TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Thursday 4th March 2021)
“Of what use is money in the hand of a [self-confident] fool to buy skillful and godly Wisdom — when he has no understanding or heart for it? A friend loves at all times, and is born, as is a brother, for adversity.” Proverbs 17:16-17 AMP
WELCOME TO THE 63RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS!
Slowly but steadily, God is adding to our spiritual statures on daily bases through this platform and our in-person meetings in Church.
If you ask me, I will say in a year of Higher Heights, I will prefer to gain higher heights in the Spirit than in any area of life. It is our heights in the Spirit that determines how we view the giants of life not really the heights of the giant.
David never viewed Goliath according to his height. David saw the giant from the position of his own spiritual height. You are seeing your giants from the point of view of your spiritual height.
If they look big and terrible in our sight, it is because we are small and lack height in the spirit. But if they look small and inconsequential in our sight, then we are of great height in spiritual stature.
Life is viewed through the lenses of the perspectives created by heights in the Spirit.
That is why the more you know in God, the less you fear in life. And the less you know in God, the more you fear in life. You will lack the height to see how small and inconsequential your fears are if you know very little in God. People who know how to sit down to be taught by God are usually helped by time to grow very tall and strong in the Spirit like David.
Their heights in the Spirit has a way of teaching them what to say and how to act before the giants in their lives. It shows them the stones to pick in the streams of the Spirit to confront and bring them down. It has a way of putting them in a position where they will not need a prophet or prophetess to tell them what the LORD is saying.
It is spiritual heights that helps us in gaining prophetic independence and bringing us to the place of total dependency on God alone. In other words, the taller and stronger you grow in the Spirit, the more dependent on God and less dependent on man you will become.
IT IS USUALLY AUTOMATIC AND SUPERNATURAL AT THE SAME TIME.
That is why spiritual feeding is very important. When you feed from words that proceed from the mouth of God, you gain heights in the spirit and begin to enjoy uncommon victories in all you do.
I have come to realize that one major thing that hinders people from coming into promised victories in their walk and talk with God, is lack of spiritual height in the Spirit. They internally lack the height to operate from in coming into the very inheritance promised them by the LORD.
You see this even in the lives of the Israelites.
Moses had just paid a great price to bring the people to one of the finest places the LORD promised to give them. But like every blessing and open doors in God, the inheritance was surrounded by the Amalekites and some ancient giants that needed to be defeated and cleared out of the way.
I have come to realize that it is usually our responsibility to deal with the obstacles that may be on our way to possessing what God may have promised us. It is how we respond to them that will determine if the LORD will grant us victory in battle or not. Israel got to that point but responded with fear, doubts and evil speaking. They did all that because they saw the giants bigger than they.
In fact, they saw the giants the way the giants wanted them to see them, and their hearts failed them.
Your enemies will always want you to see them the way they want you to see them. They will roar, threaten, and say all manner of things to make you see them the way they want you to see them. If you listen to them or take what they are saying to hearts, you will indeed see them the way they want you to see them. And that will not result in a victory over them!
Once you see your enemy the way they want you to see them, your heart will begin to fail you, and you will be acting like the Israelites did in their days. Sometimes, despite the miracles GOD may have done in your life. God did so much wonders for Israel that Heaven expected them to walk in faith and go over to contend with those giants and possess their possession.
BUT THEY FAILED. THEY FAILED BECAUSE THEY LISTENED TO MEN WHO HAD NO HEIGHT IN THE SPIRIT.
The people they sent to spy the land were too weak and short in the Spirit to see the giants properly. Hence bringing a report of exactly what their lack of height showed them. That is how the life of many of us are. We love listening to people who have no height in the Spirit, thereby receiving their fears and worries, consequently aborting God’s moves in our lives.
The Bible says,
But the men who had gone up with him said,
“We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.”
And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying,
“The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.
There we saw the [h]giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like[i] grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” Numbers 13:31-33 NKJV
These young men said, “we were like[i] grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” Someone once called this GRASS HOPPER MENTALITY. It is your height and strength in the Spirit that truly determine how you see life challenges. If you are weak and small, you will see your challenges bigger than you. You will even write yourself off before the battle even begin.
But the spies that were sent that day had two young men among them who were of great spiritual strength and height in the Spirit. These ones saw the giants not way they wanted them to see them. The young men were Joshua and Caleb.
In fact, they saw the giants the way the giants of life do not want to be seen, hence threatening people to remain small in their eyes. They saw them from the point of view of their heights in the Spirit. They saw them as bread to be eaten.
YES, YOU HEARD ME WELL; BREAD TO BE EATEN. THE BIBLE SAYS;
“But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: “The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land.
If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey.’ Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they[c] are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them.” Numbers 14:6-9 NKJV
What one group saw as the end of their lives, another group saw as a great beginning. Sadly, the first group sentenced the entire nation to a 40-year delay in the wilderness and eventual death of all who left Egypt. You are either being killed or being made alive by your height in the Spirit.
You must understand that it is what our heights are showing us that is responsible for what may be happening in our lives. Your height and strength in the Spirit are the reasons you are where you are today. God wants you to grow stronger and taller in the Spirit and bring any sorrow in your life to an end.
As we bring this to a close, I want you to understand that higher heights mean higher heights of faith and stature in the Spirit. If you gain that kind of height and strength, you will begin to experience significant blessings in your life. A major highlight in our devotional text says,
“A friend loves at all times, and is born, as is a brother, for adversity.”
Sometimes you will need people who will help you see things well through wise counsel and activation of faith. For some, you will need builders who will need to come in with fresh revelation of the scriptures and remove destruction far away from you, be helping you gain height in the Spirit.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
“… your destroyers and those who laid you waste shall go away from you. Lift up your eyes, look around and see; all these gather together and come to you.”
As I live,” says the Lord, “You shall surely clothe yourselves with them all as an ornament, and bind them on you as a bride does.
“For your waste and desolate places, and the land of your destruction, will even now be too small for the inhabitants; and those who swallowed you up will be far away” Isaiah 49:17-19