TODAY’S DEVOTION (FRIDAY 19TH May 2023)**
“ For even though I did grieve you with my letter, I do not regret [it now], though I did regret it; for I see that that letter did pain you, though only for a little while;
Yet I am glad now, not because you were pained, but because you were pained into repentance [and so turned back to God]; for you felt a grief such as God meant you to feel, so that in nothing you might suffer loss through us or harm for what we did.
For godly grief and the pain God is permitted to direct, produce a repentance that leads and contributes to salvation and deliverance from evil, and it never brings regret; but worldly grief (the hopeless sorrow that is characteristic of the pagan world) is deadly [breeding and ending in death].
For [you can look back now and] observe what this same godly sorrow has done for you and has produced in you: what eagerness and earnest care to explain and clear yourselves [of all complicity in the condoning of incest], what indignation [at the sin], what alarm, what yearning, what zeal [to do justice to all concerned], what readiness to mete out punishment [to the offender]! At every point you have proved yourselves cleared and guiltless in the matter.” 2 Corinthians 7:8-11 AMPC
WELCOME TO THE 139TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS & WONDERS!
Yesterday, we wrapped up the devotional with a word on iniquity not being our ruin. That beautiful scripture of Ezekiel 18 was food to the soul for those who really want to live for the LORD.
It tells us what will happen if any of us abandon God’s righteous ways permanently, and go back to our old ways. It says all the righteous things we may have done – the price we may have paid, the tears we may have shed, the lives we may have changed – will be forgotten.
Those of us who are saved, stands the risk of loosing everything we are doing in God’s kingdom now, if we permanently return to our old ways. It was a perfect revelation of God’s justice system that I believe every human being should know. It tells us what the result will be if we turn our will to favor a life of sin or a life of righteousness.
That scripture (Ezekiel 18) also tells us what will happen if a wicked man or woman permanently abandon their wicked ways and begin to follow the LORD. It made it clear that no matter the sin we may have committed, if we abandon our wicked ways and permanently go for God’s righteous ways, there will be hope for us.
We have been focusing on the salvation of the soul in our quest to improve our faith, purity and patience, and of late the sanctification of the unit of the soul called the will, has been the discourse.
A lot depends on how we use our will. If we do not understand the importance of our will, so long as living a blessed life in this life and making Heaven in the next life is concern, we will be sorry on the last day. God’s will, is that we live blessed lives on earth and make Heaven in the life after, that is why the Bible says;
“The Lord does not delay and is not tardy or slow about what He promises, according to some people’s conception of slowness, but He is long-suffering (extraordinarily patient) toward you, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9 AMPC
God’s will is that we live a blessed life on earth, and make heaven in the next life.
BUT THE PROBLEM IS OUR WILL. IS THAT OUR WILL ALSO? THE WAY MANY OF US USE OUR WILL, ITS CLEAR THAT IS NOT YET OUR WILL.
It could be our desire, but it’s not yet our will, because we do not use our will to resist sin and build a life of faith, purity, and patience in our walk with GOD. We do not use it to live right like our Bible fathers did. We use it to feed our flesh, sow to please it, thereby creating a harvest of corruption. We do not use it in such a way that we will not perish.
It is our individual wills that prevents God’s will from coming to pass in our lives. That is why we do not see His will come to pass in the lives of many of us, so long as His prophetic and eternal will for our lives are concern. For many of us, the defilement in our souls do not allow our will to let His righteous will to be done in our lives.
Yet, Jesus said when we pray, or relate with our Heavenly Father, we should say;
….Our Father Who is in heaven, hallowed (kept holy) be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:9-10 AMPC
The earth in this scripture, implies both the entire planet and our individual earthly lives. The will of GOD is already done in Heaven. Heaven is in harmony with God’s will because nothing resists God’s will in Heaven. It is on earth that man’s will resist God’s will. So, God’s will need to be done on earth.
I need to make something clear here; Satan’s will cannot resist God’s will successfully. God will crush him in less than a second if he tries. There is a decree in the Spirit realm that says, “the counsel of the wicked shall not stand,” so he cannot successfully resist God’s will. But man’s will can successfully resist God’s will because God will not crush him.
God will not crush man because man is not His enemy but His own. He created man for His pleasure and will not want him destroyed.
YOU DO NOT CRUSH DOWN YOUR OWN IF THEY RESIST YOU.
You only persuade, correct, enlighten, grant them encounters, and at most discipline them if they resist you. But crushing them is out of the question, except they join the one destined for crushing, they will never be crushed for resisting you. At most they will suffer the consequences of resisting your will with a window of repentance opened to them.
In other words, being created in God’s image and likeness, makes it possible for man to successfully resist God’s will.
The preaching of the gospel is actually to persuade man to stop resisting God’s will and start aligning with it. That is why when people accept the gospel, they begin to lead their lives differently. They begin to place their will in God’s hands and allowing His Holy Spirit to influence it.
A son of God is he whose will have being sold out to do God’s will, no matter the cost.
We must understand how deeply our will determine the direction of our lives, on this part of eternity, and how it will determine it on the other side, and begin to give it the attention it deserves.
For many of us, our will is our killer not our enemies. We have refused to permanently allow it to follow the ways of GOD. It is how we bend our will to follow God’s will, that determines how GOD deal with our enemies. Yes, our lives only turn out well when we use our will well. The Bible says;
“Oh, that My people would listen to Me, That Israel would walk in My ways! I would soon subdue their enemies, and turn My hand against their adversaries.
The haters of the Lord would pretend submission to Him, but their fate would endure forever.
He would have fed them also with the finest of wheat; And with honey from the rock I would have satisfied you.” Psalm 81:13-16 NKJV
OUR DESTRUCTION, PAIN, AND SORROW IN THIS LIFE HAS ALWAYS BEEN CREATED BY WE NOT LISTENING TO GOD.
Not listening to GOD simply means, not subjecting your will to His will. It is far beyond the ears. It is a heart thing that is always the root of our calamities in life.
YOU FIND GOD LAMENTING IN THIS PSALM ABOUT THAT.
Oh, how we delay our blessings and even deny ourselves great things from GOD by being self-willed instead of GOD- willed. The faith, purity and patience of the saints is all about aligning with God’s will no matter the cost. If you are still sold out to your will and ways, after saying you are saved, you are not saved. Christianity is all about doing the will of God, and following His ways. Anything outside that, is insanity.
When our will is sanctified, we become God-Willed, but when it is unsanctified, we become self-willed. All people in hell today, died and went there because they lived self-willed lives while on earth. Our will was not originally given to us to be self-controlled and sin influenced, it was given to us to be God controlled and influenced.
Do not forget, it is with our will we make marriage proposals or accept them. It is with our will we give help or accept help. It is with our will we walk away from sin or stay with it.
When we do not subject it to God’s will, we will be making or accepting eternally damning marital proposals, offering or accepting eternally damning helps, staying with what will destroy us eternally, or walking away from what is designed by the LORD to bless us.
Understand that, making Heaven or going to hell depends on who or what is in charge of our will on daily bases! Living a sinful or consecrated life depends on who or what is in charge of our will on daily bases. If the Holy Spirit and God’s holy word are in charge, we will not be led to lead sinful lives. Our decisions will be holy, righteous and pure.
We will not do things that desecrates us.
Now, let’s look at how to sanctify this important unit of the soul. We will look at what to do when it becomes weak, and then lead us to a fall into sin. Many perish for not knowing what to do.
Not knowing what to do has a way of clouding our judgment with impulses and conclusions from the spirit of hell, thereby planting one permanently in a life of sin, iniquity and trespass. In God’s kingdom, it takes Heavenly knowledge to stay strong in the fight for our soul when such things happen, and not to give up.
THERE ARE SOME OF US WHO HAVE GONE PERMANENTLY TO THE DEVIL, AND ARE NOW NOT EVEN INTERESTED IN CHRIST AGAIN, BECAUSE THEY GAVE UP!
Some stood firm when they heard the word, sacrificed in prayer and fasting, hoping they will not sin again, only to fall back into it. Then they gave up saying, “Heaven is not for everyone.” Some gave up, saying, “we took this salvation things too serious,” and then went back to a life of sin.
Friends, one thing we must remember is this, living a consecrated life is not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of the living God. That makes falling away, and going back to a life of sin, a product of us not yielding enough to the Spirit for supernatural help not to fall.
The Bible made it clear that the true grace of God is an enabler of righteous living, and the Holy Spirit is the power or store house of that grace on earth. That is why where sins abide grace much more abides to eliminate sin. It does not abide to keep people living in sin without repenting, and then GOD keeps forgiving them. That will not be a work of the Holy Spirit, but the work of a deceiving spirit. It will not be the true grace of GOD at work, but a hyper grace from hell at work.
The mantra of God’s true grace remains, “neither do I condemned you, go and sin no more.” Period! Not go and keep sinning.
The reason we fall back into a life of sin after fasting, praying and holding on to a life of righteousness for a while, is because a time comes in our quest for right living, that pride or spiritual arrogance forms in our hearts, leading to a shortage of God’s grace, or a reduction in the activities of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, because God resist the proud but gives grace to the humble.
Then the shortage of grace or reduction in the helping hand of the Holy Spirit will result in the loss of divine influence over our will. Then the sin that lives in us will begin to influence it, resulting in one fall, then another, then another, until we give up.
The Bible says God resist the proud but give grace to the humble.
Meaning, in our fasting, prayer, and consecrating, we must remain humble or poor in spirit. If we remain humble or poor in spirit, we will be trembling at the word of the LORD, instead of over estimating ourselves and disdaining those still living in sin around us, like the Pharisee who went to pray in the temple.
If we do not remain humble or poor in spirit, it will result in shortage of grace, leading to a fall back to sin.
THE NEXT THING I WANT TO POINT OUT BEFORE WE WRAP THIS UP IS THIS; HELL WAS NOT ORIGINALLY CREATED FOR ANY HUMAN, BUT FALLEN ANGELS.
Those angels where once standing in God’s glory in Heaven. They were once holy and glorious. But they fell, and the decree went out that they be banished in hell. That should teach us something about the justice system of GOD.
Jesus has died and went to this hell for us, so that we will not go there. That is only applicable if we accept Him into our lives. Accepting Him is accepting His will and ways. It is aligning our will with His will and our ways of life with His, by His Holy Spirit.
The Bible warned that we are not supposed to fall back into a life of sin like these angels did after accepting the LORD. If we do, we will suffer the same fate with them.
If we fall back to a life of sin like those angels fell, our fall will reduce us to their level; we will become fallen angels, so to speak. We will share eternity with them. That should worry us and keep us on our toes. And one way it should keep us on our toes, is by knowing what to do when our will becomes weak, and we fall into sin.
However, before we get there I want to say, one of the many events that happens in the life of a Child of GOD that eventually culminates into a life of consecration, is what he does when he or she falls into sin; especially with the knowledge of the Holy One in his heart.
OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT SPEAKS OF GODLY SORROW. IT SAYS;
“Yet I am glad now, not because you were pained, but because you were pained into repentance [and so turned back to God]; for you felt a grief such as God meant you to feel, so that in nothing you might suffer loss through us or harm for what we did.
For godly grief and the pain God is permitted to direct, produce a repentance that leads and contributes to salvation and deliverance from evil, and it never brings regret; but worldly grief (the hopeless sorrow that is characteristic of the pagan world) is deadly [breeding and ending in death].
For [you can look back now and] observe what this same godly sorrow has done for you and has produced in you: what eagerness and earnest care to explain and clear yourselves [of all complicity in the condoning of incest], what indignation [at the sin], what alarm, what yearning, what zeal [to do justice to all concerned], what readiness to mete out punishment [to the offender]! At every point you have proved yourselves cleared and guiltless in the matter.” 2 Corinthians 7:9-11 AMPC
Godly sorrow is the grief we feel after we have sinned against God, especially for a long time. It is the grief we feel after committing, sometimes, very grievous sins like adultery, fornication, lying, walking in deceit or unforgiveness. It usually comes after a strong conviction of the Spirit.
This grief can launch one into a permanent life of consecration if we allow it to take us to the Threshing floor. The last verse of the devotional text said,
“For [you can look back now and] observe what this same godly sorrow has done for you and has produced in you: what eagerness and earnest care to explain and clear yourselves [of all complicity in the condoning of incest], what indignation [at the sin], what alarm, what yearning, what zeal [to do justice to all concerned], what readiness to mete out punishment [to the offender]! At every point you have proved yourselves cleared and guiltless in the matter.”
What do we do when we grow weary and fall into sin? We should not give up. If we are true Children of God, there will be godly sorrow in our hearts. Wisdom demands that we direct the godly sorrow towards repentance, by going to the threshing floor through prayer and fasting, asking the LORD to sanctify our souls, and fortifying our will. During the prayer season, we spend quality time with His word of truth and righteousness.
However, this should not only be done when one fall into sin, but when one is gradually losing their ability to resist temptation.
A Child of God must learn to recognize when his desires have changed, or are gradually changing, from pure and holy desires, to impure and unholy desires. From my own experience, I realize that, the moment I badly fell into sin, were moments I did not recognize when my desirers were beginning to metamorphose or change to carnal and then sinful desires.
If we can recognize it, we can arrest it by going quickly to the Threshing floor. If we can sense when sin is creeping in like a snake into our lives, and respond by humbling ourselves in prayer and fasting for grace from the throne room, we will always win.
The message here is that of staying humble before GOD for help. Do not forget, in the school of holiness there are no graduates. In other words, no one can be immune to a life of sin on this side of eternity. We will keep fighting the battle, by staying humble before GOD for help, until we step to the other side.
Yes, until we live this world, our battle with sin continues at different levels. But the Holy God is on our side to help us achieve His holiness, and the Threshing floor is the only place He meets us to get it done.
The threshing floor is the place of His Throne of grace, where we obtain mercy through prayer, as we humble ourselves in fasting, to find grace to help in time of need.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
Inasmuch then as we have a great High Priest Who has [already] ascended and passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession [of faith in Him].
For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning.
Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God’s unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it]. Hebrews 4:14-16 AMPC