MONDAY - 27TH NOVEMBER, 2023
MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO
NOT ACCORDING TO THEIR THOUGHTS - Our Travelogue & Travails Series 003
Acts 28:5-6, KJV
"5 And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm. 6 Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god".
There's a way everybody has walked. Forces and ancestral spirits might seek to mandate you to follow that same path. Once it's the way or path that leads to death and reduction of humanity in life, you should refuse going such way. Yes, firm in your faith and warfare.
A viper fastens itself to Paul's hand. Seeing this, the islander of Melita labelled Paul a criminal who though had escaped the sea, justice is still not letting go. With the viper having bitten him, they expected he'll foam or suddenly fall down and yield up the ghost. However, this never happened even after Paul had shook the beast into the fire. The Bible records that the natives even waited a great while to watch their expectation come to pass over Paul. Their waiting a great while became caused by two things. One, snake's venom in any human being takes some time to react and prove effective. It needs to get into the blood stream and circulate, choking life. While a viper is one of the deadliest snakes there be, yet the process is still the same. Two, they had waited a great while because it took longer for the poison to prove effective on Paul. They were wondering why it had taken so long and had proved abortive. So, after waiting, they waited again because Paul seems to be defying the situation and the normal processes of things.
For the islanders to have waited a great while or awhile for the poison to work in Paul, it means they are as well familiar with the process and could therefore time or predict the poison's effectiveness. If there was a wristwatch in their days, one could have looked at it and said, "in fifteen minutes time". That's why they waited and then waited a great while to reascertain the effectiveness of the poison. That's why they set a certain time range for Paul to manifest the poison's effect.
"Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god".
Mark the expression, "they looked when he should have swollen..." It means they were timing Paul to begin to manifest, scream, dance around and fight for his life. However, they never saw it.
What the Lord is putting in my mouth to say is this. Defy situations! Don't go the ways of others. The islanders have learnt by experience how long it'll take for that venom to work. It's what they've seen people died of. Paul wouldn't be the first victim. It was therefore from such experience they predicted Paul's fate and timed him to manifest like the so many they had seen. However, Paul didn't go the way of their thoughts. He walked a new path entirely. The path Paul walked was so novel in their eyes that they said Paul was a god.
Here comes the testimony God wants you to live up to. If ancestral early death or whatsoever has been getting people in your lineage, you should be the first man to defy that process. If onlookers and those who know the history of your family line predict that it'll soon be unto you as it had been unto others, you can surely shake it off, defy the situation and live on without harm or any loss. They'll look at when you should have swollen or fallen down dead suddenly but it'll never come. You'll still be here and that'll be because the redemptive blood cries and silences every other voices calling for your blood. New story could begin to be written from you. The Bible records that when they awaited the poison to take effect on Paul and it didn't, they changed their minds and concludes Paul was a god. God can use you to change the minds and notions of people. God wants to set you forth as such testimony. If you'll take the provision of Christ, stay under His shadow and live to invoke the abilities of His redemption, you can break what has been breaking men and women where you are that you know. It may be that no one has spent a full term in an office you're vying for. Probably, something has always been kicking them out or off. But you can go to spend two and change the narratives.
It's therefore my prayer as it's God's that you'll see another day, go another mile, celebrate another birthday and defy all limitations and break processes that have been known to be sure. You're the one chosen to become a god to that situation like Moses is a god to Pharaoh. You have power over it and I could hear the Word of Jesus saying, "and nothing shall by any means hurt you."
PRAYER: Nothing shall by any means hurt me. I escape. I triumph. I am the new man on the new ground.
BIBLE IN A YEAR: Daniel 4:1-37; 2 Peter 1:1-21; Psalm 119:97-112; Proverbs 28:17-18
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