TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Saturday 19th June 2021)
“How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations!
For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit.” Isaiah 14:12-15 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 170TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS
We want to bless the LORD for keeping us alive and giving us another day. It is indeed out of His mercies that we are not consumed for His compassion fails not. If He marks iniquity no man can stand. But there is forgiveness with Him so that He may be feared.
This morning we are continuing with excerpts from the book OVERCOMING WITCHCRAFT BY THE GREATNESS OF GOD’S POWER. We will be picking up from where we stopped – the signs or terrible consequences of living in iniquity or trespass.
We have seen three of the signs. They are written in the life and times of the first creature that iniquity was found in – Lucifer.
As we continue with the fourth, may the LORD continue to speak to us, in Jesus precious name. Amen
4. HE WAS DESTROYED FROM BEING A COVERING CHERUB: Meaning, he could no longer cover God’s throne with worship. That tells us that if iniquity or trespass is found in us, we will not be able to cover God’s throne with worship. I did not say we will not be able to sing but we will not be able to cover God’s throne with worship (even when we sing).
The reason is, worship is not singing! Worship is living. Worship is living a life that is in complete synch with GOD’s will, ways and Spirit. We sing, give or pray to worship God but worship is not singing, giving or praying.
5. HIS HEART WAS LIFTED UP: Meaning if Iniquity or trespass is in you, you will be lifting your heart against God as explained in previous chapters. When your heart is lifted against God, you start withdrawing, reducing or completely terminating your commitment or service to Him. You will be giving reasons that are legitimate in your own eyes and the eyes of those who may not understand, for withdrawing from God.
There are two seasons that you find people lifting up their hearts against God. The first is when they are comfortable and the second is when they are in trouble. What do I mean by that?
There are people you find withdrawing from God because they no longer have the problems that took them to Him, and there are those you find withdrawing from Him because they feel He should have saved them from a trouble that hit them and blame Him for not saving them from it. The spirit of Iniquity and trespass are responsible for all that.
6. HIS WISDOM WAS CORRUPTED AND HIS SANCTUARIES DEFILED: When iniquity was found in Lucifer, he trespassed. When he trespassed, his wisdom was corrupted and his sanctuaries defiled. The Bible clearly stated that he profaned his sanctuaries by the multitude of his iniquities and the enormity of his guilt. By the unrighteousness of his trade everything became very bad. He became the father of lies and all deceit.
The sanctuary of Lucifer was the holy place of worship where he dwelled. What was found in him and his trespass polluted all the places. He rendered then unholy. You see another sign of trespass here – pollution of holy places.
For us humans, our sanctuaries are, our spirit, soul and body. That is God’s sanctuary; our holy places for worshiping Him because God is Spirit. He can only be worshiped in spirit. The places ought to be Holy so that He can dwell within us and be truly worshiped.
But when our will, ways and spirit comes in opposition with His will, ways and spirit, or when we lead lives and make decisions that take us beyond the boundaries He has set, we corrupt our wisdom and pollute these internal holy sanctuaries.
When they become polluted by our iniquity or trespass, God can no longer dwell there. We will begin to affect wherever we go and whatever we do with the same pollution that is lying within us!
Except we repent genuinely and get sanctified, if we stand before people to sing, pray, or lead what will be coming out of us spiritually will be pollution and corrupt wisdom. That is why it is important that ministers of the gospel and all who serve in the Church rush to the LORD for sanctification as soon as they sin against Him. There should be no delay! And sin should not reign in our mortal bodies.
If sin reigns in our mortal bodies, it will ruin us and pollute our holy places spiritually, consequently transferring the same pollution into people. I have come to discover that it is not places that pollute people, but people in those places.
When your wisdom is corrupt, you become crafty and deceitful – you become a surgical liar. (Of course, people lie when their ways are not clean. They lie to cover who they really are). When your internal life or sanctuaries are defiled or polluted, you begin to struggle with what the Bible calls vain imagination.
That tells us that if you are deceitful, crafty and full of filthy imagination, it is a sign that iniquity is in you and you are living a life of trespass. You need God’s grace and truth to purge them out of your life. Trespassing against God corrupts our wisdom and defiles our internal lives. But sitting under Him to purge and cleanse us always keeps us holy for His use.
Personally, I subscribe to praying for forgiveness of sins and cleansing before preaching. My goal is to make sure, like Job did, that there is no sin that I know or know not flowing out of me to God’s people when preaching to them. These are critical matters that some do not understand. It is a major protocol to coming into the presence of the LORD to minister to His people.
Each time I do that, the anointing of God wears me like a garment and I see Heavenly virtues flowing from me to God’s people. That is why we have so many who have broken sinful habits among us. To God be the glory!
The next thing that happens when we become defiled within is terrible. It also reveals another sign that one is living in trespass.
7. SO I SET A FIRE AROUND AND WITHIN YOU. IT BURNED YOU UP. I REDUCED YOU TO ASHES: When Lucifer defiled his sanctuaries and corrupted his wisdom, God set a fire around and within him, and burned him up. He was reduced to ashes. It was not a natural fire. Also the phrase “reduced to ashes” does not mean he was no more. It simply meant he lost his original self beyond redemption.
There is a fire that burns wherever God withdraws Himself from anyone or anything. It is called the fires of hell. Hell is not just a place of torment but a description of any atmosphere outside God’s manifest presence. Whenever God withdraws Himself completely from a person or people, a terrible burning atmosphere is created in and around them, reducing them to ashes.
When your life is full of such burnings, you are spiritually on fire (not a positive fire). When you are spiritually on fire, nothing about you will be surviving. Anything you set your hands to do will just be devoured, and anyone who extends help to you outside divine covering will be devoured. It is a sign that iniquity is found in you and you are living in trespass – maybe in a marriage that is just a trespass before God.
Talking about marriages that are trespasses; many do not know that if they snatch another person’s husband or wife, all the days they spend with him or her is a trespass. A fire will break out around and within the so called marriage because God will not put His blessing or presence on it.
Trespass will set a man’s life on fire.
Sadly, when that happens, we begin to blame the curses on our father’s houses and all that. While that could be true, you must realize that most happenings in our lives are caused by our personal lives of trespasses and iniquity.
8. THE USE OF THE TONGUE: One other sign that iniquity or trespass in the life of a person shows in the use of the tongue. If iniquity and trespass is in a man’s life, the tongue will be filthy. It will be spewing out curses and destructive languages at the slightest provocation. It will fit the description in the book of James that says;
“Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles!
And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.
For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” James 3:5-8
When we become defiled by iniquity and trespass, and the burning described earlier break out within and around us, it will show on the use of our tongues just as the outpouring of the Holy Ghost into a man’s life shows on the use of his tongue.
This burning within will set our tongues on fire making it unruly and getting it filled with deadly poison. Consequently, whatever we say will defile those who hear it. We will find ourselves cursing in one moment and blessing in another; depending on the mood. That is why the Bible says,
With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.
Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh. James 3:9-12 NKJV
Do not forget, a man’s tongue was not capable of blessing and cursing at the same time. It was not capable of speaking evil, defiling anything God created or setting them on the fire of hell. A man’s tongue was only designed to be outsourcing Heaven to the earth. And that he did successfully until he was thrown out of the garden.
In other words, our tongues were not originally designed to be cursing but outsourcing heaven to the earth.
The Bible says with the tongue man gave names to animals and God did not change the names. His tongue was a sword for exercising dominion and bringing Heaven to the earth. That tells us that the prophetic purpose of the tongue is defeated whenever it becomes either unruly or evil. The fires of hell within makes it either a deadly poison, a fire, a world of iniquity or a defiler of men.
The prophetic purpose of the tongue is defeated whenever we start using it to sets on fire the course of nature by speaking words that do not minister grace to the hearers. The Bible says,
“Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” Ephesians 4:29 NKJV
But whenever iniquity or trespass reigns within us, it becomes impossible to do what this scripture says.
9. HORRIFIC OUTLOOK: Lucifer became horrible after iniquity was found in him and he started trespassing. Life will indeed be horrible if you spend it trespassing against God. You will never enjoy the beauties of God in trespass.
10. HIS FALL WAS UN-REDEEMABLE: The Bible says he was brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit. These are pits that we now know are in hell, the place. The final pit will be the lake of fire. This is the last sign of iniquity and trespass that makes it eternally dangerous to live in any transgression.
The eternal consequence of trespass and iniquity cannot be fully described in human terms. Anyone who lives in iniquity and trespass and dies without repentance will not make Heaven. His soul will be thrown into Sheol, the lowest depths of the pit (hell).
The greatest valley of Achor that a trespass can bring a man into is the lake of fire. This is the valley we must all avoid by living our lives within the boundaries that God has set. The essence of truths like these is not just to help us make earth but to make Heaven.
Any truth that is not making us Heaven worthy is dangerous. God did not send this word to scare us but to sanctify us. Jesus has paid the price for all these transgressions. The Bible says,
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6 NKJV
Our job is to accept Him into our lives as LORD and savior indeed through repentance so that what He did on the cross can be implemented in our lives.
It’s my prayer that you will allow Him the liberty to use these truths that you have discovered, not just to set you free from witchcraft attacks but clean you up, and make or keep you both Heaven ready and earth useful, in Jesus precious name! AMEN
In the next chapter we will be uncovering how to defeat witchcraft in the area of finances.
TO BE CONTINUED…