TODAY’S DEVOTION (Friday 28th January 2022)
“Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:31-32 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 27th 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 28 days now; to him belong all the glory. Some who started this year are no more. You must acknowledge that and give GOD praise.
Yes, God has been faithful and merciful. He has given us another day to live, improve our walk with Him, and touch the lives of others as we march towards the final moments of His redemptive plans for mankind!
Our devotional text this morning reminds us of our primary calling – discipleship. Yes, our primary redemptive call is that we be Disciples of Christ not just Church members.
A disciple is a student or learner not a religious bigot or fanatic. He or she is a humble discipline learner who seeks all that he or she needs to know about Christ to become like Him. Meaning those who seek to know all they want to know about demons are disciples or students of demons.
God wants us to take a learning posture under Christ our teacher, LORD and Savior and He is the curriculum because they that know their God shall be strong and do exploits.
Sadly, most of us in Church today are yet to respond to that.
We are yet to respond to this call because being a disciple is not by joining a Church or a-bless-me club called fellowship. Jesus made it clear that becoming a disciple involves taking your cross daily and following Him.
It involves dying daily to the works of the flesh, the works of the devil and the evil and corrupt system of this world. And all these are not possible until His word abides richly in us! But how many people are actually being taught the rich word of GOD in their local churches?
MOST ARE JUST TAUGHT EXCITING BUT EMPTY MESSAGES. OTHERS WITCHCRAFT.
For His word to abide richly in us we must know be taught properly by those who have been taught properly by the LORD. His holy apostles and prophets by content. We must be taught the truth, not just as a selection of facts but as the person of Christ. Yes, the truth Himself!
The essence of these devotionals is to fine tune our minds to encounter Christ as the truth; not just as healer, provider, protector and etc. Most of us have encountered Him as that but are yet to meet Him as the truth.
This morning I want to take you to one of the earliest devotionals I wrote. It will bless you immensely if you give it the attention it deserves. Since God has been stirring our hearts towards matters of personal holiness, I felt this morning that we should go back to the truth in that devotional to find something fresh to glean.
I have expounded on this devotional on different forums of teaching and believe it still hold fresh and living water for those who are thirsty. First written in 2015, it still holds very applicable truths today. It will be a refreshing for every disciple of Jesus Christ.
Disciples gives the word of God double, or even triple attention, from time to time, to be able to retain Christ in their knowledge; especially truths that calls for a crucified life.
If we do not develop the culture of retaining GOD in our knowledge, it will be bad, especially the knowledge of the crucified life. That was what the devotional called us to when it was first written.
God bless you dearly!
A DECEMBER 2015 DEVOTIONAL THAT CALLED US TO DIE DAILY TO THE FLESH
“You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:11 NKJV
My mandate is to the Body of Christ, and you will agree with me that the body of Christ no longer need shallow rooted sermons or write ups. So our devotion today, tomorrow, next and beyond will go deeper by the grace of God.
I believe strongly that our Church generation is yet to see the full manifestation of the potentials of God’s presence.
We have seen miracles, signs and wonders in some quarters, but most local Churches are just dry of significant moves of God, and they do not care. While many others have been plugged to the demonic through the diviners, they call prophets and the sorcerers in God’s garments.
The LORD spoke to me recently saying “…sorcerers are coming.” It got me troubled because I thought we have had enough. But talking about God’s presence, our devotional text said, “In His presence is…” Permit me to leave out the other portions of that scripture for purpose of emphasis and synchronized understanding.
THERE ARE DEGREES GOD ANNOUNCES HIS PRESENCE IN OUR LIVES OR IN A MEETING.
For your personal life, it depends on how much you have died to the flesh; carnal cravings, sinful tendencies and etc.
For a local church, it also depends on how much the preacher heading the Church or meeting has died to things like carnal cravings, self, sin, satanic tendencies, or works of the flesh. It is through dying that we activate the potentials of God’s presence.
So many people face what they call dryness in finances and everything because there is no presence of GOD in their lives. When the presence of GOD is not active in your life, you will lack peace, the prosperity of the righteous and steady progress in GOD’s design.
Promises He made to you will not come to pass. That is why living a crucified life is the greatest asset of the believer.
Paul said I die daily, that was why He saw the full manifestation of God’s presence in His life and ministry every day. If you are not seeing the manifestation of the presence of God in your life, family or ministry, you are not dying.
The presence of God is everywhere but His manifest presence is not everywhere. It can only be found where men have died to the things stated.
No dying means no manifestation of the potentials of God’s presence. Less dying means less manifestation of the potentials of God’s presence. More dying means more manifestation of the potential of God’s presence.
If we therefore want to see greater manifestation of God in our lives, Churches, or families we must be ready for greater level of dying, because “except a seed of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it abides alone.”
When I was teaching on “THE STREAMS OF THE SUPERNATURAL” some months ago I led my audience into scriptures to discover three streams of the supernatural – FAITH, ANOINTING and THE GLORY. There are three levels of dying in the kingdom of God. It is these levels of dying that are responsible for the streams of the supernatural we see or experience.
THE FIRST LEVEL OF DYING IS 30 FOLD.
This one will produce faith in your life. Without faith you cannot unlock things in the spirit. You cannot access miracles, blessings, or covenant moves of God. Faith is the currency of the spirit. By it the elders obtained good testimonies. But just as money cannot buy everything in the natural plane so faith has its own limitations. That is why many have believed God for things that never came.
True faith will plug you into the next level of dying to come into the next stream of the supernatural, which is the anointing. The next level of dying is 60 fold. Sadly, the Church preaches people to live weak “lives” instead of to die for this level of the supernatural to break forth in their lives wherever faith has failed. What faith cannot handle, the anointing will handle.
Now, I did not say the anointing of oil I mean the true anointing of the Holy Spirit which is not in bottles. There is false anointing in Church today because we are dealing with a devil that operated as an anointed cherub. So he can release the anointing too. This is where you will need an external connector between heaven and earth. A Holy man of God truly anointed for you.
THE LAST LEVEL OF DYING IS 100 FOLD.
This is the level that will plug you into the greatest stream of the supernatural called the glory. This is the realm the Church is yet to come into. We are stuck to the anointing and have not really seen the glory. The anointing can be counterfeited but the glory cannot be counterfeit. The end time Church is a Church that will operate under the glory not just the anointing!
There is so much I cannot state down here; so much you need to know. Buy you can order for the full message “STREAMS OF THE SUPERNATURAL” and all series I taught on “HOW TO LET ETERNITY INVADE TIME.” Many call the anointing the glory but there is a huge difference between the anointing and the glory.
The glory is the fullness of God’s presence on display. It does not manifest until our lives are in order. But the anointing will manifest even when lives are not in order. That is where many who live in sin but walk in the supernatural are deceived. They take the manifestation of the anointing as proof that what they may be doing wrong is not really wrong in God’s sight.
Well, they are not the first to think that way because Judas Iscariot walked in the anointing but lost his soul to hell. Jesus said not everyone who operates in the supernatural will make Heaven. Read Matthew 7:15-23. You see, a pastor who sleeps around, walks in deceit even crying to cover up, can carry the anointing of God for a while but can never carry the glory for a second because it will kill him.
When men of God are not in order, they may operate in the anointing but to come into the glory we must be in order because when the glory shows up, everything not in order will be judged. Don’t forget how Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 died. The church then was under the glory not the anointing.
As you pass through this day, I want you to take time out to absorb this message. It is the key to the very breakthrough you have been looking for. The presence of God is full of potentials but we will never see the manifestation of same in our Churches, meetings, families, or general Christian life until we die to things.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”
“He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” John 12:24-25 NKJV