TODAY’S DEVOTION (Sunday 24th November 2019)
“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.” John 15:6 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 327th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF GOING FORWARD.
Whenever we read the Bible with a pure heart, we see the intentions of God for our lives clearly. We see His heartbeat for us; especially the saved. We sense His loves, kindness and hate for sin and anything from the dark world. We see Him as a just God who rewards everyone according to His deeds.
Those who read the Bible with an impure heart heap all kinds of blames on Him for His righteous judgments. They forget that He owns the earth and every created thing and decides what He does with each. They forget the mysteries of LORD SHIP (mysteries of ownership). They forget the simple principle that governs the rights of ownership.
God is not a democrat. He cannot be voted in or out of power. He is a great KING. In kingdoms you don’t tell a King what to do. Especially a loving king who loves you more than you can fathom. He tells you what to do. That is where mankind is missing it. We want to tell the great king what to do and even order Him around. But His intentions for us are clear in the Holy Scriptures. The Bible says they are for good not for evil. To give us a future and a hope.
The intentions of God are also called “the will of God.” If a man lives his life opposite God’s intentions for him, every intention of the devil and his evil men will be accomplished in his life.
When you read the Bible saying “the counsel of the wicked shall not stand in our lives” or “the rod of the wicked will not rest upon us” it is conditional. If we do not fulfill the conditions none of the precious promise will manifest in our lives.
To see a precious promise from the LORD manifest in a man’s life, his life must be in harmony with God’s intention. That is why in our ministry, we try to teach and impart men to line up with God’s intention for their individual life and the Church global.
THE BEST WAY TO LIVE IN AN EVIL INFESTED WORLD IS TO LIVE ACCORDING TO GOD’S WILL
Our problems as Christians usually emanate from not lining upon with God’s will or righteous intentions. Sometimes ignorance prevents us from lining up, other times outright rebellion prevents us. The very areas we refuse to bring under divine control are the very areas the enemy stand on to attack us.
Each time a man or woman begin to take decisions that runs contrary to God’s will for his or her life, the Holy Spirit will let a divine alarm go off to warn him or her. If he or she has the Spirit of God in them, the alarm will go off within the person’s heart. But if they do not have, the alarm will go off in the heart of someone close to them who have.
God directly and indirectly has a way of speaking to us when we begin to do things that are not oat of His plans and purposes for our lives. He always makes sure we or someone who love us sense the approaching consequences of our actions. That is why He is a loving KING. I prefer this king reigning over me than the best democratic leader leading me.
One major key to letting Him reign is respecting and not frustrating His will for your life. A Christian who frustrates the will of God will come under successful attacks of the evil one. When he or she come under the attack of the evil one, everyone under his or her influence will also come under successful attacks of the evil one.
That brings me to the subjecting of bringing help to people who reject the counsel of the LORD of their lives (am not referring to those who are ignorant of it, but those who know but reject it).
I have come to realize that when you help someone who has the culture of rejecting the counsel of God for his life and establishing his own counsel, you will share in their woes. I cannot fully understand why it is that way but one thing I know is this; helping someone who is good at rejecting the counsel for the LORD of their lives is an endorsement of their rebellious lifestyle and it will expose you to successful satanic assaults.
THIS IS A SAD REALITY IN A CHURCH GENERATION THAT DOES NOT KNOW THE CONCEPT OF SPIRIT LED GENEROSITY.
Many in Church today are going through hardship simply for endorsing the rebellious and assisting those who have the habit of not putting God first.
If you put God first in everything, He will put you next for every good thing in His kingdom. But if you reject His counsel for your life, you have rejected Him and all He is altogether.
You have rejected His mercies, His blessing, His healing, His Heaven (your home in His eternal dwelling), His deliverance, His covering, His interventions, and all He has to offer. In fact, you have rejected even the services He instructed His earth and entire creation to offer to you. They will begin to break you instead of blessing you.
Our devotional text today is enlightening. It was part of Jesus’ farewell speech to first His immediate disciples, and second to us – His other disciples. It says;
“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”
If you look at this scripture with a pure heart, you will realize that the intention of God for us is that we abide in Him. Abiding in Him is the ultimate vision for giving our lives to Christ. In simple terms, we give our lives to Christ to live in Him. With we in Him, and He in us there is no height we cannot climb and no obstacle we cannot surmount.
Giving your life to Christ is a covenant making activity to abide in Christ all your life. But many who claim saved do not know that consequently are not abiding in Him in spiritual reality.
TO abide in Christ, especially in a perverse and crooked generation like ours, is not cheap but very necessary. It is necessary because it is more expensive not to abide in Him than to abide in Him. Jesus made it clear that if we do not pay the necessary price and abide in Him, we will wither away (or become unproductive).
IF WE WITHER AWAY, WE WILL BE GATHERED AND THROWN INTO THE FIRE.
Sadly, that has become true in the life of most Christians today, but God wants it change hence sending a word to us on deep intimacy. It takes deep intimacy to abide in Christ and He in you!
If you are not deeply intimate, you will not be able to abide in Him. If you do not abide in Him, you will wither away first, then be thrown into the fire later. Withering away takes place in time. Being thrown into the fire begins here and then continuous in eternity.
The signs that you are withering away includes losing interest in the genuine things of God, running after prophets to receive prophecies or deliverance, especially prophets who use sorcery. When you are withering away you will begin to forsake preachers and churches that hold on to the true word God, leading to a dying prayer life, lack of interest in personal Bible study, and etc.
When you start withering away spiritually, it will begin to manifest in your finances, then your marriage, then your entire physical life. Good will begin to depart from you. Peace of mind will be withdrawn. Anxiety and worries will replace where peace once dwell in your heart. But none of this will happen if you are deeply intimate with the LORD.
Deep intimacy with Jesus Christ will keep you fresh in the Spirit. You will never wither away if you are deeply intimate. It will put a blessing on all that carries your name on the face of the earth and submit to your grace. It will build a hedge around you and yours.
When you abide in Christ and Christ abides in you through deep intimacy, you will never wither away! That is the message of today’s devotional. Through deep intimacy, we move from the outer court to the most Holy place where Christ takes root in us and we in Him – a realm where oneness is achieved.
Once oneness is achieved, what cannot happen to Christ, will not happen to us! We will only be going through what He went through in the flesh primarily to prepare us for a better resurrection.
I commend you to God and to the word of His grace which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among they that are sanctified!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Remember the word that I said to you,’ A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. John 15:18-20 NKJV