TODAY’S DEVOTION (Monday 26th October 2020)
“My soul has dwelt too long with one who hates peace. I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war.” Psalms 120:6-7 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 298th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
So sorry that this devotional is coming late today!
I was not feeling fine yesterday due to overwork. The signs have been there but I have been pushing on. Sometimes, I overstretch my body and it breaks down and begin to say something like, “please I need some rest. Remember, If I die, you will not have an earth suit to wear and be on this earth.”
So from Saturday I began to feel I need some rest. I felt like not preaching again and taking a one month off the pulpit.
I have been busier during the lockdown than when we were having Church in the Hall. So I wanted to play a recorded service yesterday (Sunday) morning for us all. But I remembered my personal covenant of service with the LORD. I knew the consequences of backing out and not standing on my duty post. So I decided to stand on my post irrespective of how I felt in my body.
Thank God, He enabled me to stand for five house and do my job. Finally, I got healed by evening. By evening I had to take my family out to act opposite how I was feeling to further establish my healing. That is what we call faith in God’s kingdom.
Now, when the body is healing, it sends you to sleep. So, I slept and forgot to write the devotional! But finally, it is here, so let’s get started! Today Heaven will help us to look at the power of environment in our walk and talk with GOD as His righteous seed.
Many of us in the faith, are yet to come into the revelation of our seed nature. I mean our spiritual nature as the righteous seed.
Actually true salvation encounter transforms. It transforms a man through the washing and regeneration of the human spirit by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says,
“But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,” Titus 3:4-6 NKJV
If your salvation was based on a mere “decision” instead of an “encounter” with the LORD, you are not safe. Genuine salvation transforms. It transforms a sinner from the seed of the wicked to the seed of the righteous.
ANY SALVATION CLAIM THAT LACKS A TRANSFORMED HEART IS FALSE.
Sadly, we have so many false salvations in the company of believers. That leaves us with so many tongue talking seeds of the wicked one even in Church leadership positions. But this not limited to the Church circle alone.
From the Parable of the wheat and tares, it’s clear that there are two kinds of people in the field of the world; the seed of the righteous and the seed of the wicked one. God who does not want anyone to perish has made it possible for every seed of the wicked one (who we all were), to experience salvation by the washing and regeneration of the Holy Spirit and become the seed of the righteous.
That means whoever have not experience salvation by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit is still the seed of the wicked one. He could be a pope. That also tells us why so called Christians are approving abominations that God disapprove.
So if you are genuinely saved you are a seed of the righteous, but if you are not, you are the seed of the wicked!
Now, the world is very fertile for the growth and development of the seeds of the wicked one. In fact, everything in the world supplies enough fertility to the soil of the seed of the wicked to grow unhindered. You know those who are being supplied from the soil of the wicked one by their preferences.
For instance, there are people who claim to be saved in church who still listen to world music and with some even singing them in choir. When you ask them to stop they will tell you, it does not matter. There are preachers who even do that.
These are the seed of the wicked one among us, showing it by their preferences. They form the army of worldly Christians in what we call the body of Christ.
THE WORLD INDEED IS A FERTILE GROUND FOR THE SEED OF THE WICKED ONE.
The media, the society in general; our universities and High schools, the policies of the government of nations, and sadly as earlier stated, even the Church today – Indeed, these institutions are full of influences that fertilizes the seed of the wicked one to grow. You find the righteous trapped in them almost choking spiritually.
They choke because the institutions have no moral strength to fertilize the seed of the righteous to grow and take root. In fact, they kill it. That is why God warned all seed of the righteous in His word saying;
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world.
And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” 1 John 2:15-17 NKJV
The world is fertile enough to grow the seed of the wicked one but too barren to grow the seed of the righteous. That is why any righteous seed that plants himself in the world system will die and become a seed of the wicked one. That brings us to the issue of environment again.
The most important need of a seed is A GOOD SOIL. The fields of the world today have become so corrupt and very good to grow the seed of the wicked one. But if the seed of the righteous will ever grow and flourish, he must discern the ground GOD has determined that he be planted. He must disconnect from places and people who do not minister the fertility he needs to grow in Christ.
THE BIBLE MADE IT CLEAR THAT,
“The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bear fruit in old age; they shall be fresh and flourishing,” Psalms 92:12-14 NKJV
The courts of our God in the future is the judgment seat of Christ, where we will one day stand before Him to be eternally rewarded or reproved for the work we did while here on earth.
Meaning, as the seeds of the righteous, if we are not planted in the soil God designed that we be planted in this life, we will not flourish when we all stand in the courts of our God in the next life. This is what makes attending the wrong Church eternally dangerous.
The soil God designed that we be planted in is called “the House of God” In other words, a local Church that is not a City of refuse in the Spirit but a City of Refuge!
Yes, there are many false Churches but that has not erased the importance of belonging to a true local Church HEADED by God fearing men or women – local Churches with the House of God content (which is not a building but the place of God’s manifest presence).
God’s greatest vision is to use our present life to prepare us for the next life. You must understand that. This life was not the original designed life for us. There was a better life, but it got lost when man fell. Now God wants us back there. However, the present life is what He uses to prepare us for that life.
Now, the Bible tells us that the present life is like a vapor when compared to the next life where we will be. It will need the right church to be prepared. In other words, if you plant yourself in the wrong Church as the righteous seed in this life, it will prevent you from flourishing in the courts of our God in the next life.
I CALL THAT THE ETERNAL CONSEQUENCE OF BEING IN THE WRONG CHURCH, OR BEING THE RIGHT ONE WITH A WRONG HEART.
This eternal consequence is the reason Satan is raising more preachers and sending them to establish Churches or infiltrating already established ones with people with wrong hearts. Satan knows the consequences of being in the wrong Church than most Christians.
Apart from flourishing in the courts of our GOD in the next life if you plant yourself in the right church with a right heart, there is also flourishing in this life.
The Bible says,
“Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age; they shall be fresh and flourishing…”
Bringing forth fruit in Old age denotes flourishing in this life! All is tied to where the SEED is planted.
For instance, if you plant yourself in a metaphysical cult called church, except you are a seed of the wicked one, you will never flourish.
If the righteous seed plants himself in a political party, money making machine, social club, or a place of theatrical performance called church, he will not flourish in the courts of our GOD. Again, a seed of the wicked one may flourish in such Churches, but the seed of the righteous one will never flourish.
That is why the first thing GOD gives a genuinely saved person is a pastor after His heart and a church to function as a good ground for his spiritual upbringing.
If a pastor after God’s heart and a good church are missing in your life, you will never flourish in life even if your salvation is genuine. Only false Christians (the seed of the wicked one) flourish under perverted pastors and wrong Churches. That brings us to our devotional text. It says,
“My soul has dwelt too long with one who hates peace. I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war.”
IF YOUR SOUL DWELLS WITH PEOPLE WHO HATE RIGHTEOUSNESS, PEACE AND JOY IN THE HOLY GHOST, YOU WILL NEVER FLOURISH.
Even when you mean well, they will fight you. It is going to be with you what it was with Lot – Abraham’s Nephew.
Remember he separated from Abraham and dwelled in the Land of Sodom. When time commented over his decision, he lost everything including his wife. His daughters would later make him commit an abomination by impregnating them both.
Talking about this man’s spiritual travail while in Sodom, the Bible says,
“And He condemned to ruin and extinction the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, reducing them to ashes [and thus] set them forth as an example to those who would be ungodly;
And He rescued righteous Lot, greatly worn out and distressed by the wanton ways of the ungodly and lawless” 2 Peter 2:6-7 AMP
Eschatological, we shall be one day rescued like Lot was from a falling and failing world through the rapture of the Church, but prophetically we see a pattern of what we go through if we plant ourselves in the wrong soils as God’s righteous seed. We will be distressed by the wanton and wicked ways of the ungodly and lawless people there, leading to strife and dissatisfaction.
That alone can destroy one’s relationship with God. That is why it’s better not to be there than to be there hoping that things will change.
The truth is nothing will change the devil or anything established with his seed. He is the one that will change you. If things seem to you to have changed, after a while of being in the wrong place, you are the one that have changed by becoming a seed of the wicked one like the people there.
This message is a wake up call!
The most important thing in the life of a seed is the soil. Where you are planted as God’s righteous seed is what determines how your life turns out.
Do not be carried away be the outlook of Churches and men of God. Let GOD speak to you about the character content of the people. If there is no glory among them – I mean the fullness of God on display, turning sinners into saints, that is the wrong place to plant yourself.
Let the story of Lot be your guide!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU;
“And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar.
“Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other.
Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord.” Genesis 13:10-13 NKJV