TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 11TH MARCH 2023)
“A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.
And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture.
And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be?
And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.
Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.” Luke 8:5-11 KJV
WELCOME TO THE 70th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS!
Today is one of the landmark days of this year, the 70th day. Glory to God for making it possible for us to be alive and to see this day.
Believe it or not, there are many people who started this year, who are no longer with us. The enemy never wanted them to see this landmark day. For some, it was not even the enemy, but themselves. For others, it was fellow human beings that did things to cut their lives short. But for few others, it was God who decided that they leave the earth.
I call today a land mark day because of its connection to the end-time harvest of souls. Now this may not make sense to any “bless-me” believer, or any member of any Church that is a huge “bless me club,” like Tommy Tenney will call it in His book “GOD CHASERS.”
By the way, I strongly recommend this book, it set my heart on fire; another kind of God’s fire, when I had it many years ago. It confirmed so many things I felt about the Church in Nigeria then, and propelled me to become bolder in declaring the word of the LORD, holding firm the apostolic mantle I carry. It is a book every child of God must get and read, so that they understand where people like us are coming from.
You will never be sane, as a carrier of a correctional precious word from the LORD, watching preachers turning believers into either money Chasers, marriage chasers, and chasers of other mundane things, instead of God Chasers. It is a good book to read!
Perhaps, it will help you understand that we are not attacking men of God, but attacking the evil some of us are doing in the name of the LORD.
The Bible did not permit anyone to judge a man of God, because the God who call us all will judge us on the final day. But the Bible permits us all in the faith to judge what every man of God is preaching, teaching or prophesying in the name of the LORD.
IF YOU ARE NOT JUDGING IT, THEN YOU ARE GOING THE DESTROY THE PRECIOUS WORD YOU CARRY AS A CHILD OF GOD.
In fact, God has raised some teaching apostles and prophets in our age and time, to teach the Church how to judge what anyone is doing in His name. In the Old Testament, people with this kind of calling were presented as the Zadok Priesthood. They were to teach the people of God the difference between what is good in God, and what is evil that is being presented as good in God.
The Bible says;
“And they shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the unholy, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.
In controversy they shall stand as judges, and judge it according to My judgments. They shall keep My laws and My statutes in all My appointed meetings, and they shall hallow My Sabbaths.
“They shall not defile themselves by coming near a dead person. Only for father or mother, for son or daughter, for brother or unmarried sister may they defile themselves.” Ezekiel 44:23-25 NKJV
Let me be prophetic; there is a move of God in the Church today, to teach His people “the difference between the holy and the unholy, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean” according to this and other prophetic scriptures.
Yes, in our age and time, there are people God have called and raised to do exactly what the Zadok priest did in their days, as we can see in Ezekiel 44; but the difference is, they are to move in the faith, the spirit and the fire of the New Testament.
Their ministries are to flow into Nations, like mighty rivers or great waves of God’s glory, to teach, train, and stir God’s people to walk in the light of the difference between the holy and the unholy, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean, because of the horrors of the last days.
Now, you may not like this, but I humbly say I am one of them. I belong to this company of God’s voices on earth, and I know it. Please pardon me, because we need to help those who are asking about our identity, like the people did to John the Baptist in Bible days.
I WILL SAY, THAT IS THE PRECIOUS WORD WE CARRY.
Our job is to teach the Church how to discern between good doctrines and false doctrines, between good preaching and false preaching, between true prophecy and false prophecy, between what is holy in the mouth of preachers and what is unholy, between what will form Christ in them and what will form the antichrist in them, between what is clean and what is unclean, between what is of the Holy God and what is of other gods, and etc.
We are to teach the Church to judge, not preachers but their preaching and preaching ministries, not prophets but their prophecies and prophetic ministries, not teachers of God’s word but the word of God they teach, with the aim of holding on to what is good and true, and abstaining from what is evil.
Understand that, the way God graced Benny Hinn to heal the sick, Kenneth Hagin to teach of faith, Mariah Woodworth Etta to bring amazing dimensions of His Spirit, Catherin Kuhlmann to do almost the same, Billy Graham to lead millions to Him, Morris Cerrulo to do the same, He has graced us to function as the Zadok priest of our age and time, but as able ministers of the New Testament.
He has called and placed us in His body, in a time like this, to teach His people the difference between the holy and the unholy, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. If you do not understand that you will be calling us all kinds of evil, for doing our GOD given assignments; the assignment of teaching the saved and sanctified, and those who needs salvation, to walk in the light of 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verses 16 to 22.
THAT SCRIPTURE SAYS;
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22 NKJV
I cannot forget the year God stood in the entire chapter of Ezekiel 44, to transmit this assignment to me. Beautifully, I have met quite a few others who carry the same precious word, doing the same thing, with the same furry and fire of the LORD.
Now, it is important to note that, no believer can walk in the light of 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22, until they are trained to do so. I have met quiet some who will not submit to be trained, trying to walk in the light of this scripture. Majority have ended up calling what is true false, and what is false true, or mixing both together and calling everything, false.
In fact, some have today strayed from the faith, and have become spiritually insane, without knowing it.
The spiritual tragedies of their lives teach that, only those who sit under the mantles of the present day or New Testament Zadok priests, for training, maturity, and equipping, can test prophecies, ministries, doctrines and demonstrations and judge them properly.
The harvest in that area today is ripe. The reason is, if you look at the last verses of 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22, you will find these precious words, “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.”
Now, how many believers are testing the spirits, doctrines, demonstrations, practices and prophecies of their papas, apostles and prophets today? Especially with the aim of holding fast to what is good and abstaining from what is evil?
None, in most churches, and very few in others!
For most believers, all that their papas, apostles, and prophets are doing are good, and not evil. So, there is no need to test anything. They fatally believe that if what they are doing is bad, only God should judge. But they forget that God judges the preacher and we judge the preaching, God judges the prophet and we judge the prophecy, God judges the deliverance ministers, and we judge how he conduct the deliverance. That is the dichotomy.
One day I sat down to think through all these and discovered that most church people today, do not walk in the light of 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22, because they look at the leaves of the ministries of their spiritual fathers, how they are bringing healing to the nations, instead of the fruits as Jesus said.
IN MATTHEW CHAPTER 7, VERSES 15 THROUGH 20, JESUS TAUGHT US TO LOOK AT THE FRUITS AND NOT THE LEAVES.
The leaves of many preachers today are bringing healing to the nations, but the fruits of their ministries are doing something else; something damnable to say the least. But people look at the leaves not the fruits, and speak ill of us when we point them to the fruits.
Friends, the Bible says you should judge what preachers preach, what teachers teach, and what prophets prophesy, with the aim of holding on to what is good and abstaining from what is evil. It says all believers should be able to discern between the holy and the unholy, the clean and the unclean.
Do not succumb to any name calling for doing so.
Sadly, people who are trained, equipped and matured to walk in the light of 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22, who find themselves in certain churches, are usually accused of having a critical spirit, or something more damnable. You find the majority trained to keep quiet, even when they know what is happening is not Biblically moral, true, or clean.
But God want us to be able to humbly, but strongly and firmly refute what is immoral and unclean in His judgment, evil, bad, and unholy. That is the core of Kingdom Citizenship.
Now, why are we sharing all these? The reason is in the last verse of our devotional text. It says, “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God” (Luke 8:11 NKJV).
We have been sharing about being a successful precious word carrier, and yesterday we made it clear that every born-again child of God is a carrier of God’s word. Today the LORD is showing us that the seed is the word of God; meaning everyone is pregnant with a seed, and we are expected to deliver the babies someday.
NOW, WHAT WE WILL DELIVER IS IMPORTANT. IT IS THE ORIGINAL GOD WANTS, NOT THE COUNTERFEIT.
God cannot impregnate you with a seed, that should bring forth something in His will, and you end up bringing forth something that looks like something in His will like king Saul did, and not be judged by God. If He gives us a seed to carry and bring forth at appointed times, we must carry it in purity of spirit and doctrine; and bring it forth in its original copy, not a counterfeit.
In other words, the child must not just be a child; the child must be His child.
There is a possibility that the seed can be born as a child of another god, that is why the child must be His child by prophetic DNA. Even in the natural realm, only a foolish man accepts any child as his child because the woman says so. He must be sure it is his Child and not another, before he can take up the responsibility of raising that child.
What is the message of today’s devotional? The message is simple; there is need to protect the originality of the precious word we carry for our generation, so that it will not become a mixed breed, or the seed of a god. That is the reason for walking in the light of 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22 today.
God wants the seed He has given us to remain His, and not become polluted or desecrated right in our spirits, and its originality lost. He wants it protected because it is possible for its originality to be lost, and we end up bringing forth what is not His. That is the message!
If we spend our days bringing forth the things of God in their original form like Mary did, there will be great joy in Heaven and in our lives. In Bible terms, it will be hosanna in the Highest in Heaven, and peace to men or our lives on earth.
MAKE THIS WORD AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.
For there is born to you this day in the city of David a savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” Luke 2:10-14 NKJV