TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 19THAUGUST 2023)**
“To know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, Justice, judgment, and equity;
To give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion — a wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel,” Proverbs 1:2-5 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 231ST DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS
The goodness of the LORD oozing out of His glory is the reason why we are alive today. It’s been 231 days of rest on every side, for some of us this year, because of the goodness of the LORD and the covenants we are walking in as His people. Especially the covenant of grace and peace!
The enemy will not let us catch the revelation of the covenant. Because He knows if we do, his works in our lives are over. His demons will not be able to keep us busy. We will just live in perfect peace, spending time in prayer only to know God and do His blessed will!
Sadly, some of the people Satan is using to hinder God seekers from coming into the revelation of the covenant, are behind our pulpits.
I watch a little clip of a meeting that one of the notable preachers in Nigeria had in an Asian country. He was saying something unbiblical about the covenant, and I marveled at how people you think should know, do not really know.
WHEN PEOPLE WE LOOK UNTO FOR LIGHT START GIVING US TWILIGHT, A GENERATION IS BOUND TO LIVE IN DARKNESS.
And because he is rich and famous with a great following, whatever he said, was accepted as true. He said God cannot have a covenant with us because we are his heirs. That sounds true. He went on to say God has a covenant with Abraham and Israel not with the present Church.
He claimed he has studied everything about the covenant. That struck me the more with awe! Studied everything?
The covenant is revealed not studied. The Bible says it is shown only to people who fear God not those who preach. It says,
“The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant. Psalms 25:14 NKJV
So, you don’t study the covenant, just as you don’t study God. You fear God, and then He reveal the covenant to you, using His word; even as you read books written on it, like the one we released few years back, titled; “RIDING IN COVENANT WINGS.”
This preacher went on to ‘explain’ himself this way; he used the relationship between a man and his wife, and then the same man and his child, to present his opinion. He said a man is in covenant with his wife not with his Child. He said, since we are Children of God, He is not in covenant with us. Abraham and Israel were in covenant with Him, but the Church (we) are not. We are his Children. Children do not have covenant with their Father.
Then I asked myself, who was Abraham? Was he a wife of God or a Child of God? How about Israel, severally God called them my first born. What does that mean? Does that mean my first wife? Off course, to explain the type of intimacy He wanted to have with them, God sometimes call them His wife, just as the Church is also the bride of Christ.
FROM EVERY ANGLE OF TRUTH, YOU CAN SEE THAT THIS PREACHER IS IN ERROR WRAPPED IN A BEAUTIFUL LIGHT!
A Child is in covenant relationship with his Father BY BLOOD. A wife is in covenant with her husband BY MARRIAGE. As Children of God we are in covenant with Him by blood – the blood of Jesus. As the bride of Christ, we are in covenant with Him by marriage – the covenant of worship. That is why we are going to participate in the marriage supper of the lamb.
In the Old Testament, their covenant walk was sealed by the blood of animals, in the New, ours is sealed by the blood of Christ. Jesus revealed that to us when He was inviting us to the covenant of grace. The Bible says,
“Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.” Luke 22:20 NKJV
So, if someone comes up to say we cannot be in covenant relationship with God because we are His children or heirs, he has launched an attack on the word of the LORD.
THERE IS A SEAL ON GOD’S WORD
The Spirit of God sealed the scriptures with a warning that I believe 99 percent of the present-day preachers, have not come to terms with.
A warning that if they do, they will either stop preaching for a while until they are accurately taught the word, or cross check teachings they feel so strong about, again and again, like Apostle Paul did before coming public to share them. If you are interested to know what that seal is, here is it.
The Bible warned;
“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
Few have argued that this is just referring to the book of Revelation. But everyone with the Spirit of truth, knows it is a seal on the Bible, because another name for the Holy Scriptures is, “the More Sure Word of Prophecy!” or in clear terms, “the More Sure Book of Prophecy.”
If you add anything to the truth already taught in the Bible, God will add to your punishment in this life or the life to come, and if you subtract any truth from it, He will take away your part from the book of life, and from the holy City.
THIS IS REAL AND WILL BE HAPPENING IN ETERNITY, HOWEVER, PART OF IT HAS EVEN HAPPENED ON THIS SIDE OF ETERNITY.
Few who have died and come back to life, have shared with us about preachers in hell, who went there for not accurately presenting the word of truth and righteousness.
I believe Apollos knew this danger, hence submitting to Priscilla and Aquila, to be taught the word more accurately, after the couple heard him present half truths to his audience. Sadly, pride will not let the Apollos of our generation to submit to the Priscillas and Aquila of our age time, so that they can be taught the word of GOD more accurately. It’s really a shame!
From our devotional text this morning, it’s clear that anyone who will not humble himself to be taught the ways of the LORD more accurately, even if he or she is as powerful as Apollos was, that person is a fool. A major highlight says, “a wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel.” Apollos was a wise man. He was a man of understanding, hence attending to wise counsel. The Bible says;
“Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus.
This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John.
So, he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.” Acts 18:24-26 NKJV
YOU WILL NEVER KNOW THE INACCURACY IN A SEEMINGLY ‘ACCURATE TEACHING’ UNTIL YOU HAVE ENCOUNTERED CHRIST IN HIS WORD ACCURATELY.
People who heard Apollos, called him accurate. But when Pricilla and Aquila heard him, they knew his accuracy was not truly accurate. It was limited, hence taking him aside to explain to him the WAY OF GOD more accurately.
There are a lot of preachers, whose eloquence and fervent spirit, has given fame and fortune, but they are not accurate in their teachings and doctrines. They need an apostolic ministry that will function as a PRISCILLA AND AQUILA BIBLE SCHOOL like THE CRY OF THE SPIRIT MINISTRIES in Nairobi, or similar ministries across the nations of the earth, to become truly accurate and help mankind better.
If you align your heart with an inaccurate preacher, your life will never be complete; you will never experience the fullness of Christ!
Sadly, many are in hell today, and many more are on their way there, for aligning their hearts with ministries of inaccurate preachers, and teachers of the BIBLE. God would not have sealed the Bible with such a strong warning, if doctrine, or the INACCURATE Presentation of the WORD OF TRUTH ***and RIGHTEOUSNESS ***was a light matter.
Inaccurate preaching leaves a deficit in the lives of people who sit under such preaching. Your life will always have half measures if your heart is aligned to teachers and preachers of half truths. There will be realms in Christ that you will never be able to experience sitting under Apollos preachers. You see that in Acts 19.
The people who aligned their hearts with his ministry before Paul came, could not experience the Holy Spirit. In fact, they sincerely proclaimed that they have never heard anything like that!
Check the Christian life of people under Apollos Churches and ministries today, and you will be sorry. It’s just a spiritual eyesore! Most of them are very unsaved by God’s definition of salvation.
It’s my prayer that the Holy Spirit who impregnated us with this devotional word this morning, will use it to build you up, and give you an inheritance among they that are sanctified. Amen!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY
And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?” So they said, “Into John’s baptism.” Acts 19:1-3 NKJV