TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Saturday 2ND January 2021)
“For the grace of God (His unmerited favor and blessing) has come forward (appeared) for the deliverance from sin and the eternal salvation for all mankind.
It has trained us to reject and renounce all ungodliness (irreligion) and worldly (passionate) desires, to live discreet (temperate, self-controlled), upright, devout (spiritually whole) lives in this present world,
Awaiting and looking for the [fulfillment, the realization of our] blessed hope, even the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One),
Who gave Himself on our behalf that He might redeem us (purchase our freedom) from all iniquity and purify for Himself a people [to be peculiarly His own, people who are] eager and enthusiastic about [living a life that is good and filled with] beneficial deeds. Titus 2:11-14 Amplified Version
WELCOME TO THE 2ND DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS
We give God the glory for His mercies in our lives that are already speaking, hence bring us into the second day of this set of days. Scientifically, the earth just began another journey round the Sun.
In this life, it is the natural sun that the earth has been going around. But in the New Heaven and the New Earth, it will be the Sun of righteousness Himself that the earth will be going around.
Isaiah made it clear that He will sit in the circle or circumference of the earth then. However, other Biblical details tells us that there will be no day or night there.
Meaning, the Sun of Righteousness will shine through the New Earth in such a way that the entire planet will be illuminated with His rays all at the same time. The vision and revelation of that coming Earth was given to John the Beloved on the Island of Patmos. He saw a City on that earth and said;
“I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.
On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.
Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Revelation 21:22-27 NIV
WHAT A GLORIOUS SIGHT IT WILL BE!
This is the place God wants you and I to be when we die, because death is not the end of Life, death is the beginning of a New kind of Life. However, people do not just get there after death. What they did with their bodies while alive here is what determines if they will get there or not, when they die.
The last verse of that scripture says;
“Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
Meaning those whose names are written in the book of life do not do what is shameful or deceitful. They do not live impure lives.
A lot of us claim to have our names in that book.
But if we say we are saved and that our names are written in the book of life, but are comfortably involved in things that are shameful and deceitful, or leading impure lives, we lie, we are not save yet. We will not enter that City when we die.
That is why we must quit religion and embrace the life that will get us there. The Bible says,
“Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful”
Also there will be no devils there because they will all be in the bottomless pit of fire. That is already a sealed judgment. It cannot be changed.
That is why Satan wants us all not to be there. His goal is, “if I will not be there, you will not be there.” But Jesus has died on Cross for us, and made it possible for us to be there. That is why we have the Christina faith on the face of the earth, calling on all who care about the next life to come join.
We are not being called to come into a religion.
Nobody will get there by being in any form of religion. Religion does not give us what it takes to conquer the dark forces that usually stand on the way of those who want to get there; the dark forces that makes us impure or drive us to do shameful and deceitful things.
Religion cannot help us to conquer sin or Satan, or the evil and corrupt system of this world, or our flesh that drives us to do shameful and deceitful things. Religion cannot purify our hearts and make us pure enough to enter that City.
Again the word of the LORD says,
“Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful.”
If you look at people in different religions on earth, you will not find one who have achieved this. From their leaders to their followers.
Personally, I am yet to see people in any form of religion pure enough to enter the City. Everyone I have seen in one form of religion or another is yet to be free from doing shameful and deceitful things. Yes, all I have seen are not free from internal impurities yet despite their religiosity!
WE ONLY PUT UP A PIOUS AND HOLY LOOK, BUT INWARDLY WE ARE SINFUL AND TERRIBLE.
No religion has ever helped anyone to conquer Sin, Satan, the evil and corrupt system of this world, or the power of the flesh. I have rather seen people in different forms of religion practice their religion side by side their impure lives. That is why people who die in any form of religion do not make Heaven. Those they left behind are only made to believe that did.
The word of God tells us the kind of people who will not be in that City. It says
“But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie” (Revelation 22:15 NKJV).
We all know that people in any form of religion on earth are either sexually immoral, murders, idolaters, sorcerers, dogs by spirit nature or people who loves and practice a lie. In fact, there are religions that teaches their followers to lie so long as it will achieve the goal of their faith.
So the call is not a call to join a religion. The call is a call to join a Heavenly life.
The Christian faith is not a religion as many see it. It is God’s life in people who have made Jesus their LORD and savior, and received His Holy Spirit in their lives. In other words, it is the Life of Christ in man, made possible by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
That is why authentic salvation changes a man from inside out. It is a work of the Holy Spirit that takes away the desire to keep living a sinful life and replaces it with the desire to live a Heavenly life in a corrupt world.
Yes, it births in us the desire and ability to reject and renounce all ungodliness and worldly passionate desires. It imparts into us a saving grace that enables us to live discreet, temperate and self-controlled lives; resulting in lives that are upright in the sight of God, devoted to Him, spirit soul and body.
Yes, it redefines our expectations in life and replaces any carnal expectation with the blessed expectation; an expectation that awaits and looks forwards to the fulfillment, and realization of the glorious appearing of our great God and savior Jesus Christ.
OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT SAYS,
“For the grace of God (His unmerited favor and blessing) has come forward (appeared) for the deliverance from sin and the eternal salvation for all mankind. It has trained us to reject and renounce all ungodliness (irreligion) and worldly (passionate) desires, to live discreet (temperate, self-controlled), upright, devout (spiritually whole) lives in this present world,
Awaiting and looking for the [fulfillment, the realization of our] blessed hope, even the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One),
Who gave Himself on our behalf that He might redeem us (purchase our freedom) from all iniquity and purify for Himself a people [to be peculiarly His own, people who are] eager and enthusiastic about [living a life that is good and filled with] beneficial deeds.”
In my view, this is one of the most blessed scriptures in the Bible. It unfolds to us the dynamic ability of God’s grace; its ability to deliver us from the penalty, practice and presence of sin and every other thing that makes us impure in God’s sight.
There is no religion on earth that can offer this. Only the Spirit of God can offer this, and the Spirit of God is not any religion of this world. You can only find Baal in all forms of religions of this world. The Spirit of God can only be found in Christ Jesus.
John the Baptist, the water Baptizer, presented Him as the Baptizer with the Holy Ghost and fire. He said,
“I indeed baptize you in (with) water because of repentance [that is, because of your changing your minds for the better, heartily amending your ways, with abhorrence of your past sins].
But He Who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy or fit to take off or carry; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Matthew 3:11 Amplified Version
SO, YOU WILL NEVER FIND THE HOLY SPIRIT IN ANY EARTHLY RELIGION. YOU WILL ONLY FIND HIS COUNTERFEIT.
If you want to live a life that will qualify you for that City, you will need to meet the LORD Jesus Christ by faith, and receive His Holy Spirit into your life. Peter said
“For the promise [of the Holy Spirit] is to and for you and your children, and to and for all that are far away, [even] to and for as many as the Lord our God invites and bids to come to Himself” (Acts 3:39 Amplified version).
Will you adhere to God’s invitation this day and come to Jesus Christ?
He is right there by your side waiting for you to respond to His word this day. It is a New Year my friend. You can begin a New Life with Him.
At this point, I admonish that you please leave whatever you may be doing right now, and kneel down to commit your heart to Him?
Ask Him to give you His Holy Spirit. The promise is to you. You can have Him right there.
Let me guide you:
Begin your prayer by renouncing all the sins you may be living in right now. Renounce that sinful way of life and the demons that are making you act that way. Break any covenant with them and release yourself from their influence.
Then tell the LORD that you want Him in your life, and that He should come and live in you, taking over any territory that was once occupied by sin and the unclean spirits that once influenced you to do what is sinful in His sight.
Make a commitment to Him and ask Him for His Holy Spirit to come live in you. Also seek Him to manifest His saving grace in your life; the saving grace to continue the New Life that you have found.
After which, get a Church that has Him (not churches using oil or preaching about evil altars, first fruit, redemption of first born and etc), and plant yourself there. You will not fail in Jesus precious name!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens [outsiders without rights of citizenship], but you are fellow citizens with the saints (God’s people), and are [members] of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the [chief] Cornerstone,
in whom the whole structure is joined together, and it continues [to increase] growing into a holy temple in the Lord [a sanctuary dedicated, set apart, and sacred to the presence of the Lord].
In Him [and in fellowship with one another] you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Ephesians 2:19-22 Amplified Version