TODAY’S DEVOTION (Tuesday 11th March 2025)
“If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?”
“No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.”
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:12-15 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 70TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF VICTORY
I am glad the LORD has enabled us to see the 70th day of the year. 70 is the number of nations; it is an apostolic number. I am gladder because it pleases Him that we commence the last session of the 2024 class of the Reformers Bible college today: the 70th day of the year.
I wanted to start this class on the 1st of March. I was wondering why the desire disappeared. Now I know why it did. I believe the LORD shut that desire down to use the number 70 to speak to us. He shut it down because He wanted us to start it on the 70th day of the year, a year of victory so that we can pick the voice of His will in the number 70.
I believe a global mandate is resting on some of the students of the 2024 class of the Reformers’ Bible college. I feel for those who dropped by the wayside. I believe it was God’s will for them to be trained, but they could not overcome whatever made the, to be expelled from the school.
Friends, the will of God is not something you can do cheaply. But irrespective of how difficult, impossible or costly what you know to be God’s will to be, it is the safest thing to do in every season of Life. Jesus so limited Himself to doing God’s will that the Devil could not find a place in His life to sabotage.
Even when he thought he had eliminated Him after taking Him to the cross and getting him buried, he and his host of demons were shocked to see Him resurrecting on the third day. The Spirit of God made it clear that if Satan had known what the death of Jesus will do to him, he would have become Jesus greatest bodyguard on the face of the earth.
Paul, in his first letter to the Church at Corinth, put it this way;
“But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” 1 Corinthians 2:7-8 NKJV
Hidden in this scripture is a revelation of the power of the holy spirit that manifested in the early church as the apostolic power.
ANY THING THAT MAKES LIKE SWEET AND EXCITED IS POWERED BY GOD’S APOSTOLIC POWER.
Demonic oppression and all manner of evil that might be at work in the life of a Christian, are for most people symptoms of lack of God’s apostolic power. In other word, if there is no apostolic power in the life of a Christian, everything about him or her will go dark – marriage, finance, faith, etc.
When apostolic power is restored in the life of a Christian, everything dead will come alive, starting from his or her spiritual life.
The restoration of our spiritual lives is important because irrespective of what might be wrong with us, if God want to fix things back, it is our spiritual life that He will start from. The reason for that is simple. Every aspect of a man’s life depends on the spiritual aspect. That is why if you are in a Church where the health of your spiritual life is not given priority, there will be no genuine or permanent restoration of any broken part of your life.
On the other hand, if the Church is prioritizing your spiritual life while you are not prioritizing your spiritual life, things will always remain the same with you.
You see, there are seven aspects of life. The spiritual aspect of life is the foundation of all other aspects. It is the death of a man’s spiritual life that usually results in successful demonic attacks in other aspects of his life. So, to fix a man’s life, God will begin by restoring him from the spiritual aspect of his life.
I have never seen people in problems who met God for solution getting a permanent help until they become interested in submitting to Him to work on their spiritual lives.
Those who know how to take their eyes off whatever they may be going through to the cross; people who have the discipline to take their focus off their problems and fix it on strengthening their relationship with God, will wake up one morning looking for their problems and not finding them.
YOU CAN BECOME ONE OF THEM BECAUSE THAT WAS WHAT JESUS MEANT WHEN HE SAID.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Matthew 6:33 NKJV
Now talking about the kingdom of God, we must understand that the kingdom of God is different from the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of God is a method, but the kingdom of Heaven is a place. The kingdom of God is an extension or the manifestation of the kingdom of Heaven on the face of the earth.
It is the governing influence of God over a territory (especially a man’s heart), affecting it with His will, purposes, visions, plans, and intentions.
The purpose of Church ministry is to turn men into God’s kingdom Citizens not some empty Church members. In God’s original intent Church was a called-out people representing the interest of God’s kingdom on earth. And you cannot represent the interest of a Kingdom you are not seeking. That was what made kingdom seeking the greatest hallmark of the early Church.
Seeking first the kingdom is seeking first the governing influence of God over your life. That governing influence is the Spirit of the LORD Himself.
In other words, whatever we may be going through, God wants us to first submit our hearts to be influenced by the revelation of His will, ways, plans, visions, and purposes. It is after that has happen that we will begin to lead a life called “righteousness” and see all other things added to us!
That was the principle that GOD taught the nation of Israel called the Church in the wilderness. The Bible says they disobeyed God at one time and serpents came in to bite them. In other words, their disobedience caused the protective edge of God’s glory to be lifted from the camp, thereby letting in the serpents.
THEN THE PEOPLE BEGAN TO CRY OUT AND DIE. BUT IN HIS MERCY GOD RESPONDED WITH A PRINCIPLE OF “DIVINE RESCUE.”
He said to Moses.
..”Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” Numbers 21:8 NKJV
The fiery or brazen serpent Moses made represents the cross of Jesus and the power thereof. The serpents that bit them represent sin, Satan and the evil systems of this world.
God was simply saying that whatever sin, Satan or the evil systems of this world has brought upon us, we can only be saved or permanently delivered from them when we take our eyes off the troubles and fix them on the cross.
It tantamount to seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness as explained, then the holiness, deliverance and divine rescue we need will be added to us. That is the gospel.
Therefore, no matter what you are going through, the only way to permanently come out of it is to take your eyes of it and fix on having the governing influence of God ruling your life. In other words, the only way out is to allow Heaven to impact your hearts with the revelation of God’s will, way, vision, plans, purposes, intents, etc. and propel you to respond positively.
When that happens, whatever you are looking for will begin to look for you. Jesus would later reiterate this principle in the New Testament with these words from our devotional text for the day.
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
What is the message of our devotion this morning? The message is simple; learn to do God’s will in every situation you find yourself. Stop putting “you” first in your quest for divine help. Put God first!” It is those who put God first, that will be next for a miracle and breakthrough.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY;
Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40 NKJV
