TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Friday 7th May 2021)
“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
WELCOME TO THE 127th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS!
Blessed be the name of the LORD who daily loads us with benefits! Blessed be His glorious name for bringing us into another day. I am persuaded that the God who fed and led us through the previous days will be abundantly available for us in this new day.
Today we will be refreshing our minds on matters of Deep Intimacy.
There are levels of relationships and dimensions of Intimacy in the Kingdom so long as our relationship with God is concerned. It’s like in interpersonal relationship. The relationship you have with a spouse will always be different from the one you have with a friend, a staff, a child, a colleague, or etc.
Relationship with a spouse will have intimate moments that will involve physical nakedness, but not so with a friend, a staff, a child, a colleague or etc. It becomes a sin before God if you involve physical nakedness in your relationship with any other person other than your spouse.
Hell is full of people who involved physical nakedness in their relationship with people other than their spouse, without repenting before GOD. Heaven is full of those who repented.
If our relationship with God is casual instead of intimate, there are treasures we will never get from Him. Having a casual relationship with God has never been a blessing to any human on the face of the earth. In fact, God cried against it through Isaiah, and resounded it in the book of Matthew saying;
“Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying:
‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.
And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” Matthew 15:7-9 NKJV
THIS SCRIPTURE GAVE US A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF HOW A CASUAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD LOOKS LIKE!
It is usually full of hypocrisy. It is a kind of relationship with God that the Pharisees and Sadducees had. In this type, you draw near to God with your mouth and Honor Him with your lips but keep your heart far away from Him.
In another words, it is a type of relationship with God where people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn’t in it.
They act like they’re worshiping God, but they don’t mean it. If they are preachers, you will find them using God as a cover for teaching whatever suits their fancy and brings fame and fortune to them. It is a dangerous type of relationship with God. It brings ancient devils to the hearts of men, masquerading as God before others.
In fact, we will never be able to participate in a move of God with this kind of relationship with God. We will hate and even try to kill it because of the devils it attracts to us. That is why believers are more oppressed by demons today than at any other time.
Casual relationship with GOD is the reason for the rise of the ministries of false prophets and sorcerers called prophets; it is the reason they are prospering in certain nations and places.
Wherever relationship with God is casual, there will be an establishment of an operational based for Baal, Ashtoreth, Molech or any other ancient demon. People who are led to Christ will be turned twice the sons of hell than the preachers who led them to Christ. There will be the throne of Satan there.
This is the relationship type that do not understand the deep things of God, or when the Spirit of God says
“the days of shadows are over. It is time for us to step into substance, Dropping the use of oil, water, salt, and all deliverance inventions.”
You will never understand the deep things of God if you maintain a casual relationship with Him. You will rather contend with those teaching them.
That is why you find those with a casual relationship with God accusing those the Spirit is using to teach living or present truths of destroying the body of Christ. You find them honoring those the Spirit of God is crying against for leading a synagogue of Satan.
LIKE I STATED EARLIER, IT IS A DANGEROUS RELATIONSHIP TYPE!
It praises the wicked and speak evil of those who contend with them and expose their activities. The Bible says,
“Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but such as keep the law contend with them.” Proverbs 28:4 NKJV
One of the major sign that one is working with God is how he or she treats the wicked. If you accommodate their wickedness and abominations, you have no true relationship with God. A people who do not contend with the wicked have lost out with God.
Yes, a generation of believers who do not contend with the wicked have lost out with God. They no longer represent Him. They have slipped into a casual relationship with Him. And most times we do that if our interest is at stake. If we will lose some money, friends, fame, or any other earthly thing that is dear to us.
One major diseases that a casual relationship with God help believers develop is what the Bible call carnality.
The bedrock of all the problems we face today as Christians is carnality. Carnality is allowing the flesh to be in charge of your life after declaring Jesus as LORD. It is simply means, being ruled by the natural senses instead of the Spirit after accepting Christ.
Carnal people do not care about a deep walk with God. They are okay with an out darkness type of relationship with God. The casual type that is being addressed this morning. The Bible says to be carnally minded is death. Meaning, it opens a man’s life to the gates of death, leading to moral decay, and eventual spiritual death.
IT IS NOT REALLY GOOD TO HAVE A CASUAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD. IT WILL MAKE YOU TOO CARNAL TO BE FREE FROM SPIRITUAL PROBLEMS!
There are people whose carnality is responsible for their spiritual problems but their pastors blame it on curses and all that.
If your carnality is responsible for your problems, no prayer on earth can solve your problem. You just need to find a church that will teach and train you to move from being carnally minded to becoming spiritually minded. In others words, a Church that will take you to the place of deep intimacy with God.
Yes, you need to start sitting under a pastor that will bring you to the David dimension in Psalm 27, else you key into the system of this world and begin to strife for the prosperity of the wicked, calling it God. According to our devotional text this morning, 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 ultimate of the Christian faith is to come to the point of desiring just one thing, not many things. If the eye be single the whole body will be full of light. We are in prophetic times and season of seeking just one thing. This was depicted in the story of Jesus, Mary and Martha. The Bible says,
“Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.
And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore, tell her to help me.”
And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:38-42
A lot of believers today are comfortable with a casual relationship with God, where they are worried and troubled about many things with no eternal value or relevance. But Jesus said only one thing is needed. That which will not be taken away from us when we die.
YOU SEE, MONEY, CERTIFICATES, MARRIAGE SUCCESS AND ETC, WILL BE TAKEN AWAY FROM US AT DEATH.
In another words, when we die they will all come to an end. But there is one thing that will never be taken away from us at death. That thing is released to us when we prioritize deep intimacy with God above every other thing in life, even as we pursue our daily activities seeking our daily bread.
Sadly, because of the lack of sound doctrine, we do not have many believers who have come into the One-thing-Have-I-desired dimension of faith. For instance, they will get into a new Church that operates as a ground and pillar of truth, and instead of sitting down like Mary to learn, they will become troubled and worried about serving like Martha, looking for positions to occupy.
It has become difficult today to find believer who have hit the One-thing-Have-I-desire dimension of Christianity. You only find people who are troubled with many things hence very few are having that which cannot be taken away from them in death. In other words, very few have what will continue with them in the next life, deep intimacy with GOD.
One of the primary assignments I have, is to bring believers to the one-thing-have-I desire dimension of faith.
For instance, the Cry of the Spirit Ministries that I lead under God, was designed by the LORD to operate as a pillar and ground of truth. So whenever I hear or see people with dilapidated spiritual lives (because they have not come into the one thing have I DESIRED dimension of faith) calling on me or coming to me demanding to serve in the choir, or the pastorate I marvel at the kind of preachers they sat under before coming.
Sadly, there are preachers who put people in the Martha dimension, where you are made to serve with dilapidated spiritual life. Many do not know that it is a major attack on their faith by the spirit of ignorance in those preachers.
If you serve with a dilapidated spiritual life, it will not be long, you will slip into spiritual coma, and come into decay eventually, losing your soul back to hell the spirit without even knowing it. Friend, you must start watching over your soul yourself before such preachers ruin your life.
Get more interested in repairing your dilapidated spiritual lives than serving. Look for a preacher who will help you do just that.
Personally, if you had a casual relationship with GOD in your previous Church and want to continue in the one I pastor, I will trouble you. Yes, I will trouble you until you either leave or join me in becoming intimate with God.
The truth is, if I allow you to remain dilapidated as you were in your previous Church, then I do not have an apostolic mantle. I do not have any stake in God’s kingdom. My job remains to take you from where your previous pastor left you, to where Christ wants you to be.
And where do you think Christ wants you to be? He wants you to be a well-constructed Temple for Him in the Spirit, filled with His glory on earth. He wants you to be another temple of Solomon on earth.
You see, the Temple of Solomon in the days of shadows was a physical building. Today the Temple of Solomon is a spiritual building because we are in the days of substance; a person who have become a dwelling place of God in the spirit, radiating with His glory is the present day temple of Solomon. And God will use genuine apostolic and prophetic ministries to achieve that in the lives of the saints.
He will use a Church, flowing with both apostolic and prophetic truths, to make us temples for Him in the Spirit. So, get one and plant yourself there if you have not done that already. Stop jumping about looking for what is not lost.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY;
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,
in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Ephesians 2:19-22 NKJV