TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Thursday 23RD September 2021)
“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.” John 15:6 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 267TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS!
As we begin our Journey into our Year of Amazing Grace, we are still riding on the prophecy of Higher heights. We give God the glory for all He has been doing in our lives; fighting our battles and protecting us from the sword of our enemies. We thank Him for giving us life and health. Yes, for keeping us as the apple of His eyes.
The word apple of His eyes means the retina of His eyes. The retina is the most sensitive and important part of the eye. It is the engine of eyesight. If your retina is gone, your sight is gone. That is why God keeps them as the apple of His eyes.
This also tells us that there is a generation that functions as the eyes of God on earth to those who are seeking or groping for the ways of the LORD in a spiritually blind world; in a world spiritually blinded by the gods of this world. The ministries of the apples of God’s eyes is key to their eternal destinies.
That is why the Job of those God calls to function as the apple of His eyes, among other things, is to show people the right ways of the LORD in the midst of any gross darkness, and teach them how to follow. Part of their assignment is to contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints. And God is obliged to protect them as the apple of His eyes.
The truth is, if you are being used of the LORD to contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints, many will be used by the enemy to contend with you. From personal experience, and from what Happened to Christ, the people will not be the unbelievers out there but the so called believers who are actually unbelievers inside the Church; from the pulpit to the pew.
Jesus was not betrayed by the Romans. He was betrayed by Judas and sold to the sons of hell who operated as Pharisees and Sadducees.
WE ALSO HAVE SONS OF HELL OPERATING AS CHURCH LEADERS AND MEMBERS TODAY.
They are the ones hell uses mostly to contend with those who are contending for the faith. They provide support for sinful and ungodly structures, but contend with every structure built on the mystery of godliness. They are the weeds and tares among God’s people, with the loudest noise and visibility.
But their time is over. Eli will soon leave the scene with all his sons, and that Phase of having Church leaders who are rascals will be over. The era of having church leaders who sleep with women with reckless abandon, and make alcohol their shepherd in the Evangelical and Pentecostal circle will be over.
I see a new breed of spiritual leaders rising, the likes of Samuel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Paul, Peter, Josiah, Joseph, and etc. with the powers of the age to come and the good word of the LORD, piercing spiritual atmospheres with living truths and bringing God’s kingdom down to establish the hearts of men His righteous ways. They will usher in Jesus as King of Kings and LORD of lords.
Time has come to disconnect from these spiritual leaders and make Jesus and His Bible your nest friend. Time has come to separate from whatever defiles if you want God to be a Father to you. He said in His word;
“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:17-18 KJV
There is a clarion call to separate because judgment is about breaking forth on sin and sinful living as never before. It is a correctional judgment for the rise of a generation of preachers who have not been defiled by women, according to scriptures. This may sound strange to you but it’s in the Bible.
Defilement by women cut across sexual defilement and spiritual defilement. If people know this alone, they will separate from the Sons of Eli. Concerning the son of Eli the Bible says;
“Now the sons of Eli were corrupt; they did not know the LORD. …Now Eli was very old; and he heard everything his sons did to all Israel, [i]and how they lay with the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.” 1 Samuel 2:12 & 22 NKJV
I urge you to read the whole of chapters two, three and four, and you will see what is plying out today in so many nations where corrupt leaders are the church leaders.
TIME HAS COME TO START READING THE BIBLE YOURSELF.
Time has come to start invading the word with a pure heart; a heart to know the LORD. Whenever we read the Bible with a pure heart, we see the intentions of God. We see His heartbeat for us;
especially the saved. We also see parallels of what is about happening. Those parallels usually content the intentions of God for us.
The intentions of God are called “the will of God.” When we sense the will of the LORD as we read, we receive grace to align with them. That is why the most cheated believers are those who have no time for the word.
If you do not have time for in-depth study of the word, you will never be able to tell the difference between the clean and the unclean; the acceptable to God and the unacceptable. You will be taking all that our preachers do or say as acceptable. Knowing the word helps us live lives that are not opposite God’s intentions for them.
If a man lives His life opposite God’s intentions, every intention of the devil and his evil men can be accomplished in his life.
When you read the Bible saying “the counsel of the wicked shall not stand in our lives” or “the rod of the wicked will not rest upon us” it is conditional. If we do not fulfill the conditions none of these precious promises will manifest in our lives.
To see a precious promise from the LORD manifest in a man’s life, his life must be in harmony with God’s intention. That is why in our ministry, we try to teach and impart men to line up with God’s intention for the global Church, and their individual lives.
OUR PROBLEMS AS CHRISTIANS USUALLY EMANATE FROM NOT LINING UPON WITH GOD’S INTENTIONS.
Sometimes ignorance prevents us from lining up, other times outright rebellion or veils put in our hearts by certain preachers. If you look at your life, you will discover that the very areas you refuse to bring under divine control is the very area the enemy stands to attack You.
We frustrate the will of God for our lives when we do not align with His intentions contain in the scriptures. We reject the counsel of the LORD for our lives if we lead our lives outside His intentions for it.
A Christian who frustrates the will of God and come under attack will bring everyone who helps her under demonic attacks as well.
One who reject the counsel of God for his life and goes on to establish his own counsel, will have people sharing in their sorrows when they try to help them. That is why Jesus never prayed for everyone he saw.
If you do not persuade them to align with the LORD and be delivered, you will be endorsing their rebellion trying to bring them out of what their evil ways brought upon them.
Our devotional text today is enlightening. It was part of Jesus’ farewell speech to first His immediate disciples, and second to us – His other disciples. It says;
“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”
If you look at this scripture with a pure heart, you will realize that the intention of God for us is that we abide in Him.
GIVING YOUR LIFE TO CHRIST IS ACTUALLY A COVENANT MAKING ACT TO ABIDE IN CHRIST ALL YOUR LIFE.
But many who claim saved are not abiding in Him. We abide in sin and wickedness even as preachers and church goers.
You see, to abide in Christ, especially in a perverse and crooked generation like ours, is not cheap but it is very necessary. It is necessary because it is more expensive not to abide in Him than to abide in Him. Jesus made it clear that if we do not pay the necessary price and abide in Him, we will wither away.
If we wither away, we will be gathered and thrown into the fire.
Sadly, that has become true in this life of every fallen Christians who are in hell today and those who are on their way there. And God wants it change hence sending a word to us. It is a call to become truly and deeply committed to the LORD.
It will the deeply and intimately committed to abide in Christ! If you are not deeply or intimately committed, you will not be able to abide in Him. If you do not abide in Him, you will wither away first, and then be thrown into the fire later.
Withering away takes place in time. Being thrown into the fire takes place in eternity.
Signs that you are withering away includes losing interest in the genuine things of God, living a life of sin like the lost world and saying we are all humans or running after prophets who use sorcery and forsaking those who hold the true word from God. It also shows when your prayer life is either dying or dead. You will not be able to experience the presence of the LORD in the place of prayer or fasting when you have withered away and cut off from Him.
When you start withering away spiritually, it will begin to manifest in your finances, then your marriage, then your entire physical life. Good will begin to depart from you. Peace of mind will be withdrawn. Anxiety and worries will replace where peace once dwell in your heart. That is why God wants us to be deeply intimate.
If you are experiencing any of these, God wants you to return. He will meet you like He did the prodigal son. But it has to be in the place of repentance not spiritual arrogance.
Personally, I live in the place of repentance daily, because repentance is not just Turing away from sin, it involves turning away from even the legitimate in other to lay hold on the ultimate. I believe that is one of the most honorable ways to remain in the vine and not be cut off. We should be living our lives in such a way that we will never be cut off from the vine and allowed to wither away.
The world may hate us for that but we are not the first to be hated. It is part of the faith to be hated by those who are godless at heart.
I commend you to God and to word of His grace which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among they that are sanctified!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION;
“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Remember the word that I said to you,’ A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. John 15:18-20 NKJV