TODAY’S DEVOTION (Saturday 18th July 2020)
“Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord, and spoke, saying: “I will sing to the Lord, For He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea!
“The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will exalt Him.”
“The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is His name.” Exodus 15:1-3 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 198th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
Glory be to the Most High God for making it possible for us to see this day.
Sometimes you sleep in pains, emanating from disappointments, and wake up not feeling to even go on with life. But God’s mercy has a way of seeing a man through. It has a way of forcing hope out of a man’s heart.
The Bible spoke about Paul going through a lot of perils in his own time. That has been my territory for many years. One of the worst perils you can go through as a Child of God is the peril of false brethren. The most damaging liars are most times found in the four walls of our local Church buildings.
The kind of falsehood that thrive among some Church members and wickedness that lives in their hearts is alarming. That is why I love Church in the house. It protects some of us from them because there is no longer room for them to operate.
Yes, there are a lot of perverted pastors and prophets, but we also have terrible church members.
If you look carefully, you will realize that most ministers of the gospel became what they are today because some wicked Church members killed what God gave them for their generation, and turned them into wicked men with no sexual discipline or compassion for the suffering.
CHURCH MEMBERS HAVE A WAY OF CASTING EVIL SPIRITS ON GOD’S SERVANTS.
They can submit to the devil to sway them to do things that are capable of knocking out love for the sheep, deep concern for people and genuine commitment to the work of God from the heart of God’s servants. Sometimes I look at some and ask myself “are this people possess?”
It is very difficult to be deeply and genuinely concerned for people, as a man of God, after being betrayed and bitterly wounded for being deeply and genuinely concerned for people you believe God brought you to raise. I have faced this kind of attacks all my ministry life. It is simply difficult, and when they enter trouble you have no choice but to go save them.
You may be a minister of the gospel who is going through similar things; I want you to take a word from this devotional.
And if you are a Church member reading this, I want you to make up your mind not to be a weapon of love demolition in the hands of the enemy – Don’ be another Judas Iscariot or false follower in the ministry of your man of God, you will end up knocking out deep and genuine concern for people from his heart.
God will judge everyone for their actions. If it did not end well with Judas Iscariot, it will not end well with you. I have come to discovered that if you have the spirit of Judas Iscariot, you will share in his spiritual heritage. It does not matter how prayerful you are, his heritage will be yours.
Everyone knows the heritage of Judas Iscariot. He was appointed to be one the 24 elders in Heaven, but he disappointed his destiny by toying the path of betrayers. Sometimes we ask, “why is there so many suicides today?” The answer is simple, there are so many with the spirit of Judas Iscariot.
It has become difficult to have a person who resist that terrible spirit. Personally, I fear to assist anyone. As soon as you show them kindness, they will show you wickedness. Judas Iscariot was the first person to be given a responsibility in the inner circle of Christ. He loved that man so much that he committed His treasury to him. But the man failed him.
What a story, what a man, what a seed. The Bible calls him the son of perdition. How can you be so much loved and respond to your lover with so much wickedness?
NO WONDER HE DIED THE WAY HE DID.
If you are loved by somebody critical to the destiny of people, count it a privilege. Do not behave like Judas Iscariot, else you will end up with his kind of spiritual heritage. Like I said. I am developing the fears of helping people. Yes, terribly. Maybe you too if you have had my kind of experiences.
My life is full of stories of People I suffered for, both spiritually and financially; helping them beyond what words can capture to make a meaning out of their lives, who turned into my greatest betrayers. I can count the number of people who are what they are today because of me, but they count me as the worst thing that happened to them.
But when they came into my life, I never envisaged that such thing could happen. Can you imagine kneeling to pray to God to bless someone you did not know will later betray or dry to destroy you later?
Can you imagine emptying your account to rescue someone who will grow up to empty all kinds of trouble on your life? Can you imagine spending hours in fasting and prayers for a people you did not know will become your killers later?
Can you imagine sheltering someone who will not be compassionate towards you or your kids when you will need shelter in future? Can you imagine going out of your way to pull people out of the fire whose husbands or wives hates you with passion?
It is difficult to survive such assaults except God be with you.
When we yield to the flesh or the devil to do things that hurt a man of God, especially anyone walking in truth, God will not forsake them man neither will he justify the defaulters.
IN GOD’S JUSTICE SYSTEM, HE DOES NOT ACQUIT THE GUILTY, HE ONLY DOES THAT TO THE REPENTANT.
One thing the devil does to stop a work that is pulling men from the fires of hell is to sway those who should be building the work to start destroying it. It is part of the warfare the enemy muster against us!
But the good news about it and every other spiritual warfare is that God’s people do not fight from a place of defeat, we fight from the place of victory. We are not trying to initiate a fresh thing on the face of the earth; we are unleashing what God has already finished in His redemptive plans. That is why it will never fail.
God finishes before He starts. He will finish a thing in Heaven before coming to ask you to start it here on earth. That is why no matter what the devil does, God’s work does not fail or come to an end. It has a way of going forward surprisingly during and after a season of satanic assaults.
Sometime God does it in such a way that you cannot even trace if there was an assault from hell. That is how I have lived under any satanic assault. A major highlight in our devotional text this morning says,
“The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will exalt Him. The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is His name.”
I do not think this man of war will ever lose a war, so I will cling to His warfare tactics and believe in His ability to fight my battles and defeat the wicked one; perhaps even save those the enemy may be using to destroy his work.
If you are going through any attack from Judas Iscariot, here is a word to ride on. They are preparing a terrible heritage for themselves.
You should so just one thing. Trust in the LORD to deliver you from the striving of the tongues of men. Trust the LORD to neutralize the hypocrisy of those who appear to be friends but are indeed enemies. Though not easy, but that is what I have been doing. And God have been faithful.
SO, TRUST GOD TO GIVE YOUR ENEMIES A REASON TO WALK AWAY FROM YOUR LIFE. THAT ALSO HAS HELPED ME.
Trust Him also to employ all His weapons of war to save you from the trials of every moments. Trust Him to open His warfare chess and deploy the very angels you need in the most painful moments of your life.
In all the battles of with Judas Iscariot and all falsehood, we must learn to be still and know that Our LORD is God! He went through the same, so he can help us all.
I want to assure you that if you are on His side, He will not give you over to the will of your enemies because He has never done so. Yes, the enemy will not outwit you in battle nor the sons of wickedness afflict you successfully, because God has never let that happen to those who are on His side.
I know He will plague those that hate us and beat down my foes before our face.
I know when all these will be over, when we will cross the river, in the sweet by and by, we will sit before fellow soldiers of the cross and tell the stories of how this Man of War enabled us to execute His assignment for our lives, and do His blessed will. We will tell how He granted us victories over the enemy, and over those He swayed against us.
Let us look forward to the reward and keep doing what we know is His blessed will for our lives; trusting Him to watch over our souls and the souls of those who are truly care for us.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY
“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”
“And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.” Jude 20-24 NKJV