TODAY’S DEVOTION (Saturday 9th May 2020)
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 129th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
It has been our month of Deep Intimacy. For us in the Cry of the Spirit and Church in the House, God has been gracious to us, taking us from one depth of His Spirit to another. Jesus is becoming real and real to us every day.
In all thess days that the world has locked down, our Heaven have not been locked down.
We have had amazing meetings that promotes deep intimacy; from the unveiling of the Unknown enemy in the Easter retreat, the series on the prosperity in adversity and the present truths on Prophetic Intelligence, the Glory of the LORD has been evident in our homes.
Indeed, there have not been a lock down so long as our relationship with God is concerned. In fact. For some of us we have experienced fresh portals of Heaven opened over us.
In our devotional today we will continue with the flow on deep intimacy. Let me make some truths clear to us. So many are walking with shackles on their necks in the realm of the spirit. I will say shackles in their brains. These shackles have made many slaves of things they cannot handle. Many are slaves of sin and Satan. Others are slaves of self. Very few are slaves of God.
THE ESSENCE OF SPIRITUAL WARFARE IS THE TERMINATE OF SLAVERY.
Due to the confusion brought upon the subject of spiritual warfare by so many untaught preachers, many do not know that spiritual warfare is all about who owns who in the realm of the spirit. Once you get saved, you are owned by Christ, thus a slave son of Jesus Christ, so to speak.
This slavery is not slavery as we know slavery to be, but an obligation. It is an obligation that makes Jesus our LORD, handing over our troubles to Him while we take His rest. But Satan wants this obligation terminated
Yes, he wants this honorable slavery to Jesus Christ gone so that we will become his slave. Spiritual warfare is all about that.
Let me put it in another way; God wants to terminate our slavery or obligation to sin, the evil and corrupt system of this world, self and Satan and make us His, Satan wants to do terminate our obligation to righteousness, selflessness, the Holy Spirit and God’s Holy will hence spiritual warfare.
If you do not understand it that way, you will be fighting Satan while your slavery to sin, self, the evil and corrupt system of this world etc. remains intact.
In attempting to make mankind his slaves, Satan is on rampage killing, stealing, and destroying. And in other to make us His slave, God is on a rescue mission to seek and to save that which has been enslaved to sin, self, the evil system of this world and Satan.
Spiritual warfare is founded in the drive to terminate slavery. Many that are Satan’s slaves in the spirit realm are kings on earth. There is no way you can tell these ones that as they rule over men on earth, they are slaves in the spirit realm.
In the same way, it may shock you to know that many that look like slaves on earth are kings in Heaven and will reign will Christ forever and ever. I wish am in Church preaching this! That is why you must not judge a serious minded Christian by his economic status. If you do, you will call a Heavenly king an earthly slave, and run into trouble with His maker.
That is why when you become a slave to sin, self or Satan, you will begin to face crisis and come under the afflictions of Satan. You know he is a cruel master like Pharaoh was to the Israelites. But when you become a salve of God, peace will be established in your life.
THE BIBLE SAYS WE WILL HAVE REST.
Friend, if you are going through anything now, that problem is a sign that you are a slave of or obligatory to something outside God. Slavery or obligation to anything outside God brings restlessness, but slavery or obligation to God brings rest round about. That is one secret of the journey.
I have heard people preach that it takes giving money, drinking Oil, using brooms, water, mats, pieces of clothes, salt, or mustard seed to pray to have rest. I have heard others say it takes giving money (especially sacrificially) to a prophet to have rest.
But let God be true and all men liars.
Giving in the right way to the right place at the right time indeed brings blessings but to have rest from the works of the devil, you must become a slave-Son of Jesus Christ – you must be sold out to Him. Our devotional text today says;
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Accepting Jesus as LORD and savior is coming to Him.
Now, when we come to Jesus, the next thing we must do is to take His yoke upon us and learn from Him. We are to take His light burdens upon our shoulders, and His easy yoke on our necks – the yoke of doing His blessed will, and the burden of executing His eternal plans and purposes on the face of the earth.
When we do that, we will become His Slave-Sons and find rest for our souls. Rest from any work of the devil does not come through any other means other than that.
DO NOT LET ANYONE FOOL YOU ABOUT DELIVERANCE.
Permanent deliverance does not come through lengthy fasting and prayers. It does not come through sowing seeds as we usually say. It does not come by running after prophets who cannot even interpret the scriptures to you, to interpret your dreams. It comes through slavery to Jesus Christ.
When you become a slave of Jesus, the world will ridicule and even hate you. But you will find rest for your soul and they will be in restlessness when the harvest time comes.
God’s ultimate will remain, to make every one of us a slave-Son of Jesus Christ. That is why He goes to war to battle our enemies. He is a great KING who fights terribly for His Slave-Sons.
Child of GOD, whenever you see God go to war, it is to terminate our slavery to sin, self, and Satan and make us His Slave-Sons. One way He does that is by enduing us with power from on High. When you are endued with power from on High, you will no longer be a slave to any other than God Himself.
Enduing us with power from Heaven is God’s way of empowering us to fight any form of spiritual slavery and be established in liberty. Holy Ghost and Power from on High are the only instrument of spiritual warfare God gave to the Church. It is the only instrument that can push the Satanic out of our lives.
Sadly, many have missed this gracious truth and buried it in the place of ignorance and religiosity. We have buried it in the valleys of prophetic witchcraft, Charismatic seduction, ecclesiastical intimidation, and sorcery, inventing other means of deliverance as a replacement.
The Holy Ghost and Power were the only weapon of spiritual warfare God gave to the Apostles. That was why He told them to wait in Jerusalem until they were endued with power. When they were endued, they use it against all the works of the enemy and multitudes were saved.
They had no bottles of Oil in their hands.
Many have used a verse in the book of James, where some Judaist were told to use oil in prayer, and another verse in the book of Mark where the disciples (unsaved by heart), where allowed to use oil to anoint the sick with it, but they forget Acts that has no place for oil. That is why the book is called “The Acts of the Apostles.” Not the acts of unregenerated disciples or Judaist.
These Apostles are our roots; we are their fruits. But I doubt if many of us are because if we were, we would have followed their strict examples not that of a group of disciples who were unsaved at heart, and a group of Judaist James was trying to walk into Christianity.
No preacher who is an evangelist by content will tell you this Bible Truth because the easiest way to show a fool today that you are anointed, is to use oil in praying for them. Sadly, many in church today have become like the foolish Galatians and the two disciples Jesus called fools and slow at heart after His resurrection. That is why these oil users prosper among them.
BUT THERE IS REVOLUTION ALREADY.
As soon as few stars are cleared by time from the firmament of GOD, the nonsense will be over.
As we bring this to a close, I want to submit to you that if you lack the power from on High, your prayer life will not be result oriented. Your decrees will be empty and ineffective. You will find yourself doing 70 days prayer and coming out as weak as a worm without power to show.
This power comes when you are deeply intimate with Christ. That is why God is calling us to deep intimacy this month! May the LORD use this devotional to build you up and give you an inheritance among they that are sanctified!!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION.
“He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall,”
“But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:29-31 NKJV