TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 9TH JUNE 2024)
“ Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another. “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.
Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.
Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” Ephesians 4:25-32 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 161ST DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
It’s a beautiful day from the LORD and permit me to say this; God wants you to plan your life at the center of His plans. Will you? Yes, it is free but sometimes not cheap. It could cost you friends and family. But believe me, it will just be for a season.
Do not ever expect people in darkness to support all you do in light, even if they love you dearly. Just plant yourself at the center of God’s will, and after a while, you will become a shelter for them.
Then they will thank you for not listening to them.
My story might look like yours. Few years after discovering how beautiful my life will become, if I plant it at the center of God’s will or plans for it, I seeded it into the soil of the plans He revealed to me and never looked back.
Today, the stone that was once misunderstood by most and rejected by few, has become a small corner stone for them all.
Yes, Jesus the Chief corner stone, has made it a small corner stone for His use. My Life is a message that, God has no rejects in His kingdom. Only those who choose to stay away from Him live like rejects.
All those people call rejects, are potential assets in God’s kingdom. They only need to find His plans for their lives, and limit themselves to it, the rest will be history. They will come out shining like diamonds, needed by everyone.
Now, there are plans of God and there are patterns of God. Plans of God are His will, while the patterns of God are His ways. We have been looking at one major way of the LORD, the way of the Lion; the way of boldness and courage.
IT IS PART OF GOD’S PATTERN THAT WE DO NOT WALK IN FEAR.
That is why the spirit of fear, is not one of His gifts to men. It is not one of the gifts of the Spirit either. The only thing that is the gift of the Spirit is the fear of the LORD.
The Bible made that clear when it says “God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of sound mind.” The classic edition of the amplified version put it this way;
“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control.” 2 Timothy 1:7 AMPC
What God has not given us, should not be found in our lives! The scripture says He has not given us the spirit of timidity, so it should not be found in our lives. That is why you cannot find any who walked with or in GOD having the spirit of fear, timidity, or cowardice.
From Enoch and Noah, who lived in dangerous times of the Nephilim, to Abraham, to David, and to the apostles, you will never find anyone in cringing, shrinking, submissive, or fawning fear. So, the spirit of fear is not one of the gifts of the Spirit.
What the Spirit of God enables, if we become intimate with Christ, is the spirit of power, love, calm, and well-balanced mind and discipline. It is when we grieve or wound the Holy Spirit that we do not see or experienced any of that in our Christian lives.
No virtue of the Christian faith can be created in us by us. It can only grow out of our lives by the enabling grace of the Holy Spirit.
But when we wound Him, grieve Him, or quench Him, we will not see any of the Christian virtues we saw in the lives of our fathers working in our own lives. We will not be able to walk in holiness, purity, or righteousness.
Consequently, we will have our lives filled with fear and all kinds of spiritual pollutions.
Sadly, so many of us are the way we are because we have a good relationship with God the Father but do not have any good relationship with God the Spirit and God the Son. It is God the Spirit and God the Son that makes relationship with God the Father meaningful and even possible.
FOR INSTANCE, MOST PEOPLE ON EARTH CALL GOD AND SEEMS TO HAVE GREAT RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM.
You see it in how some fast, others pray, some others go to their temples regularly to offer service and worship, but you cannot find them in relationship with God the Spirit and the Son (Christ). That is why we have so many religions and gods.
If we live our Christian lives that way, we are not better than the idol worshiper. Everyone talks about God (God the Father), but not everyone is in Him. You can only be in God (God the Father) if you are in Christ (God the Son). And you can only be in Christ if God the Spirit lives in you.
Therefore, we will never be able to have a meaningful relationship with God, without the spirit of God in our lives.
We will not be able to have a supernatural life with God (God the Father), if the life of Christ (God the Son) is not in us through the power and presence of God the Spirit in our lives.
We will just have a form of godliness without power. That means, a healthy, clean, and true relationship with the Spirit of GOD, is a necessity for the acceptability of everyone’s worship.
Our devotional text says;
“ Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another. “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.
Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.
Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” Ephesians 4:25-32 NKJV
THE MESSAGE IN THIS SCRIPTURE CENTERS ON HOW NOT TO GRIEVE THE HOLY SPIRIT.
I believe this is part of the messages that we preachers should be teaching and living on daily bases. But we have failed, hence having a group of believers who are mindful of not grieving those who they depend on but are not mindful of not grieving the Holy Spirit.
The scripture admonished us not to grieve the Holy Spirit, and went further to show us the things that if we do, we grieve Him.
They include lying and not speaking or walking in truth, anger out of control, stealing, laziness (not working with our own hands but going about begging or looking for who to borrow from), corrupt communications out of our lips, walking in bitterness, wrath, and the like.
If we do these things, we grieve the Holy Spirit, and once He is grieved, His works comes to an end in our lives. Once His works comes to an end in our lives, we begin to walk in our old ways and living in fear. That is when fear becomes a personal sword that we use against ourselves.
In spiritual warfare, the most dangerous sword is not the one the enemy use against us, because the sovereign arm of the LORD protects us from that. The most dangerous sword is the one we use on ourselves.
Sadly, that sword is not in the hands of the enemy. That sword is in our own hands; our flesh and carnal desires. When we grieve the Holy Spirit and quench His works in our lives, we begin to walk in the flesh and carnal desires.
The sword of fear will begin to ruin our lives.
It will begin to take us away from the realms of faith, progress and exploits. We must learn to make sure that we keep the works of the Holy Spirit alive. That is the only way to lead a fruitful and effective Christian life.
You see, we are in warfare on planet earth. We need the Spirit of God alive and well in our lives instead of wounded and grieved to overcome the war.
If you look at what our father apostle Paul said about spiritual warfare, you will realize that spiritual warfare is a battle of swords and shields. But the Bible calls the sword we use in spiritual warfare “the sword of the Spirit.”
So, if we grieve Him, how is He going to put His sword in our hands, for us to use against the enemy? It will be impossible. That is why many believers find themselves helpless in time of need.
You find many resorting to calling on people they consider more powerful than them, or looking for a prophet, an apostle or spiritual father who can offer a magical prayer to meet their need.
BUT THAT IS NOT CHRIST DESIGN FOR HIS CHURCH. SO, IT OUGHT NOT TO BE SO!
The Bible says,
“ Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Ephesians 6:10-11 NKJV
Each individual must know how to put on the whole armor of God in the evil day. Each individual must be strong in the LORD for themselves so that when the evil day comes, they can deal with it.
But if do not lead lives that keeps the works of the Holy Spirit alive in us, if we lead lives that grieves Him, we will always be calling on others to pray for us in the evil day.
We will become dependents of some prophets, defeating GOD’s plans for our lives, as His church on earth.
Sadly, many do not want to discipline their lives and stop grieving the Holy Spirit. They do not even know that there is something called grieving the Holy Spirit, hence leading very powerless and fearful lives.
To live a powerful and fearless life, we all need the Holy Spirit in our lives. Only Him can help us make the LORD our shield, and His word for our lives our sword. When the LORD becomes our shield, and His word for our lives our sword, no weapon formed against us shall prosper.
That is the word of the LORD for us this day. Indeed, few things have been shared that if we sit with, we will become better and more effective Christians, in a perverse and crooked generation.
It is important to note that, Satan will only succeed against us if we lead a life that grieve the Holy Spirit.
No one can be strong in the LORD living a life that is unmindful of what the Spirit feels about him or her. I have come to realize that every warrior of righteousness who was highly inflammable for GOD, was mindful of what not to do that will grieve the Holy Spirit.
We cannot be strong in the LORD, neither can we be able to put on the whole armor of God if we live lives that grieve the Holy Spirit.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—
and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” Ephesians 6:10-20 NKJV