MONDAY- 4TH SEPTEMBER, 2023
MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO
HIS FACE IS TILTED!
Luke 9:51, KJV
"And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem".
Brethren, I say what I hear. Look, His face is tilted. What a thing that Jesus has a tilted face. You can as well have such face. A face that beholds in the spirit or through his mind and refuses to let go but is stayed on what it has found to muse. A face whose mind is made up and would not for once or one thing or the other shift his resolution. That's the tilted face. A tilted face is one that's resolutely crested on purpose and its conviction about what it has seen or received as purposeful to do.
May your face be tilted and solely fixed on what you must do as written of you in the volume of God's book. Many people will do all to the exclusion of what is written of them. May you not be that. At a tender age, Jesus' face was tilted to the business of His father. That was at age twelve. He would even not mind being left behind by family as long as He is doing what He loves to do [Luke 2:42-46]. Hmmm! A tilted face!
Our verse above conveys in its entirety a tilted face and a resolute heart. It says, "and it came to pass..." We might quickly ask, "what eventually came to pass there?" "It came to pass when the time was come for Jesus to be received up, that He steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem".
Something necessitated that focus Jesus has. It's because the time of His suffering, crucifixion, death and departure nears. Because it's beginning to near for the son of man to be received up (ascended), He immediately sets His face towards Jerusalem (where it would begin to happen to Him step by step). This is a purposeful life. This is a life that has seen what is written in the distance for Him and would refuse to be deterred from hitting or dotting on it one by one. He's been called to come and He's not in denial. It's no longer a debate that Jesus is sold to purpose and what is the will of His Father for Him. Can a time come in your life where because of purpose, you set your face or focus on something and dot on it for long until it's done. When you set your face on something, it becomes your next move. You'll have so much cultivated and meditated on it that that your next activity will be to implement it.
Having a tilted face will be your experience especially if you're called and you have an assignment you need to fulfill. A time would come that the assignment would come knocking like a mighty rushing wind and all that you'll feel for it is going to heed it. It'll so much burn in you that you'll lose joy in pleasure or indulgence in other activities. You'll just want to go to be with the Lord in that particular assignment. That's when your face is turned towards that heart calling and nothing else could satisfy or pacify you from it.
As a matter of fact, Jesus couldn't be removed from the direction of Jerusalem that His mind has trapped and absorbed. The Bible says, "He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem". "Steadfastly" means sternly and with all focus. That is from then, the rumination, aspiration and plans of Jesus becomes going to Jerusalem to be arrested, suffered and even murdered. This man, Jesus is sold to purpose even unto the death of the cross as willed for Him by His Father. No wonder, He says, "no man collects His life from Him but that He willingly lays it down. He said He has power to lay it down and to take it again because He has received same commandment from His Father [John 10:17-18]. And at the end, the fact that He had a set face steadfastly set towards Jerusalem and on dying for the sins of the whole world is actually what saves us all. If Jesus had not died at all, I wonder what would have happened? That's why you must have a set, focused, classified and all fixed concentration on your purpose. Refuse to be shifted! You must seek not to be lost in your concentration but rather totally given to it according to this verse.
Isaiah 50:7, KJV
"For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed".
He sets his face like a flint. Do you know what a flint is? It's a very sharpened, streamlined and pointed rock. So sharpened that it could be said to be facing just a specific direction and not enlarged and scattered to all places. When you set your face like a flint or set it on something like a flint, you give it your whole energy and concentrate all on it. For instance, if you use a lens to direct and focus the rays/race of the sun on a paper, it'll burn. That's what a sharp pointed or flint face means. It means a face that's single and not like one without purpose beating the air. You must be purposeful; marching in unison like a flood and in strength like the Spartans.
That's why Jesus refused to be distracted, detoured, diverted or remapped away from His purpose. Purpose is so single and singular that a little detour would take you far away from it. But you must not stray but rather maintain your stay. Because of the season that Jesus has found come upon Him that a planned purpose must be delivered, He also surrendered to flow with that time and purpose and obey all its intents. As such, He's willing to go to Jerusalem.
God wants you to be this focus. Jerusalem and being there so much gripped Jesus' spirit that they were not received where they have gone. The Bible records, "and they did not receive Him [elsewhere He went immediately after the revelation of being in Jerusalem] because His face was as though He would go to Jerusalem".
So, it's possible for somebody not to be received at a location because in his very soul, he is dreaming of a vision of another land? Jesus' thoughts and imaginations on being in Jerusalem must have become so visible in the realms so much more that it cancels appearances in other places. Jesus' face is rather titled towards Jerusalem. You also can have a titled face. Yes, you can have a face, mind, heart that's always directed to a particular obsession, pursuit, finding, vocation, location or even a fellow etc. When it gets to that level where your face is set towards a particular thing, it means if it's not that thing, it's not another. Why is your desire set on a particular specialization? Why is it that the thought of your mind and imagination are all directed towards a particular direction? It may be that God has ordained that field for you to colonize or dominate and if you look at it, it's in that field you have gathered experience over the years and have become the expert you are. Or why do you keep dreaming of travelling overseas? Why is your face tilted towards the great beyond and your thoughts directed and casted on people of other races? That's to draw you to come into your calling and grand plans that await you. That's why nothing has been able to satisfy you or collect you from that dream till hitherto.
Jesus' face is tilted. Tilted towards Jerusalem and not any other place. May we all be this children of purpose. May we all be sold out to what is purpose alone. May we be so single that no conviction could snatch us from what we have set our faces on, towards or to do.
PRAYER: Lord, use the tilting of my face and the obsession in my heart to call me where I should be.
BIBLE IN A YEAR: Ecclesiastes 4:1-6:12; 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:7; Psalm 47:1-9; Proverbs 22:16
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