TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 24TH SEPTEMBER 2024)
“And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.”
“And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.” Joel 2:28-29 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 268TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
I have come to discover that life can be full of challenges, but when you have a good God by your side, it does not matter what might come your way. Indeed, the LORD has been by our side all through this year. That is why the troubles we have seen were not even noticed.
Sometimes, when the great God is using the small you to do great things, small minds will be swayed by the enemy to be against you in all fronts, some will do it thinking they are doing a work for God. Others will do it knowing they are working for the devil, but will never care about the consequences of their actions.
Over the years, I have come to understand that when you are rejected, denounced, resisted and illtreated by small minds, because of the great and righteous things the LORD might be doing with you, the tables will turn after a while, and you will begin to see God using the very things they used against you on them.
I have this childhood persuasion that has kept me all these years; maybe because of the things we went through while growing up. It says; “if God be for us, it takes a fool to be against us!”
This is one of the persuasions that the Holy Spirit used in building my dependency on God instead of men. I am bad at depending on men. It is my weakness. I do not know how to; yes, I do not know how to depend on men. I lost that many years ago.
Sadly, it landed me into trouble at times, trouble with people who want to function as deities in my life.
Most of the rich men and women that I have had in ministry left because I did not depend on them for ministry finance. I remember one saying, “we will see how that little boy will make it without men like us.” That was 1998, 26 years ago or thereabout. I guess he might not even be alive now.
There were times I even tried to depend on men, but it never worked.
My life is a testimony that if God be for you and with you, you will succeed in what He wants to do with you in the reformation space. I grew up knowing that all I should do is to make sure that God does not abandon me.
HE IS ALL I HAVE GOT.
I took time to align with Psalm 27 verse 4, just to know the only person I have in my life; just to know God.
One thing you must do with the only One you have in life, is to know Him; yes, to know Him by spending quality time with His word, until His grace fills your life. That was what I did.
That is how you will be able to find His grace helping you in any time of need. Yes, that is the only way you can weary your enemies, paralyze resistance against you, and see the tables turn against those who are making you suffer unjustly.
If you spend time with God, as the only one you have in this world, you will use your life to prove how faithful, dependable, merciful, and kind He can be. Yes, for me, He has been faithful, dependable, merciful, kind, gracious and forgiving.
I have always taken my cases to His court, sometimes He would speak for me as my advocate, other times He will adjudicate for me as my judge. He has proven to be much more than anything that words can say or minds capture. That is why I said He is the only one I have.
The beautiful thing about this is, the privilege is available to all who desire it. You can begin a fresh journey today, where you make God all you have in this world. That is best done when you decide to deepen your relationship with the LORD in a special way, through submission to His will and ways.
Everyone who know the LORD will tell you the best thing to do on earth is to submit to Him; yes, it is to submit to Christ and spend your years doing only His blessed will! That is exactly what we have been doing since we came to the apostolic fields of East Africa. I can now understand what Paul meant when he said;
“But life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus-the work of telling others the Good News about God’s mighty kindness and love.” Acts 20:24 TLB
My greatest satisfaction in life comes when I am doing things assigned to me by the LORD Jesus.
I PROMISE YOU, THAT IS THE ONLY PLACE YOU WILL FIND REAL SATISFACTION IN LIFE. NOT IN ANY OTHER.
Sometimes you might fail, as we always do, God will always come through for you. He will cover your sins when you do not wickedly depart from His ways. Yes, He even covers them when you wickedly depart but return to Him in genuine repentance.
He will make sure that there are no immediate consequences for sins so that you can find a path of repentance and return to him. That is one of the blessings you enjoy if He is the only one you have in this world.
Do not say God is the only one you have in this world without having faith in Him or spending time with Him. You will always have faith in the only one you have in this world. Yes, you will always want to be with Him.
When dealing with God, as the only one you have in this world, you must understand that, any sin you commit with no immediate consequence, should not be continued, it will become nuclear in destruction if you continue in it.
I encourage you this morning to start spending your days as you should. Stop comparing yourself with people. There is a plan of God for your life, find out what it is and follow it. Compare yourself with it.
People may not understand you, just follow it. A time will come that they will understand you.
There is wisdom in spending your days doing only what Jesus assigned you to do. That is the wisdom that many are yet to come to terms with. It gives you all that Jesus offers for those who serve Him. It keeps the Holy Spirit working in your life.
One thing you must do when dealing with God as the only one you have in your life, is to make the Holy Spirit your best friend. Know all about Him and do not grieve Him, do not injure His emotions, or quench His works, fellowship, or presence in your life.
HE IS THE ONE THAT WILL MAKE ALL YOU DO WITH GOD MEANINGFUL.
He is the Central Bank of God’s wisdom. If you have Him, you have Heavens system of unlocking the depths of God on earth in your life. The Bible says;
“For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:11-12 NKJV)
One thing I know you need if you have God as the only one in this world is wisdom. Yes, you will need wisdom not to make mistakes, knowing well that some mistakes can result in a life time ruin, and you can’t afford a ruin since you have no one who will help you come out of it, except God.
That is where divine wisdom comes in, it is where the Holy Ghost the central bank of the wisdom comes in.
If you do not have people in life, helpful people, you must learn to properly manage your life daily so that you will not be in need of help. People who only have God in their life must learn to manage their lives properly and be circumspect in all they do.
They must seek the Holy Spirit to fill their hearts with the wisdom to succeed in life without depending on people. They must seek Him for that wisdom that will help them manage their lives properly. They must not live a life that neglect Him.
If you have God as the only one in your life, that is what you must do. Your fellowship with the Holy Spirit must be intact.
Personally, I have found Him to be my Central Intelligence Agency on earth, hence enjoying some divine intel that has helped me in so many ways, having no one but God in this world. I have failed some times but have always tried to maintain sweet fellowship with Him.
Yes, we must fellowship with the Holy Spirit, if God is the only one, we have in this world, because the Holy Ghost is God’s CIA on earth. He gathers intelligence for us from the depths of God, to help us build our lives on earth in God’s design.
Concerning this noble ministry of the Spirit, the Bible says;
“But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.” 1 Corinthians 2:10-12 NKJV
If you look at the lives of Bible men, you will discover that it is the intel the Holy Spirit brings from the depths of God, that is responsible for living a peaceful and glorious life on earth.
THAT IS WHY YOU WILL NEED IT AS ONE WHO DO NOT HAVE HELPFUL PEOPLE IN YOUR LIFE.
Yes, Life can be difficult without helpful people in your life. But with His intel, you will still make it great nevertheless. Personally, the intel He has constantly bring to me form the LORD Jesus Christ has helped me in doing what He assigned to me and succeeding in it. It has helped in protecting me form myself and from others.
Yes, protecting me from myself.
You see, as one who do not have helpful people in life, one who only have God in life, sometimes your greatest enemy is you. That is why you will need to be protected from yourself some times, and the intel the Holy Spirit brings can be of great help.
The greatest destroyer of people with no helpful people in their lives is themselves. They have a way of allowing the frustration lead them to early or wrong marriage, wrong associations, dropping out of school, despair, promiscuity, a life of wild parties, alcohol, drugs or even suicide.
You must not allow the frustration of not having people in life lead you to any of this. It is foolish to destroy yourself because you do not have people who care about you in life. Seek fellowship with the Holy Spirit, and He will help you.
Apart from transforming us to live a Christian life with moral excellence, and function in the Kingdom of God on earth with power and glory, the primary purpose of the Holy Spirit is to animate us with God’s wisdom, including the wisdom that protects us from ourselves.
SO, SEEK THE HOLY SPIRIT. SEEK THE LORD JESUS CHRIST TO POUR HIM INTO YOUR LIFE.
The Bible teaches that you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart. Our devotional text says,
“And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.”
The will of God is clear in this scripture. God want to pour His Holy Spirit into your life and turn it around. So, seek Him for it. As one who have no one who cares, you need this outpouring much more than others on earth.
Seek it much more than you seek anything on earth. That was what I did in my days. Become part of a Church that move in the power of the Holy Spirit and seek the outpouring there.
Without the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon my life, I would have been nothing. I would have even died since we grew up not having anyone who cares in our lives.
Seek the outpouring, and your life will no longer be the way it is when you secure it. Amen!!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY!
“Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,” Acts 3:19 NKJV
“Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” Acts 2:38-39 NKJV