TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 16TH MAY 2022)
“Beloved, do not be amazed and bewildered at the fiery ordeal which is taking place to test your quality, as though something strange (unusual and alien to you and your position) were befalling you.
But insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, rejoice, so that when His glory [full of radiance and splendor] is revealed, you may also rejoice with triumph [exultantly].
If you are censured and suffer abuse [because you bear] the name of Christ, blessed [are you—happy, fortunate, [h]to be envied, [i]with life-joy, and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of your outward condition], because the Spirit of glory, the Spirit of God, is resting upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.
But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or any sort of criminal, or as a mischief-maker (a meddler) in the affairs of others [infringing on their rights].
But if [one is ill-treated and suffers] as a Christian [which he is contemptuously called], let him not be ashamed, but give glory to God that he is [deemed worthy to suffer] in this name. 1 Peter 4:12-16 AMPC
WELCOME TO THE 136TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE
It has been 136 days of His amazing grace. God’s grace is but not limited to His mercy and love. The power of His mercies and the power of His love is beyond human description. Only the life of a man that God has shown mercy to and demonstrated His love in can accurate tell what the power of God’s mercy and love is.
We are part of those He has shown great mercies to and our lives can tell what His love really looks like. The breath in our nostrils reveals the depth of His compassion and amazing faithfulness. We are alive because of all that and the much more that came from Him to us each day!
May His name remain glorified and honored, amen and amen!
Yes, there are things that God does in a man’s life that human words cannot accurate tell the story of what they are. Only the life that He has done them to can accurate testify. I did not say the mouth, I said the life. To me, the greatest impact of what God does in our lives is best known, not by words of our mouth but by its manifestation in our lives.
As people see us, as people relate with us, they do not just know them they experience them.
That is why we either win people to the LORD more effectively or push them away from the LORD more effectively with the words of our lives than with the words of our mouths.
In other words, with what they experienced in our lives.
There are people who got saved by what they experienced in the lives of true children of GOD. Some even got saved by what they experienced in the lives of wicked men and women and how God saved them from it. What we experience in the lives of others is what really impact our lives, not just what we hear them say to us.
In kingdom advance, the words of a man’s LIFE have proven to be more powerful in kingdom advance impact on the souls of men then the words of a man’s mouth. Words of the mouth may bring people into GOD’s kingdom, but it will take the words of our lives to keep them in the kingdom.
I think the ones that know this more are the invisible kingdoms that rules the affairs of men. You know, the ones who lives in the invisible realm see much more than we do. We only see things when the LORD opens our eyes to see them. So, they know how much the words of our lives affect people.
GOD IS SENDING HIS CRY TO US ON PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY BECAUSE OF THE SAME REASON.
Over the years, people’s lives have been more affected by what they experienced in other people’s lives than what the people said to them.
In the days of the early Church, they had no such communication systems that we have today, but they made more impact in God’s kingdom than we are making today. And that was because they understood the power of living; they knew it was more impactful than the power of speaking.
They opened up hearts for the LORD and kept them in the kingdom of God through the power of living the Christian life, which is stronger than the power of speaking what the Christian life is.
You know, it is easier to speak than to live the life. Yet, more impact is made through living the life than speaking what the life is. People will remain in God’s kingdom when they see it, then when they hear about it. The Bible says;
“Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend [to show rage or worthy purpose].” Proverbs 27:17 AMPC
Most time the countenance is sharpened by what we say but more so by what the people experience in our lives. Sometimes we will not say anything with our mouths but our lives have said so much.
I have come to discover that even the way we handle trials, temptations, and the battles of life send strong words to those around us to either come to the LORD or stay away from Him.
Sadly, many of us in the faith have not realized that and are turning many away from the LORD by how we handle our trials, temptations and life battles. People who overcome temptations, conquer the battles of their lives by the arm of the LORD, and stand strong in trials will win more souls to the LORD without saying a word to them then people who are going every where preaching and screaming.
The things we go about preaching and screaming could bring someone to the LORD but the people need to see them in out lives to truly get planted in the LORD. That is why it is not good to become scandalous after a season of teaching or preaching the word of God in spirit and in truth.
LET ME SHOW US WHY FATHERING AND DISCIPLESHIP ARE KEY IN GOD’S KINGDOM.
Both involves training people to live right by teaching them with the words of our mouth and the WORDS of your Life. Mostly the words of our lives. As they watch how we handle temptation, trials and the battles of our lives.
Actually, sometimes practical Christianity is not something people experience when things are fine with us. It is something people experience when things are not fine with us.
The Christ they see as they watch us handle the battles of life, the temptations that comes our ways and the trials we face. Most people gave their hearts to the LORD in ancient times because of the way our fathers handle the fiery trials they faced for walking with the LORD!
You find James the first Church leader, charging those who were moving from Judaism to Christianity with these words;
“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing”. James 1:2-4 NKJV
In those days and even today, moving from Judaism to Christianity was like moving from Islam to Christianity. You will go through hell. So he had to write to charge them to count it all joy because the trial of their faith will not just carve out the virtue of patience in them, but will also help those who were being used by hell to try them and those who were watching them tried experience Christ in them.
Sometimes we are tempted to ask, “why do bad things happen to good people?” I believe it is for the salvation of the bad people around the good people that bad things happen to good people.
And there is great reward in Heaven for the good people that bad things are happening to if they know the LORD and remain strong in Him in the midst of the bad things that may be happening to them.
The principle is, as the bad people watch the good people remaining faithful to God in the midst of their trials, they experience Christ through what the good people may be going through.
Understand that our fiery trials are to help those who are still in darkness to see the light of the glorious gospel shining through us; and that light is Christ.
THE PRINCIPLE IS THAT THEY SEE IT AND COME TO HIM.
I do not know if you have ever asked yourself why our fathers suffered so much and kept the faith in the midst of their trials and persecutions.
Why did they not seek redress before GOD in prayer the way we do today, asking that He kill their enemies for all the injustices they suffered? Why did they accept what they went through in good faith? I believe they knew what many of us today do not know; they knew how to submit to suffering so that Christ can be revealed.
Consequently, they won more souls into the Kingdom by that than by what the preached!
Paul himself sort to know the fellowship of Christ sufferings just because of his desire to change his world through that. He caught the revelation in the sufferings of Christ. It was the sufferings of Christ that revealed the One and only true God to mankind. It was how He died, was buried and was raised back to life that revealed God to us.
Jesus was the first righteous seed of GOD that fell and died in other not to abide alone in the kingdom; in other to bring more souls into the kingdom of GOD. We are the next righteous seed to go through the same paths. However, it may not necessarily be through death, burial and resurrection.
Let me share a little about the righteously seed. The righteous seed has a unique destiny.
The destiny of the righteous seed is to go through dying or sufferings so that Christ can be revealed to the dying world and the sick Church through the faithfulness and consistency of the righteous seed in the midst of the process.
You now understand why most people suffer as soon as they are made part of the righteous seed by the blood of the lamb, the power of sanctifying truths and the power of the Holy Spirit.
THE RIGHTEOUS SEED IS GOD’S TOOL FOR HEALING THE SICK CHURCH AND SAVING THE DYING WORLD.
A major part of Our devotional text says,
“Beloved, do not be amazed and bewildered at the fiery ordeal which is taking place to test your quality, as though something strange (unusual and alien to you and your position) were befalling you.
But insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, rejoice, so that when His glory [full of radiance and splendor] is revealed, you may also rejoice with triumph [exultantly].
If you are censured and suffer abuse [because you bear] the name of Christ, blessed [are you—happy, fortunate, to be envied, with life-joy, and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of your outward condition], because the Spirit of glory, the Spirit of God, is resting upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified”. 1 Peter 4:12-14 AMPC
If we are censored by twitter, Facebook, YOUTUBE or the people and systems around us, and abused for the name of the LORD that we bear or spread, the Bible says blessed are we.
That redefined what it means to be blessed completely. It killed the Charismatic idea of blessing which to them is all about having a good job, a good car, good clothes, living in the best places, traveling round the world for pleasure and having the best this life offers.
The Bible says we are blessed even if we do not have the things that people called blessings; we are blessed when we go through what the righteous seed is destined to go through.
But it is important to note that we are not blessed if we go through the fiery trials of life because of foolishness, lack of vision, lack of knowledge, personal sins and wickedness or such things.
THAT IS WHY THE REST OF THE DEVOTIONAL TEXT SAID;
“But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or any sort of criminal, or as a mischief-maker (a meddler) in the affairs of others [infringing on their rights].
But if [one is ill-treated and suffers] as a Christian [which he is contemptuously called], let him not be ashamed, but give glory to God that he is [deemed worthy to suffer] in this name.” 1 Peter 4:15-16 AMPC
There was this story I read about one of the early Church fathers. The story happened in the first 100 years of the Church.
The story has it that he went to an African country to extend the frontiers of the Kingdom of God there. But there were more servants of the kingdom of darkness there because of the stronghold of darkness that had been built for over three thousand years there. In fact, the ancient community had no servant of Christ in it.
When he got there, he started preaching the word but very few poor people turned to the LORD. Then one day, while preaching against the human sacrifices that were being offered in that place, the king had him arrested.
He was latter skinned alive and left to die tied to a tree. He lasted for few days and died.
But during the few days he lasted, he was preaching, still preaching while in the pain, still calling on all to turn away from the devil to Christ. Some thought he was too stubborn but after he died, the queen gave her life to Christ and got both the king and all the community saved.
In her testimony of salvation, she said “I watch this man in his pains and discover that he never spoke ill of the God he represented. He remained faithful to Him. Then I saw a light on his face; a glorious light that I have never seen. I surrendered to the LORD because I want to have what he had. I want the light I saw on his face on my face also.”
NOW IF THIS WARRIOR OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND TRUE FATHER OF FAITH HAD DONE WHAT WE DO TODAY, THIS WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED.
If he had asked God to judge the people for all they made him go through; if he had asked God to kill them or if he has said, “if I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you all” the results would have been different; they would have been bad and very bad.
Or if he had become bitter with God and questioned Him on why He did not prevent him from being skinned alive and killed that way, there would been no salvation for the people because they light the woman saw would not have appeared. But He counted it all joy and remained faithful in executing his assignment, and God use that to saved the people.
The queen and the king would later extend the Christian faith to the rest of the ancient nations around them.
What the man could not do with his words was done with his life. Sometimes practical Christianity is that way. It is full of sufferings and pains, but the vision is to reveal Christ in us to those around us. And the revelation is only possible if we keep the faith in the midst of the fight for our lives.
As we bring this to a close, I want to say our generation of believers do not know how to be strong in sufferings. In fact, we pray against suffering and count those who go through as non-Christians. A gospel that presents material wealth as the sign of Christianity has eaten into the fabric of our hearts, hence the big delusion.
Being a practical Christian would involve suffering and what we do in the midst of it. It will involve temptations, trails and battles, and what we do in the midst of them. We are expected not to faint but endure hardness as first-class soldiers of Christ in the midst of them all.
May the LORD Build us all! May He use these precious truths to help us lead practical Christian lives in Jesus precious name. Amen!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE NE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY
“Take [with me] your share of the hardships and suffering [which you are called to endure] as a good (first-class) soldier of Christ Jesus.
No soldier when in service gets entangled in the enterprises of [civilian] life; his aim is to satisfy and please the one who enlisted him.
And if anyone enters competitive games, he is not crowned unless he competes lawfully (fairly, according to the rules laid down).” 2 Timothy 2:3-5 APMC