TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 23RD JULY 2024)
“Behold, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, who by night stand in the house of the LORD!
Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD. The LORD who made heaven and earth bless you from Zion!” Psalm 134:1-3 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 205TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
This is the day the LORD has made. We shall rejoice and be glad in it. The LORD our God in the midst of us has been mighty. He has saved, He has delivered and is still saving and still delivering.
To Him belong all the glory!
Today we will be looking at one major secret of lasting blessings in God’s kingdom. I hope you are ready! God is going to speak to us, and enlighten our eyes on this important need of human life.
A lot has been taught and a lot has been said on the secret of blessings in God’s kingdom. A lot of doctrines have been taught on this subject; we have seen what we now know as doctrines of men being taught. We have also seen the doctrines of devils taught as the secret.
Well, there are different kingdoms on earth, outside the kingdom of God. They also have what they call blessings and teach things they consider as the secret to those blessings. Sadly, some of the things they teach have creeped into the Church.
Consequently, we now have those who believe that they have to raise an altar, break one, or silence the other to be blessed. Others have been taught they have to sow this seed or do this and do that to be blessed. So many others have been trained to be engaged in non-scriptural practices in search of blessings from God.
They have been made to drink olive oil, wash their feet, use water in prayer and practice all kinds of Charismatic and black witchcraft in the name of receiving blessings from GOD.
There are people who have even stripped themselves naked at the command of preachers because they were told “if you obey anything that the man of God say, you will be blessed.” Others have not just stripped themselves naked, they have sold their entire wealth and given to churches at the instance of preachers based on the same reason.
While there is nothing wrong with seeding even your life earnings into any soul saving ventures for the kingdom’s sake, it is very wrong to sell your entire wealth to give to a preacher because you want to be blessed.
IT IS SADDENING HOW MANY OF US IN MINISTRY HAVE BEHAVED.
We have not been helpful to so many people. We have made so many believe that they have to do things that are merely manmade standards to be blessed. We have even trained some to believe that they have to be enslaved by us spiritually to be blessed. But the Bible teaches that there is no blessing in spiritual enslavement.
However, many believe in spiritual slavery, and have used it to put so many under bondage, leading to a lot of hero worship among us. It has become like what happened in Bible days. This one will say “I am for Apollos,” and the other, “I am for Paul.”
Many church leaders, Bishops, apostles, especially prophets, have made many believe that if they worship and fight for them, they are actually fighting for God, and that God will bless them. This is a principle of religious terror, not a principle of God’s kingdom. The Bible says;
“Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” 1 Corinthians 1:12-13 KJV
Indeed, no preacher was crucified for anyone, so God will not rush blessings to your house because you fought for a preacher. He will bless you for serving and standing with His servants, but will not bless you for being carnally minded.
In fact, you may even be cursed if you do the carnal for a preacher. Yes, you will be cursed if you lie for him or her, sleep with him or her, do any evil to cover his or her wickedness, and etc. God will only bless those who serve Him by serving His servants.
It is important to note that there is a difference between serving God’s servants, and serving God by serving God’s servants. Serving God’s servants is all about serving them carnally or in the flesh.
THIS ONE HAS NO INVOLVEMENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN IT.
But serving God by serving His servants, is serving them in the Spirit. It involves the Holy Spirit, enabling and blessing what you are doing to help God’s servants fulfill a Heavenly mandate. This is the service that brings blessings.
If you just serve God’s servants, you will be at the will, control, and most times, carnal influence of your flesh, or unhealthy control of the preacher, and not be under the influence of the Holy Spirit. That is when you can lie, cheat, steal, gossip, deceive and even fight in the process.
Yes, that is when you can do the sinful to cover him or her. There is a righteous way of protecting God’s servant from the evil one or from destruction. God will reward you for doing that. But if you do the sinful to cover wickedness, the wickedness a man covers has a way of coming back to eat the man.
We are looking at the ultimate secrets of blessings in God’s kingdom. What did the Bible teach as the ultimate secret of blessings in God’s kingdom?
I want to submit to us that the secret of blessings in God’s kingdom is none of the many things we do in church to be blessed. In fact, our devotional text says, “God will bless us out of Zion.” We must understand that in God, blessings are not something we force ourselves to get.
God showed us through His encounter with Jacob that it is not something we get by wrestling with GOD. You will discover in the story of Jacob’s wrestling with the angel that wrestling with God all night for a blessing did not earn him any.
Though many have said it did. But let’s take a careful look at the story. The Bible says,
“Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him.
And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.” But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!” So He said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob.”
And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
Then Jacob asked, saying, “Tell me Your name, I pray.” And He said, “Why is it that you ask about My name?” And He blessed him there. Genesis 32:24-29 NKJV
As we can see in this scripture, all the night while he was busy wrestling with God, he got nothing. If blessings come by wrestling with God then he would have gotten them in the middle of the night at the height of the wrestling.
BUT HE GOT THEM AT THE BREAK OF THE DAY WHEN THE ANGEL TOUCHED THE HEAP OF HIS BONE TO BREAK HIM.
In other words, it was when he stopped wrestling with God, and started reasoning with Him that he got the blessing. Over the years people have seen the wrestling but not the reasoning, and that has not helped many. Many have wrestled with God for blessings but got none, and then quit church.
They did not see that it will take a wrestling but a reasoning.
Now, before Jacob got to the place of reasoning with GOD, he had to be broken by God. It was when he was broken that he moved from a wrestling vessel to a broken vessel. That was when God began the procedure of putting a blessing on him.
Brokenness is the secret of blessings in God’s kingdom because it is through the process we achieve total surrender for blessings. The bible teaches that the key to blessings in God’s kingdom is total surrender to His will and ways. Brokenness will help us in achieving that faith position.
If you want to be blessed therefore, you must move from wresting with God like we have been taught over the years, to reasoning with GOD as the Bible teaches.
God said in His word;
Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.
If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land; But if you refuse and rebel, You shall be devoured by the sword”; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Isaiah 1:18-20 NKJV
REASONING WITH GOD IS THE SECRET TO RISING IN LIFE.
Wrestling with God is the secret of all failures, sorrows, pains and perils of life. We are not designed to get anything from God by wrestling with Him. That was why Jacob got nothing during the wrestling night. But at the breaking of the day, God broke him.
The only thing you get when you wrestle with God, is brokenness; He will break you! If you want to rise in life, just learn to reason with the LORD. Use your night season to reason with God, not wrestle with Him.
The word “night” has nothing to do with day out but a season of weeping; because weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning. Use your season of weeping to be reasoning with God, not wrestling with Him.
To reason with God is to sit down with His word and allow it to judge you, and then align you. Allow it to rebuke you, correct you, educate you, reveal something unknown to you, speak to you and bring you where the blessing can be placed upon your life.
Worshiping in a teaching church will be of help in your quest to reason with God.
Our devotional text says;
“Behold, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, WHO BY NIGHT STAND IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD!
Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD. The LORD who made heaven and earth bless you from Zion!” Psalm 134:1-3
It is my prayer that you will be able to stand in your night season in the house of God; you will be able to come into the place of His manifest presence whenever you are facing a night season, so that He can cause His light to shine upon you.
If you reason with God in your night seasons, no night season can put you down. They will be coming and disappearing quickly from you.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
Then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.
When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:12-14 NKJV