TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 15TH APRIL 2024)
“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
“Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” Isaiah 9:6-7 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 106TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
It’s been 106 days of sleeping and waking up, all by the help of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. We give Him the glory for life. We do not deserve it.
The miracles, the outbreaks of His power, the release of His mercies, the manifestation of His compassion, the display of His presences as the Sun of righteousness that arises with Healing in His wings, and much more, has so far, made our year a glorious one.
I believe this will not cease because He is unchangeable.
I have always said, I do not know why the entire human race is outside Christ. He is the best. I do not know why even those we have been preaching to are still outside Him. He is the best.
I do not know why many even in church are still living their own life calling Him LORD, LORD, but not doing what He says. He is the best! Maybe it’s because we have not revealed Him enough. Maybe its because the Church now operates either as a money-making machine, or any other.
The Church has been less what it was in the days of our Bible fathers, because for most of its time, especially in the last 20 years; she has been operating under some perverse and morally weak evangelistic mantles, that is why the world is still as lost as it is.
But Jesus is the best. If you are living outside His grace, power, all He is, and all He gives, life will be a misery to you. We the Church must let the world know that in righteous ways. We must cure all the morally sick souls that the LORD is bringing to us, of their moral depravity.
We must be concerned about them. That was one of the things that the Holy Spirit made known to us in our apostolic summit yesterday. However, for that to happen, one of the things we must do is to grow up.
Yes, we must grow up!
We must grow in impact, revelation, resistance, power, faith, and come to the fullness of the stature of Christ, where we are no longer tossed here and there by every wind of doctrines.
WHEN WE GET THERE, WE WILL NO LONGER BE THE CONCERN OF OUR LIVES. THESE MORALLY SICK SOULS WILL BE THE CONCERN OF OUR LIVES.
This generation that falls in the fire of evil passions or waters of corruption, and etc. to the point of forgetting their gender, or seeing morality as weakness, will become the concern of our lives.
There are so many who are lost, and are not being found. Some at best, are brought to very lively but spiritually dead Churches and made sons of hell, and called saved. This must be our concern.
Like I said yesterday, we must come to the place where what we might be going through will not be going through us. So, on our devotional today, we will be refreshing our minds on matters of age in the Kingdom of God.
We can call it, age in the Spirit. I hope we are ready!!
Age in the spirit, is different from age in the flesh (Chronological age), or in the Church (how long you have been a Christian). That is why we can say, “David was Older than Saul.” It takes people who are Older to confront giants. David went after the giant while Saul sat on the throne in self-preservation.
It takes people who are older to be kingdom minded and not fame and fortune minded. It takes people who are older not to slip into self-preservation when the name of the LORD is under threat.
It takes people who are Older to be concerned with the name of the LORD instead of their own names.
Sadly, so many even in Church are just concerned about their own names, not the name of the LORD. We do not care what happens to the name of the LORD, we only care what happens either to our names or the name of our so-called papas and mamas in Church; a dangerous sign of spiritual immaturity.
But David was not like that. He was older in Spirit.
Older enough to protect the name of the LORD, and not slip into self-preservation, while Saul who was supposed to demonstrate all these spiritual age dimensions was either in self-preservation or busy with building a name for himself and protecting it by all means.
If you read the Bible, you will discover that when the Philistine appeared, all the spiritual babies led by baby King Saul, went into the prison yard of self-preservation. It took this Old man called David (Old in friendship with God), to deal with the giant and remove the reproach from Israel.
THE KINGDOM OF GOD TODAY IS UNDER THE SAME THREAT.
The giants of depravity, corruption, eternal damnation, deception, immorality, and etc. are busy defiling the army of the LORD day by day, and yet our Saul, our papas and mamas are doing nothing about it.
They are rather sitting on their thrones of exalted positions, using the misfortunes, submission, and ignorance of God’s people, to build fame and fortune for themselves. They have slipped into blindness, due to self-preservation, pretending all is well.
They have revealed how young and immature they are in Christ, while parading themselves as fathers of the land or fathers of the faith.
You see, Spiritual age is not something you claim or use chronology to determine. It is something that is revealed. In simple terms, your spiritual age will be revealed in the day of war or adversity!
How mature you are in the faith will be revealed when giants come against the kingdom of God and put the name of the LORD under threat, like it is happening now, with active thieves, assassins, perjurers, sorcerers, criminals, gays and lesbians, invading the church, taking over influential positions, and calling themselves sons of God.
If you are doing nothing about that, but living your days seeking the LORD to help you get married, find this job, sustain your prosperity or give you more, get you this visa and that breakthrough, or solve your earthly problems, you are a baby, even if you are an old preacher, or have been in church for 100 years.
Not doing anything when such mishap is taking place in Church, shows you either do not belong to the Kingdom of God or you are a baby.
People who cannot do anything about the name of the LORD but does so much about their own names, preachers and church members alike, are like King Saul and Israel. Sadly, they are the ones who are quick at pointing to us how they have been fathers of the land.
BUT AGE IN THE SPIRIT, IS NOT DETERMINED BY HOW LONG YOU HAVE BEEN A PREACHER OR CHRISTIAN.
It is determined by how long you have lived in God’s active presence, and walked in the Spirit. That is how you gain the stature to respond to giants when they bring a reproach to the Church, and try to put the name of the LORD in disrepute.
That is how you grow in stature to deal with the giants of falsehood, dark doctrines and all that is putting a dent on the name of the LORD in Church.
Sadly, most preachers have never lived in the active presence of God for even one week. But they have been preaching for months, years, or even decades. They preach under the anointing, yes, but do not live in the presence of God. The two are not the same.
That is why they have titles, some perform miracles, but they do not have the stature or content to deal with the many giants of deception, moral corruption, depravity, and etc. that have brought a reproach on the Church and the name of the LORD.
Today’s devotional is strictly a kingdom one. Only few will find the message relevant. Any self-centered person, and need oriented soul, will find no sense in this. But it is my prayer that the LORD will use it to wake up His mighty men, and bring them to the valley of Jehoshaphat to reap the end time harvest.
A major highlight in the text says,
“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder.”
Hidden in this statement is the apostolic function of the true Church (I mean the Church global). But self-centeredness has hindered many from coming into stature to carry out this function.
The Bible says the government of Jesus will be on us because we are His shoulder. It will be on those who are old in the Spirit.
There is so much to do. So many giants in Church and the world out there to take down. But we can not do that as Baby King Saul, and his army. We can only do that as Old Young David and His God.
Time has come to grow up! Time has come to become God’s active presence dwellers, where we are fed the Hidden word of God until we grow into stature and gain age in the Spirit.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for war! Wake up the mighty men, Let all the men of war draw near, Let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords And you pruning hooks into spears; Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’ ”
Assemble and come, all you nations, And gather together all around. Cause Your mighty ones to go down there, O LORD.
“Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; For the winepress is full, The vats overflow—For their wickedness is great.” Joel 3:9-13 NKJV