TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 19TH JUNE 2023)**
“Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” Genesis 28:15 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 170TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, for His compassion fails not. He has been our help, our shelter, our provider, our guide, our Rock of defense, our weapon, and our Man of war, all at the same time. He has been our everything.
We give Him the glory for all that.
Yes, we give Him the glory also for healing us of our diseases, and for convicting us of judgment, sin, and righteousness and forgiving us our sins. He has been our judgment seat, our mercy seat, our Judge, our lawgiver, and everything. We give Him the glory for all that.
The LORD has been speaking to us on matters of divine destiny, and it has been so enriching.
Our divine destiny, as we saw yesterday, is about the why of our being alive. It is very possible for one to live his or her life without fulfilling the divine why for being alive. Sadly, so many are living that way. Others have been misled into fulfilling other whys, and taking it to be their divine why.
If we will spend our days, fulfilling why we are here on earth, there are things we must know. Some of those things are the very things we have been sharing on this platform. Today we will be looking at one more. I call it sensitivity to, and value for the presence of God.
If you and I will fulfill the reason for our being alive, and being here on planet Earth, we must value the presence of God, and be sensitive to it. No one who fulfilled their destiny in Bible days, despised the presence of God, none was insensitive to it.
From Adam to John the beloved, the last of the original apostles to have died, none had no value for the presence, and none was insensitive to it. They led lives that valued the presence of the LORD, more than anything else. At one time, some in the early Church had a problem that was a distraction to them – a distraction from building their lives around the presence of God. They responded in these words;
“Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business;
but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” Acts 6:3-4 NKJV
This scripture is a powerful guide, on how to respond to things that come to distract us from spending our lives around the active presence of the LORD; especially as Church leaders.
IT SHOWS US THAT WE SHOULD DELEGATE THEM TO THOSE WITH THE COMPETENCE AND THE (HOLY) SPIRIT TO HANDLE THEM.
Our fathers responded this way to their distraction because they had value for the presence of God, and where very sensitive to it. If you and I will fulfill our destinies, we must do the same, because we are a continuation of their walk and talk with the LORD.
Our fathers knew, they would not amount to anything outside the active presence of God; that though they had a glorious destiny, everything in their lives and ministry could become gory, if they did not value the presence of God, and live sensitive to it enough, to spend their daily lives around it.
We must walk in the same understanding. We must not be building our lives around empty religion and churches. We must be building it around the active presence of the LORD, and attach ourselves only to churches that will help us achieve that.
If you look at the eternal past, you will realize that even Lucifer, the cherub angel who later fell, was all that God created him to be while he was in the realm of the fulness of the presence of God, Heaven.
A lack of value and sensitivity to the presence, must have led to the development of iniquity in his heart, leading to his fall. When he was casted out of heaven, he became all that God never created or intended him to be; he became Satan, the dragon, the old serpent, name it.
We will become all that God never created or intended us to be if we do the same. That is the message!
Whenever we value the presence of God enough to make it our dwelling place, or whenever we become sensitive to it enough to lead lives that retains it in our lives, we will be manifesting all that God created us to be. But whenever we no longer value it, whenever we become insensitive, we will begin to do things that quench it.
ONCE IT IS QUENCHED, WE BECOME ALL THAT GOD NEVER INTENDED US TO BE.
Yesterday we spoke about the blessing of new beginnings, especially after one has blown their lives away. We saw in God’s word that new beginning would not be possible if we do not embrace the circumcision that it brings. But let me add this to that; all fresh starts or new beginnings, are only possible in the active presence of the LORD.
Abraham had his after an encounter with GOD’s active presence. He may have spent some time in prayer before God showed up that day in Genesis 17, and begin to restore back all the spiritual gadgets that were lost during the Ishmael saga.
If you want to experience a new beginning or fresh start, you must build your daily life around the presence of the LORD. The essence of the circumcision that new beginnings bring is to help us become sensitive to the presence of the LORD, and spend our daily lives around it.
It has been made clear in scriptures that, when it comes to matters of divine destiny, our enemies cannot in any way hinder our progress. It is the absence of the active presence of God in our lives that is always the hindrance to our progress.
But some preachers who do not understand, or who have a hidden agenda, would always blame our enemies for our lack of progress.
We even forget that we serve a God who can make a table for us in their presence, and believe them. We do not reason that, once we are in the active presence of the LORD, we can have a table in the presence of our enemies, but when we are not, they would have our lives as tables of oppression and regression.
The difference between who you are now, and who you ought to be in life, lies in how you treat the presence of the LORD. It does not even lie in how your enemy treats you.
Like crops under the supervision of a hard-working farmer would grow successfully if planted in a fertile land, so would we grow successfully under the supervision of the throne of GOD, if planted in the active presence of God.
Adam was all that God created him to be while he was in the manifest presence of God. You and I will only be all that God created us to be if we live our lives around the manifest presence of the LORD.
A people who cannot sense the presence of GOD, and the eternal realities necessary for the fulfilment of a divine destiny that it brings, may never fulfil their divine destiny.
THE WORLD, THE DEVIL, AND THE FLESH, WOULD ALWAYS PUT US IN A STATE OF NOT VALUING THE ACTIVE PRESENCE OF THE LORD, OR WALKING IN SPIRITUAL SENSITIVITY.
Talking about lack of spiritual sensitivity, I want to submit to you that if you are not sensitive in the Spirit, you will not know when God is doing what. You will not be able to network with angels, or the glory of God to unleash your destiny. You will not be able to progress in life. You will be in separate paths with the Holy Spirit.
Lack of divine sensitivity is one reason many do not fulfil their destiny.
I believe enough has been shared for the day. As we bring this to a close, understand that, the fulfilment of divine destiny will require an ever-abiding presence of God on your life, to shape your perspective of things and to empower you to put God’s worker-angels to work, in order to help you against evil forces, and bring you to the place of fulfilment.
It will require being sensitive in the spirit. Our devotional text says;
“Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” Genesis 28:15 NKJV
This scripture made it clear that,“ Divine presence is the greatest asset of divine destiny.” If you do not have it, you will be doomed. But if you have it, you will be lifted irrespective of who may or may not be in your life.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’
Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.”
And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Exodus 33:12-14 NKJV