TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 22ND MARCH 2026)
“The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”
“Who knows the power of your anger? For as the fear of you, so is your wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalms 90:10-12 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 81ST DAY OF OUR YEAR OF STRATEGIC VICTORY
Our devotional text today calls for deep reflection. Yes, deep reflection!!!
As the years pass by and our strength is used and, in some cases, overused, a time will come when we become aged and in need of some of the strength we are using now. That is when our LORD and Saviour Jesus Christ will come in with the support He promised He will give us when we are old.
Sometimes I worry so much about the future and what it holds for me and mine. But our future is not in our hands. Our future is in God’s hands. In fact, God is our future. If we live in Him and walk with Him, we are living and walking in our future already. Hallelujah!
In our devotional today, we will be looking at few life-giving truths. But let us begin with a word on ministry, I mean gospel ministry; the ministry of seeking and saving that which was lost through the preaching of the gospel.
You see, ministry is simply service to the Most High God. True preaching itself flows from the fountain of a preacher’s walk and talk with God; it flows from a lifestyle from God. This month marked the 26th year of my commissioning into ministry (10th March 2000). Between October and November this year, we will be marking 33 years since we accepted the call of the LORD.
I humbly say, we have been in full-time ministry for 33 years, and God has been faithful. So, rejoicing with us and sharing this devotional on same flow is within the boundaries of the divine will of God.
THE BIBLE SPOKE ABOUT THE SPIRITS OF JUST MEN MADE PERFECT.
One of the Kingdom instruments for perfecting the spirits of just men is the secrets of God’s life and style in the lives of men and women who walked with Him, or who are walking with Him. It was in the light of this I pursued the stories of God’s vessels to glean secrets from them, though dangerous to replace hours of Personal Bible studies with such pursuits.
I remember sitting down at different times and opportunities with some spiritual men I considered fathers in the true faith some years back, to ask questions on how they had carried themselves under the grace that God gave them. The secrets in the stories they shared shaped my life powerfully.
They perfected my will and desire to be sold out to the LORD. They made me desire to have the God they had, the way they had Him, the moves of the Spirit they had seen in life and ministry, and the cloud of glory they served under.
Looking back, I would say, perhaps if I had not had those moments with them, if they had not shared some things they shared, I would have made more mistakes than I made in the pursuit of destiny. Someone once said, “the easiest way to know how far or near your journey in life will be, and maybe what to avoid, is to ask anyone coming from similar destination.”
A man of God once said he read 39 autobiographies before stepping into ministry. And if you look at him today, one can say that really helped him, except for the wrong doctrines he brough to the Nigerian Church. That also tells us why you must not replace such pursuits with seasons of sound Bible study at a personal level, where you interrogate truth.
The secrets and stories of both successful and the ‘not successful’ men and women in ministry will always be of help to anyone God has called into ministry.
A major highlight in our devotional text today says; “So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” This scripture is very significant to me, especially this month. If you look at the days you have lived or the days that others have lived as contained in their stories, you can always glean wisdom to apply to your own life.
OUR DAYS ARE FULL OF STORIES THAT IF SHARED WITH A YOUNGER GENERATION COULD BE OF HELP IN THEIR QUEST TO FULFILL GOD’S WILL FOR THEIR LIVES.
So, if we number them accurately, we can come out with records and details of events that characterize them for the benefit of others. Sometimes you face things in life and do not know what to do, until you read the stories of those who faced similar things, and maybe conquered and went on to victoriously live their days and died.
As you read them, suddenly you will experience a light and a shine in your soul, finding the wisdom to apply at that given time. In the light, and the shine you experience and, in the wisdom, you collected, there will be a grace that is sufficient. Once that grace is collected, you will become confident and full of faith. It is the faith that turns things around for you.
You see that in the holy Scriptures. The word says:
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” 1 Peter 5:8-10 NKJV
You will discover in this scripture that part of the spiritual capacity you will need to resist the devil and withstand all his assault against you, will come from your knowledge of what is going on in the lives of other brethren in the faith or what had gone on in the lives of those who were here before you, but have gone home to be with the LORD!! The words says, “Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.”
KNOWING THAT THE SAME AFFLICTIONS ARE ACCOMPLISHED IN YOUR BRETHREN IS KEY!!
The knowledge of how those who were here before us faced the same affliction we may be facing and how they conquered or failed, is usually a resource of its own. I don’t know what you might be going through, maybe that is the knowledge you will need to obtain a breakthrough.
The knowledge does not just give breakthroughs but helps one discern the destiny pathways God had pre planned for one’s life. It is from one of those encounters I came to discover that I was not originally designed by God to lead or feed people who are not hungry for more of God or destiny conscious.
I was originally designed by the LORD to feed destiny people with the word of the LORD in the Holy Scriptures.
I want to admonish you to wake up to intense personal Bible study where you interrogate Truth, but do not forsake the stories of men and women who walked this earth with eyes and hearts on the LORD. Sometimes, until you are properly fed spiritually, with secrets from the stories of such people, your spirit will not be made perfect enough to step into blessings or the predetermine seasons of God for your life.
There is a way God hides the signs or prophetic pointers that will benefit our lives in the autobiographies of true men and women of God. The Bible is full of such stories. You can begin from there and then grow into finding specific books written about some of the significant men and women who made spectacular moves for God in their age and time.
If you add what you collect from there with what you are learning from the Bible, your spirit will be made perfect. Sometimes, it is what you deeply study in the Bible that will shape your heart to glean secrets from their stories as you read them. That is the word of the LORD for today. I hope you are getting ready for Sunday service.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
“Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.”
“And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.”
“His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.”
“She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.” Revelation 12:1-6 NKJV
