TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 27TH NOVEMBER 2022)
“Moreover, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the prison, saying,
“Thus says the LORD who made it, the LORD who formed it to establish it (the LORD is His name):
‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ Jeremiah 33:1-3 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 331ST DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
This morning, we join voice with the Psalmist to say “this is the day the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”
As we all prepare to assemble before our God in our local Churches, it is important that we thank God for giving us another week in this year of amazing grace that has already been swallowed by our year of Signs and Wonders.
God has been so good to us!
It is His goodness that have been making life worth living in a wicked and perverse generation. The Bible says how great is His goodness stored up for those who fear Him. No end to the compassion that comes to us each day. Our lives remain the evidence of all we affirm this day.
To Him belong the glory in Jesus precious name.
We have been on a 30-day journey of faith with the Cry of the Spirit on practical wisdom. We have seen so much about this beautiful contemplation, and thank God our lives are becoming better off.
Wisdom remains the principal thing, that is why in all your acquisitions, you should not neglect wisdom.
Recently, we have been looking at sources of practical wisdom. We have seen two sources of practical wisdom, and the two are education and experience. I hope you did not miss those beautiful thoughts that were shared for there days on this platform.
If you did, please go back to the previous devotionals and read them carefully.
Today we will be looking at the next source of practical wisdom – prayer. We had mentioned this earlier but did not open it up.
One of the definitions of practical wisdom that we saw says, “practical wisdom is the application of the knowledge of the Holy One to real life situations. It is also the ability to apply the knowledge of the Holy One to real life situations.”
NOW, PRAYER IS ONE MAJOR FORCE THAT CAN UNLOCK BOTH THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY ONE AND THE ABILITY TO APPLY IT ALL AT THE SAME TIME.
People have entered the prayer realm as dying fools and returned as rising lions with an incredible wisdom and super intelligence that is full of the knowledge of the Holy One, with an incredible ability to apply it to real life situations.
If you want to walk in practical wisdom, aside education and taking private lessons from your personal history or the history of others, you must be prayerful.
We have been made to think prayer begins and stops at talking to God. But being prayerful is beyond opening your mouth to talk to God. Being prayerful involves opening your spirit to receive uncommon wisdom from God.
If we will move from the realm of just talking to God to the realm of God talking to us, we will always return with practical wisdom to apply when face with realm life situations.
I think when it comes to the subject of prayer, talking to God is always where we go. The Church seems to be rich in talking to God but poor in absorbing uncommon wisdom form God in the prayer realm.
Jesus redefined prayer in His resurrected form when He spoke to the lukewarm church saying;
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” Revelation 3:20 NKJV
People have presented this scripture as an invitation to bring the lost into the Church or into the kingdom. I remember using it too as an evangelist after hearing it from our fathers. But one day the Heavenly Father opened my understanding to see that Jesus never said those words to the lost world, He said them to a sick church.
WHENEVER YOU CAN NOT COME INTO THE PRAYER REALM OF ABSORBING FROM GOD, YOU WILL BE LIMITED TO THE REALM OF TALKING TO GOD.
That Church obviously, was limited to the realm of talking to God and prioritizing money above everything else. Eventually she became rich and even began to boast of its riches. But did not know that the riches stripped them naked in the spirit and made them blind.
Christ had to come in to help by revealing to them what the earthly riches they had gathered really was in his sight. He said to them;
“Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked – “Revelation 3:17 NKJV
He would go to present the solution to their spiritual illness to be this prayer dimension of absorbing from Him; a dimension where He dine with them and they dine with Him. That is the missing prayer dimension today. Which is why many prayer warriors are foolish, and some even insane.
So many enter into the prayer realm as religious fools and most times return as prophetic witches.
You will find then coming back with instructions to pour oil here, collect this seed or the other seed from the oppressed, raise this altar or silence the other one, drink this oil here or anoint yourself with the other one. Some will be told to use sand here and use water there.
You find the so-called Spirit led instructions or word from the LORD turning them into charismatic witches instead of men and women of practical wisdom.
UNTIL YOU START PRAYING THE DINNING-WITH-CHRIST-AND-CHRIST-DINNING-WITH-YOU KIND OF PRAYER, YOU WILL REMAIN A PRAYING FOOL.
You must not limit your prayer life to just talking to God, you must move forward to the place of God talking to you. You must be able to break free from the realm where some religious spirits talk to people making them more foolish.
People who absorb wisdom from the all wise God, through prayer will never be all round fools in life, especially when faced with real life situations. They have a way of coming to the place dinning with the LORD through prayer. They know how to find the dining table to dine with the LORD and the LORD with them in the palace of prayer.
The usually experience a download of uncommon practical wisdom from GOD in response to prayers made. Our devotional text says;
“Moreover, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the prison, saying, “Thus says the LORD who made it, the LORD who formed it to establish it (the LORD is His name):
‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ Jeremiah 33:1-3 NKJV
One of the most important answers you will ever get from God in prayer will be the release of uncommon wisdom in response to your prayers. God has a history of releasing uncommon wisdom to His own to deal with any real-life situations they may be asking Him to handle for them.
Some times we need to understand that while we are calling and crying unto God to help us, God is calling on us to open our spirits wide to receive wisdom practical from Him in other to handle the situation. But since we are wired to think it’s all about talking to God, we miss it. Jesus Himself said “the Father knows what we need”.
That should tell you that answer to prayers are not always about talking to God but about dinning with Him.
The kind of prayers that some of our fathers prayed was not just prayers of talking to God. They were prayers of absorbing from God. That was why they had great success in life and displayed great wisdom in all they did.
For instance, the Psalmist spoke about David and presented the absorbing-from-GOD kind of prayer as the one he prayed most of the time.
THAT WAS WHY HE WAS FULL OF PRACTICAL WISDOM. ONE DAY HE SAID;
“Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; Though war may rise against me, in this I will be confident.”
“One thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD. And to inquire in His temple.” PSALM 27:3-4 NKJV
Dwelling in the House of the LORD to behold His beauty and to enquire at His temple is not a talking to God kind of prayers, but an absorbing from God kind of prayer. You absorb when He talk back to you while you are talking to him.
One of the reasons why the Holy Spirit was given was to help us absorb from the LORD by guiding us into all truths while we are in prayer. That is one way He helps us get from God after we have spoken to Him or while we are speaking to Him.
If you do not understand that the Holy Spirit was given to us so we can be able to dine with the LORD, you will never be able to connect Him to help you do that. Understand that nothing about God in the deep is possible without the Holy Spirit and start living a life that will not quench Him but keep Him burning within you.
I believe enough have been shared for the day. Now, run with the LIGHT we have found. Shine it on your walk with the LORD and you will see more things to take care of. Do not forget that Prayer is a major source of practical wisdom. But it is not the prayer of just talking to God, but a prayer that is a true dialogue with the LORD via His Holy Spirit.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY
“I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.” John 16:12-14 NKJV