04/09/2026
THE CRY OF THE SPIRIT DEVOTIONALS - BY RICHARD E. S. TAKIM
TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (FRIDAY 4TH September 2026)
“We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— 1always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you.” 2 Corinthians 4:8-12 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 247th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF STRATEGIC VICTORIES!
Blessed be the name of the LORD who has given us another day to be alive and serve our generation according to His will. Yes, our God finishes before He starts. He has given us a complete month of September, but we started the journey few days back, and believe the entire month is already taken care of because the Bible says so.
We believe that whatever good will happen to us will happen, and whatever bad that has been preplanned by the enemy to happen have been destroyed because the Bible says so. We do not expect any evil to happen, because it is not part of the glorious things spoken concerning us by the LORD. It is not part of what the Bible says.
We only believe what the Bible says because it is our more sure word of prophecy, we do not need any prophecy from anyone. That is not to say God does not use people to speak. If they must speak it should not go against what the Bible has already said, because if it does, they are not speaking from the LORD!! They are not giving us the testimony of Jesus Christ!!
If you do not believe what the Bible says, you will be in danger of getting your thoughts corrupted, thereby making your life difficult. A people who believe in what the Spirit says will be establish and those who believe in what the Bible says will prosper.
So long as Our God is concern, we are not just on the 4th day of the month but at the end, meaning whatever the enemy plans to do against us has already been taken care of by the LORD. All the blessings and miracles we need this month has already been released.
WE ONLY NEED TO CLAIM THEM IN PRAYER AND SEE THEM MADE MANIFEST IN THEIR SEASON.
But we have a part to play. That part is to feed on what comes out of the mouth of the LORD daily and walk in its light and all will be well. The Christians faith will not yield much in your life if you are spiritually lazy. It will not yield much if you are not taking time to feed on the word through in-depth study of the scriptures and faith building spiritual exercises.
Personally, the month of September is one of my prophetic months, it is so for many reasons.
A lot of eventful things happened in my life in the month of September. I was born in June, but there are significant things in my life that were born in September, some good, some bad. Some I would not want to remember or think about, while others I will always love to remember and think about.
Part of the good things that was born in my life in the month of September is our stepping into East Africa for the birth of the MAN CHILD, the Cry of the Spirit Ministries Global. Do not miss tomorrow season of 2026 Sons of the Prophets Summit because it will be exactly the 13th year since we step foot in this part of the world for Apostolic Teaching Mission.
It was this morning I just realized that the summit is a prophetic landmark of that beautiful day when our feet left Nigeria for Kenya.
You see, 13 years ago, whatever is happening now as the Apostolic and Prophetic Teaching Ministry of the Cry of the Spirit Ministries by our hands, was a future we never knew existed. But following the LORD carefully, feeding on what comes out of His mouth daily, and listening to his voice wholeheartedly has created it.
That tells us that all we need to do to come into a colorful and bright future, is to feed on what comes out of GOD’s mouth daily, give God a listening ear and walk with Him with an obedient heart. Our coming here was a walk-in divine plan. Life is best lived in divine plan.
IF IT IS NOT A DIVINE PLAN, IT IS NOT SAFE TO WALK IN IT, NO MATTER HOW GOOD IT MIGHT BE.
We have faced many challenges but because we are in a divine plan the LORD has always been with us. There are things that have happened that would have destroyed this work, but the LORD upheld the work because it is part of His global plan for the redemption of first the sick Church and then the dying world.
The seed of this ministry has been traced to prophecies given by the LORD to men like Smith Wilglesowrd, Harward Carter and Lister Sumrall. But the ultimate seed is in the book of Luke and Isaiah. Those seeds propel whatever we see happening today.
If it is not in the scriptures, then it is not on the script of the LORD. Even the coming of the LORD was scripted before it happened. The ministry is scripted in both the book of Luke and the book of Isaiah, that is why the LORD has been with it. It is His Heavenly project on earth, a Tabernacle that cannot be pulled down.
I have always thought that you must always be on the prayer knee to succeed in life. But that was decades ago.
As I grew up, I began to understand that that was truth in half. I began to realize that you must be in divine plans to succeed in life.
Having a strong prayer life as a Christian is good, but the prayer knee outside divine plans will become a painful knee that yield no results in a man’s life. You will be praying and seeing evil happening in your life despite your prayers, because you will not be praying in divine plans.
People who walk in divine plans cannot fail. They only fail if they venture into anything that is not part of the plan. Nothing about your walk with the LORD will speak positively if you are not in divine plans.
TO BE IN DIVINE PLANS IS ALSO KNOWN AS TO STAND IN THE COUNSEL OF THE LORD.
The Bible says, “There are many plans in a man’s heart,
Nevertheless the LORD’s counsel – that will stand.” (Proverbs 19:21) Life can be full of trials, temptations and storms, but if we are in divine plans, or if we are standing in the counsel of the LORD, we shall remain standing despite the things that happen to push us down. It is people who stand in the counsel of the LORD (People whose lives are in divine plans) that survives storms.
It is people who pray, fast, give, serve the LORD within divine plans that God honors with divine preservation, despite what might be striking them. They are the ones that will be hard-pressed but not crushed. They are the ones that might be perplexed but not in despair or a state of losing hope. Our devotional text says;
“We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— 1always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you.” 2 Corinthians 4:8-12 NKJV
This scripture paints the picture of what happens if a man is living his life standing in the counsel of the LORD. It shows us that people who stand in the counsel of the LORD, or who live their lives within divine plans are the ones that will survive life pressures and have their lives made beautiful by them.
Hard times will not destroy them. Hard times will process them into what God created them to be. Live your days in God’s plans for your life. They may not be beautiful today; they may even bring tears out of your life. But they are the best plans to align your life to. The tears you are seeing today is working out for you a better future. Just hold on and move on with the LORD. Amen
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY.
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NKJV
