TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (THURSDAY 06TH August 2026)
“For we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 218TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF STRATEGIC VICTORIES!
I trust the LORD woke you up this morning peacefully. He has been our peace, our keeper, our shelter, our refuge, our fortress, and our very life. To Him belong all glory!!!
Today, we will again be having our shortest devotional text in the history of these devotionals as our devotional text for the day. It is so beautiful to read that we were supposed to be walking by faith and not by sight. I have not seen this scripture for a long time despite reading through the passage often.
I think the reason is because of the profound truth that the very Bible passage the scripture was taken from teaches. Sometimes, powerful principles or words of the eternal God, are buried in scriptural verses that form a part of an eternal truth that shines so bright in a man’s heart. Making it impossible to spend time on those scriptures.
The eternal truth the passage of that scripture teaches is the truth about immortality, the spiritual bodies we will put on after our death, and the life after. You cannot be studying profound truths like that, and having it fill your heart, and still see text like “we live by faith and not by sight” until God helps you see the text. The passage says:
“For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.
For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 5:1-8 nkjv
THERE IS SO MUCH BURIED IN THIS SCRIPTURAL PASSAGE.
The first is the hope of the believer in Christ. What we call our bodies is called tents, which is a perfect revelation of what the body really is. It is a house or tent hosting the real you, which is your soul and spirit. God created our spirits and souls to live in our bodies. We are not our bodies, we are spirits, having souls that enable us to function properly on earth. The body is where we live in.
People who define themselves according to who they are by body, are wrong. This kind of definition can be costly at times.
It is the reason for divisions, segregations, looking down on others, prejudice etc. It will make one define himself based on looks, passions, tribe, customs, traditions, political affiliations, color of skin, educational background, etc. Defining who they are by their bodies is the reason tribalism, nepotism, and all that thrive among humans. It is the reason for oppression, suppression, wars and some forms of conflict.
But when you begin to understand that you are not your body, but your spirit, that your body is not you, but a part of you that helps you to live on earth, you begin to see things differently.
You will begin to understand that when your spirit leaves your body at the end of your days on earth, it will not recognize itself by any tribe, tongue or language. It will see itself for who one really is by how they live in the tent or body when they were alive; either a creature of God that must account for its actions, or a child of God redeemed by the blood of Jesus to spend eternity with Him.
THE TRUTH REMAINS, YOU ARE NOT YOUR BODY, YOU ARE SPIRIT. YOU ONLY LIVE IN A BODY, A TENT.
If we look at tribalism and nepotism for examples, you will realize that most church leaders have not helped the Church in letting people know these truths, hence fertilizing and abating tribalism. Maybe, they themselves do not know these things, yet they are in the Bible. They do not know that if you are tribalistic you are dumb. You are relating to people based on your body.
In other words, you are relating to people based on what you are not. You are not your body and should not relate with people based on that.
I once heard a very intelligent preacher saying God is tribalistic. I was shocked. I was wondering what came over him until I realized the tribe he came from in Nigeria and the Church he represents. In their denomination, if you are not from the tribe of the General Overseer, or Daddy G.O as they call him, you are gone.
He came from the same tribe as him and enjoyed the leverage and generosity of the denomination for being a member of his tribe.
The tribe he came from are one of the most tribalistic people of Nigeria. They are literally sick of tribalism. They are so tribalistic that if you are among them, you will remain at the base of the ladder until you can speak their language. It is so bad that if God is not on your side, you will never succeed among them until you either marry from their tribe or speak their language very well.
There was a time I considered marrying from their tribe as a young minister, so that my ministry will succeed, because of the way your ministry will grow and succeed if you marry from them.
I remember having an appointment at an embassy of a western nation. At that time, I was staying at the house of a man at the top of our nation, but he was from this man’s tribe. I went for that appointment and was denied the visa. It crushed my soul.
When he saw my anguish, knowing well that he could speak with the Consular general of that embassy to solve my issue, he asked me where I came from in Nigeria, and I told him. When I mentioned my tribe, that was the end of the desire to help me.
I DISCOVERED THAT HE COULD ONLY HELP PEOPLE FROM HIS TRIBE.
He forgot that we are not our bodies and that we are first Christians and one blood under Jesus. That day, because of the anguish of my soul, I regretted not being born a member of their tribe. I questioned God like a mad child of God would do when disappointed. That was the experience that gave me the desire to get married to someone from their tribe.
But I thank God I did not. It would have been a marriage by the will of flesh, a spirit of Babylon induced marriage. However, that is what tribalism makes people do. It makes them compromise, become corrupt, bend the straight ways of the LORD for their lives or for others, and make people hate God even. That man did not know what his tribalism did to me.
So, if you say God is tribalistic, you are misrepresenting God.
Today I have succeeded in life and ministry without being a member of that tribe.
Our tribe in Nigeria is one of the smallest, like Gideon’s tribe in Isreal. Yet, God did not consider that. Like He did for Gideon, He has also done for me. Indeed, we live by faith, not by sight. By sight, we live by our bodies, we define ourselves by our bodies. But by faith, we do not.
I want to submit to you that God is not tribalistic. He is God. To understand that let’s close this devotional with a definition of what tribalism really is.
The term tribalism means an intense blind loyalty to people of the same tribe as you. It also means the behavior, attitudes, or strong loyalty of belonging to a specific tribe that often creates, an us-versus-them mindset, where people favor their own tribe and show prejudice or hostility towards outsiders. God is neither of that!! He is not a man so He can’t be tribalistic.
He created tribes and tongues, but he is not tribalistic. For a preacher to say God is tribalistic, maybe because of starting the redemption of humanity with the twelve tribes of Isreal, it shows how present-day church leaders are out of touch with God and who He is. They do not spend time with the LORD, hence not knowing Him. They just read books.
I REITERATE AGAIN, THAT GOD IS NOT A MAN THAT HE SHOULD BE TRIBALISTIC. LET THAT SINK INTO OUR HEARTS!!
In other words, He does not live in a human body that would force Him to behave that way. That is why when God steps down into man’s affairs He takes over. He does not take sides. This is a major truth one can dig out of that scripture passage, a beautiful discovery you will make if you realize that we are not our tents or bodies.
Our bodies are biological gadgets that house our souls. We are not to relate to people based on tribes, tongues, or language. We are not to relate with them based on their tent. If you relate with people based on their tent, you are showing how ignorant you are and you might be judged by God, time, or other life factors.
Let us seek to live by faith and not by sight. If we live by faith, we will perfect our ways, but if we live by sight, we will desecrate them. It is my prayer that God will use these words to perfect our ways!! Amen.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!!
“Therefore, we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.” 2 Corinthians 5:9-11 NKJV
