TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Sunday 29th August 2021)
“For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.” 2 Corinthians 5:4 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 241st DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS!
Glory be to the LORD GOD for another week that is starting today. We believe as we all assembly before the LORD in corporate worship, the spirits of just men will be made perfect. The Bible says we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves. I hope you will find a gathering of believers this morning and join in celebrating the resurrection of the LORD, which is the essence of Sunday worship.
Do not forget, what the LORD said about the synagogues of Satan. So, as you join the assembly of brethren this morning for fellowship, be careful not to assemble at a synagogue of Satan called Church.
Sadly, our brethren who are in countries where Sunday is not counted as a day of worship would have to assembly at their own times and dates. It is not actually about a day of worship but the person we all worship.
Today we intend to bring another dimension of truth about God’s plan for our health. Obviously, the effects of the fall on both man and creation are responsible for sicknesses, diseases and lack of sound health.
God never created sicknesses or diseases. But He knew the body of man can become sick if not planted in the ideal environment, or given proper attention hence putting man in His glory at creation and telling him what to eat and what not to eat. Man had access to the true of immortality; the tree of life. So long as he ate from that tree, there was no sickness in his body.
From the eternal point of view, sound health is not just living a no-sickness life, it is living in the very realm where Adam lived before the fall – the realm of immortality. Sound health in God’s eyes is immortality of the spirit, soul and body. That is why there is no sickness in Heaven and no diseases can survive the power of God’s glory.
The glory of God is the realm of immortality. Moses kissed it and never saw sickness all his life. In fact, he could not die. The Bible says the LORD killed and buried him. Which was a divine décor. That was why He appeared to Christ on the mountain of transfiguration.
MOSES HAD A FORETASTE OF IMMORTALITY AND FINALLY ENTERED INTO IT AT THE END OF HIS TIME ON EARTH.
For us today, complete immortality while alive in this world is impossible. It is the on the day of the rapture of the saints that we will step into complete immortality. The only thing available to us is a fore taste of immortality.
You see, genuine salvation involves the redemption of the spirit, soul and body from eternal damnation. In simple terms, it involves the redemption of the total man – the spirit, soul and body.
The redemption of the spirit and soul takes place while we are alive here, but the redemption of the body will take place in the day of the resurrection of the righteous; also called the rapture of the saints. That is the day that all things that affects our bodies negatively will be finally done away with. That is the day we will enter into complete immortality.
On that day, our bodies will be completely return to the very state Adam was before the fall – the state Jesus stepped into after His resurrection. If you remember, the kind of body Jesus had after resurrection could eat natural food. It could also cook! Yes, ladies here me, it cooked a mean for the disciples.
Jesus had the Body on when He prepared a meal of fish and bread for Peter and the rest after His resurrection. He was not moving from being the Lion of Judah to a chef. He prepared the meal to bring Peter back to ministry because he went back to fishing after His death. Remember that man had a family to feed.
I can sense some hearts jubilating because they will not miss food in the next life. Well, the kind of food we will eat then is the very food angels eat now – the food GOD fed Israel with for 40 years. The food helped them to stay healthy and experience the supernatural.
It gave them a unique body but not like the one we will have in the next life. It just helped them to have a foretaste of immortality.
The body we will have in the age to come will be able to pass through walls, float on water, and cover long earthly distances in few seconds. It will be a body that can transport between heaven and earth in seconds.
PAUL DESCRIBED IT AS “A BODY THAT WILL BE RAISE IN INCORRUPTION.” HALLELUJAH!
When we return to that kind of body, we will no longer know what it means to be sick, attacked by diseases, or killed by death. We will be free from all that forever.
The body we have now can deteriorate because of age, it can be sick because of viruses and etc. In fact, it can be attacked by disease or killed by death. But the one we will have them will be complexly immortal. Get ready for our final redemption – the redemption of the body.
It really pays to serve Jesus! The redemption of the body is God’s finally move that will restore our bodies to the eternal definition of sound health. It is one of the benefits of being truly born again.
The redemption of the body is what we are waiting for, even as we serve our generation according to the will of GOD! Until then, no matter how much we serve God, stay very close to Him like Moses did, there will come a time when age will begin to tell on our bodies and we will begin to grew weaker.
Some will even become very sickly! Yes, there will be a time when a health condition described in 2 Kings 13:14 as an illness of which a Kingdom Citizen would die would come. In this case the kingdom Citizen was Elisha. He had fulfilled His days. He was not dying premature.
We all know that this prophet was very powerful (not the perverse Christian version of powerful). He had a fore taste of immortality and was not reported to be sick at any time of his life. But when the curtains of time closed down on his body, he fell sick. God withdrew the immortality he tasted all his life and the man died.
THAT IS THE WAY THE RIGHTEOUS SHOULD DIE, GOD WILLING.
Though His days of staying on those side of eternity were over, the power that made him who he was still rested on his dead body. That was why it brought a dead man back to life. In other words, he raised the dead both while alive and death. But that same power could not keep him from falling sick at his time of departure from the earth.
Though the illness was, obviously not cancer, or any other dreaded disease; it was just the body giving way to time because it has not been redeemed and restored to its immortal state.
The unchangeable reality of the body submitting to the power of age and time when our time on earth comes to an end, is what our worship of God may not save us from. We will be saved on the final day, but until then the body remains a part of us that TIME will always kill.
That is why as soon as a Child is born, he or she will start dying. That is a mystery! Some die for 90 years and finally die on their 90th year on earth. Others die for 40 years and finally die. Time has the power to kill this body because it is not yet completely immortal.
You see, we may enjoy supernatural health even to the time of death, but that will not totally redeem our bodies. The redemption of our body will not take place until on the day of the rapture. The Bible calls it the day of Resurrection. Our devotional text today says;
“For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life”.
Our first cloth is this tent – our present bodies.
But our future clothing is the body that cannot be corrupted by sin, Satan or sickness. A body that cannot be corrupted at all or deteriorate with time. That is the body that we are earnestly waiting for.
IT IS THE VERY BODY THAT WILL FINALLY SHUT DOWN ALL POSSIBILITIES TO BE SICK OR DIE.
Meanwhile, as we wait for this, we are to follow the Biblical steps to live by in other to be healthy. Serving the LORD is presented as key one of the major keys to living a healthy life in Exodus 23. The next key is proper feeding and health care.
God is not against proper feeding and health care. I saw this in the life of Adam. His food was basically herbs and fruits that were capable of keeping his body healthy. The herbs he ate represent proper health care, and the fruits proper feeding.
Even in an environment of God’s glory man ate good food and herbs to be sound in health. That is a message. If you say, you are a man of faith, and do not feed properly, one day you will be diseased and die. Proper feeding is one of the keys to sound health.
I studied some books about past moves of GOD and discovered that most Evangelists in the early days of the faith movement died for lack of proper feeding. The anointing they carried could not help them.
The anointing may not help our bodies do or become what food was deigned to help it do or become. If you deny yourself what God created for the health of your natural body because of foolishness, you will suffer the consequence of it. Except you are in a fast, proper feeding should not be compromised.
Like previous stated, Adam ate fresh fruits; I also believe he ate fresh vegetables to be sound in health. And that was in an atmosphere of God’s glory not even the atmosphere we find ourselves today.
Friend, it’s not wrong to eat vegetable or herbs to stay healthy.
There are herbs in my village that keeps the body sound and improves its immune systems. There are some that if the blood is going low, you take them and get everything restored again. God is not against all these things that was why He created them.
But do not forget our enemy the devil. He likes bringing the demonic into these things through witch doctors and their rituals.
Today, we have so many witch doctors who combine witchcraft with herbs and give the concoction to the sick and dying to take to be and be made hold. This was not the plan of God for creating herbs, and will never be.
If you collect herbs from a witchdoctor to cure some ailments, you have touched the demonic. It could help you for even a long while but the consequences will finally come upon you!
Stay away from the demonic, no matter how helpful it looks.
Satan is crafty, he will always use what God has created to inject himself into people basically to kill, to steal and to destroy. I am only showing you what God originally put in place in the Garden of Eden for our health.
As you take these truths to heart, may you walk in the fullness of God for your life, in Jesus precious name! AMEN!!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY
“Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.” 2 Corinthians 5:5 NKJV