TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 3RD SEPTEMBER 2022)
“And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.”
Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.”
And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”
So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” Matthew 17:14-21 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 246TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
It is a fresh weekend again, from Our LORD and savior Jesus Christ. We give Him all the glory for keeping us alive and bringing us to this day. We do not deserve any of His kindness but He remain steadfast and faithful.
May we continue to feed on His faithfulness in Jesus precious name. Amen!
Yesterday our devotional text spoke to us about not fretting because of evil doers. Indeed, some evildoers seem more terrible than Satan himself. It will take a daily dying to the flesh to overcome them. But we thank God for protecting us from their hands. That is why we are alive today.
Talking of evildoers, I want us to understand that the reason why our world is always in crisis, chaos, or turmoil is because of people who control so many units that make up our world.
For instance, most of the control over nations, governments, families and individual lives are in the hands of evildoers. Evildoers rule over some families, evildoers rule over some courts, evildoers rule over some medical institutions.
Evildoers rule over governments, policies, parliaments, and institutions, which is why most times, it is not the person at the hems of affairs that is the problem, but those under the person at the hems of affairs.
People who blame presidents of nations for all their woes are really unwise and ignorant. I use to be that unwise and ignorant until I had the privilege to be close to people in power.
Now, if evildoers are ruling over the likes of what we just mentioned above and nothing else, one would not have bothered. But they have gone beyond human institutions and now rule God’s own house, the Church.
THE SOVEREIGN OWNER OF THE CHURCH, DIED FOR HER AND PURCHASED HER WITH HIS OWN BLOOD.
Many years after He arose, He met John the Beloved on the Island of Patmos and said this to him (it was a message to one of the seven churches the man of GOD was overseeing then):
“And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write, ‘These things says the First and the Last, who was dead, and came to life:
“I know your works, tribulation, and poverty (but you are rich); and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.” Revelation 2:8-9 NKJV
As I look at this scripture I say to myself, if Jesus was physically here today, and look at some Churches and call them synagogues of Satan, the pastors in charge would have accused Him of dividing the body of Christ or attacking other preachers.
In Kenya, for instance, anyone who tells the believers to live like believers, shine immorality and false doctrines is called deputy Jesus; from politicians to preachers who tell the Church to live right.
If you attempt to tell anyone they call a preacher, who is in error, to do what is right, you are branded something. The idea is to silence the voice of rebuke and reprove, which is needed in this generation.
But we will not stop doing what the LORD assigned us to do since they also will not stop behaving like synagogues of Satan.
So if Jesus were here physically, He would have received even worse treatment from the very people who claim to be serving Him. But looking at a part of what presents itself as His Church, and calling it a synagogue of Satan, tells us so much about the possibility of evildoers taking over churches and doing the unthinkable.
The Phrase “synagogue of Satan” means assembly or gathering of Satan. So many churches today have become gatherings of Satan. Evildoers are their bishops, their elders, their pastors, their departmental heads, and members. They hold very sensitive positions because of the money power or societal influence they possess.
Sadly, you will always get stuck with the Olive oil, water, salt usage, miracle handkerchiefs, feet washing, unholy holy communion and all that if you are in a synagogue of Satan. You will never know there is something beyond all that.
YOU WILL BE MADE TO BELIEVE YOU ARE HAVING THE BEST WHILE YOU ARE VERY FAR FROM EVEN THE GOOD.
It is important that believers separate themselves from synagogues of Satan else they lose their salvation, like many have lost today without realizing it. No synagogue of Satan can make you Heaven worthy.
For instance, how will you be made Heaven worthy when you are under a Bishop who made a man who have scammed people of billions, a pastor just to hide him from the consequences?
You must make up your mind for your salvation because hell has not lost its temperature and you do not go to Heaven by reciting a sinner’s prayer but by denouncing and rejecting a sinner’s life. It is impossible to denounce that life under such spiritual leadership.
Heaven is for the holy not practicing sinners who cover it with religion.
The problems we have is believers not knowing these things, especially the reality of synagogues of Satan and how to recognize and separate from them. There are over 21 ways to recognize and separate from them but that is not our subject today.
We are on a 30-Day journey of faith with the Cry of the Holy Spirit on Biblical Fasting. Yesterday we shared a bit about the danger of religious fast. Most assemblies, gatherings or synagogues of Satan appear to be assemblies or gatherings of God’s people because of the regular religious fast they institute for people and for themselves.
Most of the scriptures they use is what we captured in our devotional text today. In fact, the text has been used to ruin the lives of so many people in the name of “this kind cannot go out except by prayer and fasting.”
The entire text says;
“And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water.
So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.”
Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.”
And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”
So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” Matthew 17:14-21 NKJV
The last verse of this text is what millions have used in engaging themselves in religious fasting and prayer.
THEY CALL IT DEALING WITH STUBBORN PROBLEMS.
But is there any problem that can be stubborn when the real presence of the LORD rest upon a man? Even the man that was sick for 38 years got healed in seconds when Jesus touched Him; and that was without his fast. Meaning, Jesus can touch us without our fast.
So why would you need to fast for what you call stubborn problem to disappear, while Christ can touch you without the fast?
The misinterpretation of this scripture by even very respectable men and women of God have destroyed the lives of so many in the Church; it has led them to institute religious fasting in their afflictions and made their problems worse.
There are even sick people who have died because of they were made to fast believing their kind of affliction cannot go away except by prayer and fasting.
One of the problems we are having today is, many do not study their Bibles or listen to teachers of the Bible, they USE their Bibles and listen to USERS of the Bible instead.
For instance, when a man or woman of God stands on James 5:14 or Mark 6:12-13 or any other scripture to use the oil to pray for you, or ask you to buy it for miracles, he or she is USING the Bible and not TEACHING the Bible.
People could call some of them teachers of the word, but if any of them truly teach the Bible you will realize that oil usage is Judaism not Christianity. And that the Holy Spirit was symbolized by the Holy Anointing Oil that Moses made in time past and that God warned that it should not be made again, because it was just a symbol.
It will become clear to you that we are no longer in days of symbols and prophetic acts. We are in days of reality; Days of Christ becoming flesh in us.
YOU WILL ALSO DISCOVER THAT THE OUTPOURING OF THE HOLY GHOST IN ACTS 2 BROUGHT THE USE OF THE OIL TO AN END.
But none of these truths will make sense if you are a USER of the Bible.
The same is applicable to the scripture of our devotional text. It is not taught but used, hence leading people into fatal religious fast. People have not even STUDIED their Bibles to see that Christ never instituted fasting for the sick, oppressed or afflicted.
So, telling the sick, oppressed, and afflicted “this kind of problem or demon will not go out except by praying and fasting” is misleading.
Within context, the first people Jesus was addressing in that scripture were His disciples not the afflicted one who was healed by His Presence.
He was not talking fasting to a group of people that witches were attacking, or devils making life unbearable for them like we have in church today. He was talking fasting to people He was training to become miracle workers and men who would move in signs and wonders. The Church must understand that and stop directing that scripture to the oppressed and afflicted!
In the school of deliverance, fasting is basically for warriors that God want to use to lose others from affliction and bondages. The warriors must be armed enough to lose the afflicted and captives without engaging them in fasting like Jesus never did. That is the pattern.
The text said;
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”
So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” Matthew 17:14-21 NKJV
The next question now is, what did Jesus refereed to by the words “this kind?” was it the demon he cast out of that boy without even fasting?
THE ANSWER IS NO!
The reason for the disciples not being able to cast out the demon was not an absent of fasting but an absence of faith. Jesus said they could not do it because of their unbelief.
So, when He said “however, this kind cannot go out except by praying and fasting” He was referring to the kind of faith that will empower them to cast out that demon. If you have been moving in signs and wonders, you will understand this scripture more than anyone else.
Biblical fasting has a way of bringing one to a faith realm where all things are possible. I have been there. And By God’s mercies still live there.
The Bible says, “With GOD, nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37). There is fasting and there is fasting. The fast that will bring us to the place where we seat with God and unleash a miracle working faith is the fast Jesus referred to when He made that statement.
It is not a religious fast, but a Bible based Holy Spirit governed fast.
No demon can be cast out by a fast. All demons are cast out by a faith! Let no one deceive you. If you want to deliver people from the demonic you must be one who engage regularly in Biblical fast.
It is through Biblical fasting we come to faith realms in God where nothing is impossible. That was why Jesus never needed to fast. He was already in that realm. It is a realm that devils let people go by simple statements we make. A realm where sickness is healed by simple statements we make. It is a realm where nothing is impossible.
I hope the LORD has spoken to someone today.
It is my prayer that before the end of this journey, you will come to the place of tapping into the full potential of Biblical fasting and getting the required deliverance from religious fasting in Jesus precious name. Amen!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY.
These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans.
But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts,” Matthew 10:5-9 NKJV