TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 16TH JULY 2023)
“Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart.
“But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.”
“But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.” 2 Corinthians 4:1-4 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 197TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
Glory be to the LORD God for keeping us alive. He is more than loving and compassionate. Today is the first day of another week. We believe the LORD our God will shower His blessings, and purifying fire upon us as we kick start this week.
It is going to be a week of time in God’s presence, as we sit for another inhouse apostolic summit. The Bible says when the Church started, they were meeting on daily bases. That was part of the reasons there was great faith and amazing manifestation of the Sons of God in the first 100 years of the Church.
They never forsook the gathering of the brethren, because it was a gathering that GOD sat over to release measures of revival, from time to time. The release took them from faith to faith, truth to truth, grace to grace, and glory to glory. It strengthened them to turn their world right side up for the LORD. It helped them to build amazing resistance against the works of the darkness of their age.
In the Cry of the Spirit Apostolic Hub, we believe that they set a precedent for us to follow since our age and time is witnessing the return of ancient gods and devils of that age and time.
Though we may not be able to meet daily, due to our own times and seasons, since we have the same LORD they had, we have decided to hold a monthly eight-day intense meeting, within the walls of our dwelling, so that we might receive the same measures of revival they received. Amazingly, God has been faithful in releasing it, which is why most of us look forward to each month for the meeting. Something saddening is happening in so many places.
THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO ARE PERISHING IN CHURCH, YET THEY DO NOT KNOW.
You may wonder how is it possible that someone will perish in church. Well, it is absolutely possible for that to happen. Judas walked with the way, the truth, and the life, yet missed the entrance to eternal life, due to what was in His heart.
People perish in Church because their hearts are not right towards God. They do not seek Him for the right reasons, hence ending up in the wrong hands called preachers. They end up in metaphysical cults and all that. Others in money-making machines called Churches.
There are so many people who are perishing in so many Assemblies of Satan parading themselves as Churches. One way you know a man or woman in Church who is perishing is in how he or she handles the word of truth and righteousness. If what the Bible says has been made clear by the Holy Ghost directly or indirectly to him or her, and he or she still cannot agree with the truth, it’s a sign that the gospel is veiled to him or her and he or she is perishing.
There are two kinds of gospel ministries today. We have gospel ministries whose preaching and teachings are adding veils to the veils people already have in their minds, and we have those who are removing them. Those who add veils do so primarily to scoop worship and wealth from people.
Those who are removing the veils are being led by the LORD to do so, so that can see things in scriptures as God intends, and save themselves from a perverse and crooked generation. Ministries that remove veils are often misunderstood by the religious establishment and fought.
They are demonized, hated, and lied against. By God’s grace, the Cry of the Spirit Ministries belongs to the latter! We are part of the gospel ministries God has set on earth to remove veils from people. That is why we are being fought and hated by the religious folks, who have made so much gain from the veils they put on people’s minds.
But globally, the ministries that are removing veils from hearts have renounced the hidden things of shame. In other words, they do not walk in craftiness calling it wisdom, nor handle the word of God deceitfully.
Those who lead them, are simply driven by a motive that the LORD has purified, and a righteous burden for lost souls. They are not money-driven or fame-seeking. Hence what you see and experience under them, is the manifestation of the truth.
EVERY ONE OF THESE MINISTRIES THAT I HAVE SEEN AND EXPERIENCED, KNOWS HOW TO COMMEND THEMSELVES TO PEOPLE’S CONSCIENCE.
They do not zombify people with great words of emptiness, and oratory prowess, like those who put veils on people’s minds. It is important to note that, while the LORD uses them to seek and save the lost, the ministries that put veils on people’s minds through charismatic witchcraft and seduction, are used by the antichrist spirit to fulfill the prophecy of the great falling away.
The Bible says;
“For false Christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have
told you beforehand. Matthew 24:24-25 NKJV
Talking about Bible prophecies, many do not know that the most solid Christians in the early Church were those who were taught what we now know as Bible Prophecy. They were taught Bible prophecy as soon as they gave their lives to Christ.
Bible prophecy contains the revelation of end times and that of the age to come. That alone is a lesson that if our faith is anchored on the revelation of the age to come, we will remain solid in Christ and hell will never have us back; especially, in a season of the falling away like the one we find ourselves.
So many today are either renouncing or departing from the faith that was once delivered to the saints. God wants that to stop!
You deny the faith when you openly renounce your salvation and go back to your Old ways of life, and depart from the faith when you call Jesus LORD but do not do what He says. Both are dangerous! That is how hell is populated right in the Church. Again, God wants that to stop.
Jesus indeed warned us that as we approach the end of times and days, there will be catastrophic events that will shake the human world. But these events will be preceded by hyper-deception, both in the Church world and the outside world.
It will take daily cultivation of Hyper Spiritual sensitivity and Deep Discernment today, for one to be able to deal with and overcome the scourge of hyper-deception that we have in the church and outside world today.
IT MEANS IF YOU WILL NOT CULTIVATE SPIRITUAL SENSITIVITY AND DEEP DISCERNMENT THESE END TIMES, YOU WILL BE A VICTIM OF DECEPTION.
Actually, people are in hell today because of deception. Some were deceived that there is no hell or heaven. But when they died the reality dawned on them. Others were deceived that the redemptive death of Jesus Christ was a criminal punishment for ‘his’ sins and that ‘he’ did not die for anyone. Today they are in hell, regretting believing such lies! Deception makes you believe what is untrue, and doubt what is true.
Some even died believing the lie that Jesus is not God but a prophet, hence ending up in hell. While others who believed in His redemptive death, rightly believed that He died for their sins, and redeemed them from eternal damnation. But they did not think that they have to accept redemption into their lives, through a saving faith that has repentance from dead works, a life of holiness, purity, and righteousness as fruits.
To these unfortunate ones, the grace of God was to them a license to sin, instead a pardon from sin and an empowerment to go and sin no more.
They lived a life that called Jesus, “LORD, LORD,” but they did not do what He said. Sadly, many of us have embraced the same error. That is why the Bible made it clear that except there is genuine repentance, none of those who make up this breed among us today, will see the blessed face of Christ when they die.
So, people go to hell because they are deceived. That is why Heaven considers ministries that are raised by God to expose deception and deal strongly with it, as some of the greatest ministries born on the face of the earth. The true gospel of Jesus Christ actually exposes deception. Don’t forget, He is the way the TRUTH, and the life. The truth will expose falsehood.
Friend, God has raised and planted ministries on earth today that we must encounter to be free from deception. Personally, if I had not encountered such ministries myself, to further reinforce what I already knew then, as an upcoming minister of the gospel, I would have
been deceived too.
I ATTENDED CONFERENCES IN NIGERIA THAT WERE CAPABLE OF TURNING ANY PREACHER INTO MONEY SPINNING MACHINE, OR A DIVINER, CALLED A PROPHET.
Honestly, I would have been doing ministry today believing that the anointing oil is the Holy Spirit and taking praying with sand, salt, candles, mats, bottles of Water, constructing healing pools for cleansing, and all that, as proper. I would have been calling them deliverance instruments.
I would have been dishing out money scooping revelations and prophecies to the naïve and smiling to the bank saying “The LORD is good.”
I would have taken sorcery for prophecy and divination for prophetic ministry, and yet not know that I have been deceived and that I am being used to deceive others. Ministry to me would have been all about how much money I can scoop from people through the promise of liberty and miracles and all that. Sleeping with the beautiful woman and young girls who come to me for pastoral oversight would have been nothing to me.
But God met me early enough and saved me from the dissipation and corruption we are seeing in Church today.
Friend, you don’t just need a church, but a stream of truth flowing from heaven to the earth of your heart, through a spiritual family you must join, to be saved this hour! I can tell you, that if you are not planted in a ministry that is raised by God to deal with hyper deception these end times, you will become a victim of deception.
Sadly, every deceived person believes that he or she is walking in the truth. They call those with the light of our LORD Jesus Christ all sorts of names. In fact, they brand them enemies of the Church. They walk by emotions instead of reason.
Just as a mad man sees sane people as mad, so do deceived people see those walking in discernment as mad. I have never seen a deceived person who does not treat those who know the truth of the gospel as mad. Deception is actually akin to insanity!
For instance, those who are being told to sleep with prophets and prophetesses for cleansing, are doing it trusting God that He will really visit them. They don’t see anything wrong with it until the promises they got from those prophets fail to come to pass.
Those who are being told to sow this seed and they will get that miracle, drink this oil and get that breakthrough and etc., are seeing nothing wrong with the rituals.
In fact, if you try to show them what the Bible says about what they are doing, they will say you are judging them or criticizing their man of God. They have been deceived or “zombified” hence not seeing the light of the gospel.
A MAJOR HIGHLIGHT IN OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT TODAY SAYS,
“But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”
One day I was worried about people in Church complaining that my teachings are too deep. Even some pastors will come up with rebukes and other corrections, telling me that they don’t even understand what I am saying and that I should water it down. I was worried because young believers and those who are not even born again understand me perfectly when I teach.
Then it began to dawn on me that it was not that they did not understand me; they really understood me but their hearts just refused to accept what they understood because of the religious veils in their hearts. If there are veils in your heart, the Bible says it’s a sign that you are perishing.
Apart from perishing eternally, there is perishing also in time. People are perishing in marriages, financial troubles, sinful habits, etc. God wants them free; however, they must have the veils in their hearts dealt with.
The purpose of present-day apostolic and prophetic ministries, by content (not by Titles), among other intents, is to deal with the veils in the heart of believers so they can step into realms where deception and error can no longer ensnare them. That realm is a realm of God’s glorious Light!
You cannot get to that realm drinking from fountains where preachers preach themselves and how to get earthy success instead of preaching Christ.
You cannot get to that realm giving heed to preachers whose ministries do not have the manifest presence of Jesus Christ as “the commander of LIGHT from darkness.” If you will get to that realm, you must plant yourself in ministries that are operating in that realm. May this season bring the best of God for you, to you in Jesus precious name! AMEN
YOU CAN MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake.”
“For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4:5-6 NKJV