TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 16TH SEPTEMBER 2023)
“Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow you wherever you go.”
And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”
And another also said, “Lord, I will follow you, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.”
But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:57-62 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 259TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS
With 106 more days to go in this eventful and glorious year, only GOD is to be praised for His marvelous works among us! He has been faithful, that is why the year has been glorious. Most times, we enjoyed His faithfulness when our faithlessness was in full display. That is the difference between Him and other gods.
The Bible made it clear that even when we are faithless, He remains faithful; and that He will never deny Himself. Our lives testify. Truly, there are things you can still get from God when you are not faithful as a Child of God. But I have come to realize that when the faithful God finds a faithful people as Sons and daughters, His glory will kindle the earth as never before.
Even their lives will be decorated with amazing things from the throne room. Yes, He will remain faithful to us when we are not, but greater things in His kingdom cannot be accessed by the faithless. We live in a generation that does not like following the LORD fully but expects His full blessings to manifest in their lives. But things do not work that way!
Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been if I had “fully” followed the LORD from the day I found him as a child. Every internal pain, external scar, regret, worry, losses and cracks that I see in my life, would not have happened, because they all occurred in seasons, I did not follow the LORD fully. I know that if I had fully followed the LORD from the day, I found Him by His grace, as a Child, a lot of painful memories I have today, would not have been there!
I also wonder sometimes what the life of man would have been, had we not fallen in the Garden of Eden. I wonder what Life would have been if Adam had fully followed the LORD GOD. There would have been no pain, no sin, no death, and no evil.
IT WOULD HAVE JUST BEEN HEAVEN ON EARTH.
That teaches me that the only way to have Heaven on earth as a Child of God, is to fully follow the LORD after you find Him! How beautiful Life will be if we follow the LORD, with the whole of our hearts, without compromising anything, in our “walk” and “talk” with Him.
Compromise does not really hurt God (though it grieves His loving heart). Compromise hurts us, and sometimes the hurt is without redemption. Sadly, mankind is yet to come to terms to what a GODLESS and UNGODLY lifestyle does to a human. Even many of us in the faith are yet to come to terms with that. We are yet to come to the revelation or understanding of what ONE MOMENT OF NOT FULLY FOLLOWING THE LORD can destroy in our Christian lives!
I was told of a man of God who was fully following His LORD. But he was married to a very terrible woman. Whenever he closes from the Church (a Church his wife does not attend) he will drive around town to make sure the woman has slept before he enters the house, because whenever he meets her awake, she will give him hell on earth.
Now there was this day that he drove around town to while away time as usual. He saw a lady by the roadside that seems to be in need of help. He was a kind-hearted man of GOD. So, due to his kindness, he decided to use the moments he was spending to while away time, to show some kindness to this lady, by taking her to her destination. But something else was in store for the innocent man of God.
The lady did something terrible when she got to her destination. She took advantage of his vulnerability and seduced him successfully into an illicit affair with her that night. The man was too weary spiritually to resist the flesh. So, the following day, he woke up to see just a note by his side reading “welcome to the world of AIDS.” And the lady was no way to be found!
This incident happened when there were no anti-viral drugs. He knew his days were numbered and started going from church to church to share his testimony in repentance. Repentance should bring healing, but he gave up because he lost the strength of faith to believe God for his healing. Finally, he died. Maybe God allowed the disease to kill him, so he could go to our eternal home to rest from his sorrows, since he had repented genuinely of the sin.
I do not know why sometimes, we find very good men in the hands of terrible women, and vice versa. But the lesson here is, one moment of compromise can cause us a lifetime of peace and joy in the Holy Ghost! As earlier stated, compromise hurts us not God, or the minister of the gospel that may be urging us to live right.
COMPROMISE HURTS US SEVERELY, MUCH MORE THAT EVEN THOSE THE ENEMY MAY BE USING TO SEDUCE US INTO IT.
A Child of God who is not fully following the LORD, will lose much more than a sinner, any moment he compromises divine standards. The reason is simple; the sinner has nothing else to lose. He or she is already lost without the LORD! But we, THE REDEEMED of the LORD, have all to lose if we compromise.
When I look at the grace and mercy of the LORD on my life and how he saved me from the consequences of my moments of compromise, I appreciate him for His marvelous deeds. Today, when I speak in meetings and conferences, I do that sometimes with tears in my eyes, and many times just in my heart, hoping that people will heed to what I could not heed to in my own time of rebellion; at least to escape what I went through.
You see, not everyone comes out successfully from the consequences of a moment of compromise. Fully following the LORD, is part of the positive response we should give to God’s love and faithfulness in our lives. Many do not know that it is the greatest key to lasting things in the Christian faith. It is stronger than fasting and prayer, and much stronger than any form of sacrificial giving, because it involves sacrificial living.
Sacrificial living is stronger that sacrificial giving. Sacrificial living involves obedience to the will and ways of the LORD. Saul opted for sacrificial giving while God wanted sacrificial living. The Bible says, the word of the LORD came to Him saying.
“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.” 1 Samuel 15:22-23 NKJV
This scripture tells us of the power of sacrificial living. It tells us that God prefers it to any form of sacrifice we may offer to Him; it tells us what will bring God’s glory down upon our lives. It tells us about the blessing of fully following the LORD. But so many of us do not know that.
WE PREFER FASTING AND PRAYER, INSTEAD OF FOLLOWING THE LORD FULLY IN OBEDIENCE AND SUBMISSION TO HIS WILL.
In my moments of compromise, I was still fasting, praying, sacrificing, and even preaching, but there was no glory. I just had the anointing, yet I did not know God was not pleased with everything I was doing. If God could use a donkey without taking it to heaven, then we must be careful, BECAUSE BEING USED OF GOD IS NOT A SIGN THAT YOU WILL MAKE HEAVEN. When God is pressed to do a thing, sometimes He can lay His hands on an animal to do it. That was why Jesus said to his disciples,
“Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
“Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:19-20 NKJV
In other words, He was telling them, do not be carried away by the exploits you are seeing in ministry, rather live a life that will make sure your name that is written in Heaven, is not erased. Live a life that fully follow the LORD. Our devotional text today makes that even clearer. A major highlight in it says;
Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”
And another also said, “Lord, I will follow you, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Let me tell you this, grace is free, but it has standards. Most preachers will not tell you that.
BUT THE BIBLE PRESENTED A GRACE WITH STANDARDS TO BEAR.
The scriptures made it clear that grace has principles we must line up to. It teaches that when we have put our hands to the plough to follow the LORD, we must do it fully. We are ‘condemned’ not to look back because if we do, we will become unfit for the Kingdom of God. I believe Abraham our father and all who followed GOD previously knew that. It could be why the Bible said,
“And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.
But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country.Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.” Hebrews 11:15-16 NKJV
I believe with the whole of my Heart that if the true CHRIST dwells in our hearts by faith, we will lead a Christian lifestyle that will reflect the very life these men lived in their time, because it’s the same LORD that we are all dealing with. We will be fully following Him and not stop even when sin is thrown at us. We will repent and quickly go back to Him. It was in the light of all this that Paul the apostle of Grace (the foundational and only true apostle of grace) said.
“Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” 1 Corinthians 9:26-27 NKJV
We can become disqualified if we do not commit our hearts to fully follow the LORD. Fully following the LORD will involve putting out bodies under by subjecting the flesh to daily spiritual discipline, so that we will not profess born again and then be cast away in the next life!
It’s a new day for you! Wishing you the best of God for the weekend.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY!
“For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.
Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Hebrews 10:26-31 NKJV