TODAY’S DEVOTION (FRIDAY 15th April 2022)
“Defend the poor and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy; Free them from the hand of the wicked.
They do not know, nor do they understand; They walk about in darkness; All the foundations of the earth are unstable.
I said, “You are gods, And all of you are children of the Most High. But you shall die like men, And fall like one of the princes.”
Arise, O God, judge the earth; For You shall inherit all nations.” Psalm 82:3-8 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 105TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE
Glory be to the One and Only True God and Jesus Christ whom He sent to redeem us from destructions; both in time and eternity.
It is another day from the LORD, and we give Him thanks for life and for all He has given us to keep us alive this passover season.
The greatness of God is the reason why we have not been diminished by the enemy and the battles of this life. His mercies have been the reason our sins have not destroyed our lives. His Holiness is the reason we are sure sin will not have dominion over us, because it is there to empower us daily to live right.
His power is the reason we can pray for others and they get well. It is the reason for effective Christian living and victories in life. The true riches of His Kingdom are the reasons we are who we are in Christ Jesus; they are the reasons money is still our slave instead of becoming our god.
Simply put, His glory has been the reason for our beauty.
There is nothing good about us that came from us because none of us is good. Everything good about us came from the LORD through His Death, Burial and Resurrection.
CELEBRATE JESUS FOR ALL HIS MARVELOUS WORKS AND GREAT DEEDS!
This week, the entire body of Christ will be celebrating or commemorating the Death, Burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
It is going to be a very significant week depending on the level of one’s relationship with the LORD. Though Jesus’ request is that we remember His Death, Burial and Resurrection daily, we can use the season to position ourselves for dimensions of GOD we may have not seen before.
We have been looking at the doctrine of Christ on life, and I want you to know that without His Death, Burial and Resurrection, there would have been no life. There is a song we sang in those days that says “No, Jesus, No life.” It was His death, burial and Resurrection that gave us the life we have been sharing about; the spiritual life.
We had said that there are three categories of life created by the LORD. We have the natural life that starts when our hearts begin to beat in our mother’s womb. Then we have the Spiritual life which also starts as soon as our spiritual hearts begins to beat.
In other words, the spiritual life begins as soon as the Spirit of the LORD is fired into our human spirits, making it to come alive in God. This spiritual wonder takes places when the second Adam, Christ, comes into our lives as a Life-giving Spirit. The Bible says;
And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.
The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven.” 1 Corinthians 15:45-47 NKJV
The amplified version puts the first verse of this scripture (verse 45) this way, “Thus it is written, the first man Adam became a living being (an individual personality); the last Adam (Christ) became a life-giving Spirit [restoring the dead to life].”
In Adam we all died. Yes, We all died when he ate from the tree of the Knowledge of good and evil.
Do not forget God had said to him, the day you eat of it you shall surely die. In other words, you shall come under the gate of death (naturally, spiritually and eternally). That is why Adam did not die immediately. He died slowly. It took him 930 years to die completely.
WHEN YOU COME UNDER THE GATES OF DEATH, YOU DO NOT DIE IMMEDIATELY, YOU DIE SLOWLY.
In Adam, the human race came under the gates of death, making it possible to die naturally, spiritually and eternally. We die naturally when our earthly lives come to an end. But spiritually, everyone is usually born dead because we were all in Adam when he finally died spiritually. He died spiritually before dying naturally.
So, because of that original sin of Adam, we are born dead in spirit.
To be dead in spirit is to be separated from God, the fullness of Spiritual life Himself. So, we are usually born separated from God; the fullness of Spiritual life. That is why our Spiritual life begins when we experience the new Birth Miracle, when the life-giving Spirit of the LORD comes into our lives to make our spiritual hearts or human spirits come alive by joining it back to the GOD we have been raised from the dead.
The Spiritual life therefore, is not a life you live separated from God. It is a life you live only when you have been joined to the LORD GOD.
It begins when Christ manifest in our lives as a life-giving Spirit, restoring our dead human spirits and bringing it back to life with and in God. That is the first resurrection from dead a man experience. It is a resurrection from a life that is dead in sin, iniquity and trespasses, to a life that is alive in GOD, resulting in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
When one is separated from God one is hostile towards Him and towards all that belong to Him. That tells you why we are killed, persecuted, maligned, destroyed, lied against, tortured and done so many evils to by even close relatives because of the name and presence of the LORD in our lives.
Sadly, some who do these things even go to church like those who killed the LORD and tormented the apostles. Jesus Himself said;
“I have told you all these things, so that you should not be offended (taken unawares and falter, or be caused to stumble and fall away). [I told you to keep you from being scandalized and repelled.]
They will put you out of (expel you from) the synagogues; but an hour is coming when whoever kills you will think and claim that he has offered service to God.
And they will do this because they have not known the Father or Me.” John 16:1-3 AMPC
THIS SCRIPTURE MADE IT CLEAR THAT THEY ARE HOSTILE TOWARDS GOD AND US BECAUSE THEY DO NOT KNOW THE FATHER.
They have no links with the Spirit of God and His Christ. They are alive physically but dead Spiritually. They go to church and still do those things because their spirits are still separated from God, hence the hostility towards anything that is truly God.
Personally, I have discovered that this kind of people can only cling to false gods in Church and false worship. They only cling to false teachings, polluted prophetic anointings, and heresies. They can only be part of Churches that have been reduced to forms of godliness without power. They can only live a powerless and Godless Christianity. Once they encounter true worshipers or see people in true worship, they become hostile.
I know a family who fought their daughter for her decision to quit sexual sins and follow the LORD. They were all attending the same Church until she found us on the media and decided to listen to the gospel. When she listened, the LORD met her and got her saved. Her Spirit came alive in God and she quit all sinful living.
She began to dedicate herself to the LORD instead of bringing men to sleep with and taking alcohol and all that like they had known her. Then hell broke loose. Her parents became very hostile, accusing her of joining a cult. When people who go to church are yet to find the LORD, they will always be hostile towards you when you find the LORD.
The Spiritual life is the life we come into after finding the LORD. It is a life that begins when we are born of the Spirit or born again (not by mouth but by heart).
The Spiritual life is a life we live in God or with GOD. It is a life we live in the Spirit or with the Spirit of the living GOD. It is a life we live after we have been born or begotten of God.
IT DELIVERS US FROM SIN, AND FROM A LIFE OF DELIBERATELY, KNOWINGLY AND HABITUALLY SINNING AGAINST GOD.
The Bible says;
“No one born (begotten) of God [deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin, for God’s nature abides in him [His principle of life, the divine sperm, remains permanently within him]; and he cannot practice sinning because he is born (begotten) of God.” 1 John 3:9 AMPC
This scripture tells us that a life of habitually sin is not a spiritual life. In fact, the person who lives in habitual sin has no spiritual life. He or she has a carnal life.
Sadly, when they die, they will end up in hell.
A Spiritual life is a life that is governed by the principle of the Life of Christ, the divine sperm of God that remains permanently within the saved and sanctified. It powers a person to be able to talk to God in the Spirit, Sing to Him in the Spirit, and live the natural life by the power of the Spirit.
It is important to note that a man who is born naturally, possess just the physical life, but he who is born of the Spirit possess both the physical and Spiritual life.
That brings us to the revelation of the Zoe kind of life.
What is the Zoe spiritual life? The Zoe spiritual life is a life which is in GOD from eternity. Another word for it is “eternal life.” During genuine salvation encounter, we change from having just the natural (Bios) life to having the life which is in God from eternity.
The word of GOD (Christ) comes into our spirits, transforming us into the very men (hypocrites of GOD or gods) He created in the beginning.
The Bible Says;
Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods” ’? If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? John 10:34-36 NKJV
When we are truly sanctified and imparted with the Zoe kind of life, we become gods – not gods to be worshiped but gods to worship the one and only true GOD. Because it takes gods (people in God’s image and likeness) to worship GOD!
Fallen men cannot worship the one and only true God. At best they will put on false worship everywhere.
WHICH BRINGS US TO OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT FOR THE DAY.
One of the significant truths in the text is found in the verse that says, “ I said, “You are gods, And all of you are children of the Most High. But you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.”
This scripture makes it clear that there are just two races or breeds on earth, so long as the human race is concern; the races are, the race of mare men, and the God in man (gods) race.
True Christianity takes one away from being part of the race of mere men on earth, to becoming part of the God in man race. It delivers one from falling like one of the princes, according to scripture. That is why Christianity should not be falsified because we will be sorry if we do.
A Christianity that is falsified will be full of the activities of the prince of this world. It will have so many believers who are in need of deliverance from this or that.
Can’t you see the many believers today who are falling like one of the princes because their Christianity does not have the Zoe kind of life? They struggle with curses, demonic attacks, incurable diseases, unclean spirits, severe attacks in marriage matters and etc.
You see, everything the Bible says about the Zoe kind of life only happens within the boundaries of true Christianity. The blessings it turns our lives into, the greatness of God it brings, the restoration, the prosperity, the marital bliss, the Heaven on earth, and all the goodies of God’s throne are only possible if we have it.
I believe enough has been said for the day!
I want to encourage you to walk away from ordinary Christianity and come into the Christianity Jesus gave birth to when He came; a life that is full of the expressions of God’s kingdom, power and glory.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;
they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Mark 16:14-18 NKJV