TODAY’S DEVOTION (THURSDAY 2ND MAY 2024)
“Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.”
For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.” Hebrews 4:6-9 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 123RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
Yes, there remain a rest for the people of God, and we all look forward to that final rest that the LORD has Prepared for those who love Him.
We give God the glory for His mercies and marvelous deeds. It is another great day from Jesus Christ, our LORD and Savior; the Day Himself, and we give Him the glory.
He has been so good to us, serving as our Judgment seat, mercy seat, healer, protector, provider, man of war, refuge, Father, and everything.
He is our Day that is why we are not in the dark. The Bible says we are children of the Day and not the night. In other words, because of our salvation, we are no longer in the dark concerning Spiritual matters in God’s kingdom. By God’s mercies and Spirit, we are in the light. We give God the glory for all that.
The kingdom of God is called, the kingdom of light. It is a place where God’s light shines on our hearts, day unto day, so that we can live our days walking in the light of the world, so that we will not be caught in the perils of the darkness of this world.
One major activity that goes on in the Kingdom of God is schooling in the things of God. That is why as soon as you get saved, you answer the call of discipleship.
Discipleship is a call to spend your days schooling in the things of God.
If your Christianity is not rooted in this call, you are not in the faith. True Christianity is a call to discipleship, and discipleship is a call to live our days schooling in the things of God, and aligning our ways with God’s ways.
The truth remains, when God’s kingdom citizens begin to school themselves in the things of the devil or whatever is not part of the things of God, they become weak, defeated, and can be destroyed.
Once Satan succeeds in cutting our hearts off from the revelation of the things of God, we will come under the power of the things of this world and no longer walk in victory.
For instance, believers who cannot radiate the glory of God in every aspects of their lives, and walk in victory over the darkness of this world, are not living their days schooling in the things of God.
Our Bible fathers, who walked in victory, and those who were able to rise form every fall, spent their days schooling in the things of God, by spending time in the place of God’s manifest presence (also known as the House of God), to behold His glory and enquire at His temple.
ONE OF THEM WAS DAVID. HE SAID IN ONE OF HIS PSALMS;
“Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.
One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.
For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.” Psalm 27:3-5 kjv
The word of the LORD here is very clear on why David was not afraid of anyone or anything that came against him. It showed us why his heart was not afraid despite whatever was happening. It showed us why he stood despite what encamped against him.
What he got from the seasons he spent in the house of the LORD beholding His glory and enquiring at His temple, helped him.
He said, it gave him the strength of heart not to be afraid, that strength is faith. The just shall live by faith; by confident in the power, presence, and glory of God to sustain them.
Without that confidence or faith in God, everything about us will be breaking down and we will not be able to stand.
Faith is a necessity for survival in a world that is unpredictable. The Bible says by it, those who spent their days schooling in the things of God, obtained a good report. The word says;
“By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace.
And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets:
who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.” Hebrews 11:30-35 NKJV
THIS IS THE VERY GOOD REPORT GOD WANTS US TO GET.
It is the very good report Satan does not want us to get, hence making us lazy and not desiring time in God’s presence, to learn His things and live by a proof producing faith.
He does not want us to be able to bring walls of resistance to our progress that may surround us down like Joshua did. He does not want us to become part of God’s redemptive programs like Rahab became.
He does not want us to obtain the good report that men like Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets obtained against him, and his kingdom.
He does not want us to have a faith that can repeat, especially in higher magnitude, the victory these Bible men had against him and his kingdom in their days. But that is exactly what God wants us to do, hence sending this word to us.
He wants us to wake up to matters of schooling in His kingdom and not just going about praying. God wants us to find Churches headed by preachers who can school us in His things not preachers who leads us to raise, break, or silence altars.
Many will prefer going to church for other things, instead of learning the things of God, that is why they find themselves in anti-Christ churches that offer the carnal things they look for and not the Christ they do not have.
IT HAS LED TO THE LOST OF THE KIND OF FAITH THAT OUR BIBLE FATHERS HAD IN THEIR AGE AND TIME IN OUR GENERATION.
With the evil we see today, our generation is in dire need of that faith.
Yes, we are in dire need of the faith the scares Satan and makes him back out. We have some faith, but we are in dire need of the faith that subdues kingdoms, works righteousness, obtain promises, stop the mouths of destructive lion leaders, lion men and women of same sex marriage demon, and other forms of destructive lion systems, that are roaring errors, immorality, depravity, and ungodliness around the nations.
The Bible says the mouths of every lion system or spirit that is wreaking the havoc of eternal damnation on the souls of men should be stopped by the Church. But the Church seems too weak to do that because the faith to stop the mouths of these lions has disappeared from us.
We must get back to it, or we keep suffering what the world suffers, desiring what they desire, and never coming into the rest God promised His people in time, and eternity.
Child of God, it is not God’s will that we suffer what the world suffers.
God’s will is that we enter into His rest. But sadly, that is not happening in the lives of so many.
Many of us are going through so much adversity, and moving from one dark problem to another. We are going through these things, not because of the devil, but because the faith to live our days by, does not exist in us; the faith that our fathers had.
Yes, as earlier stated, we have some faith, but we do not have the faith they had. We do not have the faith that quenched the violence of the fires the enemy kindled against them, hence the ones He is kindling against us is consuming us.
We do not have the faith that helped them escape the edge of the swords they faced in their age and time, hence we are cut down by so many swords of death, diseases, lack, marital crisis, sin, and wickedness that are swinging against us.
We do not have the faith that made them strong out of their weaknesses, hence collapsing under our own weaknesses.
We do not have the faith that made them valiant in battle, and gave them so much power to put to flight the armies of the aliens, hence being successfully pursued by our enemies.
IN FACT, MANY GO TO CHURCH BECAUSE OF THE ENEMY THAT IS ON THEIR CASE, A SIGN OF THE ABSENCE OF THIS FAITH.
Yes, upon mount Zion, there shall be deliverance and holiness, and the sons of Jacob shall possess their possessions, but we ought to go to church to be discipled not to be delivered. It is when we are discipled that lasting deliverance happens.
I believe God has spoken to us this morning. May we run with the word!!
As we bring this to a close, understand that God wants us to come to His rest for our lives. But most Christians are yet to come into it, and the reason is because of a lack of the faith of our fathers. The very faith that is missing today.
That faith is missing because many have not taken the posture of living our days schooling in the things of God. A major part of our devotional text says, “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.”
I pray that none of us harden our hearts to this truth. Amen!!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
“Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].
For by [faith—trust and holy fervor born of faith] the men of old had divine testimony borne to them and obtained a good report.” Hebrews 11:1-2 AMPC