TODAY’S DEVOTION (Friday 4TH March 2022)
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 63RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE
Indeed, His amazing grace has been the reason for the surprises the enemy is getting from some of us. His faithfulness is beyond human words and that frustrates the devil the more. His goodness shines stronger and stronger as the days goes by to the amazement of all the agents, he musters against us.
God’s amazing grace is a total package. It comprises of His faithfulness, His mercies, His steadfastness, His patience with us, His tolerance of us, His word of truth revealed to us and much more. We are alive today because of the total package of His amazing grace.
It is another day in our 31-day apostolic grace and truth on Righteousness, Purity and Holiness. Indeed, God’s amazing grace has been the reason for all these revelations. That is why the devil is in panic mode. Personally, I grew up to discover that there is nothing that frustrates the devil and all his cohorts like God’s grace.
The enemy seems to know the potential of GOD grace than most of us. That is why he raised preachers to preach a diluted and polluted version. He knows if we get the pure version, he is done. If we get the pure version, we will be holy, pure and righteous.
Yes, if the pure version run through our lives, it will break the dominion of sin over us, paralyze the finger of the evil one, turn curses into blessings without prayer or seed sowing, make us blazing temples of GOD in the Spirit, kindle our lives with Heaven on earth blessings, make sure no weapon formed against us prospers and etc.
Child of GOD, there are no words in human lexicon that will be able to capture the totality of the glory that will be upon us if GOD’s genuine grace is allowed to run through our lives; no words that will be able to describe the holiness we will radiate in our dark world.
For three days now we have been sharing with you on this platform, the truths His Holy Spirit enabled us to know on the subject of consecrated Christian living. I believe the Holy Spirit who have been helping in penning down these truths is helping you to absorb them.
A CONSECRATED CHRISTIAN LIFE IS NOT POSSIBLE WITHOUT BEING TRAINED OR TAUGHT BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.
It may interest you to know that the school of righteousness, purity and holiness, has the blessed Holy Spirit as the only teacher. It is after He has taught you, sometimes through others, that He can use you to teach others. These truths are aimed at building a stronghold of consecrated living in your heart so that sin will no longer have dominion over you.
In addition to what we have shared so far, here is the truth the LORD laid in my heart to share with you from today; the sanctification of the spirit, soul and body.
We will begin with the sanctification of the spirit.
Salvation is not complete without the sanctification of the spirit, soul and body. When Jesus died on the cross, He redeemed us, spirit, soul, and body. There was no part of our lives that was not covered by the redemption in His blood.
Now, before we get into matters of our sanctification, let us briefly see matters of our redemption.
To redeem means to buy back. We had sold ourselves for nothing through Adam, and there was a decree in the spirit that we shall be redeemed without money. We sold ourselves in Adam for nothing and got redeemed in Christ without money. The prophet Isaiah caught this and spewed it out many years later when he took a prophetic gaze at a backslidden Israel and said;
“Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city! For the uncircumcised and the unclean Shall no longer come to you.
Shake yourself from the dust, arise; Sit down, O Jerusalem! Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion!
For thus says the LORD: “You have sold yourselves for nothing, And you shall be redeemed without money.” Isaiah 52:1-3 NKJV
We sold ourselves for nothing when Adam sinned. We sold ourselves to eternal damnation, sin, iniquity, curses, death, sicknesses, spiritual oppression and much more. And the Bible says we shall be redeemed from all of them without money. That is why it is stupid to sow a seed to get a deliverance or miracle from God.
UNDER THE LAW OF REDEMPTION, ALL DELIVERANCES, MIRACLES, BLESSINGS, BREAKTHROUGHS AND ETC. ARE FREE.
The reason is obvious; Jesus redeemed us spirit, soul, and body, by His blood, and by virtue of that we can be redeemed from whatever attack our spirits, souls or body without paying money for it. If you do not believe it come to our church services and you will experience it. Christ is real and free!
Redemption is also the action of regaining or gaining possession of something after paying the price or fighting the battle. The Bible teaches that Adam sinned, and it brought us under the slavery or ownership of sin and Satan. But when Christ died and resurrected, He broke that slavery and terminated the ownership. Now we are free, regained and possessed back by Him.
He can now be the LORD of our life. What is left is for each and everyone lost soul to make Him LORD and savior by giving their lives to Him. Once that is done His finished works on the cross will become realm in their lives.
This repossession covers our spirits, souls and body and made it illegal for the enemy to be legal in our lives. That is why no matter what we do to become his lawful captive again, it become none and void as soon as we submit to the LORD, confess our sins and rededicate our lives back to Him.
The power of this redemption was foreshadowed in the Old Testament and made bare in the New. It made all oppressions of the devil illegal. It made it possible for us to be freely delivered from whatever attacks our spirits, souls and bodies from the pit of hell.
It removed the middle wall of partition that once separated us from God and made us one Spirit with Him.
It gave us access to the Throne Room and to ALL Adam once had access to and much more; most of which will be made manifest in the fullness of time. The once separated from GOD by sin, is now joined together to LORD by redemption.
ON THE LIGHT OF THAT, THE BIBLE SAYS;
“For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Ephesians 2:14-18 NKJV
Now, how does all these affect our sanctification? How did it affect the sanctification of the spirit, soul and body? You need to know that so you can be fortified for right living.
Let us begin with the human spirit. Unlike the soul and the body, the human spirit is sanctified at once; it happens on each person’s day of salvation. It takes places when we encounter the LORD and He fires His Holy Spirit into our dead spirits, making it a new spirit or a new heart.
Remember under the Old Covenant, which was a shadow of what was designed to come in the grace dispensation, God spoke through the prophet Ezekiel saying;
“ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” Ezekiel 36:26-27 NKJV
THIS PROMISE WAS FULFILLED IN THE LIFE OF EVERYONE WHO IS TRULY SAVED TODAY.
It is a process that takes place when the LORD fires His Spirit into ours, and translates us from the kingdom of darkness into His kingdom. It happens during an authentic salvation encounter, and results in the sanctification of the spirit, sparking a holy and righteous fire that propels one immediately into consecrated living.
That is why as soon one gets genuinely saved, they begin to separate from sin, iniquity and trespass without even being asked to. They begin to find themselves withdrawn from people who once influenced them to live sinful lives and separating themselves form whatever is not holy, pure and edifying. They do that without attending a church service.
For Paul, he never went on killing the disciples of Christ in the early Church after the encounter.
When Christ appeared and spoke to him, the Spirit of Christ was fired into his human spirit, sanctifying his human spirit, and making it impossible for him to continue in his old ways – the way of a religious terrorist. The encounter is called born again. It leads to a life of righteousness, purity and holiness as explained yesterday.
For Peter, he denied Christ when the encounter had not happened. He denied Christ to save his life. But after it happened, he became a pillar in the house of GOD, and will go further to give his life to death willingly without fear of death.
The encounter has a way of making one a pillar in GOD’s house and delivering any from the fear of death.
By the way, it was impossible for the born again encounter to happen before the cross; because it was impossible to be born again before the cross. That was why Jesus revealed the born-again life in John 3, then went to the cross to make it possible.
When He resurrected and poured His Holy Spirit upon the 120, signifying the arrival of the dispensation of the Spirit, it became possible to be born again. And it may interest you to know that the first set of people to be born again where the 120 in the upper room.
If you are genuinely saved, you will realize that Genuine salvation itself is a catalyst of separation from sin, satanic tendencies, and the evil and corrupt system of this world because of the sanctification of the spirit that takes place in the day of salvation.
IT IS A CONSECRATION CATALYST THAT CREATES A NEW HEART AND A NEW SPIRIT WITHIN US, MAKING US NEW CREATURES.
The Bible says, “if anyone be in Christ, he is a new creature…” (2 Corinthians 5:27). This creature was non existence before salvation encounter. It is a creature that can no longer submit itself to sin, iniquity and trespass. It is alien to the world and its system.
In other words, the sanctification of the spirit is the firing of the life of God into our human spirits through a salvation encounter, that makes us dead to sin and alive unto righteousness. When we become alive unto righteousness, we can sorrow for sins, repent from them, and separate from whatever may lead us to a life of sin.
Yes, we can also do what our devotional text admonished that we do when we become alive unto righteousness. A major portion of it says;
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.”
None of these commands are possible if we have not experienced the sanctification of the spirit.
Indirectly, the things commanded here are actually the fruits of a sanctified human spirit. It rejoices always, it prays without ceasing, it gives thanks in everything, it does not quench the Spirit, it does not despise authentic prophecies, it proves all things, it holds fast to what is good, it abstains from all forms of evil. It does all these without being told or supervised to do them. It just finds itself doing them because it is a new creature. Hallelujah!
It is when we become alive unto righteousness that we get cut off from our natural household in the spirit realm and become joined to the household of faith, where Christ is the Father and head over all.
That is why you can no longer suffer what other members of your family may be suffering. The household gods, curses, spiritual foundations and etc., can no longer hold you back. You will just be rising while others are falling until they join you to serve the LORD. Your life will be governed by the Spirit of Christ whose household you now belong to.
The blessings in the household of Christ you now belong to, will be pursuing you as you pursue the LORD, and overtaking and replacing all curses that may have been placed upon you by blood connection. You will find generational blessings replacing generation curses automatically.
I believe enough have been shared today; enough to think about and grow a righteous stronghold with. Let’s leave the rest to tomorrow.
But as we do that, you can see that a genuine Christian journey begins with the sanctification of the spirit. However, it does not stop there, it continues with the sanctification of the soul. And tomorrow we will pick up from there!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY
“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” Ephesians 2:19-22 NKJV