TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 26TH FEBRUARY 2024)
“Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you! O Israel, if you will listen to Me! There shall be no foreign god among you; nor shall you worship any foreign god.
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
“But My people would not heed My voice, and Israel would have none of Me. So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart, to walk in their own counsels. Psalms 81:8-12 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 57TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
It is a glorious day from our LORD and Saviour Jesus Christ; the one who created all things including today. He created the moon, the stars, and all you see that we call creation. He even created man.
The good news is, He has not stopped creating, and can still create your own things for you.
He can create the healing you need in your body, the financial freedom you need in your economic life, the peace you need in your life, the purity you need in your walk with God, the protection you need anywhere you might be, and a lot more.
He does all that by His Holy Spirit that He has given us.
Once our relationship with the Holy Spirit is fine, we can have Him create all that we need in our lives. That is why, friendship with the Holy Spirit is one of the best friendships you can have on earth. It is superior to any other friendship on earth.
You can be a friend of the greatest and richest people on earth, which is good, but friendship with the Spirit of the LORD remains the best on earth. The progression is, through genuine salvation, we move from being slaves of sin, to becoming sons of God, and then to friends of God like Abraham.
When the disciples got to that place, Jesus called them, friends.
It is when we get to the place of friendship with God, that we begin to enjoy the best of God on earth. But all that is not possible without salvation. Salvation delivers us from serving sin.
Like we said earlier, it moves us from being slaves of sin, to sons, and then to friends of God.
Serving sin is therefore the root cause of not seeing the Holy Spirit create good things in our lives. Sadly, the salvation of many of us has not terminated our servitude of sin, putting us in eternal danger.
If your salvation is the type that terminates a man’s servitude of sin, it will bring you into the arena of blessings, where the Holy Spirit creates the good things we need in our lives.
THAT IS THE PLACE WHERE YOU WILL NO LONGER SEND A STENCH TO GOD’S NOSTRILS.
Many of us do not know that the Bible says God is angry with the wicked every day and the reason is because the wicked send a stench to Heaven as they serve sin, self, Satan, or the evil and corrupt system of this world. Which also make them tools in the hands of the wicked one.
When we say we have given our lives to Christ, but keep living a life of sin instead of the holy life of Christ, our salvation is not genuine. We will be like the wicked that God is angry with every day.
It is important to understand that, salvation is a call to stop serving sin, self, Satan, or the evil and corrupt systems of this world. It is a call to come into rest. A rest from the servitude of sin, Satan, self, and the evil and corrupt systems of this world.
That is the rest that authentic salvation gives. Jesus said in His word, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28 NKJV).
Have you received that rest? If you have not, then go for it. The Holy Spirit, the Bible, a good Bible teaching Church, and your will are there to help you.
I submit to you that, rest has been the vision of Heaven for fallen man.
Yes, since we fell in Adam, we have been serving sin, self, Satan, and the evil and corrupt systems of this world, and God wants that to stop hence manifesting in Christ Jesus to die on the Cross, and releasing His Holy Spirit into our lives to give us that rest.
If you are therefore still serving sin, self, Satan, or the evil and corrupt system of this world, you have not yet received the precious gift of salvation.
YOU NEED TO MEET THE LORD FOR IT. YOU NEED TO MEET HIM AND ALLOW HIM BRING YOU INTO THE CRUCIFIED LIFE.
Like I stated earlier, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, a Christ-centered Bible teaching Church, and your will to submit, are there to help you. Make use of all four and come into the rest that Jesus promised the human race, not the one that greedy preachers are promising people.
Greedy preachers will promise you financial rest if you sow this seed or sow the other one. They will promise you deliverance if you raise this altar of sacrifice or the other, and etc. The Bible says their god is their belly.
The rest that Jesus promised is different. Once you have it, you will be free from all the works of the flesh, and that of the devil. You will unleash the works of God into your life.
You will not need to sow any seed, raise any altar, go pray on any mountain, redeem yourself if you are first born, or offer what they call first fruit. You will be seeing the outbreak of blessings in your life in their seasons.
Simply put, you will shut down two dark works in your life, and open up one glorious set of works in your life, the works of God.
Time to stop serving sin, self, Satan, or the evil and corrupt systems of this world. Time to boost your Faith in Christ Jesus, and friendship with the Holy Spirit. Time to come into a Spirit filled and Spirit led life.
Child of God, do not let any confuse you about this.
If we trace the source of our perils in life with an open mind, we will discover that the source is not in our father’s houses or where we were born. It is not in the altars of our villages or what some call evil foundation.
The source of all our problems is our service to sin, self, Satan, and the evil and corrupt system of this world.
If you serve sin, you will reap sorrows. If you serve self, you will reap great sorrows. If you serve Satan you will reap greater sorrows. And if you serve the evil and corrupt systems of this world, you will reap even greater sorrows either in time or eternity.
SIMPLY PUT, YOU WILL BE LEADING A RESTLESS LIFE. CURSES OF DOING THAT WILL BE PURSUING YOU.
Friend, God wants us to have rest. He wants us to replace our servitude of sin, self, Satan, and the evil and corrupt systems if this world with Him.
He wants is to begin to serve righteousness because He is our righteousness. He wants us to no longer be self-serving. He wants us to spend our days doing His Holy will and fulfilling His prophetic purposes.
He wants us to live our days serving our generation according to His will. He wants us to serve Him wholeheartedly and unconditionally. He wants us to come into His rest!
It is my prayer that we heed to His cry and respond. A part of our devotional text says,
“Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you! O Israel, if you will listen to Me! There shall be no foreign god among you; nor shall you worship any foreign god.”
It is my prayer that we listen to the word of the LORD this morning!
There is more on the mystery of this rest, which I would have to bring to our attention by tomorrow.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY!
“What shall we say [to all this]? Are we to remain in sin in order that God’s grace (favor and mercy) may multiply and overflow?
Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer?
For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we shall also be [one with Him in sharing] His resurrection [by a new life lived for God].
We know that our old (unrenewed) self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that [our] body [which is the instrument] of sin might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin.” Romans 6:1-2, 5-6 AMPC