TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Monday 21st December 2020)
“Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:31-32 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 355TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
God has been faithful and merciful. He has given us another day to live, improve our walk with Him, and touch the lives of others as we march towards the final moments of His redemptive plans for mankind!
Our devotional text this morning reminds us of our primary calling – to be disciples.
Yes, our primary redemptive call is that we be Disciples of Christ not just Church members. A disciple is a student or learner. God wants us to take a learning posture under Christ our teacher, LORD and Savior. He did not come as man to die for us so that a religious people can emerge, He came to redeem a people who forever will be learners of who He is; both in time and eternity.
The Bible made it clear that we will spend eternity knowing GOD and fulfilling the eternal purpose for creating mankind. That is why we are called to begin the journey here by being disciples, students or learners of Christ. Sadly, most of us in Church today do not know that which is why we are yet to respond to the call.
We are yet to respond to this call because being a disciple is not just joining a local Church. Being a disciple requires much more than that.
Jesus made it clear that becoming a disciple involves taking our cross daily and following Him. The cross of the price of saying yes to Christ, and the burdens of doing His true will on the face of the earth. It involves dying daily to the works of the flesh, the works of the devil, and the influences of the evil and corrupt system of this world.
It involves much more than one can imagine. It all depends on how deep you went into the things of the flesh, the world or the devil before meeting the LORD.
Being a disciple is always not by might nor by power but by His Spirit! His Spirit will have to work with us until His word abide richly in us! Don’t forget, the word is who Christ Himself is because the word became flesh and dwell among us, and we beheld His glory, as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Now, for Him to manifest as WORD and abide in us richly, we must know the truth, not just as a selection of facts but as a person; we must encounter Him through the impartation of revelatory truths. That is the essence of these devotionals.
They are actually for feeding Disciples and fine tuning our minds to encounter Christ as the truth – not just as healer, provider, protector and etc. Most of us have encountered Him as all that but are yet to meet Him as the Truth.
AN EARLY DEVOTIONAL I WROTE
This morning I want to take you to one of the earliest devotionals I wrote. It will bless you immensely if you give it the attention it deserves. I wrote something similar ON FRIDAY 20TH JULY, 2017.
Let’s go back to that well of truth and refresh our hearts with the living water we found in it. The waters in wells of truth do not die. They remain alive for even generations to come because the LORD who breathe into them do not die.
One of the distinguished characters of disciples is to give the word of the LORD double or even triple attention. They do that from time to time. That is how they retain God in their knowledge, and Jesus Christ who He has sent. There is a generation that do not retain God in its knowledge. The Bible says God also will give them up to their depraved minds to do things that are not convenient.
We must not be part of the generation that do not retain God in its knowledge. And for us not to be, we must always visit life giving well of truths from time to time; especially truths that calls for a crucified life.
A crucified life is a life of dying daily to expel the power and the glory of God on earth for the purpose of changing lives. It is a life you live to perfectly outsource Heaven to the earth. That was what the devotional called us to when it was first written.
I remember teaching from that devotional and even refreshing our minds from truths in that devotional not too long ago. It was written when I first taught on the three streams of the supernatural. God bless you dearly as you follow us back in time to drink from the very well itself!
A CALL TO UNLEASH THE STREAMS OF THE SUPERNATURAL ON EARTH
“You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:11 NKJV
My mandate is to the Body of Christ, and you will agree with me that the body of Christ no longer need shallow rooted sermons or write ups. So our devotion today, tomorrow, next and beyond will go deeper by the grace of God.
I believe strongly that our Church generation is yet to see the full manifestation of the potentials of God’s presence. We have seen miracles, signs and wonders in some quarters, but most local Churches are just dry of significant moves of God, and they do not care. While many others have been plugged to the demonic through the diviners they call prophets and the sorcerers in God’s garments.
The LORD spoke to me recently saying “…sorcerers are coming.” It got me troubled because I thought we have had enough. But talking about God’s presence, our devotional text said, “In His presence is…” Permit me to leave out the other portions of that scripture for purpose of emphasis and synchronized understanding.
THERE ARE DEGREES GOD ANNOUNCES HIS PRESENCE IN OUR LIVES OR IN A MEETING.
It all depends on how much the preacher heading the Church or meeting has died to things, carnal cravings, self, sin, satanic tendencies, or works of the flesh. It is through dying that we activate the potentials of God’s presence.
Paul said I die daily, that was why He saw the full manifestation of God’s presence in His life and ministry every day. If you are not seeing the manifestation of the presence of God in your life, family or ministry, you are not dying.
The presence of God is everywhere but His manifest presence is not everywhere. It can only be found where men have died to the things stated. No dying means no manifestation of the potentials of God’s presence. Less dying means less manifestation of the potentials of God’s presence. More dying means more manifestation of the potential of God’s presence.
If we therefore want to see greater manifestation of God in our lives, Churches, or families we must be ready for greater level of dying, because “except a seed of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it abides alone.”
When I was teaching on “THE STREAMS OF THE SUPERNATURAL” some months ago, we led the people of God into scriptures to discover three streams of the supernatural – FAITH, ANOINTING and THE GLORY. There are three levels of dying in the kingdom of God. It is these levels of dying that are responsible for the streams of the supernatural we see!
THE FIRST LEVEL OF DYING IS 30 FOLD.
This one will produce faith in your life. Without faith you cannot unlock things in the spirit. You cannot access miracles, blessings, or covenant moves of God. Faith is the currency of the spirit. By it the elders obtained good testimonies. But just as money cannot buy everything in the natural plane so faith has its own limitations. That is why many have believed God for things that never came.
True faith will plug you into the next level of dying to come into the next stream of the supernatural, which is the anointing. The next level of dying is 60 fold. Sadly, the Church preaches people to live weak “lives” instead of to die for this level of the supernatural to break forth in their lives wherever faith has failed. What faith cannot handle, the anointing will handle.
Now, I did not say the anointing of oil I mean the true anointing of the Holy Spirit which is not in bottles. There is false anointing in Church today because we are dealing with a devil that operated as an anointed cherub. So he can release the anointing too. This is where you will need an external connector between heaven and earth. A Holy man of God truly anointed for you.
THE LAST LEVEL OF DYING IS 100 FOLD.
This is the level that will plug you into the greatest stream of the supernatural called the glory. This is the realm the Church is yet to come into. We are stuck to the anointing and have not really seen the glory. The anointing can be counterfeited but the glory cannot be counterfeit. The end time Church is a Church that will operate under the glory not just the anointing!
There is so much I cannot state down here; so much you need to know. Buy you can order for the full message “STREAMS OF THE SUPERNATURAL” and all series I taught on “HOW TO LET ETERNITY INVADE TIME.” Many call the anointing the glory but there is a huge difference between the anointing and the glory.
The glory is the fullness of God’s presence on display. It does not manifest until our lives are in order. But the anointing will manifest even when lives are not in order. That is where many who live in sin but walk in the supernatural are deceived. They take the manifestation of the anointing as proof that what they may be doing wrong is not really wrong in God’s sight.
Well, they are not the first to do this because Judas Iscariot walked in the anointing but lost his soul to hell. Jesus said not everyone who operates in the supernatural will make Heaven. Read Matthew 7:15-23. You see, a pastor who sleeps around, walks in deceit even crying to cover up, can carry the anointing of God for a while but can never carry the glory for a second because it will kill him.
When men of God are not in order they may operate in the anointing but to come into the glory we must be in order because when the glory shows up, everything not in order will be judged. Don’t forget how Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 died. The church then was under the glory not the anointing.
As you pass through this day, I want you to take time out to absorb this message. It is the key to the very breakthrough you have been looking for. The presence of God is full of potentials but we will never see the manifestation of same in our Churches, meetings, families, or general Christian life until we die to things.
“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”
“He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” John 12:24-25 NKJV
NOW RUN WITH THE WORD
We enjoy the greatest peace on earth if we know how to fall and die to the flesh and all its relatives.
I believe the LORD GOD has enlightened our hearts from this devotional. Now run with the truths in it; add the secrets you have learned to the structure you may have developed for your Christian life for 2021.
If you have not developed a framework of how you want your Christianity to be in our year of Higher Heights, please bow your knees in prayer and do. Make dying daily part of it. Tell yourself truths from the truths you have gathered this year and chart a path of righteousness that you will go through. The Bible says it is in righteousness that we shall be established.
2021 is coming with its own evil, but if we hide ourselves in paths of righteousness, no evil shall befall us. I believe it is a year many of us will break forth into singing and crying aloud. It will be a year of enlarging the place of our tents to receive the blessings the LORD may be bringing.
It will be a year we will also expand in our walk and talk with God. Yes, it will be a year of doing greater things with the LORD. And one of the keys to seeing that happen have just been handed over to us; the key of dying daily. There is a scripture in the book of Isaiah that contain the very move among the many moves to expect from the LORD next year.
LET THAT SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY
“Sing, O barren, You who have not borne! Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, You who have not labored with child! For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord.
“Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; Do not spare; Lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes.
For you shall expand to the right and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations, and make the desolate cities inhabited.” Isaiah 54:1-3 NKJV