TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 16TH JULY 2022)
“And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?
To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
They will pass through it hard-pressed and hungry; and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God, and look upward.
Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness.” Isaiah 8:19-22 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 197TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
It has been a year of amazing grace indeed and Heaven has been doing so many things in our lives to keep us smiling, progressing, serving, pressing, sacrificing even with tears a times, and submitting to God’s will and ways!
Today is another day the LORD has blessed us with, to Him belong all the glory!
We are on a 31-Day journey of faith with the Cry of the Spirit on Miracles, Signs and wonders and today is the 16th day of the trip.
The LORD opened our eyes to a set of miracles that no one will want to have in his life; correctional Judgment miracles. In simple terms, judgments GOD releases on people, nations, cities, church groups and even families by His miraculous hands to correct men or stop wickedness.
Often people make covenant with the kingdom of darkness and yield to it to destroy GOD’s purposes. During the time, you find GOD warning them. If they listen and stop, they will be saved. But if they resist and continue, they will come under the blows of His judgment.
Why did GOD raise preachers to preach and warn? It is to prevent us from falling under the sword of His judgment on the final day.
I want us not to forget that the entire planet is marching towards the direction of its final day; the day of judgment.
So, the worst days of anyone who is not living right are ahead of him not behind him. The worst days of anyone who is not preaching the right doctrine or doing what the LORD says are ahead of them not behind them.
The final day of accountability is coming. Living lives that will end us on the right side of the final events is the challenge of the moment. The book of Revelation is full of the judgments GOD has preplanned to release on planet earth by His miraculous hands in the approaching final days.
Its important to note that our days are assets to God but we sometimes turn them into wasted days because we do not spend them as we should – we do not spend them with eyes on the approaching final Judgment.
So today we will continue our journey of faith with how to live a life that will be full of miracles of God’s blessings and not miracles of God’s blows, especially as Christians. I believe strong that in these days of God’s rule as the judge of the earth, we must not lead lives that will attract the miracles of God’s blows.
THE FIRST THING TO DO IN ORDER NOT TO ATTRACT JUDGMENT MIRACLES IS TO AVOID ANY DOCTRINE THAT WILL MAKE YOU A FALSE WORSHIPER.
So many teachings and practices in Church today are making people false worshipers. They are not putting “alignment with GOD’s ways” at the front burner, but deliverance from evil works, forgetting that people are trapped in evil works because they are not aligned with God’s ways.
Hence, they teach and practice what the Bible calls doctrines of devils.
They teach things that allow sin to thrive and iniquity to ruin lives. They tell you that your star is lost, and that you need to raise this altar and do this other thing. They keep you busy with one thing you need to do or the another until you become a false worshiper.
God’s glory does not sit on false worshipers because false worship is not treated with kindness in God’s court.
God strongly said in His word;
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. “You shall have no other gods before Me.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth” Exodus 20:2-4 NKJV
While what we hear in church today has returned many to black witchcraft and outright idolatry, most are in the false worship of charismatic witchcraft. They have made prayer gadgets from things that God did in the past as messages that communicated the coming of the messiah – likeness of things in Heaven, and some things in the earth beneath – leading to many having other gods before the almighty GOD.
A LOT OF PREACHERS HAVE MADE FOR THEIR MEMBERS CARVED PRACTICES THEY CALL PROPHETIC ACTS.
They have created for them prayer gadgets that sadly, have become a snare to their innocent members, opening their lives up to demonic assaults every now and then.
False worship will always attract miracles from GOD’s blows. It will drive you to seek mediums and wizards presenting themselves as prophets, even making you a church member in local churches where pastors whisper and mutter, unleashing the demonic on people. It will lead to more miracles of GOD’s blows.
Our devotional text says;
“And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?
To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
They will pass through it hard-pressed and hungry; and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God, and look upward.
Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness.” Isaiah 8:19-22 NKJV
The blow you see here manifest as economic hardship. I have met countless of Christians who were made false worshipers by the false teachings they followed struggling endlessly with poverty.
So, if you want to avoid the miracles of GOD’s blows, the first thing to watch out against this end times is false doctrines. The next is to avoid the miracles from GOD’s blows by living a life that will open you up to the miracles of GOD’s blessing. That life is a life steaming from GOD’s call upon us to live right.
You see, God rescued every one of us from a life of sin and wickedness and placed a call on us to stop living in moral darkness and wickedness, but not everyone has responded to the call.
GOD WANTS US ALL TO LIVE LIVES THAT RESPOND TO THE CALL.
Now, there are two steps to take in responding to the call. The first step come to the LORD and the next is to stay with the LORD. You come to the LORD by surrendering your life to Christ and stay with the LORD by walking in His ways and doing what He says as revealed in His blessed written will – the Bible.
But sadly, some of us who came to the LORD have ignorantly refused to stay with Him. We call Him, “LORD, LORD” but do not do what He says.
We do not do what He says about purity. We do not do what He says in the Holy Scriptures about getting and staying married. We do not do what He says, because of the false teachings in church, we just do what we are taught He says or what we think He says. And that is very dangerous!
For instance, we do not do what His word says about the use of our tongue. We just do what we think He said. We lie like lying devils and cook up lies like chefs in Satan’s kitchen. We do not do what He says about integrity and speaking the truth.
So many of us on the other hand, profess that we are saved but live like people who are yet to meet Christ. We do not do what His word says, we do what we think His word says.
I reiterate again that it is very dangerous to do what you think GOD’s word says! So many will end up in hell from the Church just for that reason – for doing what they think God’s word says instead of what His word really says. Jesus says;
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’
And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ Matthew 7:21-23 NKJV
WHY WILL JESUS SAY TO CHURCH PEOPLE WHO EVEN WALKED IN MIRACLES “I NEVER KNEW YOU?”
It means He is not the source of all supernatural powers and that you can have supernatural powers from Him but use them to pervert His ways and lead a perverse life.
Do not forget, you can walk in miracles and have what people will see as a thriving ministry without the LORD knowing you. And one of the major reasons for this is because many of us do what we think the LORD said not what the LORD really said.
In these days of putting up appealing outward appearances, in this realm where men look at the exterior only, it is easy to be called a powerful Christian or preacher but you know you are not. You know, you are living a life that is a product of what you think the LORD said not what He really said.
There is so much confusion today in the area of doctrine because of the many boy leaders in ministry. The many untaught and untrained people who are going about teaching others are our greatest problems. The social media has many emergency preachers. And sadly, they are leading people astray. They forget GOD’s judgment on those who lead others astray.
Most of them steal messages from others to preach. While others read people’s books and some even attend Bible schools just to have certificates for preaching but they have not been taught by the LORD Himself, hence teaching unbalanced truths.
God lamented that He has not sent these preachers yet they are running. He has not spoken to them, yet they are prophesying. He has not trained them yet they are going about teaching.
Ministry is teaching men what the LORD has trained and taught you to teach, and if the LORD has really trained and taught you, you will be scripturally balanced in your teachings.
For instance, you will not be part of the breed saying we should show you where paying dowry is written in the Bible or where the Bible says pre-marital sex is a sin, and all that. Your message will be in sync with the core truth of the Old and New Testament.
If you want to make Heaven these days, there are ‘acceptable‘ preachers you must stop listening to!
I believe the LORD has spoken to us this morning. We have further learned how to avoid the miracles of God’s blows. I pray we stand in what we have learned this morning so that we can avoid the painful miracles of GOD’s blows.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless; They speak a vision of their own heart, Not from the mouth of the LORD.
They continually say to those who despise Me, ‘The LORD has said,
“You shall have peace” ’; And to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say, ‘No evil shall come upon you.’ ”
For who has stood in the counsel of the LORD, and has perceived and heard His word? Who has marked His word and heard it? Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD has gone forth in fury— A violent whirlwind! It will fall violently on the head of the wicked.
The anger of the LORD will not turn back Until He has executed and performed the thoughts of His heart. In the latter days you will understand it perfectly.
“I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in My counsel, and had caused My people to hear My words, then they would have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings.” Jeremiah 23:16-22 NKJV