TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 5th NOVEMBER 2023)
“[And the Lord answered] Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet I will not forget you.
Behold, I have indelibly imprinted (tattooed a picture of) you on the palm of each of My hands; [O Zion] your walls are continually before Me.
Your children and your builders make haste; your destroyers and those who laid you waste go forth from you.” Isaiah 49:15-17 AMPC
WELCOME TO THE 309TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
Slowly but surely, we are already exhausting the entire 365 days of this year. We give God the glory for all that. He has helped us, carried us on the wings of His shoulders, and seen us through and through. These are not days of living life under the influence of the carnal or earthly. These are days of living life under the influence of the Spiritual and eternal. It is people who live lives under the influence of the Spiritual and eternal that set their hearts on pilgrimage, while in this world.
The Bible says;
“Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
Passing through the Valley of Weeping (Baca), they make it a place of springs; the early rain also fills [the pools] with blessings.” Psalm 84:5-6 AMPC
The highways of Zion are a type and shadow of moral standards of God for His people. In other words, banners He gives to those who fear Him. People whose hearts are set on pilgrimage, uphold moral standards that God commands that those who want to be His people keep. They purify themselves from dead works or the work of the flesh.
The Bible says they are blessed, fortunate or to be envied because, by their obedience and submission to divine will, their strength is now in the LORD, consequently when they pass through the valley of weeping, they generate enough power to make them springs and pools of blessings. That is how they live lives that are free of defeat or any other evil occurrence.
We have been looking at matters of visionary living. It pleases the LORD that the eyes of some of us be restored. Eyes means vision. If you are not visionary, you are blind. Understand that, in spiritual warfare, the first thing the enemy will take out of a person of rich potentials is the ability to be visionary.
HE WILL MAKE THE PERSON EMOTIONAL.
No matter how gifted, brilliant or blessed you are, if you are not visionary, you will not achieve anything in life. All your potentials will just be channeled in the wrong direction or shut down completely. The potentials of Samson where channeled in the wrong direction when they took away his eyes during the Delilah experience. The Bible says;
“But the Philistines laid hold of him, bored out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with [two] bronze fetters; and he ground at the mill in the prison.” Judges 16: 21 AMPC
Why were the eyes or vision of Samson the first to be touched by the enemy? It is a major sign to men and women of great potentials in every generation. The enemy takes away the vision of God’s people first, whenever we fall into his hands, because he knows how powerful we will be if we are visionary. That is why the word says “give no place to the devil.”
If we give him a place, he will come for our vision; our ability to live visionary lives. Once that happens, and he succeeds, we will become bond with the bronze fetters of suffering, making us mince at the mill in the prisons of life. Maybe this will help us understand; have you ever seen very gifted, brilliant and blessed people suffering? The enemy have taken away their vision or ability to be visionary, hence the suffering. When suffering is associated or caused by lack of vision, there is no amount of prayer that can change a man’s situation.
Until visionary living is restored, prayers will do little or nothing to change our situations, especially if a lack of visionary living is responsible for our problems. Those who understand what we know as spiritual warfare in Church, knows that the first assault of hell against you, will be on your ability to see into God’s will, ways and word.
The enemy will attack your instruments of visionary living. He will make sure that any prophetic hearing aid system in your life is shut down, be it countless hours with the Holy Scriptures, time with seasoned teachers of God’s word, or access to a Bible believing and teaching church.
HE WILL ATTACK WHATEVER WILL MAKE YOUR VISION COME ALIVE.
That is why, one of the major things we must learn to protect in our lives, especially when it comes to spiritual warfare, is whatever concerns our visions from the LORD.
We should not forget that if we do not have a vision from the LORD, we are still blind in life no matter how good our natural eyesight may be. We are bond to fall into the ditches of life through bad decision, because it is our vision that should guides us in critical decision-making process. One of the major decisions to make in life is the decision to respect the laws of visionary living. We have seen the law of visionary residency, and the law of visionary hearing, which are all about where we live and what we hear.
We discovered that where you live will have so much to do with what you become. We also discovered that we have to be careful of what we hear if we want to live a visionary life. We have to be careful of the prophecies we give our ears to. That is why we looked at what I call “chewing gum prophecies.” You can revisit those devotionals to refresh your mind. Today, we will be looking at another law of visionary living called the law of visionary relations.
Laws are principles that determines outcomes in life. One cannot replace them with prayers. In fact, if you are praying and not respecting these laws as a child of God, things will not be working well in your life. You will end up frustrated and going back to your old ways. The law of visionary relations is even used by Satan to ruin our lives. So, let me begin with visionary relations from the kingdom of darkness.
Satan will assign people to our lives whose only reasons for bringing them into our lives is to ruin us down. They will not come saying “I want to ruin your life.” No! It will be to offer help. But if you sit down to access what that relationship has brought into your life, you will see ruin, ruin, ruin, and ruin. They only leave your life either when you are ruined or when you are being ruined.
That is why when you were up, they were there. But when you became down, they walked out. Some who do this may not be there to ruin you but to announce your ruin or sustain it, by walking out of your life instead of helping you through.
SATAN WOULD ALWAYS USE VISIONARY RELATIONS TO RUIN PEOPLE.
They could come in the guise of husbands, wives, pastors, prophets, business partners, faithful church members, bosom friends or brothers and sisters in times of need. They come with a vision to see you fall out. Delilah, for example was a visionary relation to Samson. She was driven by one passion and one vision, to know the secret of his strength and hand it over to Samson’s enemies. All she did in his life was to achieve that. Her care, concern for his problems, and all the massage he got from her, was not really because she cared for him. It was because she cared for his ruin.
May God protect us from this kind of visionary relations in Jesus precious name. Concerning Samson (a mighty warrior of the LORD) who was ruined through a terrible visionary relation from the kingdom of darkness, the Bible says;
“After this he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah.
And the lords of the Philistines came to her and said to her, Entice him and see in what his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him that we may bind him to subdue him. And we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver.
And Delilah said to Samson, tell me, I pray you, wherein your great strength lies, and with what you might be bound to subdue you.” Judges 16:4-6 AMPC
Visionary relations from the kingdom of darkness are a ruin any day and anytime. But they do not come like men and women from darkness. They come like men and women from light. The Bible says they masquerade as angels of light, or angels of help, care, prosperity, a brighter future and all that. But within the time they showed in your life and the time they walk away, if you are not protected by the LORD, they will destroy you completely.
PERSONALLY, I WOULD SAY IF NOT FOR GOD, I WOULD HAVE BEEN BURIED BY THIS TYPE VISIONARY RELATIONS.
They do not always come in the Delilah package. They come in any other package. You may have your own story also. Sometimes they seat with you in Church and become your best friend, but you will never know what that will lead to. They will start talking to you about the flaws in the preacher you so honor, but in harmless ways that you can entertain. But before you know it, a damage has been done in your soul. You will no longer be able to receive from the LORD through the preacher.
Now, this is different from when God opens the eyes of His sheep, to recognize a charlatan and false preacher who had appeared true hitherto. I am referring to Satan using a visionary relation from his kingdom, to paint a true servant of GOD dark, using carefully cooked stories in other to take you away from the place of destiny.
I can’t forget a Church member who even promised people jobs while doing that in our church. It lasted for months and it was divine protection that helped us. If talking about the pastor is not working, they will move to telling you stories about other church members, and then the pastor’s wife, if he is married, then this other person. Before you know it, they have shaped your perspective about a good church family you once loved, and a righteous preacher who so blessed your life.
Visionary relations from hell are positioned around everyone of us, do not be mistaken about it. There is even one close to you as you read this. His or her line is in your phone. You just may not know, because sometimes until they get to their maturity stage in our lives, they will keep appearing helpful to us. That is why we must be careful in life.
There also those who go about defiling men and women in church sexually, in the guise that they want to marry them. They come in different shades my friend, depending on your wants in life. They have ruined so many. The Bible calls them destroyers.
VISIONARY RELATIONS FROM GOD ARE WHAT WE NEED, AND I WILL SHARE MORE ABOUT THAT TOMORROW.
Our Devotional text says;
“[And the Lord answered] Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet I will not forget you.
Behold, I have indelibly imprinted (tattooed a picture of) you on the palm of each of My hands; [O Zion] your walls are continually before Me.
Your children and your builders make haste; your destroyers and those who laid you waste go forth from you.” Isaiah 49:15-17 AMPC
This is a promised from the LORD on deliverance from visionary relations from hell. It says because of the visions and revelations of the LORD for our lives, as tattooed in His hands, He will make sure those who laid us waste go away from us. You can take that promise to Him in prayer and ask Him to fulfil it in your life as we return tomorrow for another revelation.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God.
And God’s peace [shall be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace] which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7 AMPC