TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 16TH DECEMBER 2024)
“ And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.
So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” Revelation 12:7-8 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 351ST DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT!
Blessed be the name of the LORD for His mercies and marvellous works. Blessed be His holy name for keeping us alive again and adding more days to our days on earth.
It is another week to live according to divine pattern; the pattern prescribed in the scripture. In case you do not know what in the world the pattern is, let me share it with you. The Bible says;
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, whether good or evil.” Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 NKJV
The pattern for spending our days, I mean each day; is to spend it fearing God, keeping His commandments and remembering that He will bring every work of ours into Judgment, either good or bad. People who spend their days according to this pattern, will always have a happy ending in time or eternity or both, no matter who or what may be against them. The Bible says,
“Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long. For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.” Proverbs 23:17-18 KJV
I received a message some time ago about an evil that was determined against me somewhere, and I was not worried. The person who brought the message expected me to panic and begin to make moves. But I dismissed it. Yes, what was planed was verified to be true but if you live your life according to divine pattern, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Simple!
Besides, who told you that the lives of those who have been granted mercy by the LORD is in the hands of their enemies? God said He will not let even the hair of our heads to drop without His permission. If the evil determined against us succeeds, it means God allowed it to succeed, and it is for His glory.
LIVING OUR LIVES ACCORDING TO DIVINE PATTERN IS ONE MAJOR WAY TO LIVE AN EARTHLY LIFE WITHOUT HUMAN WORRIES.
It imparts you with a confidence that can only come from the LORD, and helps you to actually live by a higher level of faith; a faith that sees the invisible and hears the inaudible. That is why the enemy may never stop us from giving our lives to Christ, but He can stop us from living our lives according to the will and ways of Christ; the very one we gave our lives to.
He knows he can only loose his grip on our lives when we begin to live according to the will and ways of Christ, which is the divine pattern for the now. That leaves freedom from the Satanic in the hands of becoming Christ like. Meaning, if we begin to live according to the will and ways of Christ, we will never be found under the yoke of the enemy.
Most of spiritual warfare is usually around matters of Heavenly pattern. The enemy will either move towards the distortion of Heavenly patterns or the removal of men from anything that helps them live their lives according to Heavenly pattern.
You see this in the story of both the fall of Lucifer; what he did to himself, and how he influenced Adam to do the same to himself. You also see it in the temptation of Christ, what the devil tried to influence Christ to do, and also in the trials of men like Paul and the rest of our Bible fathers.
In the story of the fall of Lucifer, the Bible says;
“How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations!
For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit. Isaiah 14:12-15 NKJV
In this scripture Satan is seen as one who weakens the nations. He does that by taking them away from God’s pattern for their lives. If you allow anything to take you away from God’s pattern of life for you, Satan will begin to weaken you with terrible attacks and destroy you completely.
The first person he weakened and destroyed was himself.
HE WEAKENED HIMSELF WHEN HE DEPARTED FROM GOD’S PATTERN FOR HIS LIFE.
The Bible says he said in his heart; ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’
It was not God’s pattern for his life to ascend into heaven, exalt his throne above the stars of God, sit on the mount of the congregation, or ascend above the heights of the clouds of glory and be like the Most High. It was not God’s pattern for his life. But he decided to pattern his life after all that.
The consequence is what we find captured or written in our devotional text. The text said;
“ And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.
So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” Revelation 12:7-8 NKJV
Your life can only be peaceful on this earth, by God’s definition of peace, if you lead it according to divine pattern. The reason for the many outbreaks of spiritual wars in the lives of many today lies in the establishment of lives or departure of same from the patterns God designed for them.
If you also want to live your life according to divine pattern, Satan will fight you the way he fought Paul, and tempt you the way he tempted Christ. But the beauty of it is, if he fights you the way he fought Paul, God’s grace will be sufficient to help you to come out great.
AND IF HE TEMPTS YOU THE WAY HE TEMPTED CHRIST, GOD WILL ALWAYS BE THERE TO MAKE A WAY OF ESCAPE FOR YOU.
It is therefore better to go through the challenges of living a life that is patterned after God’s design for it, than to go through the wars of not living. The wars for not living will get you down into the portals or gates of hell like it did to Satan. Irrespective of the angle you look at it, the best way to spend your days on earth remains according to Heaven’s pattern for your life.
The question now is, how do I come into the revelation of the pattern of life God has prepared for me? Is there an ideal prophetic hearing or seeing aid in the Kingdom of God that can help me? The answer is yes!
Which brings us to an important Cry of the Holy Spirit on that; the necessity for ideal spiritual fathering. Not the fathering we see today that bewitch people, but a spiritual fathering system that is built around the Tree of life.
That is one of prophetic hearing or seeing aids in God’s kingdom, that can help us come into the revelation of God’s pattern for running our earthly lives.
A spiritual father whose life revolves around the Tree of life, is a prophetic hearing and seeing aid for sons because by his intimacy with the Tree of life, he has become the resemblance of the Heavenly pattern GOD designed for those placed under his spiritual authority.
That was why Elisha found his Heavenly pattern in Elijah and Timothy and Titus found theirs in the apostle Paul.
There is a spiritual father whose life is built around the Tree of life having the resemblance of yours. Again, if you have not found him, stand on Malachi 4:5-6 and ask the LORD to turn your heart towards him like the hearts of certain warriors were turned towards David. Better still you can ask the LORD to turn his heart towards you like the heart of Samuel was turned by the LORD towards David. That is the message.
As we bring this to a close, I want to submit to you that by default, when we say one is a father in the Spirit, it means he is a pattern that resembles the very pattern God designed for the next generation to walk in. It does not mean one is aged.
Sadly, if we look at the word of God and compare it with the present-day spiritual fathers that we have, we will not be able to see in their lives, their ministries or characters, the resemblance of the patterns that God designed for our generation to walk in. Many carry another spiritual pattern, mostly that of the spirit of the antichrist.
Some are outrightly Saul, Eli, Nimrod, Balaam, or Adoni-bezek in spiritual patterns, producing spiritual sons that are building the Manasseh generation. That is why so many are living very weak lives.
It is my prayer that God will use this word to give us the very light and understanding we need to become all that He has created us to be in Jesus precious name. Amen!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“So Judah said to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me to my allotted territory, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I will likewise go with you to your allotted territory.” And Simeon went with him.
Then Judah went up, and the LORD delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand; and they killed ten thousand men at Bezek.
And they found Adoni-Bezek in Bezek, and fought against him; and they defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites.
Then Adoni-Bezek fled, and they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and big toes.And Adoni-Bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to gather scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has repaid me.” Then they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died. Judges 1:3-7 NKJV