TODAY’S DEVOTION (Monday 19th October 2020)
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He guards all his bones; not one of them is broken.” Psalms 34:19-20 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 291st DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
There is a song we use to sing in our local Assemblies of God Church in Abuja Nigeria many years ago. It says, “When I think of the goodness of Jesus, and all He has done for me. My very soul shall sing, Hallelujah! Praise GOD for saving me!”
How beautiful it is to start a day with such a song! Even if you don’t know the rhythm, if you just look at the lyrics, you will find something to praise God for in a Brand New Day like this!
Yes, it is another new day from the LORD in this season that He has chosen to school us in His things. By now, many of us may have realized that restoration comes through schooling in the things of GOD!
I learned something some time ago about having knowledge or having ignorance. I learnt that Ignorance comes when we IGNORE knowledge, and knowledge comes when we DAMAGE ignorance. You become one only when you DEAL with the other. I hope you understand me.
I am yet to see someone walking in the ignorance of the things of GOD recover from anything. I am yet to see restoration come through ignorance of the things of GOD. Being ignorant of the things of GOD will hand us over cheaply to persistent oppressions. It will cut us off from all of GOD’s supply system.
That is why the kingdom of GOD is full of the schooling activities of the Holy Spirit. God will always school us in His ways before He deliver us. He will always school us in His things before He restore us. Schooling in His things is what positions us for all that comes from Him.
For instance, Job was restored after being schooled in the things of GOD.
His life tells us that, no matter how terrible the attack is, if we are not schooled by the LORD in the things of GOD, we will not be able to fully come out of terrible situations. In the kingdom of GOD, If there is no schooling in the things of GOD, there will be no restoration from GOD.
That was why Jesus spent most of His time schooling people in the things of GOD, through preaching, teaching, and the release of the miraculous.
JOB SAW GOD AFTER BEING SCHOOLED BY HIM. HE SPOKE AND SAID WITH HIS OWN MOUTH,
“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:5-6 NKJV
The word “repent” simple means a change of mind that came out of revealed knowledge, resulting in proper alignment with God. It is usually the product of a deep schooling session with God.
Before his predicament, job learnt about GOD through others, but during his predicament, he did not just learn about GOD by himself, He saw Him. The most effective way to be schooled in the things of GOD is through seeing. Job learnt by seeing God with His spiritual eyes! That is a schooling dimension we all need to attend.
That is the dimension that enables us to, not just read the Scriptures but see GOD in them. It has us to find Him by having Him revealed to us.
It’s amazing how God allowed the devil to take away the joy, finances, Children, and all of Job’s happiness just to get his total attention to be schooled. A generation of righteous men and women who do not know that the purpose of the afflictions of the righteous is SCHOOLING AND COMING OUT OF IT SEEING GOD, will fail.
I have shared this before. For Job, it was “a school of hard things.”
He woke up one morning full, but by evening none of what He woke up with was around. It was all buried – Children, streams of income, friends, the love and care of a wife, and finally his health.
Have you ever waked up in the morning with your joy, and by evening it was no more? Then as you go to pray, you find GOD saying nothing about your issues? You just find Him teaching you His ways and revealing Himself to you?
IT’S USUALLY A “SCHOOL OF HARD THINGS.”
And in the midst of the pain, He still expects you to remain faithful and loyal to Him. It is not cruelty but a divine process for a greater glory. Hallelujah!
His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts than out thoughts. He knows whatever we thought was a loss, will be restore either in this life or the life to come. He knows whatever we may be going through will result in “rich fulfillment of His will for our life.”
Like we learned in our Church in the House session yesterday, we are being placed on a GRACE FIELD for mining. Yes, we are being placed like Job was, to mine rich fulfillment! David said,
“For You, O God, have tested us; you have refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net; you laid affliction on our backs.
You have caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; but you brought us out to rich fulfillment.” Psalms 66:10-12 NKJV
There is a “school of hard things” in GOD’s redemptive plans for us all. It is part of the schools of the Spirit. It is one school in the Spirit with no human teacher; just you, your GOD and your pains. I guess it sounds familiar.
Have you ever been in a situation where you just have no one to help, except you, your pains, and your GOD? That was a school of hard things – a grace field for mining the prosperity in adversity. The Psalmist said,
“You have shown your people hard things; you have made us drink the wine of confusion. You have given a banner to those who fear you, that it may be displayed because of the truth.” Psalms 60:3-4 NKJV
From this scripture, it’s clear that the prophetic purpose for attending this school is not just to bring us to rich fulfillment but to make us (using what we may have gone true and remain faithful to God) a banner or standard for a generation.
There is a mystery I want to share at this point!
You see, spiritual wells can be dug in our spirits by the LORD for a perishing generation during a school of hard things. I knew this from my own personal experiences. I have come to discover that over ninety percent of what the LORD gives me to teach, and the ministry He has committed into my hands, flows from the spiritual fountains that were created in me during sessions I had in the School of Hard Things.
NO ONE WITH A TRUE APOSTOLIC VOICE REALLY GOT IT IN THE PLACE OF COMFORT.
This is more true if you look at the lives of our Bible fathers who constituted the power base of the early church. If you look at them, you will find out that there is a death to die for any delivery that will transform moral landscapes to come forth, my friend. And it is not cheap.
When you are admitted into this school, prosperity will turn into adversity, yet God’s manifest presence will be in your life, amazingly not to perform a miracle but to protect the bones of His plans and purposes for your life. To protect them from breaking and to use the pains thereof to bring you to the place of deep repentance in Him; primarily to tear your eyes open, and help you to see Him in the fullness of His glory. Hallelujah!
Heaven admits people from time to time into this school.
That is why in the kingdom of GOD, you will find those who just came out or graduated from it, and some who are yet to even come into it, and many others who have been admitted into it. Those who graduated from of it are normally used by the LORD to guide those who gets admitted into it.
It is a scary school to attend but you will always graduate with rich fulfillment – what I call the prosperity of adversity! You will come out with a weight of glory mined from the grace fields of the school – because the school has a lot of grace fields.
Our devotional text says,
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He guards all his bones; not one of them is broken.”
The first time I read this scripture I wonder why God will allow affliction to come upon the righteous.
IT MAY BE COMFORTING TO BE SUFFERING FOR YOUR SINS. AT LEAST YOU WILL TAKE SOLACE IN THE FACT THAT YOU CAUSED YOUR PROBLEMS.
But to be suffering for what you are not responsible for, with no sin to tell you “I am responsible for your problems” can be is very painful. And the Bible says many are such afflictions in the life of the righteous. But the difference is, the LORD delivers them from they all. Hallelujah!
There are things we will never learn about GOD in a Church service. We will only learn them in God’s School of Hard Things.
People who are ignorant of this will hardly come into divine restoration. If Job had not caught the revelation and saw God in His time of learning (through hard things), he would not have ended the way he did.
What are we saying this morning?
There is a blessing we cannot pick from any place in God except in His School of Hard Things. There are dimensions of us that will never come out except we have passed through this school. That is the very dimension that the creation is waiting to be made manifest.
The many grace fields in this school remains the only sources of the significance or greatness that has an eternal relevance in it. There are too many people with a greatness and significant that has no eternal relevance today. Yes, there are so many Omni-potencies without eternal relevance. Creation is not waiting for any of them. Creation is waiting for what has eternal relevance.
May the LORD use these words to build you up, and give you an inheritance among they that are sanctified!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURAL PASSAGE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION:
“For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
“For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” Romans 8:19-23 KJV