TODAY’S DEVOTION (Friday 9th October 2020)
“One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.” Psalm 27:4 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 281ST DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
Blessed be the name of the LORD who daily loads us with benefits! Blessed be His glorious name for bringing us into another glorious day! I am persuaded that the God who fed and led us through the previous days will be abundantly available for us today.
I do not announce the deaths of my relatives because it is not necessary. But this one is huge and I need to spew it out because I have been trying to recover silently but it seems not to be working.
I have been a very sad person since yesterday. I am still very sad this morning. I lost my aunty; my mum’s younger sister on Wednesday night far away in Nigeria.
This is the first time in my adult life that my mum’s immediate family will be loosing a sibling. God has kept all of them all these years. I guess that is the reason it has been very painful..
Aunty Regina was a great woman. My mum use to share with us stories and of things that happened between them when they were young. I spent all the moments recalling those stories and felt so much pain in my heart. I spoke with the son yesterday and I was all tears in my heart.
Even my food lost its taste because of this great loss in my mum’s family. I wish I could travel home.
The cost of being on this field is great. I can’t even go home for a funeral. The pain was increased by what happened in the studio yesterday. I don’t want to talk about it. But one thing I will say is this, I hate being disappointed by lack of truth.
Sadly, transparency has become an expensive ingredient today. Deception seems to have become the clothing of even those you think, “at least this is an ally.” But let me leave that. They can continue making their beds the way the want to lie on it. Time will make sure they lie on the very bed they make for themselves.
My aunty, like my mum, spent the better part of her life away from my state in Nigeria. She and her husband settled in Yoruba land, while my mum and my Dad settled in Hausa land. These are two major parts of Nigeria.
I remember in those days, whenever we all gather at our home in the village for Christmas, my siblings and I will be speaking the Hausa language, while they will be speaking Yoruba. With some other of our cousins speaking Igbo. These are the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria, a nation with almost 400 ethnic groups.
So every Christmas, you see Nigeria converging in our family. It was always interesting. But now…..
In those days, we were considered city Children by the rest of the extended family. I remember her voice, her laughter, what she does when she is angry, and how she became more loving and kind as an elderly woman. I share the same native name with her first Son. They named both of us after our grand father.
She had lost her husband few years ago; another great and loving man.
It is in times like this that I do wish there was no death. I pray that God will help our entire family to bear this pain and come out well. I do not know if my aunty was saved. That is another pain. But I tried my best to minister to my family many years back. The last time I saw her was a glorious meeting. I had gone to my village for a crusade. She was visiting with all her Children.
WE HAD A GREAT TIME IN GOD’S PRESENCE, WITH THE POWER OF GOD BREAKING OUT TO DO SO MANY MARVELOUS THINGS.
Aunty Regina, we will miss you. I wish I was given an opportunity to see you for the last time. This work here is really kept me away from my family. I think I would have to take a two months break, travel back home to visit the rest.
The pain of not seeing a loved one again is indeed not a good one.
People do not understand what people like us who are sent by LORD to other people’s nation to execute the great commission without omission, go through. That is why they make us go through a lot of pain and disappointments.
Why some contribute to our comfort, welfare and care, others contribute to our pain and sorrow. Well, it is okay. God has always been there to help.
Sadly, many do not know the terrible consequences of contributing to the pain and sorrow of a man or woman on a divine mission to a foreign nation. You need to read the Bible to find out.
Many of us do not know the fire we heap upon our heads when we do them harm or slow their work. That is why you find those who know, spending every moment to contribute to their comfort, care, joy, happiness, welfare, success and all that will make them fulfill their GOD given missions, and getting eternal rewards in return.
I think what make Christians do such nonsense is carnality. They are too carnal to be a source of Joy to a heavenly messenger sent to their nation. That brings us to the subject of today’s message – CARNALITY!
Talking about carnality, there are so many carnal Christians in the Church today, and that has become worrisome in the office of the three that bear witness in Heaven. Because all are dying and going to hell without the Church knowing about it, God wants the dangerous trend to stop.
The Bible says, “to be carnally minded is death.” That has not changed. It made it clear that Christians who walk in the flesh will not make Heaven because they are condemned.
Sadly, people do not read those scriptures. We do not have the glorious habit of spending some days, from time to time, with Romans chapter 8, at least to receive revelation on how to secure our Christianity. That is why we have this spiritual plague among us.
The growing number of carnal Christians in the present church is responsible for the growing number of Christians who are dying and going to hell instead of Heaven. It is responsible for the curses, sicknesses, poverty, spiritual attacks, marital and economic failures, attacks in the dream, and all related bad things that believers go through today.
CHILD OF GOD, THE GREATEST FORCE THAT IS BETRAYING US TO THE ENEMY IS CARNALITY, NOTHING ELSE.
Stop blaming the altars in your father’s house for what carnality is bringing upon you. Stop blaming the witches in your village for what carnality is bringing upon you. Stop blaming evil foundations or whatever, for what carnality is bringing upon you. If you do not stop, you will keep sowing seeds, fasting and praying towards your deliverance and it will never come.
You need to begin a walk in the Spirit and stop walking in the flesh to experience the deliverance you are looking for.
Sadly, ignorance, desire to make money in ministry, the perverted gospel of grace, and many other things, are not letting us know that carnality is the greatest hindrance on the paths of many of us who profess Christ. This has further complicated our problems, and made them incurable.
For instance, more people are recovering from corona virus than the consequences of leading a carnal Christian life, because of the false doctrines from the many false gospels that they have sold their hearts to, especially the perverted grace gospel.
These false doctrines, especially the ones from the perverted gospel of grace, make people think that once they believe in Jesus, and recite what they call “the sinner’s prayer,” they are saved, irrespective of how they lead their lives afterwards. That is very dangerous!
A fruitless faith or belief in Christ Jesus is condemnation in disguise.
The book of James made it clear that if a fruitless believe in Jesus is what will take people to Heaven, then even the devils are saved. It says devils believe in Christ and even tremble. I call it “the devil’s kind of faith” Carnality is a child of that kind of faith – a faith without works of righteousness as fruit.
We must understand that the foundation of all the problems we face today as Christians is carnality. That is the evil foundation to bring down if you are looking for one to deal with, as the deliverance ministers lead you to.
Carnality is allowing the flesh to be in charge of your life after declaring Jesus as LORD. It is being ruled by the natural senses or a false spirit instead of the Holy Spirit of God after accepting Christ. The Bible says the result of that kind of life is death – spiritual and even prematurely natural.
YES, CARNALITY HAS LED TO THE DEAD OF MANY MARRIAGES.
I have seen carnality kill great marriages, leaving children at the mercy of the circumstance of life. I have seen carnality kill GLORIOUS financial destinies, powerful ministries, and all that make life pleasurable. I have seen carnality make people hate God’s messengers and seek to destroy them and their families.
Carnality sometimes manifest like demon possession. The reason is, a carnal Christian can be demonic without even having a demon living in him or her. That is how dangerous carnality can be.
The Church must wake up from the valleys of living a carnal Christian life and come into the higher life of a deep walk with the Spirit of God that we are all called into. God is calling us to deep intimacy with Jesus Christ. He wants to eliminate the dangerous trend of carnality and pseudo Christianity in our midst, and get us ready for the return of our King.
Carnality has taken away the power of the Holy Spirit in our Churches and made us to present a powerless, senseless, and dead Jesus to a dying world.
Many forget that when Jesus came, he did miracles signs, and wonders. He used miracles to solve problems, and signs and wonders to make prophetic statements and pass messages. We are called to continue in the same.
But we have been attacked by the carnality virus. We are now sick spiritually and are in quarantine by the world, because a sick Church cannot bring eternal healing to a dying world. It cannot bring the healing of speaking in signs and wonders (not the miraculous powers of Baal), and turning sinners into saints, to a dying world.
There is this sign in the Holy Scriptures that I want to bring to your attention. The sign of the miraculous catch of fish. It was this sign Jesus used in calling Peter out of his fishing business into the Kingdom business of catching men (snatching men from the grips of hell and bringing them into Christ). That sign has another message for us today.
If you look at the sign, you will discover that Peter toiled all night and caught nothing; he caught nothing because he was in the shallow places, not the deep. Then Jesus directed him to launch out into the deep. He did, and caught great fishes – which represents the souls of men.
THERE IS A MESSAGE FOR US THERE, MY FRIEND!
To us today, God is saying,
“You cannot catch more of me and genuinely get souls saved until you launch out into the deep.”
Don’t forget, the first words Jesus said to Peter were “Launch out into the deep.” The necessity of going out into the deep, and developing a walk with God before reaching out to save souls cannot be over emphasized. It is absolutely important to the salvation of the souls we want to save.
I have come to discover that a Carnal Christian cannot get a soul genuinely saved, because in the spirit you can only produce your kind. We must understand that!
If you are carnal and half backed, you will produce carnal and half backed Christians in your quest to save souls. You will do that either as a preacher or as a Christian who is desiring to get souls saved. We must learn to launch out into the deeper places of the Spirit, lead a glorious Christian life, and then reach out to save souls all at the same time because the time is short.
Looking at what is happening around us, you will realize that we need more of God today than at any time in world history!
But most local churches are dry and noisy. There is no power AS OF OLD in our midst. Instead of being filled with the Holy Ghost, most are filled with the influences of religious demons. Consequently, breeding a life that is short of being Christian by character and peaceful.
Outright spiritual darkness is what you see in the life of those who profess to be sons of light. There is no power to live the Holy Life we are all called to live. We see exploitation of the saints instead of equipping of the saints in so many local Churches.
Christians now move from illness to illness, because there is no balm in our Gilead any more. The healing in our worship has completely disappeared. We must all rise to say “enough of this nonsense we call Christianity. The time to get deep with God is now.”
If we do not obey the call for deep intimacy, we will always be answering to the calls of our enemies. The spirits of hell, death, and grave will not cease being our companions. David obeyed that call and said something in the book of Psalms. Our devotional text put it this way,
“One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple”
God wants us to start desiring this one thing – deep intimacy with Jesus Christ – a realm where we do nothing, but behold the beauty of the LORD and enquire in His temple, even as we go about our daily businesses! That is the DEEP to launch out into.
If you do, whatever you are running away from, will start running away from you. That is the word of the LORD today!
LET THIS SCRIPTURAL PASSAGE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat.
When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.”
And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.
When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.
And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.” So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him. Luke 5:3-11 NKJV