TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 29th November 2025)
“Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.'” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.” Revelation 14:12-13 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 333RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF VICTORY
We are in the last days of the 11th month of the year, according to the Gregorian calendar. Our God has been faithful and kind. We give Him the glory for the 11 months that we have seen.
I am missing a phase of ministry that shaped my calling. I usually miss that phase in seasons like this. Maybe I would have to start massive Crusade meetings again, like I used to do. They used to make the end of year the most beautiful season of my years.
You see, between 1995 and 1999, we spent seasons like this putting finishing touches as we prepare to take the gospel from Abuja City where I grew up to the hinter lands of the South-South of Nigeria, where I came from. It used to be the best season of the year for me because of how sweet it is to spend Christmas in rural areas, bringing people to the LORD and getting them Baptized in the Holy Ghost.
We used to be on high level raw Holy Ghost faith and power after sometimes, six to eight months of praying and fasting!!!
We used to see God move like in Bible days in those villages. Our words were like the words of gods as captured in Psalm 82, especially when we speak to neutralize the activities of the devil and his dark forces. They do not fall to the ground. Things that you will not believe could happen were happening.
A lot has changed today due to the army of spiritually weak, flesh driven, money seeking, and fame sick ministers of the gospel we have today.
Then things were different. We knew that the weak emphasize on water baptism after getting someone saved. Only the strong emphasized on Holy Ghost baptism after getting a soul saved. We knew that those who do not understand the kingdom go for decision cards and number of those baptized in water after a crusade.
BUT THOSE WHO UNDERSTAND THE KINGDOM, DO NOT.
We knew that the weak in power look for numbers of those baptized in water after a crusade. But those who walk with a better understanding focus on making sure many are baptized in the Holy Ghost and that their names are truly written in the book of life after the crusade meetings.
We decided to be part of those who make sure people are baptized in the Holy Ghost and power, and that their names are written in the book of life after the crusade meetings.
People will get saved on day one to two of the crusade meetings and get baptized in the Holy Spirit on day three to four. By the time we will be returning the next time, most of them will be in the Bible school, preparing for ministry. That was how the glory of God functioned!!
Those crusades were beautiful moments of destiny. You will never know what you are missing in Christ until you do such things.
They were not city-wide crusades, but a gospel crusades where people from a network of villages are pulled to a central village for encounter with eternal life. You find people trekking from one village to another to converge at the central village for the meeting.
The hunger for God, the moon light and the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, make those days the best days of life for an upcoming minister in his teenage years. They really shaped my life. Our preparations for the Rural Crusades where a team of local Churches work with us usually begin six to eight months earlier.
Our small team in Abuja usually meet every week for intensive Holy Spirit-led prayers during the six to eight months preparation period.
The preparations were usually sealed during the last week of November. As we step into December, we begin another round of intensive prayers, this time not with the team, but I alone. That is when we usually receive divine strategies for each night and the spiritual rule of engagement for each day.
IT WAS GLORIOUS AND THESE SEASON OF THE YEARS REMINDS ME OF THOSE GREAT DAYS OF LIFE AND MINISTRY.
Today I look at Christians, produced by the so-called fathers of faith or fathers of the land, and see an army of bless me clubbers who are so self-centered and selfish that their greatest desires is to travel abroad for greener pastures, become rich, famous, or get married.
Sadly, they either get married and leave the marriage after a few days, weeks, months or years, or stay in the marriage as sour as it has become basically for the purpose of shame. Some even remain single despite all the nonsense they are told to do.
Those who become pastors seek to be called Papa, Prophets or the hottest social media tiger with the most views, likes etc. That fire that burned our hearts and sent us to rural areas during festive periods, to go hunt for souls with the LORD Jesus, that fire that sent us to hospitals to empty them for the LORD, is nonexistent in the believers of today!!!
All have been swallowed by the terrible influences of the so-called fathers of the faith or fathers of the lands.
Our devotional text is a unique scripture that if you look at intently, you will suddenly realize is not for the church of this age, because of how sick we have become for giving our hearts to the health and wealth gospel that was created by the charismatic and faith movements that carried the seed of the god of this age. The text says,
“Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.'” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.” Revelation 14:12-13 NKJV
The last sentence is very important. It says that they may rest from their labor and their work follow them. When we the righteous go to be with the LORD, we go to rest from our labors and not to rest from long diseases that slowly killed us. Our souls are not usually lost in hell like the souls of others.
THEY GO TO BE WITH THE LORD, NOT JUST TO SPEND ETERNITY WITH HIM BUT TO REST FROM LABOR.
If the LORD calls us home today, are we going to rest from labor? Are there labors we are going to rest from when we die? Are we really laboring with the LORD in the execution of His redemption plans for mankind? Are we expending our energy into the reformation space to seek and to save that which was lost?
Are we working with the LORD Day and night for His purposes and finding it difficult to rest sometimes like Paul? If we are not, there will be nothing like rest from labor when we die. That is the truth!!!
You must ask yourself, what serious work have you done for the LORD that left you gasping for breath since you gave your life to Christ? Are you just going to church waiting for this miracle, that miracle or this blessing and that blessing? What will the kingdom of GOD remember you for, if you die today?
Those are the questions to be asking yourself as an end time believer.
Obviously, rest is not for those who are doing nothing. Rest is for people who have worked and expended their energies into the plans and purposes of God, every day of their lives, not for money, fame, attention, glob trotting and calling it missions, or any other reason.
Rest is for people who are either laboring in the word and doctrine to form Christ in people or moving here and there snatching souls from hell for the LORD, while others are celebrating festive periods, or just going to church and being called papa, deacon or etc.
God is calling on you to wake up from slumber and begin to labor for His will to be done on earth as written in Heaven. He sent this word to terminate your ease in Zion.
Personally, I look forward to the day when I will finish my race, step out of this wicked world and appear before His glorious face, not just to spend eternity with the LORD, but to also rest from my labor like my fathers in the early church. This song comes to mind at this point:
“How wonderful Heaven must be, I know there is a mansion for me, the half of the story has never been told. How wonderful Heaven must be….”
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE A MEDITATION FOR US TODAY!
“For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:6-8 NKJV
