TODAY’S DEVOTION (Saturday 12th April 2025)
“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.” 2 Timothy 4:3-4 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 102ND DAY OF OUR YEAR OF VICTORY
The Christian faith is a call to battle. It gives more meaning to the word “victory.”
In faith we move from victory to victory, because it is a call to battle. That is why the apostolic consider the Church “an army” and those who are born again are considered as “soldiers.”
Sadly, many do not even know this, hence living a defeated Christian life.
Everyone need to realize that Satan fights us as God’s army that is why spiritual warfare is intense. If we do not know that we are called into battle, and the fight we are called into is a good fight of faith, we will either be neutralized or propelled into the bad fight of faith the Bible warns us about and come out defeated. We will not move from victory to victory.
You see, there is a bad fight of faith, and I will share with us what it is. Sadly, this bad fight is supervised by very influential men and women in church.
For instance, when you use bottles of Oil instead of the power of the Holy Spirit in prayers, you are engaged in a bad fight of faith.
When you take drinking of Oil as receiving the Holy Spirit, you are engaged in a bad fight of faith. When you think you can use mustard seeds, brooms, mats, and pieces of clothes to defeat the devil permanently, you are engaged in a bad fight of faith.
The God of Heaven and Earth called us into a good fight of faith not a bad fight.
The Bible roared saying, “Fight the good fight of faith; lay hold on eternal life.” It takes a good fight of faith to lay hold on to things in the Spirit, and that fight can only be fought with divine wisdom. That is why the Bible teaches that wisdom is indeed the principal thing, especially in spiritual warfare.
Divine wisdom is that God-given discernment and insight into practical issues of life, that goes beyond mere human knowledge. It is a heavenly gift that helps someone to apply knowledge wisely.
THAT IS WHAT WE ARE TO USE IN DEALING WITH THE WARFARE THAT OUR FAITH PLUNGES US INTO.
The Bible teaches that in all our getting, we should get wisdom and get understanding. It is through knowledge we understand. This means, when we understand a subject, we can stand in that subject and turn things around for our favor. We can stand against our enemies.
On the other hand, when we are wise, we can win, because it is one thing to stand against our enemies and another to win. That is why the Bible says we get both wisdom and understanding.
You could stand and not win. Understanding makes you stand up to the challenges of life and wisdom makes you win. Both will help us to stand against our enemies and win. So, when in trouble times, learn to ask God for wisdom and understanding. When the answer comes, you will come out well.
In our devotional today, we will be looking at a major key that grants a man access to divine wisdom and supernatural understanding.
The Bible calls it sound doctrine. The wisdom of God does come from sound doctrine. Understanding can come from that too. The enemy knows that hence replacing sound doctrine with false doctrines.
One way to defeat the enemy is to be sound in our wisdom and understanding, and that soundness comes from sound doctrine.
I have come to discover that there are three classes of Christians when we consider certain things the Bible teaches. We have the totally free Christians whose salvation was based on sound doctrine. They are totally free from habitual sins, and do not take God’s mercy or grace for granted. They make use of it to live right before God and man.
They walk in divine wisdom and will not be found where false doctrines, doctrines of demons or doctrines of men are taught!
THEN WE HAVE THE PARTIALLY FREE CHRISTIANS.
These are the ones whose salvation is not total because of the kind of gospel that brought them into Christianity. They are the ones with psychological salvation. They sing in the Choir and still go to club houses when they feel drawn. They are not free from the sins they lived in before joining the Christian faith, hence are always found in them, with few explaining it away!
They will take or follow someone who is not married to them to bed even after praying loud prayers in Church, saying “it does not matter.”
They do not understand that it is foolish to be feeding our carnal nature with our sins and be saying it does not matter! The Bible teaches that people who sow to please the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. They do not take that to heart.
This is the breed that takes God’s mercy and grace for granted because their salvation is not based on sound doctrine. They walk in human wisdom and spiritual foolishness calling it “grace.”
You always find them where heresies and false doctrines are taught. They are the ones that devils are always with because they always have food for them in their lives. It was this class of Christians the Bible rebuked saying:
“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites,
nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 NKJV
The eternal destination of this breed of Christians is not heaven but the lake of fire. The reason is because by their life after salvation, they are proving that they never got saved after all. Then we have the third class of Christians who are not free at all from sin or Satan.
They are just traditional. The only difference between them and unbelievers is that they go to Church.
THIS BREED IS YET TO ENCOUNTER THE LORD.
The second category encountered the LORD but are just calling Him “LORD, LORD,” without doing what He says. But as earlier stated, the third category is a category of Christians who have not encountered the LORD. They are not even aware of anything in the Bible apart from the stories told in Sunday school and what they hear from their dead spiritual leaders.
You put them off if you speak about sound doctrine or anything spiritual. They operate in either the wisdom of men or that of devils. When you tell them about Biblical position of things they will say “keep the Bible aside. This is not Church.”
Like I stated earlier, they are not different from the lost sinners out there in spirit. However, God wants all Christians to be sound in faith.
God wants us to operate in sound wisdom. It takes sound doctrine to be sound in faith and operate in sound wisdom. A major highlight in our devotional text said, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,” Sadly, we are at that time now. Most prefer following what is working not what is true.
Joining Church or becoming a Christian is now determined by the financial gains and reward one will get for doing so. We forget that we go to church to be discipled and trained to do the work of God, touch the lives of others positively, live a holy life, and make Heaven.
We detest Preachers who teach sound doctrines and call them names. That is why we walk in foolishness and call God “Satan,” and Satan, “God.”
We can go on and on, but like I always state, this is not a book. This is a devotional, and I believe the LORD has shared with you a few things that have added to your wisdom bank. Amen!!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION;
“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.”
“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.” Ephesians 5:8-11
“See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5:15 -16 NKJV