TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 25th October 2025)
“Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you! O Israel, if you will listen to Me! There shall be no foreign god among you; nor shall you worship any foreign god.
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
“But My people would not heed My voice, and Israel would have none of Me. So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart, to walk in their own counsels. Psalms 81:8-12 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 298TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF VICTORY
The LORD God has been faithful, to Him belong all the glory. We sleep and we wake up because the LORD keeps us. If we were in Judaism, today would have been a Sabbath of rest for us. But glory to God, all that have been fulfilled in Christ, giving us a better rest than that of the Sabbath.
Many of us have not realized that Salvation is a gift of Rest from Jesus Christ– rest from serving sin, rest from serving self, and rest from serving the interest of Satan and pleasures of the evil and corrupt systems of this world. It is when we serve any of the four directly or indirectly that we become spiritual captives.
That is why Jesus frees us by giving us rest from serving them. He said in His word “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28 NKJV). Rest has been the vision of Heaven for fallen man.
Since we fell, we have been serving sin, self, Satan, and the evil and corrupt systems of this world, and God wants that to stop. That was why he manifested in Christ Jesus and died on the Cross for us and then went further to release His Holy Spirit into our lives and gave us rest.
If you are therefore still serving sin, self, Satan or the evil and corrupt system of this world, you have not yet received the precious gift (the gift of rest). Time to stop serving sin, self, Satan or the evil and corrupt systems of this world through Faith in Christ Jesus and a Holy Spirit filled and led life. Time to receive the gift of rest from God!
The reason for this gift of rest is much more than we can state down. For instance, if we trace the source of our perils in life with an open mind, we will discover that the source is not in our father’s house where we were born as many claim. It is not in the altars of our village or what some call evil foundation.
The source of all our problems is our service to sin, self, Satan and the evil and corrupt system of this world.
If you serve sin, you will reap sorrows. If you serve self, you will reap great sorrows. If you serve Satan, you will reap greater sorrows, and if you serve the evil and corrupt systems of this world you will reap sorrows that sometimes remains with you for a lifetime.
THERE IS NO SUCH SERVICE THAT HAS NO REWARD IN THIS LIFE AND THE LIFE TO COME. THAT IS WHY PEOPLE ARE IN HELL.
God wants us to have rest – He wants us to serve righteousness, Selflessness, His Holy will and purposes. He wants us to serve our generation according to His will. He wants us to serve Him wholeheartedly and unconditionally. He wants us to come into His rest!
Before the cross He presented the same truth to the nation of Israel in the mysteries of the Sabbath – a mystery that most Christians are yet to fully grasp hence being in all sorts of confusion.
Another word for rest is sabbath – the seventh day of a week. The historic reason for the law of the Sabbath is interesting. It is worth revisiting. The Jews were slaves in Egypt who worked 24 hours a day and seven days a week without rest. They carried on like that for hundreds of years resulting in a no-rest lifestyle. They never knew rest existed.
But God knew that a restless lifestyle was not good for their health, hence when He delivered them from slavery instructed that they do nothing but rest on the seventh. Sadly, because they were a stubborn set of people, many could not catch the revelation behind the instruction; hence the instruction was made a law with stiff penalties attached.
Besides, God was carving a path for the execution of His redemption plan for mankind, so people were severely punished for not resting on the seventh day in order not to distort or defeat the plan. The nation finally grew to recognize the seventh day as a day of resting and reflecting on God’s goodness. That was how it became a day of worship for them.
DON’T FORGET THE BIBLE CALLS THEM THE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS.
But the prophetic reason is different. God created the earth for six days and rested on the seventh day making seven a number of completion, maturity, and divine rest. The full prophetic message contained in the seventh day can only be written in a book not a devotional like this. But the bottom line is this, God want you to enter inter the rest Jesus purchased for us with His own blood.
Yes, God want us all to receive His rest; rest from all the works of the devil, consequences of sins, and everything that constitutes a yoke and burden. He wants you free from all.
God’s will for Israel was not for them to practice a law but to live out a prophetic message behind a historic act. And if you look at it in the eyes of redemption, Christ was the reason for the law.
Don’t forget the law was a tutor to bring Israel to Christ but they reduced it to an empty religious act. So, when Christ, the LORD of the Sabbath finally came calling, they rejected His call and defeated the redemptive and prophetic purpose of the Sabbath (a generational law) given to them (by the hand of Moses).
Jesus presented the redemptive purpose for the generational law when He said to them:
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” Matthew 11:28-30 NKJV.
Sadly, they never came. Hence the law was not fulfilled in their lives.
Don’t forget the law was given to be fulfilled in Christ not to be a religious ritual of all ages. If we do not come into the revelation of the fulfillment of any aspect of the law in Christ Jesus, we will be practicing it as a ritual and shortchanging our eternal destinies.
THAT IS THE LOT OF THOSE WHO STILL PRACTICE THE SABBATH AS A DAY!
When men like Paul were born into the kingdom, God took them behind the scenes of all He told Israel to do, and they understood that Christ was the reason for the Sabbath hence making the first day of the week – the day of the resurrection of Christ – the day of worship for the New Testament Church.
So, when we assemble on the first day of the week to worship, we have really assembled to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. That is why there ought to be true Church experience; which is a manifestation of God’s transforming power, amazing signs, wonders and miracles, each time we gather.
Now, the Sabbath in the Old Testament was a Day but in the New Testament, the Sabbath became a person. That person is Jesus Christ! When you accept Him into your life, you have fulfilled the redemptive purpose of the law of the Sabbath and have kept the Sabbath.
In other words, all those who have not accepted Him as LORD and savior are yet to keep the Sabbath and stand the risk of not having eternal rest when they die. It is no longer a punishment for not keeping a law but a consequence of not accepting God’s redemption plan for their lives.
What lessons can we draw from all these? Following God sheepishly is the best thing that can ever happen to us. If Israel had followed, it would have been wonderful when Christ came in the flesh. There would have been no destruction of Jerusalem 40 years after His death and many other blessings would not have been missed.
If they had known what the Sabbath meant and embraced it with all their hearts, they would have stepped a major aspect of the law fulfilled in Christ and the grace Jesus came with would have benefited them greatly.
When you step into any aspect of the law that has been fulfilled in Christ Jesus, you benefit greatly from grace. But when you just practice it the way Israel did in bible days, you sabotage your eternal destiny.
ALL FORMS OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST COMES WHEN WE FOLLOW GOD SHEEPISHLY.
A major highlight in our devotional text today says: “But My people would not heed My voice, and Israel would have none of Me. So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart, to walk in their own counsels.” What a terrible place to be as a human, the place of God given someone up due to rebellion.
It’s dangerous for GOD to give a man over to his own stubborn heart. It is very risky for God to allow us to walk in our own counsels. But that is exactly what people who do not know the cost of following their counsels love to do. That is what those who do not follow God sheepishly suffer.
Many are in marital pains and others in unredeemable situations today because God gave them over to their stubborn hearts.
They could not follow Him sheepishly hence He gave up and now allow them to walk in their own counsels. People have walked in their own counsels and forfeited great blessings. Others have walked in their own counsels and walked into crisis. The list is endless!
God sent this word this morning to ask that you to let Him be your guide in life. He wants you to be His sheep and He your shepherd because the greatest blessing will begin to flow in your life when that happens. Remember, by redemption placement He is the shepherd, and we are the sheep.
He said His sheep hear His voice, the voice of strangers they will not follow. God does not want us to even to follow our own voices. They are part of the voice of a stranger.
That is why the areas of crisis and needs in our lives are always the very areas we have not allowed Him to play the role of a Shepherd to us.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY;
“Oh, that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways! I would soon subdue their enemies, and turn My hand against their adversaries.
“The haters of the Lord would pretend submission to Him, but their fate would endure forever. He would have fed them also with the finest of wheat; and with honey from the rock I would have satisfied you.” Psalms 81:13-16 NKJV
