TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Friday 14th May 2021)
“Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.”
“It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for so He gives His beloved sleep.” Psalms 127:1-2 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 134TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS!
The intensity of the word and flow in our ongoing teaching on THE LAWS THAT GOVERN ANSWER TO PRAYER have been amazing. The depth of revelation and knowledge that the LORD is imparting into our lives is deep and different from what we have thought was what makes our prayers heard in Heaven.
Apart from keeping us alive and providing and protecting us, God have also been feeding with choice scriptural truths and giving us deep understanding since this year of Higher Heights. It has indeed been seasons of great depths that leads to higher heights in a man’s walk and talk with God.
We give Him the glory in all these things and the honor for such mercies that He is showing us.
The blessing of spiritual understanding cannot be over emphasized. One of the best way to lead our lives in an evil infested world is to lead it with spiritual understanding. There is nothing we can be or do in God’s kingdom without spiritual understanding of the word, ways, visions, patterns, laws or rules, statutes or judgment of the Kingdom.
Yes, there is nothing we can become without having a spiritual understanding of who the King of the Kingdom is, and how to walk with Him, and yield to Him to live His life through us.
Spiritual understanding is a necessity in the life of a Child of God. It is through it we stand in the liberty that is in Christ. When we understand, we can stand. The Bible says,
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” Galatians 5:1 NKJV
The yoke of bondage here is the yoke of the law of circumcision that Paul was addressing in this letter to the Church at Galatia. He was simply saying to the Judaist who were preaching that “except one is circumcise that were not saved” not to add that to the faith. It is a bondage that Christ came to set us free.
Except for health and personal reasons, physical circumcision should not be practiced as part of the faith.
THAT WAS THE MESSAGE OF THAT SCRIPTURE.
In my village male children are circumcised on the eight day, in line with Genesis 17, but it is not part of the faith. We do not consider it as such. It is just a practice that we feel good about and think every male Child should undergo.
But there is a deeper message in that that scripture (Galatians 5:1) that can be unlocked if you have spiritual understanding. The message is a warning not to go back to the bondage of sin. Not to go back to a life of sin after Christ has given us dominion over it.
It may interest you to know that there is something called Christian liberty in theology. That is what this scripture is talking about.
Sadly, so many are not enjoying that liberty because they have mistaken it to be a liberty to keep living in sin and keep enjoying forgiveness from God. They mistook it that way because they do not have spiritual understanding of what Christian liberty is.
But when the grace of the LORD is released to us and we respond to it, a life of dominion over the practice of sin will result. Making it possible for us to overcome temptations and resist the sinful passions of the flesh.
Then as we continue devoting ourselves to prayer and the word, we will come to a point where we can Stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and not be entangled again with a yoke of the bondage of the practice of sin.
You can now understand the role of spiritual understanding in even helping us to live right before God and embrace a life of Holiness and consecration.
You can see how it helps is to be Heaven worthy and earthly relevant all at the same time.
YOU CAN SEE HOW IT HELPS US TO BE ESTABLISHED IN RIGHTEOUSNESS.
The Bible says,
“In righteousness you shall be established; You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you.
Indeed, they shall surely assemble, but not because of Me. Whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake. “Behold, I have created the blacksmith who blows the coals in the fire, who brings forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the spoiler to destroy.
No weapon formed against you hall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their righteousness is from Me,” Says the LORD. Isaiah 54:14-17 NKJV
This scripture presents a list of what happens when we are established in righteousness; when we do not settle in a life of sin, iniquity or trespass. The most conspicuous is victory in spiritual warfare, which involves divine protection from weapons fashioned against us, and swift interventions from God when evil men and women gather against us.
When we are established in righteousness we can condemn the tongues that rises against us in judgment. We can condemn them both by prayer and by right living.
By right living it works this way; when someone accuses you of husband snatching, for example, maybe because you stood before her husband or someone else’s husband to share a deep concern that has nothing to do with a vice. Then the person who was told the lie comes to see that you are not a husband snatcher as accused, you have condemned that tongue that rose against you in Judgment.
In a world of false accusations, apart from by praying, we condemn tongues that rises against us in judgments when we are proven not guilty or when we are vindicated before GOD. But all that is not a heritage of those who live in sin, iniquity or trespass.
IT IS A HERITAGE OF THOSE WHO ARE ESTABLISHED IN RIGHTEOUSNESS.
As earlier stated, to be established in righteousness we need spiritual understanding. That tells me, spiritual understanding helps us to walk in victory over evil spirits, workers of iniquity, and all the plans of the enemy.
Spiritual underrating is both a weapon of offense and defense in spiritual warfare. That is why the Bible says,
“Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;
praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. Ephesians 6:14-18 NKJV
We cannot stand if we do not understand.
We cannot stand, having our waist girded with truth, putting on the breastplate of righteousness, having our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and taking the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit to pray all kinds of righteous prayers and supplication, if we do not walk in spiritual understanding of what they are.
Friend, in all your pursuit as a Christian, learn to pursue spiritual understanding. That brings us to the meaning of spiritual understanding.
Spiritual understanding is a comprehension of things that is imparted into us at an immediate present by the Holy Spirit. It could be the comprehension of dreams, visions, circumstances of life, spiritual warfare, events, or scriptural verses.
WHEN THAT COMPREHENSION COMES, YOU SEE THINGS THAT NO HUMAN MIND CAN SEE.
Our Devotional text this morning, gives us a spiritual understanding of how things work in our life when we become part of the family of God. And that is what I want to conclude this devotional with.
It says,
“Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.
It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for so He gives His beloved sleep.”
If you become part of the family of God, one major thing that is required that you keep doing is to cease from doing things on your own self, even when you have all it takes. The Christian life requires that we begin to lead a life that does nothing that the LORD has not initiated. A life outsourced from Heaven by the Holy Spirit. That is what it means to be led by the Spirit as a son of God.
If you do not embrace that kind of living, you will find yourself in a life of struggle in so many aspects of your life. In financial aspect, for example, you will find yourself waking up early, and siting up late to eat the bread of sorrows.
One of the major things Jesus came to do is to show us how to lead that life. He never did what was not outsourced from Heaven at an immediate present. Do not forget, He is the author and finisher of our faith. He said in His words,
“Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.
For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.” John 5:19-22 NKJV
If we walk in the same way that He worked; the way of doing nothing by our own selves. The way of allowing the Holy Spirit to outsource things for us from Heaven, then help us to establish them on earth, we will see God building us up to become the glorious ones He created us to be.
In simply terms, Jesus lived His earthly life from the volume of the books in Heaven. And that is what we are called to do. He delighted to do the will of the LORD all His earthly life, showing us that we should do the same.
Friend, there is so much to unfold, but this is just a devotional not a book. It’s my prayer that God will use these words to give you an inheritance among they that are sanctified! AMEN
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY!
“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; My ears You have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.
Then I said, “Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me.
I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart.” Psalms 40:6-8 NKJV