TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 21ST April 2026)
“His delight is in the fear of the Lord, and He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears;”
“But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.” Isaiah 11:3-4 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 111TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF STRATEGIC VICTORY
It’s a great day again today. Welcome to another glorious opportunity from the LORD to learn from Him through our devotional. As we have already read, today is the 111TH day of our year of strategic victory. God has a word for us.
He has spoken to us for 110 days already this year. Indeed, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.
Have you ever wondered why Jesus did not make the scribes, Sadducees and Pharisees His disciples? After all they were more knowledgeable in the things of God in those days than any other people, and Jesus Himself was a Pharisee by religious upbringing.
Have you wonder why He preferred the ignorant Fisher men, the financially corrupt tax collector, and people who had no business with the synagogue to these religious people He grew up with? Someone may say “grace was at work,” but based on what we have learnt so far and what the Bible teaches, that was not just the reason.
It was not just grace that qualified these people, because the Bible made it clear that if grace is shown to the wicked, they will not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness, they will deal unjustly (Isaiah 26:10). Meaning God does not show grace to the wicked the way we believe. What qualified these people was not just grace but the nature of their hearts. God can cope with a wrong head not a wrong heart.
Though they were lost sinners needing a savior, they were not wicked at heart like the scribes, Sadducees and Pharisees. Have you read Matthew 23 and see the kind of hearts those guys had? They were wicked. Jesus called them brood of vipers and sons of hell.
THOSE WORDS WERE NOT INSULTS BUT DESCRIPTIONS.
Friend, I have seen sinners who may be sinful but not wicked at heart, and I have also seen Christians who are not sinful but are very wicked at heart.
If God is looking for a man to use in advancing His course among us, He will prefer the sinner to the wicked; He will show grace to the sinner whose heart is not contaminated by wickedness, wash him of his sins, and make use of him. But the religious and wicked will be abandoned!
Those Jesus made His disciples by all religious standards were truly the wrong people to receive the mantle from Him and become apostles, but by heart standard were the Right people. Friend, when it comes to relationships, you do not look at people’s faces, training or qualifications, you look at their hearts.
One major reason we fail in relationships is this; we accept the wrong people into our lives because of the judgments of our human nature concerning them. But Jesus manifested in the Old Testament as the LORD God and made a statement to one of His Prophet (specifically Samuel) saying;
..”Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7 NKJV
If you look at this scripture you will see two levels of perception or two kinds of sight. How God “sees” people and how man “sees” people. That is why both access and accept relationships are different. God will access, accept or reject a relationship by looking at the heart but man does the same looking at outward appearances.
Basically, man is driven by his immediate need and how the person satisfies those needs. But God is driven by the state of the person’s heart. Consequently, man looks at the outward appearance. He makes judgments based on the sight of his eyes, hearing of the ear and the satisfaction a person brings into his life at the moment.
SOMETIMES THESE THINGS WILL BE SO LOUD TO HIM – LOUDER THAN WHAT GOD MAY BE QUIETLY SAYING.
That is why you find us sometimes rejecting how the people looks like if eventually, we get to know who they really are in the heart. We leap before we look, so to speak. But God is different, that is why people who operate at His level do not have problems. Yes, people who trust His holy Spirit do not have problems.
I am yet to see a Child of God who was not warned before getting themselves ensnared by the devil.
God has a supernatural alarm system attached to every man’s soul. That alarm system is designed to scream at us each time we are stepping into a wrong relationship or bringing wrong people into our lives. The only problem has always been rebellion.
We have always rebelled against that alarm because of the momentary satisfaction the people brought and because of what we saw with our eyes or heard with our ears about them. Like earlier stated; these things have a way of sounding louder in our spirit than the alarm of the LORD.
Sadly, so many of us have damaged this alarm system through persistent rebellion. Now, it either malfunctions or do not speak to us at all. In the lives of so many, it is dead! But Christ has set this month aside to repair or replace it in our hearts. That is why He is bringing these truths our way.
When this alarm is fixed, you will no longer judge after the hearing of your natural ears or decide based on what your natural eyes tells you about people.
You will not even be deceived by their generosity or the momentary satisfaction they bring. You will begin to judge the way Adam did before the fall – the very way Jesus Himself judged things when He came as the second Adam to redeem and restore us again.
ADAM IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN NEVER OPERATED OUR LEVEL OF “SEEING” OR “HEARING.” HE WAS NEVER NATURAL BUT SUPERNATURAL.
That was why he was able to name the animals on earth with names that God had already given them in Heaven.
I believe Mankind was not originally designed to look at the outward appearances of things but to look at the heart – the inner appearance. I believe it was sinning that re-designed him to become animalistic in perception. A major highlight in our devotional text this morning says, “…He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears;”
That was how man was originally created to function, and that is how to function if we will not become victims of satanic trappings.
In conclusion, I want you to understand that the level of hypocrisy in the Church today and the world at large is sickening. People have become craftier than you can ever imagine. The reason lies in man’s proximity with the devil and great distance from the true God.
It also lies in us not allowing the word of the LORD to become fresh in us again.
Sadly, many (even in Church) have taken over the evil nature of the devil; as the deceiver. They now find it very easy to act and live a life that is not really theirs. Therefore, if you bring a relationship into your life (in these our days) based on what you judge with your natural perception, it will not bless you at the end.
Friend, in the days we find ourselves, if we do not decide who we bring into our lives or reject from our lives, based on the state of their hearts, we will be ruined. We must step up into a higher life – a life of not judging by the sight of your eyes, nor deciding by the hearing of your ears; but with righteousness or right standing with God.
People who are standing Right with God will see the way God sees – they will be able to detect how the heart of men look like and not make mistakes in judgment! That is the word of the LORD.
It’s a new day for you!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
“A wise king sifts out the wicked, and brings the threshing wheel over them.”
“The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the inner depths of his heart.” Proverbs 20:26-27 NKJV
