TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 4th October 2023)
“I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.”
“He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.”
“I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.” Ecclesiastes 3:10-12 KJV
WELCOME TO THE 277TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS
This scripture is loaded with mysteries about time that we will need a move of the Spirit in our spirits to uncover. But let’s begin with praise to our God for bringing us peacefully to this season of the year. Who is like unto this God? Who make wars to cease! Who created days, and appointed man to live peacefully within them! Who is like unto the one and only true God; among the gods, who is like unto Him! Glorious in Holiness and fearful in praises! Doing wonders! Hallelujah!
God has a word for us today. To start with, I want to say, life is all about God given opportunities. We bless the LORD for all the days we have seen and the opportunities they came with. Sadly, some were taken, some were not taken. The quality of a man’s life is defined by the kind of opportunities God creates for him, and how he makes use of them.
Money is important, but most of us do not realize that God given opportunities, are much more valuable than money. For instance, Esther had an opportunity when Vashti was ousted, and the king needed another queen. She made used of it by listening to her uncle, and with the favor of the LORD, she became that queen. If someone had given her money in place of that opportunity, she would have spent it, and ended her story there.
Friend, money is important, but God given opportunities are much more valuable than money. They are the secret of change in life. They are responsible for how the lives of the rich or poor turns out. If God want to bless, preserve or raise you, He will teach you how to recognize opportunities and make good use of them, the way Mordechai taught Esther.
Opportunities come to all of us; poor or rich, high or low, educated or uneducated, saved or unsaved, successful or not successful, and etc. How we make use of them, is what determines our final end, or what becomes of us. For instance, if the poor make good use of God given opportunities, they become rich.
IF THE RICH MAKE GOOD USE OF GOD GIVEN OPPORTUNITIES, THEY PRESERVE THEIR GOD GIVEN RICHES.
If those who are struggling make use of God given opportunities to rise again in life, they will rise and become helpers of those who may be struggling like they once did. There are types of opportunities. There are opportunities from God, from man, and from the dark world. All are taken by someone and made used of. That is why our world is the way it is. Some use opportunities from the dark world to make the world darker. Some use opportunities from God or man, to make the world more beautiful and peaceful, filling it with the light of God.
From the life of Esther, we can see that making good use of created opportunities, will require some guide from a spiritual father who feeds us with rich spiritual truths, and a divine plan to follow daily. It will also require a balance of natural and divine wisdom for proper decision making. One major wisdom is the wisdom of time. That is why we will be looking at few mysteries about time today!
To start with, it is important to note that, the reason God created days, weeks, months, and years, is simply for marking signs and seasons and making proper decisions. It is also to help us number our days, so that we can apply our hearts unto wisdom. If we do not make good use of the days, weeks, months, and years that we see, especially by recognizing and seizing the opportunities in them, we will loose big time.
It may interest you to be reminded again (as we have always done through this devotionals) that God does not live in time. He lives in eternity. In His living condition and environment, there is no time, there is just eternity. He does not have nights, days, weeks, months or years. Though He created natural days and placed mankind within them, He has His own unique calendar. His fulness does not live in our days. I remember teaching about that in one of our conferences in July 2014. The message was titled, “Winning the Battles of your Prophetic Days.”
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GOD’S PLANS FOR US ARE NOT IN TIME, THEY ARE IN ETERNITY. THEY ONLY REFLECT IN TIME!
In other words, they are not governed by our own timetable, but His eternal calculation. Consequently, things do not leave Heaven to the earth in our own definition of time, or in our time frame. They do so in His own time, or His own definition of what we call “time frame.” Sadly, sometimes His time frame clashes with ours, and since many of us do not know how to recognize or submit to it, we end up losing whatever He came to bless our lives with. That is why the Life of many Christians goes in a cycle or get stagnated.
Most of us do not know how to recognize God’s time of visitation, and things that makes for our peace. We do not recognize gospel messages, churches, preachers, relationships, jobs, and etc. that make for our peace. We just go for what we think is good for us. We forget that what make for our peace, may not be liked by us at the beginning, neither is it usually spectacular or attractive. Its importance does not speak at the beginning but at the end.
Jesus Himself made it clear that, many of us suffer or are stagnated in life, because we do not now our time of visitation; we do not know when God has come to move us to the next level. We do not recognize the things that make for our peace. We accept things that appear to be making for our peace but are not. We lack the humility to recognize the things that truly make for our peace. The Bible says.
“Be you humbled therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in the time of visitation: Casting all your care upon him, for he hath care of you.” 1 Peter 5:6-7 Douay-Rheims
This scripture tells us what everyone of us must do to step into things that make for our pace. I counsel that you go over it one more time. You will find a brighter light if you do.
THERE IS THIS CHALLENGE THAT EVERY CHILD OF GOD FACES.
The challenge is how to relate successfully with the sovereign God who does not live in our time, but in His eternity. How to receive miracles, transformations, blessings and covenant liftings from Him. One of the beautiful ways we can do that, is to know His time of visitation, and be ready for it.
A people who does not know how to humble themselves under the mighty hand of the LORD, or embrace God’s time of visitation for them, will be trapped in the perils of life for a lifetime. They will be sticking to people, places, and things that satisfy their momentary needs, but will not make for their peace in the long run.
Living your life according to God’s timing is the key to a glorious life on this side, and the other side of eternity. The Bible made it clear that things can only be made beautiful in our lives, when we live our days within the framework of God’s timing for them, or when we do our things within God’s timing for doing them.
If we cannot therefore humbly see, sense, and cease God’s timing for things, and live our days within it, things will remain ugly in our lives. We will not be able to make use of God given opportunities, and let it beautify our lives, if we do not have the humility and sensitivity to live our days within God’s timing.
A Major highlight in our devotional text today says,
“I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. He hath made everything beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.”
The word “travail” in this scripture simply means God given task. It has nothing to do with suffering or adversity. Our God given task is a reference to what God has assigned us to do within our own time frame, and that to me is to discover His time and align with it. In other words, respond to it! God’s time comes with deliverances to receive, blessings to collect, instructions to obey, visions to pursue and execute, plans and purposes to make our goals, and etc. That is why the Bible calls it, “day of visitation.”
IT IS USUALLY FULL OF DIVINE MOMENTS TO SENSE, SEE, AND SEIZE THROUGH THE EYES AND HANDS OF FAITH.
One thing about divine moments is that, when they come and we do not see, sense and seize them, they will go back to eternity, living us dry. That is why many of us are still stagnated in life, and some not going forward in life at all. You can terminate stagnation and backwardness by recognizing God’s time of visitation and responding to it properly.
Don’t forget, until things leave Heaven to the earth of our lives, we will never go forward in life. And the time they do, is called God’s time (God’s days of visitation, divine moments). They do not do so in our time because God does not live in our time.
The Bible spoke about an evil time. It says,
“For man also does not know his time: Like fish taken in a cruel net, Like birds caught in a snare, So the sons of men are snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly upon them.” Ecclesiastes 9:12 NKJV
What is an evil time? An evil time is a time that is not God’s time. For instance, the single lady or young man, who thought it was time to get married yesterday, and went further to move into a man’s house, or have a lady moved into His house, but is in morning today, missed God’s timing.
He or she got married in his or her own time – an evil time. If you get married in your own time, you will always get married to the wrong person, or follow the wrong process for marriage. Doing things in an evil time, will never give us a favorable result. Personally, all the scars in my life are products of things I did in an evil time. If you look at your life also, you can say the same thing.
Our pains in life are usually products of things we did in an evil time – our own timings, passions, programs and designs not God’s. Sadly, most time we do them saying it is God that is leading us! No one can happily pass through this world doing things in “an evil time.” That was what Jesus knew, hence waiting for the “divine timing” for every move, before making them. He did not even submit to death until it was time. Anytime outside that, would have been “an evil time.”
If Jesus had died in an evil time, He would have still remained in the grave to this day. The Book of Ecclesiastes chapter 3 tells us of the two basic types of timings on the face of the earth. For instance, it tells us that there is a time to sow, and a time to reap.
IF YOU SOW WHEN YOU OUGHT TO REAP, OR REAP WHEN YOU OUGHT TO SOW, YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE WILL REMAIN UGLY.
It also tells us of a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. Meaning, there are season to socialize and seasons not to socialize. If you socialize when you ought not to socialize, you will plunge yourself into things that even prayer may not save you. Knowing God’s timing for things is the best way to lead a Christian life!
Sadly, Satan has a way of making an evil time look beautiful and attractive to us, consequently impregnating us with the urge to move into things, in an evil time. The attack is basically to make us miss the blessing. But I trust God has made someone wiser today. As we bring this to a close, I want you to understand that there is a people Jesus is currently weeping over; Christians who are about falling into some calamities because they do not understand their time of visitation.
May you not be part of a Christian generation that do not know the timings of the LORD!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY!
Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”
“For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” Luke 19:41-44 NKJV