TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 9TH OCTOBER 2022)
“For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” 1 Corinthians 2:11-13 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 282ND DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
Today is one of those beautiful days the LORD made possible for us to have a corporate fellowship as local churches on the face of the earth.
Preachers are already preparing to dish out true, and some, lying teachings. Others are getting ready to prophesy or prophelie..
There will be some great teachings from the LORD for some and ‘great’ teachings from greed, covetousness and even the portals of hell that audiences in both camps will call “powerful.”
That is why you do not allow yourself to be carried away when someone is saying a sermon blessed them. It all depends on who they are, what they heard, and who preached the sermon.
For instance, true seekers of GOD will be blessed by a sermon that false seekers may not be blessed by. Carnal Christians will be blessed by a sermon that will make the spiritual minded to weep for their souls.
Hypocrites will be blessed by a sermon that pampers or massages their ego but has no truth of who they really are in it.
So, when next someone is heard saying “a sermon was great” just find out who they are by spirit nature and who preached the sermon. People who are yet to become true worshipers will like sermons that put money in their pockets instead of sermons that form Christ in them.
They will like a preaching minister or ministry that will show them how to make GOD fulfill their earthly desires, even at the expense of their eternal lives. They will prefer a sermon that gets their heart desires granted them, even if it sends leanness to their souls.
Today is the 9th day of our 31-Day journey of faith with Bible Truths on the Holy Spirit.
Yesterday we said, one of the things that will put our lives in order is the truth which the Holy Spirit teaches. That is why He brings a grace that is full of truth.
Talking about truth, people have maintained that everyone have their own truth. It all depends on which side of the coin one is.
THAT IS A FACT WITHIN ANY HUMAN SYSTEM OR PRISM. THAT IS WHY MOST ARE DESTROYED.
Everyone of us have his or her own truth that we all lean to, but truth ordinarily should set one free, positively. But our individual truths have actually made us slaves of our carnal passions and sinful desires. It has made us slaves of even demons.
That make our individual truths not truths at all. The Bible says,
“Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding.
In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.
Be not wise in your own eyes; reverently fear and worship the Lord and turn [entirely] away from evil.” Proverbs 3:5-7 AMPC
Our own truth will make us trust in ourselves, instead of GOD, build our confidence in us, rely on our own insight and understanding, and become the directors of our lives, leading to very damnable results and most times unredeemable consequences.
There is no way we can progress joyfully in life if we depend on our truths.
Sadly speaking, even when our truth is killing us, we do not jettison it to embrace GOD’s. We follow our counsels, and the stubborn promptings of our evil hearts, and minds. When we are privileged to have GOD’s truth, we turn our backs at it.
God lamented this situation of ours in His word, saying;
“But they would not listen to and obey Me or bend their ear [to Me], but followed the counsels and the stubborn promptings of their own evil hearts and minds, and they turned their backs and went in reverse instead of forward.” Jeremiah 7:24 AMPC
When we follow our own truth, we may prosper for a while, but soon it will become clear to us that even the so-called prosperity was a life backward not forward.
God has our best interests at heart. That is why His Holy Spirit will never establish us in our own truth. He will bring them down instead because they cannot help us.
HE WILL RATHER ESTABLISH OUR LIVES ON HIS OWN TRUTH.
Until our lives are so established, they can never be set in order for GOD’s blessings to rest upon us. That is why we find ourselves blessed when He begin to lead us to establish our lives on His own truth.
The source of His own truth is the depths of God, oozing out through the Bible. That is why the scriptures comes alive as soon as we open it with Him on our inside.
The Bible says;
“knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” 2 Peter 2:20-21 NKJV
Believe it it not, the Holy Spirit is the author of the BIBLE.
He wrote it using the lives, experiences (both sweet and bitter experiences) of people in the past, and the prophecies they were inspired to speak or write. That is why every detail of the Bible is useful except for those who are still carnally minded.
The miraculous authorship of the Bible makes it the ultimate source of living and liberating truths on the face of the earth.
That is why, no matter what portion, chapter, story or life you are studying in the Bible, with its author, the Holy Spirit, in you, you will always come out with tons and tons of wisdom from the present truth.
I feel so sad each time I hear some baby preachers, or let me say, misinformed preachers, put a dent on the Bible by their preaching. Some have said it is not the word of GOD. Others have said it has errors.
Well, It is when you do not carry the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of truth that you make all those statements.
Our devotional text made it clear that, when He manifest in your life as the Spirit of truth, He will teach you all things, comparing one spiritual thing in this chapter of the Bible, with another spiritual thing in the other. Making no part of the Bible useless.
The truths He teaches are the things of God, not the depths of Satan or the things of men. The more of them you know, the more of God you know. As He takes you deeper and deeper, you will begin to decrease and God will begin to increase in your life.
Your life will never be set in order listening to truths that are not revealing God or His ways to you.
The Bible says He showed His ways to Moses and His acts to the Children of Israel. They disqualified themselves from knowing God by going for His acts instead of His ways, like Moses did. That is a template of the two kinds of Christians we have today.
THE FIRST KIND ARE THOSE WHO PURSUE GOD’S ACTS AND THE SECOND THOSE WHO PURSUE HIS WAYS.
Those who pursue God’s acts do not care about some of the things we are writing here. All they want is for this and that to happen. But those who pursue His ways will care, and will make the Holy Spirit their teacher and the Bible their study companion.
They will have their lives set in order for the LORD to put a blessing on them.
What are we saying this morning? What we are saying is this; you will never come to the truth that will set your life in order neglecting the Spirit of GOD and the Holy Bible.
The truths that will set our lives in order are in the depth of God. To access those depths, we have to rely on the Spirit of the LORD that has access to them.
Our devotional text says;
“For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” 1 Corinthians 2:11-13 NKJV
The Bible made it clear that the things that lies in the depth of GOD are things that have been freely given to us by God.
Some of them are living truths that need to be taught to us by the Holy Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. The truths are not taught with words which human wisdom teaches, but words which the Holy Spirit teaches.
THE AMPLIFIED VERSION OF THE SAME SCRIPTURE PUTS IT THIS WAY;
“And we are setting these truths forth in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the [Holy] Spirit, combining and interpreting spiritual truths with spiritual language [to those who possess the Holy Spirit].” 1 Corinthians 2:13 AMPC
This scripture present things in a clearer form. It says the Holy Spirit set these truths forth in our hearts with words not taught by human wisdom but by Him Himself, combining and interpreting spiritual truths with spiritual language to those who posses the Holy Spirit.
Meaning, for you to come into the realms of truth delivery we are sharing about, you must have the Holy Spirit in your life.
You must be Baptized or filled with the Spirit to be schooled properly in the things of God.
In other words, you must be spiritual to comprehend the living truths that the Holy Spirit teaches to put our lives in order, else everything will be meaningless to you.
The rest of text in the amplified version says;
“But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them [of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them] because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated.
But the spiritual man tries all things [he examines, investigates, inquires into, questions, and discerns all things], yet is himself to be put on trial and judged by no one [he can read the meaning of everything, but no one can properly discern or appraise or get an insight into him].” 1 Corinthians 2:14 -15 NKJV
When you are baptized or filled with the Spirit, you will begin to operate at a higher level of knowledge acquisition, where you can read the meaning of everything, especially things in the word of the LORD.
You will be able to examine, investigate, inquire into, questions and discerns all things.
I believe the core truth of today’s devotional have been shared. What is the message?
The message is simple. The desire to set our lives in order remains the ultimate aim of the Holy Spirit. One of the tools He would use to do that is the living truths He draws from the depth of God.
We will need to be taught those truths for His vision for our lives will be fulfilled.
Not spending time to study the Bible or to sit under those who have studied it, especially with the aim of studying and knowing GOD for yourself, will deny you access to the living truths that the Holy Spirit teaches.
It is my prayer that you will make use of the devotional to improve your walk and talk with the LORD in Jesus precious name. Amen!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY
“As for myself, brethren, when I came to you, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony and evidence or mystery and secret of God [concerning what He has done through Christ for the salvation of men] in lofty words of eloquence or human philosophy and wisdom;
For I resolved to know nothing (to be acquainted with nothing, to make a display of the knowledge of nothing, and to be conscious of nothing) among you except Jesus Christ (the Messiah) and Him crucified.
And I was in (passed into a state of) weakness and fear (dread) and great trembling ]after I had come] among you.
And my language and my message were not set forth in persuasive (enticing and plausible) words of wisdom, but they were in demonstration of the [Holy] Spirit and power [a proof by the Spirit and power of God, operating on me and stirring in the minds of my hearers the most holy emotions and thus persuading them],
So that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men (human philosophy), but in the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 AMPC