TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Friday 8TH JANUARY 2021)
“ ‘Rise, take your journey, and cross over the River Arnon. Look, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin [i]to possess it, and engage him in battle.
This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations [j]under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you, and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.’
“And I sent messengers from the Wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon, with words of peace, saying, “ Let me pass through your land; I will keep strictly to the road, and I will turn neither to the right nor to the left.
You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat, and give me water for money, that I may drink; only let me pass through on foot, just as the descendants of Esau who dwell in Seir and the Moabites who dwell in Ar did for me, until I cross the Jordan to the land which the LORD our God is giving us.’
“But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through, for the LORD your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into your hand, as it is this day.
“And the LORD said to me, ‘See, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to possess it, that you may inherit his land.’ Then Sihon and all his people came out against us to fight at Jahaz.
And the LORD our God delivered him [k]over to us; so we defeated him, his sons, and all his people. We took all his cities at that time, and we utterly destroyed the men, women, and little ones of every city; we left none remaining. Deuteronomy 2:24-34 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 8TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS
It is a good thing to give thanks to the LORD and praise His Holy Name for all His mercies and marvelous works in our lives. When we open our days with thanks giving to the Day Himself (Jesus Christ), and invite Him through prayer to guide us through and be with us, our days will end up well.
The manifestation of Christ as the Day is the reason His own comes up with a good day every day. Even if the day try to be dark and sad, He has a way of shining through our hearts to brighten it up. One of the greatest prayers I found the apostles pray for their flock is that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith. Christ in us remains the hope of glory; it remains the hope to a good day!
This morning the LORD will be sharing some things with us again through this platform. When we say the LORD will be sharing with us, we are not referring to the writer of the piece. Whatever that is being written is inspired to bring us to the place where we can hear from the LORD through it. So, as you go through, tune your heart to the LORD and listen to what He may have to say to you.
God will always have something to say because our lives always have something to overcome. We live in an imperfect world that requires a daily word from the LORD to survive. The Bible says;
“So, He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.” Deuteronomy 8:3 NKJV
Man was designed to live by what comes out of the mouth of the LORD. That is why we break down and become either sick, sad, drained, bitter, and even hateful when we live by what comes out of other sources. It is when we live by what comes out of the mouth of the LORD that we find our lives on earth exciting.
Meaning anytime we are not feeling good, anytime we are sad, we have obviously fed or lived by what came from sources outside the LORD. Most times what comes out of the wickedness of the wicked.
YES, WE CANNOT BE HAPPY WHEN WE SEE THINGS THAT CAME OUT OF THE WICKEDNESS OF THE WICKED.
These days a lot of things that are happening are making the heart of the righteous sad. The victories the enemy seems to be winning over the political landscape of a nation God used to bring salvation to many other nations, is saddening. It was a battle that God required many righteous men at the gate to win, but they were not available, especially the ones at the supreme courts.
Premature people will think prophecy failed. It did not. Only a blind person will think it did! Even those who are being paraded as winners know in their hearts that they did not win the election.
When God gives victories, it is people at the gate that have the responsibility of collecting it; they are the ones to roll away the stone for the victory to come forth into the natural realm. If they fail to do their jobs, that will be the end of the story. That does not mean God did not give the victory. He gave but men at the gate refused to stand in battle until they collect it. This is a lesson that we must all learn.
It has been the pattern of God, each time we are in battles that does not require the arm of the LORD alone.
Even Israel’s freedom from Egyptian bondage required men at the gate, and those men were led by Moses. If Moses had not stood firmly, and all who were with him, there would have been no emancipation for the Jews. Political freedom requires men at the gate not just the arm of the LORD alone.
The Prophecy will always say “I have already given the victory.” That will give direction on what to do to the men and women at the gate. It will be their job to be God’s gate keepers and bring the word to pass in the realm of men as passed in the realm of GOD. Such prophecies are called “participatory prophecies.”
Sadly, many are backward in life because they do not know the mystery of participatory prophecies. The prophecy of Donald Trump winning the Election was not sovereign but participatory. When prophecy is sovereign it does not require the arm of men, it will come to pass come rain come shine.
But when it is participatory it requires the arm of men, so it stands the chance of failing on the side of men; especially where the men whose arm it will requires do not jump into the ring and fight for it to come to pass.
THAT IS WHY MOST PARTICIPATORY PROPHECIES DO FAIL ON THE SIDE OF MEN.
And when they do, premature, ignorant and carnal Christians will begin to call them false. They do that because they do not know, but the sons of Issachar know, that is why they are always calm, looking for the next plan of GOD.
And God always has a redemptive plan when dealing with matters of participatory prophecies. He knows men will fail Him. Our Job is to stir His prophetic spirit within us and come into the revelation of that plan whenever a participatory prophecy fails on the side of men. And this is very important, because like I stated earlier, many in Christ are backward, not because of evil altars or whatever but because of not knowing this secret.
Most of what God promises to do in our lives or what He says He has already done falls under participatory prophecies. We allow the word God spoke about sovereign prophecies to confuse us. You do not follow a participatory prophecy the way you follow a sovereign prophecy; neither do you follow a sovereign prophecy like a participatory prophecy.
Sadly, that is what many of us do, thereby running into disappointments.
Most of what the LORD say He will do in your life will need your imputes to be done. You must meet Him to say, “LORD, thank you for that word, but what is my part in this? What must I do to see this word come to pass in my life?” But we do not do that. We just sit and watch saying, “if it is God it will come to pass.”
And at the end of the day, nothing comes to pass because we did not know it was a PARTICIPATORY PROPHECY.
Sadly, the children of the evil one do not handle things that way. That is why they know how to stop us, just as they did with the US elections. Concerning the US elections, these guys knew it was beyond America. It was about light and darkness, hence fighting with all forms of deception and misinformation they could muster, and God’s men at the gate stood there watching and waiting for God’s word to come to pass.
The same thing we do to ourselves we have done to the LORD Himself. But there is a redemptive plan. You will see it.
Friend God has said, “2021 IS OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS” it is a participatory prophecy. The one of last year was a sovereign prophecy but this one is participatory. If we do not ask the LORD to show us what to do so that we can see His word come to pass in our lives as declared in Heaven, we will have lower lows instead of Higher Heights.
THERE ARE SO MANY SCRIPTURES THAT CAN HELP US UNDERSTAND THE BIBLE TRUTH OF PARTICIPATORY PROPHECIES.
One of them is in our devotional text this morning. It contains what God said to Moses in one of the moments that looked like the very moment the Church in America found itself in the elections. A portion of the devotional said;
“Rise, take your journey, and cross over the River Arnon. Look, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin [b]to possess it, and engage him in battle.
This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations [c]under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you, and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.’ Deuteronomy 2:24-25 NJKV
These words were spoken to Moses and all the men with him. They were all men at the gate.
The prophecy said, “I have given into your hand” but the condition for fulfillment says “begin to possess it and engage him in battle.” That is the texture of every participatory prophecy. But most times we only hear the first part, and begin to run with it waiting for it to come to pass. It will not! You must get the send part too and be on the battle field to bring it to pass. That is the secret of the journey.
Moses got the first and the second part because He understood God’s ways!
Sadly, our generation do not understand God’s ways, we only know His acts. Hence failing when it comes to matters of His ways. That is why when He sends sovereign prophecies to us we treat them as participatory, and when He sends participatory prophecies, we allow the enemy to scare us and push us to making them sovereign.
But not so with Moses. The Bible says he took necessary steps immediately to bring the word to pass knowing it requires his imputes.
The Bible says, as soon as he heard that word, he sent messengers from the Wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon, with words of peace, saying, “Let me pass through your land; I will keep strictly to the road, and I will turn neither to the right nor to the left” But the man will not, and the LORD repeated Himself saying;
‘See, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to possess it, that you may inherit his land.’ Then Sihon and all his people came out against us to fight at Jahaz. Deuteronomy 2:31 NKJV
If you want to understand the mystery of participator prophecy, and use it to improve your life, this is one scripture you must study; the scripture of our devotional text. It holds so much mysteries that can blow every spiritual ignorance on the subject away. There are many others in the bible.
Sadly, concerning the American election, a perfect understanding of this scripture would have stirred everyone to join President Trump in the fight to stop deception and get a free and fair election.
YOU MAY NOT BELIEVE THIS, BUT I JUST HAVE TO TELL YOU.
You see, because of the laws of dominion that governs lives on earth, God’s word on every election can only come to pass when that election is free and fair. Yes, I repeat when that election is free and fair.
God’s word on every election is usually participatory. If men do not participate with Him by having free and fair election, it will fail on the side of men, not on His side. And because of His compassion, He will never kill anyone to make it free and fair. He will just watch the corrupt as they do all they can to corrupt the process.
He will watch expecting His men at the gate to stop them. Sadly, most times we will not. The devil’s children know all that!
That is why they make sure no election that God is involved is free and fair. They make sure they bully, push, defame, arm twist and do all they can, to stop anyone with the identity of a gate keeper of God’s kingdom from making the process free and fair, correcting it where necessary, or bringing justice where people are caught.
The truth remains, our God is righteous! He moves better with people who honor righteous ways and do things right, not with those who do not. That is why if you want to take God away from the scene, bring in wicked, deceptive and sinful things on board and He will leave peacefully.
He will leave without a fight and the devil knows how to make Him leave. He and his host know how to do it; most times with our help. They do it because they do not want God in anything because He will enforce His will if He stays in it. And if God enforces His will, the enemy will be vanquished and his will terminated.
Satan knows God will never stay in a crooked process.
He knows God will never stay in a process that is not established in His ways. Don’t forget, GOD withdrew from Samson, David and many others who departed from His ways. The essence of participatory prophecies is to, among other things, position the people of God to make things fair and right enough for God to stay and do what He said He has done.
Finally, I want you to understand that there are so many outbreaks of God that have been determined for our days. Most of them are not based on sovereign prophecies; they are based on participatory prophecies. We will have to jump into the battle field to make the parts straight for those outbreaks to take place.
That is why one of the Cry of the Spirit for our age and time is to prepare the way of the LORD, and make His paths straight. Until His paths are made straight by men at the gate, there will be no move of God among us as pre-determined or prophesied.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY
Comfort, yes, comfort My people!” Says your God. “Speak [a]comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned; For she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.”
The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight [b]in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted
And every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made [c]straight and the rough places smooth;
The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” Isaiah 40:1-5 NKJV