TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 3RD JANUARY 2024)
“Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” Acts 6:3-4 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 3RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
God’s faithfulness and mercies have started again. They are already charting a course for us and building a fresh wall of protection for us.
God used the beginning of our devotionals this year to instruct us on how to live our lives in 2024. It was a much-needed prophetic word for all who look forward to the glorious appearing of the LORD.
We were emphatically instructed to keep our lives in the Hands of the Holy Spirit. God guided us to lose control of our lives and leave them in God’s perfect control.
His hands formed us in our mother’s womb, only His hands can keep us in a trouble world.
It may interest you to know that He also scheduled our days long before our great grandparents thought of getting together to conceive whoever became our maternal and paternal roots.
For instance, 2024 was scheduled long before then. The days have been scheduled. We are expected to spend them as scheduled.
A schedule is a plan for carrying out a process or procedure. A schedule gives us a list of intending events and times. We are expected to follow God’s schedule for our lives. That is, His process and procedures, intended events and times.
He has a plan for our lives for 2024. There are events and times He has planned for our lives for this year. It is His prophetic schedule for our lives.
OUR DESIRE SHOULD BE TO FOLLOW THE PROPHETIC SCHEDULE.
The schedule has intended events and times He has planned to happen to us during the period. But they will never happen if we do not commit to His will, ways, and paths.
Life will be full of trouble if we spend our days outside the schedule of God for them. That was what our Bible fathers knew. They made sure no part of their days was spent outside His schedule for their life.
Men like Paul would tell you, “my life worth nothing, except I spend it doing the things assigned to me by the LORD Jesus.” In other words, except I spend it following God’s schedule for my life.
The same is applicable to us. If you see your life loosing value, it is a sign that you are not spending it doing the things assigned to you by the LORD Jesus. Friend, so many are not spending their lives in God’s schedule for them.
That is why we have so many unsolvable problems.
Understand that, when it comes to matters of following God’s schedule for our lives, there can be no middle ground. If we are not spending our days in God’s schedule, we will be spending them in our own schedules, or the schedule of other influences. And that is dangerous.
If you want to spend your days according to God’s schedule for them you must live your life in the hands of the Holy Spirit.
One of the things that the leaders of the early church tried doing in their days, was to spend their lives in the hands of the Holy Spirit. The never allowed anything to creep into their faith and destroy their relationship with the Blessed Spirit of God.
One of the things they did to remain in His hands was to go deep in their walk and talk with God! Our relationship with God needs to go deep this end times. 2024 is part of the end times. These are not days of carnality, these are days of being Spiritually minded.
Carnality is not a blessing and has never been a blessing. It has always been a curse in the lives of those who live with a carnal mindset.
Sadly, present day Christians have become so carnal that one cannot tell the difference between us who serve the LORD and those who do not. There is only one place that is excited about this development. That place is hell.
YES, HELL HAS BECOME VERY EXCITED.
We must all make up our minds to kill that excitement of hell. We kill the excitement when we become Spiritually minded. Spiritual mindedness is subjecting our senses and reasoning to the power of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Scriptures.
When we do that, we kill the excitement of hell.
One of the major reasons we must kill the excitement of hell is this; whenever we do things that get hell excited, our lives will become full of sorrow. When we do things that gets Heaven excited, our lives will be full of peace and joy.
If you want to see your life full of peace and joy all through this year, do things that gets Heaven excited all through this year; especially when no eye is seeing you. Yes, when no eye is seeing you!
We serve a God who sees in secret and rewards us openly.
Hypocrisy will seek to do things that gets Heaven excited before everyone, but do things that make Heaven groan when no one is watching. It will pretend to be accountable before accountability, but reckless behind accountability.
That will fill your days with sorrow, because it will make hell excited.
If we understand both the earthly and eternal consequences of carnality, we will come to the realization that carnality is the greatest curse on the Church today and should not be part of our lives in 2024.
For instance, from eternal point of view, many Christians who died, and were labelled “gone to be with the LORD” are not with Him at all because they died in carnality.
Yes, they died in carnality without genuine intimacy with Jesus Christ, hence entering the next life separated from God in this life. When anyone leaves this world separated from God in any way, Heaven will not be their home in eternity. Hell will be.
God is calling us to higher heights of faith this year, where carnality no longer exist but a Spirituality that steams from genuine intimacy with the LORD.
Talking about intimacy, I want you to understand that intimacy with God is what eliminates carnality. That is why intimacy with God, guarantees heaven.
MAN WAS CREATED TO BE INTIMATE WITH GOD!
When I look at the book of Genesis Chapter 1 and 2 and see how mankind ought to be, and compare it with how we have all become now, I cannot but feel so sorry for myself and the entire human race.
Many of us are yet to come into that kind of intimacy Adam had, which was lost to sin, but restored to us by Christ.
Our devotional text today was a spiritual decision the leaders of the early Church took when success and growth came, and the things that where great but not multiplying their chances to spend quality time with God, emerged.
They discovered that their success in ministry, was causing something that will erode their time or intimacy with the LORD to emerge, and they took a noble decision in response. There is so much to learn there.
A major highlight in the devotional text said,
“But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
From this scripture, it is clear that when our prayer life begins to bear fruits, there are chances that we will be tempted to get up from our knees. That was what happened to our fathers. But they resisted and keep the banner of intimacy with Christ flying high.
God wants us to resist whatever will not let us to be intimate with Him this year like they did. He wants us to spend each week of this year giving our hearts entirely to prayer and to the ministry of the word; not just in January, or the first 21 days of the year, like it has become with some of us.
Heaven wants us to go deeper with the LORD in 2024 like never before. He wants us to spend this year touching His glory for our greatness to shoot out.
When you get to the deep, you will begin to touch the glory. When you begin to touch the glory, your ideal Holy Ghost self will begin to come out. The greatness the LORD has buried in you will begin to shoot out.
That is when age will begin to give way and you start looking younger than your peers. You will begin to operate in the supernatural and see Heavenly things take place in your life in quick succession.
So, spend this year giving your heart to prayer and to the ministry of the word. That is the secret of the journey.
If intimacy with God is the missing key in your life, no other key will bail you out of any problems you may be going through in life.
Many times, we replace the key of intimacy with God with the key of running after people for help. There could be seasons to do that, but it has never helped anyone significantly. Most times, if you are too close to people, especially those who are far from God, you will never be close to God.
May the voice of the LORD that has come to us this morning, be of a great help to us this year, in Jesus’ precious name. Amen!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go into the house of the Lord.” Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem! Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together,”
“Where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to the Testimony of Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord”
“For thrones are set there for judgment, the thrones of the house of David.” Psalms 122:1-5 NKJV