TODAY’S DEVOTION (Thursday 23RD December 2021)
“These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots;
raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Jude 12-13 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 357TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS.
With few days to the day set aside by some Church fathers to commemorate the birth of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ, we have every reason to be grateful for all the LORD has done for us this year.
I will suggest an attitude of gratitude to be cultivated every day of our lives, especially the days of the 12th Month of every year. If we want to see the LORD crown our years with His goodness, maintaining a proper faith position, especially from the 10th to the 12th month of every year is crucial.
The LORD began this year for us with a declaration that has watched over us all through. I believe the coming years will not be different. Day unto day He has been uttering wisdom and making His word, ways and will known to us through this platform, and we cannot but thank Him for all that.
The very reason Jesus was born was to have Him born in our character. He was formed in Mary’s womb to tell us that He can be formed in our spirits and souls. That is why when gospel ministry is not forming Christ in us, it is a scamming ministry.
Yes, any gospel ministry that is not forming Christ in your character changing you morally is a scamming system form hell; a net that you are trapped in to lure you into eternal damnation. And trust me, you should be mindful of the after life and do not assume that all ends in death.
All actually begins in death because death is a transition from a life that can be brought to an end, to a life that cannot be brought to an end.
If you are mindful of the afterlife, then be mindful of the kind of life you are living in this life. The Spiritual personality that is living in your heart in this life will determine where you will live in the afterlife! Yes, the person or spirit will determine so much about your life after death. The Bible teaches that Christ should live in our hearts.
IF CHRIST LIVE IN OUR HEARTS IN THIS LIFE, WE WILL SPEND ETERNITY WITH HIM IN THE AFTER LIFE.
That is why Paul was taken to the backside of the desert by the LORD to be shown this mystery that surround our salvation. He was shown the purpose and power of the Christians faith. He said in his own words;
“the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.
To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:26-27 NKJV
This scripture presents the core purpose of the gospel; to have Christ living in every man. Not even religion. Sadly, we have a lot of people with religion living in them; so many church goers are very good at fabricating forms of Godliness that has no power.
There are church circles where people are very unsaved because of the absence of Christ in them but they engage in all kinds of spiritual activities; fasting, prayer, and all kinds of spiritual activities. It is very dangerous to get engaged in spiritual activities when you are unsaved.
when the unsaved do things that only the saved should do, it will bring the demonic into their lives without them realizing it. That explains why we have so many Church people who are demonic and very satanic at the same time.
They wrap their demonism and Satanism in scriptures and religious activities, making people think they are God’s people because of the supernatural effects some of them display. But God is saying this morning to that kind of Christianity “Get out of the way! Get out of the way!! Get out of the way!!! Get out of the way!!!!”
YES, THE LORD WANTS IT OUT OF THE WAY BECAUSE IT IS HINDERING CHRIST FROM BEING FORMED IN PEOPLE.
But this kind of Christianity is not the only thing God is saying should get out of His way. There are spiritual leaders who are responsible for it. God is also saying to them, “Get out of my way.” This is not in any way undermining Heaven’s dependency on preachers; because “how can they hear without a preacher.”
When an angel appeared unto the Centurion in Acts 10, he instructed the man to send for Peter so he could hear the gospel. They angel could not preach to the man because Heaven depends on us, preachers in that respect. But there come a time when we must step aside for God to have His way with His people.
In our devotional yesterday, we discover that if we do not learn to step aside so that God’s people can meet Jesus Himself, there will be no rest in their lives. If we keep asking them to sow seeds into our anointing instead of sowing their lives into the will of God for them, we will keep causing eternal problems in the Church.
So this morning God is saying to us preachers “Get out of the way!”
Sadly, not many are even hearing this prophetic sound. That is why we keep imposing ourselves on our members; even turning ourselves into “demi-gods” to be worshiped.
If there is anything that has kept most Christians under demonic attacks and away from the rest Jesus promised us, it is the ministers of the gospel that are standing on God’s way. What they preach and how they led their ministries make them Alpha and Omega to their members.
It has become so bad that most Christians now believe their pastors even more than the Bible. They literally take these mortal men for God Himself and follow what they say above what the Bible says. I have seen Christians who fear their pastors more than God Himself
They fear offending their pastors and not offending God. They even carry out extra biblical instructions from these pastors, not minding what God thinks about it.
TO THEM THEIR PAPA HAS SPOKEN, SO EVEN GOD MUST OBEY!
Friends, if your bishops or pastors put themselves on the way between you and God, and you let them do it, you will never meet God. Don’t be too crazy about what your spiritual father says above what God’s written word says, especially when it is not adding value to your eternal destiny.
You will always be restless if you let men stand on the way between you and God. It does not take meeting a pastor to have rest, it takes meeting Jesus Christ, spirit to Spirit, to have rest.
I think one major factor that has placed ministers of the gospel on the way of God is the spiritual-father spiritual-son factor and the submission principle.
You see, there is healthy and unhealthy submission. There is also a healthy and an unhealthy father son relationship. When a spiritual father takes the place of your Heavenly Father in your walk with God it is an unhealthy spiritual father-son relationship.
The reason Jesus instructed His first disciples to “call no one father” was primarily to curb this spiritual menace; the very plague that has befallen us today! Sadly, our church generation seems not to be aware of these dangers.
Consequently, the spiritual fathering thing has been elevated in many local assemblies above the necessity of Heavenly Fathering. Yes, there is Heavenly Fathering! I will teach that very soon. Any “spiritual fathering” that is not a mare catalyst of “Heavenly Fathering” is Charismatic witchcraft.
There is a difference between spiritual fathering and Heavenly Fathering. Most people who are fathered by apostles, prophets, bishops and all we have in our churches today lack Heavenly Fathering that is why they are not complete in Christ.
THEIR FATHERS ARE THEIR ALL IN ALL. THEY EVEN SAY THAT TO THEIR SHAME!
It takes Heavenly Fathering to truly come into divine destiny. It takes Heavenly Fathering to unlock the unique you.
Spiritual fathering may make you a duplicate of someone but Heavenly Fathering will make you a duplicate of God on the face of the earth. That is why it takes Heavenly Fathering to unlock the supernatural and turn the world right side up.
Authentic spiritual fathering is merely a catalyst of Heavenly fathering.
It is God’s quickening agent for Heavenly Fathering. Jesus made this clear when He said He will not leave the apostles as orphans. Meaning He will send a new Father to them. And guess who was sent? The Holy Ghost! Not an anointed Bishop or accurate prophet.
But these preachers who stand in the way of God present themselves as superiors. They preach the fathering things and lift if high above everything in the kingdom. The internal drive for such preaching is usually selfishness; not really to help a people unlock divine destiny.
Our devotional text describes the identities and true spiritual impact of this breed of preachers on believers. It says;
“These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever”
It’s better to sit at home and look for God than to have a minister of the gospel who fits this description for a father in the LORD.
Sadly, that is what many so called ‘fathers in the LORD’ have’ become.
And their sons in the LORD can’t see it (and may never see) because what really made them to call these men “father” is either their financial prowess, success in ministry, or the army of contacts they have built over the years; contacts every untaught upcoming preacher crave for.
I want you to make this day a day of reflection on these truths; especially if you are caught up in the “unhealthy father in the LORD” net. I am not against fathering; I am against charismatic witchcraft called fathering. The filth is so big. A devotional cannot just erase it.
There are teachings on this subject which will be of help to you in our ministry. Get them!
My prayer for you today is that God give us fathers who are truly old in the things of GOD, not just spiritual boy leaders or instructors (who maybe 80 years Old chronologically but not Old in the things of God) for spiritual fathers.
MAKE THESE WORDS OF PAUL AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION;
“I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you. For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. 1 Corinthians 4:14-15 NKJV