TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 2ND JUNE 2024)
“And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
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 21:5-8 AKJV
WELCOME TO THE 154TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
It is the second day of the 6th month of our year of Impact. Glory be to God for His great mercies and kindness in our lives. His mercies are indeed new every morning. That is why most of us have not perished under terrible consequences of our bad decisions.
Our journey here on earth can be very troubling at times, and challenging.
We need God’s mercies every day. If we do not need it to take care of our short comings, we need it to help us to overcome the pressure of living right before GOD, especially in a world where living right is persecuted, discouraged, and misjudged.
Child of God, we must thank God daily for not withholding His mercies from us. We must thank Him for oiling our lives with His grace and compassion, and not dealing with the world according to its sins. If God were to deal with the world according to its sins, none of us would be alive.
If we were still in the days before the cross, many of us would not have been alive today.
The reason is simple, most of us today, have done worse than Sodom and Gomorrah. Others in ministry have done much more than Eli and his sons, who corrupted the priesthood.
Some others have done worse than Uzza, who merely touched the ark with the aim of preventing it from falling. Many others on earth today have done much more than Manasseh, especially many of us in ministry, the so-called prophets.
MANASSEH BROUGHT WITCHCRAFT TO ISRAEL AND ENTHRONE OCCULTISM IN THE LAND.
There are those of us who have superseded this, and even dethrone Nebuchadnezzar by our evil deeds who was reduced to an animal for seven years. While most others have made what Cain did look like an act of righteousness, when place side by side their evil deeds, many others are still exploring new ways to do evil.
We are not suffering what they suffered because of God’s mercies.
It is even interesting to note that this kind of demonstration of God’s mercies will continue till the Judgement Day; when all will answer to the Judge of all, and pay for what they did while living in their bodies.
Sometimes, one is forced to reason about this wealth of kindness in God, and its purpose. The purpose for it is captured in the holy scriptures. The Bible calls it God’s forbearance and long-suffering, and patience. It says we are to make use of it, and repent from our wicked and sinful ways.
Read this;
Or are you [so blind as to] trifle with and presume upon and despise and underestimate the wealth of His kindness and forbearance and long-suffering patience? Are you unmindful or actually ignorant [of the fact] that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repent (to change your mind and inner man to accept God’s will)?
But by your callous stubbornness and impenitence of heart you are storing up wrath and indignation for yourself on the day of wrath and indignation, when God’s righteous judgment (just doom) will be revealed.” Romans 2:4-5 AMPC
I believe this is clear enough and needs no further explanation.
Anytime any of us commits a sinful deed and do not see an immediate consequence from God, it is a message that we should not repeat it again. But we do not get the message. If we were getting the messages, we will be striving on daily basses to live right and not bow to the flesh.
This scripture made it clear that if we remain callous, stubborn, and impenitent, despite the wealth of God’s kindness, we are storing up for ourselves indignation that will be poured upon us in the day of wrath when God’s judgment will be revealed.
BUT GOD DOES NOT WANT THAT TO HAPPENED, HENCE SENDING THIS WORD TO US.
You must understand that this wealth of GOD’s kindness recognizes that mankind is constantly under attacks from the kingdom of darkness, hence offering help to us.
This month the cry of the Spirit is taking us on another journey to discover what the voice of the LORD says about fear! I hope we are ready!!
We are often attacked by fear, sometimes from the gates of the forces of darkness. Some have the fear of walking out of destructive relationships. Others have the fear of walking out of wrong churches, fearing supposed ‘curses’ that may result and all that. Some others have the fear of losing their jobs.
Some who want to live right have the fear of what people will say when they do what is right and redemptive that maybe, no one understands. Many others have one type of fear or the other.
It is important to understand that, while some fears hold no eternal consequences, others do. There is a fear that can be eternally damning. Some of the fears mentioned about falls into the category.
The fear that can be eternally damning include the fear of what to lose when we live right or do the right things.
That is the kind of fear that hinders people from walking out of sin, sinful things, or from wrong places, wrong people, damning relationships, synagogues of Satan called churches, and etc.
There is also the eternally damning fear of confessing and owning up to sins, or letting people know that you need help to live right with GOD, especially when you are in leadership, putting on an I-am-okay-spiritually appearance, while internally you are sinking fast to hell.
There are no words to describe what will happen to us eternally if we allow any fear that has eternal consequences to rule our lives.
IT WILL RUIN OUR ETERNAL DESTINY COMPLETELY.
Our devotional text says;
“And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
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 21:5-8 AKJV (emphasis mine).
This scripture made it clear that heaven is for overcomers not just people who recite the sinner’s prayers. In other words, there are battles to fight and things to overcome. Things that if we do not fight and overcome, will make us unworthy for Heaven and throw us into the lake of fire on the last day.
Some of them are things that make people liars (people who knowingly convey what is untrue by word or deed), idolaters (people who give supreme devotion to anything other than God), sorcerers, whoremongers (those who are lewd, adulterous, or sexually perverse), murderers, abominable (depraved and morally bankrupt) unbelieving, and fearful (those lacking in courage, who submit cowardly).
The last word in that verse, THE FEARFUL, talks about a lack of courage and coward submission that has eternal consequences, because that is what fear is.
Fear takes away your courage and make you submit cowardly. It takes away the courage to resist what you know is not good for you. It takes away the courage to stand before your perverted parents, spiritual or biological, to refuse things they want you to do that are against the faith that was once delivered to the saints.
ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU ARE IGNORANT.
That is when they use the scripture that says “honor your father and your mother” to crush any courage that may still be there and make you submit cowardly to them and damn your soul in hell.
And let me say this; the morality of a lot of people are being strangled by parents (spiritual and biological) who make their children or wards do sinful and abominable things; terrible things that hold eternal consequences.
You see, the only authority we are to obey without questioning is divine or righteous authorities.
We all must understand that when God said, “Honor your father and mother,” the commandment first came to the Jews, a nation with parents who feared God. It was not to gentile kids, who had parents who led them to serve idols.
In fact, the word came to the entire nation as they stood before God on mount Sinai. The vision was the perpetuation of righteousness. In other word, obeying parents should result in righteousness in the lives of kids, not wickedness and ungodliness.
The law is therefore not applicable where parents do not fear God. We are to honor parents who are not leading our souls to hell without questioning. But those who are leading us to hell, must be respectfully questioned with scriptures. They must not receive submission.
If you allow yourself to be inflicted with a fear that has eternal consequences, especially by parents, spouses, or authorities that are dead, spiritually or morally bankrupt, either spiritual or biological, you will mourn.
Parents who are not aligned to God’s will and ways, will dump you in hell if you follow their ways and do their will. Do not allow the enemy to use a scripture for honoring parents to make you hell worthy.
For instance, there are fathers who sleep with their daughters, or hand them over to marriages that are not God’s will for them. How do you submit to such fathers? How do you honor such abominable fathers?
How do you submit to a man with a spear in his hands, ready to pin you to the wall of eternal judgment or marital sorrows?
Off course, you will lose out with your Heavenly Father if you submit to such fathers. God’s word for honoring parents did not cover such fathers.
THE PARENTS MUST BE IN THE LORD, OR AT LEAST NOT TAKEN OVER BY THE EVIL ONE, TO RECEIVE SUBMISSION FROM THEIR CHILDREN.
I have seen unbelieving parents who allow their children to follow the ways of the LORD instead of their own ways. They allow them worship in Churches that will help them live right and make Heaven. They allow them to follow the LORD without resisting them.
Those are the parents to honor with submission. They may not be in the LORD, but please honor them for honoring the LORD.
Do not allow anyone, to inflict you with a fear that has eternal consequences because they are your spiritual fathers or biological parents. You should understand why Jesus said if anyone love father and mother more than Him, he or she is not worthy of Him.
It is wrong to dishonor the LORD because you want to honor your father. It is wrong to dishonor the LORD and honor your spiritual father because of fear. Such fears will send you to hell.
I have also seen people who submit to sexual pressure or do other immoral thing because of fear. That is another fear that will send someone to the lake of fire. It is a fear that makes you submit to sexual pressure, lying or covering the truth, to either save yourself, or cover something about you that you do not want anyone to know.
It completely takes away one’s courage to do the right thing. So many are under this kind of fear.
It is the very fear that Jezebel used in caging God’s prophets not to prophesy against her activities in the land of Israel. It is the same kind of fear that is spreading today through the Baal worshipers who do not want the activities of Nehushtan to stop because of the fortune they gather from it.
The fear that religious people inflict to prevent us from doing or saying the right thing, is a fear that has eternal consequences, and Jesus said we should not submit to it. If you do, you will find yourself on the wrong side of God’s judgment on the final day.
Child of God, the Holy Spirit has set this month aside to deliver us from all forms of fear.
I believe enough has been shared for the day. It is my prayer that God will use it to build us up and keep granting us an inheritance among they that are sanctified. Amen.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered in the ear, proclaim upon the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; but rather be afraid of Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Gehenna).
Are not two little sparrows sold for a penny? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s leave (consent) and notice. But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, then; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Therefore, everyone who acknowledges Me before men and confesses Me [out of a state of oneness with Me], I will also acknowledge him before My Father Who is in heaven and confess [that I am abiding in] him. But whoever denies and disowns Me before men, I also will deny and disown him before My Father Who is in heaven.
Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to part asunder a man from his father, and a daughter from her mother, and a newly married wife from her mother-in-law— And a man’s foes will be they of his own household.
He who loves [and takes more pleasure in] father or mother more than [in] Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves [and takes more pleasure in] son or daughter more than [in] Me is not worthy of Me;
And he who does not take up his cross and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conforming wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also] is not worthy of Me.
Whoever finds his [lower] life will lose it [the higher life], and whoever loses his [lower] life on My account will find it [the higher life].
He who receives and welcomes and accepts you receives and welcomes and accepts Me, and he who receives and welcomes Me receives and welcomes Him who sent Me.
He who receives and welcomes and accepts a prophet because he is a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward, and he who receives and welcomes and accepts a righteous man because he is a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. Matthew 10:27-41 AMPC