Watch Out!

Psalm 75:^5-7 “Don’t raise your fists in defiance at the heavens or speak with such arrogance.’” For no one on earth—from east or west, or even from the wilderness— should raise a defiant fist. It is God alone who judges; he decides who will rise and who will fall.”

We will kick off today’s devotional with our final thought from yesterday which is, never ever get to a place where you feel so big that you disdain God by disobeying His voice. A long time ago, a man came to my office talking very big, he said one of his many warehouses had goods worth over two billion in it. I said, ‘God has blessed you, praise God!’ It is God that blesses really. He said one of his wristwatches cost two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) and he has a collection of them. I said, ‘Congratulations!’. Then he said, ‘But I do not pay tithe.’ Do not get me wrong, that is not what this is about. I do not preach tithe from a place of if you do not pay your tithe, God will kill you. But anything in you that will make you look at God and boast, that thing can kill you, so do not do it.

I said, ‘Okay’ and I prayed with him but as he was about to leave my office, he asked why I did not argue with him about tithing. He said any Pastor he tells that he does not pay tithe will open the Bible and argue with him. So, he was ready to enter an agreement with me. I said, ‘Why will I argue? God taught me how to tithe by Himself, and I have my scars. God will teach you how to tithe.’ He said, ‘Amen’… Well, I am praying that God will have mercy on him even till now. If you do not understand something, leave it alone. But never get to a place where you disdain God.

We are still on how stars are exchanged or transferred. So far, we have looked at two ways, the living dead and dying before your time. The third one is what I have called Patriarchal Manoeuvrings. In other words, the manoeuvrings of a Patriarch. In Genesis 48, Israel was about to die, and he was blessing all his children. He told Joseph that he was going to adopt Joseph’s own children and bless them directly, instead of blessing Joseph and then Joseph passes on the blessing to them when he is about to die. Genesis 48:^13-14 “Then he positioned the boys in front of Jacob. With his right hand he directed Ephraim toward Jacob’s left hand, and with his left hand he put Manasseh at Jacob’s right hand. But Jacob crossed his arms as he reached out to lay his hands on the boys’ heads. He put his right hand on the head of Ephraim, though he was the younger boy, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, though he was the firstborn.”

God is going to give you what is called a cross-hand blessing in the Mighty Name of Jesus. Firstly, these boys got their blessings a generation earlier, what they would typically have waited for a generation to get. So, both of them are blessed. The sons of Judah had to wait but the sons of Joseph entered straight into it. When Jacob crossed his hands, Joseph protested but Jacob assured him that he knew what he was doing. We will unpack this further tomorrow.

Prayer: Father, I ask for the grace to honour and obey You consistently, in Jesus Name. Amen!