TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Tuesday 1ST December 2020)
“Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.'” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.” Revelation 14:12-13 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 334th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
This is the day the LORD has made, we shall rejoice and be glad in it. It is a new month, a gift from God’s mercies and faithfulness. He has watched over us all this year; for 11 months of this year He kept us. Today is the beginning of the 12th Month.
Glory to His name for all He has done and will still do in our lives.
I believe the LORD has prepared a table for us for this month. I believe He will load us with benefits each day of this month. I believe He will deal with us according to His mercies and keep us from living in sin cells to prevent us from being tortured or executed by the enemy. I believe we will again see His goodness in the land of the living.
The Bible says He crowns our year with His goodness. The 12th month is usually the month when years are crowned. I believe He will crown this year for us by pouring more of His goodness upon us! He goodness has being the reason for our living.
I will not fail to thank Him for the goodness of keeping us from the Virus that was manufactured in a lab last year and sent to the world be the evil ones this year. I have carried out three test for the Covid-19 virus due to what I do from nation to nation, and have being found negative.
I did not carry them because I wanted to check if GOD’s protection was over my life; the system of the people of this world that I deal with, as we pursue our God given assignments, do not understand the divine protection we enjoy from diseases. They do not know that God has built His hedge around us and we will not contract the disease; hence insisting that I carry out the test.
Three times I had carried it out and all is negative. Science will always prove the authenticity of the miracle working power, the mercies and faithfulness of GOD in our lives.
I do not take it for granted that God has kept us from this disease. He has watched over us. I believe wearing a mask or washing our hands is not enough to protect anyone from the corona virus. If it was enough, the great and courageous medical doctors and nurses who have died because of the disease will not have died.
What keeps men from all diseases is carrying Christ on your inside not a mask on your face. Yes, what keep us from all diseases is the washing of the regeneration of the Spirit not the washing of our hands.
UNTIL THE WORLD COME TO THIS REALIZATION, THE WORST IS YET TO COME.
Mankind must understand that the ultimate vision of God for the human race has been to grant us rest from the days of adversity in this life and the life to come.
You see this in both the old and new Testaments of the Bible.
For instance, the reason He struggled with the nation of Israel (a template of how GOD wants to deal with all of us) from the day He brought them out of Egypt, to the day they were carried away Captive into Babylon and later wiped away from their land until 1948, was to give them rest from the days of adversity.
The book of Hebrew puts it this way;
“Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.”
For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.” Hebrews 4:6-9 NKJV
This scripture made it clear that rebellion and disobedience prevented Israel from entering into God’s rest, just as it is preventing the lost world today. They could not enter under Moses neither did they under Joshua. In the same ways, many in our generation have not entered their rest because they have not found the LORD. They have not found the LORD because of the choice to keep to their sinful ways.
Under Moses Israel could not withstand the revelation and doctrine that would have given them rest from days of adversity. Under the grace of God today, many cannot stand the revelation of Jesus Christ and His sound doctrine that gives men rest from the days of adversity.
WE ARE HAVING A REPEAT IN OUR DAYS OF WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TEMPLATE NATION, ISRAEL, IN THE DAYS OF THE BIBLE.
Remember what they did at Sinai when God came down on the mountain to reveal Himself to them. Instead of requesting for grace to hear and see Him, they rejected the invasion of glory and requested that Moses alone hear God and speak to them.
That was when the idea of a go-between or intercessor was created. It was never God’s original intention for man to speak to another man on His behalf.
God’s plan was to have direct communication with every man. And the greatest harmony among men is built when all men hear from God directly. There will be so much unity that disagreement will be alien. But the rebellion of Israel and resistance that day distorted the communication plan of God for mankind.
That is why until we step into the age to come, there will still be men God will be using as a go-between to reach men for redemptive purposes. There will still be apostles, prophets, evangelist, pastors and teachers that God will be using to perfect the saints for the work of the ministry and salvage the lost world from eternal judgment.
The age to come will be a perfect age with no sun or moon to give us light. It will just be Jesus Himself, the Sun of righteousness, illuminating the world and having direct communication with everyone that will be found there. That is why there will be such harmony in that age.
I have come to discover that the root cause of division and disagreements among us, believers, is that we all hear from different sources and call them God. We all are not hearing from the true God. If we all hear from the true God. There will be harmony in our lives.
If a husband and his wife both hear from the true God, they will live in perfect harmony. Oneness will not be something they struggle with. If a pastor and his members both hear from the true God, the Church will enjoy perfect peace – hearts will be so united that it will be impossible to disagree on anything.
WHEN HEARTS ARE CONNECTED TO THE ONE TRUE GOD, LIVES WILL BE IN PERFECT PEACE
God’s perfect plan was to keep us in perfect peace by speaking to each and every one of us individually. He was carving that plan out as He dealt what the template nation, Israel. But what they did that day at Sinai changed everything for the human race. Hence they could not enter His rest for their lives. Sadly, the rest of the world has done even worse than they did.
Also under Joshua and subsequent spiritual leaders, the nation continued in the same resistance they put up at Sinai and ended up losing God’s rest for their lives. They resisted every prophet and judge who attempted to plant them in the ways and will of God for their lives.
Like many of us are doing today, they complained against every instruction and direction from the LORD, lusted after strange things, worshiped other gods, committed sexual immorality, and etc. hence not entering His rest.
Now, the Bible says these things became our example and were written for our admonition. In other words, the old Testament and all God did with Israel was for our admonition. Meaning, if we do not study it and walk in the light of GOD revealed in it, we will not even understand the New Testament and make it to eternal rest with Christ.
I have heard some say the old Testament is no longer needed. Really?
I have heard and seen how some preachers who cut off the Old Testament from their preaching are presenting the gospel. They are not helping men find the true GOD at all; they are doing a great work for the anti-Christ.
Paul the Apostle of Grace put it this way;
“Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.
And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.”
Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” 1 Corinthians 10:6-11 NKJV
THERE IS SO MUCH WE CAN LEARN FROM THESE BLESSED VERSES OF THE BIBLE
But from the Life of the nation of Israel, we can understand that if you see God rebuking, instructing, chastising, directing, revealing Himself to, or assigning a preacher to a person or people the vision is rest from the days of adversity. It is to bring mankind into His rest for our lives both in this life and the life to come!
Our devotional text this morning says;
“Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.'” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.”
The essence of the Christian life is to cultivate and maintain a walk and talk with God that keeps His commandments and walk in the faith of our LORD and Savior, Jesus Christ. That is the patience of the saints. The vision is to give us eternal rest from our labors and sorrows. That brings us to the revelation of the days of adversity.
There are two days of adversity, in the life of a man. There are earthly days of adversity full of earthly sorrows and there are eternal days of adversity that will be full of eternal sorrows. God wants us saved from both!
However sometimes He will allow us to face earthly days of adversity, especially when faced with the challenges of defending our faith; just to escape the eternal days of adversity. That happens when we make up our minds and He gives us the grace to live a life that resists sin, Satan and the evil systems of this world.
Child of God, you cannot live a life that resist sin, Satan and the evil and corrupt system of this world without spending most or all of your days on earth in adversity. The Bible says;
“Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” 2 Timothy 3:12-14 NKJV
THESE WORDS ARE STILL VERY TRUE TODAY
Evil men are the false Christians among us, while impostors are the heretic teachers and false prophets and ministers of the gospel with the covering of true men and women of GOD, among us.
Additionally, an evil man is he who twists and perverts the straight ways of the LORD, and an impostor is simply a deceiver. Both classes of Christian men and women have similar traits.
They preach Christ or practice Christianity without the Cross. They teach people to escape the pains of saying yes to the Jesus of the Bible by telling them “Jesus suffered for us not to suffer again.” Their doctrine births a Church generation that does not resist sin, Satan or the evil systems of this world, hence becoming sinful, worldly and satanic.
You see, a child of God who dodges the adversity of living true to God in this life, has ignorantly accepted the adversity that is reserved for Satan in the next life. The reason is because he will live a Christian life that is in harmony with the will and ways of Sin, Satan, and the evil and corrupt systems of this world. You will find such a person sacrificing the eternal on the altar of the earthly.
A generation that sacrifice the eternal on the altar of the earthly, or seeks the earthly at the expense of the eternal, will never be free from the days of adversity.
If you know the severity of God, you will realize that it is better to go through any adversity here on earth that will help us to escape the eternal days of adversity in the next life, than to resist it. They that sow to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. That is the message of today’s devotional.
It’s my prayer that God will use these truths and others we have learned (and the ones we will learn), to guide us this month, in Jesus precious name.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
“I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom:
Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and teaching.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” 2 Timothy 4:1-5 NKJV