TODAY’S DEVOTION (Monday 10th March 2025)
So he answered and said to me: “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.
‘Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”‘” Zechariah 4:6-7 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 69TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF VICTORY
It’s been days of victory indeed, and we give God the praise for all that.
The Bible teaches of the importance of hearing words that proceeds from the mouth of God. The Bible says man cannot live by bread alone but by such words. There are so many reasons for that. One of the reasons is this, words that proceed from the mouth of God are “containers” of the spiritual treasures that makes them tangible in our lives.
They carry everything we need from God to live and thrive on the face of the earth. God has been using this platform to help us hear such words daily. Today we will be refreshing our hearts with truths on the blessing of spiritual maturity. I hope we are ready!!
Spiritual maturity is one key to accessing blessings from God. It is a major key to being chosen by the LORD to do a work for Him. It is something God will have to bring you into in other to be blessed significantly or set aside by His Holy Spirit for key kingdom assignments.
I don’t think most of the spiritual babies with grey hairs many called fathers, and their young ones many call their sons, know that spiritual maturity and not anointing or gifts of the spirit is what qualifies for ministry. So many in ministry did not wait for spiritual maturity, they just jumped into the field and began to do what they call the work of God.
They are the oil users, water sellers, altar raising, silencing and breaking preachers that we have in church today. They are the ones that give people salt, sand, and all kinds of deliverance inventions to pray with. They ask you to go to caves and mountains to pray.
They do that because they are spiritual babies in understanding. They keep their followers in the same premature state that they themselves are in, moving them through the rank of their organization, and making them feel like giants while they are not.
RISING THROUGH THE RANK OF A CHURCH HIERARCHY IS NOT A FRUIT OF SPIRITUAL MATURITY.
The Bible says, “the heir so long as he is a child is not different from a slave though he is master of all.” Slaves are people who live according to the flesh and lead sinful and ungodly lives. Spiritual maturity or disease is the reason many among the clergy and the laity cannot live a consistent Christian life.
Both leaders and followers fall and rise all the time, presenting a Christianity that promote carnality. Sadly, many have already lost their salvation due to long term spiritual immaturity. When you lose your salvation, you go back to the slavery of sin. You will begin to live habitually in sin but see yourself as Heaven worthy.
I remember the Holy Spirit asking me to preach on “WHICH HEAVEN ARE YOU GOING TO?” few years back. We cannot live a life that the believers of the early Church never lived and expect to go to the heaven they went to. That is why men like Paul wrote saying, “knowing the severity of God we warn men.”
Spiritual immaturity is a terrible thing. It keeps people in a state of losing their salvation.
For instance, many of us Christians are involved in all forms of infidelity, some of us live a life of deception like the devil, and many others find themselves overcome by the carnal desire to do the unthinkable because they are not mature.
The wombs of many so called, ‘born again women’ still function as an execution ground for unborn babies even after what they call salvation. The mouths of the many so-called born-again men and women are still gates of hell despite giving their lives to Christ.’
GOD DOES NOT WANT THIS TO CONTINUE BECAUSE WE WILL NEVER GO TO HEAVEN IF WE DIE A SLAVE TO SIN.
That is why the first deliverance Jesus will give you when He meets you is deliverance from the slavery of Sin. The Bible says.
“….And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21 NKJV
The truth embedded in this scripture says, “Jesus came to set us free from serving sin in other to make us Heaven bound.” Genuine born-again experience is a child of our decision to accept the sacrificial death of Jesus for our sins, demonstrating it in a resolve not to serve sin again. If your own born-again is not aligned with this, its unreal.
Let’s talk about the slavery of sin and the freedom in Christ. What many of us do not know is that Jesus terminated our slavery to sin by His death on the cross and instituted a new kind of slavery – slavery to righteousness – by the outpouring of His Holy Spirit. It is that outpouring that makes us sons and helps us to live a life of freedom from slavery of sin, Satan and the evil systems of this world.
Everyone who has been freed from the slavery of sin is a son. Sons do not serve sin, they serve righteousness. In other words, they are slaves of righteousness. Apostle Paul wrote saying.
“And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness…..For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.” Romans 6:18-19 NKJV
The phrase ‘your members’ in this scripture, refer to “the parts of our body or the faculties of our souls.”
Slavery of sin involves the use of the parts of our bodies or faculties of our souls to serve sin, leading to a sinful life. While the slavery of righteousness involves the use of the parts of our bodies or the faculties of our souls to serve righteousness, leading to a life of Holiness.
TALKING ABOUT HOLINESS, IT’S IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT HOLINESS IS THE NATURE OF GOD.
God says in His word, “be you Holy for I am Holy.” That means God expects that nature in us. He expects it to become our distinguished character as His sons. That is why He poured the Blessed Holy Spirit to make that happen. Our devotional text this morning has a major highlight that says,
..’Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.
‘Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”‘”
This scripture clearly teaches that the Holy Spirit, being the Spirit of Holiness, is God’s enabling grace for all things in His kingdom, including Holy living. His role is to help us to be free from serving sin and become bound to serving righteousness.
When you attempt to make your body parts and faculties instruments of righteousness without Him enabling you (as God’s enabling grace), you will fail. We must all understand that it’s not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of the living GOD. That is why it is only when He comes into us that we can be made slaves to righteousness.
I believe God has spoken to us. He wants us to be freed from the slavery of sin and become joined with Him in righteousness.
As we bring this to a close, understand that to be free from the slavery of sin, you must seek Jesus until He baptized you with the Holy Ghost and Fire! Then live your days walking in liberty from a life of sin that He administers into our spirits. Amen and amen!!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY.
“But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”
“Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.”
“And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
“His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Matthew 3:7-12 NKJV