TODAY’S DEVOTION (FRIDAY 14TH OCTOBER 2022)
“But I say, walk and live [habitually] in the [Holy] Spirit [responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit]; then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God).
For the desires of the flesh are opposed to the [Holy] Spirit, and the [desires of the] Spirit are opposed to the flesh (godless human nature); for these are antagonistic to each other [continually withstanding and in conflict with each other], so that you are not free but are prevented from doing what you desire to do.
But if you are guided (led) by the [Holy] Spirit, you are not subject to the Law.
Now the doings (practices) of the flesh are clear (obvious): they are immorality, impurity, indecency,” Galatians 5:16-19 AMPC
WELCOME TO THE 287TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
Glory to the LORD God for another day to be alive and well. We do not take these marvelous acts of God’s mercies for granted. It will be foolish to do so.
Like we have always said, one day of being alive is not cheap. You need to go to the Hospitals and take a look at those who are on life support to fully understand why we must give God thanks always.
Many pay fortunes to be kept alive for just one hour by machines. But here we are, getting it freely from our maker. We must be grateful.
May our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ be glorified. Obviously, our lives are hidden in Him and in Him alone we consist. The Bible says;
“For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.” Colossians 1:16-18 NKJV
His headship of the Church cannot be contested for. He is worthy of our submission, praise, worship and all we can offer. He is worthy of our Sacrifices for His kingdom to come and will be done on earth as written in Heaven. He is worthy of our dedication and devotion.
He is worthy of having us as slaves of righteousness. He is worthy!
We should never maltreat Him by living a life that is in variance with His will and ways. He did so much for us on the Cross and still do so much for us on daily bases.
As our chief shepherd He have been feeding us on this platform since 2015 when the devotional began. That is seven years now.
His faithfulness stands strong at all times and we are beneficiaries of same.
THIS TIME AROUND HE HAVE BEEN FEEDING US ON THINGS WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT.
It is a 31-Day journey of faith aimed at improving our relationship with Him.
Many of us either have no relationship with Him or have strained relationships with Him. Very few have thriving relationship with the Holy Spirit, hence all the destructions and spiritual oppression a lot of us go through.
For instance, a lot of people struggle with curses, lack, backwardness, and all forms of spiritual attacks from unclean spirits.
They go through a lot of battles with spirits that come to sleep with them while they are asleep. Others go through attacks from what they call evil altars, monitoring spirits, generation this and that, ancestral curses and all that.
You find so many in Church today going for deliverance and meeting prophets to help them solve one problem or another. It could be in their marital lives, their health, their finances and all that. But none of this should be happening if there was a thriving relationship between each believer and the Holy Spirit.
Many have thriving relationships with their papas, mamas, prophets, apostles and etc. but no thriving relationship with the Blessed Holy Spirit. That is why they have to depend on them when they are in need.
Its sad to say that a lot of us preachers have become deities to our members because of their lack of thriving relationship with the Holy Spirit.
They have handed over to us what they should have handed over to the Holy Spirit.
Christianity is not a life you live replacing the Holy Spirit with a man of God. It is a life you live with a thriving relationship with the Holy Spirit. Stop fighting for a spiritual relationship with a man of God when you have no thriving relationship with God, except if to cultivate one is your goal.
Maintaining a thriving relationship with your pastor but a strained one with the Holy Spirit will never help you in your Christian life. You will lead a man-of-God controlled life and never fully enjoy the freedom that is in Christ.
A man-of-God controlled life has ruined so many.
It has filled lives with fear and made them automated teller machines (ATM) of greedy preachers. I have met so many man-of-God-controlled Church members who will not even lift up their voice to talk to God without a prayer point or permission from their man of God.
THERE ARE THOSE WHO CANNOT CHOSE WHO TO MARRY. THEY ARE NOT ALLOWED.
It is their man of God that must choose the person for them. There are those who will not plan a budget. As soon as their salaries are collected, their man of God would have to tell them how to spend the money.
The witchcraft and manipulation is too much. It is really an eye sore.
Sadly, those who have been made spiritual dependents of their men of God may see what we are saying here as senseless or even hurtful. But you will just become a worshiper of your pastor if you have a thriving relationship with him but no thriving relationship with the Holy Spirit.
Your life will never be blissful handing over to a man of God what you should have handed over to the Holy Spirit.
Understand that You will never be able to solve problems that can only be solved through a thriving personal relationship with the Holy Spirit of God another way.
Your life will lack power, success, holiness, financial progress, wisdom in crisis time, achievements, and etc. if you do not have a thriving relationship with the Holy Spirit.
Yesterday we shared about the religious spirit. One of the many things that have replaced Holy Spirit controlled Christian life with man of God controlled Christian life is the religious spirit in Churches today. It has adulterated the teachings of spiritual fathering and use it to bring believers into a man-of-God controlled Christian life.
Genuine spiritual fathering will result in a Spirit of God controlled Christian life, not a man of God controlled Christian life. That is why we find some people who are very close to men of God living very sinful lives.
In some cases, their men of God are not to blame. The people are to blame, because many today just prefer to replace Holy-Spirit-controlled life, with man-of-God controlled life. They are too lazy, spiritually, to cultivate a Holy Spirit controlled life. Hence lacking the power to live right despite being so close to God’s servants.
AND DO NOT FORGET, CLOSENESS TO GOD’S SERVANTS IS NOT CLOSENESS TO GOD. ASK JUDAS.
You can be very close to God’s servants and yet be very far from God. It all depends on the nature of your heart or the motive of your closeness. So many are closed to deep men of God for the carnal, mundane and earthly, hence very far from God.
If you are not using your closeness to a true servant of God to walk and live habitually in the Spirit, you are wasting the closeness, especially if the man of God operates powerfully in the Spirit.
I want to submit to us this morning that One of the primary purposes of having a spiritual authority over your life is to learn how to walk and live habitually in the Holy Spirit. It is to learn how to be responsive to, and how to be controlled and guided by the Spirit of God.
Our devotional text says;
“But I say, walk and live [habitually] in the [Holy] Spirit [responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit]; then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God).
For the desires of the flesh are opposed to the [Holy] Spirit, and the [desires of the] Spirit are opposed to the flesh (godless human nature); for these are antagonistic to each other [continually withstanding and in conflict with each other], so that you are not free but are prevented from doing what you desire to do.
But if you are guided (led) by the [Holy] Spirit, you are not subject to the Law.
Now the doings (practices) of the flesh are clear (obvious): they are immorality, impurity, indecency,” Galatians 5:16-19 AMPC
From this scripture, we can see that leading a Spirit of God controlled life is the key to defeating the flesh that is bent at taking us to hell. It is the key to defeating the doings of the flesh.
If we therefore replace a Holy Spirit controlled life with a man-of-God controlled life, we will never be able to defeat the doings of the flesh and lead Heaven worthy lives.
Sadly, so many Christians cannot lead holy lives because of these things.
They are amazing spiritual sons of famed preachers but cannot tame the flesh; they masturbate, fornicate, commit adultery and do some many immoral, impure and indecent things, calling it their weakness. That is the result of leading a man-of-God or papa controlled Christian life, instead of a Holy Spirit controlled Christian life.
Today’s devotional is a call to Spirit controlled living. I pray that we all heed to it in Jesus precious name. Amen!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
But if you are guided (led) by the [Holy] Spirit, you are not subject to the Law.
Now the doings (practices) of the flesh are clear (obvious): they are immorality, impurity, indecency,
Idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger (ill temper), selfishness, divisions (dissensions), party spirit (factions, sects with peculiar opinions, heresies),
Envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you beforehand, just as I did previously, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the [Holy] Spirit [the work which His presence within accomplishes] is love, joy (gladness), peace, patience (an even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness,
Gentleness (meekness, humility), self-control (self-restraint, continence). Against such things there is no law [that can bring a charge].
And those who belong to Christ Jesus (the Messiah) have crucified the flesh (the godless human nature) with its passions and appetites and desires.
If we live by the [Holy] Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. [If by the Holy Spirit [g]we have our life in God, let us go forward walking in line, our conduct controlled by the Spirit.] Galatians 5:18-25 AMPC