TODAY’S DEVOTION (FRIDAY 5TH May 2023)
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 125TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS & WONDERS!
Indeed, God’s amazing pardon, power, and favor has been the reason for the surprises the enemy is getting from some of us. His faithfulness is beyond human words and that frustrates the devil the more. His goodness shines stronger and stronger as the days goes by to the amazement of all the agents, he musters against us.
God’s amazing grace is a total package. Except we walk permanently away from GOD, it will never leave our lives. It comprises of His faithfulness, His mercies, His steadfastness, His patience with us, His tolerance of us, His word of truth revealed to us and much more. We are alive today because of the total package of His amazing beauty.
Truths on the patience and purity of the saints, have been coming to us since the start of this month. The mercies of the LORD have been the reason for all these revelations. Most believers usually cave into a life of sin when their patience with GOD runs out.
Personally, my first fall into sin as a Christian happened when some teachings, I received made me to depart from the place of the patience and purity of the saints.
If one does not have the right Scriptural revelations in his or her spirit, when things happen that require patience from us, we can easily slip into a life of lawlessness. That is why embracing purity is important when faith and patience are required. That is why one way the genuine grace of God manifest in our lives, is by releasing a transformation that fosters purity. The Bible says it teaches us to deny ungodliness, worldly lust and etc.
The enemy seems to know the potential of GOD genuine grace than most of us. That is why he raised preachers to preach a diluted and polluted version of grace. He knows if we get the pure version, he is done – we will be holy, pure and righteous.
GENUINE GRACE FROM GOD IS THE PURITY IN THE LIFE OF A CHILD OF GOD.
It manifests as the power and pardon of the Holy Spirit, that enables a Child of God to live a holy, blameless and a pure life before God. We will become sinful, lawless, and hardened when the genuine grace of God is not in our lives.
That is why, if we are struggling with sin, it is a sign that we are grace deficient. We will need to spend quality time in Biblical prayer and fasting, in the presence of the Holy Spirit, the power house of God’s grace, until our spirits get into the Throne Room of God. The throne of God is the throne of grace. When our spirits get there, grace to be free from such a life will be released into our lives.
Biblical prayer and fasting is not the one we just saw recently in the media, that preachers of human sacrifice used in killing people. It is not the one you see most so-called Christians do. That is why it is harming them. It is the one that sets our lives on fire with the presence of the LORD.
Accessing the genuine grace of God in the Throne of Grace, through Biblical fasting and prayer, will unlock the faith to live a holy, pure, and righteous life before God.
It will bring one to the realm of the pure grace of God.
Every child of God must understand that if the genuine grace of God run our lives, the dominion of sin over us will be destroyed. It will not stop there, even the finger of the evil one in our lives will be paralyzed, curses will be turned into blessings without prayer. We will be processed and edified to become blazing temples of GOD in the Spirit, kindling the lives of others with Heavenly blessings.
There are no words in human lexicon that can capture the totality of the glory that will be upon us, if God’s un-adulterated grace is allowed to run our lives; no words that will be able to describe the holiness we will radiate in our dark world.
On this day, we will be showing you one more thing that the LORD showed us about living a consecrated Christian life. Do not forget, we are looking at how to walk in the faith and patience of the saints in these trouble times.
A walk that will require purity and consecration. I believe the Holy Spirit who have been helping in penning down these truths is helping you to absorb them.
A consecrated Christian life is not possible without being trained, directly or indirectly by the Holy Spirit. It may interest you to know that the school of righteousness, purity and holiness, has the blessed Holy Spirit as the only teacher.
IT IS AFTER HE HAS TAUGHT YOU, SOMETIMES THROUGH OTHERS, THAT HE CAN USE YOU TO TEACH OTHERS.
These truths are aimed at building a stronghold of consecrated living in our hearts, so that we can walk in the patience and purity of the saints this last hour. In addition to what we have shared so far, here is the truth the LORD laid in my heart to share with us today. It’s a truth about the sanctification of the spirit, soul and body. We are beginning with the sanctification of the spirit.
Salvation is not complete without the sanctification of the spirit, then the soul and the body. It all begins from the spirit.
When Jesus died on the cross, He redeemed us, spirit, soul and body. There was no part of our lives that was not covered by the redemption in His blood. In other words, the totality of our being was redeemed.
To redeem means, to buy back. We had sold ourselves for nothing through Adam, and there was a decree in the spirit that we shall be redeemed without money. We sold ourselves in Adam for nothing and got redeemed in Christ without money.
The prophet Isaiah caught this and spewed it out many years before the actual redemption took place, when he took a prophetic gaze at a backslidden Israel and said;
“Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city! For the uncircumcised and the unclean Shall no longer come to you.
Shake yourself from the dust, arise; Sit down, O Jerusalem! Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion!
For thus says the LORD: “You have sold yourselves for nothing, And you shall be redeemed without money.” Isaiah 52:1-3 NKJV
We sold ourselves for nothing when Adam sinned. We sold ourselves to eternal damnation, sin, iniquity, curses, death, sicknesses, spiritual oppression, and much more. And the Bible says we shall be redeemed from all of them without money. That is why it is stupid to give money or do what is called “sow a seed” to get a deliverance, or miracle from God.
UNDER THE LAW OF REDEMPTION, ALL DELIVERANCES, MIRACLES, BLESSINGS, BREAKTHROUGHS AND ETC. ARE FREE.
The reason is obvious; Jesus redeemed us spirit, soul and body, by His blood. By virtue of that, we can be redeemed from whatever attack our spirits, souls, or body without paying money for it. If you do not believe it come to our church services and you will experience it. You will discover that Christ is real and free!
Redemption is the action of regaining or gaining possession of something that was lost. The Bible teaches that Adam sinned, it brought us under the slavery of sin and Satan. But when Christ died and resurrected, it broke that slavery. Now we are free, regained and possessed back by the LORD our maker. He can now be the LORD of our life.
This repossession covers our spirits, souls and body, and made it illegal for the enemy to be legal in our lives. That is why no matter what we do to become his lawful captive again, it become null and void as soon as we submit to the LORD, confess our sins and rededicate our lives back to Him.
The power of this redemption was foreshadowed in the Old Testament and made bare in the New. It made all oppressions of the devil illegal. It made it possible for us to be freely delivered from whatever attacks our spirits, souls and bodies from the pit of hell. It removed the middle wall of partition that once separated us from God and made us one Spirit with Him.
It gave us access to the Throne Room and to ALL Adam once had access to and much more; most of which will be made manifest in the fullness of time. The once separated from GOD by sin, is now joined together to the LORD by redemption.
ON THE LIGHT OF THAT, THE BIBLE SAYS;
“For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Ephesians 2:14-18 KJV
Now, how does all these affect our sanctification? Or How did it affect the sanctification of the spirit, soul and body? You need to know this to fortify your fitness for right living.
Let us begin with the human spirit. Unlike the soul and the body, the human spirit is sanctified at once, but kept sanctified by subsequent works of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The initial sanctification takes place when we encounter the LORD and He fires His Holy Spirit into our dead spirits, making it a new spirit or a new heart.
Remember, under the Old Covenant, a shadow of what was designed to come in the grace dispensation, God promised through the prophet Ezekiel saying;
“ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” Ezekiel 36:26-27 KJV
This promise was fulfilled in the life of everyone who is truly saved today.
It is a process that takes place when the LORD fires His Spirit into ours, and translates us from the kingdom of darkness into His kingdom. It happens during an authentic salvation encounter, and results in the sanctification of the spirit, sparking a holy and righteous fire that propels one immediately into consecrated living.
That is why as soon as one gets genuinely saved, they begin to separate from sin, iniquity and trespass without even being asked to. They begin to find themselves withdrawn from people who once influenced them to live sinful lives, and separating themselves from whatever is not holy, pure and edifying.
THIS INITIAL MANIFESTATION CAN HAPPEN EVEN WHEN THE PERSON IS YET TO ATTEND A CHURCH SERVICE.
For Paul, he never went on killing the disciples of Christ in the early Church after the encounter. When Christ appeared and spoke to him, the Spirit of Christ was fired into his human spirit, sanctifying his human spirit, and making it impossible for him to continue in his old ways – the way of a religious terrorist.
The encounter is called born again. It leads to a life of righteousness, purity and holiness as explained yesterday.
For Peter, he denied Christ when the encounter had not happened. He denied Christ to safe his life. But after it happened, he gave his life to death willingly without fear of death. The encounter has a way of delivering us from the fear of death.
By the way, it was impossible for the born again encounter to happen before the cross; because it was impossible to be born again before the cross. That was why Jesus revealed the born-again life in John 3, then went to the cross to make it possible (the righteous before the cross, made Heaven after Christ resurrected, based on a justice system of God which we can’t explain now).
When Christ resurrected and poured His Holy Spirit on the 120, signifying the arrival of the dispensation of the Spirit, it became possible to be born again. And it may interest you to know that the first set of people to be born again where the 120 in the upper room.
If you are genuinely saved, you will realize that Genuine salvation itself is a catalyst of separation from sin, satanic tendencies and the evil and corrupt system of this world because of the sanctification of the spirit that takes place in the day of salvation.
It is a consecration catalyst that creates a new heart and a new spirit within us, making us new creatures. The Bible says, “if anyone be in Christ, he is a new creature…” (2 Corinthians 5:17). This creature was non existence before salvation encounter. It is a creature that can no longer submit itself to sin, iniquity and trespass.
IT IS A CREATURE THAT IS ALIEN TO THE CORRUPT WORLD AND ITS SYSTEM.
In other words, the sanctification of the spirit is the firing of the life of God into our human spirits, through salvation encounter. It makes us dead to sin and alive unto righteousness. When we become alive unto righteousness, we can sorrow for sins, repent from them, and separate from whatever may lead us back to a life of sin.
Yes, we can also do what our devotional text admonished that we do when we become alive unto righteousness. A major portion of it says;
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.”
None of these commands are possible if we have not experienced the sanctification of the spirit.
Indirectly, the things commanded here are actually the fruits of a sanctified human spirit. It rejoices always, it prays without ceasing, it gives thanks in everything, it does not quench the Spirit, it does not despise authentic prophecies, it proves all things, it holds fast to what is good, it abstains from all forms of evil. It practices the patience and lives in the purity of the saints.
There is so much that the sanctification of the spirit achieves for us, apart from making us alive to righteousness. It also has a way of cutting us spiritually from our natural households, and getting us joined to the household of faith, where Christ is the Father and head over all.
That is why you can no longer suffer what other members of your family may be suffering. The household gods, curses, spiritual foundations and etc., can no longer hold you back. You will just be rising while others are falling until they join you to serve the LORD.
Your life will be governed by the Spirit of Christ whose household you now belong to.
The blessings in the household of Christ you now belong to, will be pursuing you as you pursue the LORD, and overtaking and replacing all curses that may have been placed upon you by blood connection. You will find generational blessings replacing generational curses automatically.
I believe enough have been shared today; enough to think about and grow a righteous a stronghold that will help us embrace the patience and purity of the saints.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY
“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” Ephesians 2:19-22 NKJV