TODAY’S DEVOTION (THURSDAY 14TH NOVEMBER 2024)
“Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.
Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” Psalms 37:1-5 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 319TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
We bless the God of heaven and earth who has counted us worthy to see another day this year. May it be a fulfilling day in our lives. Amen!
We live in a world that is constantly under the sway of the evil one. But the Bible says, we should not fret because of evil doers, and we have decided not to. Hallelujah!
When God want to do great things among His people, it’s important that they learn to build their expectations within His will and ways, and their faith in His promises. If they build their expectations or faith on any other, they will miss the blessing.
Sometimes, He will still do what He wants to do but they will not see it in their lives because they are not aligned. The Bible says the expectation of the righteous shall not be cut off. The reason is simple; because they line up with His will and ways.
If an expectation does not line up with God’s word, will or way, it shall be cut off. The reason the expectations of the righteous do not fail, its because they fall in God’s will and ways.
On the flip side, the reason the expectations of the wicked fail, is because they do not fall in line with God’s will or ways. The divine decree over them is that, “they shall not come to pass. They shall be cut off.” The Bible says,
“For the upright will dwell in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; but the wicked will be cut off from the earth, and the unfaithful will be uprooted from it.” Proverbs 2:21-22 NKJV
If God does not allow the wicked to take root on earth or remain, how much more their expectations. That is why it’s not safe to build your expectations outside His perfect will for your life. Neither is it safe to believe the utterances of an anointed but not aligned man or woman of God.
Yes, one can be anointed but not aligned. Sadly, so many preachers are like that; they are anointed but are not aligned. They are not aligned with our dispensation, not aligned with the present truth, not aligned with the faith that was once delivered to the saints.
They are not aligned at all.
That is why they spew prophecies and make people build their hopes on things that the demon of deliverance will perform; things God will never perform.
LEADING TO END OF YEAR DISCOURAGEMENTS AND ALL THAT.
I want you to understand that, Christians who do not understand that God’s will and ways, are the governors of the manifestation of their expectations, will have a hard time getting into 2025 with joy, because of failed expectations in 2024.
Trust me; some will even leave church because of failed expectations.
But the Bible teaches differently. You see, while there are charlatans, who prophesy to people from their own spirits about great things to expect, or see during a new year, which do not come to pass, there are also true men and women of God who see things that are true and accurate, yet they do not come to pass, leading to discouragements.
The reason for all these, lies in both category of preachers not aligning with the will and ways of God, in different ways. While the former are not of God, the later are, but they are not aligned.
What the Bible teaches is that, we should outgrow that kind of Christianity. It was not part of the early Church. It was an old Testament standard. But the reason many love that kind of faith, is because of the spiritual immaturity that many in the present church are suffering from.
A child of God must be mature enough not to depend on such things. He or she should first know God for themselves and build their expectations within God’s will and ways, then live their lives one day at a time, instead of depending on some preachers to prophesy to them about a new year.
Besides, we are in days of hyper deception. It’s becoming very dangerous by the day to believe whatever people behind the pulpit prophesy to us these days; especially when they are anointed but not aligned, or when they lack the authority in the spirit, or are money controlled.
You must understand that any preacher who only becomes high in spirit after people have given an offering, or given some money called sacrifice, to his or ministry, is not operating from Heaven. He or she operates from the flesh.
Whatever He or she may prophesy to you under that stir, will not be from Heaven.
IT WILL BE FROM THE FOUNTAIN OF GREED AND COVETOUSNESS.
So, when your expectations for a year are built on such prophecies, and you go through that year with your faith on them, you will crash because nothing will come to pass.
For instance, there are Churches today whose pastors have told their members that they will get married, get jobs, or see some other forms of personal expectations come to pass before the end of the year 2024, simply because they gave some money or satisfied the preachers one way or the other.
Others have been told by same spiritual leaders how they will have great financial breakthrough before the end of the year. Sadly, the countless who have been made by this money controlled, and carnality inspired spiritual leaders, to build their expectations outside divine will and ways, will just crash.
I have heard how Scriptures have been misinterpreted, and false or demonic inspired prophetic similitudes, used to coerce innocent souls to believe that some things (that God knows will never happen), will come to pass in their lives before the end of the year 2024.
But I am confident that God is already defeating the lies of this dark ministries, and rescuing His sheep from the satanic snares parading as power Churches, or prophetic or deliverance ministries.
There are principles that should guide our expectations. It is important to note that, there is no place in the Bible where a man took his carnal expectation to God, maybe through prayer, fasting or sacrificial giving, to have them met, and they were met.
Everyone who got their expectations met by God conceived them from Him. A major Highlight in our devotional text says,
“Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” Psalms 37:3-4 NKJV
Sadly, when people quote or preach from this scripture, they forget the first part, and just log on to the last sentence that says, “He shall give you the desires of your heart.” And that is the sentence upon which every failed expectation in Church today is built.
We forget that the heart of a man that has not been processed and filled with the Holy Spirit is desperately wicked.
GOD DOES NOT GRANT THE DESIRES OF SUCH A HEART.
When the Bible says, “He shall give you the desires of your heart,” it does not mean God will grant us whatever we desire or fulfil whatever we expect that He fulfil.
It simple means, if we do everything that precede the “heart desire” sentence in Psalm 37:1-5, which is; “trusting in the LORD, doing good, dwelling in the land or place of His will for our lives, feeding on God’s faithfulness, and delighting ourselves in Him,” the Spirit of the LORD in us, will shape what our hearts should desire, and align it with God’s will.
In other words, God will grant us what our hearts should desire. It is the desires He grants our hearts to desire that will be granted, not the ones we conceive by ourselves. I hope you understand me! Expectations must therefore be built on what He grants our hearts to desire.
The last part of our devotional text says, “Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” This is not referring to our “own carnal ways,” but the very ways and plans of the LORD that we have made our ways and plans. Those are the ways or plans to commit to the LORD in prayer if we want our expectations to come to pass.
So, from all these scriptural teachings, it’s clear that God does not want man to be seen because man was not originally sourced in man. Man was sourced in God. God wants God to be seen in man. He does not want man to be seen in man.
He never designed that to happen, hence did not design that our carnal expectations to be fulfilled. He only designed expectations built on divine desires (that are granted to our hearts to desire) to be fulfilled.
So, if any of your 2024 expectations was not built on desires granted your heart by God’s Spirit to desire, but on some things some prophets or prophetesses prophesied to you, bury it now before you crash by 31st December.
God takes delight in fulfilling our expectations but they must be in tune or line with His will and ways. That is the word of the LORD!!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY
“Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; Do not fret — it only causes harm. For evildoers shall be cut off; but those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.
For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; Indeed, you will look carefully for his place, but it shall be no more.
But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. The wicked plots against the just, and gnashes at him with his teeth.
The Lord laughs at him, for He sees that his day is coming. The wicked have drawn the sword.” Psalms 37:7-14 NKJV