TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 16TH May 2023)
“My son, keep your father’s [God-given] commandment and forsake not the law of [God] your mother [taught you].
Bind them continually upon your heart and tie them about your neck. When you go, they [the words of your parents’ God] shall lead you; when you sleep, they shall keep you; and when you waken, they shall talk with you.
For the commandment is a lamp, and the whole teaching [of the law] is light, and reproofs of discipline are the way of life, To keep you from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a loose woman.
Lust not after her beauty in your heart, neither let her capture you with her eyelids. For on account of a harlot a man is brought to a piece of bread, and the adulteress stalks and snares [as with a hook] the precious life [of a man].
Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned?
So he who cohabits with his neighbor’s wife [will be tortured with evil consequences and just retribution]; he who touches her shall not be innocent or go unpunished.” Proverbs 6:20-29 AMPC
WELCOME TO THE 136TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS & WONDERS!
Day unto day the LORD has been showing us mercies. He has not just been showing us mercies but truth also, because mercy and truth kissed together on the cross, and released redemption to us.
The relationship between mercy and truth must be understood. It is mercies that pardons us from sins, and truth that helps us to sin no more.
Mercy confers upon us miracles and blessings, truth helps us to make them manifest and to retain them. Mercy opens to us the gates to God’s throne while we are on the prayer knee, truth guides us on what to say when we get there. Mercy will give us a life that has been washed by the blood of Jesus Christ, truth will help us in keeping it pure and holy.
Perhaps the relationship between mercy and truth or how they network is best understood by the Psalmist. That is why it says;
“Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed.
Truth shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
Yes, the LORD will give what is good; and our land will yield its increase.” Psalm 85:10-12 NKJV
THIS SCRIPTURE IS FULL OF TRUTHS THAT CANNOT BE UNCOVERED IN A DEVOTIONAL. BUT HERE ARE FEW THINGS WE CAN GLEAN FROM IT.
The first is, if you want righteousness to look down from Heaven, truth must spring up from the earth. If you want the rain of righteousness to fall upon your life on a consistent bases, truth must spring forth from your life on consistent bases. That is a law of the Spirit. In other words, you must be a man or woman who walk in God’s truth to enjoy His rain on regular bases.
Secondly, if you look at this scripture, you will realize that for anything significant to come from Heaven to make our lives successful on earth, or yield blessings, mercy and truth must network and carry out the complete work of redemption in our hearts. The network of mercy and truth is the most powerful network in the kingdom of GOD.
That is why whenever you see people who were brought together by mercy and truth, you will see God’s power, presence, might, glory and splendor flowing in their lives. You will see the manifestation of freedom from sin, Satan, and the influence of the evil and corrupt system of this world, in their lives.
Churches that are built on the network of mercy and truth are very few today, but the few you find are strong and healthy. Families and individual lives built on the network of mercy and truth are usually strong and very healthy. They usually flourish like a palm tree even in worst situations, fulfilling the scripture that says;
“The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the LORD Shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing, To declare that the LORD is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.” Psalm 92:12-15 NKJV
From this scripture, it is also clear that a Christian life that is built on the network of mercy and truth will flourish spiritually and otherwise. It will be very effective, powerful, glorious, impactful, transformational, and Christlike; bringing forth fruits even in old age. In other words, it will be ageless. It will also not be full of sin, iniquity or trespass.
IN SIMPLE TERMS, IT WILL BE A CONSECRATED OR AN UNCOMPROMISING RIGHTEOUS CHRISTIAN LIFE.
The classic edition of the amplified version puts the same scripture this way;
“The [uncompromisingly] righteous shall flourish like the palm tree [be long-lived, stately, upright, useful, and fruitful]; they shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon [majestic, stable, durable, and incorruptible].
Planted in the house of the Lord, they shall flourish in the courts of our God.
[Growing in grace] they shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap [of spiritual vitality] and [rich in the] verdure [of trust, love, and contentment].
[They are living memorials] to show that the Lord is upright and faithful to His promises; He is my Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.” Psalm 92:12-15 AMPC
The house of God, by now, you know is not a building. But the place of God’s manifest presence. The network of mercy and truth places a child of God permanently in the place of God’s manifest presence, in the realm of the spirit. It gets them planted in the house of GOD!
By being planted, they live long, stately, uprightly, and become useful and fruitful in Kingdom matters, growing in grace and spiritual vitality, and becoming rich in spiritual treasure by the day. Being in the network of God’s mercy and truth has helped me since I left man made networks among preachers, bishops and councils of elders.
YOU SEE, THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS A NET SO IT FUNCTIONS THROUGH NETWORKING AND ACCOUNTABILITY.
I knew this long ago but did not know which network extends the kingdom, and the kind of accountability that keeps a preacher safe and long in ministry.
I use to belong to clergy networks and even had invitations to join many others based in the United States. I was looking for how to extend the frontiers of God’s kingdom through networking and accountability; I knew how dangerous it is not to be accountable in ministry.
Sadly, I never found what I was looking for. Rather, I found manipulation, hero worship, covering of sin, tribalism in some, and politics in most.
The last network I walked away from was a global apostolic network, but it became political. That was when I discovered the network I should have join from the onset. I discovered that I should have joined the network of God’s mercies and truth instead of these networks; instead of these man-made networks.
My life and ministry only took on a great leap forward, when I separated from them, and dedicated myself to the network of grace and truth. It is a network that called for greater accountability to Christ and dedication to His course. Paul was in that network, he said, “my life worth nothing, except I spend it doing the things assigned to me by the LORD Jesus.”
The description of the blessed life we find in Psalm 92, only comes when we quit all man-made networks and begin to network with God’s mercy and Truth. That brings us to our devotional text for the day.
A major highlight of the text says;
“My son, keep your father’s [God-given] commandment and forsake not the law of [God] your mother [taught you].
Bind them continually upon your heart and tie them about your neck. When you go, they [the words of your parents’ God] shall lead you; when you sleep, they shall keep you; and when you waken, they shall talk with you.
For the commandment is a lamp, and the whole teaching [of the law] is light, and reproofs of discipline are the way of life,
To keep you from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a loose woman.
Lust not after her beauty in your heart, neither let her capture you with her eyelids.
For on account of a harlot a man is brought to a piece of bread, and the adulteress stalks and snares [as with a hook] the precious life [of a man]. Proverbs 6:20-24 AMPC
PLEASE READ THIS OVER AND OVER AGAIN UNTIL IT GETS DEPOSITED INTO THE UNIT OF YOUR SOUL DESIGNED TO COLLECT AND STORE DATA; THE MEMORY.
This scriptural text is about sexual purity. It shows us what sexual impurity will do to us and how to be free from the snare. It says “for the account of a harlot a man is reduced to a piece of bread.” It could be a woman too.
The value of a piece of bread is what you should never dream of. Samson was reduced to a piece of bread and lost all glory until God’s mercies came for him.
Satan’s goal is to take God’s shinning stars, from being stars to becoming pieces of bread, through sexual scandals where they become a laughing stock. This he does by the fingers or hands of men and women, who may not be harlots but have the characteristics of a harlot. The bible says on the account of a harlot, a man is reduced to a piece of bread, not even a loaf.
Now, what is the main characteristic of a harlot? Because the Bible says by the fruits, we shall know them. What is the main fruit of a harlot? Sex that has no respect for divinely set boundaries.
Meaning, that beautiful woman or growing man that is bent at sleeping with you may be on a mission. Most times without even knowing it, because there are blind witches in the realm of sexual intercourse.
Yes, there are beautiful or handsome and sexually appealing ladies and gentlemen, who have been made witches and wizards in the spirit realm, but are not aware. They are some of the most potent forces of darkness because you see their sincerity and cannot tell they are witches.
It could be men pursuing you desperately for sex. Most of them are blind wizards induced to defile and destroy you without even knowing it. Inflicted with an undying urge to sleep with you, Satan sets them on a frequency that makes you want to yield to them.
We must all understand that we are in a war. And that Satan has a way of injecting men and women to function as witches and wizards in the sex realm; blind witches and wizards; blinded by their desire for sexual pleasure. He injects them with an undying appetite for sex with someone he wants to destroy.
We must understand this war and not destroy ourselves with unbridled sexual appetite. Child of GOD, the plagues of sexual sin are real. It is no fiction. Look at many marriages that have been broken because of this sin. You need to go to the hospitals and see what the sin has done to the health of many.
Yesterday the LORD spoke to us strongly about it and showed us how it is facilitated by the unit of the soul called emotions. It’s been a journey of truth towards the sanctification of the five units of the soul, and we are sure we will come out with a consecrated life at the end.
As we bring this to a close, do not forget that to build our Christian lives on the network of mercy and truth, is what this journey is about. When we build our Christian lives on the network of God’s mercies and Truth, we can lead consecrated Christian lives and achieve sexual purity.
The truths we have learned so far must not be ignored if a life of consecration is our goal.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“Shun immorality and all sexual looseness [flee from impurity in thought, word, or deed]. Any other sin which a man commits is one outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You are not your own,
You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for, made His own]. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 AMPC