TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 2ND MAY 2022)
“If you faint in the day of adversity, Your strength is small. Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and old back those stumbling to the slaughter.
If you say, “Surely we did not know this,” Does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds? Proverbs 24:10-12 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 122ND DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE
Glory be to the LORD GOD for a brand-new day. The mercies of the LORD are new every morning. His faithfulness is from everlasting to everlasting.
I greet you in the name of the LORD.
The Bible says how great is His goodness stored up for those who fear Him. There is no end to the compassion that comes from Him to us each day. In fact, the day His compassion ends will mark our end because we are alive because of His unconditional love.
I remember the first day I read what God said when His glory swept pass Moses on mount Sinai, I was shocked at the expression. Because I grew up with a mindset that tells me that God’s glory is to be feared because it is a scary thing. But the Bible says
“Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.
And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” Exodus 34:5-7 NKJV
The initial manifestation of God’s glory here was the release of mercies, grace and compassion. Not judgment. That shocked me and I was no longer afraid of His glory.
Now, deliverance preachers who have NOT studied what God said in Ezekiel 18, will zero into the last statement that say “visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the Children” in their quest to teach about what they call evil foundations, altars, evil pattern and all that. But they forget the very beautiful portion of this scripture that presents to us how compassionate and kind our GOD is.
Our LORD, the LORD God, is merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. You cannot have this kind of God by your side or in your life and worry about anything.
Previously when Moses asked the LORD to show him His glory, God responded by saying He will make His goodness sweep pass him. That tells me God’s goodness is something we should ask for because His goodness is a major aspect of His glory. It is a glory product. When His glory is in our lives, His goodness will be on full display in our lives.
NOW, WHAT WAS IT THAT QUALIFIED MOSES FOR THIS GREAT BLESSING FROM GOD? THIS BEAUTIFUL ENCOUNTER?
The call of God upon his life and his commitment to fulfill it by GOD’s help qualified him. He went down to Egypt and represented God well. He was in pursuit of God’s assignment for his life and requested for the presence of GOD to be with them, and then requested to see the glory. Both requests received positive answers from the LORD.
People who pursue their God given assignments with unconditional commitment will not lack God granted encounters.
They will know what to seek God for and will be granted it speedily. If we seek God for Heavenly things that are required for the release of our destiny, He will not deny us. But if we seek Him for things that are unconnected, we will die praying without getting any result.
One of the major assignments that is hanging on all believers is practical Christian living.
Our destinies as believers are released through practical Christian living. If you say you are saved and those touching you, or the ones you touching are not being made whole the way people who touched Christ were, you are not releasing your destiny as a believer. Concerning Christ, the Bible says;
“Wherever He entered, into villages, cities, or the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged Him that they might just touch the hem of His garment. AND AS MANY AS TOUCHED HIM WERE MADE WELL.” Mark 6:53-56 NKJV (Emphasis mine).
The world is sick with an eternal illness that is making it morally bankrupt, God-less and Christ-less or anti-Christ by the seconds. Sadly, a major part of what we call Church is also sick with the same illnesses, and getting worse by the day.
Many are under the grip of eternal death through the activities of hell that has stricken their souls and spirits with the eternal illness mentioned. God’s redemption plan is that they touch us and be made whole. His plan is that through the release of our destinies as believers, they are made whole.
Practical Christian living was what our fathers in the early church used in saving their world and turning them to the LORD. That is why we are on this 31-Day journey with the Cry of the Holy Spirit on it.
MANY OF US BELIEVERS ARE NOT UNLEASHING OUR DESTINIES AS CHRISTIANS.
That is why many souls are still sitting in the shadow of death, hell and grave – the three gates of the enemy. The world is slipping into hell daily and the perverted church too, yet we seem not to even know that it’s our job to stop them.
We seem to be more interested in God solving our problems than getting involved in the rescue of the eternally damned souls that are both in the Church and the world. But our devotional text made it clear that even if we are in the midst of adversity, our destiny of rescuing the eternally damned through practical Christian living must not change.
Even in adversity we are not to faint and make our problems the main thrust of walking with God. We are to be delivering the eternally damned like our fathers did, no matter what. Again the text says;
“If you faint in the day of adversity, Your strength is small.
Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and old back those stumbling to the slaughter.
If you say, “Surely we did not know this,” Does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds? Proverbs 24:10-12 NKJV
When Jesus was Physically on earth, He spent each day after 30 years of age, drawing those who are drawn to eternal death. He did not feign ignorance like we do today. He had his own problem as a human but was too consumed with the zeal of the LORD for the eternal damned to even notice them.
He has called us to walk in His footsteps, not in ours. His footsteps will help us change the eternal damned around us through practical Christianity.
It may interest you to know that the ultimate goal of Christ for making the initial 500 disciples His followers was to make them world changers; people who could influence the lost world back to God through their mouths and lives, not just their mouths alone. He lived a life that left an eternal impact on the souls of men to them and us how to live our lives as believers.
IN DAY HE LOOKED AT THEM, AND AT US FUTURISTICALLY, AND SAID;
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it”. John 14:12-14 NLJV
Scriptures like this make me think if all of us who profess Christ have really believed in Him, because there is no such fruit in our faith.
Present day believers are not doing the works Jesus did, come to talk of greater works. Our faith is not producing the works He said those who believe in Him will produce meaning many of us have not really believed in Him. That kind of practical Christianity our fathers had, we still lack.
Which is why we pray prayers that are not answered.
Until we begin to do the works He did, and even greater in quantity than He did, we will never come to the place of “…And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it”
That is the place of amazing divine attention, which if all of us have, none of us will be running after prophets for miracles or worshiping the so-called papas for miracles. We will all know how to produce whatever we need directly from God by our selves and change the world for the LORD.
The truth remains, our not being practical in our Christianity is hindering the release of the grace of divine attention upon us. That is why you find many who have prayed and fasted for 70 days, 300 days, 40 days, and all that not having a glorious life like our fathers who did even lesser fasting and prayer.
You need the grace of divine attention to be heard in Heaven and that comes through practical Christianity. And In case you do not know what the grace look like, lets consider the life of Joshua for a moment.
The Bible said;
Then Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel:
“Sun, stand still over Gibeon; And Moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.” So the sun stood still, And the moon stopped, Till the people had revenge Upon their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day.
And there has been no day like that, before it or after it, that the LORD heeded the voice of a man; for the LORD fought for Israel. Joshua 10:12-14 NKJV
YOU CAN SEE THE GRACE OF DIVINE ATTENTION IN MANIFESTATION HERE.
It was the grace that made the LORD to heed to his voice that day. Before that day the LORD had not heeded the voice of any man so long as suspending the rotation of the earth was concerned. This is one manifestation of God we miss when we do NOT live practical Christian lives.
Sadly, there are so many enemies of the cross among us preachers today who are preventing the Church from coming to the fullness of the stature of Christ so long as practical Christian living is concern. Consequently, people now pray for days, fast for weeks and do not see results that Joshua got without fasting.
There is no grace of divine attention in so many lives, hence making some depend on some prayer warriors and preachers who display themselves as the great power of GOD for help. These heretic pastors and false prophets are having a field day on the innocent. Conditioning their miracles on money or some deliverance rituals by the demon of deliverance, they have succeeded in keeping many in a state of needing them all the time.
Keeping people in a state of needing a preacher all the time is a major enemy of practical Christian living. It stalls the faith of Christians and makes it impotent in doing what Jesus did.
There is also a doctrine that is hindering this. It is the doctrine of “we are saved by faith and not by works.” It has prevented many people from living practical Christian lives, especially in the area of morality because of the way it is being presented. But let me share this with you.
You see, faith without fruit or works is dead. That is what the Bible says.
NOW, SALVATION IS INDEED IS NOT BY WORKS BUT BY FAITH.
However, we must understand which of the faith because there are two kinds of faith. There is the faith with works as fruits, which is a living Faith, and there is a faith without works, as fruit, which is a dead faith. You find that in the book of James chapter 2.
We are not saved by the faith that lacks corresponding works of righteousness. We are saved by the faith that HAS corresponding works of righteousness. So, if your faith has no works of righteousness it is dead. It will not save you from eternal judgment.
A faith with a sinful life as fruit is a faith that will lead someone to hell. Let no one confuse you about that. The Bible says;
“Boys (lads), let no one deceive and lead you astray. He who practices righteousness [who is upright, conforming to the divine will in purpose, thought, and action, living a consistently conscientious life] is righteous, even as He is righteous.” 1 John 3:7 AMPC
I believe the message of today has been passed. God wants us to have a life of the faith with works as its fruits; works of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, touching the lost world and the sick Church to make them whole. That is practical Christianity.
Even in the day of adversity, we are expected not to depart from it. Anything outside this is a form of godliness without power. The Bible says from such turn away.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“But understand this, that in the last days will come (set in) perilous times of great stress and trouble [hard to deal with and hard to bear].
For people will be lovers of self and [utterly] self-centered, lovers of money and aroused by an inordinate [greedy] desire for wealth, proud and arrogant and contemptuous boasters. They will be abusive (blasphemous, scoffing), disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane.
[They will be] without natural [human] affection (callous and inhuman), relentless (admitting of no truce or appeasement); [they will be] slanderers (false accusers, troublemakers), intemperate and loose in morals and conduct, uncontrolled and fierce, haters of good.
[They will be] treacherous [betrayers], rash, [and] inflated with self-conceit. [They will be] lovers of sensual pleasures and vain amusements more than and rather than lovers of God.
For [although] they hold a form of piety (true religion), they deny and reject and are strangers to the power of it [their conduct belies the genuineness of their profession]. Avoid [all] such people [turn away from them].” 2 Timothy 3:1-5 AMPC