TODAY’S DEVOTION (Saturday 12TH March 2022)
“These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:13-16 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 71ST DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE.
It is another day from the King of kings and LORD of lords. We give God the glory for all that. He has been giving us life and peace. We are still here because He is here and have been keeping us alive and well.
Yesterday it was a turbulent flight for my two sisters who went to represent me in a very important event that I was suppose to be there. I will be sharing about the event much later. But they had a very rough flight that even got me scared.
The winds and the rains were terrible. A flight of 45 and sometimes 55 minutes took the plane 2 hours one minute; Lagos to Abuja. That tells how rough it was.
Before they boarded, I was told of the concern; I Had to pray a simply prayer to a loving and caring God, who have been very merciful to us. I sent a prayer text saying; “may the angels of the LORD bear you up.” I believe God did send His angels to bear them up, and also used the pilot greatly because it would have been a different story.
To God be His glory for His marvelous works!
Today we are continuing with our 31-Day with the Cry of the Spirit on Righteousness, purity and Holiness. The LORD God has spoken; who can but prophesy. Day unto day we have been receiving faith building truths from the more sure word of prophecy, the Bible.
These animated truths have been exciting and edifying all together.
We have been looking at the saving of the Soul, and have covered three units of the soul; the imagination, the memory, and the now the intelligence. The sanctification of every unit of the soul, and the daily edification of same, will keep us on track so long as consecrated Christian living is concern.
SADLY, MANY BELIEVERS ARE STILL TO COME TO TERMS TO THE CONDITIONS FOR MAKING HEAVEN.
The most dangerous thing that can happen to us is to be ignorant or confused on God’s condition for making Heaven; it is to believe the wrong thing and have an assurance of a salvation we do not have.
Sadly, some Christians believe that there are no conditions for making Heaven apart from reciting the sinner’s prayer.
This believe is fatal and eternally damnable. Though peddled by so many preachers, who try to make the Good News of salvation (The Gospel of Jesus Christ) sound more good than God made it, it is not consistent with Bible truth.
When you try to make what God has already made Good better, you will end up adding your own ingredients and bringing destruction to many. The Bible says we should leave the word of the LORD the way it is.
Read this;
“For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book;
and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” Revelation 22:18-19 NKJV
This scripture made it clear that one can go to hell, irrespective of how holy or faithful to God they lived simply because the took away from the words of the LORD in the Bible, maybe to prove a point. That is how dangerous it is to add to or remove from the truths in the word of the LORD.
It also made it clear that our part in the book of life is not forever. It can be deleted if we do not continue to follow the LORD. Our part can be taken from the book of life, the holy city and things written in God’s book if we do what is not expected of us after getting saved.
If your part is taken from the book of life, the holy city, and the things written in God’s records, your part in Heaven have been taken away. Hell will be your place of eternal destination after death.
I want to submit that because of these things, if we cannot interpret the Bible, we should just read through the verses and then drop it, end the service and go home, instead of adding or subtracting from it.
We place our lives and the eternal lives of many others on the line if we try to make what God has already made Good Better, by either adding or subtracting from it.
IF YOU ARE ADDING OR SUBTRACTING FROM GOD’S WORD, PLEASE STOP PREACHING IMMEDIATELY BECAUSE ITS DANGEROUS.
I have come to discover that there are times that because of immaturity in understanding of scriptures, people add or subtract from God’s word, making others err in Christian living. Some do the same thing for money and to have pulpits to preach.
While others, in their quest to please their host, they preach things the host want to hear and not what God said in His word, thereby adding or subtracting from God’s word.
People do not know that the messages on redemption of first born, raising of altars, breaking them down, giving of first fruits, spirit husbands or wife, being need and enemy conscious and all that, are additions to the message of the cross. Jesus never preached or practice them. Paul and the rest of the apostles never preached or practiced them.
By preaching and practicing them, so many preachers have put their eternal lives and the eternal lives of others on the line.
Any message that is not forming Christ in you and leading you to lead the Crucified life, which is the secret of power, blessings, breakthrough and all we need from the LORD, is an addition to the gospel. It is placing the eternal life of the preachers and those who follow them on the life.
It is actually because of these additions to the Good News of the cross that we have the kind of Christianity we have today.
You can never lead a consecrated Christian life with such messages. No unit of your soul can be sanctified by them. They will rather be polluted. That is why some christian experience even sex in the dream. It is the messages they are listening to that is not keeping them away from such experiences.
You can never have the sex-in-the-dream experience if you are listening to the message of the cross.
Neither can you have the spirit husband or wife thing if you are feeding under a preacher who is not adding or subtracting from the word of the LORD; who dissects and teaches the undiluted word of GOD, presenting it as it is!
It is when the units of the soul are not sanctified that people have the sex-in-the-dream or the spirit wife and spirit husband demonic experience.
GOD WILL EVEN PASS YOU THROUGH PERILS IF YOU ARE ADDING TO OR SUBTRACTING FROM HIS WORD TO MAKE YOU STOP AND SAVE YOUR SOUL.
There are people whose ministries will never grow because of adding to or subtracting from the word by reason of the mercy of the LORD and divine chastisement. They will go through hardship despite the efforts they put for the work to grow.
Sadly, many who experience this, calls it demonic attack.
If you see the ministry of those who are subtracting or adding to God’s word growing, it is because God has left them to themselves after seasons of warnings and chastisements. He is waiting for them at the other side, when they will fulfill their days and meet Him in eternity.
No one who adds to or subtract from God’s word will ever stop if it is giving them fame and fortune. That is why many will never stop!
Honestly, if many of us who are either preaching, or looking for where to preach, or are eager to preach, understand the eternal consequences of adding or subtracting from God’s word, we will quit.
We will shut up our mouths until we are sure of ourselves. In fact, We will never allow the screams or beautiful reaction of people that comes while we are preaching to determine if we are preaching the right word or not.
Do not forget, wrong hearts will always scream with joy during wrong preaching, calling it powerful. Those who want to go on with sinning after what they call salvation, will say “ride on” if you preach according to what they want to hear, and despise you if you do not. And many of us preachers, do not want to be despised.
It is not what people say while we preach that determines if we are preaching the right word or not. We must have accuracy of spirit before preaching the word else we end up adding or subtracting from God’s word and producing a Christianity without holiness, purity, or righteousness.
The right word will always produce righteousness, purity, holiness, peace and Joy in the lives of people.
THAT IS WHY I MAINTAIN THAT A SINNER’S PRAYER IS NOT ENOUGH TO MAKE ANY HEAVEN WORTHY!
If a sinner’s prayer is enough to make someone Heaven worthy, then people like Judas Iscariot would have made Heaven despite what they did after accepting the LORD.
Judas’s commitment to the LORD was stronger than reciting the sinner’s prayer; though they could not experience the regeneration of the Spirit then because the Spirit was not yet given. In other words, they could not be born again. But with what happened by his hands in terms of the release of the supernatural, he showed enough commitment that got him operating in power.
For instance, he was among the seventy that returned with Joy after experiencing power in ministry. The Bible says,
Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.”
And He said to them,
“I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:17-20 NKJV
I don’t know either you are seeing what I am seeing in this scripture.
These guys could not be born again but under the redemptive laws of that dispensation, and by being with the lamb Himself who took away the sins of the world, their names, like that of Abraham and the rest of the righteous men and women who walked with GOD before the resurrection of Christ, were in the book of life, even if they were in hades.
That was why Jesus went for them and brought them out of hades at His resurrection. So, there names were in thr book of life under that dispensation.
HOWEVER, THE BIBLE IS NOT CLEAR IF IT WAS THE LAMB’S BOOK OF LIFE THAT CHRIST WAS REFERRING TO BECAUSE THERE IS MORE THAN ONE BOOK OF LIFE IN GOD’S RECORDS.
Howbeit, the truth remains, as of the day Jesus made the statement, Judas name was in the book of life. He was among the seventy that went out and returned with joy, after seeing Heavenly power break out by their hands against demonic power.
So, he was saved and really saved.
But what was it that happened that later took him to hell? The Bible says Satan entered his heart after receiving communion from the LORD. That was how he fell.
Was it the communion the LORD gave him that gave him Satan? No!
When we show people love, the God or demon in them will manifest. When the LORD brings you into fellowship with Him, the God or the Satan in you will manifest.
For instance, there are people we have shown love to, and even commune or fellowship with at close range that ended up doing very wicked things. That does not mean our fellowshipping with them or showing them love, or even praying the power of GOD upon them brought Satan into their hearts. Satan in them Manifested when the God in us touched them.
The Satan in Judas manifested when the LORD showed him love and even brought him into close fellowship. He became a son of perdition and ended up in hell. These things are a testament that once saved is not forever saved, and that the sinner’s prayer is not enough to get and keep one saved.
In our dispensation, the sinner’s prayer could be enough to get one saved, but not enough to keep any saved. The real work is not in getting saved. The real work is in staying saved. Judas got saved and participated in ministry but could not stay saved.
It takes the saving of the soul to stay saved. That is why we have been looking at the salvation of the soul; the sanctification of all the five units that constitute our souls.
The intelligence is the third unit we have been examining. If we become sanctified in our intelligence, we will not be wise to do evil.
We will pick up from here tomorrow.
MEANWHILE, LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY!
When Jesus had said these things, He was troubled in spirit, and testified and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.” Then the disciples looked at one another, perplexed about whom He spoke.
Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask who it was of whom He spoke.
Then, leaning back on Jesus’ breast, he said to Him, “Lord, who is it?”
Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it.” And having dipped the bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered him. Then Jesus said to him, “What you do, do quickly.”
But no one at the table knew for what reason He said this to him. For some thought, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus had said to him, “Buy those things we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor.
Having received the piece of bread, he then went out immediately. And it was night. John 13:21-30 NKJV