TODAY’S DEVOTION (THURSDAY 30TH NOVEMBER 2023)
Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.
And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. So, he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way.
And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.”
So, he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully. But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, “He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.”
Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.”
And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:1-10 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 334TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
We thank the LORD for keeping us alive, and for bringing us to the last day of the 11th month of our year of signs and wonders. It is out of His mercies that we got here. We give God the glory for all that!
In our devotional yesterday, we discovered another law of visionary living called the law of visionary education. Today we will be looking at another law. I call it the law of the Sycamore Tree.
Actually, the law of visionary education can fit into the law of sycamore tree as contained in our devotional text. You will get that very soon.
But before we get to the revelation of that law, let’s look at something about visionary living. That thing is the worship of the one and only true God and how it shapes our lives to be visionary for our God.
To start with, understand that there is no worship that can bless and build our lives as the worship of the one and only true God.
There is no worship that is full of divine peace and tranquillity, mercy and compassion, forgiveness and release of power to sin no more, like the worship of the one and only true God.
The Bible spoke about many gods and many lords that humans worship.
Sometimes you think you are worshiping the one and only true God until you enter your moment of truth. So many of us, both in and outside the Christian faith, are not worshiping the one and only true God, though we carry Him very loud on our lips and even get people angry.
The true God is not carried on the lips. The true God is carried in the heart! But how do you know if you are worshiping the one and only true God? You know you are worshiping or serving the one and only true God by what happens to your moral life as you worship or serve Him.
If Christ begin to live in you, and you begin to see your moral nature transformed, especially from a life of sin to a life of holiness, you are indeed worshiping the One and only true God.
DO NOT FORGET, HE IS HOLY, LOVING, MERCIFUL AND KIND.
You become all that if you worship him to the point of taking over His nature. It is the spirit, entity, god, or God you worship and serve, that gets formed in your heart and character, or innermost being. That is the principle.
So, if you are worshiping or serving the Holy One, He will influence you to live a holy and righteous life. He will be formed in your innermost being.
It is what forms in your innermost being that propels you in life. Everything therefore begins from who or what we worship, or who is formed in our innermost being.
Now, worship is connected to intimacies with spirit beings, entities, gods or God. The spiritual being, entity, god or God you worship, you will be intimate with. The spirit, entity, God or god you are intimate with, will be formed in your heart, and seen in your character or lifestyle.
We can openly proclaim to be worshiping the one and only true God, but at the same time be intimate with other gods, spirits, or entities in our secrecies. That is the root cause of hypocrisy in Church.
That is why you find many of us believers living opposite the tenants of the faith we profess.
We call Jesus LORD but the gods we worship are different.
Jesus Himself said “why do you call me Lord, Lord, but do not do what I say.” It is impossible to do what He says when who or what lives in you is another god, spirit or entity.
So, while we profess Him as Lord and Savior, our intimacies are with other entities, spirits or gods. It happens through the movies we watch, the people we talk to, the culture we grew up in, the influences we yield ourselves to, the paradigms that we allow to be formed in us over time and all that.
Consequently, the characteristics of the spirits, entities, or gods we truly worship in our secrecies is what people see in us instead of the characteristics of the Christ we profess.
Even while we proclaim to be worshiping the One and only true God publicly, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, people see the character of other entities in us because we are hypocrites.
WE MAY DECEIVE EVERYONE WITH OUR CHARISMA BUT OUR CHARACTERS AND MORAL BEHAVIOUS TELLS WHO WE REALLY WORSHIP.
Visionary living by God’s definition will be difficult if who you truly worship is not God. It is important to note that it is a man’s character and moral purity or impurity that tells who the man worships, not his charisma.
The man could be what looks like a very dedicated Christian, a pope, a prophet, a reverend father, a pastor, a bishop an arch bishop or whatever in the open, if they worship the god of misrule in secret for example, or the god of sexual pleasure, they will be lawless and sexually perverse; that is, despite their ecclesiastical offices and faith forbidding the vices.
You submit and yield to who or what you worship when under pressure. You will be intimate with who you worship and have their characteristics formed in you. We should not forget that!
The ancient world saw the character of people who were intimate with Christ and said, “these men have been with Jesus.”
That was years after he was dead. They saw who they killed in them and made that remark. The plan of the LORD is that the world sees Him in us so that He can draw them to Himself through the revelation of Him in us. That is why He hates us having other gods before Him.
If we have other gods in our secrecies instead of Him, they will be formed in our hearts, and be manifesting themselves in our decisions, driving us far away from Him.
Today our world is seeing some of us (especially preachers), who proclaim the same faith the early Church proclaimed, and saying, “these men are devils, scammers, rapist, con men and women, parading as God’s men and women, and etc.” They are not making the same remarks the ancient world made when they saw our fathers.
Meaning, we have walked away from the GOD they walked with.
It’s really unfortunate that what we truly serve and worship secretly, that has formed itself in our inner most beings, is not Jesus Christ.
Our consolation is in the Holy Scriptures that promised us a move of God in our age and time to change these things. Thank God it is already blowing into the nations from the throne room of God.
VISIONARY LIVING IS NOT POSSIBLE WITHOUT BEING INTIMATE WITH THE ONE AND ONLY TRUE GOD.
Intimacy with the one and only true God will show you the sycamore tree figure to climb on, like Zacchaeus did in our devotional text, not just to see more of Christ, but to be able to see into God’s plans for your life and live a visionary life.
The tree represents a leader God gave you to help you lead a visionary life. The leader is usually a shoulder that is taller than you.
Kingdom life has proven that if you do not have a shoulder that is taller than you in life; a shoulder that you can stand on (or are standing on) to see into God’s plans for your life, and pursue them accurately, you will be struggling in life.
Life becomes easy when you find that shoulder and take your place on it. Zacchaeus knew this secret hence using the tree to enhance his height and help his desire for a better view of Christ.
If you have a desire for a better view of God’s plans for your life, and the needed height to see accurately and lead a visionary life, you will need to do figuratively what he did practically. You will need to find the shoulder of a God given leader and climb on it.
A major portion of our devotional text says;
“Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.
And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. So, he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way.
And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” Luke 19:1-5 NKJV
The reason Zacchaeus climbed the tree was to enhance his stature. The Bible says he was of a short stature.
In life, everyone is short in stature when it comes to leading a visionary life. We will all need the shoulders of those who have arrived at where we are still waking up to go to, in order to get to the destinations of God’s plans and purposes for our lives.
THAT IS THE SPIRIT OF THE LAW OF THE SYCAMORE TREE.
You could be of a short stature educationally, spiritually, financially, and in the area of wisdom, friendship with God, or exposure to His glory.
You could be of a short stature in the knowledge of God, the revelation of His plans for your life or in understanding.
There are different expressions and ways that we are short in stature when it comes to destiny matters. That is why pride should not be one of your hallmarks if you want to lead a visionary life.
Some of the trees God will bring our ways to enhance our stature will not look appealing.
Some may even be younger than us in age, less educated than us in secular matters, but very tall when it comes to what we will need to climb on, in order to see far in Christ, and fulfil God’s plans and programs for our lives.
Again, that is the spirit of the law of the sycamore tree.
The law states that “you will need the shoulder of a leader who has arrived at where you are trying to go to in life, to climb on, through submission, in order for you to get to where you may be going to in God’s plans for your life.”
In the school of successful visionary living, you will remain a man or woman of short stature, and keep struggling and crawling in life, no matter how tall you may be physically, until you find that shoulder.
When we return tomorrow, we will pick up from here.
Tomorrow will be the first day of the 12th month of this year. It is important that we maintain the flow of this truth as we step in.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY!
“Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule with justice.
A man will be as a hiding place from the wind, and a cover from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
The eyes of those who see will not be dim, and the ears of those who hear will listen.” Isaiah 32:1-3 NKJV