TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 15TH MAY 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 136TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
Yesterday we highlighted in few lines why our relationship with God needs to go deep this end times that we find ourselves. We shared that carnality is not a blessing but a curse.
And that present day Christians have become so carnal that hell has become very excited due to the moral decay it breeds. Why is hell excited you may ask? Moral decay qualifies people to spend eternity in hell fire.
Sadly, many Christians who died and were labeled “gone to be with the LORD” are not with Him at all.
They died in carnality without intimacy with Jesus Christ, hence entering the next life separated from God in this life. They were separated by the moral decay that carnality breeds.
If you leave this world separated from God by anything, Heaven will not be your home.
But there is a remnant that has seen these things in the Spirit, and are adjusting their lives by getting closer and closer to God.
They have responded to the call of God to go deep in their walk with Him.
I pray that you become part of that remnant!
Friend, intimacy with God is what eliminates carnality and breeds moral excellence. Intimacy with God guarantees Heaven because it is the channel through which what qualifies us for Heaven flows into our lives.
But today we are going a step further. Permit me to present to you the next reason why we need to go deep 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. There are certain things sin brought upon us and the entire creation that only the consummation of all things can cure.
The limitations and impact the fall created in us is yet to be fully understood.
ONLY ETERNITY WILL HELP US TO FULLY UNDERSTAND.
For instance, mankind was created to live forever; spirit, soul, and body. But when man fell, only our spirits and souls remained immortal.
The body became mortal. It became possible for it to fall sick or grow old and die.
Before now, it was impossible for any of these or death to befall man.
He lived in the glory, and since there is no time in the glory, there was no death. In other words, it was impossible for life to come to an end because nothing comes to an end under the glory.
The glory is the fullness of God on display, and since God cannot die or come to an end, everything living in the glory cannot die or come to an end. The goodness news is God wants us back in the glory.
He wants us back in the very realm we fell from.
The journey back to the glory begins from the place of accepting Jesus Christ as LORD and savior, and then continues with pressing on through unbroken intimacy with God. That is why we are looking at deep intimacy.
Our devotional text today was a spiritual decision the leaders of the early Church took.
When church growth came, and things that where great but not multiplying their chances to spend quality time with God emerged, they reacted against them, and applied divine wisdom to control the ministry progress that was gradually becoming a distraction.
You see, when your prayer life starts bearing fruits, there are chances that you will get up for your knees, but not these early Church leaders who knew the result of unbroken intimacy with the LORD, and were not willing to trade it for anything.
A major highlight in the devotional text said,
“But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
One of the major steps to take to become deep with God is to give yourself continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. If you cultivate a consistent prayer life and are continuously fed the word, you will find yourself in the deeper places of the Spirit one day.
WHEN YOU GET TO THE DEEP, YOU WILL BEGIN TO TOUCH THE GLORY.
When you begin to touch the glory, your ideal self will begin to come 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.
But everything begins from giving yourself to prayer and to the ministry of the word. So, as you embrace this great day, take time to meditate on this devotional again and again, asking the LORD to speak to your Heart.
And let me make this clear to us; I don’t know what you may be going through, or what you may be battling with. If only you will go deep with God, all will be well.
If intimacy with God is the missing key in your life, no other key will bail you out of problems until you use it to navigate through the storms.
Many times we replace the key of intimacy with God with the habit of running after people.
If you are too close to people, especially those who are far from God, you will not be close to God. They will influence you to unknowingly break all ties you have with the LORD and create a great distance between you and Him.
Among other things, that is why the Bible says, we should not be yoked together with unbelievers.
It could be unbelievers in church, among preachers, or etc., once you yoke together with them, you will no longer be able to get intimate with the LORD!!
The enemy has a history of getting seekers of God yoked to things that will not let them go intimate with the LORD. Most of those things are usually legitimate. You only conquer them by submitting to the ultimate.
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