TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Tuesday 7TH September 2021)
“Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” Acts 6:3-4 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 258th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS!
It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed. We give Him the glory for another day. We know He is keeping us alive for His pleasure and His pleasure we shall live for. Hallelujah!
Our lives are in His hands not our hands. The enemy could boast or say anything that injects fear about our lives, but we should not forget that our lives are not in the hands of our enemies. By the precious blood of Jesus, our lives are in God’s hands.
This morning we shall be refreshing our hearts on matters of deep intimacy with the LORD. If your life is in God’s hands, it is very important that you cultivate deep intimacy with Him. If we do not cultivate deep intimacy with God, we will become self-willed instead of Spirit of God-willed.
If you understand what it means to have your life in God’s hands, you will also understand that if we become self-will, we take our lives away from God’s hands to our hands.
Life in God’s hands is will of God governed, while life in our hands is self-willed governed. In other words, one way to know if your life is in God’s hands is in whose will you may be doing with your life. If you are sold out to God’s will and ways, then your life is in His hands. But if you are sold out to man’s will and ways, then your life is not in God’s hands.
You do the will of whose hands your life is in. deep intimacy with God will help us know when we are in God’s will or not. It will take away carnality and helps us to perfectly put our lives in God’s hands.
TALKING ABOUT CARNALITY, IT IS BEING CARNALLY MINDED THAT PREVENTS US FROM PUTTING OUR LIVES IN GOD’S HANDS.
Carnality in any form is not a blessing but a curse. Carnality is sense and reason without the Holy Ghost. It is following the passions of the flesh instead of the Spirit. It is the mother of all sins, iniquity and trespass. It I also the mother of all successful spiritual attacks.
When we are carnal, we can be subjected to the works of the devil.
When we are carnal, we can manifest the works of the flesh. We manifest the works of the flesh in carnality because it is when we are carnal that we enjoy the pleasure of sin and take delight in continuing in it. When we are spiritually minded, we cannot enjoy the pleasure of sin, we rather sorrow for our sins and hate each moment we spent committing them.
Often I have explained that sin lives in us, but God’s will is that we do not live in the sin living in us. The spiritually minded do not live in the sin living in them, they live in the Christ living in them – the God living in them. It is easier for the spiritually minded to follow the LORD than the carnally minded. It is easier for the spiritual minded to avoid a life of sin than the carnally minded.
Sadly, a life of sin has become the norm in the present day version of the Christians faith. The reason is obvious; many of us today have become too carnal to avoid the pleasure of sin, and hell has become very excited about it. That should scare us, because Satan’s vision has not changed; it still remains to have us in hell with him in the next life! The vision we are going to fulfill lies in how we treat sin, iniquity, and trespass.
Why is hell excited, you may ask? You see, many Christians who died got buried with the words, “gone to be with the LORD” are not with Him at all. They are not with Him because they died in carnality; they died without intimacy with Jesus Christ, hence entering the next life separated from God in this life.
If you leave this world separated from God, Heaven will not be your home. We must understand that and sense when we have separated from God. Sadly, many do not know when they are no longer with the LORD. Like Samson, we live our lives as if we are still with Him, not knowing He has left us.
THAT IS WHY THE PLEASURE OF SIN IS CULTIVATED AND A LIFE OF SIN CHERISHED.
No one who is with the LORD will be comfortable with sexual immorality, lying, cheating, or stealing. No one who is with the LORD walks in hate, slander, bitterness, un-forgiveness and all other forms of the filthiness of the spirit. No one who is with the LORD will be comfortable having extra marital affairs, calling sin a mistake instead of what God calls it, and all that.
By our fruits today, many are no longer with the LORD. Many in the Church are no longer with the LORD. Though we still prophesy, cast out demons and do miracles using His name, His true presence has left us leaving us with tongues and songs but with no Godly character, especially in our secret places.
However, I believe the LORD has left for Himself a remnant.
Yes, there is a remnant that has seen these things in the Spirit and are adjusting their lives and by getting closer and closer to God. They have responded to the call of God to go deep in their walk with Him. Deep intimacy with the LORD is their heart cry. Like David, they are saying;
“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.
For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His Tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.” Psalm 27:4-5 NKJV
Friend, intimacy with God should become our hearts cry in this perilous times. It is what eliminates carnality and enhances spirituality. Intimacy with God does not just help us lead a spiritually minded life, it also guarantees Heaven.
When I look at the book of Genesis Chapter 1 and 2 and see how mankind ought to be and compare it with how we have all become today, I cannot but feel so sorry for myself and the entire human race. There are certain things sin brought upon us and the entire creation that only the consummation of all things can cure.
BELIEVE IT OR NOT, THE LIMITATIONS AND IMPACT THE FALL CREATED IN US IS YET TO BE UNDERSTOOD BY MORTAL MINDS.
For instance, mankind was created to live forever; spirit soul and body. But when man fell, only our spirits and souls remained immortal. The body became mortal. It became possible to be sick, poor, or grow old. Before now, it was impossible for any of these things to befall man. He was so intimate with God, hence living in the glory, I mean the tangible Glory of God.
We can come to the place of experiencing the tangible glory of the LORD if we cultivate a life on intimacy with God. The glory of the LORD is the fullness of God on display. One can experience this fullness again if we make use of the grace of the LORD upon our lives and become intimate with the LORD. That brings us to our devotional text for the day!
Our devotional text today was a spiritual decision the leaders of the early Church took when they were being distracting from being intimate with the LORD; and attack all of us face today. When growth came and things became great, certain things that were not multiplying their chances to spend quality time with God emerged, they reacted against them swiftly because they know the consequence that will follow after.
It is difficult for a preacher to handle growth in ministry some times. It has a way of taking one away from his knees. I have been there.
Sometimes the needs of the people that come to you for help take you away from the prayer knee, and destroys the burden to be intimate with the LORD as His servant, by being alone with Him.
Before you know it, you are falling into sin and excusing yourself towards hell. That is why you see great men and women of God developing sinful habits at the top, and you begin to wonder what happened?
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IS, WE LEFT THE PRAYER KNEE AND THE PLACE OF BEING ALONE WITH GOD ON DAILY BASES.
Even for a non-minister of the gospel, you discover that when our prayer lives start bearing fruits, there are chances that we will get up from our knees and start managing the success we are seeing with casual prayers or praying only n Church. You become weak in the place of personal prayer. But not these early Church leaders who knew the consequences. They held on to the key despite the challenges, and decided to remain on their prayer knees.
A major highlight in the devotional text said,
“But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
One of the major steps to take to become deep with God is to give yourself continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. If you cultivate a consistent prayer life and are continuously fed the word, you will find yourself in the deeper places of the Spirit one day.
When you get to the deep, you will begin to touch the glory. When you begin to touch the glory, your ideal Holy Ghost created self will begin to come out. That is when age will begin to give way, and you start looking younger than your peers. You will begin to operate in the supernatural and see Heavenly things take place in your life in quick succession.
I have come to discover that if things are down in our lives, and intimacy with God is the missing key, no other key will bail us out of our problems until we use it. Paul used it in the midst of a sinking ship and God showed up. You are the next on God’s list to use the key.
We are in perilous times, times of heightened demonic influences. It is important that we cease walking in carnality and begin to walk in spirituality. Walking in true spirituality begins with intimacy with Christ; giving ourselves entirely to prayer and the ministry of the Word.
Yes, we must be excited about going to the house of the LORD. We must be excited about being alone with GOD and intimate with Him.
In Days of David, the house of the LORD was not a building, and it is still not a building neither. The house of the LORD God was the place of His manifest presence; the place He manifest when we are either gathered in His name as a corporate Church or alone with Him as individuals.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY!
“I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go into the house of the Lord.” Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem! Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together,”
“Where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to the Testimony of Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord”
“For thrones are set there for judgment, the thrones of the house of David.” Psalms 122:1-5 NKJV