TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 18TH NOVEMBER 2024)
“For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:10 ASV
WELCOME TO THE 323RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT
Our God has been faithful and true. Glory to His name for keeping us alive and watching over us.
Day unto day He has been showing us mercy, night unto night His amazing love.
He has never given us to the will of our enemies, nor allowed our flaws to ruin us. A very present help in time of need, He has been, and we are glad we have Him in our lives.
During Church service yesterday, I emphasized the importance of having the Holy Spirit as our closest friend; the most intimate relationship on earth.
The reason is, in birth, we come into this world alone, and in death we will leave this world alone. No one will be with us as we transit from this land of living souls, to the eternal home of the living God.
People might be there but not be able to accompany us.
The only person that can be meaningfully with us in death, is the Holy Spirit. Developing relationship with Him now, is key to spending those moments with Him and having Him take us to eternity to be with the LORD, after breathing our last on earth.
He will make those final moments of our lives beautiful. But His role in our lives is not just for those final moments. It is also for the present moments.
No one can live in a chaotic and unpredictable world peacefully, especially on daily bases without the Holy Spirit being in their lives as the closest friend.
We need Him everyday to guide us via the word of the LORD, fight our battles, teach us, show us the ways to go, provide for us, and do all the LORD Himself would have done in our lives if He was physically here.
WE MUST THEREFORE DECIDE ON HAVING A BEAUTIFUL RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM FOR ALL THAT.
One way we cultivate such relationship with the Holy Ghost is by paying attention to the word of the LORD, and allowing it to rule our lives and influence our decisions.
When we do that, we will no longer be of the world and the Holy Spirit can become our closest friend.
The LORD has been using these devotionals to achieve that in the lives of all of us. Yesterday He spoke to us about vindication. We will be continuing with the same flow today.
The LORD gave us a word on Divine Vindication. It is important that we hold on to the word.
The kingdom of God is a word active kingdom. Everything centers on the word of the LORD. If you want the moves of the LORD to happen in your life, you must pay attention to the word of the LORD.
That is why, whenever God give us a word of promise, especially while dealing with our enemies, we must hold on to the word, and one way we do that is by properly positioning our selves, and taking faith positions that will allow the word to come to pass.
It reminds me of King Hezekiah who was surrounded by a great host of enemy army.
The Bible made it clear that three kings and their armies came together against him, and he feared greatly. However, His great fear did not move him to do something carnal, but spiritual.
It moved Him to seek the LORD for help. He assembled even kids and their mothers before God for divine help. It was one of the greatest prayer gatherings in Israel’s gathering.
They prayed and God answered.
The first answer GOD sent was a prophetic word. The reason is because, God speaks before He moves. When He speaks, and you do not hold on to that word by taking a proper faith position for the word He has sent to you to come to pass, He will never move to accomplish it.
I believe Hezekiah understood that; he held on to the word the LORD sent, by taking the faith position he took.
THE RESULT OF HIS WISE MOVE WAS AMAZING. GOD GRANTED HIM AN AMAZING VICTORY OVER THE ENEMY.
The Bible says,
“Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly.
And he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you:
‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.
Tomorrow go down against them. They will surely come up by the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the brook before the Wilderness of Jeruel.
You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’
Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you.” 2 Chronicles 20:14-17 NKJV
If you look at this scripture carefully, you will see a divine promise and a proper positioning for it to come to pass. It says, you will not need to fight in this battle. God will fight for you.
However, in other for God to fight for you; in other for His word to come to pass, you must position yourselves; stand still and then you will see His salvation.
Proper faith positioning, remains the key to seeing God’s word come to pass in our lives! The LORD promised us divine vindication yesterday, however there is a faith position to take for His word to come to pass.
Yes, for God to vindicate you, there is what to do.
The first is in the use of your lips. If you do not know how to control what comes out of your mouth, you might ruin what came out of the mouth of the LORD. You must take heed to your heart and what comes out of your mouth, especially after God has given you a word of promise.
Every child of God must understand that people who do not know how to control what comes out of their mouths, especially after God has spoken, will ruin the manifestation of what came out of the mouth of the LORD.
WE MUST ALL MAKE UP OUR MINDS NOT TO USE OUR MOUTHS TO RUIN WHAT CAME OUT OF THE MOUTH OF THE LORD.
We threaten the manifestation of what the LORD has spoken with what we say thereafter, if we do not control what we say after He has spoken. There was a priest in the Bible that God has to make dumb, when what he said threatened what God has said.
This and other similar Bible stories, tells us how what comes out of our mouths can ruin the performance of what comes out of the mouth of the LORD. Our devotional text says,
“For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:10 ASV
This scripture makes it clear that it is with the mouth that we confess our salvation. It further defines what the purpose of the mouth is. It makes it clear that the mouth was not created for our destruction, the mouth was created for our salvation!
Yes, it clearly reveals that God did not create our mouth to bring adversity to us. God created our mouth to bring prosperity to us.
We must therefore be careful what we say after God has spoken.
The meditation of our hearts and the word of our mouths must be acceptable to God for what He has spoken to us to be fulfilled.
One of the things that usually make us ruin the performance of what God has said He will do, is what we go through after hearing the word.
We allow life pressure to force us to say things that are completely unacceptable to God, and that becomes a problem in the spirit realm.
For instance, Israel left Egypt with a promise from God to take them to Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey.
But things that consistently came out of their mouth due to the harsh things they faced in the wilderness, made it impossible for them to see that word fulfilled in their lives.
They died in the wilderness, and their children made it to the promised land.
When God speak to you, and give you a word of promise, you must be careful what you say thereafter, especially when bad things begin to happen after hearing the word.
The fact that bad things happen after God has spoken, does not mean His word will no longer come to pass.
HIS WORD WILL DEFINITELY COME TO PASS.
We must therefore be careful of what we say after hearing a word of promise from the LORD. What we say can cancel the performance of what God may Have said He wants to do in our lives.
This is not just applicable to the word of divine vindication that came, but every other word that the LORD may have sent your way.
When God speak to you, and things remain the same, or bad things break out in your life after that, do not say things that will ruin the performance of what He has said.
Hold on to His word and be anxious for nothing. Do not allow what might be happening to force the wrong things out of your mouth. The Bible says;
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. Philippians 4:6-8 NKJV
What a scripture!!
If you dwell in it, and follow the timeless truths that preceded it as presented by the LORD through this devotional, your life will never remain the same.
Tomorrow I will bring another word that the LORD has given me on this same principle; the principle of the faith position to take for the word of the LORD to come to pass in our lives.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!!
And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me.
Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you:
The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above.
Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in.
But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised. But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness.
And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear the brunt of your infidelity, until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness.
According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear you guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know My rejection.
I the LORD have spoken this. I will surely do so to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.’ ” Numbers 14:26-35 NKJV