TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 30TH MARCH 2024)
“Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, That I might come to His seat! I would present my case before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments.
I would know the words which He would answer me, and understand what He would say to me.
Would He contend with me in His great power? No! But He would take note of me. There the upright could reason with Him, And I would be delivered forever from my Judge.
“Look, I go forward, but He is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive Him; when He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him; When He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him.
But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.” Job 23:3-10 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 90TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
The LORD God has given us another day to live, fear Him, and do His blessed will. Yes, He has given us life to serve our generation according to His will. Blessed be His Holy name who has not given us to the teeth of our enemies.
This morning we will be refreshing our minds on matters of sanctification; the very reason for the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Sanctification begins from the heart. The body only responds to what is in the heart. That is why the Bible says;
“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you.” Proverbs 4:23-24 NKJV
To keep the body sanctified, it is important that we keep the heart pure. The things that shapes what the body does, proceeds form the heart.
For instance, sexual purity or impurities proceeds from the heart. Before the instrument of the body called the mouth will tell a lie, the heart has already told it. The mouth only collects from the heart.
There are so many instruments of sanctification, the chief among them is the Holy Spirit. He sanctifies us in many ways, including a Baptism of fire. The lives and times of most Bible men is full of the revelation and power of the Baptism of fire, and how it helps believers live sanctified lives.
LET ME STATE SOMETHING MORE ABOUT THE BAPTISM OF FIRE.
Whenever we are experiencing the Baptism of fire, our faith position in the midst of the fire matters. The purpose of the fire will never be fulfilled if we do not remain committed to the LORD in the midst of the bitter experiences.
The faith position to take includes a life of prayer, a life of fasting, a life of purity, and a life of total commitment to the presence of the LORD.
When God is passing us through fire, we must desire only one thing in life, and that thing should be to dwell in the realm of God’s manifest, also known as the house of God, with the aim of beholding His beauty and enquiring at His temple.
If we do not do that, we will never come out as pure as gold from the furnace. In fact, we will come out bitter in life.
David said;
“One thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple.” Psalm 27:4 NKJV
The manifest presence of God is what you seek to plant yourself in, when you are going through bitter experiences that steam from the Baptism of fire. When we plant ourselves there while going through the process of God’s fire, we give Him the opportunity to work on us while in the fire.
Do not forget, the purpose is to forge us to become another vessel.
So, if we are not drawing close to Him through prayer, fasting, time with the word, fellowshipping with other brethren, and all that opens the portals and bring us into His manifest presence, His hands will not be upon our lives to shape us in the furnace to what he wants us to be in.
So, people who are going through stuff in life (sufferings and adversities that steam from God’s Baptism of Fire) must learn to make God’s manifest presence their dwelling place.
They must not cease from drawing near and near to God’s word and to His presence every day.
THEY MUST NOT CEASE HUMBLING THEMSELVES AND SUBMITTING TO GOD.
Yes, if we are going through God’s Baptism of Fire, we must not cease cleansing our hands, purifying our hearts, weeping before the LORD (instead of before people), and remaining in His presence until His hands begin to lift us up.
Again, do not forget, like our devotional text says, the vision is for us to come out pure as gold, and that will only happen if we follow the preceding principles shared.
The Bible says;
“Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. James 4:7-10 NKJV
I remember an incident that happened in the 4th chapter of the Bible. Cain had just killed his brother, and God was trying to salvage the situation so that it will not move from bad to worse. The LORD then said to Him;
…..”What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.
So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.” Genesis 4:10-12 NKJV
This was the Baptism of Fire Cain was to go through for his evil deeds, for the purpose of purging his heart so that it will no longer conceive the evil thoughts that made him to kill his brother.
Conceiving such wicked thoughts, and submitting to his body to act next time was something God never wanted to be repeated in the life of Cain, hence bringing that Baptism of fire.
His own Baptism was from the consequence of his wicked deeds. Consequences can become a Baptism of fire for us to go through and be purged of our sins if we accept them as chastisements from the LORD.
Ordinarily, Cain should have humbled himself and plead the LORD for mercy, then submit to His will so that he can be purged from evil and come out pure as gold.
BUT LIKE MANY OF US, HE DID NOT. HE RATHER SAID TO GOD;
…. “My punishment is greater than I can bear! Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.” Genesis 4:13-14 NKJV
Cain saw the furnace of the consequences of his evil deeds as a punishment. He did not see it as a Baptism of fire aimed at purifying his heart from the evil of his doings.
Perspectives matters when dealing with God. Our attitudes in God’s presence will determine our altitude in life. If our perspectives and attitudes towards God are bad, the furnace will consume us because each sin we commit has a furnace attached to it.
Yes, it has a Baptism of fire we are to go through in order to come out pure as gold. The aim is to make sure we do not repeat those sins again and even come to the place of teaching others to live right.
That is why we are not to consider the consequences of our evil deeds or wrong doing as punishment, we are to consider them as a baptism of fire to go through and be purged. If we consider then as a punishment, we will do exactly what Cain did and end up like him.
Cain sort protection from the furnace instead of purging in the furnace.
God’s plan was for him to stay within His presence and go through the Baptism of fire attached to his type of sin and wickedness, then come out pure as gold, but he resisted.
But Cain rather sort for protection from the furnace instead of purging from the furnace; and in His mercies, God granted him what he never needed at that time – protection from the furnace.
THE RESULT WAS NOT PLEASANT. CAIN WALKED AWAY FROM THE PRESENCE OF GOD.
In the realm of the Spirit, to walk away from the presence of God, is to walk into the presence of hell the spirit. Believe me, the worst place to be on the face of the earth is in a realm where the spirit of hell is. The Bible says;
And the LORD said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the LORD set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him.
Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.” Genesis 4:15-16 NKJV
Job had his own Baptism of fire. But it did not happen because of any evil He did.
It happened because God wanted to move Him into another level of greatness. When Heaven passes us through the Baptism of fire when we are upright before God, it is to purge our hearts and make it purer, then increase our greatness and comfort us on every side.
That is why no one ever becomes anything great in God’s kingdom without the Baptism of fire. Job’s package was different from Cain’s package. Job’s package was for a sanctification that is aimed at his glorification, but Cain’s package was for a sanctification that was aimed at his salvation.
The lesson from these two Bible characters is this, there are dimensions of glory you will never kiss in God until you pass through His fire Baptism, also there is a salvation from sin you may never experience until God purge your heart through the Baptism of fire.
The aim of both kinds of purging is to make us as pure as gold. Our devotional text presents what came out of the mouth of Job when He was going through his Baptism of fire. He said;
“Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, That I might come to His seat! I would present my case before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know the
words which He would answer me, and understand what He would say to me.
Would He contend with me in His great power? No! But He would take note of me. There the upright could reason with Him, And I would be delivered forever from my Judge.
“Look, I go forward, but He is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive Him; when He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him; When He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him.
But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.” Job 23:3-10
WE CAN SEE THE EXCRUCIATING PAINS THIS MAN OF GOD WAS GOING THROUGH IN THESE BLESSED WORDS.
He was in the fire not because of what He did, but because of what God wanted to do in His life.
Like I stated earlier, there are Baptism of fire we go through because of what we did and there are Baptisms of Fire we go through because of what God want to do in our lives. But the principle of going through each category and coming out well remains the same. And the vision of God remains one; that we come out pure as gold.
If we will come out as gold, then we must remain submissive, pure, prayerful, humble, and active in His manifest presence.
As we bring this to a close, I want to submit that there are two categories of useful vessels in God’s kingdom. We have vessels of Gold and vessel of silver.
The phrase “Vessel of silver” means vessel of redemption, while the Phrase “vessel of gold” means vessel of divinity, sanctifying truths and Heavenly treasures for the earth.
God wants to be able to use us in those areas whenever Heaven is in need of their manifestation of earth. That is why we need the fire; we need to be able to submit to His Baptism and sanctify ourselves.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“But the firm foundation of (laid by) God stands, sure and unshaken, bearing this seal (inscription): The Lord knows those who are His, and, Let everyone who names [himself by] the name of the Lord give up all iniquity and stand aloof from it.
But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also [utensils] of wood and earthenware, and some for honorable and noble [use] and some for menial and ignoble [use].
So whoever cleanses himself [from what is ignoble and unclean, who separates himself from contact with contaminating and corrupting influences] will [then himself] be a vessel set apart and useful for honorable and noble purposes, consecrated and profitable to the Master, fit and ready for any good work.
Shun youthful lusts and flee from them, and aim at and pursue righteousness (all that is virtuous and good, right living, conformity to the will of God in thought, word, and deed); [and aim at and pursue] faith, love, [and] peace (harmony and concord with others) in fellowship with all [Christians], who call upon the Lord out of a pure heart.
But refuse (shut your mind against, have nothing to do with) trifling (ill-informed, unedifying, stupid) controversies over ignorant questionings, for you know that they foster strife and breed quarrels. 2 Timothy 2:19-23 AMPC