TODAY’S DEVOTION (THURSDAY 1ST AUGUST 2024)
“ And when Jesus saw that he became very sorrowful, He said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!
For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
And those who heard it said, “Who then can be saved?” But He said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” Luke 18:27 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 214TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
It is a new month and we give God the glory for all His kindness, mercies, compassion, blessings and direction. Yes, there is so much the LORD has done that our mouths cannot say or even sing.
We would not have made it to this month if not for the marvelous works of GOD. His grace has indeed run our lives like we have always said on this platform. We got to this month by His grace, and will get to the last month and even many years to come by the same grace.
Like the last part of our devotional text said, with man, it will be impossible to get to the end of the year, and even fulfil the rest of our days, but with God, all things are possible.
Personally, I have high expectations this month. You should also, because we have a very big God by our side.
Today we want to look at Miracles, Signs and wonders. One of our major mandates is to help people understand the difference between the supernatural of God and that of the enemy. Yes, it is to help people walk in divine miracles, signs and wonders.
The Bible says, “the Kingdom of God is not in words, but in power.”
The Bible teaches that God want to make each and every one of us sufficient in the area of power, and independent from man in the release of the miraculous in our lives. In other words, God wants us to depend on Him alone for miracles, signs and wonders not on men.
He wants to terminate the spiritual slavery many put themselves under because they need divine intervention. God wants you to come into the realm of getting interventions from Him without being a spiritual slave to anyone.
People worship prophets and other kinds of preachers because they are not in the spiritual plane of depending on God alone for miracles. When we get to the place of depending on God alone for miracles, we will give our worship to God alone and not a man of God.
WE WILL ONLY HONOR MEN.
It is important to note that, every apostolic emphasis seeks to perfect the saints by teaching us to depend on the LORD for miracles instead of on His servants. Sometimes that is done by exposing the trickery of some of those we call men of God, their cunning craftiness, and deceitful plotting.
In the old Testament you can seek a man of God for miracles, but in the new (except you are not saved), you are to be trained and equipped to walk miracles by yourself. In other words, you are to be independent spiritually. The Bible says;
“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,” Ephesians 4:11-14 NKJV
If you look at the Bible sense of this scripture, and place it side by side those who attend our Churches, you will realize that many of us preachers have failed.
Most preachers have produced believers who are not equipped for anything, apart from giving perverted preachers money for miracles, and drinking oil for all sorts of things, among other heretic and demonic things they do.
We now have a church people who even believe that marriage is taking a woman into your life without paying her bride price. We have preachers calling fornication marriage. In fact, it is so bad that we even have preachers who wed people who do not know the parents or family houses of each other.
The preachers do all that in their desperate attempt to make money or be seen as relevant.
Sadly, even those who complain that they do not have money to pay bride price will have money to give to their money minded Bishops and preachers to wed them.
ALL THESE ARE PRODUCTS OF EXPLOITING INSTEAD OF EQUIPPING THE SAINTS.
It is very obvious that a lot of preachers have failed in executing the great commission without omission. Our not equipping but exploiting the saints has not helped so many believers in Church today. It has rather placed them on the broad way that leads to destruction at the end of life.
Our LORD and savior Jesus Christ said, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14 NKJV). But preachers today are saying the opposite.
Our messages and the careless assurance of salvation we give to the lost sinners in our Churches are saying, “easy is the way that lead to life,” making them miss the narrow way.
If you call the narrow way an easy way, or present the gospel of grace as an excuse for sin instead of escape and cure for sin, you are actually leading people to the Broadway because the narrow way is not an easy way.
I heard a preacher saying because of Jesus dead on the cross, sin will no longer take any to hell.
Meaning, you will never go to hell even if you live in sin because Jesus has died for our sins. That is one way preachers present the narrow way as an easy way, leading to a Christian life that places a man on the broad way that leads to eternal destruction.
The spirit of lawlessness has indeed impregnated the Church with lawless preaching, teachings and deeds. But thank God for the season of removing all things that offends in God’s kingdom that is upon us. There is hope for the Church!
OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT IS ABOUT A MAN JESUS WANTED TO PUT ON THE NARROW WAY THAT LEADS TO LIFE.
Though we began from the point where Jesus reacted to the man’s resistance, to life in the narrow way, the text is full of truths that we can highlight here. The man is called in scriptures, the rich young ruler.
Previously, here is what happened between him and Christ.
“Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.
You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’ ”
And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.”
So, when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.” Luke 18:18-23 NKJV
If you look at this man, though he was very okay so long as the law of Moses was concerned, he was lost so long as the kingdom of GOD for the now was concerned.
Jesus said to Him “you still lack one thing.” That was the one before whom all shall stand in the day of judgment talking. That was the judge of the earth leaking out His justice system to us and revealing what entering the kingdom of GOD entails.
He was telling us that it entails lacking nothing! He was saying it calls for perfection by grace.
You see, the body of believers today are in serious eternal problems. It’s just that many are ignorant. If we all come to the revelation of what is lying ahead of us, we will stop so many sinful things we are doing calling it Christianity.
By the justice system of GOD, many are not Heaven worthy. But by the justice system of their pastors, they are already in Heaven.
THAT IS VERY TERRIBLE, BECAUSE IT IS DECEITFUL.
Many of us today are not even as pure as the rich young ruler, yet He was not yet in the Kingdom despite all he had done. He still lacked one thing, while some of us even as preachers, lack so many things. If these things are not troubling you, then you are deluded.
Come to think of it, who told you that you will make Heaven with all the sinful living because you are a preacher? God’s grace must purify and make us holy and pure to be Heaven worthy. Until that happens, many will remain lost, so long as the kingdom of God for the now is concerned.
It is important to note that, if there is anything that has propelled believers to play into the hands of preachers who are not making them Heaven worthy, that thing is the crave for miracles, signs and wonders. Yes, the search for divine interventions.
Like our devotional quote says, under the Old Testament system, you need to run after a man of GOD to get miracles, because the Holy Spirit was not yet given. But we are no longer in the Old Testament. The system has changed. It is the job of the Sons of Issachar to inform us and we are doing that every now and then. It is just that many seems spiritually deaf.
Anything you do today the way it was done in the Old Testament, will hurt your redemption, either in time or eternity. That was why Jesus called the Old Testament the Old Wine, and the New Testament, the new wine.
You do not put an old wine in new wine skin or use an old wine when the new has come. It will always breed the works of the devil among the people of GOD. It will get them pregnant by or with the spirit of lawlessness. That is why many have been impregnated by it and are giving birth to lawless practices.
If you want miracles, signs and wonders today, you must not seek them the way they were sort in the Old Testament. An unbeliever may do that but not you the believer. God wants us trained and equipped to walk in miracles, signs and wonders individually.
We are not to be running after any so-called powerful preachers for it. We are to run after ideal preachers for training and equipping to walk in it. Paul was one of those preachers.
He did not just walk in miracles, He raised workers of miracles also. Now, mark my words; I did not say “miracle workers” because no one is a miracle worker, I said “workers of miracles.” The two are not the same! God in us is the miracle workers, we in Him are workers of miracles. We work out what He has already worked out but has not come to the natural realm.
We extend what He has done in the spirit realm to the natural realm. I think let me leave it here because we will learn more about that in the course of this journey!
The message of today is geared towards stirring you to declare spiritual independence so long as working in miracles, signs, and wonders is concern. Child of GOD, if you are trained and equipped to walk in miracles yourself, you will fulfill one of the reasons for getting saved.
It is my prayer that as we go through the New Month, you and every one of us will become a worker of miracles in Jesus precious name. Amen!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY!
“Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;
They will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.
And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.” Mark 16:14-20 NKJV