TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 21ST DECEMBER 2022)
But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,
“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. Hebrews 10:15-18 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 355th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
It is just ten days to go! Ten days to come into a new year, according to the Gregorian Calendar. We are grateful.
I hope you are getting ready for this beautiful transition of time.
Obviously, the natural life itself is transitional. We transit from a seed that is fertilizing an egg or ovary in the womb of our mothers, to a fetus. Then we transit from a fetus to a baby nine to ten months later. Some, like me, even more.
Then we move from a baby to a Child playing around and maybe going to school. Then from a Child we transit to the life of a teenager, where you begin to experience some bodily developments and all that. Then from a teenager we transit to a full-grown Adult, and before you know it, we have become fathers or mothers, having our own children.
Then we grow Old and die. Life is created to be transitional.
If you do not live your natural life with that understanding, planning for the next transition like the ants and learning from the mistakes of the last transition, you may not live a fulfilled or happy life.
The transition of time, and days and night should send a strong message to us about the power of transitions, then help us to position ourselves properly for the transitions of life.
Referring to how the ants handle its own transition, and how we should not handle the transitions of life, the Bible says;
“Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways and be wise!— Which, having no chief, overseer, or ruler, Provides her food in the summer and gathers her supplies in the harvest.
How long will you sleep, O sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to lie down and sleep—
So will your poverty come like a robber or one who travels [with slowly but surely approaching steps] and your want like an armed man [making you helpless].” Proverbs 6:6-11 AMPC
THIS SCRIPTURE CLEARLY SHOWS US HOW NOT TO HANDLE TRANSITION.
It made it clear that we should not be sluggards or lazy people in life. Life is not designed to bless the sluggard. It made it clear that the transitions of life will cloth the lazy with poverty.
So, we do not handle the transitions of life leading a lazy and an unproductive life. We do not handle the transitions of life sleeping and loving to sleep all the time. We are to Handle them like the ants that prepare their food in the summer so that when they transit into the harvest season of life, they will not live a begging and borrowing life.
As we transit into the new year, understand the principle of life that says “Your tomorrow depends greatly on how you handle your today” and prepare to make the most of each day of the new year.
If you see each day as a season to make an investment into, and use it to be productive, you will litter your future with great blessings. So, be diligent, productive and hard working. Make up your mind to spend your days adding value to people’s lives, and the transitions of life will treat you well. Hallelujah!
The presence of God is there to help us! Yes, it is there to help us in making valuable and unforgettable impact in the lives of others.
I have come to discover that if you really want to be productive and valuable to others you must learn to cherish the presence of GOD. That was the secret of our fathers.
In one of those times of spiritual reflection, they said;
“Therefore, select out from among yourselves, brethren, seven men of good and attested character and repute, full of the [Holy] Spirit and wisdom, whom we may assign to look after this business and duty.
But we will continue to devote ourselves steadfastly to prayer and the ministry of the Word.” Acts 6:3-4 AMPC
WHY DID THEY DECIDE TO GIVE THEMSELVES TO ENTIRELY PRAYER AND TO THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD?
It was to absorb sufficient presence from God so that they can be able to make meaningful impact in the lives of others.
People who made positive eternal impacts in the lives of others in Bible days where men and women of God’s presence. Most were not even educated and exposed people, like we would call it today. They were men and women exposed to the many dimensions of God’s presence.
I believe God want us to spend each day in the coming year, making impact in the lives of others with the help of His presence that is why we are on this 31-day journey with the Cry of the Spirit on the Presence of God.
Today is the 21st day of this journey.
So far, we have seen the three dimensions of God’s presence; the Omni presence, the manifest presence and the indwelling presence. For us in the New Covenant, the ultimate manifestation of the presence of God is the indwelling presence in its full strength.
That was what Jesus showed us on the mountain of transfiguration. The Bible says;
“And six days after this, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves.
And His appearance underwent a change in their presence; and His face shone clear and bright like the sun, and His clothing became as white as light.” Matthew 17:1-2 AMPC
The indwelling presence of God in its full strength will manifest this way in our lives; a manifestation that will not be seen with the physical eyes. Because the disciples never saw this manifestation of Christ with their physical eyes. They saw it with their spiritual eyes, hence manifesting like a vision to them.
You see that in what Jesus said to them.
The Bible says;
“And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.” Matthew 17:9 KJV
SO, WHAT THEY SAW WAS WITH THE EYES OF THEIR SPIRITS. IT WAS A VISION.
That is how you will be seen when the presence of God manifests in your life in its full strength. Naturally, you will look the same but when GOD opens the eyes of someone you will be seen completely transfigured.
The manifestation of the presence of God in our lives in its full strength is the purpose of the indwelling presence.
As we saw earlier, God will first direct His indwelling presence in our lives to remove filthy garments from us in other to fulfill the vision of having the indwelling presence of God in its full strength. There are seven things God will do in our lives to accomplish this vision, depending on our spiritual moral conditions.
The seven things are, (1) the conviction of the Spirit, (2) deep repentance, (3) the washing of water by the word, (4) the creation of a new heart and a new spirit, (5) an impartation of the Spirit of holiness, (6) a loyal heart, and (7) writing of His word or laws inn our hearts.
We have shared some truths on the first six. Today we want to look at the seventh. Our devotional text says;
But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,
“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. Hebrews 10:15-18 NKJV
This scripture is one scripture that can help a Bible student spot the difference between Old Testament saints and New Testament saints.
Under the Old order, God could not write His law in the hearts of men hence using tablets of stone. He could only promise to do so at a further date.
THE REASON WAS BECAUSE THE REDEMPTION OF MANKIND WAS STILL PENDING.
But today Christ has died. His blood has been shared for the redemption of mankind. God can now indwell us and write His laws or words in our hearts. It is a new covenant; the covenant of grace. It puts God’s laws (or principles to live by) in our hearts and minds, and brings us to the place where our lawless deeds are remembered no more.
What does that mean? It means a place of living a holy and righteous life, where we do not repeat our lawless deeds again.
That is the place David defined as, “thy word have I hidden in my heart that I may not sin against thee.” God showed us how His presence does that in our lives when He wrote on the tablets of stones after descending on mount Sinai.
If He want to do that in your life today, He will create hunger for His word in your heart.
As you respond to it by spending time with Him, to feed on His word or to be fed by those He may have appointed to feed you with sound doctrine, His indwelling presence in your life will begin to write His word in your heart and on your mind, taking you from lawlessness to Godliness.
That was what David experienced, hence saying;
“I will keep Your statutes; O forsake me not utterly. How shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed and keeping watch [on himself] according to Your word [conforming his life to it].
With my whole heart have I sought You, inquiring for and of You and yearning for You; Oh, let me not wander or step aside [either in ignorance or willful] from Your commandments.
Your word have I laid up in my heart, that I might not sin against You. Blessed are You, O Lord; teach me Your statutes.” Psalm 119:8-12 AMPC
If you look at this scripture, you will realize that David was a man that God fast forwarded to touch some grace dimensions while still under the law; especially the dimension of having GOD’s word hidden or written in the hearts of men by the indwelling presence of GOD (which was not possible under the Old Covenant).
It may interest you to know that Christ foreshadowed Himself in David severally, and depicted what He pre-determined to accomplish in our dispensation in his life. That is why sometimes we can find David living or saying things that were not possible for his dispensation, like the creation of a new heart and the renewal of a right spirit within men.
THE BIBLE IS CLEAR THAT THE BLOOD OF BULLS AND GOATS COULD NOT DO THAT IN THEIR DAY.
It took the blood of Jesus Christ to do it in our days. But David spoke about it and showed some evidence of him having a foretaste of the grace products.
We thank God that He made Him have those experiences. We can now see what it means to be under grace by looking at those messianic features in David’s walk and talk with GOD.
What is the message of today? The message is simple.
God’s indwelling presence will write the laws of the LORD in our heart and your mind, filling our souls with sanctifying truths, and our spirits with living truths. Both truth dimensions have their own role in our lives. The purpose is to make sure we are working in His ways not our sinful ways.
It is God’s way of changing us from the inside.
It is important to note that the law attempted changing man from the outside and failed. Then God changed His redemptive pattern. Now His grace has been released to change man from the inside.
He moved from having His laws written on the foreheads, wrists, and door post of His people to help them live right, to having the same word written on the tables of our hearts and minds. That is one of the most beautiful things that the indwelling presence of God does to us.
It is an aspect of His indwelling presence that makes the Bible come alive when we read it. Under this dimension, you can sit for hours with the Bible and not get tired.
YOU CAN ALSO SEAT FOR HOURS UNDER SOUND TEACHINGS AND NOT GET TIRED.
Friend, there are a lot of Blessings that we walk in when God’s laws are written in our hearts and minds. It is not just the stripping of the filthy garments we experience.
In fact, our enemies will not be able to have us for dinner if God’s laws are written in our hearts and minds. There will be no demonic attack that can succeed against us. No curse can be placed on our lives and no evil will befall us.
It is my prayer that we all yield to the indwelling presence of God in our lives to do all the seven things it was sent to do so that we can begin to experience the indwelling presence of God in its full strength.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY!
“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was their Husband, says the Lord.
But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, says the Lord, I will put My law within them, and on their hearts will I write it; and I will be their God, and they will be My people.
And they will no more teach each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they will all know Me [recognize, understand, and be acquainted with Me], from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will [seriously] remember their sin no more. Jeremiah 31:31-34 AMPC