TODAY’S DEVOTION (Saturday 25TH July 2020)
“And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” Luke 22:31-32 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 205TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
When life throws sad things at you; when expectations fail and disappointment creeps in, when people you thought should help you withdraws their help, when those you are laboring to keep happy refuse to reciprocate, as a Child of God that is the time to lift up your faith.
When the news of the dead of a love one demoralizes you and you cannot find the reason to live the next minute, when the enemy comes against you like a flood, the most important thing to keep alive is your faith.
It is our season of God’s Rhema Word because the enemy of our souls is on rampage to fill us with his own words. God want to speak to us today on keeping the faith.
The Bible says, “the just shall live by faith.” It did not say the just shall live by struggles, fear, pain, or anything negative. Neither did He say the just shall live by prayer, fasting, giving, singing, or going to church, as important as all these things are. He said the just shall live by faith.
You see, go to church, praying, fasting, or giving, are all meaningful if driven by faith. There are also times when praying, fasting, or going to church help us release our faith. That is when the works of the Holy Spirit comes in the enable all that. If these acts of worship are not driven by faith, they should be birthing faith in us. In neither of that is involved, then we are in religion.
That is why the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and Fire is especially important to our walk with GOD. It is the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire that makes our prayers, fasting, giving, singing, and even going to Church impactful.
THESE ACTS OF WORSHIP HAVE A WAY OF BECOMING FAITH BUILDING TOOLS UNDER THE POWER AND INFLUENCE OF THE HOLY GHOST.
The Bible says.
“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” Jude 20-21 NKJV
The importance of faith to a Child of God is perhaps known better by the devil than the Children of God today. The fierceness of Satan’s attacks against our faith, and the weak response we usually give to faith building, proves it all.
Many in Church today will prefer building where to live or their reputations instead of their faith. Others will prefer building their careers, businesses, families, and all they desire without giving a thought to their faith. We forget that when God says the “Just shall live by faith,” He made faith building the most important thing in the life of a Child of GOD.
It is the faith of the just that will sustain his life, house, career, business, fame, family, and all he desires to build in life. Faith is the foundation on which all those should be built on. In simple terms, God designed that our lives be sustained by our faith. That is why Satan attacks it ferociously.
Our devotional text today says it all.
The spirit realm sometimes seems to be a complicated realm. When Satan asked for Peter, to shift him like wheat, his rising profile, business, or family was not the subject of his attack, Peter’s faith was the subject of attack.
And when Jesus moved to provide a prayer cover for him, He did not pray for his business, fame, or family not to fail. He prayed that his faith should not fail because that was the focus of the attack. If the faith fails, everything about him will fail.
A major highlight in the text says,
“But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”
I have faced a lot of intense warfare in life. Mine had nothing to do with battles around anything earthly, be eternal. And those are the most intense battles. But all of them, I came to realize that the subject of every satanic attack directly or indirectly during those moments has always been my faith.
THAT IS WHY I STRIVE TO PROTECT IT DURING THOSE MOMENTS.
We must realize that during any attack of the enemy, bringing down our faith will always be the focus. The quicker we come to term with this the better. Until our faith fails, our businesses will not fail. Until our faith fails, our marriages or family will not fail. Until our faith fails, our ministries or callings will not fail. The life of the redeemed of the LORD is designed by GOD to be lived by faith.
Now what is faith? Faith is not a mental confidence in ourselves. No!
Peter had a mental confidence in himself when he boasted that he will not deny Christ. But Jesus said to him, before the cock crows once you will do it thrice. Faith is therefore not a confidence in oneself. The Bible defines faith as the substance of things hope for and the evidence of things not seen.
It means true faith has both substance and evidence. It is usually anchored on revelation that is why it comes by hearing from God at an immediate present. In other words, if God has not spoken to you about a thing at an immediate present, there cannot be true faith in Him concerning that thing.
True faith is a child of things (in the throne room of GOD), that have been revealed to our spiritual senses; it is a proof of things we have seen in the spirit but have not seen in the natural – a conviction of the reality of them. Apostle John spoke about things that can be seen, felt, or touched in the spirit.
Faith is usually a product of seeing from God, touching, or feeling things from, or in God – things that have been created to be born on earth. It also involves taking steps that will pull them from that realm to your realm. In other words, faith is a creative force that enables the believer to create something from the invisible realm of GOD, to the visible realm of man.
THAT IS WHY SATAN ATTACKS IT.
Do not forget, Satan cannot create he can only make use of what have been created. But with the instrumentality of faith, we can create. We can create a marriage, a business, a spiritual life, a family, and whatever is in God’s will for our lives. Faith helps us to create by seeing, touching, or feeling things that exist in the Spirit’s realm through prayer, and birthing them on earth through hard work
That is why genuine faith will show us what action to take to bring things that have been created in the realm of GOD down to our realm. That is why God made prayer a catalyst of faith. Because things cannot be revealed to our spiritual senses until we have prayed effective in the Holy Ghost – most times by speaking in tongues.
The Bible says,
‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ Jeremiah 33:3 NKJV
Friend, any prayer that is not activating your faith by bringing you into God’s prophetic realm is a form of godliness that has no power. True prayer mounts pressure on God to reveal Himself. Such prayers are Holy Spirit enabled not ‘holy’ flesh led. They have a way of bringing us into a realm where God can be revealed to us.
God reveals Himself sometimes, by speaking or showing something to us. When we see what He shows us or hear what He says to us, faith will be born in it.
IN CONCLUSION, THE BIBLE SPOKE ABOUT A FAITH THAT WAS ONCE DELIVERED TO THE SAINTS.
This refers to an apostolic Christian belief that was established on the revelation of Jesus Christ to the early Church. That believe can be summarized in one proclamation that Paul made, and that proclamation is, “Christ in you the hope of glory.”
If you look at the Church today, there is a great falling away from this kind of faith. People are being told to sleep with prophets and prophetesses for spiritual cleansing. Others are taught to drink the oil and treat it as the Holy Spirit.
Many others are trained to give money for prayers, and other forms of sacrifices; using salt, water, brooms, etc. to invoke deliverance or one form of supernatural intervention or the other. That is not the faith that was once delivered to the saints.
God is calling on the remnant, those He has preserved from these pollution to rise! He is calling on us to rise and begin to contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints.
The Bible says,
“Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” Jude 3 NKJV
The time to obey this call in our generation is now!
What is the message of our devotional this morning? If things are not okay with you, it is your faith that the enemy is trying to attack not really your things. And God saying, “come into the prayer room in such moments through songs of praise and thanksgiving, then pray unto me and I will reveal myself to you.” When God reveals Himself to you during such moments, what the devil came to destroy will be rather fortified and you will come out victorious!
If there is any way to contend for your personal faith during crisis, that is one way to do it. It is my prayer that God will use these words to build you up and give you an inheritance among they that are sanctified! AMEN!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY!
“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.”
“The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.”
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” Psalms 34:15-19 NKJV