MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL - 31/01/2025

 FRIDAY - 31ST JANUARY, 2025

MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO

SO SCARED AND SO DIVIDED

Read Deut. 28:1-7

Deuteronomy 28:7, KJV 

"The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways."

You should burst into laughter after reading that verse. 'One way attack and seven ways fleeing' really shows the cowardice heart of your enemies. This is the Lord's provision for those who are His, who are adherents and abiders in Him. Without Him, we know we can do nothing. This off course includes gaining victory over the enemy. 

Today's anchor verse is fully loaded with blessings. In warfare, strategy is usually foremost. Strategic attack is the wit and soul of warfare and so it is usually employed by all military mights. No wonder, there's an entire section dedicated to military intelligence and strategy in the force. It is just for proper learning of the enemy, his ways and how to smoothly launch attacks at him. "The Lord (not any other) shall cause our enemies that rise up against you to be smitten (beaten down and to stubble) before you..." This suggests victory for us. However, we need to examine how the Lord does such work or achieves such promised end. As such, we have the part B of that verse which says, "they shall come out against you one way, and flee before you seven ways."

"Coming out against you one way" suggests the orderliness and coordination of the enemy's attack at launching out and attack time. At this time, the enemy is still in his wit, boldness and sticking yet to his strategic plans. He still believes he could strike fear in you and in your camp. So, he is orderly - maintaining his cool. However, at the herald of a sound that does boom, the enemy is shaken, runs helter skelter for life and for safety. At such moment, he forgets formal arrangements or engagements but seeks safety and safety only. As such, he becomes scattered, abandoning all plans that was to be taken and was decided on in the war room. Now is the time for self preservation and that becomes his solitary goal. Having witnessed a power more gloriously superb than his, he can't but seek refuge. And to do this, he throws caution away but seeks safety in panic, destabilization and throbbing fear. This is why the enemy that has come out against you will flee before you in seven ways. It is due to having witnessed a greater power and for having come to the realization of needing escape so urgently. He therefore doesn't mind which way he goes as far as he secures safety. 

Their hearts will fail them. They'll be frightened out of their wits. You see, when the hearts of people fail them, they'll literally lose their senses and forget plans they had pledged allegiance to. At times, they might suffer heart attack, fall down from an arrest of the heart and yield up the ghost. That killed Nabal. When he heard of the match of David, he was afraid, was frozen and immediately was dead at heart. It didn't take a minute before he collapsed to the ground (I Sam.25:37). That's what fear can do. It scares people to do the unreasonable. 

The sort of fear that will descend on those who come out against you is such that'll frighten them out of their wits and jolt them to the realization that they've messed with the wrong fellow. It's therefore regrettable like a dog's entering into the lion's den with a boast to challenge him. You know how regrettable that would be. The enemy will drop his weapons and devices and flee in different directions. We have seen many images of this in the Bible and during times of war. 

Syria came to build siege against Samaria. However, at God's declaration that there will be surplus, God made the Syrian army hear many noises of chariots and horses. Thinking the king of Israel had gone to hire armies against them, they fled for their lives - not considering orderliness, formality and organization.

The Bible records that their tents were left as it were (II Kings 7:6-7). They didn't have any time to lose their horses, pack their belongings or collect their provisions. They only ran for dear lives. Another confirming verse says, "and all the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste" (II Kings 7:15). As a matter of fact, they cast away every weight that could hinder them from right and timely escape. 

That is a likeable example of what that verse says. Look, let them come out against you one way at any time. It is written that they shall be discomfited so much before you that they'll lack proper organization (like before) but be scattered and flee (mindful only of escape) before you in seven ways. They'll severely be uncoordinated in their bid to escape. They might come coordinated but the terror that'll descend on them will leave them broken up, fragmented and scattered into several parts and that's seven parts as the Scripture guaranteed. If their band ever met, they'll question themselves, "Where were you and how did you really escape?" Their narratives would be that of a fearful and narrow escape. As such, you'll become the terror, the fear and the obeyed that the enemy gives obedience to. 

As you abide in Christ, He'll build a shelter of fear and terror over and round you. It'll be real and thicker than a cloud so much more that no man will be able to break in. They'll fear touching you and that'll be because of that hedge. At attempt to violate you, they'll witness a failure and see that your Redeemer is strong. At any attempt, what shall happen is a scattering and a dispersing into seven places. Yes, seven places that'll show how really discomfited the enemies are before you. 

PRAYER: Lord, may I always abide in You. I am sealed and can't be violated. No hand touches me.

1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN 

Matthew 21:33-22:1-14 & Exodus 20-21

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MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL - 30/01/2025

 THURSDAY - 30TH JANUARY, 2025

MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO

LORD, I SEEK AN OCCASION!

Read Judges 14, 15

Judges 14:4, NLT

"But Samson told his father, "Get her for me! She looks good to me." His father and mother didn't realize the Lord was at work in this, creating an opportunity to work against the Philistines, who ruled over Israel at that time."

There are those who where they are, it is the troubling of the water they are waiting for (John 5:1-7). Once they sight the water troubled, it'll be to them a shot in the air. It will herald their take off. That'll immediately launch them into what they have been waiting or hoping to do. However, if the troubling of the water never comes, they might tarry, waiting for the opportunity to launch into the water. That's because the arrival of the stirring angel and the moving of the water is the only provided occasion to launching into the healing pool. 

To do something or become something, you need the rightful leverage or opportunity. You can't manifest more than the open door God has given to you. If you're agitating inside you to manifest and be revealed to the world in your own day but you have no divinely granted opening, occasion or opportunity for that, you might remain at the backside of the desert for life. For David to leave obscurity and be revealed to Israel, the entire Israelites' army including King Saul were paralyzed for forty days. They couldn't take on the Goliath challenge. It took God to sovereignly send David to the battle through the hands of Jesse, his father. The occasion God found for that was the checking on the welfare of his brothers at battle. However, that was just a front God hide the real purpose behind. Even David had to respond to Eliab saying, "is there not a cause?" (I Sam.17:29). 

How I pray today that those of you where you are who are seeking an occasion to launch into something or start something would see that door opened unto you so soon. Until then, you'll have no accommodation or granted space to manifest. You'll just remain pregnant with your vision without a platform created for you to give birth to it. If not, one might even die waiting. 

In today's reading, Samson was thought to have been frivolous. At Timnath, he saw a beautiful woman who he sought to marry. He troubles his parents over getting her for him. Knowing that a believer must not be unequally yoked with an unbeliever, the parents would not. They wanted him to make a choice of an Israelite. However, the Bible adds this side comment to vindicate Samson and his desire. 

Judges 14:4, KJV

"But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel."

So, it was the Lord roaming about - moving and vibrating on the earth seeking an occasion to give to Samson to begin to live out the calling of being a deliverer. However, that occasion - the first of it that'll open the door of ministry to Samson began by being couched in an unequally yoked marriage. Not that God seeks to work against Himself or contradict His everlasting principles. If you follow the storyline, you'll see that Samson eventually didn't marry this Philistine woman. All that God needed was to create an incident that can avail Samson the opportunity, leverage and open the door for the fulfillment of why He called him. Samson's inability to enter into his wife coupled with the fact that he was angered and outwitted by the Philistines who ploughed with his heifer started the beginning of the deliverances God started to wrought with him and give to Israel. While you may mourn the fact that Samson lost a wife to his friend, God's thought was established firmly on that advancing purpose and the bringing of Israel the predicted deliverance.

Samson couldn't have started on his own. An occasion had to be presented to him from heaven to take. That's why I believe the verse that says, "a man can receive nothing except it be given him from above" (John 3:27). I know those who'll break their backs trying to have what has not been given them from above. If you have a destiny to fulfill, while you're eager to manifest, one wisdom you must watch out for is God's divinely ordained moment coupled with an open and granted platform for that. I know those who out of desperateness to manifest soiled their garments because they took a leverage and sought to rise, kill and eat from a sheet that never descended from God. At day's end, they polluted their callings having been joined to the uncircumcised. Samson however had to receive an open door in order to begin to manifest the stirrings he had felt in Mahaneh-dan, between the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol. God has been moving, training and coming on him for that purpose. The intent for that stirring is therefore about to be fulfilled and it couldn't have found expression until God had found the rightful occasion or opportunity for Samson to begin to manifest through. If you'll follow this storyline to chapter 15 of Judges, you'll see how this little door or occasion led to the many killings of Philistines - the beginning of deliverance for Israel. 

May God allow you too to manifest your calling. May God ordain an occasion that's ripe for you. Have you been waiting for a time or an opportunity that'll avail you swift moves? I pray, let there be orchestrations of that. You'll see signs and you shall know that, "now is the time and this day is the day."

PRAYER: Father, give me a door to avail me my heart desires. Cook for me an opportunity that'll become my launch pad into destiny.

1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN 

Matthew 21:1-32 & Exodus 18-19

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MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL - 29/01/25

WEDNESDAY - 29TH JANUARY, 2025

MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO

A BETTER MEMORIAL - Fitted For A Manner Of Life Series 016

Isaiah 56:3-5, KJV

"3 ... neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. 4 For thus saith the LORD unto the eunuchs that keep my Sabbath, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; 5 Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off."

One of the joys that we don't pray to be withheld from anyone is the joy of carrying one's own baby. When people don't have this joy, they're intermittently demoralized and discouraged especially when there's a trigger to recall their state. It might be when they see wards of set mates do or achieve the landmark. At such moment, they're always reminded of their state of barrenness. However, there's a better offer than sons and daughters as promised by God to any eunuch. 

I'm not saying, don't try. However, if all you know to do within the confine of medical assistance and spiritual assistance has failed, you might need to explore the option of today and receive the blessing that attends it. 

Verse 3 calls the eunuch being described here, "a dry tree." A dry tree would refer to one that has been severed and is not good for anything but to be discarded or burnt. That reveals how eunuchs are viewed and little esteemed during this time. They are cast aways and the rejected. Now, as dry tree, it means they can't reproduce or father a child. It means they're sterile or infertile. This passage may not necessarily refer to those eunuchs whose testicles were pressed, crushed or whose penises were chopped off. It rather refers to those with problems of infertility or sterility. They are as dry tree that doesn't bring forth or produce fruits. 

God has a promise for them and any other type of eunuch who can't reproduce or bring forth children that should carry or pass on their names. What does God say? "For the eunuchs who keep my Sabbath, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off."

This is what every human being want to ensure to the best of their knowledge. It is the reason for which they give birth or desire children. They don't want their legacy to disappear or their name to vanish. Since eunuchs don't marry let alone give birth, God is saying, "He'll give them a name better than sons and daughters and one that shall never be cut off."

It is not every human legacy or name that'll be remembered or recalled in generations to come. We all know that. We all know that many names will be lost and forgotten in the sand of time. Popular names of billionaires, celebrities or great men today might fade 100 years from now. However, God promises that these eunuchs will have a better testimony in His house and within His walls even in His coming kingdom. 

Telling them to keep the Sabbath, please Him and hold unto His covenant, God declares to them His promises. Since a memorial is always remembered and not forgotten, this shows how they'll forever be unforgettable in God's mind and through the faithful examples they might have laid by their pleasing lives. They'll just be examples to future generations. 

Stop mourning for having no child. If you can live so well as to leave great acts, they can stand as monuments to pass you to generations to come. Why do you think people write books or release an album? It's so as to pass themselves on. However, this promise given to the eunuchs is stronger than such legacy! It is everlasting as the Lord promises them. Let this be the hope of anyone who couldn't reproduce children. Be comforted. Rather, live a pleasing life of impact that can transcend time. You may not have physical children to inherit and pass on your name but acts can do that. We wouldn't have had "Acts of the Apostle" if some people never acted or got used of the Holy Ghost to move things and do great acts. It's the story of their great achievement and Holy Spirit's move through them that was documented for us to read. Same will be passed down to generations to come. As we also know, those men and women won't also lose their heavenly reward. You can be an eunuch whose case defies any help but how to live above that shame is what God has just intimated you with. 

PRAYER: My deeds are worthy of praise and transcending generations. My walks on earth impact, endure and draw heavenly applause and rewards.

1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN 

Matthew 20:17-34 & Exodus 16-17

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MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL - 28/01/2025

TUESDAY - 28TH JANUARY, 2025

MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO

ACCEPTED IN THE BELOVED - Fitted For A Manner Of Life Series 015

Deuteronomy 23:1, KJV

"He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD."

Going to the Old Testament, we see that castration is a thing of shame and public disgrace. This might be due to the fact that Yahweh's law encourages procreation and marriage. In the Old Testament, there are a number of verses that hint at this disfavour of eunuchs. 

First is the one quoted above which is our anchor verse. Anyone whose testicles has been crushed or his manhood chopped off is not to join the congregation of the Lord. Also, in Leviticus 21:20, we have a reference to anyone with "a crushed testicles" who's not allowed into the priesthood. All these establish the fact that eunuchs are not verily favoured in the Old Testament. Though some found good positions as attendants and top officers serving great kings, yet they're still regarded as "half men" by their societies because they neither could reproduce or father. As such, they're largely disfavored. 

However, this disfavour becomes favour in the New Testament. First, there's an inclusion and an acceptance in the beloved, Jesus Christ. In Acts 8, we read of an Ethiopian eunuch who came to Jerusalem to worship. This man serves under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. On her way back to Africa, he reads the book of Isaiah and is eager to have understanding on what the passage says. God, who sees every human's heart sent his way Philip, the evangelist who expounded and interpreted to him Isaiah 53. From there, Philip preached Christ to him. Later on, this man was accepted into the fold when he was baptized by immersion. 

We therefore see through this that the former wall built to exclude eunuchs have being pulled down. In the beloved - Jesus Christ, the rejected or cast away finds acceptance and friendship. 

On another note, Jesus speaks favourably of eunuchs in Mathew 19:12 when He tells his disciples that, "except to those it is given." Those are the people who can live as eunuchs. Here, Jesus listed three categories of eunuchs. He speaks of the metaphoric one who might choose not to marry for the kingdom of heaven's sake. In this way, Jesus redeems the general public image of eunuchs as it hints high consecration for a divine service. Redemption is nothing short of this. And even to the other two categories of eunuchs, the fact that Jesus exhort that it's better to stay single like them or any of the three paints a good picture in favour of eunuchs. 

Are you there with a problem that seems irrecoverable? You are accepted in Jesus Christ. If medical help and healing have failed, don't forget that before God in heaven, we'll all be clean, devoid of all our infirmities. Redemption has raised us back to perfection however. We are all accepted in the beloved and are brethren either free or slave, sick or healthy!

PRAYER/CONFESSION: I am (mention your full name). I am weaned of every inferiority complex but emboldened with my superiority complex in Christ.

1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN 

Matthew 19:16-20:1-16 & Exodus 15

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MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL - 27/01/2025

MONDAY - 27TH JANUARY, 2025

MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO

IT IS CALLING FOR THOSE WHO CAN ACCEPT THAT SAYING - Fitted For A Manner Of Life Series 014

Matthew 19:12, KJV 

"For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it."

Do you believe with me that it becomes calling and a way of life for those who can accept that saying? The saying to remain unmarried, single or a celibate. 

If we should look at the Old Testament, several of the eunuchs there were castrated for a singular purpose. To serve as attendants in the king's palace without distraction but loyalty to the king. In the book of Esther, we have someone like Hegei, a eunuch. II Kings 20:18 also predicted some certain sons or descendants of Hezekiah serving as eunuchs in slavery in Babylon. Popularly, eunuchs served in ancient culture around palaces, courts and harems. Little wonder, it was an eunuch who was posted to see to Xerxes' harem of women in the book of Esther. 

One of the major reasons why they were castrated is to fit them or get them ready and focused for a profession. Does that amaze you? So that they'll not serve with unfaithfulness, they're either castrated or their male organ chopped off. With this, they can follow with focus the call of their vocation that's on them. 

You may not be a physical eunuch. No injury might have been inflicted on you for the purpose of serving as a perpetual slave or attendant somewhere but I want you to take the manner of life of eunuchs and their consecration on you. Because of their emasculation, infertility or abolishment of their male power, they become focused and undistracted. Without physically harming yourself like eunuch's, discipline yourself in this year 2025 to have their focus, attention, loyalty and pursuit of goals towards what you have discovered as your life's purpose. This is the key to success. If you can pursue like the eunuch your goals without distraction, you'll delight God Almighty for having eaten the meat of He that sent you and finishing it (John 4:34). 

PRAYER: May I run the race set before me with patience and void of distraction.

1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN 

Matthew 19:1-15 & Exodus 13-14

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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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