TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 2ND May 2023)
“Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?
He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.
In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the LORD. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.
He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.” Psalm 15:1-5 KJV
WELCOME TO THE 122ND DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS & WONDERS!
We thank God for keeping us alive, and giving us another day. It may interest you to know that God does not keep people alive for nothing. God keeps people alive for something; something prophetic, apostolic, or spiritual.
Therefore, each time you sleep and wake up, let that come to your mind.
Something prophetic is that which one was born to fulfil on earth. Something apostolic is the course or order of Christian life one is born into Christ to follow.
Something spiritual is the walk and talk with God that one is expected to maintain, as one seeks to fulfil his or her prophetic purpose. These are the reasons for God keeping us alive!
Friend, we are alive today, because of something prophetic, apostolic and spiritual that God has purposed for our lives, and we are expected to fulfil it before our days will be over.
These daily devotionals are part of God’s helping hands extended to us, so that we can have some level of wisdom to apply to our daily lives, as we seek to fulfil all He has purposed for us, within the days He has appointed for us.
The LORD spoke to us yesterday about patience. He made us to understand that the patience of the saints is a major catalyst of the blessings of the saints.
The patience of the saints is what helps the elects of Christ not to do things that are capable of blowing away their destinies. The LORD urged us, to add a lot of patience to our walk with Him, if we will succeed on this side and the other side of eternity.
We saw that the patience of the saints has great earthly and eternal rewards. Today, we want to look at one major characteristic of the patience of the saints – Righteousness, Purity and Holiness. It is my prayer that we find light and understanding as we look into those words.
To start with, understand that the words righteousness, purity, and holiness, sounds alike because of the one thing they all help us to achieve; a consecrated Christian life. If one is waiting patiently for the LORD to do a thing, one must embrace a life of consecration.
ONE MUST NOT LOOSE HIS OR HER CONSECRATION TO SIN, INIQUITY OR TRESPASS.
I learned from personal experiences that, when we are waiting patiently for the LORD, and at the same time keeping a filthy spirit or tolerating the filthiness of the flesh, our patience will not produce expected blessings. In fact, it would produce ruin.
The filthiness of the flesh and the filthiness of the spirit are some of the greatest ruins of the patience of the saints.
They can attract any demon or unpleasant situation to us, leading to ugly incidents that should not have been part of our lives. That is why you will not find Job sinning against God during his days of patiently waiting upon the LORD to change his story.
The Bible says Job did not sin with his mouth despite being pressured to do so. The reason for all the pressure he went through was just to make Him curse God. Do not forget that was the reason for all the enemy did to him.
Sadly, many of us today, if we are going through things that calls for patience with God or people, we will begin to develop the filthiness of the spirit, by becoming hateful, intolerant, unkind, unforgiving, bitter, vengeful and etc.
Job had the opportunity to develop all that because those he was giving a helping hand, in the days of his prosperity, abandoned him in his days of adversity, and the three of his friends who came to see him, only came to blame him for his woes. Do not forget, his wife had earlier asked him to curse God and die, yet he was not bitter against any of them.
The man of God had every opportunity to develop the filthiness of the spirit, but he did not. You do not allow anything filthy to spring up in your life, while waiting upon the LORD – not the filthiness of the spirit or the filthiness of the flesh; which is sexual immorality, impurities, indecency, jealousy, ill temper, selfishness, envy, drunkenness, carousing and etc.
In fact, Job would just have yielded to alcoholism in his peril, and the world would have justified it because that is what people do when they are in adversity. Those who do not yield to alcoholism or smoking, will yield to sexual immorality and destroy the blessing of their patience.
Child of God there are things we should not do when waiting upon the LORD patiently. If we do them, we would ruin the blessing. Consecration is a life one should embrace when waiting upon the LORD, or walking patiently with Him. That is what will give us the fitness in the spirit that patience produces.
Once there is the filthiness of the spirit and the filthiness of the flesh, while waiting patiently for the LORD, it will attract things to our lives that even prayer cannot help us out of. The things will make patience a senseless or dangerous thing to embrace, because the enemy will use them to turn our patience into a catalyst of adversity for us, leading to the defeat of the program of God.
PATIENCE WITHOUT PURITY WILL NEVER RESULT IN THE INTENDED BLESSING! DO NOT FORGET THAT.
If we are waiting patiently upon the LORD, if we are applying the principle of patience in anything we may be doing in God’s kingdom, we must apply it embracing righteousness, purity and holiness. The patience of the saints will become a threshing floor of the purity of the flesh, and the purity of the spirit if we eschew evil and every form of impurities during the process.
That is why people who walked with God in patience and follow after righteousness at the same time, usually end up as pure as gold in spirit. They end up with a glory in their spiritual lives that leave one wondering how it happened.
You do not add sin, iniquity, or trespass to your life, while waiting upon the LORD. You separate from them by embracing a life of righteousness, purity and holiness while waiting upon the LORD.
Many of us desecrated our garments with terrible sins, while waiting upon the LORD and applying the principle of patience in relationship and kingdom matters. And we are still weeping over the scars today. I remember walking about naked in the spirit during those sad days of my life. I had clothes on me, but I knew I was naked in the spirit, because I saw and felt it spiritually.
A child of God knows when he or she have been stripped naked by sin and rebellion. I knew that my sins had stripped me of the garments of righteousness I once had, and felt very vulnerable spiritually until God came through.
Friend, it is usually not a blessed experience to add impurity to your patience with God or men. Our devotional text says;
“Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?
He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.
In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the LORD. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.
He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.” Psalm 15:1-5 KJV
WHAT CAN WE GLEAN FROM THIS SCRIPTURE? A LOT! BUT WE WILL LIMIT OURSELVES TO THE SUBJECT IN VIEW.
One of the major truths this scripture reveals, is the reason why a life of consecration must be added to a life of patience with God and man. Patience with God or man will only breed blessings in our lives if we abide spiritually in the Tabernacle of the LORD – the place where God lives or dwells in the realm of the Spirit.
The word asked, “who shall abide in the Tabernacle of the LORD? Who shall dwell in His holy hill?” In other words, who shall live where He lives, and stay where His consecrated presence can be found? Then, it began to list down some of the things we will never do if we lead a consecrated Christian life. Another translation puts the same scripture this way;
“Lord, who may go and find refuge and shelter in your tabernacle up on your holy hill?
Anyone who leads a blameless life and is truly sincere. Anyone who refuses to slander others, does not listen to gossip, never harms his neighbor, speaks out against sin,
criticizes those committing it, commends the faithful followers of the Lord, keeps a promise even if it ruins him, does not crush his debtors with high interest rates, and refuses to testify against the innocent despite the bribes offered him—such a man shall stand firm forever.” Psalm 15:1-5. LT
What a word! Please stop at this point and read, again! Do it again and again! It will help you. Then you return and continue reading the devotional. One thing you may see if you do that is great light and understanding on the subject of purity, righteousness and holiness.
This translation puts the scripture in a contemporary and practical sense of the word. It tells us what God really meant, and what He expected from us, when He inspired those gracious words thousands of years ago. I don’t think I need to explain anything further. Like I said, go back to it and read it repeatedly.
THIS IS ONE SCRIPTURE THAT IF WE READ OVER AND OVER AGAIN, IN ITS CONTEMPORARY SENSE, WE WILL NEVER BE LOST IN UNDERSTANDING.
Yes, you will understand that it is when we walk in patience, living our earthly lives in the Tabernacle or consecrated presence of the LORD that our patience will result in significant blessings. If we do the opposite it will ruin us instead. That is why many are always in haste. Patience outside the holy hill of God’s consecrated presence will ruin anyone.
If we want to reap the blessings of patience, we must refuse to slander others, listen to gossip, or do anything that harm anyone. If we want to reap the blessing of patience, we must not condone sin. We must speak out against it; the Bible says we must criticize those committing it, and commend the faithful followers of the Lord. We must be people of integrity, who keep their promises, even if it ruins us.
Hallelujah!
I believe the message of today have been passed. As we bring this to a close, I pray that we use these beautiful truths the LORD has exposed to us today, to open the gates of our lives up to Him, so that He can use our patience to bless us. I pray that we begin to live lives that add righteous living, purity, and holiness to patience with God and men, in Jesus precious name. Amen!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY
“The earth belongs to God! Everything in all the world is his! He is the one who pushed the oceans back to let dry land appear.
Who may climb the mountain of the Lord and enter where he lives? Who may stand before the Lord? Only those with pure hands and hearts, who do not practice dishonesty and lying.
They will receive God’s own goodness as their blessing from him, planted in their lives by God himself, their Savior. These are the ones who are allowed to stand before the Lord and worship the God of Jacob.
Open up, O ancient gates, and let the King of Glory in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, invincible in battle. Yes, open wide the gates and let the King of Glory in.
Who is this King of Glory? The Commander of all of heaven’s armies!” Psalm 24:1-9 LT