TODAY’S DEVOTION (FRIDAY 7TH JUNE 2024)
“And the LORD restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.
Now the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys.
He also had seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first emimah, the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-Happuch.
In all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.
After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations. So Job died, old and full of days.” Job 42:10, 12-17 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 159TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
If the LORD had not blanketed the year with His amazing Mercies, amazing miseries would have been our fate. If He had not given us his favor, amazing failures would have resulted.
Glory be to the LORD God who has not given us to the shame that our enemies planned for us. He has kept us even from the consequences of our sins because of His kindness as a Father, and His faithfulness to His word of what He does when we repent.
We want to thank the LORD this morning; we thank Him for 159 days of true amazing mercies.
Yes, they have been days of Him remaining faithful and true, as our constant way maker, wonderful savior, mighty GOD, an everlasting Father, who never throw His children away, and the prince of peace!
An ever merciful One who does not condone wickedness.
That is why He forgives and commands that we return to the ways of righteousness, and put away evil deeds from us. This morning God is asking some of us to return to Bethel and meet El-Bethel Himself.
Enough of foreign gods; strange behavior, sexual perversion, lying and cheating, stealing and not being serious with God. Your destiny is at stake! We need to clean up and get back to Bethel so we meet our El-Bethel.
That is one way to salvage a divine destiny that is about being wasted. You see, when your destiny is about being destroyed by you, God will ask that you return to Bethel where He first met you and connect El-Bethel, so that it can be rescued from you.
Yes, we can destroy our destinies with our reckless living, ignorance, or persistent unfaithfulness. Saul destroyed his prophetic destiny through persistent disobedience, David almost wasted his by sleeping with Bathsheba and killing her husband and then marrying her to cover up, Joseph protected his own by saying no to Potiphar’s wife.
THERE IS SOMETHING YOU CAN ALWAYS DO TO EITHER PROTECT OF DESTROY YOUR PROPHETIC DESTINY.
Sometimes it is not by sinning. It could just be by living your life without walking in divine destiny. When you do that, there is a fear that creeps into your heart. It is a crippling fear. That is the fear we will be looking at today.
To start with, it is important to understand that the fear that creeps into our hearts when we are not walking in divine destiny is the first thing that is destroyed when we meet El-Bethel at Bethel.
One of the many steps Satan will not want to see a man take in life, is a step towards divine destiny. He knows he can fill our hearts with fear and bring us to sudden destruction if we have that fear.
Jacob had it, and became afraid of Esau his brother for what he did. If you have that fear, you will be afraid of even your shadow. You will be afraid of things you did in the past that time have healed and buried. You will be afraid of your enemies.
When sorcerers sneeze, you become afraid. When someone who hates you sneeze, you become afraid. Even when someone comes to do you good, you become suspicious and afraid. It is a fear that opens your heart to other fears, mostly foolish fears.
You will be afraid to even get married, stay married, venture into this or that thing. The fear makes it impossible for you to walk in faith. But when you step into destiny, it all disappears.
Now, let’s look at a few things concerning the destiny related warfare the devil usually surrounds people with. One of the major things we are told in scriptures is not to be ignorant of the devices of the enemy; which is his mode of operation.
You see, when the devil wants to destroy a divine destiny, he will either become a dragon or the old serpent. When he becomes a dragon, he will use threats and physical assaults by the hands of people to contend with men and women of destiny.
When he becomes the old serpent, he will use seduction and deception by the hands of those yielded to him to entrap men and women of destiny. However, in all these things, it may interest you to know that no force from hell can destroy your destiny, and no force among men can either.
WE ARE THE ONLY FORCES THAT CAN DESTROY OUR DESTINIES.
If you read the story of Samson, you will realize that the Philistines could not neutralize his destiny.
The more they tried, the more dangerous to their works he became. But one day he took a step that almost destroyed it. That was when they could arrest and reduce him to nothing for a while.
The enemy will never be able to stop you if you are in your destiny. He will never be able to destroy your destiny. Our destinies in Christ are fashioned in such a way that the more the enemy tries to waste it, the stronger and more dangerous to him we become.
The devil uses persecutions, distractions, disappointments, afflictions, and etc. to try to destroy our destinies. But the more he tries, the more dangerous we become.
The more he tries to reduce us, the more numerical we become.
When he wants to make us poor, we will become richer, when he wants to make us sick, we will become stronger. When he wants us dead, we come out more alive than we were before his attacks.
When he wants to cut off our joy, prosperity, and posterity, we come out with double of all we may lose in the process.
You see all that in the life of Job. He tried to destroy his destiny and took away all he had, leaving him with a disease and a wife who wanted him to curse God and die. In fact, Job’s friend and the men and women of his generation had never seen a righteous man suffer.
In those days, the kind of things job went through were associated with the wicked only.
So, it beat their imagination to see a man who was vividly the most righteous man of that ancient part of the world going through such suffering.
Like many Christians today, who have been brainwashed by the American gospel, they had no revelation of the trials of faith. So, they blamed a secret sin for his troubles or an act of wickedness, and urged him to repent.
THAT WAS ALSO PART OF THE PROGRAM OF HELL TO DESTROY HIS DESTINY.
Job had the chance of blaming God and saying, “what is the reward of serving you! Let me just go back to a life of sin” like many of us do or have done at one time or the other. In fact, that was what his wife was stirring him to do when she asked him to curse God and die.
But he did not. The Bible says he responded to the pressure with these words;
“As God lives, who has taken away my justice, and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter,
As long as my breath is in me, and the breath of God in my nostrils, My lips will not speak wickedness, Nor my tongue utter deceit.
Far be it from me that I should say you are right; Till I die I will not put away my integrity from me.
My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go; My heart shall not reproach me as long as I live.” Job 27:2-6 NKJV
I have come to discover that even under the attacks of hell, Satan knows that what he does to us directly can never destroy our destinies, but what he makes us do to ourselves can.
Yes, Satan knew his assault will not destroy Job’s destiny but what he makes Job to do, under the pain and suffering his assault was unleashing upon him, will definitely destroy his destiny.
So, the agenda was to mount pressure on job until he no longer sees any reason to serve God.
If a righteous man no longer sees any reason to serve God, he will begin to follow the ways of the wicked. When he begins to follow the way of the wicked, his deeds will begin to destroy his destiny.
But Job seem to understand this mystery, hence deciding not to allow the pain and suffering unleashed on him to take away or destroy his eternal reason for serving God.
YES, THERE IS AN ETERNAL REASON FOR SERVING GOD, AND THERE IS A CARNAL REASON. THE TWO ARE NOT THE SAME.
Serving God to make your life better is a carnal reason and that is what prosperity preachers have presented for many years to the Church. That is why many of us cannot withstand sufferings. A carnal reason for serving God can be taken away or destroyed by suffering, but an eternal reason cannot.
Job held on to his integrity and righteousness despite the discouragement to stop following God, because he was guided by the eternal not the material. Paul said;
“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 NKJV
If our hearts are established on an eternal reason for serving God, no pain or suffering from hell can make us go back to a life of sin. That is a major lesson to learn from the life of Job.
When he was losing his business, children, health, and all, his concern was on the eternal not the material or carnal. That is the faith position to take if what hell unleash upon the righteous to destroy their destiny comes upon us.
Friend, we live in days and times where if your righteousness is not bringing money immediately, people will say you are not serving the true GOD. They treat prosperity as a sign that one is serving the true GOD, forgetting that it could also be a sign that one is a faithful servant of Satan.
Job knew that loss of prosperity and posterity cannot destroy anyone’s destiny. It is the loss of faith, righteousness and integrity that can.
So, in the midst of the attacks, he held on to them. All the days of his hard trial, he hanged on, until the enemy became weak. Hallelujah! May that become our testimony in Jesus’ precious name!
May we know how to hang on to God in the midst of temptation and trials until the enemy become weak. May we get our hearts established on the eternal instead of the material until the enemy become weak. May the pain and suffering hell unleash upon the righteous not affect our relationship with God, in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
IF CHRIST TARRIES, THE STORY OF JOB WILL REMAIN AN INSPIRATION FOR MANY GENERATIONS.
The lessons trapped in it will remain wells of refreshing for those who are mindful of their eternal life. They will always remember that the attacks of the wicked one on him could not destroy his destiny. They will not forget how he behaved in the midst of it all; how he refused to do anything that will destroy his destiny.
They will not forget the result; the restoration of double for all his trouble. Our devotional text says;
“And the LORD restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.
Now the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys.
He also had seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first emimah, the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-Happuch.
In all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.
After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations.
So Job died, old and full of days.” Job 42:10, 12-17 NKJV
As we bring this to a close, I want to submit to us that it is not what the devil is doing to us that will destroy our destiny. It has no power to do so. It is what we use what he does to us to do to ourselves that will destroy our destinies.
Our reactions to his assaults on our flesh, our passions, carnal nature, personal lives, families, or ministries is what will either destroy us or sustain us, depending on what kind comes out of us.
That is why the only thing to do when we are tempted, or when we are in trials, pain, persecutions, or facing disappointment, or suffering or going through any other thing, is to commit our souls to the LORD in prayer, and not forsake church fellowship.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR TODAY!
“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge.” Selah Psalm 46:10-11 NKJV