THURSDAY - 23RD JANUARY, 2025
MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO
REMAINING A CELIBATE FOR HIS GLORY - Fitted For A Manner Of Life Series 010
Matthew 1:24-25, KJV
"24 Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: 25 And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS."
Do you know that Mary remains a virgin until she had given birth to Jesus? Yet, she was living with Joseph, the carpenter. Do you know that Joseph, the carpenter didn't for once decide to top the pregnancy of the Holy Spirit in Mary by sleeping with her even once before delivery. May God teach you anew so that you'll see again and again that it is possible to stay a celibate like Joseph, the carpenter even when you're surrounded by sexual temptations. May you not spoil yourself and become porous like a flung gate. May you maintain the consecration needed for the birth of your own "holy thing" too.
When Gabriel, the attending angel appears to Mary, he announces God's plan to her and tells her she will conceive. Mary asks, "how shall this be seeing I know not a man." Gabriel assures her not to worry but tells her that, "the Holy Ghost shall come upon her and the power of the Highest shall overshadow her: therefore that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35).
That makes Jesus' paternity God's or divine. If Jesus had been conceived through a man's sperm, Jesus wouldn't have been qualified to stand as lamb for the sins of the whole world (Matt.1:21, John 1:29). He would have been a blemished lamb and a sinner like any of us. Don't forget, every human being born through the sperm of any man is a man conceived in sin. David affirms that in Psalm 51:5. To bypass that blemish was why it had to be by the Holy Ghost. This insemination that's going on in the medical world isn't new to God. God did the first one when He injected Mary and she conceived.
I might also make a thing of the word "overshadow." When a man lays on a woman in sex, he kind of overshadow her. It's therefore not strange that we are now reading that the Holy Spirit overshadows Mary. At that overshadowing, conception immediately happens and the blameless and sinless baby came to being. "Overshadow" here talks of a power eclipsing Mary or enveloping her. It is that power of the Holy Ghost that brought about the pregnancy.
Now, of all the children of Mary, only Jesus had a different paternity. Joseph is only his step dad. God Almighty knows how unfortunate it is for anyone to grow up without a father so he raised a willing man in Joseph to fill in that physical gap on earth.
The Bible then has this to say after all these had happened. "Joseph didn't know Mary until she has brought forth her first born." Let's ask, "who's Mary's firstborn if not Jesus?" This makes the explanation so far valid that only other children and siblings of Jesus have their paternity to be Joseph. But what I want to draw attention to is the fact that Mary had to remain a virgin for those periods. Don't forget that the Holy Spirit didn't have physical intercourse with her. So, the hymen or what have you was not in anyway broken. It became broken when baby Jesus passed through her birth canal and came out. It was after that, some days or months after that did what she and Joseph were dying for (sex) could then have been done.
So, we won't be wrong if we say Joseph didn't deflower Mary. Do you know who did? First and technically, the Holy Spirit who impregnated Mary and secondly and physically, baby Jesus who passed through and opened up her birth canal or matrix.
Today, let us give a standing ovation to two of our brethren, Brother Joseph and Sister Mary who delayed gratification and didn't pollute or pervert the work God had started towards birthing the Saviour of mankind. It was a great and uncommon sacrifice. May many more be this consecrated for the greatness God wants to birth through them. After all, celibacy isn't evil or old school. It can be temporary and the Bible recognizes being a celibate until marriage.
The Bible says in Hebrews 13:4 that "marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." May you copy?
PRAYER: May I not destroy my (the) consecration that'll birth God's own holy thing through me.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN
Matthew 15:29-16:1-12 & Exodus 3-5
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