TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Thursday 17th December 2020)
“Therefore “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.” ‘I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:17-18 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 351ST DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
Glory to the Most High God who enabled us to see another day today. Life is so precious that we should not take it for granted that we are alive.
Any reasonable person should thank God every day for waking Him up in the morning. If you are a vapor that appears and vanishes after a short period of time, you should always thank God when you wake up and find out that you have not vanished.
One of our apostolic fathers, who touched eternity while living in time said; “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” (James 4:14 KJV)
When men who have touched eternity while living in time speak, we must listen.
This apostolic father, James, touched eternity on the mount of transfiguration when Jesus manifested a part of Him that only the three of them saw. We will never get the full definition of life until we meet the LORD in His resurrected form.
James met Him even, before He died, and got this definition that we are reading today! He spent His days serving His generation according to the will of God,
It may interest you to know that before Paul came into the kingdom to extract Judaism from Christianity, James started it. It was not fully perfected, just as everything at its beginning state usually is. That was why he encouraged the use of oil in praying for the sick among believers who have not received the Holy Ghost.
But he saw the definition of life and wrote that wonderful book that is now guiding us on matters of Christian character. Chapter two of the book of James tells us to lead a Christian faith with Godly character in it, not a faith with no Godliness attached. His understanding of what life is showed us that life was not designed to carry un-Godliness in it.
THERE ARE THINGS OUR LIVES WERE NOT DESIGNED TO CARRY.
People who lack the understanding of the definition of life will fill it with personal belongings that life was not designed to carry. There are personal belongings that life was not designed to carry. These personal belongings are not material things but the things we allow flesh to develop within us.
Jesus said;
“For out of the heart come evil thoughts (reasonings and disputings and designs) such as murder, adultery, sexual vice, theft, false witnessing, slander, and irreverent speech.
These are what make a man unclean and defile [him]; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him unclean or defile [him].” Matthew `5:19-20 Amplified Version
From these scripture, we can clearly see the things that we allow our hearts to develop; reasonings that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God, things that are in disputes to righteous living, and designs that are sinful. These are the personal belongings that our lives where not designed to carry.
Truly, God is the owner of the future. His future for our lives could be glorious, but if we fill our lives with things that our lives were not designed to carry, we will never step into that glorious future He has for us.
The Bible says our lives were not designed to carry personal belongings like murder, hate, adultery, sexual vices, theft, false witnessing or lying, slander or any irrelevant speech.
In simple terms, our lives were not designed to carry unclean things. That is why our devotional text is encouraging us this morning to come out of the unclean and be separate. It says;
“Therefore “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.” ‘I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
The primary purpose of redemption is to help us to come out of things that are lives were not designed to carry. That is why an encounter with the Holy Spirit will sanctify our set us apart from those things, making God our Father. We cannot just claim that God is our father in sin. He only receives those who have come out of things their lives were not designed to carry, reaching out to Him to help them stay out of them forever.
WE BRING OUR LIVES UNDER THE GATES OF THE ENEMY WHEN WE ALLOW THINGS THAT IT WAS NOT DESIGNED TO CARRY TO DEVELOP WITHIN US.
Our lives will become inglorious and slow when we allow things that it was not designed to carry develop in us. For instance, if you see yourself not progressing in life; if you see your life going in a circle, there is something you are carrying that your life was not designed to carry. It could even be a wrong or an unclean lip.
Yes, Isaiah carried an unclean lip for years and never progress in his ministry until he encountered the glory that removed it. He said
“Woe is me! For I am undone and ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips…” (Isaiah 6:5 Amplified Version)
There are two sets of truths we can glean from this. The first is the power of the personal belonging called unclean lips. It has the power to bring ruin to anyone. If you make it part of your personal belonging, you will bring ruin to yourself.
There are so many of us that have said and written things that ended us writing us off from the paths of peace and progress in life. Our mouths are the reason for our inglorious life. What we say have been the reason for our backwardness and lack of significant progress.
You will find God building the prosperity of some, then they will allow a wrong word to come out of their mouths or their fingers (through text messages or other forms of writing), causing hearts to be turned against them and halting everything that the LORD was using people to do in their lives. So many people have been ruined for carry the personal belonging of unclean lips.
So many have been ruined for carrying other forms of personal belongings. Personal sins and unclean habits they will not let go. We must come out of them and be clean so that God can be a Father to us. The word father means source.
IN OTHER WORDS, WE MUST COME OUT OF THEM FOR GOD TO BE A SOURCE TO US.
If God becomes a source to you in truth, your life will never lack any good thing. Nothing good will be successfully withheld from it. The Bible says, “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” (Psalm 84:11 NKJV)
There second truths to glean from Isaiah’s encounter is in the words “and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips…”
There is what is called the law of involvement in the spirit. There is also the law of participation. For God to become a father to you, the law requires that you come out of anything unclean.
I have said it over and over that God is the creator of everyone but not the Father of everyone.
For God to become a Father to you, you we will need to do more than the sinners prayer. We must renounce the sinner’s life and come out of everything that our lives were not designed to carry.
Sadly, many think you just need to recite the sinner’s prayer for God to be a Father to you. No friend! For God to become a father to you the law or principle does not require that you recite the sinner’s prayer, but you come out of anything unclean. You renounce the sinner’s life!
Sometimes, we pollute our lives and get it filled with things it was not designed to carry by the law of participation. We do not come out of things unclean but expect God to be a Father to us! It does not work that way. We must understand the power of laws or principles.
Under the law or principle of participation, what you do not involve yourself in will never involve itself with you. If we do not involve ourselves with sin and Satan, none of them will involve themselves with us. The world of evil can only be involved in our lives, if you, one way or the other, we get ourselves involved with it.
If you look at the law of involvement, you will discover that some people suffer for what they did, while those who have purified themselves only suffer because of the things that went down on earth when man left the Garden of Eden. They suffer because of the consequences of the fall that can only be taken cared of at death, or at the consummation of all things.
GOD’S PLAN IS THAT WE FILL OUR LIVES WITH WHAT IT WAS DESIGNED TO CARRY
The first things that our lives were designed to carry was God and all He presents. That is why Paul the apostle called us the temple of the Holy Spirit. Our lives were designed to carry the Holy Spirit of God.
When we carry the Holy Spirit of God, He will deliver us from all our lives were not designed to carry. He will set us from them. That is why we must turn the law of participation in the right direction by applying it in our walk with God. We must learn how to involved ourselves with the things of God so that the Spirit of God can rest upon our lives.
If you get yourself involved deeply with God, God will get Himself deeply involved with you. Psalm 91 is very clear on that. People who get deeply involved with God, He will satisfy with long life and other blessings.
Long life does not mean 930 years. It means a life that is long enough to fulfill its purpose. For Christ it was 33 years but for Methuselah it was 969 years. They were all satisfied with lives long enough to help them fulfill their assignments on earth.
People who get deeply involved with God may walk through the valley of the shadow of death but will never fall into the hands of death until they have finished their assignments of earth. A thousand may fall by their right hand and ten thousand by their left, but it will not come near them. Only with their eyes will they behold the reward of the wicked.
Friend, we are living in critical seasons. It will require that we separate ourselves from any preaching, Church, ministry, lifestyle, dimension of faith, or anointing that is shallow rooted or corrupt. If you are not deeply rooted these seasons, you will be uprooted; you could be uprooted from your marriage, business, ministry, walk with God, career, or success place.
IT IS THE DEEPLY ROOTED IN THE KINGDOM THAT WILL FLY HIGH THESE SEASONS.
The LORD have been speaking to us about higher heights for 2021.
We will never go higher until we go deeper. We will never go higher in life until we go deeper in God, removing everything in our lives that life was not designed to carry. We must remove those loads that are slowing us down and making our lives inglorious.
We must understand that God do not like sharing us with unclean things, and stay away from them. He will not like to share us with secret sins like masturbation, sinful sexual craving, or any other sin present day Christians commit privately because of our distorted view of God’s grace.
He will not like to share us with an adulterous life, a hateful heart, a deceitful life, or anything unclean. We must come out of them for Him to be a father to us.
Until Israel came out of Egypt, and Egypt came out of them, they could not enter the promise land. Those who came out of Egypt and Egypt did not come out of them, perished in the wilderness. If you come out of sin, and sin did not come out of you, you are still unsaved. You will perish in the wilderness and not make it to Heaven.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
“For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
“Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
“And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:” Hebrew 12:1-5 kjv