TODAY’S DEVOTION (Tuesday 4TH February 2025)
“The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”
“Who knows the power of your anger? For as the fear of you, so is your wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalms 90:10-12 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 35TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF VICTORY
It’s been just 35 days, and a lot has happened already. For some, it’s like their year has ended, and for others it’s like it has not started at all, while for some others, it’s like it’s just beginning.
I don’t know where you fall in but just lift up your eyes to the one who lives forever, who does not live in time but eternity.
The Bible teaches that if we look up to Him, our faces will be brighten up and we will not be put to shame. Those who were here on earth before us, who walked with the LORD like we are doing today, lived their days looking up to Him, that was why they were not put to shame. The Bible says,
“They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented—
of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. Hebrews 11:37-38 NKJV
They survived the cost of living right in a perverse and crooked generation, by keeping the eyes of their minds on the LORD. That was why they had the grace that helped them through.
Life can be very unpredictable, but if we live our days with our eyes on the LORD, we will be in good faith condition, like our fathers, no matter what we face.
While writing this piece I sat down to ask myself how I would look or be in strength at 80, if the LORD allows me to get there. Sometimes I worry so much about the future and what it holds for me and mine. During those moments, the Holy Spirit helps us to understand that our future is not in our hands. Our future is in God’s hands. In fact, God is our future.
IF WE LIVE IN HIM AND WALK WITH HIM, WE ARE LIVING AND WALKING IN OUR FUTURE ALREADY. HALLELUJAH!
Our devotional today is a talk on ministry – I mean gospel ministry – the ministry of seeking and saving that which was lost through the preaching of the gospel. Do not forget, the Bible says we should perfect the saints for the work of the ministry that Christ committed to the Church, which today is known as the Great Commission.
You see, ministry is simply service to the Most High God.
That is why, if the preaching or teaching you hear was not stolen, practiced or hyped, it will flow from the fountain of a preacher’s walk and talk with God. It will be something out of this age, flowing from a person’s life and style from God. That is the type that will give life to those who drink from it.
We are here on earth, not for a carnal reason, but an eternal one. We are here to unleash our destinies.
One major spiritual ingredient that we will need to do that is the scent of water of the word through the life and styles of those who maintained a consistent walk with the LORD. Not by our definition of consistency and faithfulness, but by God’s definition of it.
I remember sitting down with my spiritual father years ago to ask questions on how he has carried himself under the grace that God has given him up to that time. The secrets and stories of his life were some of the catalysts God used in pushing me into my destiny.
I desired to have the God he had, the moves of the Spirit he saw, and the cloud of glory he was under. The scent of the water of the words that came out of those stories shaped my faith powerfully.
Perhaps if he had not shared those things with me, I would not have been where I am today in the power of the Spirit. Someone once said, and permit me to repeat it again, that “the easiest way to know how far or near your journey in life will be, is to ask anyone coming from similar destination.”
A MAN OF GOD ONCE SAID HE READ SO MANY AUTOBIOGRAPHIES BEFORE STEPPING INTO MINISTRY.
The secrets and stories of both successful and the ‘not successful’ men and women in ministry or anything that God may have called you into, will always be of help to you as you try to unleash why you are here. That is one way to number our days; the way of reading the lives of those who failed or succeeded in life.
Revelation helps us in numbering our days. A major highlight in our devotional text today says; “So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
There is wisdom in the lives of men and women that have gone before us. There is always wisdom to collect when you study their lives to find out why they failed and why they succeeded. This scripture is very significant to me, especially today.
Our days are full of stories that if shared with a younger generation could be of help in their quest to fulfill God’s will for their lives. So, if we number them accurately, we can come out with records and details of events that characterize them for the benefit of others.
I love sharing the story of my birth because of how it has inspired people to make destiny matters the center of their lives. The best time I share the story is usually on my birthdays. But today I just feel someone should be told something.
Over 48 years and some months ago, my mum just came back from the farm. She had gone to live with her auntie when she saw that her DD was approaching. By DD I mean Delivery Date.
She said that morning that she woke up with an uncommon strength, and because of that, she saw it fit to go to the farm to fetch some firewood. I would later grow to know that the strength was from the LORD to help her deliver her baby. It was not for going to get firewood.
IN LIFE YOU MUST UNDERSTAND WHY POSITIVE THINGS HAPPEN.
You must not just assume and begin to channel them in the wrong direction or put them into the wrong task.
On her return from the farm, she dropped the firewood where firewood was kept, and within a short while she felt like going to the local toilet. For good hygiene, our local toilets are built very far away from home, so it was like a journey for her.
Finally, she got there but on attempting to climb over, labor pains started. She shared with me that she had to retreat away from the toilet and before she knew it, she was on the ground to push her baby out, surrounded by bushes and a thick forest.
Though where she sat was a path that leads to farms and hunting places, there was no one to help her. However, she started pushing and I came out. And because she was at a place where there were no delivery clothes to use, I fell on the bushes cutting a place close to my right eye – it threw her into panic. I was bleeding!
Then after some minutes a hunter who was returning from hunting met the scene and offered some help. Finally, my auntie came running and mother and child were taken to where they received proper care.
God so did it that I was born in a village that had one of the best water falls in Nigeria. The prophetic significance of all this has not stopped throwing me into deep thoughts.
First, I was fought by the dragon from the day of my birth. He never wanted me to live, hence the cut. He was waiting to devour the child as soon as it was born. But God sent a hunter to raise the alarm that brought my auntie to the scene.
My place of birth, how I was born, what happened to my right eye, and the hunter that came, all speak prophetic volumes to me today. They reflected my assignment in the kingdom of God and what Heaven sent me to do on the face of the earth.
The first assignment is to be a prophetic midwife for a generation that is pregnant with mandates, ministries, etc., in their spirits. Being without a spiritual midwife can ruin your life.
THE PAIN YOU WILL GO THROUGH IN LIFE TRYING TO DO WHAT GOD MAY HAVE CALLED YOU TO DO WILL BE TERRIBLE
My mum gave birth to me without a midwife and that was dangerous. It spoke of my first assignment. There are many people today who are trying to bring forth success, progress, divine accomplishment etc. without Spiritual midwives.
They are trying to do it by themselves, hence ending in the wrong places of life; or finding themselves in most terrible place that a vision, ministry or mandate from God can be born, thereby jeopardizing their destinies.
I believe the LORD sent me to be a spiritual midwife to these kinds of people.
I believe He wants me to prevent them from birthing their Babies in the wrong place or the wrong environments. He raised me to stop the cuts of the enemy beside their eyes or life visions. If you feel led to serve God under our apostolic oversight or whatever, the LORD brought you so we can be a spiritual midwife to you.
As we bring this to a close, it is important to note that people who need spiritual midwives have their own kind of pastors, apostles, prophets, or teachers of the WORD. They have their own kind of messages to feed on, or churches to attend. They have kingdom ministries led by midwives equipped by the LORD for them, that they must sit under.
They are not designed to attend just any church or sit under just any preacher. The reason is because of what usually comes against them in life. They are not usually confronted by regular devils. They have the dragon to contend with. That is why they do not need a regular pastor, apostle, prophet, or teacher of the word.
No regular preacher can help them so long as matters of divine destiny are concerned. I hope the LORD has spoken to someone. If you need a spiritual midwife, may the LORD give you one in Jesus’ precious name. Amen!!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
“Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.”
“And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.”
“His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.”
“She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.” Revelation 12:1-6 NKJV