TODAY’S DEVOTION (Tuesday 8TH March 2022)
“I am the LORD, your Holy One, The Creator of Israel, your King.”
Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea and a path through the mighty waters, who brings forth the chariot and horse,
The army and the power (They shall lie down together, they shall not rise; They are extinguished, they are quenched like a wick):
“Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness. Isaiah 43:15-19 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 67TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE
It is another glorious day in our 31-day Cry of the Spirit on Righteousness, Purity and Holiness. The God of Heaven and earth have been imparting us sanctified truths on what matters most to Heaven; a consecrated Christian life.
The Bible says we should follow peace with all men and Holiness, without which no eye shall see the LORD! But that it’s not possible without the sanctification of the spirit, soul and body.
The sanctification of the spirit, as earlier started, happens at once – when one meets the LORD. But the sanctification of the soul is a daily thing, and that of the body will be final.
That is why the most important thing to get yourself involve with, after giving your life to Christ is to focus on the sanctification or salvation of the soul. Do not forget, we are saved, we are being saved, and we shall be saved.
The sanctification of the soul is the part of our salvation that falls under being saved. And we have been looking at how to extend sanctification to the five faculties of the soul.
The first unit or faculty of the soul that we have looked into is the imagination.
It is clear that if our imagination is not sanctified, our lives cannot be sanctified. There can be no consecrated living without a righteous, pure and holy imagination. The Bible made it clear that no one can restrain us from doing whatever we imagine to do. That’s why so many do what GOD will not want them to do!
We ended yesterday devotional when we took the first step towards unraveling the second unit or faculty of the soul, as it relates consecrated living – the memory. We found out that without the memory imagination will not be possible.
The memory works with the imagination in creating and recreating images. It is in the memory that the images created by imagination are stored and recalled from time to time.
For instance, If it is a sinful image like sexual images, the memory will receive it from the imagination and store it for future recall. That is why one sexual act can keep one in multiple sexual sins if recalled from time to time.
MOST TIMES, IT IS THE MEMORY THAT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE REPETITION OF SINS AND EVIL DEEDS THAT GOD MAY HAVE WARNED US ABOUT.
Sadly, a memory that is corrupt and ignorant can bring so much trouble upon us. It can set us in the frequency of rebellion. That is why we find ourselves sometimes, committing certain sins, and saying to ourselves “I will not do this again” only for the memory to recall the pleasure and push it back to the gutters.
An unsanctified memory only recalls the pleasures of sin not the warnings of the almighty about that sin.
It will never recall what you read or the preaching you heard about the consequences of the sins you commit but will always recall the pleasure you got from it. I think the deceitfulness of sin is made possible by a corrupt memory working in agreement with other faculties of the soul.
For instance, many who are trapped in sexual sins have lost the sense of GOD’s judgment on what they are doing because of an unsanctified memory. They find their memory recalling the pleasure of the moments they spent with their sexual sin partners and all that happened, pushing them over and over down the same lane.
We know so much about our enemies but know very little about the consequences of not repenting but repeating our sins. If sin will not have dominion over us, then we must not neglect the power of the unsanctified memory in making us repeat instead of repent from our sins. The Bible says;
“Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins.
There is only the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume His enemies.” Hebrews 10:26-27 NLT
An unsanctified memory will keep one in repetitive sins until the consequences comes like a consuming fire to wipe the person’s blessings away. That is how many marriages have been wiped away, many economic lives reduced to shreds, many lives made sick, and peace eroded from the lives of many and persistent demonic attacks unlocked.
If you find yourself going back to sinful deeds helplessly, especially sexual sins, your problem may not be a demon but what you have seeded, sowed or planted into your memory over time. It is the unsanctified aspects of our souls that keep us doing what we do not want to do.
THE THINGS WE HAVE SEEDED, SOWED OR PLANTED INTO OUR SOULS, OVER TIME, ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR REPETITIVE SINS.
There are two kinds of repetitive sins. They ones we repeat willingly and willfully and the ones we repeat unwillingly and unwilfully.
The first one happens without a fight. The second one is a child of losing the fight you put on not to repeat the sin again. You lose the fight because the weight of what you have seeded into your soul, knowingly or unknowingly, to commit the sin is heavier than what you may have seeded not to commit the sin.
To stop the willful or unwilful repetitions of sins, we must operate the principle of seed time and harvest. We must stop seeding into our memories or souls what will keep us committing the sins and start seeding, in large portion, what will keep us away from it. The Bible says;
“Do not be deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (scorned, disdained, or mocked by mere pretensions or professions, or by His precepts being set aside.) [He inevitably deludes himself who attempts to delude God.] For whatever a man sows, that and that only is what he will reap.
For he who sows to his own flesh (lower nature, sensuality) will from the flesh reap decay and ruin and destruction, but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” Galatians 6:7-8 AMPC
The word “sow” means to seed or plant. This scripture is telling us that what we seed or plant into our memories is what we will harvest from it. What we did not seed or plant into our memory will never be harvested from it.
Meaning, if we do not like what we are harvesting from our memory; if we do not like how it pushes us here and there to sin, we should check what we have been seeding, sowing or planting into it.
For instance, if you plant the seed of sexual pleasure into your memory or into any other faculty of your soul, either by fantasying sexual encounters you had or discussed, watching a movie, being involved in sexual acts real time, or watching pornography, you will reap a life of repetitive sexual sins.
Your memory will keep bringing the images, feelings and pleasure back until you are ruined by becoming addicted.
Friends, it is important to understand that what we seed or plant into our memory over time, will become a stronghold in us that forms an addiction.
ADDICTIONS ARE DEVELOPED WHEN WE DO SOMETHING THAT DEVELOP THEM OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
Many do not realize when they are journeying towards an addiction. They only realize when they have gotten there. Then they begin to blame demons. But we must understand that whatever we train the faculties of our souls to do, our souls will do it perfectly.
If you train your soul to do righteous, pure and holy things over time and under GOD, your soul will be doing righteous, pure and holy things. That is how the soul was designed by GOD to work! It is like a computer system that gives you whatever you install into it.
That is why addictions are broken by the power of GOD working in the sanctifying truths planted, seeded or sowed into the soul. It is like installing software and uninstalling software. You uninstall from your soul the spiritual software responsible for an addition and install into your soul the one that will keep the addiction away.
That is how we break from sinful habits and all forms of addictions.
Now, part of the stronghold of addictions and sinful habits is usually in the memory. When the memory is therefore sanctified, an addition can be broken. The question now is, how is the memory sanctified? That brings us to our devotional text. It says;
“Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness. Isaiah 43:15-19 NKJV
This scripture is usually read in the format of seeking for breakthrough. It’s usually read to encourage us to press into new things in God and break from a bad past. There is nothing wrong with any of that. But there is a dimension the LORD opened to me as I studied it again.
The word remember means recall. We recall using our memory; in fact, whatever we may be recalling lies in our memory bank. so, to recall, simply put, is to invade the memory bank and retrieve information.
If we must recall, we should not recall any of the sinful things we did with the aim of retrieving the pleasure we had when we did them. If we do, it will shut down the new things GOD want to do in our lives and keep us in our old sinful ways. If we are to recall any sinful things we did, it should be to sorrow for them, deepen our repentance and make sure we do not go back to them again.
The memory is sanctified when we do not recall the pleasure of the sin we once committed. It is sanctified when we wipe away or forget the former things – the pleasure of the sinful things we did, and press into the righteous, pure and holy things that we gave our lives to Christ for.
But any of that is not possible if we do not become part of the generation that retains God in its knowledge.
Sadly, there is a generation today that does not like retaining God in their knowledge, hence making their memories too corrupt and keeping it unsanctified. We must become part of the generation that retains God in its knowledge so that we can have sanctified memories and lead consecrated lives.
It is the 8 day of the 31 days the has helped us to set aside for the purpose of coming out with a consecrated Christians life. Enough have be shared for today.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. Romans 1:28-32 KJV