TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 11th April 2022)
Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, “Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.”
He answered and said to them, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?
For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’
But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God”— then he need not honor his father or mother.’ Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition.
Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.
And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ” Matthew 15:1-9 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 101ST DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE
This is the day the LORD has made, we shall rejoice and be glad in Him. The statement is worthy of being repeated over and over. Days are made by the LORD, but it is our responsibility to rejoice and be glad in them.
You may not be feeling alright this morning, just know that Jesus cares for you. Things may be tough in your life, just hold unto the LORD because He has a History of being an immediate present help in time of trouble. He said in His word;
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 NKJV
I think, we should not stop running to the LORD for help. It is a doctrine (teaching and instruction) of Christ that we always make Him our refuge. To always run to Him for rest on every side.
When we are troubled, He remains our peace.
When we are in warfare, He is our man of war. When we fail, He is the one who lifts us up. When the flesh prevails against us and we fall into sin, He remains the redemption sacrifice and mercy seat to turn to for help.
When we cannot stand temptation, He remains the loving savior whose hands are always open to offer us spiritual help.
When we are in need, He remains the shepherd who guides us into prepared places where our needs are supplied. I urge us to use the prayer knee to always approach His throne of grace for the help He offers, no matter the circumstance we find ourselves.
Sometimes when we fall into sin, we are filled with convictions and because of that we tend to walk away in shame from the LORD. Like Adam and Eve did, sin has a way of making us hide away from the LORD in shame. If you have the seed of God in you, there will never be a moment of grand standing in matters of sin.
YOU WILL FEEL ASHAMED OF YOURSELF AFTER THE ACT.
That is the shame that make you want to hide form the LORD. It is a very good thing because if that is not happening to you after falling into any sin, you are unsaved and will not make Heaven. It means the Spirit of Christ is not in you.
The Bible says;
“But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” Romans 8:9-10 NKJV
You see, the spirit of hell will make us not to be ashamed of our sinful lives. It will keep us alive to sin and dead to righteousness; hence making us to even grandstand when we find ourselves in sin.
But the Spirit of GOD does not work that way. He softens our hearts and strikes us with convictions when we fall into sin. The essence is to bring us to our knees genuinely, to seek forgiveness from a Savior who serves as our mercy seat.
So, it is normal for the presence of the Spirit of God in a man’s heart to make that man feel bad and ashamed after committing any sin. That is what it means to be alive unto righteousness.
The Bible made it clear that the presence of the Spirit of God in us helps us to be alive unto righteousness. That is why if you do not feel ashamed, after committing a sin, and desire to change, it means your spirit is not alive unto righteousness. It means, instead of being dead to sin, your spirit is alive to sin.
When our spirits are alive to sin, we do not care about any sin we commit. In fact, we will not even see whatever we may doing as grievous before the LORD. Excuses will be springing forth within us that will keep us going back again and again to it, until we are completely swallowed by the portals of hell.
It is part of the doctrine of Christ for Him to keep being LORD and savior to those who go to Him for rest in readiness to take His yoke upon them and learn of Him. That is why learning do not cease in the life of Kingdom Citizens. They keep moving from one revelation of Him to another until they are not.
That reminds me of Enoch.
THE BIBLE SAYS THIS OF THAT AMAZING MAN;
“So, all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.” Genesis 5:23-24 NKJV
Enoch is the 7th from Adam and we are getting ready for the 7th day of God. This is a very important dispensational revelation for our day.
Enoch remains a pattern for us when it comes to our walk and talk with God as end time saints.
You see, God use men as patterns and standards for others. He will work in one, and then display Him before the rest saying, “here is how I want you to live, please come let me make you like him” or like her.
So, from the life of Enoch, we can see that we must walk with the LORD, daily until He takes us over and we cease to be. That will not be by might or by power but by His Spirit teaching and instructing us in the things of God.
Yes, It will be by constantly sitting down at His feet to learn, bringing us to the place of being well pleasing to Him in all we do. Because before we are taken over by the LORD, we must have the testimony that we please GOD.
The Bible says;
“By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” Hebrews 11:5 NKJV
If our Christian lives do not have the same testimony that Enoch had, we will not have the experience He had. We must have a testimony that we please God, that is what makes a believer stand strong in righteousness. And that is what makes those who fall to run back to God as quickly as possible after sinning against Him.
If the Testimony of being well pleasing to God is not your vision for the faith, then you are not in the faith. You are in a counterfeit. You are already descending into Sheol while alive.
Many of us are not aware that hell enlarges itself every day towards all on the face of the earth, and we hand ourselves over to it when a life of sin becomes our habitation.
SADLY, BECAUSE OF THE ABSENCE OF SOUND DOCTRINE IN SO MANY CHURCHES, PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW THESE SECRETS.
There is no one who leads a life of sin that is not under the portals of hell. That is why the issue of sound doctrine must be considered by every believer. Where there is no sound doctrine, people will lack the knowledge not to live lives that are outside the portals of hell; they will be swallowed by them. They will go into the captivity of this ancient spiritual gates jubilantly. The Bible says;
“Therefore, my people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge; Their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.
Therefore, Sheol has enlarged itself and opened its mouth beyond measure; Their glory and their multitude and their pomp, and he who is jubilant, shall descend into it.” Isaiah 5:13-14 NKJV
This scripture brings us powerfully back to the focus of this 30-day cry of the spirit – doctrine.
It further explains to us the necessity of sound doctrines. It tells us how many of us are sinking jubilantly into hell and yet not knowing it because we have no knowledge. When it says knowledge, it is not referring to secular knowledge but the knowledge of God.
The only knowledge that will prevent one from being swallowed by the ancient spiritual gates described as Sheol in this scripture is the knowledge of the Holy one. The knowledge of the Holy One is a by product of sound doctrine. So, where there are no sound doctrines, hell or Sheol will hold sway in the lives of men and women.
That is why discipleship remains the central activity that goes on in God’s kingdom.
Friend, there is something we must know at this point; there are traditions of men that are being taught to many believers as the gospel or knowledge of God. Most of them are cooked from hell.
THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MANY THAT ARE SINKING INTO HELL.
A tradition is a custom or culture that is passed from generation to generation or practice from time to time. God has His own traditions too. That is what the doctrine of Christ brings on the table. Believers are to live their lives according to God’s traditions.
God’s traditions are the customs and culture His Holy Spirit passed to us in Christ Jesus; the very things He spoke and manifested through our Bible fathers and taught when He was physically here. God wants our lives established on His own traditions not ours. It is when our lives are established in His own that we can have peace in time and eternity.
But in so many churches believers are taught the traditions of men as doctrines.
Many others are taught the traditions of demons as deliverance. There is so much deception. People take demonic and human traditions as doctrines of God and put their lives in eternal danger. No thanks to the greedy and Godless shepherds whose goal is money and fame instead of souls. That brings us to our devotional text.
The text is a story of what looks like a confrontation that Jesus had with the religious leaders of His days. It says;
“Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, “Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.”
He answered and said to them, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’
But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God”— then he need not honor his father or mother.’ Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition.
Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ” Matthew 15:1-9 NKJV
When we preachers, teach the commandments of men, carved out of twisted scriptures like the Pharisees did in this scripture standing on portions of the law of Moses; we put the lives of men in eternal danger, and God will not pardon us.
We must understand these things and wake up!
Jesus called them hypocrites, just as many of us have become, because by so doing we transgress the doctrines of God and teach people to do the same.
When people follow the wrong things we teach, they will never make Heaven. We should not forget that the essence of ministry is eternal salvation. It is not people’s tithes and offerings. It is not their properties that must be given to God as sacrifice. Neither is it our names that must be glorified.
Our jobs as preachers under Christ is to make men Heaven worthy. The goal of an able minister of the New Testament is to make men Heaven worthy. That is why he will only teach the doctrine of Christ. He will not allow what will not profit the people eternally to be found on his lips.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“My covenant was with him, one of life and peace, and I gave them to him that he might fear Me; So, he feared Me And was reverent before My name.
The law of truth was in his mouth, An injustice was not found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and equity, and turned many away from iniquity.
“For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth; For he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.
But you have departed from the way; You have caused many to stumble at the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” Says the LORD of hosts.
“Therefore, I also have made you contemptible and base before all the people, because you have not kept My ways But have shown partiality in the law.” Malachi 2:5-9 NKJV