TODAY’S DEVOTION (Tuesday 18TH January 2022)
“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength.” Isaiah 26:3-4 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 18TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE
This is another day the LORD has made, we shall rejoice and be glad in it. He has kept us for 18 days now. Like I said yesterday, we owe Him a lot of thanks. We do not just owe Him thanks but a life that is governed by the fear of the LORD.
God want to be able to look from Heaven and see us among those who fear Him.
If you fear God, there are things you will never do. Yes, there are things we will never do if we fear God. One of it is, we will never live a life of sin comfortably. Another is, if we fall into sin, we will not look at God and say, “you are merciful” then continue in our wicked ways. We will rush to Him in humility, sorrow for the sin, and repentance, asking for the forgiveness and power to sin no more.
Due to the drop in the fear of God that will take place in the end times, the Bible says the first shall be the last and the last the first. This is one prophecy from the mouth of Christ that we need to sit down at our apostolic center and look at for seven good days or more. It is a major Bible prophecy that we ignore. But its is happening.
Our ignorance of these Bible Prophecies is not helping us. So many of us are not prepared for what is happening in the spiritual landscapes of our nations right now.
There is a lot of pressure that we are caving into because we are not prepared. The rapid drop in the fear of God among believers due to this spiritual pressures is alarming.
The Bible is not the golden rule governing the lives of many of us. We do things that runs contrary to what the Bible teaches on morality and righteousness and still call ourselves Christians.
To us, Christians are those who go to Church. But to the Church at Antioch, Christians are those who live the lives of Christ; in holiness and righteousness, not even every people who are generous as its been re defined today.
Horribly, in some places, if you overcome temptation, they will say you are foolish. But if you live in sin and lead a generous life, they will say you are a Christian.
Many limits the life of Christ to a life of what they call ‘love’ and sharing, but do not care about the spiritual states of the generous and the so called loving.
They treat the internally corrupt and despicable as Christians because they sacrifice for them and give them money or show them one act of kindness or the other. They destroy themselves without knowing.
The life of Christ was not just a life of sacrifice for others. It was a life that has no sin in it. A life of true worship that was not found in sexual immorality that has become a virtue in many Christian circles today. It was not a life that was caught lying, stealing by tricks and doing all the wicked things we do.
THE LIFE OF CHRIST WAS A LIFE OF SACRIFICE, RIGHTEOUSNESS AND PURITY PROPELLED BY A RIGHTEOUS FEAR FOR GOD.
That was what the lost world in the days of the Bible saw in the lives of the members of the early Church and called “Christians.” They called them followers of Christ. Yes, they saw something that made them call them that.
They did not call them followers of Christ because they saw them putting on ecclesiastical attires or pious looks. They did not call them followers of Christ because they saw then preaching loud preaching and collecting money as seed. They did not call them followers of Christ because they saw them gathering in large Church gatherings and screaming “Holy Ghost fire!”
They did not call them followers of Christ because they were asking God to kill their enemies and seeing God killing them. They did not call them followers of Christ because they were asking people to raise altars of sacrifice or silence them. They knew that people who do such were not Christians but sorcerers.
They did not call them followers of Christ because they were drinking oil, using water to pray, praying with salt, candles, pieces of clothes etc. They did not call them followers of Christ because they saw them conducting deliverance the way our deliverance ministers do today. The truth is, if they had seen them do any of what we do today, they would have called them “sorcerers.”
They called them followers of Christ because they saw Christ in them and nothing else. They touched their lives with the Kingdom, Power and Glory of God. They saw the purity, righteousness, humility, grace, mercy, power and presence of Christ in their lives.
They did not see a religious sect as it were, but a group of men and women who became temples for GOD in the Spirit, carrying His presence and holy nature wherever they went. The whole creation is waiting for the manifestation of such people. Do not forget that!
THEY SERVED GOD UNTIL THE WORLD THEY LIVED IN CONFESSED AND TURNED TO THE LORD.
Most of them suffered more than what we are going through today. They went through a lot that is nothing compared to what we are going through in our age and time. Yet, they stood and kept on with the LORD. The Bible says;
“Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated – the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.” Hebrews 11:36-38 NKIV
If any of us who call ourselves Christians face 10 percent of these today, many of us will not follow the LORD again.
In fact, there are church people today who will say it is a cursed one is struggling with. They will say “Our God is a God of prosperity. He will never leave His children in rags. You must be struggling with curses.” Our kind of Christianity is indeed alien to the one that our fathers started. That is why I wonder which Heaven we are going to.
In their days, it was “Without Holiness no eye shall see the LORD.” But today, it is “without tithing, no eye shall see the LORD.” If we keep following the kind of Christianity, we see today, and the men and women of God’s leading it, I tell you the truth, we will not make Heaven. There is a great need to go back to the God of our Bible fathers. The Bible says;
This is what the LORD says:
“Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls……. Jeremiah 6:16 NIV
Our generation need to cut off from the present crop of leading preachers because, believe it or not, they are leading many astray. We need to go back to ancient paths of truths that our fathers in the early church walked in.
IT IS WHEN YOU DO NOT KNOW THE WAYS OF THE LORD THAT YOU WILL ARGUE WITH THIS FINDING.
If you know the ways of the LORD, and spend quality time to study your Bible very well, removing hero worship from your spirit, you will see where these famed and fortunate men and women have gotten it wrong; you will see how they are leading their flocks on the broad way that leads to destruction.
Prophetically, our generation seems to be on the cross roads.
This is what the LORD says:
“Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls…….” Jeremiah 6:16 NIV
Our generation need to cut off from the present crop of leading preachers because, believe it or not, they are leading many astray. We need to go back to ancient paths of truths that our fathers in the early church walked in.
IT IS WHEN YOU DO NOT KNOW THE WAYS OF THE LORD THAT YOU WILL ARGUE WITH THIS FINDING.
If you know the ways of the LORD, and spend quality time to study your Bible very well, removing hero worship from your spirit, you will see where these famed and fortunate men and women have gotten it wrong; you will see how they are leading their flocks on the broad way that leads to destruction.
Prophetically, our generation seems to be on the cross roads. We can not tell the difference between light and darkness any longer. They are all the same to nay of us. There is need to stand at the crossroads and look; asking ourselves where we have missed it.
There is need to ask the Holy Spirit for the ancient paths as we study His word. If we do not do that, we will keep going for deliverance and never finding rest for our souls. A major Highlight in our devotional text today says,
“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”
The amplified version rendered the same scripture this way,
“You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on you, because he commits himself to you, leans on you, and hopes confidently in you.”
These are times to shift our minds from the man-made and money-making doctrines that have been preached in the recent Church for many years, to the sound doctrines established by the LORD Himself in His word. This is the time to know what the will of the LORD is concerning our morality and purity and stick to it.
These are days of knowing what the will of the LORD is concerning our daily life and sticking to it. It is a time for dying daily and unleashing the life of Christ that the early fathers unleashed, and watched it changed their generation.
This is the time to follow the true word of the LORD not the mutilated teachings of these so-called leading preachers.
People who follow the true word are automatically doing the true will of God, because the true word of God is the true will of God. This people will receive eternal life; yes, they will see the unseen glory of God, and be honored. Don’t forget the Bible says,
“He will give eternal life to those who patiently do the will of God, …” (Romans 2:7 TLB)
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY!
“Since Christ suffered and underwent pain, you must have the same attitude he did; you must be ready to suffer, too. For remember, when your body suffers, sin loses its power, and you won’t be spending the rest of your life chasing after evil desires but will be anxious to do the will of God.
You have had enough in the past of the evil things the godless enjoy-sex, sin, lust, getting drunk, wild parties, drinking bouts, and the worship of idols, and other terrible sins.
Of course, your former friends will be very surprised when you don’t eagerly join them anymore in the wicked things they do, and they will laugh at you in contempt and scorn.
But just remember that they must face the Judge of all, living and dead; they will be punished for the way they have lived. 1 Peter 4:1-5 TLB
“Remember what Christ taught, and let his words enrich your lives and make you wise; teach them to each other and sing them out in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing to the Lord with thankful hearts.” Colossians 3:16 TLB