TODAY’S DEVOTION (FRIDAY 27TH SEPTEMBER 2024)
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;
for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:12-13
WELCOME TO THE 271ST DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
We bless the LORD of Heaven and Earth, the judge of all and governor among the nations for giving us another glorious day to live and serve our generation according to His will.
Today is another weekend, and we give Him the glory for keeping us alive, well, and protected from evil. Day unto day we have been seeing His mercies, forgiveness and peace. Indeed, it is out of His mercies that we are not consumed.
The Bible teaches that if He marks iniquity, none of us can stand. But there is forgiveness with Him so that He might be feared. God forgives sins to boost uprightness in man. He forgives sins to either establish or boost relationship with man.
He walks in mercy so that our sins would not mess us up.
Wait a minute, have you ever sat down to think what could be the divine vision or intent of God for allowing us to fall asleep and wake up each morning? The vision is not for us to pursue an earthly ambition or desire, but to worship Him by serving our generation according to His will.
We waste a day if we do not use it to do just that!
Serving our generation according to the will of God includes serving Jesus Christ and walking intimately with His Holy Spirit daily. It includes perfecting our ways on daily bases and allowing ourselves to be used of God to minister to others in His place!
That is what makes “FUNCTIONING AS THE BODY OF CHRIST” wherever we find ourselves our highest calling on earth as believers. Whatever Christ would have done, our job is to do it on His behalf by His Holy Spirit within us, if it is His immediate present will.
Our responsibility is to wake up each day and fulfill God’s vision for our lives by being the body of Christ in our offices, business places and etc.
TO BE THE BODY OF CHRIST IS SIMPLE, IF WE HAVE HIS HOLY SPIRIT WITHIN US.
It involves serving as the base station for His redemptive activities on earth. Yes, it involves yielding to Him to use us in reaching out to that colleague of ours, that client, that man or woman who sits beside us in a plane, a bus or wherever, as prompted by the Holy Spirit.
You see, the happiest people in the kingdom of GOD are people who spend their days fulfilling God’s vision for waking them up each morning. They will not see when evil comes because they will be too busy with their GOD to find out.
In fact, evil may come but will be afraid to rest on them because the God whose purpose they serve will fight for them.
I have come to realize that people who do not fulfil God’s vision for waking them up each morning, will end up having unredeemable old age sorrows. Having a bad day begins with not fulfilling God’s intent for giving you that day.
Trust me; it’s not God’s will that a day He freely gives us turn out to be a bad day. We must therefore learn to deploy and direct our will in the right direction.
This morning, we will be digging out certain truths from our devotional text today! It says,
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;
for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:12-13
Our Church generation is a unique generation. We know how to work out our fallen nature and make sure we touch people with it but we do not know how to work out our redeemed nature (our sanctified self) and touch people with it.
What do I mean by touching people with our fallen nature and not our redeemed nature?
You see, when we gossip, slander, defame, hate, behave unkindly, withdraw mercy, become greedy, lustful, and proud, or do anything to harm our fellow man, we are working out our fallen nature and not our redeemed nature.
OUR CALLING AS CHRISTIANS IS NOT TO DO THAT AT ALL.
We are called to touch people with our redeemed nature by the manifestation of the fruits and gifts of the Spirit.
One of the major things that we must learn to do as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling is to learn how to work on our redeemed nature and use it to touch the lost world around us. The Bible says we should do just that.
To work out our salvation, means to live true to our heavenly calling, develop our walk with the LORD, touching people with our redeemed nature, manifesting the Holiness, purity of spirit, power and the goodness of God that may have been deposited in our lives.
It means to pull from the Cross to our lives, the righteousness and blessings that Christ accomplished for us, touching men with it so that they can see it and glorify GOD in Heaven!
It means to make sure every eye that looks at us see the finished works of Christ in our character and every other thing we are or do! Jesus said in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (NKJV).
Working out our salvation is bringing into fore the internal works that the grace of God has accomplished in our lives.
Sadly, many of us have not yielded to God’s grace enough to accomplish anything in our internal lives, hence have nothing Godly to bring to the fore. We always bring forth the nasty, the sinful and wicked to the fore.
From our hearts, still spring forth evil things like sexual sins, hate, unbelieve, unforgiveness, and etc. to people around us.
Sadly, most of us pastors, apostles, prophets and prophetesses, allow sexual perversion to spring forth from us to the men and women who God brings to us to harvest into His kingdom. We allow greed and covetousness to spring forth from us, giving those who need help from us, all kinds of visions and instructions just to keep us smiling to the bank while they smile to hell.
God will judge us if we do not repent!
You cannot manifest in your Character any salvation that you have not allowed the saving grace of God to work out in you. You will just be manifesting religion; going to Church, praying, singing in Church, and doing all the Church stuff with sin and wickedness still in your life.
This and other reasons are why the Church is yet to influence the world back to Christ. We think the world will return to Christ by our preaching only. That is a lie. Our lifestyles are stronger in pulling the lost to Christ than our preaching.
MORE WERE WON INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD IN THE DAYS OF THE EARLY CHURCH BY THEIR LIFESTYLES NOT JUST BY THEIR GREAT PREACHING.
Friend, this is the time to add virtue to our faith and stop living wicked lives while saying we belong to a righteous GOD. When you preach the right message and then go to lead a wicked life, no one will come to Christ genuinely.
It will just be a superficial thing that will keep the people in sync with hell.
Not working out our salvation with fear and trembling will prevent God’s glorious light from shining through us to a dark world. If we do not work out our salvation, we will profess that we know God, but deny Him in works, which is the hallmark of a hypocrite.
If we do not work out our salvation, we will claim born again but still live like the lost sinners around us. The only difference between us and them will be Church attendance. Our spiritual states will still be the same.
Friend, our apostolic Fathers spent their days working out their salvation with fear and trembling. That was why there was no scandal among them after accepting Jesus. But the reverse is the case in the present Church!
Most of them like Saul who became Paul, were criminals and assassins.
They killed and did so much terrible things. Some of them were harlots, convicts and all that. But when they met Christ, there was no turning back to the path of sin and wickedness. That was possible because they submitted totally to the demands of God’s saving grace and allowed it to do a work in them.
It resulted in the very salvation they spent their days working out with fear and trembling!
If you have not submitted your will to the grace of God to guide you through the word of God, there is no salvation in you to work out! If you did not meet Jesus by encounter, there is no salvation to work out. The Bible says it was God that worked in the people to will and to do of His good pleasure, it wasn’t just them.
That means if there is no Christ in you, there cannot be Christ out of you!
We can go on and on but like I have always said this is a devotional not a book! May God use these words and give you an inheritance among they that are sanctified! Amen
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.
Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:16-20 NKJV