TODAY’S DEVOTION (Monday 11th May 2020)
“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.” John 15:6 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 131st DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
In yesterday’s Church in the House, God really blessed with revelation on Bible Intelligence. The greatest intelligence you can have on earth is Bible Intelligence. It is the mother of all accurate Prophetic Intelligence. And the Holy Spirit usually lead us to get this intelligence before giving any other intelligence in the Kingdom of God.
Insatiable hunger for the word is what the Holy Spirit kindles within us when leading us into the realm of Bible Intelligence. During those moments, it is required that you read the word with a pure Heart. The Bible says,
“Blessed are the pure in Heart, for the shall see God (Matthew 8:5 NKJ)”
Whenever we read the Bible with a pure heart, we see the intentions of God. We see His heartbeat for us; especially the saved. We stumble into the world of Bible intelligence. Bible intelligence is usually full of the intentions of God.
The intentions of God are also called “the will of God.” If a man lives his life opposite God’s intentions, every intention of the devil and evil men can be accomplished in his life. The easiest way to render all evil intentions against you non and void, sometimes, is not to pray, but the live your life in harmony with God’s intention for it.
No evil intention of the devil or people who hate us can come to pass in the lives of those built around God’s intention for them. That is what the Bible meant by in righteousness we shall be established. As a result, no weapon formed against us shall prosper.
Do not forget the blessed words that says, “there is no enchantment against Jacob, and no divination against Israel.” If you live your life according to your own ideas, intentions, and counsels, it will not be long, the evil ones will take you out.
THE LORD USED THAT SECRET TO PROTECT ME FROM HARM WHEN I WAS IN MY EARLY TWEEN YEARS
I tell you, making sure your life is not built around your own ideas, intentions, and counsel is the best way to live a peaceful life in a trouble world. It is when we are established in the ideas, intentions, and counsels of the LORD, that we see Him defeat the evil ones who rise against us.
When you read the Bible assuring us that “the counsel of the wicked shall not stand in our lives” or “the rod of the wicked will not rest upon us,” it is conditional. If we do not fulfill the conditions, none of these precious promises will manifest in our lives.
To see a precious promise from the LORD manifest in a man’s life, his life must be in harmony with God’s intention. That is why in our ministry, we try to teach and impart men to line up with God’s intention for the global Church, and their individual lives.
Our problems as Christians usually emanate from not lining upon with God’s intentions. Sometimes ignorance prevents us from lining up, other times outright rebellion. The very areas we refuse to bring under divine control are the very areas the enemy stand to attack us.
When a person is under a spiritual attack because they voted for the enemy to attack them, it is difficult to set them free by prayer alone. For instance, I have seen women used for money rituals by their husbands because they voted for it through marriage.
It is extremely dangerous not to spend your days according to the intentions of GOD. If these women had spent their days according to the intention of God for their lives, they would not have married those killer men, who they bore children for and still lost their lives to.
I remember a dear sister who tried to pray for a woman who married a man that had already given her to demons for food so he can have money, coming under severe attacks. When you pray for people who frustrate the will for God for their lives, you come under attacks.
A Christian who frustrates the will of God and come under attack, will bring everyone who helps her under demonic attacks as well.
LEARN TO SPEND YOUR DAYS WITH BIBLE INTELLIGENCE
When you help someone, who has the culture of rejecting the counsel of God for his life and establishing his own counsel, you share in his woes. The reason is, you are endorsing his rebellious lifestyle and exposing yourself to the satanic.
Many in Church today are going through hardship simply for endorsing the rebellious and assisting those who have the habit of not putting God first.
It is foolishness not to spend your days putting God first. I grew up to discover that we you put God first in everything, He will put us next for every good thing in His kingdom. That is the secret of a blessed life.
One way you put Him first, is by accepting His counsel for your life!
That is why, if you reject His counsel for your life, you have rejected Him, and all He is altogether. You have rejected His mercies, His blessing, His healing, His Heaven, your home in His eternal dwelling, His deliverance for your life in time of trouble, His covering, His interventions, and all He has to offer.
Our devotional text today is enlightening. It was part of Jesus’ farewell speech to first His immediate disciples, and second to us – His other disciples. It says;
“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”
If you look at this scripture with a pure heart, you will realize that the intention of God for us is that we abide in Him. Giving your life to Christ is a covenant making to abide in Christ all your life. But many who claim saved are not abiding in Him. They are not abiding in Him for so many reasons. Some it is because of the cost of doing so.
TO ABIDE IN CHRIST, ESPECIALLY IN A PERVERSE AND CROOKED GENERATION LIKE OURS, IS NOT CHEAP BUT VERY NECESSARY.
It is necessary because it is more expensive not to abide in Him than to abide in Him. Jesus made it clear that if we do not pay the necessary price and abide in Him, we will wither away. If we wither away, we will be gathered and thrown into the fire.
Sadly, that has become true in this life of every fallen Christian in hell today and those who are on their way there. And God wants it change hence sending a word to us on deep intimacy.
It takes deep intimacy to abide in Christ and He in you!
If you are not deeply intimate, you will not be able to abide in Him. If you do not abide in Him, you will wither away first, then be thrown into the fire later. Withering away takes place in time. Being thrown into the fire takes place in eternity.
Signs that you are withering away includes losing interest in the genuine things of God, running after prophets who use sorcery and forsaking those who hold the true word from God, a dying prayer and fasting life, lack of interest in personal Bible study, and etc.
When you start withering away spiritually, it will begin to manifest in your finances, then your marriage, then your entire physical life. Good will begin to depart from you. Peace of mind will be withdrawn. Anxiety and worries will replace where peace once dwell in your heart. That is why God wants us to be deeply intimate.
Deep intimacy with Jesus Christ will put a blessing on all that carries your name on the face of the earth and potherbs submit or serve your grace. It will build a hedge around you and yours.
When you abide in Christ and Christ abides in you through deep intimacy, you will never weather away! That is the message of today’s devotional.
Through deep intimacy, we move from the outer court to the most Holy place where Christ takes root in us and we in Him – a realm where oneness is achieved.
Once oneness is achieved, what cannot happen to Christ, will not happen to us! We will only be going through what He went through in the flesh primarily to prepare us for a better resurrection.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION;
“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Remember the word that I said to you,’ A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. John 15:18-20 NKJV