TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 23RD MARCH 2022)
“[Aroused] by faith Moses, when he had grown to maturity and become great, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,
Because he preferred to share the oppression [suffer the hardships] and bear the shame of the people of God rather than to have the fleeting enjoyment of a sinful life.
He considered the contempt and abuse and shame [borne for] the Christ (the Messiah Who was to come) to be greater wealth than all the treasures of Egypt, for he looked forward and away to the reward (recompense).
[Motivated] by faith he left Egypt behind him, being unawed and undismayed by the wrath of the king; for he never flinched but held staunchly to his purpose and endured steadfastly as one who gazed on Him Who is invisible. Hebrews 11:24-27 AMPC
WELCOME TO THE 82ND DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE
Its been God’s amazing grace for these 82 days. Day unto day He has shown us mercies. Night unto night He has surrounded with His goodness.
The Bible spoke about the terror that walks by night and the arrow that flies by day. His mercies by day and goodness by night has watched over us from they all.
To Him belong all the glory!
Today we will be picking up from where we stopped yesterday. It’s being a 31-day journey with the Cry of the Holy Spirit on Righteousness, purity and Holiness. The sanctification of the body has been our focus of recent.
So far, we have learned that a sanctified body is a reflection of a sanctified spirit and soul.
The body literally carries out what it gets from the spirit and the soul, that is why we made it clear from the onset that we can not have our bodies sanctified from sin, iniquity and trespass if our spirits and souls are not.
To have our bodies sanctified simply means to keep it from sin and defilements. It means to keep it separated from spiritual pollutions and sinful deeds like sexual sins, strife, bitterness, and etc. It is to refrain from using any parts of our bodies for sinful purposes or for purposes that do not glorify God or show fear for Him.
For instance, People who sleep with animals, engage in same sex marriages or intercourse, sleep with cousins, nephews, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, aunties, or other close or far relatives, are defiling their bodies terribly. Some of these kinds of defilements breeds curses.
Sanctification of the body is keeping away from such abominable practices.
Those who lie with their tongue, hate with their hearts, destroy with their looks, and kill with their hands are also defiling themselves. Sanctification of the body is staying away from such evil deeds.
WHATEVER WE DO THAT GOES AGAINST GOD’S WILL, WAYS, OR WORD WILL ULTIMATELY DEFILE OUR BODIES AT THE END.
To sanctify our bodies, in addition to all we have been reading from day one of this journey, we must respect the principles of the first chapter of the book of Psalm. It 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
When you become like a tree, firmly planted and tended by the streams of water, your body will feel it. It will become fruitful in its season, eliminating all forms of barrenness, and leading to sound health.
Many have not really realized the connection between a defiled body and their health. We will focus on that maybe tomorrow, God willing.
God designed the body to function optimally through sanctification of the spirit and soul. When we are planted in the word and are watered by the Holy Spirit daily, our bodies blossoms. But we cannot be planted or watered when we do not keep the principles that precedes that.
The word says;
(1) We must not walk and live in the counsel of the godly, following their advice, their plans, and purposes.
(2) We must not stand in submission or stand inactive in the paths of sinners, because we will absorb their ways and atmospheres and defile our bodies.
(3) We must not relax and rest where the scornful and mockers gather.
(4) We must delight and desire the precepts, the instructions, or the teachings of God.
(5) We must habitually meditate, ponder and study them by day and by night.
APPLYING THESE FIVE STEPS TO OUR DAILY LIVES IS ONE OF THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAYS TO KEEP OUR BODIES SANCTIFIED.
The principles contained here have three things to stay away from and one to stay very close to.
We are to stay away from the counsel, plans and purposes of the ungodly. The reason is because they will lead to defilement of our bodies. Dinah the only daughter of Jacob was defiled that way. Sadly, bloodshed became the result and she went off record.
The principle also said, to keep our bodies sanctified, we must not submit to, or stand inactive in the ways of sinners. Samson did. He submitted to the way of the seductress Delilah, and stood inactive in it, consequently his body was defiled.
In those days the Spirit of God do rest on the body of the sanctified as well. The Bible says, after defiling himself, the Holy Spirit walked away from him.
Samson’s story tells us how costly it is not to keep our bodies sanctified.
Lastly, the steps or principles in those verses also cautioned us about relaxing in the paths of sinners. David did that and today he is still an example of adultery for many people who want to be promiscuous. But those who do not want to be look at his walk with God.
Sadly, many of us today are worse, for relaxing in the ways of sinners. We have defiled our bodies terrible and some are even sick now because of that.
The final principle we can see in those verses made it clear that when the word washes our souls and spirits, it will send its potency into our bodies, keeping us sanctified, spirit soul, and body.
NOW, THERE ARE THOSE WHO HAVE TAKEN PERSONAL HYGIENE TO BE SANCTIFICATION OF THE BODY.
Well, as good as it is to maintain personal hygiene or cleanliness, having a sanctified body has nothing to do with personal hygiene or taking your bath five times a day, or cleaning your fist with water and saying some prayers.
There are even occult groups that take men to rivers and oceans to bath them in the name of cleansing. Others sleep with those in need of deliverance in the name of cleansing.
But no body is cleansed by being taken to rivers or oceans for ritual bath, or being taken through the process of ritual sex. Those things defile the body. They do not cleanse the body.
That is why you see the people, at the long run, sickly and dying. You see them having demons that live in them. Because when the body is filthy and defiled with sin, idolatry, deliverance or initiation rituals, the possibility of a demon living in the person increases.
Many people are possessed because of that.
They are possessed because unclean spirits like to live in defiled people. They like defiled people and defiled places because they want to live in them.
We must understand that People will never be free from demonic oppression or possession, until they begin to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. You will never find anyone whose body has been offered to God as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, having a demonic case.
That brings us to the subject of the sanctification of the body and deliverance from satanic oppression.
If we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to God, holy and acceptable to Him, we cannot be offered to any Satanic altars, devils or witchcraft system.
There are people who are offered as sacrificial lambs in the spirit realm by their parents, children, friends, wives, husbands and etc. They are offered by others for money and other demonic reasons. But this cannot happen to you if you have already offered your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to GOD.
What belongs to God cannot be eaten by Satan.
SPIRITUAL ATTACKS ARE ONLY POSSIBLE WHEN OUR BODIES ARE NOT SANCTIFIED.
That means if we are having a demonic attack, instead of going for prayers every now and then, we should go through the sanctification of our body, which begins with the sanctification of the spirit and soul. Once that happens, we will not need prayer from anyone. We will just be free!
No sanctified vessel can be held for too long by a demon. We only need to pay the price of leading a sanctified life.
But how many of us are willing to pay the price? How many captive souls are willing to pay the right price for their freedom?
You see, Satan is wicked and smart at the same time. He planted great pleasure around all that defiles our bodies so that the pleasure will keep bringing us to it.
There is nothing that defiles the body that is not pleasurable, I mean nothing. From sex with multiply partners or someone you are not married to, to sex to who you are married to but is defiled, and to drugs, to alcohol, to cigarettes, to wild parties, and to all you can think off.
Nothing that defiles the body lack pleasure in it. That is why lovers of pleasure are the greatest casualties in this war.
You must cease loving pleasure and become a lover of God to be delivered from the enemy this end time. Loving pleasure will keep you under demonic attacks all your life, despite prayers, fasting or attending a good church.
In the school of deliverance, If you want to live a peaceful life, you must walk away from sinful pleasures. That is the secret. It does not come by giving money to one anointed greedy preacher out there who confuses with false teachings.
I remember a young lady who came to me for prayers in 2017. She was having severe attacks from demons, and went for prayers to the ministry of a prophetess.
She shared with me how the prophetess collected deliverance seed from her, and then prayed, and then gave her some salt to pray with and water to sprinkle in her house from time to time.
She did that and it worked, but after a while it returned. That was why she came to me for help; obviously she was looking for a permanent help.
Sadly, the prophetess ministered to her like a witch doctor will do instead of a servant of God will do because she was not of GOD.
WHO IS NOT OF GOD, CANNOT DEAL WITH WHAT IS NOT OF GOD!
The attacks on her were not of God. She will need someone who is of God, Jesus Christ who died for her, to deal with it. So, I decided to connect her to Him. But she must be willing to be cleansed and purified, so I asked her about her life and found out that she was living with a man she was not married to. She was in sexual sins.
Sadly, the prophetess though aware, never bothered about that.
Then as we kept conversing, I found out that she was looking for deliverance without a desire to forsake a life of bodily defilement. And that she fell into the hands of the messenger of Satan because of that.
You will always fall into the hands of the devil if you are trying to find God without a desire to walk with Him.
When I found out that she had no desire to walk with the LORD, I refuse to pray for her and she left my office back to her prophetesses and her sexual partner.
Her spiritual attack was rooted in her way of life; defiling her body with sexual sins but she was not willing to stop because of the pleasure in the act. Satan will plant pleasure a round what will kill us to keep us coming back to it. Do not forget that!
My job that day was to introduce her to Christ and teach her to walk with Him. But she resisted and went for the passing pleasure of sin instead of the loving savior who died for her on the cross. Our devotional text calls it the fleeting enjoyment of a sinful life.
LIKE MANY OF US TODAY, SHE WAS NOT WILLING TO FORSAKE IT AND FOLLOW THE LORD;
We will never become what the LORD called us to be if we are not willing to walk away from any fleeting enjoyment from a sinful life. Even Moses, who later became one of the Kingdom’s greats, had to deal with the same thing to begin the journey with God that made him who he was.
Our devotional text further said;
“[Aroused] by faith Moses, when he had grown to maturity and become great, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,
Because he preferred to share the oppression [suffer the hardships] and bear the shame of the people of God rather than to have the fleeting enjoyment of a sinful life.
He considered the contempt and abuse and shame [borne for] the Christ (the Messiah Who was to come) to be greater wealth than all the treasures of Egypt, for he looked forward and away to the reward (recompense).
[Motivated] by faith he left Egypt behind him, being unawed and undismayed by the wrath of the king; for he never flinched but held staunchly to his purpose and endured steadfastly as one who gazed on Him Who is invisible. Hebrews 11:24-27 AMPC
There is so much here that you can glean from. I admonish that you go over it again and again.
That lady told me point blank that she will go back to salt usage and she was not ready to abandon her man. It was that bad!
Her story is a picture of how we always hold on tenaciously to things that are bound to kill us because of the enjoyment we get from them. It tells us of our own unwillingness to share in the suffering and hardship of saying yes to Christ and to a life of consecration.
She was looking for rest but not ready to stop defiling her flesh because of the pleasure in it. The truth is, whatever gives our flesh sinful pleasure, will end up giving our lives sorrowful and terrible pains; sometimes with un-redeemable consequences.
The message here is, if you want to live a peaceful life, a spiritual attack free life; embrace the sanctification of the body, it remains the secret to lasting deliverance in God’s kingdom.
If we do not give the enemy what to eat, we will not be eaten by the enemy.
It is important to understand that dust have been legally given to the enemy to eat. Among other things, dust represents the defilement of our bodies from the fleeting enjoyment of a sinful life. If our bodies are defiled, our lives will be food for the devil.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR TODAY!
Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; Put on your beautiful garments,
O Jerusalem, the holy city! For the uncircumcised and the unclean Shall no longer come to you.
Shake yourself from the dust, arise; Sit down, O Jerusalem! Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion!
For thus says the LORD: “You have sold yourselves for nothing, And you shall be redeemed wit Isaiah 52:1-3 NKJV