TODAY’S DEVOTION (Thursday 1st May 2025)
“Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.'” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.” Revelation 14:12-13 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 121ST DAY OF OUR YEAR OF VICTORY
It is a new month from the LORD!! I believe He will prepare a table for us in the presence of our enemies this month, as He has always done. Get ready for something that will turn your life around this month. Amen!!
Happy are those who have Jesus as their LORD. They could be ridiculed, ashamed, demonized or persecuted; they will have the last laugh in eternity. Sometimes, their laughter begins within the space of time.
Let me begin by thanking God for giving us life. The life we live is from Him. Like my brother who sings will put it, “there is no me, without you.” May the LORD bless his life and ministry. The Bible says the Spirit of God has made us; the breath of the Almighty gives us life. Amen!!!
May it continue to give us life each day of this month.
Today we want to look at a sentence in our devotional text that stirs the spirit of anyone who reads it with a prepared heart. It is called, “the faith and patience of the saints.” The vision is to refresh our hearts with a faith building word for the new month.
Last week while in Abuja Nigeria, the LORD again caused my steps to cross with that of one of His end time seasoned prophetic voices, Pastor Chris Delvan. He never knew I just came into the city. He just called my line, and I told him I was around. It is always a blessing to have a talk with Him.
He is one of the few ministers on the face of the earth that I can have a productive conversation about the Kingdom of God with.
With all sense of humility and respect, I want to submit that most ministers today are in the outer darkness of what God is doing, hence too carnal for one to even sit down with. The man of God, Pastor Chris Delvan, is full of the word and the Spirit, which makes it possible for us to be able to reason together whenever we meet.
YESTERDAY WE HAD TWO CONVERSATIONS.
The first was at the breakfast table in the Bukka restaurant of the Transcorp Hilton. The next was at the quarry, as he called it. Both were sparks of apostolic and prophetic truths that were flowing like a river. If you were there you would have drowned in the river of the word of the LORD that was flowing.
I think I should be holding a mini media equipment to be capturing our conversation so I can relay it to those the LORD has given to us to build and prepare for His second coming.
One of the things we talked about was the absence of spiritual food or seed for the eagles of God. I said to him, “there is food for the vulture Christians, and no food for the eagles.” Metaphorically, vulture Christians are the carnal Christians whose needs control how they follow the LORD.
They feed on preachings that give them their heart desires but send leanness to their souls. They do not care about solid spiritual food. They just care about things their carnal religious self is comfortable with.
In fact, their boy leaders speak against sound doctrine and attack those of us that God has granted mercy to bear it. It was a massive flow that was made vibrant by the amazing truths coming out of Pastor Delvan.
Like I said, if you were there you would have drowned in the river of the word that was flowing out of our belly or spirits, as the scriptures say. God want His servants to be able to bring such streams to His people until they are drowned in it and the flesh disappears.
When eagle Christians dive into the river of the apostolic doctrine and get drown in it, they slip into a deeper spiritual life in Christ, taking roots downward to bear fruits upward. But when vulture or carnal Christians get drown in the apostolic doctrine, they become emotional, loose their sanity and begin to attack those preaching that word.
MAY YOU LIVE YOUR DAYS THIS MONTH AS AN EAGLE CHRISTIAN AND NOT A VULTURE CHRISTIAN, IN JESUS PRECIOUS NAME.
Pastor Delvan (Baba, as we call him) and I stressed the importance of the next Church leaders knowing what the LORD has called them to bring to the table, food for the King’s Household. What I want to share with us briefly today is food for the eagle Christians, not the vultures.
In fact, all I have been preaching in my life is for eagle Christians, not vultures.
Let me begin by saying that one of the major virtues we need to walk with God successfully today is patience. Not patience according to how the word sounds, but the patience of the saints; a kind of patience that can only be created by an encounter with the LORD that drives one to take roots downward, to bear fruits upward.
I grew up to realize that the most blessed people in the Bible were people who walked with God patiently and endured so much.
They endured things that are not possible for carnal Christians to endure. From Abel to Enoch, from Abraham to Jacob, from Joseph to Moses and to all who walked with God, this kind of patience was not an option but a necessity.
Concerning Abraham, the Bible says:
“And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. Hebrews 6:11-15 NKJV
WHATEVER GOD MAY HAVE PROMISED YOU, WILL NOT COME WHEN YOU HAVE NOT TAKEN ROOTS DOWNWARD FOR IT TO COME TO PASS.
Taking root downwards is what many do not like. It is usually a time of testing, it’s the time when people mock you, a time you think you made a mistake and need to stop following a direction that has been confirmed to you by the LORD to be right.
We will need to take root downwards while waiting in prayer and learning over time the ways of the LORD. If need be, God will even lead us into troubles that will enable us to take roots downwards. Yes, He would!!
One may say, “sir, what do you mean, because Jesus said we should pray the Father not to lead us into trouble.”
Yes, that was a prayer guide targeting any trouble that will uproot us from His kingdom, will or ways. He called it temptation. But the LORD, being our Shepherd, does lead His own into any trouble that will help them take roots downwards so that they can bear fruits upward (the fruits of a life created by the seed of His word in our hearts).
Like I said, this is not for vulture Christians, but for the eagles of the LORD; people who lead Christian lives that waits at His beck and call; men and women who know how to mount up with wings and fly out of the pollutions of this world into the consecrations of the world to come from time to time.
If you are not this deep, make up your mind to become deep with the LORD this month. Yes, make up your mind to submit to Him to help you take root downward.
There are too many shallow rooted Christians today. They are so shallow in Christ that one cannot tell if they are saved or not. The only difference between them and lost sinners is the religious titles they carry, the songs they sing, and the religious things they do in the name of the LORD.
WHEN YOU PLACE THEIR MORAL LIVES SIDE BY SIDE SCRIPTURES, YOU WILL REALIZE THEY ARE LOST AND ARE HEADED TO HELL.
Their shallow roots in Christ have made them to dry away, leading to a return of an old sinful life that should not be seen in the lives of believers. Due to the danger of losing our Heavenly heritage by falling away, God would always want us to first develop roots downwards before growing fruits upwards.
When he wanted to give Job a better life than the one He had, he led him into trouble to propel him to develop his roots downwards. The Bible says he called the attention of Satan and incite him against Job, until spiritual roots of Job grow deeper and deeper in Him.
They grew downwards enough for the glorious life He wanted Job to have.
When Job God there, he moved from a faith level that knew God by the hearing of the ear to a faith level that saw Him face to face as He speaks with him. That was the turning point. He came out twice as rich, more prosperous and blessed than before.
Whenever we take root downward, we will bear fruits upwards. There will be no more delay. That is the rule.
Delay in our lives is God waiting on us to take root downward. Until that happens, we will never see the fulness of what He has planted in our lives come to pass.
The Bible teaches that Job was restored fully after the trial that took the roots of his faith downwards.
In him we see the manifestation of the blessing that only comes after one has taken roots downward through trials.
It is what the Bible calls “the faith and patience of the saints” that helps us in enduring this type of spiritual developmental process. If you do not have the faith and patience of the saints who were here before us, you will not be able to pass through the very processes they passed or walk in the blessings they walked in. That is the word of the LORD.
Make this month a month of refocusing your faith. Follow what those in the clouds of many witnesses did in their days. Seek the LORD to lead you in taking roots downwards so that you can be bearing the fruits of His word in your life upwards. Amen
LET THIS SCRIPTURE REMAIN OUR MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!!
“Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.'” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.” Revelation 14:12-13 NKJV
