TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 16TH JUNE 2024)
“And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.” 1 Timothy 1:12-16 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 167TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
The best kingdom to belong to is the kingdom of God. You can never be disadvantaged in life belonging to the kingdom of God.
Even if you do not have the best that this life can offer, because you belong to the Kingdom of God, you have a hope for a better future lying ahead of you when your days will be fulfilled. That was the future I lived for until my present life began to see changes in circumstances.
One major seed of fear you find in the human race is sin. There was no fear in the hearts of men until sin came into the lives of men.
Sin is one thing that takes away a man’s boldness to even stand before God. I am not saying grand stand before God, I say stand before God. The two are not the same. The fear of the LORD is responsible for one, and hardness of heart is responsible for another.
There is a boldness to GRAND STAND before God like that of the Pharisee, and there is a boldness to STAND (kneel) HUMBLY before God and confess your sins in repentance, like that of the tax collector.
You are either a person who stand before GOD or a person who grandstand before God. There can be no middle ground. If you are one with a grandstanding attitude, you will be suffering from what they call spirit of dryness in deliverance circles.
Spiritual dryness is a life without the abiding presence of God. People who grandstand before God go through that a lot, blaming it on demons.
Most Christians grandstand before GOD. That is why they do not leave His presence with the benefits of standing before Him. Their religious pride will not let them. Very few truly know how to stand before God.
STANDING BEFORE GOD, IS ONE THING THAT MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOUR ENEMIES TO STAND BEFORE YOU.
The will of God is that our enemies fall before us. But that can’t happen if we do not know how to stand before God. If you are one of those who grandstand before God, you will never enjoy the rain of His presence that should be falling on your life, family, ministry and all that concerns you.
So sin takes away the humble boldness to stand before God, and sometimes replaces it with the pride to grandstand before Him, calling yourself His most cherished servant on earth. I have seen this even among preachers of the adulterated grace that make people grandstand before God.
But Our devotional text is about one of those who lived in the days after the cross, apostle Paul; a man with GOD’s authentic grace. He showed us how not to grandstand before God.
Those who do not grandstand before God enjoy the goodness of God more than those who do. He can be sentimental when dealing with them sometimes. The Bible says He pities them like a father pities his children. The Bible also says He knows their frame, they do not need to tell Him anything about it in prayer before He does something about it. He treats them differently.
For instance, if they fall into sin, He does not just rush to punish them. His first approach will be to offer a return-to-righteousness grace and truth. He will not want them to feel unwanted and walk away from Him as a result of their sins.
He will urge them to rather run back to him in search of grace and truth to return to righteousness.
It may interest you to know that the first path to finding the grace and truth to return to righteous ways is the pathway of godly sorrow, where you begin to feel so bad and so sorrowful about the sin you committed.
Then as you seek the LORD for mercy, it begins to manifest, sometimes as rebukes and reproves. Other times as words of encouragement to pick up the pieces and go back to GOD.
I have come to realize that men may treat you as an unwanted soul, but the God who came as man to die on the Cross for us, will not treat any as an unwanted soul. He said in His word, “all souls are mine.” So, He will treat them as morally sick persons who need special help, giving them the Holy Ghost attention that they need but do not deserve. It is called “mercy!”
THAT IS WHY IT IS NOT GOOD TO GRANDSTAND BEFORE GOD LIKE THE PHARISEE.
It is good to always stand before Him looking for His help even if there is no practice of sin in your life.
Understand that just as sick people are not treated by doctors as unwanted souls, so it is with God. No sinner who is in need of help is treated as unwanted by GOD. Only the sinners who say they are righteous and do not need a savior perish both in time and eternity.
One major reason why we should never grandstand before God is because we are either ex sinner or practicing sinners. Yes, some are ex sinners while others are not. So, its foolish to grandstand.
You see, there are three levels which I will call three reason why we are sinners. Ex sinners are sinners not because they are living in sin, but because sin is living in them, but they have been washed by the blood and no longer live in it.
The sinners at the ex level carries the Holy Spirit in them, making them sons of God.
Though sin is living in them, they do not practice evil doing. They are born of God by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, and will finally be redeemed from the presence of sin in them on the day of resurrection. The Bible says this concerning them;
“No one born (begotten) of God [deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin, for God’s nature abides in him [His principle of life, the divine sperm, remains permanently within him]; and he cannot practice sinning because he is born (begotten) of God.” 1 John 3:9 AMPC
Though by redemptive status, they are no longer sinners but call themselves sinners, sometimes because of their hate for the sin nature that lives in them, and because they do not want to grandstand before God.
PAUL WAS ONE OF THEM. OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT CAPTURED WHAT HE SAID ABOUT HIMSELF.
He said;
“And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” 1 Timothy 1:14-15 NKJV
Paul was a sinner type who had sin living in him, like every one of us, but he stopped living in it the day He met the LORD in His resurrected form on the way to Damascus. Sadly, many today have not met Him.
When you truly meet the resurrected Christ, He will inject His Holy Spirit into your heart and bring you to the level of no longer living in the sin that is living in you. You may fall into it but will always return to a life of not living in sin through godly sorrow that leads to repentance.
Sinners at this level are no longer seen by the LORD as sinners. That is why it is wrong to justify a life of sin by saying we are all sinners. That statement usually comes from the mouths of those who grandstand before GOD.
The problem we are having in the Christians faith today, is the problem of people with salvation experiences that are not born out of genuine encounters with the resurrected Christ.
The second reason many are seen as sinners before God, is because many live in the sin that is living in us. This is what even make us sinners before God even if we are preachers.
Salvation with persistent dying to the flesh, and sanctification of the word and prayer, should deliver a man from living in the sin that is living in him. Sadly, many do not even have this kind of salvation, which is the true salvation that the resurrected Christ gives.
When we are sinners at this level, we live in the sin that lives in us with a reckless abandon saying we are humans. This set of sinners are found in places of worship, even among religious leaders, and outside the world of religion.
Sinners at this level are synchronized with the sin nature and see a life of sin as nothing to worry too much about. Few in this category do care about what they do, but do so much charitable deeds, believing it will clear them before GOD on the judgment day. That is delusional.
NO CHARITABLE DEED CAN REPLACE THE NEED TO LEAD A HOLY LIFE.
Some in this category who go to church believe that no matter how sinful they live, it no longer matter since they have recited the sinner’s prayer. While some others in this set do not care about anything, not even the condemnation of hell.
It is sinners at this and the third level that are condemned. Sadly, so many are sinners at this level.
Sinners at this level know how to grandstand before GOD, even saying they have no sin in their lives, thereby not even acknowledging the presence of sin that is different from the practice of sin. To them sin is what you say it is.
This is a dangerous level of sinning because it prepares the heart to become a sinner at the third and most dangerous level. Which is the level of being a sinner because both sin and Satan live in you, and you also live in them.
Living in sin at this level is called communion of iniquity.
At this level you live in sin and Satan consciously, participating in his work of trying to resist and neutralize the kingdom of GOD wherever you find it. Whenever you find people who are under the true will of GOD, you try to neutralize them.
Wherever you find those who are not, you try to support them.
It is sinners at this level that persecute us for saying the Holy Spirit is a replacement for the oil and that we do not use oil as symbol of the Holy Spirit today. Now, not everyone doing this is a sinner at this level, but most are.
Just as we try to neutralize the works of darkness, stirring preachers and their members to strictly follow the present truth instead of the law of Moses, they try to neutralize the work of light by doing the opposite.
Sinners at the third level live in the sin and the devils that lives in them and are very effective weapons of war in the hands of the evil one. They are the ones the kingdom of GOD called, “the host of Satan on the face of the earth” or “the seeds of the evil one.”
UNDERSTAND THAT, GOD’S ETERNAL JUDGMENT IS NOT FOR THE FIRST CATEGORY OF SINNERS.
The eternal judgment of God is for sinners in the second and third category.
No matter what kind of sinner you want to be, please do not be the sinner that falls in the last two categories. Be the Paul kind of Chief sinner, who no longer live a life of sin, but a life of God, serving his generation according to the will of God.
The first set of sinners have made peace with the LORD and have become His righteousness on the face of the earth. They are ex sinners by God’s judgment and have become part of His family.
The last set are His enemies and will be cast into the lake of fire if they do not join the first set by coming to the LORD and embracing a life of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
I believe the LORD has spoken to us. It is now our choice to decide what kind of sinners we want to be.
The first set are actually no longer sinners before God but blood washed and word sanctified saints, who are in the narrow way that leads to life. They do not worship in Churches where Baal and the demon of deliverance reign. They worship where Christ reign.
They understand that they are to live as a living sacrifice unto God, living their days as sweet-smelling savors to His nostrils; so that He can find a people to walk with in the final execution of His redemptive plans.
It is my prayer that we all be part of this breed and remain part of it. Amen.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY!
“Elijah the Tishbite, of the temporary residents of Gilead, said to Ahab, As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before Whom I stand, there shall not be dew or rain these years but according to My word.” 1 Kings 17:1 AMPC