TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 11TH JULY 2023)**
“Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness, no one will see the Lord.
See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.
See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this
blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.” Hebrews 12:14-17 NIV
WELCOME TO THE 192ND DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
We bless the LORD for keeping us alive and for not dealing with us according to our sins and wickedness. We bless the LORD for dealing with us according to His mercies.
It is my prayer that we all learn how to make use of his mercies to clean up our lives, embrace moral excellence, and live Christ-centered lives on the face of the earth, in Jesus’ precious name.
Today God has a word that will further beautify our lives by adding to the faith muscle we need to fulfill our divine destinies. I believe strongly, your walk and talk with the LORD will need what we are about sharing today to be more glorious.
God said in His word that we are written on the palms of his hands, not because He is a palm reader or He has palm readers in His kingdom. The kingdom of God has no palm readers. It is the kingdom of darkness that has. God wrote us in the palms of His hands to assure us that we cannot be forgotten by Him.
A people who are written in the palm of the LORD will always need things that are written in the Word of GOD, to fulfill their destinies on earth. If they do not lead their lives by what is written, they will be written off.
Our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ, showed us the example during the temptation He faced. He said to the enemy, “Satan, it is written…” He led His earthly life by what is written, thereby showing us how to lead our earthly lives. Earthly lives are designed to be lived by what is written in the word of the LORD!
Today we will be looking at another truth dimension from what is written in the word of the LORD. May the Spirit of God help us find something substantial in Jesus’ precious name. Amen!
To start with, permit me to ask, what is life without the breath of the Almighty? What is economic power or money without sound health to match? What is Christianity without Character? What is born again without the Spirit and Power of God in your life?
THE WORD “WITHOUT” IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT WORDS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
Your life is what it is right now, either good or bad because it is without something or someone. If it is good, it is good because you are without something or someone that would have ruined it. If it is bad, it is bad because you are without something or someone that would have made it a blessed life.
For instance, everyone whose life is without Christ, His Holy Spirit, a good Church to disciple them, the sound doctrine to feed on, and a willingness to obey the LORD and walk with His light through the darkness of this world, will never have a great spiritual life.
It is a great spiritual life that translates into a beautiful natural life. The spiritual is the birthplace of the natural. If the spiritual is great, the natural will be blessed. If the spiritual is not good, the natural will be accursed. To live a blessed and beautiful life, you must have a great spiritual life.
You are designed to prosper as your soul prospers. Anything outside that will be the prosperity of the wicked. Sadly, many pursue things they should not pursue, hence ruining their spiritual lives.
Understanding and properly aligning with the word “without,” will help us all lead great spiritual lives.
The word “Without,” tells us what to or what not to pursue.
It is important to understand that words are keys in the spirit. They unlock revelations from the Holy Spirit and revelations in turn grants us access to God’s treasures, especially when properly understood.
Every kingdom citizen, who studies at the feet of the King understands the power of words. In other words, WORDS are keys. The word without can be a key to so many things in God.
Each time God places a word in your spirit, He wants to begin communication with you. You are not to ignore that word, but sit with it, reason with it, meditate on it and find scriptures that say something about it.
I believe, God bringing the word “without” our way today, is to spark communication with us.
SO, THE FIRST “WITHOUT” I WANT US TO LOOK INTO IS FOUND IN OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT.
It says, ***“Without Holiness, no eye shall see the LORD!” ***(Hebrew 12:14) So if you claim born again, sing in the choir, preach the gospel, open churches, lead people in songs or prayers, speak in what you call a tongue, support the Church, and take care of the poor, but there is no Holiness in your life, you will never see God.
We are to do any of the aforementioned with holiness and purity in our lives, not with active sins or any uncleanliness in our lives. But sadly, many of us have replaced holiness with some of the aforementioned.
Holiness is the key to making Heaven and living a glorious Christian life on Earth. Do you want to see God breaking into your life during these critical seasons? Do you want to see God breaking into the camp of your enemies? Do you really want to see God bring amazing blessings into your life? Walk in Holiness!
In 2016, I heard a preacher on one of the Radio Stations in Nairobi Kenya, saying, when he was walking in Holiness, he was poor. I was awestruck. He said holiness does not bring money.
Like they say “The apostles must have turned in their graves” when the man made that statement.
These are some of the things that make Satan rejoice over some so-called preachers, and give them fame and fortune as a reward.
Friend, the Holiness of God does not bring economic hardship. It only sends the prosperity of the wicked away from your life, to usher in the prosperity of the righteous and you have to be patient while the process last. The Bible says;
“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” Proverbs 14:34 NKJV
The greatest exalter of kingdom citizens is a Holy life! That is why the peace and prosperity of the pure and righteous diminish when they walk away from the mountain of God’s holiness.
The Holiness of God will always exalt an economic life and a sinful life will always bring reproach and diminish it completely. It was when Solomon was on the mountains of God’s holiness that God exalted Him in economic greatness, above all kings that ever lived and will ever live.
IT WAS NOT WHEN HE WAS IN THE VALLEY OF SIN.
His peace and prosperity diminished when he departed from the mountains of God’s holiness. The Bible says;
“But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites — from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, “You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.”
Solomon clung to these in love.” 1 Kings 11:1-3 NKJV
When holiness comes in, the power to get wealth will become active!
Come to think of it, what kind of holiness did that pastor say brings poverty? I wondered what kind of Holiness he was talking about. The Bible says “Godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Timothy 6:6).
God’s holiness will turn you away from the prosperity of hell, and bring you into the prosperity of the righteous; it will bring you steadily into economic might.
I have seen God’s Holiness in my life supply my needs for over 30 years of ministry. If you sent God’s Holiness away from your life before coming into prosperity like that preacher claimed, the prosperity you came into is the prosperity of hell.
The Bible calls it the prosperity of the wicked. And go read what the prosperity of the wicked does to those who have it.
If your economic freedom came when you stopped living a pure and holy life before God, then you are in the same league as Cain, who walked away from God, began to prosper, and bore Children that invented the technology of their age and time.
True Holiness does not bring poverty because holiness is a department or constituency of God’s glory, and wherever the glory of God dwells, economic fatness develops.
That is why, you may be poor under the anointing, but you cannot be poor under the glory. The glory of the LORD creates wealth where poverty exists. If you know how to move with it, you will never be poor. And no one moves with the glory of living a life of sin and impurities. You might move with the anointing that way, but not with the glory.
We must understand that God’s Holiness does not create poverty. Any Holiness that creates poverty, is simply a form of godliness that has no power. It is not really from God.
IF YOU SEE SUCH HOLINESS ANYWHERE, JUST KNOW IT WAS MANUFACTURED BY THE PERSON WALKING IN IT.
Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people. That is a rule in the kingdom of GOD. The Poverty of the righteous is most times caused by sin because God will not bless you in the disorder that sin and impurity bring!
Purity is connected to prosperity. The storehouse of the power to get wealth is accessed through purity; purity of life and purity of heart. Do not allow anyone to confuse you on how your economic prosperity will come. Understand that the prosperity of the righteous is intricately connected to their purity.
If you read through the Bible and study the lives of those who walked with the LORD, you will understand that the prosperity of the righteous is usually made possible by the purity and spiritual progress of the righteous.
Personally, I will not want my financial comfort to continue any day I depart from the holy ways of God, because it will never continue if it is from God. It will only continue if it is not from God. I will want it to end any day I stop living a holy and pure life so that I can return back to God. That was what saved the prodigal son.
His financial comfort never continued for a long time when he spent his days outside his father’s house. That is how the prosperity of the righteous works. It is tied to their purity, holiness, and personal walk and talk with God.
If your financial comfort came from God, it will never remain if you walk away from His holy ways. God’s culture is to prosper us as our soul prospers and keep us prospering as our souls keep prospering. Meaning, God would not bless you, and you walk away from His holy and pure ways, and still retain the blessing. That will not be God.
Everything we do right to earn a living (be it buying and selling or manufacturing, or outsourcing), will only prosper if we become like trees planted by God’s waters of Holiness. It is His waters of Holiness and amazing purity, that will generate His power and prosperity in the spirit realm, resulting in the manifestation of the same in our lives.
The Bible says;
“Blessed (happy, fortunate, prosperous, and enviable) is the man who walks and lives not in the counsel of the ungodly [following their advice, their plans and purposes], nor stands
[submissive and inactive] in the path where sinners walk, nor sits down [to relax and rest] where the scornful [and the mockers] gather.But his delight and desire are in the law of the Lord, and on His law (the precepts, the instructions, the teachings of God) he habitually meditates (ponders and studies) by day and by
night.And he shall be like a tree firmly planted [and tended] by the streams of water, ready to bring forth its fruit in its season; its leaf also shall not fade or wither; and everything he does shall prosper [and come to maturity].” Psalm 1:1-3 AMPC
Child of God, truth is consistent. The word of the LORD remains, without Holiness no eye shall see the LORD; we shall not see the LORD when we die, neither shall we see Him when we need him to help us while alive.
We must yield to His Holy Spirit, obey His holy truths, and allow both to take away our sinful living and bring us to the place of holy and Godly living.
That is the first “without” I want us to consider. When we return tomorrow, we will consider the next one.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY!
“And He said, There was a certain man who had two sons; And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the part of the property that falls [to me]. And he divided the estate between them.
And not many days after that, the younger son gathered up all that he had and journeyed into a distant country, and there he wasted his fortune in reckless and loose [from restraint] living. And when he had spent all he had, a mighty famine came upon that country, and he began to fall behind and be in want.
So, he went and forced (glued) himself upon one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed hogs.
And he would gladly have fed on and filled his belly with the carob pods that the hogs were eating, but [they could not satisfy his hunger and] nobody gave him anything [better].
Then when he came to himself, he said, how many hired servants of my father have enough food, and [even food] to spare, but I am perishing (dying) here of hunger!
I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; [just] make me like one of your hired servants.
So he got up and came to his [own] father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity and tenderness [for him]; and he ran and embraced him and kissed him [fervently].
And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son [I no longer deserve to be recognized as a son of yours]!
But the father said to his bond servants, bring quickly the best robe (the festive robe of honor) and put it on him; and give him a ring for his hand and sandals for his feet. And bring out that [wheat-] fattened calf and kill it; and let us revel and feast and be happy and make merry,
Because this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found! And they began to revel and feast and make merry.” Luke 15:11-24 AMPC