TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 19TH SEPTEMBER 2023)
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.”
So, then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. Romans 9:14-16 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 262ND DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS
We give God the glory for keeping us alive. It is another day from Jesus Christ, who the Bible calls, the Day. You may think it’s you that gave you this day, but I want to submit to you that Jesus Christ gave you, because by Him were all things created.
For 262 days today, the LORD has been speaking to us on this platform. He has been revealing Himself to us in His word. God speak in dreams, God speak in visions, God speak in revelation, God speak in created things, and God speak in numbers.
I want to say something about the number eleven. Prophetically, the number eleven among other things is the number of extra measures. Get set for extra measure of God’s moves in your life as His covenant Child from this season as the Jewish New Year Begins.
Now, I am not talking Judaism. It Was through Israel that we got the word and the Messiah. So, this is not Judaism. There is a prophetic insight I want to bring to our attention. The Jewish New Year is according to God’s redemptive activities. It positions our own year to be crowned by God with His goodness! David said unto the LORD “You crown the year with your goodness, and your paths drip with abundance” (Psalms 65:11 NKJV).
Whenever God crowns a man’s year with His goodness, the paths He designed for him will begin to drip with abundance. When a year is ending like this, those who spent the months of that year following the ways and paths of God for their lives, will come into a blessing; they will get the year crowned with the manifestation of God’s goodness in their lives.
God has a way of crowning any year we spend on His paths with His goodness – including this year. That is why we have taught those He committed to us, how to walk on His ways and His paths all year. For those who are not aware, I want to say at the beginning of this year, the LORD said to us, “2023 is Our Year of Signs and Wonders.” Actually, He spoke to us about this time last year.
He then set paths for us to follow. And all through the year He was teaching us those paths and ways, and by His grace some of us have been following them. Now He wants to crown the year with His goodness!
ABUNDANCE WILL BEGIN TO DROP ON US. HALLELUJAH!
Abundance of revelation, abundance of peace, abundance of Holiness, abundance of angelic ministration, abundance of grace to be prayerful, abundance of His glory in our lives and abundance of everything His kingdom offers. The essence is to put the blessings that we will need to prosper next year, in our lives. This is a prophetic insight that you should not ignore.
It is on this prophetic note that I want to submit to you that, the last four months of a year are always critical. They are in simple terms a season of critical activities that only God’s mercy can help us to access. A major highlight in our devotional text this morning quoted God saying,
“I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.”
Child of God I want to admonish you to seek the mercies of the LORD to give you whatever you need this period of the year so that you can prosper next year. Seek Him through prayer, purity, and the more sure word of prophecy, the Bible. Seek Him with the whole of your heart. The Bible says, we will find Him, when we seek Him with the whole of our hearts. A lot of things that will help us prosper next year are determined during this period of the year in the courts of divine settlement.
One of the major things that are determined, is those who will live and those who will survive. This is extremely prophetic, and not doctrinal. Doctrines in God’s kingdom are rooted in the person of Christ, while prophetic insights are rooted in the things He says and does in our lives to help us live blessed live and do His blessed will.
So, this is a prayer period for those who will choose to be wise. I admonish you to spend quality time each week the remaining months of the year in prayer, pleading with the LORD, like a Child who urgently need mercy from his Heavenly Father, to put a blessing on you and grant you favor to see the best of Him next year. The Bible says,
“As a father pities his children, So the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.” Psalms 103:13-14 NKJV
STAND ON THIS SCRIPTURE AND BELIEVE THAT GOD HAS DECIDED TO HAVE A SPECIAL MERCY ON US ALL THIS PERIOD OF THE YEAR.
A mercy that will make it possible for us all to receive all that we need to lead blessed and not accursed lives next year. Hallelujah!!
Yesterday’s session of September Break Through School placed so much in our spirits about Marriage. God revealed Himself to us in His word, and we saw His mercies bringing out choice truths to us. That is a sign that His mercies will bring choice things to us, if we seek God in prayer for it, this critical prophetic season.
Sometimes we think that God’s mercy is for wicked people. Well, that is true but not the whole truth. Like I said some time ago in one of our schools of the Spirit sessions, God’s Children needs more mercy than the lost. The reason is because it does not take any effort to stand strong in sin. But it takes a lot of effort, and both internal and external support from Heaven, to stand strong in righteousness.
Peter showed us that when He said,
Now “If the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?” Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator. 1 Peter 4:18-19 NKJV
This scripture made it very clear that we need more mercy from God than the lost. The Bible made it clear that the challenges of SAYING YES TO JESUS are not easy. That is why we need more mercy. It says if we the righteous are scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and sinner appear? No wonder God gave them (the early Church) GREAT MERCIES and GREAT GRACE. I have not seen those phrases used on the lost.
Friend, we need a lot of mercy from God to retain our salvation, having received Christ as LORD and Saviour into our lives. We need it to step into blessings, especially blessings that will help us advance or prosper purposes of the Kingdom of God on earth, as written in Heaven.
Like we saw in scriptures yesterday, Satan fears a people who carry God’s presence and God’s money. The Bible says when the sea sees them it will flee. So, he will fight every inch of the Battle to make sure they do not follow the paths that will put God’s money in their pockets, having received His mercies.
BECOMING A TRUE CHILD OF GOD IS NOT THE END BUT THE BEGINNING OF SO MANY THINGS TO OVERCOME.
The real warfare is not in becoming a child of God, but in retaining your position or status in the Spirit, as a true Child of God. Do not forget that it’s possible to lose what makes you a true Child of God, if the mercies of the LORD are not running your life. Jesus tells us the possibility of that happening when He said.
“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.” Matthew 5:13 NKJV
Losing your flavor as the salt of the earth is losing what makes you God’s true child on the face of the earth. The greatest tragedy in the life of a Christian is the loss of his flavor as the salt of the earth. Hebrew made it clear that, once that is lost, even when you seek it with tears, you will not find it again.
Jesus Himself asked, “but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?” That is why we need God’s mercy as His righteous seed! Jesus made it clear that, if we lose our flavors as Children of GOD, we cannot be seasoned again. The next thing that will happen to us is, we will become good for nothing; men and devils will be trampling on us. Sadly, that has become the lot of many in the kingdom today that is why we need mercy!
Another highlight in our devotional text today says, “So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.” Meaning, to retain our flavours as the salt of the earth, is not by might nor by power but by the mercy of the LORD!
So, we must spend this season seeking His mercies; not just to bless us in 2024 but help us not to lose what makes us God’s true Children, because many are falling away, and many will still fall according to Bible prophecy. We can decide not to be among the many by seeking God’s mercies to keep us.
ZECHARIAH THE PROPHET PUTS IT THIS WAY;
“So he answered and said to me: “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts. Zechariah 4:6 NKJV
Maybe there is someone going through a trial of faith right now. I believe God is saying to that person, “yes, you are going through that, but make sure you do not lose your flavor as my child, no matter what you are going through; my Spirit is here to help you, because coming out strong will not be by might, or by power, but by my Spirit,” says the LORD!
When the Bible says by His Spirit, understand that one thing the Spirit of God showers upon us is the mercies of the LORD. So, it will be by His mercies; and we have to reach out to Him in prayer for it.
Don’t forget, no matter how much you need GOD to move in your life, He will first send HIS WORD to you before sending HIS WORKS. He will first put His word in your heart before pouring His acts upon your life. That is the protocol of divine intervention in His KINGDOM. His word comes first before His works.
I believe this word came to us this morning because there are some works that He want to send to us.
People who understand that God’s word comes ahead of His marvelous works, know how to spend time with His word until His works break out in their lives. They know how not to miss a word session, because they know, missing a WORD session, is missing a WORK session. Even if it is in church, they will not miss it, no matter how far they live.
I pray someone will give this word the attention it deserves. The Bible says
“He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!” Psalms 107:20-21 NKJV
NOT BY MIGHT NOT BY POWER BUT BY MY MERCIES, SAYS THE LORD
What word has GOD sent to us this morning? The words say, “seek my mercies the rest of this months, to place blessings in your lives, that will help you lead a blessed life next year.” God wants us to seek His mercies to see us through in the coming year. Do not take that for granted. Schedule a personal weekly prayer time to do that till the year runs out. You will not need a prophet to tell you how 2024 2ill be. You will be too blessed to need it.
IT IS LAZY CHRISTIANS THAT ARE MANIPULATED BY PROPHETS.
There will be a lot of prophetic manipulation, deception, and lying as preachers seek to bring a word from the LORD for 2024. But if you can follow the LORD this morning, and do what He says, you will not be caught in that web.
Friend, we should not allow religious pride to rob us of anything. We should seek the LORD for mercies to keep the faith next year and run the race in the fulness of the blessing of the LORD. The Bible warned us saying, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12 NKJV).
How do you take heed? By knowing that it’s not by might or power but by the mercies of God, and then going all out for His mercies through intensive prayers. Friend, when it comes to “walking” and “talking” with GOD, or retaining your flavor as His child, it is indeed not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. If God’s mercy is on your life, you will be able to overcome temptations.
If God’s mercy is upon your life, trials of faith will not be able to destroy you. If God’s mercy is upon you, He will make sure you find a way of escape in any Circumstances that the enemy throw at you. If God’s mercy is upon you, it will not allow you to fall on your own sword, or to self-destruct.
You see, sometimes, the enemy throws things at us, and other times, we throw them on ourselves. We fall on our own swords. We throw things on ourselves out of foolishness. But if the mercy of God is upon us, He will always make a way of escape for us. The Bible says,
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 NKJV
Hidden in this scripture, is another reason why we need God’s mercy.
God’s mercy is the regulator of the impact of fiery trials and temptations on us. It is the power that makes sure we are not allowed to be tempted or tried beyond measure – beyond “what we have spiritual capacity for.” And it does that by creating a way of escape for us – especially when things become too much for us to bear.
Friend, we will need God’s mercy to wrap up the last months of this year. So, we should seek it in prayer. We will need His mercies, not because we are sinning or wicked, but because we have made up our minds, to live a “sin and wickedness” free life.
Yes, we have decided to finish the year strong, and trust God to get elected by His grace to stay alive, and serve our generation according to His will, keeping the faith, and walking in the fulness of the blessing of the LORD, next year.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
“My soul still remembers and sinks within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope.
Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!” Lamentations 3:20-24 NKJV