TODAY’S DEVOTION (Thursday 6th February 2020)
“Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 37th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
One of the major assignments of a hospital is to receive new human beings that enters the earth and receive the bodies of those who leaves the earth. But the Job of a Church is to prepare the souls of the humans who enters the earth for the next life. And that is between the days of their birth and the days of their exit from the earth.
My primary assignment as a pastor is to prepare mankind and myself for the next life. Every other thing is secondary because, what can it profits a man if he gains the whole world and loose his soul. Today as we unfold the truth that can God has prepared for us; may the Holy Spirit help us to absorb every detail of truth in this piece.
Our devotion today will continue from where we stopped yesterday. As promised, we are going to look at how to get our spirits full of God, alive and fruitful so that we can reap the full blessings of the word of the LORD we hear.
What the womb of a woman is in the natural is what the spirit of man is in the spiritual. And what the seed of a man is in the natural is what the word of the LORD is in the spiritual. When a man’s seed is bad, he cannot get a woman pregnant. When a woman’s womb is unfruitful, she cannot be pregnant.
In the same way if the word you hear from your pastor is bad it will not get your spirit pregnant with divine things. And if your spirit is not fruitful, the word you hear from your pastor, no matter how powerful, effective, and miracle producing it may be, cannot get you pregnant with the blessings it was intended to bring into your life.
It is therefore important that our spirits be fruitful and the word we hear be full of God, alive, and capable of getting our fruitful spirits pregnant with the blessing it was intended to bring into our lives.
NOW HOW DO WE GET OUR SPIRITS FULL OF GOD, ALIVE AND FRUITFUL? LET ME BEGIN WITH THE NATURAL.
In the natural realm, Fruitfulness is something we are born with. Apart from genetic alteration that cause un-fruitfulness in men and women sometimes, fruitfulness is a gift of nature. In other words, God designed that a man or woman be born fruitful.
Our devotional text explained it all. It says, “and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply;” God did not say be barren. He said be fruitful. We were originally designed to be born fruitful.
However, some are barren.
They are not barren because God created them to be barren; they are barren because genetic alteration, satanic hindrances, or what they did with themselves made them so. Bareness was never a plan of God for mankind. God designed that a man or woman be born fruitful. The same word was spoken to all animals.
The truth is I have never seen a barren dog, goat, or fish. God created all living things to be fruitful and multiply. Now, what is true of the natural is true of the spiritual. God designed that we are born again with a fruitful spirit. In other words, “salvation experience” is God’s way of getting our spirits alive and fruitful.
When we are born naturally our spirits are dead, unfruitful, and empty of God. But spiritual birth changes everything. It quickens our spirits, transmits life into it, and makes it unfruitful to the things of this world and fruitful in the things of God. Hallelujah!!
That is why when someone is genuinely saved; he will no longer be fruitful in the things of this world. If he was an active sinner, he will no longer be able to live that way any longer. If he were a night crawler, a drunk, a sexually pervert, a liar, a thief, a fraud, a greedy or covetous person, his encounter with Jesus will change everything.
GENUINE SALVATION EXPERIENCE IS THEREFORE THE KEY TO SPIRITUAL FRUITFULNESS.
That is why it is dangerous to falsify your salvation like I have always said. Do not say you are born again when you cannot tell us an encounter you had with Jesus. Salvation is a fruit of divine encounter not religious confession.
That brings me to why Christians are empty of God, dead in spirit, or unfruitful in the things of the Spirit of God.
There are two basic reasons why this is so. The first is falsified salvation. Truly, many we claim saved by confessions of faith are still unsaved by fruits. And when things that do not happen to save people happen to them, we are shocked and left in awe. Sometimes, we are left blaming God ignorantly.
Many who claim born again are not really born again. We think being born again is joining a Church or making an empty confession. That is why many of us remain unfruitful in the things of God but fruitful in the things of this world despite our pious confessions. You find us living our lives the way the people of the world do.
The second reason is lack of commitment to God.
Those who genuinely got saved did not keep their spirits full of God, alive and fruitful by being committed to Holy living, corporate worship, personal devotion, and in-depth study of God’s word. They committed for a while but threw it away; losing the substance they got when they first met Christ.
Paul wrote to the Church at Philippi saying, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” This people got saved but refused to work it out, hence becoming empty of God, dead, and unfruitful in Spiritual things.
IF YOU FALL INTO ANY OF THIS CATEGORY, THERE IS HOPE FOR YOU!
You just need to do one little thing. Revisit your salvation experience and check if you really met Christ. Then begin a fresh walk with God on daily bases. Commit yourself to corporate worshiping in a spiritual life-igniting Church, Holy living, personal devotion, and in-depth study of the word.
The early Church leaders led the Church to keep their spirits full of God, alive in Spirit and fruitful in the things of God by committing themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word. How long you spend with God and His word in prayer on daily bases will determine how full of God, alive, and fruitful you will be in the things of God.
People who have no private relationship with God will never have a life that is fruitful in the things of God. If you are fruitful in the things of God, no resistance will be able to stop you. The enemy will not be able to build a wall of resistance against you. Your branch will always run over the wall.
As you embrace this day, may these precious truths be your meditation in Jesus precious name. Amen
LET THIS SIMPLE SCRIPTURE BE A MEDITATION FOR YOU!
“Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well; His branches run over the wall. Genesis 49:22 NKJV