TODAY’S DEVOTION (Thursday 2nd January 2020)
“Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him.
But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
For My Angel will go before you and bring you in to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will [a]cut them off.
You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works; but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their sacred pillars.
“So you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you.
No one shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. Exodus 23:20-26 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 2nd DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
Our devotional text this morning holds so much for us. I believe the year shall be a year of REJOICING because God has deployed Heavenly forces to lead and bring us to His desired end for the year 2020. Hallelujah!
I also believe everyone with a God given pastor is already having an angel or messenger of the LORD to listen to and use as a prophetic hearing aid for following the LORD all through the year.
While we are not to replace the LORD with the pastors He has given us, God wants us to treat them as spiritual fathers, learn from them and follow Him accurately the way they are following Him. That is why it has not safe to have a spiritual father who is not following the LORD but just following whatever will bring money.
If we have spiritual fathers who follow the LORD, it will be easier for us to follow the LORD. We will have an earthly pattern to learn from.
If we learn from them and follow the LORD ourselves the way they are following the LORD, God will be an enemy to our enemies and an adversary to our adversaries. That is one thing to set your mind on even as we look at what the LORD has on the table of this devotional for us today.
Yesterday we shared some deep truths about OUR YEAR OF REJOICING and who God is specifically preparing it for – the elects who have been waiting for the consolation of Israel or those who sorrow over the appointed assembly – the sick church. Today God will be taking us a step further on this journey of truth.
First, let us give glory to the LORD for the second day of this set of days called year 2020.
Either you know it or not, we have started consuming the days allocated to us by the creator of Heaven and earth. It is important that we acknowledge that, because slowly and surely, we will get to the last day of this year and we will declare again “HAPPY NEW YEAR” 2021.
God’s plan is not for us to get there wasting the days. His plan is that we get there fulfilling the days. Days are given to us to be fulfilled not just to be counted.
The word fulfilled, suggests that there are purposes that must be accomplished. If you pass through a day without accomplishing the purposes that are pre-determined to be accomplished in that day, you have not fulfilled the day, you have wasted it.
I HOPE WE DID NOT WASTE YESTERDAY, AND WE WILL NOT WASTE TODAY.
Make up your mind to fulfill the entire 366 days of this year not to waste even one of it and you will be most blessed by year end.
But how do you achieve that? That is the essence of today’s devotional. The LORD is not just here to tell us how He has deployed His heavenly forces to be with us all through the year but how to spend each day fulfilling and not wasting it.
You see, if you look at our devotional text this morning you will see so many blessings presented to us. One of them says:
“No one shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.” Exodus 23:26 NKJV
Clearly this word shows us what the will of the LORD is – that our days be fulfilled not just counted. And there is a lot of blessings in fulfilling our days. One is seen in the same scriptures. It says we will not suffer miscarriage, especially this year. Now, not just this year but in our walk and talk with the LORD.
Now talking about miscarriage, a lot of people are suffering miscarriage in so many areas of lives. From their spiritual lives to their financial lives, the troubles seem endless.
Some suffer biological miscarriage where the Children they conceive do not get to full term. It just flows out as blood, keeping them either childless or without the ability to have another child.
Those who suffer miscarriages financially, will work hard and get to the place of reaping, then something will just happen at the point of getting the money, killing their hope or expectations. All efforts will just go down the drain.
FINANCIAL MISCARRIAGE IS THE REASON FOR THE POVERTY OF SOME.
There are other forms of miscarriages keeping people in a sorry state in life.
Even in ministry, a lot of preachers are suffering miscarriages. They will labor for souls, but as soon as the people they labored for get to the place of blessing them back for their labor, they cause troubles and leave the Church.
Others will labor so hard to build the Church as soon as they are about getting to the place of rest, something will happen to destroy the fruit of their labor. Some will be transfered by their head to another branch of the Church to start afresh leaving them in squalor.
But God has said this year shall be different! You must understand the key to stopping the plague.
There are people having miscarriages in the area of their careers. They will get to the point of achieving success and something will happen, and the success that was just on sight will drain away leaving them in much pain. Most people commit suicide just for that.
There are those who suffering miscarriage in the area of marriage. They will begin a marital journey that looks so promising. But when they get to the place of either tightening the knot or forming a home, something will just happen that will bring the relationship to an end. We can go on and on.
It is not the will of the LORD that we suffer miscarriage.
Sadly, many preachers have exploited so many people in such a sorry state and given them solutions that are not really the way out. They wash their feet, serve them unholy holy communion, ask them to sow this seed and give that seed and lead them into all manner of things to stop the plague. But nothing has happened. Some even travel to mountains to fast and pray against the plague but it continues.
The way out is not by doing any of that. The curse can only be broken by fulfilling our days not wasting them.
Fulfilling our days is not just living through them and celebrating each birthday. It is more than that. You can live a hundred years on earth without even fulfilling one day. That is a wasted life. And if you read the verses of the scriptures that preceded this you will realize that there is a faith position to take in other to fulfill a day allocated to you by the LORD.
THAT FAITH POSITION IS CALLED SERVICE.
When we spend each day serving His purpose, we are fulfilling our days and putting God in a position to bless us with a life that is longer than our enemies intended. The word of the LORD in our devotional text this morning again says:
“So, you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you. No one shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. Exodus 23:25-26 NKJV
The fulfillment of our entire days is in God’s hands. But we are to allow Him to do that by spending each day with a vision to fulfill it not just to pass through it – with a vision to use that day in serving His purpose for our lives.
We are not here on earth for marriage, money, success in careers or business. None of that should be the goal. We are here to fulfill God’s plan and purpose for us. That should be the goal. Each day is given to us to serve that reason for being here on earth.
People who spend each day serving the reason why they are here like Adam did in the Garden before the fall, will not look for marriage, money, success in career or business. Those things will look for them.
Prosperity from Heaven only look for people who are spending their days serving their reason for being on earth in a time like this. Not those who are wasting their days serving either their bellies or other carnal ambitions.
When we spend our days serving the reason God placed us on earth at a time like this, we are serving the LORD Himself. We are fulfilling our days and putting Him in a position to bless us with much more than we can ever ask or think. God has decreed that it be a YEAR OF REJOICING for us, but we must spend each day serving the reason we are here for that word to come to pass in our lives.
Prophetic declarations come to pass only in the lives of people who spend their days seeking to fulfilling them, not seeking to get all they can and can all they get. We are not to use today to serve our belly. We are to use it to serve a divine intent.
Sadly, that is what over 80 percent of the world population are not doing. That is why we have problems. We lead wasted lives and expect things to be good, no!
If a day is spent without serving God’s reason for putting you on earth in a time like this, you have not fulfilled that day. You have wasted that day. It is very costly to waste a day. It will breed things in your life that you will not like.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 2:20-21 NKJV