TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 19TH NOVEMBER 2022)
“Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.”
And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” Luke 4:5-8 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 323RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
We give glory to GOD for His marvelous kindness and steadfast love. It has been His mercies all along. We are the beneficiaries. His amazing grace in our lives has been the foundation of the flow of His unending mercies to us. We will remain grateful.
Today is the 19th day of a 30-day journey of faith with the Cry of the Spirit on practical wisdom.
One of the major things we saw in previous devotionals are certain things that will never happen in our lives if we do not walk in practical wisdom. One of such things is the assembling in our lives things that God has settled in heaven concerning us. Or the release into our physical lives the spiritual blessings that exist in heavenly places.
I want us to revisit that line of truth today, so we can uncover things we never uncovered that day.
To start with, I want us to understand that, success, peace, prosperity and bliss in life are products of the release or manifestation of spiritual blessings in heavenly places in our lives. Whenever what God has finished in heavenly places concerning you manifest in your life, it will result in a great leap in life. It could be in the area of marriage, finances, or any other aspect of life. He said to Jeremiah;
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew [and] approved of you [as My chosen instrument], and before you were born, I separated and set you apart, consecrating you; [and] I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiahs 1:5 AMPC
There are great spiritual truths here, but we will look at what we can state down on this platform.
I believe, since Jeremiah was a child of a priest, GOD must have communicated to His father during one of his priestly services about a son that will be born to him who will be a prophet, hence relating it to Jeremiah. In other words, GOD was saying to Jeremiah “your Dad and I agreed so and so before you were even formed in your mother’s womb.”
THAT IS WHY IT IS GOOD TO HAVE PARENTS WHO CAN STAND BEFORE GOD!
But one of the spiritual truths we can glean from here is this, our lives never existed in Heaven or somewhere before we were formed in our mother’s womb. Our lives started when we were formed. However, what existed before we were formed is God’s finished things concerning us – spiritual blessings in heavenly places created for every life that will be formed in a woman’s womb and born on earth.
In other words, things that God has finished in heaven concerning us.
Understand that God’s vision for our lives, His purposes, programs, manifestations, success plans for our earthly lives were all completed before we started in our mother’s womb. Hallelujah!
That is why there can be no failure with us.
For Jeremiah, God’s finished or completed success plan for his life was for him to be a chosen instrument in His hands, a prophet to the nations. For you it could be something else. But until that thing unfold itself in your life on earth, you will never amount to anything in life.
All your effort in life (schooling, reading, studying, behavior, resources, decisions, actions, investments, Christianity, faith in God, and etc.) should be directed towards bringing into the earth that which God has appointed, ordained, set you apart or chosen you to be on earth before you were formed in your mother’s womb.
If you direct your effort to succeed in life to anything outside that, you will have yourself to blame. In most cases, you will just be suffering in life because nothing about you will be beautiful.
Now, let’s go deeper!
Understand that Satan’s desire to be like God has not ceased. There are GOD’s finished plans, and purposes for every life on earth and there are Satan’s finished plans and purposes for everyone on earth. There are spiritual things in heavenly places waiting to be made manifest in your life and there are spiritual things in hell waiting to be made manifest in your life as well.
In other words, there are things God ordained, appointed, separated, and chose us in heavenly places to be (that is before we were formed in our mother’s womb), and there are things Satan also ordained, appointed, or chose us to be before we were formed in our mothers’ womb.
YOU MUST KNOW THAT AND LIVE YOUR EARTHLY LIFE WITH THAT CONSCIOUSNESS.
If you walk in the flesh, lead a sin or man controlled and iniquity shaped life, you will definitely manifest the things that Satan has finished concerning you in hell. There is no middle ground. But if you walk in the Holy Spirit, and the revelation of Jesus Christ, relating with HIM, having encounters with Him, and leading a righteousness, holiness, purity, Truth, and godliness-controlled life, you will definitely manifest the things that GOD has finished concerning you.
That is why giving our live to Christ is one of the greatest things that can ever happen to us.
Genuine Salvation takes us from the kingdom of darkness, where only what the devil has finished concerning people manifest, to the Kingdom of GOD, where only what God has finished concerning men manifest. Stepping into things God has finished concerning you begins the day you give your life to Christ because genuine salvation is one of the things that God has finished concerning you.
Again, there are things Satan has finished concerning you and there are things GOD has finished concerning you. Walking in Bible truth after Salvation will unleashed what GOD has finished concerning you but walking in error will position you to fulfill what Satan has finished. It will position you to succeed in the wrong direction.
For instance, a successful charlatan, robber pastor, false prophet or heretic teacher who has made so much money from his deceptions, heresies or falsehood has not succeeded according to GOD’s plans and programs for his life. Because God has no plan in heaven to make anyone a charlatan, false prophet or heretic teacher or robber pastor. That is Satan’s finished plans concerning preachers.
To be a successful criminal, politician, thief, or murderer in life could be celebrated by men but that is not success in the direction of what GOD has finished concerning us in the heavenly places. The battle in our lives are always around becoming what GOD has finished concerning us instead of what Satan has finished.
IT STARTED RIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN.
God finished that Adam should be His deputy on earth, enforcing in it what He has finished in heaven concerning it. Satan’s plan was to make the same Adam his slave and have all God gave put under his control over to himself. Sadly, it worked.
Our devotional text says;
“Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.”
And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” Luke 4:5-8 NKJV
If you look at what Satan said to Jesus in the second verse, you will see how the fall of Adam made what Satan finished in his own realm to be made manifest on earth. God never finished in Heaven that Satan should take control and be in charge of the authority, glory and kingdoms of the world. His finished plan was for Adam to be. But what God finished manifested only for a while.
You will find out that, in the first two chapters of the Bible, when Adam was walking in the Truth of listening to God, staying away from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and fellowshipping with God, he was manifesting what God had finished concerning him in Heaven, before he was created. But when he left that faith position, and did what the devil influenced him to do, what the devil finished concerning him manifested.
THAT WAS WHEN A LIFE OF DEATH, DISEASES, CURSES, AND CRISIS MANIFESTED IN THE LIFE OF MANKIND.
God never finished that curses, miseries, diseases and all that be in our lives. It was not His original intent. That was why Jesus came to die on the cross and poured His Holy Spirit to bring us back into what God has finished concerning us in the heavenly places.
If you look at so many lives today, you will find what the devil finished concerning individuals manifesting in people’s lives.
Maybe, if you look at your life carefully you will find one too. For instance, if you are poor, in a trouble marriage, or due for marriage but it’s not forth coming, miserable or rich but corrupt, you are just manifesting what the devil finished concerning you. You will need to come out of that and begin to manifest what God finished concerning you.
Coming out of that is not by might or by power but by the Spirit of the living GOD, That is why the outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon your life and the resultant relationship with God you should keep are a necessity. They that know their God, or are intimately connected to Christ will definitely come out of what Satan preplanned for them into what God preplanned for them.
There is so much about these things, but enough for the day have been shared.
As we bring this to a close, understand that life on earth was designed by the LORD to be beautiful only by the manifestation of that which God finished concerning us, or approved, separated, and appointed us to be on earth before we were formed in our mother’s womb.
You will need to stay away from anything that will make you fulfill Satan’s finished plans, programs, visions, or purposes for your life, and stay connected to only what will make you fulfill God’s finished things for your life on earth. The Holy Spirit and God’s Holy Word are there to help.
Yesterday, we spoke about interpersonal relationships and in previous day we did the same. Apart from the Holy Spirit in our lives, interpersonal relations are instruments GOD can use to bring into our lives what He has finished concerning us in Heaven. We may be looking at that when we return tomorrow.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDIATION FOR THE DAY!
“However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 1 Corinthians 2:6-13 NKJV