TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 1ST October 2023)
“We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.
We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.” 1 John 5:18-19 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 274TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS
Today is the beginning of a new month. It is the beginning of the tenth month of our year of signs and wonders. I believe God has a blessing for us this month. The Bible says, His plans for us are plans of peace, and not of evil. The vision is to give us a future and a hope!
I believe strongly that this new month has a future and a hope for us. Yes, something that God predetermined for our lives will happen this month; His mercies and goodness will fuel our lives. I choose not to believe anything less. I do not know about you. I choose to allow His will to be done in my life this month. I choose to allow His word to carry me through this month. I choose not to believe any other word aside the word of the LORD.
The report of the LORD is what I will believe all this month, not any other. His mercies are what I will hope for, and His compassion what I will make my passion. He will be my judge, my lawgiver and my king. No voting out. I invite you to join me by adopting these resolutions.
God is not an alternative. He is a necessity. People who had treated Him as an alternative in history, have become history. You do not treat God and Christ whom He has sent as an alternative. You put the Godhead at the center of your life, to go ahead in life. Child of God, what a time to be alive and well. Spend this month, putting the Godhead at the center of your life, and you will see how He will take you ahead.
Use this month to make fresh consecration decisions and find places in Christ that you are yet to find. We cannot afford to lead ordinary lives. We cannot afford to live like mare men. If there is a place in God that if we step in, all demonic activities will remain out; that is where every believer should be. If there is a place in God that if we step in, we begin to see ahead of our generation, that is where every serious-minded believer should be.
If there is a place in God that if the poor step in, lack and all other forms of economic hardship will come to an end, that is where we should live in. If there is a place in Christ, that if we step in, our slavery to sin, Satan and the evil and corrupt systems of this world will come to an end, that is where every human should step in.
SOMEONE MAY ASK, “DOES SUCH A PLACE EXITS?”
The good news is, it does exist in God. It’s just that very few have found it, hence our troubles. That place is the place of rest and peace that Jesus promised us. It is a place of supernatural love, a place of mercy, economic supplies and power from above. The pathways to the place are full of grace and truth. You do not locate it by Google search. You locate it by scriptural search. Jesus said,
“You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. John 5:39-40 NKJV
When you search the scriptures in Spirit and in truth, it brings you to Christ Himself. Christ is the place where when you step in, all the works of the devil will stay out of your life. The only thing that will remain is the price you will be paying to do His will and live for Him. This has not been true in the lives of many Christians because most are just in church and not in Christ. But those who truly step into Christ, experience freedom from every works of the devil.
They come to the realm of seeing ahead of there generation, and moving in God’s power, kingdom grace and glory. Hallelujah! You can become part of this breed. You just need to make friend with your Bible and find a church that will help you maintain a fruitful relationship with it; a Church that will make you one who searches the scriptures. If you find one, and engage in the searching exercise, you will be experiencing changes.
As you keep searching and imbibing, you will find yourself finding more and more of Christ, and what He has offered, and experiencing a shift, from faith to faith, grace to grace, and glory to glory. You will be shocked at how much you have been missing not doing so.
YOU WILL COME TO THE PLACE, OF NOT TALKING ABOUT YOUR ENEMIES, BUT SEEING THEM DEFEATED BEFORE YOU.
The Bible promised us that, if we sit at the right hand of the Father, He will make our enemies our foot stool.
Now, talking about our enemies becoming our foot stool, David eavesdropped into a divine conversation between God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, in one of his deep intimacy sessions. He heard the Father say to the Son;
……”Sit at My right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool.”
The Lord shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of your enemies! Psalms 110:1-2 NKJV
The life of David tells us that there is a generation that can attend the council of the Godhead in Heaven, I mean from the earth, to bring timely revelations and eternal strategies for vanquishing the enemy of our souls, to the human race. They can do that without dying. The activation of that generation is part of God’s way of helping us to manifest His likeness on the face of the earth.
David was a template of that generation. He was a man ahead of His time in some respects. He made the pre incarnate Christ (the LORD) his shepherd. The blessing of doing that was the activation of his human spirit, to be able to eavesdrop into the heavenly conversation captured in Psalm 110. What He heard that day was actually a messianic prophecy, but it reveals two basic prophetic truths to us. It is important that we uncover those words.
The first is hidden in the words “Sit down at my right Hand till I make your enemies your footstool.” This scripture makes it clear to us that there is a place in God where one can step into and sit down (or settle there). And when that happens, He (God) will begin to make the person’s enemies his footstool.
Enemies like death, hell and grave will become the person’s footstool by the power and glory of God. Enemies like sin, self, Satan, the evil and corrupt system of this world and all demons they carry, will become the person’s footstool.
Hallelujah!
WHEN THAT HAPPENS, YOU WILL NO LONGER BE A HYPOCRITE OR LIVE IN SIN.
Our devotional text this morning states two important utterances of the Spirit of truth on this line. The first says, “We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.”
If you look at this scripture carefully, you will see two major fruits of authentic salvation experience – two important fruits that springs out of the life of a born again Christian. The first is “he does not sin,” or live in sin, which represents a life of Holiness. The second is “he keeps himself and the wicked one does not touch him,” which describes a life that is divinely preserved from the evil one and his agents.
This truth simply means, you will not see such a person going for deliverance from anything because there will be nothing to be delivered from. He will be able to keep himself and the wicked one will not touch him. That is the hallmark of coming into Christ; a distinguished result of sitting at the right Hand of the Father.
I think the major problem that is keeping us out of this place in Christ is the pseudo salvation experiences we call born again. Many of us who claim born again are hypocrites; we live perpetually in sin, and do not keep ourselves from filthiness, hence becoming cheap preys of the wicked one.
Understand that, it is not God’s will for us to keep having spiritual attacks, and keep going for deliverance. That could be the preacher’s will, since that is how most make their monies. God’s will is that we live in rest. That rest comes if we live right. So, if you are living in sin, but claiming you are born again, the wicked one will keep touching you.
He will keep touching you because you are not seated at the right hand of GOD. Friend, the greatest betrayer of the Church to the devil, is a life of sin after salvation. Sadly, many who gave their lives to Christ, as we say it, still live in sin after doing so. We all forget that we cannot be living in sin and saying we are of God. The Bible says whoever live in sin is of the devil, he could be a pope, an apostle or whoever.
YOU CAN NOT BE FREE FROM SPIRITUAL ATTACKS IF YOU ARE STILL OF THE DEVIL.
It says He that lives in sin is of the devil, not of God. So, the only way out is to get genuinely saved, and spend your days accompanying your salvation with a pursuit of faith, purity, and righteousness. It is to spend your days leading a life of total obedience to the will and ways of God.
If you get saved and you do not commit yourself to working out your salvation with fear and trembling, as described above, you will be lost, exposing yourself to the dark realm of spiritual attacks. That brings us to the second utterance of the Spirit of truth, in our devotional text. It says, “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”
If you are born of God, Satan can sway things or people, against you. He swayed even governments against our fathers. But he never won. He never won because they spent their days sitting at the right hand of God, and watching Him make those the enemy swayed against them, their footstools. The right hand of God is that place in God that when we step in, and sit (or dwell), our enemies will become our footstool.
In other words, it is a place that makes whatever the enemy throw at us, or sway people to do to us, our footstool. When something is your footstool it does not hurt. It could serve as a place for resting a foot, especially to take a higher leap forward in life. In God’s design, He wants everyone who bears His name to be living his earthly life from that realm; a realm where He makes our enemies our footstool.
The Bible says,
“As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets, who have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us,” Luke 1:70-71. NKJV
If you find that place in God, where your enemies are made your footstool, you will begin to see God save you from your enemies and all who hate you. The importance of being saved form those who hate you, cannot be over emphasized.
HATERS CAN DO SO MUCH HARM, ESPECIALLY IF THEY FIND SOMETHING BAD ABOUT YOU.
They can take advantage of so many things to ruin your life. They took advantage of Judas greed, to penetrate into the company of Christ and got him crucified. Though God foreknew, but it still points to how dangerous haters can be, and why we need to be saved from them. What one hater will do in your life, especially if they have the listening ears of those in authority, is best seen in what Haman had planned for Mordechai and all the Jews.
If God had not placed them beyond his reach, they would have been annihilated from the face of the earth. May the LORD protect you from your haters this month! May He grant you safety from all their evils. May He fulfill His promises of safety from our enemies in Jesus precious name.
I want you to know that God promised us safety from our haters because He alone know their full potentials, hence promising to save us from them. He also knows that our safety from them will not come by our hate for them or fight against them. That will negate His law on love. His word has made it clear that it will come by we seating at the right hand of God and watching Him save us from them.
Locating that place, known as the right hand of GOD, and sitting there is the key to seeing the LORD move fiercely against all who hate us. When we get to that place, we will not just see our enemies and those who hate us getting defeated, we will be empowered with an uncommon grace from on high called, “the rod of our strength.”
Again, may the LORD grant you that uncommon grace this month. May He fulfill His good word for your life. May He save you from all your enemies and from all who hate you, in Jesus precious name. Amen!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY!
“Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering;
bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.
But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” Colossians 3:12-17 NKJV