MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL - 26/01/2025

SUNDAY - 26TH JANUARY, 2025

MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO

ELIJAH: A MAN SUBJECT TO LIKE PASSIONS - Fitted For A Manner Of Life Series 013

James 5:17-18, KJV

"17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit."

I've taught on this topic years ago but the Holy Spirit is reviving same topic and teaching in me again. It is for a purpose and may it be fulfilled. 

We've been talking on celibacy, your calling and giving oneself away to one's call and the demands it might make on one whatsoever. We've emphasized that for you to ply a path in life, you must be made into a container like those who have walked that path before you. I believe I qualify as a minister. Though I'm prospered, I'm not covetous or seeking to be wealthy. I'm not chasing after shadows. If we have food and raiment, we shall be content the Bible says. 

I Timothy 6:6-7, KJV 

"6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content."

That doesn't mean I don't have the good things of life. Meanwhile, what I'm saying or teaching is that I've been made like my predecessors who what they live by is the food given to them. You can't be a minister of Christ if you don't have His spirit or attitude to things. Though bodily exercise is profitable a little and I do little exercise yet I don't have what it takes to be an athlete or a boxer. However, I have indulged and overindulged in all practices by which one could receive impartation and separation into being called a minister. I have done it and still do them often. They must not wear off. It is in its not wearing off that we remain who we are - a fellow and member of this path of the called to ministry. A minister must not neglect the Word but look unto himself and the flock committed to his care, enjoy prayer, find it loving to preach or teach, love sobriety and enjoy it and cherish other exercises, attitudes and characters of the Lord Jesus. 

Today, we look at Elijah, a man subject to like passions but one who rose and did extraordinarily beyond his human passions, weaknesses and limitations. When the Bible says, "Elijah is a man subject to like passions yet he prayed that it would not rain...or that it should rain", God wanted us to be without excuse. As a matter of fact, what God was doing is drawing an example and a model for us in Elijah. He was saying, "you have no excuses. Elijah was a man like you. However, his human passions (which includes all passions and cravings in human) didn't get the better of him. Rather, he excelled. In what did God make an example of Elijah to having excelled. The Bible says, "he prays fervently that it would not rain and for three and half years, it didn't rain and again he prayed that heaven would open and it was so." Yet, he was a man surrounded by weaknesses and limitations. If you had seen Elijah in the flesh, you would have known this. He looked like any of us. He talked like any of us. He ate rice and beans like any of us. He slept and farted like any of us. He was scared and threatened like any of us. He had sexual urge like any of us. He was hungry, thirsty and helpless like any of us. He even once wished he died like some of us might have had. Elijah is no better than us. He was tempted in every way as we are. Despite all these vulnerabilities or frailties, he still did the extraordinary. He still went on to pray fervently (exerting energy physically) and (spiritually as one whom virtues went out of in the process of praying like it went out of Jesus when touched by the woman with the issue of blood) but had his requests answered.

If Elijah is therefore a man as we are (with our frame, composite and mind) and could achieve the impossible or extraordinary; we ought remember that if we share in his passions, we can share in his possibilities and achievements also.

You may be a man subject to like passions. You may be another Sola, Joshua, Chioma or whatsoever. However, you have a role model who inspired to great things despite being a man who was surrounded by human weaknesses. The only thing in place is that he was a righteous man who prayed an effectual fervent prayer (James 5:16). "Effectual fervent prayer" hints at doing whatsoever your hand finds to do with your whole might. I pray for you that you'll break all human barriers in you or around you to great success. Every human being is lazy. We want to sleep; we want to rest and we want to procrastinate things. But despite all these, you can achieve beyond the limit and circle of human weaknesses that came with you because you're a human made of flesh and blood. No matter how strong you are, if you run some miles, you'll want to rest. You'll want to because you're human. A robot might not necessarily feel that way because it is iron or steel. But that you're flesh or blood limits you, fills you with certain destructive and distracting yearnings. You possess will and you may tend to do or go the opposite direction like Adam and Eve chose to disobey God. But for a robot, once programmed, it sticks to its commands. However, despite all these limitations, you can still be used of God to do the extraordinary. It just takes a little consecration. For Elijah, he was a righteous man (one carrying a consecration and a way of life) who prayed and had results. If you'll harness yourself with discipline, focus, strong consecration and abandonment to the path you've discovered, you'll achieve the surprising also. May this be our testimony. 

PRAYER: I live above my inherent and inherited human passions or weaknesses; I shall do wondrously. I embrace the consecration and ways of life that makes great.

1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN 

Matthew 18:15-35 & Exodus 10-12

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MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL - 25/01/25

SATURDAY - 25TH JANUARY, 2025

MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO

GIFTED FOR CELIBACY - Fitted For A Manner Of Life Series 012

I Corinthians 7:6-7, ESV

"6 Now as a concession, not a command, I say this. 7 I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another."

If you've followed me till now, you'll understood that we started out discussing, "except those it is given to." "Those it is given to" in the words of Jesus are those who could stay without getting married due to some certain reasons. Don't forget we interpreted what it means "to be given to." It means "to be enabled or conferred upon." If you have not been made after the manner or likeness of he who it is given to and who by makeup can remain single or a celibate, we concluded you cannot live that life, walk that road or embrace such calling, manner or disposition of life. 

It ain't Jesus only who affirmed that. In the explanatory reading in I Corinthians Chapter 7, Paul agrees with that also. While he advises that all people could be and remain like him - an unmarried; he however recognizes the impossibility in that when he says, "but each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another."

It means while Paul wanted everybody to be single and a celibate like himself, he recognized the fact that they might not be gifted or made for such a life as himself. And indeed, what you're not gifted or equipped for, you can't do. One of the marks that you're not called where you're claiming you have call is not having equipping with gifts or abilities there. You can't say God has called you to teach and the Bible is dead to you. If the Spirit of God that brings illumination and quickening is not attending to you, then you should test your foot somewhere else. You might be called but it may not be to teach in particular. 

Paul recognizes the fact that for anyone to be fitted for any manner of life or embrace a particular manner of life, he must first of all be gifted or enabled towards it. 

Paul is a gifted celibate. I could have become one basically because I love the indoor and like staying alone. Though I'm married, I just like being alone. That's why I could sit to produce a devotional monthly. I don't have a great network of social life. While I check on my flock, I'm not the type of pastor that wants to develop overly social relations with people. I have stayed home for a week before without touching the corridor of my house let alone stepping outside the compound's gate. I stay at home a lot if there's no ministration or public business. As a matter of fact, I do encourage my wife to travel or go check on her family. I don't mourn when she's away as long as I have my Bibles, kind of books I like to read and would be let alone to continue fellowship with God and ministry. That's why most of the celibates in history are introverts. They are mostly melancholy or phlegmatic. If they ever come from other temperaments, it must have been tempered to be a kind of recluse or instilled with ability for loneness. So, it takes a gift, an adjustment to a manner of life or an enablement for anyone to live a particular manner of life.

Quoting Paul again, he says, "if anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly towards his betrothed, if his passions are strong, and it has to be, let him do as he wishes: let them marry - it is no sin. 37 But whoever is firmly established in his heart, being under no necessity but having his desire under control, and has determined this in his heart, to keep her as his betrothed, he will do well" (I Corinthians 7:36-37).

We can see two types of people here. First is the man (and likewise woman we should reckon) who cannot have his desires under control. That inability to have his desires under control may mean he's not gifted or called to be a celibate. However, the other brother (and likely a sister we may reckon) who has his heart made up and his desires under control would pass as a potential celibate and may not have a reason to marry because his passions are not driving him too hard. So, I will not advise you to remain a celibate unless you personally have grace or the gift to put your desires under control. Gift is what makes anyone do supernaturally or extraordinarily what others (without same gift) can't do. Gift is our edge over others in what we specifically and individually are called to do. If there's a life without gifts, what he does or claims to do will be with friction and it won't be appealing to anyone because it won't look effortless. Covet the gift for anything you want to do or are called to do! Once it's replicated, you'll know smoothness and ease. Only then will you tarry long in doing that thing and rejoice in doing that. Why many people who are not gifted for celibacy have made shipwreck of their faithfulness and ministry claiming they have such call is because they were not made for that life. We didn't read that Jesus struggled with his emotions or that Paul was immoral. Those two that we know as pure celibates did well managing their emotions though they had their manhood intact and could engage like any healthy and proper male. Don't deceive yourself, don't go to any Bible School or join some denomination in Christendom to take celibacy upon yourself if you're first not called into it. If you do, you'll fail and embarrass yourself secretly even if we don't know about it. 

PRAYER. Lay your hand on your head. Minister to yourself by calling and stirring every dormant gifts in you to work.

1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN 

Matthew 17:14-18:1-14 & Exodus 8-9

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MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL - 24/01/25

FRIDAY - 24TH JANUARY, 2025

MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO

UNDERSTANDING THE TWO SIDES OF THE COIN - Fitted For A Manner Of Life Series 011

I Corinthians 7:1-2, KJV

"1 Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. 2 Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband."

There are those who say, "I can't help it." This "I can't help it" that has made some homosexuals and pervert of what God created as good and perfect began to raise its head when men began to say, "I can't help it" and began to violate the sexual boundary that says, "marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled..." (Hebrews 13:4). Meaning, unless you're married and recognized so, you ought not taste or eat sex. That violation of sex is one of the oldest. Before we talk about misuse of sex, that one is worth picking on. 

Paul in writing to the Corinthians gives a reply saying, "it is good for a man not to touch a woman." "Touch" here is suggestive because it means"sexual relations." If the Bible says, "it is good...", then it is if we'll see why it is good. Now, that lone reply also dispels the assertion of some who says, "I can't be disciplined around the opposite sex." Even if you'll eventually marry, there'll still be a time of your life (no matter how short) that you'll need to stay single and expectedly a celibate. So, till you get married, your admonishment and what you must work with is, "it is good for a man or woman not to have sexual relations with the opposite sex" (I Cor.7:1). 

However, once this period is over or you're in the zone where you're ripe for marriage and have the wherewithal to sustain a home, you can then marry. We also believe that by the time you'll near or approach this zone of life where you'll have been deemed ready for marriage, you might not until then face sexual pressure, burn for sex or desire the opposite sex. 

If your seven year old, eleven or even seventeen is saying, "mummy, I can't help it", then something is wrong. Either they've been earlier exposed to what they shouldn't and have been matured forcefully to be in want of what shouldn't be their priority - sex! That'll be your own failure as a parent. While it's not wrong for an eleven or seventeen year old to have sexual urge, what is wrong is him or her saying like Samson, "I can't help it. Get her for me for a wife. It is now and not later. I can't defer" (Judges 14:2, 3). It is this, "I can't help it" that makes a loose man or woman of many even in the work/business world in our time. They just want to have sex and are less concerned who they have it with. Why? They've developed the habit of not doing without it. They've trained their appetite to be wild.

It is this inability to defer that makes many unripe kids go into the business of seeing the nakedness of each other. Like Solomon said, "do not arouse love until it may" (SOS 8:4). The truth is love (passion) is being aroused easily in this our world. Perversion and sexual pollution seems inescapable. When you turn on your TV, you might see it in movies or even adverts. When you hold a phone, an ad might pop up that doesn't consider your begging to differ. When you're in a public transport, the music the driver would refuse to pause might paint its picture and when you walk the street, you might hear it ring out from one mounted loud speaker.

Paul acknowledges that period of doing without sexual relations. However, he advices us (as men and women who wants to do right and abide in the confines of marriage) that we should get married to avoid fornication (doing it outside a legally constituted union). 

This would mean after marrying, anyone of us is not expected to seek sex or pleasure outside that same confine we had entered into to prevent being tagged as having fornicated or sinned if we had had sex without marriage. 

If you've erroneously believed that it's impossible, "a man cannot do without touching (having intercourse) with a woman and vice versa, verse 1 of I Corinthians 7 debunks that. However, it also recognizes our escape from falling into sexual sin - to marry. 

However, if you're so indiscipline now around ladies but have cultivated the habit of tasting all you see, even if you marry (choose one amidst many to avoid) transgressing into sexual sin, you might soon trespass outside your union and transgress when you roam, desire and burn for other women or men than you have at home. 

PRAYER: Lord, help me to be morally upright and free of every sexual entanglement.

1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN 

Matthew 16:13-17:1-13 & Exodus 6-7

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MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL - 23/01/25

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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MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL - 22/01/25

WEDNESDAY - 22ND JANUARY, 2025

MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO

THE COST OF FORSAKING ALL - Fitted For A Manner Of Life Series 009

Matthew 19:27-29, KJV

"27 Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore? 28 And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life."

I made a statement in an earlier series that, "there are assignments or purpose that'll require not being attached to anyone or anything so you're not smothered or hindered by emotional attachment to family or things."

That thing is true and it is that statement God wants to capitalize on to teach us today's truth. Peter asked, "what is our reward for forsaking all and following you?" Jesus explains what the reward would be in the regeneration but in the process we get to discover what sacrifices these disciples have made and what sacrifices any of us are being called to. It includes living land, house, family and loved ones! That ain't a small thing! Forsaking those with whom you have developed emotional attachment is hard.  

Do you know that Jesus Himself temporarily and often forsook his own family? 

Matthew 12:46, KJV

"46 While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. 47 Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee."

One time, his mother and brethren came searching for Him. To have come for Jesus might mean they missed him or didn't have his presence to hold or cherish at home. Oooh, it's a great sacrifice to have a child whose face you're not seeing at home every time. Mary must have endured a lot of things and eventually when Jesus was later crucified and He had to forsake her and others in order to fulfill the purpose of redemption. The truth is this, don't build a fence around any of your children. They have a purpose to fulfill. Once they're beginning to live for it, let that purpose make its full demands on them. You can sympathize with them for their sufferings but don't let your sympathy become demoralization or a yoke on their neck pulling them back. It is not the prayer of any parent to have a disabled child. One who'll spend his entire life to be catered for by the parents without being independent. So, lose the sail of your children's ships when it comes to purpose. If their purpose involves travelling, commit it to God and look with anticipation for their return. Stop worrying. Like Mary, let Jesus go. Let Him live the life afore appointed for Him. Let Him take the gospel round and bring light to those seated in the region of darkness. Parents must learn and learn again on releasing their wards from the nest. Let them go. Let them alone to find their foot. They'll always come back. 

When Jesus talks about forsaking, He didn't say " kill your father, mother, wife or children! No! He meant you must be weaned of them and not love them more than the Lord or the purpose that may be your preordained." Parents must learn to let them go. Don't cling or clutch to them. Jesus intends we must prioritize the pursuit of the kingdom and spreading of the gospel than anything. He meant our love must be clear and loud for the Father, not being contested by a spouse or a child. It should be clear that we love God most of all. 

On some occasions, there were people called to follow Jesus who said, "let me go and kiss my family goodbye."

Luke 9:59-62, KJV

"59 And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. 60 Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. 61 And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. 62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

Some just by making that mistake were disqualified from the call. Elisha almost missed it when he was turning back also. See I Kings 19:19-21. 

Jesus in responding to some of these people would say, "let the dead bury their dead" or "you, follow me." The gospel worth more than security or pleasure with our families. It is something to live one's entire life for. Even if you have a family, you can continually go back and forth like David did while with Saul in order to fulfill your assignment of spreading the gospel and being with those God is pleased with and recognizes you should give time to also. Only that your spouse or children must understand that you're the called of God and they'll not have you around like any other father, mother, son or daughter in the neighborhood who doesn't carry your call. Calling or our call makes demands on us that may put sacrifices on us or on others close to us. 

I could teach for a whole day none stop. One time, I started writing teachings around 7:30PM or so in the night and only to finish around 5AM the next day. That was while a core member at Nigerian Christian Corpers' Fellowship (NCCF) Dutsinma Zone, Kastina State. My wife knows once teaching anointing hits me, it means don't disturb me. This series that I am on its 8th began around 9:10AM. This is 1:17PM and I'm still writing. I only consult Bibles, dictionary, make a stop for meditation, speak to myself, muse or exclaim for affirmation. I've been seated somewhere writing it for hours. That's the demand of my own call on me. Though it didn't require that I necessarily abstain from sex but to get it done, I have to shut myself in a room free of noise and other pleasures with only materials to consult and a proper atmosphere to think and hear God speaking through my thoughts to me. I have not even eaten though on such occasions I might treat myself to certain fruits and quickly close my door again. That is not different from living the life of a celibate. A life of the called it is. It'll make demands on you and you must give it. Or else, the anointing might be on you and there may be no tangibility to measure or mark that the anointing is on you or that God is using you. My teachings and the devotional I write is one of the evidences of that I'm anointed and God is on me, in me and with me. You know a minister both by his works and his life! 

This is a call to forsake all and follow! Imagine the earlier apostles being away from home and family, yet they laid familial affection down to serve God. May you be found worthy of the Lord this way. 

PRAYER: May nothing be too costly for me to sacrifice to the Lord. May I pass the test of love.

1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN 

Matthew 15:1-28 & Exodus 1-2

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MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL - 21/01/25

TUESDAY - 21ST JANUARY, 2025

MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO

ARE YOU SINGLE? - Fitted For A Manner Of Life Series 008

I Corinthians 7:32-33, KJV

"32 But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:  33 But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife."

"Singles mourn to marry and the married mourns to divorce" is the quote I once came across on the net. Why would the married yearn for separation? It's because marriage is not without its own problems. Human relationship is one of the complicated systems that we have to keep understanding and seek to manage. Without coming to manage it properly, though divorce is not permitted but two that once was one might become two again (at separation). 

But for the singles, they are blinded by the joys of marriage and are held in hope. They don't usually see the struggles that be in two trying to be one or remain as one. Though not a command but a concession, Paul talks of "this present distress" for which it is good for a person to remain unmarried (I Cor.7:25-26). 

Are you single? Like Paul says, I have no command from the Lord for you not to marry especially if you don't fit into any of the three categories of eunuchs we had seen. You should therefore marry except by choice and reasons best known by you. Marriage is good and it should not be demonized. Paul admonishes the married to stick to themselves (I Cor. 7:27).

Meanwhile, being a single comes with its own blessings. Like a fish caught in an evil net is taken out of its natural habitat, once marriage takes you out of singlehood (which naturally avails you time for yourself and celibacy since we believe you've not been fornicating), you are bound to a spouse and you must seek to please him or her. Whether you're a man or a woman, once married, you're vulnerable to having divided attention. If you look at our verses for the day, it says, "32...the unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. 33 But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife 34 and his interest are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband" (ESV). 

Did you read that? I intentionally requotes everything in plain words for you to grab. Before I got married, I would study and listen to sermons all day long and at my spare time. Not again! I have someone to share part of my time with now. And if you have some children with that, the more dissipating and inadequate your time looks in your hands. I could recall while I was on campus, apart from school and fellowship, the only thing I do with my time is communion with God. I did it until while listening to sermons one day, I got anointed with God's Spirit and was impacted with the teaching anointing and all other manifestations on the fellow I was listening to. To have been impacted through sermons means I did that act for thousands of time and for an enough time to have possessed the same acts in the man I was looking at. He preaches and teaches very good and for long and I also do the same. He authors a devotional and I also authors a devotional. He destroys yokes by God's anointing on him and I do same. To have received the gift of the Holy Spirit through listening to sermons means giving it time and fellowship. I loved the man of God and cherished all his teachings. At that time, I could quote him and his sermons very much. 

I still do listen to sermons and my wife and family know me for that but not without hindrances now. While I was still single and having no one in my life, I would listen to sermons, fall asleep, wake up to find the sermon still playing. Now, I share the bed with my wife. I can't do that. Even when I'm playing a sermon or the kind of music that stirs my anointing, you might hear something like, "I want to sleep." It's a prompt that you either stop it or use earpiece and when you use earpiece, you still cannot be committed to the listening because you want to be alert to any alarm. Even when you think of going to another room, it doesn't always work. You'll hear, "let's sleep now! Isn't it bed time?" When your wife is telling you, "let's sleep", I hope you know what that means. It means, "I need your companionship and probably the other one too." So, marriage is a journey of inconvenience and sacrifice for your mate. If you're not ready, don't take it. 

That's why that place reads and says, "the unmarried has time to please the Lord and for things that concerns the Lord than the married." The Bible acknowledges that the unmarried has more time because he's not tied or bound to be obligated to anyone. 

So, once you leave singlehood (bachelorhood or spinsterhood) to marriage, your attention is shared between two entities (God and your spouse). It's a great fight. If you're weak-willed, you might sacrifice intimacy with God for fellowship with your spouse (that man or woman). 

For this reason, some might vow themselves to God. If there's a Queen of England who didn't marry till her death just for state matters, who told you if you perceive the call to exceptionally serve God you cannot be a eunuch for the kingdom of heaven - serving His will. There are places to take the gospel to that having a family or those you're emotionally attached to won't do. Such land is the land of "if I die, I die". The demand on some people is to enter a difficult terrain and break it with committedness that comes from not being attached to anything or anyone. God might find one or two like that. However, if you  hope for marriage, let your single or celibate life counts now. I thank God I got all the ingredients for my race before I even got engaged. I got anointed and started preaching dangerously and fierily as a student. I was in Level 3 readying for 4 when I got anointed. It's still that same anointing I've built on and I'm building on now. Your singlehood can be lost but you can make it count if you gather food for your winter in that summer. Please, be like the ants. Eat doubly because the journey is long and the days are now seriously evil. 

PRAYER: My bachelorhood or spinsterhood shall not come to nothing. I have an understanding of what to gather in it.

1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN 

Matthew 14:13-36 & Genesis 49-50

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MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL - 20/01/25

MONDAY - 20TH JANUARY, 2025

MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO

THE LIFE OF ANNA TEACHES A LESSON - Fitted For A Manner Of Life Series 007

Luke 2:36-37, NLT

"36 Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. She was the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher, and she was very old. Her husband died when they had been married only seven years. 37 Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty four. She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshipping God with fasting and prayer. 38 She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem."

What would you use your left over time to do? We ought to ask. Or else, wastefulness might result. 

There are those who are stopped and handicapped by accidents and unforseen circumstances of life. However, it liberates some other men and women into their calling or substantial life. A good example of the latter is Anna. She had only tasted seven years of marital life (or sex) that every single covet before her husband passed away. I don't know what informed her not remarrying. I can't say if it was brought about by devotion to her husband or just a personal decision to be married to the Lord. However, after the loss of her husband, she leveraged this unfortunate event to give herself wholly to the Lord. She entered into celibacy. She becomes an eunuch for the kingdom of heaven. 

No wonder, Paul advises the singles and the widows to stay as he is. Only that he reconsiders that they could remarry if they don't have the gift to stand and live in celibacy (I Cor.7:8-9). Anna's life is what God is using to teach us a great lesson that, "man shall not live by bread alone..."(Matt.4:4). Yet, this is still how far some people have gone with their lives. Their lives are not beyond living only for the ephemeral and the inconsequential. They're scrambling only for material things, seeking for wherewithal to live when the word from God's mouth has been jettisoned. Anna's story tells us that "living by bread alone" which is so exalted and prioritized by the Gentiles (Matt.6:31-33) could be reordered . Anna lived as a widow until eighty four years old. The Bible records that she starts to live that way just seven years after her husband passed away. We don't know Anna's age as at when the husband died but Anna could have lived at least 50 years as a celibate and a widow after her husband died. Widows or widowers can be very useful in God's vineyard if they decide not to remarry. 

However, remaining unmarried is not even the most important but why she didn't marry or what she converted that time that she could have shared with a partner to do. The Bible points out that she does something seemingly impossible. She doesn't depart from the temple but stays there day and night worshipping God in fasting and prayer. Don't think Anna lives in the temple so that she might feed off on the people. No! She's not a foodie. She does eat occasionally but we just read that she had a ministry of fasting and prayer. 

This dedication of hers to fasting and prayer before the Lord has so much cultivated her sensitivity and created an intimacy between herself and God so much more that God Almighty couldn't bypass her on the disclosure of who baby Jesus is. As a matter of fact, heaven knows her very much even if she doesn't preach a sermon on Saturday or Sunday. 

Looking at her challenging life, we learnt that we can do and live without what men are in a rush for. If we have food and clothing, we shall be contented. Life is not basically to spend on acquiring things. She didn't marry again and that meant she forgone sex also.  What men are dying for and which they have utmostly esteemed as the reason for life or why they're created is actually what she jettisoned when it came upon her to live as a celibate and a constant worshipper before God. Due to that call and life she heeded, she couldn't even reproduce herself in some children. She yielded it all up. A real eunuch for the kingdom she is! The Bible calls her a prophetess. I have no doubt that she is because she speaks accurately of Baby Jesus and reveals Him to all that are present. 

Don't be deceived, you can actually live above, "bread alone." When God authors life, He didn't intend we'll only spend it on the ephemeral but on the substantial which involves "the word of His mouth". That is, hearing what the Lord has to say about our individuals on daily basis, being guided by that to live as a shepherded sheep. It is from living and abiding by the word of His mouth that you'll get to live the life God ordained for you as your destiny before your conception. We're ordained, authored to live by "every word that comes from His mouth" and not live by "bread or physical things alone". It is that revealed will of God that'll prosper, satisfy and lead us to fulfilment. It is not by being in constant rush and pursuit of "bread alone" or the good things of life. Man according to creation or the ordainment of God must not live by bread alone. If he does, he can sustain the physical man but the spiritual man will be dead and his eternity with Christ could be lost. 

Anna let go of continuing to live only for bread alone and rather surrenders to living by every word from God's mouth. Her life of celibacy is calling us to the possibility that we can exercise discipline over our desires, gratification and ourselves; turn away from sin or what spoils us and be consecrated to the Lord. Like a called man or woman, she becomes dedicated to only one thing. Fasting and praying to worship God in the temple. Herein is the word of the psalmist fulfilled that says, "one thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple" (Psalms 27:4, KJV). 

PRAYER: My life worth more than bread alone. Teach me the real value and exchange for my life. I submit to leadership from your daily utterances.

1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN 

Matthew 13:44-14:1-22 & Genesis 46-48

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