Wednesday July 24th, 2024
« Now Joshua was old, advanced in years. And the LORD said to him: “You are old, advanced in years, and there remains very much land yet to be possessed »
1And behold, a man of God went from Judah to Bethel by the word of the Lord, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.
2 Then he cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord, and said, “O altar, altar! Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, a child, Josiah by name, shall be born to the house of David; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men’s bones shall be burned on you.’ ”
3 And he gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign which the Lord has spoken: Surely the altar shall split apart, and the ashes on it shall be poured out.”
4 So it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, who cried out against the altar in Bethel, that he stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Arrest him!” Then his hand, which he stretched out toward him, withered, so that he could not pull it back to himself.
5 The altar also was split apart, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.
6 Then the king answered and said to the man of God, “Please entreat the favor of the Lord your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” So the man of God entreated the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored to him, and became as before.
7 Then the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.”
8 But the man of God said to the king, “If you were to give me half your house, I would not go in with you; nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place.
9 For so it was commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the same way you came.’ ”
10 So he went another way and did not return by the way he came to Bethel.
11 Now an old prophet dwelt in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel; they also told their father the words which he had spoken to the king.
12 And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” For his sons had seen which way the man of God went who came from Judah.
13 Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him; and he rode on it,
14 and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. Then he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” And he said, “I am.”
15 Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.”
16 And he said, “I cannot return with you nor go in with you; neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place.
17 For I have been told by the word of the Lord, ‘You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by going the way you came.’ ”
18 He said to him, “I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’ ” (He was lying to him.)
19 So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water.
20 Now it happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back;
21 and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord, and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you,
22 but you came back, ate bread, and drank water in the place of which the Lord said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’ ”
23 So it was, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, the prophet whom he had brought back.
24 When he was gone, a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the corpse.
25 And there, men passed by and saw the corpse thrown on the road, and the lion standing by the corpse. Then they went and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.
The problem with many Christians is that they are ‘seated’.
They think they have arrived, so they rest earlier than they should.
I have seen it happen now and again where a man or woman of God is doing so well for the Almighty God and the work of the Lord is prospering in his or her hands, then all of a sudden, the person decides to rest.
No more prayers at night, no more Bible study, no more self-sacrifice.
From the story of the young prophet in our Bible reading today, we see that there are many people who God wants to take to the sun, but they get to the moon and relax.
The moment a person decides to take a break from serving God and sits to rest, he or she begins to retrogress.
In Psalm 1:1, the Bible says that a Christian doesn’t walk in the counsel of the ungodly, stand in the way of sinners nor sit in the seat of the scornful.
The Bible goes from walking, to standing, to sitting; that is retrogression.
To be seated means you used to be a champion, but now you are irrelevant.
In 1 Samuel 10:1, Saul was captain; in 1 Samuel 16:14, he had become irrelevant (he was seated).
In Luke 15:11-19, the prodigal son was wealthy, but he rejoiced too soon and things became so bad that he sought to eat with pigs.
When we moved to the Redemption Camp (a spiritual retreat camp in Nigeria), we had just a few acres of land, then we bought some more and got to about thirty acres. After this, we bought a little more and by the time we got to about a hundred acres, people came to me and said, “What do you want to do with all this land?” The Almighty God woke me up one day and said, “What is wrong with you; are they the ones who called you? Are they the ones who brought you here?” I got up immediately. Today, the Redemption Camp in Western Nigeria alone is on about 30,000 acres of land and we have only just started.
Beloved, STAND UP!
It’s not yet time to rest.
You have not arrived at your destination yet, you have not reached where God is taking you to.
- Don’t stop praying, don’t stop working hard, don’t stop making sacrifices; God still has a lot in store for you.
Instead of Joshua to hear “Well done, my son” from God at the end of his sojourn on earth, God informed him that there was a lot he had left undone as seen in the memory verse of today.
God forbid that this will be the report you get when it is your turn, in Jesus’ name.
Application – Don’t relax until you reach the point God wants to take you to.
Author – Bishop Enoch Adejare Adeboye; General Overseer of the RCCG
Edited by Naomie Joseph
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