TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 22ND JANUARY 2023)
“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Matthew 6:31-33 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 22ND DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS!
If you are using the Gregorian Calendar, then it will make sense if we say it has been 22 days since the LORD brought us into a new year. Yes, 22 days of His mercies, sustenance, peace, love, grace, word and treasures running our lives so that we might not be ruined.
Today God has a word for us; another word on visionary living.
Visionary living is all about fixing your eyes, hears, mind, heart and entire being on the prophetic reason why God created you, and doing all within your God given power to fulfil it. It is having a single purpose from GOD for living, instead of spending your life not knowing what to do with it.
There are people who spend their years not knowing what to do with their lives.
If you ask them, they cannot tell you an eternal reason they are living for in time. Some could say something but it will not be meaningful, they will just be talking to appear to have something they are living for but when you observe their lives, you will know this person has no eternal purpose they are living for.
For instance, there are people who will say “My purpose for life is to worship God” and that is it. Well, we are created to worship God but in doing so there must be something from the LORD, a vision, a life goal, or purpose to spend each day, week, month, year and an entire life dying for.
On His way to the Cross, while standing before Pilate, the Roman authority that the Jews handled Jesus to for Crucifixion, a conversation ensured between our LORD and the Roman authority. In that conversation there is something to learn on visionary living.
The Bible says;
Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?”
Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” John 18:37 NKJV
If you look at this scripture, you will find so much about visionary living, especially what I will call the driving force of visionary living; knowing the cause of purpose you were born to fulfill, the vision or cause you came into the world for.
FOR JESUS IT WAS TO BE A KING WHO DIED ON THE CROSS, TO SAVE A KING, ADAM, WHO LOST HIS PLACE IN GOD.
He was the greatest visionary life that ever lived on earth of the earth because He never pursued any other purpose but that, he was not driven by any earthly desire or distracted by the need for this early blessing or the other.
He did not even get married, acquired properties, or pursue any of the early things we pursue, fame, fortune, ambitions career glory, and etc. even while saying we are fulfilling GOD’s purpose for our lives. That would have been a major distraction in His drive like it has become to many of us. He lived to die for what He came to die for.
His life showed us that getting married is not a purpose for living, and should never be anyone’s purpose for living. Getting married is a spiritual incentive for fulfilling a cause you were born for and a purpose you came into the world for, and should be left that way.
Jesus never got married because what He came into the world for never required that incentive.
In the beginning, God did not create man to have getting married as a purpose for living. Neither did He create man to make material success in life a purpose for living. He never created man for any earthly minded cause. He created man to fulfill eternal purposes in time. Material blessings and all the early glory men seek were to be incentives for fulfilling an eternal purpose in time.
In other words, if what you were born for will require marriage and having a family, God will grant you one. If it will require fame, like Jesus had, God will give you fame. If it will require fortune like the cause of Solomon required, God will grant you uncommon fortune. If it will require uncommon favor, network of businesses and all that, God will grant you that.
If it will require and illustrious career in the military, police force, or or any other place, God will grant you one.
God will grant you only the earthly successes that are required for you to fulfill the cause why you were born and the purpose you came into the world to fulfill. You will not need to pursue any of these things as a purpose for living.
THEY WILL HAPPEN TO YOU AS CONSEQUENCES FOR PURSUING YOUR PROPHETIC OR ETERNAL PURPOSE FOR LIVING IN TIME.
If we spend our lives seeking or pursuing things that were suppose to be a consequence of visionary living; things like owning houses, lands, getting and staying married, having money, becoming famous, gathering great wealth like Solomon, pursuing an illustrious career in any area of human endeavor or any other early accomplishment or glory, we will be spending our days, seeking what the Gentiles (godless people) seek, worrying and piercing ourselves with many sorrows.
Our devotional text says;
“Therefore, do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Matthew 6:31-33 NKJV
Sadly, there are so many Godless preachers, prophets, apostles, and teachers in Church today who make us seek what the gentiles seek, even when the preach what they call seeking first the kingdom of God. They are religious, powerful, but Godless like the Gentiles. You know they are Godless by what their preaching, teaching, prophetic ministry, and all that they do make you to seek.
Our devotional text made it clear that God did not design us to spend our days pursuing things that should be pursing us. He designed us to spend our days pursuing God’s eternal and prophetic purpose for allowing us to be born. He deigned our lives to be spent pursuing the purpose we were born on earth for, while the blessings He has put on earth pursue us as a consequence.
In clear terms, God did not design our lives to be spent pursuing money or marriage, He designed that our lives be spent pursuing His eternal and prophetic plans for them. Then marriage and money will pursue us if they will be required to fulfill those plans.
I HOPE YOU UNDERSTAND ME!
That means, if we are the ones pursuing money, marriage, and the rest of the earthly blessings and glories, instead of them pursuing us, we are not living our lives according the prophetic or eternal purpose of GOD for them. It means we are not involved in visionary living. It is as simple as that.
Visionary living is seeking the purpose why you were born; the cause that brought you into the world, and dying for it. Visionary living in GOD’s kingdom is not pursuing earthly glories, especially at the expanse of eternal or prophetic purposes.
Earthly glories are additions that should come into our lives if and when they are needed in helping us fulfil the purpose why we were born.
You must understand that whatever is being delayed in your life is being delayed because you have not aligned with purpose.
Whatever earthly glory you are missing in life is missing because you have not aligned with the eternal cause or prophetic purpose that will make it to be added to your life on earth.
The Bible says “and all these things shall be added to you.” If nothing is being added, it is a sign that you have not found the kingdom purpose that will make it to be added to you. The classic Edition of the Amplified version put what Jesus said to Pilate in this contemporary expression;
“You say it! [You speak correctly!] For I am a King. [Certainly I am a King!] This is why I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the Truth.”
Friend, you must know why you were born, and for which purpose you came into the world. If you do not, you will spend your days busy here and day, lacking and pursing the very things GOD has designed to be added to us as we live for His plans and purposes for our lives. You will just be busy here and there to gain this glory and the other glory, until all of your days are fulfilled and you die (maybe rich and famous but feeling) miserable for not fulfilling why you were born.
VISIONARY LIVING IS NOT SPENDING YOUR DAYS GETTING BUSY HERE AND THERE. IT IS NOT A BLESSING TO BE LIVING A LIFE THAT IS BUSY HERE AND THERE.
It’s been a 31- day journey with the Cry of the Spirit on visionary living. Today is the 22nd day of the journey. One may be wondering, what law did we see today, since we have been looking at the laws of visionary living? The law we brought to our attention today is the law of what not to seek. There is a law of what not to seek in life as a human. That is what the LORD spoke about in our devotional text.
If you spend your days seeking what not to seek in life, you will be consumed by what should have had no power over you.
You can see that in the life of Samson. That man has taught us so much of late. May the LORD bless his memory! When he was spending his days pursuing what he should seek, the Kingdom (the fulfillment of God’s plans and purposes for his life), he was shining like a star in God’s ancient firmament. The day he began to seek what he should not seek (which for him was marriage), it opened his life to the troubles that would later bring his glorious life to a sudden end.
Delilah should not have had power over him if he was busy seeking what his life was designed to be spent seeking. The lords of the Philistine were not designed by God to have power over him, or be able to pluck out his eyes and tie him to grind for them in prison or perform for them in public places. Seeking what he should not seek stripped him of that dominion.
There are many other Biblical examples who sought what they should not seek and ended up departing from visionary living. They ended up in diversionary living. Sadly, that is the case with many of us today. But GOD want us back on track hence sending this word to us this morning.
He wants us to stop getting busy here and there with marriages, businesses, jobs, careers, money making moves, and everything that is diversionary while time is escaping from us, lying to ourselves that we are being visionary.
Anything that is diversionary that we take for visionary will cause us so much trouble, most times with no persistent help from God to quench it. It will sap our energy and make our lives miserable. That is why many have been killed or ruined by marriages, and diversionary things they took for God’s will.
It is my prayer that we depart from any form of diversionary living and embrace these laws of visionary living in full, so that we can serve our generation according to the will of GOD and finish our days well and strong in Jesus precious name. Amen!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“Now a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his neighbor by the word of the LORD, “Strike me, please.” And the man refused to strike him.
Then he said to him, “Because you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, surely, as soon as you depart from me, a lion shall kill you.” And as soon as he left him, a lion found him and killed him.
And he found another man, and said, “Strike me, please.” So the man struck him, inflicting a wound.
Then the prophet departed and waited for the king by the road, and disguised himself with a bandage over his eyes.
Now as the king passed by, he cried out to the king and said, “Your servant went out into the midst of the battle; and there, a man came over and brought a man to me, and said, ‘Guard this man; if by any means he is missing, your life shall be for his life, or else you shall pay a talent of silver.’
While your servant was busy here and there, he was gone.”
Then the king of Israel said to him, “So shall your judgment be; you yourself have decided it.” 1 Kings 20:35-40 NKJV