TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 11TH JUNE 2023)**
“WHEN ABRAM was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, I am the Almighty God; walk and live habitually before Me and be perfect (blameless, wholehearted, complete).”
“And I will make My covenant (solemn pledge) between Me and you and will multiply you exceedingly.” Genesis 17:1-2 AMP
WELCOME TO THE 162ND DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
It is the first day of the week and glory to God that we are starting this in fellowship. He is a master planner, that is why life will be easy if lived within His plans.
He planned that we start each week in His corporate presence. Friend, if you say God does not exist, that alone should teach you that He does. He gives mankind the opportunity to start each week in His presence so that we can order our lives right during the rest of the week.
We have been looking at destiny matters, and today we want to look at how to protect our divine destinies or pregnancies from sabotage. But before we get there, let me share some information that I consider necessary for our edification on these matters.
We have been using certain terms in this devotional that needs clarification. The first is divine destiny. What is divine destiny?
Our divine destiny is simply the eternal things that God has pre-determined that happen to us. It also involves all the things that God ordained, approved, and sanctified or set us apart to be, long before we were formed in our mothers’ wombs. 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.” Jeremiah 1:15 AMPC
This scripture brings us to the second terminology we have been using in these devotionals, the phrase “Prophetic Destiny.” Your prophetic destiny is part of your divine destiny. It is the total of God’s pre-determined processes, visions, routes, programs, etc. for your life.
In the words of the scripture above, we can say, it is the total of what God has ordained you to be before you were formed in your mother’s womb; the totality of the things He approved of you to be in His hands, and all He has separated you to be while in this life.
The last terminology we have been using which needs claudication is the phrase “eternal destiny.” Our eternal destiny has to do with where the LORD pre-planned for us to spend eternity. The Bible is clear that He designed somewhere special in Heaven for us to spend eternity.
THAT PLACE IS OUR ETERNAL DESTINY.
So, we can say your divine destiny is the totality of both your prophetic destiny and your eternal destiny. Now, having understood these terminologies, let us go into what we need to protect our divine destinies from.
The first thing to protect your divine destiny from is the power of sin.
Though sin and its consequence, have been potentially defeated on the cross, it is yet to be defeated in the lives of many of us. Most of us are yet to extend the victory we have over sin, from the cross to our individual lives.
Sin is the first force to protect a divine destiny or prophetic assignment from. That is why people who come to the realization of what they carry, live their Christian lives, differently. They don’t dabble in sin.
The danger of sin to a divine destiny was first revealed in the Old Testament when God stipulated laws to guide the lifestyle of those He wanted to use to cause changes in Israel. He called anyone with such a divine pregnancy either a ‘Levite’ or a ‘Nazirite.’ And all through the scriptures, you find them living consecrated lives.
Men like Samson were told not to cut off their hair.
Before conception, his Mother was told not to take any strong drinks because of the seed God was about putting in her womb. Samson’s downfall occurred when he broke his consecration codes. In other words, he lost his divine pregnancy when he dabbled into sin (Judges 16).
Men like Moses, Jeremiah, Abraham, and all God used in the days of the Bible to birth His redemptive moves for mankind on the face of the earth had their lifestyles carved out by the Spirit and voice of the LORD, to protect what they carried.
Those who submitted totally to God’s will led their lives in such a way that what they carried did not come under any successful attack of Sin or any other threat. That still happens in our dispensation, not in shadows but in substance. Yes, even today, God has not stopped using the stories of such men to help us protect our divine pregnancies.
AT THIS POINT LET’S DRAW OUT SOME TRUTHS FROM THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM THAT CAN BE OF HELP TO US.
When Abraham went into Hagar as Abram and had Ishmael, it troubled Heaven because it was a major attack on his divine pregnancy. You will agree with me that the Children of Abraham and the world at large are yet to recover from that one mistake.
The night he slept with Hagar, the man thought he was satisfying his wife, who had initiated the idea, but he never knew they were helping hell to launch a major generational attack on his divine pregnancy.
How many people have we slept with as Christians, thinking we are satisfying our carnal cravings, but not knowing that we are helping hell to launch an attack on our divine pregnancies? How many things have we done in anger, thinking that we are hurting other people, without realizing that we are merely hurting our divine pregnancies?
Sins like bitterness, un-forgiveness, wrath, lust, pride, revenge, stinginess, hate, drunkenness, and all the like, hurt us more than they hurt anyone we may be involved with. People have even gone into sinful relationships they called marriages, only to alter the course of their lives so badly, that it became very difficult to unleash their divine destiny.
Abram would later go on to cut off communication with God for 13 years, putting everything under threat. And because God does not abandon people easily, Heaven had to return to him demanding a higher level of consecration from him. Our devotional text puts it this way;
“WHEN ABRAM was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, I am the Almighty God; walk and live habitually before Me and be perfect (blameless, wholehearted, complete).”
God would later go on to establish the covenant of circumcision with him; all in a bid to help heal the wounds inflicted on his prophetic destiny, and protect his divine pregnancy from miscarriage.
One beautiful truth to glean from our devotional text lies in one major statement God made that faithful day to Abraham; He said to him ***“walk habitually before Me and be perfect (blameless, wholehearted, complete).” That to me is the true meaning of consecration. ***Don’t forget, it is through personal consecration that we protect our divine pregnancies from sin and all other threats.
Every divine destiny that will be unleashed must be protected through consecration. The truth is, no one can move from the declaration to the manifestation of his divine destiny, without walking habitually before God and leading a blameless life.
If God impregnates you with His divine will, and you begin to live your Christian life anyhow; not minding who you marry, what Church you attend, which preaching you listen to, which advice you follow, or who you call friend, you will never fulfill your destiny.
People who are pregnant with the divine will, do not go everywhere. They do not call everyone a friend. They do not just join any Church or Christian group of their fancy. They walk, pray, worship, and feed with or from fellow pregnant people.
When Mary got pregnant with divine will, she did not run to any other person other than Elizabeth – a woman that was also pregnant with divine will. You need an Elizabeth Church Assembly or Christian fellowship to call home if you are carrying the pregnancy of an assignment from the LORD.
You need an Elizabeth spiritual source to call “father.” You need Elizabeth Christians to call friends.
Anyone who is pregnant with divine will, but has no such people to relate with, will never be able to walk habitually before God and be perfect. He will end up having a miscarriage or stalling the growth of his divine seed. When Mary got to Elizabeth’s house, their fellowship caused the Baby inside Elizabeth to kick or leap.
The divine seeds of many are not leaping or kicking that is why their enemies are the ones keeping them busy. They need a Mary-Elizabeth prophetic relationship.
Friend, your divine destiny will never leap or kick until you come into the right company – a spiritual family that carries the grace to keep it leaping, kicking, and growing until it is born.
What is the message of the LORD today? Protect your pregnancy! Whatever you may be going through is not actually targeting you but what you carry. Walk habitually before God no matter the cost. It pays to be faithful. You will smile at last. That is the message.
YOU CAN MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR TODAY;
“Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. And it happened when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” Luke 1:39-42 NKJV