TODAY’S DEVOTION (FRIDAY 26TH JULY 2024)
“If you faint in the day of adversity, Your strength is small. Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and old back those stumbling to the slaughter.
If you say, “Surely we did not know this,” Does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds? Proverbs 24:10-12 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 208TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
Glory be to the LORD GOD for a brand-new day. The mercies of the LORD are new every morning. His faithfulness is from everlasting to everlasting.
The Bible says how great is His goodness stored up for those who fear Him. There is no end to the compassion that comes to us each day. In fact, the day it ends will mark our end, because we are alive because of His unconditional love.
I remember the first day I read what God said when His glory swept pass Moses on mount Sinai, I was shocked at the expression of God’s love and compassion towards mankind in the statement. God is indeed, never tired of showing even the worst sinner love and compassion. The Bible says;
“Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.
And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” Exodus 34:5-7 NKJV
Now, deliverance preachers who have seen what God said in Ezekiel 18, will zero into the last statement that say “visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the Children,” in their quest to teach about generational curses, or evil pattern, and etc. But this beautiful portion of the scripture is all about the compassion and kindness of God that His glory brings.
It says “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” You cannot have this kind of God by your side or in your life and worry about anything.
Previously, when Moses asked the LORD to show him His glory, God responded by saying He will make His goodness sweep pass him. That tells me God’s goodness is a major aspect of His glory. It is a glory product.
WHEN GOD’S GLORY IS IN OUR LIVES, GOD’S GOODNESS WILL BE ON FULL DISPLAY IN EVERY ASPECT OF OUR EXISTENCE.
Now, what was it that qualified Moses for this great blessing from God? This beautiful encounter? The call of God upon his life and his commitment to fulfill it by GOD’s help qualified him. Yes, the sacrificial commitment to fulfill God’s call upon his life that we see in every aspect of his life, pushed him to that faith position.
He went down to Egypt and represented God well.
His assignment was to bring forth a nation from the womb of Egypt, into the beautiful land of promise. He was in pursuit of that when he requested for the presence of GOD to be with him, and the entire people.
In the same breath, he also requested to see the glory as well. God granted him all that.
Whatever you request from God in pursuit of your assignment, will be granted to you. That is why you cannot find people in the scriptures who are sold out to their God given assignments lacking answers to prayers.
The Bible teaches that, if we seek God for Heavenly things that are required for the release of our assignments or execution of our mandates, He will not deny us. But if we seek Him for things that are unconnected, we might even die praying without getting the answers.
It is important to note that Prayers that are made to the LORD because of His assignment upon our lives, are speedily granted. That is why wise Christians tailor their prayers to God’s assignment for their lives. They pray standing on God’s mandate upon their lives.
Strategic prayers involve knowing your assignment, and standing on it to make request to the LORD.
For instance, the request for healing, deliverance, economic prosperity, peace, freedom from a life of sin, fear, pain or life sorrows, can easily be granted when you present the fulfilment of your assignment as your reason for asking.
Yes, when you request for protection from the sword of your enemies so that you might fulfill God’s assignment for your life, it will be granted to you speedily than when you just ask for protection.
ANYTHING YOU ASK THE LORD THAT YOUR ASSIGNMENT NEEDS TO BE FULFILLED WILL BE GRANTED.
We are in a terminal generation. It is important that we know what our assignments are as end time Christians. It will not just boost answers to prayers, but will give us righteous vision for living. Do not forget, where there is no righteous vision for living, people perish.
One of the major assignments that is hanging on all believers today, is practical Christian living. I guess you might not have heard that. Yes, practical Christian living, not evangelism, prophesying, opening shops called Churches, and etc.
If we live practical Christian lives, we will transform more lives for Christ than all what we do today.
Our destinies as believers are released through practical Christian living. If you say you are saved and those touching you, or the ones you are touching are not being made whole morally, the way people who touched Christ were made whole, you are not releasing your destiny as a believer.
You are not fulfilling your assignment. The Bible says;
“Wherever He entered, into villages, cities, or the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged Him that they might just touch the hem of His garment. AND AS MANY AS TOUCHED HIM WERE MADE WELL.” Mark 6:53-56 NKJV (Emphasis mine).
Child of God, the world as we know it, has become more morally sick then before. There is an eternal illness that is making people morally bankrupt, resulting in God-less and Christ-less living. Sadly, even most of what we call Church, is sick also.
God’s redemption plan is that the morally sick touch us and be made whole. It is through practical Christianity that we can make them whole.
Practical Christian living was what our fathers in the early church used in saving their world and turning them to the LORD, not massive crusades, as good as they are, or the planting of small or mega churches.
The first manifestation of practical Christianity in Scriptures was the power of the Holy Spirit the early Church displayed in their time. In less than few weeks, it touched over 8000 morally bankrupt religious lives, and sanctified them to become sons and daughters of God.
THE QUESTION EVERY BELIEVERS SHOULD ASK HIMSELF IS THIS, WHAT ARE THOSE WHO ARE TOUCHING US BECOMING?
Are they becoming morally sick, or morally sound? The answer will determine if we are fulfilling our assignments as an end time church or not. Christianity is not by mouth but by impact.
Many of us are not making that impact. That is why many souls are still sitting in the valley of the shadow of death, hell and grave morally.
The world is slipping into hell daily, and sadly the perverted church too, yet we seem not to even know that it’s our job to save them. We seem to be more interested in God solving our problems, than in us getting involved in the rescue of the eternally damned souls that are both in the Church and the world.
But our devotional text made it clear that even if we are in the midst of adversity, the assignment of rescuing the eternally damned through practical Christian living, must not be thrown away or suspended. It must not change.
In other words, we must not faint in the day of adversity, and make solving our life problems the main thrust of walking with God. It says we must keep delivering the eternally damned from the grips of moral decay like our fathers did, even in fiery trials and adversities. Yes, the word of the LORD says;
“If you faint in the day of adversity, Your strength is small. Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and old back those stumbling to the slaughter.
If you say, “Surely we did not know this,” Does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds? Proverbs 24:10-12 NKJV
This scripture is clear on what a Christian must keep doing no matter what; transforming the moral lives of those they touch, by turning them to the LORD, through practical Christian living.
IT IS WHEN THAT BECOMES OUR ULTIMATE ASSIGNMENT FOR LIFE THAT WHATEVER WE ASK THE LORD IN PRAYERS CAN BE GRANTED.
The mistake of many is this, when adversity hits them, they ignore their assignments and begin to live a Christian life that presents a list of what God should do for them, every now and then. We forget that the prayers of end time Christians are not answered because we sowed some seeds, but because we are sold out to God’s assignment for our lives.
When Jesus was Physically on earth, He spent each day after 30 years of age, drawing those who are drawn to eternal death to God. He did not feign ignorance. That is what He has called us to do.
Yes, we are called to walk in His footsteps. We are called to live our days changing those around us using the tool of practical Christianity. He said in His word;
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it”. John 14:12-14 NKJV
You can see the LORD tailoring answers to any prayer we pray to Him to the work He has called us to do.
The text said, “he who believes in me, the works that I do he will do also.” For us today, it is the work of touching lives and transforming them morally through practical Christianity. Then He went on to anchor the answers we will celebrate in prayers to doing the work. What can be clearer than that?
He said, “whatever you ask in My name, that I will do…if you ask anything in my name, I will do.”
Friend, that is a blank cheque for all who will live their days pursuing His assignment for their lives; the assignment of touching the moral lives of men through the power of Christ, and transforming them through practical Christian living.
LET NO ONE ASK YOU TO DO ANYTHING OTHER THAN THIS, IF YOU WANT YOUR PRAYERS ANSWERED IN THIS ERA.
Let none ask you to silence an altar, or raise an altar of sacrifice, sow a seed, go here or there to pray and all that for you to receive answers to your prayers. Understand that, until we begin to do the works of transforming the moral lives of people through practical Christianity, Jesus will not do anything we ask in His name.
We will never get to the place of amazing divine attention. And Until we get there, people will not cease from running after prophets for miracles, or worshiping their so-called papas for deliverance.
Practical Christianity is living a Crucified life, living a life that is dead to sinful desires and all that. It is living a kingdom life; a life of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
I believe the message of today has been passed. It is my prayer that we will allow this scriptural light to guide us, day after day. Amen!!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.
For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.
To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things?
For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ. 2 Corinthians 2:14-17 NKJV