TODAY’S DEVOTION (THURSDAY 29TH AUGUST 2024)
“For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.”
“For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: “So I swore in My wrath,’ They shall not enter My rest,'” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.” Hebrew 4:2-3 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 242ND DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
God has been faithful to His word from age to age. In fact, the Bible teaches that He exalts His word in honor of His name. Meaning, the most powerful force in His kingdom, is His word. If we therefore want to see His works in our Lives we must not neglect His word.
This morning we want to begin with how to handle the word of the LORD. It is how we handle His word that determines how His Holy Spirit handles us. Yes, if you want more of His presence or Spirit in your life, you must handle His word well. People who handle His word well, move from one measure of the Spirit to another.
They do not lack the fire of God in their lives. They are always on fire, especially the fire of Holiness and purity.
Now, proper handling of His word, does not just increase the measure of His Holy Spirit in our lives, it makes our ways pleasing to the LORD, thereby putting our enemies out of contention with us. That is why the Bible says, “if a man’s ways please the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with Him.”
One major truth we see in the lives of most Bible men is this; the enemy cannot handle people who handle the word of the LORD properly.
Joshua for example was giving proper handling of the word of the LORD, as the key to all the success he needed in the battles he was to fight to dispossess the nations of the Lands God gave to Israel. No enemy could handle him because of His proper handling of the word of the LORD.
Your victory, success, progress, healing, restoration, speed, blessings, and the manifestation of the promises of the LORD in your life, depends on how you handle the word of the LORD, not the altars you raise, the pots you break, or the oil, water, or salt you use in prayers.
THE KIND OF VICTORIES HE SAW WERE MIND BLOWING; VERY UNBELIEVABLE.
There was this battle that he had the audacity to speak to the sun and the moon, and they obeyed him. The Bible says no one had ever done that before then. Even the elements respected him because of his proper handling of the word of the LORD.
People who handle the word of the LORD properly, do the impossible.
On the same day, God sent hail stones from heaven to kill the numerous military forces that had gathered against Joshua. I think that was where modern military engineers conceived the idea of making aircrafts that can fly over enemy nations or frontiers to drop bombs.
We can see an amazing divine backing in demonstration there. But all that happened because he handled the word of the LORD properly.
The Kind of backing you will enjoy from the LORD for handling his word properly will amaze you. God will do things in your life that will keep you shouting in awe.
Sometimes we think it is our prayers alone that gets things done, but our handling of the word helps us so much in spiritual warfare, and in enjoying divine favor, divine backing, divine protection, divine attention, divine provision, and all kinds of divine blessings from the LORD.
Joshua would go down to conquer a total of 31 kings in his military career. He achieved the great feat because he handled the word of the LORD properly. At the beginning of his military career, the LORD said to him;
“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Joshua 1:8 NKJV
This scripture did not just present the proper handling of the word of the LORD, as the key to Joshua’s success in life and military career, but it also presented it as the key to God kind of success in all human endeavors.
Yes, God’s kind of success is called good success. Any other kind is bad.
You must understand that. If you do, you will not seek success by all means. You will seek success by God’s means. Success by all means might kill you; it will fill your heart with sorrow, either in the middle or at the end of your days on earth. But success by God’s means will keep you; it will save you from many troubles.
THE PROPER HANDLING OF THE WORD OF THE LORD WILL GIVE YOU SUCCESS BY GOD’S MEANS.
There is still one truth we can glean from what God told Joshua, and that truth is, God’s way of handling His word.
Yes, there is man’s way of handling the word of the LORD, which usually lead to twisting of the word to fit man’s way and will, dark practices in church, the turning of the church into a money-making machine, hypocrisy, heresies, false doctrines, and bad success.
There is also God’s way of handling His word, which leads to truth, righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Ghost, victory over the enemy, and good success in every area of life.
Joshua handled the word in God’s way, the way of meditating to follow what is written in it. That was why he had success by God’s definition. That scripture also tells us the first way to handle the word, which is by following what is written in it. In other words, by obeying it.
The Bible indeed says obedience is better than sacrifice. That could mean, while a preacher is telling you to raise an altar of sacrifice to be free from something, God is saying to you, “obey my word, align your ways with mine. Follow my will for your life and all will be well.”
The word of the LORD will always show us something in it to obey, a voice from God in it to follow, or some work in it to do. Our devotional text says,
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” James 1:22-25 NKJV
THE WORD OF GOD HAS A WORK BURIED IN IT TO BE DONE.
It has the work of following what the LORD is saying through it. Sometimes, it is the work of dealing with the defects God may have revealed to you.
Someone must begin to sense the work to do from every word of God he or she receives and do, or a voice to obey and obey. That is the first thing we do with the word of the LORD. The next is to know His word.
You cannot obey what you do not know. Joshua meditated to know, that was why he could obey. Revelation knowledge of the word will boost your obedience of the word. You must have a revelation knowledge of God’s will, ways, paths, routes, principles, and etc. to obey Him.
You must know His ways by revelation, not just by education to be able to follow the LORD. What you know by revelation is superior to what you know by education. What you know by revelation will exhume obedience from you, but what you know by mere education will not.
You see all that in the lives of our Bible fathers. That was why they obeyed God by faith. To obey by faith, is to obey by revelation knowledge of the word, because faith comes when the word is revealed to you.
The last thing I want to share with us that we must do with the word, is to mix it with faith. A word you have not mixed with faith cannot be done. And a word whose work you have not sensed to do will never profit you! The Bible says;
“For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.” Hebrew 4:2 NKJV
I believe the LORD has spoken to us this morning. Time to apply what He has said. May you reap the blessing of this word, even as you use it for further studies in your quiet time. Amen!!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY
“Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.”
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:11-13 NKJV