TODAY’S DEVOTION (Monday 7th April 2025)
“My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and give praise. Awake, my glory! Awake, lute and harp! I will awaken the dawn.” Psalm 57:7-8 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 97TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF VICTORY
The heart is the seat of moral life. It is the gate between the visible and invisible. If a man’s life will be better, it will depend on the realm his heart is connected to. That is why scriptures say we should guard our hearts with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life.
The responsibility of keeping the heart sound and well lies in our will.
Are we willing to set our hearts to the right realm – the realm of God or the wrong realm – the realm of men and darkness? A song writer once wrote; “There are days I wake up feeling on top of the world. And there are days I wake up feeling the world is on top of me.” Life can be like that sometimes. However, in a few cases, it depends on which realm our heart opens to before we go to sleep.
If you do not treat your heart as a gate of the invisible realm (either good or bad), you will get your life stuck with things you cannot handle. Everyone who has ever related with God was made to tune his or her heart to the realm of God by spending time with His word day and night. Joshua comes to mind here. God spoke to him saying.
“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Joshua 1:8 NKJV
We must understand that the words we allow into our hearts determine which realm our souls connect to. One of the great men of God who ever lived in our age was Smith Wigglesworth.
Stories have it that he never read any other book in life apart from the Bible. He never read News Papers or exposed his heart to any information apart from the Bible.
Though some practices you find in his ministry were twisted by the fathers of today and used to destroy the sanctity of the holy communion, the result he got from that kind of life was amazing. He got his heart connected to the right realm – the realm of God – all his Christian life.
SOME OF THE MIRACLES THE LORD DID USING HIS FAITH ARE STILL NOT BELIEVED IN SOME QUARTERS.
The story is told of how Smith Wigglesworth was invited to attend a funeral service of a particular man. While the body of the dead man was laid in a little space within the place for viewing, people sat in the main hall participating in the funeral service. The body was alone in that place and there was a door leading to where it was laid for viewing.
Then God’s servant, Smith Wigglesworth, walked in and went straight to where the corpse was lying. No one was with him, and no one followed him behind. He went to it and took the corpse and placed it on the wall and commanded it to walk. But it fell! He did it again and it fell. He did it the third time screaming in anger; this time the dead man came back to life and walked.
Then the man of God held him hand by hand and walked with him out of the place to the man hall where his funeral was going on.
The result was amazing! Everyone in the main hall ran away leaving Smith with the now living man. They will later return to celebrate the power of God. That was one of the amazing things God did by the faith of that man; a faith he built by connecting to the realm of God alone all his life.
Child of God, if our hearts are sold out to God’s word, it will bring us to a glory realm where we will be doing amazing things that will snatch the lost world to Christ. That is what it means to be a Christian.
Yes, being sold out to the word until we come to the realm of becoming a duplicate of GOD on the face of the earth, in words and in deeds is what it means to be a Christian. It is the reason for salvation. The Bible says,
“And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;
they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Mark 16:17-18 NKJV
THIS IS A CALL INTO BELIEVERS’ MINISTRY. IT IS A CALL THAT CAN ONLY BE FULFILLED IF WE LIVE THE RIGHT WAY.
Yes, it is a call of God on all believers that can only be fulfilled if we direct our hearts to the right things. Until our hearts follow the word of the LORD the way that Smith did, the wonders of the word will not be performed in and through us.
Jesus Himself said anyone that the word of God comes into, in the very frequency it came to Smith Wigglesworth, will become a small God on the face of the earth – He will become a true delegated authority of God on the face of the earth. Time to reject a low level and powerless Christianity and accept the higher height of faith God has set for us.
I will not ignore the seasons of low moments in the life of a Child of God, because we still live in an imperfect world, low moments are bound to come. However, what we do when such moments come is what really defines our strength in God. The Bible says
“If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.
Deliver those who are drawn away to death, and those who totter to the slaughter, hold them back [from their doom].
If you [profess ignorance and] say, Behold, we did not know this, does not He who weighs and ponders the heart perceive and consider it? And He Who guards your life, does not He know it? And shall not He render to [you and] every man according to his works? Proverbs 24:10-12 AMPC
Each time I read this scripture I see the expectation of God for our lives. God does not want our low moments to consume us. He said if they seem to be doing so, it’s because our strength is small. It is not because what we may be dealing with is bigger than us. It is just our strength that is small.
THE ONLY THING TO DO IS TO INCREASE OUR STRENGTH.
Yes, we are to get our strength increased by feeding our hearts with the word of the LORD. The Bible then went on to tell us what GOD expects us to spend our days doing – delivering those who are drawn to death and helping those tottering to the slaughter.
Meaning no low moment should stop us from fulfilling this assignment. No, None!!
God expects us to keep our heart steadfast towards Him and that we can do by burying it in His word (which is Him). The result will be beautiful. We will find the energy to defeat our low moments and spend our days delivering people who are drawn to eternal death.
The scripture teaches that we should be spending our days and night stockpiling our hearts with God’s Rhema word. Only then will we have the reserved energy to handle the lows of life. If we put the words of a strong God in our weak hearts, we will always have a reservoir of power within our hearts to carry on in life.
The reservoir of power that Smith Wigglesworth had within him was built out of hours, days, weeks, months and years he spent putting the words of an infinite God in his finite heart. That was why he saw life where others saw death, healing where others saw sickness, light where others saw darkness etc.
He was an unusual man because he spent his days eating the words of an unusual God. The word took him off the plane of human feelings to the plane of supernatural faith.
As we bring this devotion to a close, permit me to share something on feelings. The reason is simple – Satan has a way of manipulating our feelings to bring us to low moments. It’s therefore important that we answer some big questions about feelings.
WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU WAKE UP FEELING DOWN, DEJECTED, DISAPPOINTED, DISCOURAGED AND COMPLETELY WORN OUT ABOUT LIFE?
What do you do when you wake up, not even feeling like singing to the LORD like you have always done or have a word of prayer because the ones you may have prayed have not come to pass. What do you do when your feelings become your prison? The answer is simple; turn to the “Spirit” not your “feelings”.
We all pass through these things. There are days I wake up not even sensing God at all, or feeling born again until I lift my heart to God like David did in our devotional text. The LORD has taught me to always learn to turn to His Spirit and go beyond my feelings each time I feel that way.
Honestly, God does not relate with us based on our feelings. He relates with us based on His words in our hearts and plans for our lives. That is why it is important that we get our hearts stockpiled with His Rhema word.
As we can see from our devotional scripture today, David must have woken up that morning feeling flat. But he knew that what he felt was not a pointer to what Heaven thought about him. Hence saying to the LORD, “O God, my heart is steadfast..”.
Feelings dwell in the realm of the soul not the realm of the Spirit. When you feel flat, sense and stand on what is in the Spirit not what is in your feel. Break the prison doors and come out. Here is one thing we can learn from David; what we feel in an immediate present is not a pointer to what God feels about us.
We must understand that feelings are not permanent but god’s plans for our lives are permanent. That is why it is foolish to take decisions based on feelings. When conditions change, the feelings will leave us. When the feelings leave us, the consequence of our actions will remain – sometimes it will remain for a lifetime.
Just check the lives of those who got pregnant out of wedlock because they wanted to satisfy a sexual feeling, and you will see the truth of this word speaking to your heart.
Check out the lives of those who are married based on feelings and see what feelings do to people. Broken lives and hopes are everywhere today because feelings are taking the better part of people’s reasoning these days. There is so much to share on this, but this is just a devotional.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU.
His delight is in the fear of the Lord, and He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears; Isaiah 11:3 NKJV