TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Sunday 14th February 2021)
“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.”
“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:12-14 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 45th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS
It is the first day of a new week! New weeks to kingdom citizens should call for new levels of faith. Because they understand that the driving force of the Kingdom is to move the church from one realm of grace and glory to another.
The Bible admonishes that strongly. That is how we grow from Children of GOD to sons of GOD.
The Christian journey is actually designed to go from faith to faith, grace to grace, glory to glory until death do us part. In other words, we are saved to move from a lower level of faith to a higher level of faith, a lower dimension of grace to a higher dimension of grace, a lower realm of glory to a higher realm of glory until our time on earth is over.
Moving, from where an old week left us to a much higher place in the spirit in a new week is God’s will for our life.
Our apostolic fathers understood this truth; in fact, the made sure they moved from faith to faith on daily bases that was why they met daily. Our devotional text today tells us more about this distinguished character. Paul wrote to the Church at Philippi those strong words that has shaped the destiny of many from generation to generation.
I have come to discover that every revivalist God ever used to rekindle the flames of His Holy Spirit feed from the words of our devotional text to stay on fire for the LORD all through till death.
There is therefore, something about that scripture that needs urgent attention in our generation. That is why I believe, the LORD had us to have it as our devotional text today.
A MAJOR HIGHLIGHT IN THE TEXT SAYS;
“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
If we do not forget the things that happened yesterday – the good, the bad and the ugly – and press into what God has predetermined that it happens today, we will never unleash our divine destiny. A generation that holds on to past glorious or inglorious things that happened to it, will never be able to finish its course in God’s eternal plan for mankind!
The Church Ought to be a Moving Army. If we get to a particular peak in life and do not lift up our eyes to look for higher grounds to press into, we will begin to stink and sink.
Samson made a major mistake at a particular success peak of his life. He did not just make a mistake he desecrated his consecration turning himself into a captive in the hands of people who once dreaded him. We all blame it on Delilah but if you take a second look at that incident, you will realize that that harlot came into the picture when Samson got stuck to a season of success.
The truth remains, we all fall into sins in moments of either our weariness or season of camping in a past or present glory because no moving army can be capture by the enemy. The flesh could rise but constant moves will always silence it. That is why in God’s kingdom, we don’t get ourselves stuck to a season of success (or even failure), we move on!
That is the secret of unending strength from the LORD.
Your divine destiny will therefore need constant pressing into things yet to be revealed or made manifest to be fulfilled. If you do not press into them on daily bases – if you do not press into what God want to do next with your life after doing one thing with it – you will be stuck to a season of progress (or peril) and begin to see your carnal craving come alive and someone or something to satisfy it for you. That is the reason generals in God’s army fall.
Though their fall is not always the end of their lives of exploits. They also know how to rise and get back to battle.
Take David for instance, he saw Beersheba, the naked woman who trapped him into sin. Though he recovered but it all happened at a season when kings go to war.
A SEASON WHEN KINGS OUGHT NOT TO BE RESTING BUT FIGHTING
The Bible says,
“It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold.
So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”
Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house. And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.” 2 Samuel 11:1-5 NKJV
Everything you just read and what happened as a result is traceable to one season the King did not go to war; one-time great King David got stuck to a season of success. If he was in the battle field responding to the next thing God wanted to do with his life, he wouldn’t have seen a woman who was busy taking her bath from his pent house.
We allow our carnal desires to take the better part of us if we are not in the battle fields of our divine destinies doing the next thing GOD wants us to do.
We allow our carnal desires to take the better part of us if we do not spend our days submitting to the next thing God want to do with our lives after doing one successful thing with it. Your divine destiny will need a constant pressing into things yet to be done with your life for it to be fulfilled.
The Church is stuck and stinky in the Spirit today because we do not know or apply this in our walk with God. We rather move from one marriage program to another, one poverty killing meeting to another but do not move from realms of glory to another.
SOMETIMES I ASK MYSELF WHEN THE POVERTY WILL BE FINALLY KILLED.
All these kinds of meetings are just to make or keep the pastor smiling to the bank! The truth is, any man or woman preacher who takes you from one poverty killing meeting to the other is only interested in killing his own poverty. Not yours! And anyone that builds his ministry on solving marriage and money problems alone is a big fraud. That has nothing to do with the great commission.
The great commission is to form Christ in people. It is to solve the moral problem by forming Christ in our hearts. Then Christ in us becomes the hope of our earthly and heavenly glory. Whenever the Church lost touch with the glory of GOD, preachers will begin to settle on using the anointing to solve earthly problems leaving the people with great moral problems.
Divine destiny will need a constant pursuit of and pressing into the things of God to be fulfilled, not the things of men (Marriage, money and etc). It will require that you press on your knees through intense fasting and prayers to get into dimensions of God’s truth, grace, kingdom, power and glory you are yet to see.
It will require that you press with your mind through hours spent with the word (The Bible and any book, CD, or DVD that will help you understand the Bible). It will require that you press along with members of your spiritual family through corporate fellowships with where the word is dissected and the power of God imparted.
When it comes to matters of divine destiny, no pressing, no progress – you must press from one level of success to another or from inactivity to productivity.
And talking about inactivity, I have come to realize that you do not wait for destiny to be fulfilled, you press into destiny for it to be fulfilled. Inactivity is the greatest killer of divine destiny. If you are just lying down and inactive and expecting your destiny to be fulfilled, it will never be.
That is why no lazy man or woman has been able to fulfill divine destiny.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
“But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.”
“Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ”
“and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;”
“that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.”
“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
“Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.” Philippians 3:7-15 NKJV