Date: Thursday, 9th January, 2025
Text: Numbers 25:1-9
Author: Pastor Adedeji Fadehan
Exhortation:
Holiness means total obedience to God’s word. When the manufacturer of an electronic gadget or car gives you a user’s manual, he does so out of customer care. He wants you to know the best way to handle the product so that you enjoy it for as long as possible. It is not wise to ignore the manufacturer’s instructions because you can’t know the product more than the one who made it.
When the Lord gives an instruction he does so out of love for you. He knows you more than you know yourself. His word contains all his divine instructions for a victorious life. Thus wisdom requires that you pay careful attention to God’s precepts.
1 John 5:3 says, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.”
For instance, when you obey God in the area of sexual purity and marital faithfulness you protect yourself from unwanted pregnancies, abortion, sexually transmitted diseases and emotional heartbreaks. Everyone who chooses to continue in the path of disobedience is eventually responsible for the misfortune he would bring upon himself.
So many of the misfortunes, sicknesses, calamities and untimely deaths that we have today could have been avoided if the souls involved had chosen to dwell under the secret place of the Most High.
When you operate outside the will of God, you are On Your Own (O.Y.O.), no longer under the divine covering.
No enchantment or divination worked against the Israelites as long as they remained faithful to God’s word. When the enemy tried to curse them, it turned to blessing- they were “uncursable”. As at that time the word of God said, “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them.” Numbers 23:21
But the devil would not give up. He then lured them into the sin of immorality and immediately the glory of God that protected them disappeared (Romans 3:23). By the time we get to Numbers 25, they had let down their guards and they became weak and open to the enemies’ attacks. Within a short time 23,000 men died of a deadly plague that broke out. Numbers 25:1-9; 1 Corinthians 10:8
In this New Year, you need to stay within the ambits of God’s commandments and you will be protected in Jesus name.
Key Nugget: Holiness will protect you if you choose to live according to God’s word.
Bible In One Year: Genesis 29-31