TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 1ST JANUARY 2024)
And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
Therefore “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.” ‘I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:16-18 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 01ST DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
Our hearts are full of thanksgiving to the LORD God this day, for giving us another year. Glory be to God for the fresh start and New Beginning. May it be our year of impact indeed.
God has declared that during this period it shall be our year of impact.
We at the Apostolic family of the Cry of the Spirit Ministries, stepped into the year with Joy and gladness of Heart, after over 14 hours of time in His presence, where we were schooled in the pathway God wants us to follow in 2024 and beyond.
We individually set a Prophetic milestone in our lives yesterday, looking forward to another milestone in the next five years.
We handed over our lives and hearts to Him who lives forever to influence it positively, and according to His will and ways. We fully understand that the race of life is not to the swift neither the battle to the strong.
We also know that by human strength, we shall not prevail, hence spending those hours and times handing over our lives to the great strength of the One and only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.
We believe that He will carry us through and through each second, minute, hour, day, week, and month of the New Year. We know that if we will go through the year successfully and if we will not be consumed by the perils of the year, we would have to lose control of our lives, and put it in God’s total control.
Talking about matters of total control, many drivers have lost control of very good vehicles and destroyed themselves or the lives of others. Many fathers have lost control of their Children and watched them perish in their rebellion.
POLITICAL LEADERS HAVE LOST CONTROL OF THEIR NATIONS AND CONSTITUENCIES AND BRING THE LIVES OF MANY INTO SOCIAL PERILS.
World History is full of very powerful people who eventually lost control of themselves and those under their influence and even open portals of hell over nations. Warriors have lost control, kings have lost control, even very wise and educated people have lost control.
There is only One person who has never lost control of anything placed under His control. That person is God by the enabling hands of His Blessed Holy Spirit! With our lives in his hands, we are safe.
With the whole of my heart, I believe that we stepped into this year putting our lives in the hands of He who has never lost control of anything on the face of the earth. We ended the year with five sessions of teachings that stirred us to perfectly place everything about us under His control.
It may interest you to know that you will fail woefully this year if you put your life under the control of any prophet or prophetess. Sadly, the lives of so many are in the control of prophets and prophetesses instead of the blessed Holy Spirit.
It may interest you to know that you will destroy yourself dearly if you go through this year putting your precious life in the life of any one apart from the Spirit of the LORD.
You will destroy your life completely if you spend this year putting your life even in your hands as humanism teaches. Yes, you will see hell if you put your precious life under the control of your anger, sex drive, crave for comfort, or the desire to please someone.
Do not be awe struck that in as much as our God has made it our year of impact, 2024 will be a year of greater trouble for us all, if we spend it putting our lives in the hands of our uncles, aunties, mothers, fathers, sisters, Churches, institutions, or any human or demonic system.
If we will see the good the LORD has promised us this year, we must spend the days of the year handing over our precious lives to the Holy Spirit and submitting to him to be in Charge.
Our lives must completely be in His hands!
The Bible is full of people who brought their lives under His control and placed it in His Hands, instead of the hands of their sex drive, carnal desires, ignorance, and etc. When they did, they were redeemed from unredeemable circumstances, delivered from lions, demons, and all kinds of terrible situations.
THEY WERE SECURED AND PROTECTED BEYOND HUMAN COMPREHENSION.
They moved from smallness to greatness, great things to GREATER THINGS. Hallelujah! There are no words that can fully capture how beautiful a life will become if placed in the hands of the Blessed Holy Spirit.
Only Him knows how to bless, or break it (which is painful to the flesh) and then bless it, if it is crooked and dark.
Yes, only He knows how to crush it until every pride, lust, sin, deceit and craftiness and all unclean things are removed from it.
If we allow Him do the necessary – break us to bless us, crush us to clean us – He will take us in His blessed hands and make us the envy of nations. He will make us so glorious that when people look at us, they will see the essence of who God really is in us.
He alone knows how to make a life Heaven on earth.
If your life is in your hands, please take it out and place it in the Hands of this great Friend who formed us in our mother’s womb.
At this point let me tell you something you may not have fully comprehended; Your life is not your own! Yes, God and the blessed Holy Spirit own you and I. That is why He is called the Spirit of the LORD!
The word LORD means “owner.” He is the Spirit of God or Jesus – the Spirit of the owner of our lives. And since the spirit is the real person, He is the owner of our lives. Putting your life in His hands is getting yourself back to the hands of your Owner.
The owner of your life has your best interest at heart! In fact, His interest is purer and better than yours.
His love, care, and concern for you is stronger than your love, care and concern for you. He will lead you through paths you will not ordinarily want to go to make the best out of you.
That brings us to our devotional text.
IT TELLS US WHO WE REALLY ARE. IT SAYS WE ARE TEMPLES. THIS IS VERY REVEALING.
We are not just humans but Temples. Our structure is that of a temple with seven compartments to carry the seven dimensions of the Blessed Holy Spirit. The Bible made it clear that there are seven spirits of God. The seven spirits of God are the seven ways this blessed Holy Spirit manifest Himself in us.
We are His temples.
A major highlight says;
“For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
This scripture made it clear that we were originally created to be earthly temples of God. Sadly, many do not know, hence making their lives temples of unclean spirits.
But if we will see the best of God this year, and move from the amazing things we saw last year, to the more amazing things He has determined to do in our lives this year, we must understand that we are the temples of the Holy Spirit and need Him to rule our lives from within.
This is a call to a new you.
A new you that will take his life from himself or any human, traditional or religious system, and place it in the hands of the Holy Spirit; a new you that will break agreement with the temple of idols (people with other spirits in them) and walk in Holiness and righteousness along with other temples of God (Sons of God) on the face of the earth.
This could involve changing your network of friends, the kind of acquaintances you keep, the church you attend or even your pastor. Our devotional text continued with these words;
Therefore “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.” ‘I will be a Father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
There are people to separate from this year, places to come out from, ideologies to delete from your mindset, and paradigms to dissolve. Yes, there are churches to come out from, and even preachers to cease listening to.
Any Church that is not a spiritual construction site for the building of God’s temple which you are, should not have you there this year.
Any pastor who is just a preacher, a tithe collector, a monthly dedicator of your things, enemies and etc. and not a builder of God’s temples, should not have you this year as a member.
Time to make the right decisions! Time to make decisions that will make you God’s temple indeed. Time to become a New You!
Do not forget, we have always said, if there is no happy New You, there cannot be a happy new year. May the best of God happen in your life this year in Jesus’ precious name!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
Blessed is every one who fears the LORD, Who walks in His ways.
When you eat the labor of your hands, You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine In the very heart of your house, Your children like olive plants All around your table.
Behold, thus shall the man be blessed Who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you out of Zion, And may you see the good of Jerusalem All the days of your life.
Yes, may you see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel! Psalm 128:1-6 NKJV