TODAY’S DEVOTION (Tuesday 3rd December 2019)
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.”
“He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.” Psalm 1:1-3 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 337TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF GOING FORWARD.
Life is an echo. And those who surround you are the walls the echo hits and return to where it came from. Life is an echo! What you give to others will one day come back to you.
If you give them ingratitude, hate, un-forgiveness, cruelty or bitterness, it will be received even in heaven, multiplied and sent back to you. Sadly, when it comes back to you it will be more terrible than what you gave out. That is why we must be careful how we treat others. Heaven can remain shut against us if we shut our bowels of mercy on people who need it.
Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.”
The flip side of the same statement reads “cursed are the un-merciful, for they shall obtain no mercy especially when they need it most.” As Christians our greatest call is a call to unconditional Holy Spirit guided love. Not love as taught by the world or aggrieved Christians who feel they were not loved enough by others.
Now, I want you to know that it’s difficult to love unconditionally in a world full of people who do not deserve love.
However, don’t forget, at a time we did not deserve love either.
Yet God loved us and extended mercy to us. We were forgiven of terrible sins. In the same way He wants us to forgive others. But it’s not by might nor by power but by His Spirit. That is why we need deep intimacy.
Like I stated yesterday, deep intimacy is not an option but a lifestyle.
If we embrace the lifestyle, our lives will not lack the shadow of the almighty. The character of God will be formed in us making it possible for us to love even the unlovable.
Our devotional today is one of the deep intimacy scriptures in the Bible. It speaks of three self-destructive things we must not do as Christians. It also speaks of one glorious devotional life we must live as the redeemed of the LORD.
THE THREE SELF-DESTRUCTIVE THINGS ARE;
1. Walking in the Counsel of the ungodly.
2. Standing in the paths or ways of sinners.
3. Seating on the seat of the scornful or mockers.
If you want to go deep with God, these are the three things you must not do. You will ruin your faith and chances of meeting God in the secret place if you live your live according to the counsel of the ungodly, plant it in the paths of sinners or find yourself on the seat of the scornful.
There are people who have been pursuing God but have not found Him. They more they pursue Him the farer He goes away from them. The reason is simply; they are doing so walking in the counsel of the ungodly, standing in ways or paths of sinners, and sitting on the seat of mockers.
One of the laws of deep intimacy states that until you walk away from darkness using the saving grace that came upon you at salvation, Light will not submit Himself to you no matter how hard you seek Him. That is where repentance comes in.
When we repent, we permit Light to submit Himself to us. When we say Light, we are referring to God because God is light in Him is no darkness at all. The Bible says;
“Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,” Acts 3:19 NKJV
Until you have repented from hatred, malice, bitterness, unforgiveness, sexual perversion, etc., times of refreshing will never come to you from the presence of the LORD. The Bible says if we hide iniquity in our hearts the LORD shall not hear us. We must repent of it to secure unhindered access into His presence.
Repentance involves confession of sin, hatred for sin, renouncing of sin, and no repetition of sin. In other words, if you have truly repented from sin, you will confess it to the right ears, hate it from the depths of your heart, renounce it completely, and not repeat it again.
But the counsel of the ungodly is not so. It tells you things that delete your consciousness of how terrible your sin is before God. And if you loose consciousness of how God sees your sins, you will never repent of them, you will water them down and call them your weakness.
If you lack the revelation of what your sin does to you in the spirit realm, you will never resist temptations when sin knocks at your door. You will submit to temptation.
THE WAY OF SINNERS REFERS TO THE LIFESTYLE OF SINNERS.
You cannot be seeking God and living the very life that a sinner lives and find HIM.
For instance, sinners do not care about how God thinks about getting and staying married. They do not care about the established patterns of Holiness and righteousness. The man a lady may be living with and having Children for may not have even paid her bride price, or married her properly in Church, yet she does not care.
If you say you are a Christian and you find yourself in such a pseudo marriage, you may never find God through deep intimacy because you are standing in the ways of sinners in your marital life. You must first repent deeply before you can be truly intimate with God deeply.
You See, sinners call co-habitation marriage. They call pre-marital sex and adultery tradition. If you do the same, you are standing in their ways and will never find GOD!
Sadly, so many so-called Christians are standing in the ways of sinners. That is why they cannot find God no matter how much they seek Him. You can never find God living a life that the Bible calls the way of sinners. I used to wonder why some we love and dearly desire to find God cannot find Him until the LORD opened my eyes to this. You can never find God living in the ways of sinners.
Our devotional text also spoke of the seat of mockers. The seats of the scornful or mockers are the most subtle among Christians. For instance, living in sin and telling people that you are saved is mockery.
YOU ARE MOCKING AT WHAT IT MEANS TO BE SAVED.
Living in hate and bitterness and calling yourself Holy Ghost filled is scornful. You are scorning at what it means to be Holy Ghost filled. The greatest seats that prevent believers from breaking into greater realms of glory are seats of mockers.
If God tells you to do a thing and you go as if you did not even hear Him, you are mocking at Him. You are already sitting on the seat of mockers in the spirit.
Mockers are people who hear from God or are confronted by Him to change their wicked ways, but they do not. They just go their way without giving a thought to it. After a while they go back to Him in prayers, maybe in another Church and under another man of God, asking that He do one miracle or the other in their lives without even giving a thought to what He confronted them about where they came from.
There was this Christian Brother and Sister in the City that I lived in Nigeria. They were attending a Church that believes in righteousness and following God’s established pattern in everything in life. They were rebuked for having pre-marital sex and stripped of their positions in that Church.
Instead of submitting to the rebuke they got angry and left that Church to another one. When they got to the new Church, they were received and made Church workers. They did not repent of their sins. They continued in it and eventually got married. Today that Church is smelling in the spirit!
Christians who sit on the seat of the scornful are the ones sending the glory away from the Church. They are responsible for satanic invasions both in their lives and the lives of others.
Preachers who sit on the seat of the scornful are the ones operating as witches and wizards in the Church. God will never make Himself known or available to people who mock at His word and violates His principles. They may have the anointing out of his mercy but will never see the glory!
If you want to go deep in Jesus Christ, you must repent of your secret or private sins; you must not walk after the counsel of the ungodly, stand in the paths of sinners or sit in the seat of the scornful. Your delight must be in following the word and ways of the LORD no matter the cost.
It’s a new day for you!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION!
Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle? who may dwell in Your holy hill?
He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart;
He who does not backbite with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor does he take up a reproach against his friend;
“In whose eyes a vile person is despised, but he honors those who fear the Lord; He who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
He who does not put out his money at usury, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.” Psalms 15:1-5 NKJV