TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 3RD APRIL 2024)
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them. Matthew 7:13-20 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 94TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
The LORD God has been mindful of us. Day unto day we see His mercies, and night unto night His compassion and helping hands. His light has been our inspiration and His presence our life and hope.
Practicing to live in the presence of God on this side of eternity, is like rehearsal for what will happen when we step into the other side, because for the saved and sanctified, to be absent from the body is to be present with the LORD.
That is the redemption state God desires that all who leave this world depart in. We touched that during our just concluded Resurrection and Life Conference.
Today we will refresh our minds again on matters of doctrine.
The word doctrine, among other definitions we saw, has been described as teachings or instructions. Our eternal destinies depend on the teachings and instructions we are exposed to daily. Sadly, very few know that.
You see, there are two eternal destinations that awaits every man; Hell or Heaven. Many foolishly doubt if hell exists. Some who believe that it exist say, it will be obliterated after a while, and those in there will be transferred into Heaven.
There are a lot of wrong notions about hell. But Jesus spoke about hell and Heaven more than he spoke about any earthly blessing. I believe, to nail the lies that are creeping today. He foreknew they will come, hence being vocal about it.
Sadly, the Church is not as vocal as Jesus was.
For instance, today you cannot find a cutting-edge preacher making hell his message, despite the many who are dying and going there. Most of them say, they do not want to scare people. There are just few preachers saying something about those two eternal destinations.
Come to think of it, most of us preachers speak of money and tithes more than anything else. But Jesus, the one we claim to represent, spoke about hell and Heaven so many times, and about tithes only once.
THAT IS ONE MAJOR CHARACTERISTIC OF THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST.
If it is the doctrine of Christ, it will warn you about the two eternal destinations, and prepare you for the one that God wants you to end up in; which is Heaven. Friend, Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. That has not changed.
His mission is still to depopulate hell and populate heaven. That is why if He lives in a preacher, the same becomes the preacher’s mission. That was what People like Reinhard Bonke lived and died for.
Christ Tabernacled in them, and moved them through the nations to sound the alarm and deliver souls, from the broad way that leads to death, to the narrow way that leads to life.
In revealing these two eternal destinations, that exist outside time, the Bible says;
“Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
“Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’
Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Matthew 25:41-46 NKJV
This scripture contains what Christ will do to all who ministered to the Jews during the tribulation period.
THE TRIBULATION PERIOD IS THE LAST WEEK OF DANIEL’S 70 WEEKS PROPHECY, WHICH IS YET TO BE FULFILLED.
It will be called, “a time of Jacob’s trouble,” because Israel will be persecuted and almost destroyed by the world then, and that will be under the leadership of the political antichrist.
The foundation for this is already being laid with the anti-Semitism sentiments blowing around the world. But there will be those who will have compassion on the Jews and minister to them during those trying moments.
They will visit them in the prisons that the antichrist will throw them into, clothe those who will be stripped naked, visit those who are sick due to the torture, and etc. These people will be rewarded with eternal life with Christ, when He will finally come to establish His kingdom in a one thousand years kingdom reign.
There is more about them that we cannot write here.
But one thing we can see clearly in this scripture is the reality of the two eternal destinations. The reality of hell called “the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels” and “everlasting punishment,” and the reality of Heaven revealed in the statement, “but the righteous into eternal life.”
If your vision on earth is not to go to Heaven when you die, you are an eternal disaster waiting to happen.
Due to the reality of these two eternal destinations, it is important that a man make spending eternity in Heaven their goal in life. It is important that Heaven making and escape from hell be the ultimate purpose for living on this side of eternity.
Do not forget, on this side, the human life is like a vapor that appears for a short period of time, and then vanishes away into the other side of eternity.
Those whose mission on earth is to go to Heaven when they die, understand that and live differently. They do not sit under scandalous preachers or peddlers of wrong doctrines. They do not call sin a weakness. They do not call co-habitation marriage.
THEY DO NOT TOLERATE POLYGAMY IN ANY WAY.
They keep themselves pure by purifying themselves from defilement on daily bases. They spend their earthly days looking for that city, which has foundation, whose maker and builder is GOD.
However, due to lack of sound doctrine in so many local churches, people have mistaken that scripture (Matthew 25:41-46) to be a call to prison or hospital ministry, or other forms of care giving ministry.
While there is nothing wrong with care giving ministries, the scripture has nothing to do with that.
Sadly, some have even been made to take generosity as the key to escaping hell by those who mis-teach the scripture.
They have been made to believe that even if they live in any sin, so long as they feed the hungry, visit the prisoners, clothed the naked, and etc. it will be fine with them eternally. But that is a doctrine of men, one of the broad-ways doctrines. Which brings us to our devotional text.
The text said;
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits you will know them. Matthew 7:13-20 NKJV
You can see false prophets presented here as broadway gospel ministers. You can see how dangerous it is to sit under them. But before we get there, I want to reiterate again that, if making Heaven is not your goal for living, you have just missed the goal for living.
It is important to understand that, Satan has patterns, role models, heroes, heroines, churches, systems, cultures, traditions, and eternally terrible influences placed in the Broadway that leads to death; the idea is to lead souls to hell.
SADLY, THEY ARE LOUD, CONSPICUOUS, AND APPEALING TO THE LOST SOULS.
On the flip side, God also has patterns, role models, heroes, heroines, systems, churches, cultures, traditions, and righteous influences placed in the Narrow way that leads to life; the vision is to influence or lead men to Heaven.
Our LORD and savior Jesus Christ then advised that we enter by the narrow gate where God has placed patterns, role models, heroes, heroines, systems, churches, cultures, traditions, and righteous influences that will help us make Heaven.
He counselled that we enter by the narrow way by submitting to what He has placed there to lead us to Heaven. In other words, we should not spend our earthly days away from them.
Now, there is also one major thing that the enemy placed on the Broadway to pull us to it; that thing is the ministries and influences of false prophets and preachers, who promise us solutions to our earthly problems but have no true word for our eternal problems.
The connection between the subject of “the-Broadway-Narrow-way,” and the ministry of false prophets in this scripture, should tell us that Satan has false prophets in church, with capacity to get hearts planted in the Broadway that leads to eternal death.
On the flip side, GOD also has prophets and ministers of His, planted in the Church, basically to bring us to the narrow way that leads to life.
NOW, IF THERE ARE BROAD AND NARROW WAY PROPHETS, THERE ARE ALSO BROAD AND NARROW WAY DOCTRINES!
The doctrine of Christ is a narrow way doctrine, but every other doctrine falls into the category of broad way doctrines. That is why one must be careful about the doctrine of any church they belong to. The Bible says by the fruit of the doctrine on our lives, we can tell if they are doctrines of Christ or not. Doctrines of Christ will form Christ in us, but other doctrines will form the antichrist in us. That is why the issue of doctrine is key.
I have read a few books on the ministry of many preachers who were here before us.
I found out that those who derailed in doctrine, were allowed by God to be taken away quickly from the earth, but those who were found in other forms of sins though upholding sound doctrine, lived longer. That tells us that the gates of death will not let preachers of false doctrines live long in some circumstances.
There are two preachers who fell into sin in their days but repented who are still alive today. Sadly, their contemporaries that never sinned in the area of morality, but erred in doctrine, are all dead.
Friends, let us treat matters of doctrine very important. They determine our peace and prosperity in time and eternity.
I discovered that GOD would always send strong warnings to those who spread falsehood before they are taken out. To most of them, He will go personally, and not even send anyone to them. Yet they will not listen.
As we bring this to a close, I want you to understand that there are broad way doctrines, and there is the narrow way doctrine. Jesus said many people are found in the broad way, but in every generation only few are found in the narrow way.
One of the reasons people follow the broadway, is because it has doctrines that care less about their morality. They care less about it, and accommodate their sinful lives and spiritual recklessness. They place no demand on them for right living.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
“But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” Matthew 7:24-29 NKJV