TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Tuesday 18th May 2021)
“Therefore my people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge; their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.
Therefore Sheol has enlarged itself and opened its mouth beyond measure; their glory and their multitude and their pomp, and he who is jubilant, shall descend into it.” Isaiah 5:13-14 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 138TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS!
We are living in very critical times. As important to our earthly life as they are, if there is anything to keep watching for, in your life now as a Christian, it is not the date you will get married or resume that job. It is the date of the rapture or catching away of the saints.
Do not let anyone confuse you!
We are in the season of the Rapture. If your Oil is not sufficient, go to those who sale (the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost) to buy. Be a wise and not one of the foolish virgins!
The enemy is putting many into captivity today like never before because He knows His time is now shorter. He is succeeding on so many because so many do not have the intimate knowledge of Christ. There is the head knowledge of Christ and there is the intimate knowledge.
Schooling in the things of God will take us from the level of head knowledge to intimate knowledge. Hallelujah!
There is something I want to make clear to you, child of God. Due to the impact of the fall of man on humans, there are certain restorations that can never take place in our lives by prayer. They will only take place through schooling in the things of God!
One of such restoration is what theologians call “the salvation of the total man.” And that is what we want to talk about this morning.
First it is the only way to be completely free from sin, Satan, and the evil and corrupt system of this world. It is the only way to experience true and lasting deliverance from any evil work.
The salvation of the total man is the redemption of the spirit and soul from the penalty and practice of sin, and the redemption of the body from the presence of sin. When that happens, we will be free from Satan, and victorious over the influence of the evil and corrupt systems of this world.
JESUS MADE THAT THE SALVATION OF THE TOTAL MAN THE THRUST OF HIS EARTHLY MINISTRY HENCE DYING ON THE CROSS.
That was also what the early Church made as the main thrust of their ministries or the fruit of their assignment, wherever they went. But today people do not even know such words exist. We have failed as preachers from bringing so many wailing and willing souls in our local churches to the salvation of the total man.
Friend, there are no words to describe what will be taking place in your life in this world, and what will take place in it in the world to come if you have not experienced the salvation of the total man.
If you have not experienced the salvation of the total man, you will never be free from a life of sin, demonic attacks or the satanic while in this world, neither will you be successful in anything you set your heart to do – marriage, Business, career, and etc.
Yes, if you have not experienced the salvation of the total man and you die that way, you will spend eternity in eternal fire. It is one way you prepare for life after death. Sadly, so many do not take the preparation for life after death serious. The fear of death does not let us prepare do that, hence you find so many dying unprepared for the next life.
One thing about death is, either you fear it or not, it will still come. Your fear for it will never prevent it from coming. It is therefore, very imperative for every man to know that and spiritual significant to live this life knowing that real life begins after death. Our present life is just a shadow of the real life which begins after death.
For those who have met the LORD in spirit and in truth; those who are seeking first the kingdom of God; the greatest preparation a man should engaged himself daily in this life is not the preparation for marriage, ministry, or a trip to the white house in America.
These things could be good, but the greatest preparation a man should make in this life is the preparation to die.
IT IS GOD’S WILL THAT WE GET READY FOR DEATH AS SOON AS WE ENTER THE YEARS OF ACCOUNTABILITY.
If you have not experienced the salvation of the total man, you are not yet ready for death, because if you do, you will go to hell. Until we experience the salvation of the total man, the salvation of the spirit and soul which will lay foundation of the salvation of the body in the day of resurrection, we are not ready for the next life.
Sadly, that do not prevent death from coming. It still comes and takes men to hell despite not being ready for the next life.
Going to hell is called eternal death or eternal separation from GOD. God prepares us for natural death by helping us escape eternal death. And here is how He does it. He will raise a true preacher to preach the true word to us, plant us in a true Church, then engage us in the execution of His true will on the face of the earth as written in Heaven – first in our lives, then in the lives of others.
The true preacher, the true word and the true Church will then be used by the Holy Spirit to bring us to the realm of experiencing the salvation of the total man!
If you are therefore without the true word of the LORD in your life, under a disable minister of the gospel, and a money making machine or social club you call Church, the Holy Spirit will not be able to bring you to the salvation of the total man.
There is another thing to know. You may be in the right Church and under an able minister of the gospel and a church that operates as ground and pillar of truth, if you are need conscious and not God conscious, the Holy Spirit will still not be able to bring you to the salvation of the total man.
NEED CONSCIOUSNESS DO NOT LET A MAN SUBMIT HIS HEART TOTALLY TO BE WORKED ON BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.
So many Christians are marching to hell with their Bibles in their hands because they have not allowed the LORD to place them in the right church and under the able ministers of the new testament. They are need conscious and not God conscious, making things difficult for themselves.
Until we become God conscious, we cannot experience in truth salvation of the total man. We will remain unprepared for death! Amazingly, Jesus made it clear that it is those who prepared for death that actually lives long enough to fulfill their destiny. In their dictionary there are no such phrases as “premature death” or “fear of death.”
He said in His word;
“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:25-26 NKJV
I have come to discover that people who are afraid to die cannot adequately prepare for death. Yet they die!
God power helps us to see death as a trip men take to the next life, which in turn helps us to strengthen or redefine our relationship with Jesus, making Him our highest priority in life. This brings us to what I want to share next; a bit about the spirit of hell.
If your life is not under the grip of the spirit of hell, you will never go to hell when you die. What we call “the salvation of the total man” will unplug your spirit, soul and body from the grip of hell.
Personally when I see people who claim born again operating as sons of hell, I fear. I fear because they are still under the grip of hell the spirit, and when they die, hell the place will be their destination.
It is the spirit that takes men to the place. Just as you cannot go to Heaven until the Spirit of Heaven (the Spirit of God) lives in you, so can you not go to hell until the spirit of hell lives in you!
When the spirit of hell lives in a man, he may be a Bishop or just an ‘active’ Church member, Jesus sees Him as a son of hell who needs salvation. And so many we call sons of God today are in-deeds sons of hell. By our fruits we are known not by our confessions.
WHEN HE WAS PHYSICALLY ON EARTH, JESUS SAID THIS TO THE SPIRITUAL LEADERS OF HIS DAYS;
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” Matthew 23:15 NKJV
Is there any difference between this breed of spiritual leaders and the Church of our days? No!
We also travel land and sea, and even air; to win one soul and when they are won we make them as twice sons of hell as we are. Today we use social media, so there is less travel but still we turn people into sons of hell.
For instance, check the people who certify born again today, are they really born again?
The truth is, because of pride for numbers and crave for money, we put so much emphasis on bringing people to Church (and giving). We do not bother about their relationship with God. Hence do not emphasis on putting Christ in them. We just want to solve their earthly problems because that is the only way to put them in a giving mode.
If you bring people to Church without putting Christ in them, hell the spirit will enter and live in them. And since it can manifest like a religious spirit, it will just help the person to have a form of godliness without power!
Child of God, we must wake up to realize that mankind is in constant battle with hell that is why Jesus said the gates of hell shall not prevail. The greatest way to secure a soul for Heaven therefore is not to put Church in him but to put Christ in them.
A MAJOR HIGHLIGHT IN OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT THIS MORNING SAYS;
“Therefore Sheol has enlarged itself and opened its mouth beyond measure; their glory and their multitude and their pomp, and he who is jubilant, shall descend into it.”
One-way hell enlarge itself into the souls and spirits of men is through the media. That is why you must be careful what you hear or see in the media.
Another way is through the money making spirit. That is why Jesus says we cannot serve God and mammon at the same time. But when hell enlarged itself towards a man’s soul and captures it, it may leave him in any form of religion that it found him in, but make sure he does not have a fruitful relationship with Jesus Christ.
It is hell that puts Jesus on our lips and not allow us to submit ourselves enough to His word and ways to have Him in our hearts.
Hell will prefer us having the Cross on our necks than in our hearts. It will take our attention away from spiritual content, and shift it to religious titles. It is the spirit that makes men title crazy!
When hell enlarges itself towards a man’s soul, it will fill him with itself and make sure there is no room from the true God to dwell in the person’s life. The ultimate vision of hell the spirit is to keep people out of true relationship with Jesus Christ, and take them finally to hell the place, when they die. You must understand that.
The spirit of hell is the father of all lying prophets and heretic teachers.
Instead of having the Holy Ghost in you, it will prefer you having oil in a bottle with you, and drinking it from time to time. Instead having the Holy Spirit poured upon you, it will prefer having oil poured upon you, fooling you toe believe that is the Holy Spirit.
Sadly, it uses preachers who appear true and who are sometimes true, to do all these. Making it impossible for people to escape the onslaught.
Hell the spirit knows that with the Holy Ghost in you, it will never have you. But with the anointing Oil with you, it will always have you.
IT WILL PREFER MEN HOLDING TIGHT TO THE SHADOW THAN EMBRACING THE SUBSTANCE.
This spirit is a counterfeit of the Holy Spirit. It gives visions, prophecies, and tells some prophets what to do while ministering to people. It will tell them to ask the people to pray with water or salt because it is afraid that if living water flows out of them and they people the salt of the earth, it is in trouble.
It will move prophetess and prophets to ask that people bring sand or take some prayer warriors to their village as part of deliverance. It is responsible for all errors and occult practices in the Church that many the mysteries of the kingdom or faith boosters.
Your deliverance from this spirit is not possible without experiencing the salvation of the spirit and soul from the penalty and practice of sin, which prepares you to experience the salvation of the body from the presence of sin.
We can go on and on about this subtle and dangerous spirit but this is just a devotional.
God wants you to start waging war personally against this spirit. And the only way you can do that is by finding a good Church, and an able minister of the new testament, and submitting yourself to His Holy Spirit all the time so that Christ can be formed in you!
You must understand that there are Churches that this spirit (hell) sits over as king.
Yes, wherever you see sexual perversion, lying or any other act of the flesh, especially among pastors and church workers being preached or treated as a human weakness, this spirit is in charge there.
Wherever gays and lesbians lead in Choir, this spirit is king there. Wherever sin is called “weakness,” rebuke is called “judgment,” and conviction called “condemnation” the spirit of hell has established its base there.
You will always grow from a child of God to a son of hell in any local Church that hell sits over as king. That is why I call such places crowds and not Churches, because hell can never find a place to sit in a true Church.
No, it cannot sit as king in a Church that is truly connected to her head –Jesus Christ.
According to Matthew 26 and 28, Jesus said He will build His Church but it will be through strong discipleship teaching, powered by the spirit of prophecy which is the testimony of Jesus Christ. And when that happens, the gates of hell will not prevail against any soul born out of that.
It’s my prayer that God use these words to improve your walk and talk with Him this month in Jesus precious name. AMEN!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
“Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:17-18 NKJV