TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 17TH DECEMBER 2023)
“Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.” Proverbs 3:9-10 KJV
WELCOME TO THE 351ST DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
Today we will continue with the flow we started yesterday on money matters.
After spiritual matters, money matters are the next most important matters in the realm of man. The reason is because money play a lot of roles in the life of men. Besides, the love of it has destroyed so many people. That is why we need sufficient revelation on it.
God’s will is that we become financially free enough to do His will. That was made clear yesterday!
We have always said that Revelation is Heaven’s clearance to the earth to come into things supernatural. If there is no revelation knowledge, there will be no access to come into things that have been made available to us by God.
To come into financial freedom, revelation knowledge will be required.
Now, the first place to start, is the place of vision. Understand that the vision for having wealth among the elects of Christ, is different from the vision for having wealth among the people of this world. We do not dream to have money for the very purposes that the world dreams to have it.
The drives also are different. We are driven by God’s kingdom purposes, but the world is driven by lust and pride. They just want to have money because of the lust for it and the pride of having it.
There is no eternal reason for their desire for money.
If as a Christian, your drive to have money is just for the lust and pride of it, then you are a worldly Christian. You are a Babylonian and not yet part of Zion. We do not desire to have money for any carnal or dark reason. Our desires are righteous and pure.
The next truth we must have about money is this, as God’s kingdom citizens, when it comes to solving financial problems, our case is different. We do not solve financial problems like the people of the world do, because the earth is the LORD’s and all of its fulness belong to Him.
We have our God given way of solving our financial needs.
When the people of this world are in need, they could steal, lie, give their worship to the devil, sin or the evil and corrupt system of this world to have their financial needs solve, but we do not.
THE KING OF THE KINGDOM WE BELONG TO FORBIDS ALL THAT.
It is important that we understand and align with Him. We do not call a cow our uncle because we want to eat barbeque. We do not bow to Satan because we want the wealth of this world. We do not sing the song of Zion in Babylon for the purpose of having the wealth of Babylon.
We do not gain this world at the expense of our souls. We do not sell our souls to the dark forces or practices of this world to have the wealth in its secret place.
We do not travel to foreign countries lying that we are advocates of the LGBT, or we are seeking asylum just to have financial freedom.
We do not tell any kind of lie to escape poverty. We do not even use marriage to escape poverty. That is not how we solve our financial problems. We have our God given way of solving our financial problems.
Our financial needs are met by the King of our Kingdom Himself. Who is also our Heavenly Father. Yesterday we spoke about having His manifest presence in our lives leading and guiding us, if we must see our financial needs solved.
So, when I need an urgent financial supply, and I do not have anything in my bank account, there is something to do as a Christian. When I want to unlock divine help in the area of my finances, there is something I must do as a Child of God.
The first is not to go the way of this world, but the way of the LORD. The Bible says God is our present help in time of trouble. We must know how to unlock that help when we are in financial trouble.
One way to unlock it is by understanding the mystery of supernatural financial assistance system in God’s kingdom. Friend, children of God are not designed to always solve their financial needs naturally. They are also designed by God to solve it supernaturally.
I want to share some practical things to do when you need a supernatural financial supply. May the LORD guide us with wisdom from above in Jesus precious name. Amen!
The first step to take if you need a supernatural financial supply from God, is to check your previous financial commitment to God. In doing that, you are to ask yourself very important questions.
ONE OF IT IS THIS, “HAVE I BEEN FAITHFUL IN WORSHIPING MY GOD WITH MY SUBSTANCE?”
Most times we enter into financial crisis because we failed to worship God with our substance when the money was there. We cut off the supply from heaven, by taking decisions that are carnal and selfish towards God.
Many of us do not really know what it means to worship God with our substance. Everything that has to do with worship is painful to the flesh. We may be giving but still not worshiping God with our substance because worship involves pain.
Doing stewardship that generates pain is not easy.
Believe it or not, worshiping God with our substance remains one of the most important ways to keep the power of God flowing in our lives in the area of financial supply. It has a way of leaving the Devil with nothing to hold or use against us to stop the flow of income to us.
In God’s design, we were supposed to be enjoying constant flow of finances through the works of our hands. If this is not so in our lives, something has stopped the flow of God’s power that brings it, and that thing could be sin, lawlessness, laziness, being far from God, or dodging a pain that is involved in worship.
So, if you need urgent financial help from God as a Christian, the threshing floor is the first place to visit, asking the LORD to show you what you did that stopped the flow, and help you repent from it. Repentance will bring times of refreshing and restore the flow.
Maybe you sowed sparingly when you had the money; maybe you were selfish towards God and generous towards your needs.
Now God’s power in your life has been shut down as a result. It is no longer bringing money to you by the works of your hands. The Bible says he who sows sparingly shall reap sparingly. You must repent before God about that.
Maybe you sowed to please the flesh when you had the money, and now you are reaping corruption; the flow of God’s power to bring money to you by the works of your hands has stopped.
The Bible says, he who sow to please the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption. Sowing to please the flesh is satisfying the cravings of the flesh, and sinning against the LORD.
YOU MUST CHECK ALL THESE AT THE THRESHING FLOOR OF REPENTANCE TOWARDS GOD, AS YOU ALLOW THE HOLY SPIRIT TO SPEAK TO YOUR HEART.
Our devotional text this morning says, “Honour the LORD with your substance and with the first fruits of all your increase.” The result of this spiritual act of worship, as the scripture says, is a constant flow of finances. It says, “So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.”
Sadly, this is where the error of giving the first salary of the year to the church was created from. But the scripture is not about giving the first salary of the year to anyone.
For our dispensation, this scripture is about honoring the LORD. We are to first honor the LORD with our bodies, which is our first fruits today, and then our substance. If we do not honor the LORD with our bodies, no mater what we give to Him, it will not be accepted.
It is those who honor the LORD with their bodies that see the flow of His power in their lives when they honor Him with their substance.
In the dispensation that that scripture was written, they were honoring the LORD with the first yield of their crops every year. But that was a shadow of things to come. Today, we are to honor Him with the yield of righteousness, our bodies.
We are to offer our bodies as instrument of righteousness, according to the book of Romans chapter 6, by not yielding to a life of sin and wickedness, but to the grace of God, to eliminate the life of sin and wickedness, so that our lives will be sweet smelling savours to the LORD, like those grains the Jews gave in their days when they offered the shadow.
According to the principle, the crop they reap when the first rains comes was given to the LORD as the first fruits. Each time they do that, they position themselves properly for the yield of the later rains.
THE RAIN WILL SO BLESS THEM THAT THEIR BARNS WILL BE FILLED WITH PLENTY.
Prophetically, we do not have a first fruit the way they did to give to the LORD, because everything they did has been fulfilled in Christ.
The Bible made it clear in the New Testament that, Jesus was the first fruit they depicted, and the rains were the outpouring of the Holy Ghost that took place in the day of Pentecost, as the first rain; and the one taking place today as the later rain.
The crops they harvested represent the harvest of the souls of men into the kingdom of God, that takes place each time the Spirit is released. But privately, we fulfill this practice, by honoring the LORD with our bodies.
When we honor the LORD with our bodies, He can dwell in us and bless our finances. He can dwell with us, and urge us to honor Him with our finances and receive great yield of His presence in our lives, filling our economic lives with plenty.
I believe God has spoken to us this morning. As you embrace this day, make these truths your meditation.
Constant Financial flow is your portion in Christ Jesus, but you must put God first to have it. You must put Him first by honoring Him with your body, and then your finances.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY
“He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.” Proverbs 28:13 NKJV