TODAY’S DEVOTION (Saturday 22ND January 2022)
“But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.” Acts 20:24 NLT
WELCOME TO THE 22ND DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE
Glory be to the LORD God, creator of the Heavens and earth for giving us another day. We give Him our utmost gratitude for leaving His breath in our nostrils and helping our lungs and other vital body organs to function well. We are alive because He did all that and even more.
The scripture of our devotional text today is one of the most important scriptures of my life. Our lives are indeed worth nothing unless we use them in doing what God has assigned to us.
Life can be so full of things to do. Some assigned by fellow men to us, and others assigned to us by the circumstances of life.
Sometimes, in a complete family, where Children grow between both parents, you see responsible Fathers looking at their grownups and asking “What do you want to do with your life?”
Responsible fathers are always mindful of what their Children will become in life, or what they will spend their lives doing! That is why you see them struggle to send them to school; help them build careers around their passion and etc.
In the same way, our Heavenly Father, who is billions and trillions of times better than any responsible father, is always mindful of what we will spend our Christian lives doing on this side of eternity. That is why the first thing His Holy Spirit reveals to us, when He comes upon us, is what Our heavenly Father want us to do with our lives.
You see, when you become a truly born again Christian, you are now a Citizen of God’s Kingdom. As a Citizen of God’s kingdom, you have no other assignment to do than to serve the revealed interest, vision, purpose or passion of the KING of Jesus Christ, the king of the Kingdom.
That is why the life of the truly saved depreciates and diminish if it is not being used to serve the accurate interest, goal, vision, or purpose of the King of the Kingdom, Jesus Christ, and appreciates when it is being used to do so.
I SAID IT BEFORE THAT BEING GENUINELY “BORN AGAIN” IS THE RESULT OF AN INNER WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT THAT TURNS A MAN INTO A SERVING SON OF JESUS CHRIST.
In other words, salvation transforms and confines us to do only His will. True salvation gives us the heart to do and follow just the KING’s words, ways, and do just His assigned responsibilities for our lives and nothing else. If we venture into anything else, we begin to lose our peace and become restless.
Sadly, many of us do not know this. That is why we still strive to do our own things even after salvation, then go to meet God in prayers to make them prosper. How can they prosper when they are not His plans for our lives?
God’s plans are bound to prosper because they are already finished in the Spirit realm. When we follow them, we are only unfolding or causing what has being finished to be made manifest on earth. So, they are bound to prosper. No one can stop what God has finished in the Spirit realm from manifesting and prospering on earth.
But when we make our own plans, we are trying to make what does not exist in the Spirit realm to exist in the natural. It does not work that way. That is why at most we end up creating what the enemy has planned for us, because when we network with our flesh to do anything on earth, it will cause what the devil, has finished in his own spirit realm to manifest in our lives.
When we make things that are born out of carnal ambitions our goal in life, or allow men and circumstances to define what we spend our lives doing instead the KING who we now serve, we allow what is not part of God’s plans for our lives to manifest in our lives. That is why many people struggle in life.
I have said this repeatedly that God is not indebted to prosper what He did not initiate. He is too loving to let what He did not initiate prosper. We struggle just for not knowing this about our God. Whatever is not outsourced from Him will receive no resources from Him. Don’t forget that! .
THAT IS WHY I TELL PEOPLE TO BE CAREFUL WHAT THEY CLAIM TO BE GOD’S WILL OR GOD’S CREATION.
Because many of us call things that are born out of our “good will” God’s will. We call our acceptable carnal creations and conceptions God’s plan for our lives, especially when things are bad with us and they appear to be the solution to the problems.
Do not forger, if you claim a marriage to be God’s will for your life, while you cannot find peace in it, you are lying. Many in such marriages as a solution to a life problem they had. Most the problem of not having a family, a child, a wife or a husband or even an income. Marriage was not created to solve a life problem. It was created to cause a divine purpose to prosper.
If you try use prayer to engage God to act in a marriage that was not outsourced from His, they prayer will never bring the resources that marriage needs from Him. Our prayers only perfect what is God’s will. They do not transform what is not God’s will to become God’s will.
God did not design any aspect of our Christian lives to enjoy what is not really His. No true Child of God can therefore, enjoy what is not truly outsourced from God. The best things to be busy serving, as a Child of God, are things you know have been assigned to you by the LORD Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.
Our devotional text this morning tells us that Paul, one of the post resurrection disciples and apostles of Jesus Christ, resolved in his heart to spend his life doing only what Jesus assigned to him. That is the safest way to live in an earth that has lost its form to multitude of wickedness. That is the best way to silence your enemies and make them powerless before you.
God will always be an enemy to the enemies of those who are spending their days doing only the King assigned to them to them. That was why despite all Paul faced, he still finished well and even stronger than all who wanted him out.
One of the prophetic assignments was to carve out true Christianity form Judaism. And he spent his entire life doing just that and withstanding all that the enemy threw at Him.
GOD WILL ALWAYS STAND WITH THOSE WHO HAVE MADE THEIR LIVES A BURNT OFFERING FOR HIM, DOING ONLY WHAT HE ASSIGNED TO THEM
Testifying of how the LORD stood with him in one of those incidents in his final Letter to his son Timothy, Apostle Paul said;
“At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them.
But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen!” 2 Timothy 4:16-18 NKJV
It is not easy to carve out true Christianity from a system that has become a money-making machine for generations. You will suffer more than enough from the kingdom of darkness that now profits by that system. It will use all within its disposal to attack you viciously.
But the LORD will always stand with you to strengthen you!
As we bring this to a close, it is important that we understand that, no matter how successful we may be, our lives as believers are worth nothing unless we use them for finishing the work assigned to us by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.
Not telling stories or preaching a mutilated adulterated gospel but preaching sound doctrines that are capable to restoring the morality of men and terminating the darkness in their hearts. The truth remains our lives in time and eternity will worth nothing if we do not use them and live for the KING.
If you are called into intercession, please do not be found among interceptors who call themselves intercessors. If your assignment is telling others about the good News of the Kingdom, do not tell them what will not turn their hearts to the LORD. Whatever your assignment is, focus on it. Your life will be worth nothing except you spend it doing what have been assigned to you by the LORD Jesus.
I have always said that our prosperity is in our assignment. Our peace is in our assignment. Our protection is built into our God given assignment. That is why if what you are doing lack any of this, it is not an assignment form the LORD. It is impossible to be in your assignment diligently and painstakingly and remain in adversities that lacks permanent divine interventions.
The relationships God has assigned to bless you will come to you when you are busy doing the things assigned to you by the LORD Jesus Christ. Your happiness, fulfillment or joy is attached to your assignment. You will get so much doing only what God has assigned you than anything else.
I admonish you this morning to stop living your life outside your assigned responsibilities in the Kingdom of God. Build your life around what God has called you to do. Be diligent in execution. It will bless and not break you.
If you are in your season of preparation, be dedicated to the season. Do not miss the classes the LORD has scheduled for you. Some will be under a spiritual midwife, and others under the perils of life. David had Samuel as a spiritual midwife, then the lion, the bear, Goliath and Saul as the perils of life. They all taught and trained him for his assignment.
You will have the same! Don’t live in isolation but in the house or grace of your Samuel. That is where you need to be prepared, matured and made victorious over the things the dragon may do to stop you.
The house of your Samuel is the only place your victory over evil lies in your season of preparation. Satan will not want you to embrace that because he knows that is the only place, he can be effectively neutralized. He will tell you, “you do not need a spiritual father.”
That is him saying you do not need a Samuel. But God always has a Samuel for every man or woman of destiny. You need to find him and spend your preparation season in his house or grace to come out well in your days of manifestation.
I believe the message of today has been passed.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
So David fled and escaped, and went to Samuel at Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and stayed in Naioth.
Now it was told Saul, saying, “Take note, David is at Naioth in Ramah!” Then Saul sent messengers to take David. And when they saw the group of prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as leader over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.
And when Saul was told, he sent other messengers, and they prophesied likewise. Then Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they prophesied also. Then he also went to Ramah, and came to the great well that is at Sechu. So he asked, and said, “Where are Samuel and David?”
And someone said, “Indeed they are at Naioth in Ramah.” So he went there to Naioth in Ramah. Then the Spirit of God was upon him also, and he went on and prophesied until he came to Naioth in Ramah.
And he also stripped off his clothes and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” 1 Samuel 19:18-24 NKJV