TODAY’S DEVOTION (Tuesday 18TH August 2020)
“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
“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 1:26-28 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 229TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
If you have been following our 50 Days Wings of the Spirit, and these devotionals, I trust the LORD has been speaking to you about things that concerns your walk and talk with HIM. That is the primary essence of gospel ministry, to help us all improve our faith and relationship with GOD.
We cannot walk with God according to His ways if we do not have His wisdom. His wisdom is divine and from above. And because its above, the impact on our walk and talk with the LORD is usually above every other.
To go a step further, today we will be looking at another dimension of GOD’s wisdom that will be immensely helpful. I remember sharing these things before and believe will still be helpful to us today.
To start with, we must understand that divine wisdom is the most essential ingredient that our lives need for blissful living on this side of eternity. Many of us do not know that God is in control but not in total control of the things that happen in our lives.
GOD is in control but in sovereign control. He is not in delegated control. Except the delegates hands it over to Him or He overrides it in response to the prayers of the righteous, God is not in total control of the things in our lives.
The reason for this is simple.
You see, at creation, God created man to be His regent on earth and delegated some controls of the things on earth to mankind – basically things in the physical realm. There are so many scriptures that affirms this truth.
AS YOU MAY HAVE KNOWN, ONE WORD GOD USED TO DESCRIBE THE CONTROLS HE DELEGATED TO MANKIND IS “DOMINION.”
He gave man dominion over the earth for the purpose of His assignment for man.
A key statement in our devotional text says, “Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
In other words “let them have delegated control over the fish of the sea (everything that concerns the water), over the birds of the air (everything that concerns the air), and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth (everything that concerns the land)”.
You cannot be given delegated control over almost all of God’s natural creation without the tool to manage the control. If you study that age carefully, you will discover that man was not at independence when the controls of the earth where handed over to him. He was into total submission and dominion of GOD.
That tells us that the dispensation of GOD’s dominion on earth today is only possible when we come under the dominion of GOD in the spirit realm. In other words, God expected to manage the earth He gave to man through man by operating within Him.
Therefore, the delegation of the control of the earth to man did not remove GOD from the equation.
There was no way a “finite mind” can manage the creation of an “infinite God” without the infinite GOD doing it through man. The Wisdom of GOD oozing out of the Spirit of GOD in man, therefore, was designed to be man’s instrument for managing the controls of the earth given to Him by the LORD God.
But when man fell, He lost this place in GOD and handed over the controls of the earth to the devil. We see that affirmed during the temptation of Jesus. You remember the devil saying to Jesus;
“All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish (Luke 4:6 NKJV).
AMAZINGLY, JESUS DID NOT DISPUTE IT BECAUSE IT WAS TRUE.
He did not dispute it because He had the solution in His hands. When you have solutions to problems, you will not argue but act. Jesus came to save man from Satan’s grip and take back those controls hence saying nothing to dispute the fact. He would finally do it by His death on the cross.
But because the Church has not risen to totally enforce that victory, and because many are still living in the dark of what Jesus have done for mankind, certain things about certain lives are still under the devil’s control. Therefore, when bad things happen, we say God was the one that allowed them to happen.
People who say that are lying on God. God does not allow bad things to happen. Whenever a bad thing happens, it is caused by man’s failure to effectively use GOD’s delegated control handed over to him.
Yes, GOD could use any bad things that happened to work out His will for the victims, but GOD does not allow bad things to happen as many of us do claim. If intercessors are properly positioned, they will be able to stop bad things from happening.
In fact, it was never GOD’s will and will never be His perfect will for bad things to happen to anyone.
The first being to allow bad things to happen on earth was a fallen angel, called Lucifer – who is now known as Satan. He used the spiritual controls God delegated to him to allow bad things to happen. The second was Adam himself. He used his delegated control to allow bad things to happen. So, God has never allowed bad things to happen.
He could create peace or calamity to eliminate bad things that may have happened, but He will never make or allow bad things to happen. It is the failure of man’s delegated control of the earth that allows bad things to happen. That is why every evil that has ever befallen men, can be traceable to either men or the devil.
IT IS WHEN GOD MOVES TO STOP BAD THINGS FROM HAPPENING THAT HE KILLS TO MAKE ALIVE.
Bad things happen, whenever man fail to use divine wisdom in managing the delegated control God gave to him. That is when you see men breaking down in health, coming into poverty, and all kinds of crisis. The absence of divine wisdom in many hearts is the reason for the presence of any evil in their lives, especially the presence of persistent demonic activities.
We can stop bad things from happening in our lives if we walk in divine wisdom. One aspect of divine wisdom to apply in other to stop certain bad things from happening is the wisdom of constant flow.
We have shared these things before.
It is the constant flow of blood in the body that keeps it alive. It is the constant flow of rivers that keeps them alive. It is the constant flow of the air we breathe in and out that is keeping our natural bodies alive. Constant flow is God wise way of preserving things on the face of the earth.
God did not create man to survive from accumulations but constant flow. If you accumulate and there is no constant flow, what you accumulated will be exhausted. If we were breathing from some air God kept somewhere, by now it would have reduced. But God created a constant flow of fresh air hence it cannot be exhausted.
The same is applicable to every other created thing.
The waters in the Ocean are not flowing from some accumulated storage somewhere. They are flowing from a constant flow God created. God designed that we are sustained from a system of constant flow.
He designed that there be a constant flow of finances to us, sound health to our bodies, revelation to our spirits, anointing to our lives and grace to our faith. He designed that there be a constant flow of the good things we need physically or spiritually into our lives.
HE NEVER DESIGNED THAT WE LIVE FROM A STORAGE SYSTEM.
That was why the rich fool was killed the night he decided to start feeding from a storage system. God designed that we do not store our riches but give them out towards His purposes so that there will be room from Him to push in more into our lives.
As we bring this to a close, I want you to understand that “stopping the constant flow of good” has always been Satan’s assignment. He stopped the flow of God to Adam in Genesis 3, when he seduced the woman and then the man to disobey God. He will come to stop the flow of God in your life also. He knows “constant flow” is God’s way of sustaining you.
But you can decide not to allow that happen! Make this day your day of resisting the enemy and asking the LORD to activate whatever He may have stopped from flowing into your life.
Remember, Satan cannot stop anything without our permission, so repent of any sin you may have committed and ask the LORD for mercy. Then start living your life in divine wisdom!
THIS SCRIPTURAL PASSAGE CAN BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION.
‘Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving-kindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight — That You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.” Psalms 51:1-6 NKJV