TODAY’S DEVOTION (THURSDAY 1ST DECEMBER 2022)
“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.” Psalm 51:5-12 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 334TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
It pleases the Father (Source) of our LORD Jesus Christ and the whole council of Heaven that you and I be alive this morning and step into a new month. Glory be to His great name.
It is not something to take for granted. He has watched over us, our families, our businesses, our hopes, our health, our critical body organs, our marriages, and all that concerns us, resulting in all being alive to see this day.
And like we have always acknowledge on this platform, He has not been dealing with us according to our sins but according to His faithfulness and righteousness.
David said;
“If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared.” Psalm 130:4-5 NKJV
The goodness of the LORD is to bring us who live in sin and those of us who fall into it, every now and then, into repentance. Repentance is one major fruit that GOD looks for in our lives whenever He shows us mercy; it is the first fruit of our faith in the process of becoming trees of righteousness.
Just as a farmer fills the root of a tree with manure, so that it can grow and bring forth beautiful fruits, so do the LORD fill our lives with His goodness so we can grow and bring forth fruit of repentance. It is our repentance that brings moral health and spiritual healing to the nations.
IT BRINGS TIMES OF REFRESHING FROM THE LORD TO US.
So, God not marking our iniquity, is not aimed at strengthening our hands in sin, as it has become with so many of us. It is aimed at supplying the enabling grace we need to overcome a life of sin, and permanently embrace a life of righteousness.
The Bible says;
“Or are you [so blind as to] trifle with and presume upon and despise and underestimate the wealth of His kindness and forbearance and long-suffering patience? Are you unmindful or actually ignorant [of the fact] that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repent (to change your mind and inner man to accept God’s will)?
But by your callous stubbornness and impenitence of heart you are storing up wrath and indignation for yourself on the day of wrath and indignation, when God’s righteous judgment (just doom) will be revealed.
For He will render to every man according to his works [justly, as his deeds deserve]: To those who by patient persistence in well-doing [springing from piety] seek [unseen but sure] glory and honor and [the eternal blessedness of] immortality, He will give eternal life.
But for those who are self-seeking and self-willed and disobedient to the Truth but responsive to wickedness, there will be indignation and wrath.” Romans 2:4-8 AMPC
It is not possible for one to continue to live in sin and for God to continue showing one mercy. This scripture made it clear that if that becomes our life style, we are storing up divine wrath for ourselves.
The scriptural passage presented two options to us; the first is the option of being mindful of the fact that God’s kindness or goodness in our lives, despite our sinful living, is intended to lead us to repentance not persistent sin.
In other words, it is intended to have us change our minds and inner man to accept God’s will, which is sanctification and holiness (according to 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8), thereby becoming part of those who patiently persist in well-doing, springing from genuine devotion to GOD, seeking the unseen but sure glory and honor, and the eternal blessedness of immortality.
The second option the scriptural passage presents is the option of remaining blind to the purpose of God’s kindness and goodness to us that manifest in form of His forbearance and longsuffering towards us, thereby becoming callous, stubborn, and unrepentant.
CONSEQUENTLY, STORING UP FOR OURSELVES WRATH AND INDIGNATION ON THE DAY WHEN THE RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT OF GOD WILL BE REVEALED.
The word made it clear that those who seek the eternal blessedness of immortality after this life, will make use of GOD’s goodness and repent from their sins, devoting themselves to Him.
But those who ignorantly seek indignation, God’s wrath and judgment, will not make use of GOD’s goodness to change their minds and inner man to accept God’s will, which is sanctification and holiness (according to 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8), but will be self-seeking, self-willed, disobedience to the Truth and responsible to the flesh (wickedness).
We have a choice to make while there is still breathe in our nostrils.
We have to decide which group we want to belong to. It is my prayer that we do that quickly before our persistent disobedience will take us completely away from Him, by hardening our hearts and bringing us to the place of becoming part of those who no longer see the need for repentance.
When people no longer see the need for repentance they have fallen from grace. They have become like the generation of the Pharisees who saw redemption and the need to accept the forgiveness of sins that Jesus brought through repentance as unnecessary.
They have become part of the generation of God’s wrath; a people who are pure in their own eyes yet they are not washed from their own filth.
Speaking about that generation, the Bible says, “There is a class of people who are pure in their own eyes, and yet are not washed from their own filth.” (Proverbs 30:12 AMPC). That is how you will become if you fall away from grace.
In other words, you will become so used to your sin that what is an abomination to the LORD, which was also an abomination to you, will no longer be an abomination to you but one of the normal things you do.
THAT IS THE STATE THAT PERSISTENT SINS IN THE MIDST OF GOD’S FORBEARANCE BRINGS ONE INTO.
It is one place God’s goodness is aimed at not allowing us to get to. But only wise people will recognize that and make use of the LORD’s patience to repent. Only they will not abuse the LORD’s grace, released through His forbearance and patience, and change their minds and inner man to become consecrated and holy in God’s sight.
I believe this is the time for someone who have not being making use of God’s mercies to repent and lead a righteous life, to get down on their knees and seek God for help, praying the kind of prayer we find in our devotional text.
A major part of it says;
“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. ….. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Psalm 51:5-10 NKJV
There is nothing wrong with declaring a fast to seek the LORD, asking Him to purge you until every sinful and carnal craving in you is dead. It is part of the process of genuine repentance. It leads to an internal cleansing that creates a righteous spirit within us. It brings us to the place of obtaining help from the LORD to live in a realm where we will no longer be abusing the grace of GOD through persistent sins.
One major spirit that make us abuse God’s grace through persistent sins is the spirit of hell. This is one spirit that many of us are yet to understand its nature and function. And it is one spirit we should not be ignorant of.
SADLY, WE GO AFTER SPIRITS THAT MOST TIMES DO NOT EVEN EXIST AND FORGET THIS ONE.
The spirit of hell is one spirit that when it sits upon a man’s heart, will make sure he moves from being saved to become unsaved, that is if he was born again. And if the person is unsaved, it will keep the person unsaved, and at best allow him to recite the sinner’s prayer without renouncing the sinner’s life.
It is a major spirit whose assignment is to keep people away from the active presence of GOD in this life and then take them to hell in the next life. That should help us to understand why David prayed what he prayed in our devotional text.
A major part of the text says;
“Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.” Psalm 51:11-12 NKJV
The key word or plea to GOD here is “do not cast me away from your presence.” David feared being cast away from the presence of God. He knew what life outside the presence of God looks like on earth. He saw it in the life of King Saul.
The Bible says;
“But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented and troubled him.
Saul’s servants said to him, Behold, an evil spirit from God torments you. Let our lord now command your servants here before you to find a man who plays skillfully on the lyre; and when the evil spirit from God is upon you, he will play it, and you will be well.
Saul told his servants, find me a man who plays well and bring him to me.
One of the young men said, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who plays skillfully, a valiant man, a man of war, prudent in speech and eloquent, an attractive person; and the Lord is with him.
So, Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, send me David your son, who is with the sheep. And Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a skin of wine, and a kid and sent them by David his son to Saul.
And David came to Saul and served him. Saul became very fond of him, and he became his armor-bearer.” 1 Samuel 16:14-21 AMPC
From this scriptural passage, it is clear that while David was working in the Palace, he saw how the life of a King will look like if the presence of God departs from him. The spirit of hell will trouble him, and he will be in need of anointed music ministers to survive.
THAT WAS WHY HE CHERISHED THE PRESENCE OF GOD.
You can see that in most churches today! People are so trouble that once a while their preachers bring anointed gospel artist to play for them to calm their spirits down. The hold gospel music concerts and other forms of gospel music festivals, collecting gate fees in most cases to calm down the spirits troubling the people like David did for Saul.
Sadly, the people love to have it so! They have been zombified to have it so.
Instead of being trained to carry the presence, they were rather trained to carry oil, water, salt, and etc. hence trouble by the spirit of hell.
Friend, if you do not carry the presence of God, apart from being comfortable in your sin, you will be troubled by the spirit of hell. God wants that to stop. But Sitting under anointed music is not the final solution. Carrying His presence is.
That is why we have decided to set aside 31 days from today for a fresh journey of faith with the Cry of the Holy Spirit on “the Presence of the LORD.”
It is my prayer that you will find truths to build your faith upon and become one of the carriers of the active presence of God on the face of the earth in Jesus precious name.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; yes, I have a good heritage.
I will bless the Lord, Who has given me counsel; yes, my heart instructs me in the night seasons.
I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad and my glory [my inner self] rejoices; my body too shall rest and confidently dwell in safety, For You will not abandon me to Sheol (the place of the dead), neither will You suffer Your holy one [Holy One] to see corruption.
You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:6-11 AMPC