TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Saturday 31st July 2021)
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:12-13
WELCOME TO THE 212th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS!
We bless the LORD of Heaven and Earth, the judge of all and governor among the nations for bringing us to the last day of a great week. Personally, I do not deserve this act of Mercy from Him.
To Him belong all the glory. Giving us glorious days to live and serve our generation according to His will is one of the greatest gifts we can receive from the LORD.
Come to think of it, many of us do not know or think of what could be the vision of God for allowing us to sleep and wake up each day like He did this morning. The vision is not for us to pursue an earthly ambition or desires, but to worship Him by serving our generation according o His will.
You waste a day if you do not use it to do just that!
Serving your generation according to the will of God includes serving Jesus Christ and walking intimately with His Holy Spirit daily. It includes perfecting our ways on daily bases, and allowing ourselves to be used of God to ministers to others in His place even at our places of work!
I believe, our highest calling as believers is to be the body of Christ wherever we find ourselves. It is to wake up in the morning and fulfill God’s vision for giving us days by being the body of Christ in our offices, business places and etc.
To be the body of Christ is to serve as His base station for reaching that boss, that colleague of yours, that client, that man or women who sits beside you in your office or place of business. The happiest people in the kingdom are people who spend their days fulfilling God’s vision for waking them up each morning.
I have come to realize that people who do not fulfill God’s vision for waking them up will end up having a bad. Trust me; it’s not God’s will that a day He freely gives us turn out to be a bad day. We must therefore learn to deploy and direct our will in the right direction.
THIS MORNING WE WILL BE DIGGING OUT CERTAIN TRUTHS FROM OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT TODAY! IT SAYS;
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:12-13
Our Church generation is a unique generation. We know how to work out our fallen nature and make sure we touch people with it but we do not know how to work out our redeemed nature – our salvation.
When we gossip, slander, fight, become greedy, lustful, and proud or do anything to harm our fellow man, we are working out our fallen nature and using it to touch others. That is not our calling!
One of the major things that we must learn to work out as Children of the Most High God is our salvation. We must learn to work out our redeemed nature and use it to touch the lost world around us according to the will of God. And the Bible says we should do that with fear and trembling!
To work out your salvation means to live true to your heavenly calling as a saint – to manifest the Holiness or purity, power and goodness of God deposited in your life by the saving grace of God!
It means to pull from the cross the righteousness and blessings that Christ has accomplished into your life so that men will see it and glorify God!
It means to make sure every eye that looks at us see the finished works of Christ in our character and every other thing we are or do! Jesus said in Matthew 5:16
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (NKJV).
Working out our salvation is bringing into fore the internal works that the grace of God has accomplished in our lives by repenting from sin and leading a new life. Sadly, many of us have not yielded to God’s grace enough to accomplish anything in our internal lives hence have nothing Godly to bring to the fore.
We always bring froth the nasty, the sinful and wicked to the fore. From our heart still spring forth evil things to people around us, yet we call ourselves Christians.
Most of us pastors, apostles, prophets and prophetesses allow sexual perversion to spring forth from us to the men and women who God brings to us to harvest into His kingdom. We allow greed and covetousness to spring forth giving them all kinds of visions and instructions just to keep us smiling to the bank while they smile to hell.
GOD WILL JUDGE US IF WE DO NOT REPENT!
You cannot work out any salvation that the saving grace of God has not being allowed to work in you to work out. You will just be working out religion; going to Church unchanged, praying, singing in Church, and doing all the Church stuff with sin and wickedness still in your life. That is the Church is yet to influence the world back to Christ.
We think the world will return to Christ by our preaching only. That is a lie.
Our lifestyles are stronger in pulling the lost to Christ than our preaching. When we preach the right message and lead a wicked life, no one will come to Christ genuinely. If they come at all they will either go back to hell after watching us for a while or become hypocrites if we compel or manipulate them to remain in Church.
Not working our salvation will prevent God’s glorious light from shining through us to a dark world. If we do not work out our salvation, we will be leading lives that profess to know God with our lips but denying Him in works. That is the hallmark of the hypocrite.
If we do not work out our salvation, we will claim born again but still live like the lost sinners around us. The only difference between us and them will be Church attendance. Our spiritual states will still be the same.
Our apostolic Fathers spent their days working out their salvation with fear and trembling. That was why there was no scandal among them after accepting Jesus. But the reverse is the case with us today.
Most of our apostolic fathers, like Saul who became Paul, were criminals and assassins. They killed and did so much terrible things. Some of them were harlots, convicts and all that. But when they met Christ, there was no turning back to the path of sin and wickedness.
THAT WAS POSSIBLE BECAUSE THEY SUBMITTED TOTALLY TO THE DEMANDS OF GOD’S SAVING GRACE AND ALLOWED IT TO DO A WORK IN THEM.
It resulted in the very salvation they spent their days working out with fear and trembling! If you have not submitted your will to the grace of God to guide you through the word of God, there will be no salvation in you to work out!
The Bible says it was God that worked in the people to will and to do of His good pleasure, it wasn’t just them. That means if there is no Christ in you, there cannot be Christ out of you!
Sadly, many who confess that Christ is in them have characters that suggest the opposite. If Christ is really in you, the truth is you will not be the one to tell us, we will see it and say “waoooo…this person has really changed. I can see Christ is in him.” If you are the one shouting it, then He is not in you!
We can go on and on but like I have always said this is a devotional not a book! May God use these words and give you an inheritance among they that are sanctified! Amen
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.
Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:16-20 NKJV