TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 18TH SEPTEMBER 2022)
But He gives us more and more grace (power of the Holy Spirit, to meet this evil tendency and all others fully). That is why He says, God sets Himself against the proud and haughty, but gives grace [continually] to the lowly (those who are humble enough to receive it).
So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you.
Come close to God and He will come close to you. [Recognize that you are] sinners, get your soiled hands clean; [realize that you have been disloyal] wavering individuals with divided interests, and purify your hearts [of your spiritual adultery].
[As you draw near to God] be deeply penitent and grieve, even weep [over your disloyalty]. Let your laughter be turned to grief and your mirth to dejection and heartfelt shame [for your sins].
Humble yourselves [feeling very insignificant] in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you [He will lift you up and make your lives significant].” James 4:6-10 AMPC
WELCOME TO THE 261ST DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
The LORD God has given us another day. Glory to His great name! His grace has kept a and watched over us, making us trophies of the same. To Him belong all the glory.
For 261 days of this year alone God’s grace has prevented us from going down the grave.
Yes, God’s grace has prevented us from going down the grave of unfulfilled death, loss of relationship with Him, the grave of living in sin and still thinking one will make Heaven, the grave of spiritual oppression and financial hardship, the grave of the ignorance of GOD and slipping back into apostasy.
We give Him all the glory!
The Bible says the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked. It is very clear that if your life is not been ran by the amazing grace of God, you will live a difficult life on the face of the earth.
The earth as we know it is not a place to live in without the amazing grace of God running your life.
You could be great or small, it will take God’s amazing grace to survive the earth, because the evil parading this earth alone is beyond human comprehension, the hearts that wants one death or eliminated are so many. Some even sleep on the same bed with their targets, others work in the same office or live in same cities or building with their targets.
There are some who wants you down and out who are even working for you, you ate their boss and are paying their salaries but they want you out.
If you think that is not possible, remember Judas Iscariot, who was the first-person Jesus gave a position to occupy. But he sold Christ to his enemies and got Him killed. If God had not raised him, that would have been the end.
Friend this is not an earth you survive without the grace of GOD. That is why we need to be living a life of Biblical fasting.
OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT SAYS;
But He gives us more and more grace (power of the Holy Spirit, to meet this evil tendency and all others fully). That is why He says,
God sets Himself against the proud and haughty, but gives grace [continually] to the lowly (those who are humble enough to receive it).
So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you.
Come close to God and He will come close to you. [Recognize that you are] sinners, get your soiled hands clean; [realize that you have been disloyal] wavering individuals with divided interests, and purify your hearts [of your spiritual adultery].
[As you draw near to God] be deeply penitent and grieve, even weep [over your disloyalty]. Let your laughter be turned to grief and your mirth to dejection and heartfelt shame [for your sins].
Humble yourselves [feeling very insignificant] in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you [He will lift you up and make your lives significant].” James 4:6-10 AMPC
The bottom line of this scripture is geared towards taking us from the place of having friendship with the world, and behaving like unfaithful wives to God, to the place of humbling ourselves before God or feeling insignificant before Him.
And from personal experiences I have come to realize that the only way to draw more grace from the LORD is through humility.
Biblical fasting is one way we humble ourselves before God or feel insignificant before Him. Biblical fasting helps us to draw grace from the LORD, it helps us to experience God’s amazing grace in higher dimensions.
That is why people who engage in Biblical fasting operate in uncommon grace.
They are always ahead of others in anything they do because the grace of God they tap into through their regular fast is running their lives. Grace puts one ahead. That is why it is sad when you see believers who fast almost daily, living backward lives.
They suffer and toil and go through a lot of pains in life despite their fast. It ought no to be like that.
What many have been doing as we have been sharing on this platform is religious fast, which is why they have not been walking in the grace God release upon those who humble themselves through fasting.
If everyone of us understand the grace dimensions we unlock when we fast the Bible way, none of us will ever be engaged in religious fasting. We will not allow people to induce us to fast; we will allow they Holy Spirit to drive us to the place of fasting the way He drove Christ.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE FAST OF THE RELIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENT AND THAT OF CHRIST WAS WHAT THEY GOT AT THE END.
The religious establishment got accolades from men who watched them fast but Jesus got higher grace dimensions from His fast. The religious establishment got relevance and revenue from their fast, but Jesus got friendship with God and the true riches of the Kingdom from His fast.
When your fast unlock grace upon your life, it will be speaking in the lives of others as they experience you.
Like we can see in the life of Christ, you will come under the power of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit will spread the fame of you all around. It will not be a fame you seek, but a fame that seeks you. Hallelujah!
Concerning Christ, the Bible says;
“Then Jesus went back full of and under the power of the [Holy] Spirit into Galilee, and the fame of Him spread through the whole region round about.
And He Himself conducted [a course of] teaching in their synagogues, being recognized and honored and praised by all.” Luke 4:14-15 AMPC
If you look at this scripture, you can find a fame and glory that Biblical fasting confers on us, especially if our lives have been allowed to align with God’s prophetic purpose for them. You will not be one of those seeking for fame, you will be one that fame seeks for. I do not know if you understand that.
There is a fame seeking fasting and there is a fasting that makes fame to seek you.
Jesus presented a fast that make fame seek us, which is the fast of the Christian faith. But the pharisees and other religions presented a fame seeking fast to their followers.
In rebuking that kind of a fast, Jesus said;
“And whenever you are fasting, do not look gloomy and sour and dreary like the hypocrites, for they put on a dismal countenance, that their fasting may be apparent to and seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full already.” Matthew 6:16 APMC
WHAT REWARD DID THEY HAVE? THE REWARD IS THE RELIGIOUS GLORY THEY RECEIVED FROM THOSE THEY PRESENTED THEIR FAST TO.
They will never receive grace from the LORD, the way Jesus received. I personally finds it troubling when I meet Christians who fast daily but suffer what they called rejection. That means their fast is not unlocking grace upon them.
No One rejects any who carry grace from God. If your fast were really unlocking grace on you, fame will be seeking you, making it impossible for you to suffer what you call rejection.
Ordinarily, every fast we engage in should result in more grace from the LORD to run our lives on earth. But when your fast is making you a reject, a poor fellow, a more oppressed soul, an absolutely dejected being or whatever you may be suffering, it is a sign that your fast is not recognized by God.
It could be recognized before your pastor but not before GOD. That was the kind of fast that Saul instituted for the warriors who were not supposed to fast in battle.
The Bible says;
And the men of Israel were distressed that day, for Saul had placed the people under oath, saying, “Cursed is the man who eats any food until evening, before I have taken vengeance on my enemies.” So, none of the people tasted food. 1 Samuel 14:24 NKJV
The Saul kind of fast is the very fast many spiritual leaders either institute for their followers or influence them to institute for themselves. It is a fast induced by pride and desire for personal glory.
The man Saul lost out with God, and instead of meeting Samuel to be led back to the paths of mercy and truth, he continued doing his own thing, placing people under religious fasting.
So many of our spiritual fathers are currently in the Saul state of spirituality.
GOD has abandoned them and is now busy looking for their replacement. Delivery of victory to the Nation of Israel had been shifted to their Jonathans. I will share more about this at the end.
The day Saul instituted his religious fast, God had started giving victory to Israel by the hand of his son, Jonathan. The idea was for him to abandoned what he was doing and go sit with Samuel until he gets himself back to God. But the man got up in his pride and instituted a fast instead, thereby disrupting what the LORD was doing by the hand of Jonathan.
The fast ended up depleting the strength of the men and women Heaven was using to bring victory.
Friend, when fasting is induced by pride or carnality, it will reduce your survival ingredients and destroy you completely. That is why so many in church today have lost their marriages because they fasted, some have lost their finances, and others their sanity as stated in one of those devotionals.
The soldiers that day did not know they were under a leader God had rejected. They were not aware of what Samuel said to Saul in chapter 13 of 1 Samuel. Sadly, they remained loyal to a course that God had departed from; a leader God has rejected from being a leader.
THEY REMAIN UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF LEADERS GOD NO LONGER HAVE BUSINESS WITH.
Sadly, such leaders know how to manipulate people to stay with them.
They know how to manipulate people to stick with them. They know how to falsify prophecies and give people a religious satisfaction that will keep them with them, while the LORD is no longer with them.
Child of GOD, time has come to get back to leaders with divine approval from the LORD. Time has come to walk away from all fasting that are not increasing the grace of GOD in your life. Time has come to get down to the threshing floor of Biblical fasting, where abundant grace is released
I believe enough have been shared today. But let me state this, when God rejected Saul, he shifted the delivery of victory to Israel from the hand of Saul to the hand of his son Jonathan.
What can we glean from that Bible record? So much!
You see, if you are in a Church where there is no much manifestation of God or glory when a senior pastor or general overseer ministers, but only when his Jonathan ministers, you are under a leadership that God has rejected. Walk away from it before you get depleted like those soldiers.
Your fast will never bless you under such leadership. It will burden you so much without unlocking a grace upon you.
It is because so many are under the influence of Saul kind of preachers (apostles, prophets, evangelist, pastors and teachers) that is why you find them burdened by their fast instead of blessed by it.
You cannot be under a spiritual leadership that God has rejected and receive a blessing through your fast. Your fasting will be depleting your potentials and turning you into a reproach.
It is my prayer that God will use these words to keep building us up, and giving us an inheritance among they that are sanctified.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY!
“Between the passes, by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistines’ garrison, there was a sharp rock on one side and a sharp rock on the other side. And the name of one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh.
The front of one faced northward opposite Michmash, and the other southward opposite Gibeah.
Then Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; it may be that the LORD will work for us. For nothing restrains the LORD from saving by many or by few.”
So his armor bearer said to him, “Do all that is in your heart. Go then; here I am with you, according to your heart.”
Then Jonathan said, “Very well, let us cross over to these men, and we will show ourselves to them. If they say thus to us, ‘Wait until we come to you,’ then we will stand still in our place and not go up to them. But if they say thus, ‘Come up to us,’ then we will go up. For the LORD has delivered them into our hand, and this will be a sign to us.”
So both of them showed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, “Look, the Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have hidden.”
Then the men of the garrison called to Jonathan and his armorbearer, and said, “Come up to us, and we will show you something.”
Jonathan said to his armorbearer, “Come up after me, for the LORD has delivered them into the hand of Israel.”
And Jonathan climbed up on his hands and knees with his armorbearer after him; and they fell before Jonathan. And as he came after him, his armorbearer killed them.
That first slaughter which Jonathan and his armorbearer made was about twenty men within about half an acre of land.” 1 Samuel 14:4-14 NKJV