TODAY’S DEVOTION Thursday 29th October 2020)
“Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.
For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground;
and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” Luke 19:41-44 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 301st DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
One of the major truths we learned yesterday in our midweek church in the house service, was the power of associations in determining our destinies. In other words, in determining the release of our omnipotence.
I have come to discover that in the Christian life, if you do not know the God you are dealing with, you will bring in people who are not part of His plan for your life into your lives (Most times through marriage), or send away those God, in His sovereignty, planned to be part of your life.
Friend, you can withstand a thousand devils outside your life than one wrong man or woman inside your life. That is why I tell male youths to become fully aware of God’s plans, routes, purpose, and assignment for their lives before taking a woman to the altar.
I also advise ladies to come into the full revelation of same before allowing a man to take them to the altar.
It’s been our year of Schooling in the things of GOD in a unique year of rejoicing, and we are dealing with the need for positive response.
Schooling in the things of GOD makes you aware of things about this life and the life to come. It animates you up and shows you things you ought to do.
Positive response is doing what is shown to you in God’s word!
Schooling in the things of God and positive response work together. It’s like being in house that is planted with bombs and is about exploding, but you are not aware.
Then someone enters into it and shows you in details what is about happening. Then you respond to it by running out of the house or neutralizing the bomb to save your life.
That is what schooling in the things of GOD and positive response does to a man’s life.
Many people are in situations that are likened to time bombs in the spirit. They are in wrong alliances they call marriages that will soon explode and destroy them completely. Others are yoked to sinful pleasures that are about boomeranging on them.
Many others are in jobs and other forms of economic, social, and religious relationships that are not doing them any good and will soon explode into unredeemable circumstance in their lives.
THEY CALL THE WRONG PEOPLE “FATHER IN THE LORD,” WORSHIP IN THE WRONG CHURCHES, SIT UNDER THE WRONG SPIRITUAL ATMOSPHERE FOR THEIR LIVES AND ETC.
But through these devotionals, the LORD has opened their eyes to see things about their lives that they know they need to do something about. If they do not rise up and respond positively, the house (their lives) will explode into flames with nothing to salvage.
Sadly, many will discover things that are not just right about their lives and still be “playing the religious card” of going to pray about it and waiting upon the LORD to act while in actual sense the LORD is the one waiting for them to respond by saving their lives.
Sometimes, God will open your eyes to see a danger and then leave the decision to escape from it in your hands. If you are stupid about it and go play the religious card, you will be history! You will come out destroyed with nothing to salvage about you.
When it comes to divine restoration, time is of the essence.
A people who do not know how to respond to the things that make for their peace, will never know peace. Our devotional text today is about a Jewish generation that came across the Prince of Peace Himself, but did not respond to Him.
The Bible made it clear that He left His throne above, came to the earth, walked among them as Man, teaching and demonstrating Himself as the prince of peace, yet they did not respond positively to Him. In fact, they seized and killed Him.
Peter would later speak to say,
“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know —
Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; Acts 2:22-23 NKJV
As we can see in this scripture, these men came across the prince of peace Himself but did not recognize or respond positively to Him. They rather seized Him and put Him to death. But thank God, He used that to work out our redemption. But there is something to glean here!
THERE IS A GENERATION IN THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD TODAY THAT SPECIALIZES IN PUTTING TO DEATH WHAT GOD SENT TO KEEP THEM.
They will fight any word God sends to wall them from sudden destruction. They will maltreat, ill-treat, malign, persecute and render hopeless people God brought their way to give them hope, treat them well, and raise or saving them from something.
They will do all the evil they can muster to well-meaning people God placed in their lives, and when they lose them they blame either the people or God. You cannot receive and retain anything from God without taking responsibility to respond to Him positively.
A major highlight in our devotional text says,
“Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace!
But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side…”
I have come to realize that prelude to any devastating attack of the enemy; God sends a word that make for our peace for us to respond to. And from our devotional text it’s clear that the day that word come is called “Day of Visitation.”
Meaning God does visit people with candy, snacks, or soft drinks. He visits them with words that contain things that make for their peace. He visits before the enemy comes.
But if what is being said to us is hidden to our eyes and we do not know do not respond positively to Him, the next thing that will happen will be devastation. We will just plunge into the weapons of the attack of the enemy, and most times never recover from it.
THE THINGS THAT MAKE FOR OUR PEACE WILL ALWAYS COME BEFORE THE ATTACK OF THE ENEMY.
They will always come before divine recovery or restoration.
Positive response to the things that make for our peace is a major key to divine preservation. The question now is, how are we responding to things that make for your peace? Are we responding to preachers God sent to enhance your peace? Do we seize and kill their character?
How are we responding to revelations that make for our peace? Do we receive, then shout amen to them then kill the flame after that? How do we respond to a Husband or wife that makes for our peace? Are we keeping them, or killing them?
Most married men ill-treat and maltreat blessed women God gave them. I call such men a plague. The judgment of Nabal in 1 Samuel 25 will be their portion if they do not repent.
Most women also maltreat blessed husbands God gave them. I called those women “knives” and not wives. Any spouse who do not respond positively to a spouse God bless him or her with; will end up very miserably in life.
Except they repent in record time, things will turn out very terrible.
And let me advice those who are on the receiving side:
If you are yoked to “a plague” you call a husband, or “a knife” you call a wife, and you do not respond positively by doing the necessary, you will never know peace; most times in this life and the life to come!
God does not yoke women to plagues called husbands neither does He yoke men to knives called wives. If you are yoked to one and religion tells you “it’s God’s will,” and tradition say “it’s okay” and you concur, you will never go unpunished by your decision to concur with them!
What is the message this morning? The message is simple; how you respond to things that make for your peace will determine your end in this life, and sometimes the life to come.
It’s my prayer that God use these words to give you an inheritance among they that are sanctified!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION:
“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.
“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 81:11-16 NKJV