TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Friday 11th December 2020)
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 345TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
It’s another glorious day in the eve of this eventful year. Another day to lift up our eyes and hearts to the LORD and say “thank you for keeping us, LORD.” With the spirit of gratitude, lets embrace this day as a gift from God and request that He make it a blessing in our lives even as we rise to serve our generation according to His will.
The word “LORD” in the Bible is from the word Adonai, meaning owner. God owns our lives. He is the legitimate owner of what we call “my life.”
Our primary assignments on earth is to use our lives and do the will of its owner. The reason is because, our lives were not given to us to be owned by us. Our lives were given to us to be owned, governed and then used by its owner.
Those who think they own their lives, will end up defeating the plans and purposes of God for it. They will not fulfill their prophetic or eternal destiny.
There are so many things our lives are not designed to be or do. Anytime we venture into those things, we destroy ourselves. The first of them is exactly what I stated earlier. Our lives are not designed to be owned by us. Our lives were designed to be owned by the LORD; the owner of our lives.
People who decide to own their lives, will end up ruining their lives.
To OWN can be used as a verb, a pronoun or an adjective. As a verb, to own means to have something as your possession. Your life was not designed for you to have as your possession. You could even become possess with demons if you attempt to have your life as a possession.
A life at your possession is usually directed after your own will and driven to follow your own sinful paths and ways. It is completely cut off from the controls of God and never brought under the power of His Holy Spirit. And if a life is not under the power of the Holy Spirit, it will not receive any significant thing from the LORD (from its owner)!
Our lives are designed to be products of what we receive from its owner. It is what a life receive from its owner that keeps it going. And from what we know as the law of ownership, no owner will give what he owns a bad gift.
THE OWNER OF OUR LIVES WILL ALWAYS GIVE IT THE BEST GIFT IN HIS KINGDOM.
The Bible says every good and perfect gift is from Him. That is why, if our lives turn out good, you will always find what we received from its owner responsible. And if it turns out bad, you will find what we did not receive from the owner as responsible.
Wise people will hand over their lives to its owner to run according to His own will and way. We find a lot of these breed in the Holy Scriptures. Concerning them, the Bible says;
“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.
And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.
But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country.
Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. Hebrew 11:13-16 NKJV
Only people who have handed over their lives to its owner die in faith; the rest dies in sin and ends up in eternal judgment.
Only people who have handed over the lives to its owner seek a homeland beyond this world. Only them desire a heavenly country. They are the only ones you find God attaching Himself to. You will always experience God’s manifest presence anytime you hang around them.
They dance to a different drumbeat in the Spirit. They literally outsource their earthly lifestyle from the Heavenly realm where God lives. The do not set their minds on earthly; the set their minds f Heavenly things. They do not trade the eternal for the earthly. They will even loose the whole world to secure their souls, instead of losing their souls to secure the whole world.
As we move closer and closer to our year of Higher Heights, one of the questions to ask yourself is, how much of my life do I own and how much have I allowed its owner to own? The answer you give to this question will determine how your life will turn out in 2021.
AUTHENTIC CHRISTIANITY IS A CALL TO RETURN OUR LIVES BACK TO ITS OWNER.
We took it from Him in the Garden of Eden and walked away into the hands of the evil one. He in turn took it from us and pretended to be its owner for thousands of years. Sadly, many believed him and still believe him. He even taught others to think they own their lives, while in reality he owns it for them.
But his false ownership was terminated on the cross of Calvary when God stepped down as man, and paid the ultimate sacrifice for our redemption. The purpose of preaching is to tell people this good news and request that they return their lives back to its owner; yes, back to the one that created it.
But that is one of the most difficult thing to do. Few will want to return their lives back to its owner.
That is why many of us seek what we call freedom. Freedom to be the sinful us; freedom to pursue a happiness that will not give u a better ending. Freedom from divine restrictions and morality. Freedom from right living and ethical conduct. All of us wants this kind of spiritual infection called freedom. That is why we are destroyed.
We know the cost of getting our lives back to its owner. We know that it will cost us everything hence not willing to do so. At most, we do it partially, especially when things are not working. We do not do it totally like our LORD Jesus showed us.
Returning our lives back will require repentance form dead works and a turning away from a sinful life. It will require not doing things that are not God’s will for our lives. It will require getting out of things that are not part and parcel of God’s program for your life.
IT WILL REQUIRE LEADING A GODLY LIFE, AT THE EXPENSE OF ANYTHING ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH.
When that happens, your passion in life, vision for living, and tradition will change. You will begin to cry; “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
Yes, you will begin to press on to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of you. Nothing in this world will matter to you any longer. The ultimate of God will replace everything you consider legitimate among men. You will no longer be comfortable in earthly success driven churches and messages.
You will begin to look for something fresh, something AWAY from the status quo. Something different from the acceptable and celebrated.
Sometimes, you will find yourself surrounded by people, yet alone. Alone because they do not understand you. Alone because they are ruled by the spirit of this world and control by the gods of the nations.
No one who have handed his or her life back to the LORD will not be alone if he or she finds himself or herself among Christians who have not done so. It is usually complicated! If you are in a marriage, it will become sour until your spouse joins you in handing over his or her life, totally and truly, to its owner.
If you are in a business or an organization run in a certain way, it would become difficult, because people who have not handed over their lives to its owner have a way of becoming a pain on the neck of those who have. But one thing God does to all who have handed over their lives to Him, is to fill it with His Holy Spirit.
That is why it is when we totally surrender that we receive the Holy Spirit into our lives. When He comes, He brings another precious gift called POWER. His power is the ultimate power. Every other power submits to it. Our devotional text says;
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8 NKJV
When you receive this power, you will begin to be witness unto the owner of your life; not just by words but by great signs and wonders. He will begin to do things in you and through you, that will reveal Him to people who sit in darkness, so that they may come to do what you have done – hand over their lives back to its owner.
One of the greatest things you can ever do in life is to get it back to its owner so that He can make it what He created it to be. His words tell us that before you were formed in your mother’s womb He knew you, He sanctified and ordained you to be certain things on earth. Will you live this life without becoming those things? No!
Time has come make a decision; the decision to either handover or leave your life in the hands of its owner. Time to stop worrying about anything. We worry whenever we take our lives back.
Worrying is one of the signs that shows we are now in control; is a sign that God is no longer in control.
When we own our lives, we worry how it is either turning out or how it should turn out. We enter the worrying room seeking for answers to things; especially things we cannot change.
God sent this word this morning to tell us to hand over our lives totally to Him. We have owned it enough; choosing which career to pursue, which city to live in, which man or woman to marry, and all that. Now He wants us to trust Him enough to let Him have it.
Time to tell the Holy Spirit, “come and take over who belongs to you! I belong to you LORD. I don’t belong to me, or anyone. I belong to you. Come and take me back.
Run my life the way you want. Govern it the way it seems good to you. Only let me sense the direction you want me to go.
I promise, I will not rebel against it. If I do, chastise me! Please LORD, do not leave me to myself. Amen and amen!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY
“Now it shall be, if you diligently listen to and obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all of His commandments which I am commanding you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you pay attention to the voice of the Lord your God.
“You will be blessed in the city, and you will be blessed in the field.” Deuteronomy 28:1-3 Amplified Version