TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 2ND AUGUST 2023)
“Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? “Therefore, do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Matthew 6:25-34 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 214th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
Blessed be the name of the LORD for another day. A day from the Day Himself worth receiving with gratitude. Thank God that we are alive this morning.
Indeed, the keeper of Israel, does not sleep or slumber. He is ever merciful, kind, and also just. It is because He is just that He gives to everyone of us according to our deeds. However, in His mercies, He has withheld so many bad things that would have happened to us from happening; things that our deeds would have unlocked upon us. For that we are grateful.
I am always glad whenever I remember the three colors that surround God’s Throne, and what they represent. They gave us hope for repentance while we were yet sinners. They are still the hope of all sinners out there. They are the reason why the sin that lives in us has not, and will never destroy us. They are the reason for the regeneration of our spirits and washing of our souls to serve the living GOD.
Yesterday, we shared about counting of blessings, and we saw that forgiveness of sin is a major blessing to count. Indeed, if this blessing is non-existence in our lives, we will have no hope of eternal life. In simple terms, our eternal destiny will never be fulfilled. We will live and die and all end up in hell, because the Bible says, “the wages of sin is death.”
It is the blessing of forgiveness that took away the wages of sin from us, and gave us the free gift of eternal life. It helped us to have peace with God, and made it possible for the Holy Spirit to come live in us as a seal of our salvation. It is a blessing to not just count, but recount on daily bases.
The blessing also helps us in fulfilling our prophetic destiny. Look at Samson for instance. His prophetic destiny was to begin God’s war with the Philistines. He started well until he met Delilah. His relationship with the woman, led to a destiny sin in his life.
Destiny sins are very heavy sins. They are not just some ordinary lawless deeds, but lawless deeds with capacity to alter so much in someone’s destiny.
What happened to Samson shows us what destiny sins can do in our lives. The Bible says he lost the Holy Spirit, could no longer fulfill his divine assignment, became a grinder in the prison yard of his enemies, got his eyes plucked out, and became a regional shame and reproach after over 20 years of glory, exploits, and dominion.
THAT IS WHAT ONE DESTINY SIN CAN DO. IT CAN ERASE YEARS OF GLORY, EXPLOITS, AND DOMINION IN ONE MOMENT.
The definition of a destiny sin, is not in the act but in the actor. It is not in the deed, but in the person committing the deed. That is why, destiny sins destroy things in God’s kingdom. When David committed it, God said to him, “you have made the enemies of God to blaspheme.” Destiny sins boost the activities of God’s enemies. That is why they are dangerous.
They are usually the lawless deeds of vessels of God; lawless deeds of people who are being used of God to do things in His kingdom. They are not the lawless deeds of anyone out there, because not all are doing significant things in God’s kingdom.
For instance, a man or woman who is not being used of God to do anything significant, may sleep with a woman or man that they are not married to, and it will be a sin of adultery or fornication, but not destroy anything much in God’s kingdom. But when a man or woman who is mightily used of God do the same thing, it is not just an ordinary sin of fornication or adultery.
It is a much heavier sin because to whom much is given, much is expected. It is a destiny sin, because it could wipe away years of glory, exploits, and accomplishments in one moment. It could destroy so much in God’s kingdom. That is why, if God has laid His hand on us, we must become careful how we live our lives, because even a little lie can damage so much.
When so much is damaged in God’s kingdom, it will reflect in our lives, resulting in so much pain. From the life of Samson, it is clear that destiny sins do not just damage things in God’s kingdom, but our lives also. We can see that, they usually destroy the reason why God is backing one up, or making him or her succeed in life.
THEY TAKE AWAY ONE’S CONSECRATION AND LEAVE THE PERSON VULNERABLE TO THE POWER OF DARKNESS.
Friend, because of the depth of God’s plans and purposes that can be destroyed by one destiny sin, I believe there are no words to fully describe what a destiny sin can damage in God’s kingdom.
Maybe, when we get back to eternity, after God has forgiven us of all sins and placed us on the parley gates, we will all see how many times we all depleted the kingdom of God with our destiny sins, there and then we will weep one more time, and be sorry for our sins, and then rejoice in the blessing of forgiveness.
Talking about the blessing of forgiveness, does God forgive destiny sins? It all depends on the vessel who committed the sin and what it damaged in God’s kingdom. It was a destiny sin for Judas to betray Jesus. The Bible says his remorse could not save him from the consequences.
Moses committed one when he smote the rock, instead of speaking to it. That was a destiny sin; he did not enter the promise land as a result. He would later pray to God deeply, seeking that He overturn the judgment and allow him to see the promise land, but GOD did not. He is too just to let that happen.
The reason was because of the irreparable damage that Moses’ sin caused in God’s kingdom. The rock Moses struck for the second time was Christ. Him striking it twice created a breach in the spirit, because Christ is to be stricken once and for all for our sins, and not twice. He is to be crucified once, and not twice.
Today, many of us are crucifying Christ the second time by the way we are living our lives. God, who know the wickedness of men, knew that will happen, hence refusing Moses entry.
The purpose is to show us that whoever crucifies Christ the second time and dies without repentance, will not make it to the promise land of Heaven. He or she will not make Heaven, but will rather face a fearful judgment. You see that in Hebrew chapter 10.
Now, does that mean God does not forgive destiny sins? Like I stated earlier, it all depends on the person who committed them and the damage it created. Esau sold his birthright because of a morsel of food. That was a destiny sin. The Bible says when he would later realize it and sought God for mercy, it was too late.
Jesus spoke about those who will prophesy in His name, do miracles in His name, and cast out demons in His name, yet He will cast them out of His sight in the day of judgment because of the destiny sins they committed without repentance, while doing all that.
If you look at the Bible, you will see other lives that committed destiny sins, and how things in God’s kingdom were altered by it, and what God did later. For instance, Abram slept with Hagar at the instance of his wife, and gave birth to Ishmael.
TODAY, ISHMAEL IS STILL SMELLING BECAUSE IT WAS A DESTINY SIN FOR ABRAM.
God did not talk to him for 13 years after that. In other words, he lost God for 13 years because it was a destiny sin. But when the LORD returned, He returned to him with the covenant of circumcision. That is a major revelation for you and I. The process of receiving the blessing of forgiveness for any sin, especially a destiny sin, remains the threshing floor of circumcision.
The threshing floor of circumcision will cut away the works of the flesh or the people around us that are responsible for our falling into sin. It is a painful place to the flesh but a glorious one for life in the Spirit.
For instance, if you married the wrong person as a result of a destiny sin, and the marriage packed, you will need to spend the rest of your days on the threshing floor of the circumcision of the flesh, to enjoy the blessing of forgiveness all the days of your life.
If God will get you married again, it must happen on the threshing floor of the circumcision of the flesh or a life of repentance. It will not happen, and should not happen, in any other place. The safest place to spend your days after a season of destiny sins, is the threshing floor of repentance or the circumcision of the flesh.
Our generation must understand that there can be no forgiveness without repentance. The foolishness of seeking forgiveness without repentance must be thrown away and the truth of repentance being the condition for forgiveness be embraced.
There is no sin that God cannot forgive, if the sinner decides for a life of repentance. On the threshing floor of repentance or the circumcision of the flesh, God does not just forgive our sins, the damages that our destiny sins may have created in His kingdom can also be repaired, through our dying.
ONE MAY ASK, IF MOSES, ESAU, AND JUDAS WOULD HAVE HAD A DIFFERENT CASE, IF THEY HAD VISITED THE THRESHING FLOOR?
I have no answer to that because of the dispensations they lived in. Ours is different. If you are an Esau today, a Moses, or a Judas, and you spend your days in the threshing floor of repentance or the circumcision of the flesh, you will rewrite your story. Your case will be different.
If we are sincere to ourselves, we will realize that many of us have done much more than those men did in their days, yet we are not seeing the judgment they saw. The reason is because of the threshing floor of repentance and circumcision of the flesh that is available to us today.
Some of these men will remain books to be studied by our generation, due to the mysteries God concealed for us in their lives.
We must come to the place of realizing that, because of the need of the blessing of forgiveness, life on the threshing floor of repentance is no longer an option. It has become a necessity, because that was the place men like Paul spent the rest of their days after all the terrible things they did before meeting the LORD.
Yesterday, we spoke about counting our blessings and worrying about the right things this month. One of the blessings in God’s kingdom to count, and to keep recounting, is the blessing of forgiveness, and one of the right things to be worried about is a life on the threshing floor of repentance and the circumcision of the flesh, not what to eat, wear, etc.
A major part of our devotional text says;
“Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Matthew 6:
We will diminish spiritually if we keep worrying about the wrong things. We will never see provisions from expected ends through worrying for the wrong things.
The best things of God are enjoyed when we worry for the right things, and people who worry for a life on the Threshing floor of repentance and the circumcision of the flesh will find themselves in a church and under a preacher who will help them achieve that, thereby enjoying the best of God.
MAY THIS SCRIPTURE BRING FURTHER LIGHT TO US!
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit.When I kept silent, my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day long.
For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah
I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You In a time when You may be found; Surely in a flood of great waters They shall not come near him.
You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah Psalm 32:1-7 NKJV