TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 31ST DECEMBER 2024)
“I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:
And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.” Isaiah 45:2-3 KJV
WELCOME TO THE 366TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT
We started this year in the presence of God, and we have decided to end it in the presence of God. We invite you to join us tonight from 9pm East African Time (9pm EAT), for an apostolic cross over service.
It will be streamed live on all Apostle Takim’s social media platforms (YouTube – present truth of present times, Facebook, etc,) and on our Television channel, the Morning Cloud Television Global, or MCTV Global.
You can find the channel (MCTV Global) on all free to air satellite dishes in Sub-Saharan Africa.
You can also download the app (MCTV Global) from google play store into your android phone, or from apple store into your iPhone or iPad to follow the service live. The channel is also on Amazon Tv, Roku Tv, XUMO, and etc.
Nothing in life is designed to be by might or by power. Every thing is designed to be by the Spirit of the living God. We need the Spirit of the LORD now more than ever. Hallelujah!!
Obviously, today’s devotional is the last for the year 2024.
It is the last day of the year and its important that we close the day by stirring our minds to build our lives in 2025, around an apostolic truth that the LORD stated in His word, through the pen of one of his foremost apostles. I hope we are ready!!
Let me begin by saying this; the best way to live our days on earth, is to summit to Christ, and spend each day of our years, doing just His blessed will and nothing else!
If you live any year that way, you will not need prayers from anyone to succeed.
You will not fall into the deception of raising or silencing an altar, sowing a seed to make your life better, going to any mountain to pray before God can hear you, or putting your self under the influence of any other heretic practice like the desperate do.
In fact, you will be the one praying for people to succeed. You will generate so much power in your life that the entire gates of hell will not be able to stand before you.
GOD’S FOREMOST APOSTLE PAUL SAID THIS IN THE FIRST PASTORS’ CONFERENCE BY A GENUINE APOSTLE IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD;
He said;
“But life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus-the work of telling others the Good News about God’s mighty kindness and love.” Acts 20:24 TLB
The words in this scripture are the greatest apostolic purpose driven words that one can make the centre of his or her life for a life time. We can call them “the Acts 20:24 word.”
In the year 2024, we made them the centre of our lives. In 2025 and beyond, we will still do the same.
The Human Life was not designed to make any object in the heavens, on the earth, the underworld, or any other world the centre of it.
The Human life was designed to make God and what He created the life for, the centre of its existence. That is why we must be careful what we make the centre of our lives.
God’s servant apostle Paul, made the LORD’S assignment for his life the centre of his existence. It gave him so much stability and strength in life despite what he faced living that way.
The Bible teaches that he faced so much in the hands of wicked men and women, and created so many enemies for himself because of how much he was sold out to the LORD.
He would go to be one of those who worked harder than any genuine apostle that had ever lived, making his life and walk with the LORD an inspiration for many generations.
So many times, his life was put in jeopardy because people who live that way put their lives in Jeopardy.
He was in prison more often than can be counted, he was flogged, exposed to death severally, five times he received 40 lashes minus one, three times he was beaten with rods, often he went without food and without sleep, he was cold and naked so many times, he was in danger of robbers, hateful jews, in danger of ungodly men and women, hated by the status quo, called an evil doer, and branded a cultist in some quarters.
His life teaches that you can’t make the acts 20:24 apostolic word your mantra in life and live a normal life.
BUT HERE IS WHAT HE HAD TO SAY TO ALL HE WENT THROUGH;
“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 KJV
Paul was able to call all the terrible things he suffered light affliction. It was not by might or by power, but by the Spirit of the living God.
He obviously did not allow his heart to be fed with all he was going through. He protected himself from all that he went through by feeding his heart with things which are unseen, especially those contain in the LORD’S assignment for his life.
That is the way to go in 2025. The Bible says, he never looked at the things which were seen, all he was going through, because the things he was seeing were temporal.
Yes, if you are sold out to God’s will, He will make sure all the unpleasant things you go through become temporal. He will make you live longer than they all.
Your pains, afflictions and anything unpleasant that come your way, will not be permanent. They will come and go, while you remain strong like a rock.
The year might not be smooth for those of us who will be sold out to do God’s will like Paul was, but it still pays to be sold out to the LORD because the God who smoothens the pathways of life, will be always be with those who are sold out.
He will be with them to smoothen their paths and make the year glorious despite the challenges.
Our devotional text today is a prophetic promise from the LORD God. It says;
“I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:
And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.” Isaiah 45:2-3 KJV
Yes, the LORD has promised to go ahead of us in 2025 to make the crooked places straight. However, the promise is not for everyone.
It is important to understand that God is just, and that He gives to each one according to their deeds. If you claim a Bible promise whose standard you have not met, that promise will not speak in your life.
SO, THE ISAIAH 45:2-3 PROMISE IS NOT FOR EVERYONE.
The promise has a standard. It only works in the life of those who are sold out to the lord Jesus Christ, like Paul. The promised is not even for those who are sold out to their greedy and covetous pastors, but to those who are sold out to the LORD.
Yes, it is not for those who are sold out to their papas, prophets, apostles or whoever they find in God’s garment. It is for those who are sold out to the LORD!!!
I reiterate again that if you want the LORD to go before you and smoothen the year for you, you must be sold out to the LORD.
You must live your days rejecting the ungodly and wicked ways of this world, and following the ways of the LORD. In addition to that, you must live your days doing only what is assigned to you by the LORD.
Like Paul, we must spend 2025 realizing that our life is worth nothing, except we spend it doing the things that are assigned to us by the LORD Jesus Christ. We must question if the things preachers are assigning to us are actually from the LORD Jesus Christ.
Yes, we must not follow the dark trends in Church, and anything that makes people to be sold out to their so-called spiritual fathers instead of Christ.
You must realize that a genuine spiritual father will build your life around Christ, not himself. He will train you to be sold out to Christ not to him. He will never be a replacement of the Heavenly father in your life, but a scaffold for knowing the Heavenly father intimately.
In conclusion, I will like to give us an apostolic counsel.
It is very dangerous to live your days sold out to a preacher, especially this end times because many of us preachers have become wicked like Lucifer. Many are not called of God. They are not even born again. Most of those who are called have sacrificed our callings on the altars of sexual immorality, greed and covetousness.
MAMMON HAVE STOLLEN OUR HEARTS.
So many of us now use God to build business empires for ourselves and our children. If you become sold out to us, we will use you and dumb you one day. If we do not use you and dump you, we will never let you find the True Jesus but the one we present to you. This is a very sad development that the LORD will judge severely.
Therefore, I admonish us to be sold out to Jesus Christ alone, and we will enjoy our Christianity. Let any preachers who is sold out to the LORD like Paul, become your teacher. You will find yourself sold out to the LORD too.
The Bible admonished that we Honor those who labour in the word to form Christ in us, but there is no place in scripture where we are told to be sold out to them. They are to serve as a pattern to enable us to be sold out to the LORD, even as we extend the frontiers of the Kingdom of God under their tutelage.
You see, most preachers today are wicked, selfish, money minded, covetous and greedy.
Sometimes, it is even dangerous to be around them. So, if you become sold out to them, maybe to get married, or get anything, you will never find the true Jesus. You will end up destroying yourself.
Let he that has an ear, here what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Amen!!!
See you in 2025!!!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY
For many imposters (seducers, deceivers, and false leaders) have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge (confess, admit) the coming of Jesus Christ (the Messiah) in bodily form. Such a one is the imposter (the seducer, the deceiver, the false leader, the antagonist of Christ) and the antichrist.
Look to yourselves (take care) that you may not lose (throw away or destroy) all that we and you have labored for, but that you may [persevere until you] win and receive back a perfect reward [in full].
Anyone who runs on ahead [of God] and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ [who is not content with what He taught] does not have God; but he who continues to live in the doctrine (teaching) of Christ [does have God], he has both the Father and the Son.
If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine [is disloyal to what Jesus Christ taught], do not receive him [do not accept him, do not welcome or admit him] into [your] house or bid him Godspeed or give him any encouragement. 2 John 1:7-10 AMPC