TODAY’S DEVOTION (THURSDAY 7TH April 2022)
“Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
“But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Matthew 7:24-29 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 97th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE
This is the day the LORD has made, we shall rejoice and be glad in it.
A wise man one said, “authentic ministry proceeds from God through the life of a minister of the gospel. That is why the messages will be intrinsically connected to their lives.”
Let me begin today by appreciating all who sent their felicitations to my family on my wife’s birthday!
All the messages, the warmth, and expressions on social media were really amazing. I was saying to someone how social media has made celebration of birthdays very easy. The celebrant only needs to place one or many beautiful pictures on social media announcing their big day, the rest will be left in the hands of others.
For us in the LORD, it does not stop there. We make it a season of appreciating God for His mercies and kindness. It is a season of reflecting on why we are here on earth and checking if we are really fulfilling the purpose. The Bible says;
“The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Who knows the power of Your anger? For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath.
So, teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 90:10-12 NKJV
Yes, birthdays are seasons of life where the elect sits down with his or her prophecy to see if he or she is numbering his or her days and applying his or her heart unto the wisdom contain in it.
IT SHOULD BE A SEASON OF PROPHETIC REFLECTIONS AND APOSTOLIC ALIGNMENTS.
When David said the days of a man are 70 years, he was not telling us that 70 years is God’s stationary life span for mankind. Do not forget, David died at Seventy. Maybe he wrote that when God revealed to him how long he was going to live on earth.
Sometimes, God do reveal to those who are close to Him how many years that have been allocated to them. They either write it down or keep quiet about it. That scripture also tells us that sometimes, divine anger makes one die earlier than previously planned by the LORD.
Meaning, we should spend our days fearing the LORD and walking in His love.
Walking or being in God’s love is one major admonition of the New Testament that we must understand. The rate people are dying young these days is not God’s will for us. Walking or being in God’s love has a way of preserving our lives and making them longer.
Someone may ask “How do we walk or live in God’s love?” The answer is simple. Just love the LORD with all your heart, with all your might, and with all your strength. And that is done by keeping His word.
To keep His word is to align your life with the ways of the LORD. It is to do what He said in His word, the Bible. The results of that can be very amazing.
Jesus said;
…“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.” John 14:23-24 NKJV
In God’s kingdom we do not express love for God by singing, praying or giving, but by keeping the word of the LORD. You can sing, pray or give without keeping His word, but you cannot keep His word without doing all that whenever the opportunity comes, and even much more.
That brings us to the subject of our journey with the Cry of the Spirit for these 30 days – doctrine. Basically, when Jesus spoke about keeping His word, He was not referring to singing, praying or giving because there were no Church services then.
HE WAS REFERRING TO HIS WORD ON GODLINESS. YOU SEE PART OF IT IN MATTHEW CHAPTERS 5 TO 6.
He was referring to what we call the doctrine of Christ. In other words, the teachings and instructions of Christ. Those are the things to keep if we truly love Him. Meaning, if we keep His doctrine (teachings and instructions), our lives will become the home of the Godhead.
That tells us why the enemy prefer us keeping other doctrines. He knows with other doctrines; our lives cannot be a home for the Godhead. At best it will be a home for unclean spirits like the lives of many have become through the doctrines of demons they are keeping.
I have listened to many who said they were having dreams of unknown faces sleeping with them when they were following the teachings of spirit spouses and doing all they were taught and instructed to do.
Others said it was so bad that when they wake up, it will feel as if they actually had intimacy with an opposite sex.
The things they were taught to do or obey brought relieve, but not rest. But when they started following the doctrine of Christ taught in our ministry, everything ceased without prayer. That means, their lives became a home for God and the devils left them alone!
Others said they were masturbating and living in all forms of sexual sins despite being even workers in Church, when they were following the teachings on deliverance, hyper grace and all that. But when they started keeping the doctrine of Christ, all that changed without prayer over time.
ONE OF THE MAJOR BLESSINGS OF KEEPING THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST IS OUR LIVES BECOMING A HOME FOR GOD.
There are no words to describe the blessings, power, favor, peace, wholeness, revelation, breakthroughs, and other forms of the outbreaks of God that you will experience if your life become a home of the Godhead.
In the words of apostle Paul, I want to say “Eyes has not seen ears have not heard, neither has it entered the hearts of men how your life will turn out when it become a home for the Godhead!”
What the devil fears most is a life that is functioning on earth as a home for GOD the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Another word for “home for God” is “sanctuary of God.” When your life become a home for God, it becomes His sanctuary on earth. That is what the enemy is deploying all wrong doctrines into the Church to stop from happening in the lives of many. Especially those who genuinely love the LORD but lack sound doctrines to use in expressing their love.
The Bible says;
“When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, Judah became His sanctuary, And Israel His dominion.
The sea saw it and fled; Jordan turned back. The mountains skipped like rams, The little hills like lambs.
What ails you, O sea, that you fled? O Jordan, that you turned back? O mountains, that you skipped like rams? O little hills, like lambs?
Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, At the presence of the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a fountain of waters.” Psalm 114:1-8 NKJV
This scripture presents a replica of what our lives will become when they become God’s sanctuary on the face of the earth. I admonish that you meditate on it day and night until it gets interwoven or synchronized with your spirit. It tells us what the presence of the LORD will be doing to whatever comes to take us down or to the obstacles that may be around us.
You can not be in need of deliverance if your life becomes a dwelling place of God like that of the Jews was when they left Egypt.
The Bible made it clear that the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked. If our lives do not become a dwelling place of the Godhead in the Spirit, the enemy will be overrunning them the way tsunamis or tornadoes overrun cities.
THE MANIFESTATION OF PSALM 114 IN OUR LIVES IS WHAT MAKES US STRONG IN THE MIDST OF ANY ATTACK FROM THE ENEMY.
The Bible says,
“So, shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun; when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him.
“The Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,” Says the LORD.” Isaiah 59:19-20 NKJV
It takes the Godhead dwelling in our lives for the Spirit of the LORD (an integral part of the Godhead) to lift up a standard against the enemy when he comes to sweep our lives like violent flood will do to quiet and helpless cities. That is what makes obeying sound doctrines the foundation of divine peace in the life of a believer.
That brings us to our devotional text for the day. It says;
“Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
“But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Matthew 7:24-29 NKJV
This scripture is full of so many truths that we can glean on. First of all, speaking with authority is speaking with a stamp of divine approval from Heaven. The gospel is to be preached by those with Heaven’s stamp of approval.
Secondly, the doctrine of Christ is what this scripture refers to as the sayings of the LORD.
IT IS ONE THING TO HAVE YOUR EARS TUNED TO THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST, AND ANOTHER TO DO WHAT IT TEACHES OR INSTRUCTS.
If we do not do what the doctrine teaches or instructs, we have no foundation for survival in the midst of the winds, flood or rains of the evil one.
There are those who have not been exposed to sound doctrines. They stand the risk of falling preys to these self-appointed prophets and prophetesses who gain their relevance in life and sometime sustenance by sending personal prophecies to people.
We addressed that yesterday.
But there is another risk, the risk of leaving lives at the mercies of the violent spiritual winds, tsunamis and tornadoes of Satan if you do not know or build your life on the foundation of sound doctrine.
If our lives are not built on the foundation of the doctrine of Christ, we can be easily brought down by the rains, winds, the floods and the storms of the evil one. That is what our devotional text is warning us of.
Lives without the foundation of the doctrine of Christ will be overrun by the evil one. That is the message!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL TEXT FOR THE DAY!
“Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth.
And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God: Deuteronomy 28:1-2 NKJV