TODAY’S DEVOTION (Saturday 5TH March 2022)
“And now I am coming to You; I say these things while I am still in the world, so that My joy may be made full and complete and perfect in them [that they may experience My delight fulfilled in them, that My enjoyment may be perfected in their own souls, that they may have My gladness within them, filling their hearts].
I have given and delivered to them Your word (message) and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world [do not belong to the world], just as I am not of the world.
I do not ask that You will take them out of the world, but that You will keep and protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world (worldly, belonging to the world), [just] as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them [purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy] by the Truth; Your Word is Truth. Just as You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” John 17:13-18 AMCP
WELCOME TO THE 64TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE
Glory be to God almighty for giving us another day! It is the LORD’s doing and it is marvelous to our souls. It’s indeed, being a year of His Amazing Grace.
Amazing grace is the fuel that have been running the body of Christ from the day it was birth on earth.
Today is the 5th day of our 31 days with Righteousness, Purity and Holiness; a move of the Spirit of the living God to cleanse us from all secret sins and restore back our white garments in the Spirit realm. I hope the few days we have seen have already ministered some cleansing to you. I believe there is more to come from the purifier of the Sons of Levi.
One of the major resources God placed on earth to make sure those who turn to Him through His Son Jesus Christ, are kept from the evil one, is the prayer Jesus prayed shortly before He went to the Cross. That prayer is still as valid as the day He prayed it.
You see, let me tell you something about prayer; we just finished a journey on righteous prayer. A Righteous prayer does not die because the God who it is directed to cannot die.
There are righteous prayers that God answers from generation to generation. Some are prayed for years, others for months, others for weeks, others for days and many others just for hours, minutes and even seconds. Like the one Abraham prayed for Ishmael in Genesis 17; it was in few seconds or minutes and God is still answering that prayer even today; that is thousands of years later.
The prayer of our devotional text was prayed by Christ, maybe for minutes also, and God is still answering it today. It is the answers to the prayer that is keeping many of us in the faith. Many of us have fallen into sin, even loosing the hope of coming back to righteousness, purity and Holiness. But the prayer went into effect and brought us back.
SOMETIMES I LOOK AT MY LIFE AND WHAT THE LORD HAS DELIVERED ME FROM AND SAY “THANK GOD JESUS PRAYED THAT PRAYER”
Friend, we preachers may pray for you, and put what we call prayer cover on you, but the real prayer cover is that very prayer Jesus prayed over us all. A portion of it is what we used today for our devotional text.
One of the lines says;
“|I do not ask that You will take them out of the world, but that You will keep and protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world (worldly, belonging to the world), [just] as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them [purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy] by the Truth; Your Word is Truth. Just as You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” John 17:15-18 AMCP
That brings us to what I promised yesterday; I said we will be looking into the sanctification of the soul today. Jesus prayed a very powerful prayer that His Holy Spirit have been answering for thousands of years today. He said we should not be taken out of this corrupt world but be kept in it protected from the evil one.
Now, what does the evil one does that we are to be kept and protected from? Our minds may go to killing or making us poor or sick. But could be true but in this case far from what Jesus meant.
the evil one does not kill us all the time because killing a righteous soul will not send him to hell. It may prevent him from affecting more lives for God but will never send him to hell.
The evil one does to us what will send us to hell, and that thing is to desecrate us. The next prayer line revealed this truth when it says;
“Sanctify them [purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy] by the Truth; Your Word is Truth.” (John 17:17 AMPC)
Sanctification does not prevent dead as in the end of human life on earth because no matter how sanctified you are, you may even have a fore taste of immortality in the process, you fulfill your days one day and die.
From the prayer Jesus prayed, it is clear that sanctification is an activity of the Holy Spirit that prevents moral decay and desecration using His holy truths. Meaning, when Jesus asked the Father to protect us from the evil one, He was referring to protection from the desecrations and injection of moral decay into our spiritual lives by the evil one, especially after being washed by His blood.
SO MANY OF US TODAY HAVE SILENTLY RETURNED TO OUR OLD WAYS BECAUSE OUR SOULS HAVE NOT BEING SANCTIFIED.
Our spirits were sanctified (as taught yesterday) and we continued following the LORD for a while, but for lack of the sanctification of our souls, we became desecrated and returned back to our old ways. The Bible calls the sanctification of the soul “the saving of the soul.” It says;
“the[ just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. Hebrew 10:38-39 NKJV
This scripture is loaded. First it makes it clear that if we believe in the LORD and then go back to your old ways, Christ will have no pleasure in you. It says if anyone draws back…. It also admonished us not to be part of the generation that draws back; which is the vision of our 31-day journey. Because we will be damned in hell if we draw back to our old ways, and spend the rest of our days in that state without returning to the ways of the LORD.
It then presented the antidote of not drawing back which is believing, pressing and pushing daily for the sanctification of the soul.
Sadly, our Christian generation does not believe in the sanctification of the soul. We allow the error of once saved forever saved to fool us into leading sinful lives but approaching God for mercy. We mock at God’s mercies by leading sinful lives and approaching Him daily for mercy without repenting. But our Bible fathers did not teach that.
You must understand that in a true salvation encounter, the sanctification of the spirit takes places at once. But the sanctification of the soul is a progressive thing and should be done daily. The day you do not sanctify your soul, you will suffer a spiritual deficit that could build up over time and take you back to your old ways.
ONCE WE GET SAVED, WE MUST KEEP BELIEVING TO THE SAVING OF OUR SOULS. THAT WAS WHY PAUL SAID “I DIE DAILY.”
In other words, he sanctified his soul daily to remain in the race and in the soundness of the faith. The truth remains the truth. Our souls must be sanctified daily by Truth. We must get our souls soaked with the life giving revelation truths of God, on daily bases if we are to stray saved in this perverse and crooked generation.
It is a responsibility that will involve shutting the world away from our souls away using the word of truth and righteousness. Yes, it will involve not allowing our souls to absorb the advice of the ungodly, or find a resting place on the path of sinners, or align with the stand point or seat of the scornful.
if you work out our salvation that way, it will shoot our spiritual lives up and make us tress of righteousness indeed. That is why the Bible says;
“Blessed (happy, fortunate, prosperous, and enviable) is the man who walks and lives not in the counsel of the ungodly [following their advice, their plans and purposes], nor stands [submissive and inactive] in the path where sinners walk, nor sits down [to relax and rest] where the scornful [and the mockers] gather.
But his delight and desire are in the law of the Lord, and on His law (the precepts, the instructions, the teachings of God) he habitually meditates (ponders and studies) by day and by night.
And he shall be like a tree firmly planted [and tended] by the streams of water, ready to bring forth its fruit in its season; its leaf also shall not fade or wither; and everything he does shall prosper [and come to maturity].” Psalm 1:1-3 AMPC
Are you seeing what I am seeing in this scripture? Are you seeing the power of sanctifying the soul daily? It is so clear! It gets one planted by the rivers of the Holy Spirit, making him bring bear the fruit of salvation, which are righteousness, purity and Holiness with power from on High.
Did you see how the daily sanctification of the soul brings us into the prosperity of the soul and maturity of the spirit. I hope you see these things! That is why I said it is impossible to keep believing the LORD and keeping the standards of the faith (standards of righteousness, purity and holiness), without the soul constantly being sanctified or saved by sanctifying-life-giving truths.
YOU MUST UNDERSTAND WHAT I CONSIDER AS THE RULE OF AUTHENTIC SALVATION AND KEEP APPLYING TO YOUR LIFE.
It is a spiritual rule for complete redemption! And it states that; “we are saved (sanctification or the salvation of the spirit), we are being saved (sanctification of the saving of the soul), we shall be saved (sanctification or salvation of the body). It teaches us that the sanctification of the soul makes it easier to stay saved after you get saved.
Permit me to bring something to your attention at this point. It is easier to get saved than to stay saved. It is like getting married and staying married. Both are not the same in responsibility. One happens at once, the other happens daily.
To get saved takes an encounter with the LORD, to stay saved takes encounters with the LORD. If we are not having those encounters, we will not know when we have slipped back into perdition with our Bibles in our hands.
Child of God as we bring this to a close, I want you to understand that Christ does not want us desecrated and returned back to our old ways after having been washed by His blood. That is what the evil one wants. Christ prayed that we be kept and protected from that, as we fulfill our days in this wicked and polluted world. He prayed that we be kept sanctified, purified, consecrated and separated.
Most times the evil one achieves his vision to desecrate and return us back to our old ways using false prophets, false teachers, money making doctrines, and spicy prophecies on the lips of flamboyant preachers and etc. among us preachers
He uses our human need-based preaching, prophecies, prayers, teachings and ministries to do his job. That is why Peter warned us against these practices. He warned us against the bad guys among us preachers who are tailoring their ministries around your earthly needs instead of your eternal life. He warned that you be careful of them else you go back to your old ways by their influences.
He said;
“But also [in those days] there arose false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among yourselves, who will subtly and stealthily introduce heretical doctrines (destructive heresies), even denying and disowning the Master Who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
And many will follow their immoral ways and lascivious doings; because of them the true Way will be maligned and defamed.
And in their covetousness (lust, greed) they will exploit you with false (cunning) arguments. From of old the sentence [of condemnation] for them has not been idle; their destruction (eternal misery) has not been asleep.
They promise them liberty, when they themselves are the slaves of depravity and defilement—for by whatever anyone is made inferior or worse or is overcome, to that [person or thing] he is enslaved.
For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through [the full, personal] knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they again become entangled in them and are overcome, their last condition is worse [for them] than the first. 2 Peter 2:1-3, 19-20, AMPC
Friend, the greatest attack of hell on your soul will be in the area of remaining Heaven worthy after salvation. He knows the power of truth in the sanctification of the soul is what will keep you Heavenly worthy hence establishing falsehood almost everywhere in church today.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU!
“Blessed (happy, to be envied) is the man who reads aloud [in the assemblies] the word of this prophecy; and blessed (happy, to be envied) are those who hear [it read] and who keep themselves true to the things which are written in it [heeding them and laying them to heart], for the time [for them to be fulfilled] is near.” Revelation 1:3 AMPC