TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Wednesday 30th December 2020)
“Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones.
Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the first fruits of all your increase; So your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.” Proverbs 3:7-10 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 364TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
Our counting of days, weeks, months and years has been according to the Gregorian calendar not the calendar God gave to the Hebrew Nation. Exodus 12 tells us how God choose the beginning of months for them, unlike other nations. It says;
“Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. Exodus 12:1-2 NKJV
There is no other nation under Heaven that had this privilege with God because there was no other ancestor under Heaven who walked with the Pre incarnate Christ like the ancestor of the Hebrew Nation.
A nation that God chose when their year should begin has the most accurate calendar on the face of the earth. That is why all of us who uses the Gregorian calendar do miss certain seasons released by Heaven; especially seasons God visits the earth, according to the book of Psalms.
One unique thing about the Hebrew nation is how it was formed and cultured by the hand of the LORD.
It is the only nation under Heaven whose traditions and practices where given by the LORD. They were like a missionary nation for the salvation of the entire human race. That explains why the dragon has stirred many nations from time to time, to either kill, steal from, or destroy them.
The nation of Israel has been hated by many other nations from generation to generation, with so many lies and evil taught even in schools about them. The book of Revelation 12 further reveals the reason when it depicted them as the woman who brought forth Christ, the man-child; and ultimately the Church, the nation will be persecuted until the restoration of all things.
It also depicted other things but this one, in my view, stood out.
Paul said they received the word of the LORD (oracles of GOD) for us by the hands of angels. The only sad thing is they did not keep what they received, neither did they transit when the reason for all the dealings God had with them showed up.
Yes, the reason God related with Israel, from the time of Abraham when the nation never existed, to the time of Moses, and then the time of the kings that reigned over them, and the prophets who prophesied to them, down to the time of John the Baptist; was to bring them to Christ; and ultimately the spiritual kingdom of GOD.
JESUS HIMSELF PUT IT THIS WAY;
“The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.” Luke 16:16 NKJV
The law and the prophets were God’s tutors to bring them to Christ, and ultimately, use them to put Christ in the rest of the lost world. But there are so many portions of the Bible that tells us that this failed in many respect.
It failed when most of them, in their unbelief, refused to accept the LORD as the messiah thereby resisting the transition from Judaism birthed by Moses, to Christianity birth by Jesus Christ.
Majority of them held on to the Moses they knew and never accept the Christ the prophets spoke about. If you read the gospels, you will find the many attempts people like Paul made to explain this transition to them. But they will rather beat them up, chase them out of cities and accused them of coming to destroy their walk with God.
In fact, Jesus, as man, was killed because of that. They killed Him because they felt He was a threat to Judaism. And the reason for that was because Judaism became a great money spinning religion to them. It perfectly helped them to make money from their followers even to the point of using the practices to rob and steal from them.
AT ONE TIME JESUS HAD TO ENTER THE TEMPLE TO DO WHAT WAS CONSIDERED UNTHINKABLE TO STOP THE STEAL.
The Bible says;
“Then Jesus went into the temple [d]of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”
Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.
But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were [e]indignant.” Matthew 21:12-15 NKJV
In the days of this story, the spiritual leaders of the day made a lot of money from the innocent followers who came to seek the LORD using practices and teachings from things God told Israel to do under Moses. They did that without telling them that the days of those practices had come to an end, since the reason for the practices (Christ) had arrived.
They deliberately kept them in blindness because of the money that was coming to them from the spiritual blindness of the people. Is that not what our money sinning preachers are doing today?
If you look at the Matthew 21:12-15 scripture, you will find out what the enemy was hindering in the life of the souls that the temple was established to bring to Christ.
He was hindering GOD’s glory from breaking out among them to take away blindness, and other defects that were on their lives. The Bible says as soon as Jesus cleansed the temple of the practices and the steal that was going on, God broke out among them and healed those with physical defects of their defects.
This is being repeated in our days. Those defect represents the defects of a life of sin that is on every human being on earth.
We do not need a prophet to tell us that the church of God has been commercialized using teachings extracted from Judaism, the way the activities of the temple were commercialized in the days of this story, using teachings and practices extracted from what God gave to Moses to teach the nation.
Teachings like redemption of first born and many others, and practices like using oil, salt, water and etc. to pray and many others have made so many preachers rich, thereby hindering the outbreak of His glory among seekers of God to take away the spiritual defects of sins.
When the glory of God is hindered form breaking out among us, it will give birth to Christianity without godly character. That is why today we have a lot of believers; especially pastors, who fit into the Christianity described by Paul in Titus chapter one. The Bible says,
“They profess to know God [to recognize and be acquainted with Him], but by their actions they deny and disown Him. They are detestable and disobedient and worthless for good work of any kind.” Titus 1:16 Amplified
LOOK AT THE CHURCH TODAY, AND YOU WILL FIND UNPRECEDENTED HYPOCRISY AND WICKEDNESS AMONG EVEN THE MOST REVERED MEN OF GOD.
Do you think we have fared well under these practices extracted from Judaism and dished to ignorant souls just to keep us preachers smiling to the bank? No we have not!
I weep in my heart for the Church of our generation, for these things. We have people who even defend the teachings and call those of us pointing men to the Bible truth about them all kinds of names.
Among the prominent teachings extracted from Judaism that is hindering the outbreak of God to remove our spiritual defects today is the teaching on first fruits, which have been intelligently presented to people, making a fool of so many.
Under this teaching the word of the LORD to Israel in the book of proverbs that says,
“Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the first fruits of all your increase; So your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine”
is intelligently presented to many, especially the gullible, to give the first salary of every year to ‘GOD.’
Each time we point people to this scam, we are accused of so many things. I laughed when one boy preacher threatened me with fire and brimstone. Like one of my spiritual sons put it, they defend the first fruit thing as if it is a Heaven making doctrine.
There are those who call themselves apostles who are sending all kinds of responses to me. They make me cry for those who listen to them and also remind me of the spiritual leaders of Jesus’ days who were indignant for what He did at the temple.
If you think that Jesus Christ will fold His arm in our days and watch as the so called papas and mamas extract teachings and practices from Judaism to make money from His flock, then you do not under the mystery of prophetic patterns.
If you think there will be no voices from Heaven that will by stirred by the LORD to cry against these scammers as they repeat the them same things that the leaders did when Jesus was physically here, then you do not understand what He meant when He said,
“I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”
God is on the move to stop the first fruit scammers!
Oh, yes, Jesus will not cease from using people like us to pull these nonsense practices down no matter wat you think; He will not cease from screaming at the top of His voice in the Holy Ghost, “my house is a house of prayer but you have turned it to a den of thieves.” He will keep using us to do that until He breaks out among us to remove our spiritual defects the way He did in the temple.
Do not forget we are His temple!
But as He use us to do this, we will also see the indignation of those who are benefiting from the status quo poured upon us. because the Bible says,
“But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were [e]indignant.”
“I REMEMBER ONE SO CALLED APOSTLE SAYING, “YOU KNOW HOW TO TEAR OTHER PEOPLE DOWN.”
And I responded,
“You are mistaken because you are speaking out of the blindness of your heart. I have been trained by the LORD to enter the temple and overturn the ministry or table of the money changers presenting themselves as life changers, and the scammers who use teachings and practices on Judaism to make money from seekers of GOD.”
The vision remains one, and that is to remove what is hindering the glory of God from breaking out on the Church to remove the many spiritual defect on our lives, defects that have turned so many believers into hypocrites.
And to those who are on the LORD’s side, I have this to say;
If you think we will be able to convince all those who are benefiting from the FIRST FRUIT SCAM and other practices that are killing the eternal life of men to come to the knowledge of the truth, you do not understand the war! If you think you will be able to convince all who have been too fooled (maybe by miracles that usually happen to keep hearts on paths of error) to come to the knowledge of the truth, forget it.
We will not be able to help everyone of them. But we will help some. However, many others will keep attacking and throwing all kinds of words and punches on us until they sink into the consequences of their delusions.
OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT SAYS,
“Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones.
Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the first fruits of all your increase; So your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.”
Come to think of it, this scripture, that have been used, and is still being used, to scam by propelling people to give what they call first fruit, began by asking the people not to be wise in their own eyes and to fear God. Why are the preachers not majoring on that first part?
Why are they not teaching the fear of GOD that is able to open the hearts of men to receive the cleansing power of God? Why are they majoring on the second part that admonished the nation of Israel to give their first fruits?
The reason is simple; the first part will make you Heaven worthy and Satan does not want that. But the second part will make you gullible enough to part with your first salary every year, and keep the pastor smiling to the bank and you deprived of the outbreak of God that will take away your spiritual defects. That is what Satan wants!
There is no man or woman who have made the first fruit scam a gold mine who will not consider me a threat to what they call the body of Christ! There is no one who have been perfectly made a FIRST FRUIT FOOL who will not be indignant at me for bringing out this truth to the elects! But the declaration of war from the LORD says, “the gates of hell will not prevail!” Hallelujah!!!
If you want to go beyond the anointing and experience the GLORY that removes spiritual defects; if you want to be part of the glorious Church that is fair as the moon, clear like the Sun and terrible like an army with banners, then you must get out of every false practices and teachings extracted from what Israel did under Judaism.
You must walk away from the shadows and come into the substance!
We must realize that all the practices that Israel did under the law, including the redemption of first born or the giving of FIRST FRUITS have been fulfilled in Christ. Only ignorant men and women or scammers repeat them in our days.
The Bible says;
“Such things are only a shadow of what is to come and they have only symbolic value; but the substance [the reality of what is foreshadowed] belongs to Christ” (Colossians 2:17 Amplified Version).
Practicing them will hinder you from coming into the fullness of God for your eternal life the way it hindered those who were at the temple in the day of Christ.
In other words, practicing them will hinder you from coming into the substance and the reality of the things they foreshadowed or were practiced for, putting your eternal life in jeopardy. It’s just that you will not know until God remove the veil from your heart.
But let he that has an ear hear what the Spirit is saying to the Churches!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR TODAY!
“But now [as things really are] Christ has in fact been raised from the dead, [and He became] the first fruits [that is, the first to be resurrected with an incorruptible, immortal body, foreshadowing the resurrection] of those who have fallen asleep [in death].
For since [it was] by a man that death came [into the world], it is also by a Man that the resurrection of the dead has come.
For just as [a]in Adam all die, so also [b]in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s [own will be resurrected with incorruptible, immortal bodies] at His coming.
After that comes the end (completion), when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after He has made inoperative and abolished every ruler and every authority and power. 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 Amplified Version