September | 2023 | Sonlight Devotional

Archive for September, 2023

God’s Treasure

Posted in The Covenant, tagged Carnal Christian, God's Treasure, Jacob and Israel on September 7, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Exodus 19:3-6

Today we are going to read in the Old Testament some of the promises that God gave to Israel, which promises Paul gave to the Church. Let’s turn to Exodus 19.

Exodus 19:3, “And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel.” Why would God say “Jacob” and “Israel”? Isn’t Jacob Israel? But Israel is not Jacob. Jacob means the carnal Jew, and in scripture, for us, we translate it as the carnal Christian. Israel is then the whole Church. So, He wants to speak to the carnal Jew, the carnal Christian, and to the whole church.

Verse 4, “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.” We can see from this verse that our destination is Christ. He is bringing us unto Himself. It sounds very selfish, but I love when God is selfish, because He is bringing me unto Himself. That means that I am going to melt into Him and am going to become a part of God. Can you imagine that? God is promising a people that He will redeem them from their naturalness, from their carnality, and bring them unto Himself.

Verse 5-6, “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure… and an holy nation. 6…These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.”

We love treasure. I think if a treasure came here now and they put it down outside and said that anybody who could get out there first would get as much as they could take, this place would be emptied in a short space of time. Everybody would run out to get some treasure. Have you ever thought about what God counts to be valuable? We count money. We count gold as the epitome of money. So we count gold, and God counts you as His treasure! In other words, YOU make God rich. That is the value of humanity before God. He says, “You are My treasure.” He says, “I will take you as a peculiar,” not just an ordinary little stone, but as a peculiar “treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine.”

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, February 2007, pg. 36)

Thought for today: Remember if you obey God’s voice and keep His covenant, you will be a peculiar treasure unto Him above all people.

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The Shadow and the Substance

Posted in Growing in God, tagged Bible Types and Shadows, Everlasting Promise, Hebrews 10 on September 6, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Hebrews 10:1

God wrote things in the Bible for the Jews. He talked to them and He showed them life. He made certain promises to them, everlasting promises. Now, let me ask you: can you make an everlasting promise to a person or a thing that is not everlasting? How would you like that? My mother used to say, “It is like a side pocket to a dog.” Give dog two beautiful side pockets – he has no hands. God would not make an everlasting promise to a people who were not everlasting!

For a long time, we could not differentiate between what the Old Testament and the New Testament were saying. But God did something. He sent a man named Paul, and that man studied. He was a doctor of Old Testament law. He knew all about the law. Then all of a sudden, God knocked him down on the road to Damascus while he was going to persecute Christians, and took him unto Himself. He went fourteen years out into the desert to understand what God was doing. He didn’t just jump up and start preaching. Fourteen years; and after the fourteen years, he came to teach the Church what God had been saying in the Old Testament as against the New.

Now, the Old Testament is what we call the “shadow.” You cannot have a shadow unless you have a substance. You must have light, you must have substance and then it casts a shadow. So therefore, the shadow is there, the substance is here, and the light is here. If you come towards the substance, when you meet the substance, then you don’t have to look at the shadow again. But if you cannot understand the substance, you will look at the shadow and you will see an arm sticking out. You will say, “He has an arm,” and you will know exactly where the arm is because that is where the shadow is.

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, February 2007, pg. 36)

Thought for today: If you don’t understand the substance of life in Christ, look at the shadows in the Old Testament and you will be able to see it.

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Spiritual Heights

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged Father of the Faithful, Heaven and Hell, Mark of the Beast, Rapture on September 5, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Romans 8:1-9

In the natural we think of high heights as being above our heads, going up. In the spiritual, height still means above our heads, but above humanity, going up from humanity. We are in a zone between Heaven and hell, between light and darkness. We are the only creatures who are in this realm. We have the privilege of going up into light, brighter, brighter, brighter, brighter or going down into darkness, darker, darker, darker, darker. One time God gave me a word that we are in a twilight zone. We are in a zone where humanity can become devils. You can go so low that you become a devil, and you can get so high that you become an angel of God. I don’t need to preach to you to tell you that you can see that some men have already received the “mark of the beast.” God made man spirit, soul and body. The spirit connects you with God’s Spirit, so it is pulling you up. The soul is in the middle, and the spirit is connected to the soul, but the soul lives in a body, and the body is connected to the earth. So while one is pulling down, the other is pulling up. Every human being is in a position to choose whether he wants to go down or up. The mark of the beast is when one deliberately goes down eradicating their God conscience.

So, in my understanding, when I talk about the “rapture,” I am talking about getting higher with God, and getting so high with Him that you get out of the natural and into the spiritual completely, like where Jesus Christ was. He said, “…the Son of man which is in Heaven” (John 3:13b). You can experience Heaven right here. Hallelujah! Or, you can experience hell. You come into a meeting and the meeting is either “low down” flat on the ground, or you see it rising, rising, rising, rising, and coming up to a level that your mind is compassed with heavenly things, rather than with earthly things. Amen.

God took a nation, a people, and it is not because this people were better than other people, or more numerous than others, but God chose this people, and you cannot quarrel with God. So when God chooses you, you have nothing to say about it. It is not because you are any good thing that God chooses you. “I am pretty and God chose me because of my beauty.” Nothing of the kind. God chooses you because God chooses you, and there is nobody, nothing that can give an answer or a reason why God chose the Jews EXCEPT that He chose one man, and that man was very faithful. They called him the “Father of the faithful” and he became the father of a nation of people. That nation of people affected the whole earth, so that, whereas the earth was going down-down-down into hell, that nation begin to give principles and they began to rise up.

Now, the difference between a beast and a man is that your spirit is subject to God’s Spirit. It has a pull on you, and your soul is attached to your spirit. There is a love and a binding, a marriage, yet to be consummated between your spirit and your soul because there is a third man coming in and this third person is the body; and the body wants to marry the soul. But God said to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life (Romans 8:6). So a tug-of-war goes on and any side that you go on, that is the side that is going to win. If you become carnal, you are going down. If you remain spiritual, you are going up.

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, February 2007, pg. 35)

Thought for today: Today, we want to encourage you to be spiritual, and to turn your mind to the things of God.

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Redeem the Time

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged God's Righteousness, Redeeming the Time, Redemption, Spiritual Polution on September 4, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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By Mavis M. duCille

April 1981

Scripture reading: Ephesians 5:16

Over the years the Lord, from time to time, drops little nuggets into my heart, which are always of great blessing as I press on in Him. Many times they throw greater light on a subject, and sometimes are just words of encouragement.

We are aware that the word of God has dimensions: Ephesians 3:18 speaks of the “breadth and length, and depth, and height.”

The Lord spoke to my heart on “redeeming the time” found in Ephesians 5:16, not at all in the same sense I once understood it, but from the standpoint of reclaiming that which we have lost through decadence of the age – “because the days are evil.”

God is calling a people who will not conform to the decay of the age and the falling away from righteousness, but will take another look at the PLUMBLINE and fall in line with Him instead of with the world style.

There is a current of passivity, laxity and sheer ennui sweeping through the halls of Christianity in this hour, which will engulf all those whose eyes are not fixed on the righteousness which Jesus established in HIS CHURCH.

“The kingdom of God is… RIGHTEOUSNESS, and PEACE, AND JOY in the Holy Ghost.” Romans 14:17.

The world has invaded Christendom, thus the striking evidence of spiritual pollution: deceived with empty words.

May God help us to redeem the time, restoring true holiness and righteousness in our whole life. Notwithstanding the fact that there is a price to pay, God has given us grace in abundance.

The exhortation of the whole chapter is that we be imitators of Christ as beloved children: walk in love as Christ loved us, turn from immorality, impurity, etc. “No… man… who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” Ephesians 5:5.

Let us walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all those who are good and right and true. Light makes everything visible. Praise God!

In every age, God has raised up those who will hear and obey Him, thus redeeming their time. There was Noah in his time, Enoch in his, Elijah and Elisha, John the Baptist, and then Jesus came. He paid the supreme price – made such a restoration, bringing redemption – this second Adam. He had perfect command over the fish of the sea, trees of the field, sickness and diseases, and established a generation – the 42nd generation (Matthew 1:17) – making us sons of God, begotten by Jesus Christ, bringing man into union with Himself and the Father. See John 14:23, 17:21, James 1:18.

Let us, therefore, look carefully how we walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, REDEEMING THE TIME. Be not caught in the evil of our day, but draw from the Spirit that nature of God, seeking to know the will of the Father. Then out of our hearts and lives will flow the richest blessings to others. “Thou canst not then be false to any man” (Shakespeare).

The greatest weapon Satan uses against God’s people is division.

We praise God, that as we submit to the working of the Spirit with us, our corruptible nature is being changed from death to life. Finally we will emerge in His likeness, that when He appears we shall be like Him.

(Excerpt from Nuggets for the Needy, pg. 1-3)

Thought for today: In every age, God has raised up those who will hear and obey Him, thus redeeming their time.

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