphold them.
I do not know where these men are getting these things from. The Bible clearly states that;
“Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away.” Acts 13:1-3 NKJV
Friend, if God has called you into ministry, follow the apostolic order in responding.
Do not follow the pervert order the present fathers have established, rooting their practice on misunderstood scriptures from the dispensation of the law.
If you do, it will show in your ministry as Ichabod or no glory.
YOU COULD HAVE MONEY, AFFLUENCE AND ETC., BUT THERE WILL BE NO GLORY FROM HEAVEN.
How glorious it is to be sent by the Holy Ghost, instead of by men with bottles of oil? There is always a difference my friend. Yes, after all these years I can tell you there is always a difference.
The backings you will enjoy, the mercies you will see, the faithfulness of God that you will experience, and the pains you would have to endure for being in God’s will, coupled with the glory it will bring to you, would mix themselves together to make what you are doing a worthy assignment.
You will just find yourself ready for the LORD’s return with your hands on the plough.
Friend, I am glad that each day that passes by, gets us closer to the coming of the LORD and the end of time.
I am also excited, as one God has shown mercy, about His coming, but on the other hand sad because of those who will miss out and be condemned when the LORD comes.
Every genuine born-again soul waits for the coming of the LORD!
Only the unsaved are usually apprehensive and afraid of His coming; the truly saved look up to it excitedly with expectation.
In fact, the Bible made it clear that it is those who look up to His coming that will experience His coming and be saved.
Let me share with you a bit about the coming of the LORD!
The coming of the LORD has two phases; the first phase is the rapture of the Church, the second is the literal coming of Christ to the earth after a seven year tribulation period.
Sadly, many Christians are so confused about these things that they do not even care.
Consequently, not many are living ready for the coming of the LORD; courtesy of their misled spiritual leaders or something more terrible.
AS IT STANDS NOW, THERE IS AN APATHY OF HIS COMING IN SO MANY LOCAL CHURCHES.
I heard a Reverend Father saying on Television sometime in Nigeria that, every generation always catch the fever of the coming of the LORD and then die without seeing it. And that the same fever is on us today.
I watched this man kill all desire to keep oneself reminded of His coming. I heard Him call a spiritual awakening a fever. It is really sad.
You see, most life changing and soul saving revivals in History, have been products of an awakening about the LORD’s return. What God called an awakening, the Reverend father called a fever.
His words made people feel we are just fantasizing when we talk about the coming of the LORD. He made people feel that the LORD will not come.
But even the prophetically blind know we are close to the end of days. And when we say end of days, every Bible Student knows that there can be no end of days without the rapture of the Church.
It is the rapture of the Church that will trigger events that prophecy calls, “end of days”. And we are the generation that will witness the rapture; either as dead or living saints.
You see, the Bible actually warned that because of God’s delay in coming, false teachers and prophets will arise to tell us that He is either not coming again, or the promise of His second coming do not exist at all.
We have to be careful of people like that.
Our devotional text today explained that, there will be scoffers or mockers in the last days who will misinterpret the delay of the second coming of the LORD in ways that suits them. It says,
“Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying,
“Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”
This scripture made it clear that the presence of scoffers (like the Reverend Father) in itself, is a sign that the second coming is close, because Peter prophesied that they will come first.
Many do not know that God does not walk in our time zone.
If He appears to be coming late either in our lives to fulfill some kinds of promises, it’s because He is coming big, and is waiting for us to synchronize for the big thing.
IN THE SAME WAY, THE JUDGMENT DAY WILL BE TERRIBLE.
It will be such a big terrible day that eyes have not seen, hearts conceived, or ears heard.
If that day appears to be coming late, it is because God wants us to synchronize with His redemption plans for our lives so that we will not miss out when it finally comes. This is what the 5 foolish virgins in Matthew 25 did not know.
They took the delay of the LORD’s coming for something other than an opportunity given by Him to enable them fill their lamps (or spirits) with the oil of grace, and have extra measures.
Sadly, so many of us in the Christian faith today are repeating same error.
We are taking the delay of the LORD for either a denial, or prove that He never said what we may have heard and believed in the first place. That is why we have been preaching about the glory.
The glory is the only place that God’s extra measures of grace are seen, taught and received, not the anointing.
As you embrace this glorious day, make these truths your meditation. This life as we know it is not forever.
Most times we allow the Devil to keep us busying with things that have to do with the earthly until death, without considering the eternal. We allow the earthly superiority over the eternal.
We forget that the ultimate in the Kingdom of God is much better than the legitimate in the kingdom of men.
May God spark a fire within you this morning that will sharpen your discernment and help you see God’s delay as an opportunity to synchronize with His plans and purposes for your life.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURAL PASSAGE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
“Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), dddddddddddthat you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying,
“Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”
For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.
But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:1-9 NKJV