TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 15th April 2023)
“Defend the poor and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy; Free them from the hand of the wicked.
They do not know, nor do they understand; They walk about in darkness; All the foundations of the earth are unstable.
I said, “You are gods, And all of you are children of the Most High. But you shall die like men, And fall like one of the princes.”
Arise, O God, judge the earth; For You shall inherit all nations.” Psalm 82:3-8 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 105TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS & WONDERS
Glory be to the One and Only True God, and Jesus Christ whom He sent to redeem us from destructions; both in time and eternity.
It is another day from the LORD, and we give Him thanks for life, and for all He has given us to keep us alive this morning. His power has kept us, and it is the reason we can pray for others and they get well. It is the reason for effective Christian living and victories in life.
The true riches of His Kingdom are the reasons we are who we are, in Christ Jesus; they are the reasons money is still our slave instead of becoming our god. His glory has been the reason for our beauty.
There is nothing good about us that came from us because none of us is originally good. Everything good about us came from the LORD through His Death, Burial and Resurrection. We celebrate Jesus for all His marvelous works and great deeds!
His greatness in our lives, is the reason we have not been diminished by the enemy and the battles of this life. His mercies have been the reason our sins have not destroyed our lives. His Holiness is the reason we are sure sin will not have dominion over us, because it is there to empower us daily to live right.
One may be wondering why we are always talking about sin and its consequences in all we preach or teach.
I have even been accused of promoting what they call sin consciousness by influencers of the false grace movement. I wonder what they would have said to Christ when He was physically here, whose Spirit enables us to teach all these things; and the early Church too.
THE BIBLE PRESENTED PEACE WITH ALL MEN AND PURITY, AS CONDITIONS FOR MAKING HEAVEN.
It says,
“Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:
looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;” Hebrews 12:14-15 NKJV
That means living in sin (the filthiness of the flesh) and walking in the filthiness of the spirit, remains the eternal enemies of mankind. If we do not talk about these enemies every day, and teach ourselves to prevent them from hindering our eternal salvation, we will be doomed.
You do not overcome an enemy by ignoring or avoiding him. That will make you ignorant, and lead to him defeating you. You overcome the enemy by not being ignorant of his activities. That is what the Bible teaches. Don’t you see how living in sin is very easy in places where preachers avoid talking about it?
Satan would not want us to talk about sin, and its consequences. He will want us to avoid the topic in the guise of not creating sin consciousness.
He knows one of the most powerful ways to help mankind overcome the eternal enemy is to teach, preach and warn about it.
When people are taught or warned about sin, in the frequency of deep Biblical revelations, it will never create sin consciousness, it will rather create righteousness consciousness in them, leading to a life of purity. Satan knows that, hence preventing it.
We have been looking at the doctrine of Christ on life, and I want you to know that without His Death, Burial and Resurrection, there would have been no life.
There is a song we use to sing in those days that says, “No Jesus, No life.” It was His death, burial and Resurrection that gave us the life we have been sharing about, the spiritual life.
The spiritual life is a life that would help anyone overcome a life of Sin, because it is Holy Spirit enabled.
We had said that there are three categories of life created by the LORD. We have the natural life that starts when our hearts begin to beat in our mother’s womb. Then we have the Spiritual life which also starts as soon as our spiritual hearts begins to beat.
In other words, the spiritual life begins as soon as the Spirit of the LORD is fired into our human spirits, making it to come alive in God.
When we come alive in God, we become dead to sin. Being dead to sin will lead one to no longer get excited but feel very bad about any sinful deeds, even though they are pleasurable or very financially rewarding. That is what leads to a life of purity.
This spiritual wonder takes place when the second Adam, Christ, comes into our lives as a Life-giving Spirit. The Bible says;
And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.
The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven.” 1 Corinthians 15:45-47 NKJV
The amplified version puts the first verse of this scripture (verse 45) this way; “Thus it is written, the first man Adam became a living being (an individual personality); the last Adam (Christ) became a life-giving Spirit [restoring the dead to life].”
In Adam we all died. Yes, we all died when Adam ate from the tree of the Knowledge of good and evil. That is why in Christ, we also come alive in God. We come alive when His life-giving Spirit is fired into our spiritual dead spirits.
Do not forget God had said to him, the day you eat of it you shall surely die. In other words, you shall come under the gate of death (naturally, spiritually and eternally). That was why, naturally, Adam did not die immediately. It was spiritually he died immediately. But naturally, He died slowly. It took him 930 years to die completely.
WHEN YOU COME UNDER THE GATES OF DEATH, YOU DO NOT DIE IMMEDIATELY NATURALLY, YOU DIE SLOWLY.
In Adam, the human race came under the gates of death, making it possible to die naturally (slowly), spiritually and eternally (instantly). We die naturally when our earthly lives come to an end.
But spiritually and eternally, everyone is usually born dead, because we were all dead in Adam when he died spiritually and eternally, in the garden of Eden. He died spiritually and eternally instantly, and naturally slowly.
So, because of that original sin of Adam, we are born dead in spirit. To be dead in spirit is to be separated from God, the fullness of Spiritual life Himself.
So, we are usually born separated from God; the fullness of Spiritual life. That is why our Spiritual life begins, when we experience the new Birth Miracle, when the life-giving Spirit of the LORD comes into our lives, to make our spiritual hearts or human spirits come alive, by joining it back to GOD.
The authentic Spiritual life therefore, is not a life you live separated from God. It is a life you live only when you have been joined to the LORD GOD.
It begins when Christ manifest in our lives as a life-giving Spirit, restoring our dead human spirits, and bringing it back to life. That is the first resurrection from dead a man experience. It is a resurrection from a life that is dead in sin, iniquity and trespasses, to a life that is alive in GOD, resulting in purity, righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
When one is separated from God, one is hostile towards him and towards all that belong to Him. That tells you why we are killed, persecuted, maligned, destroyed, lied against, tortured and done so many evils by even close relatives, for the name and presence of the LORD that is in our lives.
Sadly, some who do these things even go to church like those who killed the lord and tormented the apostles. Jesus Himself said;
“I have told you all these things, so that you should not be offended (taken unawares and falter, or be caused to stumble and fall away). [I told you to keep you from being scandalized and repelled.]
They will put you out of (expel you from) the synagogues; but an hour is coming when whoever kills you will think and claim that he has offered service to God.
And they will do this because they have not known the Father or Me.” John 16:1-3 AMPC
THIS SCRIPTURE MADE IT CLEAR THAT THEY ARE HOSTILE TOWARDS GOD AND US BECAUSE THEY DO NOT KNOW THE FATHER.
They have no links with the Spirit of God and His Christ. They are alive physically but dead Spiritually. They go to church and still do those things because their spirits are still separated from God, hence the hostility towards anything that is truly God.
Personally, I have discovered that this kind of people can only cling to false gods in Church and false worship. They can only cling to false teachings, polluted prophetic anointing, and heresies.
They can only be part of Churches that have been reduced to forms of godliness without power. They can only love a powerless and Godless Christianity. Once they encounter true worshipers or see people in true worship, they become hostile.
I know a family who fought their daughter because she decided to quit sexual sins and follow the LORD in purity. They were all attending the same Church until she finds us on the media and decided to listen to the gospel. When she listened, the LORD met her and got her saved. Her Spirit came alive in God and she quit all sinful living.
She began to dedicate herself to the LORD instead of bringing men to sleep with her, and taking alcohol and all that, like they had known her. Then hell broke loose. Her parents became very hostile, accusing her of joining a cult. When people who go to church are yet to find the LORD, they will always be hostile towards you when you meet the LORD.
The Spiritual life is the life we come into after finding the LORD. It is a life that begins when we are born of the Spirit or born again (not by mouth but by heart), resulting in purity and right living.
The Spiritual life is a life we live in God or with GOD. It is a life we live in the Spirit or with the Spirit of the living GOD. It is a life we live after we have been born or begotten of God.
IT DELIVERS US FROM SIN – FROM A LIFE OF DELIBERATELY, KNOWINGLY AND HABITUALLY SINNING AGAINST GOD.
The Bible says;
“No one born (begotten) of God [deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin, for God’s nature abides in him [His principle of life, the divine sperm, remains permanently within him]; and he cannot practice sinning because he is born (begotten) of God.” 1 John3:9 AMPC
This scripture tells us that a life of habitually sin is not a spiritual life.
In fact, a life of habitual sin is a sign that the person has no spiritual life. When he or she dies, they will end up in hell. A Spiritual life will be governed by the principle of the Life of Christ, the divine sperm of God that remains permanently within, purging, purifying, and powering one to live right.
It will power the person to be able to talk to God in the Spirit, Sing to Him in the Spirit, and live the natural life supernaturally.
It is important to note that a man who is born naturally possess just the physical life, but he who is born of the Spirit possess both the physical and Spiritual life. That brings us to the revelation of the Zoe kind of life. I remember sharing about these previously.
What is the Zoe spiritual life? The Zoe spiritual life is a life from GOD who inhabits eternity. Another word for it is “eternal life.”
During genuine salvation encounter, we change from having just the natural (the Bios) life, to having the life which is in God from eternity. The word of GOD (Christ) comes into our spirits, transforming us into the very men (hypocrites of GOD) He created in the beginning. That was what Jesus meant when He said to the Pharisees;
…“Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods?”
If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? John 10:34-36 NKJV
I have said repeatedly, that when we are truly sanctified and imparted with the Zoe kind of life, we become gods; not gods to be worshiped, but gods to worship the one and only true GOD, because it takes gods (people in God’s image and likeness) to worship GOD! Fallen men cannot worship the one and only true God. At best they will put on false worship everywhere.
WHICH BRINGS US TO OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT FOR THE DAY.
One of the significant truths in the text is found in the verse that says, “ I said, “You are gods, And all of you are children of the Most High. But you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.”
This scripture makes it clear that there are just two classes of the human race on earth, the race of mare men, and the race of God in man (gods).
True Christianity takes one away from being part of the race of mere men on earth, to becoming part of the God in man race. It delivers one from falling like one of the princes, according to scripture. That is why Christianity should not be falsified because we will be sorry if we do.
A Christianity that is falsified will be full of the activities of the prince of this world. It will have so many believers who are in need of deliverance, from this or that. Can’t you see the many believers today who are falling like one of the princes because their Christianity does not have the Zoe kind of life?
They struggle with curses, demonic attacks, incurable diseases, unclean spirits, severe attacks in marriage matters and etc.
You see, everything the Bible says about the Zoe kind of life only happens within the boundaries of true Christianity. The blessings it turns our lives into, the greatness of God it brings, the restoration, the prosperity, the marital bliss, the Heaven on earth that we enjoy, and all the goodies of God’s throne are only possible if we have it.
I believe enough has been said for the day!
I want to encourage you to walk away from ordinary Christianity and come into the Christianity Jesus gave birth to when he came; a life that is full of the expressions of God’s kingdom, power and glory. That is the message.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;
they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Mark 16:14-18 NKJV