TODAY’S DEVOTION MONDAY 29TH DECEMBER 2025)
“And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Exodus 33:14 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 363RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF VICTORY
We are in the last few days of the year; we are grateful because God has been faithful. We are alive today because He is faithful. We are not in hell today because He is faithful. We can see today because He is faithful.
The faithfulness of the LORD is the greatest asset of the believer. Creation itself is sustained by God’s faithfulness. The Bible says:
“Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven. Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You established the earth, and it abides. They continue this day according to Your ordinances, For all are Your servants.”
Psalm 119:89-91 NKJV
It is God’s faithfulness that allows His word to settle in our lives as settled in heaven. The things He has set according to His ordinances serve us because of His faithfulness. You may have done so much for the LORD or with the LORD this year, but you are not here because of any of that. You are here because God is faithful.
We look forward to the New Year with hope and faith in God. We are not banking on our righteousness, because as important as it may be in our battle against evil, it is still a filthy rag before the LORD. We are not banking on our wisdom or capabilities, because by strength shall no man prevail. We are banking on God’s faithfulness to see us through in the new year!!
While doing so, we will live the days of the year, focusing on one thing: the primary purpose of life. Yes, our strength will be spent on the primary purpose of life. In case you are wondering what it is, the Bible says in the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 12 that it is to fear God and depart from evil.
As the faithfulness of the LORD keep and watch over us, that is what we will be using our lives to do in the coming year, and God willing even in the years to come.
The best way to appreciate the faithful God for all that His faithfulness may be doing in your life, is to use your life to fulfill the primary purpose of life. People who do that walk into the timeless blessings of the LORD and allows God to truly and effectively use them in pushing back evil.
IF GOD CAN USE YOUR LIFE TO RESIST, NEUTRALIZE OR EFFECTIVELY PUSH BACK EVIL, ALL THAT PEOPLE SEEK WILL BEGIN TO SEEK YOU.
That is what it means to seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all other things shall be added to you. Making the purpose of life the focal point of your life is the foundation of all that. Church History has proven that whenever people make the purpose of life their focal point, they generate peace around them and prevent evil from breaking forth in or through them.
Now, one may wonder if evil can break forth through someone. Yes, It can! For instance, every atrocity on earth has never been directly carried out by demons.
Every atrocity on earth have been carried out by those who allowed evil to break forth through them. Our world would have been as peaceful as the LORD GOD created it to be if not for people who allow themselves to be used as gates of hell on the face of the earth.
There is a way you wire yourself to corruption and moral decay and you become a gate of hell on the face of the earth. Yes, there is a way you can follow the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and become one of those that evil can break forth through and carry out its nefarious activities of killing, stealing, and destroying.
Now, either you believe it or not, there is no kind judgment in God’s justice system for those who allow evil to break forth through them. People who allow sin, iniquity and trespass to break forth through them may look okay on this side of eternity but will never be okay if they step out of this life.
You may ask how do people allow evil to break forth through them? Let us begin with those outside the Church. When wicked politicians tell lies and make people believe they are working for their interest, and then use that to win elections, only to unleash their greed upon the nation, they have allowed evil break forth through them.
That is why so many nations in our world today, especially those governed by such politicians, do not have prosperity. You see some move from one adversity to another until those politicians become too fat with the wealth of the people.
YOU SEE VERY BAD POLICIES THAT BRINGS POVERTY AND UNTOLD HARDSHIP ON THE POPULACE PROMOTED AND ESTABLISHED.
You see very heartbreaking corruption destroying the destiny of all and making their daughters harlots and sons criminals. You see stealing, corruption, breakdown of sanity and the poor deprived of basic life facilities. You see all kinds of evil and things that make the noble sad.
Most governments thrive on deceit. When politicians and those in government walk in deceit, they allow evil to break forth through them. That is the bane of nations that allow people to ascend the place of its leadership through deceit, lies or propaganda.
On individual level, people can also allow evil to break forth through them. For instance, when we spread slander or gossip, sow seeds of discord or give evil counsel like the one a son of David got from his far relative and friend, leading to him raping his half-sister and bringing the sword of blood on David’s household; you are allowing evil to break forth through you.
If you read the book of 2 Samuel from chapter 13 to 18, you will understand what am saying. The evil that broke out in the house of David by the counsel of Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, to David’s son lasted for months. It was like an inferno that almost consumed the house of David.
It started with the rape of Tamar, as earlier stated, and ended up in the dethronement of David for three months and death of some of His sons and choice men. Both Amnon and Absalom, who became the principal actors did not live to tell the story. That is how bad it is to allow evil to break forth through you. It can come back to consume you!
There are so many people in the days of the Bible who took decisions that allowed evil to break forth through them and either stopped or sabotaged the plan of GOD for others.
SOME DID IT OUT OF PRESURE, WHILE SOME OTHERS OUT OF THE HEAT OF SPIRITUAL WARFARE OR IGNORANCE.
For example, when Sarah could not wait for God’s promise and decided to make Abraham sleep with her maid, she allowed what is not too good to break forth through her. A child called Ishmael was born, and today the negative impact of that child’s birth still stares at God’s face.
If not for the redemption Jesus Christ brought, there would have been no hope for all that the world has experienced because of the birth of that child. Sinful acts or conducts can allow evil to break forth through us. But God did not create us for evil to break forth through us. God created us for Him to break forth through us.
So, when we allow evil to break forth through us, we have defeated His purposes for our lives and will always regret it at a later end.
Most of what we go through in life is a boomerang. We took decisions that allowed evil to break forth through us, to kill, steal or destroy and now we are suffering the effects. If our problems are caused by the evil that broke forth through us to consume others, we will never be free by the prayers we or others say for us.
We can only be free by repentance; a repentance with conversion as fruits not just regrets and going back to the old.
There is so much about this important subject. Our devotional text said, “And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” For evil not to break forth through us, we must lead lives that allows the manifest presence of God to rest on us.
If we lead lives that do not allow God’s presence to rest on us, other things will be resting on us! That explains why so many are going about with so many problems in their lives.
THEY ARE LEADING LIVES THAT WILL NOT ALLOW THE PRESENCE OF GOD TO REST ON THEM, HENCE CARRYING OTHER THINGS ON THEM.
Many have diseases resting upon them, others have curses resting upon them, and many others have one form of spiritual problem or the other resting upon them. Again, if God’s manifest presence is not going with us, or resting on us, we will never have rest, because there will be things from the pit of hell that will rest on us.
There are so many incurables resting on many today!
Let me state this; we are not against medical science but God’s original provision for our health was His manifest presence resting on us. That is why, except one has fulfilled his or her days, whatever defies medical science do not survive when taken to the place of His manifest presence.
The manifest presence of the LORD remains the only place where the pressures of life can be freely and permanently dealt with.
People who do not understand the importance of God’s presence will not mind even if He did not follow them into the coming year. That is why they go to spend the last hours of the preceding year and the first hours of a new year in a club house or a drinking spot.
Our devotional text made it clear that if his presence goes with us God will give us rest. He will give us rest from sicknesses and diseases, rest from lack and poverty, rest from insecurity and depression, rest from satanic attacks and oppressions.
It is therefore important to do what Moses did in His days as we prepare for 2026. It is important to be clear to the LORD that if His manifest presence will not go with us, He should not take us there.
Sadly, many have been leading their lives without the presence of God. That is why they are depressed, oppressed, unhappy, and all the wrong keep happening to them. GOD’S PRESENCE MAY NOT PREVENT THE EVIL FROM COMING, BUT IT WILL GLORIFY GOD WHEN IT COMES BY DEALING WITH IT TO OUR AMAZEMENTS.
As we bring this word to a close today, I want you to understand that the difference between your success and failure in life, as a Kingdom Citizen, will not be determined by how much you will work towards it alone but how less of evil break forth through you and how much of God’s manifest presence is resting on you.
LET THIS WORD REMAIN STRONG IN US
“Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.” Exodus 33:15 NKJV
