TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 17TH 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 230TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
I want to reiterate again that we are in a terminal generation. It is the mercies of the LORD that has made the evil of a time like this to be far away from us. We give God all the glory for that.
Spiritually, these are not days of living life under the influence of the carnal or earthly. These are days of living our lives under the influence of the eternal. Yes, days of setting our hearts on pilgrimage. People who set their hearts on pilgrimage, live their days under the power of the age to come. The Bible says;
“Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
Passing through the Valley of Weeping (Baca), they make it a place of springs; the early rain also fills [the pools] with blessings.” Psalm 84:5-6 AMPC
The highways of Zion are a type and shadow of moral standards of God for His people. In other words, banners He gives to those who fear Him. People whose hearts are set on pilgrimage, uphold moral standards that God commands that those who want to be His people should uphold.
They purify themselves from dead works or the work of the flesh.
The Bible says they are blessed, fortunate or to be envied because, by their obedience and submission to divine will, their strength is now in the LORD, consequently when they pass through the valley of weeping, they generate enough power to turn the valleys into springs and pools of blessings.
That is how they live lives that are free from defeat or any other evil occurrence. They live their days according to times and seasons, making them visionary and purposeful. To be visionary simply means to live your days according to God’s pre planned programs for your life.
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING VISIONARY TODAY, IS BEYOND WHAT ANY MIND CAN IMAGINE.
Irrespective of how gifted, brilliant or blessed you are, if you are not visionary, you will not achieve anything in life. All your potentials will just be channeled towards the wrong direction or shut down completely.
There are people whose potentials were channeled in the wrong direction in Bible days, because they either lost their visions, or ceased being visionary in life. One of them was Samson.
He lost his life vision before losing his natural vision. Consequently, his potential was channeled in the wrong direction; they took away his eyes and made him a grinder or crusher of grain for an entire nation. The Bible says;
“But the Philistines laid hold of him, bored out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with [two] bronze fetters; and he ground at the mill in the prison.” Judges 16: 21 AMPC
Why were the eyes or vision of Samson the first to be touched by the enemy? They were the first because of how important the eyes or vision of a man is.
It is a major sign to men and women of great potentials in every generation. The enemy takes away the vision of GOD’s people first whenever we fall into his hands, because he knows how powerful we will be if we are visionary.
That is why the word says “give no place to the devil.”
If we give him a place, he will come for our vision; our ability to live visionary lives. Once that happens, and he succeeds, we will become bond with the bronze fetters of suffering, making us mince at the mill in the prisons of life.
Maybe this will help us understand; have you ever seen very gifted, brilliant, and blessed people suffering?
The enemy has taken away their vision or ability to be visionary, hence the suffering. When suffering is associated or caused by lack of vision, there is no amount of prayer that can change a man’s situation.
Until visionary living is restored, prayers will do little or nothing to change our situations in life if a lack of vision is responsible for our problems.
Those who understand what we know as spiritual warfare in Church knows that the first assault of hell against you will be on your ability for or instruments of visionary living.
YES, THERE ARE INSTRUMENTS OF VISIONARY LIVING. WE MAY LOOK AT THEM SOME OTHER TIME.
That is why one of the major things we must learn to protect in our lives in spiritual warfare is whatever concerns our visions from the LORD. And we should not forget that if we do not have a vision from the LORD, we are still blind in life no matter how good our natural eyesight may be.
We are bound to fall into the ditches of life through bad decision, because it is our vision that tells us of the decision to make and the ones not to make.
One of the major decisions to make in life is the decision to respect the laws of visionary living.
We discovered that where you live, will have so much to do with what you become. We also discovered that we have to be careful of what we hear if we want to live visionary lives. We have to be careful of the prophecies we give our ears to. That is why we looked at what I call “chewing gum prophecies.” You can revisit those devotionals to refresh your mind.
Today we will be looking at another law of visionary living called the law of visionary relations.
Laws are principles that determines outcomes in life. One cannot replace them with prayers. In fact, if you are praying and not respecting these laws as a child of God, things will not be working well in your life. You will end up frustrated and going back to your old ways.
The law of visionary relations is even used by Satan to ruin our lives. So, let me begin with visionary relations from the kingdom of darkness.
Satan will assign people to our lives whose only reasons for bringing them into our lives is to ruin us down. They will not come saying “I want to ruin your life.” No! It will be to offer help. But if you sit down to access what that relationship has brought into your life, you will see ruin, ruin, ruin, ruin.
They only leave your life either when you are ruined or when you are being ruined.
That is why when you were up, they were there. But when you became down, they walked out. Some who do this may not be there to ruin you but to announce your ruin or sustain it by walking out of your life instead of helping you through.
SATAN WILL ALWAYS USE VISIONARY RELATIONS TO RUIN PEOPLE.
Visionary relations come as husbands, wives, pastors, prophets, business partners, faithful church members, bosom friends or brothers and sisters in times of need. They come with a vision, to see you fall out.
Delilah, for example, was a visionary relation to Samson.
She was driven by one passion and one vision, to know the secret of his strength and hand it over to Samson’s enemies. All she did in his life was to achieve that. But her care, concern for his problems and all the massage he got from her was not really because she cared for him but because she cared for his ruin.
May God protect us this year from this kind of visionary relations in Jesus precious name. Concerning this mighty warrior of the LORD, Samson, who was ruined through a terrible visionary relation from the kingdom of darkness, the Bible says;
“After this he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah.
And the lords of the Philistines came to her and said to her, Entice him and see in what his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him that we may bind him to subdue him. And we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver.
And Delilah said to Samson, tell me, I pray you, wherein your great strength lies, and with what you might be bound to subdue you.” Judges 16:4-6 AMPC
Visionary relations from the kingdom of darkness are a ruin any day and anytime. But they do not come like men and women from darkness.
They come like men and women from light. The Bible says they masquerade as angels of light, or help, care, prosperity, a brighter future, and all that. But within the time they showed in your life and the time they walk away, if you are not protected by the LORD, they will destroy you completely.
PERSONALLY, I WOULD SAY IF NOT FOR GOD, I WOULD HAVE BEEN BURIED BY THIS TYPE.
You may have your own story also. Sometimes they sit with you in Church and become your best friend but you will never know what it will lead to. They will start talking to you about the flaws in the preacher you so honor but mildly, and you will be entertaining the stories innocently, with no ill motive.
Am not talking about when God opens the eyes of His sheep to recognize a charlatan and false preacher who had appeared true hitherto. I am referring to Satan using a visionary relation from his kingdom to paint a true servant of GOD dark, using carefully cooked stories in order to take you away from the place of destiny.
I can’t forget a Church member who even promised people jobs while doing that in our church. It lasted for months and it was divine protection that helped us.
If talking about the pastor is not working, they will move to telling you stories about other church members, and then the pastor’s wife, if he is married, then this other person. Before you know it, they have shaped your perspective about a good church family you once loved, and a righteous preacher who so blessed your life.
Visionary relations from hell are positioned around everyone of us, do not be mistaken about it.
There is even one close to you as you read this. His or her line might be in your phone. You just may not know, because sometimes until they get to their maturity stage in our lives, they will keep appearing or behaving helpful. That is why we must be careful.
There are those who go about defiling men and women in church sexually in the guise of they want to marry them. They come in different shades my friend, depending on your wants in life.
THEY HAVE RUINED SO MANY. THE BIBLE CALLS THEM OUR DESTROYERS.
Visionary relations from God are what we need, and I will share more about that tomorrow. Our Devotional text says;
“[And the Lord answered] Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet I will not forget you.
Behold, I have indelibly imprinted (tattooed a picture of) you on the palm of each of My hands; [O Zion] your walls are continually before Me.
Your children and your builders make haste; your destroyers and those who laid you waste go forth from you.” Isaiah 49:15-17 AMPC
This is a promise from the LORD on deliverance from the hands or works of visionary relations from hell. It says because of the visions and revelations of the LORD for our lives, as tattooed in His hands, He will make sure those who laid us waste go away from us.
He will make sure that all visionary relations from hell are defeated, and sent away from us by His power. That is the word of the LORD. You are covered in the name of Jesus Christ. You are protected by His grace and glory.
Those the enemy has sent into your life with an agenda to ruin you will fail. Those He has prepared to raise you will find you. You can take this as a prayer request to His throne, asking Him to fulfill His word in your life.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY!
“Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God.
And God’s peace [shall be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace] which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7 AMPC