TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 23RD October 2023)
“For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you; nor did we eat anyone’s bread free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us.”
“For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies.”
“Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.” 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 296TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
This is the day the LORD has made, we shall rejoice and be glad in it. We bless the GOD of Heaven and Earth for yet another day.
It’s been our season of considering moneymatters; specifically, the prosperity of the righteous. We just concluded a spiritually highly inflammable break through school on financial matters. The LORD unveiled timeless truths to us that I believe, have given us a new heart to enjoy the best He has for us, financially.
Today I want to deal with something that we touched a bit in the just concluded financial break through school. Something we will need to unleash our financial destinies. That thing is HARD WORK. Yes, hard work.
I have never seen anyone who released his or her financial destiny without hard work. In fact, no one can fulfill any aspects of their destiny being lazy. Jesus said,
“My Father worketh hitherto, and I work” (John 5:17 KJV).
That set the standard for all who will work for, or with the LORD.
Note what Jesus did not say in this scripture; Jesus did not say “My Father worketh hitherto, and I slept.” He said my Father worketh Hitherto and I work. If your desire is to fulfil your financialdestiny, you must work as God works. Hard work or diligence must not be an option, but a necessity!
God cannot be working and you sleeping and expecting His promises to be fulfilled in your life. Don’t forget, our financial destinies have been pre-planned. We cannot fulfil or actualize them without hard work.
Fulfilling any of God’s pre-planned program for our lives, will involve sensing them from time to time,and labouring to have them born on earth as written in Heaven.
IT IS RELEASED WHEN YOU SENSE GOD WORKING AND YOU GET UP TO JOIN HIM.
Anyone who does this will never be lazy or idle. That was why Jesus was never lazy or idle when He was physically here with mankind. He worked and worked and worked until He died. He worked because God was working! We must not be different.
We must learn to sense what God is doing from time to time and be swift in doing it on earth as sensed in our spiritual senses. It’s like a partnership between the unseen things God has done in the unseen realm, and our spiritual senses.
NOW SOMEONE MAY NOT UNDERSTAND ME
What I meant was best captured by the Bible story of what happened between David and God, in the battle against the Philistines in 2 Samuel 5. The Bible made it clear that David did not rise against the Philistines until God has risen.
At one time God said to Him;
“You shall not go up; circle around behind them, and come upon them in front of the mulberry trees. And it shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall advance quickly. For then the Lord will go out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines” (2 Samuel 5:23-24 NKJV).
If David had gone to sleep after hearing the sound of marching on the top of those trees, or if He was too lazy to move into battle and fight, there would have been no way he would have accomplished anything that day.
If you do not add hard work in your quest for financial freedom, you will never unleash your financial destiny. THE ONLY SUBSTITUTE TO HARD WORK, IS HARD LIFE! If you do not embrace the principle of hard work in the release of your financial destiny, you will suffer the perils of a hard life financially.
Many are suffering today because they are idle and others lazy. They do not know how to labour with their hands. You cannot be waiting for God to move in idleness. Waiting upon the LORD does not denote sitting down in idleness. It is doing something in expectancy.
IN OTHER WORDS, IT IS WORKING HARD TOWARDS THE MANIFESTATION OF WHAT GOD MAY HAVE PROMISED OR REVEALED TO YOUR SENSES.
If you think waiting upon the LORD is being idle, and hoping that things change in the direction of what God may have promised, you need to do a rethink this morning. Everyone who ever waited upon the LORD worked very hard; none was lazy or idle.
It was through hard work that our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, waited upon the LORD and actualized their financial destinies. God hates laziness! The bible is full of unkind words for idleness! In fact, a major highlight in our devotional text says,
“..If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies.”
But the reverse is the case in many places. People who are not willing to work, are the greatest eaters among us. They trouble us to give them this and that. God cannot bless any people who are lazy. The release of financial destiny requires a lot of hard work. We see that in the verses that preceded the one highlighted above.
Paul wrote to the Church at Thessalonica saying;
“For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you; nor did we eat anyone’s bread free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us.”
You will not be able to release your financial destiny, if you are not willing to work with labour and toil,night and day,like Paul did. You will not be able to release your financial destiny if you do not add hard work to your financial desires.
Like earlier stated, everyone who ever walked with God to release his financial destiny, was a warrior not some lazy pigs. Abraham was a warrior, Jacob was a warrior, and Isaac was a hard-working farmer who could re-dig wells that his father dug in time past.
IF YOU READ GENESIS 26, YOU WILL DISCOVER THAT THE PHILISTINE BLOCKED THE WELLS NOT ONCE.
And he dug them again not once. He matched every attack of the devil with hard work, and God blessed Him. If he was lazy and weak, they way many of us are today,he would have said,“let’s forget about the wells. What is lost is lost!”
Friend, the kingdom of GOD has a special financial blessing for the diligent.
Sadly speaking, there are a lot of lazy people in ministry and in Church today. In one hand we have prophets and pastors who do not work hard. They go about prophesying money from people’s pocket. Others go about one public transport facility to another, preying on people’s monies, in the pretense of preaching.
They will stand to preach one empty message, and close with a long and persistent request for an offering. While there could be people God genuinely called to preach in public transport facilities, majority are just victims of the perils of their own Laziness and idleness.
We also have members who are always begging and refusing to do anything reasonable with their hands. They will always meet you with a problem to solve instead of a business idea to advise them on how to actualize. That is very sad!
The amazing thing is that, this bunch of people usually claim to be hearing from God. How can you be hearing from God and be idle or lazy?
How can you be hearing from God and be running greedily after people’s money and asking them to sow seeds instead of looking for what problem to solve for God to bring you some money? People who hear from God are very busy people; full of integrity.
They are busy doing what they heard from Him; saving this soul, pursuing this business, solving this problem, putting things in kingdom order, obeying the last command from the throne room, and etc. They do not sit down looking for the next person to beg money from or defraud.
What is the message this morning? The message if simple. If you will fulfil your financial destiny, you must work hard and work smart. You must not be foolish, lazy or idle. That is the message.
MAKE THESE SCRIPTURES AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
“He who has a slack hand becomes poor, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. He who gathers in summer is a wise son; He who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame.” Proverbs 10:4-5 NKJV
“The appetite of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the appetite of the diligent is abundantly supplied.” Proverbs 13:4 AMP
“The thoughts of the [steadily] diligent tend only to plenteousness, but everyone who is impatient and hasty hastens only to want.”
“Securing treasures by a lying tongue is a vapor driven to and fro; those who seek them seek death.” Proverbs 21:5-6 AMP
“Do you see a man diligent and skillful in his business? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.” Proverbs 22:29 AMP