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As I shared in the last devotional,  after 400 years of oppression, the Israelites lost their identity as God’s special children, and instead they settled to be slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt. Under relentless pressure, they were vexed, which caused them to forget about who they were in God’s eyes.

Reclaiming Our Identity

In order to combat vexation, we need to reclaim our identity in Christ. 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,  just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,  having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. Ephesians 6:3-6

The Bible tell us that the Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His purposes in the life of His children remain the same regardless of difficulties. If we continue to walk in the Lord’s ways, there is nothing that can separate us from His love! If we have fallen in sin due to discouragement, we should repent and ask the Lord for forgiveness, so we can maintain the right relationship with the Lord.

Our spiritual blessings and our place in God’s kingdom is reserved for us, and it is unshakable. The Lord is continually at work  in us to form the image of Jesus and to produce the fruit of the spirit in our lives. We are no longer orphans, but we are adopted as God’s children, and He has taken personal responsibility to develop us into the original purpose that He created us for. This is God’s pleasure and His delight!  

The Lord accepts us as His beloved and dearly loved children. Because He is love, He continues to embrace us with His acceptance because He is not intimidated by our flaws. Instead, He has a long-term plan to see our issues dissolved in the ocean of His love and surrendered at the Cross.

These truths establish the identity of God’s children and solidify the truth that the Lord has not forgotten about them. Today. spend some time meditating on the scripture and who you are in Christ. Don’t allow the circumstances of life or the people around you to derail you from your true identity. You are His, and He has the ultimate say in your life!

We are closer to the end times more than ever before, and that means there will be more darkness in the world. The scripture tells us that people’s hearts will be hardened.  The ripple effect of hardened hearts brings about suffering and oppression to those subjected to it. This leads to vexation. 

How our fathers went down into Egypt, and we have dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians vexed us, and our fathers: Numbers 20:15 (KJV)

According to Strong’s dictionary, the following are some of the definitions of Vexation:

To spoil (literally, by breaking to pieces); figuratively, to make (or be) good for nothing, i.e. bad (physically, socially or morally):—afflict, break (down, in pieces), displease.

The Israelites had been under slavery for about 400 years in Egypt! That’s a long time! The blessed children of Israel who immigrated to Egypt under the protection of Joseph were long gone. For the new generation of Israelites, the promises that God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would have sounded like a fantasy or a myth when recounted. Now these special people were not so special anymore. As a matter of fact, they were despised by the Egyptians and were in bondage to pagan leaders who led Egypt.

The Israelites came to Egypt to escape the famine that was going on in their country, but now they were experiencing a different form of famine. They had a famine of hope and identity as a result of being slaves in a foreign land. This experience broke down the Israelites’ identity, injured their spirit, soul, and body, and vexed them. They became weary, and many of them could not see the light at the end of this dark tunnel. Suffering seemed to be their identity and destiny, and they had no way of rising above this oppression.

Have you ever felt vexed by the circumstances of life? This could be a financial situation, a tough marriage, or a difficult family member or a friend. These types of situations are very difficult to deal with. Sometimes you may think that just speaking the truth would fix the situation, but you find that it actually makes the matters worse. If you try to withdraw, you realize that you would lose a relationship with someone you dearly love. On the other hand, you cannot accept the relationship the way it is.

Sometimes we may feel powerless to change the situation, or we may not willing to accept the consequences of that change. At other times, we may feel stuck and not know how to get out of the bad situation, so we just surrender ourselves and accept that nothing can be done about it. Those are the kinds of situations that bring vexation.

Vexation sucks faith out of the life of the believer and makes one feel helpless and powerless about the circumstances. When one is weary, it is easier to give in to the oppression and pressure, and the spirit of vexation becomes stronger in oppressing and injuring one’s identity and hope.

Is there anything that is vexing you right now? Are you feeling hopeless and oppressed? Begin identifying those areas of vexation and bring them to the Lord.

I will continue with this subject in the next devotional.

Year ago, I heard a statistic that for every new church that is planted, three churches close down.  I wonder if God attempted to prune them, but they resisted it. Just as the Lord prunes an individual’s life, He also has a pruning process for a church body.  If we are not sensitive to God’s activity, we lose the opportunity for God to heal, restore, strengthen, and make the body fruitful again. 

In some ways, a church plant is easier to go through than a pruning process. When a new church body begins, those who come together have a vision from God, and they try to establish the ministry from the ground up the best way they can. While there might be hiccups along the way, the experience is full of excitement, change, and transformation as new people come to the house of God, get saved, delivered, and begin a new walk with the Lord. Over the years, relationships get established, ministries develop, and traditions are created. Those can all be good things until they dampen the courage to do what God is asking for a church to do. 

Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” Matthew 9:17

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8

Jesus spoke about the fact that new wine has to be poured into new wineskins. Jesus came with a new move of God on the earth and the old wineskins would not have been able to contain the gospel. People had to let go of their old mindsets that were established on the Levitical Law and the associated rituals and ceremonies and embrace the message of salvation through the cross.

I wonder how we would have responded to Jesus’ message as a Jewish person at that time!? Could it be that in the name of being faithful to God and honoring our traditions, some of us could have rejected the gospel? It took courage for those who forsook their old wineskins to follow Jesus. Following the New Testament era, God continued to move upon His people in different ways in various seasons of history for His purpose. For example, Martin Luther had to challenge and forsake the Catholic teachings that twisted God’s word to benefit the Popes’ pockets. This cost Luther everything, but it opened the door for people to hear the truth from someone in power!

When Jesus spoke to the seven churches in John’s vision in the book of Revelation, His overall message was that the churches tried to do good, but they either strayed from their first love or allowed mixture with sin. I would imagine that those churches did not intend to disobey God outright, but their disobedience came by gradual compromise and fear of offending leaders or members. Maybe their sense of loyalty blinded them in protecting what God desired to cut off. 

If we are going to stay in step with God, we must listen to His voice and allow Him to take away anything that cannot be part of the new season. This requires paying attention to His voice rather than being comfortable with our ways. Most people don’t like to rock the boat because the consequence of that could be the loss of relationships or ministry.

If the Lord shows us something is not fruitful any longer or causing harm to the body of Christ, we must be courageous enough deal with it. This means allowing God to prune what He deems necessary to be pruned. This would be difficult and painful, but the alternative would be to stay in comfort and reject God’s leading to become healthy again. The truth is that most churches don’t die overnight, but they die a slow death because they neglect the promptings of the Lord when He asks something that is hard.

We live in a culture that is focused on success and increase. The only thing that people might be interested in losing is weight, but they are not interested in any decrease in lifestyle, wealth, comfort, or pleasure.

He must increase, but I must decrease. John 3:30

The word “decrease” in the above scripture is about decreasing in popularity and authority. How many people would willingly want to decrease in popularity or authority!? Many Christians pray the above prayer,  but I am not sure if they truly have grasped the consequences of declaring it in their lives. This scripture invites a difficult pruning that gives room for God to cut off what is unnecessary or harmful in the life of a believer.

The ministry of John the Baptist had become popular, but once Jesus’ ministry began, he knew that his ministry would have to take a backseat to what Jesus was doing. If John the Baptist had not chosen to decrease, it could have brought confusion to the people. Furthermore, John the Baptist was in need of the Savior as well. Therefore, he had the courage to be in tune with God and accept that his ministry had an expiration date. Unfortunately, he was killed during the years of Jesus’ ministry. Nevertheless, during the season that John was alive, he chose to decrease in popularity and authority in order to point people to Christ.

Sometimes believers are so bent on fighting the devil that they are resisting God’s pruning process. In the process, they fight to keep things  in their lives that God wants to prune. Pruning is a serious matter, and if Lord desires to cut something out of our lives, we should pay attention to it. The devil wants to steal something, but God prunes with a purpose! To distinguish the difference, we need to seek the Lord not our emotions. When we abide in Him and remain neutral, we can gain the Lord’s mind  about the situation and give Him room to work the way He desires.

The good news is that God’s pruning lasts only for a season and then the new life appears! Pruning allows us not to rely on external factors such as our image, wealth, or position for our identity or confidence, but it allows our roots to go deeper in God! When the new season brings fresh growth in our lives, we have the opportunity to have increase of spiritual fruit that tastes so much better!

Do you want greater fruitfulness in your life? Do you allow God to prune what is unnecessary, fruitless, or diseased?

The Lord has set His pruning principles in creation, so we can learn from them. The pruning in vegetation is a reassurance to help His children not to become discouraged or disillusioned when pruning occurs. A pruned plant/tree does not stay pruned forever, and as soon as the season changes the new growth reappears.

In my research, I found that there were several benefits for pruning trees. First, pruning makes trees healthy because it allows their root to grow stronger. The stronger root system allows the trees to hold up to the storms better. Spiritually speaking, when we go through pruning, we have a tendency to get closer to the Lord. We don’t have all the busyness or the distractions around us to keep us from being focused on the Lord. In addition, we find ourselves in greater need of Him, and we have a greater degree of desperation to gain His comfort and His reassurance in the pruning season.

This shall be a sign to you:

The Link: https://www.angieslist.com/articles/6-reasons-why-you-should-prune-your-trees.htm

Every gardner understands the value of pruning because they have seen the result of that process in their garden. God in His infinite wisdom uses the pruning process to allow us to grow and to come into our full potential.The Lord’s pruning is not pleasant, but the ultimate result of pruning produces far more fruitfuness than before.

Pruning brings about deep and severe change. While some may claim that they enjoy change in life, most of us want to be in control of the change. We want to determine the extent and the speed of change in our lives. However, the Gardener is the expert and He does not ask His vine about the extent of the change desired.  Our decision is to either accept the process of pruning and allow God to do His work or to resist Him and remain comfortable. The problem with being comfortable is that eventually can lead to complacency.

Rise up, you women who are at ease,
Hear my voice;
You complacent daughters,
Give ear to my speech.
In a year and some days
You will be troubled, you complacent women;
For the vintage will fail,
The gathering will not come. Isaiah 32:9-10

The King James Version translates the word “complacent” as  “careless”. Complacency breathes carelessness. If we want God’s best, we can’t remain complacent. Complacency is about having false security. It is about putting trust in something that will not bear fruit.

When a rose bush is pruned, we know that the bush is going to look very ugly for a couple of months before the new life grows sprouts. In the immediate time, a tree/bush that is not pruned looks much better than the one that was pruned.  It takes courage and humility not to be worried about what others think and allow God to do what He desires to cut off those branches that are not fruitful in our lives. If we are too worried about our image and what people will think of us, we may use carnal means to resist the pruning process. 

The above scripture explains that the crop expected was not going to appear the following year due to complacency. The consequence of not being pruned is not seen right away. It may take months or years, but we will eventually feel discontentment developing in our lives. We may not be able to put our finger on it, but we realize that we are not happy with where we are at. We’re too afraid of losses, so we settle for a discontented life and keep acting and living as if we are satisfied!

Are you experiencing a change that is directed by the Lord? Are you resisting change in this season of your life? Can you trust Him that He is doing a good work in your life through the pruning process?

The Lord is compassionate towards all that He has made and Jesus was compassionate towards others. Similarly, God calls us to be compassionate towards people.

Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.  Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion.  So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.  On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’  So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?”  And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” Luke 10:30-37

Definition of Compassion (According to Strong’s Concordance): to love, love deeply, have mercy, be compassionate, have tender affection, have compassion.

Compassion makes us feel something deep inside of us for others. There is a tender affection that moves us into action. It takes us out of the routine of responsibility and obligation and allows our spirit man and soul to come alive by feeling something for others.

The Good Samaritan story shows that compassion overcame prejudice and hatred. The Samaritan man helped someone whom he could have considered his enemy. From a spiritual standpoint, the priest and the Levite should have reached out to him, but they were too busy fulfilling their obligations that they had no time or heart for this man. On the other hand, no one would have expected the Samaritan to help due to the racial and cultural differences. 

Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. John 4:9

The woman at the well was surprised with Jesus talking to her because the Jewish people did not interact with Samaritans. The Jewish people looked down up the Samaritans because of intermarriage that made them a mixture of races. The Assyrian kings tried to breakdown ethnic distinctions and loyalty towards a particular race during the time when they had the Jewish people under their captivity (See 2Kings 17:24). The Jewish people considered themselves as genuine article and God’s chosen people.

The truth is that man in his nature may have a long list of criteria for the acceptable type of people that he/she wants to associate with. Generally, those factors are tied to external factors such as race, education, socioeconomic status, etc. This causes our heart to be open and compassionate only towards those that we consider worthy or that we prefer to receive help from. However, when a person falls on hard times, those issues suddenly become immaterial and one appreciates whoever helps them.

Jesus shared the Good Samaritan story to show that we are more vulnerable than we think we are, and God can use unlikely individuals to show us compassion. Pride rejects, neglects, and discriminates, but compassion heals, cares, and develops community. Loving our neighbor would be evident by our acts of love, compassion, and generosity. Having a heart of compassion softens our hearts and allows the life of God to fill us with love and tenderness towards others again. Let’s embrace compassion and pray that the Lord would increase it in our lives!

Our world needs Godly compassion more than ever. People carry around many offenses that leads to their hardened hearts. The natural reaction is to be either indifferent or reciprocate the hostility. However, our supernatural response is to show a heart of compassion towards those who are hurting even though their attitude is something less than desirable!

For their heart was not steadfast with Him,
Nor were they faithful in His covenant. But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity,
And did not destroy them.
Yes, many a time He turned His anger away,
And did not stir up all His wrath;
For He remembered that they were but flesh,
A breath that passes away and does not come again. Psalm 78:37-39

The above word “compassion” is primarily reserved for God. The Lord has the capacity to be compassionate towards all that He has made, and His dealings with people are not rote or out of duty. He has committed Himself to be in covenant with those who receive His son, and His heart is always moved with compassion towards His children. We all have disobeyed God numerous times, but God has not ceased to show us compassion. I am so thankful that the Lord is deeply merciful and long-suffering towards us.  Where would we be without God’s loving compassion!?

Do you see God’s compassion towards you? Have you recognized His mercy when you did not deserve it and could not earn it with your own efforts? God’s compassion and mercy softens us as His children and gives us a heart of compassion towards others who suffering. 

And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things. Mark 6:34

Jesus’s ministry was full of passion and compassion. He was passionate towards God and compassionate towards people. He saw people as sheep that needed a shepherd. There were times that He wept for others seeing them in their lost state. Jesus had compassion on those with no shepherd and taught them the truth, which they should have learned from their leaders. His intent was to show the heart of the Father to the destitute and the needy.

Leading God’s people requires a heart of compassion. Leaders should be good teachers who try to help the sheep to grow strong in their faith and to not get devoured by the enemy. Compassion allows us to be gentle and meek with people. Having compassion does not mean that we compromise the truth, it only means that we have tenderness in our hearts in the way we communicate and reach the person. 

Do you have a heart of compassion towards others? If not, we can pray that we would recognize God’s compassion towards us and that the Lord would soften our hearts with mercy and compassion towards others! The world needs compassionate and truthful Christians! 

Another sphere that the Bible speaks about is the civil government. Every society needs a form of civil governance to ensure that there are proper boundaries, so that everyone can live in peace and protection from external harm. If we keep the right priorities in self governance, family governance, and church governance, there will be fewer reasons to look to civil government to legislate multitude of laws for the various ailments in society. Below are a couple of scriptures in regards to civil government.

“Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men— as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.” 1Peter 2:13-17

Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 1Timothy 2:1-4

These letters were penned when the Jewish people were under the Roman empire, and the new Christians were being persecuted unjustly in the hands of the religious and governmental leaders. The scriptures show that the role of civil government is to be just and fair. It has a responsibility to punish the violators (evildoers) in order to protect the innocent from harm. It is our job to make it a priority to pray for our governmental leaders, so we can live peaceful lives. The power of civil government should be constrained, but when all the other spheres of government are weak, sadly, people look to government to seek solutions for those failures. 

In the above scripture, Peter calls the Christians to honor the king. It also speaks about not using our freedom as a cloak for vice. Unfortunately, some Christians have fallen in the carnal trap of believing that they are free to choose when to give honor. The world has two main messages about honoring those who lead: First, leaders only deserve honor if they like them or agree with them; second, since they live in a democracy, they have the right to criticize, demean, or label the leaders in order to bring awareness to the problems at hand. In truth those who operate in this manner, may have a pattern of dishonor towards parents, spouses, bosses, and pastors. This is not about who is in power, but it is about our trust in God and knowing that God allows people come to power.

Furthermore, democracy gives the opportunity for each person to vote, but once someone is in the office,  we should all pray for them, honor them, and support their efforts to make our nation better regardless of how we feel about them. We should also be fair in acknowledging those actions/policies that have been beneficial to the country. When/if we don’t agree with certain policies, we have avenues such as protesting, writing to our elected leaders, or joining a civic organization to do something about the bad policies. 

As believers, our hope is not in civil government, but we understand its necessity. A good government allows us to have liberty and peace, so we can freely make decisions for ourselves and our families. Keeping the right perspective of civil government will allow us not to get sucked in by the chaos present in the political arena. We should always remind ourselves that the civil government is carnal and while it is necessary, it cannot take the place of our allegiance to Jesus and our Godly response in the midst of division and chaos. 

The next sphere of government that God has established is the church government. The Lord has instituted the church to be the pillar of righteousness on the earth. Christians form the body of Christ and each member of the body contributes to the health and growth of the body of Christ.  Jesus gave us the Great Commission before He was taken up to heaven.

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-19

Jesus has called every believer to proclaim the Good News and tell others about God’s mercy and grace through His son. The Lord expects us to disciple those who believe, so they can grow in their relationship and walk with Jesus. When each of us take part in reaching others and inviting them to receive Jesus by faith, we get involved in the business of restoration of lives and society. We co-labor to see God redeem what was lost in the garden of Eden. Those who repent have the opportunity to learn self-government and to allow their lives, their marriages, and their families to be restored by God’s love, grace, and power!

“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.” Ephesians 4:11-16

The church government provides the authority and the structure to train and instruct people in righteousness, so they can be salt and light in a dark world. The church government allows the body of Christ to function effectively as each member is joined and connected to others and operates in their calling and gifting. The body of Christ helps individuals to grow and mature spiritually by feeding them the word of God. It also strengthens marriages, and trains parents in raising the next generation for the glory of God. In addition, the church is called to help the sick, the poor, the orphan, and the widows.

We are called to be a sweet aroma of Christ in our communities and to draw people to the Savior. The church is the representative of the Lord on the earth, and it is called to be the standard bearer in the society. That standard is to be preached from the pulpit, and it should be also lived out by those who confess to be the followers of Christ.

When you have an opportunity to visit the Bible Museum in Washington DC, you find that those who believed have made a remarkable impact in education, science, medicine, government, prison, and humanitarian efforts. Many Christians have sacrificed their lives and been martyred for their faith to see their communities changed for the glory of God! While our ultimate destination is heaven, our lives and our just actions should change the society for the better. 

The true change that people in society are seeking, will not come from legislating new laws, but it comes from regeneration that the church is supposed to preach and live out. The church cannot hide behind its four walls, and neither should it water down the gospel message. When a church waters down the message to please people, it loses its power and effectiveness. This in turn causes the Church to lost respect and to be shunned by the very people it tried to please!