TODAY’S DEVOTION (Tuesday 27th October 2020)
“Then the strong steeds went out, eager to go, that they might walk to and fro throughout the earth. And He said, “Go, walk to and fro throughout the earth.” So they walked to and fro throughout the earth.
And He called to me, and spoke to me, saying, “See, those who go toward the north country have given rest to My Spirit in the north country.” Zechariah 6:7-8 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 299thDAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
God wants us to rejoice always. Sometimes He does things in our lives that stirs up rejoicing in our hearts, other times the enemy does things that we are still expected to rejoice in the midst of them like Paul and Silas did, and got a great response from Heaven.
Rejoicing always is both a command and an admonition in scriptures. A command when we feel like REJOICING, but an admonition when we don’t feel like REJOICING. That is the mystery of any prophecy on rejoicing, and we have experienced all that already this year.
It’s been our season of Schooling in the things of GOD, and one of the things of GOD to be schooled in is knowing what He hates.
To start with, there are teachings He hates. One is any teaching that fill our hearts with the cares of this world and weakens our resolve for Heaven. He also hates doctrines of devils, and also the false grace gospel that defeats our victory over the practice of sin. All these are spelt out in scriptures.
Also, there are practices in Church He hates. He hates the use of salt, sand, water, apples, mustard seeds, and etc. to pray. You find all that in the Bible. He hates whatever He never did which we are doing today!
He hates seeing us sowing seed for miracles, that is why He says “freely receive freely give.” He hates when we gather in Church and spend all the service talking about Satan, his fallen angels and our enemies. That is why He warned in the book of Revelation that He will put burdens on those who do such things.
He hates the spirit and influence of Jezebel in Church that’s why He said He will kill those who are ruled by the spirit in the same book of Revelation. You find churches taken over by this spirit today sitting under the gates of the enemy, with members going through one deliverance process or the other.
HE HATES IT WHEN DIE-BY-FIRE BECOMES OUR MANTRA OF SPIRITUAL WARFARE.
That is why He made it clear to the Apostles in Luke Chapter 9 from verse 55 to 56 that we are not sent to destroy men’s lives but to save them. He hates it when we use marriage to destroy other people’s lives. He hates it when a woman steals another person’s husband or a man steals another person’s wife. He hates all these and much more!
Sadly, many do not know that whenever we do or live in what GOD hates, especially as believers, we fill His heart with pain like the generation of Noah. And when we fill His heart with pain, it will resonate in our lives. In other words, our lives will be filled with pains whenever we un-repentantly fill GOD’s heart with pain.
But our preachers of grace do not know this, hence not helping us at all.
In a bid to explain the grace of God WE forget that grace has not made God imbecile. He still has what He hates and loves. Salvation is God’s grace saving us from doing what inflict pain in God’s heart. It is God’s grace keeping us from doing what He hates.
For instance, God hates sin and will never love it even if it is coming from men after His heart like David. He will never love sin, even if coming from great givers like Abraham and Solomon. Salvation is grace saving us from committing or living in what God hates.
We as pastors, may ignore the sin of the one who contributes financially to our ministries but God will never ignore. No fat offering can change God’s mind or judgment on sin. It is our repentance from sin that changes everything.
Except he or she repents, God will never ignore the sin of the most loving and caring person in our lives! We cannot replace the need to be Holy with our generosity towards GOD and men or great sacrificial living or giving! Until the sin question is answered in our lives, our gifts and services will always stink in the nostrils of God, even if it earns us praise, accolades or standing ovation from our churches.
UNTIL THE SIN QUESTION IS ANSWERED, ALL OTHER QUESTIONS IN OUR LIVES WILL REMAIN UNANSWERED.
It is important that we begin to come to terms with what GOD hates and what He loves, especially under grace, and resist it with all our might. The Bible says, “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, fighting against sin.” (Hebrew 12:4 JBT). So many of us lack that resistance, and until we build it, we will keep falling into what God hates.
There is a deception of sin that has taken root in our hearts today. Many of us now think that when an anointed man of God sins, it is not a problem because GOD does not hate it. In our deception, we reason that his anointing keeps whatever he may have done holy in God’s sight. Even if he sleeps with a Lady and asks her to abort the Child, then dumps her for another he is still holy.
For instance, to many in church today, when an anointed man commits sin, it is not sin but a weakness, or better still a mistake. To them God does not see it as sin since its coming from His anointed. He has said “touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm.” The deception of sin can be very terrible. Many of us have the scars to show. We have all being deceived by sin at one time or the other. Only God’s mercies saw us through!
The deception of sin is what keep us in sin when the consequence has not arrived. It tells us, “no problem, God is merciful.”
I have come to realize that two people are not merciful. Their names are sin and Satan. So they have no right to speak to us about God’s mercies. That is why anytime you find any of them preaching the mercifulness of GOD to us, we should be scared and desist from what they may be convincing us to do.
There is also the deception of sin that tells us that operating in the supernatural while living in sin is a sign that whatever we may be doing, is not sin in God’s sight.
WE TAKE THE MANIFESTATION OF THE SUPERNATURAL AS A SIGN OF CHRISTIANITY.
We forget that Satan is supernatural yet not a Christian. The Bible is clear that the mark (or seal) of Christianity is not speaking in tongues or walking in the supernatural. The mark (or seal) of true Christianity is Holiness. If you are saved, you will not practice sin because the seed of GOD will prevent that from happening, either by serving as an internal resistance for you, or by divine warnings or chastisements.
People have said “love” is the mark of true Christianity but I beg to disagree because you can be loving and sinful. But you cannot be Holy and not be loving, because Holiness is where unconditional love for others flow from.
Now, if you look at how hi-tech most lying prophets have become today in deception, you will agree with me. Most of them quickly become amazingly generous and loving whenever GOD begin to use circumstances to expose them. I have seen people kept in false Churches by the generosity of the preachers heading those places.
In Nigeria, the biggest lying prophet and sorcerer sends his captives on scholarships to university.
He dishes out life time financial support to people, and do what only Jesus would have done if He was physically here when it comes to taking care of the poor. The goal is to cover up who he really is, and I am afraid he has successfully done that.
One thing about this man is, he has been able to falsify everything but have not been able to falsify holiness or God’s glory. His victims all over Africa and the rest of the world call him, “the great power of God.” But you cannot see many of them calling him, “HOLY MAN OF GOD” like Elisha was called by the Shunamite woman.
THERE IS NO SORCERER IN CHURCH WHOSE FAME SPRANG FROM HOLINESS. THEY ALL BECAME FAMOUS BECAUSE OF THE MIRACLES THEY PERFORM.
They have always been known to be POWERFUL, ON POINT in their prophetic delivery, and very accurate. None has ever been known for their holiness, contentment, or Right Standing with God in all things.
The Bible made it clear that holiness is the sign of true Christianity not prophetic accuracy, power display, love or generosity. It says,
“Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” 2 Timothy 2:19 NKJV
People, we need to really come to a realm in our walk with GOD where we no longer display any other nature than that of God.
When we say we are born again, we are actually saying we have been condemned to live a life that displays the nature of God alone on the face of the earth. That is why Old things (the Adamic nature) should pass away, and everything should become new!
Which brings us to the sin question; What Is Sin?
In GOD’s perspective, sin is simply the nature of Satan in man on display. It is the manifestation of the glory of the devil in man. Sin originated from the devil. The Bible calls him, the man of sin. That’s is what makes sin more than a mistake. It is more of a symptom.
It is symptom of a sick soul heading to hell. Sadly, we seem to forget this each time our passions ignite us to sin against GOD. The practice of sin remains a symptom of a sick soul heading to hell.
IT IS NOT JUST A SYMPTOM OF A SICK SOUL HEADING TO HELL, BUT A SIGN OF SYNCHRONICITY WITH SATAN.
When you sin, you come into symphony with the devil. In other words, sinning is the easiest way a man synchronizes with Satan. That is why the Bible says, “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning” (1 John 3:8 NKJV). But Holiness or righteousness is different. It is the nature of God in man on display. It is an aspect of the glory of GOD in man.
God hates it when the nature of Satan is seen in us. He hates it because it reminds Him of many things which space will not let me state down! It is when we take on the nature of Satan by sinning or living according to the evil and corrupt system of this world persistently that God’s wrath is kindled against us.
The Bible indeed said God has not appointed us to wrath. However, we must understand that statement within context, because the only people who have escaped the wrath of God are believers in Christ Jesus who have responded to the call of salvation with a life of repentance towards God, and faith towards our LORD Jesus Christ. Every other one who still does what GOD hates (inflicting His heart with pains), will not escape pains in this life and the life to come.
God is looking for a generation that will give His Spirit rest by killing the pains in His heart through a life of repentance and HOLINESS.
What is the message of our devotional today?
the message is simple; God wants us to become part of the church generation that has determined to give his Spirit rest. A lot of us have been living a life that grieves and fill His heart with pain, grieving His Spirit and going through pains ourselves. But He wants that to stop!
You see, if our lifestyles are not giving the Spirit of God rest, we will never have rest ourselves. That is the reason for the suffering of the human race.
When Adam’s life style gave God rest in the garden there was no problem in his life. But when he gave Him pain, sin and death entered his life, and by extension the human race.
Our devotional text today says,
“Then the strong steeds went out, eager to go, that they might walk to and fro throughout the earth. And He said, “Go, walk to and fro throughout the earth.” So they walked to and fro throughout the earth.
And He called to me, and spoke to me, saying, “See, those who go toward the north country have given rest to My Spirit in the north country.”
Without bothering you with the prophetic details of this scripture, I want to ask? Are we living a Christian’s life that is giving the Spirit of the LORD rest on the face of the earth? The answer to a question like this cannot be found on a man’s lips. It can only be found in our lives.
If there is rest from the works of the enemy in our lives, then it’s a sign that our lives are giving His Spirit rest.
It is a sign that we are not letting Him grieve for us, or go through pains and regrets for keeping us alive or creating us, like the generation of Noah. He is happy and excited that we are living the sanctified life!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY:
“Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another.
“Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.
Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Ephesians 4:25-30 NKJV