THURSDAY - 15TH AUGUST, 2024
MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL - Olusola ADEJUMO
APPREHENDING THAT FOR WHICH YOU WERE APPREHENDED - Making Full Proof Series 005
Philippians 3:12, KJV
"Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus."
One thing should be your pursuit - "apprehending that for which you were apprehended." Let it be your chase and wild goal! First of all, let me deal with definition of terms. Paul uses some two words but which are different in meaning. He says, "if I may apprehend that for which I was apprehended of Christ Jesus." First, Paul was apprehended. To apprehend here as used by him means to "arrest" or "bring to salvation." The event he describes happened on his way to Damascus in Acts 9 to have those of the Way bound and casted to the prison. He rather had the opposite fulfilled when the Lord picked him up and cut him quit from his deadly persecution. So, like a hardened criminal, he was arrested by God for having caused destruction on His people but more importantly brought in for a purpose. It's this purpose God assures would be revealed to him once he enters Damascus when he asks of Jesus, 'what would you have me to do (Acts 9:6)?" What Ananias told him as the reason for his salvation is what he was apprehended for. He was brought in for just that, "to carry Jesus' name before Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel" (Acts 9:15) while suffering many things for same. Knowing this, Paul would give his eyes no rest until he has manifested the reason for his arrest by Christ. That leads him to say, "if I may apprehend that for which I was apprehended" or saved. So, the other "apprehend" means "to fulfill, obtain, secure or become." Paul fights and not as one who beats the air if he might verily apprehend (fulfill) why he was apprehended (saved). So, Paul simply talks of fulfilling his purpose and eating and finishing the meat of He that arrested Him. This "apprehend" therefore tends towards making full proof of one's ministry without leaving one thing out of the ingredient of one's calling.
Philippians 3:13, KJV
"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before."
Don't be satiated yet like Paul was who didn't count himself to have made arrival or a stop. Rather, he's in the habit of striving, continuing to minister to the Jews and Greeks alike. One could see he really wanted to apprehend why he was apprehended by some revelations in his statements. He once said, "I'm a debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise" (Rom.1:14). He even exercises willingness to preach the gospel to those in Rome also (v.15). One time, he even told King Agrippa that he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision (Acts 26:19). Till the time he uttered that speech and to beyond, he was fulfilling why he was apprehended by God.
God wants to pose a question to you. Since you got born again those years ago, what can you say you have worked at as your assignment for which you were apprehended? Or is it that you have only been receiving nutrition (ministration) in your local church without equal distribution of same to your needy world at your work place and places you have found yourself so far? If God brought you in like Paul, it's not to feed you until you become obese in the spirit and burst. No! It's to arm you with ministration to go immediately to begin to give ministration to others. You're not to remain a receiver forever. You're meant to graduate and become a teacher yourself - having been skilled in the Word. Ask yourself, am I apprehending that for which I was apprehended?
PRAYER: Open my understanding to see my retardness wherever I am retarded or impeded.
1-YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN
Acts 23:12-35 & Job 40-42
Powered by Morning Wings Ministries. Share and tag others. Enquire or counsel through +234 80 77 63 85 50 or +234 8137 04 68 12 II morningwingministry@gmail.com & Blog @ www.morningwingsministry.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment