TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (FRIDAY 17TH July 2026)
“At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.
Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:25-30 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 198TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF STRATEGIC VICTORIES!
It has been 198 days of experiencing God’s mercies, Kindness, deliverance, power, compassion, teachings, protection, preservation and all that has made our lives what it is today. Asking us to be grateful is the least we can say to ourselves. We owe Him a lot of gratitude, and much more than gratitude!!
Indeed, He has been a Father who pities His children to us. As our Heavenly Father, He has a history of being a very present help in time of trouble. He has a history of being a Father of the fatherless, a defender of the defendless, a refuge and a strong tower for the weak and shelter from the storms of life. We have seen all those sides of Him and will still see more.
The LORD spoke to us yesterday on matters of dedication. There are ways we can dedicate or rededicate ourselves to God. The first is through prayer. Our apostolic Fathers dedicated themselves to the LORD by giving themselves entirely to prayer. So, from today, we will be sharing some life-giving truths on prayer!! When we say prayer, it’s not just any prayer but righteous prayers!!
You see, righteous Prayers are one thing we do on a personal level to dedicate ourselves to the LORD, and it is full of amazing results that can touch even those who depend on us. If you want to dedicate yourself to the LORD, you must always pray.
PRAYER IS ONE WAY WE BREATHE IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD AND BREATHE OUT THE PRESSURE OF LIFE.
If you can breathe in God’s presence and breathe out life pressures, you will be able to lead a dedicated life. Understand that, through prayers, we can breathe out a life of carnality and breathe in a life of Spirituality. We can breathe in holiness, God’s power, glory, victory, and righteousness. We can also expel the desires of the flesh, neutralize the power of sin, Satan, or the corrupt world that might have infected us, when we kneel to pray.
No one who ever lived a dedicated life ignored the power of prayer. They all prayed, even in bad times. They prayed without ceasing as the scriptures said. They were men and women of prayer. You cannot lead a dedicated life without prayer. You must be a man or women or prayer.
You must know how to breathe in the divine and breathe out the ungodly through prayer. Breathing in what is God, and breathing out what is not God, on the prayer knee, is what keeps the righteous spiritually fit and faithful. It is what keeps us pure and sanctified. It is one way we dedicate ourselves to the LORD!!
That is why no one can be stronger than what they get from God on their prayer knees. If you get nothing, you will lead an empty life that easily falls into sin, easily give up amid adversity, and easily gets caught up in the snares of the enemy. You will lead a weak spiritual life.
It is when we dedicate ourselves to the LORD God through prayer that God’s grace forms a cover over our souls; a cover against the power of sin, the power of Satan, and the power of the corrupt world. The reason is because if those three infect our souls with what they carry, we would be doomed.
For instance, if the power of sin infects your soul, you will begin to fall into temptation and not be able to resist any sinful desire. If the power of Satan infects your soul, you will become depraved in mind, and oppressed in your soul, thereby coming under spiritual attacks.
If the power of the corrupt world infects you, you will become mindful of the things of men instead of the things of God. All these things are the reason people do not have a salvation that has dedication. It is the reason many lead godless Christian lives.
THEY DO NOT DEDICATE THEMSELVES TO THE LORD THROUGH A LIFE OF PRAYER.
However, Jesus made it clear to us that if we pray always like He did, these spiritual infections; the infection of sin, Satan and the corrupt world, will be kept far from us through His grace made active by our dedication. Praying always will deal with the infections if we find them in our souls.
The Bible made it clear that we breathe in these infections when we stand in the ways of sinners, sit on the seat of the scornful, or follow the counsels of the ungodly. Also, we breathe them in, when we come under the power of the gods of this age that seeks to entice us, drive us through the pathways of pleasure, etc.
There are a thousand and one ways we breathe these spiritual infections into our hearts, leading to a life of sin, spiritual laziness, spiritual oppression, sicknesses and diseases, financial hardship, drunkenness for some, hate and unforgiveness for others, loss of prayer fire, and all the ills that befalls the believer. But there is only one way to breathe them out, that way is the way of intensive righteous prayers.
When we say prayers, we are not referring to the prayers people pray against their enemies or whoever. But prayers we pray to deny the flesh what it wants and to touch God until His Spirit begin to feed our regenerated spirit or inner man with what it needs to thrive in an accursed world.
During that process, the Spirit of Christ will go active, helping you to breathe in the divine, and breathe our the sinful, corrupt or demonic. That was why our fathers saw prayers as their way of breathing in and out spiritually, to stay alive in Christ and in the pursuit of His ways and will.
DEDICATING YOURSELF TO THE LORD THROUGH PRAYER IS ABSOLUTELY IMPORTANT.
If we do not see prayers as our way of breathing out these spiritual infections that takes people to hell, in time and eternity, we will not understand why Jesus said, “men always ought to pray and not to faint.”
Jesus Himself would not have fulfilled why He was here when He came in the flesh, without practicing the spiritual principle of breathing in the divine and breathing out the sinful and corrupt, always through prayer. He lived His days dedicating Himself to God the Father, consequently He was tempted in all points yet without sin. His prayer knee sustained Him as man.
From what I saw in Genesis chapter 6, I believe strongly that if Jesus had not spent each day of His human life, breathing in the divine and breathing out the demonic, He would have become corrupt like the angels God sent in the days of Noah to teach men righteousness.
The Bible made it clear that before the flood of Noah, when men became very wicked, God sent a number of angels to teach the men of that generation righteousness. He gave them human bodies so they could survive in the material world. But they began to desire the beautiful women of that age.
Do not forget, people were naked then; the women inclusive. So, it was easy for them to become enticed. As a result, they began to sleep with the women and give birth to Nephilim, leading to more corruption. The Bible says,
Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. Genesis 6:5-8 NKJV
THE SAME GRACE NOAH FOUND WAS WHAT JESUS FOUND ON DAILY BASES THROUGH THE PRAYER KNEE.
Grace is found in the throne of grace when we obtain mercy on the prayer knee. That is what the Bible teaches. It is when we kneel before God, giving our hearts to prayer and the ministry of the word, denying our flesh all it craves for, that we will obtain mercy and then find grace in time of need.
Yes, when we obtain mercy, we find grace; the grace to breathe in the divine and breathe out the sinful, ungodly demonic, oppressive etc., making it possible for us to stay fit spiritually and faithful to God, no matter how corrupt our environments are. That is all we can share today.
Join us tomorrow for another discourse of dedication by intense prayers.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?
Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! Matthew 7:7-11 NKJV
