TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 14TH May 2023)
And Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn nor weep.” For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the Law.
Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:9-10 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 134TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS & WONDERS!
The steadfastness of our LORD never ceases. His faithfulness is from age to age. His mercies are everlasting. You miss a lot not serving this gracious GOD. He knows how to sustain us in sorrow and how to keep us useful in His hands.
Our God has been faithful imparting us with light and understanding. We have been looking at the salvation of the soul; part of the catalysts of the faith, purity, and patience of the saints.
The salvation of the soul involves the sanctification of the five faculties of the soul. We have seen three of the five (the Imagination, the memory and the intelligence). Today we will be looking at the fourth, the emotions.
The first unit of the soul that comes alive when we give our lives to Christ is our emotions. The Bible calls it “the joy of salvation.”
The joy of salvation is a major gift we receive at salvation and it is responsible for all we do with joy in the kingdom. It takes care of our sad moments and helps us to pray, fast or give with joy instead of grieve, especially when we are down emotionally. It is responsible for joyfully singing before the LORD, cheerfully giving to the LORD, and having a peace that passes understanding in crisis times.
The joy of salvation is the state our emotions come into when we are pure, holy and in right standing with God. It is a major manifestation of the sanctification of our spirits, and purity of our souls.
For the saved and sanctified, that is the part of us that tells us if we are in good standing with GOD or not. If we are, it will be filled with joy unspeakable; especially when the presence of GOD rests on us or is stirred around us. It is the first part of us that reacts to the manifest presence of the LORD.
THE UNIT OF THE SOUL CALLED EMOTIONS IS THE REALM OF FEELINGS.
If the unit is holy and sanctified, it helps us sense the Heavenly and distinguish it from the demonic. The Heavenly usually feels glorious and peaceful, but the demonic, carnal, or satanic, feels dry, oppressive or irritative.
This is the part of the soul, that works with our sanctified spirits to help us walk in the sensitivity of the spirit, if sanctified and holy. In its sanctified states, it controls all we feel and sense when we study the word. It controls what we feel and sense when in fellowship with other brethren. It is like the thermometer of atmospheres.
In its sanctified state, it helps us feel what the Holy Spirit feels about us, things or others.
You know, it is impossible to please someone (GOD) you do not see with your natural eyes. He is not visible but we are visible. So, to relate with such glorious being, who inhabits eternity while we are in time, it will require that our human spirit be regenerated, and made to work in consonant with sanctified units of the soul, like the emotions.
It is very important that we acknowledge the role of this unit of the soul in our walk and talk with God. A man or woman without emotions will never fear God and walk with Him. Beautifully there is no one without emotions. We just express them differently, especially when in God’s manifest presence.
When we cry, when we shout, when we sing, when we jump, when we laugh, or rejoice in God’s presence, it is this unit of the soul, the emotion, in its sanctified state, that is charged.
Everything manifests as the joy of the LORD.
You can now understand how the joy of the LORD functions as our strength according to our devotional text for the day. It functions as the strength of our prayer life, fasting life, giving life and the totality of our worship life. It is indeed the strength of the soul to relate with the regenerated spirit, as the regenerated spirit fellowship or walk with GOD.
There can be no fruitful walk with the LORD without it.
It may interest you to know that there are commands in scriptures that can not be obeyed without this unit of the soul being in its sanctified form. For instance, the Bible says;
“See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.
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.” 1 Thessalonians 5:15-22 NKJV
IF OUR EMOTIONS ARE NOT IN ORDER, WE CANNOT DO ANY OF THE THINGS COMMANDED OR ADMONISHED IN THIS SCRIPTURE.
That is why the enemy tries to fill that part of our souls with what will not let it be what God created it to be. He will fill us with sorrow of heart, and emotional pains through disappointment, betrayals and all he can muster against us.
God created us in such a way that, if this unit of the soul (the emotion) is wounded, and not sustained immediately by the word of the LORD on walking in love, we will break the rule of love and begin to render evil for evil. It is impossible to walk in love if our emotions are not sanctified. Clearly, we will not be able to rejoice always, give thanks to God in everything, or keep the Spirit aflame as commanded by the LORD, when things are not pleasant.
We must recognize that some of the greatest battles against our souls will be launched to keep us down emotionally. It is important, to always put up a fight of faith to keep this unit of the soul sanctified, by the word of God and prayer, so that it will be fit in helping us serve the LORD with joy.
None of us will be able to walk in the faith, purity and patience of the saints, if this unit of the soul is unclean. We will not be able to serve the LORD with love, joy and peace in the Holy Ghost. We will not be able to walk in mercy and forgiveness, no matter what the word says.
It is therefore important that we take precautionary measures against anything or anyone who defiles this unit of the soul.
Yes, there are people who are great at defiling this unit of the soul. The Bible says they shoot arrows of bitterness and cause people to become sad and put them in sorrow. Satan has a lot of people he uses in attacking this unit of the soul. We must watch against them and make sure we surround ourselves with people who can create the joy of the LORD around us.
Now, there are times also that it is not what people do to us that make us sad and sorrowful, but what they do to God, His servant, His work, and His Spirit on the face of the earth.
THERE ARE THINGS THAT INDEED MAKE THE HEART OF THE RIGHTEOUS SAD.
They strike this unit of the soul with righteous sadness and godly sorrow. That was the state that a generation that lived in Bible times found itself, which bring us to our devotional text.
The text says;
And Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn nor weep.” For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the Law.
Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:9-10 NKJV
This was a unique generation of Old Testament saints. They wept when they heard the word of the LORD read because they saw how far they had fallen from His ways and understood the consequences.
Genuine Christians will weep and sorrow, when they see people desecrating the ways of the LORD, teaching the wrong things, promoting false preachers, establishing churches that are bound to function as gates of hell, harming God’s holy apostle and prophets, wounding the spirits of just men, and persecuting God’s holy people on the face of the earth, and etc.
They will display righteous emotions and godly sorrows. This is the kind of emotional display (the sadness and sorrow of a righteous heart) that make one rise with zeal to defend the purposes of the LORD and make sure they do not die.
We need this kind of sorrow of heart and spiritual grieve now more than ever, because it is always the seed for genuine revival and reformation.
It is the seed for large scale repentance and heart seated spiritual revolutions. That speaks of the power of this unit of the soul (the emotion) when sanctified. It can be a catalyst of genuine revival fire and all that can bring the Church back to its feet morally.
These days, there has been so much noise, without large scale repentance and transformation of moral landscapes, called revival. There can be no revival if there is no spiritual grief against sin, Godlessness, and lawlessness.
THE SEED OF GENUINE REVIVAL LIES IN SPIRITUAL GRIEF.
That tells us what we hinder if we do not pursue the sanctification of the soul, especially this unit of the soul.
Now, apart from what those men did that day (beautiful display of emotions that holds the truth of the power of righteous and sanctified emotions), there is also something that Nehemiah, Ezra, and the Levites who were there that day said. The Bible says they said;
“This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn nor weep.”… Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”
This is heavy. We cannot download it on this platform. But it tells us how to hand the sorrow of heart, even if it is a righteous sorrow. It directs us to channel it towards productive activities of the kingdom.
There have been times when I was emotionally down, and felt like not writing the devotionals. But the LORD always come through for me by deleting what was lying in my emotions during those dark emotional moments.
In one occasion, His Spirit spoke into my spirit saying, “keep running with the word, do not stop….” that restored back the zeal and desire to keep on running with the word. Thank God for His grace, at least we have something to feed on today.
The message of today is clear. There can be no fruitful walk with the LORD without sanctified and godly emotions. I will like to call them, “Holy Spirit and Holy Word enabled” emotions.
We must learn to channel our energy towards productive activities of the kingdom of GOD whenever we are down emotionally. That is how to maintain a life of consecration in our walk and talk with God.
We must not allow the stirring of our emotions to lead us to sin, iniquity or trespass.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY
“The LORD is my strength and my shield; My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; Therefore, my heart greatly rejoices, And with my song I will praise Him.
The LORD is their strength, and He is the saving refuge of His anointed. Save Your people, and bless Your inheritance; Shepherd them also, and bear them up forever.” Psalm 28:7-9 NKJV