TODAY’S DEVOTION (THURSDAY 16TH April 2026)
“Now the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, and take the goods for yourself.”
“But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to the Lord, God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth, that I will take nothing, from a thread to a sandal strap, and that I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich’
— except only what the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with me: Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.” Genesis 14:21- 24 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 106TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF STRATEGIC VICTORY
It’s a good thing to give thanks to the LORD for bringing us safely to another day. Truly, God has been good to us and the devil knows about it. He sees it in how many of his plans for our lives are failing. He sees it in how God disappoints his craftiness so that his hands will not perform his enterprises.
Yes, he sees it in how God forgives our sins and take away the consequences, preventing him from using them to hurt us. It’s just that we sometimes do not acknowledge it.
Sometimes we do not acknowledge that God has been good to us because we allow the currents of events in our Godless age to take our eyes off what God has either done, is doing or will do, to what He has either refused to do or not done.
We forget that if God refuse to do a thing, it’s in our best interest. And if there is anything that is being delayed – anything He has not done in our lives, He is not the reason for the delay; we are the reason because in Heaven everything is finished. God does not start from the beginning; God starts from the end. That alone is a mystery!
For instance, our marriages, economic lives and etc. are finished. We only need to come into alignment and maturity to have them. So, God is not always the reason for delay, we are the reason for any kind of delay in our lives. Sometimes, like I did many years ago, we get ourselves sandwiched by wrong people making it impossible for things God intends doing in our lives from being done.
THAT BRINGS US AGAIN TO THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING THE RIGHT PEOPLE IN OUR LIVES ALL THE TIME.
It is something we must pray for, seek God for, work towards, and apply our hearts unto wisdom for. If we do not, we will keep having the wrong ones and slowing down what God want to do in and through us. I slowed down mine for almost 20 years of my life, from when I turned 17 to when I turned 37.
Friend, I know the cost of having the wrong people in life. It took me time to realize that I have soft spot for people who should not even be in my life. Maybe you too, that’s why we must work on it.
Life experience taught me that people that life and providence surround with the right people from birth will succeed faster and quicker in life than those surrounded by wrong relationships. Though God has a way of using the wrong to purify us and sometimes push us into destiny, life can be very slow and sad if you spend it with the wrong person or people.
Let me share this story again, a story of how my mum, dad and siblings ventured into agriculture when we moved from Calabar (in Cross River State of Nigeria) to Abuja, (the Capital City of Nigeria) in 1984. One thing that stood out in those days was my ‘encounter’ so to speak, with a particular weed we call striga. That weed was terrible.
Wherever and whenever it appears on our farmland, every crop around it will turn yellow and start dying. At first, we thought it was a spiritual attack on our crops. But my mum had read about this weed in her school days, so she was able to uncover the mystery to us.
She shared that the weed has an organic Chemical that can kill any crop on a farmland.
If it is not spotted very early and weeded away the crops will be in danger of (in prophetic words) not fulfilling their God given destiny. Sadly, most wrong relationships are like striga. If Satan plants them in your life and you do not spot and weed them out early enough, they will infect you with things that will make it impossible for you to fulfill your divine destiny!
SOMETIMES SATAN CAN BE STRATEGIC. HE WILL NOT BRING THIS STRIGA MEN OR WOMEN INTO YOUR LIFE EARLY ENOUGH.
They will come after you have suffered and are ready to be promoted or lifted. That is when they will come in to kill everything. The Bible says, “humble yourself, and God will exalt you in due time.” In this kind of spiritual assault, Satan does not bring striga men or women when you are humbling yourself, no!
He will allow you to humble yourself unhindered and wait until you come into the season of rewards. Then he will bring this striga men and women wrapped in great appeal to plant them in your life. His plan is to blow you away at your time of divine exaltation. That reminds me of something.
I remember a farming season in Abuja in those days when many crops failed to yield due to this terrible weed. Crops were planted, fertilized and properly taken care of but few weeks to when they will start producing, this weed called striga appeared and killed everything.
In some cases, the crops like maize, were so green and beautiful, already shooting out their ears to produce the full corn. The weed sprang up and, in few days, killed everything. Investigations later revealed that the seeds of that weed were already in the ground before the maize was planted.
In other words, the maize was planted among the striga seeds and because we lacked the equipment to detect, we ignorantly went in to plant our great seeds among terrible striga seeds. That is like some marriages to me.
A good man will go and plant his righteous seeds in the womb of a terrible striga woman, whose true nature is hidden by either their beauty or some other feature, putting the lives of the children that are born by her in danger of releasing their destiny. Even great ladies are sometimes trapped in the same quagmire; you find them becoming mothers to children of striga men whose outlook hid their true nature from the innocent women.
Friends, the situation is worrisome. Only true discernment can help us to sport striga people afar off.
ONE WAY YOU CAN RECOGNIZE STRIGA MEN AND WOMEN IS BY THEIR FLATTERY OR SOME APPEALS.
They will flatter you and speak your praise even out of proportion in the guise of appreciating you imputes in their lives or honoring you for things you did not even do. That is one-way wrong people conceal who they really are from others. Some others will be so appealing to you that you cannot but pull them into your life, business, righteous love nest, care, Church, ministry or some other life ventures. The Bible says.
“If you wake your friend in the early morning by shouting “Rise and shine!” It will sound to him more like a curse than a blessing. Proverbs 27:14 THE MESSAGE
So when a man or woman you just met indicate interest in you and before you know it he or she is showering praises on you for things you never did or for very little good deeds you may have done; things that by sound judgment are not proportional to the glorious things he or she may be saying concerning you, be careful.
I have come to discover that God will never bless us bountifully if we have striga men and women in our lives as husbands, wives, friends, business partners, etc. He will not do what we did in our farmland when we plant our good seeds on grounds that already had the striga seeds, only to have them destroyed after a few weeks to harvest time.
The Bible says God is not a man. He sees what we cannot see.
For instance, while we may be looking at physical appearances and approving people into our lives based on how they appear to us, He will be looking at the heart to determine His approval. The reason is because His approval rating is based on a man’s heart not his looks.
So, if there are striga men and women around you, your blessings will be delayed from coming because of them. The reason is because God would not want someone to either destroy His blessing in your life, steal His glory, or destroy you for the blessings released.
THAT WAS THE SITUATION I FOUND MYSELF IN FOR ALMOST 20 YEARS.
Our devotional text today contains a lesson I learnt in a very hard way during those years. Abraham our father had just returned from fighting a war that God granted him victory. It was a miraculous feat – defeating thousands of men with just 318 men was a miraculous feat.
Everyone who could not withstand those terrible kings was amazed. One of them was the king of Sodom. Then this King met him and offered Abraham money for the 318 men. But our father Abraham replied and said to him;
“I have raised my hand to the Lord, God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth, that I will take nothing, from a thread to a sandal strap, and that I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich’
If you have a destiny to fulfill in Christ Jesus and there is a relationship that has the capacity to say it is responsible for your success when God will be making you successful, God will make sure you fail until you weed that relationship out of your life.
Like I said, I learnt this prophetic truth the hard way!
Yes, I believe that no man can get to the place of success alone. God will often use men to bring us to the place of success, but God does not use striga men or women’ to that. If you have any of them in your life, He will make sure you fail in anything you attempt doing until you either weed them away from your life or go away from them.
God will first bring men of divine destiny to the faith position where they can raise their hands to Him and refuse to take nothing, from even a thread to a sandal strap that belongs to anyone so that they will not say “I have made you rich.” That is not pride but prudence! Sadly, many are not that prudent. They are foolish!
Friend if you do not take the faith position that Abraham took before the king of Sodom in your walk with God, you will delay a lot of blessings, life, progress, and significant things in the throne room of God from coming into your life.
You will need right people to succeed faster in life and catch up with God’s schedule for your life. Always ask God for them and put on a lifestyle that will keep them coming to you. That is the message!!! May the LORD use these words to give you an inheritance among them that are sanctified!
YOU CAN MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE YOUR MEDITATION.
“The righteous should choose his friends carefully, for the way of the wicked leads them astray.” Proverbs 12:26 NKJV
