TODAY’S DEVOTION (THURSDAY 10TH OCTOBER 2024)
“Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”
And another also said, “Lord, I will follow you, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:57-62 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 284TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
Most of the impact of the year came from the LORD to us. He has been faithful, even when we walked in doubts like Thomas and become unfaithful to Him. The Bible made it clear that even when men are faithless, God remains faithful, because He will never deny Himself.
Our lives are the evidence of that.
However, we will get the most of Him, when we are full of faith in Him, and live faithful lives. Whenever the faithful God finds a faithful people to walk with, He will begin to show Himself mighty on earth, His glory will kindle lost souls and get them back to Himself.
Whenever He finds faithful people to walk with, He will pour Himself into their lives and bring them to an amazing height of Kingdom Impact.
Friend, greater things in the Kingdom can only be accessed by the faithful not the faithless. They can only be accessed by those who fully follow the LORD. Fully following the LORD, is a sign of faithfulness, because faithfulness implies being unflinchingly loyal to the LORD.
Sadly, we live in a generation that does not like following the LORD fully. We do not like following the LORD fully, but expect the fullness of His blessings in our lives. But things does not work that way!
God is so just that He will never live the life of the faithful small, even if it is not in this life. Fully following the LORD has such a reward that spans from time to eternity.
You could be weak like Peter was before the cross, but if you remain faithful in following the LORD, He will kindle your life with His glory after a season.
If each and every one of us who call upon the name of the LORD follow Him faithfully, there will be no evil occurrence in our lives. In fact, there will be no scars. If you look at your life carefully, you will realize that every internal pain in it, external scar, regret, worry, losses and cracks would not have happened if you had fully followed the LORD.
Everyone has painful memories; sad things that happened either when we did not know the LORD, or when we knew Him but did not fully follow Him. Such things are not usually easy to be dealt with.
Whenever you remember your painful memories, bend your ears to the Spirit of the LORD to speak to you through them. It will either stir you to warn others, or stir you to live a live that is fully following the LORD.
I READ A STORY OF WHAT EVE WENT THROUGH, EVEN IN THE HANDS OF ANIMALS, FOR NOT FULLY FOLLOWING THE LORD.
History has it that she spent her days in grief and guilt. Humans and other creatures blamed her for the woes of the human race till she died. But God put the blame on Adam. He was the head of the home and King of the earth. If he had fully followed the LORD, he would not have joined her in eating the fruit.
Yes, if Adam had fully followed the LORD GOD, there would have been no pain, no sin, no death, and no evil. It would have just been Heaven on Earth. That tells me, the only way to have Heaven on earth as a Child of God, is to fully follow the LORD!
How beautiful it is to follow the LORD with our whole heart and not compromise anything. It is one of the most difficult but blessed things to do in life as a Child of God. I have come to discover that Compromise does not really hurt God, (though it grieves His loving heart and affects His kingdom moves).
Compromise hurts us, and it does that very badly; and sometimes without redemption.
I have seen people who walk in compromise to hurt their pastors; and other people who desires or chastises them to live right. But in their foolishness, they did not know they are hurting themselves. Your personal compromise will not hurt a man of God who tells you to live right, it will hurt you who refuses to live right.
Sadly, mankind is yet to come to terms to what a godless and ungodly lifestyle does to a human. Even many of us in the faith are yet to come to terms with what one moment of not fully following the LORD does to our Christian lives!
I was told of a man of God who was fully following His LORD. But he was married to a very terrible woman. Whenever he closes from the Church (a Church his wife does not attend), he will drive around town to make sure the woman has slept before he enters the house.
THE REASON FOR THAT WAS THIS, WHENEVER HE MEETS HER AWAKE, SHE WILL GIVE HIM HELL ON EARTH.
Now, there was this day that he had to drive around town as he had always done, but this time in weariness. He kept driving to make sure the woman had slept before going home. That was the day he picked his death. I have shared this story over and over, and love sharing it again and again.
He saw a lady by the road side that seems to be in need of help. He was a kind-hearted man of GOD and due to his kindness, he decided to use the moments of driving around town to show kindness to this lady by taking her to her destination.
Sadly, something else was in store for the innocent man of God. The lady did something terrible when she got to her destination. She took advantage of his vulnerability and seduced him successfully into an illicit affair with her that night. The man was too weary spiritually to resist the flesh.
Friend, there is spiritual weariness that can result in a moment or even moments of compromise. We must be aware of that and never allow it to take us to the cleaners. It is important to note that we are in battle against unseen forces, and not give place to the devil in any way.
I have always said that if you give place to the devil, he will take places.
What made matters worse for this kind-hearted man of God was his secrecy. He kept all he was going in the home front, secret.
Maybe to protect his spouse, like some do even today. Sadly, that became his undoing. Maybe if he had shared his ordeals with the right ears in Church, he would have found a family in his church that would have helped him pass through the season.
So, after sleeping with the woman, he woke up the following day to find no one in the room. He only saw a note by his side reading, “welcome to the world of AIDS.” This incident happened when there were no anti-viral drugs.
This man of GOD knew his days were numbered and started going from church to church to share his testimony in repentance.
In my opinion, he was a true soldier of the cross, who got shot in the line of duty. He did not cover his sins. He confessed because he had forsaken them. That is the way to go if you are shot as a soldier of the cross. Finally, he died.
I believe God allowed the disease to kill him so he could go to his Heavenly home for an eternal rest from the sorrows he has seen in life, having repented genuinely.
SOMETIMES GOD WILL NOT LEAVE A GOOD MAN IN THE HANDS OF A TERRIBLE WOMAN.
Today, there are so many good men and women in the hands of terrible spouses. Friend, it is good to fully follow the LORD. One moment of compromise can cause us a life time of joy and peace in Christ.
As earlier stated, compromise hurts us not the Church or the minister of the gospel that may be urging us to live right.
Compromise hurts us severely, it most times does not even hurt those the enemy may be using to seduce us into it as much as it hurt us.
A Child of God who is not fully following the LORD will loose much more than a sinner any moment he or she compromises divine standards. The reason is simple; the sinner has nothing to lose. He is already lost without the LORD! But we THE REDEEMED have all to lose if we compromise.
You see, not everyone comes out successfully from the consequences of a moment of compromise. So, do not do what others are doing because our destinies are not the same. In the journey of faith, fully following the LORD is a necessity not an option.
Fully following the LORD remains the ultimate walk of faith we are called into. It remains the determinant of eternal rest with Christ. In spiritual warfare, it is the strongest weapon of war. It is stronger than anything else.
God said to Saul through His prophet Samuel,
“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.” 1 Samuel 15:22-23 NKJV
We live in a Church generation that is more interested in prayer, fasting, giving, sacrificing unto the LORD and etc. without fully following the LORD.
OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT TODAY MAKES THAT EVEN CLEARER.
A major highlight in it says
Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”
And another also said, “Lord, I will follow you, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Grace is free but it has standards. Yes, grace has principles we must line up to. It teaches that when we have put our hands to the plough to follow the LORD, we must do it fully. We are ‘condemned’ not to look back because if we do, we will become unfit for the Kingdom of God.
I believe Abraham our father and all who followed GOD previously knew this. That was why the Bible said,
“And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.
But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.” Hebrews 11:15-16 NKJV
I believe with the whole of my Heart that if the true CHRIST dwells in our hearts by faith, we will lead a Christian life style that reflects the very life these men lived in their time because it’s the same LORD that we are all dealing with.
We will be fully following Him and not stop even when sin is thrown at us. We will repent and quickly go back to Him. It was in the light of all this that Paul the apostle of Grace (the foundational and only true apostle of grace) said,
“Therefore, I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” 1 Corinthians 9:26-27 NKJV
We can become disqualified if we do not commit our hearts to fully follow the LORD. Fully following the LORD will involve putting out bodies under subjection; yes, it will involve subjecting the flesh to daily spiritual discipline, so that we will not profess born again and then be cast away in the next life!
It’s a new day for you!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR TODAY!
“For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.
Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony
of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Hebrews 10:26-31 NKJV