TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Friday 9th July 2021)
“Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O Lord; Let Your lovingkindness and Your truth continually preserve me,” Psalms 40:11 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 190TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS!
This is the day the LORD has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
In a world of uncertainties and uncontrollable evil, we need something bigger and higher to be sustained. The Bible made it clear that if God is in the midst of us we shall not be moved. In other words, God in man is the surest insurance package in a trouble world.
The emphasis of religion has been God around man but the emphasis of true Christianity and the gospel of our LORD Jesus Christ is God in man. It is what we call apostolic emphasis.
In the beginning, God lived in man. He was not just around man. The portals of Heaven opened in man and around man. But the fall changed everything. That is why man became what he is today. Ecclesiastes puts it this way;
“For what has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun?
For all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.” Ecclesiastes 2:22-23 NKJV
Everything became vanity after the fall. But in the beginning, it was not so!
It’s being season that calls for harmonization of our lives with God’s will and ways. The days are dangerous. It is very expensive to lead a life that is in variance with God’s will and ways, these days. The broken lives and shattered dreams we see and read about testifies to this.
The essence of Christianity is synchronicity with divine will and ways. That is what Jesus came to do. To call us back to the Father and align us with His will and ways in every aspect of our lives. That is the chief assignment of the Holy Spirit; the Spirit so truth. When He comes into your life, He will never leave you in your own will and ways. He will make you abandon them and embrace God’s will and ways.
Paul as Saul was on his way to Damascus to do his will. He was in his traditional way of killing the saints and protecting the law of Moses, when the LORD Himself met Him. That was the last day he followed his ways and did his will.
EVERY GENUINE ENCOUNTER WITH THE LORD WILL SNATCH US FROM OUR WAYS AND WILL.
It will snatch you from a life style that is not God’s will and way and make you uncomfortable in it. It will never leave you in a thing that is not God’s will for your life, neither will it leave you in ungodly ways. Any so called divine encounter that promises to solve your problems but did not challenge your ungodly ways is not really from God. No divine encounter leaves us in ungodliness.
The Bible commands that we be perfect like our Heavenly Father is perfect. If it was not possible to be perfect, God would not have commanded. For with God nothing shall be impossible.
When God say we should be perfect, He means we should be mature. Maturity happens when your ways and will disappears into God’s ways and will. It happens when your life comes into synchronicity with God’s will and ways. That is how we become dangerous to the kingdom of darkness. Don’t forget GOD wants us to be very dangerous to the kingdom of darkness.
I have come to discover that the most dangerous, effective and impactful Christians on the face of the earth and in the kingdom of God, in every generation, were those whose lives were in complete harmony with God’s will and ways. The lived crucified lives.
One major meaning of the crucified life is a life that is lead in harmony with God’s will and ways. A life that have been brought in perfect harmony with God’s will and ways; most time very painfully. Because if you have lived your life in a particular way and done a particular will all your life, bringing every aspect of it into perfect harmony with God’s will and ways can be very painful.
There are so many people who are not doing that because of the cost. So many will not dare accept Jesus as LORD because it calls for this kind of sacrifice. They will prefer serving God with lives that runs contrary to His will and ways especially in the areas of marriage, finances and seeking success by the definition of this world.
Bringing every aspect of your life to God’s will and ways after succeeding in the pursuits of your own ungodly things can be very painful.
INDEED, IT USUALLY INVOLVES A LOT OF SACRIFICES.
That is why we can only do it looking unto Jesus who for the sake of the Joy that was set before Him endured the cross and despised the shame. Today God has given Him a name that is above every name, “that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is LORD!” Hallelujah!
There are no words that can accurate describe the glory we will have in our lives, sometimes in this life and definitely in the life to come, if we go through the pain of bringing our lives into harmony with God’s will and ways. Yes, it will be painful and demanding but it’s better to go through that pain than to go through the pain of being forever in hell.
People do not know that people go to hell for leading lives that run contrary to God’s will and ways all their life time on earth, without considering surrendering them to God’s will and ways. To give your life to Christ actually means, to surrendering your ways and will to His ways and will. To cause your ways and will to disappear into His ways and will. That is what will give us eternal rest with Him.
It is usually painful to truly surrender your life to Christ, especially after leading it in a particular way and making great strides with it. God promised that if we endure the pain of truly surrendering our lives to Christ (the pain of synchronicity and harmonization with His will and ways), we may suffer persecution in this world but will definitely enjoy the glories of Heaven in the world to come.
Now, the pains of synchronicity manifest in different form. It all depends on the circumstances that surround us!
Sometimes when a Child of God is trying to respond to God and bring his life into harmony with divine will and ways, those who are not in God’s will and perfect ways, will seem to be prospering and him diminishing. Indeed, it is usually not pleasant to see yourself going down and the wicked going up, especially in your days of synchronicity.
THAT CAN BE ONE OF THE HARDEST TIMES OF OUR DAYS OF SYNCHRONICITY.
Christians who do not know what you know and do not fear God the way you do, will seem to be prospering and having things easy. But you will seem to be suffering and having things difficult and be wondering “what in the world is happening to you?” You could even be tempted to think “Am I really on the right paths?” But the Bible says,
“When the wicked spring up like grass, and when all the workers of iniquity flourish, it is that they may be destroyed forever.” Psalms 92:7 NKJV
On the flip side of the coin, when the righteous diminishes and start going them for bringing his life into perfect harmony with God’s will and ways, it is for him to be lifted and made to flourish in due time.
In God, the way up is down! That is why the Bible says,
“Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” Hebrews 10:35-38 KJV
I can stop this devotional here because this scripture says it all.
What do we do when we are surrounded by innumerable evils for saying yes to Jesus? What do we do when the pains of synchronicity begin to spring up? The Bible says we should not cast away our confidence. In other words, we should stay strong in faith.
We should keep that revelation that pushed us to respond to God in the first place burning in our hearts.
IF WE DO, WE WILL NOT MISS THE GREAT RECOMPENSE OR REWARD.
We can only receive the promise after we have done the will of God, not when we are doing it. In other words, the manifestation of the reward of synchronicity with divine will and ways comes after we have done the will of God. That is after we have been synchronized.
Meaning it does not come WHILE we are doing the will of God or synchronizing with God’s will and ways. It comes AFTER we have synchronized with His will and ways or after we have done the will of GOD. While we are synchronizing we get pain and persecution, but if we persist and press to the finishing lines, we get the reward.
The mistake many Christians make is to watch for the reward during the process of synchronizing with God’s will and ways, and when they do not see it, they lose hope and draw back. But the Bible made it clear that during the process nothing happens.
We must understand that Jesus did not rise from dead the day He died. He had to endure the process of death and burial for three days before He was raised. The rule is the same.
We are all in the process of synchronicity. There is need for patience and endurance because the season will be over. When it is over, He that shall come will come and splash us with the reward; sometimes in this life and the life to come. Other times in the life to come alone and not in this life. I saw this in the life of the early Church.
The Book of Hebrew made it clear that some died in His will and ways without receiving the reward of synchronicity in this life. But they got it in the life to come and there was huge because they got nothing in this life.
God determines when to bring the reward to us not even our prayers or sacrifices. Our job is to remain unconditional committed to Him, aligning with His will and ways and keep saying like Job did “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15 NKJV). That is what true Christianity is all about.
The greater your sacrifices for the Kingdom in this life are, the greater your reward in the next life will be. If God did not begin rewarding you here it’s because your reward, there will be huge. For instance, He allowed John the Baptist to be killed by Herod to qualify him for five crowns in Heaven. Whatever God allows the righteous to go through in this life, it’s basically to qualify him for greater things in the next life.
AND DO NOT FORGET, THE NEXT LIFE IS THE REAL LIFE!
That is why He has no pleasure in those who put their hands to the plough and then keep looking back. The Bible says they will not receive anything because they are not fit for the kingdom. It is our Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom but fitness is required. So we should not be of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul (Hebrews 10:39 NKJV)
That brings us to the faith position to take during the process of doing the will of God and synchronizing with His ways. Our devotional text for today says,
“Do not withhold your tender mercies from me, O Lord; Let your lovingkindness and your truth continually preserve me,” Psalms 40:11 NKJV
If you look at this scripture, you will see three things that must proceed from God to us at all times during the process of doing the will of GOD and synchronizing with His ways. The first is “mercy,” the second “loving kindness,” and the third “truth.”
It pays to be planted in a Church where the three will be made to reach you from time to time. It pays to have a prophetic midwife positioned by Heaven in your life to be supplying these three into your life.
Where you do not have one, like it happened to me, make sure you are spending countless hours with God in prayers. He Himself will be your midwife. Seek Him daily for Mercy, lovingkindness and truth. That is the message of today’s devotional.
I pray that you give these precious words double attention. I request that you copy and keep them in your archives because you will need them whenever you become weary on this race and are in need of strength to keep matching on.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOUR TODAY;
“For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”
“For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.”
“And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.” Hebrews 6:10-15 NKJV