TODAY’S DEVOTION (Saturday 10th May 2025)
“The Lord has been mindful of us; He will bless us; He will bless the house of Israel; He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the Lord, both small and great.
May the Lord give you increase more and more, you and your children. May you be blessed by the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Psalms 115:12-15 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 130TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF VICTORY
Indeed, “The Lord has been mindful of us; He will bless us; He will bless the house of Israel; He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the Lord, both small and great.” God will bless whoever He is mindful of.
Having a mind that is full of God is the antidote that Heaven designed for all who mankind to use in dealing with the cost of living in a fallen world. It does not matter what may be happening around you, just remember that God is mindful of us.
The Bible says He will bless us. That cannot change because He is the LORD that changes not; hence the sons of Jacob are not consumed. The Bible says He will bless the house of Israel (the literal nation of Israel) He will bless the house of Aaron; the priesthood, and He will bless those who fear the LORD; that is us the redeemed (both small and great).
When He was physically on earth, Jesus was so mindful of Peter that He saw what was about happening and prayed for him that his faith fails not. That was how He decided to bless Peter.
Sometimes God blesses a man according to the assignment He has for him or according to the devils that are stationed by hell to confront him.
His blessings will make sure the man’s faith remains alive and he stays on strongly on the battlefield in the fight against hell and all it musters against him.
That is why the blessings of the LORD are not always cars and houses but spiritual treasures that are beyond our description.
I GREW UP IN FAITH TO DISCOVER THAT THE BLESSING OF THE LORD IS SIMPLY GOD’S PRESENCE WITH A MAN MAKING THINGS HAPPEN.
When God is mindful of you, His abiding presence will rest upon you to make good things happen to you, and sometimes bad things happen to those who rise against you. It is that abiding presence that protects and sustains those He is mindful of.
Sometimes it protects us in spectacular ways, other times it protects us in significant ways.
Significant ways are silent and invisible. They are mostly internal, manifesting as inner peace and an uncommon strength that is filtered into our hearts in time of trouble. But spectacular ways are different. They are usually visible to all eyes.
God positions us for both, and they are created by a consistent alignment with revelation truth. It brings one to the place of enjoying the most of God’s goodness no matter what might be happening. The Bible says:
“many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He guards all his bones; not one of them is broken.” Psalms 34:19-20 NKJV
There is a song we use to sing in our local Assemblies of God Church in Abuja Nigeria many years ago. It says, “When I think of the goodness of Jesus, and all He has done for me. My very soul shall sing, Hallelujah! Praise GOD for saving me!”
The goodness of the LORD is what God uses to help the righteous live longer than their afflictions, one of the blessings that His goodness brings, especially in the midst of adversity is knowledge. Revelation knowledge!!
I am yet to see someone walking in the ignorance of the things of GOD recover from anything. That is why God brings knowledge when we are in trouble so that we can recover from the troubles.
He will school us in His things even when we are in the burning flames of life perils, because our restoration will come through what we know. No schooling in the things of God no restoration.
JOB WAS RESTORED AFTER BEING SCHOOLED IN THE THINGS OF GOD. HE SAID WITH HIS OWN MOUTH,
“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:5-6 NKJV
The word “repent” simply means a change of mind that leads to proper alignment with God. It is usually the product of a deep school session with God.
Before his predicaments job learnt about GOD through others but during his predicament, he learnt about GOD by himself. He learnt not by reading the Bible because there was no Bible then. He learnt by seeing God with His spiritual eyes! That is a schooling dimension we all need to attend.
It’s amazing how God will allow the devil to take away our joy, finances, Children, mothers, fathers, jobs, happiness and all that make life a meaning in a moment just to get our total attention to be schooled. That is what creates the affliction of the righteous.
Other times they are created by the perils of living in an accursed world. This is where revelation knowledge that comes in the midst of our crisis comes in to help.
A generation of righteous men and women who do not know that the afflictions of the righteous needs schooling in the things of God to come to an end, many perish in their afflictions.
The schooling that takes place during the affliction of the righteous is called, “the school of hard things.” In fact, for job, it was “a school of hard things.” He woke up one morning, and by evening none of what He woke up with was around. It was all buried.
Have you ever woken up in the morning with your joy and by evening it was no more yet you are maintaining your worship? It’s really a “School of Hard things.”
During the pain God expects you to remain faithful and loyal to Him. He knows whatever you thought was a loss will be restored either in this life or the life to come. He knows whatever you may be going through will result in “rich fulfillment of His will for your life.” David said,
“For You, O God, have tested us; you have refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net; you laid affliction on our backs.
You have caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; but you brought us out to rich fulfillment.” Psalms 66:10-12 NKJV
THERE IS A “SCHOOL OF HARD THINGS” IN GOD’S REDEMPTIVE PLANS FOR US ALL.
It is part of the schools of the Spirit. This is one school in the spirit with no human teacher: just you, your GOD and your pains. This is deep my friends.
It’s not true for Esau’s or tares. It is a development process for Jacobs and the wheat in God’s kingdom. Furthermore, the Psalmist said,
“You have shown your people hard things; you have made us drink the wine of confusion. You have given a banner to those who fear you, that it may be displayed because of the truth.” Psalms 60:3-4 NKJV
From this scripture, it’s clear that the prophetic purpose of attending this school is not just to bring us rich fulfillment but to make us a banner or standard for a generation.
Over ninety percent of my ministry flows from the spiritual fountain that was created in me when I spend years learning and crying unto God in His School of Hard Things.
No one with a true apostolic voice really got it in the place of comfort. There is a death for any delivery that will transform moral landscapes my friend.
When you are admitted into this school, prosperity will turn into adversity, yet God’s manifest presence will be in your life but not to perform a miracle.
It will be there just to protect the bones of His plans for your life from breaking and to use your pains to bring you to the place of deep repentance in Him; tearing your eyes open and helping you to see Him in the fullness of His glory. Hallelujah!
Some of us just came out of it; others are yet to even come into it.
While some others a currently in it. It is a scary school to attend but you will always graduate with rich fulfillment – what I call the prosperity of adversity! The Bible says (Our devotional text says),
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He guards all his bones; not one of them is broken.”
The first time I read this scripture I wondered why God will allow affliction to come upon the righteous. It is comforting to suffer for your sins. At least you will take solace in the fact that you caused your problems.
But to be suffering with no sin to tell you “I am responsible for your problems,” is very painful. And the Bible says many are such afflictions. But the difference is, the LORD delivers us from them all. Hallelujah!
There are things we will never learn about GOD in a Church service. We will only learn them in God’s School of Hard Things.
People who are ignorant of this will hardly come into divine restoration. If Job had not caught the revelation and saw God in His time of learning (through hard things), he would not have ended the way he did.
What are we saying this morning? There is a blessing we cannot pick from any place in God except in His School of Hard Things. There is a full restoration that we can only come into only after going through God’s school of hard things.
There are dimensions of us that will never come out except we have passed through this school. That is the very dimension that the creation is waiting to be made manifest.
I pray for you today that you will not be part of the generation that will give up on God when He admits you in His school of hard things.
I pray that the Holy Spirit use this devotional to preserve your relationship with God.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURAL PASSAGE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION:
“For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.“For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” Romans 8:19-23 KJV
