TODAY’S DEVOTION (Wednesday 8th July 2020)
“So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.”
“Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord God. Ezekiel 22:30-31 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 188th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
This is the day the LORD has made; we shall rejoice and be glad in it. Marvelous are His works. That our souls know very well!
Yesterday was the seventh day of the 7th month of the year. As some of you may have known, seven in God’s numbering represents completion, perfection, or maturity. It is the number of God. Seven also represents the number of God’ rest; God created the world for 6 divine days and rested on the seventh divine day.
However, I am glad that this lock down did not let so many preachers use that to cooked false prophecies appearing true and deceive the gullible and needy to seed some money for some so called miracles or blessings.
That is why the greatest blessing available in the kingdom is the blessing of rest. God does not want us tossed here and there by these false and greedy preachers. He does not want us driven by every wind of doctrine. He wants us established in Christ and to have our rest in Him.
In figurative sense, that was the blessing most of the Israelites missed in their walk with God.
They got miracles, economic and marital blessings. They got the blessings of Childbearing and many other blessings but missed this one blessing – the blessing of REST.
The blessing of rest is beyond these blessings because you may have children, money, or marriage, if there is not rest in your life, they will all become a pain on your neck. Haven’t you seen rich people who have no rest in their lives? Of married men and women with many kids but no rest on any side? That tells us a lot about the blessing of rest.
Sadly, the blessing of rest is the very blessing many in the Church today are yet to come into.
That is why you still find believers queuing for deliverance, prayers, breakthroughs, and all that. The devil keeps them single, troubled, restless, poor, sick, etc. Consequently, we now go to Church basically to be free from enemies not really to know God and walk in His ways.
BUT IN THE BEGINNING, IT WAS NOT SO.
The early Church had rest even during great trials of faith and intense persecutions.
Most departments of the end time Church today are not facing persecutions or trials of faith. Our nations are not telling us not to serve Jesus; neither are they putting us in prisons for serving Him. Yet there is no rest in our lives. That tells me there is so much that is missing in our version of what Church is.
Concerning that generation of the nation of Israel that could not come into the blessing of God’s rest, the Bible says;
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years.
Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.'” Hebrews 3:7-11 NKJV
From this scripture it’s clear that they could not come into God’s true rest because THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEARTS, AND HAVE NOT KNOWN GOD’S WAYS. This is a perfect description of the Church of our generation. It captures the identity of many of us who profess to be born again. That is why there can be no rest in our lives.
I have always said that in the spirit, what goes on in our hearts sounds louder in Heaven than what comes out of our mouths. And because in the natural, it is not so, we do not realize this Biblical truth.
In the natural what goes on in our mouth sounds louder to the ears and men cannot pick what goes on in the heart of others. But God is not a man to operate that way. He is not natural but Spiritual. He therefore hears the utterances of our hearts first before the utterances of our mouth.
That is why when you step into the God dimension as a Child of God, you can pick what goes on in people’s heart faster than what comes out of their mouths, and come out with a proper judgment of who they really are. That is what Isaiah meant by “not judging according to what you hear with your ears or see with your eyes.” The Bible says;
“There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”
“His delight is in the fear of the Lord, and He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears; but with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.” Isaiah 11:1-4 NKJV
WHAT ARE WE SAYING THIS MORNING?
People who do not know God – who go astray in their hearts – even if their mouths are presenting them to be a people who love the LORD with the whole of their hearts, will never come into God’s rest.
God does not give rest to everyone who calls on His name.
He may give them relief but will never give them rest. God gives rest to all who call upon the name of the LORD with a heart that is perfect towards Him. That brings us again to the number seven – the number of perfection and completion. The Bible says we should be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect.
Beautifully, grace has been supplied to us to help us achieve that in Christ Jesus. It is just that people are not making use of it. Only people whose hearts are perfect towards God will be given rest and made pillars in His kingdom. Only they can be counted upon by Heaven. And I want you to know that the need of the hour is men Heaven can count on to do things on earth, not church goers. That is why our devotional text today is very vital.
A major highlight of it says;
“So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.”
There are very few people Heaven can count on today; very few who can be truly, selflessly, and sacrificially committed to a move of God. Sometimes we wonder why there is no move of God in our Churches today; why there are only moves of men of God and not moves of God.
Most of what many calls moves of GOD today are just moves of men in God’s garment, not true moves of GOD. That is why you see them holding bottles of oil in their hands and using all kinds of prayer gadgets. You cannot be in a move of GOD and remain in the shadows or symbols. Sadly, that is what people commit themselves to. They do not like committing to a true move of GOD because of the responsibility attached.
You find these kind of church folks committing to men of GOD instead of God himself. While there is nothing wrong with committing to any man of GOD so long as He is connected to GOD, most preachers do not serve God.
SO, IT IS DANGEROUS TO BE COMMITTED TO THEM.
Some preachers serve money and fame; they serve the sex and money goddess and put on the appearance of serving God.
The Bible says while they promise them liberty, they themselves are servants of corruption. And that is the breed most Christians love committing to because they promise them blessings tailored around their carnal desires.
Even when these pastors zombify and scoop millions from them, they will not care.
At most if they did not see what they robber pastors promised them come to pass in their lives, they will leave their ministries and Churches looking for another preacher who will turn them into zombies and scoop money from them, so long as they can get what they want and not what they really need.
I have come to discover that Christians who fell victims of false preachers and prophets; with huge sums of money taken from them, are not really people Heaven can count on financially to move things forward. Most of them are selfish and cannot lay down their money unconditionally to push the work of the kingdom forward.
When they get to where their money is truly needed, they no longer go out of their ways to push God’s move forward, especially the way they did in assemblies of Satan. God cannot count on them the way those preachers and prophets counted on them. That is why they still will not have rest from the days of adversity. They will just have relief.
God’s rest is exclusively for those He can count on. It is not for everyone in Church.
The clarion call of God this morning is noticeably clear. Can Heaven count on you to push God’s purposes forward? Are you really responding adequately to God’s needs or you are serving Him based on your needs?
I leave the answers to these questions to your conscience.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY;
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”
“He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.”
“If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.” John 12:24-26 KJV