TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 17TH JANUARY 2024)
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” Psalms 23:1-3 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 17TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
It is a brand-new day from the LORD. His love has sustained our breath again, and given us the life to be alive.
Yes, there is life to be alive. Jesus is the only source of that life, either you know or believe it or not. The Bible says He is both the life and word of God. His Spirit brings all that He is into existence in our lives.
That is why the best way to enjoy the LORD, is to have the Holy Spirit, His Spirit, in your life.
People who do not have Him, will not be able to experience Jesus.
They will see Him as a prophet, or a Bible figure. They will not be able to experience Him enough to know that He is God. May we carry the full measure of the Spirit that we need, to always experience the LORD wherever we might be. Amen!
Today we want to share about spending time with God, not just at the beginning of a year, like it has traditionally become, but as a spiritual standard of believers.
Our generation has really lost many noble characters that we find in the life of our fathers in the Bible. Those spiritual characters where responsible for the blessings and power they walked in, and the impact they had.
One of the noble characters that our generation has lost is the character of spending time with God, not for any problem to be solved, a year to be secured, or for God to do anything. But spending time with God the way a lover would want to spend time with who he or she loves.
Due to the loss of this noble character, we have become a fast food generation that does not want to spend quality time with God in prayers, just to sit there, loving on Him.
Many of us spend lengthy time with things that gives us earthly pleasure, but cannot spend same time with the eternal God, fellowshipping with His eternal word and Spirit.
The reason for this is simple; we have become too attached to sin, Satan and the evil and corrupt systems of this world that, we have lost the pull to come into God’s presence; the same pull that took Jesus to the wilderness and Moses to the mountain to fast for 40 days.
WE STAY AWAY FROM GOD WHEN NO EYE IS WATCHING US, BUT CLAIM CLOSENESS TO HIM WHEN AN EYE IS WATCHING.
If anyone of us stay attached to a life of sin, or people who do not care about God, there will come a time that we also will no longer care about God. Evil company still corrupts good manners, and a companion of fools will be destroyed.
One thing about losing the habit of spending time with God just to love on Him is this, the goodness of God’s house will be far from our lives.
The Bible made it clear that we will be satisfied with the goodness of God’s house if we develop the spiritual habit of spending quality time with Him, just to love on Him and be with Him; learning His word, fellowshipping with His Holy Spirit, pouring our heart out, etc.
The prodigal son has to retune to the father’s house to enjoy the goodness of his father. In fact, the Bible made it clear that we are going to experience God’s severity if we keep clinging to sin, Satan and the evil and corrupt systems of this world.
I grew up hearing, “God is good, all the time. And all the time, God is good.”
But as I began to read the word, I began to discover fresh revelations that made me question that statement. I discovered that God is only good, all the time, if we stay away from all He hates, all the time.
If we stay away from sin, Satan and the evil and corrupt system of this world all the time, we will enjoy His goodness in our lives all the time. But if we love what He hates all the time, we will see His severity in our lives, all the time. It is as simple as that.
Do not believe anything contrary, do not believe false grace preachers.
Experiencing the goodness of God all the time depends so much on us. Sin, Satan and the evil and corrupt systems of this world has a way of separating us from His goodness if we cling to them. We must separate from all He hates, and become intimately close to the LORD.
If there is anything our generation needs today, that thing is closeness to God – a closeness that will keep us close to His goodness, and far from His severity. That is a closeness that will guarantee the release of divine wisdom, the shaping of our lives for His goodness, and the release of our destiny.
Talking about divine wisdom, we have shared in our previous devotionals that, divine wisdom is the missing ingredient in the lives of so many today.
You see, lack is not a good thing, but the worse thing to lack is not money, people, properties, friends, husband, wife, kids or family. The worse lack to have, is a lack of wisdom. The rich fool did not die because of lack of money, he died for lack of wisdom.
At the root of every destructive thing in our lives is lack of wisdom.
God never created us to lead our lives with our finite minds. We are infinite beings that need God’s infinite wisdom to live on this fallen earth. I want to reiterate some truths we shared recently on divine wisdom.
You see, God is in control but He is not in total control of everything.
He delegated some controls to mankind at creation, and since has not taken it back. He is not therefore in total control of everything. He is only in sovereign control. He has delegated some controls to you and I, so He is no longer in those delegated control.
In other words, the delegated control of the earth, is now under man now. That is why divine wisdom will be needed.
God delegated some of His control of the earth to man to manage. He designed that man manage the control using His own His wisdom. There are certain things therefore, that God will never do because He has made His wisdom available to man to use in doing them.
For instance, God ordained that we use His divine wisdom contained in scriptures to get or stay married. If we do not have the wisdom, we may get married, but will never stay married.
Economically speaking, God may help you get to where His riches for your life are, but may not help you to gather them into your life. You will have to use His wisdom to gather the riches into your life.
If you get married but do not use divine wisdom to stay married, you may lose your marriage. If you come into where riches are and you do not use divine wisdom to gather them into your life, you will see so much resources around you but remain poor for being foolish.
Divine wisdom is the instrument for managing delegate control.
If it is not there, delegated control will become either useless or destructive. Prayer is the use of delegated control to talk to God. Wisdom is the proper use of delegated control to get moving on in life. That is where divine direction comes in.
Divine direction is an aspect of divine wisdom. It is one of the catalysts of the protection, economic prosperity and peace of the righteous.
If you are not divinely directed on how to use God’s delegated control given to man, you will ruin your life with your own hands; and maybe blame others for it.
When you hear people saying “our destiny is in our hands,” they are referring to the delegated control God gave to us. If you lack divine direction you will use that control to ruin your marital life, your finances, your family, or your spiritual life.
Wise Christians are men and women who know how to follow divine direction, and use it to manage their lives. Divine wisdom is actually the proper application of divine direction to life. It is hearing from God and doing as He says!
Our devotional text this morning is a common Psalm that many in the Christian faith recite of by head. And that is beautiful! It says,
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake”
The first truth we can glean from here is obvious. If the LORD is the one leading you in life you will never lack (want). That alone tells us why some Christians are poor; especially those who claim to be hearing from God.
You cannot be hearing from God and be poor in life. The word says,
“The LORD is my shepherd I shall not want (or lack).” If the Spirit of Jesus is truly who you are hearing from, except you are rebellious or ignorant, poverty will not be part of your Christian faith.
I have said it repeatedly that Poverty is always as a result of power failure. When the power to get wealth in Christ is not operational in your life, you become poor.
NOW, THE POWER TO GET WEALTH MANIFEST AS DIVINE DIRECTION, BRINGING YOU TO RICHES PREPARED FOR YOU BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD.
It makes the LORD the Shepherd of your economic life, wiping away poverty completely! Therefore, the first benefit of divine direction as outlined in Psalm 23, is supernatural supply from God.
You see that reiterated again and again in the next statements.
It says “He makes me to lie down in green pastures, and leads me beside still waters”. But the next is restoration. The word calls it the restoration of the soul.
Friend, no matter what the devil may have done in your life, divine direction can fix it.
You are just one instruction away from your financial freedom. You are one instruction away from your restoration. You are one instruction away from your peace.
This can even be applied in your marital life.
Are you married but in marital troubles? Are you due for marriage and is not forth coming? You are just one instruction away from your miracle. You are one instruction away from peace in your marriage.
One instruction from God is all your need this time. If only you can bend your spiritual ears and pick the right word from the LORD, things will be different.
Divine direction is what gives God what He needs to make us lie down in green pastures. It is what positions us properly to be brought to still waters and full restoration.
May this day be a blessing in your life in Jesus’ precious name! Amen.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION;
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.”
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Psalms 23:4-6 NKJV