TODAY’S DEVOTION (FRIDAY 8TH May 2026)
I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” ’ Luke 15:18-19 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 128TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF STRATEGIC VICTORY.
We give God the glory for strategic peace, progress, and advance of His will in our lives, especially through these devotionals. That is the vision of strategic victory. It is not to feed us with our heart’s desires, but to fill us with God’s heart desires and create an environment where we can fulfill them.
Yes, when God decides to fight your battle, its because you are in His program, not really because you gave sacrificially, fasted, or prayed. In the days of the Bible, there was no nation or people whose battles were taken over by the LORD, except the nation of Israel. The reason was obvious; they alone were in God’s program.
They were in the program of bringing forth the messiah for the redemption of humanity. The program was also, among other things, for them to bring forth the Oracles of God to us the gentiles. That was why God personally took up their enemies and fought their battles. At one time He said to them:
“Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.
Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him. But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.” Exodus 23:20-22 NKJV
In other words, God said to them, “I will personally take on your enemies.” God will personally take on our enemies if we are in His program. The reason He ask us to obey Him is to put or keep us in His program. Disobedience takes a man out of God’s program, but obedience and being sold out to God, either brings or keeps a man in God’s program.
SO, HISTORICALLY, THERE HAD BEEN NO NATION UNDER HEAVEN THAT SAW GOD PERSONALLY TAKE OVER THEIR ENEMIES LIKE ISREAL.
He demanded that they obey His Angel (Pre-Incarnate Christ) so that they can remain in His program. Being in God’s program will make the armies of Heaven your army and give you strategic victories in life. God was an enemy to their enemies, and an adversary to their adversaries because they were in His program.
You do not see such acts of God because you are prayerful. You only see them when you are in His program.
You could be prayerful but not in the program of God at an immediate present. That is why you find some prayerful people not progressing in life despite their prayer life. God gives strategic victories to people in His program not people in prayer. If our prayers will yield strategic victories, we must be in His program.
He does all things for His pleasure, meaning to prosper His program. If we want to see good progress, success, or prosperity by His outstretch arm, we must be in His program not in our carnal pleasures and man-made ambitions and desires. If we want to see protection, we must be in His program.
One major reason why Paul survived the dangerous snake that bit him in Acts 28, was not because he was prayerful, but because he was in God’s program. One reason why He survived the shipwreck, was not just because he fasted for 14 days, but because he did that while in God’s program. The enemy will not be able to destroy you if you are in God’s program.
Your prayers, fasting, and all you do with God or in God, must be done in His program for results to be seen. We enjoy the best of Heaven only if we are in Heaven’s program.
That is why the enemy will prefer us in our carnal plans and pleasures, especially the ones giving us money, fame, or attention, than in God’s program that is not yielding such things yet. He will prefer us in our man-made ambitions because we will lack an automatic flow of God there; and he can do anything to us if we lack the automatic flow of God.
STRIFE TO LIVE YOUR DAYS IN GOD’S PROGRAM IF YOU WANT TO SEE STRATEGIC VICTORY IN LIFE.
Understand that strategic victory is not a birthright. If you do not see it in life, especially despite your services to God, do not get angry. Check where you are in life, check if you are living your days in God’s program. Strategic victory is for people who are in God’s program. They may not be perfect like the Israelites were not, but they will always see God coming through for them each time they need victory.
You see all that in Bible history. Men like Moses, Joshua, the Judges, the Prophets and other key Kings in the Bible like David, were raised to give Isreal victory, because they were in God’s program. Again, they were the only nation in God’s program that was why they were able to destroy the large armies that came against them.
There was a time God used just 300 of them to destroy thousands of enemy soldiers. Indeed, He personally took up their enemies. God wants us in His programs, ways, and will; He wants us there every second, minute, day, week, month and year so that He can be glorified the way He was in Bible days.
He wants us working in places that falls in His program for our lives, living with people that fall into His program, living life styles that aligns with His program, saying things that aligns with His program, thinking thoughts that aligns with His programs, and doing things daily that aligns with His program for our lives.
That is the only way our lives will be filled with His wonders. Our devotional text was words spoken by someone who was in the program of his father but was enticed out of it by his desires. Few months later, he began to go through the consequences of living a life outside the program of your father.
THAT PERSON WAS A YOUNG MAN KNOWN THEOLOGICALLY AS THE PRODIGAL SON. HE REMAINS AN ETERNAL LESSON TO MEN OF ALL AGES.
The Bible says things were very fine with him when he was in the program or house of his father. But when he left, the good he got while he was in his father’s program disappeared. He lost all the wealth!! Then things became so bad that all his ideal and useful relationships were shut down, and he started working for pigs and struggling to eat what they eat. The Bible says:
“But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.” Luke 15:14-16 NKJV
The stomach represents the spirit of man. He was filling his spirit and soul with what the swine ate. Swine or Pigs in the Bible represents people who choose a life of sin despite the mercies of the LORD. Whenever you walk out of the programs of God, such people will become your companions, you will begin to eat their food, then later live their life.
Their food are things, habits, words, thoughts, and anything that gives one pleasure but corrupts the soul. Their food today can be found in the information space. When you absorb them, you become a swine yourself despite your Christianity. In other words, you corrupt your soul, then compromise will set in.
You will begin to compromise the values of righteousness you once upheld, using twisted scriptures and exaggeration of God’s grace and mercies to keep yourself on the path.
You will not know your journey out of God’s program has been completed and Satan will soon eat you like snacks. But the prodigal son was wiser. He decided to return to God’s program, he decided for the Father’s house. Our devotional text says:
I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” ’ Luke 15:18-19 NKJV
Today you must arise and return to God’s program; you must arise and return to God’s way of life, God’s will for your life, God’s holiness, purity, that righteous dedication and commitment you once had for Him. We must all return to the father’s house today and never yield to our flesh any longer and walk away.
If you are living in sin, arise and return to your Heavenly Father.
If you are living a life of lies and deceit, maybe for financial gains, arise and return to your father, return to a life of truth, integrity and righteousness. If you have taken in someone into your life who is not your wife or husband, arise and send them away from your life. Return to your Father, return to the righteous ways of life you once lived; return to God’s program. That is the word of the LORD!!!
There is no way life outside the Heavenly Father’s program for it will be happy. That is one of the lessons we can draw from the prodigal son. The worst way to live a Christian life is outside the program of God, and the best way to live it, is within the program of God. Amen!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!!
“Come, and let us return to the Lord; For He has torn, but He will heal us;
He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight.
Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, Like the latter and former rain to the earth. Hosea 6:1-3 NKJV
