TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 25TH JUNE 2024)
“For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:6-8 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 176TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised. He has been our help and keeper. How beautiful are His helps and marvelous deeds! How gracious is His outstretch arm!
Let me begin by specially thanking all who felicitated with me on my 48th birthday. May the LORD reward all of you for your kindness. I will write a special tribute to you all later in the day. Thank you for all you did.
Today God has a word for us. You know the LORD has been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, and before He ever formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, He has been God. You see that in Psalm 90:1-2.
If this God was not alive, we would have not been in existence. We give Him the glory for all His deeds.
One of the most important fires to kindle today is the fire of a prayer life. It is one of the most important flames to keep burning in our lives today. Jesus said men always ought to pray and not to faint. When the prayer fire goes out, prayer will cease. So, that is the fire to keep burning.
One of the greatest needs of the hour is prayer. Not deliverance prayers as they call them, or what some have called dangerous prayers. Not hate driven prayers against enemies. What is needed today is righteous prayers.
We are in the end times and the appearance of Jesus can take place any moment. Even if Jesus is not appearing now, or coming to rapture the Church now, men and women are dying every day and stepping into the next life to answer for how they lived their lives while in their body.
We are in a terminal generation. Things that are uncommon and sudden are happening in rapid succession. In a terminal generation, it is those the LORD comes for that makes heaven. There is a role prayer play in the lives of men in a terminal generation.
When I say prayers, I mean righteous prayers. Righteous prayers helps us keep the oil of the Spirit in our lives in the adequate measure, and we need an adequate measure of the oil of the Spirit in our lives in this generation, if we will not fall or be carried away.
THERE IS A GREAT NEED TO SECURE THE OIL AND KEEP IT BURNING IN OUR SPIRITS OR SOULS AS WE LIVE OUR DAYS DAILY.
People must learn to keep their oil burning through the prayer knee in a terminal generation else Christ will appear to rapture His church without them knowing about it, or they come to the end of their days without being ready for the LORD.
That is why we said righteous prayers must become our life styles today. We must learn to look forward to His appearing on our prayer knees. The Bible calls His appearing the blessed hope. It puts it this way;
“ For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, training us in order that, denying impiety and worldly desires, we may live self-controlled and righteously and godly in the present age, looking forward to the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, in order that he might redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. Titus 2:11-14 LEB Translation
In days like these, we are to be looking forward to the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our LORD and savior Jesus Christ, either in the air or to us privately. And prayer will play a major role in helping us do that.
A man like Paul prayed and fasted often in his own days to stay fit for the appearance of the LORD. When he finally fulfilled his days, he was fit to spend eternity with Christ. That generation built and kept their spiritual fitness for the next life through righteous prayers.
Our devotional text is a beautiful set of words that can help us fulfill our days gloriously on earth. A major highlight of the text said;
“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. 2 Timothy 4:8 NKJV
NO ONE CAN SAY WORDS LIKE THESE AT THE COMPLETION OF THEIR DAYS ON EARTH EXCEPT THEY ARE FIT FOR THE NEXT LIFE
Most will not even want to die. They will be sending prayer points all over the world for divine intervention. But not Paul. Not men and women of that generation who saw death as a horse to use in riding into the next life instead of a threat.
Peter was also fit spiritually at the time of his departure from the earth. He said;
“For this reason, I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth.
Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me.
Moreover, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease.” 2 Peter 1:12-15 NKJV
If you look at this scripture carefully, you will realize that this man of GOD at his time of departure from the earth, was writing to remind the people to lead righteous lives after he was gone instead of writing to ask that they pray for him not to die, the way many of us would have done under the same circumstances.
What kind of lives did these men lived? What kind of Jesus did they serve and carry in their spirits? Obviously not the very one many in the present church have. They had the real Christ, many of us, especially preachers, have the antichrist we present as the real Christ.
But these men, maintained postures of righteous prayers and grew fit for the next life. Sadly, the men of our age and time, most of us in church today, are maintaining postures of unrighteous prayers we call deliverance or dangerous prayers, and have grown very unfit for the next life.
RIGHTEOUS PRAYERS CONTRIBUTE GREATLY IN MAKING ONE FIT FOR THE NEXT LIFE.
By the next life we mean an eternal life with Christ at the end of our days. If your vision is not to live a life that is fit for the next life, these words might make no meaning to you. But those who know how it is appointed unto men to die once and after that judgment, will appreciate them.
There are very few people today who are fit for the next life – very few who truly love the appearing of Christ. Yes, very few who are living a life that is ready for the next life.
The reason is because, many are lost in sin, and others know nothing about it.
Many others are just not ready for the LORD, because of the kind of lives they are living. So many think that life just ends at death and that there is nothing like the coming of the LORD.
Few believe in the end of days but not the coming of the LORD. For those of us in the Christian faith who are not ready for the LORD, it is obvious that we are not walking in the very paths that our fathers walked, hence not having the faith they had. But our LORD and savior is bringing us to those paths because He is coming for a bride that will be ready for Him.
I believe what we are absorbing in this devotional is part of His program to bring us to pathways that our fathers walked in. One of the pathways is the the pathway of burning with the flames of righteous prayers.
Yes, the pathways of cultivating a heart of prayer and staying spiritually fit for the next life, on a daily bases, like our fathers did.
It is worthy to repeat what Jesus said. He said, “men always ought to pray and not lose heart (Luke 18:1).”
The question now is, what kind of prayer was he referring to? Is it the prayers of deliverance that the demon of deliverance is driving men to pray today? Is it what some others call dangerous prayers, as earlier stated?
Obviously not, because in Luke Chapter 9 and Matthew chapter 5 and 6 Jesus condemned all of such prayers.
The prayers He said we should always pray are Righteous prayers. Righteous prayers are prayers that are difficult to the flesh, that is why it is possible to lose heart. You can only pray them when you have a prayer heart.
It is easier to say any other kind of prayer if you do not have a prayer heart. But you cannot say righteous prayers until you have a prayer heart, which is also an altar of prayer within us.
NOT EVERYONE WHO PRAYS HAS A PRAYER HEART.
Just as not everyone who prays in Church has a prayer life. A prayer life is a child of a prayer heart.
We have been looking at how to cultivate a prayer heart, and we said the first way is to have your heart sanctified by the LORD through His word. The second way is by scheduling quality times to sit with the Spirit of the LORD and meditate in God’s word; One thing that only few believers can do today.
That is why we have the spiritual problems we have in our hands. But if we will have a prayer heart, after getting our hearts purified by sanctifying truths, we must cultivate the righteous habit of spending quality time with the Spirit of the LORD on regular bases to meditate on the word of the LORD.
Meditating on the word, is a devotional posture that prepares a man’s heart to come to the realm of praying all kinds of righteous prayers. It is a major spiritual exercise that helps us cultivate hearts of prayer.
It has a way of bringing us to the place of becoming part of the generation that persist in prayers until the miracle is born. Since this is a devotional, I believe we can stop at this point.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man.
Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’
And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’ ”
Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?
I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:1-8 NKJV