THE CRY OF THE SPIRIT DEVOTIONALS – BY RICHARD E. S. TAKIM

TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Saturday 30th January 2021)

“Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you! O Israel, if you will listen to Me! There shall be no foreign god among you; nor shall you worship any foreign god.

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

“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. Psalms 81:8-12 NKJV

WELCOME TO THE 30TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS

May the God of Heaven and earth, who created us all be glorified for bringing us safely to the end of another week. There are 52 weeks to cover this year and we have covered four of them. His graciousness has been the reason. Today is also the second to the last day of the month. It is good to give thanks to the LORD for all that.

Our apostolic summit started on a very good note with outpourings of the Spirit making the session worthwhile.

Every son and daughter of the king who followed the session can attest to what the LORD bath our spirits with. Today we will continue with the flow. Make sure you join us. The courts open at 2.30 pm EAT on Morning Cloud Television. We will also be streaming it live on all our social media platforms.

One of the major things we saw as the purpose of apostolic summits is the extraction of Judaism from Christianity. If this summits were not discontinued by those who took over from the early apostles, maybe we would not be having the mixture we have today. The Bible says if we judge ourselves we shall not be judged.

This summits give us an opportunity to judge ourselves and also ask the LORD to search us and see if there are any wicked ways in us, so that He can lead us to the way everlasting.

The gospel of our LORD and savior Jesus Christ today has been mixed with so many things. That is why it seem to have lost its power over the nations. We no longer preach a gospel that transforms the moral nature of lost souls. We preach a gospel that keeps them right there; right on paths of eternal damnation.

If our gospel today is the very gospel that our fathers preached then there would have been no gay Bishop or lesbian prophetess; there would have been no LGBT in Church, and maybe anywhere in the world. What the LORD gave us to change the world; the gospel of the kingdom, have been mixed with other things, consequently losing the power to transform moral climates.

There are records of great voices of God that came on the scene hundreds of years ago, with messages that eliminated criminalities from entire cities for years.

There is a place today in one of the western world countries where there are no bars because of what one of those voices sounded when he was here. I repeat, there would have been no LGBT in our Churches or anywhere in the world if we were telling these men and women who seem confused about their gender the truth; if there was no mixed gospel on our lips.

The first place the LGBT community emerged was in two Cities called Sodom and Gomorrah. These ancient cities that were wiped away because of the abomination had no preacher living in them. Lot who lived there was heavily compromised. He could not preach; the people would not have believed in him. They knew him too well to believe him.

Jesus made it clear that if those cities had a preacher, they would not have ended the way they ended.

TODAY WE HAVE PREACHERS PREACHING A MIXED GOSPEL, THAT IS WHY EVIL AND ABOMINATION ARE INCREASING BY THE MINUTE.

There is so much political correctness on the pulpit. You are not allowed to rock the boat. We do not know that it is in rocking this dangerous boat that is taking men to hell that we will save the people in the boat from eternal damnation.

Evil will always breed unabated in a Church atmosphere of political correctness.

I think we preachers have to check ourselves; we have to check what kind of messages we are preaching that are only making some of us rich and famous but not transforming any moral climate. We must ask ourselves why the messages of some of us are not changing people but rather moving some of our members from knowing their gender to becoming confused about their gender.

We have allowed our carnal desires and cares for this world to pollute our messages, consequently giving birth to lost souls with an assurance of a salvation that they do not even have. Can’t we see the many souls that our ‘powerful’ but empty messages are placing on the Broadway that leads to eternal damnation?

Sadly, many of us do not even care!

We argue to hold on to practices that do not edify; things that were done under Judaism and some practiced by ancient cults groups, calling them the gospel. For instance, today is the seventh day of the week. In Jewish Circles, it is known as the Sabbath. So many will assembly to worship today because they believe those who do not do so are going to hell.

But that is not the gospel.

People do not go to hell for days of worship. They go to hell for who they worshipped. It is who you worship that will determine your eternal destiny not the day you worship. You could worship on Monday Sunday or any day, so long as Jesus is your LORD and savior; so long as He is the one you worship, Heaven will be your home.

In Judaism, Sabbath is a day of worship. But in Christ Sabbath is a person you worship. His name is Jesus Christ.

He said come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. I will give you Sabbath. That is why everyone in Judaism has not found their Sabbath yet, because you don’t find it in a day you worship. You find it in the person you should worship; He is called the LORD of the Sabbath.

THAT IS THE GOSPEL ABOUT THE SABBATH. IF PEOPLE ACCEPT IT, THEY WILL EXPERIENCE A CHANGE IN THEIR MORAL LIVES!

One of the major signs of a true gospel is the power it gives us over sin and Satan. But when it is mixed, it will lose that power. The gospel of the Sabbath has been mixed, hence giving birth to people who take a day of worship as Sabbath.

If we were before the cross, that would have been alright, but after the cross, it is error.

We must understand that when GOD gave the law and all the practices to the nation of Israel, it was not for them to practice a law perpetually, but for them to live out a prophetic message behind that will ultimately bring the world to Christ. That is why if you look at it in the eyes of redemption, you will discover that Christ was the reason for the law.

The Bible says,

“But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.

Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:23-26 NKJV

Sometimes I wonder what we are doing with any practices of Judaism with scriptures like this in the Bible. It’s just that when the existence of an entire Church group is founded on Judaism, abandoning the practice will pull down the entire Church and close it down. So people prefer living in their errors and defending them even when the truth is obvious.

Apart from those who take days to be Sabbath, there are those who practice other things that were given to the Israelites to practice; things like the use of salt, water, oil, redemption of first born and giving of first fruits and etc. Everyone who defend these things today sites one or two scriptures in the new testament but many in the old.

Why do we have few (or even none in some cases) in the New Testament and many in the Old? It is because the early Church grew in understanding and stopped the practices. But the present Church have refused to grow in understanding because their empires are built on the function of those practices.

For instance, there are Churches in Nigeria that will cease to exist if they stop using the oil. With all due respect Churches like Redeemed Christian Church of God, Winners Chapter, Mountain of Fire, (our great giants) will cease to exist if they drop the oil and other Judaism practices they are engaged in.

I KNOW I WILL GET A LOT OF BACKLASH FOR MENTIONING THESE NAMES.

But if we all come out of our emotions and look at the word, we will see that what I just said is true! The riches of so many Churches will disappear in days if they stop these practices, that is why they would never stop them. They will rather defend them and have their members call us names.

Your total redemption will come when you follow Christ not when you follow the practices of Judaism.

A major highlight in our devotional text today says;

“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.”

It’s dangerous for GOD to give a man over to his own stubborn heart. It is very risky for God to allow us to walk in our own counsels. That is exactly what people who do not know how to follow Christ and abandoned the practices of Judaism come under.

When God leaves you to you, everyone will begin to think what you are doing is right. Their reasoning will be, if what you are doing was not right, why is God not reacting? Why is He blessing you?

But spiritual blindness will not let you know that it is not God that is blessing you, but Judaism that is blessing you.

You see, there are blessings in Judaism that is why people get stuck to its practices.

In the days of the Bible, before the cross, those blessings were divine, but today some are demonic while others are man-made because GOD has left that phase. So God is not reacting because He has given you over to your stubborn heart, re enforced by the material blessings the practices are bringing to you.

Child of God, Heaven wants us to consider our ways because what we are doing is hindering critical redemptive prophecies from coming to pass in our age and time. It is destroying the real power of the gospel. People no longer get genuinely saved. We now have a greater army of believers who profess the LORD with their mouths but very far from Him in their hearts.

We cannot continue trading on this path of God abandoning us to follow our own ways. It is dangerous. If we do, there will be surprises in the next life. Let he that has an ear hear what the Spirit is saying to the Churches!

MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;

“Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my father in his throne.” Revelation 3:17-21 kjv