Knowing God Devotional is an online daily devotional written by Andrews Baah Kwafo, the president of The Bible Daily Network.
Herod got trapped by his own oath to her daughter — who was directed by her mother to demand the head of John the Baptist. Be careful of making oaths in happy moments, especially in the midst of secular people. You might fall into a trap with your own words.
One time, Jesus heard that John the Baptist got beheaded in prison. He couldn’t say anything but depart through a ship to a solitary place. It was a private time for mourning the death of His beloved cousin. But people were looking for him so much that they followed him on foot out of the cities. Even though Jesus had compassion on them, healed the sick and fed them (over five thousand people), His grief was still inside there. He was in pain, yet ministering. Are you so focused on receiving from your preacher without giving him some time of privacy?
Before Jesus came to the world, God used to speak through the prophets (Hebrews 1:1). But now, it’s not so. Jesus is the current language of God.
During Jesus’ time of earthly ministry, the Israelites used to pay temple tax before entering the synagogue. In the context of Jesus’ spiritual understanding, it wasn’t right for God’s children to pay tax before entering the temple to worship. He knew this, but the Pharisees didn’t. Nevertheless, in order to avoid causing offence and to maintain peace, he performed a miracle, got money out of a fish’s mouth and paid the tax for himself and Peter. At that moment, Jesus valued peace more than his knowledge [Matthew 17:25-27]. Not everyone has your level of spiritual understanding. Deal wisely with people.
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” — Romans 8:28 KJV
Check your life well. Evaluate it. Make decisions sourced from revelation from God, and this year will be a memorable one.
Watch your life and doctrine closely, friend. Use God’s grace to change what you need to change in your life before beginning the new year. Shalom.
Timothy was a pastor and not an evangelist. Nevertheless, Paul told him to do the work of an evangelist. Why? Because he knew that without evangelism, people would not encounter Jesus and be saved. What about you?
Fulfiling your divine mandate takes a lot of work. And for that reason, life is not a joke. God didn’t bring you to this Earth to be comfortable but to work purposefully. Maybe you don’t know your purpose, or you’re in a dilemma right now. I’ll urge you to seek God about it. And He’ll show you which way to take.
If the wise men had disobeyed God, baby Jesus would have been killed by Herod. The saviour of man wouldn’t have executed His divine mandate — that is, taking away the sin of the world (John 1:29). That also means there would be nothing like salvation, and people would have continued wallowing in sin worse than today. One simple obedience has collaborated to billions of people having access to salvation today and counting.
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God isn’t after our money or possessions. He’s after our hearts. When the wise men pulled resources together to give, they had only three packages. It doesn’t mean they were three in number. But God kept communicating to them not to visit Herod upon their return to their country.
How can wise men from the East travel and tell Herod that the “king of the Jews” is born, and he’d be intimidated? How can an old man like Herod think about losing his position to a fresh baby? It’s a picture of poor leadership styles today. Instead of Herod looking out for succession in leadership, he was thinking about protecting his position of power. If you’re in leadership today, stop thinking so selfishly. Stop thinking about securing your position without mentoring anybody.
