TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 24th October 2023)
“The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”
“Who knows the power of your anger? For as the fear of you, so is your wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalms 90:10-12 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 297TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
While writing this piece, I sat down to asked myself how I will look or be at 80, if the LORD allows me to get there. Sometimes I worry so much about the future and what it holds for me and mine. But our future is not in our hands. Our future is in God’s hands. In fact, God is our future. If we live in Him and walk with Him, we are walking towards our future and living in our future, all at once. Hallelujah!
Our devotional today is another talk from the LORD that I believe will help build our faith. Let me begin with a word on ministry – I mean gospel ministry – the ministry of seeking and saving that which was lost through the preaching of the gospel. You see, ministry is simply service to the Most High God. True preaching actually flows from the fountain of a preacher’s walk and talk with God; it flows from a lifestyle from God.
Today I want to refresh our faith with a familiar story of mine. Someone said, “the secrets of men are in their stories,” that is why the edifying stories of a preacher’s walk and talk with GOD are important.
I remember sitting down with my spiritual father years ago, to ask questions on how he has carried himself under the grace that God has given him, up to that time. The secrets and stories of his life were some of the catalysts God used in pushing me into my prophetic destiny. I had that sitting with him because I desired to have the God he had, the moves of the Spirit he saw, and the cloud of glory he was under.
Perhaps if he had not shared those things with me, I would not have been where I am today in spirit and in truth. Someone once said, “the easiest way to know how far or near your journey in life is, or will be, is to ask anyone who is ahead of you on the very path you are about travelling.”
Someone once said he read 39 autobiographies of past servants of GOD, before stepping into ministry. And if you look at him today, one can say, that really helped him to an extent. The secrets and stories of both successful and ‘not successful’ men and women in ministry, will always be of help to anyone God has called into ministry.
A MAJOR HIGHLIGHT IN OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT TODAY SAYS;
“So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” This scripture is very significant to us all, especially in the prophetic seasons we find ourselves. Our earthly days are full of stories that if shared with a younger generation, could be of help in their quest to fulfil God’s will for their lives. So, if we number them accurately, we can come out with records and details of events that characterize them for the benefit of others.
I love sharing the story of my birth because of how it has inspired people to make destiny matters the Centre of their lives. The best time I share the story is usually on my birthdays. But today I just feel someone should be told something. Over 47 years ago, my mum just came back from the farm. She had gone to live with her auntie when she saw that are DD was approaching. By DD I mean Delivery Date. She said that morning she woke up with uncommon strength and went to the farm to fetch some firewood.
Every Africa knows what firewood is. It helps us to cook our meals in our villages. On her return from the farm, she dropped the firewood where firewood were kept, and within a short while she felt like going to the local toilet. For the purpose of hygiene our local toilets are built very far away from home, so it was like a journey for her. Finally, she got there, but on attempting to climb over, labor pains started. She shared with me that she had to retreat away from the toilet, and before she knew it, she was on the ground, surrounded by bushes and a thick forest.
THOUGH WHERE SHE SAT, WAS A PATHWAY THAT LED TO FARMS LANDS, AND HUNTING SPOTS IN OUR RAIN FOREST.
There was no one to offer any help to her. However, she started pushing, her baby out because she could no longer hold it, and I came out. And because she was at a place where there were no delivery clothes to use, I fell on the bushes, cutting a place close to my right eye – it threw her into panic. I was bleeding! Then after some minutes, a hunter who was returning home from hunting, met the scene and offered some help.
Finally, my auntie (who is late now) came running, and mother and child were taken to where they received proper care. God so did it that I was born in a village that had one of the best water falls in Nigeria. The prophetic significance of all these has not stopped throwing me into deep thoughts. First of all, I was fought by the dragon from the day of my birth. He never wanted me to live hence the cut. He was waiting to devour the child as soon as it was born. But God sent a hunter to raise the alarm that brought my auntie to the scene.
My place of birth, how I was born, what happened to my right eye, and the hunter that came, all speak prophetic volumes to me today. They reflected my assignment in the kingdom of God and what Heaven sent me to do on the face of the earth. My mum delivered me without a midwife, and that was dangerous; but in it, is the message of my apostolic assignment. God has sent me to be a spiritual midwife to those who are trying to bring forth their prophetic destinies without one. He has raised me to raise an alarm in the spirit on their behalf.
There are others who are bringing forth their spiritual visions and prophetic purposes, in wrong places the way my mum gave birth to me in a wrong place. They are in wrong Churches, under wrong prophets or prophetesses, doing the right things in the wrong places. Consequently, their destinies are bleeding, and if help do not come quickly, they will bleed to a spiritual and prophetic death.
My assignment is to locate these breeds, and bring them under my apostolic grace, so that they can be spiritually nursed properly and healed from the bite of the dragon.
The place and event that surrounded my birth over 47 years ago, was indeed a prophetic message to my mum and those who finally came. But there was no prophet to decode it. But the devil got the message and tried killing me, using terrible childhood diseases, that characterized the first years of my life on earth.
My mum told me how she wept and feared for my life each time I came under attack. But today, I am alive and well, fulfilling exactly what God communicated through the events that surrounded my birth that day. I have come to discover that I am not designed by God to lead or feed people who are not destiny conscious. I am designed to feed prophetically pregnant people with the word of the LORD as documented in the Holy Scriptures.
Until you are properly fed spiritually, you will not be able to discern what God buried in you. And until you discern what God buried in you, it will be distractive to go reading the autobiographies of people. You will not know the right story to read to actualize your destiny. There is so much we can share on this, but this is just a devotional.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
“Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.”
“And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.”
“His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.”
“She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.” Revelation 12:1-6 NKJV