TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 23RD OCTOBER 2024)
Then some of the sons of Benjamin and Judah came to David at the stronghold.
And David went out to meet them, and answered and said to them, “If you have come peaceably to me to help me, my heart will be united with you; but if to betray me to my enemies, since there is no wrong in my hands, may the God of our fathers look and bring judgment.”
Then the Spirit came upon Amasai, chief of the captains, and he said: “We are yours, O David; we are on your side, O son of Jesse! Peace, peace to you, and peace to your helpers! For your God helps you.” So David received them, and made them captains of the troop. 1 Chronicles 12:16-18 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 297TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
This is the day the LORD has made; we shall rejoice and be glad in it.
God has been blessing us with the manifestation of His precious promises in our lives, day unto day. It has resulted in so many things including not being given to the will of our enemies. To Him belong all the glory!!!
On this platform, He has been speaking to us and gracing our hearts with heavenly wisdom. Today, there is a fresh word for us, a word in season for the King’s household.
To start with, let me look at the scripture of our devotional text. The text is full of insights on one of the most precious need of leadership; loyalty. But I grew up to discover that it is not just leaders that need loyal followers, followers also need loyal leaders.
A lot of followers have been disappointed by lack of loyalty from their leaders, just as leaders have been disappointed as well. With all the divine backing, if a leader does not have loyal followers, he or she will have so many battles to fight. That is why, one way God backs a person in life, is by giving him or her loyal people.
Yes, we all need loyalty in our lives to thrive as leaders, but Loyalty is not just a precious need of leadership. It is a precious need of all human beings, despite positions or status.
One loyal person could be all you need to begin to experience progress in your life. Loyalty is a need. It is the need of the small and great; kings and slaves, princes and paupers, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, saved or lost.
IT IS A PRECIOUS NEED OF EVERYONE REGARDLESS OF SPIRITUAL STATE OR STATUS.
Men and women of vision need loyal followers. Husband and wives need loyal husbands and wives. Kids needs loyal fathers. Spiritual fathers need loyal spiritual sons. Spiritual sons also need loyal spiritual fathers. Loyalty is a general need for humans because it is the key to the success of every human establishment or being on earth.
The Bible made it clear that it is also the key to Divine establishments. Heavenly purposes die when there are no followers who are loyal to the leaders of those purposes, or leaders who are loyal to the followers of those purposes.
You will be a good leader if you realize that even your followers need your loyalty. And you will be a good follower if you realize that your leader needs your loyalty.
Any leader who do not know that followers also need their loyalty will be a user and dumper of men and women. People will only be important to that leader so long as they help fulfil his or her selfish interest.
On the flip side, any follower who do not know that his or her leader needs their loyalty, will betray the leader like Judas did and cause so much harm.
David understood the power of loyal people to a heavenly cause, hence not in a hurry to appoint anyone who just display some forms of commitment, to critical positions of the army of the LORD he was leading. He made sure that the Spirit of God truly process people and rest on them to serve before he appointed them to serve.
This is where some of us have failed. The Bible says;
“Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble Is like a bad tooth and a foot out of joint.” Proverbs 25:19 NKJV
Give an Elijah, a band of loyal and faithful people, and you will see a combination of Jezebel, Athaliah, all their Baals, Asherah and Molechs vanquished or obliterated. On the flip side, give a band of faithful men one loyal leader, and no work of darkness will be able to stop them in life.
Faithful people need loyal leaders, and loyal leaders need faithful people who will remain loyal to them no matter what. That is how God designed life to be. David knew he was heading to war hence he could not afford to have an unfaithful man in the team.
WHAT ONE UNFAITHFUL MAN WILL DO IN TIME OF TROUBLE COULD BE MORE DANGEROUS THAN WHAT THE DEVIL HIMSELF CAN DO.
You see, God’s power is always swift at dealing with the devil, but delegated authority is what will be required to deal with an unfaithful or disloyal person. And most times the unfaithful know how to appear faithful, hence hiding themselves from the sword of delegated authority.
Unfaithful people are deaf to divine moments; they cannot sense when to show loyalty, especially to those God has placed in their lives.
You will always find unfaithful followers, withdrawing when their leaders need their loyalty. You will also find unfaithful leaders withdrawing, when their followers need their loyalty. If you are on a righteous course, sometimes the disloyal and unfaithful cannot stand with you when you come under pressure. They are too selfish to do so. They will begin to think of themselves and leave.
Jesus calls unfaithful leaders who withdraws when they are needed, hirelings. He said;
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.
But a -hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.
The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.” John 10:11-13 NKJV
Friend, there is need for every leader to have a righteous sense of responsibility over those who are following them, so that they can defend them as their own whenever it becomes necessary.
We must understand that a band of faithful men and women with a hireling as their leader, will never go anywhere in life. They will just be going in a circle despite their faithfulness. On the flip side, a faithful and loyal leader with a band of unfaithful men and women as followers, will also be stagnant in life.
HE WILL BE GOING IN CIRCLES UNTIL HE GROWS OLD AND DIES.
If Satan want to destroy a Heavenly vision, he will surround it with unfaithful people who appear faithful. If God want to prosper a Heavenly vision, He will surround it with tested and proven faithful men and women. That is one of the secrets of the spirit realm.
Satan has destroyed so many faithful men or women in God’s battle field by giving them unfaithful and disloyal people who appear very faithful and loyal. He has an army of men and women who look faithful outwardly, but disloyal and unfaithful inwardly, either as followers to ruin leaders, or as leaders to ruin followers.
I have also come to discover that if God want to prosper a band of faithful people, He will bring them under a faithful and tested leader who will be loyal to them. When he does that, they will begin to see their spiritual lives growing and their faith taking root rapidly.
The leader will be used by Him to water their lives and cause them to blossom. Oh, how we all need loyal and faithful people today; leaders and followers alike!
You must make up your mind to be a loyal person to those God has placed in your life. You must be loyal to your leaders who are doing the will of God, if you are a follower. And if you are a leader, you must be loyal to your followers who are loyal, righteous and faithful.
One of the secrets that loyal people must learn, is the mystery of Divine moments. They must understand the moments God creates to exhume loyalty from them; loyalty to their leaders or followers.
Yes, they must understand the moments to step in and display an unflinching loyalty so that the purposes of God will not fail.
Sometimes God does not create the moments, the devil does; he launches an attack against them that God will allow to prosper in order to test the loyalty of those around the leader or the loyalty of the leader to their followers.
Howbeit, we must all recognize when our loyalty is needed. Apart from a time of crisis, loyalty will always be needed at all times; especially when a Heavenly purpose need to be promoted, protected or made to prosper. Our loyalty must be there to speak for the Heavenly purpose.
NOW, IT TAKES MEN WITH THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD TO SHOW GENUINE LOYALTY.
A show of allegiance by someone the Holy Spirit has not touched, will disappear when it is needed most. David knew this hence not allowing Himself to be carried away.
At a difficult time of his life, the men of Benjamin appeared and showed some allegiance to him, but he was not moved. He decided to test the spirit behind the allegiance, before making a decision.
The men were from the household of Saul that wanted him dead. Our devotional text says;
Then some of the sons of Benjamin and Judah came to David at the stronghold.
And David went out to meet them, and answered and said to them, “If you have come peaceably to me to help me, my heart will be united with you; but if to betray me to my enemies, since there is no wrong in my hands, may the God of our fathers look and bring judgment.”
Then the Spirit came upon Amasai, chief of the captains, and he said: “We are yours, O David; we are on your side, O son of Jesse! Peace, peace to you, and peace to your helpers! For your God helps you.” So David received them, and made them captains of the troop.
If you look at this scripture carefully you will realize that David was not in a hurry. He allowed the Spirit of God to lead. As soon as he saw how the Spirit proved them to be loyal and faithful followers, he made them captains of the troops.
That is how leaders should behave in choosing followers that will work with them. That is what they should do under God. Followers should also behave the same. They should not commit themselves to leaders who have not proven not to be hirelings.
God sent this word this morning to request that you become loyal to a leader He has placed you under, and if you are a leader; God wants you to be loyal to the followers He has given you to lead.
I pray that you hear His voice in this devotional. Amen and amen!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.
“But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. John 2:23-25 NKJV