TODAY’S DEVOTION (THURSDAY 18TH May 2023)**
“I dictated a covenant (an agreement) to my eyes; how then could I look [lustfully] upon a girl?
For what portion should I have from God above [if I were lewd], and what heritage from the Almighty on high?
Does not calamity [justly] befall the unrighteous, and disaster the workers of iniquity? Does not [God] see my ways and count all my steps?” Job 31:1-4 MAPC
WELCOME TO THE 138TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS & WONDERS!
It has been 138 days of God’s mercies waving away the consequences of our sins, iniquity and trespass, and teaching us truth upon truth on this platform, to bring us to repentance – some initial repentance, and others subsequent repentance.
Globally, our world has not consumed itself because of the amazing power of God’s mercies upon human lives. I believe the faith, purity and patience of the saints is playing a major role in preserving our world. That is why the LORD called us the salt of the earth.
Apart from looking for repentance or righteousness, by not holding our sins against us, some of the major things the LORD does through the preaching of the gospel, is driven by His righteous desire to bring us to a holy and faultless Christian living, established in righteousness, through a progressive spiritual growth, in our relationship with Him.
Recently, in a bid to bring us to the place of walking in the faith, purity, and patience of the saints, we have been looking at the sanctification of the soul. The necessity of this is seen in so many scriptures in the Bible, especially when you read them in contemporary rendering.
One of those scriptures said;
But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment [to express itself], got a hold on me and aroused and stimulated all kinds of forbidden desires (lust, covetousness) …. Romans 7:8 AMPC
Clearly, God does not want us in a state where sin will be getting hold of us, arousing and stimulating all kinds of hell bound desires in us. The kingdom advance way He achieve that is by bringing us to righteousness, purity, and holiness, through the process of the sanctification of the spirit, soul, and body.
In 1998, a seasoned Theologian from the Assemblies of God Church USA, wrote the forward of one of my books. The book is Titled; BLAZING HOLINESS – Arresting Secret Sins. During one of our interactive sessions, he said to me, “there are four major tools of sanctification that GOD gave to man.” He said the four tools are, “the Holy Spirit, the Bible, the Church and our will.” I was so blessed by those words.
LATER I WENT TO STUDY HOW THE FOUR WORK TO HELP US LEAD SANCTIFIED LIVES.
I found out that the Holy Spirit uses the Holy word (Bible Truths), by the hands of able ministers of the New Testament, placed in a local church that walks in holiness, to purify our souls, and strengthen our wills, to live a life that is not aroused and stimulated to fulfil any forbidden desire.
As earlier stated, there are five faculties or units of the soul. We have the imagination, the memory, the intelligence, the emotions and the will.
As taught so far, there will be no sanctification of the soul (to deliver us from a life of sin) without the sanctification of these faculties or units of the soul.
We have seen that a Christian life that lack the sanctification of the soul will just be a hypocritical life; a form of godliness without power; a profession of knowing the LORD by lips not by deeds. God does not want us in that kind of Christianity because it will lead us to nowhere, but hell fire.
True Christianity has a seal called “departure from iniquity” or separation from a life of sin and disregard for God’s commands. Especially God’s commands to turn from sinful ways to righteous ways. The Bible says,
“Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven.
Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name and driven out demons in Your name and done many mighty works in Your name?
And then I will say to them openly (publicly), I never knew you; depart from Me, you who act wickedly [disregarding My commands].” Matthew 7:21-23 AMPC
THE DISREGARD FOR GOD’S RIGHTEOUS WAYS IS A MAJOR UNDOING OF OUR GENERATION OF BELIEVERS.
We call ourselves children of GOD, but disregard His ways in our everyday living because we have recited a sinner’s prayer. As you can see in this scripture, the condition for making Heaven is far beyond the recitation of the sinner’s prayer. Making Heaven is conditioned on renouncing the sinner’s way of life and living a consistent sanctified life, enabled by the Holy Spirit.
If a life is sanctified, it will not ignore God’s commands to live right.
In the Old Testament, it was not possible to truly sanctify people by the Holy Spirit, that was why GOD put up with some things like polygamy and etc. He gave commands, but there was no internal empowerment of the Holy Spirit to obey those commands. That was why He replaced the Old Covenant with the New.
Today, we have the Holy Spirit, and are expected to even produce better holy lives than the men of old. Sadly, we are not. Many of us are even worse.
One of the major commands many are not obeying today is in the area of sexual purity. An apostolic punchline that we shared yesterday from our devotional text, set me thinking about who will make Heaven, especially in this sexually perverse church generation.
It urged us to live right, making it clear that no sinner, especially one who live in sexual sin, has any inheritance in Heaven. If this word did not hit you for yourself, it should hit you for others if you are indeed part of Christ. The word said;
“For be sure of this: that no person practicing sexual vice or impurity in thought or in life, ….has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” Ephesians 5:5 AMPC
This should worry all of us who call upon the name of the LORD but engaged in sexual vices, like lustful living, adulterous life, gay, lesbianism, pornography, fornication, masturbation and all other forms of sexual vices. It should worry even those of us who may not be engaged in such acts for the sake of those who are engaged in them.
It should worry the preacher who think that sexual sin is a pleasure and that because you are going to get married, you can be engaged in it; that the blood of Jesus has taken away the judgment. It should worry everyone who care about the souls of men because it clearly tells us who will not make Heaven even if he is a pope.
IT TELLS US WHO WILL GO TO HELL. DO NOT FORGET, HELL IS NOT A PLACE TO GO. IT IS A PLACE TO BE AVOIDED AT ALL COST.
The scripture is very clear on the eternal destiny of all who are involved in sexual vices of any kind. It says, we may be involved in any kingdom assignment, if we are living in sexual vices, we do not have any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of GOD!
We could be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers of the word, church workers, intercessors and etc. it does not matter. It is not the work we do for God that will help us but the word of righteousness we do.
That scripture, in its amplified classic edition version, should not depart from us. Because it tells us the truth that most of us preachers will never tell anyone.
Yes, it tells us the naked truth that this large army of men and women, in and outside the church, who engage in sexual vices of any kinds, following the arousal and stimulation of carnal desires, are hell bound. It fills our hearts with compassion for any of us engaged in such things, by showing us where we will end at the end of our lives, if there is no repentance.
It helps us to understand how desperate many of us need the sanctification of the soul to stop the march towards eternal damnation. It tells us how much we need the five units of the soul sanctified.
I have come to realize that the battle for our soul rages around the five units, and that the will, plays the most important role. The will is the last defence against sin when other units of the soul have been overwhelmed.
For instance, you may be overwhelmed, in your imagination, memory, intelligence or emotions, to sleep with someone, but if your self-will is intact – if it is not overwhelmed, you will come out of the temptation, without committing the sinful act, either in deed or in thoughts.
It is the will that plays the strongest role in helping us overcome temptation. God designed it to be the final defence of a Child of God, that is why it must be fortified.
Even in the days of the Old Testament, the will helped righteous men and women to earn a Testimony. Job for example, used the will to earn a testimony of being the most righteous man of his days.
HE USED IT TO GUARD AGAINST SEXUAL SINS.
He was rich, and we know how easy it becomes to engage in sexual sins once you become wealthy. You could express it like Solomon did; remember, he took advantage of the leniency of God on polygamy, to marry so many women. His life teaches that there is a way riches and wealth kindles one’s desire for pleasure, especially sexual pleasures.
Comfort has always been the cheapest access to corruption. It gives one the capacity for lewdness. But Job overcome all that, setting a precedent for us. He said in our devotional text;
“I dictated a covenant (an agreement) to my eyes; how then could I look [lustfully] upon a girl?
For what portion should I have from God above [if I were lewd], and what heritage from the Almighty on high?
Does not calamity [justly] befall the unrighteous, and disaster the workers of iniquity? Does not [God] see my ways and count all my steps?” Job 31:1-4 MAPC
It takes the will to dictate a covenant or enter an agreement.
Job used his will to decide against looking lustfully at the beautiful ladies who served him or those who crossed his path. His friends must have thought he slept with them, hence his sufferings. Job had to say that to defend himself, He had to tell them that even if those ladies where around him, he never slept with them. He was not joking with his walk and talk with God.
He knew he would not have received the prosperity of the Righteous that he received from the LORD if he were lewd or lustful, randy, libidinous or sexually perverse.
Friend, the testimony of Job did not come cheap. His will helped him to achieve it. The role of the will in helping us live right must be understood. If it is, we will be spending our days reinforcing it not depleting it, because it is a strong will that becomes a strong defence against sin and defilement in our quest for consecration.
The revelation of the consequence of sexual sins, among other things, was what kept the will of Job solid against the act. He knew that the act brings calamity and disaster, and that God was watching his ways and counting his steps, and will reward him according to his works. Which tells us that, if we truly know what sin will do to us, in time and eternity, it will become near impossible for our will to be conquered in our battle against defilement.
WE WILL BE ABLE TO BUILD A RIGHTEOUS RESISTANCE IN THE DAY OF TEMPTATION AND NOT FALL INTO IT.
The Bible says many of us fall into sin because we do not resist it when our carnal desires are aroused or stimulated. And we are not resisting it because there is no enough power in our wills to help us resist it. If there is sufficient power in our will, it is called will power, and we will be able to say “no,” and stay “no to sin, iniquity and trespass.”
Sadly, the very instrument GOD uses to re enforce our will is what the sick church and some in the lost world do not like us talking about.
The sick church and some in the lost world do not like us talking about the consequences of sin, God’s judgment on sinful deeds, the approaching global judgment on the wickedness of men, the prophetic finger that speaks against adultery, polygamy, lies, deceit and etc. They hate all that.
They hate teachings that spread the conviction of the Spirit to turn hearts to the LORD; the very things that re enforces our will to resist sin.
It is clear that the will against sin cannot be built and strengthen by water down gospel. The will cannot be built or strengthened by enemy killing and money-making teachings. The will cannot be strengthened by the wealth and health gospel. It can only be strengthened by the message of the cross, the revelation of God’s judgment on all kinds of sin, the convictions of the Spirit of God, and His outpouring (of the Holy Spirit) on men to get the truth of God’s established in their hearts.
In fact, many have said I make them feel guilty with my teachings. But they forget that the teachings are not mine. I am only a vessel. They forget that what they feel is not a carnal guilt. It is the Holy Spirit putting words in my spirit to say, and Him using those words to convict them of sin, judgment and righteousness.
The reason remains to re enforce their will to become strong enough to resist sin. Satan knows that if we talk about these things, or get the hearts of men established in them, there will be a reduction in the number of those going to hell, because the will of those who cannot resist sin will be strengthened. He knows that we will all be like Job, and even more because of Jesus Christ; earning a testimony before the LORD.
Friend, a sanctified will is a strengthen will. It is a will that is receiving strength from the Holy Spirit’s activities in the human spirit, that pours light and insight into the soul, leading to the re enforcement to resist sin, iniquity and trespass.
God is calling us to a consecrated living so that iniquity will not be our ruin. But we must possess a will power that resist sin, created in us by the Holy Spirit using relevant revelations of Gods word.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY!
“But if the wicked man turns from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all My statutes and does that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die.
None of his transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; for his righteousness which he has executed [for his moral and spiritual rectitude in every area and relation], he shall live.
Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked? says the Lord, and not rather that he should turn from his evil way and return [to his God] and live?
But if the righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? None of his righteous deeds which he has done shall be remembered. In his trespass that he has trespassed and in his sin that he has sinned, in them shall he die.
Yet you say, the way of the Lord is not fair and just. Hear now, O house of Israel: Is not My way fair and just? Are not your ways unfair and unjust?
When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity and dies in his sins, for his iniquity that he has done he shall die.
Again, when the wicked man turns away from his wickedness which he has committed and does that which is lawful and right, he shall save his life.
Because he considers and turns away from all his transgressions which he has committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die.
Yet says the house of Israel, the way of the Lord is not fair and just! O house of Israel, are not My ways fair and just? Are not your ways unfair and unjust?
Therefore, I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, says the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin and so shall they not be a stumbling block to you.” Ezekiel 18:21-30 AMPC