TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 5TH JUNE 2024)
“Have you given the horse strength? Have you clothed his neck with thunder? Can you frighten him like a locust? His majestic snorting strikes terror.
He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength; He gallops into the clash of arms. He mocks at fear, and is not frightened; Nor does he turn back from the sword.
The quiver rattles against him, The glittering spear and javelin. He devours the distance with fierceness and rage; Nor does he come to a halt because the trumpet has sounded.
At the blast of the trumpet he says, ‘Aha! ’He smells the battle from afar, The thunder of captains and shouting.” Job 39:19-25 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 157TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
Hallelujah to the King of Kings and LORD of lords. To whom can we compare Him with? His greatness is beyond human assessment. His compassion beyond human calculations.
His mercies ever new! His protection, top notch. Even the worst demons that hell can produce cannot break through it. To Him belong the glory for giving us another day to be alive!
This morning we are going to continue with our journey of faith for the month as we follow the Cry of the Spirit on matters of fear; yes, fear, the crippling force of many in their pursuit of destiny.
Fear is one thing that kills a man before he finally gets killed. If Satan want to succeed against you, he will first baptize you with foolishness, then watch you practice it; then he moves further to fill your heart with fear.
There is nothing that strips a man of his faith in God, confidence in Christ, and boldness to stand like fear. It speaks and shows you things that are very unreal. It turns threats into animated photos in your heart, and make life difficult for you.
It can bring you to the place of fighting perceived enemies, supposed enemies, and fathom enemies, and very unreal circumstances. If you look at what the Church call warfare today you will see all that on display.
I have seen believers who fear cockroaches and other household rodents, calling them witches and wizards. In my school days, we killed an innocent cat calling it a vector of witches.
SOMEONE HAD SAID IT APPEARED FROM THE THIN AIR, AND WE BELIEVED.
We killed it shouting the blood of Jesus, and threw it into the toilet because the ‘spiritual’ person leading us in prayer, said it will resurrect, except we do that.
But when morning came, we discovered that our landlord, who was asking all of us if we saw his cat, had bought it few days back because of the rats that were destroying his grains.
When he asked us about the cat, we behaved like the unsaved, we lied. We lied like lost sinners. Fear made us kill the cat and made us lie to the owner. That is what fear can turn one into.
It is important to note that lying is a sign that salvation is yet to come into someone’s heart; it’s a sign that regeneration is either yet to take place in the person’s life, or the person has lost it. The liar might be a preacher or whoever.
We had to lie to the owner of the cat after killing it in fear that it was a witch that appeared from the thin air. Fear will make you believe terrible things. It will make you believe such lies, like cats appearing from the thin air.
We believe what the ‘spiritual’ person among us said to us because we were afraid. If you are fearful, you can believe any lie that sounds comforting. You will believe any lie that is told to take care of your fears.
You will even follow a demon in a person calling it God, especially when it promises a protection it cannot even deliver.
Most people who follow false prophets and heretic teachings are full of fear. It is the fear in them that makes them believe even prophecies that are factual but outright lies from the pit of hell. The fear makes them worship the prophets and give to them what should only be given to God.
There was this story of a dear man of God who left a ministry he was serving in as a pastor to start another work under a solo mandate. But his general overseer was not pleased because he feared many people will follow him.
The overseer later called him and gave him a prophecy of ten things that will happen to him if he leaves. Everyone who heard it was filled with fear, because one of it said “He was going to die.”
But he did not change his mind, he went ahead and started his ministry after a season of intense prayers and approvals from the LORD. Some preachers are good at using fear to manipulate people. They issue such prophecies to instill your heart with fear, and then use it to manipulate you.
OBVIOUSLY, THE PROPHECY WAS TO FILL THE MAN OF GOD’S HEART WITH FEAR AND KEEP HIM IN THE MINISTRY.
Then came a couple, from the very church he left; they came with another prophecy.
These ones came very early in the morning, claiming they had been praying for him all night. And that God had sent them to ask him not to go anywhere that day, that he was going to have an accident and die as their general overseer had said.
The worse fear sometime is the one instilled into your heart by religious people or leaders you honor and respect.
This respected couple, went further to say they came there so he and they can spend the day praying. These were renown ‘spiritual people’ in the church he left. People that no one disobeys and goes free.
Yes, there are people like that in so many churches, but they are not used of the Holy Spirit. They are like Balaam of the Old Testament. Most of them would pretend to be praying for you, but are only out to practice charismatic witchcraft on you.
So, this man of God received them in politely, and requested that they wait for him while he gets something done. They entered his apartment and took their seats. Then the man went out, took his car and travelled for hundreds of kilometers away, running at full speed!
Then after few hours he returned.
The man and his intercessor wife asked him where he went, because they were waiting for him. Then he responded, “I traveled. I went to kill all the demons you placed on my way. Now, leave my house!” He drove them out and warned that they not return to his place again.
Let me say this again; the defense system of God over our lives, is top notch. No demon from hell can break through it. We are the only ones who can collapse it; and that happens when we become FEARFUL or SINFUL.
Yes, when we sin against the LORD, or create a breach with our fear, it collapses and bring us under attacks. Other than that, no devil can break through it. It is top notch.
ONCE THERE IS NO FEAR, NO SIN AND NO BREACH, WE WILL BE FINE.
The prophecy said he should not travel, or go anywhere that day, else he dies. But he went out the same day and returned, and nothing happened. That is how to handle such lying people if you dwell in the secret place of the Most High.
People who dwell in the secret place of the Most high will have the boldness to neutralize lying prophecies like that, because it takes boldness to neutralize lying prophecies and nothing else.
Understand that, fear will always cage our souls in the web of lying spiritual people like that couple. It will get you caught up in the web of liars who are good at making themselves self-appointed prophets and prophetesses.
We must all be like that man of God this end time; he was not fearful but bold. It was a boldness he got from the secret place of the Most High. He defeated the refuge of lies the couple wanted to build around his mandate.
Ordinarily, most of us would have fallen into the prophecy and begin to obey whatever the couples said out of fear. That is how many get their lives hidden in refuge of lies constructed by dreamers and prophecy delivery agents.
God lives and He speaks, but the gods speaking today are sent to build refuge of lies around the lives and mandates of men and women of destiny. You must not allow that to happen to you.
A refuge of lies is a succor or solution provided by a lying prophecy, a dreamer or a spiritual direction. It is usually created by a false spirit working in a religious heart.
So many people are under the refuges of spiritual lies. Most of them operate as either mushroom or full-grown churches, hosting the destiny of men and keeping them together through the instrumentality of fear.
If any of them become wise and decides to leave the Church, they remind them of the persons who left, and what happened to them.
THE BIBLE CALLS SUCH CHURCHES CAGES THAT ARE FULL OF DECEIT.
They keep people in fear and intimidation so that they will remain in the cage they call a church, and then get destroyed at the end.
It is fear that brings men and women into bondage; the bondage of the spiritual head of the cage treated as church. But the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of freedom. He will always release anyone from any fear that has subjected him or her to bondage.
There are preachers who threaten people with death for not raising what they call altar of sacrifice. The teachers, preachers or practitioners of those doctrines may carry the spirit of a religious Jesus Christ, but are not carrying the true Spirit of Christ.
The Spirit of Christ will never subject us to any bondage. He will rather free us from any bondage. The Bible says;
“Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Hebrews 2:14-15 NKJV
This scripture is clear on the nature of the Spirit of Christ – He releases and does not bring people into the bondage of persistent giving to raise altars or get deliverance.
People who use spirituality to keep others down through fear, hate people like us, who preach and teach believers how not to be afraid – how to break free from religious fear imposed by preachers who serve themselves pretending to be serving God.
Our devotional text today is a biblical allegory of an end time generation that will function as the horse of the coming King. It is an Old Testament prophetic picture of a new covenant Church that will arise in our days.
It speaks of a church generation that will be full of people who can mock at fear, because the anti-Christ functions best by putting people under fear.
And do not forget, the end time battle will be against the spirit of the anti-Christ; the spirit of lawlessness, or the mystery of iniquity.
THIS SPIRIT TRIES TO DO VERY BAD THINGS TO INFLICT FEAR ON PEOPLE.
I was told of a prophetess, who perform miracles and puts people in submission to her words, by the bad things she make sure happens in their lives when she is disobeyed. But finally, she died!
The anti-Christ spirit will inflict people with fear and threaten them at the slightest provocation, basically to paralyze the work of the LORD. If we do not have a generation that mocks at fear these end time, there will be no glorious church for Christ to rapture.
The reason for the second coming of the Elijah spirit is to raise men and women who will not be fearful before the enemy. The allegorical expressions of our text says;
“Have you given the horse strength? Have you clothed his neck with thunder? Can you frighten him like a locust? His majestic snorting strikes terror.
He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength; He gallops into the clash of arms. He mocks at fear, and is not frightened; Nor does he turn back from the sword.
The quiver rattles against him, The glittering spear and javelin. He devours the distance with fierceness and rage; Nor does he come to a halt because the trumpet has sounded.
At the blast of the trumpet he says, ‘Aha! ’He smells the battle from afar, the thunder of captains and shouting.” Job 39:19-25 NKJV
There is so much truth buried in this scripture that we cannot unearth in a devotional. But whatever you see about this horse is what God want to achieve in our lives as end time Christians.
We are in battle and cannot afford to be fearful like chickens. We are to be as bold and daring as this horse.
It is my prayer that God will animate the truths buried in it and show you more things that will strengthen you to fulfill your destiny without fear. In Jesus’ precious name. Amen
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY
“For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba Father.”
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. Romans 8:15-17 NKJV