TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Wednesday 7th July 2021)
“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.”
“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:12-14 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 188TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS!
For this 188 days of the year, we have seen the marvelous helps and mercies of the LORD. God has kept us from day to day, week to week and month to month. To Him belong all the glory!
The driving force of the Kingdom is actually to move us from one realm of glory to another. The Bible admonishes that we move from one level of grace to another, and one level of faith to another. This is not possible without the power of God at work in our lives.
The Christian journey is actually designed to go from faith to faith, grace to grace; glory to glory until death do us part. In other words, we are saved to move from a lower level of faith to a higher level of faith, a lower dimension of grace to a higher dimension of grace, a lower realm of glory to a higher realm of glory until our time on earth is over.
In our devotional text today, we find what Paul wrote to the Church at Philippi; strong words that has shaped the destiny of many from generation to generation.
I studied the revivalist and discovered that most of those God used to rekindle the flames of His Holy Spirit in their generation fed from the scripture of our devotional text to stay on fire for the LORD all through till their death. There is something about that scripture that needs urgent attention in our generation.
I believe, the LORD had us to have it as our devotional text today for something very prophetic.
A MAJOR HIGHLIGHT IN THE TEXT SAYS;
“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
To start with, I want to say if we do not forget the things that happened yesterday – the good, the bad and the ugly – and press into what God has predetermined to happen today, we will never unleash our divine destiny.
A generation that holds on to past glorious or inglorious things that happened to it, will never be able to finish its course in God’s eternal plan for it!
People must learn how to say goodbye. Yes, we must learn to say good bye to the wasted years. That will help us to come quickly into recovery. On the other hand, we must also learn to say good bye to glorious accomplishments so that we can birth more glorious ones.
God designed the church to be a moving army. If we get to a particular peak in life and do not lift up our eyes to look for higher grounds to press into, we will begin to stink and sink.
Samson made a major mistake at a particular success peak of his life. He did not make an ordinary mistake, he desecrated his consecration turning himself into a captive in the hands of people who once dreaded him.
Yes, we all blame it on Delilah because what she did was very bad. You don’t reward death for love. Don’t forget Samson was single. But if you take a second look at the incident, you will realize that the woman came into the picture when Samson got stuck to a season of success.
NO MOVING ARMY CAN BE CAPTURE BY THE ENEMY.
That is why in God’s kingdom, we don’t get ourselves stuck to a season of success (or even failure), we move on! That is the secret of unending strength from the LORD.
To fulfil a divine destiny, we will need constant pressing into things yet to be revealed or made manifest. We will need to be pressing into them from time to time until we empty GOD’s storehouse of predetermined things for our lives.
If we do not do that; if we do not press into unfulfilled things to fulfill them on daily bases (if we do not press into what God want to do next with our lives after doing one thing with it), we will be stuck to a season of progress (or peril), and begin to see our carnal craving come alive, and someone or something to satisfy it for us. That is the reason generals in God’s army fall.
Take David for instance, he saw Beersheba, the naked woman who trapped him into sin in a season when kings go to war. The Bible says,
“It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold.
So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”
Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house. And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.” 2 Samuel 11:1-5 NKJV
Everything you just read and what happened as a result is traceable to one season the King did not go to war; one-time great King David got stuck to a season of success. If he was in the battle field responding to the next thing God wanted to do with his life, he wouldn’t have seen a woman who was busy taking her bath from his pent house.
Our carnal desires will take the better part of us if we are not in the battle fields of our divine destinies fulfilling them. Yes, they will take a better part of us if we do not spend our days submitting to the next thing God want to do with our lives after doing one successful thing with it. We will need a constant pressing into things yet to be done with our lives to lead a fulfilled life on earth.
MOST OF US IN THE FAITH TODAY ARE STUCK AND STINKY IN THE SPIRIT BECAUSE WE DO NOT KNOW OR APPLY THIS IN OUR WALK WITH GOD.
We rather move from one marriage program to another, one poverty killing meeting to another, but do not move from realms of glory to another. Sometimes I ask myself when the poverty will be finally killed.
All these kinds of meetings are just to make or keep the pastor smiling to the bank! The truth is, any man or woman preacher who takes you from one poverty killing meeting to the other, is only interested in killing his own poverty. Not yours!
And anyone that builds his ministry on solving marriage and money problems alone is a big fraud. That has nothing to do with the great commission. The great commission is to form Christ in people. Then Christ in them becomes the hope of their financial or marital glory.
Whenever a local Church lost touch with the glory, its preachers will settle on using GOD to solve their earthly problems leaving the people with great eternal problems.
God wants us to be moving from fresh oil to fresh oil, and that will need a constant pursuit of and constant pressing into the things of God. If we make the pursuit of the things of men our constant pursuit, we will move from being gullible to becoming weary and then desperate. We will never enjoy God’s freshness.
If we constantly press into the things of GOD, through times on our knees, seeking the LORD even in fasting and prayer, and moving from one dimension of truth to another, we will not cease enjoying the freshness of GOD.
Maintaining Heavenly freshness will require that we press with your minds, through hours spent with the word (The Bible and any book, CD, or DVD that will help you understand the Bible) with members of our spiritual family through corporate fellowships where the word is dissected and the power of God imparted.
We must learn to press from one level of success to another or from inactivity to productivity.
And talking about inactivity, I have come to realize that you do not wait for destiny to be fulfilled, you press into destiny for it to be fulfilled. Inactivity is the greatest killer of divine destiny. If you are just lying down inactive, and expecting your destiny to be fulfilled, it will never be. That is why no lazy man or woman has been able to fulfill divine destiny.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
“But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.”
“Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ”
“and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;”
“that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.”
“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
“Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.” Philippians 3:7-15 NKJV