TODAY’S DEVOTION (Sunday 18th May 2025)
“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed — always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” 2 Corinthians 4:7-10 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 138TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF VICTORY
One of the important things GOD want to do with your life is to use you to reach others with His Heavenly power. It is amazing how He uses men to reach men; How He put Heavenly treasures in an earthen vessel to reach another earthen vessel.
It is when His power has touched lives that His word of truth and righteousness can be sown into their hearts. The Bible says, “He does that so that the Excellency of power may be of Him and not of us.”
One thing God creates in an earthen vessel before using him or her to reach others is a heart that can carry His abiding presence and have heavenly portals open within it. It is when Heavenly portals open within an earthen vessel, that it can be used by God to minister effectively to others.
However, if you look at the life of our Bible fathers, you will realize that when they open, the person will become hard pressed on every side because of the reaction of hell. God allows it because it is through that process that the life of Jesus can be made manifest through him or her to bring eternal life from eternity to time.
The most important part of an earthen vessel therefore is his or her heart. The Bible says,
“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you.” Proverbs 4:23-24 NKJV
What comes out of our hearts and what goes into it must be watched. If what goes into it does not give righteous virtues or minister grace to it, it will defile the heart, and if what comes out of it does not give righteous virtues or minister grace to others, it will defy them.
What comes into it must be righteous and what goes out of it must be righteous also, so that our destinies as vessels of God can be fulfilled. That is why the Bible says, “put away from you a deceitful mouth and put a perverse lip far from you.”
IF WE DO NOT PUT THEM AWAY, WE WILL NEVER FULFILL OUR DIVINE DESTINY OF MINISTERING TO OTHERS.
It is the heart God works on in order to prepare us for kingdom service. We must therefore keep it with all diligence, understanding that it is the seat of both moral and immoral life, depending on what it conceives.
If it conceives moral values, it will process or use it to create moral excellence in our lifestyle, and if it conceives sinful and ungodly things, it will process or use it to turn our lives into a sinful and ungodly one. That is why the Bible says we should keep it with all diligence.
If we do not like the kind of life we live, we must check the kind of things that go into our hearts through what we see, hear, feel, smell or touch.
If what goes in there is not changed, what comes out of it will not. Change begins from what we allow our heart to conceive, the seeds that are planted into it through our five senses. That is the way it works. The Bible says:
“How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.
With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!
Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” Psalm 119:9-11 NKJV”
It is what we hide in our hearts that determines if we will sin against God or not. It is what we hide in our hearts that will create the kind of life we want or do not want. The heart of the matter remains the matter of the heart. If we hide the word of the LORD in our hearts, it will create the world of God in our lives.
So, if we take heed to His word, and seek God with the whole of our being, hiding His word in our hearts, something Heavenly, righteous and pure will be born or made manifest in our lives, even if we make our bed in hell.
YES, SOMETHING HEAVEN WANTS WILL BE CONCIEVED IN OUR HEARTS, PROCESSED AND BORN IN OUR LIVES.
The reason is because most times, it is not what goes on around us that destroys us, but what goes on within us. No raging sea or ocean can sink a ship if it has no hole within it to allow the sea or ocean to come in. It is the breaches in our hearts that cause whatever happens around us to sink us.
Our hearts must therefore be kept with all diligence.
Yesterday we shared something about schooling at an advanced level. That is one way the LORD helps our hearts to heal its breaches or conceive the righteous things that are designed to help us live righteous lives. Those are the righteous things that make us men and women in whom there is no guile or spiritual breaches in the heart.
When He was Physically on earth, Jesus saw a man called Nathaniel, and said, “behold an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile.”
It was a description of his heart condition. Obviously, his heart has been kept from conceiving things that will create guile or any spiritual breaches within him. Hence it became a heart in which there is no guile or deceit. That is the kind of heart God wants us all to have so that we can be fit for every good work.
At another time He said to him,
“Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” John 1:51 NKJV
Jesus was referring to the opening of heavenly portals within His Spirit, Soul and Body. Why did He reserve such a blessing for such a man? It is because of his heart condition. Our heart condition determines our life condition. That is what determines what we see or experience from the LORD.
YOUR HEART CAN BE A PLACE WHERE HEAVENLY PORTALS OPEN IF YOU KNOW HOW TO KEEP IT WITH ALL DILIGENCE.
As earlier stated, God originally discerned that Heavenly Portals open both in and around man. If Heavenly portals opened over you, it would change your life, if it opens within you, you will change the lives of others. The opening of heavenly portals is one way God transfer Blessings from Heaven to our lives on earth, or through our lives to others on earth.
When a Heavenly portal opened over Jacob, it brought so much into his life. Here is what the Bible says about that:
“And behold, the Lord stood above it and said:”I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants.
Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” Genesis 28:13-15 NKJV
The blessings of the LORD in this scripture can be yours also if you align with the LORD, if you begin to keep your heart with all diligence so that the word seeds that will open the portals and manifest this blessing can be conceived in your heart. Again, the heart of the matter is a matter of the heart. That is the word of the LORD to us this morning.
MAKE THESE SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
“Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8 NKJV
