TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 12THAUGUST 2023)
“Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.”
(Now this, “He ascended” — what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head — Christ — Ephesians 4:8-15 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 224TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
It is another day from the LORD, we give Him glory for life. We thank Him for giving us healing, health, deliverance, peace of mind, and hope for tomorrow. We thank Him for being the God of our salvation.
May the days He has appointed for us not bring us sorrow. May they be filled with His presence in our lives, a desire to walk with Him and do His blessed will, the manifestation of His glory, and everything He has predetermined for us.
Today, God has a word for us. I pray that the word speaks to you in any situation you may find yourself, in Jesus’ precious name. Amen
Let me begin with this; there is need for proper conduct in life. Nothing is permanent in a changing world. We make things, either good or bad permanent in our lives through our conduct.
For instance, if you do not know how to conduct yourself in the day of prosperity, your prosperity will destroy you. It may give you sickness, restlessness, pain, destruction, or even premature death due to your lack of proper conduct. In fact, there are people who are now on hospital beds, others rendered invalid for life, and some others either in prison or in an early grave because they prospered. That is not the will of God for our lives!
On the other hand, if you do not know how to conduct yourself in the day of adversity, your adversity will destroy you without remedy!
People have slept with men or women, motivated by a desire to come out of their adversity, but instead they ended up slipping into other forms of problems. They are now struggling with what they never bargained for. Some have followed men and women of God they never knew use dark powers, to have their problems solved, only to slip into the portals of hell, and sudden destruction.
We all have to be careful what we do when things are not okay with us, because God will never leave us in our adversity. He will come through for us if we wait for Him in the right places.
Now, either in prosperity, or adversity, one thing that will help us to conduct ourselves properly, is wisdom. Wisdom will help us conduct ourselves properly.
THAT IS WHY THE BIBLE SAYS, IN ALL YOUR GETTING, GET WISDOM AND GET UNDERSTANDING.
Life is built to be powered by the Spirit of the LORD and sustained by the wisdom of God revealed in and through Christ. The Spirit of the LORD and the wisdom of the LORD, are the power house of life. They are the sustainers of human life that many humans do not know. That is why if you lack them, your life will be breaking into pieces without redemption.
And when that happens, you may begin to seek help the other way; running after prophets or prayer people for help; sowing this seed and that seed for deliverance. But deliverance in such circumstances only comes when God pour His Spirit upon you and put His wisdom in your heart.
He said in His word;
“And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide Himself any more, but your eyes will constantly behold your Teacher.
And your ears will hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way; walk in it, when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left.
Then you will defile your carved images overlaid with silver and your molten images plated with gold; you will cast them away as a filthy bloodstained cloth, and you will say to them, Be gone!
Then will He give you rain for the seed with which you sow the soil, and bread grain from the produce of the ground, and it will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will feed in large pastures.” Isaiah 30:20-23 AMP
From this scripture, it is clear that we will need insights from Holy Ghost propelled teachers of God’s true word, to turn our adversity into prosperity, or even keep our prosperity prospering us!
If you look at the scripture carefully, you will realize that if we are in adversity, our restoration will not be possible until the LORD gives us Teachers of His word in our days of adversity. Teachers that when they speak, we find ways to walk in!
INSIGHTFUL TEACHERS OF HIS HOLY AND TRUE WORD!
Yes, teachers with Grace Capacity to restore His Spirit and wisdom to our hearts. From this scripture, it is clear that, the best minister of the gospel to sit under, especially when your life is breaking down, is not a prayer warrior or any preacher. The best person to sit under is one with grace capacity to restore the wisdom and Spirit of the LORD to your heart.
When that restoration takes place, the Bible says,
“then will God – through His Spirit and wisdom upon you – give you rain for the seed with which you sow the soil, and bread grain from the produce of the ground, and it will be rich and plentiful.”
Meaning He will begin to water the works of your hands and make them produce.
Your life will become so productive that you will never see the days of adversity again. Let me reiterate again that Life is built and designed to be sustained by the Spirit and wisdom of the LORD. Everything breaks down if the two are missing in the right proportions in your lives!
Sadly, when that happens the heretic teachers and perverted prophets will begin to point the people to some evil foundations, covenants, some attacks from home and voices crying against them from their villages. They will point them to every demonic thing they can, but will never point them to the truth of God’s word. Jesus said,
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32 NKJV
You are not down because of some evil altars or foundations somewhere. Those are misguided preachers’ fame and fortune making doctrines. You are down because the Spirit and the wisdom of God are not resting in your life in the right proportion; your decisions are not guided by them, and their work is absent in your life. That is the Bible truth.
If you do not follow this Bible truth and see how to have both in your life in the right proportions, your adversity will never come to an end.
In fact, you will be consumed by your adversity in spite of what these preachers and spiritual men and women will be telling you to do.
The truth, is not the reality of what the devil may have done, or is doing in your life. Neither is it the reality of the kind of spirit attacking you. The truth, is the reality of what God needs to do in your life to set you free from what the devil may have done or is doing!
THAT IS THE REALITY YOU NEED TO KNOW TO BE FREE FROM EVERY WORK OF THE DEVIL!
What God needs to do is to pour His spirit in your life, and put his wisdom in your heart, to kick start your restoration, healing, or deliverance.
No matter what may be wrong in your life, God only needs to put His Spirit and Wisdom in your heart to set you free. Nothing empowers us to be free from the Satanic or demonic like the outpouring of the Holy Ghost and wisdom upon us.
I have seen God liberate people totally from whatever bondage by pouring His wisdom and Spirit upon people by my hands for over 30years of ministry. That is why the gift of teachers or ministers of the gospel, with grace capacity to pour the Holy Ghost and Wisdom upon us, is the best gift Jesus gave to men.
Our devotional text made that clear. A major highlight in it says,
“Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.”
What are the gifts He gave to men? Apples? No, men! The Bible went on to say “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,”
Sadly, we call everyone with the titles of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, or teacher man of God!
We treat them as God’s gift to us without walking in discernment; that is why we do the same to the messengers of Satan, false and heretic teachers among us. I watched a movie some time ago, where a criminal in the movie told someone he was robbing, “Don’t trust everyone in God’s garment.”
The gifts God gave to us are not religious titled men and women of dark practices we call servants of God, but ministers of the gospel with grace capacity to bring people into the river of God’s glory!
Meaning, if you are not seated under a minister of the gospel with grace capacity to bring you into the river of God’s glory, where His Spirit and wisdom can be poured in your heart, you are yet to receive this gift. You will never recover from the days of adversity; and you stand the risk of not fulfilling your destiny!
I believe the message of today’s devotional has been passed. May God use it to give you an inheritance among they that are sanctified!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“By a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved.” Hosea 12:13 NKJV