TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 6TH AUGUST 2024)
“Come, and let us return to the LORD; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up,
That we may live in His sight.
Let us know, Let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, Like the latter and former rain to the earth.” Hosea 6:1-3 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 219TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
This is the day the LORD has made, we shall rejoice and be glad in it. The faithfulness of our God is from everlasting to everlasting. His marvelous deeds make our lives shine, and His word gives us hope. To Him belong all the glory!!!
Today we want to look into miracles that only happens when one is in good standing with GOD. To start with, I want us to understand one of the many things the Bible teaches about God’s mercies. The Bible teaches that God’s mercies are always higher than our sins, if there is repentance in our hearts.
Yes, if there is repentance in our hearts the mercies of the LORD will neutralize whatever the enemy want to do in our lives. It says;
“Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the LORD,” Acts 3:19 NKJV
This scripture is clear. It teaches that when we repent, times of refreshing will come from the LORD. It did not say when we fast, pray, give sacrificially, or sing in our sinful states. It says when we repent, times of refreshing will come from the LORD.
It is important to understand that repentance is the greatest seed we can sow in the Kingdom of God. It is the key that opens the flood gates of Heaven upon people, and unleashes times of refreshing upon them.
Times of refreshing from the LORD, are responsible for so many good things that happens in God’s kingdom.
They are responsible for the miracles that comes when one is in good standing with God. Yes, there are miracles that can only come to us when we are in good standing with God, and the miracles comes as times of refreshing from the LORD.
One of the Bible stories that contains a record of such miracles is the story of the three Hebrew boys in Babylon, also the story of Daniel in the lions’ den. In both instances, if they were not in good standing with God, there would have been no such miracles.
In the case of the Three Hebrew Boys, the king requested that the fire be heated seven times before commanding that the boys be thrown into it.
But by the time they got there, their God was there waiting for them. Times of refreshing from the LORD took over the flames, and the LORD Himself stepped in.
THAT WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED IF THEY WERE NOT IN GOOD STANDING WITH GOD.
Miracles like this have become rare today because they do not come by sowing seeds, fasting or praying. They come because one is in good standing with God. These are miracles that breaks out in our lives without we asking for them.
The three Hebrew boys never asked that the fire be quenched by the LORD. They just stood in faith saying they will never give their worship to any graven image because they have already given it to God.
One way we can be in good standing with God is through repentance. Repentance involves returning or turning to God.
Yes, there are miracles that breaks out in our lives without even asking for them when we return to God. We see such miracles in the life of the prodigal son. The Bible says, he became poor, wretched, and terribly in a bad shape after leaving His father’s house with his share of blessings and wasting all in riotous living.
The word says;
“Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”
“And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
“But the father said to his servants, Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.” Luke 15:15-24 NKJV
If you look at this story, you will realize that the turnaround of this young man came when he returned to the father. That is what repentance is.
As soon as he returned to the father in repentance (not spiritual pride) the father unleashed miraculous moves in His life. By the time he was through with him, there was no trace of what he went through any where in his life.
THAT TEACHES US THAT WHENEVER THE ENEMY WANT TO DESTROY US, WE SHOULD RETURN BACK TO THE LORD.
Our devotional text says,
“Come, and let us return to the LORD; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up.
After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight.
Let us know, Let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, Like the latter and former rain to the earth.” Hosea 6:1-3 NKJV
Returning to the LORD, especially when your back is against the wall, and you are about being declared defeated by the enemy, will change everything. The text says, “Come, and let us return to the LORD; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up.”
We return to the LORD through the pathways of repentance. Yes, genuine repentance. It is genuine repentance that gets the life of a dying soul back to life. It is genuine repentance that changes the battle cry and turns the tide against the enemy.
From the story of the prodigal son, it is clear that genuine repentance will get you back into the Father’s arm, and unleash miracles in your life instead of the miseries your sins had collected for you.
It will get you back in good standing with God and give you more than you ask for. It will bless you with a heritage that will wipe away any shame or reproach that was there before. Satan knows the power of repentance hence not allowing many of us in the faith to lead lives of repentance.
There are a lot of teachings that are being peddled that are not letting people live lives of repentance towards God.
There are so many preachers (false teachers and prophets) who are busy promoting their own agenda in pretense of doing God’s work. Their messages promise people all kinds of miracles but can not turn any sinner to repentance.
IN FACT, THEY MAKE THE LOST SOUL FEEL SAVED AND SANCTIFIED.
We have found most of the preachers who do so, speaking like mentally unstable people. You hear some even say there is no Heaven. You hear others say God is not in Heaven, while some others say we do not need repentance. They teach things that make God’s people err, and stir them to live ungodly lives, with a life that look like a life of faith towards God.
The gate of miracles that genuine repentance will open in your life will amaze you. The power it will unleash in your life is what the Bible calls the greatness of God’s power. Understand that the devils that our repentance cannot neutralize, are not yet born in hell.
The Bible says,
“if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV (Emphasis mine)
In this scripture, you see God conditioning answers to prayers for the healing of a nation, on the repentance of the citizens of that nation. It conditioned prayers for healing after a season of sorrow, on turning to the LORD, and forsaking wicked ways.
Yes, any season of elongated sorrows, pains or reproach can be turned around if we can turn from our wicked ways in our turning to the LORD; in other words, if we can repent. Even Job had to repent in dust and ashes before His restoration began.
Turning is requirement for the healing of a life, or a land. You see that depicted in the words “turn from their wicked ways.”
But the game that most prayer people play today is this; they get into large prayer-for-the-nation gatherings, asking God to do one thing or the other, but living the nation in its wicked ways.” That is why I call it prayer madness!
The smarter ones, will kneel down corporately, standing on some misunderstood scriptures and claiming to be repenting on behalf of the nation. These things have a form of godliness in them but have no true results from God. That is why they have to be repeated.
Preachers love doing the large gathering prayer thing because of the relevance and revenue it builds for them. But Jesus never recommended that to be the solution to national problems.
Friend, from our individual lives to our national lives, repentance remains the only door that opens our lives to the goodness that we need from the LORD. It remains the only key to the times of refreshing that our families, nations, business and churches need.
That is the word of the LORD today!!!
It is saddening that while Christ started and ended His earthly ministry with the Gospel of the kingdom that stir up repentance, many of us in ministry today are focusing on making money and getting relevance through the preaching of what we call the gospel.
Our messages do not stir repentance in people’s heart. At most it makes them to have faith in our LORD Jesus Christ but no repentance towards God. Repentance towards God is the only approved fruit of faith in Jesus Christ.
If our faith in Christ do not have fruits of repentance as a prove, we are fake.
It is my prayer that we all wake up to the call of the LORD today, through this devotional, and make a life of repentance a standard to live by in Jesus precious name. Amen!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOUR LIFE TODAY!
“And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church. And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons,
Serving the LORD with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews:
And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house,
Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” Acts 20:17-21 NKJV