TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 8TH JUNE 2022)
“The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, Turned back in the day of battle.
They did not keep the covenant of God; They refused to walk in His law, And forgot His works And His wonders that He had shown them.
Marvelous things He did in the sight of their fathers, In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. He divided the sea and caused them to pass through; And He made the waters stand up like a heap.
In the daytime also He led them with the cloud, and all the night with a light of fire. He split the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink in abundance like the depths.
He also brought streams out of the rock, And caused waters to run down like rivers.” Psalm 78:9-16 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 159TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE
Glory be to the LORD God for His marvelous kindness. It has brought us into another day that He has made. Let us believe that at the end of it, we will have the full cause to glorify Him!
Day unto day we have seen His mercies in the land of the living. That should be our confidence. Indeed, like David put it “the LORD is our portion in the land of the living.” Hallelujah!
The cry of the Spirit of the living God has been coming to us on fear matters. Fear can be good and fear can be bad. That is why we have righteous or godly fear and unrighteous or carnal fear. It is carnal or unrighteous fear that should not be part of our lives.
The Bible says “Fear not…” That refers to carnal and ungodly or unrighteous fear.
That is the kind of fear that brings one into destruction. It is a fear that can serve as a snare to any glorious destiny. That is what God and men train warriors not to have when preparing them for battle. Because it is fear that can kill you before the sword of the enemy reaches you. When God was mobilizing Jeremiah, He said to him;
“But you [Jeremiah], gird up your loins! Arise and tell them all that I command you. Do not be dismayed and break down at the sight of their faces, lest I confound you before them and permit you to be overcome.
For I, behold, I have made you this day a fortified city and an iron pillar and bronze walls against the whole land—against the [successive] kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land [giving you divine strength which no hostile power can overcome].
And they shall fight against you, but they shall not [finally] prevail against you, for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you.” Jeremiah 1:17-19 AMPC
If you look at this scripture intently, you will find God training His word warrior, Jeremiah, to carry His word for his generation to his generation. And at this point he was being immunized by the LORD against fear. We need this immunity to fight any battle for or with the LORD.
God charged Jeremiah not to look at the the faces of those He was sending him to. The reason is simple. There are things you should not look at if you do not want to be afraid in life, because fear is most times a child of a mental stronghold formed from things we have seen and heard.
YOU MUST NOT ALLOW THE ENEMY TO SPEAK INTO YOUR EARS OR FEED YOUR EYES.
The mental stronghold that creates a dwelling place for fear and the spirit that controls it is formed when we hear things we should not hear, or see what we should not see. That was why God instructed Joshua to meditate in the book of the Law alone, and not on the people he was sent to fight.
Jeremiah was being trained to do the same. He was told not to break down by sighting their faces, and that can only happen if his eyes and ears are tuned to the LORD while looking at their faces.
No devil can demobilize you with fear no matter how fearful they may look or be, if your ears are tuned to the LORD and your eyes are upon Him.
If your ears are tuned to the LORD while standing in battle for the LORD, and your eyes are upon Him, you will only hear what the enemy may be saying through GOD’s ears and see what he may be doing or showing through GOD’s eyes.
As, a result you will not be demobilized by fear. On the contrary, you will be aroused by faith.
There is this story in the Bible of the 12 spies Moses sent to view the land before they were to move in to possess it. The Bible says ten brought an evil report and two a good report. The report that the ten brought was full of facts that they saw and heard through their own eyes and ears instead of God’s.
Sadly, the consequence was not good. It sentenced the people to 40 years of walking through the wilderness. Entering Canaan was delayed for 40 years.
The lesson here is “fear can prolong your suffering even after God has terminated it.” Do not forget that!
There are people whose sufferings have been terminated by God who are still suffering in Life. They are still suffering because they are too fearful to step into the blessings that God has prepared for them. Most have been sentenced to more years of suffering because they lacked the faith to step into prepared places.
APART OF FEAR PROLONGING ONE’S SUFFERING, FEAR CAN ALSO PROLONG A WAITING SEASON OR A SEASON OF DIVINE PROCESS.
For those who want to fulfill their destiny, I want to say, you cannot be in a waiting season for too long. Neither can you be under divine process all your life. You must be bold and strong to be able to move from a waiting season to a season set aside for your manifestation. Yes, you must not be fearful if you will not stay more than necessary in a preparation season. The spirit of Joshua and Caleb must be cultivated.
The two, Joshua and Caleb, brought a good report, that would have terminated their waiting season or their season of divine process, for a glorious season for divine manifestation because they saw what the rest saw but with a differently view. They saw the facts the rest saw through the eyes of the LORD and heard the things they heard through the ears of the LORD. That was the very training God also passed Jeremiah through.
It was to give him the ability to see the faces of the people through God’s eyes. The consequence of not doing so is usually not good.
The part of Jeremiah’s training that baffles me each time I read that scripture (Jeremiah 1:17-19) is the part that said to Jeremiah “do not be dismayed and break down at the sight of their faces, lest I (GOD) confound you before them and permit you to be overcome.”
I consider this scary and very serious! You mean fear can make one loose divine backing and hand him or her over to the enemy of his soul or the enemies of God? I can now see why the LORD takes time to build His warriors to lead lives that are not driven by fear.
Jeremiah was being told that if he becomes afraid and confused before the people’s faces, that will be the end of him, so to speak. Even God will fight against him. So, he had no choice but to be strong and bold.
God was like telling him “if you want to work for me, it is better you die as a bold lion than to live as a fearful chicken. At the end of the day you may not even die, because I am by your side.” What a word!
Do not forget, it is easier to kill chickens than to kill lions. I have never seen a lion killed for Christmas. But Chickens are always killed while men are celebrating. That should tell you how vulnerable LIFE is when living like a Chicken.
YOUR LIFE IS MORE VULNERABLE TO DEATH IF YOU ARE FEAR DRIVEN LIFE, ESPECIALLY IF THE CALL TO FIGHT THE BATTLES OF THE LORD IS UPON YOU.
No one can ever fight the battles of the LORD walking in fear. Fear will demobilize you completely no matter how equipped and armed you may be.
Our devotional text is about the Children of Ephraim. They were men who were armed by the LORD to the teeth, so to speak. But when they came face to face with the battles they were called to fight, they were demobilized by fear.
The text says;
“The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, Turned back in the day of battle.
They did not keep the covenant of God; They refused to walk in His law, And forgot His works And His wonders that He had shown them.
Marvelous things He did in the sight of their fathers, In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. He divided the sea and caused them to pass through; And He made the waters stand up like a heap.
In the daytime also He led them with the cloud, and all the night with a light of fire. He split the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink in abundance like the depths.
He also brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.” Psalm 78:9-16 NKJV
The Children of Ephraim were demobilized be fear because they did not walk in the ways of the LORD. They did not tune their spirits to the ways of the LORD.
I believe God has spoken to someone this morning. You must fight ungodly and carnal fear all your life, especially if you have a call to battle on your life from the LORD.
Earlier we had said If your ears are tuned to the LORD while standing in battle for the LORD, and your eyes are upon Him, you will hear what the enemy may be saying through God’s ears, and see what the enemy may be doing or showing through God’s eyes.
AS, A RESULT YOU WILL NOT BE DEMOBILIZED BY FEAR.
On the contrary, you will be aroused by faith, and we will come to that. You see this in the life of Gideon. The Bible says;
“And so it was, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel, and said, “Arise, for the LORD has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand.”
Then he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet into every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and torches inside the pitchers.
And he said to them, “Look at me and do likewise; watch, and when I come to the edge of the camp you shall do as I do:
When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets on every side of the whole camp, and say, ‘The sword of the LORD and of Gideon!’ ” Judges 7:15-18 NKJV
Faith entered Gideon when he heard through God’s ears and saw through God’s eyes what was being said in the camp of the enemy. That tells us that we will always operate in faith instead of fear if our spirits are always tuned to the right information. The right information only comes from the LORD.
It will come when we spend time with Him building our faith and killing our fears in His presence. David’s key comes to mind here. He never feared the enemy in battle. You see that in the audacity he walked in when confronting the giant.
It takes courage for a 17-year-old with no experience in war to confront a giant with years of experiences. There was no trace of fear in the life of the young man. Indeed, out of the mouth of babes and sucking infants, God has ordained strength because of his adversaries.
The nursing infant David, got the courage from the countless hours he spent alone with God, beholding His beauty and inquiring at His. He was nursed by God’s side hence seeing the giant in God’s eyes and hearing what he said through God’s ears. If you want to be a fearless Lion instead of a fearful chicken in life, this principle of David must be embraced.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOUR LIFE TODAY!
“The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall, I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, My enemies and foes, They stumbled and fell.
Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; Though war may rise against me, In this I will be confident.
One thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple.
For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.
And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me; Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD.” Psalm 27:1-6 NKJV