TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 3RD OCTOBER 2022)
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.” Genesis 1:1-5 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 276TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
This is the Day the LORD has made, we shall rejoice and be glad in it. Our God is faithful and to Him belong all the glory.
Today is the 3rd day of our 31-Day journey of faith with the Cry of the Spirit or the word of the LORD on the Holy Spirit.
Our vision in this journey is to improve our walk and talk with the Holy Spirit – it is to bring ourselves to the place of maintaining the healthiest relationship with the Holy Spirit; which is not possible without having an intimate knowledge of who He is.
We will be going away from the revelation of the Spirit as comforter, to when He was first revealed in scriptures. God willing, we will come back to that tomorrow.
To start with, understand that the Holy Spirit is a person to relate with the way we relate with fellow human beings. He can be our friend. Many view Him as a terrible one to be afraid of because of their sins. But He us not.
He is a friend that sticks closer than a brother even when we have sinned against God. The essence is to clean us up and restore us back to righteousness.
He is not a wind, but can move like the wind. He is not a fire but can burn like flames. He is not water but can wash us clean with the washing of water by the word. He is not Oil but was symbolized as the anointing oil (not olive oil) before the cross.
Today, He no longer move or live in symbols but realities.
One of the most important part is, He is not a dove but rest upon us gently like a dove, and that must be understood. Because people feel that until they fall to the ground, they have not received the Holy Spirit. But that is not true.
Receiving the Holy Spirit will not always throw you to the ground. He comes into our lives with the gentility of a dove.
Except there are unclean spirits, or unclean things to be removed from us, when the Holy Spirit is coming into a person’s life, He comes gently without even throwing the person to the ground.
YOU SEE THAT WHEN JESUS WAS BAPTIZED AND WHEN THE APOSTLES RECEIVED THE OUTPOURING IN THE UPPER ROOM.
The 120 were seated when they received Him. None fell or scattered the chairs.
For Jesus, the Holy Spirit rested on Him and drove Him to the wilderness to fast without Him being slain in the Spirit. He went and came back with Heavy power without even falling to the ground at any point.
The reason neither Christ in the days of His flesh, or the 120 in the upperoom, did not fall or do what people do today when, maybe, the Spirit touches them, is because there was no unclean thing or spirit in them life to remove. There was no yoke to break, or problem to solve.
For Jesus, the Bible says,
“Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?”
But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him.
When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.
And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:13-17 NKJV
As we can see in this scripture, when the Spirit alighted upon Him, He did not scream and fall to the ground and begin to roll on the floor and all that. He did not scatter the place and began to shout like many do today. He was calm and quiet.
If you discern most places where people scatter things and roll on the floor, you will find carnality on display or another spirit moving. It is in Very few places you will see genuine moves of the Spirit.
Ordinarily, if it is a move of the Spirit, it will result in conviction of sin, judgment and righteousness. People will not be using oil, water, salt, and any kind of deliverance invention to pray. Truth will be preached because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth.
The Church will not run as a money-making machine, political party, social club or metaphysical cult. People will be filled with the awe and fear of God and not lead a careless Christian life. In fact, those who are serious with God will be living a Crucified Christian life as a result.
The messages that will be preached in any place with a genuine move of the Spirit will be Christ centered not need-of-men centered. Also, you will not hear the preacher there asking you to raise altars of sacrifice and all that.
You see, most places where this altar thing is taught and practiced, and you find what look like the Holy Spirit moving, are places where the demon of deliverance pushes people to the ground. And it is important that we understand that.
THAT IS WHY THEY GET UP WITHOUT EXPERIENCING THE SANCTIFICATION THAT GIVES US THE GRACE TO GO AND SIN NO MORE.
They could experience what look like deliverance from an oppression, but will never experience deliverance from a life of sin because it was not the Holy Spirit that got them slain.
These false manifestations of the Spirit must be identified by the elects so that we will not be deceived.
Come to think of it, how can the Holy Spirit, who is called the Spirit of Holiness, be moving in a Church and the people there are not delivered from a life of sin or made uncomfortable with sin?
How can He be moving in a Church and allow the pastor to be honoring adulterers because of fat financial contributions to church? Or to be giving great attention and exaltation to wicked and corrupt leaders, business men, and women, because of their financial power or political power?
It can’t be the Holy Spirit making such moves.
In these days of hyper deception, it is very important to understand that not all Churches where people fall under the anointing are having a move of God. Some are having a move of the demon of deliverance who counterfeits all the Holy Spirit does.
On the flip side, there are also people in Churches where the true Holy Spirit is moving who also fall under what look like an anointing, but are not truly experiencing a move of God, but other moves.
You know it by their character fruits despite falling under what look like the anointing. Their hearts remain wicked despite their falling.
I do not think such people are experiencing a move of God because a move of God will change the nature of a man’s heart. Or maybe, it is a move of God but they are resisting Him from transforming their hearts.
What we are saying is this, a move of the Holy Spirit may not always result in people falling on the ground, but will always result in hearts getting transformed and the Crucified life activated.
Any place, therefore, that you see what look like the Spirit moving and people just falling to the ground or behaving like animals, sometimes with preachers talking to spirits living in them instead of silently casting them out, is a place where souls are made to feast with the demon of deliverance.
SADLY, 9.5 OUT OF EVERY 10 GROUP OF BELIEVERS KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THE DEMON OF DELIVERANCE.
Many know nothing about its works in Church today! We must stop being carried away by any so called display of power.
So, if you are in a Church that moves in the power of the Spirit, like the Cry of the Spirit Ministries, do not think that you have not received the Holy Spirit because you did not fall to the ground or roll all over the place during impartation or deliverance sessions.
It is important to understand that we are only thrown to the ground, or slain in the Spirit if He wants to deliver us from something, or activate a sanctification dimension in our lives.
When He just want to come into our lives, it is always as gentle as a dove, like it happened to Christ. No falling, no screaming, no scattering, sometimes just tears with a lot of self-control. That is called “Dove Dimension.”
It is through His dove dimension that He comes into our lives, living us powerfully activated, and completely sanctified to live the life of Christ on the face of the earth.
Now, let us go further. What else can we share this morning about the Holy Spirit? A lot. But lets wrap this up with a simple revelation.
In the Christian faith we do not have many gods. In fact, we do not have gods. We have One GOD. He is the One and only true God. He manifests in three personalities. The three personalities are called the trinity.
To have a healthy relationship with the Holy Spirit, one of the major things you must understand is the trinity. The trinity is a manifestation of God into three persons for the purpose of our redemption. It is the manifestation of God as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Our devotional text today is a scriptural portion that shows us how the three persons in one God operate on earth. In it, the Father was unveiled as the creator, the Son the Instrument of creation, and the Holy Spirit the power behind creation or the power of the instrument of creation.
His manifestation as the power behind creation, first came as the part of the Godhead that restrains darkness and performs what the part of the Godhead called the Father intends to do.
A MAJOR PORTION OF THE TEXT SAYS;
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. Genesis 1:1-3 NKJV
The Spirit of God, the third person in the Godhead, was hovering over the face of the waters to restrain the darkness that was on the face of the deep. The word darkness is a description of the totality of what the fallen angels became under their leader Lucifer, and what constitutes their nature, influence, works, and etc.
Do not forget, before then the war in Heaven had taken place, and Lucifer and his host have been casted down to the first earth God created in the eternal past, which was a spiritual earth. That earth was perfect. But the rebellion of lucifer, the war that broke out against him, and the totality of what he did when he was casted out of Heaven, turned that earth into what Genesis 1:1 described as “without form and void.”
I admonish you to get our message titled “THE REVELATION OF THE AGE TO COME” for the details.
Our concern here is the revelation or unveiling of the Holy Spirit as part of the Godhead, and one who is equal with God because He is the Spirit of God.
In fact, He is the most critical part of God, because, just as we will be all dead without our human spirits, so God will be no more without His Holy Spirit. That is why He protects His Holy Spirit so much that He makes sure blasphemy against Him do not go unpunished.
That is why you cannot have anything that is of God in your life if you do not have His Holy Spirit in your life.
For instance, we cannot have the power of God in our lives except we are in a healthy relationship with the Spirit of God. We cannot have the prosperity of God in our lives, except we are in a healthy relationship with His Spirit. We cannot have the Holiness of God in our lives except we are in a Healthy relationship with His Spirit.
THERE IS NO ENDURING THING YOU CAN HAVE FROM THE ETERNAL GOD IF YOU DO NOT HAVE HIS HOLY SPIRIT IN YOUR LIFE.
Having a relationship with the Holy Spirit of God is having a relationship with God Himself. It is the only way we can access, receive, and retain God’s blessings in our lives. It is the only way we can walk with God and fulfill His assignment or call upon our lives.
It is the only way we can be involved with GOD in doing anything on earth.
Talking to Him is talking to God. Ignoring Him is ignoring God. Quenching His flames in your life is quenching God’s fire in your life. Walking with Him is walking with God in your life. Listening to His directives is listening to God’s directives for your life. Whatever we do with Him, we are doing with God.
Child of God we can go on and on, but this is a devotional not a book.
In God’s kingdom, you are an orphan if you do not have a relationship with the Holy Spirit because you will lack so many things that should have come to you from the Heavenly father without you even praying and fasting about them. Good jobs, businesses, and marriage inclusive.
It is my prayer that God use the little we have shared this morning to fulfill the vision of this 31-day journey of faith in your life, in Jesus precious name. Amen!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY
“I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
“A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also.
At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” John 14:18-21 NKJV