TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 4TH SEPTEMBER 2023)
“I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept my word, and have not denied My name.
Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie — indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you. Revelation 3:8-19 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 247TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS
We give God the glory for giving us another day to be alive. It is not cheap to be alive. It only looks cheap because someone is bearing the cost. That person is Jesus Christ, who watches over us even those who do not know or care about Him.
You see, when you are not the one bearing the cost of something, you will think it is cheap. But when you do, you will know it is not. God is so gracious that He did not put the cost of being alive on us, but on Himself. Being alive is not cheap. If you realize that, you will always be grateful to the one who bear the cost of your being alive, Jesus Christ.
The Bible says, “He sustains all things by the word of His power.” All things include all humans. It is just that some people see Jesus Christ in the light of the four gospels, the do not see Him in the light of what other books of the Bible presents. That is why they think He is not God, and can not be the one sustaining them.
There are those who calls Him prophet and place Him on the plane of an anointed man of God. But that was when He was walking in the flesh, as man. And even at that, He still manifested some divinity dimensions when He resurrected from the dead, all by Himself. Only God can die as man and raise Himself up from dead.
A man of God cannot do that. That is why no founder of any religion has resurrected. Even those who claimed to be gods are still in their graves, waiting for the day Jesus will resurrect them to face the Great White Throne Judgment for misleading people. If they were gods, they would have come out of their graves, and not be waiting for that day.
You will enjoy the best of Christ, when the revelation of who He is come to you. When you begin to come into the knowledge of Christ, as God of all gods, King of all kings, LORD of all lords, and the one who was before anything began, you will lead a better Christian life.
You will begin to pay a better price to have Him at the center of your life. You will become part of those who seek Him in spirit and in truth, and would not want to compromise their faith. The reason why we have so much pseudo Christianity today, is because many do not know Christ as God.
THEY DO NOT HAVE A REVELATION OF WHO HE IS.
In God’s kingdom, the revelation of Jesus Christ is the central revelation of the Bible. If you study the Bible, with the Holy Spirit in your human spirit guiding, you will find the revelation of Jesus Christ in all of the books of the Bible. For instance, in the book of proverbs, you will meet Him there as the wisdom of God. Each book of the Bible has a revelation of who He is.
The faith of the early Church was built on the revelation of Jesus Christ. They walked with the LORD, not with a need-based sensibility and mentality. As a result, they did not read the scriptures the way many do today. You will never see the revelation of Jesus Christ in the Bible, reading the scriptures with a human need-based sensibility and mentality.
In fact, nothing eternal can be released to you with such mentality and sensibility.
That is why many preachers and believers cannot see certain truths in scriptures. The veil will not let them see those truths. They will just be arguing with you who have studied the Bible from cover to cover, without same veil in your heart, and found truths they do not even know or believe in. The veil must first be taken away from their hearts, before they can see Christ in each book of the Bible, and come into the revelation knowledge they argue against.
Our devotional text today is a very important one for the end time Church. Often times, when scriptures like that are read with the mentality or sensibility of a need-based gospel, people do not see what Jesus refers to in those eternal words.
Long before that day, He had stirred Apostle Paul and Peter respectively, to warn of the rise of heretic teachers and false ministers of the gospel, described as wolves.
He said they will bring in damnable heresies like the ones we have today on the doctrines of eternal salvation, redemption of first born, giving of money as first fruits, dealing with what they call evil foundations, raising of what they call altars, silencing of what they describe as evil altars, fighting of what they call spirit husbands and wives; things that Jesus never mentioned, and all that.
TO THE NAÏVE AND IGNORANT, THESE THINGS LOOK TRUE AND VALID, BUT NONE OF THEM IS FROM THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH HIMSELF.
Apostle Peter will later write and say;
“But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.
And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.
By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.” 2 Peter 2:1-3 NKJV
The Bible did not say few will follow their destructive ways; it says many will follow their destructive ways! Often times, I have sat down weeping, troubled by the number of those who are following the present day true, yet very false and dark teachings; true in the eyes of the ignorant, but false in the eyes of the LORD, and those He has revealed Himself to.
The reason for the large followership of the true yet very false and dark teachings, we see is obvious. Those who preach them do so with great oratory prowess, and tailor their eternally destructive ministries around the immediate need of the people. They will lead bless me clubs and conferences calling them Churches and revival.
In most quarters, prophecies and prayers will be for sale in the guise of seed sowing. And the people will keep buying since they will be told it will solve all their problems.
They will lead a prophetic, deliverance or teaching ministry that will promise the people all kinds of liberty, while they themselves (the preachers) are servants of corruption. They will strengthen the hands of sinners and make them comfortable in their wickedness by giving them a false sense of forgiveness for their sins. They will make adulterers and fornicators see nothing wrong with their eternally destructive life styles.
They have made themselves irresponsible shepherds like the ones in Ezekiel 34. Friend, the most destructive person on earth today, is a killer spiritual leader – a spiritual leader without the grace and truth to prepare mankind for the next life.
THERE ARE SO MANY WHO ARE IN MINISTRY TODAY, PREACHING AND PURSUING THEIR OWN AGENDA.
Because of that, Jesus Christ has not given them the grace and truth to prepare those they preach to or pastor, for the next life. They just preach to them things that make them to keep coming, and giving, without being ready for the LORD. Sadly, so many are not aware that not everyone in God’s garment is His representative!
So many takes everyone who stands behind a pulpit, as man or woman of God, and it is very dangerous to do so. It’s dangerous to treat everyone in God’s garment as man of God. You will not know when you are calling a demon “man” or “Woman of God.”
Calling the wrong person “man or woman of God,” is blasphemy against God. Though Jesus said it can be forgiven, but it will short-change your destiny until you wake up from your spiritual blindness.
Sadly, the Bible warned that many will follow killer spiritual leaders. The many that will follow them will constitute another kind of Church; Jesus calls that Church, “Synagogue of Satan.” That phrase means, assembly of Satan, or “called out ones of Satan.” In a clearer Bible sense, it means assembly of those who opposes God’s truth, His true will, His ways, and eye-opening words.
There are so many Assemblies of Satan today called assemblies of God. So many synagogues of Satan in our generation, sending a great spiritual stench to God’s nostrils and opening portals of hell over entire cities.
The synagogue of Satan is the very false Church that we find mixed with the current Church. Just as there were two babies in Rebekah’s womb and two women with seed from Abraham in one roof, so are there two Churches in the present Church! Everyone must know that!
You are either a part of the false church or the true church; there is no middle ground. For instance, those who opposes the doctrine of Christ, by presenting other doctrines, belong to the synagogue of Satan that is parading itself as church.
Those who do not have the Holy Spirit in them, clearly do not belong to the true Church. The book of Romans made that clear. The carnally minded do not belong to the true Church. Those who live according to the flesh instead of the Spirit, are not part of the Church of Jesus Christ.
THEY COULD BE PREACHERS, FAITHFUL TITHERS, OR CHURCH ATTENDANTS.
Friend, if you do not feel anything bad about sin, as a Christian, especially sexual sins and other deep sins, you are not part of the body of Christ. If you are comfortable with preachers, who sale prophecies, prayer and other deliverance materials like oil, salt, holy water, incense and etc., you are not part of the true Church.
If you are comfortable with any other doctrine, apart of the doctrine of Christ, you do not belong to His Church.
If you hate preachers who preach righteousness, and urge us to live morally chaste Christian lives, especially with eternity in view, if you misunderstand the simple Micah dimension that God ordained for our age and time, you are not part of the body of Christ. If you call conviction condemnation, or see one who rebukes you for your sins, as “judging you,” it’s a sign that you are part of the synagogue of Satan.
If you are moving from sin to sin, one form of spiritual problem to another, one terrible act of wickedness to the other, it’s a sign that you are yet to be integrated into the true Church. What flows in Christ is not flowing in you yet. And since there is no middle ground, you belong to the false Church. Point blank!
If you cannot walk in truth and make the Bible your standard, the Holy Ghost your friend and Heaven your ultimate goal, you belong to the synagogue of Satan. If there is no Godliness in your character and God’s manifest presence in your prayer, you are yet to be made part of the true Church.
If you are a preacher, and to you no service is complete without collecting money from people, or no prayer can be made without receiving money, you are not part of the true Church. If your ministry is run as a money-making machine, especially making people without an offering look stupid and useless, you are leading a department of the synagogue of Satan.
YOU MAY REJECT THIS BUT DO NOT FORGET WHAT OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT SAID.
It says, “Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie..” From this scripture it’s clear that members of the synagogue of Satan will never accept that they do not belong to the true Church.
THEY WILL DO EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO CONVINCE YOU THAT THEY BELONG TO JESUS.
Such killer preachers are quick at changing their names to sound more “GOD,” even as they engage sorcery and divination in spiritual matters. They will not be able to expound the word of truth and righteousness to any one. They are the hero preachers of vulture Christians, and not a darling of eagle Christians.
They move from title to title, and are not interested in content, because they know men look at the outward appearance and not the heart. And since their drive is to appear perfect before men, they do everything that will make them look so powerful and so “prosperous man of God” before the undiscerning.
Sadly, they forget that “the judge of all” looks at the heart, and will give to every one of us according to our works. There is so much to chew from our devotional text, but this is not a book. I trust God that the message of today has been passed.
As we bring this to a close, understand that, there are two Churches in the present Church. When the rapture will take place, the true Church will be taken, and the false Church will be left behind with the lost world. They are the ones that will meet their pastors after the rapture to beat them up, for misleading them.
Today, they call them “papa,” or “father of the land.” But that day, they will descend on them and call them, “curses” of their eternal lives.
Friend, if anyone deceive you, do not deceive yourself. Secure your place in Christ by using His grace upon your life to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, making sure you are not part of the synagogue of Satan in the present Church!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR TODAY!
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
“Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain. Philippians 2:12-16 NKJV