TODAY’S DEVOTION (FRIDAY 25TH MARCH 2022)
“Again there was a day when the sons of God [the angels] came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan (the adversary and the accuser) came also among them to present himself before the Lord.
And the Lord said to Satan, From where do you come? And Satan (the adversary and the accuser) answered the Lord, From going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it.
And the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who [reverently] fears God and abstains from and shuns all evil [because it is wrong]? And still he holds fast his integrity, although you moved Me against him to destroy him without cause.
Then Satan answered the Lord, Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has will he give for his life. But put forth Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse and renounce You to Your face.
And the Lord said to Satan, Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.
So, Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with loathsome and painful sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.” Job 2:1-7 AMPC
WELCOME TO THE 84TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE
It has been 84 days of God’s amazing grace indeed; keeping us, providing for us, building our faith, sheltering us from storms and intervening whenever we call. There is no rock like our God, who does all these things for us!
May all glory and all honor and all worship be to His holy name, in Jesus precious name. Amen
Today is the 25th days of our 31-Day journey with the Cry of the Holy Spirit on Righteousness, Purity and Holiness. These three terms hold the keys to the eternal destiny of everyone on earth. They hold the reason Jesus had to come, shed His blood through the Holy Spirit on the old rugged cross, die the death that was meant for us, and release His Holy Spirit upon us.
Yes, they hold the reason for becoming a Christian and finding a good Church to plant yourself in. They hold the building blocks of a consecrated Christian life.
Consecration is achieved through sanctification.
When we are sanctified, we become righteous, pure and holy before God. People may still hold the history of what we did before we were sanctified, and still treat us that way, but God will hold no record against us. He will be dealing with us as sons, standing on the platform of our repentance each time we call. The Bible says;
“He has not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
For, as the heavens are high above the earth, so great are His mercy and loving-kindness toward those who reverently and worshipfully fear Him.
As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
As a father loves and pities his children, so the Lord loves and pities those who fear Him [with reverence, worship, and awe].” Psalm 103:10-13 AMPC
This scripture is one of the blessed portions of the Bible to read. I remember how it helped me many years ago to navigate through my season of darkness. It reassured me of God’s love and helped me to hold on to Him tightly.
Friend, I will prefer the chastisements of a loving God to the generosity of Satan. I will prefer the rebukes of this God who pities His Children, to songs of praise from devils. I will prefer the blows that comes from Him to cleanse any evil in me, to any so-called blessings that make me comfortable in sin.
THE MONTH FOR ME HAS BEEN VERY FULFILLING SO LONG AS CONSECRATED CHRISTIAN LIVING IS CONCERN. I KNOW IT HAS BEEN THE SAME TO YOU.
Lately, we have been looking at the sanctification of the body; which is not a ritual washings, or bathing with what they call holy water, or any of such. The Bible teaches that the sanctification of the Body involves setting our body apart and keeping it from any form of spiritual defilement, like sexual sins, lying tongue, bitterness, unforgiveness, alcoholism, drugs, and etc.
Yesterday we saw how the defilement of our body can lead to frequent illness. But there is something we did not talk about; the consequences of eating food sacrificed to idols.
Yes, food sacrificed to idols or dedicated to demons can defile our body if not sanctified by prayer, leading to illness and other things. However, if you are sanctifying such foods by prayer, you must have the spiritual capacity to sanctify it because if the spiritual capacity of the demon the food was sacrificed to is higher than yours, your prayers will not be able to sanctify the food. You will come under attack.
So, instead of walking in spiritual arrogance, I advise you stay away from food sacrificed to idols. In fact, be careful of free food like the one we are told is being served by some prophets in Nigeria. Am told of a restaurant opened for serving free food
You do not open a restaurant to serve food freely except you have an agenda. Where I grew up, it is people who are looking for souls to sacrifice through food that does such things. Because none can follow up those who eat, even when they become sacrificial lambs and die carelessly, none will know!
Only a fool will go to such restaurants and eat.
We are in end times, and a lot of Satanic things are happening. So many preachers and prophets who have lost out with God through sexual sins and all kinds of adulterous living, have become desperate to keep walking in signs and wonders through the power of Baal. God said in His word;
“And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria: they prophesied by Baal and caused My people Israel to err and go astray.
I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they encourage and strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that none returns from his wickedness. They have all of them become to Me like Sodom, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah.
Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them with [the bitterness of] wormwood and make them drink the [poisonous] water of gall, for from the [false] prophets of Jerusalem profaneness and ungodliness have gone forth into all the land.” Jeremiah 23:13-15 AMPC
FROM THIS SCRIPTURE, IT IS CLEAR THAT GOD’S JUDGMENT WILL FALL ON SUCH PROPHETS AND PREACHERS WHEN NONE EXPECTS.
Jesus fed the poor, they will argue, but he never committed sexual sins and became desperate to cover it like some of us preachers. If He had done that no poor one would have eaten His food; besides it was on a few occasions He feed the poor when it was necessary. He did not open a free restaurant. People fall into these traps because they do not study their Bible.
We must be careful of what we eat, where we eat it, and who give us what we eat, because what you eat will eventually eat you, either good or bad. Many have been initiated and sacrificed to demons just because of what they ate. The ate things sacrificed to demons.
They fellowshipped with them by doing so and lost their health, and some their lives. Sadly, many do not realize that one way you fellowship with demons is to eat things scarified to them. And the demons you fellowship with, will dwell in your life, one way or the other, to attack you.
One of our Fathers of Faith wrote saying;
“What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is [intrinsically changed by the fact and amounts to] anything or that an idol itself is a [living] thing?
No, I am suggesting that what the pagans sacrifice they offer [in effect] to demons (to evil spiritual powers) and not to God [at all]. I do not want you to fellowship and be partners with diabolical spirits [by eating at their feasts]. 1 Corinthians 10:19-20 AMPC
If you are careful about the sanctification of your body, you will be careful of what you put in your mouth. You will be careful of free food from anyone. That brings us to our devotional text.
Our devotional text today is about Job.
Job was an ancient Saint that lived in the very days that the book of Genesis was written. Bible scholars believe that the book of Job was the first book of the Bible that was written. Others believe it was written about the same time that the first book of the Bible, Genesis, was written.
The man Job was not a story figure but a man who actually lived in ancient times, and served the LORD according to the justice system of the dispensation he found himself.
ACCORDING TO THE SYSTEM OF THAT DISPENSATION, SATAN COULD ENTER INTO THE PRESENCE OF GOD TO ACCUSE PEOPLE.
That day was Job’s turn. As omniscience, God knew Satan was coming for Job that day. So, He went ahead to like display how proud he was of his boy Job. That was after the devil had attacked and eliminated all his wealth, and killed his seven kids, and his boy Job was left with nothing.
The Bible made it clear that in one day, the man of GOD moved from the richest in all the East, to the poorest. Despite all that, the Bible said Job did not sin or charge God harshly.
Job made his God proud, and God was like displaying how proud He was of him. So, He said to Satan;
“…Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who [reverently] fears God and abstains from and shuns all evil [because it is wrong]? And still he holds fast his integrity, although you moved Me against him to destroy him without cause.
Then Satan answered the Lord, Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has will he give for his life. But put forth Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse and renounce You to Your face.
And the Lord said to Satan, Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life. Job 2:3-7 AMPC
This scripture is full of truths to glean but we will limit ourselves to our subject of consideration – the relationship between the sanctification of our bodies and our health. Like we clearly stated yesterday, and as we see in this scripture, there are seasons that our health come under attack, without a cause.
In other words, not because we defiled our bodies or sinned against God. But because we came within the spiritual radius where such attacks happen.
THE ENEMY KNOWS SOMETHING ABOUT THE VALUE OF A HUMAN BODY TO A HUMAN SPIRIT THAT MANY OF US SEEMS NOT TO KNOW.
He said to God in the discussion they had about Job,
“Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has will he give for his life. But put forth Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse and renounce You to Your face.”
The bone and the flesh here refer to our physiological life; our health. The devil was saying to GOD “make him sick in his body and see how He will curse and renounce you.” Many will still remain faithful in lack but very few will ever remain faithful to God in lack and in an illness they never caused.
Off course, it takes a healthy body to carry a human spirit around successfully on earth. This is the one thing Satan know that some of us do not, hence not taking care of our bodies.
Let me share a personal story with you. I have been preaching for over 23 years without knowing the value of my vocal cords. Don’t laugh at me! When we first came to Kenya, I never knew my body had to adjust to the weather and food here. One day I did a three days meeting and my voice ceased before the days were completed.
I had been preaching for months without rest, so it took a toll on my voice. Because I had never had such experience before, I was not ready for it.
So, when it happened, it happened in the midst of a teaching session. That was the day I realized how important my vocal cords were to God and my service to His kingdom. People where sad; you can see the pity and compassion on faces that day. It was as if someone had just died.
I could not pray for those who had come to be touched by the LORD, I was just helpless. The anointing was there, what to teach was abundantly in my spirit, but nothing could be done. The body said, “I have had enough” and the human spirit could do nothing about it.
That is how easy it is to stop the work or things of God; by breaking down our bodies. Satan knows that very well.
HENCE ATTACKING JOB FURIOUSLY WHEN HE GOT THE CHANCE.
The Bible says;
“So, Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with loathsome and painful sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.
And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself, and he sat [down] among the ashes.” Job 2:7-8 AMPC
As we bring this to a close, it is important to note that, the body of man is the earth-suit of the spirit of man. It is a very important vessel to the human spirit, that is why the human spirit will always struggle to remain in its body each time it is threatened by death.
Satan knows that once this part of man is attacked, he will not be able to do anything meaningful for God. So, he launches successful attacks on our bodies, even when we have not defiled ourselves with sin or any other form of spiritual defilement. The story of Job teaches that very well.
When we come into spiritual atmospheres housing devils that we have no spiritual capacity for, our health can come under attack. Also, Sometimes the sorrow and limitations of living in this earthen vessel, creates chances for unclean spirits to attack our health like he did to Job. Others times, a walk out of areas covered by GOD’s manifest presence into spiritually polluted places, can bring our health under attack.
It is not always the defilement of the body and being an idolater that results in illnesses. Satan can just decide to use certain opportunities we created for him to launch terrible attacks on our health.
When that happens, only the Throne of God can help us. So, we should learn to approach the throne of God on the prayer knee, through the blood of Jesus Christ, in deep repentance, so that we can obtain mercy to find grace to help in such times of need.
When we find grace to help in such times of need, the LORD will put the sword of His Holy Spirit in our spirits, to touch our bones, marrows and the deepest parts of our nature with His healing power, activating the shield of faith within us; with which we can use to fight our way back to divine health, quenching all the fiery darts of doctors reports and the illness shot at our bodies.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY
“For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the [g]breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.
And not a creature exists that is concealed from His sight, but all things are open and exposed, naked and defenseless to the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do.
Inasmuch then as we have a great High Priest Who has [already] ascended and passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession [of faith in Him]. For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning.
Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God’s unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it]. Hebrews 4:12-16 AMPC