TODAY’S DEVOTION (Saturday 5th September 2020)
“Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia.”
“After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”
“Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.” Acts 16:6-10 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 247TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
We bless the LORD of Heaven and earth for His mercies in our lives and great deeds for us. This scripture was set aflame in our spirits yesterday as we were taking a prophetic gaze into the life of Paul, one of the most imminent apostles of Jesus Christ.
We discovered that, a man needs clarity of vision daily to be able to align with the will of the LORD. He does not just need clarity of vision, but the knowledge of GOD.
As important as it is to align with the LORD, it is clear that no one can harmonize his life with the will of God He does not know. We need an infilling of “the knowledge of GOD’s will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” to be able to align with GOD daily.
WE ALSO NEED A CONSTANT LEADING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
You see, the Holy Spirit is the manager of God’s will; He is the steward, accountant, security, and protocol officer of God’s will. He is also the executioner, implementer, revealer, co-coordinator, and power behind the success of God’s will.
As the revealer of God’s will, He goes into the mind of God and searches out God’s will and does what is necessary with it. We cannot, therefore, harmonize our lives with God’s will without His constant leading.
People do not know the Holy Spirit as a person who desire friendship with us. They see Him as a symbol or any other thing but the third person in the Godhead.
You will never be able to harmonize your life with God’s will without His constant leading, and you will never be able to recognize and experience His constant leading if you do not know Him personally.
The spirit realm is a complicated realm. We are dealing with unseen beings and spirits that require harmonization with God’s will, in all fronts and always to conquer. If we are not therefore constantly led by the Spirit, we will always not be able to harmonize with God’s will in all fronts and, consequently becoming food for devils.
Jesus said in John chapter 3 from verse 4 that one of the hallmarks of salvation is a life that is unpredictable.
In other words, if you are born again you should be unpredictable, because being born again is being born of the spirit. And those who are born of the Spirit are unpredictable because they are constantly led by the Holy Spirit.
The constant leading of the Holy Spirit makes a Child of God unpredictable. He becomes like the wind. Except you press into the third dimension, you will not be able to tell where He is coming from or going.
That is why if we are not constantly led by the Spirit, we will suffer a lot of attacks and set back in our walk and talk with God.
GOD’S WARRIOR KING AND AMAZING SERVANT, DAVID, SAID,
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
“He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” Psalms 23:1-3 NKJV
The phrase “the LORD is my Shepherd” and “He leads me” in this Psalm talks about a constant leading of the Spirit. If the LORD is the one who is constantly leading you, you will not lack divine supply, right people to help you, divine revelation, divine presence, divine backing, divine supply, and everything you need in life.
In fact, lack and poverty has a way of fleeing from people who are constantly led by the Holy Spirit. They are usually too harmonized with God’s will to be poor. Satan does not find a gap to infiltrate their lives with his evil work. It pays to be constantly led by the Holy Spirit. It is a mark of Son ship! The Bible says,
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” Romans 8:14 NKJV
In other words, as many as are constantly led by the Spirit of GOD, these are the offspring of God.
True offspring of God are constantly led by the Spirit because they are born of God. There are two major signs that show that one is born again; the first is you will not be living in sin, and the second is you will be constantly led by the Holy Spirit.
Now there are false leading of the Spirit. You find people who claim to be constantly led not enjoying the benefits of constant leading of the Spirit. Well, I will like to tell you that Satan also lead people constantly using a voice that sounds like God’s. When you see someone who says He is born again, living in sin and experiencing a ‘constant prophetic leading’ it is not from God.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Holiness. When He is speaking through a vessel, that vessel will not be living in sin. His power will kill the power of sin in the life of the person. That is why we experience a cleansing each time we hear from the true God. God knows if we are not constantly led we will not be harmonized with His will and ways!
Our devotional text this morning tells us how a constant leading of the Spirit helped Apostle Paul and his team to be harmonized with God’s will in their missionary journey. It perfectly reflects what we have been sharing about this morning – the role of the constant leading of the Holy Ghost in harmonizing our lives with God’s will.
They have attempted preaching the gospel somewhere and the Holy Ghost forbade them. That was a onetime leading. But it did not stop there. They attempted doing so in another place and He stopped them. That was another leading. Then in a vision he showed them a man of Macedonia calling on them to come and help them. A major highlight in the text says,
“After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”
“Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.”
If you add all the leading together, you will see the power of God’s constant leading at work. You will discover that God’s constant leading harmonized their ministries with His will and the result was amazing.
There is a onetime leading and there is a constant leading. A onetime leading will not help us in our walk with GOD. I am yet to see a man harmonized with God’s will through a onetime leading of the Spirit. If they had just encountered a onetime leading and then disconnect from the Spirit, they would have missed GOD’s will by going to preach in a place He did not prepare them for.
I believe the word of the LORD for today’s devotional has been passed. God wants us to be constantly led by His Spirit.
Most of us know a onetime leading of the Spirit but we are not familiar with His constant leading. We will hear the voice of God at one time then go blank walking and talking with Him based on that one-time voice we heard. And then end up losing track with Him in the Spirit. But it’s my prayer that God use this devotional to help you make adjustments. AMEN AND AMEN!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY:
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.
Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you.
Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him.” Psalms 32:8-10 NKJ