TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 23RD MARCH 2024)
“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,” Hebrews 12:22-23 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 83RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
It is another brand-new day from the creator of Heaven and Earth.
Day unto day He has been loading us with benefits. The first benefit a man will ever get from God is spiritual. The Bible says He has blessed us with spiritual blessings in Heavenly places. It is when the spiritual becomes natural that our lives take a new turn.
The spiritual becomes natural when we receive words from God on daily bases and walk in the light if what we receive. That is why the Bible says man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.
God wants to speak to us again through this devotional platform. Heaven wants to start our day with a blessed word from the throne room, because there are many spiritual blessings to make physical in our lives.
I hope we are ready!!
I don’t know what you may be going through this morning, but one thing I know is that you will go through it and not perish in it. The graciousness of the LORD will speak in your situation in Jesus’ precious name.
We have been looking at matters of prayer, because we are in our Passover season, as the body of Christ. It is a season of entering the prayer room to reap the spiritual blessings of the season. One way to do that is to go in the power of the prayer Spirit, called the Spirit of grace and supplication.
Sadly, there is something that is killing that Spirit today.
Today we shall be looking at it. I call it a spiritual disease, because it is precipitating hate and fear in the hearts of so many praying people, putting the genuine prayer spirit to death in their lives.
For instance, someone will innocently join a Church, but when it’s time to quit, maybe to another Church, the pastors, prophets, or prophetesses will become lions; inflicting them with fear and hate, and attempting to tear them into pieces.
THEY WILL BEGIN TO SPIT OUT CURSES AND THREATENING THEM WITH FIRE AND BRIMSTONE IN WHAT THEY CALL PRAYER.
The spirit they pray with is not usually from God. That is how the prayer spirit is killed, and a counterfeit enthroned over the hearts of those praying.
Sadly, in some cases, the Church members will become afraid, and either return to submit to their yokes, or withdraw from anything called Church completely.
Often time, the experience fills hearts with hate and fear, polluting their prayer lives altogether. I call this development, the killing of the prayer Spirit by “ecclesiastical intimidation” or “Charismatic witchcraft.”
Charismatic witchcraft is seeking to control people to do diabolic or extra scriptural things, using either the influence of spiritual gifts, religious authority, or the dark prophetic or apostolic anointing, or any other dark or mixed anointing.
It is one major quencher of the genuine prayer spirit.
The stories that comes from the activities of Charismatic witchcraft in church today, are so bad that I cannot help but get troubled in spirit. I get troubled because prayer requires an open communication system with God.
But these things have a way of shutting down true communication with God in the lives of the victims of the aggrieved; opening up the predator prophets, apostles, prophetesses, bishops, or pastors to unclean spirits, to unlock their activities on the lives of people.
It is so sad that spiritual leaders and their followers that were supposed to be God’s sign post of love, have become Satan’s sign post of hate. People now look at them and hate anything called Church, because of the abuses they have suffered in their hands.
The Holy Ghost began to help me understand a missing revelation in the hearts of end time Christians today – the revelation of Jesus Christ as the Judge of all. Truly, if you know Jesus Christ as the Judge of all, you will not submit to the harassment of any unjustly aggrieved spiritual leader.
Not knowing Jesus Christ as the Judge of the earth, has turned many Church members into fearful preys of their unjustly aggrieved spiritual leaders. Ignorance can be very costly! Not knowing your redemptive rights in Christ Jesus can be very damaging.
SADLY, THAT IS THE STATE OF OVER 90% CHURCH MEMBERS TODAY.
Their pastors, bishops, prophets, and prophetesses keep them in ignorance by preaching things that make them (the preachers) look like gods you must not offend, and the people helpless sheep to be eaten, threatened into submission, and etc.
If there is anything killing the true Prayer Spirit and replacing it with prayer books, it is this spiritual development.
Everyone wants human enemies dead, either justly or unjustly. An average preacher wants their members who left their Churches or ministries either dead, dying, or suffering, so that the remaining captives they call members, will see them as men of God.
On the other hand, those who left churches where preachers want them dead, also wants the preachers dead. It has become a circle of dangerous expectations. They want those preachers dead so that their threats will not come to pass.
It’s just a big mess!
While I submit to, and teach the Biblical injunction that says we should hold our spiritual leaders in high esteem and respect them, I do not subscribe to a spiritual leader, becoming a predator in the house of God.
Heaven is against any spiritual leader who is overstepping their boundaries and intimidating people to remain in their ministries or churches, even when nothing Godly is taking place there.
The revelation of Jesus Christ as the Judge of all made it clear that no bishop is the judge of all. No prophet or prophetess is the Judge of all.
They may condemn you for leaving their Churches or ministries justly, and try to curse you while you did nothing, you do not need to worry because the judge of all has the final say over your life.
If what you did was wrong in God’s sight He will Judge, but if what you did was wrong only in their sight, no weapon formed against you shall prosper.
One of the manifestations of Jesus Christ as the judge of the earth, is to make sure that the curses, prayers, and attacks of a derailed spiritual leader or Church leadership does not fall upon you.
A KEY HIGHLIGHT IN OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT TODAY SAYS,
“We have come to mount Zion, the City of the living God… to God the Judge of all”.
The Bible is clear that, even the spiritual leader who wrongly threatens and curse, is under the jurisdiction of the judge of all. And the Judge does not take sides in Judgment. He is no respecter of persons. He only respects His word and will.
That is why, when considering a matter, He will weigh actions on His balance and make sure that only the wicked is punished.
Amazingly, that could even be the pastor, prophet, prophetess, or bishop who is unjustly aggrieved, cursing and condemning you, because you left his or her Church or ministry. Most victims were once financial pillars of the ministries.
We all know that it is very difficult for a preacher to unjustly grieve over a member who was a liability and now is no longer a member of that Church. They only grieve over those who were assets to them, in one way or the other.
They victimize them with the miracles they got while there, saying God gave them those miracles so that they can provide for their needs. Yes, God blesses His people so they can support His work and workers, but that should be without such manipulations.
Come to think of it, why should a preacher make his or her financial challenges your responsibility because they prayed for you to get a miracle? Why should they always be reminding you of tithes, instead of Holy living and a deep prayer life?
Why should they be counting the number of times you have not paid your tithes, instead of the number of times you have not spoken to God? Why should they threaten you when you feel you can no longer take it and leave?
You think God, the Judge of all, will honour their wicked prayers? If you see such prayers honoured, it is not God that honoured it but the demons they have yielded to.
There are a lot of things that have been polluting and quenching the prayer Spirit in the present Church. My prayer for you today is that God will manifest Himself in your life as the judge of all, and reverse every evil sentence spoken over your life, in Jesus’ precious name!!
When God manifests as the judge of all in our lives, He will move to vindicate and clear us of all allegations in the hearts of people. He will not take sides, but He will take over.
When that happens, all our weeping will be turned into joy. The pains we went through will become just a travail for the birth of the spiritual blessing.
Yes, when God manifest Himself as the judge of all, He will move us from the power of an unjustly aggrieved spiritual leader, to our own spiritual family, where we can be covered by His grace, power and glory, and protected from any demon.
May this devotional mark a turning point in your life! May the spells of Charismatic witchcraft and ecclesiastical intimidation, be broken in your life this very hour, in Jesus’ precious name!
May you wake up to the prayer Spirit. Amen!!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURAL PASSAGE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: “As I live,” says the Lord God, “surely because My flock became a prey, and My flock became food for every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, nor did My shepherds search for My flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock” — therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the Lord!
Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require My flock at their hand; I will cause them to cease feeding the sheep, and the shepherds shall feed themselves no more; for I will deliver My flock from their mouths, that they may no longer be food for them.” Ezekiel 34:7-10 NKJV