Devotional Details

THE CHILDREN’S BREAD

– Weekly Devotional

10^th. October 2022

SCRIPTURE:

“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.”

Malachi 3:8, NKJV.

Child of God, in this week’s devotional, I would love to visit a topic the Holy Spirit has been clearly telling me to talk or write about, which is about people, who are stealing from the LORD God; Stealing from His money bag- Robbing God!

I am not writing about Tithes and offerings, but rather, about how it is, that one is able to rob God, and steal from Him!

WHO ARE THOSE WHO STEAL FROM GOD?

1. The thieves who are not within the sheep-pen (those who we know as thieves and robbers as such is their way of life).
2. The thieves within the sheep-pen; Those in the pews, and those in the pulpit; The leaders!

 CAN ONE REALLY STEAL FROM GOD?

Is it possible to steal from the Only God, who is Almighty, and if yes, how can one pull such an act through? Yes, it is indeed possible to steal from the LORD GOD, Almighty! This is what very many people do these days, and have always done, without any form of remorse or shame. Some people, have become so proficient in this occupation of stealing from God Almighty, that they walk around with their ugly heads lifted high, for carrying out such heinous crime. The longer they carry out such wicked operation against the LORD God of Hosts without any consequences, the less respect they have for Him, and the deeper they delve into darkness, till they are fully over-taken by the spirits of theft and robbery! Subsequently, they end up becoming enemies of God as written in John 10:10. Child of God, that it is possible to steal from Him, does not mean that He could not have stopped you before you stole if He had wanted to, but as it is with the LORD God, He wants you to come to the realization of the evil, that you are doing against Him as He has given you, what it takes to distinguish between good and evil. He prefers, that you stop it on your own, before He either, punishes you for it, or the enemy destroys you through it, which almost always happens.

In this week’s devotional, I will be limiting my writing to theft and robbery within the sheep-pen (The Church!)

DIFFERENT WAYS TO STEAL FROM GOD

There are different ways people steal from God, not just through tithes and offerings:

• You steal from the LORD, when you pledge to do something for Him, should He bless you, and after He has blessed you, you on your part refuse to fulfill what you have vowed to Him!
• You have become a thief in the house of God, when you come into the ministry with your eyes, and mind fixed on how to use the ministry to enrich yourself!
• You are stealing from God’s money bag, if you are a man, or woman of God, and using the money of the LORD, to keep an extramarital affair thriving.
• You are robbing the LORD GOD OF HOSTS, if you call yourself a man, or woman of God, and instead of helping the poor and needy with the money you have received for that very purpose, you are rather fleecing the sheep and amassing wealth for yourself and your family, but only doing the bare minimum for the needy, if at all.
• You are someone placed in a position of leadership, where money flows to you, and through you, in order for you to do your duty to those, who need your help, but while ignoring your duty to the poor, and needy, who are in your house, family, state or nation, you are syphoning the money for yourself, and for your fellow partners in crime.
• You have become a thief, when you are consistently mis-using the money of the LORD God, which is meant to be used in a godly way, and for godly purposes.
• You are using the money entrusted into your care, or that you gained from His people to lure innocent children of God into your beds of adultery, fornication, and perversion, to defile their destinies because they are in need of money, or are submissive to the position that you are in.
• As a man or woman of God, you rob God, when you stretch out your hands and take any sheep (female or male) within the sheep-pen to have sexual relationship with them, when they are not your wife or husband- You have robbed God!

These, and many more, are ways that a person can rob God, or steal from Him!

THE GIMME! GIMME!! CONGREGANTS!!!

Having said all the above, I want us to be reminded that a laborer is also worthy of his wage, and that men, and women of God are human beings, who also have to survive. They have families, and personal responsibilities. They have the ministry work which they must carry out, and if the truth be told, the bigger the ministry, the bigger the financial responsibilities would also be! Consequently, these men and women of God need money to carry out their functions, and also take care of themselves and their families. We have to understand, that they are not to keep begging the people to sow seeds, donate, or give offerings before people grudgingly do their parts. Children of God, should also learn to be generous to these men and women of God, who labor day and night for God, remembering that they need to be helped, and backed up financially by their congregants, especially those of you, whom God has blessed with wealth as failure to do so, would have you helping the enemy to leave some of these men and women of God, with little or no option but to improvise or seek shady methods to make you bring out the money, since you are too stingy and would not understand on your own, that giving to the church, and Godly Pastors, is what God expects you to do! Giving to the Church should not just be once in a blue moon, but constantly; To the degree that you are able to give, without having to sleep on the street, cry over it, curse the Pastor for receiving the money, or go hungry afterwards!

If you do not have money to offer to God, then, I want you to understand that the LORD God is not a slave-master, He is not a hard task master, who demands from you, to give what He fully knows, that He has not yet given to you, or you do not possess!

The LORD knows If you can afford it or not, but if you can, He wants you to cheerfully give, so that there may be enough provision in His house, because those whom He has called, anointed and chosen to keep His physical Church, must also do the work for which they have been chosen to do, which needs money to accomplish, as well as to receive the rewards for their Godly labor. Nonetheless, if you do not have any of these material things to tithe, give, and sow, there are other ways that you can also compliment; By helping out in the church in different ways, and many other Godly ways!

Those, who steal from the LORD’s money bag were not born to do so, but rather, they begin such wicked acts gradually, and eventually graduate into professional thieves and robbers in the LORD’s House! In most cases, when Children of God steal from the LORD’s portion, they do so because they are genuinely in need. In their minds, they have justifiable reasons why they should take (steal) from Him. The most unfortunate part of this wickedness is that before and during such evil activities, they manage to convince themselves that what they are doing or about to embark on, is not theft, but doing God a service! It could be that they need the money to solve the need of the church, the wife, children, husband, etc. Then the next time, there is also an excuse, and then there is always another next time. Thus, over the course of time, the behavior takes root in darkness, and because they were not caught, exposed, reprimanded, disciplined, etc. they continue! That is the reason why I keep saying, that it is better for you as a child of God, when the LORD GOD exposes you, even if you feel publicly humiliated. As long as it is the doing of the LORD, it is never to destroy us, but for our good. Whichever means our Holy Father and God chooses to discipline us, and regardless of how it may hurt us, Child of God Almighty, never forget this; It is always for our good!

What such people do not even know, or take into consideration, is that as long as the money belongs to the LORD, He knows every penny and cent, that is in His money bag, just as He knows the number of the hairs on our heads, and none of them can go missing without His knowledge and without Him knowing who tampered with it. Precious Child of God, for real, it is the most stupid thing to steal from the LORD God, even if the effect is not visible, or tangible; Listen to your sister Susan- Refrain from it! I tell you the gospel truth, but only in the case you are able to handle it, and that is this, that as a child of God, it is better to steal from Satan, if at all you cannot do without stealing, than to decide, to be so foolish as to steal from the LORD God of Hosts. Sister Susan is not advising you to steal from Satan! Nonetheless, if at all you cannot do without stealing, I believe it is safer to steal from Satan, and run to God for help, than to steal from God, and run to Satan, anyone, or any place, for help or for protection for the stolen goods! Child of God, prior to reading this exhortation, should you have stolen from the LORD GOD OF HOSTS, the only remedy for you, is to fall at the feet of Jesus Christ, and thoroughly ask for forgiveness, and make amends, as best you can, else, I will not deceive you by not telling you this block-buster truth; You’re nothing but a dead dog!

That Robin hood stole from the rich and the wicked to help the poor, did not make him any less a thief and a robber, but rather a compassionate thief! (Proverb 6: 30-31). Therefore, he is by no means a good example to follow as long as you are a follower of Christ.

We steal from God, when we decide to do whatever and whenever we desire, with the money of the LORD that is under our care. Let us call to our memory who Judas was, before his notorious identity, as the betrayer of the LORD of Glory. According to the Scripture, Judas was a thief:

But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected,“Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

John 12:4-6, NIV.

From what we are able to deduce from the above passage, it states that he had always syphoned money that belonged to the ministry. Therefore, in my own words, Judas was the hidden El Chapo within the group!

Think about how deep in wickedness, and deception this Judas of a guy must have been, that he managed to deceive his fellow disciples as all of them, fell for his exhortation, and high-class deception, apart from the only One, Who he was later to betray; THE LORD OF GLORY!

Jesus, being the WORD, and the TRUTH, read through his deception! Judas was truly angry when He was exhorting the LORD, he was by no means pretending to be angry, he really was, but for the wrong reason! I truly believe, that the money in the money-bag, had obviously decreased, and it’s either, he sensed, that he could soon be found out as the covert thief, thus, he had to quickly replace what he had already stolen, or he needed the new money supply, to be able to take double of what he had always taken. Anyways, He perceived it as a loss for himself, and not for the group, or the LORD; He cared less about the ministry!

This is how gracious and brutal, at the same time, the LORD God Almighty is. That Jesus, kept his cool in the face of a thief admonishing Him, is frightening to me enough because I would have preferred it, had He admonished me at once; Right there, right then, to make me know, all that I have been into behind the scene. That Jesus, knew all the while, what Judas had been into, as it relates to what he had always done with the money in the treasury, yet, He kept silent, is indicative of the fact that our LORD is a very dangerous GOD!

The question you could be asking me now is, “Sister Susan, Why then did He not intervene to save Judas, by stopping him right there in his evil track?” My answer to that is this, “Jesus knew that Judas had already trespassed the thresh-hold of redemption. Judas, at this point in time, could no longer be called back from darkness. He could no longer be redeemed as he had willingly and unrepentantly sold his soul to Satan because of the treasures of this world, which eventually became his demise!”

How are you sure about this, Sister Susan? “I am sure about this because, at a later period, the day he was to betray the LORD, what Jesus told him would have been more than enough for anyone, who is still within the boundary of redemption, to have changed their mind and course of evil, but not Judas- The son of Perdition!”  

Let us refresh our memory with the word of God as it pertains to what transpired between The CHRIST and Judas, the betrayer. The Bible states:

^‘“When Judas had eaten the bread, Satan entered into him. Then Jesus told him, “Hurry and do what you’re going to do.” None of the others at the table knew what Jesus meant. Since Judas was their treasurer, some thought Jesus was telling him to go and pay for the food or to give some money to the poor.So, Judas left at once, going out into the night.”’

John 13:27-30, NLT.

My Holy God Almighty, from Zion! God is so dangerous, and in control of Himself at the same time! As stated in the passage above, did you also observe, that the very moment Judas ate the bread, Satan entered into him?! How does this even make sense to us, that the bread, which was torn for our healing, would instead expose, and activate a dormant hiding demon within Judas, which came in agreement with Satan from without, and opened the door for Satan, to enter into Judas? This is because this demon, had been in Judas for many years, but unchallenged, as well as, for the fact that Judas himself, willfully and unrepentantly gave his consent to Satan (Now, before anyone runs off screaming: We have caught her in the act at last- Heresy! Stop for a moment and listen! Don’t take what I have just explained at face value, without understanding what I am trying to explain. If you are not a deliverer, then, there are certain things regardless of your knowledge of the Logos word of God, that you will not be able to understand beyond a certain degree, and this is by no means implying that I understand everything, but rather, there are things the Holy Spirit may explain better to me, than to you, and there are also things He would explain to you based on whom He has called you to be, which He would not explain to me. Hence, It is okay, if you conclude, that what I have just said, is from a place of pride or arrogance- I’ld advice that you leave it between me and God Almighty).

Coming back to Judas; He took pride in his ability and knowledge, to access the help of the enemy whenever he felt like it. According to his foolish understanding, in order to successfully deceive, and steal from the LORD, he had to always solicit the help of God’s enemy! That same enemy, who gave him the help he needed to keep stealing undetected, eventually, also exposed, and fully took over him, to carry out what he wanted to do against the LORD of GLORY! Nevertheless, the knowledge of Satan, and his human agent; Judas, did not prevail over God’s eternal wisdom as all that, which transpired was permitted by God Almighty. To me, this shows that the worst person to fight against is indeed, The Almighty God! Why? Not just because He is the only Almighty One; The very One to Whom all power belongs, but also because He uses the very foolish things to confound the wise. The bible declares,

“But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

1 Cor. 2:7-8, NKJV.

If only they had known, they would not have crucified the LORD of glory! For this reason, we must always be careful how we treat others because you could be entertaining an angel of LORD assigned to help you, unawares!

Well, child of God, this is where I will abruptly end this week’s devotional, but the lesson to be learned from this week’s message is this; Stealing from the LORD is by no means a good idea, and as a matter of truth, it is one of the worst mistakes anyone can make. If we have stolen from the LORD God, we must ask Him for forgiveness, give back what we have stolen the best ways we can, and fully repent from such evil acts before it is too late. Why am I particular about theft and robbery especially within the church? There was a vision the LORD gave to me some time last year as it relates to what He does to people, who are within His visible Church, or in close proximity to Him, but who consistently, and unrepentantly steal from Him. After that revelation, I had to fall on my knees to ask the LORD to help me never to be found wanting in such a crime against Him, and to always pull me out from amongst those, who commit such crime against Him!

PRAYER

1. Holy Father, if I am a thief, please I repent, have mercy on me in Jesus’ merciful name, amen.
2. Abba Father, If I have stolen from You or any child that belongs to You, then, I give back all that I have stolen, and by Your Grace, I am committed to stealing no more in the merciful name of my LORD and Redeemer Jesus Christ, amen.
3. Gracious God, I denounce, renounce, annul, and break every agreement, and ties which has been established between the spirit of theft and robbery, and myself, by the blood of Jesus Christ, in the merciful name of Jesus’, amen.
4. Most powerful God, as I restore your children whole, as well as anything that I have stolen from them, and from YOU, I ask You to also bless me and restore to me, any good thing that You have withheld from me, including what the enemy has stolen from me in the faithful name of Jesus Christ, our LORD and Savior, amen!
5. Holy Father, I thank You that You have forgiven me, and also answered my prayer in Jesus’ merciful name, amen.

Child of God, stay blessed, and happy!

Jesus loves you!

Written by Susan Ikeokwu