RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 SAT. 9TH MARCH 2024
BUILDING HIS CHARACTER INTO YOUR SPIRIT
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith (Mark 11:23).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Some people misunderstand our purpose for affirming God’s Word. When you tell them, for example, to say, “I’m the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus”; they think we’re trying to make sinners talk as though they are saints. No! We’re not making such declarations because we’re “trying” to be what we’re saying; rather, we’re stating spiritual truth.
Our confessions are based on what God already said about us in His Word. He said whatever He said so that we may boldly say the same thing in agreement with Him. It’s a spiritual law: Hebrews 13:5-6, “… for he hath said… So that we may boldly say….”
Understand how this works: The Word of God is God’s material for building Himself and His character into your spirit. First, we receive His nature at the New Birth, but you still have your character, and because of that some people are at a loss as to how to reconcile the realities of the new creation life with their own character.
But that’s why the Bible tells us to renew our minds with the Word of God; you meditate on the Word. But first, you have to hear the Word, accept and endorse it, and then confess it. When you confess the Word of God, you create the character of God in your spirit so that you think like Him.
God gave us the written Word for us to think upon. He knows that if you think the Word, you’ll talk the Word, and if you talk the Word, you’ll walk the Word! That’s the principle of the Kingdom. You’re what you say. Therefore, keep confessing the Word of God and thus build His character into your spirit.
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, I thank you for giving me the Word, the material for building your character into my spirit. Thank you for showing me the way to a life of continuous victory through my faith-filled confessions of the Word! I reign triumphantly over all the negativities of life, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Romans 10:9-10; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
[10] For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Mark 11:22-23; And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.
[23] For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 14:1-26 & Numbers 24-26
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 26:1-11 & Psalm 67-68
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 THURS. 7TH MARCH 2024
WE’RE IN HIS MARVELLOUS LIGHT
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light (1 Peter 2:9).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Everything God does has an end—an excellent end. He never leaves us hanging or in limbo. Think about what we just read in our theme verse: the latter part says He called us out of darkness into His marvellous light.
It reminds of the scripture in Deuteronomy 6:23, “And he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers.” He brought us out of darkness, to bring us into His marvellous light. We’re now in His marvellous light; we’re not journeying into His marvellous light.
In Colossians 1:13, we read something similar; it says, “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.” He lets us know that we’re not in the arena, the realm or the jurisdiction of darkness; we’ve been transferred into the Kingdom of God’s Love-Son. That’s your place of domicile. Hallelujah!
In Deuteronomy 6:23 where it says, “...he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in….” By “thence” He was referring to Egypt. Egypt was symbolic of the world; it symbolized darkness. His purpose for bringing us out of darkness (the world) was to bring us into His Kingdom. His focus wasn’t our coming out of darkness, so the celebration isn’t that we’re out of darkness but that we’re in His marvellous light.
Another thought along the same line is in what the Lord said to Paul in Acts 26:18, “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God….” Again, we see God’s purpose: it’s to turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God and He’s fulfilled it! You’re in His marvellous light now and that light dispels darkness.
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I celebrate my glorious life in the Kingdom of God’s Love-Son, rejoicing in His light and dominion forever! I’m enthroned with Christ, and I shine and reign gloriously by grace, through righteousness. My journey in life is one of glory, triumph, success, prosperity and blessed assurance. Hallelujah!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
1 Thessalonians 5:5; Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
Colossians 1:12-13 AMPC; Giving thanks to the Father, Who has qualified and made us fit to share the portion which is the inheritance of the saints (God's holy people) in the Light.
[13] [The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 12:18-44 & Numbers 20-21
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 25:1-12 & Psalm 61-64
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 TUES. 5TH MARCH 2024
HE BECAME US ON THE CROSS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit (1 Peter 3:18).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Has it really dawned on you that Jesus Christ was crucified for us? He actually became us on the Cross. Not only did He bear our sins, He also bore our very nature of sin. That’s why the Bible says, “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).
Jesus was our sin-bearer and thus was made sin, meaning that we were literally on that Cross when Jesus was crucified. He wasn’t only our representative, He was our substitute; our sins were laid on His spirit. He took our nature and took our place.
There’s the legal aspect and there’s the vital aspect. He was legally your representative and vitally you on the Cross. What’s the implication of all these? If He took your place and nature, it means you now have His place and nature as well. He took your place so that you might take His place.
Therefore, since He was sinless, that means you have His sinless nature now that you’re born again. Now you can understand why the Bible says in 1 Peter 2:9, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation….” Did you notice that it says you’re holy?
It’s the result of the sacrifice and substitutionary work of Jesus Christ in your behalf. He took your sin-nature and made you holy. Now you can live a holy life. Hallelujah!
The most beautiful part isn’t that He took our place and our nature but His purpose for doing it. It was to give us His place and His nature. Ephesians 2:4-6 is so beautiful; it says, “But God, who is rich in mercy…hath quickened us together with Christ…And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
He gave us His place of glory, dominion, power, honour and majesty, and made us partakers of His divine nature. Today, you’re as righteous as Jesus is righteous. You have the same life with Him: “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:11-12). Blessed be God!
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, I thank you for the sacrifice and substitutionary work of Jesus Christ in my behalf, for which the righteousness of God has been imparted to my spirit. Now, I’ve been justified by faith and ushered into a life of peace with you through the Lord Jesus Christ, with dominion over sin and circumstances, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Romans 5:8; But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
2 Corinthians 5:21; 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.
Romans 6:3-5; Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
[4] Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
[5] For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 11:1-26 & Numbers 16-17
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 24:10-21 & Psalm 57-58
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 SUN. 3RD MARCH 2024
HE GAVE US EVERYTHINGBORN INTO THE KINGDOM OF HIS LOVE-SON
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Giving thanks unto the Father…Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son (Colossians 1:12-13)
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Did you know that you have power over the forces of darkness and can rule over them? That’s because you’re a new creation, and the new creation should never be in bondage or servitude to Satan and the powers of darkness. You were born into the Kingdom of God’s Love-Son.
The new creation is one with the Lord; you’re seated together with Christ, “Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come” (Ephesians 1:21). Christians who find themselves at the mercy of demons and demonic activities aren’t exercising their authority and dominion in Christ.
When you were born again, you were given the authority in the Name of Jesus to cast out devils and Satan knows it. It’s the first sign Jesus said would follow those who believe in Him: “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils...” (Mark 16:17).
Then in Luke 10:19, He said, “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.” You’ve got to put the Word of God to work.
If you ever notice or perceive that Satan is stirring up things around you—maybe in your health, your job, family or in the lives of your loved ones—cast him out. Maybe it’s in your city or nation, cast him out in the Name of Jesus and subdue the situation.
Learn to walk in the light of God’s Word and insist that what God has said is truth. Being born again, you’re superior to Satan; you’re not under the authority or jurisdiction of demons. You don’t belong in their domain because you were born into the Kingdom of God’s dear Son. That’s where you are now. Hallelujah!
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The Lord has given me the power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the ability of the enemy. Therefore, Satan has no place in my life, in my home or the lives of my loved ones, because I’ve been vested with all power and authority in heaven and in the earth to subdue, dominate and take charge of my world. Hallelujah!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Colossians 2:15 NKJV; Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
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.
Colossians 1:12-13 AMPC; Giving thanks to the Father, Who has qualified and made us fit to share the portion which is the inheritance of the saints (God's holy people) in the Light.
[13] [The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 10:1-31 & Numbers 11-13
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 23:22-35 & Psalm 55
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 FRI. 1ST MARCH 2024
HIS WORD IS ALL THE PROOF YOU NEED
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue (2 Peter 1:3).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
In 1 Corinthians 3:21, the Apostle Paul, by the Spirit, corroborates what Peter pens for us in the verse above. He says, “...all things are yours.”You have all things in Christ, and Christ is in you.
God’s divine power, not your own ability or human wisdom, has given unto you ALL things that pertain to life and godliness. This means you’re not supposed to ever be in lack or want. You’ve got to believe this because it’s God’s Word about you.
When God says He’s done something, you don’t have to try to claim it; you simply endorse it and act accordingly. His Word is all the proof you need. The Lord Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35).
Then in Isaiah 55:10-11, He says, “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: 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.”
God’s Word is dependable. It never fails and will always produce what it talks about if you’d act on it. Don’t place a limit on your life. You’re a child of God, and He’s brought you a life of endless resources: limitless blessings and opportunities. Consciously and consistently walk in the light of His Word.
There’s nothing you could ever need or desire for a godly life that’s not already yours in Christ. Recall what we read in our opening verse; it’s also in line with what the Bible says in Ephesians 1:3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.”Hallelujah!
God’s Word is all the proof you need that you’re one with the Lord, you’re the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, you have divine health, you’re a success, you’re superior to Satan and can do all things through Christ. The Word says whatsoever you do shall prosper (Psalm 1:3); live on the basis of the Word.
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, thank you for giving me everything I require to live victoriously and be a success in life. You’ve not called me to poverty, sickness, disease or infirmity, but to glory and virtue. You’ve given me a life of praise, glory and thanksgiving every day, everywhere, and at all times. Praise God!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
2 Corinthians 1:20 NLT; For all of God's promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding "Yes!" And through Christ, our "Amen" (which means "Yes") ascends to God for his glory.
Mark 13:31; Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
Luke 21:33; Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
DAILY SCRIPTURE READING
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 9:14-32 & Numbers 7-8
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 23:1-10 & Psalm 50- 51
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 THURS. 29TH FEBRUARY 2024
HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS FOR YOUR SIN-NATURE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
For sin shall not have dominion over you... (Romans 6:14).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Our opening verse says sin shall not have dominion over you; this is because the man or woman who’s born again is born sin-free. In a previous verse, the Apostle Paul, talking about our righteousness, salvation and the grace that we’ve received from God and how they came about, asked a thought-provoking question, “...How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Romans 6:2).
Paul wasn’t referring to himself and the other apostles alone but to all of us; we’re dead to sin. That means sin has no power over you because the nature of sin was supplanted with the nature of righteousness.
1 Corinthians 15:56 lets us know that the strength of sin is the Law, but the very thing that gave life to sin, which is the Law, has been abolished by Jesus. Ephesians 2:14-15 says, “For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances….”
The Lord Jesus has given us victory over sin, death and the grave! We’ve been made, not just righteous, but the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. See yourself in this light. The unregenerate man, the person who isn’t born again, on the other hand, is a sinner by nature and enslaved to sin. He can’t but sin, even when he doesn’t want to, because he has the nature of sin.
But this isn’t the case with you; you’re righteous by nature. God made it so. Your righteousness is a gift from God (Romans 5:17), and that righteousness gives you the ability to do right and live right.
There’s nothing you could have done on your own, through your own human perfection to become righteous. Likewise, there’s also nothing you can do or not do that’ll make you less righteous before God. You’re as righteous as Jesus is righteous because He substituted His righteousness for your sin-nature.
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Being justified by faith, I’ve been made righteous; I’m sin-free because Christ has given me a new life. He substituted His righteousness for my sin-nature. Now, I’m alive to God and live unto righteousness. I’m washed; I’m sanctified; I’m justified, in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Romans 6:1-14; What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
[2] God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
[3] Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
[4] Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
[5] For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
[6] knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
[7] For he that is dead is freed from sin.
[8] Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
[9] knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
[10] For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
[11] Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
[12] Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
[13] Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
[14] For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 TUES. 27TH FEBRUARY 2024
EVER-INCREASING PROSPERITY
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning (James 1:17).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Something is wrong when someone who was once doing very well financially suddenly starts experiencing unimaginable, protracted financial trouble. Until and unless that individual discerns that that isn’t God’s plan for any of His children, he may blame circumstances, the government or other people around him for his predicament.
He might even blame himself for taking certain actions that he shouldn’t have. But the question is: Does he really know the truth? It’s important that you know who you are, who God is, what you have in Him, and who He is to you. God is your source.
The Bible says we’re heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. In Christ, your prosperity is stable and ever-increasing. It’s from glory to glory. We don’t go up to come down. It makes no difference the level of inflation and how unstable the world’s economy gets; when you recognize that your true source is the Lord, you’ll be independent of circumstances, unruffled by the state of the world’s economy.
The Bible declares what the one who’s blessed of the Lord shall be like: “For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit” (Jeremiah 17:8). This tells you something about the consistency of the prosperity of God’s people, following God’s plans.
Part of your new creation heritage is that you’re plugged into an unending supply. Your source never runs dry. Your source isn’t the government, society, job, business, family or anyone else for that matter; it’s the Lord. Look to Him and trust Him for your finances as you act on His principles for financial abundance.
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The Lord is my Shepherd—to feed, guide and shield me; I lack nothing! He makes me lie down in fresh, tender green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. Therefore, I walk in ever-increasing prosperity, possessing enough to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation. Glory to God!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Psalm 1:1-3; Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, Nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
[2] But his delight is in the law of the LORD; And in his law doth he meditate day and night.
[3] And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, That bringeth forth his fruit in his season; His leaf also shall not wither; And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
2 Corinthians 9:8 AMPC; 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].
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.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 8:14-26 & Numbers 3-4
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 21:40-22:1-10 & Psalm 44-45
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 SUN. 25TH FEBRUARY 2024
LIVE FOR CHRIST
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead (2 Corinthians 5:14).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
There’re many who don’t understand the purpose for life. So, they think a great life is when you’ve amassed a lot of wealth or earthly possessions; no. Jesus said in Luke 12:15, “…Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”
He also taught about a rich man who had such a bountiful harvest that he needed to tear down his storehouses and build new ones to store his crops. He was excited to have laid up so much supplies for himself.
But while he was relishing the thought of all that he had amassed, God came into his room and said, “...You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” (Luke 12:20 NIV).
What’s the purpose for your life in this world? Why are you here? It’s to make sure the Gospel of Jesus Christ goes to the ends of the earth. Our Lord Jesus said, “...Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). In Matthew 28:19, He said, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations….”
Personalize your role in the Gospel and say like the Apostle Paul, “According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust" (1 Timothy 1:11). Recall what the Lord said to him in Acts 26:16, “…I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness…” (Acts 26:16).
We are His witnesses; it should be what excites you. You may not be a pastor, evangelist, teacher, prophet or apostle, but you’re a minister of reconciliation, called to be a soul-winner. So, live your life for Christ unreservedly. Come what may, stand for Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. Preach the Gospel no matter what.
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and I live for Him. He’s made me a passionate, committed and fearless soul winner, and today, through me, many receive the Gospel gladly and are converted to the Kingdom, 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.
Romans 10:13-15; For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
[14] How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
[15] And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
1 Corinthians 9:16; 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!
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 7:1-23 & Leviticus 26-27
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 21:18-26 & Psalm 40-41
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 FRI. 23TH FEBRUARY 2024
AMBASSADORS OF DIVINE VERITIES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak (Ephesians 6:19-20).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
In our opening verse, Paul referred to himself as an ambassador of the Gospel. Did you know that the same is true of every one of us? We’re ambassadors of divine verities; we’re preachers of righteousness. The preaching of the Gospel has been committed to you according to the commandment of God our Saviour (Titus 1:2-3).
We’ve got to preach the Gospel; we’ve got to tell the untold, or they’ll never have the chance to believe it and be saved. Romans 10:13-14 says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they…hear without a preacher?”
This is why you must passionately preach the Gospel every day and everywhere. The Apostle Paul took it personally. He said, “According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust” (1 Timothy 1:11). As far as he was concerned it behoved him to preach the Gospel to the whole world even if he had to do it alone.
Now you can understand why he said, “…necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16). There’s no salvation without the Gospel. Titus 1:2-3 tells us something beautiful; it says, “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour.”
God promised eternal life before the world began, and now, He has fulfilled His promise and made eternal life available through the preaching of the Gospel. We’re blessed to be the custodians and bearers of the divine order. Make this your priority, as it’s all that truly matters. Ensure the Gospel gets to as many as have been ordained to receive it in your world and in the regions beyond.
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I’m vibrant and aglow in the spirit, serving the Lord as an ambassador of Christ in the Gospel. Through me, the Gospel is reaching many who have been ordained for salvation; they’re transferred from darkness into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Hallelujah!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
1 Corinthians 1:18; For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
Matthew 28:19-20; Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
[20] teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
2 Corinthians 5:18-20; 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.
[20] Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 6:1-29 & Leviticus 24
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 21:1-9 & Psalm 37
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 WED. 21ST FEBRUARY 2024
HE CAME TO US IN THE HOLY SPIRIT
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also (John 14:3).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Many still grapple with what the Lord Jesus meant in the verse above when He said, “...I will come again, and receive you unto myself....” Some think He was referring to the Second Coming or the Rapture, but that’s not what He was talking about in that verse.
To understand what Jesus meant, you’ll have to stay in the context and understand His message with your spirit, not with your senses. When you study the full chapter you’d observe that He continued the same interesting discourse till He got to the 16th verse where He said, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.”
The term “another Comforter” is the Greek phrase, “Allos parakletos,” meaning another of the same kind. Jesus introduced the Holy Spirit at that point. Then He said, “…ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:17). How did the Holy Spirit dwell with them at the time? Wasn’t He supposed to come on the Day of Pentecost?
That tells us something. He wasn’t talking about the Holy Spirit alone; He was also referring to Himself! To drive that point home, He went back to what He said in our theme verse, “...I will come again, and receive you unto myself....” Then in verse 18, He said, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” How and when would He come to them?
In the 20th verse, He said, “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” What day was He talking about? Evidently, He was talking about the day when the Holy Spirit comes. So, when He said, “I will come to you,” He meant “I’ll come to you in the Holy Spirit.”
And thanks be unto God! On the Day of Pentecost, He fulfilled that precious promise: “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4). He’s in you today in all His fullness. Praise God!
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Thank you blessed heavenly Father for the fullness of the Spirit in me and the glory and excellence of my life as a result of your indwelling presence. By the Holy Spirit, my faith is strengthened and stirred to do the will of God and fulfil God’s purpose for my life, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
John 14:23; Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
John 14:15-20; If ye love me, keep my commandments.
[16] And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
[17] even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
[18] I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
[19] Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
[20] At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 5:1-20 & Leviticus 19-21
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 20:13-24 & Psalm 33-34
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 MON. 19TH FEBRUARY 2024
A KINGDOM RUN BY WORDS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart (2 Corinthians 3:3).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Something very important about the Kingdom of God into which you’ve been born and of which you’re a part is that it’s a kingdom run by words. So, the words you speak are very important. They must be consistent with the Word of God, and that way, your life, which is the outward manifestation of your words, will be excellent and full of glory.
We’re admonished in the Scriptures to be filled with the knowledge of God’s Word because out of that abundance, our words will come forth. Remember what the Bible says in Proverbs 6:2, “Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.” Many today are trapped, struggling to come out of one predicament or the other, which they may have created through their own words.
Jesus said in Matthew 12:37, “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” In Mark 11:23 He said you shall have what you say. Make a determination to talk God’s Word; speak the language of the Kingdom.
You're in the Kingdom of God now, and it’s a kingdom run by words, where we rule and prevail by our wholesome, faith-filled words.
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Through the help of the Spirit and consistent meditation on the Word, I consciously speak wholesome, edifying, gracious, inspiring, motivating, encouraging words. With my words, I create success, victory, divine health and prosperity from within, establishing God’s righteousness in my world, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Mark 11:23; For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
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 Peter 3:10; For He that will love life, And see good days, Let him refrain his tongue from evil, And his lips that they speak no guile:
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 4:1-20 & Leviticus 15
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 19:30-41 & Psalm 29-30
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 SAT. 17TH FEBRUARY 2024
FOCUS ON THE LIFE HEREAFTER
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea (Revelation 21:1).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
In Revelation 21, the Apostle John tells us about a new heaven and a new earth. He gives us a description of the holy city, the New Jerusalem: “And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away" (Revelation 21:2-4).
Verses 18-19 further describe the beauty of the city. Imagine a city of pure glass-gold! “And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones….”
The 23rd and 25th verses take it even further: “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.” What a place to look forward to!
Your focus shouldn’t be on this current world that’ll be destroyed. Rather, let your passion be all about Christ and the spread of His righteousness around the world as we await His glorious return.
Remember His words, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36). This world, which will surely be destroyed and replaced with another, isn’t worth the loss of your soul; so live your life for the Lord.
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
My affection is set on the Lord and His eternal Kingdom, and I love the Lord with all my heart. The things of the Spirit are of greater importance to me than anything in this world. I’m propelled by my love for the Master to preach the Gospel in season and out of season, in the power of the Holy Spirit, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Colossians 3:1-4; If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
[2] Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
[3] For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
[4] When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
2 Peter 3:10-14; But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
[11] Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
[12] looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
[13] Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
[14] Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 2:23-3:1-12 & Leviticus 11-12
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 19:8-20 & Psalm 25-26
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
THURS. 15TH FEBRUARY 2024
FOLLOW HIS COUNSEL AND YOU’LL ALWAYS WIN
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not (Acts 16:6-7).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Paul and his companions decided to go to certain regions to preach the Gospel, but the Holy Spirit prevented them from going at that time. How did they know it was the Holy Spirit who didn’t want them to go? They were so acquainted and yielded to Him that they could recognize His voice. As a result, the Spirit led and instructed them to go to Macedonia instead, to preach (Acts 16:8-9). Hallelujah!
The Holy Spirit has a voice, and He speaks to you from the Word. Whenever He speaks, He speaks wisdom, for the Word of God is the Wisdom of God! That’s why it’s so important for you to learn and know God’s Word. He never says anything outside the Word. Whatever He tells you is always in sync with the written Word and consistent with God’s will for your life.
John 16:13 says, “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.” If you’re acquainted with the Word, you’ll know whenever the Holy Spirit talks to you, for He bears witness to the Scriptures. When He tells you to do anything, don’t question it. You can’t follow His leading and lose. He’ll lead and guide you from success to success, and from glory to glory.
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, I thank you for the Holy Spirit who has come to live in me, and guides me in the path of your perfect will. My life is an unending stream of the miraculous because I’m totally yielded to His guidance and promptings from within, in the Name of Jesus. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Romans 8:26-27; Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
[27] And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Isaiah 30:21; and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
John 14:16 AMPC; And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever–
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 1:21-45 & Leviticus 8
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 18:12-23 & Psalm 21-22
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 TUES. 13TH FEBRUARY 2024
THE WORD IN FLESH
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth (John 1:14).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Our opening verse refers to Jesus, the incarnate Word; they beheld His glory as He walked the streets until He was slain. But God raised Him up and showed Him openly to be alive with many infallible proofs. Now, He abides in you. Praise God!
They waited for the Word and expected His glory that the prophets spoke about. But then the Word came, born of a virgin and walked this earth, yet many didn’t recognize Him. He asked His disciples, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?”
Sadly, they didn’t know Him. But Peter, by revelation, spoke up and said, “...Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). John calls Him, “the Word made flesh”; He gives us the actual origin of the man, Christ Jesus: He’s the Word that pre-existed creation and by whom all things were created (John 1:1-3).
It was thus a pure marvel to see the eternal Word of God, born of a virgin and wrapped in swaddling clothes, grow and walk amongst men! No wonder they called Him “Emmanuel,” 'God with us' (Matthew 1:23). He was born “Emmanuel,” but today, He’s the Word alive in you.
Every step Jesus took was the Word of God in motion. He was the Word personified. And the day you received Him to live in you, you also became the Word made flesh, being born of the same Word of God: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever” (1 Peter 1:23).
So, like Jesus, you’re the Word in motion, for as He is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17). Now you understand why we’re called the Epistle (Word) of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:1-3). You’re the Word in flesh. Hallelujah!
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, I thank you for the extraordinary life I received when I believed and received the Word. Now, I’m the reproduction of the Word; Christ Jesus, the living Word, lives in and through me! My life is the expression of your will, thoughts, ideas and opinions. Blessed be God!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
John 1:14 AMPC; And the Word (Christ) became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us; and we [actually] saw His glory (His honor, His majesty), such glory as an only begotten son receives from his father, full of grace (favor, loving-kindness) and truth.
2 Corinthians 3:1-3; Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?
[2] Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
[3] forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
James 1:8; A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 28 & Leviticus 4-5
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 17:22-34 & Psalm 17-18
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 SUN. 11TH FEBRUARY 2024
ALL THINGS ARE UNDER YOUR FEET
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else in this world or in the world to come. And God has put all things under the authority of Christ, and he gave him this authority for the benefit of the church (Ephesians 1:19-22 NLT).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
The Lord Jesus is set far above “all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.” This is extraordinary. Then in the concluding part, it says God put ALL things under the feet of Jesus for the benefit of the Church.
There’s nothing God didn’t put under the feet of Jesus. No wonder the Bible says nothing is exempt from His rule. There’s only One who has authority over all things in heaven and in the earth; He rules over all. His name is Jesus.
The Message translation says He’s “…in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything” (Ephesians 1:21). When it says “all things,” that includes all nations, all sicknesses, all demons, and every name that can be named—not only in this world but also in that which is to come.
Now, Christ’s dominion over all things is for the benefit of the Church. The Lord Jesus is the head of the Body, the Church. That means all things are therefore under the feet of the Church. Can you see why you must live as a victor every day of your life?
All things are under your feet, including Satan and his cohorts of darkness. Death, hell, the world, circumstances, living and non-living things are under your dominion. Christ’s authority, reign and dominion are for your benefit. You reign through Him and can do all things in His Name.
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
All things are under my feet, including Satan and his cohorts of darkness. Death, hell, the world, circumstances, living and non-living things are subdued before me because I function in the dominion of Christ. Hallelujah!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Luke 10:19 AMPC; Behold! I have given you authority and power to trample upon serpents and scorpions, and [physical and mental strength and ability] over all the power that the enemy [possesses]; and nothing shall in any way harm you.
Ephesians 2:4-6 NKJV; But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
[5] even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
[6] and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 27:27-44 & Exodus 40
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 17:1-9 & Psalm 11-13
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 FRI. 8TH MARCH 2024
NEVER OUT OF SOURCE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed (2 Corinthians 4:8-9).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
What the Apostle Paul tells us in our theme scripture above is truly remarkable. He says no matter what situation we find ourselves, we’re never down and out. We’re never out of source. That’s because our sufficiency, our strength or divine energy is of God (2 Corinthians 3:5).
Think about that second line: We’re perplexed, but not in despair. That means we may be in a “strait betwixt two”; we may be in a situation of embarrassment, where we don’t know exactly where to turn at that moment; he says in spite of that seeming predicament, we’re never in despair. In other words, we’re not out of supply; we’re not in a hopeless situation.
There’s no disadvantage for the child of God. We’re never short of answers. We may be persecuted but not cast down; we’re indestructible. We’re always in victory regardless of the situation because we live in the Name of Jesus! That Name is the key to every door, the answer to every question, and the solution to every problem. Hallelujah!
In His Name, we always win. So it makes no difference the situation in which you may have found yourself today; count it all joy! Greater is He that is in you than all the adversaries and adversities you could ever face. The Bible says in 1 John 4:4, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”
The greater One lives in you; that’s your confidence and assurance of victory in every situation. 2 Corinthians 2:14 says, “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.” Hallelujah! Have this consciousness. Never think defeat, failure or weakness.
It doesn’t matter what experiences you’ve been through; one thing is certain: all will turn out for your good! Trust the Lord and hold on to His Word. He knew there’d be challenges. Nevertheless, He gave us the assurance that in the midst of the challenges, we’d always be triumphant: “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us” (Romans 8:37). Hallelujah!
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I’m persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor anything shall separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Irrespective of the distress, persecution or peril in this world, I’m never out of source because my sufficiency, strength and divine energy come from the Lord. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
2 Corinthians 3:5 AMPC; Not that we are fit (qualified and sufficient in ability) of ourselves to form personal judgments or to claim or count anything as coming from us, but our power and ability and sufficiency are from God.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9 AMPC; We are hedged in (pressed) on every side [troubled and oppressed in every way], but not cramped or crushed; we suffer embarrassments and are perplexed and unable to find a way out, but not driven to despair;
[9] We are pursued (persecuted and hard driven), but not deserted [to stand alone]; we are struck down to the ground, but never struck out and destroyed;
Romans 8:35-37; Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
[36] As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
[37] Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 13:1-37 & Numbers 22-23
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 25:13-27 & Psalm 65-66
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 WED. 6TH MARCH 2024
SOMETHING DIFFERENT ABOUT YOU
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light (1 Peter 2:9).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Did you notice the phrase “a peculiar people” in our opening verse? That's you; you’re a peculiar being. There’s something different about you; you’re unique; you’re not like everybody else. Never talk down on yourself or allow anyone talk you down.
You’re a partaker of the divine nature, a God-carrying vessel. You represent divinity. You’re a heavenly being. You’re the extension and expression of Christ in your world. It brings to mind a lovely testimony by one of our pastors of a certain family that came to see him in his office.
The family had a three-year-old girl with them. After they had exchanged pleasantries with the pastor and shared nice thoughts from God’s Word, they turned to leave. As they walked away, the little girl noticed a picture on the wall, stopped, turned to her parents and the pastor and said, “This is Jesus Christ on TV,” pointing to my picture that the pastor had on the wall in his office.
But that’s exactly what Jesus said about us; we’re bearers of His divine presence. Jesus minced no words in John 14:9 when He said, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” Jesus is the image or icon of the invisible God (2 Corinthians 4:4, Colossians 1:15).
That means He’s the visual representation of God, the profile of God. Hebrews 1:3 says He’s the brightness of God’s glory and the “express image” of His person. The Greek term for the expression “express image” is “charakter” and it means facsimile or print copy. Jesus is the facsimile or print copy of God. Then, the Bible says, “As He is, so are we in this world!”
Can you see why you must never see yourself as an ordinary person? Christ in you makes you different. You’re the effulgence of His glory, the express image of His person. Hallelujah!
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I'm a unique and precious treasure to God, a bearer of His divine presence, the effulgence of His glory, the express image of His person, born anew with the supernatural life of glory, excellence and power in my spirit! Today, through my words and actions, I manifest the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of my heavenly Father who has called me to glory, honour and excellence, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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.
Hebrews 1:3; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
1 John 4:17; Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 11:27-12:1-17 & Numbers 18-19
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 24:22-27 & Psalm 59-60
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 MON. 4TH MARCH 2024
THE SUPREMACY OF HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ (Romans 5:17).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
I love what Paul said in Philippians 3:8-9, referring to the supremacy of the righteousness which is by faith in Jesus Christ. He said, “…that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.”
When you confessed the Lordship of Jesus over your life, instantly, His righteousness was imparted to you. The righteousness of Christ is flawless; that’s the righteousness you have. It’s perfect and therefore can’t be improved upon. Nothing you do today will make you more righteous or less righteous before God.
When God looks at you, He sees the righteousness of Christ. That’s why Paul said in 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.” Just as you’re now living by the faith of the Son of God, you’re no longer living by your own righteousness; you're living by the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus was righteous before God, and He was the only one who qualified to be our substitute, being the only One who was born sinless, because He was born of a virgin.
Romans 4:25 tells us that He “…was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” This is followed by Romans 5:1 which says, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” To be “justified” means to be declared righteous as though you never sinned, because no charges were found against you. Hallelujah!
Today, if you’ve been struggling to be righteous, you’re on a journey to nowhere. We couldn’t attain righteousness by ourselves; that’s why God gave us His own righteousness. You’re as righteous as Jesus is righteous because He substituted His righteousness for your sin-nature and gave you eternal life in the new birth. Hallelujah!
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The ability to be right, to do right, and to produce fruits and works of righteousness is inherent in my spirit. I’m living by the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Therefore, I’m as righteous as Jesus is righteous. Hallelujah!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Philippians 3:7-9; But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
[8] Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
[9] and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
2 Corinthians 5:21; 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.
Ephesians 2:8-9; For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
[9] not of works, lest any man should boast.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 10:32-52 & Numbers 14-15
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 24:1-9 & Psalm 56
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 SAT. 2ND MARCH 2024
HE GAVE US EVERYTHING
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory (
Colossians 3:4).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
In John 5:26, Jesus said, “For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself,” meaning that Jesus had the inherent life: the very divine nature. He said, “I want you to know and believe that the Father is in me and I in Him” (John 10:38).
This is simply extraordinary. This is the very thing that God wants for us; this was His purpose for creating man, so that He’d be in man and man would be in Him, so you’d become a super being—the facsimile or reflection of God. Hallelujah!
When you receive Christ and are joined to Him, you become one with Him. The Bible says, “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:17). This oneness with Christ makes you supernatural because His divine life supplanted the human life with which you were born of your biological parents.
Now that you’re born again, what you have is the Christ-life. Hence our theme verse says Christ is your life. Then 1 John 5:11-12 (NIV) says, “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” Blessed be God!
What the Apostle John is referring to in the verses above is eternal life. Anyone who has Jesus, the Son of God, has eternal life. But then, in giving you eternal life, He actually gave you Himself because He is Himself eternal life: “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life” (1 John 5:20). Hallelujah!
This is the Gospel! Jesus gave us EVERYTHING that He is! He gave us His Name, He gave us His righteousness, and He gave us His life. The Bible says we’re joint-heirs with Him (Romans 8:17); as He is so are we in this world (1 John 4:17).
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Thank you Lord Jesus for giving me EVERYTHING! You gave me your Name, your righteousness, and your life. Now I’m an associate of the God-kind, an heir of God and a joint-heir with you; as you are, so am I in this world. Blessed be God!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Colossians 1:26-27; even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
[27] 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:
1 John 5:11-13; 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.
[13] These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 9:33-50 & Numbers 9-10
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 23:11-21 & Psalm 52-54
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 9:1-13 & Numbers 6
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 22:22-30 & Psalm 48-49
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 WED. 28TH FEBRUARY 2024
YOUR LIFE IS CAREFULLY PLANNED BY GOD
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved (Ephesians 1:4-6).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Consider the tenses in what we just read! Look what we’ve got! It’s part of the reasons you should never think weakness, failure, defeat, poverty or sickness. Your life was preordained and carefully planned by God for the praise of His grace. He planned ahead of time to bring us up in Christ for the praise of the glory of His grace so that when people see us, they say, “Wow, God is great!”
It parallels something similar that the Bible says in Ephesians 2:10 AMPC: “For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].” He preordained you for an excellent life. Glory to God.
That means there’s no room for frustration, sadness and gloom in your life. There's no need to be jealous or envious of anyone. You were fashioned for an excellent life. He had everything about your life well thought out; none of us is a mistake.
There's nothing about your life that God didn't know was coming; no surprises. And all these are based on His excellent wisdom. Read our theme scripture further to the 8th verse; it says, “Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.”
In other words, there's nothing about your life that's outside the framework of God's conception. He’s already done everything He needed to do for your life to be a continual stream of testimonies. Therefore, live joyfully every day, praising Him. Hallelujah!
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, I live joyfully every day, praising you, knowing that your nature is in me and your brand is on me. I’m fashioned for good works and to live the good life which you have prearranged for me. There’s no room for frustration, sadness and gloom in my life because I’m a superior being, created without any defect. I function perfectly and excellently for your glory. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Ephesians 2:10 NLT; For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
James 1:18; James 1:18 KJV
[18] Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
Jeremiah 29:11; For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 8:27-38 & Numbers 5
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 22:11-21 & Psalm 46-47
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 MON. 26TH FEBRUARY 2024
BORN FOR THE GOOD LIFE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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
━━━━━━━━━━
In John 10:10 AMPC, Jesus said, “…I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).” You weren’t born to merely live but to live the good life which God prepared for you ahead of time—an excellent life.
It’s the reason you should always be full of joy and strength, doing great things and blessing your world every day. He’s given you a great life; a life of purpose, power and abundance. It doesn’t matter the challenges you face; you’re victorious in Christ Jesus.
Jesus gave you a life that’s beyond this world, a life that’s superior to the decadence and corruption of this failing world; a life that’s divine. Glory to God! Maybe you’ve been living in fear because of some diagnosis from the doctors about your health; the life in you is superior to sickness.
The Bible says in Romans 8:10 ESV, “But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” You’ve arrived in the place where sickness and disease have lost their grip on you. Therefore, let go of the fears.
Greater is He that’s in you than any sickness that may attempt to fasten itself on you: “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). You’ve overcome diabetes, heart trouble, chest pain, cancer, fibroid, or whatever health challenge it may be! Live and enjoy your life in sound health, prosperity, peace and joy unspeakable and full of glory. Hallelujah!
🗣 C ON F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I’m living the good life prearranged for me before the foundation of the world. I live in the victory, glory, dominion and righteousness of Christ every day. I’m a success; I live in health, because the life of God is in me; my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit! Blessed be God!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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].
John 10:10 AMPC; The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 7:24-8:1-13 & Numbers 1-2
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 21:27-39 & Psalm 42-43
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 SAT. 24TH FEBRUARY 2024
A WITNESS TO YOUR GENERATION
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him (Acts 5:32).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Did you know that God expects your friends and colleagues, co-workers, business associates, schoolmates, family members, co-tenants and all those He ever connects you with who aren’t yet born again will get to hear the Gospel through you for their salvation? They’re all hanging on to the trust committed to you by God. He holds you responsible as their witness.
You’re the witness to your generation. Therefore, be committed to bringing salvation to those in your world. That’s where your fulfilment in life lies. You become a fruit producing branch, fulfilling what Jesus said in John 15:5, “I am the vine; ye are the branches.”
You’re a fruit-bearing branch, bearing fruits of righteousness and manifesting works of righteousness. You carry the seeds of the Kingdom of God inside you. That’s your number one ministry in life. Remember the words of Jesus: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).
Make the expansion of His Kingdom in the earth your priority, and His glory will be manifested in and through you. You have to come to the realization that the Gospel, the same message that saved your life, has been committed to your trust.
Paul knew it. Hence he declared in 1 Timothy 1:11, “According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.” Take personal responsibility for the Gospel and you’ll live an absolutely fulfilling and impactful life.
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Father, thank you for the blessing of being counted faithful to be a minister of reconciliation. Thank you for your glorious Gospel which has been committed to my trust. I’ll keep preaching it boldly everywhere and to everyone until the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of your glory and your salvation and righteousness rain upon the nations, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
2 Corinthians 5:18-20; 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.
[20] Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
1 Corinthians 9:16; 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!
Mark 16:15; And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 6:30-56 & Leviticus 25
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 21:10-17 & Psalm 38-39
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 THURS. 22ND FEBRUARY 2024
LIVE THE TRUTH AND LIVE IN TRUTH
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:32).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
We were created by God’s Word, and His Word is truth; that means we were created by truth. This is why truth has an eternal effect on your spirit; it has an eternal effect of success, victory, prosperity and health in your life because truth is your source. That’s why falsehood, deceit, deception, lies and lying destroy the human spirit.
Our theme verse says, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,” because man was created by God to be free, to be at liberty to serve Him; he can’t be bound because truth is his true nature.
Before you were born again, you didn’t have the ability to live the truth and live in truth because you were under the dominion of sin. But now, the Bible says, “For sin shall not have dominion over you…” (Romans 6:14).
You have the ability to do away with the habit of telling lies. You don’t need to cry or even ask God to take it away from you. Simply make up your mind to put away lying. The Bible says, “If you want a happy, good life, keep control of your tongue, and guard your lips from telling lies” (1 Peter 3:10 TLB).
Proverbs 6:16-19 lists six things that the Lord detests and one of them is “a false witness that speaketh lies.” Truth is in your spirit, and whenever you live in truth, you’re triumphant, and your spirit glows. It doesn’t matter in what situation you may find yourself, truth will put you over because truth is eternal: “The lip of truth shall be established for ever: but a lying tongue is but for a moment” (Proverbs 12:19). Praise God!
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
God’s Word guides my thoughts, habits, character, and ultimately builds my life. I have dominion over every kind of sin. I live in truth because truth is my true nature. Therefore, I’m triumphant over every situation, ever glowing in the spirit. Praise God!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Ephesians 4:25 TLB; So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body
Colossians 3:9 NLT; Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds.
Zechariah 8:16 GNB; These are the things you should do: speak the truth to one another. In the courts, give real justice — the kind that brings peace.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 5:21-43 & Leviticus 22-23
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 20:25-38 & Psalm 35-36
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 TUES. 20TH FEBRUARY 2024
KEEP YOUR FAITH ACTIVE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him (Hebrews 11:6).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Everything in the Kingdom of God operates by the principle of faith. So nurturing your faith is so important. Even for the Rapture, your faith would be required because not everyone will hear the sound of the trumpet.
The Bible says, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:52). The sound of the trumpet will be audible only to the Christians who died in Christ already and those alive at the time.
Everybody else won’t hear it because the sound of the trumpet would only be heard by faith. But it’s not something you’re going to make an effort to hear because as a Christian, you already live by faith. Everything about your life and your relationship with God is by faith; therefore, you’re going to hear it.
The Bible says, “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found…” (Hebrews 11:5). He was raptured by faith. So, with your faith in Jesus Christ, you have nothing to worry about; trust that when the trumpet sounds, you’re going to hear it.
Every Christian ought to go at the Rapture. It therefore means that anyone who doesn’t hasn’t been living the life of faith and living for the Lord. Keep your faith alive, and live for the Master every day. Walk in love and in righteousness. Focus on getting others ready for the Rapture and into the Kingdom of God.
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, thank you for my faith in Jesus Christ that’s unwavering and unshakable. I walk in the light of your Word and of my salvation, passionate about the expansion of your Kingdom in the earth, and the reign of your righteousness in the hearts of men, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Hebrews 11:5-6; By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
[6] But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
[17] then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 4:21-41 & Leviticus 16-18
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 20:1-12 & Psalm 31-32
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 SUN. 18TH FEBRUARY 2024
BE KINGDOM CONSCIOUS AND FOCUSSED
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this (Isaiah 9:7)
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Our opening verse refers to the eternal reign and dominion of our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords. He’s also the one David prophesied about in Psalm 72:8 when he talked about a king who will rule over the nations of the world: “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.”
Our Lord Jesus heads the Kingdom of God which we’re a part of. It’s a real, functional spiritual kingdom. Therefore, be Kingdom-conscious and focused. Don’t focus your mind on this earth as though everything ends here; there’s a world that’s greater than this.
Colossians 3:1-2 says, “…seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” These are the last days; therefore, more than ever, fix your gaze on the Lord and on His work. 1 Corinthians 15:58 says, “…be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
Be on fire for the Lord all the time; be instant in season and out of season, proclaiming His truth. Make His Kingdom your focus.
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I function from the realm of the spirit and nothing in this physical world matters to me. And indeed, through the unstoppable spread of the Gospel, our Kingdom reigns over the nations. Amen.
📅 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
1 Corinthians 15:58; Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
Matthew 6:33; But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Colossians 3:1-4; If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
[2] Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
[3] For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
[4] When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 3:13-35 & Leviticus 13-14
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 19:21-29 & Psalm 27-28
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 FRI. 16TH FEBRUARY 2024
ACUTELY PERCEPTIVE BY THE WORD
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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 (Joshua 1:8).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
In 1 Timothy 4:15, Paul said to Timothy, “Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.” When you study our opening verse in the Greek Septuagint, it actually says that not only will you have good success from meditating on the Word, you’ll also become perceptive. The Greek word is “suniami” and it means that you become sagacious or perspicacious; your intelligence rises to a very high level. You’ll find that you’re acutely insightful and penetratingly perceptive.
It reminds of what the Bible says in Psalm 119:98-99, “Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.” He’s talking about the Word of God.
You might as well say, “Thou, through thy Word, hast made me wiser than mine enemies….” That becomes your confession. The Word of God gives you the perception, the wisdom, and the ability to put ideas and concepts together. Notice the latter part: “...I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation....”
God’s testimonies refer to God’s declarations, His declarations about Himself, about us, about His Kingdom etc. These are His testimonies, and because you meditated upon His testimonies you have more understanding than all your teachers. Glory to God.
In verse 100, it says, “I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.” This is part of what the Word of God will do in your life if you’d give it attention. In your dealings with people, in your dealings in business, in your dealings in finances, you become wise; divinely circumspect.
That means no room for failure in your life because the Spirit of God, through the Word, gives you an extraordinary amplitude of mind. Praise God!
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, I thank you for your Word which imparts wisdom to me to deal excellently in all affairs of life. Through the Word, I have an extraordinary amplitude of mind and comprehension. I’m perspicacious and acutely insightful. Therefore, I make progress from glory to glory, 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.
1 Timothy 4:15; Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.
Joshua 1:8 AMPC; 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.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 2:1-22 & Leviticus 9-10
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 18:24-19:1-7 & Psalm 23-24
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 WED. 14TH FEBRUARY 2024
YIELD TO THE SPIRIT AND THE WORD
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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
━━━━━━━━━━
Many people desire the leading of the Holy Spirit in their lives but don’t know how to yield themselves to Him. Do we yield ourselves by bowing our heads and kneeling before Him? You may bow to Him physically in reverence, but this won’t give the guidance and leading you desire.
In yielding to the Holy Spirit, you must submit to His Word. You give yourself to what He tells you to do and let the Word of God live through you. The Holy Spirit is the author of the Scriptures, and the primary way He leads is through the Word.
God said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…” (Hosea 4:6). He however recommends that you “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).
As you study the Word, the leading of the Holy Spirit in your life will increase, for you’ll be able to recognize His voice. The Word of God and the Spirit of God bear witness to Jesus as the Living Word. He said, “Search the scriptures…they are they which testify of me" (John 5:39).
He also said, “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me” (John 15:26). The more you let the Word of God dominate your mind, your decisions and your outlook on life, the more the Holy Spirit controls your life and leads you from victory to victory. Even now, declare that God’s Word has power over your life, to lead you, control you and guide you in all that you do.
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Father, I thank you for the inner counsel I receive daily from your Spirit as I study your Word. I open my spirit to be more receptive to your divine guidance always so that I may be fully acquainted with your thoughts, plans and purpose for my life, and walk in them, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
John 10:27; But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.
Romans 8:14; For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 1:1-20 & Leviticus 6-7
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 18:1-11 & Psalm 19-20
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 MON. 12TH FEBRUARY 2024
WHAT’S REVEALED IN YOU?
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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 (Colossians 1:27).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
As a new creation in Christ, you only have one nature—the Christ-nature. Your recreated human spirit is made in the image and likeness of Christ. Therefore, in all you do, and at all times, live your Christ-nature.
When you talk, let Christ be heard. Let His love emit and effuse from your words and actions. Let His wisdom and righteousness overwhelm the hearts of your hearers as you speak only gracious and lifting words; let Him talk through you. Let Him see through your eyes. Let Him work with your hands.
The real essence of Christianity is Christ in you, manifesting and expressing Himself in and through you. The Christian is one who expresses, exudes and demonstrates the life, nature, character and righteousness of Christ.
For example, in times of provocations, when you’re offended, what’s revealed in you? You ought to let Christ be revealed in you. In appraising your spiritual growth, one of the things you check is how much your actions, attitude and character express or depict the righteousness or character of Christ.
🙏 P R A Y E R
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dear Lord, thank you for blessing me and filling me with your love, righteousness, and indeed, with yourself. I’m gentle, patient, peaceful, loving and kind. I express your wisdom, grace, glory, beauty and love always. Christ is in me, and as He is, so am I in this world, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Proverbs 25:28 GNB; If you cannot control your anger, you are as helpless as a city without walls, open to attack.
Galatians 3:27; For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Ephesians 4:22-24; that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
[23] and be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
[24] and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 27:45-66 & Leviticus 1-3
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 17:10-21 & Psalm 14-16
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional
RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
📅 SAT. 10TH FEBRUARY 2024
FOCUS AND MEDITATE ON THE WORD
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Pastor Chris Says
━━━━━━━━━━
Never be deterred by the adversities you face. There’re no circumstances or situations in life that are set to your disadvantage. Even when things appear to become hard and there’s pressure on every side, don’t despair; look at the Word. Keep your focus and meditation on the Word.
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 says, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
Recall what we read in our theme verse; as you behold the glory of God in a mirror, which is the Word of God, you’re metamorphosed! You are transfigured from one level of glory to another. The more you look into or meditate on God’s Word, the more glorious your life becomes. You suddenly realize that the circumstances of life are mere shadows; they’re not real and therefore shouldn’t define you.
So, it makes no difference what your experiences have been; you’re a victor forever because the greater One lives in you. The Bible says, “...Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). That means there’s glory in your life, and it’s an eternal glory that’s ever-increasing as you meditate on God’s truths: who you are and your inheritance in Him. You’re a success.
You’re in prosperity, health, peace and safety. He’s given you an extraordinary life of ever-increasing progress and greatness, to express the glory and righteousness of His glorious Kingdom. Hallelujah!
🗣 C O N F E S S I O N
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I continually fix my gaze on Christ and His eternal Word; therefore, I walk in and manifest the glory of God everyday, everywhere. The Word is fully expressed in and through me. I’m a success. My life is for the glory of God because I keep my focus and meditation on the Word of God!
📖 FURTHER STUDY:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 AMPC; Therefore we do not become discouraged (utterly spiritless, exhausted, and wearied out through fear). Though our outer man is [progressively] decaying and wasting away, yet our inner self is being [progressively] renewed day after day.
[17] For our light, momentary affliction (this slight distress of the passing hour) is ever more and more abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory [beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease!],
[18] Since we consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are visible are temporal (brief and fleeting), but the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting.
Isaiah 26:3; Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
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.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 27:1-26 & Exodus 38-39
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 16:29-40 & Psalm 9-10
Rhapsody of Realities Daily Devotional