TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Saturday 16th January 2021)
“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years.
Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.'” Hebrews 3:7-11 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 16TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS
Let’s begin the day by resounding again like David did many years ago; this is the day the LORD has made, we shall rejoice and be glad in it. Marvelous are His works. That our souls know very well!
Welcome to another day of the month of our year of Higher Heights. As some of you may have known, today is our Higher heights renewal summit. We are assembling to be renewed by the glory of the LORD. We believe if God renewed the earth that was without form and void in 6 divine days, there is no life He cannot renew and bring to a glorious state in six minutes.
We encourage all who belong to this special unit to be available. It is strictly by invitation!
Now to our devotional for the day; I have come to discover that the greatest blessing available in the kingdom is the blessing of rest. Jesus said come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. He did not say I will give you relieve. God does not give relieve because He is not a first aid God. He gives rest.
God is not first aid in nature. He is final aid in nature. We do not go to Him for first aid. We go to Him for final aid. And until we get it, we do not leave His presence. The core product of a true walk with God is rest. That was the blessing most of the Israelites missed in their walk with God in the days of the Bible. They got miracles, economic and marital blessings, the blessings of Child bearing and many other blessings but missed this one.
Sadly, the blessing of rest is the very blessing many in the Church today are yet to come into. Your Christian life will never be glorious and blissful until God brings you into it. Rest is the core product of a true walk with the LORD!
But in the beginning it was not so.
The early Church had rest even in the midst of great trials of faith and intense persecutions. Most departments of the end time Church today are not facing persecutions or trials of faith. Our nations are not telling us not to serve Jesus; neither are they putting us in prisons for serving Him.
YET THERE IS NO REST IN OUR LIVES.
Concerning that generation of the nation of Israel that could not come into the blessing of God’s rest, our devotional text says;
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years.
Therefore, I was angry with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.'” Hebrews 3:7-11 NKJV
From this scripture it’s clear that they could not come into God’s true rest because they went astray in their hearts, and they did not know God’s ways. There is a deeper dimension of rest this scripture also talks about which I will not go into now. But there is a way the knowledge of God’s way impacts a man’s heart.
There is a way it transforms our souls and bring us to the place of true worship. That was why Moses was a true worshiper.
Do not forget, worship is not singing but living. Moses was a true worshiper because he sought to know God’s ways and that impacted his heart greatly. He was one old testament saint who did not go astray in his heart, except in the case of striking the Rock instead of speaking to it.
A people who seek to know GOD’s ways will be impact to become true worshipers.
Israel went astray in their hearts because they were selfish; the sought GOD’s acts instead of His ways. It is selfishness that turns us into miracle seekers instead of God seekers. It turns a man into a chaser of signs and wonders instead of a God chaser. When you become a miracle chaser, your heart still remains the same because it takes the knowledge of the word to change our hearts.
It takes the revelation of God’s way cutting through our spirits to change our hearts and make us true worshipers. If you look at the army of believers who are in the outer court of miracle seeking, you will find a lot of false worship going on. Sadly, false worship does not guarantee rest on every side.
True worship is the secret of rest not seed sowing as many have been taught. This, in any way, is not against biblical giving. You can be a false worshiper and be faithful in sowing your seeds. But you cannot be a true worshiper without giving even sacrificially towards God’s righteous course. You do not give to get married or receive a breakthrough. You give to worship God for who He is. That is the path of true worship.
No matter the kind of seeds you sow, the fasting you do, the prayer you engage in or the church you attend, if you are a false worshiper, rest will not be one of the things you will get from the LORD.
FALSE WORSHIP IS THE KEY TO SUDDEN DESTRUCTION.
That is why hypocrisy is dangerous. Doing things that everyone sees as right with a heart that is wrong is very destructive. Things will hit you that will amaze everyone. True worship is the secret of rest round about not false worship. And true worship involves taking down the idols in our hearts identified to us by the revelation of God’s ways. It is a product of true spiritual reformation.
There was a generation of ancient Israel that once touched that realm for 40 days. Though God wanted the entire generations to live in that realm, only this generation touched it, and for just 40 years. Maybe after the 40 years they went back to their old ways of false worship.
Now, what did they do to touch it? How did they come into the realm of true worship within those 40 years? It is important that we look at it and draw lessons from it because many Christians today are restless. The suffering and captivity is too much despite what we have been told to do. It is going to be a long read, but it’s important we go through it. The Bible said,
“For a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law; but when in their trouble they turned to the LORD God of Israel, and sought Him, He was found by them.
And in those times there was no peace to the one who went out, nor to the one who came in, but great turmoil was on all the inhabitants of the lands. So nation was [b]destroyed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every adversity. But you, be strong and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded!”
And when Asa heard these words and the prophecy of [c]Oded the prophet, he took courage, and removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had taken in the mountains of Ephraim; and he restored the altar of the LORD that was before the vestibule of the LORD.
Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those who dwelt with them from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, for they came over to him in great numbers from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him.
So they gathered together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. And they offered to the LORD [d]at that time seven hundred bulls and seven thousand sheep from the [e]spoil they had brought.
Then they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul; and whoever would not seek the LORD God of Israel was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman.
Then they took an oath before the LORD with a loud voice, with shouting and trumpets and rams’ horns. And all Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and sought Him with all their soul; and He was found by them, AND THE LORD GAVE THEM REST ALL AROUND. 2 Chronicles 15:3-15 NKJV
THIS SCRIPTURE IS FULL OF TRUTHS TO DIG, BUT WE CANNOT DO THAT IN A DEVOTIONAL!
When this generation was offering God a false worship, the Bible says “…there was no peace to the one who went out, nor to the one who came in, but great turmoil was on all the inhabitants of the lands. So nation was destroyed by nation…” But when they switched and offered God true worship, things were different. If what you offer to God is false worship, you will suffer the same fate.
The Bible says the people found rest not because they raised an altar of sacrifice as many have use this scripture to manipulate innocent souls to believe and do. They got rest round about because they took courage and removed the abominable idols from all the land and restored back the altar of the LORD.
Then they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD of their fathers after offering seven hundred bulls to the LORD. That was spiritual reformation for their dispensation. It brought rest round about as a result.
They offered bulls then because Jesus had not died to offer His blood. Today Christ has offered His blood for us, so we do not need to do that. But what do we need to do? We need to make irrevocable covenants with our God; a covenant to be true worshipers and not false worshipers.
We need to reform our hearts, by pulling down the altars of the idols in it and removing all the abominable that exits in any aspect of our lives. That brings us to a very important aspect of this devotional. The word abomination need to be checked. What is an abomination? An abomination is something that God cannot look at with pleasure.
For instance, God cannot look at LYING AND CRAFTINESS WITH PLEASURE. He cannot look at fornication or any other form of sexual perversion with pleasure.
Whenever we ie or act in craftiness or sleep with people that we are not married to, we are doing an abomination; something God cannot look at with pleasure, and it has consequences. You may be waling in lies, sleeping with that woman, or that man that you are not married to and enjoying it. That is the abomination to pull down or remove from your life, else REST will not be your portion!
God cannot look at masturbation with pleasure. That could be an abomination to pull down in your life. God cannot look at adultery, lesbianism, gays or same sex marriage with pleasure. That could be an abomination to remove from your life.
THE BIBLE IS FULL OF THINGS GOD CANNOT LOOK AT WITH PLEASURE.
We are to go through it looking for those things and dealing with them in our lives. The grace of the LORD is there to help us reform our lives. Our job is to tap into it through genuine repentance, with fasting and prayers.
God cannot look at hate, bitterness, un-forgiveness, murderous thoughts, vile imaginations, and any filthiness of the spirit or the flesh with pleasure. We are to us the mirror of God’s word, identify them in our lives and submit to the Spirit of grace to deal with them.
As we bring this to a close I want us to understand what the LORD is calling us to do this morning. He is calling us to come into His rest. But that will not be possible until we reform our hearts. I have always said that what goes on in our hearts sounds louder in Heaven than what comes out of our mouths. But many have not realized this Biblical truth.
If we keep going astray in our hearts, we will keep having wars in our lives. People who go astray in their hearts, even if their mouths are presenting them to be a people who love the LORD with the whole of their hearts, will never come into God’s rest.
God does not give rest to everyone who calls on the name of the LORD. He gives rest to those who call upon the name of the LORD with a pure or perfect heart – a heart without idols or abominations in it.
He may give relief to everyone because of His mercies the way He did when He was physically on earth resulting in miracles signs and wonders. But rest is for those who call upon Him with a pure heart.
Only people whose hearts are perfect towards God will be given rest and made pillars in His kingdom. Only they can be counted upon by Heaven. And I want you to know that the need of the hour is men Heaven can count on to do things on earth – true worshipers Heaven can rely on to get things done on earth as declared in Heaven.
I believe today’s message has been passed! Pick it and add to the building blocks of your faith. There is something about us that must fall and die this day for the rest of God to be our portion. There is an abomination and an idol in our hearts that must fall and die.
The problems of our lives are not rooted in the idols in our fathers houses that were worshiped. The problems of our lives are not rooted in the abominations that our fathers did. That is a lie from deliverance ministers. The problems of our lives are steaming form the idols in our hearts and the abomination sin our lives – things God cannot look at with pleasure in our lives.
It is time to stop listening to your prophets and deliverance gurus and start listening to God and His more sure word of prophecy – the Bible. It there is something that must die in our lives that thing is not our enemies, but the things that are hindering our God from breaking out in our lives and give us the rest we need.
Start dying the death that is required for that to happen!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR TODAY;
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”
“He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.”
“If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.” John 12:24-26 KJV