TODAY’S DEVOTION (Wednesday 17th November 2021)
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” 2 Timothy 4:3-4 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 320TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS.
We give glory to the LORD Go for giving us another day. This is the Day the LORD as made, we shall rejoice and be glad in it. Indeed, in the words of David, we sleep and we wake up because the LORD kept us. Blessed be the name of the LORD.
Today we will be refreshing our spirits with matters of the faith. With the kid of end time pressures that are on the men and women of the Christian faith today, I mean those who are truly living for the LORD, it is important that we consider these things.
To start with, I want us to understand that the Christian faith is a call to battle. A call to wage a constant battle against the flesh, the world and the devil. Not against human beings. That is why in the prophetic the Church is considered an army and the apostolic a soldier.
If you are truly saved, you are considered as soldier who is part of an army of the LORD on the face of the earth. Your warfare is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers against spiritual wickedness in high places.
It is against the flesh and all it does to keep you in sin, and against the world and all it does to keep you submissive to lust, pride and the mystery of iniquity.
Sadly, many do not even know this, hence living a defeated Christian life.
Satan, the flesh and the world fights us in military fashion because we are part of a Heavenly military force. That is why spiritual warfare is tense. But like I Stated earlier, many do not know this.
Friend, if we do not know that you are a soldier and part of an army that is waging war against the devil, the flesh and the world system, you will become part of the world, an ignorant follower of the devil and a slave to the flesh because you will not be waging a good warfare against the three.
I REITERATE AGAIN THAT THE CHRISTIAN FAITH IS A CALL TO BATTLE.
We are called into a battle for our souls, and the fight we are called into is a good fight of faith. The made it clear that we will always be engaged in a bad fight of faith and come our defeated if we do not know the good fight that we are to put on.
Yes, there is a bad fight of faith and there is a good fight of faith!
Any spiritual warfare that is establishing and giving you victory over the flesh, the devil and the world system, is a bad fight of fight. In a good fight you are not of this world. But in a bad fight you are a friend of the world. And not just that, you are made a slave of the flesh, a silent following of the mystery of iniquity and a slave or prisoner of the satanic – mindful of the things of men and not the things of GOD.
In a bad fight you are governed by the antichrist spirit in Church, that fights the formation of Christ in us by keeping us attached to shadows and never coming into substance. Consequently, you will be using bottles of Oil instead of the power of the Holy Spirit in prayers. You will be treating oil as the Holy Spirit. Smearing it everywhere, drinking it and etc.
It’s important to note that when you take the drinking of Oil as receiving the Holy Spirit, you are engaged in a bad fight of faith. When you think you can use mustard seeds, brooms, mats, and pieces of clothes to solve spiritual problems, you are engaged in a bad fight of faith.
The God of Heaven and Earth called us into a good fight of faith not a bad fight. Paul said; “Fight the good fight of faith; lay hold on eternal life.” It takes a good fight of faith to lay hold on things in the Spirit. And that fight can only be fought with the divine wisdom wrapped in scriptures.
That wisdom is indeed the principal thing, especially in spiritual warfare. The Bible says, in all your getting, get that wisdom because it will give you a Heavenly understanding.
WHEN YOU UNDERSTAND, YOU CAN STAND AGAINST YOUR ENEMIES.
And when you are made wise by the scriptures, you can win. It is one thing to stand against your enemies and another to win. You could stand and not win. Understanding from Heaven makes you one who can stand up to the challenges of life; one who can stand in battle against the flesh, the world and the devil.
it makes you stand against vessels being used by the trio to trap you.
I see you, not just standing up against the trio but against all the hierarchy of hell in the battles raging against you, but wining all in Jesus precious name. It will not be by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of God giving you wisdom and understanding from Sound Doctrine to fight.
That brings us to a major key the Heavenly wisdom in the Scriptures. That key that grants a man access to the hidden wisdom that was ordained for our glory before the world began. It is called sound doctrine.
The wisdom of God is always sound wisdom oozing out of sound doctrine. It is not demonic or worldly, it is spiritually sound. That is why it gives you victory over the flesh, the world and the devil. However, you will never be able to walk in it without encountering sound doctrine.
One way to defeat the enemy is to be sound in your wisdom and in your faith. But you cannot be sound without listening regularly to sound doctrine.
I have come to discover that there are three classes of Christians. There are the totally free Christians whose salvation was based on sound doctrine. These breed are totally free from habitual sins, and do not take God’s mercy or grace for granted. They make use of it to live right before God man. They strive daily for their souls to keep it away from the grip of sin, Satan and the evil and corrupt system of this world.
THEY WALK IN DIVINE WISDOM OUTSOURCED FORM SOUND DOCTRINES, AND WILL NOT BE FOUND WHERE UNSOUND DOCTRINES ARE TAUGHT!
You do not find them where teachings on raising, silencing or breaking of altars are taught. You will never see them practicing redemption of false bond or giving of first fruits. You will never see them in the shadows. They are like the early Church and have come into the revelation of the substance foreshadowed in the law, and are striving daily to be established in it.
This class of Christians belong to the 3rd Day Church! They fight daily to retain their places in God’s army as the five wise virgins. Then we have the partially free Christians. These are the ones whose salvation is not total because of the kind of gospel that brought them into Christianity. They are not established in sound doctrine.
They sing in the Choir and still go to club houses when they feel drawn. They are not free from the sins they lived in before joining the faith, hence are always found in them and explaining it away! They belong to the second day Church, with some of them in the first day Church.
They will take a Church man or women to bed even after praying loud prayers in Church and say it does not matter. To them abominations are weaknesses and sin a sign that one is human. They preach fiery messages of faith, finance and some related doctrines called the doctrines of men in scripture. Money to them is a sign of Christianity.
Every true Child of God knows that it is foolish to feed on sin and say it does not matter! But this breed takes God’s mercy and grace for granted because their salvation is not based on sound doctrine.
They walk in human wisdom and spiritual foolishness calling it “grace.” Some of them preach and live by doctrines of devils, like teachings on altars, stars, spirit husbands and wives, redemption of first born, use of sand, salt, water, oil, padlocks, clay pots an etc. for prayers.
YOU ALWAYS FIND THIS BREED OF CHRISTIANS WHEREVER HERESIES AND FALSE DOCTRINES ARE TAUGHT.
Heresies are a mixture of scriptural truths and twisted scriptures. While false doctrines are outright lies from the pits of hell or the hearts of men in God’s garment, preached or taught using scriptures.
These breed of Christians are the ones that devils are always with because they always have food for him in their lives. It was this class of Christians Apostle Paul rebuked in one of his letters when he wrote;
“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites,
nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 NKJV
Then we have the third class of Christians who are not free at all from sin or Satan. They are just traditional. The only difference between them and unbelievers is that they go to Church. While the second class is made up of men and women who are either yet to meet the LORD, or got saved but where not trained in sound doctrines, hence losing their salvation or mixing it up, this breed is only made up of men and women who are yet to encounter the LORD.
They are not even aware of anything in the Bible apart from the stories told in Sunday school and what they hear from their dead spiritual leaders share.
You put them off if you speak about sound doctrine or anything spiritual. They operated in either the wisdom of men or that of devils. When you tell them about Biblical position of things they will say “keep the Bible aside. This is not Church.”
Like I sated earlier; they are not different from the lost sinners out there in spirit. However, God wants all Christians to be sound in faith. God wants us to operate in sound wisdom. It takes sound doctrine to be sound in faith and operate in sound wisdom.
A major highlight in our devotional text said
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,”
SADLY, WE ARE IN THAT TIME NOW.
Most prefer following what is working not what is true. Joining Church or becoming a Christian is now determined by the financial gains; marriage or money opportunities that are found in the church, or the earthly reward one will get for doing so. We forget that we go to church to be disciples of Christ, trained to do the work of God, touch the lives of other positively, live a holy life, and make Heaven.
The last two groups of Christians detest Preachers who teaches sound doctrines, and call them names. The first group (the 3rd Day Church group) detest heresies, false doctrines and every occult practices called deliverance.
Those who detest sound doctrines walk in foolishness and call God “Satan” and Satan “God.” Those who detest heresies, false teachings and prophecies and all occult practices called deliverance walk in Divine wisdom and discernment. They have capacity to prove what is false and separate truth from falsehood.
There was this statement Jesus made to John the Beloved when He was talking about a particular Church that best capture who this. He said;
“I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them that are evil; and how thou hast tried them that say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars;” Revelation 2:2 AKJV
They do not accept all who call upon the name of the LORD as part of the Church. They believe the LORD alone knows those who are His and the scripture has given us the features to look out for in other to recognize those who are the LORD’s and separate them form those who are not when making decisions of faith and life.
They stand by what Jesus says about those who call upon His name. He said;
“ Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
“And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Matthew 7:21-23 AKJV
They believe that only those who have departed from iniquity are the LORD’s.
The question now is, where do you belong? Are you part of the first group of believes or you are part of the last two?
What kind of people where first called Christians in Acts 11:26? Adulterers? Liars? Fornicators? Drug addicts? Drunks? People who went around shouting fire! Fire! Fire like the prophets of Baal? Thieves in Church leadership asking people to sow seeds and get miracles?
What kind of people where first called Christians? People walking in moral darkness? What kind of Christian am I?
What kind of Christian are you? Does our individual Christianity matches that of those who were first called Christians in Acts 11:26? I leave that to you to answer in your place of prayer, study and personal appraisal, just as I also sit down to reflect in my place of study, prayer and personal appraisal too!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION;
“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.”
“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.” Ephesians 5:8-11