TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 28TH DECEMBER 2024)
“Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, to the South. Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.” Genesis 13:1-2 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 363RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT
We bless our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ for giving us another day. Not everyone who started this year is still here with us. He did not keep us because we are better than them. It is out of His mercies that we are not consumed, for His compassion fails not.
Indeed, as David would have put it if he were here, if the LORD should mark iniquities, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with Him so that He may be feared.
It’s a great privilege to serve the God who created Heaven and earth and to hear Him call us His own. It’s a privilege to get out of a life of sin, separate from the evil and corrupt systems of this world, and break ties with everything satanic and be separated unto Christ alone.
In the eyes of the New Testament, that was what our father
Abraham did, when he was called out of his father’s house. Genuine salvation involves walking away from darkness and clinging unto Jesus Christ – the true light; not for one day, two days, one month or one year, but forever. If you have not decided to cling to the LORD for ever, do that before we cross into the new year.
Many of us in church today do not cling to the LORD consistently. We cling for moments. We cling when there is no temptation, trial, or persecution. We cling when there is no pressure, and un-cling when there is.
We cling to Him until a crave for sex comes in, then we go satisfy it in any way; some through fornication, others through adultery, some others through masturbation and pornography, and etc., then we return to say we are born again. Friend, during that time, you are not longer born again. You are not clinging to the LORD. You are clinging to sin.
That should stop before we cross over to 2025, because 2025 is not 2024. Year 2025 will be a different year. If you live that kind of Christian life, the year will never be a Happy New Year to you. It will be a dark year at some points.
That kind of life is a life that sows to please the flesh. It is also called sowing the wind. No one follows Jesus Christ in spirit and in truth and live that kind of Christian life because he or she knows how destructive it is.
IF YOU LIVE THAT KIND OF CHRISTIAN LIFE, YOU ARE SOWING THE WIND, AND ONE DAY, YOU WILL REAP THE WILD WIND.
If you live the Christian life that is mixed with sexual sins, drunkenness, smoking, strife, gossips, hate, bitterness, jealousy, envy, unforgiveness, malice and etc., you are sowing the wind. One day, you will reap the wild wind. If you live the Christian life of getting married like the people of this world, you are sowing the wind. One day you will reap the wild wind.
It is good to get married, but do not get married to prove a point or show to your enemies how successful you are.
Do not get married to win a fight or beat a competition. Do not get married to show to a church you were expelled from for immoral conduct that the expulsion did not hurt you, like one little boy did recently. Getting married for any of this reason is sowing the wind. You will reap the wild wind one day.
We get married to fulfill destiny not to satisfy a grudge, beat a competition, look victorious in battle, or prove someone wrong or right. 2025 is a different year. Many will reap the wild wind in 2025 because they sowed the wind in 2024. We have to be careful and repentant as we cross.
God does not what any of us to reap the wild wind, hence bringing this word to us.
Since days back, He have been showing us what not to cross the year with. He does not want us to cross into the new year sowing the wind. He wants us to cross in, sowing to please the Spirit, so that we can be reaping the blessings of everlasting life day after day.
He wants us to live in the coming year, in the riches of His mercies, the riches of His grace and the riches of His glory; especially this end times. The reason for that is simple. He wants his Kingdom to advance on earth in 2025 like no other year. But it will only advance in or through us, if we live in the riches of His mercies, the riches of His grace, and the riches of His glory.
It will not advance of we keep living the kind of life we lived in 2024; a life that is like the earth that was mixed with light and darkness.
It is important to note that God wants us to prosper in the coming year, more than we did this year; especially in our souls prosper. It is the prosperity of the soul that should result in the prosperity of our pockets.
Sadly, some so called Christians do not care about the prosperity of their souls. They have become like the Church in the Book of revelation that was rich, but blind, naked and poor in God’s judgments.
A CHURCH WITH NO INTIMACY WITH THE LORD.
Most of us forget that we are metaphorically the wife of Christ – the true Church, and we will be a very bad wife if all we want is His money and not a relationship with Him. That is what we call the harlot Church in the apostolic.
It is because of that you see many believers or church people mixing their Christian lives with sinful living, dark practices and all that.
Yes, God wants us to prosper economically, as our walk and talk with Him prospers. We must know that and live that way. We must cherish eternal things more than earthly things, because when the moment of truth comes, it is the eternal that will matter not the earthly.
Indeed, like every good Father will desire for his Children, God wants every of His Child to prosper. Sadly, some are not prospering because they do not understand what prosperity is all about. That is why they follow the ways of this world.
Many in Church have been trained to take materialism for prosperity, hence piercing themselves with many sorrows. While some others become worshipers of mammon to get money. The Bible strongly warned us against the worship of mammon.
Jesus said we cannot be loyal to God and to the god of riches at the same time. both. If we are loyal to mammon, we will never be loyal to God. We must be loyal to God alone and then money will find us.
Yes, money can find us, and I believe it will find you in 2025. You will not be the one looking for and running after it. Your heart will be running after God, as your hands are put to work, and money will be running after you. That will; be your portion.
It is important to note that money will become a curse in our lives if we become more loyal to riches than to God.
That is why you see many rich people living under the curse of their riches. Only the blind and desperate do not see that. I have seen rich people who now prefer being poor with peace, than being rich with what they struggle with. I guess this is why some prefer poverty.
Friend, God wants you rich and blessed, and not rich and accursed. It is easier for you to serve Him rich and blessed, than to serve him rich and accursed or poor and accursed.
You do not need to mix your Christian life with sin to be come rich, neither do you need to serve mammon to become rich. You need to serve Jesus, and allow Him to enrich your life with all you need to do His will, by His Holy Spirit. That is the message.
The word mammon simply means riches. Mammon was a Canaanite god in charge of riches in Bible days. This spirit was a manifestation of Baal, and is still with us today. It is a spirit that make people trade even their souls on the altar of money making.
That is why God will never give His Child money in surplus until He delivers Him from the mammon spirit.
It is my prayer that as we step into 2025, we will not have any relationship with this god. We will not lead mixed Christian lives. We will lead lives that are bright like the Sun of righteousness, and glorious like Him on the mountain of transfiguration. Amen and amen!!!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY
Therefore “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.”
“I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:17-18 NKJV