TODAY’S DEVOTION (FRIDAY 16TH JUNE 2023)**
“And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.
For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.
“And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:1-6 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 167th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
Our God is faithful and kind. He woke us again this morning. We fell asleep but it was impossible for any of us to wake up. He woke us up because He loves us and wants us to have one more day. I believe He will keep waking us up until our destiny is fulfilled and our days are over.
He will keep giving us what we need to be alive.
Life is precious! Being alive is very precious. Do not joke about it. The Bible says, a living dog is better than a dead lion. I may be a dog to you, but am better than a lion that is dead. The reason is, a living dog can become a great lion through the transformation of the Spirit, but a dead lion is already dead and would be rotten by the time my transformation is complete and I will take its place. Hallelujah!
Life is so precious, my friend!
In fact, it is the preciousness of life that makes the devil a murderer, according to our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. He would not want us to live long enough to fulfill our days, hence becoming the king of all forms of pre-mature deaths.
He wants people to be dying prematurely, hence swaying them to do things that take away their lives in their prime. You may be doing something right now that will take away your life in its prime. Just check it!
This is not a curse, just check your decisions, especially in the areas of food, drinks, morality, etc. You have a destiny to fulfill, do not take into your system things that will take your life before your God appointed days will be fulfilled. Do not place your life on the line for the next case of premature death.
Many are taking things into them that will take their lives out before they get to 60. Those who smoke or sniff things into their systems do not realize that even manufacturers of what they smoke or sniff into their systems, have said people who take in such substances are liable to die in their prime.
THERE ARE THOSE WHO TAKE ALCOHOL MORE THAN THEY TAKE WATER.
Most of them are on their way to the coffin. They have placed their lives on the line of premature death, and it is not the will of God.
Many are living very immoral lives and from Biblical records, immorality is one of the instruments Satan uses in shortening the lives of mankind. The lives of 23 to 24 thousand Jews were shortened in one day due to sexual immorality, in the book of Numbers chapter 25. The lives of many are still being shortened today. That is why you find youths dying more rapidly than the aged.
You find so many being ravaged by terrible diseases they got, either naturally or spiritually from sexual immoral living. May God help us overcome the menace.
Friend, sexual immorality or promiscuity has shortened more lives than any other form of immoral living. The lives of mankind are reducing daily, and men and women are falling down today, more than it has ever been. People now drop like leaves from a dying tree. Indeed, a lot about mankind is dying, hence the reduction in life expectancy,
That is the work of the devil. He wants our lives shortened so that we would not fulfill our days.
Do you realize how life expectancy is reducing by the day? It is alarming! From a global average of 950 years before the flood, to a global average of 72.16 years today. That is very terrible. A terrible reduction.
Mankind has lost over 850 years from that time to our time. So many have died even before they were born. That is not the will of God.
Our nations are experiencing reduction in life expectancy by the day. In Kenya alone, life expectancy has reduced to 64.47 years, but how many are getting to that age? Very few. In 2022, Life expectancy in Nigeria was 61.33 years, but this year (2023) it has reduced to 53.8708.
Indeed, the devil does not want mankind living on this earth as long as God wants, but in the age to come death shall be no more and he would be banished from the New Earth that we would have then.
OH, HOW WE LOOK FORWARD TO THAT AGE!
The essence of premature death is to make sure one does not fulfill his or her destiny. We have been looking at certain things that our destiny needs to be fulfilled. One of it is along life; a life that is long enough for a man’s destiny to be fulfilled. For Jesus it was 33.5 years, for Paul, some Bible scholars said it was 96 years, and for John the beloved, it was 88 years. God wants you to live as long as your divine destiny permits, not as long as your enemy permits.
Yes, our destiny will need a life that is long enough to be fulfilled and God knows how to give us that life.
Sadly, some people of destiny are dying quiet earlier. Some are living with dreaded diseases all over the world. The devil indeed is afraid of destiny people fulfilling their days hence, attempting to shortening them. But God does not want you and I to die in our prime. He has a system for making sure we live as long as our destiny permits. That system is called life in the Holy Spirit.
Life in the Holy Spirit, is the only life that will escape every plan of the devil, to have us die before our time.
Now, I said life in the Holy Spirit, not life in the Church; not even a life of fasting and prayer. A life in the Church is good, and a life of fasting is great, but if both are not resulting in us living our lives in the Holy Spirit, we will still die before our time. Christianity is not something you falsify. You will be exposed if you do!
You can be in the church or in any ministry, and still die prematurely. But you can not be in the Holy Spirit, and die prematurely. The Holy Spirit will keep powering your life to overcome sin, diseases, immoral living, and anything that will bring death to your door steps before your days are over. He will protect you against curses, devils, spiritual assaults, messengers of death, and all that may be sent to take your life out.
Life in the spirit is all you need to fulfill your days. Not oil, holy water, salt, mantle, holy communion, deliverance prayer, sacrifice, or whatever you are being told. You need your life in the Holy Spirit to live long enough. Period!
If you put your life in the Holy Spirit, among other glorious things, your faith would no longer be built in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God that will overshadow your life. A portion of our devotional text says;
“And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:4-6 NKJV
With Your life in the Holy Spirit, you are living in the shadow of the Almighty, because He is the present shadow of the Almighty for you and I. And believe me, you cannot live in that shadow and not see God satisfying you with a life that is long enough for your destiny to be fulfilled.
It is my prayer that God use these truths to begin to satisfy us with a life that is long enough to fulfill its divine destiny in Jesus precious name. Amen
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION;
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”
Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler And from the perilous pestilence. He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day, Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
A thousand may fall at your side, And ten thousand at your right hand; But it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look, And see the reward of the wicked.
Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place, No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot
“Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.” Psalm 91:1-16 NKJV