TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 1ST FEBRUARY 2023)
“Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Mark 16:14-18 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 32ND DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS!
The Spirit of the LORD has made us, and the breath of the Almighty gives us life. Today is the beginning of another month. Glory be to God Almighty for bringing us to it.
It has been His mercies, faithfulness, compassion, forgiveness, grace, truth, power, authority, and holiness all along. They have been keeping us safe and spiritually sound.
Besides all that, His three hundred names have been manifesting in our lives and making sure we move from one day to another.
So far, it has indeed been a year of Signs and wonders.
Talking about signs and wonders, it is important to note that signs and wonders, either from hell or Heaven, are hallmarks of supernatural living. They are manifestations that only happen through supernatural living.
Signs and wonders can be from Heaven, hell or Time.
Yes, there are signs and wonders that are works of God, there are signs and wonders that are works of the devil, and there are signs and wonders that are works of times and seasons. It is important that we understand that.
The signs and wonders that are works of times and seasons are basically symbols that hold prophetic messages for mankind. Those ones are to be deciphered by God’s prophetic people and the messages in them revealed.
Obviously, when the Spirit of the LORD said it’s our year of signs of wonders, He is referring to signs and wonders as works of GOD.
We just finished a journey on visionary living. People who live visionary lives, enjoy signs and wonders from God. They enjoy the outbreaks of His works in their lives. They live lives that are characterized by signs, wonders and miracles from Heaven. The reason is because visionary living is an aspect of supernatural living, and supernatural living is the bedrock of signs and wonders.
When God says it will be a year of signs and wonders for us, He was telling us what to expect and how to live our lives. He was calling us to supernatural living. You cannot live the natural life in a natural way and expect signs and wonders to be your portion.
THE NATURAL LIFE MUST BE LIVED SUPERNATURALLY FOR YOU TO ENJOY SIGNS AND WONDERS FROM GOD.
As stated earlier, one way to live supernaturally in the Kingdom of GOD is to live a visionary life. If you are truly visionary, you will find out that most of your life is lived supernaturally. It is therefore important that we understand what supernatural living is. To this end, we are beginning a 28-day journey of faith with the Cry of the Spirit today, on supernatural living.
Supernatural living is what a genuine salvation will thrust you into.
It is a life you automatically come into through genuine salvation encounter. But in the beginning, it was not so. Man, originally, lived His natural life completely supernaturally. There was no part of His life that was totally natural; every aspect of his natural life was lived supernaturally.
That was how God designed us to live. It was the fall that changed everything. Difficult living replaced supernatural living when man sinned and fell short of the glory of GOD. The Bible says;
Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:
“Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it Shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field.
In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, and to dust you shall return Genesis 3:17-19 NKJV
This was the difficult life that replaced the supernatural life that God designed mankind to live originally. A life of curses, toiling, illness, death and destruction. A life of eating bread with much difficulty and all forms of lack and poverty. A life of barriers, thorns and thistles.
A LIFE OF SWEATING AND LABORING UNTIL DEATH DO MEN PART. BUT IN THE BEGINNING, IT WAS NOT SO.
Difficult living is actually a realm. It is a realm that was created when mankind left the realm of supernatural living where difficult living was impossible. When you see people suffering and living a difficult life, it is because they are living in a realm where such things happen.
To change that kind of life they will not need oil in a bottle, holy water in a vessel, salt for prayers, seed to the preacher, feet washing, holy communion serving, or any of the rituals of Baal they call deliverance. They will not need to do what the greedy preachers called altar of sacrifice and any of that. At best those things we bring them into the supernatural of the devil.
They will only need to be translated from the realm of difficult living to the realm of supernatural living in God. Meaning, if we want to walk away from difficult living we must walk into supernatural living in God. That is why those who do not know God key into the supernatural life of the devil to deal with the difficulties of life.
Towards the end of last year, the LORD sent a prophetic word to us that made us declare “Difficult living, not my portion.” Sadly, some of us stopped at the declaration. We did not add actions to our declarations.
In Christ, if we do not add actions to our declarations, our lives will remain the same despite our declarations. It is not just declarations that change lives. Actions must be added to our declarations for us to experience a change in our lives. The action that must be added to any declaration of faith is called actions of faith. The Bible says;
But someone will say,
“You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” James 2:18,26 NKJV
When the LORD stirred us to say “Difficult living, Not my Portion” He brought us into the realm of the declarations of faith, where every miracle or blessing begins from.
BUT DECLARATIONS OF FAITH WITHOUT CORRESPONDING ACTIONS OF FAITH ARE DEAD.
It is actions of faith that gives declarations of faith the life they need to bring about a change in our lives. No declaration of faith can totally change your life if no action of faith is added to it. Supernatural living is the corresponding action of faith to add to any Declaration of faith, especially the declaration that says “Difficult Living, Not My Portion.”
No matter how bold or loud our declarations may be, if we do not add supernatural living to that, difficult living will remain our portion. The only alternative to supernatural living is difficult living. We will never eliminate difficult living if we do not come into supernatural living. And the first step into supernatural living in God is genuine salvation encounter.
Our Devotional text says;
“Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Mark 16:14-18 NKJV
The part of the text that says,
“these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover”
is the part that reveals the kind of life we step into through genuine salvation encounter – supernatural life in Christ.
GENUINE SALVATION INVOLVES THE PROCESS OF REGENERATION.
It is therefore important to understand what regeneration is, because without it, a salvation experience is fake. And if a salvation experience is fake, supernatural living in God will not be possible.
Those who try to live it will only end up keying into the supernatural living of darkness calling it God, as it has become in church today.
What is regeneration? There is regeneration in Biology and all fields of human endeavor. We are not referring to that kind of regeneration. We are referring to the Bible kind of regeneration. The one that brings us into supernatural living in God.
From Biblical point of view, regeneration is the impartation of the divine life (the life of GOD) into the human spirit, resulting in a radical change in the moral character of a person. The person will move from loving and living a sinful life, to loving and living a life of righteousness. The Bible puts it this way;
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV
In genuine regeneration, the old life of sin, sensual and carnal living will pass away, and the new life of righteousness, and a Holy Spirit enabled spiritual life will come to stay. It is that Holy Spirit enabled life that we call supernatural living.
The Bible describes the process of regeneration this way;
“For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.
But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,” Titus 3:3-5 NKJV
THIS WORD MADE IT CLEAR THAT WE ARE SAVED BY GRACE THROUGH THE PROCESS OF REGENERATION AND RENEWING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
The process takes us from the dark life of sin, disobedience, and service of various lust and pleasures to the life of righteousness. It takes up from natural living in sin, to supernatural living in Christ.
The Holy Spirit is therefore the enabling grace of God that makes the regeneration of a lost soul possible. When that happens, the seed for supernatural living is planted. If we allow it to grow, it will take us back to the supernatural life that Adam lived before the fall.
What are we saying this day? This first day of the second month of the year? The LORD has declared that this year for us will be a year of signs and wonders. But we cannot walk in the blessings until we come into the realm of supernatural living. God has set aside these 28 days to help us hear the Cry of the Spirit on the subject.
The first Cry that is coming today is saying;
“The only alternative to supernatural living is difficult living. Supernatural living is God’s cure for difficult living. We may be making bold declarations of faith about difficult living not being our portion, but if we do not add actions of faith, called supernatural living, to our declarations of faith, difficult living will remain our portion.”
The Cry of the Spirit also made it clear that to come into supernatural living, our salvation must be genuine. And for our salvation to be genuine, there must be regeneration. Trying to live the supernatural life in God without experiencing regeneration is dangerous. When we return tomorrow, we will pick up from here.
It is a 28-day journey of faith with the Cry of the Holy Spirit on supernatural living. We have just fulfilled one day. Supernatural living is the rod to take in our hands to be able to walk in signs and wonders in God’s kingdom.
I believe at the end of this journey, everyone will have the rod in their hands, and we will no longer be running after preachers for miracles, miracles will be running after us.
God has an intention for each of these journeys. It is my prayer that His intention for this one will be fulfilled in our lives in Jesus precious name. Amen
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY!
And you shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs.”
So Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him, “Please let me go and return to my brethren who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive.”
And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” Exodus 4:17-18 NKJV