TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 24TH JUNE 2024)
“The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;
The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Your servant is warned, And in keeping them there is great reward. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.
Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.” Psalm 19:7-14 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 175TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
This is the day our God has made, we shall rejoice and be glad in it. He has kept us in perfect peace. The Bible says, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee” (Isaiah 26:3 AKJ). He has helped our minds to stay on Him through this platform.
Oh, how our world needs perfect peace today! I am yet to see good news reported by the media. What comes from the power of the air to the souls of men are not things that can keep us in perfect peace. That is why the world is ravaged by wars, strife, conflicts, diseases, poverty, and etc.
We can only be kept in perfect peace if our minds stay on God.
That is why, if your life is not enjoying perfect peace, check where your mind is placed. In other words, check where your mind is staying. God will not keep you in perfect peace if your mind is not staying on Him, no matter how you pray.
The enemy of our souls and the evil and corrupt systems of this world are on a mission to either take or keep our minds away from the LORD. A lot has been designed to keep our minds on worrisome things, instead of on things in God that are made for our peace.
Sadly, even the ministries of some churches and preachers are on similar frequencies. They take people’s hearts from God to their enemies. But we can only be kept in perfect peace if our mind stays on God. The Living Bible Translation puts the same scripture in these contemporary words:
“He will keep in perfect peace all those who trust in him, whose thoughts turn often to the Lord!” Isaiah 26:3 LB
I like this rendering; whose thoughts turn often to the LORD. If our thoughts are turning often to the LORD, and His word, our lives will be filled with God’s perfect peace. That bring us to what we left off yesterday.
We saw some of the Bible secrets one need to walk in or operate with in order to have a prayer heart. We discovered that cultivating a prayer heart will be necessary if one will ever come to the realm of righteous prayers.
TO CULTIVATE A PRAYER HEART, SEPARATION OF OUR HEARTS FROM STRANGE FIRES AND EVIL FLAMES IS THE FIRST STEP.
It is the pure in heart that will see God, even through prayers. David showed us the importance of a pure heart in the place of prayer when he said;
“I cried to Him with my mouth, And He was extolled with my tongue. If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear.” Psalm 66:17-18 NKJV
Cultivating a prayer heart begins from the place of purifying the heart from all forms of iniquities, unclean thoughts and conceptions, pollutions and desecrations. I will like to call it the sanctification of our hearts, and that only happens by exposing it to sanctifying truths.
When He was physically on earth but on His way out, Jesus interceded for us saying;
“I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” John 17:15-17 NKJV
Jesus did not pray that we be taken out of the evil world to be separated from its pollutions and desecrations. We are to leave the world after fulfilling our days.
Jesus prayed that we stay in the evil and corrupt world but kept sanctified, cleansed and purified from its desecrations and pollutions, from time to time by the word of truth and righteousness. When you stay in a polluted world, but exposed to His sanctifying truth, you will not have a polluted heart. You will have a pure heart.
So, our hearts are sanctified or set apart to the LORD, when we encounter sanctifying truths, and purified when we obey them. If what is sanctified is not purified, it will lose its sanctification.
IN OTHER WORDS, IF WHAT IS DECLARED HOLY IS NOT PURIFIED IN THE PROCESS IT WILL LOSE ITS PURITY.
To be sanctified means to be set apart from sin or spiritual pollutions. It means to be declared holy after going through the action or process of being free from sin through purification. Sanctifying truths, if encountered and obeyed, will result in sanctification and purification of our hearts.
That is why Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, said;
“Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,” 1 Peter 1:22-23 NKJV
This scripture also tells us that born again has a process.
You cannot be genuinely born again if your salvation experience was not born out of an encounter with Jesus as the Truth. You must encounter the incorruptible word to be genuinely born again.
Sadly, there people whose hearts have been corrupted by words that now keep them in a life of sin. It is what lives in our hearts that eventually comes out of our lives, that’s is why our hearts must be constantly purified by the word of the LORD.
There was a lesson that I picked while studying the story of the temptation of Jesus some time back. I can now understand why such gracious words came out of Him when the enemy said He should turn stones to become bread. The Bible says,
Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days, He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.
And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’ ” Luke 4:3-4 NKJV
The gracious words, “man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceed out of the mouth of God,” are very significant. The word man here is not gender based. It is referring to our “spirits” as humans. Our spirits are what the bible often refer to as our hearts.
The message here is, for the heart to become a prayer heart or for the human spirit to become a spirit of righteous prayer, there will be need for it to be purified daily.
YES, THERE WILL BE NEED FOR IT TO BE PURIFIED WITH PURIFYING TRUTHS OR WORDS THAT PROCEEDS FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD.
If that is not happening, no heart will have the daily purity or sanctification it needs to be a heart of prayer. The word that comes from the mouth of the LORD has power in it. It comes as spirit and life. That is why it can purify the heart and make it a prayer heart. Jesus said;
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” John 6:63 NKJV
There is an insight we can glean from this scripture. If the word of the LORD comes to you as spirit and life, it set the heart on fire with the flames of the Spirit and gets it imparted with the prayer Spirit, making it a prayer heart.
When the word comes to the heart as spirit and life, it comes along with a Heavenly dimension that makes the heart a prayer or praying heart. If therefore you want your heart to maintain the sanctification that is necessary to make it a prayer heart, it must be expose daily to what comes out of the mouth of GOD.
That is the significance of the statement, “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.”
When the heart finds that proceeding word, the word it finds will begin to burn like a purifying fire within it, removing all iniquities and other forms of impurities, making it a pure heart that can see God move in the place of prayer.
You can now understand why the Bible says “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). One way to keep it is by exposing it daily to what comes out of the mouth of GOD.
Jeremiah said,
“Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.” Jeremiah 15:16 NKJV
IF YOU FIND THE PROCEEDING WORD, AND EAT IT, YOUR HEART WILL BE READY FOR RIGHTEOUS PRAYERS.
When you find His word and eat them (absorb them into your heart or spirit man), they will set the heart in a frequency where it can function as a prayer heart. That is one of the secrets of the journey. The heart is where Kingdom activities first take place. That is why it must be kept with what proceeds out of the mouth of God!
It is when we keep in our hearts, what proceeds from the mouth of the LORD, that the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart will be acceptable. And do not forget, if the words of our mouths and the meditations of our Hearts are not acceptable to God, our prayers will never be acceptable to Him. Which brings us to our devotional text.
The text said;
“The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Your servant is warned, And in keeping them there is great reward. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.
Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer”
There is so much in this scripture that cannot be unpacked here. But what is most relevant to this discourse is found in certain verses it carries.
The words of our mouth and the meditations of our hearts will only be acceptable if we expose our hearts to the word that comes out of the mouth of the LORD as earlier stated.
WORDS THAT COME OUT OF THE MOUTH OF THE LORD HAVE INHERENT POWER.
A true word that comes out of the mouth of the LORD will convert the soul, make the simple wise, rejoice the heart, enlighten the eyes (mind), or impart the fear of the LORD into a man’s heart. It is the presence of the fear of the LORD, working in a heart owned by a soul that has been converted by the word of the LORD, that makes our prayers Righteous before GOD.
The purification of the heart to make it a heart that fear God, carries the revelation of who God is. If the fear of the LORD comes in, coupled with a soul that has been converted by the word of the LORD, a prayer heart will emerge.
That is why, finding the word of God from the Spirit or mouth of GOD to eat daily (or absorbed into our spirits), should never be compromised or neglected. It should be the daily exercise of us all, if we want to have hearts that are pure enough to see God break out through our prayers.
To have or cultivate a heart of prayer, the sanctification or purification of the heart will be required. We must have hearts that cry unto God, “teach me your way, show me your paths!! Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are my salvation.”
May God use these truths to add to the building process of your prayer life. Amen and amen!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“Show me Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day.
Remember, O LORD, Your tender mercies and Your loving kindnesses, For they are from of old.
Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; According to Your mercy remember me, For Your goodness’ sake, O LORD.
Good and upright is the LORD; Therefore He teaches sinners in the way. The humble He guides in justice, And the humble He teaches His way.
All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth, To such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.
For Your name’s sake, O LORD, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great. Who is the man that fears the LORD? Him shall He teach in the way He chooses.
He himself shall dwell in prosperity, And his descendants shall inherit the earth. The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him, And He will show them His covenant.” Psalm 25:4-14 NKJV