TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 20TH DECEMBER 2022)
“For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.
I will deliver you from all your uncleanlinesses. I will call for the grain and multiply it, and bring no famine upon you.” Ezekiel 36:24-29 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 354th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
Surely and steadily we are matching towards the end of this year according to the Gregorian Calendar.
For those of us who also follow the Prophetic Calendar of God inscribed on the nation of Israel, we are already in our New Year. We entered the prophetic new year between September and October, during the season set aside in the days of shadows to celebrate the feast of Tabernacle. Now that we are the substance of that feast, we give God the glory for the blessings He pours during that season.
So, prophetically we follow the Calendar inscribed on the nation of Israel, practically we follow the Gregorian Calendar. Both are systems that helps us to number our days so that we can apply our hearts unto wisdom. One is a prophetic system, while the other is a practical system.
They are both useful for following God’s prophetic plans and applying them to the practical side of life from year to year. They have helped us greatly in our Spiritual Family, the Cry of the Spirit Global, as we seek to have our steps ordered by LORD.
Like we shared yesterday, from the first hour of this year, following the order of the Gregorian Calendar, to the 354th day today, it has just been God’s amazing grace, which is a totality of His mercies, power, presence, provisions and all that pertains unto Life and Godliness. When we look into the future, standing on what the LORD has done in our lives this year alone, we are confident.
ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL PASTORS IN THE EARLY CHURCH, APOSTLE PAUL, WROTE THESE BLESSED WORDS TO HIS MEMBERS;
“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now,
being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;” Philippians 1:3-6 NKJV
In these beautiful words, especially in the last verse, we can see the character of God and His will for us His children; the character of completing the good work He began in the life of a person.
We believe that all He did in our lives this year and the years previous was just the beginning of part of the good work He had predetermined to take from start to finish (completion) in our lives. As we step into the new year, we are going to experience the next levels of things predetermined for us.
I am getting ready for blessings predetermined, I believe you are also getting ready! We have chosen to be anxious for nothing. When you are sold out to God, His will and His ways, blessings just happen in your life; things GOD predestined that they happen in the lives of those who are so devoted will just be happening in your life.
May they happen to you in Jesus precious name.
We are on a 31-day journey of faith with the Cry of the Spirit on the Presence of GOD. We have been looking at the Indwelling presence of God and the seven things it does in a bid to remove filthy garments from us and cloth us with rich robes. These teachings are helping us understand how God makes His own Holy.
I have said, holiness is not possible with man. It is only possible with God. The process of how GOD make us holy is what we have been seeing in these devotionals of late. He passes us through them from time to time, depending on our spiritual moral conditions the time He meet us.
For the perishing or outright sinner, He begins with convictions of sin, judgment and righteousness, and then move the person to the threshing floor of repentance, during which He will plant him or her in a Church.
But for those who are being saved, the believer in Christ, especially the one slipping back to perdition like Judas and few others who lost out with Christ in the early Church, He will begin by provoking the person to repentance. We saw the six hallmarks of repentance one or two days back.
THEN PROGRESS TO THE WASHING OF WATER BY WORD, WHICH WE SAW YESTERDAY.
Now, there are four other processes that GOD’s indwelling presence can pass one through in a bid to strip him or her of filthy garments (depending on one’s spiritual moral condition). We can find all of them in our devotional text.
Let’s see how far we can go in uncovering them.
The first of the remaining four (which is the fourth of the seven) is the Creation of a new heart and a new Spirit. From our devotional text, it is clear that this one comes after the washing of water by the word.
A portion of the text says;
“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols (THE WASHING OF WATER BY THE WORD).
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh (THE CREATION OF A NEW HEART AND A NEW SPIRIT).” Ezekiel 36:25-26 NKJV (Emphasis mine).
Whenever we are thoroughly washed of our filths by the washing of the word, it will always result in having a New Heart and a New Spirit within us.
The presence of God that indwells a man will never leave the man in the spiritual heart condition it met him. Moral excellence remains the vision of God for our lives. So, His indwelling presence will seek to fulfill that vision on daily bases when it meets us. That is why the true presence of GOD will never leave you comfortable in your sins, or tell you that no one can be perfect.
I cannot forget the number of times GOD has looked at me and said to me “you can make it! You can be perfect. Keep fighting! You can be blameless, holy and pure, without spot or wrinkle. Just keep yielding to my indwelling presence, doing what it says and you will get there.”
This happens when am resisting the flesh to make sure I do not live in the sin that lives in me, and sometimes becoming too weak in battle and calling for grace. That is why when I hear people saying “we cannot be perfect” I know they are counter prophesying the will of God for our lives.
It gets me angry because I have heard God say to me “you can be perfect by the process that my indwelling presence passes you through. You only need to yield to it.”
FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCES, I KNOW GOD’S PRESENCE WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU THE WAY IT MET YOU.
It will never leave you in the spiritual moral condition it met you, it will convict you, if that is what you need, or bring you to repentance, or plug you to a washing process, and then create in you a new heart and a new spirit. Yes, It will take away the heart and spirit of moral decadence (heart of stone), and give you the heart and spirit of moral excellence (heart of a flesh that has yielded to the LORD completely).
From our devotional text, it is clear that after His indwelling presence has given us a new heart and a new spirit, it will impart into our lives the Spirit of Holiness. The Word says;
“I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” Ezekiel 36:26 NKJV
If you look at this scriptural text, you will realize that it is not just an impartation of the Spirit of holiness we get, but but a heart that is loyal enough to do whatever the LORD says. The Spirit of Holiness will make us detest sin the way GOD detests it, then a loyal heart will help us to live for Him no matter the cost.
I want us to look at certain truths about the Spirit of Holiness. The Bible says Jesus was raised from dead by the Spirit of Holiness. So, the indwelling presence of God imparts this Spirit into us so that every part of our lives that is morally dead can be raised back to a life of moral excellence.
It brings us into alignment with the very holiness God has.
It creates a Oneness with GOD’s holiness in our spirits, making us hate what God hates, love what He loves, cry against the very sins He cries against, and etc.
ONE OLD TESTAMENT BELIEVER WHO WAS INFECTED WITH THE HOLINESS OF GOD WAS AN OFFSPRING OF AARON CALLED PHILISTINE.
It was in a season when Israel was sold out to sexual immorality and idolatry in a place called the Acacia groove. The people where at the threshing floor, weeping and repenting before GOD at the instance of His rebukes when the Holiness of God infected this man of faith, moving him swiftly to enforce righteousness.
The Bible says;
“And indeed, one of the children of Israel came and presented to his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.
Now when Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand; and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So, the plague was stopped among the children of Israel.
And those who died in the plague were twenty-four thousand.
Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:“Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the children of Israel, because he was zealous with My zeal among them, so that I did not consume the children of Israel in My zeal.
Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace; and it shall be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.’ ” Numbers 25:6-13 NKJV
As we can see in this Bible character, it is clear that one will begin to enforce righteousness in his life or the lives of others when the Holiness of God infects him or her.
Though Phinehas did what was permitted in that dispensation (the killing of the man and the woman who were sinning right before the LORD) which is no longer permitted in our dispensation, his faith shows us how a man who have been infected with the Holiness of God will do to himself and those around.
HE WILL ENFORCE RIGHTEOUSNESS IN HIS LIFE AND THE LIFE OF OTHERS.
There are other Bible characters that were infected with the Holiness of God and carried out amazing Holiness advance works for God within the definition of the dispensation they found themselves. Moses breaking the ten commandments, Joshua eliminating Achan and his entire house, Jacob returning to Bethel to seek the LORD, Ezra and Nehemiah stirring Israel to return to the LORD, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the rest of the Prophets carrying fervently against sin, and etc.
It is people who have been imparted with the Holiness of God that will become loyal to the GOD, His holy will and ways. Only they can be used by the LORD to enforce righteousness where sin is holding sway!
Being imparted with the Holiness of GOD is the fifth thing the indwelling presence of God will accomplish in our lives. That is why you see tangible holiness in the lives of those who yields to the indwelling presence of God for a long time and allowed it to fulfill the vision of moral excellence in their lives.
Now, when the Spirit of Holiness runs your life, you will become loyal to God and God alone; which is the sixth thing the indwelling presence of God will accomplish in our lives.
The Bible says the eyes of the LORD are moving to and fro looking for those whose hearts are loyal towards Him, to show Himself mighty on their behalf (2 Chronicles 16:9). Loyal hearts will produce a life that is faithful to GOD. Blessings from GOD will be pursuing them. That is why the last portion of the text says;
“Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.
I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. I will call for the grain and multiply it, and bring no famine upon you.” Ezekiel 36:28-29 NKJV
Among other things, the word grain signifies the blessings GOD commands on hearts that are loyal towards him.
There is so much about this which we cannot uncover now. The Bible is full of men and woman who demonstrated a loyal heart towards God, both in the Old and New Testament. We need to look at some of them. However, enough have been shared for the day. When we return tomorrow, we will pick it up from here.
But understand that God’s indwelling presence will not leave you in the moral condition that it met you the very time it enters your life. It will drive you into faith pathways that will bring you to the place of convictions of the Spirit, deep repentance, the washing of water by the word, creation of a new heart and a new spirit, and impartation of the Spirit of holiness.
If the indwelling presence of God you carry is not doing these things, it is fake. Let it be clear to us that every dimension of God’s presence is holy. It will never leave us in any unholy conduct when it enters our lives.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“I will also save you from all your uncleannesses, and I will call forth the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine on you. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field, that you may no more suffer the reproach and disgrace of famine among the nations.
Then you shall [earnestly] remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominable deeds.
Not for your sake do I do this, says the Lord God; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your [own] wicked ways, O house of Israel!
Thus says the Lord God: In the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities I will [also] cause [Israel’s] cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be rebuilt.” Ezekiel 36:29-33 AMPC