TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Tuesday 12TH October 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 285TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS!
Blessed be the name of the LORD who has given us another day. His matchless kindness and power is the reason we are alive.
Like we said yesterday, God does not have a History of giving His own over to the will of their enemies. This enemy is not just the seen and unseen beings who hate us, but the enemy of sin, and the evil and corrupt systems of this world.
God does not have a History of leaving people in their sins and evil ways. He will always confront and challenge them to walk away from ungodliness and live right.
I think we must understand things that GOD does not have a history of doing.
GOD does not have a history of leaving people in paths that leads to eternal destruction. He will always send His holy apostle and prophets to teach them out of them or warn the unruly about them.
God does not have a History of allowing the deluded to remain in their delusions; except He is judging them for their lack of love for truth, He will always send holy men and women who are established in the present truth like apostle Paul, to save them from their delusions.
Except you are stubborn and unbelieving, you will never remain in sinful ways under God. You will never remain in delusion under the Spirit of Truth. Sin will never continue to have dominion over you under God’s amazing Grace. You will not remain a Modern Day Baal worshiper under an apostolic grace.
Yes, Prophets of Baal and Asherah will not continue to have you for dinner under an authentic prophetic mantle. Things that were practiced in the Old Testament to foreshadow Christ will no longer be part of your Christianity.
Satan is subtle and crafty. He knows how to keep even those who have come to the LORD, in things that will make sure they miss Heaven like the five foolish virgins.
ONE OF THE MANY THINGS THAT WAS PRACTICE UNDER THE LAW TO FORESHADOW CHRIST AND OUR GREAT REDEMPTION IS THE SABBATH.
People do not know that the Sabbath ultimately represent our lives in Heaven. Heaven is the only place we will have total rest from the labors and sorrows of this life. Satan knows that if certain believers come to this knowledge he will completely loose them to Christ.
There are a lot of people who are in Church who have not been completely lost to Christ by the enemy. So many are still owned by Satan by their choices and decisions after Christ has set them free.
Satan is still having them as his own by making sure old testament practices like the use of oil, salt, water and etc. that foreshadowed Christ and His redemptive works in our lives are not fulfilled in them. He will rather have them practicing them, by giving them miracles, than have the Holy Spirit fulfilling what they foreshadowed in them.
If the truths God concealed in the Old Testament practices are not unveiled to this Church generation, they will remain first and second day and die lost forever believing they are saved.
Delusion is when you are lost but saying you are saved. It is when you are not Heaven worthy yet you believe you are. It is when you are far away from the LORD; when you cannot be found in His courts in the Spirit realm but you think you are powerful because of your intercourse with the demon of deliverance. That is delusion and many are deluded; I mean from the pulpit to the pew.
They are deluded, hence using oil in prayers siting James 5 and Mark 12 no matter what the LORD use you to say to them. They are deluded hence using salt in prayer siting Elisha, no matter what the LORD use you to unveil to them.
They are deluded hence sprinkling what they call blood of Jesus on people, desecrating the Holy Communion and allowing Baal to use it in initiating people into a life of falsehood. They are deluded that is why they pour oil everywhere saying they are dedicating the places.
MANY IN CHURCH TODAY ARE DELUDE. BISHOPS, APOSTLES, PROPHETS ETC.
Some very good people are deluded on matters of the Sabbath and day of worship. And on this, the Bible made it clear that Based on historic and prophetic reasons, God gave Israel specific instructions of what to do and what not to do on the seventh day called the Sabbath.
The historic reason was this;
The Jews were slaves in Egypt who worked 24 hours a day and seven days a week without rest. They carried on like that for hundreds of years resulting in a ‘no rest’ life style. They never knew what rest was all about.
But God knew that a restless life style was not good for their health, hence when He delivered them from slavery instructed that they do nothing but rest on the seventh. Sadly, because they were a stubborn set of people; many could not catch the revelation behind the instruction; hence the instruction was made a law with stiff penalties attached.
Besides, God was carving a path for the execution of His redemption plan for mankind so people were severely punished for not resting on the seventh day in other not to distort or defeat the plan.
The nation finally grew to recognize the seventh day as a day of resting and reflecting on God’s goodness. That was how it became a day of worship for them. Don’t forget the Bible calls them the Church in the wilderness. The idea according to the boo of Galatians, was to bring them to Christ; as in, accept Him when He appears.
Sadly, the leadership of the Synagogue in the season the word became flesh and dwelled among them, had adulterated everything and made stringent laws out of the practice, making it impossible for that generation to realize that the purpose who Christ.
THAT BRINGS US TO THE PROPHETIC REASON FOR THE PRACTICE.
God created the earth for six days and rested on the seventh day making seven a number of completion, maturity, and divine rest. Actually, the full prophetic message contained in the seventh day can only be written in a book not a devotional like this.
God’s will for Israel was not for them to practice a law, but live out a prophetic message behind a historic act. And if you look at it in the eyes of redemption, Christ was actually the reason for the law. Don’t forget the law was a tutor to bring Israel to Christ but they reduced it to an empty religious act.
So when Christ, the LORD of the Sabbath finally came, calling, they rejected His call and defeated the redemptive and prophetic purpose of the Sabbath for their lives.
Jesus had presented the redemptive purpose for the generational law when He said to them;
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (or Sabbath).
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” Matthew 11:28-30 NKJV.
Sadly, they never came. Hence the law was not fulfilled in their lives.
But when men like Paul were born into the kingdom, God took them behind the scenes of all He told Israel to do, and they understood that Christ was the reason for the Sabbath hence making the first day of the week – the day of the resurrection of Christ, the day of worship for the New Testament Church.
So when we assembly on the first day of the week to worship, we have really assembled to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. That is why there ought to be true Church experience, manifesting in signs, wonders and miracles each them we gather.
Though some of us like the Seventh Day Adventist still hold on to the Jewish law, the body of Christ in general grew to accept Sunday, as the first day of the week – the day of Christ’s resurrection – as the day of corporate worship, building on the foundation that was laid by Paul the apostle.
We are to appear before God corporately to worship in songs of praise and thanksgiving, with an offering in our hands, reflecting on His goodness and mercies. Hallelujah!
I HAVE SAID OVER AND OVER THAT THE SABBATH IN THE OLD TESTAMENT WAS A DAY BUT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT IT IS A PERSON.
That person is Jesus Christ! When you accept Him into your life, you have fulfilled the redemptive purpose of the law of the Sabbath and have kept the Sabbath.
In other words, all those who have not accepted Him as LORD and savior are yet to keep the Sabbath, and stand the risk of not having eternal rest when they die. It is no longer a punishment for not keeping a law but a consequence of not accepting God’s redemption plan for their lives.
What lesson can we draw from all these? The way the practice of the Sabbath is explained here, so every other Old Testament practice that foreshadowed Christ must be explained. But you cannot find these revelations in 1st and 2nd Day churches. You can only find them in full expressions, not photo copied; in 3rd Day Churches.
The mystery of the third day Church is on our YouTube Channel, please go watch it and be enlightened.
Following God sheepishly is the best thing that can ever happen to us. I heard one preacher teaching against being sheep. But God liken us to be His sheep while He our shepherd. Following His 3rd Day Teachers in the Church will help you come out of these delusions and falsehood and walk in the fullness of Christ indeed.
For instance, if Israel had followed God like sheep, it would have been wonderful when Christ came in the flesh. There would have been no destruction of Jerusalem 40 years after His death, and many other blessings would not have been missed.
If they had known what the Sabbath meant and embraced it with all their hearts, they would have allowed the law to be fulfilled in them as God’s Amazing grace when Jesus came; the shadow would have given way to the substance and the Day to the Person, resulting in great glory. But the reverse is the case.
OUR REDEMPTION IS ALWAYS A CHILD OF FOLLOWING GOD SHEEPISHLY.
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 God sheepishly suffer. That is why many are deluded and others trapped in deception.
Many are in marital pains and others in unredeemable situations today because God gave them over to their stubborn hearts of resisting the truth of allowing what was foreshadowed in the Old Testament to be fulfilled in them by the Ministries of God’s Holy Apostles and prophets.
Our greatest destruction as Humans is walking in our own counsels. People have walked in their own counsels and forfeited great blessings. Others have walked in their own counsels and walked into crisis. The list is endless!
God sent this word this morning to ask that you to let Him be your guide in life. Walk away from old Testament practices that have been fulfilled in Christa and come into the peace and rest that Christ purchased for you.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY;
“Oh, that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways! I would soon subdue their enemies, and turn My hand against their adversaries.
“The haters of the Lord would pretend submission to Him, but their fate would endure forever. He would have fed them also with the finest of wheat; and with honey from the rock I would have satisfied you.” Psalms 81:13-16 NKJV