TODAY’S DEVOTION (Saturday 25th January 2020)
“When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, Judah became His sanctuary, and Israel His dominion. The sea saw it and fled; Jordan turned back.” Psalms 114:1-3 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 25th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
In our devotional yesterday God highlighted the life of Achan to us and warned that if His glory will remain with us, we must learn to discern the Achans in our lives and do away with them. Achan represents that person whose presence in your life is putting the presence of God away from you.
Sometimes, the process of removing Achan is painful and emotionally excruciating. It depends on the strength of the ties or attachment. If he or she is so attached to you, sentiments will come in to make things difficult. If you have benefited or are benefiting in some way from him or her, it will be more difficult. The closer the person is the more the price you may need to pay.
But I have come to discover that when it comes to having the presence of the LORD in our lives every price is worth it. What you will suffer for losing the presence of God cannot be compared with what you need to go through to keep it. It’s therefore important that we pass through the process and make sure that Achan churches, pastors, friends, business partners, fathers, sons, and daughters in the LORD are done away with – we just have to redefine boundaries of relationship and separate from them.
The most painful part of the Achan story is that of his wife and entire Children. Perhaps many of them did not even know what their father did. Maybe they got to know it the day God exposed him. Yet they were not spared. It’s dangerous to have an Achan biological or spiritual father. The Bible says;
“Then Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the garment, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had, and they brought them to the Valley of Achor.
And Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you this day.” So all Israel stoned him with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones.
Then they raised over him a great heap of stones, still there to this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called the Valley of Achor to this day.” Joshua 7:24-26 NKJV
DO YOU SEE SOMETHING IN THIS SCRIPTURE? ACHAN’S INNOCENT KIDS DIED FOR WHAT THEY DID NOT KNOW.
How many innocent Church members are suffering for what their pastors are doing secretly which they are not even aware of? And how many pastors that are suffering for the what their members are doing which they do not know? There are a lot of men and women going through things for what their wives or husbands are secretly doing which they are not aware of?
The worst person you can have in your life is an Achan for anything. He brings corporate destruction. And from his story I came to learn that Secret sins are ‘personal’ but not ‘private.’ One man will secretly disobey God but everyone who is under his influence will openly pay for it. That is why the Achan phenomenon is dangerous.
If a pastor is an Achan, every one of his members will pay for it. If there is an Achan in Church leadership, everyone under the leadership will pay for it. That is what many who are under sexually perverse and money-making pastors do not know.
Here is one other thing that is scary. People who give their tithes or any other kind of financial support to a church whose pastor is an Achan in the spirit are putting their money in the valley of Achor. That is why you see so many people becoming poor after being a Church and serving it for many years.
Am not referring to terrible Church members whose personal sins are speaking against them. But innocent people who are clean and pure before God. You see thus victims moving from one financial crisis to another. In so many Churches you find the set man inviting guest ministers to breathe some fresh air into the place but there will be no rest from adversity in the lives of the people.
Achan pastors have what it takes to preach and promise men liberty, but they are servants of corruption, spilling the effects on the congregation. That is why you see funeral services replacing revival services in so many Churches today. Everything among them is dead and stinky spiritually.
The spiritual identity of any Church, family, nation, or place led by an Achan person is called “the valley of Achor.”
The valley of Achor simply put means the valley of trouble. That explains why many Christians cannot be free from their troubles. Most are spiritually sharing their lives either with those living in valleys of Achor (trouble) or with the valley of Achor itself.
SADLY, SOME OF THESE VALLEYS HAVE THE NATURAL OUTLOOK OF A GREAT PLACE TO BE.
If you take the valley of Achor for a Church, you will never know the peace of the LORD. If you take the valley of Achor for a home or marriage, even prayers from the most anointed and holy man of God will not help you. If you live spiritually in a valley of Achor or share your life with someone who lives there, troubles will remain a constant occurrence in your life.
If you want to fulfill your divine destiny, you must come out of Achan churches, break free from Achan spiritual fathers and mothers and make sure you are not connected to the valley of Achor in any way. The Children of Achan; his wife, Sons and daughters could not fulfill their destinies under such a father.
They died premature! Don’t be the next!!
No one can fulfill a divine destiny in the valley of Achor. No one can execute God’s plans for his or her life living with Achan. You must come out of every strange people and places else you will disappoint divine destiny. That was what Israel did. Our devotional text says,
“When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, Judah became His sanctuary, and Israel His dominion. The sea saw it and fled; Jordan turned back.”
If you want to become God’s sanctuary and dominion, you must separate yourself from strange people and places. The Bible made it clear that Israel dispense so much glory when they did that. The sea (the red sea) saw it and fled. In fact, it parted into two and created a way for them. Jordan could not stop them.
Your enemies are only as powerful as the absence of God’s glory in your life. In other words, the absence of God’s glory in your life is the reason your enemies are more powerful than you. If you will get away from what or who is keeping the glory of God from you, you will become God’s sanctuary and dominion. Then it shall come to pass that you will begin to look for your enemies and not see them again because they will see it and flee from you.
The weight of this devotional cannot be disputed. There is so much truth in it that requires that we sit down with the LORD and get more of what the Holy Spirit buried in it. It’s my prayer that this word will add to your faith as you journey towards the manifestation of the YEAR OF REJOICING prophesy! Amen and Amen!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR TODAY:
“Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a fountain of waters” Psalms 114:7-8 NKJV