TODAY’S DEVOTION (THURSDAY 15TH DECEMBER 2022)
“I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, if anyone steadfastly believes in Me, he will himself be able to do the things that I do; and he will do even greater things than these, because I go to the Father.
And I will do [I Myself will grant] whatever you ask in My Name [as presenting all that I AM], so that the Father may be glorified and extolled in (through) the Son.
[Yes] I will grant [I Myself will do for you] whatever you shall ask in My Name [as presenting all that I AM].” John 14:12-14 AMPC
WELCOME TO THE 350TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
God be glorified for giving us another day. We line up with the Book of Job this morning to say, “the Spirit of the LORD has made us; the breath of the Almighty gives us life.”
It is the life that we have been receiving from this Breath of the Almighty called the Holy Spirit, that is expressing itself as our lives.
Indeed, God made the most essential things of life to be free. If they were not, there would have been no poor man alive today. Can you imagine if you were buying the air you breathe in or paying for the circulation of your blood, like many who use machine do?
Can you imagine if you were paying for your respiration, excretion, or reproduction? There would have been no you. But God made all of them free. So, it is important that we give Him praise.
It is when one’s health fails that these things become possible only through machines and other forms of medical help. But so long as one’s health is intact, they will keep functioning in our lives without an invoice from He who created them.
This God is worthy of our praise. He is not just worthy of our praise, He is also worthy of our worship.
Talking about worship, we have said over and over that worship is not singing. We sing to worship God but worship is not singing.
Worship is living a life that is in symphony with God’s will and ways. It can also be described as that which comes out of the life of someone whose behavior and ways of life are in symphony with God’s will and ways.
Heaven needs worship from earth to fill earth with the Glory of the LORD.
In case you are not aware, let me make it clear to us that there is a kingdom agenda to fill the earth (or individual lives) with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. The Bible says;
“But [the time is coming when] the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Habakkuk 2:14 AMPC
HOWEVER, THIS BIBLE PROPHECY WILL NOT COME TO PASS UNTIL THE EARTH BECOME FULL OF PEOPLE WHO WILL OFFER GOD WORSHIP.
In other words, until the earth become full of people whose lives or ways are in symphony with GOD’s will and ways, the earth will not be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD.
Scholars of Bible Prophecy believes that such a time may not arise on this side of eternity but on the other side, when we will have the new Heaven and the New Earth where righteousness dwells.
They could be right because the earth as we know it today is getting worse and worse. There seems to be the glory of Satan on every of its details. It calls for true worship on daily bases.
That explains why Jesus said;
“A time will come, however, indeed it is already here, when the true (genuine) worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth (reality); for the Father is seeking just such people as these as His worshipers.
God is a Spirit (a spiritual Being) and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (reality).” John 4:23-24 AMPC
The greatest need in God’s end time moves is true worshipers. God is still looking for true worshipers till this very moment. The agenda is to get the earth filled with the Knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
But like I said earlier, the whole earth will be filled after the consummation of all things.
However, the earth that is being filled today is you and I – our individual lives. If your life is filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, like the waters cover the sea, there will be no hurt in it.
The knowledge of the glory ushers in the glory itself and vice versa, making it impossible for the enemy to function in a person’s life. It is the knowledge of the glory that makes us true worshipers, because it has a way of exhuming worship from us.
The knowledge of the glory of the LORD will fill our lives with the awe of God, making us submissive to His will and ways.
THAT IS HOW IT EXHUMES WORSHIP FROM US!
Now, when we say the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, we are referring to the knowledge of the fullness of GOD on display, because the glory of the LORD is the fullness of GOD on display.
It is the fulness of God’s presence, or the presence of GOD in its fulness. It is like the Sun in its full strength. Which brings us to one major mystery of the presence of God we need to talk about.
Let me begin by asking this question.
What is the strength of the presence of God in your life? Hold your answer until we look at the Sun. Do not forget, yesterday we shared about the necessity of bringing the flesh under subjection by offering our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God.
I ask again, what is the strength of the presence of God that you carry?
The strength of the presence of God in a man’s life is a function of how much of his body he has offered to God as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.
When the body has been that offered, one will begin to live a crucified life. The depth of how crucified the life is, will ultimately determine the density or level of the presence of God in a person’s life.
I ask again, how much of the presence of God do you have in your life?
Arguably, most believers carry the presence of God, but very few carry it in a density that creates changes in their lives, or the lives of those who fellowship with them. Just like the sun is not in its full strength in the morning or evening hours, so do many have less presence of God in their lives.
They are not in darkness, but they do not carry sufficient presence of GOD to cause the works of darkness to cease in their lives.
In other words, we can say, they have the Sunlight of the presence of God, but it is not in its full strength. And if the presence of God is not in its full strength in our lives, we will not be able to dispel enough spiritual energy to keep the enemy of our souls away from our lives.
Jesus said;
“I will not talk with you much more, for the prince (evil genius, ruler) of the world is coming. And he has no claim on Me. [He has nothing in common with Me; there is nothing in Me that belongs to him, and he has no power over Me.]” John 14:30 AMPC
WHY WAS THE DEVIL NOT HAVING ANY CLAIM ON HIM?
Why was there nothing in common with the enemy in His life? The answer is simple; the presence of God was resting on Jesus in its full strength. John the Baptist calls it “the Spirit without measure.” That was why sickness, diseases, death, sin, and all works of the devil obeyed Him.
Even creation obeyed Him.
There was a time that someone died and was buried, and after four days Jesus went there and woke him up like one wakes up a sleeping child. He made the devil look too cheap to handle or to keep anyone awake.
His life was an example of how our lives will become if we carry the presence of the LORD it its full strength.
There was a time He got money from the mouth of a fish. It was not magic but the life one lives when he or she carries the presence of the LORD in its full strength.
At a time, He walked on water.
He died and on the third day He came back to life. Death vomited Him, and grave could not hold Him.
When He descended into hades, its gates shook and let all the righteous dead it held there, since creation, to come out of their graves with glorified bodies.
Whatever happened to Him was a type and shadow of what God predestined to happen to us, when we carry His presence in our lives it its full strength.
There are no words to describe how our lives will become when we begin to carry the indwelling presence of God in its full strength on the face of the earth.
Yes, when we talk about having the presence of God in its full strength, we are talking about the indwelling presence of God not the manifest presence.
The truth is, even the earth itself will not survive if the manifest presence of God comes upon it in its full strength. You see that all through the Bible.
For instance, the day a bit of it descended on Mount Sinai, the mountain began to skip like rams. They day it drove passed the red sea, the sea parted into two and created a pathway for GOD’s people to pass through.
THE BOOK OF REVELATION SAYS THE DAY IT WILL FULLY MANIFEST, HEAVEN AND EARTH WILL FLEE AWAY.
That tells us that the energy God’s manifest presence carry, will dissolve the earth if it rises to its full strength. That is why you find people trembling, and others getting slain in the Spirit, and some others remaining in that influence for days, just by the little bit we experience in Church.
So, when God says we should carry the presence of GOD in its full strength, it is not a reference to His manifest presence. It is a call to carry His indwelling presence in its full strength; and Jesus remains our example.
Our devotional text captured His ultimate desire for us. A major portion of it says;
“I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, if anyone steadfastly believes in Me, he will himself be able to do the things that I do; and he will do even greater things than these, because I go to the Father.” John 14:12 AMPC
The question is, what were the things that Jesus did? And what are the greater things than what He did that we will do?
The things Jesus did are captured in the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Acts 10:38 Said He went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil.
He did that without collecting money from them, asking them to fast, or giving them oil or miracle water to buy. He then said, “greater works than this shall you do.” Obviously, it will be Greater in quantity not quality.
Now, the key lies in what enabled Him to do all that.
He had the indwelling presence of God in Him like the Sun in its full strength.
If we will do the works He did, and even greater than He did, we must have the indwelling presence He had in its full strength. His presence must rise from within us like the Sun in its full strength to do the impossible in and through us.
Again, I ask, what level of God’s presence do you carry?
The answer to this question is not what we give with our lips. It is what we answer with our lives. Our lives will always show the level of God’s indwelling presence we carry. There is no lying about it.
Paul in his days carried a level that even poisonous snakes could not kill him.
There are a lot of things that operates like that poisonous snake around our marriages, our finances, our families, our health, our hopes, our ministries and etc. We must carry the indwelling presence of God in its full strength, so that we can be saved from them all and spend our days doing what Jesus did.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“Now Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and he was laying them on the fire when a viper crawled out because of the heat and fastened itself on his hand.
When the natives saw the little animal hanging from his hand, they said to one another, Doubtless this man is a murderer, for though he has been saved from the sea, Justice [the goddess of avenging] has not permitted that he should live.
Then [Paul simply] shook off the small creature into the fire and suffered no evil effects.
However, they were waiting, expecting him to swell up or suddenly drop dead; but when they had watched him a long time and saw nothing fatal or harmful come to him, they changed their minds and kept saying over and over that he was a god.
In the vicinity of that place there were estates belonging to the head man of the island, named Publius, who accepted and welcomed and entertained us with hearty hospitality for three days.
And it happened that the father of Publius was sick in bed with recurring attacks of fever and dysentery; and Paul went to see him, and after praying and laying his hands on him, he healed him.” Acts 28:3-8 AMPC