TODAY’S DEVOTION (Tuesday 30th November 2021)
“Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 333rd DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS.
From Higher Heights to Amazing Grace, we are indeed set for another round of God’s amazing Acts. His promises are coming to pass in our lives; He will never lie. Hallelujah!
I have come to discover that whenever God gives a word of promise, proper positioning becomes the only faith position to take for that word to come to pass. You can find that all through the scriptures.
It reminds me of King Hezekiah who was surrounded by a very large enemy army. The Bible made it clear that three kings and their armies came together against him, and he feared greatly. His great fear moved him to God in prayer. He assembled even kids and their mothers before God for divine help. It was one of the greatest prayer gatherings in Bible days.
They prayed and God answered. The first answer He sent was a prophetic word through one of His prophets among them. The Bible says,
“Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly.
And he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.
Tomorrow go down against them. They will surely come up by the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the brook before the Wilderness of Jeruel. You will not need to fight in this battle.
Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you.” 2 Chronicles 20:14-17 NKJV
IF YOU LOOK AT THIS SCRIPTURE CAREFULLY, YOU WILL SEE A DIVINE PROMISE AND A PROPER POSITIONING FOR IT TO COME TO PASS.
It says “You will not need to fight in this battle.” But in other for God to fight for them, they must Position themselves; stand still before they can see His salvation. Proper positioning remains the key to seeing God’s word come to pass!
There is the proper positioning of our lives to see the salvation of the LORD, there is also the proper positioning of our hearts and there is a proper positioning of our mouths. There are other forms of proper positioning but I want to look at the positioning of our mouths this morning. The Bible says;
“For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:10 ASV
The mouth was not created for our destruction; the mouth was created for our salvation!
God did not create our mouth to bring adversity. God created our mouth to bring prosperity. When things are not okay with us, sometimes it’s not our enemies that we should blame. We should just pause a little and check the things that have been coming out of our mouth.
People do not know that our words, good or bad, affect us first before the people who hear them. The easiest way to know this is through preaching or praying.
On a positive note, whenever a preacher finish preaching, after spending time speaking to the people and leaving the pulpit, a presence remains upon him or her. That is a sign that the words he spoke, though targeted at the audience, affected him first before those who heard him.
Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:16,
“Be careful in your life and in your teaching. Continue to live and teach rightly. Then you will save yourself and those who listen to your teaching”
because whatever he preaches will affect him first before the people.
THIS IS WHAT PERVERTED PREACHERS DO NOT KNOW.
What comes out of your mouth is doing four basic things to you. It is dividing something about you, adding something to you, subtracting something from you, or multiplying you in one way or the other. That is why the Bible says death and life are in the power of the tongue.
For instance, if what is coming out of your mouth is evil, demonic, and ungodly, it will divide you negatively, add to you negatively, subtract from you negatively, and multiply you negatively. But if what is coming out of your mouth is good, peaceful, and godly, it will divide your life positively, add to you positively, subtract something negative from your life, and multiply you positively.
Hidden in our mouth sometimes, is the reason for failed or successful marriages, ministries, visions, dreams, projects, prospects and etc. Hidden in our mouth is the reason for all kinds of losses.
Our devotional text says with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
We have used this scripture for leading people to Christ but we have not used it for keeping our mouths under check. The easiest way to defeat a prophecy is to speak contrary to what God has promised you because with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Do not forget, Satan will mount pressure on us not to use our mouth to say things that will lead to salvation. He does that by making sure things that look different from what God may have said to us start happening around so that we may undo God’s word of prophecy for our lives with a contrary statement.
If we do not know how to maintain proper positions with the talk of our lips, we will frustrate the hand of the LORD that may have been deployed for us! If we learn how to be holy with our mouths everywhere we go; in or out of Church, it will be good for us. If we learn how to keep our lips holy everywhere we go, we will see the salvation of the LORD everywhere we go.
SADLY, MANY ONLY KEEP THEIR LIPS HOLY WHILE PRAYING OR WHILE IN A CHURCH SERVICE!
It was on this note that God spoke in Psalm 50:23 and said, “to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.” Meaning God will never show His salvation to people who do not know how to talk. His word of promise will never come to pass in the life of those who do not know how to order their conversation alright.
That goes to teach us that whenever God gives us a word of promise, the next thing we must do is first to learn how to talk, then how to live the very life that the word of prophecy calls for. Until our talk and walk are in order God will never perform His word in our lives.
He does not bless chaos or a life that is out of order. God will wait for your life to be in order first before He blesses you. He will fill your life with instructions to bring it to order before putting His blessing upon you. That is why to bless us, He will bring us to teaching ministries to put our lives in order. Then He will use His servant (one he may have used to put your life in order) to put a blessing on you!
Order precedes blessings in the kingdom. And one way we put our lives in order, apart from obeying the LORD, is by controlling what comes out of our mouths. If your mouth or the mouth of those you do business with is not in order, God will never bless you significantly.
As you pass through this day, make a covenant with your mouth; a covenant that you will keep all the days of your life.
As we step into a new Month; the last month of the year, make a covenant not to allow any evil, demonic, and ungodly word to proceed out of your mouth. If we can bring ourselves to positions in the spirit where what comes out of our mouth is always salted with grace, we will fill our lives with peace, prosperity, and protection. We will not be in any form of captivities.
Most times we defile our lives and shorten it by allowing lies, deceit, and untrue things to come out of our mouths. But if we will take heed to the word of the LORD this morning, it will be well with our souls. You won’t fail in Jesus precious name!! Amen!!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY
“Who is the man who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit.” Psalm 34:12-13 NKJV