TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 4TH MARCH 2023)
“Saul said to Samuel, Yes, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag king of Amalek and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
But the people took from the spoil sheep and oxen, the chief of the things to be utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.
Samuel said, Has the Lord as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim (household good luck images). Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king. 1 Samuel 15:20-23 AMPC
WELCOME TO THE 63RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS!
Glory be to the LORD GOD for another day, and for bringing us to the first end of week of the 3rd month of the year. May His name be glorified for all His kindness and peace that we have seen.
If you ask me, I will say the greatest blessing a man can receive from the LORD is not money but peace. If you have money but do not have peace, the money will be a pain in your life. That is why God will first give us peace before giving us prosperity.
We see that in what the Psalmist said while saying a prayer for Jerusalem. It says;
“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May they prosper who love you [the Holy City]! May peace be within your walls and prosperity within your palaces! Psalm 122:6-7 AMPC
God’s glorious will remains to surround our lives with peace, and fill them with prosperity. It does not add to His kingdom if we are not surrounded with peace and filled with His prosperity by His definition of what it is. That is why He made us precious word carriers.
People who carry His word, do not carry afflictions on their lives. People who carry His word do not carry poverty for too long in their lives. People who carry His word may be fought on every side by the enemy, but the oil of victory in their lives will always speak for them. People who carry His word will be surrounded with peace and prosperity from the word they carry.
The word will produce in their lives and get them filled with blessings. But like we have been sharing from the start of the month, there are faith positions to maintain and flesh positions to avoid, for the beauty of the LORD buried in the blessing of the word one carry, to be made manifest in their lives.
We can understand further what it means to carry the word and what the beauty of that word can be by looking at the life of Samson. The word of the LORD he carried is contained in what the angel of the LORD said to his mother long before he was born. The Bible says the angel said to her;
“For behold, you shall become pregnant and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from birth, and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines.” Judges 13:5 AMPC
From this scripture, it is clear that the word Samson carried says, “begin to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines.” To carry the word successfully, he was to maintain an Old Testament faith position designed for the Nazarenes.
HE WAS TO BEGIN WHAT GENERATIONS THAT WERE TO BE BORN LATER, WILL CONTINUE AND FINISH, STANDING ON THAT FAITH POSITION.
Talking about Future generations who were to complete what Samson was to begin, David comes to mind. He was one man who God used to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines as well.
Do not forget, Israel would have become slaves of the Philistines if not for his faith that got the giant, Goliath of Gath, killed. He would go to become king, and totally neutralize the philistines in his days.
But Samson laid the foundation for all that by the word He carried and the faith positioned he maintained, until it sadly gave way to the flesh position that almost ruined him.
He was like the spiritual authority that sparked the move of God that David later came to complete in his generation. God is generational in His thinking; hence certain mandates are to cut across generations in phases or parts. We must understand the phase or part of the mandate we are to fulfill in our generation, and leave the rest for the next generation.
So, David ended what Samson started centuries before. Apart from locating where the Temple was to be built, part of his mission was an offshoot of what God did with Samson centuries before. We can say, Samson laid the foundation upon which David came to build, in all his battles with the Philistines.
The word Samson carried was “to begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” Part of the word David carried in His own generation, was to take what Samson began, to the next level of victory for Israel. I hope you understand. Now, the beauty that came upon Samson by the word he carried is the next thing to locate in scriptures. The Bible says;
“And the woman [in due time] bore a son and called his name Samson; and the child grew and the Lord blessed him.
And the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in Mahaneh-dan [the camp of Dan] between Zorah and Eshtaol.” Judges 13:24-25 AMPC
The move of the Spirit of God upon His life was the beauty. He moved Him to do things for God that brought peace to Israel and dominion upon his life. His dominion was so strong that no one could touch him. He was victorious wherever he went, and feared wherever he lived. That is how our lives will become if the beauty of any precious word we carry rest upon us.
For Samson, the entire beauty that rested upon him, was made possible by one faith position he maintained as a precious word carrier, and that position is called obedience. He kept the word that the angel gave to his mother concerning his hair.
As a result, he was strong, powerful, unconquerable, victorious, feared, and respected, when he maintained that faith position. But one day He became battle weary and shifted to flesh positions.
HE SHIFTED TO THE FLESH POSITION CALLED DISOBEDIENCE, AND THE RESULT WAS SHAMEFUL AND REPROACHFUL, UNTIL GOD’S MERCIES CAME TO THE RESCUE.
From the story of Samson, it is clear that when one become a precious word carrier, one of the major faith-positions he or she must maintain is the faith position of obedience, and a major flesh position he or she must avoid, is the flesh position of disobedience.
The faith position of obedience will let the word you carry to yield amazing blessings in your life. The flesh position of disobedience will generate the curse of the flesh in your life. Yes, the flesh has curses in it, that is why its positions must be avoided by all means.
And if we avoid its positions, and embrace faith positions, the word will carry will be a blessing in our lives.
Avoiding the flesh position of disobedience, and embracing the faith position of obedience as precious word carriers, was what God was teaching the nation of Israel, when Moses said to them;
“If you will listen diligently to the voice of the Lord your God, being watchful to do all His commandments which I command you this day, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you heed the voice of the Lord your God.
Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your beasts, the increase of your cattle and the young of your flock.
Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading trough. Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out.
The Lord shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.
The Lord shall command the blessing upon you in your storehouse and in all that you undertake. And He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
The Lord will establish you as a people holy to Himself, as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways.
And all people of the earth shall see that you are called by the name [and in the presence of] the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you.
And the Lord shall make you have a surplus of prosperity, through the fruit of your body, of your livestock, and of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you.
The Lord shall open to you His good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain of your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.
And the Lord shall make you the head, and not the tail; and you shall be above only, and you shall not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you this day and are watchful to do them.
And you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God, being watchful to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command you this day, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you: Deuteronomy 28:1-15 AMPC
From this passage, it is clear that if you are a precious word carrier, and you walk in obedience, listening to the voice of God’s word and Spirit, and doing all He says to you, the word you carry will force blessing to be germinating in your life like plants.
For instance, the word says, blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the country. That is despite all the devils or curses that might be where you are.
IN OTHER WORDS, WHATEVER MAY BE HAPPENING IN THE ENVIRONMENT YOU LIVE IN OR WAS BORN IN, WILL HAVE NO BEARING IN YOUR LIFE.
You will not need to break generational curses because you have taken the faith position of obedience. You will be walking in generational blessings, and seeing the best of God breaking forth in your life as depicted in the scriptural passage.
The word says;
“Blessed shall be the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your beasts, the increase of your cattle and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading trough. Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out.”
It says,
“the Lord shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.”
Meaning, you will not be going from church to church or man of God to man of God looking for deliverance from your enemies.
You will not be running away from your enemies. They will be the ones running away from you.
The word further says,
“The Lord shall command the blessing upon you in your storehouse and in all that you undertake. And He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you. The Lord will establish you as a people holy to Himself, as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways.”
The word says,
“And all people of the earth shall see that you are called by the name and in the presence of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. It Says, “And the Lord shall make you have a surplus of prosperity, through the fruit of your body, of your livestock, and of your ground, in the land.”
All these blessings are dependent on you and I taking the faith position of obedience, and avoiding the flesh position of disobedience.
We are to be obeying the Spirit and disobeying the flesh. That means if you see curses in your life as a precious word carrier, it came because you are obeying the flesh and disobeying the Spirit. If you see the opposite of all the Blessings, we have read in Deuteronomy 28 in your life, the flesh is responsible for it.
FRIEND, TAKING FLESH POSITIONS HAS NEVER BEEN A BLESSING IN THE LIVES OF WORD CARRIERS. IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN A CURSE.
It was a curse in the life of Adam, a curse in the generation before the flood, a curse in the life of Ham, a curse in the life of Abraham called Ishmael, a curse in the life Of David in the Beersheba issue, a curse in the life of the entire nation of Israel, and a curse even in the early church where a couple had to die in one day.
In fact, our devotional text shows us how it ended the reign of Saul, the first king of Israel; someone GOD initially chose to form the royal lineage for the coming of the messiah. He lost all that to the flesh position of disobedience that he took. God had sent him on an errand, which he partially obeyed, but defined it to be total obedience.
He never knew that in God, partial obedience is disobedience. This was after other flesh positions he took, which took the gracious intercessions of Samuel to save him from the terrible consequences.
Most of us are like that. We do not know that, carrying the precious word of God, and disobeying His voice and Spirit, should not be in the same vessel. One will destroy the other. It destroyed Saul’s glorious future. The Bible says;
“Saul said to Samuel, Yes, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag king of Amalek and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
But the people took from the spoil sheep and oxen, the chief of the things to be utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.
Samuel said, Has the Lord as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim (household good luck images). Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king. 1 Samuel 15:20-23 AMPC
WHAT CAN WE GLEAN FORM THIS SCRIPTURE? SO MUCH! BUT WE CANNOT GO INTO MUCH OF THAT ON THIS PLATFORM.
However, it will be important to note that, the Bible made it clear to us that the flesh positions of disobedience or rebellion is like the terrible sin of witchcraft. That was why Saul ended up with the witch of Endor. The woman was not the only witch that day when Saul met her. Saul was her colleague; it was actually a meeting of a witch and a wizard.
Meaning, if we are carrying the word of the LORD but taking the flesh position of disobedience, we are operating on the same plane with witches and wizards. Whatever they do against us will succeed. That is why most believers can be successfully attacked by witches and wizards.
Ordinarily, because of our redemption, a witch was not supposed to succeed against us in any way. But they succeed, despite the word we carry because we take the flesh position of disobedience, instead of the faith position of obedience and submission to GOD’s holy will and ways.
It is my prayer that the LORD will use these few thoughts we have shared, to shape our lives for Him, in Jesus precious name. Amen!!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY!
“Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you—O Israel, if you would listen to Me! There shall no strange god be among you, neither shall you worship any alien god.
I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it. But My people would not hearken to My voice, and Israel would have none of Me.
So I gave them up to their own hearts’ lust and let them go after their own stubborn will, that they might follow their own counsels.
Oh, that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways! speedily then I would subdue their enemies and turn My hand against their adversaries.
[Had Israel listened to Me in Egypt, then] those who hated the Lord would have come cringing before Him, and their defeat would have lasted forever.
[God] would feed [Israel now] also with the finest of the wheat; and with honey out of the rock would I satisfy you.” Psalm 81:8-16 AMPC