01/27/2025
SEEKING TO FIND HIM ./1
“This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jer 29:10-13
Very few scriptures are taken out of context as Jeremiah 29:11.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jer 29:11
The reality is that the people were busy about how to quickly come out of their pain than about fearing and obeying God. God threw them into exile in Babylon for their backsliding.
He was going to chastise, discipline and then restore them to genuine worship and godly living. But their rebellious hearts cannot endure that.
So they gathered Prophets of quick-fix miracles and success who began to promise them things that do not line up with His plan to purify the covenant family for their redemptive plan.
In our haste for quick help, we too can become distracted from the divine plan. We can lose our sense of discernment in the euphoria of great sounding messages that promise quick success, but that overlook and contribute nothing to destroy the spiritual dryness in our soul.
Our first priority must be His kingdom and righteousness. The Bible said to seek that first. We are to prosper only as our soul prospers and not vice versa (3 Jn 2). Only fools declare prosperity when their inner man is held captive to the carnal mind or when they are clearly walking in rebellion to God’s ways (Prov 1:32).
To the Laodiciean church who held to such claim, The Spirit said:
“You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” (Rev 3:17)
The challenge with today’s church is the penchant for messages of material blessings and its peddlers to the neglect of the total divine counsel that inspires us to live like Christ and be the difference makers he’s called us to be in a world that has sunk into gross darkness and evil.
But God is saying that this attitude pitches us against him and his good plans for us. Until our hearts can line up with his purpose for us, we won’t have genuine help from heaven.
The situation calls for men and women who dwell in The Lord’s bosom and who can fearlessly declare God’s word even if it doesn’t sound pleasing enough. We need some Jeremiahs to rise up and begin to dismantle these heap of lies that has lulled the church of this generation into spiritual slumber and blindness.
This is a great challenge and as Intercessors, may we keep praying that those having The genuine Word will emerge in courage and anointing and find strategic platforms to declare the mind of God. So help us God! Amen!!
