TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 10TH April 2022)
“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices.
But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’
Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.
Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them.
Yet they did not obey Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers. Jeremiah 7:21-26 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 100TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE
This is the day The LORD has made, we shall rejoice and be glad in it. We appreciate the LORD for waking us up this morning and for giving us another brand-new week. God has been so faithful to us, and has show us much mercies.
Glory be to the LORD GOD almighty for helping us to cross over the first 100 days of the year. This is a child of His amazing grace. The Bible calls Jesus the Day; we have received 100 days from the Day Himself, who makes all things beautiful in His times. We must say unto Him “Thank You LORD.”
Today is also the 10th day of our 30-Day with the Cry of the Spirit on doctrine. This in my opinion is the most important aspect of the faith.
What food is to the body and soul of a man, is what doctrine is to the spirit and soul of a man.
The Kind of food a man eats is what determines how His health turns out. In the same way, the kind of doctrine we imbibe in life is what determine how our lives turns out. If we follow sound doctrines, our lives will be sound. But if we follow false, and man-made doctrines, or the doctrines of devils, our lives will be full of crisis.
The life of a man was not designed for doctrines that are false, man-made or demonic.
The word doctrine as earlier defined simply means teachings or instructions. The life of a man was not designed to follow instructions or to function by teachings that are false, man-made or demonic. The life of a man was designed to function by sound doctrines; teachings and instructions of Christ.
Whenever it aligned with Sound doctrine and begin to follow the instructions and teachings of Christ, by diligently obeying the LORD and doing all that it teaches, it begins to enjoy peace, progress, and prosperity on earth. But whenever it doesn’t, it begins to ho down.
The Bible says;
“And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:
And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.” Deuteronomy 28:1-2 KJV
IF WE WANT TO LIVE LIVES THAT GOD’S BLESSINGS WILL PURSUE AND OVERTAKE, WE MUST HEARKEN DILIGENTLY TO THE RIGHT DOCTRINE.
What we diligently hearken to, observe and do on daily bases is what determines if blessings will pursue and overtake us or not. People who are constantly overtaken by evil must understand this truth.
God created our lives to be over taken by blessings, not evil. He created our lives to be seeing sudden blessings here and there not sudden destruction here and there. In His plans, we should be blessed in the City and Blessed in the country. Yes, we should be blessed when we go out, and blessed when we come in.
He created us to live lives beyond the reach of our enemies, so that when they come against us in one way, they flee in seven ways. That means we were never created to be subjected to any form of destruction or enemy. We ruin everything and only become subjected to them when we do not follow the right doctrine.
That is why the Bible says;
“Fools, because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, were afflicted. Their soul abhorred all manner of food, and they drew near to the gates of death.
Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.” Psalm 107:17-20 NKJV
From this scripture it is clear that destruction and afflictions are children of transgressions and iniquities. To transgress is to go beyond the standard the LORD has set, and to commit iniquity is to go against God’s will and ways.
Whenever we go beyond the standards that God has set, we suffer afflictions and destructions. Whenever our will go against God’s will, we suffer destruction. What makes us transgress or go against God’s will is the kind of doctrine that governs our lives.
IN OTHER WORDS, THE KIND OF INSTRUCTIONS AND TEACHINGS WE FOLLOW.
If we live our lives according to the teachings and instructions of either false, man-made, or demonic doctrines we find ourselves committing iniquity or trespass. We will never be able to live a life that aligns with God’s will and ways.
For instance, it was under false teachings that many ladies I have met sat under when they were made to be believing God to marry men who are already married. They were taught the false doctrine that says, there are more women than men, hence there will be seven women to one man these end time. The doctrine was carved out of a misinterpretation of Isaiah 4:1.
Either you believe it or not, these kind of wrong doctrines in Church today are reshaping the thinking of Christians and making many mentally unstable.
Yes, it is mental instability that will make a woman to be believing God or dreaming of marrying a married man. It is mental instability that will make a professor of chemistry to be drinking oil and calling it Holy Spirit, or a health scientist to be drinking water from a preacher for spiritual reasons.
It is mental instability that will make someone sell a family land and take to a prophet or any preacher so that they can get deliverance from God. I know a lady who cried unto us telling us the story of how the father took all the lands he inherited from his father, one after the other, and gave to a prophetess in the village. He was stripped of everything and would later abandon their mother to go marry the prophetess. That is mental instability.
Sadly, so many prophetesses and prophets have twisted Biblical truths and use them to prophesy people out of God given marriages, and even give ladies husbands of other people’s wives and men wives of other people’s husbands.
Some have even joined singles, who have no business living together, into marriages to reward financial contribution to their ministries. This are products of mental instability.
THERE IS SO MUCH MENTAL INSTABILITY IN CHURCH TODAY CALLED SPIRITUALITY BECAUSE OF WRONG DOCTRINES.
Anyone who believe that they must give God some money before He blessed them is under false doctrine, and if you check further most have been made mentality unstable. I have met so many people who wept before me hopelessly, asking why God hate them so much.
When I asked them why they were saying so?
Many would say because God will not give them a job, a marriage, a raise or deliverance until they sow a seed. He knows they do not have money because they are either, suffering, or jobless, and still demands a seed from them before giving them the miracles they need from Him.
When you ask them how did God tell them that, they will say one prophet or prophetess said that to them and they believed it because it is in the Bible. But I have read my Bible for years and preached from it for over 30 years yet I have never seen that part of the Bible.
You see, these kind of narratives from money-minded preachers are the seed of mental instability in the lives of those who imbibe their doctrines. Balaam, an old testament false prophet, followed a wrong doctrine from his heart, and became insane. The Bible called it the madness of the prophet. Many in our generation today have gone after his principles and have become mad like him.
The Bible says;
“They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.” 2 Peter 2:15-16 NKJV
If these mentally insane people do not vomit the wrong doctrines they have imbibed from Balaam preachers, and begin to follow the doctrine of Christ, they will never be restored to sanity. They will keep going from insanity to insanity, arguing with words of truth and reason until they are destroyed!
ONLY THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST CAN RESTRAIN AND HEAL PEOPLE OF THE MADNESS THEY PRACTICE AS SPIRITUALITY.
Sadly, there are people who do not follow either false, man-made or demonic doctrines, but follow the dictates of their hearts. This is in itself sometimes more dangerous than false doctrines.
Some of them are in churches where sound doctrine is taught. You still find this kind of madness in their lives. They come into the realm of spiritual insanity and people blame their innocent pastors for it.
Others remain in the hands of their enemies for the same reason.
Ordinarily, we should not be destroyed when the LORD gives us teachers of sound doctrines, but many are still destroyed because they follow the dictates of their hearts instead and not fully what they have been taught by the LORD in those places.
From the voice of Christ in the Prophets of the Old Testament, to the Teachings and Instructions of Christ in the New, you will find out that God hates it when we follow the dictates of our hearts.
Our devotional text says;
“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices.
But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’
Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.
Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them.
Yet they did not obey Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers. Jeremiah 7:21-26 NKJV
THIS IS ONE OF THE LAMENTATIONS OF THE ALMIGHTY YOU FIND IN SCRIPTURES
Your life will be going backwards instead of forward if you follow the counsels or dictates of your heart instead of the voice of the LORD for your life.
The central truth here is the people in the scripture where following the dictates of their hearts instead of the sound doctrine from God through the prophets. It tells us how we distort, delay or deny God’s plans and process for our lives when we follow what our hearts are teachings or instructing us to do.
If your captivity in life is a child of following the dictates of your heart, you will never be free from it no matter how you pray. The dictates of our hearts are as dangerous as the wrong doctrines the LORD has been Crying against in His word these 10 days.
If we follow the teachings and instructions (doctrines) of the dictates of our hearts, we will be living a life of sin, iniquity and trespass, defeating the plans of God for our lives.
So many are not being ruined by their enemies but by what their hearts tells them to do, and in a follow-your-heart world, it has become imperative that we warn our generation about the dangers.
If you find out that someone’s life is always overtaken by evil and destruction of any kind, check the kind of doctrine they are either hearing or following. It is what you are following that determines what follows you in life.
There people who are blessed to be under sound doctrines but still follow the dictates of their hearts, hence evil is still following them. We must humble ourselves and repent of this.
These people discuss sound doctrines with others and sound very knowledgeable in the things of God, but follow the dictates of their hearts when it comes to decision making, hence not having the results of sitting under sound doctrines in their lives.
They leave one wondering, why they will be in great Churches, and under accurate ministers or sound Bible teachers, yet live very miserable lives, and have successful spiritual attacks from time to time!
The doctrine of Christ will not work for us if we know everything about what He says and Teaches, but apply none of it to our lives. It will never work for us if we hear it but still follow the dictates of our hearts when decision making times comes.
I pray that the LORD GOD will use these things to build us up and give us an inheritance among those who are sanctified.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.
Do not be like the horse or like the mule, Which have no understanding, Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, Else they will not come near you.” Psalm 32:8-9 NKJV