TODAY’S DEVOTION (Wednesday 15th December 2021)
“Therefore, I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.
But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” 1 Corinthians 9:26-27 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 347TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS.
We bless the God of Heaven and earth who has made it possible for us to be alive today. It is worth repeating that it is out of God’s mercies that we are not consumed. This is the 12th month of the year and God has been faithful.
One major sign of His faithfulness is we being on the 12th month of the year; and peacefully so. There is no ROCK like our God, who hides us from harm and keeps us saved from our enemies. It is His marvelous deeds that are responsible for our being here today.
We are hopeful of our immediate future because of what He has done in our recent past. You may not know your future, just walk with the GOD who lives in the future and all will be well. Yes, we may not know what 2022 holds but if we walk with the GOD who lives in 2022, we are covered.
The best way to secure a glorious future is to walk with the GOD who live there. I am a testimony of this Bible truth. At a time, I thought my future was bleak and nothing will come out of it. Then I found out what the Bible says about the future of the saved and sanctified. It says;
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.” Jeremiah 29:11-12 NKJV
I found out from this scripture that all I need was to find the God who holds my future through prayers and walk with Him. I am to find His thoughts for my life, His presence for my life, and an effective prayer line in the Holy Ghost and maintain my walk with Him.
THE FUTURE IS ONLY BLEAK WHEN WE DO NOT WALK WITH THE LORD.
From this scripture we can find three basic ways to walk with the God who holds the future. We are to be intimate with His presence, know and plan our lives according to His thoughts for them, and maintain a healthy prayer life.
You may be apprehensive about 2022, maybe because of the things that may have happened to you in 2021, but the LORD has given you a key to having a secured and glorious 2022.
When you walk with the God who holds the future, He will manifest as the open to whom belong escapes form death when it comes against you before you fulfill your days.
Personally, I have escaped pre mature death several times in my adult life. I remember this incident that happened in 1999. I just turned 23 and have been in ministry since 1993. We were preparing for my official commissioning into ministry which was billed to take place the following year.
Then I decided to visit Kaduna in Northern Nigeria for a personal prayer retreat. I was hosted by a beloved pastor who had visited our Church few months earlier. I took the opportunity to write my first book “Power to Become”.
I usually visit the Church auditorium of one of the largest Churches in North Central Nigeria then to capture the thoughts God was giving me for this book.
One day I finished writing a portion of the book and was on my way to the house of my host when this happened. I was walking by the road side to view the City when a passenger bus had a brake failure, and started rolling towards me. Uncontrollably. God enabled me to see it quick enough to jump away from it.
THE VEHICLE LOST CONTROL, PUTTING EVERYONE IN A PANIC MODE: EVERYONE WAS SHOUTING.
Sadly, someone died in the vehicle but I escaped being killed. Then it downed on me that if our lives lack “brakes” we will be running out of control like that vehicle and always be making very fatal mistakes of life. We will then destroy a glorious future God has for us.
You cannot walk with the One who lives in your future like a vehicle without brakes. Without the brakes of personal discipline your future will be terrible because you will walk away from the one who holds your future into in the hands of the one who destroys our future; the devil.
A life without brakes is sometimes worst than a vehicle without brakes. A vehicle without breaks could kill just one person but a life without breaks will always wipe out a generation. It will do things that unborn generations will be born to weep about. It will destroy many bright futures.
There is a role the brakes of personal discipline play in helping us arrive at God’s predate future for us. Whenever destiny people do not know when to apply the brakes of personal discipline, they will defeat their destiny and ruin their future.
God did not create anyone without brakes of personal discipline. We all have the brakes attached to our spirits, souls and bodies. It is just that we do not use them. We have no regard for self discipline. That is why our lives are ruined.
People who do not know how to apply the brakes of self discipline will always have some forms of satanic oppressions to live with.
WE MUST UNDERSTAND THAT THERE IS CAPTIVITY IN FREEDOM. IF YOUR FREEDOM DO NOT HAVE RESTRICTIONS, YOU ARE DOOMED!
Personal discipline is what helps us in managing the blessing of our freedoms in life. It helps us in imposing the restrictions that our freedoms need to be or remain a blessing to us. It is the antidote of indiscipline, a destroyer of the blessing of freedom.
Indiscipline will make a man too free to be free from the yokes of his enemies. If you are not self disciplined, you are like a vehicle without brakes. You will not know when to stop.
People who lack self discipline always do not know when to stop; they do not know when to put their bodies under. To do not say no when they ought to say no, and before you know it, they have completely destroyed their lives.
For instance, if you lack self discipline you will always let your anger go out of control. You will let your sexuality go out of control. You will let your carnal desires go out of control. You will lead a lifestyle that lacks the brakes of discipline.
Sadly, most endemic problems of life are caused by a life style that lacks the brakes of self discipline.
Most marriages break down because couples lack the brakes of self discipline. Most businesses crumble for the same reason. Most Churches split for the same reason. Most youths destroy their future for the same reason. Most anointed pastors fall into the sin of adultery or fornication for the same reason.
GOD KNOWS IF WE DO NOT HAVE THE RESTRICTIONS OF SELF DISCIPLINE, WE WILL RUIN OURSELVES.
That was why he stirred Paul to write the blessed words we consider this morning as our devotional text. It says;
“…But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”
In some of our “Schools of the Spirit” we have spent time to uncover the three basic needs of the flesh – food, sex and comfort and how to make sure they do not destroy our destiny. If you look at the three carefully, you will realize that most perils of life are traceable to how men handled sex, food, and comfort.
Sex for instance, has become more of a curse then the blessing God created it to be in the life of so many, simply for lack of self discipline. Homes have been broken by it, countless Children born outside family lines by it, lives destroyed by it.
Sex has become even fatal in many instances; it has transmitted diseases into the lives of people with a very great future and killed them in miseries. We can go on and on!
If your life lack brakes as a Child of God you will never get to your glorious destination in God. You will destroy your future with Him.
Paul made it clear that if he did not apply the brakes of self discipline to his life, even as a preacher; he will preach to others and be rejected by God in the judgment day. In other words, he will not get to his destination; which is eternal rest with Christ.
THIS IS A TIME FOR SELF ASSESSMENT.
You have a bright future but are the brakes of your life functioning properly to help you get there? Satan cannot stop you because Christ has fixed him, but you can stop you. Yes, Failed brakes can stop you. Are your brakes functioning? Do you know when to put your body under so that it will not rob you of great blessings?
If Samson had applied his breaks when he met Delilah, he won’t have died the way he died. If David had applied his brakes when his eyes caught a naked woman bathing, he would not have killed a man and married his wife. If Abraham had applied his brakes when Sarah his wife suggested that he go into Hagar her maid, there would have been no Ishmael in his life.
Do you have something your now battle with for not applying your brakes when you were supposed to do so? God sent this devotional to stir you to sit up, and also to receive mercy to come out of it. Are you ready!
Now, bow your head in prayer and repent like Samson, David and the rest did. Ask the LORD to show you mercy and take away the scars.
Ask Him to turn those scars into stars. Don’t forget, the sacrifices of God are a broken heart. A broken and a contrite heart God will not despise. Seek His mercy and He will give you a fresh start!
Also if the brakes of your life are completely damaged; if you do not have self discipline, you can ask the LORD to impart it into you.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
“For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” Ezekiel 36:23-27 NKJV