Daily Devotions

Phip 1: 23-24

I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary that I remain in the body.

This is a very powerful confession of Paul, before he encountered Jesus he was a vehement persecutor of Christians. His whole purpose in life was to arrest Christians and torture and kill them. He was notoriously well known but now after his miraculous transformation he is writing a confession totally opposite.

After Jesus Christ had called him personally and having been taught by the Holy Spirit personally for three years, now Paul has become the chose vessel of God called to be an apostle to the gentiles. Paul was fully aware of the responsibility of receiving the doctrine of the gospel. It was given to him so that he can write and send out his teaching to the various churches in the region.

In addition, these letters of Paul has been recorded in the bible to be the authoritative word of God on the doctrine of salvation and Christian living.

In today’s verse, Paul says that he yearns to leave this wretched world and to go into the presence of Jesus our Lord. He knew what heaven is like as he has also mentioned that he had visited heaven before and have seen the glory of heaven. That is now his only desire to be in the presence of Jesus Christ and the Father and to spend eternity with the saints and God in heaven forever.

This is the promise of the scriptures that we have an eternal hope that we can go to be with God and Jesus when we leave this earth. Paul said though he yearns to leave but he knew that his work is still incomplete as he was given a mission to train and build fellow workers and leaders for the Churches.

Likewise, we today need to grow spiritually as well as to build others spiritually so that the kingdom of God would be full of spiritual warriors and not spiritual babies.

The end time anointing and harvest is at our door steps, how can God use us if we are still spiritual babies and not warriors. Therefore we need to rise up and be trained and equipped for this end time revival.