TODAY’S DEVOTION (FRIDAY 29TH MARCH 2024)
Pay attention to this! You’re saying, “Today or tomorrow we will go into some city, stay there a year, conduct business, and make money.”
You don’t know what will happen tomorrow. What is life? You are a mist that is seen for a moment and then disappears.
Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and carry out our plans.” However, you brag because you’re arrogant. All such bragging is evil. James 4:13-16 GWT
WELCOME TO THE 89TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
Glory be to the LORD God for yet another day; a beautiful gift from Jesus, the Day Himself. Most of us do not deserve this gift, but sometimes, you do not get a gift because you deserve it. You get it because of the nature of the giver.
The nature of God is the reason for our being alive, that is why we must be grateful.
Today marks the day Jesus died on the cross, so it is traditionally called, “good Friday.” It is also the first day of our resurrection and life conference, with its first session this morning.
From the History of the Jews, Jesus did not die on a Friday. He died on a Thursday. That was how He was three days and three nights in the grave. He would not have been three days and three nights in the grave if He had died on a Friday. It would have been two days and two nights, making the prophecy false.
Sadly, like the many other errors that have been in Church, we have traditionally maintained that He died on a Friday, making some doubt our faith, and having what we call good Fridays.
If you do not understand how the feast of Passover was celebrated in Israel, you would never understand when Jesus died. You cannot be in the grave for three days and three nights, if you died on a Friday and resurrected on a Sunday.
But let’s look at the message of His death. He died to kill death itself. Yes, the Bible made it clear that He died so that we might not die again.
You see, the human life is one of the most fragile lives on the face of the earth. But in the beginning, it was not so.
We became fragile when we stepped out of the very environment God created the human life to live and be preserved in – the environment of His glory. In that environment, there was no death.
DEATH CAME INTO EXISTENCE AFTER MANKIND DEPARTED FROM THE ENVIRONMENT
We departed when we all in Adam, disobeyed God and ate from the tree of sound judgment, called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
God had said to Adam, that the day he eats of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, his life will become fragile and frail because death will come into existence. Sadly, he ate and that was it.
The Bible says;
“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 2:16-17 NKJV
Death came into existence and the human life became fragile and consumable; yes, consumable by everything destructive. Friends, it was not the fruit that made our lives so, but the voice behind the eating of the fruit.
Adam ate the fruit at the instance of the voice of the devil, that was why death resulted. The tree was planted in the garden to be eaten in the day of judgment, the judgment of the fallen angel. If it was therefore eaten on that day, it would not have resulted in death.
So, the tree being in the garden was not the problem. The problem was the devil being in the garden through the serpent. The act made the human race fragile; we became vulnerable to everything evil.
We became fragile enough to be consumed by diseases and all kinds of evil. It became possible for death to pass through human lives. The Bible says,
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned — “Romans 5:12 NKJV
That one act made the human life so fragile that death could spread through it. There are no statistics of how many people have died since the world began. Some died very young, others died very old.
The most anointed and seemingly infallible people have died. Great men of God like Samuel, Elisha, Paul the apostle, and other Bible men and women who were like gods in the release of the supernatural have all died.
THEIR LIVES IS A PROOF THAT THE ANOINTING IS NOT A CURE FOR DEATH.
No matter how great or powerful you move in the anointing, you will come to an end one day. You will die into the records in the annals of human history.
These powerful men and women who moved in so much power and glory but still died because the anointing is too weak to permanently cure death. The frailty of the human life is visibly painted in how these great men lived and died.
I remember when one of the greatest men of God produced by God in Nigeria died; I did not believe that he could die.
I thought He was too supernatural and close to God to die. But He died. He died because the anointing is not a cure for death. Being used of God is not a cure for death.
Some said the man was not sick. He just returned from the United States with fellow soldiers of the cross, and started handing over building plans to them to continue where he will stop. Then He ate with them and while taking some juice, he breathed his last and passed on to glory.
He was not even 60 years of age.
That is death for you. It has no cure, except the death of Jesus. The death of Jesus is the only solution to death itself. There has been solution to few terminal things but there has been no solution to death, until Jesus died.
But why are people still dying after Christ has died? Someone may ask. The reason is hidden in what I call “the Mystery of death.” This is one of the mysteries we would be looking at in our Resurrection and Life Conference.
The Bible is clear that one day death will die. We all await that day. In fact, our Bible fathers lived each day expecting that day. It was an expectation of men like Paul and the rest of them.
The day death will die is called the day of resurrection.
THAT DAY, DEATH WILL BE CAST INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE, AND DEATH WILL NO LONGER EXIST.
Then all our loved ones who had died and us who might join, them will live again. We will live forever. Sadly, some in the lake of fire, because in their life time, they did not receive Christ into their lives as LORD and savior, or lived His life of purity, holiness, and righteousness.
So, while some will be in the lake of fire, those who accepted the LORD and lived His life of purity, holiness, and righteousness on earth, will be in the New heaven and the new earth where righteousness dwells.
The Scripture that speaks of the death of death says;
“Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:14-15 NKJV
Till the day this scripture will be fulfilled, death will keep taking men and women, old and young, rich and poor out of this world. Yes, it will remain a dread to others, and a horse to some.
It will remain an occurrence no matter how much we pray or fast against it. Prayer does not have a history of making anyone permanently immortal, that is why many praying people are not alive.
Prayer can only delay the coming of death, but does not have the power to cancel it permanently. So, we must all be prepared for that great day.
Yes, everyone must be ready for their own day; and one way to be ready, is to live our lives fulfilling what is expected of us.
“What is it that is expected of me?” Someone might ask! The answer is simple. Until the day death will die, it is expected of us by God to live our days for the LORD!
The Bible says the whole duty of a man is to fear God and depart from evil. Then serve our generation each day according to the will of God.
If you live your days for the LORD, and spend them serving your generation according to His will, you will lead a very secured, prosperous, and happy life. You will fulfill your days, and depart at God’s appointed time for you.
The devil will not be able to take you out. You will have a life that is long enough to do and be all that the LORD designed you to do and to be.
PREMATURE DEATH WILL NOT BE YOUR PORTION.
That brings us to our devotional text. The text says;
Pay attention to this! You’re saying, “Today or tomorrow we will go into some city, stay there a year, conduct business, and make money.”
You don’t know what will happen tomorrow. What is life? You are a mist that is seen for a moment and then disappears.
Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and carry out our plans.” However, you brag because you’re arrogant. All such bragging is evil. James 4:13-16 GWT
This scripture calls for living our days in humility of heart and submission to the will of the LORD our God each day. It calls for walking in the plans and purposes of God for our lives, instead of the arrogance of our own plans and purposes.
It tells us how to live our days!!!
I believe the LORD has spoken to us this morning. It is my prayer that we find a good Church, if we do not have one, where we can plant ourselves and be raised to live our days as we should, in Jesus’ precious name. Amen!!!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all.
For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.” Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 NKJV