TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 16TH NOVEMBER 2024)
“Everything is permissible (allowable and lawful) for me; but not all things are helpful (good for me to do, expedient and profitable when considered with other things).
Everything is lawful for me, but I will not become the slave of anything or be brought under its power.
Food [is intended] for the stomach and the stomach for food, but God will finally end [the functions of] both and bring them to nothing.
The body is not intended for sexual immorality, but [is intended] for the Lord, and the Lord [is intended] for the body [to save, sanctify, and raise it again].
…Shun immorality and all sexual looseness [flee from impurity in thought, word, or deed]. Any other sin which a man commits is one outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You are not your own,
You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for, made His own]. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:12-13, 18-20 AMPC
WELCOME TO THE 321ST DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
Like I have always said, you may fall asleep but it takes God to wake up from sleep. The Bible says, “the Spirit of the LORD has made us; the breath of the almighty gives us life.” It is the life that His breath gives us that takes us to sleep and bring us out of sleep.
For some of us, last night was not a sleeping night, but a night of tarrying before the LORD, praying and hearing from Him. But we have always slept and woke up because the LORD kept us.
I listened to a medical doctor share why some people die on the sleep and I got scared as a human being. He said, most people do not die in their sleep because a demon took them. He said they die because their heart stop functioning while they were asleep.
He said such occurrences is only an end result, due to underlying illnesses that are heart related, that it does not just happen. He said the heart first gives warnings for many months, weeks, days and hours, and that if we do not recognize that our heart is sick and dying gradually, and just ignore it, one day we may sleep and not wake up.
Like I said, I got scared as a human, because personally I don’t know how it feels when the heart is giving warnings, or how to recognize when it is slowly beginning to die.
You can recognize when your head is sick or your leg, without needing a doctor, but the heart, you will need a doctor, and not just any doctor but a special doctor called a cardiologist. So, heart matters are not ordinary matters.
Heart matters are not matters for a chemist, a pharmacy, or clinic or any health official who can check your pulse. They are for a specialist, yet we ignore them the way Godless people ignore God’s warnings of approaching judgement. We spiritualize things that we need to visit a cardiologist for, and then die suddenly, blaming it on evil altars, curses, or other things.
I learned from that chat that most deaths we see today are not caused by curses, evil foundations, altars or any of those nonsense, they are caused by simply carelessness; we do not care about the critical organs of our bodies, especially we speaking in tongues Christians, hence seeing what we see.
SO, WHEN THE CARDIOLOGIST WAS THROUGH, I WAS SCARED; BUT I ALSO SAW IN ANOTHER LIGHT HOW THE LORD WATCHES OVER US WHILE WE ARE ASLEEP.
I discovered that for most of us, He does not just watch over us against spiritual and natural enemies, He watch over our vital organs; yes, the vital organs of the body like the heart, to keep it functioning while we are asleep.
I discovered that for the careless us (who know how to hand over even things we should not hand over, to God – things like going for regular check-up), to be sleeping and waking up for over 48 years, it’s a miracle. God has indeed been faithful. But we need to wake up from our foolish spirituality before it is too late.
I do not know why the LORD have me speak about this this morning, maybe there is a soul out there that is believing GOD to live for so many years but will soon die, for not being careful about his or her health.
Personally, the word woke me up and I called someone to get me a hospital quickly. I wanted to check the functionality of every organ of my body. I will say I am more guilty of what am sharing this morning than anyone reading this.
I have been spiritualizing my health for so long.
Many of us believe that by faith we will live long. But faith without works is dead. If we are believing GOD to live for 70, 80, 90, 100, or 120 years and even more, and are not doing what is required, like cutting down on what we eat, going for regular check-ups and praying along, we will live a short life.
For so many, the amount of sugar, smoke, and organic chemicals they have put in their body will not let them live for more than 60 years. Sadly, they will just die either like chickens.
MOST YOUTHS HAVE USED DRUGS, ALCOHOL AND OTHER SUBSTANCES TO CUT THEIR LIVES SHORT.
Though they are still alive but they will soon be out of this world in few years time. This is not good! We have become the assassins of our own lives.
It is not the will of GOD that we die without fulfilling our days, and medically and biblically speaking, it is not demons that are killing us all the time. The Bible says, Satan has been stripped of the power to do so by Christ, so he is no longer that powerful. It is our carelessness that is ruining our health.
If we want to see God’s will for our health come to pass, we must not be spiritualizing our health. We must live in such a way that we will see it happen.
A lot about our health is not caused by demons but carelessness. We eat carelessly, sleep carelessly, do so much carelessly. Like me, few months back, I realized that I have a gym in my house, a bicycle to ride for exercise, but I had never visited them for a very long time. That is not how to go about life.
If we want to live long, we must do things that allows for healthy blood flow around our bodies and proper functionality of the critical organs of our bodies. Yes, we must be detoxifying our blood system from time to time.
God said in His word;
“Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he knows and understands My name [has a personal knowledge of My mercy, love, and kindness—trusts and relies on Me, knowing I will never forsake him, no, never].
He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life will I satisfy him and show him My salvation.” Palm 91:14-16 AMPC
This is a promise God made to all of us who serve Him. It is just that His definition of long life could be different from the world’s definition. But it is a life that is long enough to fulfil its appointed days. For the promise to be fulfilled, our health has to be intact.
We must make sure that our vital organs are functioning properly and we are not eating and doing things that a killing us slowly. It is possible to be doing things that are killing you slowly and still be believing God for long life. I call that tragic faith. You will drop dead one day to the surprise of many; with some claiming you were very okay the other day, as if they are medical doctors.
If someone spend each day, week, month or year of his or her life doing things that are killing him or her slowly; like eating, sniffing, smoking, drinking, inhaling, or touching things that are killing him or her slowly, there is no amount of prayer, fasting or health care that will keep him or her alive, when he or she gets to the zenith of the consequences of his or her actions.
I REITERATE THAT MANY OF US ARE DOING THINGS THAT ARE KILLING US SLOWLY, YET NOT KNOWING.
Yes, many are reducing the days the LORD appointed for their lives without knowing it. If we do not check what those fatal things we are doing are, and stop now, we will live short lives despite the long-life GOD has promised us.
Someone may say, “my life is in God’s hands.” That is what we say when we are over spiritualizing our health. But do not deceive yourself, and let no one deceive you, because God put a part of our lives in our hands, right from the day man was created in the garden of Eden. He put most of the natural part in our hands.
Yes, He put a part of our lives in our hands when He said;
“ …You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and blessing and calamity you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 3:16-17 AMPC
This scripture is not just about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as it were, but about a deeper truth so long as our health is concern. It tells us that there are things to do with our bodies, and there are things not to do with it.
There are things to put into our bodies, and there are things not to put into our bodies.
It made it clear that there are things that if we do with our bodies will reduce our live span on earth. It clearly states that there are things that if we put in our bodies will destroy our health completely. Our job is to make sure we do not do with our bodies or put into our bodies what will destroy our health or reduce our life span on earth.
One may be wondering “I thought we are looking at practical Christianity, so how does this apply?” Well, taking good care of our health is part of practical Christianity.
A PART OF OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT SAYS;
“Everything is permissible (allowable and lawful) for me; but not all things are helpful (good for me to do, expedient and profitable when considered with other things). Everything is lawful for me, but I will not become the slave of anything or be brought under its power.” 1 Corinthians 6:12 AMPC
Not all food is helpful, not all drinks are helpful, not all that we do with our bodies or put into them are helpful. Our bodies are the Temples of the Holy Spirit; we are warned to be careful what we do with them and what we put into them.
We are to use the part of our lives that is in our hands to do all that. Sadly, it is the part that God place in our hands that we use in killing ourselves slowly by not doing what the Bible say we should do. It is that part we use to smoke into, drink in, eat, touch and do all that defiles our bodies and reduce the days GOD has appointed for us to live on earth.
Today sex has become the cheapest thing to do. Many of us do not consider why! We do not consider that it is one way of reducing our life span, which is contrary to what some people teach.
So, we follow what they say, commit all kinds of sexual sins and sleep with whoever our bodies say sleep with. We do not know the spiritual decrees that are over some people. We do not know that we tap into the dark decrees when we sleep with them and destroy our selves.
Some have decrees that when you sleep with them, what was said over them will begin to speak in your life and reduce your life span. Others have diseases in their bodies and curses in lives that when you sleep with them, everything gets transmitted into you, reducing your life span as well.
Another portion of our devotional text says;
…Shun immorality and all sexual looseness [flee from impurity in thought, word, or deed]. Any other sin which a man commits is one outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You are not your own,
You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for, made His own]. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 AMPC
Friend, God sent this word to stop us from killing our selves slowly by what we do or fail to do. It is part of practical Christian living. I know an uncle of mine who never touched a woman in his life. He lived for many years and was not sick one day.
Indeed, sometimes, it is not good to touch a woman, according to what apostle Paul said. There are sexual encounters, alcohol and smoking encounters, that are actually encounters with the spirit of death. Let no one deceive you about that!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“For the commandment is a lamp, and the whole teaching [of the law] is light, and reproofs of discipline are the way of life,
To keep you from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a loose woman. Lust not after her beauty in your heart, neither let her capture you with her eyelids.
For on account of a harlot a man is brought to a piece of bread, and the adulteress stalks and snares [as with a hook] the precious life [of a man]. Proverbs 6:23-26 AMPC
A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, and knoweth nothing. For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city,
To call passengers who go right on their ways: Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.
But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.” Proverbs 9:13-18 KJV