TODAY’S DEVOTION (THURSDAY 30TH JANUARY 2025)
“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,
to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.” Hebrews 12:22-24 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 30TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF VICTORY.
I feel led by the LORD to bring this word again, a word on God’s mercy. It will never be wrong if we make teachings on God’s mercy our daily meditation. If properly taught, they will not promote a life of sin. They will eliminate it.
It is worthy of repeat to say that God mercy, is a major bridge that is usually constructed to take one from the other side of life to God’s side of life. Our repentance is the construction material God uses in doing that. That is why people who will not repent of their sins will never experience the mercy of the LORD.
It is important to note that the bridge of mercy is never out there looking at you. It is usually constructed at the time of a man’s repentance.
If your life lack repentance, it will also lack the bridge of God’s mercy to use in moving from the dark side of life to a glorious side. This is one of the reasons why you find people stagnant in life. They have not given the Holy Spirit the quality of repentance He needs to move them from the struggling side of life to a sweet side.
If you therefore committed any sin, or lived recklessly and came into problems, you need to cross the river to God’s side of life and be saved. However, in crossing, you will need the bridge of mercy, and your genuine repentance will be needed for the construction of the bridge.
I hope you understand me.
There is no life that cannot be restored back to order if it has repentance in it. Sin may have destroyed your life so terribly and make hell out of it, all that can become history in one sweep. It all depends on your repentance.
Repentance remains the spiritual materials God uses in building bridges that takes our lives for the side sin made it to be, the side God’s grace wants it to be. If you call unto God to save you from what sin and Satan brought upon your life, God will call unto you to repent of your sin.
IF WE RESPOND TO GOD’S CALL TO REPENTANCE, WE WILL GIVE HIS HOLY SPIRIT WHAT TO USE IN HELPING US OUT.
Many years ago, when my rebellion and sin took me to the sorry side of life, everything about me went blank for a few years. All the prayers I did could not change anything. I was literally descending into the belly of hell the spirit despite my prayers and fasting. Whatever you do in the wrong direction will never be right.
I discovered painfully that until we have obtained mercy through repentance our prayers will remain unacceptable to God. It is so important that we know all we need to know about God’s mercy. The Bible says;
“Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,” Acts 3:19-20 NKJV
The call to repentance is the strongest call in the kingdom of God, because it is one call that when people heed to, they move from one side of life to another.
If they were sickly, discouraged or dying slowly, they move from that side of life, through the bridge of God’s mercy, constructed with their repentance, to the other side, the side of a living hope, a divine health and a new life. If they were headed to the eternal fire, they move from there to a path that is headed to eternal rest with Christ.
If they were toiling in life, facing all kinds of spiritual assault because of their sins, they move from that kind of life to a life of rest from sorrows, through the bridge of God’s mercy, built by their repentance. You will never remain on the side of life that sin created for you, if you can give the Holy Spirit the quality of repentance that He needs, to build that bridge of God’s mercy that your life needs to get to the other side.
John the Baptist started the call to repentance when He came to prepare the way of the LORD and make His paths straight.
YOU FIND THAT IN THE FOUR GOSPELS.
He made the call to all who were being baptized unto repentance in the Jordan river. The Bible says when he saw the Pharisees and religious leaders of the day coming to his Baptism, he said unto them, “bring forth fruits of repentance.” Friend, that is a very strong message there. It is a message that is worth going over again and again. The message communicates a lot.
Part of what it communicates is this; you do not answer the call to repentance with your lips, you answer with your life. You answer by dedicating your entire life to Jesus Christ, turning away from sin, iniquity and trespass, and embracing His will and ways.
You answer by bringing forth fruits or evidence of repentance.
We do not bring forth character fruits with our lips, we bring them forth with our lives. In other words, our lives must reflect our repentance. People must be able to look at us and say, “truly, these guys have changed. They no longer lie, cheat, fornicate, steal, say dirty things with their lips, or associate with the sinful and corrupt.”
God must be able to look at us and say, “I can see repentance in the lives of my people! They no longer walk in the counsel of the ungodly, stand in the ways of sinners, or sit on the seat of the scornful. They now delight in my words. I can see them meditating in it, day and night.”
If God can find fruits of repentance in our lives, He will build the bridge of His mercies to use in taking us from the side of life that sin and Satan created for us, to a sunny side that His grace creates. The sunny side His grace creates can be seen in Isaiah chapter 60.
Read it and see where you will be headed if your Christianity has genuine repentance in it. Our devotional text presents another side of life that we will live in, if we allow genuine repentance to spring out from us. It says;
“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,
to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.” Hebrews 12:22-24 NKJV
PRACTICALLY, MOUNT ZION IS A PLACE IN ISREAL, BUT PROPHETICALLY, IT IS A REALM THAT HAS THE NEW LIFE WE ENTER AFTER REPENTANCE.
You cannot come into Mount Zion life and still see the traces of what sin did with you in your life. The Bible calls it the city or life of the living God, extended from the heaven, the founding place of the true Church. It is a life that you enjoy the ministry of innumerable company of angels.
Meaning, it is a life where you are served and saved by God’s angels.
That is the very life that all who were part of the Church, especially at its inception, lived. It is a life that they created with their repentance. The Bible says the world was not worthy of them. It was a life that they found and protected with an unconditional commitment to the LORD till they died.
It was a life that they were persecuted for, a life that demons could not penetrate, capture or oppress, curses could not sit on, Satan could not rejoice over, and sin had no dominion over. It was the life of Christ. That was why they were called Christians. God wants you and I in the same life.
He does not want us in anything less than what they had. Anything less will be a counterfeit and deceit.
It is a life where you will not be wandering from mountain to mountain, or from church to church looking for help. It is a life that you will not need to pray with olive oil, sand, salt, water, etc. It is a life of the Kingdom, power and glory of the LORD!!
May your life not lack the quality of repentance that the Holy Spirit needs to bring you to that kind of life. Amen.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!!
He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. Proverbs 28:13 NKJV