TODAY’S DEVOTION (Wednesday 26th January 2022)
When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.”
And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking.
So, they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. Luke 5:4-7 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 26th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE
From the rising of the Sun, to the going down of the same. The name of the LORD will remain glorified. He has kept us for 26 days now; to him belong all the glory.
Today, we will continue with the flow of yesterday!
I have come to realize that if we are about committing sin or making a decision that is very abominable and with dire consequences, God will always scream His voice into our spirits to stop us. But most of us do not hear anything because of the shallow places we dwell in the Spirit.
It is impossible for GOD to watch us desecrating our garments without shouting at us to stop; because he that commits sin is of the devil, and He will not want us to be of the devil for one moment. But as earlier stated, we do not pick it because God is Spirit, they that must hear Him must do so in spirit and in truth.
If our spirits that were suppose to hear Him, are in shallow waters of His word and Spirit, it will become difficult to hear him in such moments. But God will never allow His child to fall into sin or take an abominable step. He will always attempt to stop him or her.
YOU SEE THAT VERY CLEARLY IN THE STORY OF CAIN AND ABEL.
The Bible says;
“ But for Cain and his offering He had no respect or regard. So, Cain was exceedingly angry and indignant, and he looked sad and depressed.
And the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? And why do you look sad and depressed and dejected? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin crouches at your door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.
And Cain said to his brother, let us go out to the field. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
And the Lord said to Cain, where is Abel your brother? And he said, I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?
And [the Lord] said, what have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground. And now you are cursed by reason of the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s [shed] blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength; you shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth [in perpetual exile, a degraded outcast].
Then Cain said to the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Genesis 4:5-13 AMPC
Sadly, even when the sinful deed will bring a punishment more than one can bear, we still go on with it. Even when the sexual intercourse, the lie, the hate, the selfish act, the deceptive and crafty act will bring a punishment more than we can bear, we still commit them hoping there will be no consequence. That is what the Bible calls the deception of sin!
From this story, it is clear that God warns every of His children before they engage in any sinful deed. But He does not send thunder, fire and brimstone to warn. He just sends His voice – He screams it into the ears of our spirit man but many of us either do not pick it or we ignore it.
We ignore because our hearts are usually insensitive to the dire consequences of the pleasure our flesh craves for. But GOD knows exactly how destructive a sinful deed will turn out hence sending His warning. He sends the warnings to prevent us from committing the act.
BUT WITH HEARTS ALREADY ESTABLISHED ON THE PLEASURE OF SIN, IT IS USUALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO STOP!
For Cain, He knew the man was stepping into something which punishment he will not be able to bear, hence saying to him “why are you angry? And why do you look sad and depressed and dejected? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin crouches at your door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
God gave Him the grace to master it by that statement, but Cain, like many of us refused to make use of His grace. I have come to discover that those of us who are active in Christ do not commit sin because the sin overwhelmed us. Most times we commit sin because we refuse to make use of the immediate grace God released to stop us from committing it.
Grace has a mission, and that mission is to help man stop living a life of sin. It is not to keep man in a life of sin, and then prevent the consequences from coming on him. That is not grace. That is a lie.
The Bible says;
“Moreover, the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 5:20-21 AKJV
Grace reign through righteousness not wickedness or sinful living. That is why we tap the most of grace when we make us of it and say no to sin. It suddenly comes upon us, at the time when we are about committing a sinful act, to help us master the desire of sin to make us commit the act like it did in the case of Cain.
God is gracious, even when man was not in the dispensation of grace, someone saw Grace at work but refused to make use of it; he Cain could not use God’s grace to kill or tame the feelings to kill his brother.
The true grace of God is release wherever sin abound; it is released in a measure that surpassed the desire of sin to have us. But we do not usually make use of it. We will be overcoming temptations if we understand this work of grace and respond to it when it comes to offer us help.
FOR MANY, GRACE IS JUST A WORD THAT THEY USE TO KEEP LIVING A LIFE OF SIN CLAIMING THERE ARE NO LONGER CONSEQUENCES OF SIN.
They do not know that Grace manifest as the power not to sin and the pardon to go and sin no more if you eventually sin.
For those who are active in Christ, God’s grace manifest as power not to sin whenever our carnal desires begin to drag us into sin, and stays with us hoping we will use it to resist the desire. Sadly, many of us end up failing. We end up not using God’s available grace to master the sin our hearts desire to commit.
If you look at the story of Cain, you will realize that in that dispensation, he was active in God, hence the grace not to sin made active to help him. It was released so he could master the desire of sin over him, but like many of us, he failed in using it. This miracle is always present each time we are about committing sin, even today. It is a major miracle of grace that maybe few know about.
We are going into a new month from next week. It is very important that you come up with a spiritual goal for the New Month. We should come up with a goal of becoming believers who make use of God’s grace whenever it shows up to help us master the desire of sin to have us.
What does it mean to master? To master means to have or show great skill or proficiency in handing something. It also means to gain control of something or to overcome it. God’s grace is always available at out time of temptation to help us gain control and overcome the sin that is at the door.
There would have been no brother killer in the book of Genesis if Cain had made use of God’s grace to gain control and overcome the desire of sin to have him. There would have been no adulterers, fornicators, liars, homosexuals, lesbians, drug addicts and etc. among believers if we all know how to make use of God’s grace to gain control and overcome the urge to do all the sinful, abominable or wicked.
Not making use of God’s grace to gain control and overcome our carnal desires at the time of temptation has ruined many of us and is still ruing many of us. It has brought things that are more than what we can bear upon many of us. But we can change all that this morning if we make the right decisions.
We can decide to make the coming month a month of building up the sensitivity and spiritual fitness to make use of GOD’s grace to sin no more. It will require launching out into the deeper places of the Spirit; yes, deeper than what we did this month. In our devotional text, Jesus said to Peter;
“Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.”
We are to let down the net of our spirits into the deeper places of the Spirit in the coming month; to catch some spiritual sensitivity and fitness to live a life that is holy and pure before GOD. We must remove the net of our spirits from waters that do not edify. We must launch out only to waters that edifies.
Yes, we are to separate from whatever does not edify and cling only to what edifies. We cannot build the sensitivity and fitness to make use of GOD’s grace that manifest at the time of temptation if we do not separate from whatever defiles; no matter how minute it may be.
For some, it will require cutting off from social media sites that defiles instead of edifies. There is so much evil on social media these days.
Yesterday, God spoke to us about personal holiness. Today He has just given us a major key to personal holiness; the key of making use of God’s grace not to sin at the time of temptation; the key of experiencing the miracle of GOD’s grace when sin desire to have us.
It is important that we start using it to gain control over the desire to sin each time it comes, so that we will not keep abusing God’s grace and end up frustrating it, by constantly ignoring it whenever it appears to help us.
Do not forget, sin has way of punishing us much more than we can bear. All the trouble can be avoided by making use of GOD’s saving grace the way Cain never did. Cain frustrated that grace that came to help him master the sin that came to usher him into things that were more than he could bear.
Do not forget, when sin is at our door, it has come to usher us into perils that are much more than we can bear. It may not happen the first time we commit it. It may not even happen the 100th time.
So if we keep gratifying our carnal desires because of seeing no immediate consequences, we are being fooled into the day that we will be ushered into perils much more than we can bear. The earlier we make use of GOD’s grace upon our lives to stop, the better for us!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY!
“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” Romans 6:14-18 KJV