TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 29TH OCTOBER 2024)
“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.”
“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 3:12-14 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 303RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
With just 62 days of the year to go, I won’t fail to appreciate GOD for watching over us each day. He has done much more than we can ever ask or think according to His power that works in us.
To Him belong the glory in Jesus precious name. Amen!
Yes, soon, it will be a New year for those who follow the Gregorian calendar. We at the Cry of the Spirit Ministries, follow two calendars due to Bible Prophecy; we follow the Jewish Calendar because they are God’s prophetic time clock on earth, and the Gregorian Calendar.
Prophetically, we are already in the New year, but yet to enter according to the Gregorian Calendar.
New year for kingdom citizens, calls for new levels of faith.
The driving force of the Kingdom of GOD is actually to move citizens of the Kingdom from one realm to another. That is why the Bible admonishes that we move from one level of grace to another, and one level of faith to another.
As we have always stated on this platform, the Christian journey is designed to go from faith to faith, grace to grace; glory to glory, until death do us part.
In other words, we are saved to be moving, from a lower level of faith to a higher level of faith, a lower dimension of grace to a higher dimension of grace, a lower realm of glory to a higher realm of glory, until our time on earth is over.
Moving from where an old year left us to a much higher place in the Holy Ghost in a new year, remains God’s will for our lives. Moving from where an outgoing year left us to where an incoming year should take us to, should be our focus as God’s kingdom Citizens.
We lead our lives with eyes on the blessed hope and the release of our prophetic destinies. It is important to note that, our lives are filled with destiny seeds, waiting for the rain of the Spirit to fall on us to cause them to grow and be fulfilled.
YES, THE RAIN MUST FALL ON US DAILY FOR WHAT WE CARRY TO BE BIRTH ON EARTH.
Paul wrote to the church at Philippi those strong words in our devotional text that has shaped the destiny of many from generation to generation.
I have stated it before, that most revivalist God used to rekindle the flames of His Holy Spirit through the centuries, fed from that scripture to release their destinies and stay on fire for the LORD till death. There is therefore, something about that scripture that needs urgent attention in our generation.
A major highlight in the text says;
“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.”
If we do not forget the things that happened yesterday – the good, the bad and the ugly – and press into what God has predetermined that it happens today, we will never unleash our divine destiny. A generation that holds on to past glorious or inglorious things that happened to it will never be able to finish its course in God’s eternal plan for mankind!
Yes, there could be a certain past that holds a treasure for us to remember and unlock, but there are pasts that are full of curses and can do so much harm to us. We are not designed to succeed camping on that kind of a past. We are designed to succeed by pressing into any glorious future defined in the Holy Scriptures for us.
We are to look at the future, see predetermined things of GOD for our lives and camp around them until they come to pass.
Sometimes, people get to a particular peak in life and camp there. But I have come to realize that if we get to a particular peak in life and do not lift up our eyes to look for higher grounds to press into, we will begin to stink and sink.
IN BIBLE TIMES, THE MAN SAMSON DID THAT, AND THINGS WENT BAD WITH HIM.
He did not just make a mistake, he desecrated his consecration, thereby turning himself into a captive in the hands of people who once dreaded him. We all blame it on Delilah, but if you take a second look at that incident, you will realize that the dangerous woman came into the picture, when Samson got stuck to a season of success.
No moving army can be capture by the enemy. That is why in God’s kingdom, we don’t get ourselves stuck to a season of success (or even failure), we move on! Yes, we move on using the prayer knee, and the study table. That is the secret of unending strength from the LORD.
If you are interested in fulfilling your divine destiny, it is important to note that your divine destiny will need constant pressing into things yet to be revealed or made manifest, to be fulfilled.
If you do not press into things that are yet to be fulfilled in your life, maybe on daily bases, you will be stuck to a season of life, and begin to see your carnal craving come alive and someone or something to satisfy it for you. That is the reason generals in God’s army fall.
Take David for instance, he saw Beersheba (the naked woman who trapped him into sin) in a season when kings go to war. You should not be looking at naked people when you ought to be in the fore front fighting the battles of the LORD.
The Bible says,
“It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold.
So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”
Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house. And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.” 2 Samuel 11:1-5 NKJV
ONE MOMENT OF NOT PRESSING INTO HIS ASSIGNMENT FOR HIS LIFE, WAS ALL THE ENEMY NEEDED TO CREATE THIS STORY IN DAVID’S LIFE.
Friend, one moment of not pressing into God’s assignment for our lives, or getting busy for or with Him, could be all the enemy needs to sink us into the mire of life, thwart God’s plans or create a story in our lives that we might regret eternally.
If David was in the battle field responding to the next thing God wanted to do with his life, he wouldn’t have seen a woman who was busy taking her bath from his pent house.
We allow our carnal desires to take the better part of us if we do not spend our days submitting to the next thing God want to do with our lives, especially after doing one successful thing with it. Your divine destiny will need a constant pressing into things yet to be done with your life to be fulfilled.
Most of what we call Church, is stuck and stinky in the Spirit today because we do not know or apply this in our walk with God.
Greedy preachers and their desperate members rather move from one marriage program to another, one poverty killing meeting to another, instead of from one realm of purity, holiness, faith, power, grace or glory, to another.
Sometimes I ask myself when the poverty will be finally killed. All these kinds of meetings are just to make or keep the pastors smiling to the bank!
Like I stated some time back, any man or woman preacher who takes you from one poverty killing meeting to the other, instead of executing the great commission without omission, is only interested in killing his or her own poverty. Not yours!
Anyone that builds his ministry on solving marriage and money problems alone, is a big fraud. That has nothing to do with the great commission. The great commission is to form Christ in people. Then Christ in them becomes the hope of their financial or marital glory.
Whenever a preacher loose touch with the glory, he will settle on solving the earthly problems of people, leaving them with great eternal problems to contend with forever.
OUR DESTINIES WILL NEED A CONSTANT PRESSING INTO THE THINGS OF GOD TO BE FULFILLED, NOT THE THINGS OF MEN.
It will require that you press on your knees through intense fasting and prayers to get into dimensions of God’s truth, grace, kingdom, power and glory you are yet to see. It will require that you press with your mind through hours spent with the word.
It will require that you press along with members of your spiritual family through corporate fellowships, where the word is dissected and the power of God imparted. Understand that, when it comes to living a blessed life, no pressing, no progress. You must press from one level of success to another, or from a state of inactivity to a state of productivity.
And talking about inactivity, I have come to realize that you do not wait for destiny to be fulfilled, or for your life to be blessed. You pressed into grace, power, peace, truths, and glory dimensions in God for destiny to be fulfilled or your life to be blessed. You do not lead an inactive life.
Inactivity is the greatest killer of divine destiny. If you are just lying down and inactive and expecting your destiny to be fulfilled, it will never be. That is why no lazy man or woman has been able to fulfil divine destiny or live blessed lives.
A blessed life is for the hardworking man or woman who is walking with the LORD, and taking instructions from Him, from time to time.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY;
“Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the LORD blessed him.
The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him.” Genesis 26:12-14 NIV