TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 16th April 2023)
“And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God:
“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—
I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore, be zealous and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. Revelation 3:14-20 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 106TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS & WONDERS
Glory be to the One and Only True God, and Jesus Christ whom He sent to redeem us from destructions; both in time and eternity.
This is the day the LORD has made, we shall rejoice and be glad in it. Day unto day we sleep and wake up, and most of us take it for granted. We forget that there are those who slept and did not wake up like we did. Things do not need to be rosy around for us to be giving God thanks. It is important that we give Him thanks even for the air in our nostrils.
Yes, even for the ability to go to the toilet and back, we need to give God thanks because many depend on dialysis, to do what we do so easily and take for granted.
We only become ungrateful if we do not take note of these details of God’s marvelous works in our lives. People do not know that there are lives that are on the line even this moment, for not being able to breathe in and out on their own. But we can. So, let us give Him thanks even as we embrace this glorious day!
We have been looking at the doctrine of Christ and our focus has been on an aspect of His doctrine on life.
We have seen that sound doctrine was the core of the Christian faith in the early church. But today we have other things being preached and taught in so many local assemblies, producing a perverted version of the faith.
The faith of many believers is built on the need to have the supernatural meet their physical needs, not really on the doctrine of Christ. In fact, many do not even know that there is a doctrine of Christ.
Sadly, most preachers are not helping matters, since all they want to do is to keep the people coming and parting away with their monies. So, under the pressure to perform and meet the expectations of these people, they do not even recognize when they are preaching false doctrines and doctrines of devils. Consequently, producing a perverted Christian faith.
We must understand that without the doctrine of Christ, we will have a Christian faith that will lead no one to Heaven. We will have a faith that loves the works of God, but do not care about the word of GOD. A faith that will produce believers who want God to step into their lives to do the impossible, but do not care what He thinks about their lives of wickedness and lawlessness.
THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST DID NOT PRESENT RECITATION OF THE SINNER’S PRAYER AS CONDITION FOR MAKING HEAVEN.
It presented a life that is full of God – a life without lawlessness, as the only life that will make Heaven. It teaches that;
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’
And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ Matthew 7:21-23 NKJV
Sometimes I ask myself where the Church got this sinner’s prayer stuff from. I read the portions of Romans they built the practice on, and discovered that, even Paul who God used to write that part of the Bible down, never led people to Christ through the sinner’s prayer.
Which means, he never wrote it down for us to use in reducing the process of getting born again to a sinner’s prayer. These are some of the practices we developed because of the shift in focus, so long as getting souls genuinely saved is concern. We have built a Christian ministry that focus on the physical needs of people than their eternal needs.
In fact, many have become so full of their own desires that they are now blind to the doctrine of Christ on very salient issues like Heaven and hell. That is why you do not hear messages about those two eternal destinations again. The most messages preached today is tithing and then other carved methods of giving.
In fact, there are no cutting age preachers on earth today who are making the reality of Heaven and hell the main thrust of their ministries. Go check for yourself. They all make God’s intervention the main thrust of their ministries. It is really sad.
THESE SAD DEVELOPMENTS HAS LEFT THE SPIRITUAL LIVES OF MANY IN SHAMBLES.
There are Heaven unworthy preachers among us today like never before. So many of us ministers preach powerful sermons but our spiritual lives are gone. From Biblical account, it is clear that majority of cutting-edge preachers are like powerful trumpets that are going nowhere after this life but hell. Those who follow their ministries are even worst. This is because their spiritual lives are not the focus of the ministers. Their pockets are the focus.
Child of GOD stay away from any preacher whose focus is your pocket instead of your spiritual life. Though some are not easy to be recognized because they bring a message that centers on your immediate needs and steal your heart, and before you say “Jesus is LORD” you have parted with your hard-earned money through their smooth talks.
Make preachers who build their ministries around improving your spiritual life your source of spiritual growth. Because if your spiritual life is gone, the other aspects of your life will never be fine. They will all collapse.
The doctrine of Christ will always focus on building your spiritual life and then, using the result to take care of your physical needs, naturally or supernaturally.
Yesterday, we looked at the doctrine of Christ on life – specifically the second kind of life Jesus brought to us; the Spiritual life.
The spirit of a man is the man. That is what makes the spiritual life of a man the real life of that man. So, if our spiritual lives are dead or dying, our real life is either dead or dying. Every other aspects of our lives will be in perils. The Bible says;
“My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart;
For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” Proverbs 4:20-23 NKJV
The heart in this scripture is not referring to the blood pumping organ but our spirits and the life that springs out of it. In other words, the Bible is saying we should keep our spiritual lives healthy by inclining our ears to the sayings of the LORD, and not letting them depart from our eyes, and by keeping them in the midst of our hearts or our spirits.
IN FACT, THE CENTRAL THEME OF THE BIBLE HAS BEEN THE RECOVERY OF THE SPIRITUAL LIVES OF MANKIND.
It is our hearts, our hearts and our hearts; which is our spiritual lives. No one who made his spiritual life the focus of their walk with God ever failed in becoming all that God has called them to be.
From the generation of those who began to call upon the name of the LORD when a Child was born, to the generation that was in the upper room when the Holy Ghost first entered mankind, to the believers who witnessed the final moments of John the revelator; there had been no one who put their spiritual lives ahead of other things in their walk with God who did not leave an eternal legacy on the face of the earth.
If the focus of our Bible fathers was their spiritual lives, and the focus of the Bible the spiritual lives of people, not placing our spiritual lives ahead of other things in our walk with the LORD will put our eternal life in grave danger. It will leave us dead and dilapidated in the spirit, and morally bankrupt.
It is clear in scriptures that whenever those who are walking with God make other things other than their spiritual lives their ultimate focus, they become idolaters. After a while, you will find God sending warnings to them by dreams, visions, or directly by the prophetic finger. Sometimes He will allow the consequences of their decisions to catch up with them in other to get their attention and return them back to the main thrust of His redemptive activities.
There was a time Israel did that. The Bible says they began to ask for things of their fancy while on their way to the promised land. God granted them their hearts desires but sent leanness to their souls. The Bible says;
“They soon forgot His works; They did not wait for His counsel, But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tested God in the desert.
And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.” Psalm 106:13-15 NKJV
This scripture has been reenacted in the lives of many in the present Church. You see many being granted their heart desires but there is emptiness or leanness in their spiritual lives. You find moral bankruptcy and all kinds of things in their spiritual lives.
The majority of the messages on preacher’s lips today are not really training the Church to wait for God’s counsel. They are training people to lust after earthly things. We have been taught, influenced and seduced to go for the worldly and earthly at the expense of the eternal.
IN SOME QUARTERS, YOU FIND PEOPLE BEING TOLD TO PRAY AND FAST ABOUT EVERYTHING BEFORE DOING ANYTHING.
But from the fruits of those fasting, you can always see that they do not find God’s true counsel. Whatever comes out of them, usually has the characteristics and hallmarks of things from a man’s heart, instead of God’s heart, as proven in the Holy Scriptures. God will always send His warning finger to us each time our spiritual lives are being neglected and disaster is at the door.
Our devotional text today is one of the prophetic warning fingers sent to the seven churches that once existed in the days of the Bible. The text says;
“And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God:
“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—
I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore, be zealous and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. Revelation 3:14-20 NKJV
EVERY PRESENT-DAY CHRISTIAN SHOULD LEARN TO CARRY A CHECK OVER THEIR SPIRITUAL LIVES FROM TIME TO TIME.
Yes, we should learn to check the impact of ministries, ministers, Churches, and all in God’s garments on our spiritual lives. Now, I am not saying their impact on our financial lives because any Prophet of Baal can improve your financial life in the guise of the name of the LORD. I am saying a check on our spiritual lives.
If we carry out the check, we will discover that like our devotional text said, most believers of today have become wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— so long as their spiritual lives are concerned, because they worship in churches that put on a show of “we have become need and are in need of nothing.” The Bible says;
“So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— “ Revelation 3:16-17 NKJV
I have heard so many of us church leaders brag of our wealth. I have heard many of us say, “we have become rich and are in need of nothing.” But if you look at us, through the lenses of the Bible, you will discover that most of us are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked spiritually.
In our passion for money, we have acquired so much from the pockets of givers, bought private jets, bought houses, owned even islands and done so much. We have become so rich yet so poor, spiritually blind and etc.
A generation that takes singing great songs and preaching powerful messages to be signs of healthy spiritual lives will be misled big time. If our spiritual lives are alive, we will not be this spiritually blind. We will not be wretched spiritually, miserable, blind, and naked. We will not be vomited out of GOD’s mouth.
You need a good church to lead a sound Christians life not an oil using, oil drinking church. Not a money-spinning assembly that says it has become rich and is in need of nothing.
I admonish you to walk away from any of us preachers who are openly or subtly interested in your money instead of your spiritual life. Walk away from Churches that says they have become rich and are in need of nothing, while spiritually they are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY
“Those whom I [dearly and tenderly] love, I tell their faults and convict and convince and reprove and chasten [I discipline and instruct them]. So be enthusiastic and in earnest and burning with zeal and repent [changing your mind and attitude].
Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears and listens to and heeds My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will eat with him, and he [will eat] with Me.
He who overcomes (is victorious), I will grant him to sit beside Me on My throne, as I Myself overcame (was victorious) and sat down beside My Father on His throne.
He who is able to hear, let him listen to and heed what the [Holy] Spirit says to the assemblies.” Revelation 3:19-22 AMPC