TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 6TH FEBRUARY 2023)
“Because of faith Enoch was caught up and transferred to heaven, so that he did not have a glimpse of death; and he was not found, because God had translated him. For even before he was taken to heaven, he received testimony [still on record] that he had pleased and been satisfactory to God.
But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out]. Hebrews 11:5-6 AMPC
WELCOME TO THE 37TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS!
The Bible says “God is God of knowledge; and by Him actions are weighed.” Most of us have very terrible acts and motives. But His mercies do not let Him deal with us according to them, He wants us transformed rather than destroyed.
On the flip side, He is able to help because He weighs our actions and motives. He knows which motives and actions will lead us to destruction, and then come to teach us about them, and transform us not to go in that direction. His mercies run so deep, because of how bad our moral situations are, and how strong and necessary His eternal plan for mankind is.
God has been faithful, and it is because of His faithfulness that we are even alive today. It is 37 days already since we stepped into this year, and we give Him the glory for all He is doing in our lives.
Today is the second day of another week, a work day. We thank Him for His mercies upon our lives, and we are glad to begin the day after our day of appearance, yesterday.
We are in the 28-day journey of faith with the Cry of the Spirit on supernatural living, and today is the 6th day. Yesterday we shared some sanctified thoughts on consecration, as a major requirement for supernatural living in God. We saw the important of being pure in heart and life, so long as supernatural living was concern; without which, every attempt to go supernatural, will be a dive into the dark supernatural.
Yes, there is the dark supernatural controlled by the devil. The Bible warns us about it. It manifests as wickedness in a basket with strong influence and abilities to multiply itself. The apostle Paul calls it the mystery of iniquity or lawlessness. It is a mystery that will power apostasy in the end time Church, and sadly, we are right in it.
APOSTASY IS THE DEPARTURE FROM THE FAITH, NOT ACTUALLY THE DENIAL OF IT.
It is a departure from the tenets, lifestyle, principles, and practices of the faith, to things that look like them. The Bible warns that this will be powered by the dark supernatural, that will be manifesting via the spirit of lawlessness in Church.
When apostasy sets in, courtesy of the dark supernatural, you will depart from the tenets of the faith, thinking all is well, since what you take as God is giving you the miracles you crave for. And of course, without minding your sinful life style.
You will call that “the love of GOD” and be deluded to think, that is what grace is all about. You will forget that grace is not a permission to sin, but a forgiveness for sins, and an empowerment to go and sin no more.
You will be blind to the fact that Grace will teach and empower us to say “no” to ungodliness (constantly fight our old sinful nature not to govern our lives). You will forget that God’s grace trains or imparts our hearts to be pure. You will not remember that it teaches our spiritual focus, to look forward to the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ.
When this dark supernatural comes in with its miracles, it will change all that God’s grace truly is, and promote apostacy in your life. It will define falling from grace differently; it will call a personal desire to lead a holy life, a fall from grace.
I reiterate again that when this dark supernatural comes, you will depart from the tenets of the faith, thinking all is well, since what you think is God, is giving you the miracles, you crave for, without minding your sinful life style. You will call that “the love of GOD” and be deluded to think, that is what grace is all about.
Child of God, Grace will teach and empower us to say “no” to ungodliness, it will propel us to constantly fight our old sinful nature not to govern our lives, and train our hearts to be pure, and be looking to the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ.
THIS DARK SUPERNATURAL, COMES WITH A LOT ON GRACE BECAUSE, ITS FOCUS IS TO KEEP PEOPLE IN THEIR OLD SINFUL LIVES.
It changes so much in the lives of seekers of God through the miracles it brings. It is very subtle and seductive, especially on matters that promotes a fall from grace.
Talking about falling from grace, I hear what people believe these days to be “falling from Grace” and marvel how deep the spirit of lawlessness has taken root in the hearts of some. To my shock, people are bold to say, falling from grace is when you personally decide to live a holy and pure life after hearing the word of truth.
They teach that standing in grace is just living your life under the grace of God.
Sadly, they do not tell us what they really mean, and what will happen to your morality that way. But let God be true and all men liars.
The Bible is clear that we fall from grace, when we go back to our old sinful nature that the grace of God buried, in the day of our salvation. When we do not embrace consecration after salvation, it will not be long, we will go back to our old sinful natures, and begin to live our Christian lives from there, adjusting our Theology to accept, or be comfortable with our spiritual tragedy.
The Bible is clear on pre and post salvation states of a once saved soul. It says that a post salvation spiritual state is worse than a pre salvation spiritual state. In pre salvation state, one knows that they are unsaved, and seek salvation. But in a post salvation state, one thinks he or she is safe, living their life the way they do.
ALL THESE THINGS ARE CAUSED BY THE ACTIVITIES OF THE DARK SUPERNATURAL IN CHURCH TODAY.
It unleashes lying wonders to keep hearts hardened to truth, thereby setting them up for eternal damnation. Let me reiterate again that when it comes to walking in the supernatural, you must be wary of the dark supernatural that seek to manifest itself in the Church, and in the lives of believers.
We must make “consecration to Christ, His Spirit, and His ways” our daily bread, while seeking the supernatural, so that the dark supernatural will be far away from us. Paul called that consecration “dying daily.” He said “I die daily.” That is what we must do to stay away from the dark supernatural and walk in the supernatural of God.
On this flow, let us wrap this up by looking at some of the apostolic and prophetic consecration patterns, found in the lives of those who lived naturally in the supernatural in Bible days; people who are now part of the cloud of many witnesses in Heaven. The Bible says;
“Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us,” Hebrews 12:1 AMPC
This scripture is one of the many scriptures in the Bible that calls for consecration, purity, holiness, and righteousness after salvation. We must adhere to it. It made it clear that, we should obey the call looking at the consecration patterns of men and women who are presently in the cloud of many witnesses, standing on what they did while they were here on earth in Bible days.
Now, “there is nothing new under the sun” they say, “if anything is new to you, it’s because you are new under the sun.” There is no level of supernatural living we want to step into, that righteous men and women, who walked with God in time past, did not walk in.
These righteous men and women, form the cloud of the souls of departed men and women, who bore Testimony to the Truth, when they were here on earth. If you use the holy scriptures, to look at them in the cloud, you will realize that they cut across different dispensations.
We believe that, if we are able to yield to the Holy Spirit, by looking at their lives through the lenses of the Holy Scriptures, we will be able to catch some revelations of prophetic and apostolic consecration patterns, that shot them to the realms they walked in.
The Bible says;
“Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” 1 Corinthians 10:11 NKJV
THE LIVES OF THESE MEN AND WOMEN AS DOCUMENTED IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, FORMS OUR ROOTS AS PRESENT-DAY BELIEVERS.
We ought to be their fruits. But sadly, by spiritual DNA most of what we call church today is not.
Their lives also form our beginning; the beginning of the faith. We will never know if we are bearing the same kind of fruits they bore in their days, until we look at them. We will never know if we are a continuation of what they began if we do not look at them.
Today we will be looking at the man Enoch, who experienced the first Rapture to take place on earth, to our knowledge. He was a man who walked with God, and stepped into a supernatural realm that we are all hoping to step into on the Day of Resurrection.
God used Him as a template for the Church that will not see death. The consecration pattern we find in his life is in our devotional text. The text says:
“Because of faith Enoch was caught up and transferred to heaven, so that he did not have a glimpse of death; and he was not found, because God had translated him. For even before he was taken to heaven, he received testimony [still on record] that he had pleased and been satisfactory to God.
But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out]. Hebrews 11:5-6 AMPC
The statement, “For even before he was taken to heaven, he received testimony [still on record] that he had pleased and been satisfactory to God,” tells us about the consecration pattern of the man Enoch. He spent each day pleasing God, and living a life that satisfied Him, even if it did not please or satisfy anyone around him.
THAT IS A BEAUTIFUL CONSECRATION PATTERN THAT IS RARE IN THE PRESENT-DAY CHURCH.
We all want to please our prophets, or bishops, or apostles, or popes, our Church councils and all that, but not God. We want to please men and not God. That will never connect us to the supernatural of God. We must please God to walk in the supernatural of God.
We must satisfy Him by walking in His ways, and doing His will, to walk in His supernatural.
Let me make something clear at this point: in God’s plan, there is nothing wrong with pleasing or satisfying a preacher who is pleasing and satisfying GOD. If you live a life that pleases or satisfy God, it will be pleasing to a preacher who pleases and satisfy God. It should not be you seeking to please a preacher, but you seeking to please God.
Now, some rebellious Christian will lead an unholy rebellious move against a preacher, the way Dothan, Korah and co. did, claiming to be pleasing God. That is not what am talking about. That is a pretentious and dark move. If a believer wants to please God, whatever he or she does will be pleasing to any preachers who pleases God by God’s definition. I hope you understand me!
Understand also that hypocritical preachers, will be pleased with hypocritical Church members, sexually perverse preachers will be mild and friendly to sexually perverse members, and all that. They could all say they are pleasing GOD, but that is not what am referring to.
I am referring to pleasing God in righteousness, holiness, and purity.
If God is truly pleased and satisfied, He will pour Himself on us and bring us to supernatural living in His glory: a clean, blessed, and beautiful supernatural life, that is not dark but full of the light of Truth.
We believe enough has been shared for the day.
It is important to note that the consecration pattern of Enoch is sourced in the mystery of Godliness. It runs contrary to the mystery of wickedness, iniquity or lawlessness at work today; a corrupt mystery that unleashes the dark supernatural, on people who follow its ways.
It is my prayer that we all embrace the consecration pattern in the life of Enoch, and come into the supernatural of God, in Jesus precious name. Amen
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years, and begot Enoch.
After he begot Enoch, Jared lived eight hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years; and he died.
Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters.
So, all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. Genesis 5:18-24 NKJV