TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Saturday 3rd July 2021)
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
“By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.”
“And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.” 1 John 4:1-3 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 184TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS!
This morning we will be refreshing our minds on certain truths that we need today so long as interpersonal relationships are concern. We are all what we are due to the decisions we have made over time and the kind of people that were involved in our lives.
To start with, I want us to understand that people are access or doors to things seen and unseen. When they come around us they come with the residue or the spirit of the seen and unseen things that are access to. Delilah brought chains on Samson because she was an access to the realm of the god of the Philistines who was looking for him to kill.
Mary brought prophetic activation to Elizabeth because she was an access to the realm of God that got her pregnant supernaturally.
The presence of Elijah in Israel brought their hearts back to the LORD. The presence that Moses brought to Egypt broke the backbone of Pharaoh and let Israel go. The presence that the Moabites women brought to the nation of Israel in the Shittim valley, unleashed defilement upon them and put the Holy seed in danger.
The presence that Zechariah, a man with an understanding in the visions of the LORD, brought to the life of Uzziah was what made Him to enjoy marvelous helps of the LORD. Sometimes, the activities of God or that of the Devil we see in our lives are products of the kind of presence the people around us bring to our lives.
In other words, the realm whose access people in our lives are, has a way of birthing something from that realm into our lives. What people carry in the spirit has a way of making itself available in other people’s lives when they come in contact with them. It is such things that determines the outcome of the people’s presence in the lives of others.
THAT IS WHY IT IS IMPORTANT THAT WE LOOK AT THE SPIRITUAL MATTERS THAT RELATES TO INTER-PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS.
But let us begin with checking ourselves; checking what presence we are transmitting into the lives of others? Don’t forget, the Bible says if we judge ourselves we shall not be judged. This will tally with the required prophetic posture for the moment.
Talking about the required prophetic posture for the moment, many years ago, specifically, few years to his exit from the earth, Peter wrote down what I will like to call “a prophetic word.” Yes, it was a word with eternal ingredients because of how timeless it has become. The prophetic word said;
“For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?” 1 Peter 4:17 NKJV
The fulfillment of this scripture has been seen and the posture of its content taken time and again in every Church generation. From the generation of the early Church, to the generation that handed over the baton of the great commission to our generation.
I perceive in the Spirit that it’s time for our own Church generation to experience the execution of the same prophetic word or take the devotional or required prophetic posture it carries.
Friend, things are being released from Heaven to facilitate this. Personally, I see a global spirit of burning, a fresh Spirit of truth and of judgment being released. I see it searching the Church out and putting things straight. And the Bible says it will begin at the house of God – the Church.
Now, if it will begin at the house of God, who do you think it will begin with? Off course, it will begin with Church leaders (me and every other minister of the gospel). However, the kind of judgment this move will make manifest is not “eternal judgment” but “correctional judgment.”
GOD’S CORRECTIONAL JUDGMENTS USUALLY TARGETS THE SPIRIT OF LAWLESSNESS IN THE HEARTS OF MAN.
Now, there are several ways God corrects but He usually begin by sending the spirit of burning and a fresh Spirit of truth to open the eyes of His children to the lies and errors being preached, taught or told by some ministers of the gospel. That has been happening since 1994 in Nigeria.
I guess Kenya woke up to this move by the hand of the Cry of the Spirit Ministries. Now, many are jumping into it. When we newly came, it was not like this. I remember listening to a radio preacher in time past, telling a major lie about “some voices that cry against some people from their villages.” Though some are still preaching this kind of lies and others, especially the lies on evil altars, using Gideon and the rest; the impact of their lies is declining.
God is doing a work already. However, what makes these lies sound true in the ears of some is the quotes they coin from scriptures and verses they twist to fit their spiritual narratives.
Either we believe it or not, or even foolishly consider it disrespectful, it is very clear that most preachers are not trained on how to handle the word of truth and righteousness. Hence, when they stand to preach you find them moving from error to error without blinking an eye or realizing it.
The Spirit of Grace and Truth in us remains the only insurance form these errors/ If you do not have it, you will not recognize them. You will fight or contend with those who do. Yes, you will rebuke even those the LORD has called and given platforms to reprove men at the gate and speak uprightly to a perverse and crooked generation.
It was people who do such things that Amos saw and said;
“They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.” (Amos 5:10 KJV).
The present generation seems to be growing in that direction. That is why they have manufactured so many names for people God has called to put things right in His body in the final hour.
YOU WILL NEED THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH AND PROPER JUDGMENT TO SURVIVE THIS SEASON.
These are very dangerous days. They are not days to be empty of the Spirit of Truth and proper Judgment. You will be ruined if you are. Now back to the question of what kind of presence or unseen realms we are bringing into the lives of others as re relate with them.
Let me begin with us, spiritual leaders? If you are a minister of the gospel reading this, permit me to ask you this question: What kind of unseen realm is announcing itself through you in the lives of your congregants when you minister to them? What do you really impart into them?
To answer this question properly, I need to help you out, because it might appear to be God to you but the Bible says, it is by fruits we know the answers. By the fruits of what discerning people see in the lives of the people sitting under you.
You see, there is a realm that is unknown to so many in Church leaders today. It is a realm called the realm of the anti-Christ. That is the realm 95 percent of preachers bring upon their congregants. Our Devotional text this morning says,
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
“By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.”
“And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.”
There is so much to chew in this scripture. But this is a devotional and not a book. So I will just highlight few truths. The text says we should not believe every spirit but we should test them. It further shows us how to test them; it says we should test them by checking if they confess Jesus to have come to the flesh.
THAT IS MORE THAN A LITERAL CONFESSION OF THE MOUTH.
If it was what John meant, then even demons are saved because if it meant a literal confession of the mouth, then even the devils who confessed Christ to have come in the flesh when He was physically on earth would have made Heaven. Don’t forget the girl with a divination spirit in acts 16. She did so well too!
So, what does this scripture really mean? First of all, many religions call Jesus “prophet” and do not believe He is the Son of God. That makes them part of those with the anti-Christ spirit. But in the Church this spirit manifest itself differently.
It manifests itself by preventing Christ from being formed in people’s Character. For instance, how can the teachings on evil altars and all that form Christ in a man? It is impossible! That is why you see some go to Church from age to age, and even progress to become ministers of the gospel without the Christian character in them. You see a lot of hypocrisy and all that among us.
The scripture therefore means any spirit that will not allow Christ to be formed in us (our spirits or characters) is not of God but the spirit of the anti-Christ. It also means any spirit that did not recognize Christ to be “God in man.” The first meaning applies to all in the Church; the other applies to all in the world.
Sadly, most preachers are access doors to this dangerous spirit. Their ministries do not allow Christ to be formed in men.
There is so much about this spirit that we cannot share here! But when you read the Bible saying “do not believe every spirit but test them” you have read a call for caution and discernment in how we open our spirits to preachers. Because when preachers preach, they unlock a presence of the very realm they are doors to upon their hearers.
You remember Peter telling the man at the gate called beautiful “what I have, I give you” not “what I know” or “what I talk about.” But what I have!
Many will not make heaven, not because of themselves, but because of the things that are imparted into their lives through the preachers they are listening to. A preacher does not just impart knowledge when he speaks; he transfers whatever he has to you.
The primary essence of today’s devotional, as earlier stated, is to check ourselves, and in checking ourselves, we are looking at the pulpit or the clergy today. Either you believe it or not, if the pulpit is fixed, all willing members of the pew will be fixed! If the head is healthy, every willing part of the body will be healthy.
A sick head with a submissive healthy body will destroy the body. But a healthy wise head with a sick but submissive body will fix the body. We can go on and on, but let’s close here!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY:
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
“By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.”
“And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.” 1 John 4:1-3 NKJV