TODAY’S DEVOTION (Monday 24th January 2022)
“Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, to the South. Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.” Genesis 13:1-2 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 24th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE
Glory be to the LORD God, creator of the Heavens and earth for giving us another day. He has kept us for 24 days now; to him belong all the glory.
I believe this is another week that the LORD has given us to perfect our ways, be His true worshipers and serve our generation according to His will. It’s a new day this morning and today we will be refreshing our minds on matters of greatness.
God is great and we are not. But over the ages He has been using man to do things in His kingdom; most times very small men. The mystery lies in what we will be looking at this morning.
First of all it is important to note that the great God cannot accomplish anything significantly with small men until He pour His greatness into them. He terminates our smallness so that we can do His work at a large scale.
In fact, God prefer working with small people so that He can pour His greatness into them and use them to accomplish His task. He detests proud people because they assume a greatness they do not have. He prefers small ones because of the humility they have. Gideon said to Him;
….“O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.”
Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”
So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”
And the LORD said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall [e]defeat the Midianites as one man.” Judges 6:13-16 NKJV
THE STORY OF THE SMALL GIDEON AND THE GREAT GOD TELLS US SO MUCH OF WHAT GOD CAN DO WITH SMALL PEOPLE.
If you look at this conversation, you will realize that Gideon was speaking from the stand point of his smallness but God responded from the stand point of His greatness. That is how conversations between the Great God and small men flow.
We talk and respond to God from the stand point of our smallness, but God talk and respond to us from the stand point of what we can become when He be with us and cause His greatness to manifest in and through us!
That is why when dealing with God, it is required that we believe Him. It is required that we do not respond to Him looking at us, but looking at Him.
The truth remains, when the great GOD gives you a responsibility, it is always bigger than you. You will need His greatness to accomplish it.
Anything we claim the LORD asked us to do in His kingdom that we can do without His presence being with us, maybe to supply the greatness required to get the job done, is not really from the LORD. Anything from the LORD will require the very things God said to Gideon to be accomplished. Look at that word again; He said to Him;
“Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.”
You cannot do any work that is God’s except He be with you to get the job done.
You can not give an offering God really ask you to give unless He be with you. You can not open a Church God really ask you to open, unless He be with you. You cannot marry a person God really asked you to marry unless He be with you. You cannot go into a ministry or join a church God really asked you to go into or join unless He be with you.
Any so called “work of God” that you can do without God is not a work of God but a work of your own imagination. The smallness of a man is usually the hinderance to every work of GOD. That is why GOD need to be with the man to get the job done.
GOD NEED TO BE WITH US SO THAT OUR SMALLNESS WILL NOT HINDER HIS WORK FROM BEING DONE.
Sin makes us small, righteousness makes us big with the greatness of a righteous God. We must understand that No one can do the work of a great God in smallness and stay clean for God to make us big. If we do the work of a great God in smallness it will be inglorious. David understood this mystery when he said to God;
“Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side.
I will also praise thee with the psaltery, even thy truth, O my God: unto thee will I sing with the harp, O thou Holy One of Israel.
My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee; and my soul, which thou hast redeemed.” Psalm 71:21-23 KJV
David knew he would not have done anything God assigned him to do successfully in his smallness. Hence prophesying on a musically instrument about an increase of His greatness. If the LORD does not increase our greatness it will diminish our impact. It is an increase of His greatness in our lives that gives us capacity for global impact in His kingdom.
You will realize that God made everyone He used in Bible days great as He assigned them things He wanted them to do in His kingdom. Our devotional text mentioned one of them; Abraham.
When He called him, the man was Abram. But over time he became Abraham. He became Abraham because His greatness was transmitted into him. At the start of the journey, He said to Him;
…”Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:1-3 NKJV
From this scripture it’s clear that no one can fulfill a true call of God in smallness.
A TRUE CALL OF GOD INVOLVES SO MANY THINGS THAT OUR SMALLNESS CANNOT HANDLE.
Part of it is being a blessing to everyone especially those who are cursed. You cannot be a blessing to those who are cursed in smallness. That is why God said to Abraham, I will make your name great and you shall be a blessing!
He moved on to show us what greatness will further do in our lives by saying to Abraham
“I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
That is it!
Greatness puts a curse on all who curses you, either you know it or not, and brings a blessing on all who blesses you. It makes you a shelter for generations born and unborn. It gives you friends you do not ask for! It actually makes everyone to desire to be your friend.
When God gives you greatness, everyone will desire to give you a gift; they will consider it a privilege to be associated with you through their generosity. Greatness remains one of the empowerment we need to fulfill our kingdom assignments and divine callings.
The call of God involves taking down great elements of darkness and parading princes of the evil one. It involves dealing with the beasts of Ephesus, and eliminating the greatness of the powers of the evil one. None of these cannot be achieve in our smallness. Yes, you cannot take down great devils and do these things in smallness.
The sons of Sceva in Acts 19 tried taking down an evil force in smallness and they suffered dearly for it! The Bible says,
“Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.” Acts 19:16 NKJV
THIS IS WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO ANYONE WHO TRY TO DO THE WORK OF THE LORD IN HIS OR HER SMALLNESS!
That was why God gave Abraham greatness. The man Abraham would later go to confront five kings with great fighting power with just 318 men to rescue Lot, his Nephew! No man can kill thousands of soldiers with Just 318 men without the greatness of the LORD in His life.
The Bible says,
“Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, for he dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and brother of Aner; and they were allies with Abram.
Now when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his three hundred and eighteen trained servants who were born in his own house, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.
He divided his forces against them by night, and he and his servants attacked them and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus. So he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his brother Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the people.” Genesis 14:13-16 NKJV
It is God’s greatness that makes a little one a strong nation. Abraham came back victorious because of God’s greatness in His life. It gives one the capacity to chase a thousand and two ten thousand.
You may be a little one in your family, place of work, or place of living like Gideon but God’s greatness can make you a strong nation. When Abraham heard that his Nephew had been taken captive, he knew he had no military might to match those who took his Nephew away but he did not mind because He had GOD by his side. He knew all he need was the greatness of God.
It is smallness that makes people run away from their enemies. It is smallness that makes people fear. Greatness makes you bold. It shows you victory irrespective of how mighty those who are against you may be! God’s greatness made Abraham bold and gave him victory over the great military force that took his Nephew captive.
It takes God’s greatness to confront defeat other greatness. That was what David knew that Saul and the rest of the army of Israel did not. They never knew because they hearts were not right before God. They remained small because they were not intimate enough with the great God to make them great.
Smallness is the reason many are unfulfilled in life. It is the reason many are poor and cannot achieve anything in life.
Smallness stopped Saul and his soldiers from confronting Goliath and bringing glory to God. David would later kill the giant with the greatness of God upon his life and bring glory to the LORD! Again, I want to reiterate that you need God’s greatness in your life to become anything in life.
God’s greatness will make you come out victorious even in the fiercest battles of life. It will make your great enemies’ bread before you. It made Joshua and Caleb see the giants in the land of Canaan as bread for them. Though the small people that heard them reacted very sharply and attempted to stone them, God defended them.
As we bring this to a close, do not forget to ask the LORD for greatness and when He starts granting you, learn to protect it by living right.
Sin is a terrible force that can strip us of God’s greatness and make us small like it did to Samson. The greatness of God in the life of Samson was striped by his sin and affinity with Delilah. That tells us if we will be great, we must stay away from a life of sin and influences of wrong people.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY
“But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying:”The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land.
If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us,’a land which flows with milk and honey.’ Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.”
And all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Now the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Israel.” Numbers 14:6-10 NKJV