TODAY’S DEVOTION (FRIDAY 7TH OCTOBER 2022)
“And as He approached, He saw the city, and He wept [audibly] over it,
Exclaiming, Would that you had known personally, even at least in this your day, the things that make for peace (for freedom from all the distresses that are experienced as the result of sin and upon which your peace—your security, safety, prosperity, and happiness—depends)! But now they are hidden from your eyes.
For a time is coming upon you when your enemies will throw up a bank [with pointed stakes] about you and surround you and shut you in on every side.
And they will dash you down to the ground, you [Jerusalem] and your children within you; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, [all] because you did not come progressively to recognize and know and understand [from observation and experience] the time of your visitation [that is, when God was visiting you, the time in which God showed Himself gracious toward you and offered you salvation through Christ]. Luke 19:41-44 AMPC
WELCOME TO THE 280TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
We thank God for His mercies in our lives. He has given us another day. He has given us another opportunity to be alive. We appreciate Him for even a minute of being able to breath in and out.
We appreciate Him for His love that is more than what our mouths can say and our minds can fathom.
I listened to a gospel music that was spewing out amazing words on the love of God recently and realized that one feels better when you live knowing that God loves you.
Yes, God loves us but many of us are abusing His love by using it to lead very Godless lives.
Where we do not live Godless lives, we live lives that are not built around His manifest presence. We do not know that Godless living or leading a life that is not built around God’s manifest presence will put our lives in our own hands and expose us to things that we cannot withstand.
Our lives are too fragile to be left in our hands. Everyone should thrive to walk in the love of God, and also thrive to make sure we do not abuse God’s love by living Godless lives. We must make sure we make the most of God’s love by leading lives that are built around the presence of the LORD.
One major characteristic of a life built around the presence of the LORD is what he or she does each morning before facing the day’s activity; he or she does prayer that makes his or her heart touch God.
People who build their lives around God strife to make sure their hearts touch God each morning before going out to face any activity of the day.
Sometimes you hear that people are praying and you ask yourself what type of prayer are they praying, because, for many, praying, even if it is empty, carnal and very powerless or Godless, is prayer. They expect people to walk in great results praying empty, carnal and very powerless or Godless prayers.
That is why you find so called praying people falling into calamities.
You will ask someone, “did you pray this morning” and they will say yes. Yet, you can’t see the result of effective prayers in their lives.
For instance, there are believers who are loud and noisy in prayers, speaking in tongues at every slightest provocation, but there is no iota of truth or an ounce of God’s manifest presence in their lived.
Their hearts are dark and very dark.
They may not be involved in any sexual sins or any other spectacular sins that those we can sinners commit, but they are much worse, despite their churchiness or spirituality, because of the capabilities of wickedness in their hearts.
YOU WILL FEEL A DIVINE IRRITATION IN YOUR SPIRIT EACH TIME YOU ARE PRAYING ALONGSIDE SOME OF THEM.
I remember asking myself some time ago, “why can’t I pray with this person? Why do I do well in prayer only when I am praying alone?”
There are people who are just white washed tombs like the Pharisees, they have a Pentecost display of religiosity, fasting, praying and all that but inwardly they have so much capabilities of wickedness.
They put on the face of a kind and humble person but are very wicked at heart.
I had a session with a woman who had a terrible encounter with an apostle Kimani follower who hate me with passion. She said the leaders in that church spread the hate in a session they had with them.
The lady who attacked her was there and soaked the hate they spewed on me, and began to apply it on all who have anything to do with Christ, so long as they have something good to say about me.
You can’t believe how they appeared publicly as saints but privately do what even Satan may not do.
It is so sad that we have people everywhere today who claim to be prayerful people but have the capability of despicable wickedness.
Thats why I said, any prayer that is not changing your heart is madness, even if it is bringing the results you desire. You are having an intercourse with the spirit of hell, who also answer prayers.
Sometimes, the unbeliever out there is better than the Christian inside the Church. The most terrible Christians today have become praying Christians. But it ought not to be like that. They see demons in everything and everyone.
Prayfulness is not a sign that you are a Child of God. Correcting doctrinal errors should not make a genuine child of GOD hate the preacher God may be using to do so. But these ones, hmmm…
A genuine child of God does not capabilities of wickedness. In fact, he or she will have the capabilities of righteousness.
People take prayer to be a religious show you display to convince people that you are spiritual or you are of GOD. Consequently, leading very empty and wicked lives.
SUCH LEVEL OF HYPOCRISY WILL MAKE YOUR LIFE VULNERABLE TO DEVILS AND UNCLEAN SPIRITS.
That is why they are spiritually attacked by demons and kept on their empty prayer knees, drinking oil and using some to anoint places and people. People do not know that devils stick to people because of the nature of their hearts.
That is why, You may not be as prayerful, just have a pure heart and devils will be far away from you. It is the concealed capabilities of wickedness in people’s hearts that keep demons closer to them.
For so many Pentecostals with very wicked hearts, the demons will remain on their case and the oil in their hands, until they become children of God indeed. They will never have the comfort of the Holy Spirit that keep devils out of our lives.
That reminds me!
For those who may not know, we are on a 31-day journey of faith with the Cry of the Holy Spirit. This time around we are looking at the Blessed Holy Spirit Himself. We have seen quiet some truths and more will be unfolded.
Having the Holy Spirit in our lives as a friend, companion, comrade and all God has to offer is the greatest thing that can happen to us. God promised that He will pour out His Spirit on all flesh. The reason is because of the necessity of having Him in our lives.
As we saw in previous devotionals. When He comes, His number one priority will be to put our lives in order, and for Him to do that our hearts have to be worked on.
BUT THERE ARE THOSE WHO RESIST HIM AT HEART AND BY THE WAY THEY LIVE.
Stephen, one of the fire brands to have come out of the early Church, had an encounter with a breed in his days, with hearts that resist the Holy Spirit. He said to them;
“You stubborn and stiff-necked people, still heathen and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are always actively resisting the Holy Spirit. As your forefathers [were], so you [are and so you do]!
Which of the prophets did your forefathers not persecute? And they slew those who proclaimed beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, Whom you now have betrayed and murdered—
You who received the Law as it was ordained and set in order and delivered by angels, and [yet] you did not obey it!
Now upon hearing these things, they [the Jews] were cut to the heart and infuriated, and they ground their teeth against [Stephen].” Acts 7:51-54 AMPC
Off course, the young warrior was stoned to death shortly after this delivery.
A breed of believers who are saved with their lips but are still heathen or uncircumcised at heart, ears, and etc. will always actively resist the Holy Spirit like these men did. In fact, they will resist Him while speaking in tongues, praying or fasting. That is how bad it can be.
Like the Pharisees and teachers of the law did in this scripture, people who resist the Holy Spirit will rather stone you than open up their hearts to receive what He may be saying through you, especially when they have accepted the counterfeit in His place, and are using olive oil as His symbol.
Jesus called them hypocrites because their hypocrisy will not let the LORD have His way in their lives.
You see, God will never put His Holy Spirit on the life of a hypocrite. That is why they will keep using the oil and not be able to enjoy the comfort of the Holy Spirit. They will be attracting the counterfeit holy spirit to their lives, and using olive oil to cover up, calling it the symbol of the Holy Spirit.
HYPOCRISY IS THE COSTLIEST WAY TO LIVE A CHRISTIAN LIFE. IT CAN COST SOMEONE EVEN THEIR LIVES LIFE. IT COST ANANIAS AND SAPHIRA THEIR LIVES.
They died like dogs in one day in one church service. If they had kids, they made them orphans in one day. They filled the hearts of their loved ones with pain.
Hypocrisy can take away your life. It is more costly than many of us think.
At its advanced level, it speaks like the voice of God to people and lead them to empty fasting and prayers. It transmits an okay feeling to them while they are not actually okay.
In the days of Christ, it prevented the Pharisees from embracing the savior. It made them feel that all was well with their spiritual lives while all was not.
They saw themselves as the best religious elites on the face of the earth. But 40 years later, them and that Generation, were wiped away. Jesus saw it coming and wept. Meaning, GOD weeps over our hypocrisy because of what lies ahead.
Our devotional text put what happened this way;
“And as He approached, He saw the city, and He wept [audibly] over it,
Exclaiming, would that you had known personally, even at least in this your day, the things that make for peace (for freedom from all the distresses that are experienced as the result of sin and upon which your peace—your security, safety, prosperity, and happiness—depends)! But now they are hidden from your eyes.
For a time is coming upon you when your enemies will throw up a bank [with pointed stakes] about you and surround you and shut you in on every side.
And they will dash you down to the ground, you [Jerusalem] and your children within you; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, [all] because you did not come progressively to recognize and know and understand [from observation and experience] the time of your visitation [that is, when God was visiting you, the time in which God showed Himself gracious toward you and offered you salvation through Christ]. Luke 19:41-44 AMPC
The main reason Jesus wept here was because of what hypocrisy and religiosity had done to the people. It had prevented them from embracing the things that were made for their peace by blindfolding them spiritually from seeing and appreciating them.
It prevented them from recognizing, knowing and understanding by observe and experience their day of divine visitation.
The amplified version describes the things that make for their peace as things made for their “freedom from all the distresses that are experienced as the result of sin” and things upon which their “personal Peace, security, safety, prosperity, and happiness, depends upon.”
One of the major things that is made for our peace today is the outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon our lives and a healthy relationship with Him. It will put our lives in order and deliver us from all the distresses that are experienced as a result of sin.
It will also help us understand our days of visitation and salvation.
FRIEND, MAKE THE BLESSED HOLY SPIRIT YOUR MOST PRIZED POSSESSION IN LIFE, AND YOU WILL ENJOY THE MOST OF HEAVEN ON EARTH.
Keep your life pure for His sake. Wake up in the morning, talking to Him like a Father or a friend. He is ever ready for us.
There is more we will learn on this journey that will be of help. But at this point, you must understand that the Holy Spirit is all we need today. But the way we live our lives can build a resistance against Him and prevent His works from being made manifest in our lives.
It can prevent Him from living in us, leading to having the counterfeit instead of the reality of Him. It is when we have the counterfeit of Him that we become comfortable with using symbols and all that we call prophetic acts and timeless ordinances.
Let it be established in your heart that your personal peace, security, safety, prosperity, and happiness in life will depend on how you treat the Holy Spirit, the source of all that. It will never depend on how you use the Oil your pastor gives you.
So, throw that thing away and embrace the Holy Spirit.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“As the hart pants and longs for the water brooks, so I pant and long for You, O God. My inner self thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?
My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, Where is your God?” Psalm 42:1-3 AMPC