TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 18TH DECEMBER 2023)
“For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.”
“For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: “So I swore in My wrath,’ They shall not enter My rest,'” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.” Hebrew 4:2-3 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 352ND DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
This is the day the LORD has made, we shall rejoice and be glad in it. Our lives are a testimony of the LORD’s faithfulness and Kindness. He has been our refuge, our light, our peace and our everything.
God has the longest history of faithfulness. He has been faithful to His word from age to age. In fact, the Bible says He exalted His word above His name. Meaning the most powerful force in His kingdom is His word. If we therefore want to see His works in our Lives, we must not neglect His word.
Let me quickly state some things that we must learn to do with God’s word.
The first thing we must do with His word is to know His word, because knowing His word, is knowing His person, His principles, His ways, His power, His Spirit, His promises, His mercies and every other thing that makes Him God.
Knowing His word will help us know His capabilities. However, we can never know His word without being taught His word. That is why teaching prophets and apostles are the greatest need of the moment.
The next thing to do with His word is to meditate in it, in other to observe and to do what is written.
What we are taught must be meditated upon for it to be internalized. When we meditate in the word (both the one we are taught and the word in the Holy Scriptures) good success becomes inevitable.
The next thing we do with His word for it to unleash the wonders in it is to obey it. Obeying the word is always better than sacrifices. In fact, if we give sacrifices to God without obeying His word, our sacrifices will become sacrifices of fools.
We must obey His word on sexual morality, on purity of our hearts, on showing mercy and walking in forgiveness, on faith, on righteousness and right living, on giving, fasting and prayer, and on all it says to us.
The Bible says;
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” James 1:22-25 NKJV
The word of God has a work buried in it to be done.
IN OTHER WORDS, THE WORD HAS DEMANDS IN IT TO BE DONE.
It is called the demands of the word of the LORD. Each time we are taught the word or given a prophetic word from the LORD, there are some demands in them that we must sense and do. It is the doing of the demand in the word that unlocks the power of the word in our lives.
The Bible says we shall be blessed in what we do if we do the work in the word! Someone must begin to sense the work to do from every word of God he or she receives.
The next thing to do with the word is to mix it with faith. A word you have not mixed with faith cannot be done. And a word whose work you have not sensed to do will never profit you! The first verse of our devotional text this morning says;
“For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.” Hebrew 4:2 NKJV
There is something I think will help us understand what it means to mix the word with faith. But let me say this, as we get closer and closer to the consummation of all things, and the final return of our LORD and saviour Jesus Christ, the Bible made it clear that the mystery of God shall be finished.
Meaning, we shall come to a perfect understanding of hidden truths in God!
We are also expected to come into amazing freedoms form moral decadence that the truth brings. Mixing the word with faith will be very helpful in positioning us achieve all that. What I believe will help us understand the Bible concept of mixing the word with faith is found in an analogy on marriage that I want to share.
Matters of either barrenness or fruitfulness in marriage, has a lot of lessons to teach the end time Christian.
WHILE IN SOME CASES, IT IS THE SEED OF A MAN THAT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR BARRENNESS, IN OTHER CASES IT IS THE WOMB OF THE WOMAN.
No matter how fruitful the womb of a woman is, if the seed of the man that enters it is bad, it will never get the womb of that woman pregnant with Child.
On the other hand, a Fruitful womb is the key to conception. If the womb of a woman is not fruitful, no matter how powerful the seed of a man is, that womb will never conceive a Child. What spiritual truth can we draw from this natural reality?
The good seed of a man represents the word of the LORD, and the womb of a woman represents the spirit of man.
There are Christians whose spirits cannot conceive anything no matter how powerful, effective, anointed, sanctified, miracle-producing and how deep the word of God they hear is.
In the spirit, conception is the key to delivery; in simple terms, what have not been conceived in your spirit cannot be born in your life.
It is what we conceive in our spirits that God’s power will work on, and have it born in our lives. If our spirits therefore conceive nothing, in spite of how powerful, effective, creative and wonder working God’s word is, our lives will never have the good things God’s word can produce in it.
When the word is preached, we are expected to mix it with faith to have the blessing it brings born in our lives
Faith come when we see or hear in the spirit realm – when we see things the glory of God wants to bring into our lives, faith is born in us.
Things communicated by the word of the LORD must therefore be brood upon until their prophetic pictures are created in our hearts. Also, our spirits must be fruitful enough to conceive the word we hear with our ears, for the power of the word to work in our lives.
THAT IS THE PRINCIPLE THAT OUR FATHERS EMBRACED IN THEIR DAYS!
For instance, if a word on favour, prosperity, healing, deliverance, or holiness comes from the LORD as a living seed (not just some empty words), through the mouth of a preacher to us, and our ear hears it but our spirits did not receive and conceive it, there will be no manifestation of the blessing in that word in our lives.
In other words, if our spirits are barren, or if we lack the devotion to turn the word into prophetic pictures in our hearts, it will not profit us.
Our devotional text said “The word did not profit them because it was not mixed with faith in them that heard it”. Consequently, they did not enter into God’s rest.
In other words, they heard the word, but did not devote themselves to it until it forms prophetic pictures in their heart, and give them something to believe in and obey. Consequently, missing the rest it brought to them.
All these teaches that, until a fruitful and living word meets a fruitful and living spirit over time, a man’s life will never come into God’s fullness and rest for it. Often, we are troubled on every side and made to wonder, and even blame God’s servants for our problems, particularly when they speak a word to us that we do not see its manifestations in our lives.
While in some cases it is the word of the preacher that is responsible for the lack of manifestation, in other cases it is the spirits of those who may have received it that is the problem.
David said, “The entrance of thy word gives light.”
It means when the word of the LORD enters into a man’s spirit, it should produce something in the man. If it is from the living God at an immediate present, it should produce impact in our hearts.
However, if the word that enters is not from the living God at an immediate present, it will be dead, empty and unfruitful, and our spirits, though alive and fruitful in God, will have nothing to conceive. On the other hand, if the word is alive, full of revelation, and fruitful, it will not profit us if your spirit is dead, unfruitful, and empty of God.
A rich, living, and fruitful word, and a rich, living, and fruitful spirit, must meet for any turn around to occur in the life of anyone by the word of the LORD!
LIVING WORDS ARE SEEDS; THEY ARE MEDIUM OF TRANSACTION BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH.
They bring blessings from Heaven to a man’s life. However, until they enter our spirits and plant a spiritual picture of what God is saying to you in it, our lives will be barren of the manifestations of that word.
What then is the key to the manifestation of God’s word in our lives? Mixing it with faith is the key.
This key is one of the simplest keys in the KINGDOM. We all know that great doors are sometimes opened with very small keys. This key is so small that most times we cannot find it. A fruitful spirit must meet a fruitful word, for the manifestation of God’s word to take place in a man’s life. That is the key!
Child of God, are there things that you are yet to enter into? Are there blessings you are yet to come into? The key to coming into them lies in the truths you have just encountered in this devotional today.
Get your spirit full of God through personal devotion.
Make it alive and fruitful by yielding to the Holy Spirit. Then locate a preacher with a true, living, and rich word that will meet your need, and sit under him or her. Over time, there will be a conception and you will come into the manifestation of the things the LORD may have promised you.
I have often rebuked people who listen to God’s teachings and come out with nothing in their lives, especially after a long time.
It saddens me deeply because the word the LORD brings to us, is always rich, alive and fruitful. But the spirits of most of those who read or hear it, are empty of God, dead, and unfruitful. That is not the will of God for us.
God’s will is that His word should produce in our lives. He wants the manifestation of the fullness of the blessing of the gospel in our lives.
It is my prayer that we use these things to allow His will to come to pass, so that we all will come into the fullness of the blessing of the gospel in Jesus precious name. Amen!!!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY
“Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.”
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:11-13 NKJV