TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 30TH JANUARY 2024)
“And David went out whithersoever Saul sent him, and behaved himself wisely: and Saul set him over the men of war, and he was accepted in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight of Saul’s servants.” 1 Samuel 18:5 KJV
WELCOME TO THE 30TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
Today is the second to the last day of this great month; the first month of our year of impact. What the LORD has done in our lives this month, should not be taken for granted, even if it is just to keep us alive.
Please do not take the miracle of staying alive for granted. Each day of staying alive is worth more than a million dollars.
The cost of staying alive is so huge that even the richest man or woman on earth cannot pay. That is why despite their wealth, no rich man on earth has been able to pay to prolong their lives.
They will spend so much money on health and security and still die when death comes.
God put the cost of staying alive on Himself because no man can pay for it. His way of keeping us alive is past finding. They are unsearchable. We may not need to study what the ways are, but just to appreciate Him for doing so.
One of the ways God keeps us alive is by His Spirit. The Bible says the Spirit of the LORD has made me, the breath of the Almighty gives me life. One way His breath gives us life is by leading or teaching us how to relate with God.
He said in His word;
…”If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 16:24-25 NKJV
In the Kingdom of God, we are not concerned with securing our earthly lives at all costs because of this scripture. We are concerned with securing our relationship with Jesus Christ at all costs.
Yes, we are concerned with securing our faith and the divine destiny buried in our relationship with Him at all costs. That was why the kingdom citizens who made up the early Church, gave their backs to be beaten, and their heads to be chopped off when they were confronted with the choice to deny Christ and live or hold on to Him and die.
They choose to die!
THEY MADE THE CHOICE TO DIE INSTEAD BECAUSE THEY NEVER WANTED TO LOSE THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS CHRIST.
If our hearts are filled with the revelation they had, and our relationship with the LORD, is the same as their own, there is nothing we will not be able to endure to keep our faith.
The world as we know it today is no longer friendly to anyone with an ideal relationship with the LORD. In times like these, behaving wisely is not an option but a necessity. We will lose our faith and get polluted if we are not concerned with our divine destinies and the need to behave ourselves wisely.
Today we are going to look at the role of conducting ourselves wisely in the release of our divine destinies.
You may not have known this, but I want to submit to you that the most expensive act to a “Heavily Prophetically pregnant Child of God,” one with a glorious future and destiny to fulfill, is a foolish act!
Foolishness is very expensive so long as walking with the LORD is concerned. It is more expensive than anything you can think of.
At the base of every crisis, in the life of anyone with a glorious destiny in Christ, is an act of foolishness. At the base of every persistent spiritual attack in the life of a Child of God, is an act of foolishness. Foolishness has killed more destinies than anything we can think of.
If you read God lamenting through our Bible Fathers saying “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” you should know what He is screaming at. He is screaming at ignorance and foolishness. Everyman’s foolishness is his greatest enemy.
One act of foolishness can destroy an entire destiny, and get God’s plans for a beautiful life defeated. That is why Satan will first make people foolish before attacking them. He will first clothe them with blindness, ignorance, and foolishness before MOVING against them.
If you will ever fulfil your destiny (irrespective of the divine backing you may be enjoying from Heaven) you must learn to behave yourself wisely at all times like David did. A major highlight in Our Devotional Text says,
“And David went out whithersoever Saul sent him, and behaved himself wisely: and Saul set him over the men of war…”
When a man of destiny behaves himself wisely, God will use his wise deeds to create more opportunities for him to unleash his destiny.
GOD WILL MOVE MEN TO LIFT HIM AND CAUSE HIM TO PROSPER.
David was not set over the men of war until he behaved himself wisely in the conduct of the affairs of his destiny. Not behaving ourselves wisely is one reason many of us are backward in life.
We are full of foolish conduct, consequently hampering the release of our divine destiny or the manifestation of God’s plans for our lives.
Like Samson did in his days, many of us in Church today will foolishly get ourselves stuck to the laps of a woman or the hands of a man, who might be taking care of us, without realizing that it’s ruining our lives terribly.
Understand that, most things the enemy makes us do that bring our lives to ruin, are attached to amazing sinful pleasures that our senses tell us are right. The Bible says there is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof is destruction.
There are those who ruin their destinies by what they say.
They will foolishly speak a vulgar word to the face of people God has sent to lift them; even holy men and women of God. Some others will get stuck to Churches, prophets, and prophetesses who are doing nothing but short-changing their divine destinies.
You cannot behave yourself foolishly and expect God to help you unleash a divine destiny. If it is a divine destiny that you want to unleash, you must learn to behave yourself wisely at all times. David behaved himself wisely which was why even when his mentor became his tormentor God sustained him.
At one time he had the chance to kill the man, but he remembered that the man was anointed of the LORD. Though he was disgusted with what the man was doing to him, he respected the fact that it was God that anointed him king over Israel and did not touch him.
That was wise behavior.
You see if your pastor was truly anointed of God but now has derailed, it’s better to walk permanently away from him to the wilderness and spend the rest of your days there than to sit under him fighting, running him down in confidential whispers, and attacking him with the sword of your mouth.
Walking away and allowing God to be judged over whatever may have transpired between the two of you is the best way to handle the situation.
THAT IS ONE WAY WE BEHAVE OURSELVES WISELY UNDER WICKED CHURCH LEADERS.
David said to Saul;
…Why do you listen to the words of men who say, ‘Indeed David seeks your harm’?
Look, this day your eyes have seen that the Lord delivered you today into my hand in the cave, and someone urged me to kill you. But my eye spared you, and I said, ‘I will not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord’s anointed.’
Moreover, my father, see! Yes, see the corner of your robe in my hand! For in that I cut off the corner of your robe, and did not kill you, know and see that there is neither evil nor rebellion in my hand, and I have not sinned against you. Yet you hunt my life to take it.
Let the Lord judge between you and me, and let the Lord avenge me on you. But my hand shall not be against you.
As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Wickedness proceeds from the wicked.’ But my hand shall not be against you.
After whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom do you pursue? A dead dog? A flea? Therefore let the Lord be judge, and judge between you and me, and see and plead my case, and deliver me out of your hand.” 1 Samuel 24:9-15 NKJV
The position David took in this scripture, is the same position to take if you are under a mentor who has become your tormentor. But let me make something clear at this point; Most destiny mentors become destiny tormentors because of what they allow people to transmit into their ears about those God may have placed under them for fathering or mentoring.
Many have had their destinies truncated by leaders who listened to gossip about them without verifying what they heard.
Let me also speak to those of us God has granted the privilege to father others into their destiny; if you are a leader reading this, the best way to behave yourself wisely in helping those the LORD may have placed under you for fathering and mentoring is not to entertain gossips about them.
You can accept constructive reports of whatever wrong they might be doing so you correct them; reports that are needed to help them in life but not destructive gossip.
Wise behavior is a necessity for the release of great destiny. It is also required for raising those the LORD has placed under us for fathering or mentoring so that we might not yield to the flesh and stop God’s plan for their lives.
I believe the LORD has spoken to us this morning. May His word remain a light unto our path, and a lamp unto our feet, in Jesus’ precious name. Amen!!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
Show me your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; On You, I wait all the day.
Remember, O Lord, Your tender mercies and your loving kindnesses, for they are from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; according to your mercy remember me, for your goodness’ sake, O Lord.
Good and upright is the Lord; therefore He teaches sinners in the way. The humble He guides in justice, and the humble He teaches His way. Psalms 25:4-9 NKJV
Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalms 139:23-24 NKJV