2093
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📖 TUES. 14TH MARCH 2023
YOU’RE HIGHLY FAVOURED
📖 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
As a Christian, the favour of God upon your life has distinguished and qualified you to be the head and not the tail, to be the best and receive the best. Psalm 5:12 says, “For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.”
In your life, be forever conscious that you’re divinely favoured. Ephesians 1:6 says He has made us accepted in the beloved. The word, "accepted" there is the Greek, “charitoo” which refers to being highly favoured.
It’s the same word that the angel brought to Mary in Luke 1:28: “And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.” If the angel were to come to you today, he’ll use the same expressions, because it's already written concerning you that you’re blessed and highly favoured!
This is what Paul was telling the Christians in Corinth in our theme verse when he called them sanctified. The word, “sanctification” is from the Greek “hagiasmos” and it means to be separated unto God, to be distinguished in Christ. You’ve become friends with God.
Luke 2:52 says concerning the Master, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” Did you know that the same is true about you? You have favour with God and with man. Therefore, in your life, welcome favours every day. Your life has been beautified with divine favours from God. Affirm this every day about yourself. Hallelujah!
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The favour of God upon my life has qualified me to be the best and receive the best. Today and always, in every place and in all that I do, God’s supernatural favour is manifested in my behalf. It opens doors and opportunities to me that can’t be humanly explained. I’m conscious of the favour-factor. Hallelujah!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Psalm 5:12 NIV; Surely, Lord, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield.
Genesis 39:21-23; But the LORD was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
22. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it.
23. The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because the LORD was with him, and that which he did, the LORD made it to prosper.
Daniel 1:9; Now God had brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 16:1-20 & Deuteronomy 1-2
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 22:34-46 & Exodus 23
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
Rhapsody Of Realities
FIX YOUR GAZE ON TRUTH
📅 SUNDAY,12th MARCH 2023
Pastor Chris
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:32).
Truth liberates, uplifts, blesses and transforms. Truth inspires and energizes you. And what is truth? Truth is the Word of God. John 17:17 says, “…thy Word is truth.” Guiding us into all truth is the ministry of the Holy Spirit; it’s something that God wants for your life. He is the Spirit of truth. Truth is reality.
One day, the Lord showed me something really remarkable about knowing and walking in truth. I've mentioned it on different fora, but it bears repeating. It was about a man who was diagnosed with cancer and was told he had only a short time to live.
But when the Lord showed me the same man in a vision, He said, “Look at him; he's been diagnosed with cancer; therefore, he believes he has cancer. But in reality, there’s no cancer.” Then I looked at the man and there was no cancer in his body.
That means factually, there was cancer, but when you superimpose the truth on facts, the facts will change and line up with truth. This is what many don’t realise. But that's how to walk with God; that's how to live with God. You superimpose His Word—the Truth—on the facts and circumstances of life.
It brings to mind what 2 Corinthians 4:18 says: *“…for the things which are seen are temporal…”;* that means they’re subject to change. The growth or tumour may be there, but the Word of God—which is the TRUTH and the reality—says you're perfected in Christ.
Take your eyes away from facts; fix your gaze on truth, on the reality of God's Word, which confirms and guarantees your victory, divine health, prosperity, dominion, and glorious life in Christ. Glory to God!
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
_Dear Father, your Word is truth on which I fix my gaze. Your Word confirms my prosperity, divine health, victory, dominion and glorious life in Christ. I make progress from glory to glory by living in and by the Word, which produces for me and in me the reality that it conveys, in Jesus’ Name. Amen._
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Jonah 2:8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
Romans 4:20-21 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward [man] is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding [and] eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen [are] temporal; but the things which are not seen [are] eternal.
1-YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN:
Mark 15:1-20 & Numbers 32-33
2-YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN:
Matthew 22:15-22 & Exodus 21 3
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 FRI. 10TH MARCH 2023
HAVE NOTHING OF SATAN IN YOU
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me (John 14:30).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
It’s very easy for Satan to use people in whom he’s deposited something of himself, for example, selfishness or greed. Anyone who is selfish isn’t walking in the love of God. Love rules over selfishness. God’s love is gracious. Selfishness in the heart is an invitation to satanic influence, for Satan is the author of selfishness.
This is why you must eschew selfishness and greed, and other traits that are consistent with Satan's nature. Don’t allow Satan to have any of his traits in you. Jesus said, “…the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me” (John 14:30). Satan had nothing in Jesus. There was nothing Satan could lay claims to or which he could influence in Jesus.
That's the way it should be with you; Satan should find nothing in you that attracts him to you or that he can use to promote his agenda. It’s the reason you must walk in love at all times. Love is the antidote for selfishness and greed. Then also, speak the truth always.
Proverbs 6:16-19 highlights traits that are consistent with Satan’s nature that you must eschew. It says, “These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.”
The Bible says “Give no place to the devil” (Ephesians 4:27). Don’t permit or give vent to any of his traits in your life. Walk in God’s light—His Word—and everything of Satan and darkness will be repelled from you.
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The prince of this world has nothing in me! The Word of God that gave birth to me is perfect and incorruptible; therefore, nothing of darkness is in me. I have the light of life: there's nothing in my life that produces darkness. In all I do, my motives are right and void of selfishness; and the love of God is shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Galatians 5:16; This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 AMPC; Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.
5. It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].
6. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.
7. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].
8. Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth].
James 4:7; Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 14:27-52 & Numbers 27-28
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 21:33-46 & Exodus 19
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 WED. 8TH MARCH 2023
CALL FORTH YOUR SUPPLY
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue (2 Peter 1:3).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
In Matthew 6, Jesus taught His disciples how to pray; and even though He didn’t intend for that prayer to be repeated ritualistically, He said something very profound in verse 11. He said, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11).
Remember, this was before He brought us into the Kingdom. That means God had a plan for everybody. The word, “bread” there is symbolic; it isn’t just the staple food you prepare from a dough of flour and water. Rather, it means today’s supply; everything you require for today, to live joyfully and fulfil God’s purpose. Hallelujah!
When I read this many years ago, it dawned on me that I had a lot of leftover daily bread that had accumulated over time that I hadn't taken possession of. Then I said, “In the Name of Jesus, I receive them all!” After all, the daily bread doesn’t get expired with God.
In Joel 2:25, He said, “And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm….” If He can restore all of that, then there’s no expiration with Him.
So, if you’ve never taken possession of that which belongs to you since you became a Christian, that means you’ve been living a life below your status, in spite of the accumulation of wealth in your heavenly account.
But the good news is, you can call forth your supply even now, through your faith-filled affirmations. Our theme verse says He’s made everything available to you for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). Call them forth in Jesus’ Name.
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Being an heir of God and a joint-heir with Christ, I’m plugged into an unending supply! Therefore, I’m supply-conscious; not supply from men, my employer, or the government, but from God, for His supply system is nonstop. I refuse to lack or be broke. There's an allocation from heaven for me every day. I have supernatural supply and I walk in abundance. Hallelujah!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Psalm 121:1-2 NIV; I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from?
2. My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
Psalm 23:1; The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Psalm 68:19; Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah.
Matthew 7:11; If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 13:1-37 & Numbers 22-23
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 21:12-17 & Exodus 17
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 MON. 6TH MARCH 2023
YOUR SHIELD AGAINST THE ENEMY
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked (Ephesians 6:16).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
In Christianity, faith is our lifestyle. When the Scripture tells us to take up the shield of faith against the enemy, it means our faith is a shield. With your faith, you’ll be able to neutralize or put out all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
There’re fiery missiles directed at you, and they’re coming from demoniacal forces. But with your faith, you can put them out. Discouragement and anger, for instance, are missiles of the enemy. Some people could be by themselves and suddenly have anger and discouragement assault their minds. Those are darts of the enemy.
Some suddenly feel something like a hard object hit them from the side, yet there was no physical object or person present; that’s a fiery dart of the enemy. For some others, it comes as a sudden sharp pain somewhere in the body. But thanks be unto God! These darts from the enemy can be neutralized with your shield of faith.
The Bible says, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). 1 John 5:4 says, “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” Your faith is what you need. This is what puts you over and above Satan and the circumstances of life.
Remember that you don’t have to look around for a shield called faith; faith is in your spirit as Paul succinctly puts it in Romans 12:3. Keep building your faith strong by learning and acting on the Word. Irrespective of what happens around you, refuse to fear; speak the Word in faith. That’s how to use your shield of faith to put out Satan’s wiles and stratagems. Stand on God’s Word, and your victory will be as sure as the Word is. Hallelujah!
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
My faith is alive and prevails today, irrespective of the perils and tribulations in the world! I’m shielded and protected. I’m like a tree planted by the waters, that spreads out her roots by the river. I’m triumphant always in Christ Jesus! I’ve overcome the world and its systems, because I dwell in the pavilion and safety of the Most High, soaring on the wings of the Spirit, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Ephesians 6:13-17 AMPC; Therefore put on God's complete armor, that you may be able to resist and stand your ground on the evil day [of danger], and, having done all [the crisis demands], to stand [firmly in your place].
14. Stand therefore [hold your ground], having tightened the belt of truth around your loins and having put on the breastplate of integrity and of moral rectitude and right standing with God,
15. And having shod your feet in preparation [to face the enemy with the firm-footed stability, the promptness, and the readiness produced by the good news] of the Gospel of peace.
16. Lift up over all the [covering] shield of saving faith, upon which you can quench all the flaming missiles of the wicked [one].
17. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword that the Spirit wields, which is the Word of God.
Romans 4:19-20; And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb:
20. he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 11:27-12:1-17 & Numbers 18-19
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 20:24-34 & Exodus 15
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 SAT 4TH MARCH 2023
TRUST HIM AND BE PATIENT
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will (Ephesians 1:5).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
There’s nothing you might be experiencing today that’s a surprise to God. He knew you and knew everything about your life before you came into this world. He planned your life excellently for His glory. Therefore, let nothing discourage you. Trust Him and be patient.
The Bible says He foreknew and predestined you to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, Jesus. He prearranged your life for glory and excellence. He said to Jeremiah: “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5).
It’s akin to what He says to us in Ephesians 2:10 AMPC: “For we are God's [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].”
He already planned your life for His glory. So even when things get difficult, remain in His perfect will by staying on the Word. He has said, “…all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). This is a guarantee.
In your walk with the Lord, trust Him, knowing that He never fails and His timing is always perfect. James 1:4 says, “But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” You need patience for a balanced, successful and stable Christian life. Keep your trust and hope in Him alive, for the Bible says those who trust in Him shall never be disappointed (Romans 5:5).
🗣 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear loving and ever-gracious Father, thank you for prearranging my life for glory and excellence. You’ve set me on the path that I must follow; and by your Spirit, you lead me from place to place in a perpetual victory parade! I’m walking in victory, success, peace and prosperity, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Proverbs 3:5-6 AMPC; Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding.
6. In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.
Isaiah 1:19 TLB; If you will only let me help you, if you will only obey, then I will make you rich!
2 Corinthians 2:14 MSG And I got it, thank God! In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade. Through us, he brings knowledge of Christ. Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 10:32-52 & Numbers 14-15
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 20:1-16 & Exodus 13
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 THURS. 2ND FEBRUARY 2023
JOYFUL IN TRIBULATION
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you: I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation (2 Corinthians 7:4).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Is it possible to be joyful in tribulation? Emphatically yes! That’s our life in Christianity; it makes no difference what we face, we’re unruffled and full of joy because we know the end from the beginning! We always win.
2 Corinthians 4:17 says, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” This is God’s Word; it can’t be overturned. No wonder James said, “Count it all joy when you go through diverse tests” (James 1:2).
It doesn’t matter how severe the pressures get, we never say, “I can’t take it anymore.” Rather, we stand strong and unmoveable. We never get flustered, because it’s our nature to triumph. We endure hardness with cheerfulness; we’re “Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness" (Colossians 1:11). Glory to God!
Always remember that the adversities of life are the opportunities for your greatness to be tested and manifested. Therefore, in the face of opposition, always declare, “Greater is He that’s in me, than he that’s in the world!”
Victory is in your spirit. This was the understanding of the Apostle Paul when he said, “I rejoice in my infirmities; I welcome trouble” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Have the same consciousness. Welcome challenges! Christ lives in you! With His Word in your heart and in your mouth, you’ll withstand any test and always prevail. Hallelujah!
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I live the transcendent life, a life of absolute victory, success and excellence! I have an ever-winning, joyous life, with power over crises and dominion over circumstances. The adversities of life are for my promotion, for I’ve been built to overcome. Hallelujah!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Psalm 40:2-3 AMPC; He drew me up out of a horrible pit [a pit of tumult and of destruction], out of the miry clay (froth and slime), and set my feet upon a rock, steadying my steps and establishing my goings. And He has put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.
3. Many shall see and fear (revere and worship) and put their trust and confident reliance in the Lord.
James 1:2-4 TPT; My fellow believers, when it seems as though you are facing nothing but difficulties, see it as an invaluable opportunity to experience the greatest joy that you can!
3. For you know that when your faith is tested it stirs up in you the power of endurance.
4. And then as your endurance grows even stronger, it will release perfection into every part of your being until there is nothing missing and nothing lacking.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 9:33-50 & Numbers 9-10
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 19:13-22 & Exodus 11
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 TUES. 28TH FEBRUARY 2023
THE NEW YOU
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Did you know that being born again, your life is new and divine? Therefore, embrace the new you. Ephesians 4:24 says this new you is created in righteousness and true holiness. You’re the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus; as Jesus is, so are you in this world. You’re His icon.
Don’t see yourself as a “sinner” who’s struggling to please God; it’ll make you ineffective in your Christian walk. Rather, have the consciousness that you’re the righteousness of God in Christ.
Always meditate on Colossians 1:22; it tells of the amazing result of Christ’s vicarious sacrifice in your behalf! He did all that He did so as to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in God’s sight. And He succeeded. His life and nature in you gives you the power to live above sin. The new you is fashioned to yield to the dominion of the Word and as a result, produce fruits and works of righteousness.
Even when the Apostle Paul rebuked some of the Christians in Corinth because their way of life didn’t reflect their new nature of righteousness, he didn’t call them sinners (Read 1 Corinthians 6:9-11).
Paul understood that in Christ, we’ve been cleansed of all unrighteousness. We’ve been washed, separated from sin unto God and declared righteous in the Name of the Lord, and by the Spirit of our God! Hallelujah!
Recognise the new you and live accordingly. Study the Word more, for it mirrors and describes the real you; it shows your true glory in Christ. Praise God!
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I've been washed, separated from sin unto God and declared righteous in the Name of the Lord, and by the Spirit of our God! Therefore, I walk in righteousness and produce works and fruits of righteousness. I’m a light in a dark world, lighting the paths of sinners so that they may see and be ushered into the Kingdom. Hallelujah!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Ephesians 4:22-24; that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
23. and be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24. and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10. nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
11. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 8:27-9:1-13 & Numbers 5-6
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 18:21-35 & Exodus 9
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 SUN. 26TH FEBRUARY 2023
GUIDED BY HIS LIGHT
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path (Psalm 119:105).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
The Bible describes the Word as “…the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9). That means no one has an excuse to stumble, falter or fail in life because we’re all privileged to receive guidance and direction from the Lord.
No wonder Jesus said “…I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). Then, David points out something remarkable in Psalm 119:130: “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.”
These thoughts highlight the importance of light and direction from the Lord, through His Word. His Word is light. If you’ve ever attempted to find your way in the dark, you’d agree it wasn’t a smooth sail. You probably bumped into objects or obstacles that you couldn’t see as a result of the darkness.
Moreover, if you were journeying in the dark, you wouldn’t know when you arrive at your destination or hit a crossroads. So think about it: if natural light is that important, what do you think of God’s light—His Word?
It’s one of the reasons you must know the Word for yourself. Without the Word of God, your decisions will be made in darkness, and the decisions that are made in darkness can only produce more darkness, making the person’s life a web of uncertainties, confusion and utter frustration.
In 1 John 1:7, we’re enjoined to walk in the light as He (God) is in the light. In His light, we see light (Psalm 36:9); our paths are illuminated to see and get rid of every obstacles and encumbrances as we journey through life. Hallelujah!
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Blessed Father, your Word is the true light that lights my heart and my path to know and walk in the way of success, victory and glory. Thank you for flooding my heart with light that I may know and fulfil my purpose and destiny in Christ, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
1 John 1:5-7; This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
6. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
7. but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Ephesians 5:13; But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 7:24-8:1-13 & Numbers 1-2
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 18:1-11 & Exodus 7
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 FRI. 24TH FEBRUARY 2023
YOUR LOVE FOR HIM
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead (2 Corinthians 5:14)
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
The love Paul had for the Lord was the drive behind his overwhelming passion to preach, defend and stand on the truth of the Gospel. Read Galatians 2:11-13 NKJV and see how he defended the truth to Peter. He said, “Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.”
In the 20th verse, he said, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” What a conviction! It was about his love for the Lord.
Christ’s love for us, which was demonstrated in His vicarious death, must elicit from us such love as Paul writes about here, and as John says in 1 John 4:19 NKJV: “We love Him because He first loved us.” How much do you love Him?
It’s important that every so often, you open your heart to Him in prayer, and tell Him, “Lord Jesus, I love you with all my heart, today and forever; this is what I want to do—loving you and doing your Word.” Your love for Jesus Christ means more to God than anything you could ever give to Him. So, love Him with all your heart and prove it in keeping His Word.
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Lord Jesus, I love you; I really do, with all my heart and forever; this is what I live for—loving you and doing your Word. I’m constrained by my love for you, to preach the Gospel and spread it with urgency around the world. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
John 14:15; If ye love me, keep my commandments.
1 John 5:3 AMPC; For the [true] love of God is this: that we do His commands [keep His ordinances and are mindful of His precepts and teaching]. And these orders of His are not irksome (burdensome, oppressive, or grievous).
1 John 4:19; We love him, because he first loved us.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 6:30-56 & Leviticus 25
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 17:14-21 & Exodus 5
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 WED. 22ND FEBRUARY 2023
LIVE ABOVE THE WORLD
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you (John 15:19).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
God expects you to live above this world because you’re not of this world. No wonder the Spirit, through the Apostle Paul, cautioned in Colossians 2:20: “Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances.”
Refuse to allow your actions, reactions, thoughts, words and responses to be influenced or conditioned by the elements and rudiments of this world. The world is subject to you.
Now that you’re born again, you live in two worlds: the physical world and the spiritual world. Be more conscious of the spiritual realm into which you’re born of God, and function therein. Live the life of heaven on earth, because you’re a citizen of heaven: “But our citizenship is in heaven…” (Philippians 3:20 ESV).
Your outlook on life, and your contemplations should be guided by the Word. That way, no matter what happens, you’ll always win. Recall the words of Jesus in John 16:33, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
You overcame the world in Him. Therefore, dominate this world with the principles of God’s Kingdom and with your faith: “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4).
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I’m born of God; therefore, I’ve overcome the world! I live in the victory and dominion of Christ over this world. I’m in rest, health, wealth, security and peace with prosperity. I influence my world with the principles of God’s glorious Kingdom. Blessed be God!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Colossians 1:12-13; giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
13. who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
John 16:33 AMPC; I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]
Colossians 3:1-2; If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
2. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 5:21-43 & Leviticus 22-23
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 16:21-28 & Exodus 3
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 MON. 20TH FEBRUARY 2023
THE FIRSTBORN OF THE FATHER
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence (Colossians 1:18).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Notice that the Bible didn’t call Jesus the firstborn from Mary; rather, He’s called “the firstborn from the dead.” It’s talking about spiritual death, because Jesus died spiritually. Our sins were laid on him (Isaiah 53:6; 1 Peter 2:24) as He was the representative of all sinners. But upon fulfilling the righteous demands of justice, God raised him from the dead. Hallelujah!
When He was raised from the dead, God declared: “…Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee” (Acts 13:33). That’s why He’s called the first begotten or firstborn of the Father. Before His death, He was called the only begotten of the Father.
Jesus being the firstborn of the Father means He’s the Head and we, the Church, are His Body. God raised Him from the dead together with His Body. We’re therefore inextricably one with Him. He heads up the new creation who are begotten of the Father.
The Bible says “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). He’s the first among us, and as He is, so are we in this world! Hallelujah!
He is the glory of God; and like Him, we're the glory of God. The Bible says He has brought many sons to glory (Hebrews 2:10). He was the first to be born again; and like Him, we’ve been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which lives and abides forever (1 Peter 1:23). Blessed be God!
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, I thank you for the vicarious death of Jesus in my behalf, who was delivered for my offences, and was raised again for my justification. Now, I walk in the consciousness of my oneness with Him, walking in, and manifesting your righteousness; reigning and ruling with Christ from the heavenly realms, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Ephesians 2:19-22; Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household,
20. built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.
22. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
Hebrews 2:11; Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.
John 20:17: Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 4:21-41 & Leviticus 16-18
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 16:1-12 & Exodus 1
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
SAT. 18TH FEBRUARY 2023
OUR CONFIDENCE IN HIS NAME
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
There’re those who wonder why we use the Name of Jesus in prayer. That’s because they don’t understand the Scriptures and the power in the Name of Jesus. His Name is the name of the God-head; it’s the greatest name there is. Everything in heaven, in the earth, and under the earth is subject to His Name. Nothing and no one is exempt from the dominion and authority of this Name.
Furthermore, we use His Name because He asked us to. In John 14:13-14, He said, “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.”
In John 16:23-24, we also read the words of Jesus where He says, “And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” Here, He says we can pray in His Name. He gives us the power, the legal authority, to use His Name.
We read in our theme scripture that God made a sovereign decree, a law in the realm of the spirit, that at the Name of Jesus, every knee should bow: “of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.”
The Greek word translated as “things” also means “whatever.” This refers to anything that exists—people, beasts, birds, the elements—whatever—they all submit to the Name of Jesus. This includes everything under the earth, which refers to hell.
No wonder, He tells us we can raise the dead. Even if someone went to hell, we can call him back because the Name of Jesus Christ has power in heaven, in earth and under the earth. See why you should always use the Name of Jesus and have confidence in His Name? Live every day in His Name and your life will be excellent and full of glory; you’ll always be triumphant.
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, I thank you for the power in the Name of Jesus, and the boldness, confidence and authority I have to use that Name against the devil, sickness, disease and the crises of life. I’m sustained by the power and authority of that Name, living the higher life of glory that you prearranged for me, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
John 16:23-24 TLB; At that time you won’t need to ask me for anything. I tell you the truth, you will ask the Father directly, and he will grant your request because you use my name.
24. You haven’t done this before. Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy.
Mark 16:17-18; And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
18. they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
Matthew 28:18-19; And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 3:13-35 & Leviticus 13-14
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 15:21-28 & Genesis 49
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 THURS.16TH FEBRUARY2023
RELEASING THE RIGHT CODES
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries (1 Corinthians 14:2).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
There’re things that’ll not happen for you in your life and in this world until you learn to use the coded words. Paul called them hidden wisdom, spiritual mysteries and secrets (1 Corinthians 2:7). For example, as you start out praying in the spirit, you’ll get to a point where you begin to conjure or summon things from the spirit realm into the natural. Life is spiritual and we win by the Spirit.
Through the Holy Spirit, you can know the right words to use in prayer. Those words are spiritual codes. He may have you repeat a word or make a sound repeatedly; that’s because He knows the details of the “code.”
The Holy Spirit knows the number of times you may need to repeat those words for them to form the right code. In prayer, you might be speaking some words or making some sounds that may require twenty-five of those sounds for the code to be complete or connected. But if you stop at the twenty-fourth sound, it won’t work, because the code will be incomplete.
It’s like trying to get into a passworded system or account; you never get in with the wrong codes even if it’s just one letter or sign that you missed. So, in praying and making conjurations in the Spirit, continue until the Spirit moves to the next level. Remember, He’s the One that gives you the utterance.
There’re issues people go through in life and even though they might have been speaking in tongues, there seem to be no results. It’s because there’s a code in the realm of the spirit that’s still missing. Use the codes and you’ll have the baby you’ve desired for so long. Use the codes and the money will come; you’ll have the new venue for your church or business.
That house you’ve so desired is in that coded language; use the right codes and you’ll have it. The answer to that problem is “coded” but the Holy Spirit knows the code. Pray in tongues until you get the complete codes from the Holy Spirit and release them.
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, as I speak in tongues today, illumination comes to my spirit. I know what steps to take regarding specific situations about my life; I know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it, to the praise and glory of your Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
1 Corinthians 14:2 AMPC; For one who speaks in an [unknown] tongue speaks not to men but to God, for no one understands or catches his meaning, because in the [Holy] Spirit he utters secret truths and hidden things [not obvious to the understanding].
1 Corinthians 2:11-13; For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
12. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 2:1-22 & Leviticus 9-10
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 14:34-15:1-9 & Genesis 47
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 TUES. 14TH FEBRUARY 2023
RESULT ORIENTED PRAYER
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could deliver him out of death. And God heard his prayers because of his reverence for God (Hebrews 5:7 NLT).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
The Lord Jesus is the perfect example of one who prayed result oriented prayers. His prayers produced the right results always. He didn’t pray merely out of routine or as a religious obligation. His disciples noticed this about Him; they were intrigued by how effectual his prayers were; hence, they said to Him, “Master, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1).
The astounding results that Jesus had while He walked the earth can’t be divorced from His ever-amazing prayer life. In Mark 1:35, the Bible tells us, “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” In another instance, the Bible says, “…he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed" (Luke 5:16).
Luke also showed us that sometimes, Jesus went into the high hills to spend the entire night in prayer to God (Luke 6:12). He had such an effective prayer life and ever-amazing results! That's the way it should be for us.
Spend time to pray in tongues often. Have a robust prayer schedule and discipline yourself to stick with it, and you’ll find yourself operating at a new level of spiritual maturity and efficiency. You’ll make tremendous progress and experience great success in all your affairs.
Recall what Jude 1:20 AMPC says, “But you, beloved, build yourselves up [founded] on your most holy faith [make progress, rise like an edifice higher and higher], praying in the Holy Spirit.” Praying in the power and inspiration of the Holy Spirit will help you make remarkable progress, and cause you to rise like an edifice, higher and higher.
The more you pray in tongues, the more sensitive you are to the Spirit, to receive and follow His guidance. And with His guidance, you operate in dominion and triumph always. Hallelujah!
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I’m victorious in all circumstances, walking in the blessings of the Lord because I live in the authority of the Word and in the Name of Jesus! I proclaim the favour of God and dominion of righteousness over all men, nations and their leaders, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Ephesians 6:18; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
John 15:7; If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
John 15:16; Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 1:1-20 & Leviticus 6-7
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 14:11-21 & Genesis 45
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 MON. 13TH MARCH 2023
AUTHORITY OVER ALL THE POWER OF THE ENEMY
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you (Luke 10:19).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
The word, “power” is referenced twice in the verse above. But they don’t exactly mean the same thing. In the first reference where it says, “Behold I give unto you power,” it’s translated from the Greek, “exousia”, which means authority. The second one is from “dunamis” (Greek), which means power, ability, or "working." Jesus gave us absolute authority over the power, ability or workings of the adversary.
There's a difference between authority and ability. Let’s take the president of your country as an example. In his personal capacity, he can’t withstand the army of his country. But he’s got the authority of the state behind him! When he exercises supreme command and control over his armed force or the military, they have to comply!
With all their weapons of war, the entire armed forces are at the president’s bidding; when he gives an instruction, they’re obligated to obey. They have power, weight or substance; but the president has authority. Authority changes everything.
It doesn't matter how much power or force the enemy wields or can gather; you’ve been given authority over him in Jesus’ Name. The Bible says His Name is “high above all other government and authority and power and dominion, and every title of sovereignty used either in this Age or in the Age to come" (Ephesians 1:21 WNT). Hallelujah!
When this same Jesus tells you, “nothing shall by any means hurt you,” you better believe and act on it. Read what He tells us in 1 John 4:4: “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” Glorious news!
No wonder the Psalmist affirmed, “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1). You have nothing to fear in this life. Reign and rule in the Name of Jesus every day. Hallelujah!
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
My authority in Christ is perfect and absolute. No evil, demon, or darkness can resist it! I’m seated with Christ, far above principalities and powers and everything that’s connected to Satan. I reign and rule over circumstances. Hallelujah!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Matthew 28:18-20; And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20. teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Philippians 2:9-10; Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
10. that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
Ephesians 2:6; and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 15:21-47 & Numbers 34-36
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 22:23-33 & Exodus 22
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 SAT. 11TH MARCH 2023
BORN IN RIGHTEOUSNESS
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles (Isaiah 42:6).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Isn’t it glorious that we already have and are living in the blessings that the children of Israel would enjoy as a nation at the Millennium? For example, the gift of righteousness; we were born in righteousness, but at the Millennium, they'd just begin to enjoy righteousness.
Jeremiah 23:5 says, “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.” This is about the millennial period. The 6th verse says, “In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
In the Millennium, the Lord will be their righteousness; they’ll come into the Millennium, not living by their own righteousness or trusting in their own righteousness but in the righteousness of the one they had nailed to the Cross. But as the Church, we already have and live as the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
It’s the same with justification. In Isaiah 45:25, talking about the millennial period, the Bible says, “In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.” They’ll come into justification at the Millennium; meanwhile, we’ve had and lived in justification for two thousand years.
Romans 5:1 says we’ve been justified; that is, declared righteous; acquitted. Acts 13:39 says by him (Jesus Christ), all that believe are justified from all things, from which they couldn’t be justified by the Law of Moses. We have and enjoy now what has been promised to the Jews in the Millennium. Hallelujah!
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N :
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I was born in righteousness, to produce fruits and works of righteousness to the glory of the Father. I rejoice for the gift of righteousness bequeathed to me through the death of Jesus Christ. Therefore, I reign in righteousness; I reign over circumstances and the elements of this world, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Romans 3:21-22 NIV; But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
22. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,
Romans 5:1 AMPC; THEREFORE, SINCE we are justified (acquitted, declared righteous, and given a right standing with God) through faith, let us [grasp the fact that we] have [the peace of reconciliation to hold and to enjoy] peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 14:53-72 & Numbers 29-31
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 22:1-14 & Exodus 20
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 THURS. 9TH MARCH 2023
THINK THE KINGDOM WAY
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Our theme verse shows that the Word is able to regulate your mind to think right all the time; to think the Kingdom way. Someone might say, “You know I’m African, Asian, American, or European, and I think as such”; no! When you’re born again, you’re from God’s Kingdom. You’re to think as one from heaven.
The Bible says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). If you want to be successful in Christ Jesus and live the life of the Kingdom, you must think like Christ wants you to think.
Romans 12:2 says, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed (transferred; transfigured) by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Walking in God's Word and having your mind renewed by the Word is the easiest thing for a Christian because the Word is your life.
You were born of the Word (1 Peter 1:23); you have the life of the Word; so it’s easy for your perception, your outlook on life, to be from the Word. It’s easy for you to think and live the Kingdom way and have Kingdom results.
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The Word of God is my life; it regulates my mind to think and live the Kingdom way and have Kingdom results. As I continually meditate on the Word, my mind is programmed to produce victories and excellence. Glory to God!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Romans 12:2 NIV; Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
2 Corinthians 5:17; Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
1 Timothy 4:15; Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 14:1-26 & Numbers 24-26
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 21:18-32 & Exodus 18
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 TUES. 7TH MARCH 2023
UNDERSTAND THE TRUTH BEHIND HIS INSTRUCTIONS
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life (Proverbs 4:13).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
It’s important that you understand the spirituality of divine instructions. Divine instructions are for your life; so always take them seriously. A lack of understanding of spiritual truth and yielding to a fit of anger led to Moses’ grievous mistake that cost him leading the children of Israel into the Promised Land.
In Numbers 20:8, God instructed Moses to speak to the rock to bring forth water for the children of Israel to drink. But when Moses got to the rock, instead of talking to the rock as God had said, he struck the rock with his rod. Water came out all right, but God was displeased with him.
A previous instruction to Moses in Exodus 17:6 was for him to strike the rock for it to bring forth water, which he did and water came out. But this time, the rock wasn’t to be smitten a second time, because that rock was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4). Christ was to be smitten only once; after that, you talk to Him for whatever you want.
Even though Moses acted in disobedience by striking the rock twice, water still came out. But it didn’t produce the result God wanted. That tells us something: It's not about the result you want, it’s about what's right in the sight of God. Is the Father pleased?
These things we read in the Scriptures are for our learning (Romans 15:4). Practise spiritual understanding, spiritual wisdom, and walking in the Spirit. That's your call. Only if we live this way can we please the Lord in all things. Understand the truth behind His instructions and do them. Hallelujah!
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I’m filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, walking worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing; fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Every time, in every place, and in every situation, divine wisdom is at work in me to the glory and praise of the Father. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Romans 12:1-2; I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
2. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Colossians 1:9-10; For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
10. that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 12:18-44 & Numbers 20-21
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 21:1-11 & Exodus 16
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 SUN. 5TH MARCH 2023
THE ATTRACTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed (Isaiah 45:24).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
There’s a beauty and an attraction about your life because you’re the righteousness of God. When you walk in righteousness, men will come to you to hear God’s Word, and to be imparted by His life and nature of righteousness that’s in you.
It reminds of what the Prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 60:3, “And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” Righteousness attracts! It pulls people to you who want to come to know and serve your God.
Thanks be unto God that this righteousness isn’t something you strive to attain; it’s God’s blessing and gift to you in Christ. That gift of righteousness was activated and became effectual in your life the moment you were born again.
Therefore, always affirm that you have the righteousness of God. This is important because of what we read in the first part of our theme verse. It says, “Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength….” As you make that declaration, you’d find yourself bringing forth more fruits of righteousness, and producing greater works of righteousness.
Jesus said in John 15:16, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain….” You’re ordained to bear lasting fruits in soul winning; in leading others to Christ. Hallelujah! It’s part of the workings of the righteousness of God in your life.
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Blessed be God who has made me fruitful and productive in soul winning and in all things because of His life and nature in me! Men and women are attracted to the glory of God that’s in me. Through me, the Gospel is reaching everyone in my world, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Proverbs 11:30; The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; And he that winneth souls is wise.
Isaiah 60:2-4; For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
3. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.
4. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 11:1-26 & Numbers 16-17
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 20:17-23 & Exodus 14
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 FRI. 3RD FEBRUARY 2023
HE’S PERFECTED YOUR HEALTH
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
If you truly believe that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, then that should be the end of sickness or disease in your physical body. You have to consciously meditate on the fact that the Holy Spirit vitally and literally, lives in you. He perambulates your body to keep it healthy.
Your health was perfected when Christ took up His abode in you. In Psalm 138:8, the psalmist prophesied, “The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me….” This has become a reality in Christ Jesus. Your health has been perfected in Him. Hallelujah!
Part of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in you, and His impact on your physical body is to see to it that your body stays perfected in health. It’s the reason He guides you to nurture your spirit, soul, and body with the Word. It’s the reason He guides you with wisdom on healthy living.
So, take charge of your health and rule over your body with the Word of God. Refuse to yield to sickness. Divine health is your birthright and nature in Christ. Choose to be healthy and strong every day. Hallelujah!
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I’m an associate of the God-kind, with the indestructible life of God in me. I choose to be healthy and strong every day! Divine health is at work in me, in every fibre of my being, in every cell of my blood and in every bone of my body. Hallelujah!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
John 1:12-13; But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13. which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Isaiah 33:24; And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.
Romans 8:10-11 ESV; But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 10:1-31 & Numbers 11-13
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 19:23-30 & Exodus 12
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 WED. 1ST MARCH 2023
THE BLESSING OF WALKING IN RIGHTEOUSNESS
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness (Isaiah 41:10).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
The words we just read in our opening scripture are quite inspiring and profound; amazing promises for Israel. While the fulfilment for Israel would be at the millennial reign of Christ, we presently live in, and enjoy those blessings as the Church of Jesus Christ. They’re our reality in Christ Jesus, NOW!
We’re fearless and walk in dominion because the Lord is our God; He’s our strength; we’re marvellously helped of Him. We’re upheld by the right hand of His righteousness. The right hand of His righteousness refers to Christ. And Christ is our righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30). Hallelujah!
Then in Isaiah 54:17, He says “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper….This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.” This is part of the blessings of being His righteousness and walking in righteousness.
There’s more. In Isaiah 45:24, the Bible says, “Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. Think about that! It says all your adversaries shall be ashamed. Anyone who’s incensed against you shall be mortified; disgraced. It’s the Word of the Lord.
Then in the twelfth verse of Isaiah 41, the Lord says concerning your adversaries, “Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing…” This is your heritage because you walk in His righteousness!
Then in Isaiah 51:7 He tells us never to be perturbed by the reproach of men. The Word already declared the end of their actions: they’d be abased and brought to shame! Yours is to keep walking in righteousness, bearing fruits of righteousness. The Bible says, “In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee” (Isaiah 54:14). Glory to God! This is your life. Walk in the light of it.
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I'm led by the Spirit in the triumphal excursions of life. Christ is my victory and my righteousness. He’s the glory of my life; in Him I live and move and have my being. Hallelujah!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Isaiah 54:14-15 (AMPC); You shall establish yourself in righteousness (rightness, in conformity with God's will and order): you shall be far from even the thought of oppression or destruction, for you shall not fear, and from terror, for it shall not come near you.
15. Behold, they may gather together and stir up strife, but it is not from Me. Whoever stirs up strife against you shall fall and surrender to you.
Luke 1:69-71; And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us In the house of his servant David;
70. As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:
71. That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;
1 John 4:4 ; Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 9:14-32 & Numbers 7-8
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 19:1-12 & Exodus 10
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 MON. 27TH FEBRUARY 2023
AT HOME IN HIS PRESENCE
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
There’s a consciousness that I have: I’m always in the presence of God! When you have that consciousness, nothing ruffles you. You’re never agitated about anything. You’ll always be full of joy, for in His presence is fullness of joy and at His right hand, pleasures evermore (Psalm 16:11).
Some Christians have the mentality that it’s only when they come to church that they’re in the presence of God. When they leave, they’ve left the presence of God. Some even pray for the presence of God to come down or follow them everywhere. Something is wrong. In Christianity, we don’t come in and go out of God’s presence; we’re forever in His presence.
His presence is our home. When you come into a place, no matter where it is, you come in with God’s presence. You bear His presence. You’re the temple of the living God. When you were born again, Christ took up His abode in you. He’s in you now, and you’re in Him. He didn’t come into you to leave again after some time; He’s forever in you.
In John 14:16-18, the Lord Jesus said, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” The Holy Spirit is in you today and forever; it’s an everlasting indwelling.
Be ever more conscious that you’re a God-carrying vessel and you live in His presence every day—in the divine environment. Hallelujah!
📅 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The fullness of the Godhead dwells in me; it’s an everlasting indwelling. I’m conscious that I’m at home in God’s presence; I’m a God-carrying vessel and I live in the divine environment. What a blessing to be the conveyor and tabernacle of God’s divine presence. Hallelujah!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
John 14:16-18 AMPC; And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever–
17. The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive (welcome, take to its heart), because it does not see Him or know and recognize Him. But you know and recognize Him, for He lives with you [constantly] and will be in you.
18. I will not leave you as orphans [comfortless, desolate, bereaved, forlorn, helpless]; I will come [back] to you.
2 Corinthians 6:16; And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 8:14-26 & Numbers 3-4
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 18:12-20 & Exodus 8
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 SAT. 25TH FEBRUARY 2023
WE REIGN OVER ALL THINGS
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church (Ephesians 1:22).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Legally, God has put all things under the feet of Jesus (Ephesians 1:22). Isaiah 9:6 says, “…and the government shall be upon his shoulder….” This is so powerful, because it lets us know how it connects to us—the Church!
If Isaiah’s prophetic words had been “…and the government shall be upon His head,” that would have meant the Lord Jesus, because He’s the head and we the Church are His body. The government being upon His shoulders means His reign, His dominion and authority are borne by us. Blessed be God!
Thus, every single member of the Body of Christ is above all things, because all things have been placed under the feet of Jesus. God already said so and nothing can change it. The Lord Jesus, through the Church, reigns over all things.
1 Corinthians 15:25 says, “For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.” This isn’t about Him reigning in heaven but in the earth through us. In these last days, you’re expected to “king” in your world and in the earth! Take up the arms of faith and be strengthened in the things of God.
Speak the Word with boldness. Declare that there’s peace in your world and in the nations; speak to every contrary storm to be calm in the Name of Jesus! Rule over circumstances and reign over all things.
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Glorious Father, King of the ages, there’s none like you! Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. How awesome it is for us to be called by your Name, ruling, reigning and prevailing with Christ over the world and circumstances! Thank you for this glorious privilege. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Ephesians 2:4-6; But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5. even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
6. and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Psalm 110:2; The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.
Psalm 145:13; Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.
Romans 5:17; For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 7:1-23 & Leviticus 26-27
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 17:22-27 & Exodus 6
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 THURS. 23RD FEBRUARY 2023
HIS NATURE IN US
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy (Ephesians 4:24 NLT).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
In Ephesians 5:1, we’re admonished to be “imitators of God” as His beloved children. His life and nature in us makes this possible. We can walk in absolute mastery and dominion in the earth as Jesus did, for as He is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17).
Being born again, you’re born after the Second Adam, Jesus Christ; you were created after Him in righteousness and true holiness. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature….” This new creature has the God-nature. This is the reason you can please God and live the Christ-life.
No matter how much you train a dog to act like a human, it can never be human, because it doesn’t have the human life. To be human, you have to be born that way. We’re Godlike, and can emulate our heavenly Father, because we were born with His life and nature in us. It’s the reason we can do the same things Jesus did.
He said in John 14:12, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do….” You can heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers and cast out devils as Jesus did. He gave you the authority in His Name.
Moreover, we can emulate Him in our love-walk. Ephesians 5:2 says, “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 sweetsmelling savour.” His nature in you makes it possible to express love to those in your world, whether or not they deserve it. Hallelujah!
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
My divine nature causes me to live, love and talk like my heavenly Father; the beauty and compassion of Jesus is seen in and expressed through me, for as He is, so am I in this world.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
2 Corinthians 5:17; Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Ephesians 5:1 NIV; Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children
1 John 4:17; Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 6:1-29 & Leviticus 24
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 17:1-13 & Exodus 4
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 TUES. 21ST FEBRUARY 2023
REAL WORSHIP—BEYOND FORM OR RITUAL
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all (1 Chronicles 29:11).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Some people don’t understand what worship is and so they miss out on its blessings and benefits. Worship is the recognition and appreciation of the goodness, blessings, kindness and righteousness of God. It is the appreciation and recognition of His character, and therefore, the confession of His character. Hence, true praise is worship
When, for instance, you give thanks to God and say “Lord, you’re good; you’re kind; you’ve blessed me; you’re righteous,” you’re defining, recognizing, appreciating and promoting the character of God. The Lord appreciates that because it shows who He is in your life; it separates or distinguishes Him from everyone and everything else.
When you thank Him for His goodness, provision, blessings, and all the wonderful things He’s done in your life, you’re saying “Oh Lord, I know it’s you who did all these things.” You’re attributing those beautiful works to Him, and the necessary result is that He’ll do more for you and reveal Himself to you in a greater way.
Worship always brings a greater revelation of God. This is why we worship only God, and not men, angels, or any other creation. How important worship is! It should be for you something beyond a form or ritual. It should be a time of true recognition, perception and a real encounter with who God is.
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, I lift my hands in worship and offer to you sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving from my spirit. I adore you Lord, for you alone are God, the everlasting King of glory, the only wise and true God, gracious and kind, holy and righteous, ever loving and forgiving. Thank you for the blessing of the New Testament in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Revelation 21:22; I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
Psalm 96:9-10; Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth.
10. Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.” The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.
John 4:24; God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 5:1-20 & Leviticus 19-21
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 16:13-20 & Exodus 2
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 SUN. 19TH FEBRUARY 2023
WHEN YOU LIVE IN HIS NAME
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him (Colossians 3:17).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
The Name of Jesus never fails. That’s why the Bible says we must do all things in His Name. What does this mean? It doesn’t mean when you want to eat, for example, you say, “I eat this food in the Name of Jesus”; or anything you want to do, you say, “I do it in the Name of Jesus.” No! It’s not in the constant announcement.
Rather, what it means is that you’re living your life in the Name of Jesus in all situations, having the consciousness that you live for Him, in Him, and as His representative in all circumstances.
When you live in His Name, you’ll live in dominion over sickness, disease and infirmities. His Name is a place; a place of absolute victory and safety. That’s why Solomon said in Proverbs 18:10, “The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.” That was in the Old Testament.
Today, we don’t “run into” His Name; we live in His Name. His Name is named upon us. When you live in His Name, you have no fears. When you live in His Name, you live triumphantly over and above circumstances, evil, decadence, depravity, corruption and the perils of this world; you live in unending peace, prosperity, health, success and greatness, to the glory of the Father. Hallelujah!
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I live triumphantly over and above circumstances, evil, decadence, depravity, corruption and the perils of this world because I live in the Name of Jesus. I live in perpetual peace, prosperity, health, success and greatness, to the glory of the Father. Blessed be God!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Colossians 3:17 AMPC; And whatever you do [no matter what it is] in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus and in [dependence upon] His Person, giving praise to God the Father through Him.
Luke 10:19 AMPC; Behold! I have given you authority and power to trample upon serpents and scorpions, and [physical and mental strength and ability] over all the power that the enemy [possesses]; and nothing shall in any way harm you.
John 14:13-14 NIV; And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 4:1-20 & Leviticus 15
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 15:29-39 & Genesis 50
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 FRI. 17TH FEBRUARY 2023
UNITED BY THE SPIRIT AND THE WORD
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
…being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad (John 11:51-52).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
The verses above bring to mind the words of Jesus in John 10:16. He said, “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.” He made this statement in reference to the Jews and the Gentiles who would believe in Him. He was going to get all of them together as onefold to be their shepherd. Blessed be God!
How the Lord Jesus wants the Church to be one! He wants us to speak with one voice, to have the same vision, knowing that we have one Father and one Lord, Jesus Christ. Praying to the Father for all God’s children, He said, “… that they may be one, even as we are one” (John 17:22).
God’s dream is to gather His children together in the spirit of unity. Don’t mix this up with the One World Religion that elitist globalists are trying to set up. Understand that when God does something, Satan always wants to come up with counterfeits. God is gathering us together, not necessarily in the physical, but in our hearts—uniting us by the Spirit and the Word.
Today, many of us, God’s people around the world, think the same things about the Lord, love Him the same way with so much passion, preach the Gospel and win souls like never before. We love one another more, and understand better, the mystery of the Body of Christ in the unity of the spirit. This is God’s dream, and each one of us must strive for the unity of the Body of Christ.
Think about it: with so many of us working together from around the world, we’ve made God’s Word, through Rhapsody of Realities, available in every known living language in the world. We’ve been united by the Spirit for the same vision and by the same message.
Through the Holy Spirit, we understand and proclaim the same message. This will continue even in greater measure as the Church age comes to a close. Glory to God!
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, I thank you for the perfection and edification of the Body of Christ. Thank you for the insight you’ve given your children to understand and share the same message, as we fulfil your dream, and attain the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto the stature of the fulness of Christ, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Ephesians 4:13; till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
1 Corinthians 12:12-13;For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
13. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
Philippians 1:27; Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 2:23-3:1-12 & Leviticus 11-12
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 15:10-20 & Genesis 48
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 WED. 15TH FEBRUARY 2023
BUILD ACCORDING TO HIS DESCRIPTION
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
…Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain (Hebrews 8:5 NIV).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
When God told Moses to build a tabernacle, He gave him a clear description and instructed him to build according to the description: “According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it” (Exodus 25:9).
In your walk with the Lord and work in His Kingdom, don’t just run off with every idea just because you think it’s nice. Be sure that you’re following God’s blueprint; the pattern and description that He’s given. It’s one of the reasons you must know the Word for yourself.
In His Word, you find samples, patterns and descriptions of how He wants us to live, the things He wants us to do and how to do them. The psalmist said in Psalm 127:1, “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it…”; we must build according to His plan.
In these last days, the Lord Jesus is building His Church. He said, “…I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). There’s a description given to us in the Word of God that shows how He’s doing this. The Bible says He (Christ Himself), “…gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” (Ephesians 4:11-12 NIV).
His plan is to build through these leaders, but everyone is involved; each one of us contributes to the building of this great body of Christ: “From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:16).
Every time you lead someone to Christ, you’re adding to the building of the Body of Christ, and it's a magnificent building. Hallelujah! Keep playing your role by winning souls into the Kingdom. You’ll be contributing to the building of the magnificent structure according to the description given.
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, I thank you for the ability of your Word in my spirit. I’m a doer of the Word, not just a hearer. The results of living in and by the Word are evidently manifested in every area of my life today, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Hebrews 8:5 AMPC; [But these offer] service [merely] as a pattern and as a foreshadowing of [what has its true existence and reality in] the heavenly sanctuary. For when Moses was about to erect the tabernacle, he was warned by God, saying, See to it that you make it all [exactly] according to the copy (the model) which was shown to you on the mountain.
1 Samuel 15:22; And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to hearken than the fat of rams.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 1:21-45 & Leviticus 8
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 14:22-33 & Genesis 46
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 MON. 13TH FEBRUARY 2023
HE NEVER COMPELS YOU
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live (Deuteronomy 30:19).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
As you study the Scriptures, you’ll discover that God gave man the power to choose. He may give several options and show you which one is right for you, but He never forces you to make a choice. In our theme scripture, He told Israel what to choose: life over death; blessings and not curses; but He didn’t force them.
This is an important lesson for leaders. Only tyrants compel or force obedience. In Matthew 20:25 AMPC, Jesus said, “…You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men hold them in subjection [tyrannizing over them].” The Lord isn’t that way.
Think about Jesus and His message of love: He gave His own life for all. Through the ages, many rulers and religious leaders forced people to accept their beliefs through intimidation, fear and terror. But the Lord Jesus gave His own life in our place and still lovingly lets us know we have a choice to accept or reject Him. Think about that!
However, even though He doesn't force us into the choices we make, He lets us understand the consequences of making the wrong choices. What you must do, therefore, is to live according to His Word and by His Spirit.
To the one who’s yet to be born again, I encourage you to do so NOW. Don’t live another day without making Jesus Christ the Lord of your life! You have the power to choose; so, make this right choice NOW. The Bible says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9). It’s so simple, yet so powerful.
To be born again is to have the very nature of God in your spirit; it’s to have the active life of Christ in every fibre of your being—in your spirit, soul and body. Hallelujah!
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, by the Holy Spirit and through the guidance from your holy Word, I make wise and accurate choices in line with your perfect will and destiny for my life. Your Word is my all-time guide, and Christ has been made unto me wisdom; therefore, I make only godly and Spiritinspired decisions, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Isaiah 30:21; and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
Joshua 24:15; And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
Deuteronomy 30:19; I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 28 & Leviticus 4-5
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 14:1-10 & Genesis 44
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional