Wed.’s Devo - Spiritual Eyes

Read: 1 Kings 14:1-15:24; Acts 10:1-23; Psalm 133:1-3; Proverbs 17:7-8 Jeroboam, king of Israel had a young son, named Abijah, who became very sick. Jeroboam told his wife to disguise herself and go ask the prophet, Ahijah if he would live. The comical thing was that the prophet was blind but God gave him spiritual eyes to see through her disguise. God told him that she was coming and would be disguised. Ahijah told her that her son would die when she entered back into her city. He also told her that God was so disgusted with Jeroboam that he would raise up someone else to take his place. All of their male descendants would be destroyed and eaten by the dogs or the vultures. That means they would rot in hell. Jeroboam had led Israel into idolatry and paganism. Rehoboam in Judah didn’t do so well either. He built pagan shrines and worshipped Asherah. God sent King Shishak of Egypt to attack Jerusalem. He took the treasures and stole the gold shields Solomon had made. King Rehoboam had them replaced with bronze ones. His guards used them to protect him when he went into the Temple. I don’t know if he was afraid of the people or God. There was constant war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. When Rehoboam died, his son, Abidjan became king. His mother was Maacah whose name means “pressure”. She was known as the queen mother and was very evil. She was the granddaughter of Absalom. There was constant war between Jeroboam and Abijam. Judah’s next king was Abejam’s son, Asa. Asa was one of Judah’s good kings. He displaced his grandmother as the queen mother and took down the Asherah pole Maacha had erected and burned it in the Kidron Valley. Asa got rid of the male and female prostitutes and all the idols. He brought silver and gold into the temple. Baasha was now king in Israel and Asa had constant war with him. King Baasha fortified Ramah which was the city people had to go through to get from Israel to Judah. King Baasha closed it so that no one could pass through. So the people of Israel could not come to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. Asa hired the king of Aram to make a peace treaty with him instead of Israel. Ben-hadad of Aram agreed. They removed the stones that fortified Ramah and also gained more towns for Judah. They took the stones and fortified cities in their territory. When Asa died, his son, Jehoshaphat reigned. In Acts, God was breaking down the walls of racism. An Italian man who was also a Roman officer had a heart for God and served him. God wanted to introduce his son to him so he sent angel to Cornelius who told him to seek out a man called Peter and told him where he would find him. Meanwhile, God gave Peter a vision where he saw a sheet lowered from heaven with pictures of unclean animals on it. He was told to kill and eat them. Peter did not want to eat anything unclean. God told him not to call unclean what he called clean. When Peter woke from the vision, he was wondering about it when three men came to his door. The Holy Spirit told him to go downstairs and to go with them because He had sent them. They told him they were from Cornelius and asked him to come with them. Peter invited them to spend the night, then they went the next morning. These are the kind of things that are going to be happening in our lives very soon. Lord, we anticipate your great move on the earth. We see it beginning and are excited to be living in a day like today.