MONDAY- 31ST JULY, 2023
MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO
PEOPLE ARE GOING THEIR WAYS
Read Matt. 27:1-5
Acts 1:24-25, KJV
"24 And they prayed, and said... 25 That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place".
This season is a dangerous season and you'll soon know why it is. The vision I see is of people hurriedly going their way to and people hurriedly going their way fro. This season is dangerous because while some will stay with their callings or are going to be with the Lord (in their callings); others are choosing to stray and go their ways (out of the will of God which they have known). This makes this season dangerous and it's dangerous because it keeps sweeping the feet of even those who have been planted already in God's will. Men are now repenting, not from their sins and frivolities but from God's will to doing the lust of the flesh and the riot man.
The Bible records this concerning Judas Iscariot and I found it is not the testimony anyone should have spoken about him or her.
Acts 1:25, KJV
"...from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place".
Note the expression, "from which Judas fell, that he might go to his own place." What should be his place? Where I ask if not the calling? However, this man who the Bible praises as having a lot with others and having obtained part of the ministry with somebody like Peter and others lost it all to go to his own place. The next question should be, "where is now his place? To where has he gone? Where did he leave to?" If he leaves the calling to go to his own place, where did he go?
May you not know where he goes by personal experience. There's no one who leaves his calling, either in ministry or in other fields who remain the same for life. Their life unarguably don't become better for it. So, where did Judas Iscariot go after a walk away from the calling? Peter described it as having gone to his own place - to his own lot, his own choosing and choice. What is his own choice and choosing? When Judas Iscariot betrays Jesus to the elders, the film didn't end there. He later feels guilty of having betrayed an innocent soul according to Matthew's account. The deed has been done but he's beginning to come to understanding. Coming to terms that way, he would seek to amend his ways but the guilt feeling wouldn't allow. He gets overwhelmed by it. Though he restores the thirty pieces of silver back to the elders, Judas himself never asked for forgiveness or heal from the wound of the guilty conscience he's wounded with. To show he's sorry for himself as the devil would push a lot of people to do, he receives an inner urging and motivation to hang himself (an act that was not a good response other than receiving forgiveness) - Matt.27:3-5. The devil is very much interested in ensuring that any man of calling who strays doesn't come back again. He knows you'll do more and deal him a greater blow than you have dealt him before if you do. So, he seeks to ensure you don't have the success of Samson that way. It is he who came back and killed more people at once than he had ever killed before (Judges 16:30). According to Peter's account in Acts, he died shamefully by falling headlong on the portion of land he used that reward of wickedness to purchase. He committed suicide and never knows the return to grace or calling. Peter in describing how he went his way and ended says this.
Acts 1:18, KJV
"18 Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out".
Imagine that! Imagine such a sudden and shocking death as if something gripped his heart and it stops and it ends just like that. Should we call it a heart attack coming from guilt feelings? That's the kind of disgrace that could befall anyone who will choose to go his own way. The Bible says in Isaiah 53:6 that, "all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way..." Going your own way is also going into the world, going into sin, defiling and breaking the consecration of your calling. You may think you're enjoying; you may think you're richer than others but time will soon show you have left your calling's gratification to the gratification of selfish ambitions and goals. Who knows Whether Judas Iscariot had planned building a house? I'm thinking in that way because it was a land he used that money to purchase according to Peter's account in Acts. He was quick to acquire an asset. He's a very commonsensical man. He believes in what appreciates (so he purchases a land). But he has forgotten that there's no treasure laid on earth that does not roth or come to corruption. He knows the value of money but he does not know the value of his call. At the end, the only citation that would have been read for him would have been, "the man who went his own way". I pray for you, may you not go your own way. May God refuse you by the many salvation He'll put on the road for you. May God watch over your lot so that it is not left vacant and then elected for. May you always be here. Yes, with the called and in the calling; enjoying their privileges and persevering in their shames.
PRAYER: Lord, I shall not err. I shall not depart from the faith or my calling to go my own way.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 2 Chronicles 21:1-23:21; Romans 11:13-36; Psalm 22:1-18; Proverbs 20:7
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