TODAY’S DEVOTION (Friday 16th May 2025)
“My soul has dwelt too long with one who hates peace. I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war.” Psalms 120:6-7 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 136th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF VICTORY
Today heaven will help us to look at the power of environment in our walk and talk with God as his righteous seed.
Many of us in faith are yet to come into the revelation of our seed nature. I mean our spiritual nature as the righteous seed. True salvation encounter transforms. It transforms a man through the washing and regeneration of the human spirit by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says,
“But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,” Titus 3:4-6 NKJV
If your salvation was based on a mere “decision” instead of an “encounter” you are not safe. Genuine salvation transforms. It transforms a sinner from the seed of the wicked to the seed of the righteous by the law of redemption.
From the Parable of the wheat and tares, we can see that there are two kinds of people in the field of the world: the seed of the righteous and the seed of the wicked one.
God who does not want anyone to perish has made it possible for every seed of the wicked one (who we all were), to experience salvation. Not by the recitation of the sinners’ prayers without the renunciation of the sinner’s life, but by the washing and regeneration of the Holy Spirit that results in the renunciation of the sinner’s life.
THE BIBLE TEACHES THAT ANY SALVATION THAT DOES NOT HAVE REPENTANCE FROM DEAD WORKS IS DEAD. IT WILL NEVER TAKE US TO HEAVEN.
If your salvation has repentance in it, you are the seed of the righteous One, Christ. You will have an ungodly world to contend with; a world that is constantly against your kind of breed. Let that be established in your heart. It will help you not to be conform to the world but to resist its negative influences.
It is important to note that the world is very fertile for the growth and development of the seed of the wicked one. In fact, everything in the world supplies enough fertility to the soil of the seeds of the wicked to grow unhindered.
The media, the society in general; the universities, the colleges, the policies of the government of nations, and sadly even most of the local Churches today. All these are full of influences that fertilize the seed of the wicked one to grow. They do not have the moral strength to fertilize the seed of the righteous to grow or take root.
In fact, they kill it. That is why God warned all seed of the righteous in His word saying:
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world.
And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” 1 John 2:15-17 NKJV
The world is fertile enough to grow the seed of the wicked one but too barren to grow the seed of the righteous. That is why any righteous seed that plants himself in the world system will die and become a seed of the wicked one.
THAT BRINGS US TO THE ISSUE OF THE ENVIRONMENT AGAIN.
The most important need of a seed is a good soil. The fields of the world today have become so corrupt and very good to grow the seed of the wicked one. But if the seed of the righteous will ever grow and flourish, it must discern the ground GOD has determine that it be planted for that to happen.
The Bible made it clear that,
“The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bear fruit in old age; they shall be fresh and flourishing,” Psalms 92:12-14 NKJV
The courts of our God in the future are the entire eternal space that will constitute the judgment seat of Christ, where we will one day stand before Him to be eternally rewarded or reproved for the work we did while here on earth. Meaning, as the seeds of the righteous if we are not planted in the soil God designed that we be planted in this life, we will not flourish when we all stand in the courts of our God in the next life.
This is what makes attending the wrong Church eternally dangerous. The soil God designed that we be planted in is called “the house of God.” This in the eyes of the New Testament refers to any local Church that functions as the ground and pillar of truth, a city of refuge in the Spirit, not a city of Refuse!
Yes, there are many false Churches but that has not erased the importance of belonging to a true local Church that is under the apostolic or pastoral oversight of a God-fearing man.
God’s greatest vision is to use our present life to prepare us for the next life. The Bible teaches that the present life is like vapor compared to the next life where we will be. But planting yourself in the wrong Church as the righteous seed will prevent you from flourishing in the courts of our God in the next life.
This eternal consequence of being in the wrong Church is the reason Satan is raising more preachers and sending them to establish Churches or trying to infiltrate already established ones with another Jesus, another spirit and another gospel: things that were not found in the early church.
SADLY, SATAN KNOWS THE ‘POWER’ OF BEING IN THE WRONG CHURCH THAN MOST CHRISTIANS DO.
That is why he mischievously cares more about the church the righteous seed attends than most righteous seeds care about the Churches they attend. He wants every righteous seed out of a good church so that they can be in the wrong one and suffer shipwreck. He does not want us to flourish in Glory of the LORD the next life when our time here is over. Child of God, we must live our days fighting it!!
Now, apart from flourishing in the courts of our GOD in the next life, there is flourishing in life in this life. The Bible says, “Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age; they shall be fresh and flourishing…”
Bringing fruit in old age denotes flourishing in this life despite the time and seasons that might be upon you! Understand that you are a seed and must be planted in the right spiritual environment for you to flourish. If you know that everything in this life depends on where the SEED is planted, you will take the issue of the environment very seriously.
For instance, if you plant yourself in a metaphysical cult called church, you will never flourish. If the righteous seed plants itself in a political party, money making machine, social club, or a place of theatrical performance called church, he will not flourish in the courts of our GOD. A seed of the wicked one may flourish in such Churches, but the seed of the righteous one will never.
That is why the first thing GOD gives a genuinely saved person is a pastor after His heart and a church to function as a good ground for him. If these two are missing in your life and your salvation is genuine you will never flourish in life. Only false Christians (the seed of the wicked one) flourish under perverted pastors and wrong Churches.
THAT BRINGS US TO OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT. IT SAYS,
“My soul has dwelt too long with one who hates peace. I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war.”
If your soul dwells with people who hate righteousness, peace and joy in the holy ghost, you will never flourish. Even when you mean well, they will fight you. It is going to be to you what it was with Lot – Abraham’s Nephew. Remember he separated from Abraham and dwelled in the Land of Sodom. When time commented over his decision, he lost everything including his wife.
His daughters would later make him commit an abomination by drugging him with strong alcohol to impregnate them both. The lesson of what we are sharing can be seen in what the Bible says about his spiritual travail while in Sodom. The place was never where God designed him to make a residence. The Bible says:
“And He condemned to ruin and extinction the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, reducing them to ashes [and thus] set them forth as an example to those who would be ungodly;
And He rescued righteous Lot, greatly worn out and distressed by the wanton ways of the ungodly and lawless” 2 Peter 2:6-7 AMP
In Eschatology, the LORD made it clear that we shall one day be rescued from this ungodly age like Lot was, but through the rapture of the Church. In this scripture we see a pattern of what we go through if we plant ourselves in the wrong soils, as God’s righteous seed.
We will be distressed by the wanton and wicked ways of the ungodly and lawless – leading to strife and dissatisfaction. That alone can destroy one’s relationship with God. That is why it’s better not to be there than to be there, hoping that things will change. The truth is nothing will change the devil; he is the one that will change you.
IF THINGS SEEM TO YOU TO HAVE CHANGED AFTER A WHILE, YOU ARE THE ONE THAT HAS CHANGED TO BECOME A SEED OF THE WICKED ONE LIKE THEM!
I believe that this message is a wakeup call! The most important thing in the life of a seed is the soil. Where you are planted as God’s righteous seed is what determines how your life turns out.
Do not be carried away be the outlook of Churches and men of God. Let GOD speak to you about the character content of the people. If there is no glory among them – I mean the fullness of God on display, that is the wrong place to plant yourself. Let the story of Lot be your guide!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU;
“And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar.
“Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other.
Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord.” Genesis 13:10-13 NKJV
