THE CRY OF THE SPIRIT DEVOTIONALS – BY RICHARD E. S. TAKIM

TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 22ND APRIL 2024)

“So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”

“Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.” Deuteronomy 8:3-5 NKJV

WELCOME TO THE 113TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.

The days of glory are indeed here. If you are within the Spiritual Ecosystem of the Cry of the Spirit Ministries, you will understand me so well. It is days of glory for the global Church, but very few local assemblies are there.

When we say glory, we are not referring to the money people call the glory of God. No! Glory is not earthly wealth, though it brings it. Glory is the fullness of God on display. A fullness you only find after you have paid the price for it.

That fullness before the cross, was called the Shekinah. Today, it is Jesus Christ in His fullness, appearing as grace and truth.

This week He was among us, on daily bases, demonstrating and manifesting His fullness. First, by the instrumentality of the meetings we had, and second by the hands of our spiritual father.

Friend, like I have always maintained, these are no longer days of praying with bottles of oil in your hands. At least we saw that when my father spoke to us. He said people who do that have a power that is lesser than an atom. That alone is a sign that the Church is still in the outer court.

In fact, it is not even in the outer court because you can never have church in the outer court, you can only have crowd. So, it shows the people are not yet part of the Church. Or they were, but slipped back to the crowd dimension many call churches.

The testimonies, and power display we saw in the meeting of our 10th anniversary, shows that many preachers and their members alike are yet to know God the God of the Bible. They know other gods, and present them as God, but they do not know the God of the Bible, who is not represented by images, or liquids like oil and water, or solids like salt, prayer clothes, and etc.

He said to Moses,

“Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female,” Deuteronomy 4:15-16 NKJV

NOT TAKING HEED TO OURSELVES HAS INDEED CORRUPTED US.

Once a man is corrupted, he begins to turn God into liquids and solids, and eventually become depraved and wicked at heart. That is why we have sorcerers among us called prophets.

Yes, that is why we have gays as preachers today. We have lesbians as prophetesses. That is why we now entertain all manner of immorality and abominations calling them our weakness. People literally live in sin, but call themselves born again.

Preachers turn a blind eye on all the wickedness and abomination seen in Church, first among us preachers, then among our members. We do to sin and wickedness what Jesus never did to sin and wickedness.

When He saw it in the lives of the Pharisees, He cried woe unto them.

When He saw it in the lives of the sinners on the street of Jerusalem, who accepted that they needed a Savior who will deliver them from their depravity, He transformed them completely and told some to go and sin no more.

Before the cross, He stirred His prophets not to Condon any sinful life in Israel, and used them to create paths of righteousness for us all. In fact, He went to the cross to solve the sin problem among us. He carried the cross and died on it to do that.

He never treated sin and wickedness kindly. But today, we are different!! We have terrible liars and extortioners as preachers, and church members alike.

By spirit nature, many fit into those the Bible describe as people who will not make Heaven on the final day. Scripturally, this is due to the corruption of turning God into religious materials that were mere shadows, things that should not be used for prayers or any form of ministration in Church.

The Bible says;

“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” Revelation 21:8 AKJV

THIS IS ONE SCRIPTURE THAT WE SHOULD NOT REMOVE OUR EYES FROM IF WE TRULY WANT TO MAKE HEAVEN AT LAST.

When you see people, who are too fearful to take a stand with righteousness in Church, you see many unbelieving believers; souls that are active in Church, fitting the description of the abominable, murderers, whoremongers or sexual immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and liars, you should be worried because of what this scripture says. Yet, this would not have happened in what we call the Church if we have not corrupted ourselves with these things.

The use of the prayer gadgets in Church has made it impossible for the true and raw power of God to function among many assemblies and transform people into holy and righteous people by spirit nature. Sadly, many are not seeing that.

They do not see it because they are either blind, deaf in spirit, or not part of the body of Christ.

They do not see why God Himself said we should not use the shadows He used to announce the coming of Christ and His Holy Spirit, in time past today. The are not seeing how we have brought in spiritual corruption or decay to the church and developed strong sinful passions instead of righteous passions, through the use of those things.

They do not see how genuine transformation, regeneration, and God’s raw power is missing in church. They do not see how the love of money, friendship with the world, a life of iniquity, trespass and sin, now governs so many who are called Christians.

They do not see the danger of the kind of life we live.

These things increased in so many local assemblies called churches because God was reduced to olive oil, holy water, and religious materials like salts and etc. The raw and real power of the God of the Bible, has been long absent in Church.

With the encounters we had in the just concluded meeting, it is now very clear to those who never saw it in that light, that there is more in God. There is so much more than what many have experienced in God.

THAT THING IS CALLED THE FULLNESS OF GOD; WHICH ACTUALLY IS THE ESSENCE OF THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS.

A major Highlight of our devotional text says;

“So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”

What do you think gave Israel food to eat for 40 years? Olive oil in the hands of Moses or holy water? Was it even the blood of sprinkling he was told to do to represent Jesus sprinkling His blood on the altar of God in Heaven?

None of those shadows gave them the manna they ate for 40 years. God does not move in shadows, God move in substance. Yes, the real and raw power of God manifests when the glory shows up. It was the glory of God that gave them manna to eat for 40 years.

That glory was Christ in His fulness, manifesting as the shekinah. He came upon them as the bread that came down from Heaven, and they got it in form of what they ate for 40 years.

Those shadows, the Bible says, were pointers of things to come. They were pointers to the coming of the Holy Spirit, the coming or the revelation of Jesus Christ, the end of the sin age, and other forms of Bible prophecies that are to be fulfilled.

Israel was called the Church in the wilderness.

If the Church in the wilderness walked in the glory that the New Covenant calls “ministry of dead” because it never formed Christ in the people, what do you think is God’s plan for the Church present? To walk in oil? Water? Salt? pieces of clothes called mantles? or any of those things heretic preachers give people? No!

God’s glory plan has not changed.

He wants the Church to walk in His glory; the glory of the Father, the glory of the Son, and the glory of the Holy Spirit, not in the shadows of things Moses used as instruments of power and things to come. That is what the LORD wants the Church to walk in.

When we say the Church, we are not referring to a building, because the church is not the building, but the people who sits in the building. God wants you to walk in the raw glory and power of Christ, not in the shadows of things that were to come, which have already come.

And to do that, you must plant yourself in a local Church that is already out of the realm of shadows; out of the realm of oil, water, salt, raising of altars, and etc. That is the word of the LORD.

MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;

“Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words.

For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.” Colossians 2:4-10 NKJV