TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 5TH DECEMBER 2022)
“The Lord is my Light and my Salvation—whom shall I fear or dread? The Lord is the Refuge and Stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?
When the wicked, even my enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
Though a host encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, [even then] in this will I be confident.
One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek, inquire for, and [insistently] require: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord [in His presence] all the days of my life, to behold and gaze upon the beauty [the sweet attractiveness and the delightful loveliness] of the Lord and to meditate, consider, and inquire in His temple.
For in the day of trouble He will hide me in His shelter; in the secret place of His tent will He hide me; He will set me high upon a rock.
And now shall my head be lifted up above my enemies round about me; in His tent I will offer sacrifices and shouting of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.” Psalm 27:1-6 AMPC
WELCOME TO THE 338TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
We remain grateful to the LORD for all His kindness in our lives. This is another beautiful day He has made. We shall rejoice and be glad in it.
Indeed, day unto day pours forth speech, and night unto night shows forth knowledge. Our GOD have been manifesting Himself to us, through this platform, as a God of knowledge. He has been providing for us that very thing He said we need in other not to be destroyed – knowledge. And it has been amazing!
This morning we are continuing from where we left off yesterday on this journey of faith.
We discovered yesterday that if the presence of God is not with a people of God, they will not be able to stand before their enemies. If you are named by the name of the LORD, you will need the presence of the LORD whose name you carry to thrive and succeed in a world that is constantly under the sway of the evil one.
The saints of Old valued the presence of God so much that they could go as far as removing from their lives anyone who makes it depart from them. That was what we found in the story of Achan.
That Bible figure represents people in our lives who will not live right for God’s presence to do right things in our lives.
It also represents secret sins and hypocrisy. Both are very dangerous because of the active presence of GOD that they expel us from over time. I think it will be important to look at them this morning, because for many of us they are the very things that are hindering us from living in God’s active presence.
Let us begin with the terrible consequences of hypocrisy on our lives.
Hypocrisy is one thing that will never allow any to have or live in God’s active presence. In fact, from what Jesus said it will not just plant our lives within the coverage area of the spirit of hell, it will make men sons of hell. That can be found in one of the woes He pronounced on the Pharisees when He came on earth.
THE BIBLE SAYS HE SAID TO THEM;
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces; for you neither enter yourselves, nor do you allow those who are about to go in to do so.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you swallow up widows’ houses and for a pretense to cover it up make long prayers; therefore you will receive the greater condemnation and the heavier sentence.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you travel over sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes one [a proselyte], you make him doubly as much a child of hell (Gehenna) as you are.” Matthew 23:13-15 AMPC
The word woe means judgement. One of the judgments of hypocrisy is the judgment of losing the active presence of GOD and becoming a child of hell over time.
There is hell as a place, and there is hell as a spirit. But here we can see that there is also hell as a person. Hypocrites who engage in what we call the work of GOD will produce hell as people. Children of hell will be what they will produce as spiritual sons and daughters.
Sadly, because of hypocrisy, many believers today have been ‘growing’ from children of God to sons of hell.
A son of hell is someone who has all the look of a believer in Christ but is not by nature a Child of God. He or she may be able to pray, fast, sing, even preach, sometimes where necessary or work for God, and be able to give sacrificially, but will not be able to carry the active presence of God, like a true child of GOD should.
Children or sons of hell have a lot of interesting characteristics. They run after titles to enhance their value among men, they seek for attention in church, they pretend a lot, they crave for exalted positions, they exalt themselves, they are self-righteous, and can do anything to gain the admiration of men but are not in tune with GOD.
If you are the kind of a believer who is living in the shallow places of the Spirit, or one who can easily be carried away by outward appearance, you will call sons of hell faithful children of GOD by reason of the church activities you see them engaged in.
THAT IS WHY YOU WILL NOT FIND THEM SIGNIFICANTLY BLESSED DESPITE ALL THEY DO ‘FOR’ GOD BECAUSE HE KNOWS THEIR HEARTS.
They struggle with the woe or judgement of not having the capacity to be truly in tune with GOD and carry His active presence, hence loosing the blessing despite all they do in church.
There are those who struggle with the or judgment of praying prayers that are empty and powerless, and constantly having an emptiness of spirit that they try to cover up or fill up with so much religious activities, like praying long prayers, engaging in long fast, or going for what will be presented as evangelism.
If we become hypocrites instead of being genuine children of GOD we will attract the woe of losing the active presence of GOD or lacking the consecration to live or carry His active presence in our lives. we must fight hypocrisy to a stand still.
Hypocrisy has been defined as a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles that one does not really possess. It is pretending to have moral values you do not really have or be someone you are not.
It is being saved by mouth not be spirit nature but presenting yourself as one who is saved and born again. It is being a prayer warrior publicly while you do not even have time for prayer at home. It is behaving like one who know GOD but is very far from Him by your character.
Talking about the hypocrites, the Bible says;
“They profess to know God [to recognize, perceive, and be acquainted with Him], but deny and disown and renounce Him by what they do; they are detestable and loathsome, unbelieving and disobedient and disloyal and rebellious, and [they are] unfit and worthless for good work (deed or enterprise) of any kind.” Titus 1:16 AMPC
From this scripture, we can see that Hypocrisy makes us unfit and worthless for any good work in God’s kingdom because of the woe it brings to over time. It makes one a son or child of hell.
Sadly, one of the major things we see in what Our LORD and savior Jesus Christ said is, when one become a son of hell, he may still be traveling and doing what looks like evangelism but the souls that will be won will not be made children of GOD.
THEY WILL RATHER BE MADE SONS OF HELL, AND TWICE THAT WAY LIKE THOSE WHO WON THEM TO ‘CHRIST.’
That is very tragic spiritually!
We must understand that in the beginning, it was people who could carry or live in the active presence of God that were ordained to preach the gospel not any one who could speak or present a teaching. You see that in the book of Acts.
The apostles could not preach until after securing and living in the active presence of God that came upon them in the day of Pentecost. In fact, Jesus requested that they do not preach until that happens.
They would go on to live their lives within the presence of God all their days and will not allow anything that will take them away from GOD’s active presence to have a root in their lives. Yes, they spent their days giving themselves entirely to prayer and to the ministering of the word, with hearts that were genuine, not with hearts they were hypocritic.
The reason God never sent those who cannot carry His active presence into the field is because if you get involve in the work of preaching the gospel when you cannot carry or dwell in God’s active presence, you will not be able to birth sons of God into the kingdom of God.
It takes men who stand in the presence of God to birth Christ in others while they preach, teach or prophesy in the name of the LORD. That is why as soon as one becomes a hypocrite, he or she become unfit for any good work in the Kingdom of God.
Sadly, they will remain in their positions in Church and still be doing what we call the work of God, causing a spiritual catastrophe in the lives of others. That is the cost of hypocrisy. But Secret sins work differently when it comes to matters of having the presence of the LORD.
While hypocrisy attracts a woe, persistent secret sins expels one from the active presence of GOD. That is why you will find David in scriptures praying unto the LORD, and requesting Him to deliver him from secret sins.
David was an old Testament Saint who knew how to cherish the presence of God in His life. That was why He went for the ark as soon as He became king over Israel, something Saul never considered. That could be why he lost favor with God in few years after becoming King.
WHEN IT COMES TO THE LIVING IN THE ACTIVE PRESENCE OF GOD, WE MUST AVOID SECRET SINS AT ALL COST.
A secret sin is a sin we commit outside the view of others. A sin we carefully conceal from the view or knowledge of others. It can be very devastating depending on its gravity. For instance, all that David did with Beersheba was secret sin. That was why no one knew about it. God had to reveal to his servant (the Prophet who came to confront David) in a vision.
Secrets sins in the lives of people are things others will never know until God reveal it to them. They can be very dangerous if they become persistent. The secret sins in the lives of the sons of Eli and their father’s covering it was what led to Ichabod in the land of Israel. An entire nation was expelled from the active presence of GOD.
The glory of the LORD departed after a season of divine warnings, then death, destruction, and defeat set in. You read all that in 1 Samuel chapters 2 to 6. Israel lost the ark to the Philistines and stayed without it until David became king. That was how devastating it was.
If we understand the protective edge that we lose in the spirit if we allow Hypocrisy or secret sins to enter our lives, we will fight the two with all our might and make sure they do not have a place in our lives.
OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT SAYS;
“The Lord is my Light and my Salvation—whom shall I fear or dread? The Lord is the Refuge and Stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?
When the wicked, even my enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
Though a host encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, [even then] in this will I be confident.
One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek, inquire for, and [insistently] require: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord [in His presence] all the days of my life, to behold and gaze upon the beauty [the sweet attractiveness and the delightful loveliness] of the Lord and to meditate, consider, and inquire in His temple.
For in the day of trouble He will hide me in His shelter; in the secret place of His tent will He hide me; He will set me high upon a rock.
And now shall my head be lifted up above my enemies round about me; in His tent I will offer sacrifices and shouting of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.” Psalm 27:1-6 AMPC
This scripture presents a list of what we lose if we allow secrets sins or hypocrisy to enter into our lives. No blessing we find in it will be possible in our lives if we lose the active presence of the LORD!
We will lose protection against our enemies. Meaning, they will no longer stumble and fall when they come against us. Experiencing the LORD as our refuge and stronghold will no longer be possible. Any host that encamps against us will defeat us successfully.
We will never experience GOD as our shelter again, neither will He be able to hide us in the secret place of the tent of His presence any longer, making it impossible for our head to be lifted above our enemies.
God sent this word this morning to request that we turn from hypocrisy, confess and forsake our secret sins, so that we will not lose His active presence in our lives. And if we do not have His active presence, the word came to request that we clean up our lives by taking away any secret sins and hypocrisy from our personal lives so that we can all have a peg in His Holy place.
The Holy Spirit is available to help us all if we sincerely seek Him in prayer and fasting for help!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY.
“Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.
Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.” Psalm 19:12-14 NKJV