TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 8TH JANUARY 2023)
“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.
Therefore, I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus, I fight: not as one who beats the air.
But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 8TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS!
It has been eight days since we stepped into this beautiful set of days called 2023. God has kept us. Already, His faithfulness has done great things for us. Some of us are already counting our 2023 blessings. May you join this unit of God.
For those who love Bible numerology, today is a great day that you can make use of and join the unit. Because it is a number of New Beginning, you can also use it to either begin a fresh journey with GOD or receive something new that will create a new beginning in an aspect of your life that is inglorious. It is all about your faith and revelation knowledge.
Today we will be looking at another law of visionary living I call “the law of what to live for.” Actually, it should be “the law of what to die for” because the best way to live for a thing is to die for it. A school of thought has it that as soon as we are born, we start dying or let me say expiring.
To expire means to come to the end of a period of validity or life. It means to breathe the last breath. As soon as we are born, we start depleting the number of breaths that has been allocated to us by GOD; we start exhausting the period we were assigned to be alive by our maker; we start dying.
The law of what to die for is all about what to spend our lives doing while all that is happening. In other words, what to be doing while we are depleting the number of breaths that have been allocated to us.
Prophetically, every human who is born on earth has something God has preplanned that person to spend all their days depleting their breaths for. For Jeremiah it was a prophetic ministry.
IN OTHER WORDS, GOD PLANNED THAT WHILE HE IS SPENDING HIS DAYS DEPLETING HIS BREATHS, HE IS TO FUNCTION AS HIS SPOKESMAN.
The Bible says;
Then the word of the Lord came to me [Jeremiah], saying,
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew [and] approved of you [as My chosen instrument], and before you were born, I separated and set you apart, consecrating you; [and] I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:4-5 AMPC
As we can see in this scripture, Jeremiah’s life was created when his mother and father came together, but it was to be spent or depleted within a divine purpose. That purpose is him functioning as a spokesperson for God. It was for him to function as a prophet to the nations. He did that very faithfully despite what he faced.
There were periods he almost gave up because hell will be on your case when you start spending your days doing the things that you were born to die or deplete your breaths for. Here is a conversation that took place between him and God in one of those dark moments he faced depleting his breath while doing what the LORD preplanned him to do.
The Bible says he said to God;
“But You, O Lord, know and understand me and my devotion to You; You see me and try my heart toward You. [O Lord] pull [these rebellious ones] out like sheep for the slaughter and devote and prepare them for the day of slaughter.
How long must the land mourn and the grass and herbs of the whole country wither? Through the wickedness of those who dwell in it, the beasts and the birds are consumed and are swept away [by the drought], because men [mocked] me, saying, He shall not [live to] see our final end.
[But the Lord rebukes Jeremiah’s impatience, saying] If you have raced with men on foot and they have tired you out, then how can you compete with horses? And if [you take to flight] in a land of peace where you feel secure, then what will you do [when you tread the tangled maze of jungle haunted by lions] in the swelling and flooding of the Jordan?
For even your brethren and the house of your father—even they have dealt treacherously with you; yes, even they are [like a pack of hounds] in full cry after you. Believe them not, though they speak fair words and promise good things to you.” Jeremiah 12:3-6 AMPC
WHAT DO YOU SEE IN THIS SCRIPTURE?
You find the heat you face from men of wicked hearts if you decide to spend your days depleting your breaths for what the LORD designed that you die for. Jeremiah had it rough.
Everyone will have it rough. Hell hates people who spend their lives living a God designed visionary life. Sadly, people fear living divinely designed visionary lives because of that. But Jeremiah was different. God even told him how rough it would be at the onset, I think that was to prepare his mind. I guess that was why he was able to stand the rigors.
He would later live to spend all the breaths the LORD allocated to him working as a prophet to the nations despite the odds. History has it that he did all that until he breathed his last. He breathed his last within God’s plan and purpose for it. That is exactly how you and I should live. It is called visionary living. It is a law of what to die for.
Your life is designed to be spent within a divine purpose. Yes, the number of breaths assigned to us is to be depleted within a divine purpose. If that is not happening, there will be times that you will not feel like you are living or you even want to live. That is why the Bible says woe is he who is at ease in Zion.
If you do not have a revelation of what to spend your days depleting your breaths for, you are part of a wasted generation. In fact, you will be long forgotten even before you die. That is why you hear people saying “they have forgotten me.” Of course, people will forget whoever is not spending their days depleting their breaths for a divine purpose.
Anyone who is not involved in visionary living will be forgotten even by his own bed, so to speak. Even your bed will not know you are alive.
Amazingly, Jeremiah is still doing today what he did thousands of years ago because he lived a visionary life. How can such a man be forgotten? He is no longer here on earth but God made sure his voice is still here with us through the Bible. That is what visionary living does to a man.
IT KEEPS YOU ALIVE LONG AFTER YOU ARE DEAD. IT MAKES SURE YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN.
Jesus Himself said;
“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”
He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor. John 12:24-26 NKJV
A God given visionary life makes you God’s grain of corn. It takes you away from the pack of those who loves their lives enough not to spend it depleting their breaths for something divine. It makes you part of those who spend their breaths within the sphere of a divine purpose like Jeremiah.
And Jesus says if we live that way, we will not lose our lives. In other words, He will reward each breath we spend doing His own thing while we are alive in the next life. Actually, we are not designed to spend our lives doing our own thing. We are designed to spend it doing His own thing. That is what it means to serve Him. Do not forget He said;
“If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.” John 12:26 NKJV
If you spend your life doing His own thing, you have become His seed of corn.
Now, as His seed of corn you cannot be forgotten on earth. You will lead a dying life that will make sure you are not forgotten or alone. It will make sure you are known across the nations or your immediate sphere of life.
Visionary living today is spending your life being a seed of corn for Christ. It is expiring your days doing Christ’s own thing. It is dying daily for Christ’s own purpose. It is depleting the breaths God assigned to you doing what Christ wants you to do with your life.
You must therefore, seek the LORD to illuminate your heart with the light of what he assigned your breaths to be depleted for while alive.
THE TRUTH IS, AS SOON AS WE COME INTO CHRIST, HE ILLUMINATES OUR HEARTS WITH LIGHT AND UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT TO DIE FOR.
You find that in how He called all who later became the early Church. Each person he meets He would say to them, follow me and I will make you. That was it!
They followed and He made them. He made them His seed of corn. They fell and died on daily bases until the died finally, living an eternal legacy that we are still benefiting from today.
Friend, this Life is only beautiful when we spend our days being seeds of corn for Christ. Our devotional text is about a man who depleted his breaths being a seed of corn for Christ. His name was Paul. What he said in the text reveals what I would like to call the Character of those who obey the law of visionary living that we are considering today. He said;
“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.
Therefore, I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus, I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 NKJV
If you have something to die for, as Christ’s seed of corn, you will be running your daily life like a race, with eyes on the eternal reward of your service to Him. That will form your motivation for living. You will be running in such a way that you will obtain.
You will be temperate in all things, you will be fighting through the obstacles of life purposefully, not as one who beats the air. You will be like an athlete, leading a disciplined life, putting your body under so that it will not make you do things that will destroy you at the end.
The Character of Christians who obey any law of visionary living is usually different from those who do not. They are fully motivated. They are fulfilled in being Christ’s seeds of corn in their generation. They spend each day depleting their breaths for that; each day living or dying for something. You see that in them all, especially Paul.
The law of what to live or die for is a law of visionary living that will make you a unique person as soon as you embrace it.
God allowed all they did to be passed on to us so that we can pick up, in our own generation, from where they stopped. It is my prayer that you find something that will keep ringing in your spirit from this devotional and become all the LORD has designed you to be in Jesus precious name. Amen!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY!
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—
always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
So then death is working in us, but life in you. 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 NKJV