TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 17TH OCTOBER 2022)
“But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.
Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things,
and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;
that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Philippians 3:7-10 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 290TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
It is another beautiful Monday morning. We give GOD the glory for giving us another day.
Like we have always shared, life is precious.
To be alive is a gift from God that need to be received with gratitude. People who do not receive this beautiful gift with gratitude will begin lose it gradually without even realizing it.
There are people who did not live long because of ingratitude for the beautiful gift of life. Something, what people call “the curse of premature death” is not really from a curse but from a generational life of ingratitude to GOD for keeping people alive.
We rarely come out to testify to GOD in gratitude for keeping us alive, except when we escape death or recover from a life-threatening illness. That is how cheap we treat the gift of life that we receive daily.
We have become so used to it that saying thank you does no matter anymore.
As one that GOD has granted mercy to be in position of showing mercy to others by offering them help in time of need or in time of gifts, there are people who have become so used to the treatment that they no longer show gratitude.
To them, your kindness is your responsibility to them.
It may be okay if we treat our fellow men that way, but very costly if we do it to the LORD. Both, generates hindrances to progress and affect us externally, but the one we show to GOD affect us internally as well. It creates injury to our souls and grieves the Holy Spirit.
Talking about the Holy Spirit, you will not want to spend one of moment of your life grieving the Holy Spirit. It is like bruising a very lovely and caring person you love.
If you heart is not hardened, you will feel so much pain about it.
The Holy Spirit is the live wire of our lives, spiritual and natural. That is why for over 15 days today, we have been looking at what the word cry about Him in the Holy Scriptures. We have received snippets of truth from Him about Himself that have been very helpful.
YESTERDAY WE SAW THE IMPORTANCE OF SEEING OUR ENEMIES IN THE SIZE OF OUR GOD.
When we face life with the Holy Spirit as the power working in us, we will see progress in life. Victory in the day of adversity will always be ours because it will be very difficult for us to faint in the day of adversity because our strength, the Holy Spirit, is not small.
The Bible says,
“Do not lie in wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; Do not plunder his resting place;
For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, But the wicked shall fall by calamity.” Proverbs 24:15-16 NKJV
It is waste of time for the wicked to think that they can weary the righteous.
The reservoir of power within the righteous will not let the wicked weary them. They may make us fall seven times, but we will ultimately rise again by the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us. It works within us like rivers of living water. That is why the Bible says;
“On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. John 10:37-39 NKJV
This scripture is clear on the amazing strength of the righteous, the dynamic work of the Holy Spirit on his inner man, flowing like streams or Rivers of water in him.
That is the reservoir of power that makes the righteous fall seven times (or completely, since 7 is the number of completion) and rise again. That is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, that sits in His life, when he falls, especially with no hope of rising again.
That power seats on him directing Him, instructing Him and empowering Him to get back on His feet again. That reminds me of one of the major manifestations of the Holy Spirit, revealed to man.
A NOTABLE VERSE IN OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT CALLS IT “THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION.”
Actually, the entire devotional text is one of the righteous passions that a believer should develop. It was originally the testimony of a righteous passion of Paul.
The text says;
“But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.
Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;
that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Philippians 3:7-10 NKJV
The part that hit me this morning, so long as the Holy Spirit is concern, is the part that shows Paul’s desire to have, maintain, and retain an intimate Knowledge of the Holy Spirit as the power of His resurrection.
The most significant events that shows us this dynamic ability of the Holy Spirit was not the miracles of the resuscitation of the death that Jesus, and some of the prophets of Old, performed in the days of the Bible.
No one who died and came back to life experienced resurrection.
If you understand what resurrection is in Bible sense, you will know that none of them resurrected. They were only resuscitated. Resurrection gives one a new body that cannot die again. The Bible says;
“So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.” 1 Corinthians 15:42-43 NKJV
From this scripture it is clear, that the Body that dies is not usually the same body that resurrects if one experiences resurrection. The body that resurrects will not be able to die again. It is sown or buried in corruption but when the power of resurrection touches it, it is raised in incorruption.
SOMETIMES, IT IS SOWN IN DISHONOR BUT WHEN THE POWER OF RESURRECTION TOUCHES IT, IT WILL BE RAISED IN GLORY.
Other times it is sown or buried in weakness, but when the power of resurrection touches it, it will be raised in power, making it impossible to have the same body that was buried.
With this understanding of resurrection, it is very clear that no one that Jesus Christ brought back to life in His life time or in the times of the ancient prophets was resurrected, because they all died thereafter. They were only resuscitated.
The only person that experienced resurrection was Jesus Christ. He never came back to life with the very body that was buried.
So, when we read Paul saying “the power of His resurrection” He was referring to the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the life of the righteous, in time and after time that makes all things beautiful. .
In time, it brings a new and fresh thing back to life in the life of the righteous. It could be a new and fresh spiritual life, marital, financial, or physiological life than the one that was buried by the attacks of the enemy. It does not bring out the same that died and was buried in our lives. If that happens then you do not call it resurrection, you call resuscitation of your spiritual, marital, financial or physiological life.
The power of the Holy Spirit that manifest as resurrection will bring out a new thing entirely. Something that is more glorious, powerful and honorable than what was destroyed by the enemy. That is what makes the righteous fall seven times and rise again.
Most times, He will rise with new blessings that never existed before; a manifestation of good that is more powerful, honorable and glorious than what he had before an attack. The life and times of Job is a typical example the resurrection of aspects of our lives that went completely down and were buried.
This explains another reason why we need the Holy Spirit in our lives in time; to make sure we come back stronger, more powerful, honorable and glorious than we were when we were attacked and buried by the enemy. If He is flowing out of us like rivers of waters, Satan will never have a final say in our lives. We will always bounce back with blessings that never existed in our lives before our fall.
It is my prayer that God will use these words to keep building us up and keep giving inheritance among they that are sanctified in Christ Jesus!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“Now the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys.
He also had seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first Jemimah, the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-Happuch.
In all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.
After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations. So Job died, old and full of days.” Job 42:12-17 NKJV