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Hear this devotional here: http://bit.ly/2Mx2SXi
15 God, your God, is going to raise up a prophet for you. God will raise him up from among your kinsmen, a prophet like me. Listen obediently to him. 16 This is what you asked God, your God, for at Horeb on the day you were all gathered at the mountain and said, "We can't hear any more from God, our God; we can't stand seeing any more fire. We'll die!" 17 And God said to me, "They're right; they've spoken the truth. 18 I'll raise up for them a prophet like you from their kinsmen. I'll tell him what to say and he will pass on to them everything I command him. 19 And anyone who won't listen to my words spoken by him, I will personally hold responsible. 20 "But any prophet who fakes it, who claims to speak in my name something I haven't commanded him to say, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die." (Deuteronomy 18:15-20 The Message Bible)
A wonderful Wednesday be yours dear ConCafe Family! I pray this finds the blessings of God to be too numerous to count and too wonderful not to share or pass on to others, dear Friend! Our prayers continue for the many who are still battling Covid-19, for those mourning the losses from the same, and for all who are undergoing major life changes this week. Among those, we count those candidates for ministry who have been recommended for commissioning and ordination. May God raise up fine, brave, Bible-based leaders who will boldly proclaim God's truth to a world who has built up layers of resistance to Him!
And speaking of Bible-based leaders who boldly and obediently share God's word, we count those who are in the process of preparing for professional ministry, those who are already in ministry, as well as those who are retired from ministry; but more importantly, YOU and others like you, who may not have prepared for professional ministry but nonetheless serve God in all that you say, think, and do!
Moses is giving his last sermon to the flock of God's people. It's been a long appointment at First Church Desert Mobile and the old man is not only retiring, but preparing to say goodbye to this earth. What every outgoing minister usually says to his/her congregation is usually some kind and encouraging words about the incoming minister. Most transitions of ministers moving are rarely bitter; although some have not been. In one of my churches I followed a minister who was not at all excited about being moved from the church to which I was going, or to the church where he was being sent. So, those things happen also in the sacred realm as well as the secular one.
We must not forget that a prophet is a mouthpiece for God. He or she is not a fortune-teller nor a prognosticator of things to come. Evidence one pastor who rang up an $800 phone bill calling a psychic hotline, as he was wanting to know how his ministry would fare in his new church. Oh, and he left the old church with that bill and was refusing to pay it. I don't believe the psychic told him he would lose his employment as minister for that offense! Yes, those things do happen. A prophet, who is connected with God, speaks about the outcomes that will come from their obedience or their disobedience from God. An obedient church as well as an obedient Christian will surely be blessed with good things; the opposite is true for those who disobey and try to follow their own paths outside of the realm of God. Moses had, for the most part, been obedient to God; yes, his offense of not fully following God resulted in his not being able to cross into the Promised Land, but he was allowed to see it from afar; but we do know that he did make it into Heaven for he was there to speak with Jesus during the Transfiguration with the prophet Elijah.
The promise seems to cover all the prophets that followed Moses as well as setting the foundational framework for Jesus, who was the final prophet with God's grace and redemptive word for all of humanity. There was nothing fake about Jesus or what He shared in His ministry. When I was in high school, I was very fascinated by television evangelists, among them one named A. A. Allen. He had powerful messages and when he brought his ministry to Houston I asked my Dad to take me to see him, which we did. Rev. Allen called several people to the stage for deliverance and all screamed and threw up on stage, demonstrating that the evil in them had been cast out. The next day both Houston newspapers did exposes on the "volunteers" who admitted they were paid for their "services," and given pills that allowed them to be "cleansed." Sadly, this man's ministry was fake. I wish he had been the last...
We can find God's word in His Word. We can hear God's word in the sermons our preachers preach. We can hear truth from our Sunday school teachers, and in various other ways if we are open to His leading and message. We have access to God's Holy Spirit and He can help us sift through all that is shared so that we can know what is truth and what is not. We can find God's word after we pray and listen. And we can hear God's word as we obediently do what God has asked of us. The key is our willingness to be connected to God.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, help us to listen obediently to You today in all the ways that were mentioned above. We seek to know You better and understand You more clearly. Help us be faithful to Your call upon our lives to serve others and to do Your will. Help us bring forth the renewal the earth needs; this we pray in Christ Jesus' strong name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! Be a prophet of God in sharing what God has shared with you!
Receive my blessings of joy and peace,
Pastor Eradio Valverde
Here is Monday, January 25th's narration of ConCafe: http://bit.ly/3a9G9Z9 And here is Tuesday, January 26th's narration of ConCafe: http://bit.ly/3qVmIdz
