TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 15th NOVEMBER 2023)
But, on the contrary, as the Scripture says, what eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man, [all that] God has prepared (made and keeps ready) for those who love Him [who hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits He has bestowed].
Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them by and through His Spirit, for the [Holy] Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God [the divine counsels and things hidden and beyond man’s scrutiny].
For what person perceives (knows and understands) what passes through a man’s thoughts except the man’s own spirit within him? Just so no one discerns (comes to know and comprehend) the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
Now we have not received the spirit [that belongs to] the world, but the [Holy] Spirit Who is from God, [given to us] that we might realize and comprehend and appreciate the gifts [of divine favor and blessing so freely and lavishly] bestowed on us by God.” 1 Corinthians 2:9-12 AMPC
WELCOME TO THE 319TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
We thank God for giving us another day to serve our generation according to His will. We thank Him for keeping us alive and for not giving us to the will of our enemies.
We have been sharing thoughts on some laws of visionary living. We have seen so many laws that govern visionary living.
Yesterday we shared some thoughts on what should have been the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. We will take that to be the next law of visionary living. That is another law that guarantees freedom; especially freedom from curses.
We discovered that if anyone who is under the curses of their father’s houses come into life in the Spirit, they will become free from them. Life in the Spirit is part of what is called “the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” It is another law of visionary living, as earlier stated.
Today we will be looking at this law, since we shared how it helps us to walk away from curses yesterday. This will be an additional revelation knowledge.
Visionary living for us in God’s kingdom is enabled by the Spirit of God, or the Spirit of Christ. There is visionary living in other realms of human existence; our journey is about visionary living in Christ Jesus. When it comes to visionary living in Christ, the Spirit of God is the source of it; the source of the very life.
You cannot live it without knowing Him, walking in His laws and embracing Him as a friend that sticks closer than a brother.
He discovers each person’s predetermined visionary life from the storehouse, or library of the eternal plans and programs of God for human lives, buried deeply in GOD, and brings it to us to live on earth. He searches them out and bring them to us in form of visions and revelations, making them our life purposes or goals.
The Bible made it clear that the Spirit of God does a lot of work to take us from the realm of non-visionary living to the realm of visionary living. He begins by searching diligently; exploring and examining everything in the realm of the bottomless things of God.
The bottomless things of God are His divine counsels and hidden things that exist beyond man’s scrutiny.
A MAJOR PART OF OUR DEVOTIONAL SAYS;
“Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them by and through His Spirit, for the [Holy] Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God [the divine counsels and things hidden and beyond man’s scrutiny]. 1 Corinthians 2:10 AMPC
Visionary living is shaped by the bottomless things of God; it is a life that is outsourced from the realm of the divine counsels of GOD that are beyond human scrutiny. No man can get them except the Holy Spirit goes to that realm to bring them to him.
That is why the moment they are revealed to us, we are to embrace them and not scrutinize them. We are to make them our life goals unconditionally and allow them to shape our lives on earth.
The devotional text calls them things that eyes has not seen, ears heard or hearts conceived; things that GOD has prepared, made and kept ready for those who love Him or who hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits He has bestowed upon them. Hallelujah!
These things exist as part of the bottomless things of God, and do not enter into hearts, ears, or spiritual sights of men naturally. They are things that are caught by the Holy Spirit.
When the Holy Spirit opens our ears to hear them, most times when we are studying the word or sitting in an intense teaching session, that is when they will be revealed to us. When they are revealed to us, they become revelation knowledge to live by.
He also opens our hearts during such moment to receive whatever is revealed and get it planted deep in us. When that happens, they become deep convictions that we cannot shake away. Also, there is away our spiritual eyes to see divine counsels in form of visions and dreams, during those moments.
I CALL ALL THAT COMES DURING SUCH ENCOUNTERS, HOLY SPIRIT-BIRTH REVELATIONS, CONVICTIONS, DREAMS, AND VISIONS.
Now, it is such Holy Spirit-birth revelations, convictions, dreams and visions, that shapes our lives. If we do not have them, there is no way we can live visionary lives. We live visionary lives on the strength of the things that the Holy Spirit birth in us; the convictions, dreams and visions planted in our human spirits.
Another part of Our devotional text says;
“But, on the contrary, as the Scripture says, what eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man, [all that] God has prepared (made and keeps ready) for those who love Him [who hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits He has bestowed]. 1 Corinthians 2:9 AMPC
The Spirit of the LORD, enables the lives of those who love the LORD, to lead visionary lives by bringing them into the very things God has made, and kept ready for them in Christ Jesus. Things that other eyes, ears or hearts are not to see, hear or conceive but their only.
That is why you cannot live a visionary life by solely following what another person is saying about God’s plans for your life. You need what the LORD has shown or planted in your heart personally. You need a move of the Holy Spirit in your life to unveil and plant what only your eyes should see, your ear hear, and your heart conceive.
You find Paul experiencing this move of the Spirit so many times. That was why he spent his days pursuing only the things assigned to him by the LORD Jesus; things personally revealed to Him. You also find it in the lives of all our fathers in the early church. They walked by what the LORD personally planted in them.
THEY DID NOT WALK BY WHAT OTHERS SAW CONCERNING THEM.
What people see about us, should confirm or strengthen what we have seen. That is how it works in God’s kingdom.
This critical work of the Holy Spirit in enabling us to live visionary lives, is the reason why we must embrace the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus because He is the Spirit or breath of any visionary life in God’s kingdom. The rest of our devotional text says;
For what person perceives (knows and understands) what passes through a man’s thoughts except the man’s own spirit within him? Just so no one discerns (comes to know and comprehend) the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
Now we have not received the spirit [that belongs to] the world, but the [Holy] Spirit Who is from God, [given to us] that we might realize and comprehend and appreciate the gifts [of divine favor and blessing so freely and lavishly] bestowed on us by God.” 1 Corinthians 2:11-12 AMPC
The last verse of the text clearly states that there are two kinds of spirits on earth; the Spirit that belongs to God (the Holy Spirit) and other spirit called the spirit of this world. The first is the original and the other a counterfeit.
The spirit of the world counterfeits the Holy Spirit of GOD. Sadly, both can shape visionary living. Both can impregnate hearts with dreams, visions and purposes to live for. That is why we must be careful.
A lot of people, sadly even in Church, are living lives that are shaped by the spirit of this world. That is why fame and fortune is there overall interest in life, instead leading holy lives, pleasing God, patterning their lives according to His blessed will, duplicating Christ on earth and making Heaven at last.
They do not care about eternal things. They are just driven by earthly things. Their minds are not set on things above but on things on earth. This breed is also visionary but not God’s kingdom oriented.
Do not forget, being visionary is not a monopoly of the saved and sanctified. All of us in God’s kingdom must understand that. Sometimes we forget that we are in a world ruled perfectly by two kinds of spirits, and that we are at war with the other spirit, just as it is at war with us!
We forget that counterfeiting is a major weapon in the hands of the dark spirit we are at war with. Counterfeiting involves, making alternatives available for people, so that they will not seek the one and only true God; so that they will not seek what is true.
EVEN PEOPLE IN THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS AND THAT OF MEN CAN BE VISIONARY.
The spirit of the world can also plant convictions, dreams and visions into people’s spirits and make their lives visionary as well. It counterfeits what the spirit of God does. But those it influences, will never have Christ formed in them or duplicate His purposes on earth. They will just be active in religion if they are in a church system.
So, if we are not careful, we can become part of the visionary living of this spirit, even while speaking in tongues, prophesying, preaching, singing from coast to coast, and doing whatever we take to be God’s work.
Visionary living in God’s kingdom is guided by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. It is the very law that delivers us from the law of sin and death. The Spirit that owns that law is the Holy Spirit Himself.
Today we took time to share some thoughts on how He helps us to lead visionary lives. When we return tomorrow, we will be sharing more thoughts on this and the law itself.
LET OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT BE A WORD OF MEDITATION FOR US TODAY
“But, on the contrary, as the Scripture says, what eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man, [all that] God has prepared (made and keeps ready) for those who love Him [who hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits He has bestowed].
Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them by and through His Spirit, for the [Holy] Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God [the divine counsels and things hidden and beyond man’s scrutiny].
For what person perceives (knows and understands) what passes through a man’s thoughts except the man’s own spirit within him? Just so no one discerns (comes to know and comprehend) the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
Now we have not received the spirit [that belongs to] the world, but the [Holy] Spirit Who is from God, [given to us] that we might realize and comprehend and appreciate the gifts [of divine favor and blessing so freely and lavishly] bestowed on us by God.” 1 Corinthians 2:9-12 AMPC