RHAPSODY OF REALITIES DAILY DEVOTIONAL

FRIDAY 21ST AUGUST 2020

PST .CHRIS

THE “LITTLE CLOUD” MEANS SOMETHING .

And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not (1 Kings 18:44).

Oftentimes, many are too worried and overwhelmed by their problems and the circumstances of their lives to notice the blessings of God around them. The answer or miracle they need may already be in the little signs or details around them which they’re not discerning enough to observe.

But notice something different about the Prophet Elijah in our opening verse: After three and a half years of drought, he began praying to God for the heavens to open and bring forth rain. As he prayed, he sent out his servant several times to check if the rains were coming. Each time, the young man returned with a negative report, saying, “No, master, there’s no sign of rain outside.”

At the seventh time, however, he came back saying, “I’m not sure if it counts for anything, but I see a ‘little cloud’ in the sky, the size of a man’s hand.” At this point, Elijah sprang to his feet and said, “Yes, that’s it!” and immediately sent a message to King Ahab: “Quick, get into your carriage and head for the city before the rain stops you!”

Elijah’s servant only reported that he saw a little cloud, but that was all Elijah needed; he knew he had made progress. He was able to observe something different in the present state of affairs. Can you observe something different in your life today? Like Elijah, choose to see that “sign” of change as an indication that you already have the victory.

Don’t wait; immediately affirm, and keep affirming that you’re victorious in Christ. Keep declaring your victory, confident that God’s Word and His life in you has made you whole and brought perfection to your physical body, your life and circumstances.

Recognize the work of God in and around you and give Him glory. Refuse to allow your mind to be clogged with worries so you can hear God’s voice and discern His presence, beauty and signs. Like Elijah, see that you’ve made, and are making progress and impact through the subtle signs in your everyday life.

PRAYER

Dear Father, my spiritual eyes are open to recognize your wondrous works, see your glory, revel in your beauty, discern your presence and the visible and invisible signs you display even in the minutest details for my attention. With this consciousness, I walk in victory and triumph in every situation and circumstance, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

_We trust you have been blessed by this devotional. We invite you to make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life by praying thus:_

*_“O Lord God, I believe with all my heart in Jesus Christ, Son of the living God. I believe He died for me and God raised Him from the dead. I believe He’s alive today. I confess with my mouth that Jesus Christ is the Lord of my life from this day. Through Him and in His Name, I have eternal life; I’m born again. Thank you Lord, for saving my soul! I’m now a child of God. Hallelujah!”_*

Let us know that you made that declaration by sending a mail to info@rhapsodyofrealities.org


FURTHER STUDY

Zechariah 4:10
For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel [with] those seven; they [are] the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.

John 6:9-11 MSG
"There's a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But that's a drop in the bucket for a crowd like this." 10 Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." There was a nice carpet of green grass in this place. They sat down, about five thousand of them. 11 Then Jesus took the bread and, having given thanks, gave it to those who were seated. He did the same with the fish. All ate as much as they wanted.

DAILY SCRIPTURE READING

1-YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN
1 Corinthians 6 & Psalms 119:1-112

2-YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN
Colossians 1:9-18 & Jeremiah 6

Jesus Christ lashed out at Scribes,Pharisees, and MOGs... Teachers of the Law who were not chosen by God to Teach His people but assigned themselves as Teachers/gods over His people anyways.

It was only as part of the old Covenant that MOGs known as 'men of God' were set up to teach God's people, the descendants of Israel, about God's commandments and ways. However, the office was hijacked by men who took to installing themselves according to their own rules, as leaders over God's own people, setting themselves up as dictators over God's people where it God and matters that concern God. With His New Covenant, God declared that the office of MOGs null and void. Instead, as part of His new Covenant, God declared He alone will teach His flock about Himself.

So your MOGs, who pretend to be of Jesus Christ, were never set up as Teachers over God's people... they were simply meant to preach the good news of Jesus Christ to those who were not saved... not to install themselves as managers over those who were, but instead, these men have

1. Set themselves up as 'spiritual' leaders/authorities over Jesus Christ's flock

Matthew 20 vs 24-28 (ESV)
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25. So Jesus called the followers together. He said, “You know that the rulers of the non-Jewish people love to show their power over the people. And their important leaders love to use all their authority over the people.
26. But it should not be that way with you. Whoever wants to be your leader must be your servant.
27. Whoever wants to be first must serve the rest of you like a slave.
28. Do as I did: The Son of Man did not come for people to serve him. He came to serve others and to give his life to save many people.”

2. Spiritual 'Abbas over those they have been sent out to preach the good news of the Kingdom of God to

Matthew 23 vs 8-9
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8. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.[c]
9. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.

3. Planted themselves as go-betweens between God and His flock

Matthew 6 vs 24 (ERV)
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24. “You cannot serve two masters at the same time. You will hate one and love the other, or you will be loyal to one and not care about the other. You cannot serve God and Money[d] at the same time.

4. Established themselves as teachers teaching doctrines and traditions different from what Jesus Christ taught them

Matthew 23 vs 10-12
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10. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ.
11. The greatest among you shall be your servant.
12. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

5. To add insult to the pile, your MOGs add rules/commandments to the set of rules that God has set up for His people to obey.

Mark 7 vs 1-13 (ERV)
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1. Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem,
2. they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.
3. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly,[a] holding to the tradition of the elders,
4. and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.[c])
[b] 5. And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”
6. And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
“‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
7. in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

8. You leave the commandment of God and hold to the (doctrines and rules)** tradition of men.”
9. And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!
10. For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’
11. But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)[d]—
12. then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother,
13. thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

** substituted from another Bible translation for better understanding of what is impacted

If you study the Old Covenant Teachers of the Law, you will find that these were the same infractions Jesus Christ leveled against them while He was here on earth. And He did warn us, using the Old Covenant Teachers of the Law as examples, against men who would establish themselves in a similar manner over His own followers, all while pretending to come to us in the name of God.

I can go on but the truth is, your MOGs exist in direct disobedience to the very commandments of Jesus Christ. Peter, the apostle, warned people about ALL MOGs (False Prophets and Teachers), from about 2000 years ago.

2 Peter 2 vs 1-7 (ERV)
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1. In the past there were false prophets among God’s people. It is the same now. You will have some false teachers in your group. They will teach things that are wrong—ideas that will cause people to be lost. And they will teach in a way that will be hard for you to see that they are wrong. They will even refuse to follow the Master who bought their freedom. And so they will quickly destroy themselves.
2. Many people will follow them in the morally wrong things they do. And because of them, others will say bad things about the way of truth we follow.
3. These false teachers only want your money. So they will use you by telling you things that are not true. But the judgment against these false teachers has been ready for a long time. And they will not escape God who will destroy them.

4. When angels sinned, God did not let them go free without punishment. He sent them to hell. He put those angels in caves of darkness, where they are being held until the time when God will judge them.

5. And God punished the evil people who lived long ago. He brought a flood to the world that was full of people who were against God. But he saved Noah and seven other people with him. Noah was a man who told people about living right.

6. God also punished the evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He burned them until there was nothing left but ashes. He used those cities as an example of what will happen to people who are against God.
7. But he saved Lot, a good man who lived there. Lot was greatly troubled by the morally bad lives of those evil people. 8 This good man lived with those evil people every day, and his good heart was hurt by the evil things he saw and heard.