TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 4TH SEPTEMBER 2024)
“And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” Luke 16:15 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 248TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
Blessed be the name of the LORD who has given us another day. Philosophically speaking, yesterday is a tomb, tomorrow is a womb, but today is a gift from God. Make use of it.
If you spend today thinking about yesterday – especially things you did wrong that you cannot change, you will soon burry a glorious future and the beauty of the present in the tomb of yesterday. Life was not designed to be lived from yesterday but from God’s word.
Maybe you lost a dear one, you had a bad marriage, you lost a job, you were ill-treated or maltreated by someone, maybe what happened is even worse than any of these, let the LORD help you get over it.
Do not dwell in a bad past. Reach out to the Holy Spirit to help you. Dwelling in a bad past is the easiest way to become a past tense.
Yesterday is now a tomb. Don’t get buried in it! The only role yesterday should help play in our lives today is in the area of wisdom. The past should be our wisdom collection centre not our residence. The reason for that is simple! We learn from the past. We do not lean on the past.
The past is to be learned from not leaned on. People who lean on the past get buried in the tomb of the past. But those who learn from it get set for the blessings in the womb of an approaching future.
We can only move from a bad past to a glorious future through this principle. One of the greatest apostles of Jesus Christ that had a bad past to press away from said;
“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. “Philippians 3:13-14 NKJV
From this scripture it’s clear that as soon as yesterday is gone, you stop pressing into it. In other words, we do not press into yesterday because it is a tomb. It’s like opening a grave and getting buried in it.
It will break you down completely. Most health complications are caused by pressing into the tomb of yesterday. We do not press into yesterday, we press into tomorrow.
Tomorrow is the womb that carries all the blessing the LORD has prepared for us. Yesterday is the womb that contains all we should allow time to burry and kill completely. We must understand that!
One way we press into the future is by deliberately forgetting the things that are behind, and intentionally spending our days pressing into GOD given goals.
ONE THING THAT CAN HELP US DO THAT DAILY, IS A RICH DEVOTIONAL LIKE THIS ONE AND OUR CLOSENESS TO GOD.
We must get a goal from the LORD and spend each day pursuing it to be able to move from a bad past.
Now, there are so many GOD given goals that have already been established in scriptures. One of those goals is the very one our Bible fathers lived for; preparing for the next life, while living or using a present life to serve your generation according to the will of GOD.
This is an established goal in God’s will to adopt. You don’t need to engage in a lengthy fast seeking one. You have just found one! People who have this kind of goal live their lives differently. They do not celebrate worldly things like some in the perverted church do – things like St. Valentine day and etc.
Though we are not in February, but let me share something that will be of help.
When I took a spiritual gaze at the Church and what we are doing with the “valentine thing,” the reality of how far even spiritual leaders have separated from God, dawned on me, and because they still carry the anointing, the shallow minded cannot discern that they are separated from God.
The gifts and callings of God are without repentance, so when a man of God becomes separated from God in spirit, he will lose “the glory” but not “the anointing.” He will lose the private presence of God in His life but not the public one, and that is very deceptive.
He could become worldly but still religious. You will find some celebrating what the world celebrates, exalting what they exalt, basically to keep their ministries or local Church groups growing in attendance, and himself smiling to the bank even when the members are smiling to hell.
THE WORLD HAS ACTUALLY BECOME CHURCHY AND THE CHURCH WORLDLY.
There is an exchange in the spirit and this is hurting the heart of the three that bears witness in Heaven – the God Head. The prophetic ear is picking and expressing it on earth through the prophetic finger; though many are not seeing or sensing it.
When a spiritual leader is not in the know of what is going on in the Heart of the Godhead, He will not see divine sense in what is expressed by the prophetic finger. The same is applicable to those who are led by them.
These are some of the things that Christians who are pursuing the goal of getting ready for the next life must always have in mind.
Sometimes I ask myself, if the original apostles were here with us would they have been involved in all these? Why should a Church of Jesus Christ be so concerned with St. Valentine and other sex activation celebrations?
I know the Valentine story very well. It began with a Catholic priest. It was a true and untainted story about agape love and sacrifice. But why has it become so exalted among men; even in the Church today?
I think the answer is in our devotional. A major line in it says; “For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.”
How do you know or recognize something that has become an abomination in the sight of GOD? It will be exalted among men; especially those who live in darkness both in and outside the church.
The exaltation being given to the St. Valentine story today, clearly depicts that a lot about it has become an abomination in the sight of God. Today, it has become a season used for the worship of the goddess of sexual love. That is why you find so many sexually perverse things happening during the period.
The philosophy that says, “sex is an expression of love” is promoted by worshipers of the sex goddess, who doubles as its messengers on the face of the earth. They are the apostles of the filth of the Valentine Day.
THE EXPRESSION OF LOVE IS SACRIFICE AND MANY OTHER VIRTUES AND NOT SEX AS PAINTED BY THESE MEN AND WOMEN.
People in love and in marriage could be involved in intimacy, because sexual intimacy was originally ordained by God to be a reproduction and bounding system in marital relationships. Nothing else!! Treating it any other way is sinful and not acceptable to God.
The use of the valentine story for sexual perversion is satanic and demonic. In Church, it has been used to promote the filth of sinful desires, and also used to stimulate other dark passions in God’s children. Some have used this perversion to request couples to bring back their marriages to life through sexual intimacy.
We are getting ready for our 2024 Marriage & Family Life Conference. So, let me say this; “if you need a valentine day to keep your marriage blissful, then your marriage is dead. Sex does not keep marriage blissful. It is Godly character and an active presence of God that keeps marriage blissful.”
A lot on marriage is coming from hearts that are not sanctified. They say things that are not keeping marriages together. The things at most keep the people together but you can’t find marriage in God’s design in their staying together.
Friend, it is possible for people to be living together in the name of marriage while nothing marital is happening among them. If there is any time the Saints need to be urged to keep close watch over their souls, it is now!
Make preparation for the next life, through a personal and active relationship with Jesus Christ, your life goal, and things will be well with you. Stay true to God no matter the cost. You will be glad you did when the curtains of time will close on the human race!! Amen and amen.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY!
“Don’t let people call you a traitor for staying true to God. Don’t you panic as so many of your neighbors are doing when they think of Syria and Israel attacking you. Don’t fear anything except the Lord of the armies of heaven! If you fear him, you need fear nothing else.” Isaiah 8:12-13 TLB