TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 15TH AUGUST 2023)
“If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.
Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter.
If you say, “Surely we did not know this,” Does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?” Proverbs 24:10-12 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 227TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
What should a Child of God do, if his or her heart is full of pain for something unexpected that happened? What should a son of the Kingdom do, when things he thought will turn out well for him never did?
The world, of course is full of uncertainties. Expectations are bound to be disappointed, and the unexpected is bound to happen!
God did not say bad things will not happen to His own, He only promised us peace in the midst of storms. So, there is no place in the Bible where God said bad things will not happen, No! Sometimes your life can be disrupted, not by you, but by someone who does not know how not to yield to evil influences.
There is a great influence to do wrong in our age than it has been in any other age. These evil influences are as close to us as the phones on the palms of our hands. It is man’s response to these influences that results in the uncertainties of this world.
If you take a look at the story of Cain and Abel you will understand what I am saying this morning. The Bible says,
“By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.” Hebrews 11:4 NKJV
Faith comes by hearing the word of God and seeing the world of God – the world of His glory!
SO, GOD HAD ASKED CAIN AND ABEL TO BRING AN OFFERING TO HIM.
Abel waited on God for instructions on the type of offering to bring, and for the prophetic vision of what it should look like, but Cain did not. Consequently, Abel’s was accepted and Cain’s rejected. The divine rejection pushed Cain to yield to the terrible influences of the flesh – he became induced to be envious and Jealous! The rest is History!
Cain killed Abel and ended his life that day! He ended the life of another as if he was sending him to a sleep that he would wake up when his own anger is pacified. That is what negative influences do in the life of someone. It can push someone to be so insensitive and inhumane that you wonder what on earth is happening.
You do not kill, hate, become bitter, or envious of someone because God accepted their worship, you rejoice with them, and learn from them. But when an influence of darkness is playing on you, that would not be the case. Cain missed that important lesson because of the evil influence of the flesh that placed him under that of darkness.
Amazingly, God did not even warn Abel about the bad things that were coming his way. Sometimes, God will not warn the righteous of such things; yes, He will be mute on the bad things that are about happening to us. You find that also in the life of Job. He never told him that He was about losing his prosperity and posterity in one day, no He never.
He never said, “my son Job, you are about going through terrible things, however be strong because it will turn out for good.” He never did. So, we should not expect God to be telling us everything. We should not expect Him to be revealing every bad thing that is lying in our future. His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts not our thoughts.
If we expect God to be telling us everything, we will be disappointed because He will not. The Bible says, “we serve a God who hides Himself.” Any Spirit that seems to be telling you everything is a deceiving spirit.
Sometimes the true God will hide Himself, so that we can walk through a path of faith full of sudden things that we will only survive by standing on a previous word He might have spoken to us.
THERE WOULD BE NO PRESENT WORD TO RELY UPON. YET, WE WILL BE EXPECTED TO KEEP THE WALK AND THE FAITH.
God did not warn Abel about Cain, but warned Cain about what he was about doing to Abel; He warned Him not to commit the terrible act he was about committing. There are some more truths to glean from there.
One of it is this, God is more concern about we not sinning than we staying alive. Yes, He did not warn the righteous Abel about what was coming, but warned Cain about the evil he was about doing. He is more concerned about we not sinning than staying alive because if there is no sin in our lives, we will stay alive.
The next truth is this, when God place the life of someone in our hands, He might not warn the person of the evil we are about doing to him or her, because it is our job to keep that person alive. If we do not, if we fail in our responsibility, we might do whatever we want to do, but God will judge us terribly.
Yes, God do place people under others to keep alive. Abel was to keep Cain alive and Cain was to keep Abel alive. That is the essence of brotherhood.
It does not just stop at the point of blood brotherhood, but extends to other forms of kingdom connections. Elisha was placed in the hands of Elijah, to be kept alive and pushed into destiny, and that also placed Elijah in the hands of Elisha, to keep alive by serving him till he leaves the earth.
If you are serving someone, you have a responsibility to keep the person alive, and the person also has the responsibility to keep you alive. That is God’s design.
A father has the responsibility to keep his family alive, and a family has the responsibility to keep a father alive.
A husband has the responsibility to keep his wife alive, and a wife has the responsibility to keep her husband alive. A staff has the responsibility to keep the boss alive, and the boss has the responsibility to keep his staff alive. We are all called to keep each other alive.
SO, GOD DOES NOT EXPECT US TO BE WICKED AND EVIL TOWARDS EACH OTHER.
Another truth that we can pick from the Cain’s and Abel’s story is this, maybe God warned Abel of the danger that was coming; the danger of going out with his brother when his brother was asking him to accompany him to the fields, but Abel could not pick since you will not expect anything bad from your relative, someone that should protect you, or anyone so close.
Yes, if you are a pastor, you will not expect anything bad from your seemingly faithful church member, and if you are a church member, you will not expect anything bad from your pastor either. That is how it is. No one will expect anything bad from those they feel or felt secured around. Hence, it will take the special grace of God to sense in the Spirit any evil they may be intending against you.
I guess Abel would not have believed if he had even gotten the warning because there had been no murder before then, and no one knew such can happen. Believing sometimes, does not come by hearing, but by the experiences of others or yours.
Abel never knew that morning that the worship he was giving to God that day, was the last he will ever give on this side of eternity. No one had died on earth before then, so death was unknown to them, and that was the last thing anyone will expect from a blood relative. But the unexpected happened, courtesy of the strong influence that Cain, his brother, yielded to.
Sometimes, your private life will be peaceful until someone who does not know how not to yield to strange influences come into it. As soon as he or she comes into it, things will become scattered. The world is indeed full of uncertainties because of men and women who yield to strange influences to disrupt the lives of others!
But what do we do when such things happen to us? What do we do when bad things happen to good people? Knowing what to do will go a long way to help us in not having accidents in life, because these things are bound to happen! The Bible says,
“Woe to the world for such temptations to sin and influences to do wrong! It is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the person on whose account or by whom the temptation comes!” Matthew 18:7 AMP
This scripture makes it clear that, it is better to be wronged, than to be the one wronging others!
IT IS BETTER TO BE TEMPTED, THAN TO BE THE ONE MAKING OTHERS FALL INTO TEMPTATION.
There is a severe judgment reserved for those who make others fall into temptation. It tells us that it is safer to be troubled by someone, than to be the one troubling someone. Woe to the world because of trouble, but greater woe is reserved to the person who is the source of trouble in the life of others.
What do you do, when life gives you things you did not bargained for, negative things you deserve or you do not deserve? The first thing to do, is to shut down the gates of your natural senses to this world, and open them to the world of God; the world of the fullness of His presence, through an in-depth feast on God’s word on faith, in an atmosphere of a heartfelt prayer and fasting!
That was exactly what Jonah did when he found himself in the belly of the fish. The Bible says;
“Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. And he said: “I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and He answered me.” Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. Jonah 2:1-2 NKJV
You could be in a situation that looks like the belly of Sheol right now, God sent me to tell you to cry out to Him and not to give in to it. Our devotional text makes it clear this morning, that, it’s not a kingdom culture to faint in the day of adversity.
The kingdom culture is to keep reaching out and saving lives even in our days of adversity. That is the life of a soldier of the cross, because our mission remains, to seek and to save that which was lost. If we are not doing that, we will be lost. It says;
“If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.
Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter.
If you say, “Surely we did not know this,” Does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?” Proverbs 24:10-12 NKJV
IT’S NOT A KINGDOM CULTURE TO FAINT IN THE DAY OF ADVERSITY.
To faint in the Day of adversity, is to give in to the unexpected, or the negativities of the uncertainty of life, when they happen. It involves losing your cool and reacting to whatever may have happened! When a child of GOD reacts carnally to things, he will lose. But when he responds to them in faith, he will come out victorious!
In Biblical philosophy, to react carnally, is far different from responding in faith. When something you cannot take happens to you, and you allow the flesh to take action on it, you are reacting carnally. But when you allow the Spirit of the LORD to guide you on how to act on it, you are responding in faith.
In simple terms, when you do whatever the flesh tells you to do, you are reacting carnally, but when you do whatever the Spirit tells you to do, you are responding in faith. Victory comes when you respond to the day of adversity in faith, not when you react carnally.
How do you connect the Spirit to guide you on what to do in your day of adversity? Well, it all depends on the weight of the adversity.
There are adversities that will require that you shut down the gates of your natural senses to this world for a season, and open them to the world of GOD through heartfelt prayer and fasting in order for you to connect the right depth of the Holy Spirit that is required, for the adversity to be brought under control.
May God use these words to give you the required grace and spiritual blessings that you need, among they that are sanctified! Amen.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY
“You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.
And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.
The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops. Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.” 2 Timothy 2:3-7 NKJV