TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 19TH DECEMBER 2023)
“Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 353RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
We serve the God of times and seasons. That is why His blessings, moves and miracles, come in times and seasons. We give Him all the glory for His marvelous deeds. He made this year our season and time of signs and wonders. Indeed, we saw signs and wonders this year.
Great signs that came in form of creative and redemptive miracles, amazing transformations, and display of Heavenly power. Others came in form of destiny molding apostolic and prophetic messages.
Indeed, God is God of times and seasons, and we are glad that we are being prepared for another season; new things for the season are being declared in the Spirit.
Following GOD requires knowing when certain things are over and when new things are being declared in the realm of the Spirit. After this year, what will be coming will not be a replacement of the year, but a reinforcement from the LORD in form of another year.
God will reinforce all He did in our lives this year, strengthen and establish us in ways we have never seen, as He prepare some and launch others into the fields of the dark church and the lost world, to win the souls that are trapped there back to the LORD.
The most difficult part will be the fields of the dark church. We will meet ancient devils masquerading as Jesus Christ and deceiving the people.
Like Jezebel did to Israel when she convinced them that Elijah was the enemy, these devils will use some preachers and all they have influenced in the dark church system, to convince the people that need to be saved that we are the enemy, and they will put up a fatal resistance against us.
THEY WILL RESIST US LIKE STEPHEN WAS RESISTED, AND STONE US LIKE HE WAS STONED.
But according to the divine plan, the glory of the LORD is to appear to do the impossible. That is why the reinforcement will be needed. It takes spiritual reinforcements to stand the kind of resistance that Stephen faced, and have God’s glory reflecting on your face in the midst of battle.
So, get set for a beautiful year of divine reinforcements from higher realms of God’s grace and truth.
Our devotion today will continue from where we stopped yesterday. Today we are going to look at how to get our spirits full of God, alive and fruitful so that we can reap the full blessings of the word of the LORD we hear.
Some insightful things were shared yesterday on mixing the word of the LORD with faith. We saw that our spirits must be fruitful for that to happen. It must be fruitful enough to conceive the words we hear from God, and turn them into prophetic pictures of what the word was sent to accomplish in our lives.
What the womb of a woman is in the natural is what the spirit of man is in the spiritual. And what the seed of a man is in the natural is what the word of the LORD is in the spiritual.
When a man’s seed is bad, he cannot get a woman pregnant. When a woman’s womb is unfruitful, she cannot be pregnant.
In the same way, if the word you hear from your pastor is bad, it will not get your spirit pregnant with divine things. And if your spirit is not fruitful, the word you hear from your pastor, no matter how powerful, effective, and miracle producing it may be, cannot get you pregnant with the blessings it was intended to bring into your life.
It is therefore important that our spirits be fruitful, and the word we hear be full of God, alive, and capable of getting our fruitful spirits pregnant; pregnant with the blessing it was intended to bring into our lives.
NOW HOW DO WE GET OUR SPIRITS FULL OF GOD, ALIVE AND FRUITFUL? LET ME BEGIN WITH THE NATURAL.
In the natural realm, Fruitfulness is something we are born with. Apart from genetic alteration that cause unfruitfulness in men and women sometimes, fruitfulness is a gift of nature. In other words, God designed that a man or woman be born fruitful.
Our devotional text explained it all. It says, “and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply;”
If you look at this text, it is clear that God did not say, “be barren and diminish.” He said, “be fruitful and multiply.” We were originally designed to be born fruitful. However, some are barren. But they are not barren because God created them to be barren.
Some are barren because of genetic alteration, satanic hindrances, or what they did with themselves made them so. Bareness was never a plan of God for mankind. God designed that a man or woman be born fruitful.
The same word was spoken to all animals and every other living thing. When God created them, He said to them, “Be Fruitful and multiply.” They have never stopped being fruitful or multiplying. I am yet to see a barren dog, goat, or fish. God created all living things to be fruitful and multiply.
Now, how does this apply to the spiritual truth we are looking at?
You see, salvation encounter gets our human spirits born again and gives it the ability to conceive seed from God and be fruitful. In other words, a genuine salvation encounter brings great experiences from God that gets our HUMAN spirits alive and fruitful.
That experience is called born again. To be born again is to experience a spiritual rebirth of a new heart or spirit. When that rebirth takes place, you will possess a human spirit that will be supernaturally fruitful and receptive to God.
At natural birth, our human spirits are dead (absent of the life Of God), unfruitful, and empty of God. But at spiritual rebirth, everything changes. It quickens our spirits, transmits life into it, and makes it unfruitful in the things of this world, and fruitful in the things of God. Hallelujah!!
THAT IS WHY YOU FIND THE TRULY SAVED NOT BEING ABLE TO DO WHAT THE LOST WORLD OR THE DARK CHURCH PEOPLE DO.
That person is no longer fruitful in the dark things of this world, or the dark things of the fallen church. If he was an active sinner, he will no longer be able to live that way any longer.
If he were a night crawler, a drunk, a sexually pervert, a liar, a thief, a fraud, a greedy or covetous person, his encounter with Jesus will change everything.
Genuine salvation experience is a key to spiritual fruitfulness. That is why it is dangerous to falsify your salvation.
Do not say you are born again when you cannot tell us an encounter you had with Jesus. Salvation is a fruit of divine encounter not religious confession. That brings me to why most present-day Christians are empty of God, dead in spirit, and fruitful in the things of this world.
There are two basic reasons why that is so. The first is falsified salvation. Many who claim born again are not really born again.
They think being born again is joining a Church or making an empty confession. That is why they remain unfruitful in the things of God but fruitful in the things of this world.
You find many of us living lives the way the people of this world do, yet saying we are saved.
Recently I heard a preacher saying he will fight another one physically when he meets him. I was left wondering if he is really saved, because saved people do not engage people in physical fights. It is unsaved people who claim to be saved that do that.
Sadly, the preacher saying that he operates in the supernatural. His people shouted amen to his threats.
The fact that one is operating in the supernatural does not mean the person is saved. Balaam operated in the supernatural yet he was not born again.
The fact that one is seeing accurate visions about your life, and working miracles for you, and going by the title of an apostle or prophet, does not mean the person is saved.
Jesus said, “Many will say to me in that day, ‘LORD, LORD, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name.’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:22-23)
Scriptures like this one should make us tremble.
THE CHURCH MUST WAKE UP TO THESE TRUTHS.
The second reason is lack of commitment to God. Those who genuinely got saved did not keep their spirits full of God, alive and fruitful by being committed to Holy living, corporate worship, personal devotion, and in-depth study of God’s word.
Some committed for a while but threw it away; losing the substance they got when they first met Christ.
The Bible says, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” This people got saved but refused to work it out, hence becoming empty of God, dead, and unfruitful in spirit.
If you fall into any of these categories, there is hope for you!
Revisit your salvation experience and check if you really met Christ.
Then begin a fresh walk with God on daily bases. Commit yourself to corporate worship in a spiritual life-giving Church, with a heart that is hungry and thirsty for righteousness, Holy living, personal devotion, and in-depth study of the word.
The early Church leaders led the Church to keep their spirits full of God, alive and fruitful in the things of God, by committing themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word. How long you spend with God and His word in prayer on daily bases, will determine how full of God, alive, and fruitful you will be in the things of God.
People who have no private relationship with God, will never have a life that is fruitful in the things of God. If you are fruitful in the things of God, no resistance will be able to stop you. The enemy will not be able to build a wall of resistance against you. Your branch will always run over the wall.
LET THE SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY
“Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well; His branches run over the wall. Genesis 49:22 NKJV