TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 24TH JANUARY 2026)
“Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul. And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.”
Acts 11:25-26 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 24TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF STRATEGIC VICTORY
Truly, it’s of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed because His compassion fails not.
We began the year with Prophetic expectations of God helping us and doing marvelous things that He has promised us so that our destiny can be unleashed. We give Him the glory for all that because we can joyfully see the things His glorious hands are doing to take the Gospel of the Kingdom form His throne Room to the hearts of men by our hands.
Today, we will refresh our minds with more matters of divine destiny, especially the things that our divine destiny might need to be fulfilled. But let’s begin with what divine destiny is.
The Bible teaches that our divine destiny is the sum total of God’s eternal and prophetic plans, purposes, visions, goals, life-routes and pathways, predetermine for us before we were formed in our mother’s womb. It is something that needs to be given total attention because it is the storehouse of all God wants us to do and become in time and eternity.
Friend, it is very possible to live a life in this side of time or the other side of eternity without fulfilling your divine destiny. If you find yourself in a state of life in time or eternity that God never pre-determined for you to fulfill, you are not fulfilling your divine destiny.
For instance, everyone in hell fire right now has not fulfilled or is not fulfilling his or her divine destiny. They are only sharing in the eternal punishment of fallen angels because they refused God’s redemptive plan for their lives. The Bible says hell fire was originally created for Satan and his angels.
Divine destiny is all about what God predetermined for us, while what is not divine destiny are things that God did not predetermined for us. For instance, God never pre-determined mankind to spend eternity in hell fire. So, going to hell when one dies is not part of a man’s divine destiny.
PEOPLE GO THERE SIMPLY BECAUSE OF THEIR EARTHLY CHOICES; THE CHOICE NOT TO ACCEPT JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND SAVIOR.
The greatest killer of divine destiny sometimes is manmade religion. Many who are trapped in manmade religions will not go to heaven. It’s as serious as that. Except they make Jesus their LORD and savior, they will never fulfill their divine destiny after death.
The first thing your divine destiny will need to be fulfilled therefore is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. That is the first thing everyone who will fulfill his or her divine destiny will need.
Now I am not referring to a religious relationship, but a relationship born out of an encounter with Him. There are people who claim saved who have not really met the LORD. Jesus says they call Him “LORD, LORD,” but do not do what He says. Such will never fulfill their divine destiny.
Many who claim to be saved or having relationship with Jesus Christ have no fruits to show. Though their mouths tell us they are born again but their lives tell us they do not have a true relationship with Him. Born again is not a religious title my friend, but a life that flows out of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Christianity itself is not a religion but a pre-determined life of God for mankind – a life we can only live after a true encounter with Jesus Christ, KING of kings and LORD of lords.
THE FIRST PEOPLE TO BE CALLED CHRISTIANS WHERE NOT CATHOLICS OR PROTESTANTS, NEITHER WERE THEY ANGLICAN OR ORTHODOX.
The first people to be called Christians were people who had true encounters with Jesus Christ that resulted in their names being written in the book of life and their lives taking a new spiritual turn on the face of the earth. They were men of Godliness, carrying Christ not on molded images and crucifixes but in their hearts; consequently, moving in the power and Spirit of the LORD, and converting the kingdoms of the ancient world into that of God and of His Christ.
In simple terms, they were men and women with fruitful and powerful relationship with Jesus Christ, manifesting in unconditional commitment to His will, His way, and His life. Anything we are living that is short of this is not Christianity but a form of godliness that has no power. That is why true Christianity is not a church thing.
True Christianity is a Kingdom thing – it is an extension of the Kingdom of God from Heaven to the earth through saved and sanctified men and women – it is a manifestation of Christ in our daily lives to a lost and dying world.
Until our relationship with Jesus Christ manifest as that, we are not truly saved and therefore cannot fulfill our divine destiny.
This is where the Church you attend comes to. The primary purpose of the gospel is to reconcile men back to God through Jesus Christ. The primary purpose of Church, therefore, is to foster or help people build, maintain or grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ. Any church that is not doing that, is not fulfilling its purpose.
A major highlight in our devotional text for today says “So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.”
What truth can we glean from this highlight?
If you have a little knowledge of Church History, you will realize that the Church at Antioch was an Apostolic Breakthrough Center. That was where the pattern for true Church work was received from Heaven through the Prophets and Teachers that were there and established on earth; first in that place then in other places.
IT TAKES AN APOSTOLIC BREAKTHROUGH CENTER TO TEACH SINNERS INTO SAINTS AND FOLLOWERS INTO DISCIPLES OF JESUS CHRIST.
It takes an Apostolic Breakthrough Center to turn crowds into Churches and Churches into centers of Kingdom Activities. For instance, the Cry of the Spirit Ministries in Kenya was established by God to be an Apostolic Breakthrough Center for East Africa and the rest of the world.
That is why the Believers, churches, pastors, Bishops etc. who drink from our fountain are growing in their personal relationship with God. What happened in Acts 11:25-27 is repeating itself among us; God is moving His people from religion to a more personal and deep relationship with Jesus Christ that is unconditional.
What is the message this morning? The message is simple. It says, you can never fulfill your destiny without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You may need a onetime encounter with God through a preacher to initiate that relationship, but you will need an apostolic Breakthrough Center to grow in it and come to the point where you unleash your destiny as a manifest Son of God, not a Church member.
Yes, God wants you to release your destiny as His manifest son. You can never do that by being a mere church member. We can never fulfill our divine destinies as Church members. We can only fulfill them as Kingdom Citizens, and that begins with a heart preparation to follow Jesus until to make us what He wants us to be.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR TODAY;
And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him.
Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.
Matthew 4:18-22 NKJV
