TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 13TH FEBRUARY 2024)
“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 44TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
It’s been Heaven’s cry on destiny, miracles and morality among us in the spiritual family of the Cry of the Spirit. I don’t know what next is in Heaven for us after this, but I know the clouds of glory are loaded with more rain of the Holy Spirit and God’s Holy word.
The driving force of the Kingdom, is actually to move the church from one realm of faith, grace and glory, to another. The Bible admonishes that we move from faith to faith, which makes it possible for us to move from grace to grace and glory to glory.
That has become our lot at the Cry of the Spirit Family.
The Christian journey is actually designed to go from faith to faith, grace to grace; glory to glory until death do us part. That is how we fulfill our corporate destiny as sons of GOD; that is the movement that prevents us from drawing back to a life of sin.
In other words, we are saved to move 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 so on until our time on earth is over.
If we are not pressing from a present level of faith, to a higher level, we will depreciate and go back to a life of sin; if we are not pressing from a present level of grace, to a higher level, we will depreciate spiritually and go back to our old ways.
The same is applicable if we are not pressing from a present level of glory, to a higher one. A Christian who gets stuck to a current level of faith, grace or glory, will one day find himself or herself in moral decay. We have to keep pressing to keep growing and becoming perfect as our Heavenly Father is. The Bible says, be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.
God has been using this platform to show us things our divine destinies will need to be fulfilled. Our devotional text today tells us one more thing. The words of the text are very strong words.
I discover in my study that most revivalists that God ever used to rekindle the flames of His Holy Spirit, fed on the scripture to stay on fire for the LORD all through till death.
THERE IS THEREFORE, SOMETHING ABOUT THE SCRIPTURE OF OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT THAT NEEDS URGENT ATTENTION IN OUR GENERATION.
That is why I believe, the LORD had us to have it as our devotional text today. 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.”
There are things that are always ahead in God’s kingdom, things a generation must always press into.
For instance, when Moses was leading Israel and doing all the LORD gave him to do, something was lying ahead of all he was doing, and that thing was Christ. All he did was just a shadow, with Christ as the substance.
Our job now is not to get stuck with what Moses did, but to press into the substance of what he did. Whatever he did in his generation represents yesterday. We are to press away from it, and come into Christ, who is today.
This same principle is also applicable to life circumstances.
Sometimes we go through a lot as individuals. We suffer things that we need to let go so that we can move forward. Yesterday events that need to be forgotten, must be forgotten and buried for us to move forward.
The same principle is applicable to matters of divine destiny.
If we do not forget the things that happened yesterday, (the good, the bad and the ugly) and press into what God has predetermined to happen today, we will never unleash our divine destiny.
A generation that holds on to past glory or gory will never be able to finish its course in God’s eternal plan for mankind!
Samson made a major mistake with his life at its peak. The Bible says his story, as well as that of others, was written for our admonition. He did not just make a mistake, he desecrated his consecration, turning himself into a captive in the hands of a people who once dreaded him.
HE WAS CAUGHT BY DELILAH BECAUSE HE STOPPED MOVING TO THE NEXT LEVEL OF WHAT GOD HAS IN STORE FOR HIM.
God created His warriors to be a moving army because no moving army can be capture by the enemy. Samson stopped moving due to great marital concerns, and it was not long, he was captured. If any earthly concern stops you from moving to the next level of GOD for your life, it will not be long you become a slave.
The Bible says, we should not get our selves entangled with the affairs of this life when God enlist us to be His soldiers. The moment we become entangled, we will be captured. We are to remain a moving army; moving from faith to faith, grace to grace, glory to glory, and victory to victory.
The need to press on daily bases to a next level of where we are in GOD, cannot be over emphasized. It is absolutely important.
God does not want us stuck to a season, He want us to press to the next. If we get stuck, our carnal desires will begin to come alive, creating huge spiritual problems for us. The reason generals in God’s army fall is because of that.
Take David for example, he saw Beersheba, the naked but innocent woman who was taking her bath; in a season when kings go to war. 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
Everything you just read in this scripture, 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.
ALL THAT HAPPENED IS TRACEABLE TO ONE SEASON DAVID CEASED TO BE PART OF GOD’S MOVING ARMY.
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, especially after doing one successful thing with it. Your divine destiny will need a constant pressing into things yet to be done with your life to be fulfilled.
The Church is stuck and stinky in the Spirit today because we do not know or apply this in our walk with God.
There are greater dimensions of God’s glory waiting for us to press into in our generation – there are greater things of God than we have seen. Divine destiny will need a constant pursuit and pressing into them to be fulfilled.
It will require that you press on your knees through intense fasting and prayers. It will require that you press with your mind through hours spent with the word (The Bible and any book, CD, or DVD that will help you understand the Bible).
It will require that you press along with members of your spiritual family, through corporate fellowships with where the word is dissected, and the power of God imparted.
When it comes to matters of divine destiny, no pressing, no progress!! You must spend your days pressing from one level of success to another, or from INACTIVITY to productivity.
Now, talking about inactivity, I have come to realize that, you do not wait for destiny to be fulfilled, you press into your destiny for it to be fulfilled. You find out the details contain in the store house of God’s predetermined plans for your life, and spend your days pursuing it.
Inactivity, is the greatest killer of divine destiny.
If you are just lying down inactive, and expecting your destiny to be fulfilled, it will never be. That is why no lazy man or woman has been able to fulfil their divine destiny.
It is my prayer that these words stir us to do the right thing with our lives, in Jesus’ precious name. Amen!!
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