Time With Christ: Sunday, November 23, Daily Devotion - Stay Focused

Topic: Stay Focused (Sunday, November 23, 2014)

Memorize: Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour. - Ephesians 5:1-2

Read: Ephesians 5:1-8

1 Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;

2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour.

3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;

4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.

5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them.

8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

MESSAGE:

God’s ways are clearly not the ways of men. What men hold dear and crave after are usually not what matters to God. We human beings like to blow our own trumpets. We like to be addressed by big titles and we want the office we hold to be identified with us wherever we go. These are not important things before God; as a matter of fact, they are the expressions of self which if allowed to thrive by a child of God, will lead to carnality. Romans 8:7 says, a carnal mind cannot please God.

In John 13:33, Jesus called His disciples “Little children”. Among them were some men like Peter, who was physically older than Him. Much later still, after His resurrection in John 21:5, He called out to them on the sea: “Children, have ye any meat?” They answered him, “No”; this was after they had been with Him for years. They never out grew being called children, and none of them protested to Him for being called a child.

Some years ago, at the conclusion of a seminar at the University of Ibadan (south-west Nigeria), I had asked the students if they were ready to become like a child in order to receive their miracles, then the Lord asked me the same question. He asked me if I was not already considering myself an adult.

This really shocked me. It made me to give myself a serious self-examination. I realised that I had allowed my new status as the General Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God to come between me and God. Prior to my becoming the General Overseer, with a two-minute prayer, I got results, but after I became the General Overseer, it took efforts of binding and loosing, praying in tongues and resisting the devil for me to obtain personal miracles. In light of this, I started to crave seriously to become like a baby once again. It is an easy thing to lose focus if one is not watchful. Humility is the key thing here.

Many people have missed it on this point today because they love to flaunt their titles, positions and achievements. When they talk, you think they are the ones behind their achievements. When addressed as brother, they will immediately correct you, “I am Pastor, Apostle and Doctor so and so”.

Yet, at many times, they themselves address the great apostles of old as Paul or Peter etc, without using any prefix.

Prayer Point: Father, please help me to always see myself as a child before you.

Bible in a Year: 1 Chronicles 28-29