TODAY’S DEVOTION (Thursday 20th January 2022)
“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 TLB
WELCOME TO THE 20 TH 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 enabled us to see 19 days of this year. To Him belong the glory. The Spirit of the LORD has made us; the breath of the almighty gives us life. We are alive because His is keeping us alive.
Yesterday, the LORD refreshed our minds on prayer matters. We saw one of the most critical secrets of prayers – the power of right standing with God. It is the prayer of a life that is standing right with God that makes tremendous power or amazing result available.
We also discovered why the enemy frustrates the prayer lives of those who are standing right with God. He will not let them pray Spirit or word led prayers. He could influence them not to pray at all, because he knows what will happen if they do.
If your ways are right before God, please do not neglect a life of constant prayer. Learn to seek the LORD to better your finances, to keep you alive in famine, to bless you as you go out and bless you as you come in. Seek Him to do the impossible in your life and fill your life with good. Commit your day to Him each morning and ask Him to bless your life or the works of your hands as you mover out to work. Shape your days on your prayer knees.
NOW, THERE IS SOMETHING THAT COMES NEXT TO PRAYER. IT IS CALLED PLANNING.
Effective prayers sometimes will bring the revelation of God’s plans to our spirits. It is when we follow them that we see the results of our prayers. That is why praying without walking in the revelation of God’s plans keeps people struggling despite prayers.
Yes, there are people who pray so much and struggle so much all at the same time. There lives are right before God, and their prayers righteous but they do not spend their days walking in God’s plans for the day, the week, the month, the year or their lives.
We must understand that there are three basic plans that everyone on planet is walking in. Every on earth is either walking in the plans of God, the plans of man, or the plans of the evil one (the devil). Your decisions are presently influenced either by the plans of God, the plans of man that of the evil one.
When Jesus was Physically on earth, He showed us how to live in this world. He never did anything that the Father did not sanction for Him. He said “I can of my own self do nothing…” Not that He did not have the power to do things by Himself, He knew if He go that way, He will be following the plan of the flesh or that of the devil, and His destruction will not be a matter of if, but a matter of when.
His life shows us how not to follow even our plans, (which falls under the plans of men). His life showed us how to follow the plans of the GOD each day of our lives. You follow divine plans through divine direction. If the word of the LORD and the Spirit of the LORD guides you, you are in divine plans. The results of your prayers are bound to come.
A man of consistent prayers who follow divine plans in decision making, will always see amazing results in prayers.
Another word for the phrase “the plans of the LORD” is “the counsels of the LORD.” The Bible says “the counsel of God shall stand.” We are to make decisions based on the counsels of the LORD; based on things that can stand.
Meaning, no matter how we pray, if our decisions are not based on the counsel of the LORD, nothing in our lives will ever stand. Only decisions made based on the counsels of the LORD will get us established.
THE PLANS OR COUNSELS OF THE LORD ARE THE ONLY IDEAL PLANS OR COUNSELS FOR US.
They are the only plans or counsels on planet earth that has a glorious future for any man.
It is important to note that We were not originally designed to succeed in any plan that is not God’s plan or counsel. Irrespective of how we pray, we were not designed to succeed following even our own plans for our lives, irrespective of how lofty they may look. We were designed to succeed in God’s plans.
Praying without following God’s plans will never change your life. That is why, as earlier stated, effective prayers will reveal God’s counsel and plans for our lives. Sometimes, we must pray asking God to help us sense His plans and counsels so we can follow.
True Christianity has no place for a man’s plans and programs, except they are from the LORD. It does not give power to us to go use it to succeed in selfish plans. It is Christianity controlled by the spirit of Babylon or the spirit of this world that is ran that way.
True Christianity is a kingdom life that is lived by submitting to the Spirit of Jesus Christ and harmonizing our decisions with His plans for our lives.
Each day of our lives must be ruled by His Spirit. To walk in His plans daily, we must be able to sense when He does not want us to go this place and that place. We must not walk according to what we hear with out natural ears or see with our natural eyes. We must not walk according to our worries but according to the Spirit.
You cannot follow God’s plans on daily bases without walking in the sensitivity of the Spirit. You must understand that God has a plan for you but you must walk in the light of His word daily which helps our sensitivity in the Spirit, to find yourself in the plans He has for you.
THE MIRACLES YOUR LIFE WILL PRODUCE IF YOU HARMONIZE YOUR DECISIONS WITH GOD’S PLANS WILL AMAZE YOU.
Two words we can use to describe them are the word “peace” and “Prosperity.” Yes, because we live in an imperfect world there could be challenges, but the peace and the prosperity of God will always be available in your life.
Your security, prosperity, protection, significance, and bearing in life are buried in the plans of God for your life. Stepping into them is the only key to turning the blessings on in your life.
Nothing significant happens in a man’s life until one step into God’s plan for his life. What God has designed to be turned on in your life by stepping into His plan, cannot be turned on by any other thing. That is why you must check whose plans you are walking in when the bad and ugly are always happening to you.
With a consistent righteous prayer life, stepping into God’s plan for your life becomes the next solution to your entire problems on earth. A prayer Life outside God’s plans can be very horrible. You will lack divine interventions when you need them most despite your prayers.
The most of what GOD does through prayers can only be seen when we step into His plans for our lives. Many do not know that God do not just intervene in things. He will first look into the situation to see if the people involved are in His plans for their lives.
If they are not, it will be difficult to secure lasting interventions.
Hence, in His love and mercy, He will send an interpreter of His will to them to bring them into His plans for their lives so that their prayers can begin to unlock divine interventions.
Divine interventions are a constant blessing that manifest in the lives of people who pray and follow it up by living within God’s plans for their lives. If we are in GOD’s plans, our prayers become more effective in solving our problems.
THE ISRAELITE WERE IN EGYPT FOR 400 YEARS. THEY WERE IN SLAVERY LIKE MANY OTHER NATIONS IN THEIR TIME.
But God could not bring these other slaves out of their task masters except the Israelites. He was able to bring Israel out because they called on Him, and they were in His divine plan. Years before He had said to Abraham that his descendant will go into a foreign nation and be oppressed. Then He will deliver them. So, they were not in Egypt on their own, God took them there.
If God takes us to any place, and we encounter problems there, and call upon Him, He will answer is because we are in His plans.
The easiest way to terminate the works of the devil in your life, is to step into a divine plan of God for your life while calling upon the name of the LORD to save you. Step into a Church that is God’s plan for your life. Submit to a minister of the gospel that is God’s plan for your life. Get involved in any ministry that is God’s plans for your life.
Get married to a man of woman that is God’s plan for your life. Pursue a career that is God’s plan for your life. Buy a car or live in a house that is God’s plans for your life. Praying men and women who limit their lives to the things that are God’s plans for them will end up living the most peaceful lives on earth.
When a praying man or woman step into God’s plan for their lives, the enemy will step out of their lives. God’s divine plans and demonic oppression cannot co-exist! The oppression may still be there when we pray but it will leave as soon as we step into something that is a divine plan. Our devotional text quoted God saying;
“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
God‘s plans are the only plans with a future; a glorious future. When you step into them, maintain a life of prayer, your life could look bleak and unpromising at the beginning, do not worry, remain faithful and you will stumble into a glorious future.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR TODAY;
“The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nought; He makes the thoughts and plans of the peoples of no effect.”
“The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the thoughts of His heart through all generations.”
“Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His heritage.” Psalms 33:10-11 AMP