TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Sunday 11th April 2021)
“A wise person will try to keep the king happy; if the king becomes angry, someone may die.” Proverbs 16:14 GNT
WELCOME TO THE 101th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS!
Today we will be refreshing our spirits on matters of greatness in the Kingdom. One of the most important channels God will use to bless us is the channels of right relationships; especially relationship with great men and women by His definition.
Very few are really wise in their relationships with great men and women. Many do not know that you do not relate with a great man the way you do with regular men. You may take a regular man lightly, and not even bother to respect him, but don’t try that on a great man or a man of honor. He may not bother about your respect but you will be creating a breach not showing respect to great people.
That I why it is important that we talk about greatness this morning. When you know what greatness is, and desire to be great in God’s sight, you will be showing respect to great man and women instead of disrespecting them.
If you know about greatness, you will realize that people who do not honor or respect greatness will remain small in life. That is the secret many of us do not know!
Now, like Shedrack, Meshach and Abednego did to Nebuchadnezzar, we must be careful of the kind of greatness we honor as Children of God; because some greatness are sinful, demonic and satanic; the act terribly against the purposes of GOD. Hence there is a kind of honor you give them that can make you a worshiper of other gods.
That is why we must be careful how we honor them.
OUR CALLING REMAINS TO RESPECTFULLY BUT STRONGLY ENGAGE THEM IN BATTLE SPIRITUALLY.
You know, the kingdom of darkness does not respect greatness from God’s kingdom because God uses the greatness of great men and women in his kingdom to attract souls into His kingdom. In honoring greatness and showing respect to greatness from God’s kingdom, the kingdom of darkness can be weakened.
The enemy knows that, so you will never see any of his servants showing honor or respect to greatness form god’s kingdom. But some of us in the Kingdom of light show great respect and give great honor to greatness from the kingdom of darkness; that is how we strengthen the works of the evil one on the face of the earth.
We even tap into the greatness of the servants of darkness and ride on it to become great ourselves. For instance, we invite renown people who are not saved to our Churches; some gays and lesbians; and take photos with them, just to use their greatness to become great ourselves. That is very bad.
Instead of us to be separate from the world we commit adultery with it and become enemies of God. But whatever we become by the greatness of the servants of darkness is smallness in God’s sight. In fact, it is an abomination (something God’s face cannot beam on). That is why you see such greatness breeding worms at the end of the day and consuming the people.
Most of what we call greatness in Church today is smallness in God’s sight. That is why God said in the book of Isaiah that His eyes will not be on the great of the earth but the ‘small’ of the earth that tremble at His word. They are the folks God considers great.
Do you know that God called John the Baptist the greatest of all born of women yet he was not a world ruler but just a prophet? Meaning, by God’s definition, He was greater than even Solomon, David and all the prophets who lived before him? This is puzzling!
YOU SEE, IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION, GOD LOOKED AT A CHURCH CLASSIFIED RICH AND GREAT BY MEN AND SAID,
“Because you say,’I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’ — and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked — Revelation 3:17 NKJV
So when I am talking about the respect for greatness I am referring to respect for a greatness that is respected in Heaven and feared in hell; a greatness that promotes Righteousness, Peace, and Joy in the Holy Ghost and allow things to be done on earth as written in Heaven.
There are a lot of preachers today who have become great by touching the greatness of the servants of Satan. Most of them touched the politicians who represent the interest of deities in the spirit realm, collected their monies over time and use their connections to become great themselves. Again, such greatness is not greatness by God’s definition. It is an abomination, or something that God’s face cannot beam on.
Satan attempted making Christ bow to him to have the greatness these preachers shared in; great influence and power in the whole kingdom of men. That tells me that these preachers bowed to something from his kingdom to share in the greatness of his servants. That is why their greatness is an abomination in God’s sight.
Child of God, we are not to become great by touching or sharing in the greatness of the servants of Satan but by touching or sharing in greatness in the glory of GOD. For us in the kingdom, it is the glory of God that is responsible for our greatness because our greatness is an inheritance from the great God Himself.
Again, we must understand that there is a dichotomy between greatness in God’s kingdom and greatness in man’s sight. Most of what man call greatness in Church or outside the church is smallness in God’s definition of greatness. God’s definition of greatness is far apart from man’s definition (both secular and religious man). Don’t forget what He said in His word.
HE SPOKE THROUGH ISAIAH SAYING;
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways,” says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9 NKJV
Let me share this with you, it will help you to appreciate the difference between greatness in man’s paradigm and greatness in God’s paradigm.
A man from the United States of America was called into missions to the nation of India in the early 1900’s. He responded immediate and took his young wife there. They suffered so much, and with great sacrifice they were able to plant Churches and raise people from darkness to light.
God greatly used them to snatch souls from hell. He was also blessed with Children. However, they sent the kids back home for free education and continued their assignment in India.
Then the wife grew Old and died leaving her husband behind. Then the man grew old also and became weak. He could no longer continue with the work. One day his sons back home decided to bring him back home.
They got to India, picked him up and boarded a huge ship. The ship had on board some of the greatest artist in the world and other heroes of the wars then.
So when they arrived at the shores of America and anchored, people came to welcome the artists, the soldiers and all the renowned people on that ship with loud singing and celebration, but none came to welcome this Old man except his Children and grandchildren. Not even the Church that sent him.
The Elders son of the missionary was angry and said “Dad, not even the Church came to welcome you back home.” The man responded and said to his son, “Son, I am not home yet. When I die and meet Jesus face to face, the entire Heaven will be on hand to receive and celebrate my return. But until then let’s just quietly go home and rest.”
THE BIBLE INDEED SAID,
… “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. Luke 16:15 NKJV
In Christ, the way up is down. If this man was celebrated at his arrival by those who came to celebrate the worldly artist who were sending souls to hell with their music, the soldiers on board that ship, and all other men and women of renown, then it would have been a sign that the man has lost out with God.
Whatever is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God, and whatever is an abomination in the sight of God will be exalted among men. That is the prophetic truth! I fear when both saints and sinners start exalting a preacher, a church, or a Child of God who may not be a preacher.
I fear when the Church start celebrating what the world celebrates and exalting what the lost and abominable exalt. When a thing has become an abomination in God’s sight the devil will start using men who are cut off from God (especially preachers) to promote it.
That is why we must be careful what the present church call great.
Many of us in Church today (like the people on that ship and those who came to welcome them), have no respect for true greatness. We respect the demonic and satanic and despise, ill-treat and maltreat the divine and Christ-like.
We celebrate the sinners who are using their music and art to toughen the chains of those who are chained to drugs, alcohol, sexual perversion and etc. We even play their music and call them great. We do all that calling ourselves born again and Spirit filled.
We respect what is not God, and still expect all that is God to come to us. It does not work that way. If you do not know how to define greatness in God’s sight and respect it, you will never see God’s definition of greatness manifesting in your life.
The consequence of lack of greatness is much. It is the reason for smallness in God’s sight. It is the reason for poverty, frequent illness, spiritual attacks, and successful demonic resistance. If you are not great in God’s sight your words will always fall to the ground.
THEY WILL LACK AUTHORITY AND WEIGHT. SMALLNESS WILL REMAIN YOU HALLMARK.
Your business will be small; your vision small, your network of friends made up of small men and women, everything about you will be small. And if you are small, you will not be able to unleash a great destiny. It will be like a birth carnal that is too small for a child to come out of the mother. Each time you try to push, you suffer pains. That is why people toil all night and catches nothing! They do so much pushing but come out with Just blood not even a child.
That was the state Peter found himself when Jesus met him. He was pushing and pushing but very little fishes were being caught. But when greatness met Him, he gave his boat to Him, and greatness in Jesus stood on that boat and reaped souls into the kingdom.
Peter did not know that while Jesus was using his boat, he was contacting greatness and his spiritual birth carnal was being enlarged. Now, when Jesus was through using the boat, He asked him to do another push but Peter hesitated. However, he finally obeyed and the result was amazing. He caught a great number of fishes.
You are the next on God’s list!
Friend, God has a storehouse of great men and women on the face of the earth; people who may not be respected among men but are held in high esteem by Heaven. People who are a special class of “Right Relationships” that we all need to fulfill our divine destiny.
If they step into your life, sit with you, and you treat them well, they will begin to touch you with greatness and you will see yourself becoming great by God’s definition. But the truth is, you will never get divinely hooked up to this kind of people until you begin to respect greatness in God’s sight.
IF YOU KEEP CELEBRATING THE SMALL PEOPLE CALL GREAT BY THE WORLD, YOU WILL REMAIN SMALL IN THE SIGHT OF YOUR ENEMIES.
You must break free from this kind of Christianity that has lost touch with God and established touch with the world. You must start treating those God calls “great” great and those He call small “small.”
Our devotional text says,
“A wise person will try to keep the king happy; if the king becomes angry, someone may die.”
The word king captures the earthly term used in describing a man God calls great. For instance, Moses was a great man in God’s sight. The Bible calls him a “king” in Jeshurun (a reflection of Christ the KING).
In the light of this explanation we can translate our devotional text to mean “a wise person will try to keep those who are great in God’s sight happy, because if they become angry (justly), someone may die.”
That was how Ananias and Saphira (his wife) died lying to Peter. They thought Peter was a small man like the ones they have been lying to.
When they came to Church that morning with their offerings, they did not know it was greatness they came to meet. When they spoke, they did not realize they were speaking to greatness. They were too unsaved to see that, so when they lied, they actually lied to greatness without knowing. Sadly, they lost their lives as a result.
If you lie to greatness you may not live to tell the story. If you live to tell the story, your story will not be pleasant. It will be full of stories of how your life has become miserable for lying to greatness.
I have come to discover that if you lie to greatness, either you die immediately or not, something about you will die immediately – something that would have made life easy for you! That is why there is struggle in the lives of so many who are connected to greatness in God’s kingdom.
You remember Gehazi who got leprosy instead of a mantle from greatness? He lied to greatness. Though he lived to tell the story, it was not a pleasant one.
GOD WANTS US TO CULTIVATE THE HABIT OF TREATING GREATNESS BY HIS DEFINITION, WITH HONOR AND RESPECT.
There is no one who has ever treated great men in God’s sight well and leaves without contacting greatness from Heaven. You will not be the first.
Start treating men who have deep friendship with God with honor, respect and grace. Give them treasures in respond to your respect for them and see how your life will take a new turn.
The less is designed to be blessed by the better. Look for people with better consecrations and more concentrated presence of GOD then you, and cultivate the habit of honoring them, and you will see how greatness will come from Heaven and hit the works of your hands.
You have been small for too long. Time to become great in GOD’s sight! It’s a new day for you in Jesus name! AMEN!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY:
So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him to hear the word of God, that He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, and saw two boats standing by the lake; but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets.
Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat. When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking.
So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”
For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.”
So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him. Luke 5:1-11 NKJV