TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 25TH DECEMBER 2023)
“For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” Luke 2:11-14 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 359TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
Merry Christmas to all my Face book friends especially those who usually take time to read and absorb what the LORD has been saying to us through the devotionals.
Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, and goodwill toward men!
The Christmas story is a great story! Like I said in one of our devotionals, it tells us of “Christ-Move-Against-Sin.” To me the Christmas story is a redemptive story. It is the story of how God stepped into the human flesh as second Adam, to redeem the first Adam with his offspring.
It’s a story of how God picked Himself up again after His initial plan for mankind was disrupted. God actually suffered a set-back. That could be strange to some of us, but He did.
Let me share with you how it happened!
God’s initial plan was to outsource Heaven to the earth through a creature in His own Image and Likeness, hence creating man. You need to read the book of Job to see how Heaven celebrated with Joy when man was created.
Adam was GOD-Man on earth. And that progressed until the tempter came and beguile Eve, who later brought Adam down. That was it! Everything stopped, and God suffered a major setback.
I JUST SUMMARIZED A ONE WEEK TEACHING IN FEW LINES!
God had to pick Himself up again by stretching forth His hands to execute Man’s redemption and correct the mess, with the aim of continuing from where He stopped. But let me backtrack a bit.
You see, when the Bible said, “we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses or infirmities,” it is not a myth. There is nothing you are going through now that God has not gone through, and maybe He is still going through.
He went through some in the eternal past, and went through others on the Cross when He came as man. So, He is able to help!
For instance, if you say God does not know what it means to lose a precious one, He lost His first Son, Adam; and had to sacrifice His only begotten Son to get him back. So, He knows!
He lost you and I to sin, and had to sacrifice Himself and pour out His Holy Spirit upon us to get us back. So, He knows the pain of loosing a love one and even know what we may never know because we do not have what it takes; sacrificing yourself to bring your lost one back.
If you say God does not know what it feels to have an unfaithful spouse. Go read the books of Hosea and other prophets and you will gain wisdom. He lamented severally calling Israel an unfaithful wife.
If you say God does not know what it means to suffer losses, you lie.
When fallen angels invaded and corrupted the earth, it was a big lost. When Lucifer became Satan, it was a big lost. When one-third of His angels decamped and became loyal to Lucifer, it was a great lost and a terrible betrayal.
Talking of betrayal, God suffered the worse betrayal in creation.
If you say God does not know what it means to be betrayed, you forget that whenever we sin against Him, we betray him. And also remember what He went through “as man” in the hands of Judas Iscariot.
If you say God does not know what it means to have eyes filled with tears because of a grief that will not go away, you forget that the Holy Spirit weeps daily for souls that are going to hell, and those that have gone and will never be recovered again.
I can go on, and on. But what is important is how God picks Himself up again each time He suffer these things. We can be enabled by His Holy Spirit to do the same, over and over. He is our helper. He is also our comforter.
THAT IS WHY THE WORD “REDEMPTION” IS VERY IMPORTANT.
This Christmas day may be a day of regret for someone. It’s not a sin to regret a thing because God Himself regretted for creating man.
But in His regrets, He stretched forth His mind towards His redemptive plan. And Noah was that plan. There is someone, some ministers, some Church, some ministry, some book; some fellowship meeting that is part of God’s redemptive plan for your life the way Noah was to Him.
It takes sensitivity to discover God’s redemptive plan for your life! The Christmas story is all about How God picked Himself up again, by stretching His hands towards His redemptive plan for His lost son, Adam, and bringing him back to fellowship.
One day the LORD said to me, “Every attack of the devil, is preceded by a redemption plan”.
Meaning, God’s redemption plan, is always ahead of any attack of the devil. It is always there waiting for what the devil will do. It usually come far ahead of the coming of the lawless one. That is why the righteous falls seven times and rises again.
We can learn the same lesson from our cars.
If you own a car, you will understand that a “spare tyre” is a redemption plan for a “flat tyre.” When a serving tyre goes flat, you don’t sit down and lament over it if you have a spare. You just reach out to the spare and use it to replace the flat tyre.
It is when you do not have a spare that things become awry.
In similar way, for everything that has gone flat in your life – marriage, finance, family, ministry, health, career or spiritual life – there is a redemptive plan of God for it.
Just reach out to God in prayers and ask Him to reveal it to you, and then use it as a recovery plan for your life from 2024.
THAT IS THE GREATEST MESSAGE OF THE CHRISTMAS STORY!
Our devotional text made it clear that as soon as God’s redemptive plan, Jesus Christ, was born, angels descended with songs and praises to God. Then the shepherds arrived to confirm what they heard while on the fields, and then finally the Wiseman came with gifts!
What is the message here? If you will stretch through prayer into God’s redemptive plan for your trouble and lay hold on it, God will release angels to minister to you.
Yes, they will do things that will change your story and the bad side of your life. Shepherds will also come; not self-serving preachers, but pastors after God’s heart who will feed you to enter into God’s redemptive plan revealed.
Then destiny partners will invade your life with amazing favours like the Wise men did to Jesus after that.
My Christmas prayer for you is that you stumble into God’s redemptive plan for any area of your life that may have been wasted and ruined, in Jesus precious name. Is it possible to be redeemed even after the worse case? Yes!
Is it possible to be redeemed after many years of ruin? Yes! I and many others are living testimonies of this.
My life, Family, and ministry were badly ruined. I remember, like it happened yesterday.
But in His mercy, God started speaking to me about the mystery of redemptive plans. Then the revelation started coming. Today I have recovered so much, and for some other aspects of my life, I am at a very advanced stage of recovery.
You are the next on God’s list!
Everything the enemy held back will be restored!
Whatever is ruined in your life will be redeemed. The LORD will enable you to access His redemptive plan, in Jesus precious name.
As you celebrate this season, let these truths be your meditation!
One Again, Merry Christmas and a glorious New Year!!!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ Jeremiah 33:3 NKJV