TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 19TH April 2026)
Then his servants said to him, “Look now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. Please, let us put sackcloth around our waists and ropes around our heads, and go out to the king of Israel; perhaps he will spare your life.”
So they wore sackcloth around their waists and put ropes around their heads, and came to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant Ben-Hadad says, ‘Please let me live.'”
And he said, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.” Now the men were watching closely to see whether any sign of mercy would come from him; and they quickly grasped at this word and said, “Your brother Ben-Hadad.”
So he said, “Go, bring him.” Then Ben-Hadad came out to him; and he had him come up into the chariot.
So Ben-Hadad said to him, “The cities which my father took from your father I will restore; and you may set up marketplaces for yourself in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria.”Then Ahab said, “I will send you away with this treaty.” So he made a treaty with him and sent him away.
1 Kings 20:31-34 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 109TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF STRATEGIC VICTORY
One of the strategic things we have been seeing this year from the LORD is the release of Great Mercies. God’s mercies manifest in different forms. Sometimes it manifest in pardon for sin, other times it manifest as favor from the LORD.
God’s mercies also manifest as getting what we do not deserve. The peace we do not deserve, the healing we do not deserve, the life we do not deserve etc. There are times God’s mercy manifest as a killer of our stupidity and ignorance. Yes, you heard me right, as a terminator of our foolishness and ignorance.
It will guide us into blows that hurt to cleans our hearts of foolishness. It is patient, understanding, loving, tolerant and prophetic sometimes. The reason for all that is that men will fear God.
Everything God does to bring out a fear for Him out of our lives is part of His mercies. In fact, God’s mercy controls the relationship between God and men. That is why His mercy is one of the colors that surround His Throne.
Do not forget, the Throne Room is the control center of God’s works on earth. Whatever is not from the Throne Room is not from God and will not be surrounded by His mercy. And if God’s mercy is not surrounding a thing, Satan’s mess will fill that thing.
If God’s mercy is not surrounding your job, marriage, business, children, vision, or any other thing that has to do with you, hell will surround them. There is no middle ground. That is why we are to pray for whatever belongs to us to be outsourced from God’s throne.
RIGHTEOUS PRAYER IS ONE WAY WE GET THINGS FROM GOD’S THRONE, THINGS THAT HIS MERCIES SURROUND.
Repentance is another way. But repentance must come before prayer. It is the prayer of the righteous that brings God’s great mercies down not the prayer of the sinner. The Bible made it clear that the prayer of a sinner is an abomination to God. And if you check why people commit sin, you will discover lack of knowledge as one of the reasons, especially the knowledge of what that sin is doing in our lives.
People commit sin in so many arrears. One of them is in relationship. When you do not have sufficient wisdom in dealing with relationship matters, you will mourn. God ordained faith to be the currency of the spirit and relationship to be the currency of the earth.
If you have faith and do not have good sense of how to manage relationships, you will be full of confidence in GOD but with no blessing in your life because sometimes, blessings comes from GOD through the relationships He bless us with.
Many are suffering because they do not have sufficient knowledge of managing relationships. Our devotional text contains secrets we need to revisit. You find King Ahab doing what some of the people God grants victory do, resulting in loss of their victory!
This man was one of the most interesting kings of Israel of Bible days. In his days God’s prophets were killed by palace security forces, Baal sat enthroned over Israel right from the palace, the economic resources of Israel was used to build shrines for Baal and Asherah.
His palace budget covered provisions for the prophets of Baal and Asherah and when he tried to seek God, he appointed 400 palace prophets to be prophesying to him.
HE WAS A TERRIBLE KING WHO COULD ORDER THE EXECUTION OF ANY PROPHET WHOSE PROPHECIES WERE NOT SINGING HIS PRAISE.
He would prefer listening to 400 false prophets who are prophesying the same thing by a lying spirit than giving heed to one true one who is prophesying something different by the Spirit of GOD. Prophets who spoke from Heaven were a terror to him.
For instance, he labeled Elijah the troubler of Israel and sold the lie to everyone so they could blame GOD’s prophet for the consequences of the king’s wickedness towards God and man.
One day he desired a man’s vineyard, and his wife killed the man and handed over the vineyard to him. We can go on and on.
Ahab was one of the first spiritual nightmares on the throne of Israel. The people of God never worshipped Baal nationally until this man became king. In fact, the worship of Baal and Asherah became a state religion under his reign. But what door did the devil use to turn a king from a righteous seed to a wicked monster?
The answer lies in one phrase. And that phrase is “wrong relationship.” His marriage to Jezebel. If the righteous do not manage their relationship well, they will end up with the wrong people.
The Bible says walking in the sins of Jeroboam was not a sin to Ahab, and because it was not, he went further to mismanage his relationship life by getting married to the wrong person relationship for a wife –the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians. That was how he became a Baal worshiper.
Sadly, only eternity will accurately reveal how many people wrong relationships have taken to hell. Ahab would later end very tragically even leaving the woman who led and inspired him to do all he did against God alive. That is the irony. Whenever the devil use the wrong person to neutralize the righteous, he or she will die leaving the person that was used behind.
WHAT LESSONS CAN WE DRAW FROM THAT? MANY!
But for lack of space, I will share just one with you. We can clearly learn that some wrong people live longer than those they desecrate, pollute or are corrupt. However, there is another lesson.
Our devotional text today tells us how Ahab had just been shown a brief mercy by the LORD and handed over with an assignment to do. But he ended up sparing a king that God had appointed to die.
He sought relationship with a man God wants dead. He sought a deal. The consequence was his life for the king’s life and his people for the king’s people. A major highlight in our devotional text said:
Then his servants said to him, “Look now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. Please, let us put sackcloth around our waists and ropes around our heads, and go out to the king of Israel; perhaps he will spare your life.”
Underline the phrase “the kings of Israel are merciful kings” and you will discern what the enemy used to deny Ahab the chance of enjoying the fulness of God’s mercy. He showed mercy to those God wants terminated. A lot of us do the same, we show mercy to people who needs our mercy to grow or survive then destroy us.
You pick someone that looks like a dying lamb to nurture out of kindness, only to discover that you were nurturing your own destroyer when it grows up. Many of us spend our days doing the right things for the wrong people, hoping that they will become right people, only to discover we are wrong. While some become good, there are terrible leopards that do not change their skin.
Time for help from the LORD!!!
Are you suffering today for doing the right things to the wrong people? Seek God to help you. That is one of the prophetic purposes of this devotional. AMEN
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR TODAY.
Deliver me, O Lord, from evil men; Preserve me from violent men, who plan evil things in their hearts; They continually gather together for war. They sharpen their tongues like a serpent; The poison of asps is under their lips. Selah
Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; Preserve me from violent men,
Who have purposed to make my steps stumble. The proud have hidden a snare for me, and cords; They have spread a net by the wayside; They have set traps for me. Selah
I said to the Lord: “You are my God; Hear the voice of my supplications, O Lord.
Psalm 140:1-6 NKJV
