TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 29TH April 2023)
“Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name and driven out demons in Your name and done many mighty works in Your name?
And then I will say to them openly (publicly), I never knew you; depart from Me, you who act wickedly [disregarding My commands].
So everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts upon them [obeying them] will be like a sensible (prudent, practical, wise) man who built his house upon the rock.
And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a stupid (foolish) man who built his house upon the sand.
And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great and complete was the fall of it.” Matthew 7:21-27 AMPC
WELCOME TO THE 119TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS & WONDERS!
The LORD God has unveiled and allowed us to step into one more appointed day, of all the days He has appointed for us on earth. We owe Him praise. Yes, if today was not part of His appointed days for our lives, we will not be alive; we would not have slept and woke up.
Glory be to His great name for appointing this day for us.
Indeed, He does not deal with us according to our iniquities. He deals with us according to His mercies. His mercies are for the fulfillment of His eternal purposes in time, and we all are His eternal purposes in time.
The word of the LORD and His voice has been coming to us from the pages of the scriptures on this very important pillar of faith – doctrine. Those whose hearts are like the good ground in the parable of the sower, have indeed being blessed by the LORD, and is bearing fruits already.
I believe seeds of the doctrine of Christ have been sown these few days through this platform – seeds that the presence of the LORD can water and bring us to the place of becoming trees of righteousness for Him to be glorified. The foundation of the Christian faith was built on sound doctrine. But if this foundation is destroyed, everything about the faith will be in ruins.
Of late, most of what we call Christianity, have been without foundation. The Bible says;
“If the foundations are destroyed, what can the [unyieldingly] righteous do, or what has He [the Righteous One] wrought or accomplished?” Psalm 11:3 AMPC
This is one scripture that have been used, especially its Authorize King James version, to peddled the false doctrine of evil foundation and secure the activities of deceiving spirits.
IT HAS BEEN USED TO MAKE PEOPLE THINK THAT WHATEVER THEY ARE GOING THROUGH IS A FOUNDATIONAL PROBLEM.
After which, the people are told that evil altars are the foundations troubling them, and that they must either break them, raise what they call righteous altars, or consume them by fire for things to work well in their lives. So many preachers have made fortune from this false doctrine. I know one who has many aches of lands in Nigeria courtesy of this teaching.
God made it clear that as we execute the great commission without omission, forming Christ in people, He will take care of our needs as His servants. But any teaching that is putting money into a pastor’s pocket but not forming Christ in the hearts of men, is a teaching from the fountain of greed or the portals of hell.
The Scripture again said “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the [unyieldingly] righteous do, or what has He [the Righteous One] wrought or accomplished?”
If you look at this scripture through the lenses of the doctrine of Christ, especially in the classic Edition of the amplified translation, you can easily tell how wrong those peddling the false teaching that points evil altars, as the foundation the LORD meant when He inspired those words, are.
The scripture has two important questions begging for answers, and all the questions attest to the importance of having a Christian life founded on the right foundation.
The first question is, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the [unyieldingly] righteous do.” There are two kinds of righteous people on earth; we have those who are uncompromising and unyielding to anything sinful, worldly or satanic. They are like the five wise virgins in the Bible.
And then we have the second category of the righteous, made up of people who believe that they are saved, only by what Jesus did on the cross, that they do not need to have the fruits of repentance or anything of such.
THESE ONES DO NOT BELIEVE IN THE CONFESSION OF SINS, OR RENUNCIATION OF SINS.
To them, grace is a freedom to sinful living not a freedom from sinful living. They are the five foolish virgins of Matthew 25 who will miss the first resurrection and stand before the great white throne judgment. The second category of believers are the very Christians who call Jesus “LORD, LORD” but do not do what He says in the word.
A Part of our devotional texts says;
“Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name and driven out demons in Your name and done many mighty works in Your name? And then I will say to them openly (publicly), I never knew you; depart from Me, you who act wickedly [disregarding My commands]. Matthew 7:21-23 AMPC
Some of us were of this stock until God’s mercy came up and said no!
Sadly, some of us are still part of this breed of Christians who yield to sin and need a lot of help to be able to stand. The first category of the ‘righteous,’ are only considered righteous by those who give assurance of salvation to people, without genuine repentance taking place in their hearts; they consist of people who disregard God’s commands and think it does not matter.
Obviously, as we will see later in the same scriptures, these are not believers with the foundation of the LORD – a foundation laid through sound doctrine.
The Bible says if the breed of believers who do not yield to sin, the world or the satanic, have no foundation in their Christian lives, what can they do? In other words, their ability to stand strong without yielding is a product of the foundation that their faith was laid on.
THE FOUNDATION OF THEIR FAITH WAS NOT LAID ON THE SAND OF THE DOCTRINES OF MEN, DEVILS OR DECEIVING SPIRITS.
It was laid on the rock of the foundation of the doctrine of Christ – what Christ is saying in His written word the Bible. Such Christians will be like a building (life) that the rain fell upon, the flood came against, the wind blew on and beat against, yet the house (life) did not fall.
God’s vision for our lives is that we be such a life on the face of the earth. And it only comes to pass if we receive what He says, and then spend our days on earth doing it. You find that in the rest of our devotional text. it says;
“So, everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts upon them [obeying them] will be like a sensible (prudent, practical, wise) man who built his house upon the rock.
And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a stupid (foolish) man who built his house upon the sand.
And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great and complete was the fall of it.” Matthew 7:24-27 AMPC
It is the foundation of the doctrine of Christ in our lives that makes us uncompromising righteous ones on the face of the earth. Without it, we will come down crashing in compromise and losing our integrity as believers. We will not be like the five wise virgins who kept their lamps burning despite the challenges of doing so. We will be like the five foolish ones.
All that tells us of how strong a Christian faith can be if founded on the rock of a foundation built on the doctrine of Christ. That brings us to the second question in the Psalm (psalm 11:3.
It says, “If the foundations are destroyed…. what has He [the Righteous One] wrought or accomplished?”
This is a vital question. Anything we accomplish without standing on the foundation of the doctrine of Christ is just a labor in vain. Be it a marriage, a ministry, a business, a job, a career, or whatever. That is why you found them crashing down after a while.
You find the power of time making them weak instead of strong. You find time crashing them instead of strengthening them.
As we wrap up this journey that started at the beginning of this month (with one more day to go), I want to submit to us that God wants us to build our faith on the foundation of the doctrine of Christ, not the false and heretic teachings that our generation have been baptized in.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR TODAY!
“But the firm foundation of (laid by) God stands, sure and unshaken, bearing this seal (inscription): The Lord knows those who are His, and, Let everyone who names [himself by] the name of the Lord give up all iniquity and stand aloof from it.
But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also [utensils] of wood and earthenware, and some for honorable and noble [use] and some for menial and ignoble [use].
So, whoever cleanses himself [from what is ignoble and unclean, who separates himself from contact with contaminating and corrupting influences] will [then himself] be a vessel set apart and useful for honorable and noble purposes, consecrated and profitable to the Master, fit and ready for any good work. 2 Timothy 2:19-21 AMPC