TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 1ST AUGUST 2022)
“All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:27-30 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 214TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
It is a new month, and we give God the glory for His marvelous works in our lives. We started this year with a word from Him, and we have continued the year with a daily word from Him on this platform.
The natural Life is full of challenges and problems but a daily word from the LORD has a way of helping us pass through each day with refreshing in our spirits. A day without a refreshing word from the LORD can turn out to be very bad, depending on the circumstances that surround each person’s life.
The reason for all that is because our human spirits are designed in such a way that it will always need a word from the LORD for it to thrive on earth. From the story of the manna that God fed Israel with on daily basis, its clear that Adam also must have survived daily by eating from the tree of life among other trees in the Garden.
The Bible says,
“Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 2:15-17 NKJV
As you may have known, there were so many trees in the Garden but two stood out because of the power God invested in them and their purpose in the destiny of mankind.
The first was the tree of life which was responsible for keeping the body of man in the state of immortality. The second was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which was planted to serve as law school for Adam who was to serve as the Judge of the earth.
Do not forget, Adam was a son of God and judgment on the fallen angels and every other thing was committed to him. The Bible made it clear that in the kingdom of God judgment is committed to sons.
God has set a day for the Judgment of Lucifer (Satan) and other fallen angels. His plan was for Adam to eat of that tree at a later date so that he can come to the knowledge of Good and evil and understand the weight of Satan’s eternal crime for proper execution of judgment.
FROM THE COMMAND TO EAT OF EVERY TREE APART FROM THAT ONE, ITS CLEAR THAT ADAM WAS NOT RESTRICTED FROM EATING FORM THE TREE OF LIFE. MEANING HE WAS FEEDING FROM IT.
So, when the devil deceived Eve and she in turn made Adam to eat from the tree, access to the Garden was eventually lost. Access was specifically lost because of the presence of the tree of life.
The Bible says;
“Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever – therefore, the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.
So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.” Genesis 3:22-24 NKJV
From this scripture it is clear that access to the Garden was lost to stop mankind from eating from the tree of life. If mankind had not been denied access to it, it would have been impossible to redeem us from sin.
From the perspective of the New Testament, we can say access to it was denied so that access to it can be restored. Hallelujah!
The tree of life today is Jesus Christ of Nazareth, our LORD and savior who died on the cross to redeem us from the penalty, practice, and presence of sin.
ACCESS TO HIM IS ACCESS TO THE TREE OF LIFE. WHICH BRINGS US TO OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT FOR THE DAY.
The text says;
“All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:27-30 NKJV
If you look at this scripture, you will realize that the first verse is about the revelation of the Heavenly Father to man by Christ. Others parts have to do with coming to Christ to sit and learn so that you will have rest. Meaning, what we pluck from the Tree of Life today is the revelation knowledge of God.
The revelation knowledge of God is so powerful that it can give one a foretaste of immortality on this side of eternity, like the tree of life made Adam’s body immortal while in the Garden. That is why the word of the LORD can bring healing to the Spirit, soul or body, granting us rest.
Immortality manifest on this side pf eternity as such.
Now, there is something else we can find in the scripture of our devotional text. Let us look at it again. The text says, “
…..Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
From this text, it is clear that what we pluck from the tree of life today is the revelation of the Father brought to us by the Spirit of the Son, the Holy Spirit. If we take it further, the doctrine or teaching of Christ is what we pluck from the tree of life today.
WHEN WE ABSORB IT, THE RESULT WILL BE REST FOR OUR SOULS.
Therefore, it is not complete Immortality we get but rest for our souls.
Rest in time and Eternity is what we get if we make use of the access that we have been granted to the present-day Tree of life, and become intimate with Him. That brings us to a core truth in the great commission that Jesus handed over to us.
The Bible says;
“And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. Matthew 28:18-20 NKJV
The underlining truth here is teaching what Christ taught.
You see, this scripture is what we refer to as the great commission in the Kingdom of God. Ordinarily, it should be the vision of ministries, ministers and all Churches.
In other words, everything we claim to be our visions should fit into this scripture. All we do as ministers of the gospel or servants of God, should fit into this scripture. It should be exactly what Christ handed over to us as the great commission.
Sadly, most of what you see today in the name of preaching the gospel has nothing to do with the great commission that Jesus handed over to us. That is why we have so many disciples and sons of preachers instead of disciples of Christ and sons of God. You can see it in our life styles and all that.
If you are a son of some preacher and not a son of God, you are lost. If you are a disciple of some preacher and not a disciple of Christ you are lost.
For me, spiritual sonship should result in making people sons of God and pushing them into their divine destinies through discipleship. It should be focused on making people disciples of Christ through a spiritual fathering system like the one Paul established between him, Timothy and Titus.
HE TAUGHT THEM WHAT CHRIST TAUGHT HIM.
In other words, He made them eat from the Tree of life the way he also ate from it. Genuine spiritual sonship is not just about honoring your father with substance but about feeding from the tree of life by the hand of someone who have been feeding from it years before you.
That brings us to the Cry of the Spirit for the month. We have been hearing so much from men of GOD and all kinds of preachers about spiritual fathering and what to expect from it.
Consequently, spiritual fathering now means so many things to so many people. There are those who see it as nothing but exploitation and manipulation. There are those who see it as having a spiritual leader who take care of your financial needs like a biological father would do.
There are those who see it as a means of getting money and honor from people who should call them “papa.” But what did the Cry of the Holy Spirit in the scriptures says about spiritual fathering? We are beginning a 31-day journey today to find out.
Today, being the first day of the journey, we have already seen what the foundation, of spiritual fathering should be. We have seen that access to the tree of life and feeding from it from time to time, through discipleship, should be the foundation, footing or basis of spiritual fathering in God’s kingdom. Anything outside that is either from the flesh or the kingdom of darkness.
If you are not feeding from the tree of life by the hand of the person you call spiritual father, or you are not being made a son of God or disciple of Christ, you are being short changed.
Child of GOD, it is a 31-Day journey with the Cry of the Spirit on Spiritual fathering. May the LORD use it to further our faith and keep giving us an inheritance among they that are sanctified.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“My son, hear the instruction of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother; For they will be a graceful ornament on your head, and chains about your neck.
My son, if sinners entice you, Do not consent. If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait to shed blood; Let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause; Let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole, like those who go down to the Pit;
We shall find all kinds of precious possessions, we shall fill our houses with spoil; Cast in your lot among us, Let us all have one purse”— My son, do not walk in the way with them, Keep your foot from their path;” Proverbs 1:8-15 NKJV