TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 10TH NOVEMBER 2024)
“Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.
Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him.
But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.” Exodus 23:20-22 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 315TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. We have seen His help in our lives all the year, and look forward to seeing more because He never fails.
Today is the first day of the week, the most beautiful place to start your week is the presence of the LORD. We at the Cry of the Spirit Ministries look forward to a time with the LORD today, as we assemble at 8:30am for the grand finale of our first ever school of the supernatural. It started on Thursday with the topic; “The Difficulty of Natural Living.”
It has been a beautiful time of schooling in the things of God. What makes it more interesting is the reality of the supernatural in the ministry. It makes the sessions very relatable and life transforming.
Friend, God never created you to live life naturally. Natural living is usually full of difficulties. It is supernatural living that changes everything. It smoothens things and makes life beautiful, with almost no obstacle due to the turning of obstacles into miracles by the supernatural.
It has been a beautiful time in the Presence of the LORD, as we learn from Him on how to survive difficult times through the supernatural. It is an eight-session school with the last three sessions coming up today.
Yesterday’s devotion was about God’s Spiritual Feeding program. We are being fed in this school, strong meal for lions, eagles and sheep of Jesus Christ, which we are, depending on which side you are looking from. Proper spiritual feeding program comes with a season of God’s mercy on men.
We are enjoying the mercy of the LORD upon our lives, and finding grace in time of need, as we sit to be schooled in these beautiful sessions.
We are proofs of what happens when God show a man His mercies; among other beautiful things, He will bring the person to the place of spiritual feeding. In other words, He will get him some quality spiritual food so that they will not go back to folly again.
Yes, He will establish some “prophetic and apostolic food or feeding homes” and set great cooks (teaching prophets and apostles with access to the kitchen of His deep things) over them.
Then He will send for the spiritually famished to come and take their seats, eating whatever He set until they grow too fat for the yokes of their enemy and unleash their individual destinies.
That is one of the critical truths Jesus was trying to reveal to the men of His generation when He shared the parable of the wedding feast with them! Like we shared yesterday, the greatest call on the human race is the call to come and be fed.
ONLY THOSE WHO OBEY THAT CALL WILL BE SAVED.
It all begins with accepting Jesus Christ as LORD and savior, and continues with taking a seat in His Spiritual Feeding Home (a strong prophetic and apostolic feeding center), applying whatever is taught to your every day life, until you become a temple for Him in the Spirit. You find this pattern in the early Church. The Bible says,
“Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” Acts 2:41-42 NKJV
In other word, they took their seats in “God’s spiritual Food home” established for them, shortly after surrendering to Jesus, and continued steadfastly, feeding on the apostle’s doctrines as they fellowshiped.
This scripture shows us that anyone who gives his life to Christ without finding a “spiritual food center” or “an apostolic and prophetic food home” to sit and be fed spiritually, will soon take it back when the inevitable test of faith begins.
Yes, the will not be able to stand the pressure of saying truly yes to the LORD, because their faith will not be grounded enough to do so, hence taking their life back from the rule, authority, LORDSHIP, and influence of Christ. They will return to their old ways, with some still coming to church.
There are those who will even take it back openly, by fully renouncing all they committed to the LORD to do. They will openly go back to the world, to live their old lifestyles and even worst. Others will take it back by secretly going back to their old lifestyles, but still be coming to church, calling it their weakness.
I was told of many pastors who go drinking in drinking spots, sleeping with ladies and boasting of how much they have made from tithes and offerings. If they were born again at all, then they have taken their lives back from the LORD.
THE BIBLE DESCRIBED THEM THIS WAY;
“They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.” Titus 1:16 NKJV
We have different ways we take our lives back from Christ after giving it to Him. That is when a life of Holiness will disappear from our walk with GOD. Everything sinful will become acceptable and treated with kids’ glove. The consciousness towards divine will and ways kindled by a salvation experience will disappear completely.
All that happens, because of lack of proper spiritual feeding after receiving Christ as LORD and savior. I think we should refresh our minds again, with the the difference between, receiving Christ as LORD and receiving Him as savior. Are we ready!!
Most Christians live a life that shows that they have received Christ as LORD but are yet to receive Him as savior. Sadly, it is not just accepting Jesus as savior that will take us to Heaven. But accepting Him as LORD also!
Savior is all about positional righteousness, but LORD is about practical righteousness, as an evidence of positional righteousness. Also, “LORD” means owner. Accepting Him as LORD will melt your will into His will, your rights into His rights, and your ways into His ways.
The fruit of accepting Him just as savior, is usually a form of godliness without character, but the fruit of accepting Him as LORD and savior, is a life of repentance and constant departure from evil.
These are some of the reason why people easier accept Him as savior, but find it difficult to accept Him as LORD. It’s like getting married and staying married.
It is easier to get married, but difficult to stay married. That is why there are more sour homes and divorces, than good homes and blissful marriages. Many just use social media to cover up. They will fight bitterly, but come out to take a photo and put on a smile they don’t put on outside the social media space.
All that go to tell us that getting married is easier than staying married. In the same way, you may accept Jesus as savior in a Crusade ground, just as people get married in church or anywhere.
But just as you cannot stay married where you got married, you will need to go live together in a home to stay married, so you will need to go find a spiritual food house after getting saved, where you will plant yourself to be fed into accepting Jesus, not just as Savior but as LORD and Savior.
ACCEPTING HIM AS SAVIOR MAY REQUIRE THE REPETITION OF WHAT WE CALL “THE SINNER’S PRAYER.”
So, it can be done with the mouth, even if the heart is not involved. But accepting Him as LORD is deeper – it requires a heart transformation, resulting in a new life; a life of holiness and righteousness. A life that keeps your spirit quickened towards God’s ways and will.
So, those who have accepted Jesus Christ as LORD and savior, cannot go into a marriage, business, Church, or live in a City and do anything outside God’s will or divine approval. But those who accepted Him just as Savior can do anything without consulting the LORD. They are carnally minded and driven by money and all they can get, even if it is outside God’s will.
The apostles knew this secret, that was why they never certified anyone saved in a hurry. They knew if one accepts Christ as savior without finding a spiritual food house to sit and be fed until Christ becomes their LORD, they are not established yet.
The purpose of strong apostolic teaching centre like the Cry of the Spirit Ministries therefore, is to greatly help those who have believed in Christ to develop a personal walk and talk with God, through proper spiritual feeding, and come to a place of unconditional commitment to Christ.
Only then will Jesus truly become both their LORD and Savior! There are no words to describe what your life will become when Jesus becomes both your LORD and Savior!
The first thing that will happen is, you will no longer see, talk, or come under any successful attacks of the enemy. Personal fight against your enemies will disappear. Jesus will take over your battle and give you rest on every side.
That is why one major thing you see in the life of those who have made Jesus their savior, but are yet to make Him their LORD, is a constant battle against enemies.
YOU WILL SEE RESTLESSNESS IN THEIR LIVES; THEY WILL ALWAYS
BE IN CONSTANT FIGHT AGAINST ALL KINDS OF ENEMIES;
1. Perceived Enemies
2. Supposed Enemies
3. Fathom enemies
4. Enemies that are just a Mirage, and
5. Very few Real enemies
The first thing God does to you of you make Jesus your LORD is to give you rest on every side. That brings us to our devotional text. It says,
“Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him. But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.”
The word angel means messenger. It was a messianic expression of the presence of the pre -incarnate Christ among them. In other words, Jesus Christ was the Angel God referred to. He was among the Israelites as a pillar of cloud by Day, and a pillar of Fire by Night.
The Bible calls Him the messenger of the New Covenant. But today He is among us through His Word and Spirit. Making Him LORD involves obeying His word and Spirit, and doing all that He tells us to do (as contained in His word, and enabled by His Spirit).
When that happens, the results will be Him becoming an enemy to our enemies, and giving us rest from the days of adversity; which are days of slavery to sin, oppression and reach of Satan, and the torments of the evil and corrupt system of this world.
A lot of other things happen when Jesus becomes both your LORD and Savior. But we cannot go into them in a devotional.
What is the message today? The message is simple. The greatest need of your life is not marriage, money, freedom from generational curses or evil altars. The greatest need of your life right now is a spiritual food house where you can be properly fed and brought to the faith position where Jesus will become your LORD and savior.
When that happens, whatever you may be looking for will begin to look for you!
THIS SCRIPTURE CAN BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY!
Why do you call Me, Lord, Lord, and do not [practice] what I tell you? For everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words [in order to heed their teaching] and does them, I will show you what he is like:
He is like a man building a house, who dug and went down deep and laid a foundation upon the rock; and when a flood arose, the torrent broke against that house and could not shake or move it, because it had been securely built or founded on a rock.
But he who merely hears and does not practice doing My words is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation, against which the torrent burst, and immediately it collapsed and fell, and the breaking and ruin of that house was great. Luke 6:46-49 AMP