TODAY’S DEVOTION (FRIDAY 16TH AUGUST 2024)
“And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?
To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
They will pass through it hard-pressed and hungry; and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God, and look upward.
Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness.” Isaiah 8:19-22 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 229TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
It has been a year of Impact indeed and Heaven has been doing so many things in our lives to keep us thriving from faith to faith, progressing even when odds are against us, serving our generation according to His will, pressing through and through, sacrificing with tears were necessary, and submitting to God’s will and ways!
Today is another day the LORD has blessed us with, to Him belong all the glory! We want to look again into this set of miracles that no one will want to have in his life; correctional Judgment miracles.
In simple terms, judgments GOD releases on people, nations, cities, church groups and even families, by His miraculous hands, to either restore moral excellence to a people or stop wicked men and women, from either destroying his people or ruining our nations.
You will need this kind of miracles to be sent to those who oppress you so that you can be free from their oppression. God sent it to Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt to free Israel from their grips. He later used it against all the nations that stood on the way of His people, Israel.
He used it to kill 180,000 Assyrian army and brought the empire to an end.
Such miracles are God’s way of making sure the wicked do not prevail against people who are sold out to do His will. If you are sold out to do God’s will, you would need the miracles of God’s correctional judgments, on wicked and unreasonable people, to be free from the attacks and all they do to sabotage you.
Often, people make covenants with the kingdom of darkness and yield to it to destroy GOD’s purposes. During such times, you find GOD sending His warnings to them. Those who listen and change are usually saved. But those who do not, usually fall under His blows; manifesting as the miracles of correctional judgments.
Divine judgment, is one thing God does not want any to fall into. That is why He raise preachers to warn, and also teach His ways, so that people will learn, respect them, and be saved from His judgment.
OUR GENERATION STILL NEEDS TO BE REMINDED THAT IT IS A FEARFUL THING TO FALL INTO THE HANDS OF THE LORD IN JUDGMENT.
If you look at Bible prophecy, and the events that are happening now, you will realize that the entire planet is marching towards the direction of the final days; the day of judgment. In the light of that, it is clear that the worst days of anyone who is not living right, are ahead of them. They are not behind.
Yes, the worst days of anyone who is not preaching the right doctrine, or doing what the LORD says, are ahead of them, not behind them. Everyone must understand that the final day of accountability is coming. Living lives that will end us on the right side of the final events is the challenge of the moment.
The book of Revelation is full of the judgments GOD has preplanned to release on planet earth by His miraculous hands in the final days. We are to spend each day getting ready for those inevitable moments.
If you read the Bible, and allow it to speak to you about what will happen in the final days, you will quickly understand that being alive now is an eternal asset. It is an asset because of the opportunity it gives us to change our ways, and live ready for the final days.
Any day you spend, not getting ready for the final day or days of life, is a wasted day.
To get ready for the final days, there are things you must keep doing. But let me mention one. Spend each day avoiding any doctrines that will make you a false worshiper of the One and only true God. Yes, a false worshiper of the One and only True God, or a no worshiper at all.
False or no worshipers will mourn in the final days. So, avoid being one. Avoid whatever doctrine will turn or keep you in a state of false worship.
So many teachings and practices in Church today are making people false worshipers. They are not putting alignment with GOD’s ways at the front burner of the faith, but deliverance from evil works, forgetting that people are trapped in evil works because they are not aligned with God’s ways.
HENCE, MANY TEACH AND PRACTICE WHAT THE BIBLE CALLS DOCTRINES OF DEVILS.
They teach things that allow sin to thrive and iniquity to ruin lives. They tell you that your star is lost, and that you need to raise this altar and do this other thing. They keep you busy with one thing you need to do or another, until you become a false worshiper.
The emergence of false worship even among us believers today is alarming. It is making many people live a life of an Ichabod Christian, unprepared for the approaching last days. The word Ichabod means the glory has departed. When the glory departs, demons can dwell. The glory usually departs because of the loss of true worship.
God’s glory does not sit on people who are trapped in false worship. The reason is because, false worship is not treated with kindness in God’s court. God strongly said in His word;
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. “You shall have no other gods before Me.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth” Exodus 20:2-4 NKJV
While what we hear in church today, has returned many to black witchcraft and outright idolatry, most people are trapped in the false worship of charismatic witchcraft. A lot of Christians, by the help of their prophets and etc., have made for themselves carved practices they call prophetic acts, and in their false worship turned themselves away from the true glory of the LORD.
They have created for themselves prayer gadgets that sadly, have become a snare to them.
WHEN SOMETHING BECOMES A SNARE TO YOU, IT WILL OPEN YOUR LIFE UP TO DEMONIC ASSAULTS EVERY NOW AND THEN.
The Bible teaches that false worship will always attract miracles of God’s correctional judgment to people. It will ensnare people by driving them to seek mediums and wizards who present themselves as prophets. It will make preachers who whisper and mutter, appealing to you.
But our devotional text warned us saying;
“And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?
To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.They will pass through it hard-pressed and hungry; and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God, and look upward. Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness.” Isaiah 8:19-22 NKJV
In this scripture, you find God’s correctional judgment on false worship manifesting as economic hardship. I have met countless of Christians who were made false worshipers by the false teachings they followed struggling endlessly with poverty.
So, if you want to get ready for the final days, or avoid miracles of God’s correctional judgments, also known as the miracles of GOD’s blows, the first thing to watch out against this end times is false doctrines. The next is to live a life that will open you up to the miracles of GOD’s blessing.
That life is a life steaming from GOD’s call upon us to live right. It is important to note that, God rescued every one of us from a life of sin and wickedness, and placed a call on us to stop living in moral darkness, but not everyone has responded to the call. Yet, He wants us all to live lives that respond to the call.
Are we ready to respond?
Now, there are two steps to take in responding to the call. The first step is to come to the LORD, and the next is to stay with the LORD. Many who came to the LORD, are not staying with Him. It is when you stay with the LORD like the Older Brother in the Story of the prodigal son, that you will have all things in God’s house as yours.
IT IS THEREFORE IMPORTANT THAT YOU LIVE YOUR DAYS WITH THE LORD.
How does one come to the LORD, and how does one stay with Him? You come to the LORD, by surrendering your life to Christ, and stay with the LORD by walking in His ways and doing what He says as revealed in His blessed written will – the Bible.
But sadly, some who have come to the LORD have ignorantly refused to stay with the LORD. We are calling Him, “LORD, LORD,” but not doing what He says.
We do not do what He says about purity. We do not do what He says in the Holy Scriptures about getting and staying married. We do not do what He says, because of the false teachings in church today, we just do what we are either taught He says or what we think He says. And that is very dangerous!
For instance, we do not do what His word says about the use of our tongue. We just do what we think He said. We lie like lying devils and cook up lies like chefs in Satan’s kitchen.
We do not do what He says about integrity and speaking the truth. So many of us on the other hand, profess that we are saved but live like people who are yet to meet Christ. We do not do what His word says, we do what we think His word says.
I reiterate again that it is very dangerous to do what you think GOD’s word says! So many will end up in hell from the Church just for that reason – for doing what they think God’s word says instead of what His word really says. How can we be ready for the end of life on earth, doing what we think He said and not what He truly said?
OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST SAID;
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’
And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ Matthew 7:21-23 NKJV
Why will Jesus say to people who even walked in miracles “I never knew you?.” That word means, yes they did things in His name, but He was not the source.
In other words, one can have supernatural power from Him but use it to pervert His ways, and not allow Him to be the source at an immediate present.
In these days of putting up appealing outward appearances, in this realm where men look at the exterior only, it is easy to be called a powerful Christian or preacher but you know you are not. You know, you are living a life that is a product of what you think the LORD said not what He really said.
There is so much confusion today in the area of doctrine because of the many spiritually immature leaders in ministry. The many untaught and untrained people who are going about teaching others are our greatest problems. The social media has many emergency preachers. And sadly, they are leading people astray.
They forget GOD’s judgment on those who lead others astray. Most of them steal messages from others to preach.
While others read people’s books and some even attend Bible schools just to have certificates for preaching but they have not been taught by the LORD Himself, hence teaching unbalanced truths.
God lamented that He has not sent these preachers yet they are running.
He has not spoken to them, yet they are prophesying. He has not trained them yet they are going about teaching. Ministry is teaching men what the LORD has trained and taught you to teach, and if the LORD has really trained and taught you, you will be scripturally balanced in your teachings.
For instance, you will not be part of the breed saying we should show you where paying dowry is written in the Bible, or where the Bible says pre-marital sex is a sin, and all that. Your message will be in sync with the core truth of the Old and New Testament.
I believe the LORD has spoken to us this morning. We have further learned how to avoid the miracles of God’s blows. I pray we stand in what we have learned this morning so that we can avoid the painful miracles of GOD’s blows. Amen!!!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless; They speak a vision of their own heart, Not from the mouth of the LORD.
They continually say to those who despise Me, ‘The LORD has said, “You shall have peace” ’; And to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say, ‘No evil shall come upon you.’ ”
For who has stood in the counsel of the LORD, and has perceived and heard His word? Who has marked His word and heard it? Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD has gone forth in fury— A violent whirlwind! It will fall violently on the head of the wicked.
The anger of the LORD will not turn back Until He has executed and performed the thoughts of His heart. In the latter days you will understand it perfectly.
“I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in My counsel, and had caused My people to hear My words, then they would have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings.” Jeremiah 23:16-22 NKJV