TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 3RD AUGUST 2024)
“Now the Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites.
And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him, and said to him, “The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!”
Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us?
And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.
Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”” Judges 6:11-14 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 216TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
The LORD has been instructing, teaching, and guiding us on this platform. He has also been counselling us, and is still going to instruct, teach, and counsel us.
What the LORD instructed, taught, and counseled us yesterday, on how to live our lives in present days, must be understood and applied. We learned that he who sows to please the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.
What we need to add is this, sowing to please the Spirit, is the key to unending miracles from God in a man’s walk with the LORD.
Yes, for a child of God, miracles from God comes when we avoid a flesh led life.
Anyone who walks in the Spirit will tell you that, what believers do to please the flesh, has a way of becoming a major obstacle to the constant flow of miracles in their lives. I mean miracles from God.
Miracles from Satan can still be coming if you are walking to please the flesh, but none will be coming from God, except as an invitation to walk away from a life that is led by the flesh. Miracles that comes as an invitation into a Spirit led life, will fill your eyes with tears of joy and stir you up into a life of repentance.
God wants us to live and walk in His Holy Spirit so that whenever we need a miracle from Him, we can walk with Him to have it in our lives. He does not want us to live lives that are bereaved of miracles from Him, because when miracles cease coming from Him to us, our lives will begin to choke and descend into misery.
SADLY, THERE ARE SO MANY CHRISTIANS WHOSE LIVES NO LONGER EXPERIENCE MIRACLES FROM GOD
It is not because God does not want them to see His Miracles, but because they lead lives that hinder the flow of His miracles by sowing to please the flesh. Most do not even know that, hence blaming other things to be responsible.
The presence of God has left them yet they are still carrying the ark of God everywhere and shouting to battle like the Israelites under the household of Eli.
Like the ancient Israel, there are whole churches today that no longer walk in the miraculous of God. They are in a state where the righteous among them are asking, and saying, “where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about….” like Gideon did in our devotional text.
Gideon asked the question because the Middianites had made life unbearable for them, and the nation was not seeing God respond to them like He did in the days of their fathers; namely Moses.
With what they were told, he should have responded. But there was no response from God, hence Gideon’s frustration.
That is what happens, when righteous men and women see that the power of God has disappeared from the Church, leaving services with just noise, but no true miracles from God.
You will find them asking in prayers and fasting, “why, why, and why,” and you will find God, in most cases, not just giving them the answers but using them to bring about a change.
I remember the first prayer team I formed, which was in 1995.
It was formed to address the absence of power in the Church, because we knew that if God’s power remains absent, our leaders, in their desperation for power, will bring in the wonder working power of Satan to church by incorporating the use of oil, water, salt, and etc. in prayers.
Hence, we began to seek the LORD until He began to use us to restore back His power to church. Those prayer seasons really did a lot in our lives.
THEY LAID THE FOUNDATION OF WHAT SOME OF US ARE TODAY UNDER GOD.
Now, the Old Testament is the will of God concealed, and the new Testament is the will of God revealed. So, what was it that was concealed in what happened to the nation of Israel in the days of Gideon?
The first is, God’s Power disappeared from Israel because they did evil in the sight of the LORD. Which is a message to us that God’s power will disappear from us if we begin to do evil in His sight, and there are different kinds of evil we might do to cause God’s power to disappear.
Some of the evils is the evil of walking in the flesh and sowing to please it. The evil of following doctrines of devils and man-made doctrines instead of the doctrine of Christ, and etc. The beginning of the chapter of our devotional text says;
“Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years, and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel.
Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains.
So it was, whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey.
For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels were without number; and they would enter the land to destroy it.
So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD.
And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried out to the LORD because of the Midianites, that the LORD sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them,
“Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage; and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land.
Also, I said to you, “I am the LORD your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.” But you have not obeyed My voice.’” Judges 6:1-10 NKJV
THIS SCRIPTURE MADE IT CLEAR THAT THEIR PROBLEMS BEGAN WHEN THE ANCIENT NATION OF ISRAEL DID WHAT WAS EVIL IN GOD’S SIGHT.
However, God in His mercies sent a prophet to confront them of their evil when they prayed for help. He did not just send a miracle to stop their enemies.
He sent a prophet to take away the reason why the enemy was prevailing against them. That is How God respond to the prayers of those whose sinful life style or departure from the faith is responsible for their problems.
Power from God will always disappear from Church, when people do evil in His sight. The restoration will only take place when people are confronted, then they repent and begin to do good in His sight. Now, the Bible says, “evil in God’s sight” not man’s sight.
Meaning, there are things that are evil in God’s sight that could be sometimes good in the sight of men. Like the use of water, oil, salt, or money for miracle prayers.
Most things that are evil in God’s sight are not considered evil because they are bringing money to preachers and making derailed believers their worshipers. But our God is not respecter of persons.
Once He sees what is evil in His sight in His Church, He will withdraw His power. Then send His prophetic voice to them to turn from their wicked ways!
But if the leaders are not sensitive, they will not listen.
If they do not listen and continue with their ministries that way, they will become desperate and begin to source for the supernatural following the Nehustan spirit, thereby opening up their Churches and ministries to the wonder working power of Satan. That is how a lot of present day mega and minor Churches are tapping into the satanic calling it GOD.
BUT THE NATION OF ISRAEL HAD A DIFFERENT STORY.
Obviously, after they cried unto God and the LORD responded, they repented of their evil ways before Gideon had the encounter that would later make him the one the LORD decided to use to bring a change. The full text says;
“Now the Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites.
And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him, and said to him, “The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!”
Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us?
And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” Judges 6:11-13 NKJV
Gideon was a product of the cry of the nation to God for divine intervention, and the repentance of the nation having listened to the prophet God sent to confront them of their evil ways. There are ministries and Churches in the nations of the earth that are God’s response to the cry of people in those nation for divine intervention.
With what I have heard and seen in Kenya, I think Our ministry, the Cry of the Spirit Ministries is a response to the prayer cry of the elects for a Church that will make the God of the Bible the only God in their lives, not the God of olive oil, water, salt, and all the charismatic witchcraft being practiced.
I believe many other ministries in Kenya and the rest of the world are answers to prayers that people prayed.
Our devotional text shows the states of Gideon’s heart before the LORD met him. He was wondering where all the miracles he heard went to. I believe those meditation of his heart got to God and the LORD picked him for the job.
THE LAST VERSE OF THE TEXT SAID;
Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” Judges 6:14 NKJV
God would later go on to commit Himself to Gideon’s weakness and smallness, and bring great deliverance to Israel by His outstretch arm. God will do anything to restore back His power to us if we remove all that is evil in His sight from our Churches and personal lives.
I want to bring this to a close on a prophetic note.
I submit to us that time has come for a generation to stand like the sons of Korah did, and say unto God “command deliverance for Jacob.” Yes, the time has come for End Time Sons of Korah to rise and not be like their father who was swallowed by the earth for his rebellion, because a lot of our spiritual fathers are disappointing God.
They are being swallowed by the earth of humanism and occultism because their ears are no longer tuned to the true God. Many now have their ears tuned to the god of gold and the god of fortress and God is screaming and rumbling to their sons from the throne room not to follow their ways!
Indeed, the time has come for the Sons-of-Korah-breed of believers to rise, not just to demand for the moves of God that happened in the days of our Bible fathers to happen in our days, but request for the fresh moves of the Spirit that have been prophesied to happen in our days!
Yes, there are righteous moves of God that Bible prophets saw in their days and prophesied for our days.
It is important to note that everything about the Christian faith has been designed and pre-planned by God. The outbreaks of His power prophesied are waiting in His storehouse to be posted to the earth.
But we need to stand like the Sons of Korah stood in their days and place a demand on the Throne of God to unleash End Time power on earth.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, The deeds You did in their days, In days of old: You drove out the nations with Your hand, but them You planted; You afflicted the peoples, and cast them out.
For they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword, Nor did their own arm save them; But it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your countenance, Because You favored them.
You are my King, O God; Command victories for Jacob.” Psalm 44:1-4 NKJV