*DOMINION MANDATE DAILY DEVOTIONAL*

FRIDAY, JULY 24, 2020

*WALK TO PLEASE GOD*

*BIBLE READING: 1 COR. 6: 9-20*

*One final word, friends. We ask you—urge is more like it—that you keep on doing what we told you to do to please God, not in a dogged religious plod, but in a living, spirited dance. You know the guidelines we laid out for you from the Master Jesus. God wants you to live a pure life. Keep yourselves from sexual promiscuity. Learn to appreciate and give dignity to your body, not abusing it, as is so common among those who know nothing of God. 1 Thess. 4:1-5 (MSG).*

As you nurture a closer relationship with God, there are things the Holy Spirit in you will restrict you from doing, not because those things are evil or sinful, but because He wants you to live at a higher level of consecration to Him. He can guide you to limit your interaction with certain friends, He can prompt you to give up certain meals that you enjoy, or He can compel you to reorder the way you apportion your time.

The level to which you yield and submit your will to His determines how far you will go in your walk with Him. The reason God asks you to forgo those things that you love is that He wants to replace them with better things that only Him can provide. Recall what Jesus said in John 15:1-2(NKJV); *“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”*

Whenever the Lord starts a pruning work in your life, simply understand that the reason He is doing so is to enable you to bear more fruit and live in a way that pleases Him the more. That should make you face whatever temporary pain and discomfort with inner joy, knowing that He is getting you ready to experience a more intimate relationship with Him and a higher dimension of His grace.

*PRAYER
Lord, today I let go of the things I am holding tightly unto and yield to Your dealings in my life. I yield to Your own will, not mine be done, O Lord. Thank You because I know that all things are working together for my good.

*CONFESSION
The Lord is a wall of fire around me, His glory is my defence.