TODAY’S DEVOTION (THURSDAY 6TH OCTOBER 2022)
“But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.
Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,
where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.
But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Colossians 3:8-15 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 279TH 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.
We have been following the Cry of the Holy Spirit on Who the Holy Spirit, whose Cry we have been following is, and how we can improve our relationship with Him. Today is the 6th day of the 31 days Journey of faith.
These journeys are basically to help us build our Christian lives around set standards or banners of the Kingdom of God. There are banners or standards set by the LORD for those who fear and worshipfully revere Him.
Talking about these standards or banners, the Bible says;
[But now] You have set up a banner for those who fear and worshipfully revere You [to which they may flee from the bow], a standard displayed because of the truth. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
That Your beloved ones may be delivered, save with Your right hand and answer us [or me]. Psalm 60:4-5 AMPC
This scripture presents two reasons for the banners or standards; the first is for Truth to be known or established in our hearts. The second is for the beloved of the LORD to be delivered. That alone tells us why the devil will not want the banners or standards known.
Indeed, the enemy seems to have succeeded in making sure the standards or banners are fallen and buried over time. That is why our Christianity is different from the one our Bible fathers lived.
Our generation needs the restoration of these standards and banners of truth. There is a generation of Christians that exist today that know nothing about the banners or standards.
THE REASON IS BECAUSE THEY CAME INTO THE CHURCH WHEN MAJORITY HAVE BEEN BURIED.
Yes, they came in when the standards or banners have been replaced with practices of occultism in the name of prophetic acts and timeless ordinances. They came in when they have been replaced with standards or banners created by false teachings, prophetic witchcraft and a lot of unethical practices in the Church.
For instance, consecration before marriage was a standard in the days of our fathers. The thought of sleeping with your intending wife or husband before marriage never existed in anyone’s heart. It was an established practice and none ever conceived in their hearts to see the nakedness of their intending spouses before marriage. But today that has been replaced.
Sex before marriage is not longer a sin to so many. The standards are fallen. There are so many other marital standards that are fallen. Which is why we have so many marital problems.
It explains why many cannot get or stay married.
Friend, standards are like pillars that sustains a building. If they fall, the building cannot stand. The collapse of God’s marital standards for man is the reason many marriages can no longer stand.
Sadly, religious people always blame it on some so-called spirit spouses. They site the wrong things to be the reasons for the marital challenges of many, that is why there have been no deliverance.
The Bible clearly states that it is when standards are upheld that God’s people can be delivered. It is when they are upheld that God’s people will be free and free indeed. But so long as we keep burying or replacing them, we will keep having problems, and keep blaming it on devils, ancestral forces and all kinds of invented demons.
If you want to be free, once and for all, from any spiritual problem, you will need a standard from the LORD to upheld, not deliverance prayers. And some of them have been what we have been unfolding through the journeys of faith with the Cry of the Spirit on this platform.
We have moved from one standard to another.
THIS TIME WE ARE LOOKING AT THE STANDARD OF A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.
Not a relationship with what they call symbols of the Holy Spirit.
Friend, We are in the days of substance not symbols. Using symbols in the worship of the One and only True God today, has connected so many believers to a counterfeit version of the Holy Spirit. That is why we have Christianity without Holiness. You cannot be working with the Holy Spirit and not lead a holy life.
But the holy spirit we have today do not rebuke sin or facilitate holy living. He only talks about money, marriage, enemies, and all other mundane things and how to get them from God. That is not the Holy Spirit of God but a counterfeit, and the use of Oil and other deliverance inventions is responsible for the works of this counterfeit holy spirit.
The Holy Spirit of God will never set a man’s heart on earthly things, like we saw yesterday.
He will never make money, marriage, fame or fortune your ultimate pursuit in life. He will not promote earthly pleasure or make one a lover of pleasure rather than a lover of GOD. He will set one’s affection on eternal things, making him or her a lover of God rather than a lover of pleasure.
When one’s heart become set on eternal things, he or she will begin to enjoy the comfort of the Holy Spirit. His or her life will begin to come into divine order and the spiritual power associated with pilgrims will begin to break forth, bringing serenity to the person’s life.
Yes, every valley of Baca (meaning valley of weeping in Hebrew) in the life of the person will begin to turn into a pool of blessing.
Friend, Your life will be full of tears if you live it setting your affections on earthly things. Sometimes, the tears will not happen on this side of eternity. They will happen on the other side.
God’s Holy Spirit primarily comes to set our affection on things above so that tears in time or eternity will not be our portion. That brings us to where to stopped yesterday!
Our devotional yesterday presented two initial steps that the Holy Spirit will take to put our lives in order so that any blessing from the LORD can rest upon us. The first that was presented to us was “the setting of our minds or affections on things above,” the second that was presented was “the putting to death of our members,” namely fornication, uncleanness, passions, evil desire, covetousness and etc.
THE AMPLIFIED VERSION OF THE SAME SCRIPTURE PRESENTED IT MORE BEAUTIFULLY AND MADE IT MORE COMPREHENSIBLY.
It says we should kill, deaden, or deprive of power the evil or sinful desires lurking in our bodies. It calls them animal impulses and all earthly things within us that is employed in sin. It recognized that animalistic nature that the fall of man created in our lives, and urged us to make it our priority to deprive it of Power.
The nature, as the scripture says, is responsible for the impulses that manifest as sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires and all greed and covetousness.
Some manifest as the deifying of self and other created things instead of God. It made it clear that it is on the account of those very impulses or sins that the Holy anger of God is ever coming upon those who are obstinately opposed to God’s will and ways!
Clearly, only the Holy Spirit of GOD can help us deal with these things.
In every generation, it has always been, not by might nor by power but by His dynamic working in the lives of men and women, as they surrender to Him through fasting and prayer, feasting and meditating on sanctifying truths, and making sure that not their will but His be done in their lives.
Do not forget, the Holy Spirit’s goal is to put our lives in order and we have been looking at how He does it. First, He will set our affection on things above and then move to help us killed the animalistic impulses in us that promotes a life of sin as we surrender to Him.
Our devotional text is a continuation of what we must do to have our lives in divine order, as we yield or surrender to the Holy Spirit. It presented things to put off and things to put on.
THE AMPLIFIED VERSION OF THE TEXT SAYS:
“But now put away and rid yourselves [completely] of all these things: anger, rage, bad feeling toward others, curses and slander, and foulmouthed abuse and shameful utterances from your lips!
Do not lie to one another, for you have stripped off the old (unregenerate) self with its evil practices, and have clothed yourselves with the new [spiritual self], which is [ever in the process of being] renewed and remolded into [fuller and more perfect knowledge upon] knowledge after the image (the likeness) of Him Who created it
[In this new creation all distinctions vanish.] There is no room for and there can be neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, [nor difference between nations whether alien] barbarians or Scythian [who are the most savage of all], nor slave or free man; but Christ is all and in all [everything and everywhere, to all men, without distinction of person].
Clothe yourselves therefore, as God’s own chosen ones (His own picked representatives), [who are] purified and holy and well-beloved [by God Himself, by putting on behavior marked by] tenderhearted pity and mercy, kind feeling, a lowly opinion of yourselves, gentle ways, [and] patience [which is tireless and long-suffering, and has the power to endure whatever comes, with good temper].
Be gentle and forbearing with one another and, if one has a difference (a grievance or complaint) against another, readily pardoning each other; even as the Lord has [freely] forgiven you, so must you also [forgive].
And above all these [put on] love and enfold yourselves with the bond of perfectness [which binds everything together completely in ideal harmony].
And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that peaceful state] to which as [members of Christ’s] one body you were also called [to live]. And be thankful (appreciative), [giving praise to God always]. Colossians 3:8-15 AMPC
There is so much to glean in this devotional text. I urge you to take time out to meditate on it. You may get more eternal messages than what a man may teach you from it.
The bottom line remains, lives in divine order is the secret of blessings in God’s kingdom. You will keep living an accursed and struggling life until you allow the LORD to bring your life into order.
And for that to happen you must yield yourself to the Holy Spirit, spirit, soul and body, to set your affection on eternal things and then help you to put off the old life of sin that steams from the animalistic impulses of a fallen nature.
It is my prayer that God will use these words to keep building us up, and giving us an inheritance among they that are sanctified in Christ Jesus! Amen.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY!
“This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success.” Joshua 1:8 AMPC