SUNDAY, JANUARY 22
Scripture: Deuteronomy 4:33,34

Deuteronomy 4:33,34 are two verses that identify the signs and wonders that the early church was praying about. Verses 33,34 state, “Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live? 34 Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?” When the early church was asking for signs and wonders they were asking for the God of war, the God with a mighty Hand. They were asking for God to stretch out His arm. They were asking God to execute great terrors, according to all that the Lord did in Egypt. He shredded the trees, killed the livestock and destroyed the crops. Egypt was a desolation. They were glad when the Israelites left. That is the God the early church was asking to show up. Do we even think that way today? Why don’t we think that way? Because our tradition has made us nicer than God. We enable our enemies hindering our harvest by praying mercy on them. God would put our enemies in the grave if we would ask. Praying mercy extends the life of the wicked so they can do more devastation and destruction to our harvest field. Only tradition can cause us to oppose our own harvest. Only tradition can cause us to pray the very opposite of what we should be praying. What the early church was really praying was a cry for the God of devastation to show up and rip the enemy to shreds so they could have their harvest field. They had a different mindset. They actually knew God. They did not have our tradition blinding them to a major part of who God was and is. Will we overcome our tradition in time to gain our harvest?