TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 15TH JANUARY 2024)
“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
“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 1:26-28 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 15TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
In the beginning of our devotionals this year, we had some devotionals that strongly urged us to spend our days especially this year, applying our hearts unto wisdom. Not demonic, secular or human wisdom, but divine wisdom.
Divine wisdom is the most essential ingredient for living. There is a word of wisdom that was shared some times ago that I want us to revisit in our devotional today.
The word is simple. It says, “God is in control but not in absolute control of everything in our life.” He is in sovereign control of everything but not in delegated control of everything. He has delegated some controls to mankind.
One word we can use to define the controls He delegated to mankind is the word “DOMINION.”
He gave dominion or delegated control over the earth to man. There are therefore aspects of your life that are not under His absolute control. They are in your control. That is why it is wrong to blame God for every bad thing that happen to you, or for the bad things happening on earth; things like rape, killings, murders, etc.
They happen because of misuse of the control God delegated to man.
If you do not understand this secret you will spend your days asking God to do things that are absolutely under your control to do. You will pray until your life come to an end without any significant result to show.
God will never do the things He has put under your control to do. Things like picking up a book to read. God will never do that for you, no matter how you pray that He do it. That is under your control.
God will never do things He delegated to us because God is not in delegated control of our life. He is in sovereign control.
A KEY STATEMENT IN OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT SAYS,
“Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
In other words, “let them have delegated control over the fish of the sea (everything that concerns the water), over the birds of the air (everything that concerns the air), and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth (everything that concerns the land)”.
God originally designed His wisdom to be used in managing the things He delegated to man to handle. But you can see that many of us have been using other forms of wisdom to manage those things, hence bringing so much pain upon our lives.
God’s tool for managing delegated control is divine wisdom.
God did not give us delegated control over almost all of His natural creation without the tool for us to use in managing it. In fact, man was not independent of God or separated from Him, when the controls where handed over to him.
He was joined to God and totally dependent on Him! So, the tool for managing the things God delegated to man was not in the human plane.
All these goes to tell us that God expected to manage the earth under man’s control – He expected to rule through man. The delegation of the control did not remove Him from the equation. There was no way a “finite mind” can manage the creation of an “infinite God.”
That is why today, when we walk in divine wisdom, we see the presence and power of God managing and blessing our lives. Divine wisdom was therefore designed to be man’s instrument for managing the controls given to Him by God.
Most of our earth or lives are filled with pain today because something happened in the original, the Garden of Eden, that changed everything and placed the things God delegated to us, under the control of a wisdom He never designed for us to walk in.
LET ME SHOW YOU HOW IT HAPPENED.
When man fell, he actually handed over the controls God delegated to him to the devil. We see this affirmed during the temptation of Jesus.
You remember the devil saying to Jesus;
“All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish (Luke 4:6 NKJV).
Amazingly, Jesus did not dispute it because it was true. He actually came to save man from Satan’s grip and take back the control. And that was finally done by His death on the cross.
But because the Church has not risen to totally enforce that victory, and because many are still living in the dark of what Jesus has done for mankind, certain things about certain lives are still under the devil’s control.
Therefore, when bad things happen and we say God was the one that allowed them to happen, we do all that without realizing we are lying on Him. God does not allow bad things to happen. He could use what happened to work out His will for the victims but He does not allow bad things to happen.
Man, who He made the ruler of the earth, is the one allowing bad things to happen.
He is allowing the enemy to do bad things using the control God gave Him. Nothing bad would have been happening on earth if mankind was not despising God’s wisdom, as expressed through His voice, His word, and the revelation of His will.
I want to submit to you that it was never God’s will and will never be his perfect will for bad things to happen.
The first being to allow bad things to happen to the earth was a fallen angel, called Lucifer – who is now known as Satan. He used the spiritual control God delegated to him to allow bad things to happen.
The second was Adam himself. He used his delegated control to allow bad things to happen. The third is you and I. We are using His delegated control under our custody to allow bad things to happen. Most times to us and other times to others.
So, God has never allowed bad things to happen. It is those with His delegated control that have been allowing bad things to happen. That is why every evil that has ever befallen men is traceable to either men or the devil.
WHAT GOD IS ACTUALLY DOING IS TO STOP BAD THINGS FROM HAPPENING.
Bad things happen whenever men do not use divine wisdom to manage the delegated control God gave mankind. That is when you see us breaking down in health, coming into poverty, and all kinds of crisis.
The absence of divine wisdom in many hearts is the reason for the presence of all evil; especially the presence of persistent demonic activities.
We can stop bad things from happening if we walk in divine wisdom. And we have been sharing on the wisdom of God all the year. If you apply your heart to divine wisdom, you will erase the bad things that may have happened or may be happening to you right now.
Make up your mind to walk in divine wisdom this year. The Bible is the only source of divine wisdom. Spend time with it and with any book that will help you understand it.
As we bring this to a close, I want you to understand that “stopping the flow of God in our lives or good from God” has always been Satan’s assignment.
He stopped the flow of God on Adam in Genesis 3 when he seduced the woman and then the man to disobey God. Disobeying God is not divine wisdom, it is demonic wisdom. Satan will come to stop the flow of God in our lives by making us walk in that demonic wisdom.
Sadly, many of us are walking in it. That is why our lives are in a sorry state.
Make this day your day of resisting the enemy, by walking in submission to divine will and ways. The Bible says submit yourself to God, resist the devil and He will flee from you. Submission to God is the best way to resist the devil.
So, resist the devil, then ask the LORD to activate whatever he might have stopped from flowing into your life.
Remember, Satan cannot stop anything without our permission; so repent of any sin you may have committed and ask the LORD for mercy. Then start living your life in divine wisdom, especially the wisdom of total submission to God’s will and ways!
THIS SCRIPTURAL PASSAGE CAN BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION;
‘Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight — That You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.” Psalms 51:1-6 NKJV