TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 19TH MARCH 2023)
“When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. Acts 2:1-6NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 78TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS!
God has kept us for 78 days today. We give Him the glory for all that. We have slept and woke up all these years because He decided that it be so.
Today, being the first day of the week, like the early church did, we are all going to gather in our different places of worship to speak to the LORD, and pay attention as He speaks to us. It is when our corporate fellowships enjoy such fellowship with the Father, that we can return refreshed and taller in the spirit.
We have been looking at faith positions of precious word or holy seed carriers, and have seen so many depths of truth. Today we will be looking at another depth. I hope we are ready!
Like we have always stated on this platform, the resurrection of Jesus Christ changed our days of corporate worship from Saturday to Sunday; it chiseled Christianity out of Judaism, making the first day of the week, not a working day but a worship day for believers.
This is the LORD’s doing, and it is marvelous in our sight.
Now, when we go to Church on Sundays (or any other days), what do we go there to do? What should we expect?
Sadly, most times, money making is what set the agenda for the meeting. People now see Churches as shops where the word, prayer, oil, water and all junks are sold, and money collected in form of different forms of offerings; from Isaac offerings to altar-raising or silencing offerings, to other forms of greed motivated collections.
MANY DO NOT REALLY KNOW WHY OUR FATHERS GATHERED ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK.
In fact, the Gathering was on the seventh day until Paul was born into the Kingdom.
When it started there were no collections, except for the poor in Jerusalem. Later, collections where institutionalized as an act of worship, not a seed for blessings or deliverance, because God will, in any case, still bless any giving into His kingdom with what it seems good to Him.
These ungodly and heretic forms of collecting money from people and other things that are done by church leadership on Sundays, which only minister fame and fortune to spiritual leaders, and nothing to those who attends the services, have not been eternally helpful. Hence people do not even know what God said we should expect when we go to church.
How do we know what to expect, when we go to church? First, let’s look at what mankind got from God when corporate assembly began in the Bible.
It may interest you to know that the idea of assembling before GOD corporately did not start with the early Church; it started even before the fall of man, right in the Garden of Eden, when God comes to visit Adam and Eve. It was during one of those visits that He discovered that they have eat from the tree of Sound judgement.
Whatever He was coming to do to them then, is what we should expect when we assembly corporately today. The Bible says
“And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” Genesis 3:8-9 NKJV
This scripture paints a picture of a regular corporate fellowship between Adam and Eve and God. One thing He was coming to do to them here was to refresh, renew, revitalize and revive them by breathing the density of His presence upon them.
The first thing to expect from God therefore, as we assemble corporately, is the breath of His presence that refreshes, renews, revitalize, revives, and anoints us afresh, setting our faith on fire for the LORD, and kindling a fresh life of holiness, righteousness, purity and intimacy with God for the week. That is what should form our reason for corporate assembling.
BUT DO WE FIND THIS IN MANY CHURCHES? NO!
The Psalmist said;
“I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go into the house of the LORD.” (Psalm 122:1-NKJV).
Why? Because of what he will get from the presence of the LORD when He appears; the breath of GOD, the insights, the revelation, the bathing of his spirit with the water of the word, the healing of his broken heart and restoration of his soul, the direction he will find and many other treasures of Heaven he will find in that place.
But for many, in so many local Churches today, the person that will be glad when they say,
“let us go to the house of the LORD,” is either a child who will find other kids to play with or attend some exciting but not soul transforming Sunday school classes, or those who love the religious games they see in churches, or those who want to socialize, or pastors who will return home with fat offerings they will collect. They are the ones that are always glad when they say, “let us go into the house of the LORD.”
Every other person hates it when they say “let us go into the house of the LORD,” because of what the Church have been turned into.
Most serious-minded Christians, can hardly find a church to feed spiritually and experience the density of the presence breathing upon them on a Sunday morning, yet there are churches everywhere. This kind of Christians belong to a generation that is not looking for beautiful buildings to sit in on Sunday morning, shouting “hallelujah!” but a place they can sit to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in His temple like David did.
From the life Adam and Eve lived before they were driven out of the Garden of Eden, we can see that Church service today, ought to be the place of receiving the breath of God.
Yesterday we shared about how people suffocate in the spirit for not having the breath of God in them, and eventually die in the spirit and get rot or morally impure. We saw the need to have the breath of GOD flowing through our lives every day. We saw the danger of spiritual suffocation;
IT CAN KILL ANYONE SPIRITUALLY AND EVEN LEAD TO THE LOST OF GENUINE SALVATION.
When genuine salvation is lost, we could quit church completely or still be active in church, calling Jesus our LORD but not doing what He says; not living the life of holiness, righteousness, and purity. When we lose our salvation, we will no longer be intimate with Him, walking in His will and doing His word. We will be living in secret sins and become very comfortable in it.
A pastor will be sleeping with a church member, sometimes for reasons that seems right in his or her sight, and be comfortable with it. A church member will be sleeping with his or her pastor, for reasons that seems right in his or her sight, and be comfortable with it. We will know what we are doing is wrong and keep doing it.
When people lose their salvation, they do all that and even much more.
There are Christians who have been sleeping around for monetary or sexual gains, but are still actively involved in Church, taking that to mean they are still saved. You find many of us believers walking in lies, and deceit, with capacity to lie at the slightest opportunity, and still assuring ourselves that we are saved, ignorantly putting our eternal lives in danger!
Friend, when we begin to live a religious life that seek forgiveness from God every day, without repenting from sin any day, that is a very terrible sign that we have lost our salvation.
When you find people going to church and still getting themselves involved in sinful living like those who do not, it is dangerous.
When you find Christian ladies, living with men they are not married to, but calling them husbands, or Christian men living with women they are not married to, and calling them wives, it is very dangerous eternally.
They have fallen from the genuine grace because genuine grace cures that kind of a life. Sadly, they are now living outside the true covenant of grace, and the Bible says such Christians, will not inherit the Holy City in the next life. Meaning, they will be thrown into the lake of fire.
HERE ARE THE SCRIPTURES THAT TELLS US THAT;
“Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie. Revelation 22:14-15 NKJV
But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” Revelation 21:27 NKJV
And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:15 NKJV
These are the scriptures Satan will not allow the Church to know, that is why they are not read in any mega Churches, and virtually all small churches because the pastor want to grow his church, so will only preach what will keep the people coming. No one want to say or hear the truth.
Satan knows once these scriptures are read in our Churches, every now and then, people will get back to the life of Christ, and begin to live Heaven worthy lives. So, he will not let that happen.
He will prefer Christians, who are actively involved in Church activities, or involved in ministry; prophesying or being prophesied to, doing miracles or having miracles performed in their lives, casting out demons, or enjoying deliverance so to speak, but not active in living the life of Christ. The Bible says they will be told on the last day, “Depart from me for I know you not.”
That is what Satan wants, because when they are told to depart, they will join him in the lake of fire. But God sent this word this morning, for us to come back to Him for help. He wants us to get back His breath into our lives so that we will experience His resurrection power and get back to the life of Christ.
So many of us today have lost the breath of God, we have suffocated and died spiritually long time ago. We are now marching to hell with our Bibles in our hands; some with their Bibles and microphones in their hand because they are preachers. We need to get the breath of God back. We need another round of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit;
WE NEED A FRESH PENTECOSTAL EXPERIENCE.
Our devotional text says;
“When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. Acts 2:1-6NKJV
You will never experience what this men and women experienced in the upper room many years back, and not get back to the LORD. You will never experience the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, which is the restoration of the breath of God to your spiritual life, and not get back to a life of holiness, righteousness, purity and intimacy with the LORD.
In God’s plans, that is what should be happening in any church we worship, that is what we should expect when we go to church, nothing else.
People should be experiencing the Holy Spirit released upon their lives every week they gather for corporate worship, either to get back to the life of God, or keep living their lives in Holiness, Righteousness, Purity and intimacy with Christ.
If there is any Church you attend and you do not experience that, get out. You are in a Church that is placed on the broad way that leads to hell to take men and women there.
What is the message this morning? The message is simple; we do not just need the breath of God to keep the Holy Seed alive, we need the breath of God to keep our salvation alive; we need the Holy Ghost filling us over and over again, day after day, to keep walking in Holiness, righteousness, purity and intimacy with God, day after day.
It is still “not by might nor by power but by my Spirit says the LORD!”
The breath of the Holy Spirit is an enabling grace from God for perfect Christian living. Go for it every day, worship in a Church because of it, and it will be well with you.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY!
Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?”And I said, “No, my lord.”
So he answered and said to me: “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the LORD of hosts.
‘Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone With shouts of “Grace, grace to it!” ’ ” Zechariah 4:5-7 NKJV