TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Friday 6TH August 2021)
“And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.
But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” Luke 22:31-32 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 218th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS!
We bless the LORD of Heaven and Earth who have once again, given us the opportunity to see another week. It’s of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed.
Today we will be looking at some Bible secrets for handling difficult situations.
Things can be very difficult some times when life throws sad things at you; when expectations fail and disappointment creeps in, when people you thought should be there for you suddenly withdraws their support, when those you are laboring to keep happy refuse to reciprocate.
Things can really get very difficult when all or either of this happen!
Yes, when the news of the dead of a love one demoralizes you and you cannot find the reason to live the next minute, when the enemy comes against you like a flood, the way He came on Job, things can be very difficult.
But the Bible made it clear that the most important thing to strive to keep alive during those moments is our faith.
In our devotional today we will be highlighting some truths on keeping the faith. I believe the Holy Spirit will put something in our lives as we look at few lines on this important aspect of the Christian life.
God says in His word that the just shall live by faith. He did not say the just shall live by struggles, fear, pain, or anything negative. Neither did He say the just shall live by prayer, fasting, giving, singing, or going to church, as important as all these things are. He said the just shall live by faith.
You see, prayer, fasting, giving, singing, or going to Church are only meaningful if they are either driven by faith or if they birth faith in us. The Holy Spirit enables prayers, Biblical fasting, giving, and singing and encourages going to Church basically to help us live by faith.
If doing any of these things, therefore, is not imparting faith in you or strengthening what is already there, you are involved in forms of godliness that has no power.
THAT IS WHERE THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST AND FIRE COMES IN!
It is the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire that makes our prayers, fasting, giving, singing and even going to Church impactful. They become faith building tools because of the power and influence of the Holy Ghost. The Bible says.
“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” Jude 20-21 NKJV
The importance of faith to a Child of God is perhaps known better by the devil than the Children of God today. The fierceness of Satan’s attacks against our faith and our weak commitment to FAITH BUILDING proves it all.
Many in Church today will prefer building their houses than building their faith. Others will prefer building their careers, businesses, fame, families, and all they desire without giving a thought to their faith.
We forget that when God said; “the Just shall live by faith,” He made FAITH BUILDING the most important thing in the life of His kingdom citizens.
It is the faith of the just that will sustain his house, career, business, fame, family and all he desires in life. In simple terms, God designed that our lives be sustained by our faith. That is why Satan attacks it ferociously.
You may lose your marriage, money, job, health, peace or success, please do not lose your faith. Keep the faith. Sometimes Satan will steal all that make our lives a meaning just to neutralize our faith.
When the enemy neutralize your faith, you will begin to either complain against GOD, compromise His word and will for your life, or give in to the will of man, the will of the flesh or the will of blood.
Whenever we are under any kind of attack from hell, God’s greatest concern for us is that we do not lose our faith. Our devotional text today says it all.
YOU SEE, THE SPIRIT REALM SOMETIMES SEEMS TO BE A COMPLICATED REALM.
When Satan asked to shift Peter like wheat, his rising profile, business, or family was not the subject of the attack. Peter’s faith was the subject of the attack. And when Jesus moved to provide a prayer cover for him, He did not pray for his business, fame or family not to fail. He prayed that his faith should not fail because that was the focus of the attack.
God will always focus on sustain your faith in the midst of any attack. A major highlight in the text quoted Jesus saying to Peter;
“… I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”
The subject of every satanic attack on us, directly or indirectly, is your faith. The quicker you come to term with that the better. Until our faith fail, our business will not fail.
Until our faith fail our marriages or families will not fail. Until our faith fails our ministries or callings will not fail. The life of the redeemed of the LORD is designed by be lived by faith, not even or properly established traditions.
Now what is faith? It is not a mental confidence. No! Peter had a mental confidence when he boasted that he will not deny Christ. But Jesus said to him before the cock crows once he will do it thrice. So faith is not a mental confidence in GOD.
The Bible defines faith as the substance of things hope for and the evidence of things not seen. It means true faith has both Substance and Evidence. It is usually anchored on revelation knowledge from the Holy Spirit; that is why it comes by hearing from God at an immediate present.
In other words, if God has not spoken to you about a thing at an immediate present, you will not be able to have a living confidence in Him concerning that thing. In other words, there cannot be true faith in GOD concerning a thing He has not spoken to you about at an immediate present.
True faith is a child of things (in the throne room) that have been revealed to our spiritual senses; it is a proof of things we have seen in the spirit but have not seen in the natural – a conviction of the reality of those things.
APOSTLE JOHN THE BELOVED, SPOKE ABOUT THINGS THAT CAN BE SEEN, FELT AND TOUCHED IN THE SPIRIT.
Faith is usually a product of seeing from God, touching and feeling things in God that have been created to be born on earth, and taking steps that will pull them from that UNSEEN realm of GOD to the seen realm of man.
In other words, faith is a creative force that enables the believer to create something out of nothing physical. That is why Satan attacks it.
Don’t forget, Satan cannot create he can only make use of what have been created. But with the instrumentality of faith, we can create. We can create a new life; a business, a spiritual life, a family, and whatever is in God’s will for our lives.
Faith helps us to create by seeing, touching, and feeling things in the unseen realm of GOD through prayer. Then it goes further to show us what action to take to bring what we have seen into the natural realm. That is why God made prayer a catalyst of faith. Because things cannot be reveal to the spiritual senses until we have prayed Holy Spirit led Prayers effectively.
The Bible says;
‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ Jeremiah 33:3 NKJV
Friend, any prayer that is not activating your faith by bringing you into God’s unseen realm to see things with the eyes of faith is a form of godliness that has no power. True prayer will mount pressure on God to reveal Himself. It usually Holy Spirit led not ‘holy’ flesh led.
It has a way of bringing us into a realm where God can be revealed to us. And God reveals Himself sometimes by speaking or showing something to us. When God reveal Himself to us or cause His light to shine on our circumstances it births in our spirits the faith to believe Him for the unusual.
In conclusion, there is another kind of faith that the Bible taught about. It is a faith that was once delivered to the saints. This faith is an apostolic Christian belief that was established on the revelation of Jesus Christ to the early Church.
The believe can be summarized in one proclamation that Paul made; and that proclamation is
“Christ in you the hope of glory.”
If you look at the Church today, there is a great falling away from this. This is the only kind of faith that produce the Christ nature in us. A nature of holiness, or righteousness, peace and joy. The ones we have today do not produce the new life in many. They just continue with their old sinful life calling themselves born again.
You find where people are even told to sleep with prophets and prophetesses for spiritual cleansing in a corrupt spirit of faith.
Others are taught to drink the oil and treat it as the Holy Spirit.
Many others are trained to give money for prayers, and other forms of sacrifices; using salt, water, brooms, and etc. to invoke deliverance or one form of supernatural intervention or the other.
That is not the faith that was once delivered to the saints.
God is calling on the remnant church to arise. He wants those He has preserved from these pollutions to rise! He is calling on us to rise and begin to contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints. The Bible says,
“Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” Jude 3 NKJV
The time to obey this call in our generation is now!
What is the message of our devotional this morning? If things are not okay with you, it is your faith that the enemy is trying to attack not really your things. And God saying, “come into the prayer room in such moments through songs of praise and thanks giving, then pray unto me and I will reveal myself to you.”
When God reveals Himself to you during such moments, what the devil came to destroy will be rather fortified and you will come out victorious! That is one way to contend for your personal faith – the very faith you need to live by.
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!
“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.”
“The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.”
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” Psalms 34:15-19 NKJV