TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 3RD DECEMBER 2023)
“Therefore do not worry and be anxious, saying, what are we going to have to eat? or, what are we going to have to drink? or, what are we going to have to wear?
For the Gentiles (heathen) wish for and crave and diligently seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows well that you need them all.
But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.
So do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own. Sufficient for each day is its own trouble.” Matthew 6:31-34 AMPC
WELCOME TO THE 337TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
One of the most beautiful subjects of the Kingdom of God that religion does not let people learn, is the subject of visionary living.
So many are aware of dreams and visions as in prophetic communications, but not visionary living.
Sadly, most people who dream and see visions do not actually live visionary lives, because dreaming and seeing visions does not automatically translate into visionary living. It takes visionary living to express authentic kingdom life.
The kingdom life is different from the everyday religious Christian life. The kingdom life is the Life of Christ Himself as King of kings and LORD of lords, being lived through us.
Salvation by Heavenly design, takes us from one kingdom to another; the kingdom of darkness where men and women are dead spiritually, living according to the flesh, the system of this world and the influence of Satan, to the kingdom of God where people no longer live that way.
The scriptures put it this way;
And you [He made alive], when you were dead (slain) by [your] trespasses and sins
In which at one time you walked [habitually]. You were following the course and fashion of this world [were under the sway of the tendency of this present age], following the prince of the power of the air.
[You were obedient to and under the control of] the [demon] spirit that still constantly works in the sons of disobedience [the careless, the rebellious, and the unbelieving, who go against the purposes of God].
Among these we as well as you once lived and conducted ourselves in the passions of our flesh [our behavior governed by our corrupt and sensual nature], obeying the impulses of the flesh and the thoughts of the mind [our cravings dictated by our senses and our dark imaginings].
We were then by nature children of [God’s] wrath and heirs of [His] indignation, like the rest of mankind. Ephesians 2:1-3 AMPC
BY HEAVEN’S DESIGN, GENUINE SALVATION SHOULD MAKE US COME ALIVE IN CHRIST.
It should bring us into the Kingdom of God, where we no longer follow the course and fashion of this world; a system that is under the sway of the god of this age; the spirit that works in all who are not saved.
It brings us into the kingdom of God where it becomes impossible to be habitually governed by a corrupt and sensual nature, the impulses of the flesh, and the thoughts of dark imaginations.
When you are not saved, you are by nature a child of wrath, but when you are saved, there is a change of spirit nature within you, which results in a new life that is governed by the Spirit of Christ.
The new life, cannot be governed by the corrupt and sensual nature that once governed our lives, neither can it be governed by the impulses of the flesh, or dark imaginations. That is why genuine salvation takes us from the ordinary to the extra ordinary.
The ordinary religious Christian life is usually mixed with a behaviour that is governed by all the dark and sinful tendencies that genuine salvation helps us to deal with. Namely, the corrupt and sensual nature, a set of impulses of the flesh, sinful cravings created by a corrupt set of senses, and actions that are products of dark imaginations.
People who lead ordinary Christian lives, call Jesus, “LORD, LORD,” but do not do what He says. They do not do it because they refused to align with the new nature that ought to become the governor of their lives.
The Bible made it clear that people who live that way, will not make Heaven. They will not make Heaven because their salvation lacks conversion. So, if you are still living the ordinary Christian life, please repent because you are on your way to being surprised in eternity.
The ordinary Christian life is not just different from the Kingdom Life, because of a lack of the holiness and consecration of Christ that should have been at its core. It is different because it is not lived according to the intentions, goals, visions, or pre-determined plans of Jesus Christ, the King of the Kingdom.
IN KINGDOM LIVING, YOUR OWN GOALS, VISIONS, DRIVES, PASSIONS, AMBITIONS AND ALL THAT YOU MAY BE LIVING FOR, DIES AND GET BURIED INTO THAT OF CHRIST.
That is what makes your life visionary. It is because of this death that you cannot find the kingdom life in the Christianity of many. Many are not willing to let go their own life dreams, behaviour, spirit nature, habits, ways of life, ambitions, visions, passions, plans, and etc. and embrace that of Christ.
They are like the harlot Church that wants to feed on its man-made and demons induced doctrines, live its own life, but still want the power of Christ and all He offers to be available to them.
That is what the Christian faith has become in so many Church groups, with the preachers serving as gods over them, in the name of Jesus whose ways none is living. They do not live the kingdom life, they live a version of the Christian life that is mixed with the fallen life of the lost world.
Kingdom citizenship, is not continuing on your own ways of life and drives, and then asking the LORD Jesus to be with you, calling yourself saved or born again. That is delusional. If you know what born again is, you will know that it has no part for the old sinful nature.
It has no part for an old nature that always wants to follow its ways and drives, and will not want to die and get buried. It has the power to kill and bury the old nature, for the new to emerge. It has the power to propel the birth of the kingdom life in us.
Like we stated earlier, the kingdom life is a visionary life because it is not your life that you are living but the life of another; and that person is Christ, the King of the Kingdom your now belong.
In a kingdom, things do not run like in a democracy. In a kingdom, everyone live for the King’s will, wishes, and glory.
THAT IS THE DEPTH OF VISIONARY LIVING.
It is you living for the will of Christ the king, His wishes, desires, and glory. You do not seek to satisfy you, you seek to satisfy Him.
You do not go to Church or fellowship with Him making your carnal need the subject. You make His own needs your subject; you make the actualization of His eternal purpose in time the subject. That is the only way your own earthly needs will be met without you praying about it most of the times.
Our devotional text defines the kingdom life as a life of not worrying about your own needs, or being anxious. That kind of life is a style of Godless people. Meaning, Godliness is living the Kingdom life; a life of aiming at and striving first for all of Christ’s kingdom, and His way of doing and being right, then other things.
The text put it this way;
“Therefore do not worry and be anxious, saying, what are we going to have to eat? or, what are we going to have to drink? or, what are we going to have to wear?
For the Gentiles (heathen) wish for and crave and diligently seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows well that you need them all.
But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.
So do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own. Sufficient for each day is its own trouble.” Matthew 6:31-34 AMPC
There is no way you will not live a visionary life, if you align with this scripture.
Visionary living in God’s kingdom is actually kingdom living. When it comes to kingdom living, the will of the King is what you pursue.
That is what makes the life visionary. It is you seeking first His kingdom (His will, plans, and purposes) and His own ways of doing things, living and being right, and aligning with Him. Then all other things follow.
This journey of faith with the Cry of the Spirit on visionary living, will not be complete if we are not told that visionary living is all about living the kingdom life. All the laws that governs it, are about kingdom living. You cannot put them in a religious box. You will need to get out of the box to live according to the laws.
Yesterday we saw the law of visionary application of secrets. You must apply the same law to what we have just shared. Start living a life that seeks God’s interest and will first. That is what visionary living in God’s kingdom is.
That law is one beautiful law of visionary living that if not added to all other laws that we have seen on this subject; will make everything we have learned a waste of time. The difference between achievers and non-achievers is in visionary application of knowledge, insights, or secrets.
Achievers are strict applicants of divine knowledge, secrets, and insights.
An applicant or practitioner of God’s secret and truths, will never be put to shame no matter what may be against him or her. His application of divine secrets, insights, and truths fashions his life on earth according to divine pattern.
When your life is fashioned according to divine pattern, you will be in divine order. If you are in divine order, the enemy will not be able to get you.
Understand that God does not bless chaos, God bless order. So, when your life is lived according to divine pattern you attract blessings from the throne room of God.
Am not referring to the prosperity of the wicked many call blessings, am talking about real blessings of God that reforms even your moral nature and makes you Heaven worthy and earth relevant.
With just one day to go, it is my prayer that God will use what we have learned in this journey to help us live the Kingdom life that we have been called to live.
May the LORD bring us to the place where we will all say that our lives are worth nothing, unless we use them to do the will of the one who died on the cross to save us from eternal wrath.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY!
“I never shrank back from telling you what you needed to hear, either publicly or in your homes.
I have had one message for Jews and Greeks alike—the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus.
“And now I am bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don’t know what awaits me, except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead.
But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.” Acts 20:20-24 NLT