TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 12TH MAY 2024)
“All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:27-30 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 133RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
Jesus promised us rest, not relieve. That rest we have been experiencing all the year. To Him belong the glory.
There is no one like Him, none holy like our LORD. He has been our rock, our peace and our everything. He has been our man of war, who responds to the enemy before we even say a word. We give Him the glory!!
He said, before we call, He will answer; while we are still speaking, He will hear.
One of the many things that became near extinct in the dark church system, a system headed by some so called fathers of faith; a system that I believe Jesus is rolling away, is true worship and true worshipers.
The system is full of skillful and inspired singers, but very few true worshipers.
The church system that we see today has changed the meaning of so many things. The present crop of believers does not even know what Christianity is.
So many people now take worship to be a song, a lyric, or an offering; some take it to be a place and even a day. Very few know that when it comes to true worship, it’s not about the song, the lyric, the place, a day or an offering. It’s about the one and only true God.
Worship is one thing you do not do with people.
The first person to use the word worship in the Bible, went to the place of worship alone; he went with just His instrument of worship, which was not a musical instrument, but a life to be offered to God as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to Him.
The life of this man teaches that Worship is a place of dying where you and God alone stands with no space for another person. It is not a place of selfishness but a place of selflessness; a place of total submission to the will and ways of the LORD for your life.
WHEN WE OFFER TO GOD TRUE WORSHIP, HE FINDS WHAT TO INHALE FOR HIS GLORY TO BE EXHALED OR POURED INTO OUR LIVES.
When His glory is exhaled, it results in impartations and animations of His glory. That is why you cannot find a true worshiper without deposits of God’s glory on his or her life.
You could get an anointing of the Holy Spirit, by working with a true man of God, but you will never get deposits of God’s glory by working with any man of God. You get deposits of God’s glory by walking with God, submitting to His ways and doing His flesh killing will.
Yes, the will of God will always kill the flesh.
That is why it is very expensive to do! The flesh is always the stumbling block when we are dealing with God, so doing His will and walking in His way has a way of killing it and allowing God to find something (in our lives) to inhale, for His glory to be expelled upon us.
When the flesh is crucified, we can live lives with true worship in it.
It is important to note that leading a life that has the worship of the one and only true God in it, is what the Spirit of God was poured or released to help us achieve. That was why Jesus was not led to a king’s palace when the Spirit descended upon Him. He was led to the wilderness to fast and pray.
One of the major things the Holy Spirit does to help us achieve a life of true worship, is to give us revelation knowledge of the word and ways of God. Sometimes the knowledge is found in wells of truth called, wells of Salvation, where the water of the word can be drawn.
This morning I will be taking us to another well of truth that was dug years back during our season of schooling for restoration. We are visiting the well to fetch another ton of revelation knowledge.
I remember preaching about the core product of meeting Christ in 2015 when our ministry in Kenya was not even known. We were less than 15 in that little hall. I remember three Old Christian ladies who came.
THEY SAT GAZING AT US AS WE PREACHED UNTIL WE CLOSED.
The word was fiery and strong. Maybe that was why they never came back. But you could tell from their faces, they were experiencing a flood of revelation, that was challenging the status quo they are used to.
They were hearing something different but true. It was too true to be accepted because they have been taught spiritual warfare upside down, and never knew about the rest Jesus promised us in His word.
There is a rest in Christ for the people of God. I believe you will find a refreshing the way we did then as we visit this well in Jesus precious name. Amen!!
I have come to discover that no work of darkness can be successfully expelled out of our lives until light is put to work. We may pray, fast, give and do whatever seems powerful, but if we have not sat down to be schooled in the things of God, the best we will keep having is “relief” and not “release” or “rest”.
Amazingly, (as we can see in our devotional text this morning) Jesus never promised us relief but rest, and that comes by schooling in the things of GOD. A major highlight in the text quoted Him saying;
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
This scripture is full of things to chew! You do not find rest by drinking oil, using water to pray or prayer clothes. You do not find rest by raising altars or silencing some.
You find rest by sitting down to be schooled in the things of God; a faith position that gives us the dominion we need to break form any yoke.
Let me reiterate again that, the scripture says, schooling in the things of God is the key to entering into rest from the days of adversity. It is the key to receiving rest from Our Savior, because He said, “take my yoke upon you and learn from me…and you will find rest for your souls.”
He did not say take bottles of oil and drink and you will find rest for your souls. He did not say “use salt, sand, water, sticks, brooms, mats, or whatever to pray and you will find rest for your souls.” Such practices cannot give you rest because they do not give you any capacity to break from the yoke of your enemies.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO TAKE NOTE OF WHAT THE WORD DID NOT SAY WHEN READING THE BIBLE.
Most Christians are in error and under the grip of heretic teachers and lying prophets because, they either do not read the Bible or they read it without taking note of what Jesus did not say!
He did not say, “sow seeds for divine activation and you will find rest for your souls.” He said sit down and learn of me.
A lady who was promised marital rest was told to give a million shilling. She did, but remained restless. Even if she had gotten a miracle, that would have been from the demon of deliverance.
When you give money for what ought to come through schooling in the things of GOD, you have been scammed. Rest does not come through giving. Rest comes through schooling in the things of GOD!
Jesus said, “learn of me and you will find rest for your souls.” He did not even say attend a Church and you will find rest for your soul; as important as Church attendance is. He said “learn of me!”
The purpose of church is to reveal Christ to men. But it’s not the case in so many places.
So, Church attendance for some these days, is not a blessing but a curse. One of the reasons is this; most Churches are empty of the revelation of who Christ is, but full of the revelation of demons and all they are doing in the lives of people.
Others are empty of the revelation of God, but full of the revelation of giving and sowing seeds, because that is what profits the preachers financially! Very few people who have been in Church for many years have really learnt of Him. That is why the majority is still restless in every aspect of Life.
There is one more truth in our devotional text to bring to our attention.
Jesus said something that is very profound in that text – something I have never seen until this morning while writing this devotional. He opened my eyes to see what happens where people are schooled in the things of God and why REST is always the result.
The Bible says,
“All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
A major statement in this scripture makes it clear that in as much as God wants to reveal Himself to us, Only Jesus can do so because, like many do not know, Jesus is God!
HE WAS ONLY MAN FOR 33 AND HALF YEARS (OR LET ME SAY GOD IN MAN), BUT HE IS GOD.
He said, “no one can know the Father God, except those He (God the Son) wills to reveal Him to.” So, when He said, “come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest…learn of me and you will find rest for your souls,” He was in effect telling us what we will learn of Him when we come to be schooled.
In simple terms, we will catch the revelation of who the Father is when we come to Him. That is the revelation that will give us rest.
As we bring this to a close, I want to make something clear to you; if there is a promise of God pending in your life, you will never come into its manifestation until you are schooled in the things of God.
Between the declaration of that promise to you, and its manifestation, there is a middle ground of divine process you must cross.
Part of the process in that middle ground is schooling in the things of God. It is those who yield to the LORD to be schooled that will enter into the manifestation of the things the LORD has promised them, not just those who pray about it, as good as it is to pray about it.
If therefore GOD gives you a word and you go sitting down doing nothing but just looking out for it to come to pass, you will die without seeing it come to pass.
Many prophecies have failed in the lives of people just because of that. The truly heard from God, but were too ignorant of the things of God to see what they heard come to pass.
Sadly, most even became very knowledgeable in the things of devils, his evil spirits, and other depths of Satan, consequently compounding their problems.
When God speaks a word to you, ask Him where you need to go and plant yourself to be schooled in His things for that word to come to pass. If you do not do that, you will be disappointed.
WHAT IS THE MESSAGE OF THIS DEVOTIONAL THIS MORNING?
Ignorance of the things of God is the only reason for no rest from the enemy in our lives. It is also the reason for delayed or none manifestation of divine promises.
The Bible made it clear that until we see well into the plans and purposes of God for our lives (or come into the revelation of the things of God concerning what may have been promised), He will not hasten His word to perform. It says;
“Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” And I said, “I see a branch of an almond tree.” Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am ready to perform My word.” Jeremiah 1:11-12 NKJV
Until we see well, God will not make any move to perform anything He may have spoken to us. Seeing well is the key to terminating delayed blessings in our lives. When we see well, we will position ourselves well. But we cannot see well until we are schooled in the things of God.
It’s my prayer that God will use what He has shared with us this morning to improve our daily walk and talk with Him in Jesus’ precious name! AMEN!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY;
“Wisdom calls aloud outside; She raises her voice in the open squares. She cries out in the chief concourses, at the openings of the gates in the city She speaks her words:
‘How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning, And fools hate knowledge.
Turn at my rebuke; Surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you. Proverbs 1:20-23 NKJV