REBELLION
Psalm 95:1-11

God commanded King Saul to go and attack the Amalekites with a specific command that stated, “…Utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, and camel and donkey.” (1 Samuel 15:3) God’s command is God’s command and it cannot be diluted. God knows better than the one who delivers the message. King Saul went and destroy all but sparred the best sheep and oxen. Saul committed an act of incomplete obedience. Incomplete obedience is also a failure to obey God. In response to King Saul’s act of disobedience, the word of God came for him in through Samuel, “…Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king.”” (1 Samuel 15:22-23) Rebellion has its root in rejecting the word of God. Is it possible, in any way that you are having a trace of rebellion in your approach to the word of God? Rebellion is in line with witchcraft and it is a serious sin that causes rejection in the life of anyone that is rebellious. There is a way out of rebellion and that way is in hearing the voice of God; that is hearing what the word has to say or what the word of God is saying, “For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice: 8 “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion,As in the day of trialin the wilderness.” (Psalm 95:7-8) It is clear that worshiping God will always bring forth His voice in our direction. With the Word of God entering and us being able to hear His voice, hardness of the heart will not have its place. The children of Israel began to lose it because there was a failure to hear His voice. The devil is a liar that has been around for long and he knows what to take away so he can give what will take man away from God. Rebellion will not announce itself when it begins to solidify its footing in your life. When rebellion sets into a man, there will be a loss of the ways of God. Despite all that the Lord God did in bringing them out of the bondage in Egypt, the children of Israel entered into rebellion and became lost in the ways of God. To be lost in His ways is to gain an exit out of His rest.

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you not to work the work of a rebellious one.

JOURNEY OF LIFE
Genesis 19

Journey of life is about moving forward and not about getting stranded in the past. Whatever you cannot fix in the past do not fixate on it in the present. It is always better to allow the past be in the past. While in captivity of Babylon, Daniel moved forward by not allowing captivity to captivate him. Daniel a young man that loves the Lord, refrained from questioning God for the reason of being in captivity, “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.” (Daniel 1:8) He refused to be trapped in the past but to move forward and not get terminated. Daniel’s response gave him an instant blessing when the favor of God responded instantly, “Now God had brought Daniel into the favor and goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs.” (Daniel 1:9) The word of God is written for our learning and it is the source of getting the right instruction. As a believer, have you ever thought about the fact that hanging on to the past only drags you from moving into the future? Can you imagine one receiving a direct instruction from God and yet not moving forward with such a direction? Lot and his wife were in the position to let the past be past by moving to a new land and avoiding destructive destruction. The message that went forth for Lot and his wife was, “…Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.” (Genesis 19:17) The promise in the message was ‘escape’ and the condition was ‘do not look back’. God shows He always wants the best for His children by providing a way of escape from past to present or from destruction to deliverance. He gives us His best when loving Him is in place as a measure unto obedience. In this call of escape, Lot’s wife could not help but disobey when she, “…Looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.” (Genesis 19:26) To love God is to fear Him and to fear Him is to obey Him. Lot’s wife made a difficult choice by disobeying and looked back at what was in the past. In her looking back, she became history of permanent termination. Daniel’s love for the Lord could not allow him to dwell on the past but to move forward; to put the past behind and become a vessel that was greatly favored by God throughout his life. Where are you on your journey? Are you stepping forward or stepping backward? 

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you not to dwell on any way of the past but to keep you in your going forward.

AVOID STAGNATION
Genesis 11:31, 12:1-9

The land that God called Abraham to go to was the original destination of Terah, the father of Abraham. Genesis 11:31-32, “And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there. 32 So the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.” The same land of Canaan was the one that God eventually called Abraham to go. One could wonder what it was that caused Terah to start a journey and not get to the end of his journey. Terah did not plan to dwell in Haran but to get to Canaan. Could it have been that the comfort in Haran got Terah stagnated? Terah lived for two hundred and fifty years. With so many years on his side, he must have had enough wake-up calls to get him on track towards his original destination, but comfort (convenience) must have held him hostage in Haran. It was in the same Haran that God called Abraham to go out from there to the land of Canaan. In every promising journey of life, there is always a clear indication that multitude or comfort (convenience) will show up with the attempt cause distraction or denial from getting to the expected end. When Abraham was called, he was not to take with himself the entire multitude that Terah took with himself. God instructed Abraham, “Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3) Abraham left just as he was commanded by God. Have you entered into a journey where stagnation is beginning to show its face by way of convenience or multitude at your stop over? Stop over in your journey is not a final destination, do not dwell in stop over, put a stop to convenience, avoid multitude and move forward. Do not let your stop over overtake your final destination. God is a faithful God and He will see you through if you are willing to go through.

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you in getting to your expected end in the journey that you have embarked on.

END IN SIGHT?
Exodus 13:17-22

To those that went on the journey of the wilderness, it must have been as if the journey would never come to an end. Are you feeling the same on your journey of life? Do you question when all the confronting challenges will be over? On the journey of life, challenges will not be over neither shall they go, but the grace that is available is more than enough to make you grow over challenges. The issue of challenges can not be spelled out better than in Psalm 34:19, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.” God always honors His word and He will not fail to perform it. Interesting enough for the children of Israel, the Lord led them through the safest route. It was a route that avoided war with the forces of the enemy when they were not yet ready; a route that would prevent them from becoming captive at the hands of enemy. It was a route that took them from going back for the worst. Does that speak of your present route? Above all, God led them through a route where there would have been no reason for them to go back into the captivity of Egypt. Exodus 13: 17-18, “Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt. 18 So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt.” In their deliverance from entering a war route, they turned on to war of complaint and disobedience against the One that led them from bondage. The children of Israel could have taken the worst route, but they did not recognize it. As a result, they were unable to acknowledge what God had done as they turned to complaining and disobedience. Your situation could be much worse right now, consider yourself blessed and keep on trusting God. He knows the plans that He is having for you. His plan is not evil because He is not an evil God. It is written in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Today, encourage yourself in the Lord; let it be clear to you that God will get you to where He is taking you if you do not step out of His command.

Prayer for today: Let God know that you do not know the way and have Him take over your wilderness journey.