TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 8TH JANUARY 2024)
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.”
“But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” 2 Timothy 4:3-5 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 8TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
Today we will be continuing on the necessity of walking in wisdom.
The first step you take if you want to walk in sound wisdom, is to decide on what you will be allowing into your soul or spirit. The early church walked in sound wisdom because they were exposed to sound doctrine.
Let me make something clear; the decisions we take in life are what determine our peace on earth.
But what determines a decision that will result in peace is the quality of wisdom one has and what determines the quality of wisdom is the quality of information one exposes his soul or spirit to.
Understand that, you will enjoy great peace this year if you decide to become careful of the information you allow into your soul and spirit as a child of God.
I have said over and over again that what we eat, will eventually eat us. It will eat us by guiding us to make good or bad decisions, depending on its quality.
That is how the spiritual food we feed on, eventually feeds on us.
I want to submit to you that, we have applied human wisdom enough in dealing with our problems, it’s time to apply divine wisdom.
Yes, time to apply Bible wisdom because it seems that the dumbest people on earth are in the church.
The way some of us believers behave leaves so much to be desired.
You find a Christian lady who might be due for marriage and not seeing it coming forth becoming desperate and losing all sense of even human intelligence.
Then you find her, applying human wisdom to solve her problems by either putting on nude appearances on the streets or coming to Church with the attire of a harlot.
After doing all that, she will remain more single than she was before then, because of what she must have put her body through. The Bible calls all that vanity.
The best result a nude woman will get is a team of men who will be taking her to bed in turns, without meeting or knowing each other, with each man on the team promising her a marriage that will never come.
SADLY, THE LADY WILL BE BELIEVING THE LIES AND EVEN BE PRAYING ABOUT THEM.
Not walking in divine wisdom is our greatest ruin today. If your life will be sound this year, do not use human wisdom to run it. Give heed to sound doctrine.
Human wisdom is not designed to solve critical problems of life.
For instance, when it comes to applying human wisdom in relationship matters, I have seen so many ladies wounded for applying the human wisdom of either marrying a younger man, or getting a man to bed, or paying his bills to make him theirs.
Sadly, this breed of misguided women usually thinks that satisfying a man with what they term “good sex” will pin the man to them. But even unborn babies know it is a lie. That is why they either end up born without their dads around or killed in the womb.
When it comes to relationship matters, none should use human wisdom because it will produce heartbreaks. I grew up to discover that Human wisdom may get you happily married, but will never keep you happily married!
A time comes when the silent whispers of time begin to unveil how foolish you were, being wise in your own eyes. I repeat that the time to apply something higher in solving our problems is now.
That something is “the wisdom of God!”
The Bible made it clear that the wisdom of GOD is from above, hence above all the problems of this life. It is also peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy, and good fruits, hence giving us significant results in life. It is without partiality and without hypocrisy.
It is pure and has righteousness as its fruits. That is why you will never find yourself living an ungodly life while walking or following the wisdom of God.
There will be no trace of hypocrisy in the lives of those who follow the wisdom of God.
You will never find them walking in partiality, unforgiveness, rebellion, and self-will, etc.
YOU WILL ALWAYS FIND THE SWEET-SMELLING SAVOR OF GODLY VIRTUES IN THEIR LIVES.
Our devotional text today presents a major wisdom of God an apostolic father wrote and sent to his apostolic son.
He urged his son to keep to sound doctrine and warned him that a time will come when people in the church will no longer endure sound doctrine, but according to their carnal desires, they will heap up teachers for themselves.
We are in the same times as he would later come into, a few years after reading the notes.
Today, we find marriages no longer sound and the faith of many defeated. You find so many preachers not teaching sound doctrines. You find them preaching inspirational messages that are neither reformative nor transformational.
They go inspirational because that is what the people want to hear and that is what brings men of substance to them and their local Churches.
It does not put Christ in the people and they do not care.
If you look at what the so-called inspirational messages have produced today, especially in church, you will see an army of lesbians, gays, and masturbators wrongly called “Sons and daughters of God.”
You will see a group of people who hate the rebukes of the LORD being called revivalists.
You will see people with the characteristics of sons of Satan being called sons of GOD, and given platforms to preach to people.
It is important to note that, God is the Creator of Heaven and earth but not the Father of everyone on earth.
Many in the Church are fathered by Satan himself; hence leading to ministries that promote his works and eternally destroy people’s lives.
Wherever the Holy Spirit is no longer the teacher, other spirits will take over preachers and teach the people through them, from the Bible. Yes, sadly, from the Bible.
THE NEED FOR SOUND DOCTRINE IS BEYOND MEASURE.
You cannot live a sound Christian life without receiving sound doctrine from sound preachers of God’s word.
Part of the wisdom of God to apply your heart unto this year is to limit yourself to sound doctrine. Go for what is true even though it is not working, because it will work at the end.
Do not allow the flesh or your physical needs to determine who you listen to as a Child of God. Do not heap inspirational teachers for yourself.
Allow the Holy Spirit to give you pastors after God’s heart. That is the wisdom of God!
He said in His word;
“And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.” Jeremiah 3:15
God is the one to give us pastors, spiritual fathers, or Kingdom mentors. We are not the ones to choose.
It’s divine wisdom to be given by God Himself. When He gives you, the man will never lead you astray except he himself abandons God and goes astray.
The results of having God give you a spiritual guide, father, or mentor after His heart is enormous. The first is peace on every side; especially within your boundaries. Then prosperity will follow.
Then you will become a dwelling place of God in the spirit. That is when you will begin to function like the ark did in the Old Testament. The Bible made this clear. It says;
“And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.”
“Then it shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land in those days,” says the Lord, “that they will say no more, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.’
It shall not come to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they visit it, nor shall it be made anymore.” Jeremiah 3:15-16NKJV
If the pastor you are under was not truly given to you by GOD, it will show in your life. The first aspect of your life that will reap the consequence is your spiritual life.
That is why you find such people rich but very poor, wretched, and naked in spirit.
If circumstances give you the man and you call it God, it will show in your life.
You see, it’s really difficult to falsify spiritual things because we will be exposed. The fruits of our claims will speak the truth.
If you are under a spiritual leader God never gave you, you will never be able to function like the ark did in the Old Testament. The Bible says, they will say no more “the ark of the covenant of the Lord” when they sit under their God given shepherds because they will become the ark. Hallelujah!!
You remember what the ark did in the Old Testament?
It was placed in the temple of Dagon and Dagon fell down. It was not too long, the ark became a plague in the camp of those who captured it.
That is the template of what GOD wants to accomplish with our lives in His kingdom.
When you become the ark of God in the Spirit, you will no longer pray against your enemies. Whatever or whoever captures you or yours will pay for it. God’s judgment will just be breaking out against them automatically.
If you are under a spiritual leader you gave to yourself, you may be enjoying it all now, but a time will come when you will begin to reap the consequences of not allowing God do His job. Instead of becoming the ark of God after a while, you will become a project – a prayer project.
People who are under spiritual assaults in spite of their so called spiritual fathers need to understand these things and make necessary adjustments; else they will never come into rest.
The enemy will ever be with them.
The only way to become a plague to your enemy is to become the ark of the LORD in the spirit. And the only way you can become the ark of the LORD is by having a spiritual leader given to you by the LORD Himself.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURAL PASSAGE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION TODAY!
“Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon.
And when the people of Ashdod arose early in the morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the earth before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and set it in its place again.
And when they arose early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. The head of Dagon and both the palms of its hands were broken off on the threshold; only Dagon’s torso was left of it.
Therefore neither the priests of Dagon nor any who come into Dagon’s house tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.
But the hand of the Lord was heavy on the people of Ashdod, and He ravaged them and struck them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory.
And when the men of Ashdod saw how it was, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for His hand is harsh toward us and Dagon our god.” Therefore they sent and gathered to themselves all the lords of the Philistines, and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?”
And they answered, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried away to Gath.” So they carried the ark of the God of Israel away.
So it was, after they had carried it away, that the hand of the Lord was against the city with a very great destruction; and He struck the men of the city, both small and great, and tumors broke out on them.
Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. So it was, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, “They have brought the ark of the God of Israel to us, to kill us and our people!”
So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go back to its own place, so that it does not kill us and our people.”
For there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there. And the men who did not die were stricken with the tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven. 1 Samuel 5:1-12 NKJV