TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 24TH DECEMBER 2023)
“For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.” 2 Corinthians 5:4 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 358TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
We thank the LORD for all He did in our lives in 2023, especially the healings and health He gave us. Doubtlessly, part of His vision for our lives in 2024 and beyond, is sound health. That is why He have been speaking to us on health matters!
Returning to His original plan for our health has been God’s eternal plan for all mankind. That has been made known in the devotional of yesterday and the days back. Today, we will continue on the same flow.
Let me remind us again that the effects of the fall on both man and creation, are responsible for sicknesses, lack of sound health or diseases.
From the eternal point of view, sound health is not just living in a no-sickness realm. It is living in the very realm where Adam lived before the fall – the realm of immortality.
Sound health in God’s eyes is immortality of the body. We will never enter complete immortality until after the rapture of the saints. But in God’s plan we can have a foretaste of it!
Let us recount some Bible mysteries at this point.
Salvation involves the redemption of the spirit, soul and body from eternal damnation. In simple terms, it involves the redemption of the total man – the spirit, soul and body.
While the redemption of the spirit and soul takes place in this life, the total redemption of the body will take place in the day of the resurrection of the righteous; also called the rapture of the saints.
THAT IS THE DAY THAT ALL THINGS THAT AFFECTS OUR BODIES NEGATIVELY WILL BE FINALLY DONE AWAY WITH.
That is the day that our bodies will completely return to the very state Adam was before the fall, as upgraded by Jesus when He resurrected from dead. The Bible says we do not know how we shall be, but we shall be like Him when we see Him.
If you remember, the kind of body Jesus had after resurrection was immortal, but could eat natural food. He proved to His disciples that He was not a Ghost, or spirit.
He resurrected with a body that could eat. That is the same body we will have in the New Heaven and the new earth. But the kind of food we will eat then, will be the very same food angels eat now; the food GOD fed Israel with for 40 years.
The food helped them to stay healthy for those years, by experiencing supernatural health. It gave them a unique body that resisted diseases and all kinds of illnesses all through the 40 years journey to the promise land.
Though it did not totally transform their bodies into the very type Jesus had when He resurrected.
That type is a unique body that could pass through walls, float on water, and cover long earthly distances in few seconds. The Jesus type was a body that could transport between heaven and earth in seconds. That is the Body you and I will have if we remain faithful to the LORD till the end of our days on earth.
The Bible described it as “a body that will be raise in incorruption.” Hallelujah!
When we return to that kind of body, we will no longer know what it means to be sick, attacked by diseases, or killed by death. We will no longer know what it means to age. We will be ageless like our God and maker, Jesus Christ.
The body we have now, can deteriorate because of age, be sick, attacked by disease or killed by death. But the one that is coming will be stronger than time, sicknesses, diseases, and death. It will be beyond destruction.
It is the body God has prepared for us for the age to come.
GET READY FOR THE NEXT LIFE MY FRIEND! IT REALLY PAYS TO SERVE JESUS!
What are we saying this morning? What we are saying is this, the redemption of our body is God’s final move that will restore our bodies to the sound health of eternal point of view.
It is the redemption of the body that we are actually waiting for, even as we serve our generation according to the will of GOD!
Until then, no matter how much we serve God, stay very close to Him like Moses did, there will come a time when age will begin to tell on our bodies. Yes, a time when a health condition described in 2 Kings 13:14 as an illness of which a Kingdom Citizen would die, will come.
In this case the kingdom Citizen was Elisha.
We all know that this prophet was very effective, and moved in the Spirit of God so strongly, and was not reported sick at any time of his life. But when the curtains of time began to close on his body, he fell sick. That tells us that we will never step into our glorious body in this life, no matter how close we are to God. We will die one day.
In fact, Elisha’s dead body raised the dead when he finally died, but the same power could not keep him from falling sick at his time of departure from the earth, just as the amazing healing power Kathrine Kuhlmann worked in, never protected her from the heart disease that killed her.
The dimension of God’s power that is available to us now, cannot transform our mortal body. It can only quicken and heal it of any disease when our time to depart from this world has not come.
The power of God will never work outside God’s prepared plan for mankind.
It is important to note that, the illnesses of Elisha and Kuhlmann were not caused by any demon; It was just their bodies giving way to time, because the had reached the end of their days on earth.
Except we become part of the rapture generation, the fixed reality of the body submitting to the power of age and time, when our time on earth comes to an end, is what our worship of God will not save us from.
We will be saved on the final day, but until then the body remains a part of us that time will always kill.
THAT IS WHY AS SOON AS SOMEONE IS BORN, HE OR SHE WILL START DYING.
Some die for 90 years and finally dies on their 90th year on earth. Others finally die quiet early in life.
Yes, we may enjoy supernatural health even to the time of death, but that will not totally redeem our bodies. The redemption of our body will not take place until the day of the rapture. The Bible calls it the day of Resurrection.
Our devotional text today says,
“For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life”.
Our first cloth is this tent – our present bodies. But our future clothing is the body that cannot be corrupted by sin, Satan or sickness. A body that cannot be corrupted at all or deteriorate with time. That is the body that we are earnestly waiting for.
It is the very body that will finally shut down all possibilities to be sick or die.
Meanwhile, as we wait for that body, we are to follow the Biblical steps to live by in other to be healthy. Serving the LORD was presented as key in our devotional yesterday. The next key is proper feeding and health care.
God is not against proper feeding and health care. I saw this in the life of Adam. His food was basically vegetables, and fruits. One of it would have kept His body immortal. Sadly, the fall cut him off from that fruit; a fruit from the tree of life in the Garden.
That tells us the importance of eating healthy food.
Understand that, we do not eat to fill out stomachs, we eat to stay healthy and live as long as God has preplanned for us. If you say you are a man of faith and do not feed properly, one day you will be diseased and die before your time, and prayer may not help you.
Proper feeding is one of the keys to sound health.
MOST EVANGELIST IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE FAITH MOVEMENT DIED FOR LACK OF PROPER FEEDING.
They engaged in lengthy fasting, broke them with very unhealthy foods, or in very unhealthy ways, and got their bodies diseased and died pre mature. That is not God’s will for us.
If you deny yourself what God created for the health of your natural body because of foolishness, you will suffer the consequence of it. Proper feeding should not be compromised.
Sadly, some people who like food, do not even eat in a healthy way. They do not eat healthy food. They just feed on anything like pigs. That is not a wise way to live.
Like previously stated, Adam ate fresh fruits; I also believe he ate fresh vegetables to be sound in health; and that was in an atmosphere of God’s glory not the very atmosphere we find ourselves today. Friend, it’s not wrong to eat vegetable or herbs to stay healthy.
There are herbs in my village that keeps the body sound and improves its immune systems. There are some that if the blood is going low, you take them and get everything restored again.
God is not against all these things, that was why He created them. But Satan has a way of bringing the demonic into everything God created including the herbs. That is why we have herbalists.
Though not all herbalist are witches and wizards. But we have many of them who are witch doctors. They combine witchcraft with herbs to administer healing to the sick and dying. This was not the plan of God for creating herbs, and it will never be.
If you collect herbs from a witchdoctor to cure some ailments, you have touched the demonic. It could help you for even a long while but the consequences will finally come upon you! Stay away from the demonic, no matter how helpful it looks.
Satan is crafty, he will always use what God has created to inject himself into people; basically, to kill, to steal and to destroy. As you take these truths to heart, may you walk in the fullness of God for your life, in Jesus’ precious name! AMEN!!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY
“Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.” 2 Corinthians 5:5 NKJV