TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 20th NOVEMBER 2024)
Then a man of God came to Eli and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Did I not clearly reveal Myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh’s house?
Did I not choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be My priest, to offer upon My altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod before Me? And did I not give to the house of your father all the offerings of the children of Israel made by fire?
Why do you kick at My sacrifice and My offering which I have commanded in My dwelling place, and honor your sons more than Me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel My people?’
Therefore, the LORD God of Israel says: ‘I said indeed that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever.’
But now the LORD says: ‘Far be it from Me; for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed. 1 Samuel 2:27-30 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 325TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
Blessed be the name of the LORD for giving us another day. Daily, He has been loading us with benefits; making us part of a people of His redemptive benefits.
It is out of His benefits that we can be a blessing to others.
We give Him the glory for all that we have seen this year, and will see in the years to come. We thank Him for both the good things and the bad things. He alone knows why He allowed both to happen.
Though we know bad things are not always allowed by Him, but by us humans, and when that happens, we still say He God, allowed them to happen.
Oh, how ignorant we can be sometimes, even ascribing things our bad decisions brought upon us to Him.
Yes, mankind has a way of using the delegated controls the LORD has given, to ruin his life and even turn good things into bad things.
We live on an earth were bad things are ascribed more to God, than to man’s miscalculations and ignorance, or Satan’s activities.
A man will kill another, and someone will say God allowed it. A young woman will be raped, and someone will say God allowed it.
Someone will give in to alcohol and keep drinking until he or she become too sick to be alive, and then die. When people gather to talk about it, they will say God allowed it.
How do you expect God to influence someone who is far from His influence not to get themselves killed? These bad things are common to the realm we live in, and will continue till the end of the age.
That is why we all in Christ, are looking forward to the new heaven and the new earth, where such things will not happen again.
There is a way that God’s mercies come in to help us in dealing with the things that even our bad decisions caused. God would never leave any of His own in the consequences of sin or bad decision, hence ben graceful.
We are what we are today because He has been graceful.
We have been looking at the faith positions to take to allow what God promise us to come to pass. Today we will be looking at what not to do after we have received a word of promise from the LORD.
We have spent two days looking at what not to say, or the right use of the tongue; today we want to look at what not to do, or right living.
Let me begin by stating that when God speaks a word of promise to us, either conditionally or unconditionally, it is usually spoken in His holiness and righteousness.
IT IS USUALLY SPOKEN FROM ETERNITY TO TIME, STANDING ON HIS HOLINESS.
If the word has to do with the manifestation of His will, plans or purpose, it will still come in His holiness and righteousness.
In other words, God speak standing on the communication waves of Holiness and righteousness, making holiness and righteousness a pathway that must be followed, for whatever He said about our lives to come to pass.
Those who are to participate in the word or watch for its fulfillment in their lives, must understand the role of holiness and righteousness in the performance of divine promises and adjust their lives.
That is why you find people who walk with God in holiness and righteousness, seeing what He said come to pass in their lives, more than people who do not.
No matter how authentic, life saving or changing, necessary, or redemptive the performance of a divine promise is, it will never be performed in our lives, if we become sinful and unrighteous before the LORD.
Sin is something that kills the performance of divine promises.
The earlier we understand that the better. You could be rising higher and higher due to the performance of God’s word in your life, the moment you begin to depart from the ways of righteousness, darkness will begin to set in, and things gradually turn south.
In fact, when God speaks to you about doing something in your life, begin to live a holy and righteous life if you are not living yet.
Yes, begin to consecrate and separate yourself from whatever defiles or whatever God’s word frowns at. Walk away from whatever is not God’s will, way, or pattern for your life.
Separate yourself from unholy alliances, traditions, relationships, cultures, paradigms, and human systems.
Walk away from ungodly cultures and traditions. That is one way to prepare yourself for what He wants to do in your life. If you do not do that, you will never see what God says He wants to do in your life done.
Walking away from the sinful in preparation of the performance of God’s word in your life, is a walk of faith on itself. It is a way of preparing the way for the LORD to come into your life, and perform what He said He would do.
It is one way of making your paths straight for what He has promised you to be performed. Understand that, it is a standard practice in God’s kingdom for those who want to benefit from His promises to make themselves ready for them, by living right.
YES, IT IS A STANDARD PRACTICE, FOR THEM TO MAKE THEIR PATHS STRAIGHT.
The Bible says,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God.” Isaiah 40:3 NKJV
The highway we are to make for God to perform His word in our lives is called the highway of holiness. That is the way that is missing in the lives of so many with divine promises that are yet to be fulfilled.
If God speak a word of promised into your life, its performance will be hasty if you find the highway of holiness and begin to live your days there. It will never be possible if you live in the ways of SIN, iniquity, or trespasses.
I want you to embrace this royal way of kingdom life.
Begin to see the promises God make to you as calls to holy living. If you read the Bible, you will discover that people lived that way.
Whenever God want to do a thing in their lives; whenever He gives them a promise of what He wants to do, they treat it as a call to holy and righteous living.
When God wanted to give the Mother of Samson a child, he said to her;
.., “Indeed now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son.
Now therefore, please be careful not to drink wine or similar drink, and not to eat anything unclean.
For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.” Judges 13:3-5 NKJV
This scripture is very clear on what we have been sharing so far. God will never perform a promise in your life if you are not ready to live the way He wants you to live.
THE MOTHER OF SAMSON HAD TO CHANGE THE WAY SHE LIVED TO SEE GOD’S PROMISE PERFORMED IN HER LIFE.
She had to stop taking alcohol and align with the consecration of what God wanted to do in her life.
One of the lessons we learn from her life is this; every promise of God has a consecration attached to it. It is when we align with its consecration that we see the performance.
In other words, if there is a promise of God on your life, then there is a call to consecrate on your life also.
You must answer the call to consecrate for that promise to be performed or fulfilled. That is the truth. If you do not answer the consecration call on that promise, its performance will never take place.
That is one of the truths you find even in our devotional text. The text says,
Then a man of God came to Eli and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Did I not clearly reveal Myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh’s house?
Did I not choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be My priest, to offer upon My altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod before Me? And did I not give to the house of your father all the offerings of the children of Israel made by fire?
Why do you kick at My sacrifice and My offering which I have commanded in My dwelling place, and honor your sons more than Me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel My people?’
Therefore, the LORD God of Israel says: ‘I said indeed that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever.’
But now the LORD says: ‘Far be it from Me; for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed. 1st Samuel 2:27-30 NKJV
Do you see in this scripture, how God changed His mind on this family because they changed their ways and would not honor the LORD? Did you see how a divine promise in the life of an entire family failed because they despised the LORD?
GOD’S PROMISES IN OUR LIVES CARRY CONSECRATIONS THAT WE MUST KEEP.
Those are the consecrations that guarantee their performance.
Eli and his sons withdrew from the consecration that was attached or buried in the promise that placed the mantle of a priest on them; the result was the destruction of a generational manifestation of God’s divine promise on their lives.
May we not be the next!!!
I believe the LORD has spoken to someone this morning. As we bring this to a close, understand that God will never leave anyone in sin when He wants to bless the person or perform a divine promise in their lives.
He will never want you to continue living in iniquity or trespass whenever He wants to do a thing in your life. He will always call you into a fresh walk; a fresh walk with Him.
Yes, He will call you into a fresh walk and never leave you in your own walk. The day you abandon His walk and begin your walk of sin, iniquity or trespass, even if the performance of the promise had begun, it will begin to fail.
The Bible says whosoever commit or live in sin is of the devil; you can not be of the devil and see what is of God taking place in your life successfully. It will fail.
Understand that the power of God that brings divine promises to pass, works more if we lead holy and righteous lives. God said to Joshua, “No one will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so shall I be with you.”
You find that in Joshua chapter one verse five. The word was not to Joshua alone, but to the entire army of Israel. It stood in his life and the entire nation of Israel until the sin of Achan stopped it.
When sin stepped in, everything God promised to Joshua could no longer be fulfilled.
Israel would go to suffered the most devastating defeat of all times after that.
When Joshua went to lie before God in prayer and fasting, asking why? The LORD spoke to him saying,
“Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them… they have become doomed to destruction. Neither will I be with you anymore… (Joshua 7:11-12 NKJV).
Child of God, if we are walking with the LORD, if His promised is upon our lives, we must live right; we must make up our minds not to do things that will doom us to destruction.
If we become doomed to destruction, there is no way that we will succeed despite the beautiful promises of God on our lives.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!!
“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” Galatians 6:7-8 NKJV