2093
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 FRI.11TH AUGUST 2023
HIS NAME CHANGES EVERYTHING
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 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 (Mark 16:17-18).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
God vested all authority in the Name of Jesus (Philippians 2:9-10). His Name has the greatest honour, and the greatest authority. It doesn’t matter what might have plagued you; it doesn’t matter for how long you’ve been under, or on the sidewalk of life, your victory is guaranteed in His Name.
What you have to do is live your life with the consciousness of the power, glory and dominion of the Name of Jesus. When you do this, you won’t struggle with some health troubles; your life will be an unending stream of victories, blessings and the supernatural. You’ll have no consciousness of need, because the power and glory of His Name make all things right with you and work for you.
If you’d learn to use the Name of Jesus in your life, in everything you do, you’d be amazed at the extraordinary blessings you’d experience every day. His Name is an instrument, a great blessing for us in the New Testament. The Word tells us to use the Name of Jesus in all things (Colossians 3:17).
What many have lacked is the consciousness of the power and authority of His Name. When you make demands in His Name, He sees to it that they happen (John 14:14). When someone is sick in your home, for example, take charge and declare, “In the Name of Jesus Christ, I rebuke the pain; I rebuke the affliction!” Mention the sickness and command it to go!
He told us to heal the sick; so, it’s our responsibility to do it in His Name; and His Name never fails! Even now, rebuke the infirmity. Use the Name of Jesus to bless your home, bless your family, effect the changes you desire and create blessings for yourself and others.
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I declare, in the Name of Jesus that I live above this world and its corrupting influences. No sickness, disease or infirmity can thrive in my body, because I have the divine life—the indestructible, unconquerable life of God—in my spirit! I’m conscious of my divinity and immortality in Christ Jesus. Blessed be God! I live victoriously and dominate life’s situations and circumstances. Hallelujah!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Acts 3:16; And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
Philippians 2:9-11; 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;
11. and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Colossians 3:17; 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.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Romans 12:17-13:1-14 & Psalms 89
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 15:1-10 & Judges 19
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 WED. 9TH AUGUST 2023
“RIGHTWISENESS” AND THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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
━━━━━━━━━━
In our previous study, we referenced “Right Standing” as one of the attributes of righteousness. Today, we’ll be considering another attribute of righteousness called “Rightwiseness.” Rightwiseness is not a term that’s often used in everyday communication, but it’s an important element of righteousness.
“Rightwise” means to be rightward; or towards the right. This, however, is not talking about the physical position of being towards the “right-hand side.” It refers, instead, to rightness—the ability to always be and do right in the presence of a holy God.
Remember, righteousness is God’s nature: His character, ability and attribute of being right and perfect. How He thinks, what He says, and what He does is always right, because He’s God and He could never be wrong. This quality of the rightness of God is captured in the old English term, “rightwiseness.”
God alone knows what’s right; when He imparts His righteousness to your spirit, you also begin to know what’s right just like Him, and you’re given the ability to do it. The judgments of God, from thence, are wrought in your spirit. What do I mean by the judgments of God?
This has to do with how God perceives and judges things; how He sees things and what He thinks about them. Now, because of His nature in you, you now carry the judgments of God in your spirit. You have His opinions and know His will.
The prophet Isaiah, speaking about the Christ, said, “…he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth...” (Isaiah 11:3-4).
This means He would not judge according to His senses but by the Spirit. It’s the same with you now that Christ has been made unto you righteousness! His “rightwiseness” and His judgments are in your spirit. You judge by the Spirit. Hallelujah!
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I’m the unveiling of the Father’s righteousness; His “rightwiseness” and sound judgments are heard in me, seen in me, and dispensed through me. I judge by the Spirit in righteousness, and reprove with equity because I’m the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
1 Corinthians 1:30 AMPC; But it is from Him that you have your life in Christ Jesus, Whom God made our Wisdom from God, [revealed to us a knowledge of the divine plan of salvation previously hidden, manifesting itself as] our Righteousness [thus making us upright and putting us in right standing with God], and our Consecration [making us pure and holy], and our Redemption [providing our ransom from eternal penalty for sin].
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).
Romans 8:30 AMPC; And those whom He thus foreordained, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified (acquitted, made righteous, putting them into right standing with Himself). And those whom He justified, He also glorified [raising them to a heavenly dignity and condition or state of being].
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Romans 11:25-36 & Psalms 82-84
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 14:15-24 & Judges 17
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 MON. 7TH AUGUST 2023
INVOKE HIS AUTHORITY
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth (Philippians 2:9-10).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
In the 3rd chapter of the book of Acts, we read that Peter healed a certain man who was crippled from birth. Afterwards, he made an emphathic and unambigous statement. He said, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Peter was referring to the Name, Jesus!
All authority in heaven, in the earth, and under the earth is vested in that Name. So, when you affirm your healing and health or anything in the Name of Jesus, you’re invoking His authority.
The one who’s crippled is able to walk again, in the Name of Jesus. Even maimed limbs are restored in His Name. In Mark 16:17-18, Jesus said, “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils… they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” When you call the Name Jesus, demons scamper in terror; all of nature responds.
Therefore, be confident to use the Name of Jesus, and live every day in, and by, the power of His Name; it’s your heritage. The Name was given to you to use, and to live by. Even now, receive strength into you in the Name of Jesus! If you’ve been sick or afflicted, be made whole; be healed in Jesus’ Name! Right away, rejoice and thank Him for healing you, and act accordingly. Hallelujah!
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, I thank you for the power in the Name of Jesus and the authority I have to use that Name against the devil, sickness, disease, and the crises of life. I live in health; I’m victorious, and I'm sustained by the power and authority of that Name, today and always, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
John 14:13-14; And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
Acts 3:1-8; Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.
2. And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple;
3. who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms.
4. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.
5. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.
7. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.
8. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Romans 9:30-10:1-21 & Psalms 78
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 13:31-35 & Judges 13-14
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 SAT. 5TH AUGUST 2023
THE BIBLE: AN EPIC OF THE SPIRIT
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
When you study the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, you’ll come to the realization that indeed, the whole Bible is an epic of the Spirit. Moses, by the Spirit, wrote, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth…And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:1-2). This extraordinary person of the Godhead—the Holy Spirit—is introduced to us in the very beginning.
In the book of Proverbs, we read about His intent which was to dwell in us and have fellowship with us. The writer, by the Spirit, pens that the Spirit’s desire wasn’t to live in heaven without us, but to be with us, and in us (Proverbs 8:30-31).
In the four gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John— the Lord Jesus gives us an even greater light to tell us who the Holy Spirit is, and in Matthew 12:32, He warns against offending the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who brings the presence of God to us and communicates the love of God to us. You can't read the Bible and miss who the Holy Spirit is. Over in the Epistles, Paul also highlights, “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30).
Those who haven’t received the Holy Spirit often find the epistles confusing. If only they knew that the epistles are an effusion of an extravagant discourse of the Christ; they’re a compendium of extraordinary truths for today. In other words, they have a message of the now, not by way of the timelessness of the message, but by way of the timelessness of the man of whom He speaks.
And the only way to have a full grasp of this discourse is by the Spirit. How important it is to recognize and be fully yielded to the ministry of the Spirit!
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Holy Spirit, I acknowledge your ministry and presence in my life, as you guide me to know and walk in the realities of the Kingdom of God. I thank you for your presence in me, for you’re the captain of my life. I follow as you lead me to fulfil my destiny in Christ. Through your ministry, dear Holy Spirit, I’m demonstrating the glory, wisdom and excellence of divinity, bearing fruits of righteousness, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Matthew 12:32; And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
Proverbs 8:30-31; Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: And I was daily his delight, Rejoicing always before him;
31. Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; And my delights were with the sons of men.
Acts 5:32; And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Romans 8:18-39 & Psalms 70-73
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 13:10-21 & Judges 11
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 THURS. 3RD AUGUST 2023
THE WORD HAS POWER
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions (Psalm 107:20).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
The scripture above brings to mind an amazing testimony of a young lad who had a ghastly accident, resulting in a gruesome leg injury. The doctors said he’d never walk again, and if he did, it would take some years for that to happen.
This young lad took Rhapsody of Realities and began to meditate on the Word. He studied it voraciously and took the confessions seriously, reflecting on the healing power of God's Word over his leg. Soon enough, he began to see changes. Eventually, his leg was completely restored and he was able to walk again. Praise God!
Always remember that we were made or created by the Word. We’re products or offsprings of the Word. Before God formed man from the dust of the ground, He already created Him with His Word. He only formed from the dust, the man He had created in the spirit with His Word. That Word is where life comes from; that Word brought creation into being!
Therefore, when you want to change anything, use the Word! Proclaim the Word. The Word of God is a force; it’s a “thing.” In fact, one of the translations of the Word, “Rhema,” is “THING”; the Word is a thing; it’s a spiritual substance. That’s why, when you proclaim it, it goes out into the spirit realm and has the capacity to produce exactly what it talks about.
So, when you're talking the Word, don't think you're just making statements; no! The Word has energy: potent and creative power. As you affirm the Word, the message that it carries is the power that it transports. Glory to God!
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I speak forth the Word, being fully conscious that the message that it carries is the power it transports. I declare that I’m walking in divine health, increased prosperity, and I’m making progress with giant strides. My life is for the glory of God. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Luke 1:37 NIV; For no word from God will ever fail.”
Isaiah 55:10-11; For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11. so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
Hebrews 4:12; For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Romans 7:7-25 & Psalms 64-67
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 12:49-59 & Judges 9
EXERPTS FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 TUES. 1ST AUGUST 2023
LUMINOSITY BY THE WORD
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple (Psalm 119:130).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
I’ll like you to observe what the entrance of God’s words brings: "light." The Hebrew word translated “light” in the opening verse is “'or”; and it means to make luminous or lambent; to shine, to be glorious, to kindle or to set on fire. It also alludes to coming from the dark nights and breaking into a new day.
Therefore, what this verse is saying is that the entrance of God's Word into your heart will make you luminous or shine; your life will be like the dawning of the morning and glorious. Hallelujah!
Observe that I didn’t say the entrance of the Word will illuminate you, but that it’ll make you luminous. Even though these two words are often used in related contexts, they have distinct meanings and connotations. To illuminate something means to shine light on it and to make it brighter and more visible. That’s different from being luminous which means emitting light to be radiant or shiny, glowing or effulgent.
When something is described as luminous, it means it has the quality of producing or reflecting light. The entrance of the Word makes you glow; you become a burning and a shining light—you produce from within you such brightness, radiance and brilliance of the Spirit!
It brings to mind the Lord’s testimony of John the Baptist whom He described in John 5:35 as a burning and a shining light: “He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.” Let the Word get into you; feed on the Word; it’ll shine through you.
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, your Word is the true light that lights my heart. Through diligent study and constant meditation on the Word, my heart is flooded with light and I shine forth with such intensity, glowing ever so brightly, radiating your goodness and exhibiting your kindness and graciousness to my world, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Psalm 119:105; Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, And a light unto my path.
John 8:12; Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
John 12:46 AMPC; I have come as a Light into the world, so that whoever believes in Me [whoever cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Me] may not continue to live in darkness.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Romans 6:1-14 & Psalms 56-59
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 12:22-34 & Judges
EXCERPT FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 SUN. 30TH JULY 2023
GOD’S PLAN FOR THE GIVER
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
And God is able to make all grace (every favor and earthly blessing) come to you in abundance, so that you may always and under all circumstances and whatever the need be self-sufficient [possessing enough to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation] (2 Corinthians 9:8 AMPC).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Psalm 24:1 says, “The earth is the LORD’S, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” In Haggai 2:8, the Lord declares His sovereignty over the earth’s resources saying, “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts.”
Then in Psalm 50:10-11, the Lord said, “For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.” Hallelujah! This same God that owns the world and everything in it, including all its inexhaustible and inestimable wealth, is able to direct all grace towards you for you to enjoy everything He owns.
God is able to direct all the grace you require for anything in this life towards you such that you’re never behind in competence or ability. Someone might say, “If that’s the case, then, go ahead and do it, Lord; direct all grace towards me.”
The scriptures already told us what prompts Him to do it: He does it for givers. Read 2 Corinthians 9:7-8 and see the connection: all channels of blessings are focused on the giver! You can’t block the giver’s way, impede his advancement, or stymie his growth and blessings, for he’s graced on every side.
That’s not all. As a true giver, not only does God direct all grace towards you, but He ensures you have more than enough to give all the time. You’re always, and under all circumstances, and whatever the need, self-sufficient, possessing enough to require no aid or support, furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation. This is God’s Word and blessing for you as a giver. Hallelujah!
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, I thank you for the Gospel of Christ that has blessed and enriched me. I’m grateful for the privilege to give for the furtherance of the Gospel and bring sinners out of darkness into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Thank you for making all grace abound towards me, to be effective in the ministry of reconciliation, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Luke 6:38; give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
Philippians 4:15-19; Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only.
16. For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity.
17. Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.
18. But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God.
19. But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Romans 5:1-11 & Psalms 49-51
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 12:1-12 & Judges 5
EXCERPTS FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Dailies
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 FRI. 28TH JULY 2023
HE’S FOREVER THE SAME
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God? (Mark 12:24).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
The Bible says, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Therefore, what He did in Bible days, He’s still doing today; He’s consistent. His Name has the same power, the same authority to unstop deaf ears, open blind eyes, heal lame legs, restore maimed limbs and even raise the dead as it did in Bible says.
The Bible says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13). This applies to “anybody” and it’s true and still relevant. So, it doesn’t matter how bad you or others might think your case is; if you’d call upon the Name of the Lord, He’ll hear and answer you.
The Name of Jesus saves, delivers, protects, heals, preserves and makes whole. Perhaps the doctors have given up on you or on a loved one to die, maybe because of kidney failure, a heart disease, or a nervous breakdown. Don’t fret; our Lord is gracious, kind and all-powerful! Call on His Name and there’ll be a change.
Remember that there is no document in the world that is truer than the Bible—the Word of God. God’s Word is His will. And we know through His will that anybody who calls on Him shall be saved. All you have to do is believe; receive His message—His plan for you to walk in divine health and victory—and act on it.
Mark 9:23 says, “…If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” These words aren’t mere clichés; they came right out of the lips of the Master; they’re forever true. He said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33). He’s consistent. Blessed be His glorious Name forever
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, thank you for giving us the Name of Jesus, a name which has proven its power, consistency, reliability, and dependability from age to age, and its capacity and ability to alter and effect changes in hopeless situations and produce miracles. I walk in health, strength and vitality; I establish your will and righteousness in my world, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Psalm 119:89; For ever, O LORD, Thy word Is settled in heaven.
Philippians 2:9-11; 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;
11. and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Luke 10:19; 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.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Romans 3:1-31 & Psalms 42-44
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 11:37-44 & Judges 2-3
EXCERPTS FEOM: Rhapsody of Realities Dailies
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 WED. 26TH JULY 2023
GIVE IT YOUR ALL
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life (2 Corinthians 1:8).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
In Acts 19, Luke vividly captures for us some of the Apostle Paul’s unpleasant experiences as he went about preaching the Gospel. He talked about his personal risks and imprisonments, the riot orchestrated by Demetrius the silversmith, and, in the 22nd chapter, how a commander ordered that he be taken into the barracks to be flogged and interrogated.
No wonder Paul himself recounts, “…in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft” (2 Corinthians 11:23). In his first epistle to the Corinthian church, Paul recalls his experience at Ephesus and said, “…I have fought with beasts at Ephesus…” (1 Corinthians 15:32). In his second epistle, he narrated how in Asia, it became so bad that he felt he and his companions were on death row, but graciously had supernatural deliverance (2 Corinthians 1:8-9).
This same Gospel has been committed to your trust; will you take it lightly or put your all into it? Would you stick out your neck to preach the Gospel to your co-workers or business associates even if it means losing your job or losing out on business contracts you’ve so much desired?
How about your family members who aren’t yet born again? Would you go all out for them, or remain quiet to avoid being hated, disliked or ostracized? There’re those who for the fear of losing the relationships they’ve built, will never witness to their friends. How sad!
You’re a witness to your generation, and the Lord will hold you responsible as their witness. You’ve got to be committed to bringing salvation to those in your world. What you’re into isn’t about saving your head; it’s not about the comforts of life or the benefits you get out of it, no! You’re not into this for what any man can give you, but for the honour and glory of Christ the Lord.
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Lord, there’re no limits to how far I’m willing to go for this priceless Gospel that has been committed to my trust. I preach it boldly in the power of the Spirit, delivering many from the kingdom of darkness into the glorious liberty of the sons of God, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
2 Corinthians 5:18-19; And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19. to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
1 Corinthians 9:16-17; For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!
17. For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Romans 1:18-32 & Psalms 35-37
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 11:14-26 & Joshua 24
EXCERPTS FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Dailies
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 MON. 24TH JULY 2023
ACTUATE YOUR POTENTIAL
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Potential is a latent ability, a hidden power that hasn’t been developed. It is that unused ability, hidden away in the inner recesses of your heart, mind, and soul. Potential is what you could be that you aren’t yet, what you could do that you haven’t done, or everything inside you that is yet to be actuated. Potential doesn’t refer to the successes you’ve achieved, but the ones that are possible that you’re yet to achieve.
Many have lived and died without actuating their potential or fulfilling God’s dream for them; many have died without becoming what He wanted them to be. Nothing could be more miserable than that! How would you feel if, at the judgment seat of Christ, you’re shown everything you could have been, and the possibilities you could have fulfilled but that were never actuated?
So, learn about the real you through the Word and stand up to be what the Word has described you to be: one with limitless possibilities and ability to do more and be more.
Remember the words of the Lord Jesus in John 12:24. He said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”
Consider a fruit-tree seed: That seed has the potential of not just becoming a tree, but a forest. Every tree has the potential of a forest. God doesn’t only reserve the rights, but also intends to hold men accountable for their potentials. We’re dealing here with your potential in God. The Bible says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body…” (2 Corinthians 5:10).
At the Judgment, some are going to see all that they were meant to be that they never became, all they could have said that they never said, and all they could have done that they never did. So make up your mind you’d be everything God has chosen you to be. Trust the Holy Spirit to help you see and live to your fullest potential and fulfil your destiny and calling in Christ.
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, thank you for helping me to live to my fullest potential and fulfil my destiny and calling in Christ. I’m running my race swiftly, pressing towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, under the inspiration of your Spirit and guidance of your Word, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
2 Thessalonians 1:11;Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:
Colossians 4:17; And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it.
Philippians 2:12-13; Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
13. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 28:17-31 & Psalms 30-31
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 10:38-42 & Joshua 22
EXCERPTS FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Dailies
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 SAT. 22ND JULY 2023
BORN OF HIM
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12-13).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
The Christian is not an ordinary person. He’s born into God’s class. Being born again made you a partaker of the divine nature; an associate of the Godkind (2 Peter 1:4). When you were born of your biological parents, you became an associate of the human-kind; you became as human as your parents that gave birth to you.
However, that human life you got from your parents was depraved, death-doomed, and corruptible. Therefore, it needed to be supplanted by the life and nature of God. It’s the reason Jesus said, “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).
Now that you’re born again, the indomitable, incorruptible and transcendent life of God has supplanted the human life. This absolutely beggars the natural mind; to think that in reality, we’re literally sons of God—born of Him.
No wonder John cries out, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God…Beloved, now are we the sons of God…” (1 John 3:1-2). The word translated as “Sons” is the Greek, “teknon”; it actually refers to someone that is born of another, in contradistinction to the Greek “huois”, which may not be ‘sons’ by birth.
The apostle John uses the word “teknon” to emphasize that you’re actually born of God. Everything in life reproduces after its kind. An eagle reproduces eagles, a dog gives birth to dogs, and humans give birth to humans. Now, since God gave birth to us, who are we?
The Lord Jesus, quoting the psalmist, gives us an answer. He said, “...Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?” (John 10:34). Think about yourself the same way you’d think about Jesus when He walked the earth; how He lived, His extraordinary walk! The scripture declares: "...as he is, so are we in this world" (1 John 4:17). Hallelujah!
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, I thank you for the vital experience of eternal life which has completely inundated my entire being— spirit, soul and body! I walk in righteousness, glory and victory, as your divinity is fully expressed in and through me, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 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.
John 10:33-36; The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.
34. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?
35. If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;
36. say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?
1 John 5:11-12; And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
12. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 27:27-44 & Psalms 23-25
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 10:10-24 & Joshua 19
EXCERPTS FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Dailies
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 THURS. 20TH JULY 2023
TRUTH: REALITY BEYOND FACTS
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me (John 14:6).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
If you don’t know Jesus, you can never know or find truth. You may only find facts without truth. Truth and fact are not the same. A fact is the assertion of sensorially verified information about something that exists or has happened. While truth, on the other hand, is reality beyond the senses.
According to the Scriptures, the Word of God is truth— reality: “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17). Truth is an affirmation of what God has said about any given condition, situation or circumstance. Truth is spiritual law. Someone may tell you a “fact” but not tell you the truth, because truth goes beyond facts.
Truth will reveal motives. In a law court, for example, one of the things the justice system looks at is the accused's motive, purpose or intent in committing a crime. That is, the driving force, the urge, the impulse, or the desire that induces the criminal’s action.
It’s true that a motive can be useful in conjunction with other evidence to confirm or prove that a person committed a crime, especially if the accused offender denies doing so. However, time and time again, these unreliable systems of criminal justice have misjudged and convicted the wrong people, because they deal mainly with facts.
How can you judge a man’s motive? You have to know his heart. How can you know a man’s heart? It’s only God’s Word—the truth—that exposes, sifts, analyzes and judges the very thoughts and purposes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 NIV says, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
Therefore, always subject the facts about any situation to the truth of God’s Word. Override facts with truths. For example, it doesn’t matter the facts resulting from the doctor’s diagnosis concerning your health; the truth is you have the divine life; therefore, divine health is your nature in Christ. Sickness, disease and infirmities have no place in your body. Hallelujah! Truth is greater than fact. Live in and by God’s truth today, and every day. Amen.
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
God’s Word is my life and the truth by which I live today and every day! I walk in truth, filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. I walk in dominion over fear, sickness, poverty and death, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
John 8:32; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Psalm 91:14; Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
3 John 1:4; I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 26:19-32 & Psalms 19-20
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 9:49-62 & Joshua 16-17
EXCERPTS FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Dailies
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 TUES. 18TH JULY 2023
THE TRUE ROYAL “BLOODLINE”
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, [God's] own purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9 AMPC).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
The verse we just read is absolutely profound! How I jumped, ran, skipped and shouted for joy at such a sublime discovery many years ago when I first read it as a young lad. I’m still so stirred and excited each time I meditate on it. We’re of the true royal bloodline.
First, observe that the apostle Peter didn’t say, “But you shall be”; rather, he says, “But you are!” That’s not a promise but a present-hour reality. Nobody knows you better than God. His Word is a mirror, and now the mirror is showing and describing how God sees you. You’re a royal priesthood; you’re royalty.
This is far bigger and more transcendent than all the royal families of the world put together. Theirs is just a matter of political position. But ours is the result of our divine ancestry. Read our opening scripture again; it says “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, [God's] own purchased, special people….”
How were you purchased? The Bible says, “You must know (recognize) that you were redeemed (ransomed) from the useless (fruitless) way of living inherited by tradition from [your] forefathers, not with corruptible things [such as] silver and gold, But [you were purchased] with the precious blood of Christ (the Messiah), like that of a [sacrificial] lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19 AMPC).
The blood of Jesus represents His life; that’s your true value. And because of that blood with which you were purchased, you live above the corrupting influences of this world. Yours is the true royal bloodline. Your heavenly Father is the Monarch of the universe, and you’re His heir—His purchased, priceless possession!
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, I thank you for the blood of Jesus gives me remission, justification, redemption, access, fellowship, cleansing and the blessings of the New Testament. I’m born of His Word, a new creation, superior to Satan, the world and its failing systems and elements. Blessed be God!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
1 Peter 1:18-19; forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
19. but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
1 Peter 2:9 NKJV; But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 25:13-26:1 & Psalms 11-16
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 9:28-36 & Joshua 14
EXERPTS FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Dailies
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 SUN. 16TH JULY 2023
KEEP YOUR HEART SANCTIFIED
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
The word 'keep' in the opening scripture doesn’t mean to hide something. The Hebrew word is “natsar” and it gives the picture of a stronghold mounted over something valuable. Thus, you’re to mount guard over your heart; keep your heart sanctified with the Word.
The reason the Bible places a premium on mounting guard over your heart—maintaining a perfect heart—is that out of it are the issues of life. Everything flows from your heart. In other words, everything you need for life is actually in your heart right now.
Everywhere you would ever go, everything you would ever have, everything you’d ever enjoy in this world is in your heart. The Bible says He has set eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11). The Kingdom of God is in our hearts (Luke 17:21). What then are you supposed to do?
Fill your heart with the Word so only good will always come forth from your heart. Never let anything unwholesome take root in your heart. Pride, anger, malice, bitterness, hatred—these are poisonous to the heart.
Philippians 4:8 gives us an idea of what God wants you to fill your heart with: things that are honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous and praiseworthy. Nothing meets this qualification better than God’s Word. That’s why you must allow the Word of God to dwell in you richly (Colossians 3:16).
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
My thoughts are renewed by the Word, and therefore filled with things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of a good report, virtuous and praiseworthy. I think on the Word, as it creates and produces in me ideas and pictures of success, endless possibilities and victories, love and fellowship with God. Hallelujah!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Romans 12:2; 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.
1 Timothy 4:15; Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.
Luke 6:45; A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 24:1-27 & Psalms 1-6
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 9:10-17 & Joshua 12
EXERPTS FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Dailies
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 FRI. 14TH JULY 2023
EQUAL OWNERSHIP
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together (Romans 8:16-17).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Some Bible Translators grappled with the Spirit’s communication through the apostle Paul in our opening scripture when He referred to us as “joint-heirs” with Christ. It was too big for their theology. Therefore, some of them decided to translate it as “co-heirs” instead of staying with the original Greek rendering which is “sugkleronomos”: joint-heirs.
A “Co-heir” shares in the inheritance, but not in jointownership. Unlike co-heirs, joint-heirs own the inheritance jointly, with undivided interest; they have equal rights to the entire inheritance. Let’s put it this way: while co-heirs can share it thirty-seventy or sixty-forty, or some other relevant fractions, the case with joint heirship is that, no one gets anything without the other; they have equal ownership over the whole hundred percent.
To be a joint-heir with Christ means everything that belongs to Him belongs to you, in the same way and degree that it belongs to Him. No wonder the Word declares that in Christ, all things are yours (1 Corinthians 3:21). Praise God!
How can you know this and be limited in life? Nothing should limit you, not your job or business. Nothing should get you hemmed in financially, because you’re an heir of God, and a joint-heir with Christ. Think about what He owns, then you’ll know how limitless and unsearchable your riches and resources are.
You have all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). Therefore, lift your head above the clouds, and think like God; live a limitless life. Meditate on this truth today that you’re a joint-heir with Christ, and your creativity, ingenuity, inventiveness and innovativeness will come alive; you’ll become a solution provider!
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I’m a joint-heir with Christ, and an heir of God’s Kingdom of blessings! I have all things that pertain to life and godliness. I walk in divine health and prosperity, and function from a position of victory and unending success in Christ. I flourish exceedingly in every good work, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Galatians 4:7; Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Galatians 3:28-29 MSG; In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ.
29. Also, since you are Christ’s family, then you are Abraham’s famous “descendant,” heirs according to the covenant promises.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 22:22-23:1-11 & Job 36-39
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 8:40-56 & Joshua 10
EXERPTS FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Dailies
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 THURS. 10TH AUGUST 2023
ETERNAL LIFE IN YOU
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16 NIV).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
The opening verse is a profound statement from Jesus. It says whoever believes in Him, shall not perish but have eternal life; that’s you. It also brings to mind the words of Scripture in Colossians 1:26-27: “Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Christ in you means eternal life within! This subject in scripture calls for deep meditation. First, let’s consider the definition of eternal life. What exactly is it? Eternal life refers to the life and nature of God: that is, the God-life. Just as there is plant life and animal life, the animal life can further be categorized into human life and various other forms of biological life.
However, there’s a distinct kind of life—the God-life. God is the author of life, and everything we consider as “life” emanates from Him. He is life personified. Thus, His very life, His nature, was birthed within us when we were born again. Does this mean we possess two lives?” No!
When you were born again, a new life was introduced into your spirit, and the human life with which you were born of your earthly parents was supplanted by the life and nature of God. 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).
This simply implies that we’re divine beings, divine creatures, and our divine nature makes us masters over circumstances, with dominion over Satan and the world’s deplorable systems. No wonder the Apostle Peter calls us associates of a heavenly pantheon—comrades of the God-kind (2 Peter 1:4). Hallelujah!
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
My divine nature has made me a master over circumstances, with dominion over the world’s deplorable systems. My old life has been completely supplanted by the divine life, which is superior to sickness, disease, defeat and all depravities that affect the natural man. The nature of righteousness causes me to walk in God's perfect will today, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Galatians 2:20; I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
1 John 5:11-13 NIV; And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
12. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
13. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
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: Romans 12:1-16 & Psalms 85-88
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 14:25-35 & Judges 18
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 TUES. 8TH AUGUST 2023
CHRIST—OUR RIGHT-STANDING BEFORE THE FATHER
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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
━━━━━━━━━━
I ’ve often said that the biggest subject in all of God’s Word is righteousness. Righteousness is the nature of God that defines His character and ways of doing things. It is the rightness of God; His attribute of always being right.
This nature and attribute of God when imparted to the human spirit at the new birth gives him right-standing. Right-standing refers to the right or ability to stand in the presence of God without guilt, fear, inferiority, or condemnation. Now, you can talk to the Lord in fellowship and even ask Him questions; you’re bold in His presence.
This is part of the result of who we are, and what we have in Christ. We read in our opening scripture that Christ has become our righteousness—our right-standing before God. Hallelujah! What a blessing! As great and glorious and mighty as God is, you’re not afraid of Him, nor are you guilty or inferior in His presence. Rather, before Him, you’re holy, unblameable and unreproveable (Colossians 1:22). Glory to His Name forever!
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I have received God's overflowing grace and the gift of righteousness which has put me into right standing with the Father. I reign as a king in life through Christ. Glory to God!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Romans 3:23-28; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24. being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25. whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26. to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
27. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
28. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
Romans 4:5-8; But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
6. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
7. saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered.
8. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Romans 11:1-24 & Psalms 79-81
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 14:1-14 & Judges 15-16
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 SUN. 6TH AUGUST 2023
PURIFIED BY THE WORD
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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 Corinthians 6:11).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
The Apostle Paul, in the 11th verse of 1 Corinthians 6 makes a striking statement to establish the present state of the Corinthian Christians, emphasizing that they were washed, sanctified and justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God. How profound!
Observe the Spirit’s communication through Paul; He didn’t say, “Such are some of you”; rather, He said, “…and such were some of you,” referring to the unrighteous characters listed in verses 9 and 10. But how were they washed by the Spirit? Through the Word!
In John 15:3, the Lord Jesus addressing His disciples said, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” He purified them by His Word. As He spoke His words of sanctification and righteousness to them while they listened, they were purified. Blessed be God! The same thing happens today as we share the Word of God; as the people listen, their hearts are purified from all unrighteousness.
Many have testified that as they listened to us share the Word of God or as they meditated on the scriptures, suddenly, they seemed to have been transported in the spirit. They felt enraptured in God's bliss and love. The Word got rid of everything unwholesome, unpleasant or unclean. How wonderful! We’re made pure by the Word. Hallelujah!
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The Word rids me of anything unwholesome, unpleasant, or unclean. It obliterates sickness, poverty, sin and all of the works of darkness from my life. I’m washed, sanctified, and justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. Glory to God!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
John 15:3 AMPC; You are cleansed and pruned already, because of the word which I have given you [the teachings I have discussed with you].
Colossians 1:21-22 CEV; You used to be far from God. Your thoughts made you his enemies, and you did evil things.
22. But his Son became a human and died. So God made peace with you, and now he lets you stand in his presence as people who are holy and faultless and innocent.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Romans 9:1-29 & Psalms 74-77
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 13:22-30 & Judges 12
EXCERPTS FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 FRI. 4TH AUGUST 2023
MADE WHOLE AND DELIVERED FROM PITFALLS
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions (Psalm 107:20).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
The Hebrew word translated healed is “raphah”; it means to mend, to cure, to heal, repair, or thoroughly make whole. This is what the Word does in your life; it rids you of all kinds of sicknesses, diseases, and infirmities; it has curative ability.
You can use the Word to keep your body in divine health. Proverbs 4:20-22 says, “My son, attend to my words…they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.” So the Word produces health in your physical body.
“Raphah” also means physician. It brings to mind God’s promise of healing and blessings as the Israelites journeyed in the wilderness after their deliverance from Egypt: “...if thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee” (Exodus 15:26).
The word “healeth” is the same word, “raphah”; thus, the underlined portion can also be translated, “I am the Lord, your physician”; that’s where you get the name, “Jehovah Raphah,” which means “Lord, your physician.” So, He was their physician.
Secondly, the word translated “destructions” in the same opening verse is the Hebrew, “shechiyth”; it means pitfalls. Pitfalls are sudden, unforeseen troubles. So, a pitfall could be a sudden loss of money or even the loss of a job, life savings, assets, properties etc., as a result of a particular course of action or policies.
But thanks be unto God! He’s able to deliver from pitfalls, from sudden unforeseen difficulty, calamity or quagmire. Blessed be His Name forever.
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, I'm confident in the ability of your Word to deliver me from pitfalls, to cause health, wholeness and strength to well up in my body, and to make me walk in unending prosperity. Through the Word, I’m guided to navigate life triumphantly. I'm like a tree by the streams, bearing fruits unto righteousness, never failing, but always victorious, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Psalm 27:1-3; 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?
2. When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, They stumbled and fell.
3. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: Though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.
Isaiah 54:17 AMPC; But no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall show to be in the wrong. This [peace, righteousness, security, triumph over opposition] is the heritage of the servants of the Lord [those in whom the ideal Servant of the Lord is reproduced]; this is the righteousness or the vindication which they obtain from Me [this is that which I impart to them as their justification], says the Lord.
Colossians 3:16; Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Romans 8:1-17 & Psalms 68-69
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 13:1-9 & Judges 10
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 WED 2ND AUGUST 2023
DISCRETION AND SOUND JUDGMENT
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple (Psalm 119:130).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
The word translated “simple” above is the Hebrew, “pethiy”; it means to be foolish or silly. It also connotes being open-minded or seducible. It aptly describes someone who's open to any new thinking about anything.
The open-minded or seducible person could hear, “There are three gods,” and agrees. Then, he listens to a podcast where the speaker says, “There’re actually five gods,” and he also agrees to that. Soon, someone else comes up with another theory that says there’s no God; and he nevertheless agrees. No! That’s being a simpleton.
Such folks need the entrance of God’s Word to give them understanding. It’s guaranteed: God’s Word will eject foolishness and impart wisdom to you. 2 Timothy 3:15 tells us that the Holy Scriptures are able to make you wise. Hallelujah!
When people aren’t behaving or acting right, refer them to the Word. When the Word gets into them, there’ll be a transformation. If they were timid, they’d become bold, sagacious, discerning, discrete, perceptive and prudent. The Word will cause them to deal wisely in the affairs of life (Joshua 1:8 AMPC).
Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom….” The more of the Word you have inside you, the wiser you become, such that even your choice of words in dealing with others will be gracious, excellent and loving.
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The Word of Christ dwells in me richly in all wisdom; therefore, I’m sagacious, discerning, discrete, perceptive, and prudent. I exude wisdom and sound judgment. I deal excellently in all my affairs today, and I make accurate judgments and decisions, for the Word propels me from within, in Jesus' Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
2 Timothy 3:15; and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
Joshua 1:8; This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
Acts 20:32; And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Romans 6:15-7:1-6 & Psalms 60-63
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 12:35-48 & Judges 8
EXERPTS FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 MON. 31ST JULY 2023
THE WORD PROPELS YOU TO “DO”
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure (Philippians 2:13).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
The Word of God is a propelling force; it’s a propelling power. It gives you the spiritual motivation, and enables you to do. The Word effectually works in you, energizing and creating in you the power and desire to actualize your dream.
Success comes from “doing,” that is, acting, not from seeing only. There’re many with great ideas—in business, politics, ministry, etc.,—that never came to light because they never took action. If only they’d meditate on the Word.
Joshua 1:8 AMPC says, “This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success.” Notice it didn’t say: “...but thou shall meditate therein day and night and also observe to do…”; neither did it say, “Meditate on it and do it”; no! Rather, it says if you’d truly meditate on the Word, you cannot but do it. The “doing” is a result or implication of you meditating on the Word.
Colossians 3:16 says to let the Word of God dwell in you richly; have it in your spirit in abundance because of what it does in you. When you’re in church for example, and the Word is being taught, there’s a ministry of the Word going on at such times; your spirit is being built, strengthened and stirred to act on the promptings, ideas and visions that come to you from God’s Spirit. Hallelujah!
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, I thank you for granting me insight into spiritual mysteries and secrets and implanting in me the passion to do your will. I’m propelled by your Word, stirred and motivated to act and walk in the path of success and greatness in fulfilling my destiny in Christ. Hallelujah!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
James 1:22-25; But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
23. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
24. for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
1 Timothy 4:15; Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.
Colossians 3:16; Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Romans 5:12-21 & Psalms 52-55
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 12:13-21 & Judges 6
EXCERPTS FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Dailies
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 SAT. 29TH JULY 2023
ASSOCIATES OF A GREATER PANTHEON
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Peter 1:4).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
The image the Apostle Peter conjures in our minds in the verse above stemmed from a Greek mythology. It had to do with the Greek pantheon, or the collective group of gods headed by Zeus, king of the gods. So, the actual expression, “partakers of the divine nature,” is the Greek “theias-phuseos,” which means “associates of the God-kind.”
Thus, Peter was referring to a greater pantheon headed by Jesus. Being born again, we’ve been brought into fellowship or oneness with the God-kind. We’re in that league, meaning that we’re in a fraternity of divinity, a communion of the God-kind. Some Bible scholars have had issues with this. Their disagreement isn’t because Peter’s thoughts were wrong, but they were so afraid to believe what the Word says.
Others argue that Peter shouldn’t have used words that primarily centre around or relate to Greek history, culture or the Greek gods. But there are several other texts attributed to Peter in the epistles that were written and influenced by Hellenistic culture. For example, Peter, for the first time in 2 Peter 1:2 uses the term “epignosis.” The term epignosis is Hellenistic, and it's used 20 times in the Bible out of which 16 of them were all from Paul. Four of them are from Peter (2 Peter 1:2; 2 Peter 1:3; 2 Peter 1:8; 2 Peter 2:20).
Epignosis is a higher form of knowledge; it means exact, precise or absolute knowledge that can only be attributable to God. The Hellenists or Grecians in their religiosity believed that only the gods knew everything; only the gods can have absolute knowledge. If these Hellenistic thoughts woven into scriptures are accepted, why should anyone disparage the Hellenistic inference or understanding of the pantheon that Peter seeks to communicate?
You belong in the fraternity of the God-kind, having been born into God’s class, with His divine life in your spirit. Now, you’re indestructible, impregnable and always victorious, having been translated from the ordinary realm of mankind to the supernatural class of the God-kind.
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I’m an associate of the God-kind, in a fraternity with divinity. I’m born into God’s class with His nature and character in my spirit. I’ve been translated from the ordinary realm of mankind to the supernatural class of the God-kind. Hallelujah!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Psalm 82:6-7; I have said, Ye are gods; And all of you are children of the most High.
7. But ye shall die like men, And fall like one of the princes.
John 1:12; 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:
1 John 1:3; that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Romans 4:1-25 & Psalms 45-48
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 11:45-54 & Judges 4
EXCERPTS FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Dailies
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 THURS. 27TH JULY 2023
HAVE A RESURRECTION CONSCIOUSNESS
📖 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead (2 Corinthians 1:9).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
The Bible tells us that God asked Abraham to offer up Isaac, his only son, whom he had at an old age. Abraham didn’t hesitate or complain; as he went ahead to offer Isaac, God promptly stopped him. As the book of Hebrews reveals, Abraham had Isaac raised back to life.
As far as God was concerned, it was a resurrection because Abraham had totally given up Isaac. It was God who said, “Abraham, stop! Don’t hurt the child.” Abraham had faith in the resurrection. The Bible says, “For he reasoned that God was able to raise [him] up even from among the dead. Indeed in the sense that Isaac was figuratively dead [potentially sacrificed], he did [actually] receive him back from the dead” (Hebrews 11:19 AMPC).
It’s the same thing that Paul was talking about in the opening scripture where he narrated how he and his companions were so weighed down beyond their strength, and their situation was so devastating that they felt within themselves the very sentence of death.
So instead of trusting in and depending on themselves, they depended on God who raises the dead. What a mindset! They had given up on life as far as they were concerned; they had the sentence of death in themselves but they had a resurrection consciousness.
That’s just like Jesus who gave Himself up, knowing that the Father will raise Him back to life! We’re the children of faith, the children of Abraham, and we act like Abraham. We carry the resurrection consciousness in our spirits.
In that condition, nothing is kept back from the Lord, because you know that He is the God who raises the dead! Anything He asks you to give is multiplied back to you a thousandfold and more. Abraham offered Isaac and he became the father of many nations. His descendants became as countless as the sand on the seashore.
So, serve the Lord truly, joyfully and fully. The very idea to give your all to Him shouldn’t trouble, destabilize or give you sleepless nights when you have the resurrection consciousness. Hallelujah!
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, I have the resurrection consciousness, being convinced that you’re able to raise the dead. Therefore, I’m always active in my service to you, in truth, with all my heart, rejoicing in hope, and patient in times of trouble. I remain steadfast and unmovable, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
1 Corinthians 15:13-18; But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
14. and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
15. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
16. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
17. and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
18. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
1 Corinthians 15:58 AMPC: Therefore, my beloved brethren, be firm (steadfast), immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord [always being superior, excelling, doing more than enough in the service of the Lord], knowing and being continually aware that your labor in the Lord is not futile [it is never wasted or to no purpose].
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Romans 2:1-29 & Psalms 38-41
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 11:27-36 & Judges 1
EXCERPTS FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Dailies
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 TUES. 25TH JULY 2023
COUNT THE COST
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God (Acts 20:24).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
In Acts 20:17–27, Luke tells us how Paul and his team left Troas and sailed to Miletus where he gave his heartfelt farewell to the elders of Ephesus. There, he reminded them of how he served the Lord with all humility, in tears in the midst of adversity, affliction and trials.
In the twenty-third verse, he said, “…the Holy Spirit clearly and emphatically affirms to me in city after city that imprisonment and suffering await me. But none of these things move me; neither do I esteem my life dear to myself…” (Acts 20:23-24 AMPC). This great apostle minced no words about the fact that he had put his life on the line for the sake of the Gospel. What an inspiration! What a commitment!
When you go through the scriptures written by the apostle Paul and the other apostles of the Lord, have you ever thought what it cost them to get the message across to us? Study Church history, and you’ll discover that many of them were killed for the sake of the Gospel.
Read about Stephen. His success in converting Jews drew the indignation of the Sanhedrin and he was stoned to death. Some were beheaded, crucified, burned at the stakes and others were thrown into cauldrons of boiling oil. So, you have to count the cost.
Be ready and willing to lay your life on the line for the Gospel, especially in these last days. Nothing should be too much for you to give up, give, or go through for the Gospel. No matter the sacrifices you make for the Gospel, be ready and willing to give your life for it, if it comes to that.
How dear is your life? Is it so important that you wouldn’t do more for the Lord, just so you could save your name, yourself, or the money you’ve got? Is that all there is about life to you? You should come to that point in your life where you’re absolutely convinced that nothing is too much for you to give for the Gospel, including your life. Jesus said in Mark 8:35, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.”
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, I remain resolute and unapologetic about the Gospel; I stand for the Gospel everywhere, preaching it boldly with absolute convictions, even unto death if need be. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
2 Corinthians 1:8-9; For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:
9. but we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:
1 Corinthians 9:16-17; For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!
17. For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Romans 1:1-17 & Psalms 32-34
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 11:1-13 & Joshua 23
EXCERPTS FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Dailies
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 SUN. 23RD JULY 2023
YOU’RE TOP-CLASS
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures (James 1:18).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Observe the beginning of the construction in the opening verse; it says, “Of his own will begat He us….” That means the Lord gave birth to us of His own volition. It was His choice to give birth to us with the Word of truth that we should be a kind or a type of first fruit of His creatures!
What’s the meaning of first fruits? First fruit means the first and the best of anything; it implies top class. You’re top class, excellent all the way, because you’re born of God. Hallelujah!
The same truth is reiterated by the apostle Peter in 1 Peter 1:23: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” John also referenced the fact that this happened by God’s own design; it was His will: “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: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).
It was His will to make you top-class. So, live your best and be your best for Him. Keep your mind on the image of you that God has given you in His Word. You’re His peculiar treasure, His reproduction, His excellent handiwork, a bundle of success, an achiever, and a victor in Christ Jesus.
He made you for glory and beauty. See how He describes you 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].” Let this put springs in your steps.
It makes no difference who condemns you; refuse to be distracted by what others might be saying about you. What counts is who you are in Christ: you’re top-class; perfected in righteousness, holy unblameable and unreproveable in God’s sight (Colossians 1:22). Glory to His Name forever!
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, I thank you for you’ve made me the expression of your beauty, excellence, perfections and grace. Thank you for your glory in my life. I declare that my life is for your praise and glory, and I fulfil my destiny in Christ, bringing forth fruits unto righteousness, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
James 1:22-25; But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
23. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
24. for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
1 Peter 2:9 AMPC; But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, [God's] own purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 28:1-16 & Psalms 26-29
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 10:25-37 & Joshua 20-21
EXCERPTS FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Dailies
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 FRI. 21ST JULY 2023
A MOST SUBLIME AND IMPERIAL IDENTITY
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified (Romans 8:30).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
The Amplified version of the opening text says, “And those whom He thus foreordained, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified (acquitted, made righteous, putting them into right standing with Himself). And those whom He justified, He also glorified [raising them to a heavenly dignity and condition or state of being].”
Observe the explanation of the word “Glorified”; it says, “… [raising them to a heavenly dignity and condition or state of being].” In other words, when you were born again, when you came to Christ and received eternal life, you were brought into a life of heavenly dignity. We have the most sublime and most imperial identity!
The apostle John explains the fellowship that has ushered us into this life of glory: “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). The word translated “fellowship” is the Greek, “Koinonia.” It also means partnership. So, he’s dealing with comradeship.
Thus, our fellowship, partnership or comradeship is with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. Peter says we’re called to glory and excellence: “For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that [are requisite and suited] to life and godliness, through the [full, personal] knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His own glory and excellence (virtue)” (2 Peter 1:3 AMPC).
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Thank you, Father, for the awesome fellowship and comradeship in Christ, with your divine life in my spirit. This imperial union with divinity makes me indestructible, and eternally victorious. Hallelujah!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Psalm 82:6; I have said, Ye are gods; And all of you are children of the most High.
John 1:12; 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:
2 Peter 1:4: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 27:1-26 & Psalms 21-22
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 10:1-9 & Joshua 18
EXERPTS FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Dailies
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 WED. 19TH JULY 2023
SPIRITUAL INSIGHT AND UNDERSTANDING
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
For this cause we…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 (Colossians 1:9).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
The Spirit, through the apostle Paul, prayed an insightful prayer for the Christians in Colossae, that they might be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. It lets us know that there's such a thing as spiritual understanding, just as there’s a natural understanding.
It takes the Holy Spirit to open your eyes and give you spiritual understanding. He unveils mysteries and secrets of the Kingdom to you. He’s the Spirit of truth, and part of His ministry in your life is the unveiling of truth. It brings to mind another prayer of the Spirit through Paul in Ephesians 1:17 AMPC: “For I always pray to God… that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation [of insight into mysteries and secrets] in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him.”
Without the understanding and insight that the Spirit gives, your interpretation of life would be ordinary, mundane and useless. It will be difficult to grasp spiritual realities.
Consider the disciples of Jesus for example; though they had been with the Master, they didn’t understand many things that He taught them, because they hadn’t received the Holy Spirit. When He spoke of His death, burial and resurrection, they grappled with it, because they lacked spiritual insight and understanding at the time.
That’s how come even after He rose from the dead, some of them still doubted. But after His resurrection, when He came among them, the Bible says “…he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20:22). What He did was to open their understanding by the Holy Spirit so they could receive and comprehend spiritual realities. From then on, they had spiritual insight; they understood the words of Jesus.
When the Holy Spirit comes into your life, He gives you understanding so you’re no longer in the dark about God’s Word, life, or anything. Through that insight and understanding, you know the paths of life that bring success, joy, victory and prosperity; you’re led in wisdom, glory and righteousness. Hallelujah!
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, I thank you for the precious gift of the Holy Spirit who grants me spiritual insight, sets me on the right course, and makes me a master in life. Christ is my wisdom, and I live a glorified life in and through the Word, by the power of the Spirit, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Colossians 3:16; Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Acts 20:32; And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
Ephesians 1:17-18: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
18. the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 26:2-18 & Psalms 17-18
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 9:37-48 & Joshua 15
EXCERPTS FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Dailies
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 MON. 17TH JULY 2023
CHRISTIANITY: A CALL TO THE TRANSCENDENT LIFE
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
God did this because he wanted you Gentiles to understand his wonderful and glorious mystery. And the mystery is that Christ lives in you… (Colossians 1:27 CEV).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
In Christianity, we haven’t embraced a religion; what we’ve actually received is God's nature—His life. Don’t let anyone deceive you that Christianity is just one of the religions in the world; it’s not. It’s a relationship; a call to the transcendent life of glory and love. When you have a relationship with someone, that isn’t religion.
Those who describe Christianity as a religion do so because all the outward things that religious people do seem to be consistent with some of the outward things Christians do. For example, in religion, they pray, or probably have a book that they read; they also have religious rites and rituals that they follow.
In Christianity, we have sacraments like the Holy Communion, Water Baptism, etc.; yet, that doesn’t make it a religion. You can’t look at an animal and say “If it has two hands and two legs and can walk, then it is a human being”; that isn’t enough. Otherwise, gorillas and other apes will be categorized as humans.
Christianity is a real experience; it’s the active life of God in a human being; it’s Christ alive in you; it’s a real comradeship with the real and living Christ—a call to oneness with divinity: “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:17). Hallelujah! In Christianity, we live and move in Christ (Acts 17:28); we’re members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones (Ephesians 5:30).
Colossians 1:26-27 consummates it all! It says, “Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations…which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Christianity is Christ alive in the quarters of your heart; a real relationship with a real God. Christianity is a walk with God in righteousness. Hallelujah!
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Christ in me has made me an associate of the Godkind, the effulgence of God’s glory and dispenser of His goodness to my world. Christ is my life; in Him, I live, and move and have my being! I’m fruitful, productive and excellent, because I’m one with the Lord, in a real relationship, being a member of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. Blessed be God!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
2 Peter 1:4; whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
1 John 5:11-12 NIV; And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
12. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
1 Corinthians 1:9; God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 25:1-12 & Psalms 7-10
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 9:18-27 & Joshua 13
EXCERPTS FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Dailies
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 SAT. 15TH JULY 2023
WE WERE IN HIM
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) (Ephesians 2:4-5).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
What a profound portion of scripture we just read! The Apostle Paul explains a spiritual truth that emphasizes our union with the Lord in His crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection when he said, “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ…” (Ephesians 2:5).
When Jesus was on the cross, we were the ones on the cross; He was our substitute. When He died, we were in Him. When He was buried, in the mind of justice, we were all buried. When He went to hell and defeated Satan and the demons of darkness as Paul detailed in Colossians 2:15, in the mind of God, we were in Him. We defeated Satan in Christ.
Then the Bible shows that God raised Jesus from the dead; when that happened, we were raised together with Him. Ephesians 2:6 says, “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” This is how God sees us now. Everything that Jesus did was for us—the whole world; we were in Him.
Think about it: Jesus rose from the dead with a new life—the resurrection life; that’s the life we have in us today, because as He is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17). When you received Christ, you didn’t receive the life with which Jesus went to hell; you received the life of the righteous Jesus without sin.
He went to hell with our sins, defeated the devil, paid the full penalty for sin, and came back to life as the righteousness of God. Hallelujah! Now, by virtue of the New Birth, we also have become the righteousness of God in Him: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, thank you for the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus that ushered me into a newness of life. I’m seated together with Christ in dominion and great glory, far above all principalities, powers, might, and every name that is named. Hallelujah!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Romans 6:4 AMPC; We were buried therefore with Him by the baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious [power] of the Father, so we too might [habitually] live and behave in newness of life.
Romans 4:25 AMPC; Who was betrayed and put to death because of our misdeeds and was raised to secure our justification (our acquittal), [making our account balance and absolving us from all guilt before God].
Ephesians 4:24 AMPC; And put on the new nature (the regenerate self) created in God's image, [Godlike] in true righteousness and holiness.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 23:12-35 & Job 40-42
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 9:1-9 & Joshua 11
EXCERPTS FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Dailies
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 THURS. 13TH JULY 2023
RECREATED IN CHRIST
📖━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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] (Ephesians 2:10 AMPC).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Observe that the apostle Paul didn’t say “We were or we shall be God's own handiwork.” He uses the present tense to describe that right now, God has His label on you. In other words, no matter where you go in this great world, in the realms of the spirit, they recognize who you are because God’s label is on you.
You’re recreated in Christ Jesus. Someone might say, “But God created everything, so everyone is his workmanship.” That’s different from Paul’s thoughts. There was the first creation in the book of Genesis, but Paul’s emphasis was on a special creation—a recreation in Christ Jesus—those of us who are born again.
Then he tells us the purpose of this new birth: that we may do those good works which God predestined and planned beforehand for us, taking paths which He prepared ahead of time. Hallelujah! Again, this shows that for those of us that have been recreated in Christ, God has prepared our paths—everything about our lives—to be excellent and full of glory.
That’s not all; we’re to live, not just life, but the “good life” which He prearranged and made ready for us to live. Now, you can better understand why sickness, disease, infirmity or poverty shouldn’t be a part of your life. Let this be your confession. Every so often, declare, “I’m recreated in Christ, for beauty and for glory; good things are in my path, and the righteousness of God is expressed in and through me always.” Hallelujah!
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, thank you for I’m your excellent handiwork, fashioned for good works, and to live the good life which you prearranged for me. I refuse to succumb to sickness, disease, or the elements of this world, because you’ve made me superior to them and the corrupting influences and negativities in this present world of darkness. Glory to God!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
James 1:18 TPT; God was delighted to give us birth by the truth of his infallible Word so that we would fulfill his chosen destiny for us and become the favorite ones out of all his creation!
Ephesians 2:10 TPT; We have become his poetry, a re-created people that will fulfill the destiny he has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfill it!
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 21:37-22:1-21 & Job 32-35
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 8:26-39 & Joshua 9
EXCERPTS FROM: Rhapsody of Realities Dailies