TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 10TH SEPTEMBER 2023)
“But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace,
to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood,
nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.” Galatians 1:15-17 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 253RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS
I bless the LORD of Heaven and Earth for allowing us to see another day, and begin another week today.
I bless Him for schooling us in His ways, especially His breakthrough ways in our services. His greatest desire for us all, is that we be preserved for His Heavenly Kingdom.
It’s been our season of “Schooling in the things of God.”
I have come to discover that, if you want to sit with Christ, the best place to sit, is not at His side, as good and permissive as that might be, but at His feet. Yes, the Bible said we are highly seated together with Him in the Heavenly places, far about principalities and Powers (Ephesians 2:6).
But where do disciples sit? God designed that we His disciples, sit with Him at His feet.
Sitting positions could change, depending on the season of faith we are in, but the default position is His feet. Those who sit at His feet, will always have their enemies under their feet. In other words, God will put your enemies under your feet, if you become part of the generation that sits at His feet.
Now, the cost can be dear. That is why many do not like the place of His feet. Most go to the place of the head, because that is where the flesh always leads; that is where it will not resist us. Yes, many of us try to sit on his head.
In other words, we try to make Him our good will charm, and most cases our servant. We want him to listen to all we request, but are not willing to pay attention to His own request. That is why we do not consult Him before doing anything in our Christian life.
Some of us are so rebellious and yet desiring that He blessed us.
Rebellion is the easiest way to sit on the Head of Christ.
WHEN YOU CHOOSE YOUR WAY ABOVE HIS, YOU HAVE SAT ON HIS HEAD.
When you continue a life of sin, after claiming to have given your life to Him, you have sat on His head and even Crucified Him afresh. The place God designed by default that we sit with Christ, in our “walk” and “talk” with Him, is not on His head or by His side, but at His feet.
Where can we find that in the Bible? You may ask. We can find that in so many portions of scriptures but let’s limit ourselves to one. Jesus said in His word,
“All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:27-30 NKJV
If you look at this scripture carefully, you will realize that it began with the issue of “knowing the Son (Christ) and Knowing GOD, the Father” (though if you know the Son, you have known God because He is God according to John 1:1-5).
The scripture is actually a scripture about the revelation of the Father, to whoever the son wills to Reveal Him to, and the revelation of the Son, to whoever the Father wills to reveal Him to.
When Jesus was physically on earth, the greatest move of Heaven was to reveal Him to the Jews, supernaturally. That was why Heaven was speaking to them in signs, in wonders, and in miracles. He also spoke to them literally with an audible voice from Heaven, at least thrice. But most of them could not catch the revelation.
One day Peter caught it and said to Him, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16 NKJV) and Jesus responded to him saying, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven….” (Matthew 16:17 NKJV)
Before the cross, it was the Heavenly Father’s responsibility to reveal the Son, Jesus Christ, to the people. But now it is the Son’s responsibility to reveal the Heavenly Father to us! That He is doing by the agency of the Holy Spirit!
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE SPIRIT OF BOTH THE HEAVENLY FATHER AND THE SON (JESUS CHRIST).
Meaning, we will never know the Father, except we meet the Son, and we will never meet the Son, and know the Father, except we meet the Spirit of the Son and the Father (the Holy Ghost), whose primary responsibility is to speak to Us about the Son and bring us to a realm where the Son can speak to us about the Father.
I hope you understand me! That scripture further said,
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
This part came after He had spoken about knowing Him, and knowing the Father! It then means the Primary purpose of coming to Jesus is to, “Have Him and the Father revealed to us through learning or schooling.” He said take “my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
The yoke is light, not just as in weight but as in illumination or revelation. The result of all that will be REST for our souls! Hallelujah!
Salvation is really a call to come and be schooled in the things of God; it is a call to be schooled into restoration, because the place of REST was where Adam lived in the Garden, and God wants us restored back to that place, now in the Spirit, and then literally, after the consummation of all things.
From Matthew 11:27-30 therefore, it’s clear that the place God designed by default that we sit with Christ in the Heavenly places, is THE PLACE OF HIS FEET.
The Bible made it clear that “the feet” prophetically, is the place of submission, obedience and schooling or Learning. If you want to learn from Jesus you must be ready to sit at His feet spiritually. That is the only place the Father can be revealed to you.
Paul explained this to us when he said to his audience at one time,
“I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our fathers’ law, and was zealous toward God as you all are today.” Acts 22:3 NKJV
HE SAT AT THE FEET, NOT ON THE HEAD OF GAMALIEL.
Gamaliel was a notable teacher of the Torah. Paul sat at his feet to be taught the ways of God. But the result was not rest. The result was a life of religious terrorism. He became a killer, who went about killing and persecuting Christians, as a result. But thanks be to God, Christ arrested him.
When Jesus arrested Him personally, he responded by sitting at “the feet of Christ” the rest of his life on earth. He became the author of many books that made up the New Testament, as a result. That was the rest Christ designed for Him. He entered into that REST, and became one of the most effective apostles of Grace in the early church.
That brings us to our devotional text for the day. He would latter write to the Church at Galatia and say,
“But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.”
When the man of God said He went to Arabia, it was a reference to mount Sinai. Paul did not go there for tourism, He went there to check the foot prints of the LORD; the very spot He stood to give the law to Moses thousands of years back. In fact, the LORD in Him led Him there.
He went there to exhume Christianity out of Judaism.
In other words, he went to Arabia to sit at the feet of Jesus to be taught, or schooled in the shadows of what Moses did, and how the substance was fulfilled in Christ. We can say, Paul went there to be taught the things of GOD. You can see that in the quality of revelation he was given by the LORD, to pen down for us.
Things that you will twist and even label in correct, if you are not in the deep.
You see, if you will choose to spend the rest of your days schooling at the feet of Christ, directly, or indirectly through His apostles, prophets and teachers of sound doctrine, there are no words to describe what you can become in the kingdom of GOD. Whatever Paul the apostle became, is a pointer to what you can become.
As earlier stated, he wrote books that God made part of the Bible and they have helped us so much in improving our walk and talk with God.
FRIEND, GOD WILL MAKE YOU A LIGHT TO THE GENTILES IF YOU MAKE THE PLACE OF HIS FEET YOUR RESIDENCE.
It will not just make you a “vessel of light” to those in darkness; it will also change your conversation in the Spirit. That is why you find people who sit at the feet of Jesus not talking about the devil or their enemies. You will always find them with matters of the Kingdom of God on their lips.
But those who don’t (both pastors and their members) talk about Satan – his evil spirits and all that he does – even to the extreme; some do that in their regular Sunday services and all kinds of prayer meetings. While others do that wherever they go. They bask in the extremities of Satan and his fallen angels, and miss God in the process!
God is saying to us, “It’s time to depopulate dark Churches, and withdraw support from dark ministries, and every other religious institution that are schooling people in the things of the devil, because they are defeating the purpose of salvation. A lot of people have become disciples of demonology instead of Christ.
Come to think of it, the devil did not save anybody, why talking about him and his fallen angels?
What is the message of our devotional this morning? The message is simple. There is a call of God on all of us, to come to the place of His feet and sit. There is a call to go sit at the feet of Jesus to learn of Him, so that He and the FATHER can be revealed. Until we start responding to that call, our enemies and all they do, will never be under our feet.
The wisdom of God this day demands that we take our seats at the feet of Christ by joining Churches that will help us do that. The reason is simple. The first thing salvation demands that we do when we come to Christ is to learn of Him. Until you respond positively to that in your “walk” and “talk” with GOD, your life will remain in a negative mode.
Let he that has an ear hear what the Cry of the Spirit is saying!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
“Many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” Isaiah 2:3-4 NKJV