TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 15TH FEBRUARY 2025)
“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 46TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF VICTORY
It is the last day of the week! We are getting ready for another one to start tomorrow.
New weeks to kingdom citizens should call for new levels of faith, because they understand that the driving force of the Kingdom is to move the church from one realm of grace and glory to another. The Bible admonishes that strongly. That is how we grow from Children of GOD to sons of GOD.
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 move from a lower level of faith to a higher level of faith, a lower level 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 week left us to a much higher place in the Spirit in a new week is God’s will for our life.
Our apostolic fathers understood this truth; in fact, they made sure they moved from faith to faith on daily bases that was why they met daily.
Our devotional text today tells us more about this distinguished character. Paul wrote to the Church at Philippi those strong words that has shaped the destiny of many from generation to generation.
I have come to discover that every revivalist God ever used to rekindle the flames of His Holy Spirit on earth, fed from the words of our devotional text to stay on fire for the LORD all through till death. I believe strongly that there is something about that scripture that needs urgent attention in our generation.
THE LORD HAD US USE IT AS OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT TODAY FOR A PURPOSE.
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. I have said it repeatedly that 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!
The Church Ought to be a Moving Army, and you should be moving too.
If we get to a particular peak in life and do not lift our eyes up to look for higher grounds to press into, we will begin to stink and sink. Life is like a ship sometimes. It was not designed to anchor at one point of success or failure. It was designed to be in motion regardless of one’s success or failure rate.
Samson made a major mistake at a particular success peak in his life. He anchored the ship of his life at one point of failure; the failure to complete a marriage process. It led to the desecration of his consecration.
He would later turn himself into a captive in the hands of people who once dreaded him. Yes, we all rightly blame it on Delilah but if you take a second look at that incident, you will realize that that harlot came into the picture when Samson got stuck to a season of failure, the failure to complete a marriage process.
The truth remains, we all fall into sins in moments of either our weariness or season of camping in a past or present glory because no moving army can be captured by the enemy.
YES, NO MOVING ARMY CAN BE CAPTURED BY THE ENEMY.
The flesh could rise but constant moves will always silence it. That is why in God’s kingdom, we don’t get ourselves stuck to a season of success (or even failure), we move on! That is the secret of unending strength from the LORD. Your divine destiny will therefore need constant pressing into things yet to be revealed or made manifest to be fulfilled.
If you do not press into them on daily bases – if you do not press into what God want to do next with your life after doing one thing with it – you will be stuck to a season of progress (or peril) and begin to see your carnal cravings come alive and someone or something to satisfy it for you. That is the reason generals in God’s army fall.
Though their fall is not always the end of their lives of exploits. They also know how to rise and get back to battle. Take David for instance, he saw Bathsheba, the naked woman that he used to trap himself into sin. Though he recovered from it, the entire incident took place during a season when kings go to war.
A season when kings ought not to be resting but fighting. 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
EVERYTHING YOU JUST READ AND WHAT HAPPENED AS A RESULT IS TRACEABLE TO ONE SEASON THE KING DID NOT GO TO WAR.
If he was in the battlefield 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 are not in the battle fields of our divine destinies doing the next thing GOD wants us to do.
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 after doing one successful thing with it. Your divine destiny will need a constant pressing into things yet to be done with your life for it to be fulfilled.
Many Christians are stuck and stinky in the Spirit today because most do not know or apply this Bible truth in their walk with God. Most of us will rather move from one marriage program to another, one poverty killing meeting to another but not move from one realm of glory to another.
Divine destiny will need a constant pursuit of God given life goals, and a pressing into the things of His kingdom to be fulfilled. It will not need a pressing into the things of men to be fulfilled.
Yes, it will require that you press on your knees through intense fasting and prayers to get into dimensions of Bible truths, God’s grace, His kingdom treasures, or power and glory that you are yet to see.
It will require that you press with your mind through hours spent with the word (The Bible and any book, CD, or DVD that will help you understand the Bible). It will require that you press along with members of your spiritual family through corporate fellowships with where the word is dissected and the power of God imparted.
When it comes to matters of divine destiny, no pressing, no progress.
You must press from one level of success to another or from inactivity to productivity. And talking about inactivity, I have come to realize that you do not sit on the seats of time doing nothing, and expect things to be great. You press into destiny by doing the things God places on your mind to do for things to be great with you.
Inactivity is the reason many are ruined. Some are busy, but on the wrong path.
The truth is, whether you are busy on the wrong path, or just lying down on the paths of inactivity or laziness, there is nothing great that will ever come out of you. You must be busy in the right direction, the direction of God’s will for your life for things to be great with you in their appointed times.
You must press and keep pressing, carry out Spirit led actions until you complete the race set before you by the LORD. Amen!!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
“But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.”
“Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ”
“and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;”
“that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
“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.”
“Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.” Philippians 3:7-15 NKJV