TODAY’S DEVOTION (THURSDAY 22ND JUNE 2023)**
“Uzziah was sixteen years old when he began his fifty-two-year reign in Jerusalem. His mother was Jecoliah of Jerusalem.
He did right in the Lord’s sight, to the extent of all that his father Amaziah had done. He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the things of God; and as long as he sought (inquired of, yearned for) the Lord, God made him prosper.” 2 Chronicles 26:3-5 AMP
WELCOME TO THE 173RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
We thank God for another day! His mercies are new every morning! Great is His faithfulness. Indeed, there is no God like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the Heavens to help us. We are not serving a god, we are serving the Almighty One, Creator of Heaven and earth.
If we were serving a god, some of us would have been dead by now, because gods have no capacity to love, they eat who they bless, and destroy who they inhabit. They destroy them bit by bit and eat their lives piece by piece. They throw them into darkness, steal their souls for hell, and sometimes, give them money or supernatural power in return.
That is why God smashes them, that is why His fire of divine wrath and judgment burns against them.
He remains the only one who can be a Father to you and me. He remains the only one who should be at the center of our lives through Jesus Christ and the blessed Holy Spirit. He remains the only one who can be a shelter from the dark activities of these evil forces going about as gods in the spirit realm. He remains a shelter and Man of war when we are dealing with these forces or any demon, evil power, or principality, that parades the earth.
His love, His mercies, His marvelous deeds, and blessings are incomparable. That is why, the best thing you can do for yourself is to give Him His place in your Life. It is to tell Him, “LORD, come and take your place in my life.” Then submit to Him to do just that.
Yes, if you allow Him to take His place in your life, and allow Him to do what He was supposed to do in your life, you will fulfill your days and have your life covered with His blessings.
For instance, if you allow Him to guide you, you will ultimately get to a glorious end. If you allow Him to instruct you, you will live a blissful life on earth. If you allow Him to teach you, you will be wiser than your enemies. If you allow Him to empower you, you will be stronger than anyone who may be against you.
IF YOU ALLOW HIM TO FIGHT FOR YOU, THERE WILL BE NO LIFE BATTLE YOU WILL NOT COME OUT VICTORIOUS.
If you allow Him to be your companion, there will be no adversity that will ever consume you, because you will always tap into the prosperity of every adversity. If you make His active presence your dwelling place, you will fulfill every detail of your divine destiny.
If you allow Him to choose your friends for you, He will surround you with men and women who will make you what He wants you to be. They will serve as a corporate shield or individually as bridges to wherever you need to get to in life.
We have been looking at matters of our divine destiny, understand that you will need the Almighty God, to fulfill any content of your divine destiny. You will need to allow Him to take His place in your life, for you to fulfill whatever Heaven has pre pared as your divine destiny.
Your divine destiny describes the totality of the glorious things Heaven has pre appointed, or organized and structured that they happen in your life time, for you to fulfill a purpose in God’s eternal plan for mankind. Until you give God His place in your life, none of that will be actualized. You will find yourself fulfilling a destiny but not a divine one. You will find things that men, systems, customs, traditions, and even devils, organized for you happening in your life. You will find yourself fulfilling a natural destiny.
Friend, when it comes to the release of divine destiny, the first and most important relationship a man would need, is not a husband, wife, father, or the rich. It is not even a relationship with a medical doctor that needs to treat you, a president of a nation to connect to, or the CEO of an Oil company to give you a Job, or a multi-million contract.
The first and most important relationship you will need to unlock a divine destiny, is a relationship with God. It must come first before any other!
If a relationship with God does not come first, you may have some of the best relationships mentioned above, but they will either not do you any divine good, or come at a very high cost.
Meaningful relationships are God given and God driven! You will need them to fulfill some of the contents of your divine destiny. Once you find God, He will begin to bring them your way, and use them to fulfill those contents of your destiny He made them for. Sometimes, as soon as those contents are fulfilled, they will leave your life.
IF YOU HOLD THEM ANY FURTHER, THE ONCE BEAUTIFUL RELATIONSHIP WILL BEGIN TO BREED WORMS AND KILL SOMETHINGS IN YOUR LIFE.
So, your divine destiny will need God at the center of your life to be fulfilled. Then God will bring in those it’s content needs. Understand that! It will need a strong meeting or meetings with God to be fulfilled. It will not need people you think you need, it will need the God you need to meet first.
A man who meets God first and strengthens his relationship with Him, will not lack meaningful relationships in life. God will give him choice people who will surround him like a wall and prevent lack, failure, sickness, poverty, shame, or reproach from coming into his life.
God will give him some Jonathans to encourage him in battle, some Nathans to warn and chastise him of any wrong doing, some Abigail to marry him, if he is a single man and if it will be required, or some Joseph to marry her if she is a single woman and if that will be required. God could give the person other forms of relationships, depending on the content of their divine destinies.
When it comes to the release of divine destiny, understand that God will never leave a person of divine destiny without meaningful relationships. The Prophet Isaiah proved this when he prophesied saying;
Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations, and set up My standard for the peoples; They shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders;
Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers; they shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick up the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord, for they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.” Isaiah 49:22-23 NKJV
If someone is in the Spirit this morning, he or she can personalize this promise!
It is the arm of the LORD that pulls the very people we need to us. That is why meeting and carrying God on your inside, or making Him the center of your life, is the key to having the people that we really need in life. It is the key to having that man or woman some contents of your destiny need to be fulfilled.
Yes, it is the key to allowing people who will become meaningful relationships in your life come to you. It is the key to not engage the arm of flesh to assemble anyone. It is the key to allowing the arm of the LORD do His job.
THAT IS WHY IF WE DO NOT MEET GOD FIRST IN LIFE, WE MAY NEVER MEET THOSE OUR LIFE REALLY NEEDS TO BLOSSOM.
If we do not meet the true God, and place Him at the center of our lives, by allowing Him to take His place in every detail of our lives, we will just be meeting the wrong people in life. The singles will be meeting the married to marry them, the married meeting singles who want to destroy their homes, the poor will be meeting those who want to take advantage of them, and the rich meeting those who want to be parasites in their lives, and all that.
No man or woman of divine destiny will meet the right person, the very person or people some contents of their divine destinies needs to be fulfilled, without allowing God to take His place in every detail of their lives. They will always meet the wrong people.
Some wrong people are sometimes sent by Satan. If you do not allow God to be God in every detail of your life, you will be falling into people who will become a snare in your life. It is important to understand that Satan does destroy people’s lives by giving them men and women they think they need, but those men or women are just a snare to them.
I have heard of people doing very well in life shrink back to darkness because of people their emotional and material needs or carnal desires told them they needed. That is why if your emotional or material need, or a carnal desire helps you initiate a relationship, it will blow on your face. It will just be a matter of time!
Samson thought he needed Delilah. But she moved him from being a man of supernatural exploits to a blind prisoner and entertainer. Reuben thought he needed his father’s concubine. But she brought a curse upon his life. Dinah thought she needed the daughters of the heathen land her father was dwelling (Genesis 34). But she got raped and brought bloodshed upon the land.
The woman at the well in John chapter 4 thought she needed the 5 men she had lived with as husband. But she became a disposable napkin. Eve thought she needed the serpent she was in friendship with, but here we are today, battling with the consequences of that relationship.
SADLY, MANY ARE IN HELL TODAY BECAUSE OF THAT.
If our carnal desires or immediate needs initiate relationships for us, we are bound to mourn in a matter of weeks, months, or even years.
Many are single mothers and fathers today because they brought people their carnal desires told them they needed in life. Yes, many women have children with different men because of a repeat of same error – the error of thinking you need him while in God’s perspective you do not. The Bible says;
“There is a way that seems right to a man and appears straight before him, but at the end of it is the way of death.” Proverbs 16:25 AMP
Wise people will allow God to initiate and guide them in relationship matters. But fools will go with anyone that seems alright in their sight or agree with their terms and conditions. When it comes to having meaningful relationships, you must understand that man was not designed to make proper decisions without God’s help. That brings us to our devotional text this morning.
One man God placed, in the life of the young King Uzziah, was all he needed to become successful in life. A major highlight in the text said;
“He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the things of God; and as long as he sought (inquired of, yearned for) the Lord, God made him prosper.”
Friend, there are contents of your divine destiny that will need this kind of a man or woman in your life for them to be fulfilled. This kind of a man or woman may come in as a spiritual authority in your life, or any other significant man or woman with the pedigree of Zechariah.
May the LORD bless us with this kind of men and women. May we have such men as pastors or spiritual authorities over our lives, in Jesus’ precious name. Amen!
Finally, we are in a terminal generation, do not forget that Satan will use people we think we need to make sure we don’t relate properly with the God we truly need, and see major contents of our divine destiny not fulfilled. Every child of God must understand this and seek God for people who will not push His presence away from his or her life.
Zechariah, a man who had understanding in the visions of God, remains the template of the kind of people we need this very hour! We will succeed here on earth marvelously and make Heaven gloriously, if we have such people in our lives. That is the message of today!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY
“Hear, my son, and receive my sayings, and the years of your life will be many. I have taught you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in right paths.
When you walk, your steps will not be hindered, and when you run, you will not stumble. Take firm hold of instruction, do not let go; Keep her, for she is your life.” Proverbs 4:10-13 NKJV