TODAY’S DEVOTION (FRIDAY 9TH SEPTEMBER 2022)
“If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.
But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.
For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?” 1 Peter 4:14-17 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 252ND DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
We give God the glory for being alive today and do not take it for granted. When the Psalmist said “Let everything that has breath Praise the LORD” it actually means, “let everything that God is keeping alive Praise Him.”
We have to praise Him because if being alive is cheap, like I have always said, then no one will be dead. Being alive is so expensive that God had to put the cost on Himself. He knows no human can bear the cost of being alive. The odds and hazards that against us are beyond our control and capabilities.
If you look at the book of the beginning, you will discover that it was not even after the fall that God placed the cost of keeping us alive on Himself. He did it right from the first day that man was created. He first of all planted a Garden in the East of Eden, and made sure the Tree of Life was in it, before placing man in it.
It may interest you to know that the Tree of life was literal and its Job was to keep man alive.
So, God had immortality in mind when he created man. And as an Immortal God, His plan was to make sure that part of His image and likeness was in man also. The tree of life in the garden of Eden was God’s way of bearing the cost of keeping us alive.
He said to mankind at creation;
…., “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.
Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so.” Genesis 1:29-30 NKJV
All these was to pay for the cost of being alive since man’s creation was God’s idea not man’s idea. If there was no fall of man there would have been no death. In other words, the fall of man took man away from the realm where God paid for his immortality and positioned him for it (to be alive, spirit, soul and body), to the realm where he lost it.
BUT IN HIS LOVE AND MERCY, GOD HAD TO INITIATE REDEMPTION TO BRING MAN BACK.
Today, by the death of Jesus Christ and our acceptance of our salvation through surrendering our lives to the LORD, we are back, but not fully back. That is why people still die.
We will be fully back when man will be returned fully to immortality in the New Heaven and the New Earth where righteousness dwells. That was why our fathers looked for the day and time that will happen. They spent their days groaning for immortality.
One of them wrote saying;
“Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless;” 2 Peter 3:13-14 NKJV
This scripture brings us to another important truth we must consider as end time believers. You see, we are in a terminal generation, and what we are to live for have been defined.
Sadly, our preachers are not telling us. They are busy showing us what they call prophetic acts and timeless ordinances. They are busy teaching us what they call deliverance and why you must use oil, salt, candle, water and all that in prayer.
They are busy telling us why we must sow this seed and sow the other seed for prayers. They are just mindful of their relevance and revenue. They are mindful of building their fortune using our misfortune, like politicians.
They are not telling us how we must live in this hour because if they do, we will no longer fall for their schemes. We will know the LORD as our King, our Judge and our lawgiver, and receive deliverance freely without doing all they say we should do to be free.
I reiterate again that we are end time believers, the way we are to live have been defined. Our apostolic father Peter was ignited by the Holy Spirit to present to us a portion of the kind of life that have been defined to us. The punchline of what he said reads, “be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless.”
THE WILL OF GOD FOR EVERY BELIEVER TODAY IS THAT WE LIVE A CHRISTIAN LIFE THAT IS WITHOUT SPOT, A LIFE THAT IS BLAMELESS.
That is what have been defined for us. If we do, no weapon formed against us shall prosper. The LORD will be our Judge, our King, and our Lawgiver. No curses from our father’s houses will be work in our lives, we will not even need to break them because we will live in realms where they will not work. The Bible says;
But there the majestic LORD will be for us a place of broad rivers and streams, In which no galley with oars will sail, Nor majestic ships pass by.
(For the LORD is our Judge, The LORD is our Lawgiver, The LORD is our King; He will save us); Isaiah 33:22 NKJV
Yes, when we get to that faith position where we live spotless and blameless lives, the majestic LORD will be for us a place of broad rivers and streams. There will be no more curse, sorcery, or divination that will work in our lives.
There will be no demonic chain that will be able to hold us down. We will not have an issue in our lives that will be taking us here and there looking for deliverance.
There will be no warfare in our personal lives to fight because as our King, the LORD will become our man of war while we become men of rest. And as our lawgiver, He will make sure that our lives are governed by His Truth and Spirit until His shalom fill our lives like a river; and as our Judge He will make sure no weapon formed against us prosper, and every tongue that rises against us in judgement is condemned.
We will not be trapped by what they call evil altars and all that. We will not come under any form of demonic bondage. We will be enjoying rest on every side.
The focus of every Child of God today therefore, should be to lead a life that God will accept as spotless and blameless. I did not say a life that people will accept as spotless and blameless.
People will always have something evil to say about even the most perfect man. For instance, If Christ was called names despite his sinless and blameless life because He went against the empty religious establishment of His day, what do you think we will not be called for the same.
THE BIBLE SAID HE WAS IN ALL POINTS TEMPTED YET WITHOUT SIN.
Yet, Judas betrayed him. The disciple found something evil to say about him and sold him.
He was without sin yet the Pharisees found something evil to say about Him and got Him killed. Those He healed their diseases found something evil to say about Him, and shouted “crucify Him.” Yet He was without sin.
The only one who found nothing evil in His life was the Judge of all, God the Father. That is what matters my friend.
Today, people look for scandals where they do not exist and ignore where they exist. Some of us, who have stood for the faith for over 30 years, in different nations have a lot of Bloggers and You-Tubers scanning through our lives to see if there is any evil to report. Where there is none they cook them.
Here in Kenya, they are busy courting those we excommunicated from the Church for terrible things they did, which we refused to say publicly, to tell them what they know about us. But they ignore their fathers who have raped women, stolen from church members, committed crimes, and slept with more women than won more souls for the LORD, saying “no one is perfect.”
Some have opened more brothels than churches with the money they stole in the name of Tithes and offerings. And the bloggers and You-tubers in Kenya ignore them.
Thank God for the few righteous ones who will not allow themselves to be used against the blameless. But that is the Church world that we live in today; it has become a place where the righteous are persecuted and the wicked protected.
Child of God, people may say you are this or that, it does not matter. No human opinions matter in the Court of Divine Justice, it is what God says that matters. No matter what people may be saying about you, just make sure you are upright before God, and just in His sight.
MAKE SURE YOU ARE NOT WHAT THEY SAY YOU ARE.
Our devotional text says;
“If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.
But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.
For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?” 1 Peter 4:14-17 NKJV
Sometimes when I read scriptures like this, I ponder on the kind realm that our fathers lived in when they were here, and the kind of life they led, because we do not look like them in everything we do today as Christians.
For instance, we are not standing for the Truth they stood for, we are not representing the Christ they represented, we are not holding on our lips the word of truth they held. We are just different.
They led consecrated lives that we are yet to even come to terms with.
Yes, they did, because as I look deeper and deeper into the lives they lived, I see consecration standing out. I see them consecrating their lives to doing only the will of God and nothing else. I see them being sold out completely and having nothing to do with the mundane.
It is when you consecrate your life unto God that you reflect such light in a dark world. And there can not be consecration without Biblical fasting.
That brings us to the vision of our 30-day journey of faith, the Cry of the Spirit on Biblical fasting. The Bible says “friendship with the world is enmity with God,” when you maintain friendship with the world you will never reflect or live the Christian life that our fathers reflected and lived in their days.
Biblical fasting is one major tool that helps us not to maintain friendship with the world; especially when it is frequent.
Now, How does that happen?
LET US LOOK AT THE DEFINITION OF BIBLICAL FASTING.
Biblical Fasting is abstaining from food and drink for a specific period of time for a spiritual purpose based on what the Bible teaches about it.
It can also be defined as a bodily reaction to the grievous state of our souls after being acted upon by the Spirit and Truth of GOD’s kingdom, resulting in abstinence from food and drink, or food alone, or any pleasure, to seek the LORD within a specific period of time. That is why it keeps us away from the corrupt world and help us not to establish friendship with it.
It is religious fasting that makes men friends of this world, like fasting for politicians and business men and women and collecting their money so they can win elections or prosper even in corrupt business deals; there is little or no interest on their spiritual lives.
That is not Biblical fasting or what God intended fasting to be.
I cannot forget many years ago when an Evangelist friend of mine invited me to join him in prayer for a woman whose goods had been ceased by the Nigeria government because of the violation of the laws of the land. I wondered why we should be praying for the goods of a lawbreaker to be released, then I heard how much she had promised my friend.
The prayer session was not mindful of her sins and unsaved state. It was only mindful of her predicament.
A Fasting that is induced by financial promises is a Balaam type of fasting. Though he did not fast when he was induced with money to come curse Israel, but he raised altars. Raising altars then tantamount to fasting now. Because the altar was a symbol of the heart, and fasting involve lifting up our heart to the LORD.
Any fasting induced by the mundane is not Biblical. It will never separate us from the corrupt and evil system of this world. In fact, it will pollute us with the spirit that rules the world.
Friend, it is dangerous to fast for the mundane. It is dangerous to be induced with money or anything material to fast. That is what they do in empty religion but not what is done in Christ.
We will continue from here tomorrow.
It is my prayer that the LORD use what has already been shared and continue to build us up and give us an inheritance among they that are sanctified. Amen!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY
“Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?
You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” James 4:1-4 NKJV