TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 30TH October 2023)
“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.”
“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:12-14 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 303RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
It all started 303 days ago, when we all stepped into a new year. Today we are at its twilight. We give God all the glory.
He has kept and watched over us like He promised He would. We have all seen His mercies, kindness, and goodness. We are alive because He is faithful. We believe that our year of impact will not be different. It will rather be more glorious.
Today, God has a word for us. We are on a race. It is a Christian race. We are all running on individual prophetic tracks to meet our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ at the end of our days on earth. This is not a sprint, but a marathon.
In a race, you move from one point to another. No one is found seated and waiting for the crown. All run towards the finishing line for the crown. So, we are expected to be moving from one level of faith to another.
We are not expected to be stagnant in faith. The Bible says, the just shall live by faith. So, when you become stagnant in faith, you will also become stagnant in life. Stop blaming what you call evil altars for your stagnancy in life. You must be growing and moving from faith to faith for you not to be stagnant in life.
Understand that, the driving force of the Kingdom of God we all belong to, is actually to move the church and all who are part of the body, from one realm of faith to another; it is consistent growth and significant development.
We are designed to go from faith to faith, grace to grace, and glory to glory,until death do us part.
In God’s plan of salvation, we are expected to be moving from a lower level of faith, to a higher level of faith; a lower dimension of grace, to a higher dimension of grace; a lower realm of glory, to a higher realm of glory; and continue that way until we pass the baton of faith to the next generation, if Jesus tarries.
God has been using this platform to show us things our Christian lives need to be vibrant and developing, and our earthly lives glorious in Christ. Our devotional text today tells us one of the many kingdom things that is required for that to happen. The core truth there can be captured in one word that can be called “pressing.”
Paul wrote to the Church at Philippi the strong words in the text.
FOR THOSE WHO MAY NOT KNOW, THOSE WORDS HAVE SHAPED THE DESTINY OF MANY FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION.
I discovered in my study,that every revivalist God ever used to rekindle the flames of His Holy Spirit, fed on that scripture to stay on fire for the LORD, all through till death. You can see it imprinted in their lives.
There is therefore, something about that scripture that needs urgent attention in our generation. That is why I believe, the LORD had us to have it as our devotional text today, especially after all that we have been fed and challenged with in recent weeks.
A major highlight in the text says;
“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
One of the major curses of giving ourselves pass marks, and seeing no other thing to press into in Christ, is stagnancy in life and spiritual decay. If we count ourselves to have apprehended, we will not see anything to press into. If we see nothing to press into, demons will find places in our lives to press into and say to oppress us.
That is why you find those who see themselves as born again with nothing to press into on queues waiting for prayers, or running after this preacher or the other, due to the kinds of problems they have. It is when you press from one level of faith to another, that you progress spiritually and otherwise.
There is also another reason why people do not press; and that reason is holding on to the past. You will never progress in your Christian faith holding tenaciously to dark things that you did in the past, or ugly things that happened to you yesterday.
The text made it clear that if we do not forget the things that happened yesterday, and press into what God has predetermined that it happens today, we will never unleash a glorious life on earth or fulfill our divine destiny. A generation that holds on to past things that should be buried, will never come into the beautiful things God might be emphasizing in the present.
SAMSON MADE A MAJOR MISTAKE IN THIS REGARD.
He wanted to get married and it turned out to be a terrible disaster that led to the death of his father in-law and his bride. He did not let it go. He held on to it. That was why he found himself in the house of Delilah. If we do not allow the dark things that happened to us yesterday to go away, we will always take decisions that will destroy our today and tomorrow.
We have blamed Samson’s woes on Delilah, which is also right, but what connected hum to her was a dark even of yesterday that he could not shake off his life. He kept brooding over it again and again until he got entrapped by Delilah.
The same can happen to anyone. If we keep brooding over our past mistakes, we will always fall into some Delilah snares laid up for us on the paths of life, leading to loss of vision and the freedom that we have in Christ.
God expect us to be a moving army that presses away from the bad as soon as it happens.
Now, we are not only to press away from the bad, but the good also. The season of success that the LORD grants us, are to be celebrated and then we move on to bigger seasons of success. We are not to camp there, but to be a moving army. No moving army can be capture by the enemy.
In God’s kingdom, we don’t get ourselves stuck to a season of success (or even failure), we move on! That is the secret of unending strength from the LORD.
What we are saying this morning is this, God want us all to lead very glorious lives in Christ. He wants us to lead lives that are destiny driven. But to unleash a destiny driven or a glorious life, you must constantlypress into glorious things yet to be revealed, or yet to be made manifest to you, or in your life.
If you do not press into them on daily bases, if you do not press into what God want to do next in or with your life, especially after a season of failure or success, you will be stuck to the success or failure season, and begin to see your carnal cravings come alive, and someone or something, to satisfy them for you.
THAT IS THE REASON GENERALS IN GOD’S ARMY FALL.
Take the general David for instance. He lived in a dispensation when polygamy was tolerated by the justice system of God. One day, he found himself on the pent house of his residence, looking at a naked woman called Bathsheba who was taking her bath, innocently.
The Bible says it was a season when kings go to war. Now, what was a king doing on his penthouse when kings go to war? That is how we get stuck to one season of life when we are not pressing. The Bible says,
“It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold.
So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”
Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house. And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.” 2 Samuel 11:1-5 NKJV
There is so much to glean from this scripture!
Everything you just read and what happened as a result is traceable to one season the King did not go to war; one time great King David got stuck to a season of success. If he was in the battle field responding to the next thing God wanted to do with his life, he wouldn’t have seen a woman who was busy taking her bath from his pent house.
We allow our carnal desires to take the better part of us, if we are not in the battle fields of our divine destinies, submitting to the next thing God want to do with our lives,after doing one successful thing with it. You will never unleash a consistent glorious life, if you are not constantly pressing into it.
Constantly pressing into things yet to be done with our lives, will be required for a glorious and fulfilled life to be possible. You will find your life stuck and stinky in the Spirit one day, if you do not embrace this kingdom rule.
Understand that, there are greater dimensions of God’s glory waiting for you to press into in your generation. Yes, there are greater things of God for your life than you might have seen. You will need to spend each day of your life pressing into them to actualize your destiny. That is the word of the LORD today!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
“But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.”
“Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ”
“and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;”
“that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.”
“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
“Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.” Philippians 3:7-15 NKJV