TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 11TH MAY 2022)
“This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a ]bishop, he desires a good work.
A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle,
not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence(for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?)
Likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience.
But let these also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless.
Likewise, their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. 1 Timothy 3:1-5, 8-12 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 131ST DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE
Blessed be the name of the LORD who has not given us over to ourselves. Blessed be the name of the LORD who has not given us to the will of our enemies.
Blessed be the name of the LORD who has been more than what we can ever imagine to us.
A combination of His kindness, His love, His mercies, His miracles, His blessings, His interventions, His immediate present help, His greatness, His covering shelter, His directives, His statutes, His judgments, His outbreaks in the camp of our enemies, His word in season, and all other beautiful things that are beyond human language is the reason why we are alive.
We may not have had earthly parents but we have not been orphans.
You cannot have all of what we mentioned above from GOD and be an orphan because orphanage in God’s Kingdom is different from orphanage in man’s kingdom.
In man’s kingdom, you are an orphan if you do not have both parents, and many have use that to curry favor from men. I cannot forget a nearly 50-year-old woman who almost cried before me saying she was an orphan just because she wanted help. If it was a child it would have made sense.
How can a near 50-year old who should be taking care of Children be emotional because she is an orphan. It does not make sense even if she has no parents indeed. Leave that to kids, and preteens to do.
I have even discovered that orphanage is not just “not having both parents who are alive,” it is not growing in a proper parenting system, leading to vices, evil deeds, lack of respect for elders, a life that does not respect the law of honor, and being a spoilt child.
I have seen young men and women who entered into the murky waters of sexual perversion at 5 years old because they were orphans by this definition. They had both parents but their parents were not parents at all when it comes to proper child upbringing. They were just wild animals, so to speak, living together.
OTHERS WERE FROM SINGLE PARENTING SYSTEM WHICH WAS NOT EVEN PARENTING AT ALL.
So, you may have both parents alive but if you were not proper brought up by them, you will grow up to be a wild grape for not being properly raised; you will still be an orphan technically. A person with parents is someone who was properly brought up, either by both parents or other forms of parenting system.
So, the true idea of orphanage is not in not having parents that are alive, but not growing up in a proper parenting system. God gave us parents so we can be properly raised. If we were not proper raised, we had no parents. We were orphaned.
The word orphan means to be left alone or abandoned.
If you grew up left alone or abandoned to yourself, even in the presence of your parents, you were an orphan.
God did not design kids to be left alone. He designed that kids be raised in a good parenting system. A good parenting system will keep a child away from the thorns and snares that are in the way of the perverse; things that destroys the destiny of men. The Bible says;
“Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse; He who guards his soul will be far from them. Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:5-6 NKJV
When kids are properly trained in or raised and are not allowed to themselves or abandoned, they will be established in righteous ways that they will not depart from.
We have been on a 31-day journey with the Cry of the Spirit on practical Christianity. It is part of practical Christianity to have godly Children. That is why the Bible strongly warned that if a man does not have godly children, he should not be a church leader because it will neutralize the power of the gospel.
You see that in our devotional text.
THE TEXT BEGAN BY SHARING ABOUT THE QUALIFICATION OF A BISHOP AND THEN A DEACON.
In its pure form, and when it was established by Paul (not by Christ), a bishop is the same as a Church elder. It was pure, and effective in kingdom advance and there was no arch-bishop.
Come to think of it, in Bible sense the arch-bishop thing is ultimate lawlessness. Sadly, many preachers (some genuine, others false), have been misled to carry it as their titles. But in the beginning, there was nothing like that.
Now, you hear of “arch-bishop this” and “arch-bishop that,” with most of them carrying the characteristics of archangel lucifer. Anything you see in the present Church that was not in the early church was brought in by the antichrist spirit. Do not be deceived!
So many preachers know nothing about the nature and content of the antichrist spirit, hence yielding to it in the name of the LORD and permitting what was not in the early church.
So long as the present-day bishop and arch-bishop thing is concerned, the antichrist spirit has prevailed over so many preachers, especially some of those who pride themselves as fathers of the faith or fathers of the land.
Paul established the bishop thing in the early church to bring order; that was why it was someone ordained by a pastor to carry out church administrative duties. It is like me appointing you to be an usher in church if you meet the criteria for church leadership. So, if anyone says God asked him or her to become a bishop, or archbishop, they are lying on God.
So originally, the bishop thing was beneath front line church leadership. It was at the same level with church elder and deacons. It was a church leadership structure serving under a pastor. It is not one of the five folds ministry gifts, hence beneath an Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor or Teacher.
The qualification was spelt out as follows;
“A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence. (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?)” 1 Timothy 3:2-5 NKJV
If you look at those with the title of Bishop today, you cannot find any of this qualification in the lives of over 98 percent of them. A simple office, under a pastor, that was for Church administration have become politicized and defiled.
NOW, THEY ARE THE ONES ORDAINING PASTORS AND RULING OVER THEM LIKE EMPERORS; A PRODUCT OF THE SPIRIT OF LAWLESSNESS.
But my point of interest here is on the line that tells us what God expects of us as Christian parents. It says we must have godly and submissive Children. It is part of practical Christianity to have Children in submission with all reverence. That has become a challenge today because many of us have orphaned our children. We have left them to themselves; to their little brains and wild imaginations.
We say we are born again and even strife to be leaders in church ignoring these important qualifications for church leadership and practices of practical Christianity. Again, I reiterate that practical Christianity involves having Children in submission with all reverence. If our Christianity is not having such, we have failed.
I want to advise us Christian parents not to make our kids orphans by not bringing them up properly; not to leave them alone, even when they scream “leave me alone.”
Yes, not to leave them to themselves because God made it clear in His word that hell and foolishness are in their hearts. We are to put them in a proper parenting system to drive hell from them and delete foolishness from their hearts. That is a very important aspect of practical Christianity.
There are two scriptures I sited above about proper parenting system that I want us to look at. The first says;
“The mouth of an immoral woman is a deep pit; He who is abhorred by the LORD will fall there. Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of correction will drive it far from him.” Proverbs 16:14-15 BKJV
Every child is born with a measure of foolishness. If the foolishness is not removed, that child will grow up to become anything but Godliness in life. If we therefore, do not orphan our kids but put them in proper parenting system under God, or baby girls will not grow up to become immoral women who will function as deep pits for those the LORD may abhor.
NEITHER WILL OUR BABY BOYS GROW UP TO BECOME MEN WHO WILL BE FALLING INTO THE DEEP PITS OF IMMORAL WOMEN.
A proper parenting system will save our kids from foolishness and ultimately from hell. Leaving them to themselves will turn them into beast to be taken to prayer sessions for divine interventions.
The second scripture says;
“Do not withhold correction from a child, For if you beat him with a rod, he will not die. You shall beat him with a rod, and deliver his soul from hell.” Proverbs 23:13-15 NKJV
Do not withhold anything that will shape your child into a wonderful personality under God; a fragrance of Christ on the face of the earth. There is so much to glean but these two scriptures tell us that if we put our children under a proper parenting system, we will be able to drive hell from their hearts and delete foolishness from them.
Putting kids in a proper parenting system will result in having godly adults when they grow up, because they will never depart from the principles instilled into them.
Now, there is a deeper truth we need to know at this point. You may not be an orphan naturally, but you can be an orphan by God’s KINGDOM definition.
By the definition of Christ, an orphan to God is not the person with no earthly parents. An orphan is one with no Heavenly parenting; one without the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Heavenly Father parenting their lives. Yes, there is a parenting that is from above that makes one a practical Christian.
Meaning, you may have both parents alive and well, if you do not have the Spirit of the Heavenly Father in your life, parenting it from day to day, you are an orphan. We find this in what Jesus said when He was about ascending to Heaven.
He said;
“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:15-18 NKJV
THERE SO MUCH TO GLEAN FROM THIS SCRIPTURE
As we can see, Jesus promised His disciples and us in general that He will not leave them as orphans, He will come to us. That gave us a new light of what orphanage is; it is not just not having natural parents or proper natural parenting system. It is not having a Heavenly Parenting system.
You can make Heaven without earthly parents, but will never make Heaven without the Heavenly parenting that Christ brings by His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Father.
Heavenly Parenting is a mystery and an activity that is carried out in our lives by the Spirit of our Heavenly Father, the Holy Spirit. It is a catalyst of practical Christian living.
Off course, If you are not Fathered by God, definitely, you will be fathered by the flesh, the world, and the devil, there is no middle ground.
People who are fathered by the flesh live a life of sin. They lead a carnal Christian life that we shared about yesterday. They follow the dictates of the flesh and do all it tells them to do. Those fathered by the devil walk in lies and deceit even if they are church leaders. They will persecute, torment, or even seek to kill you if you tell them Bible truths that expose their evil nature. Those fathered by the world maintain friendship with it and cannot submit to the mystery of godliness.
Jesus said to the Church leaders of his days and religious people “you are of your father the devil. The desires of your father you will do.” That tells us that not everyone you see on earth is fathered by God. So many are fathered by other things. By their fruits we know!”
A lot to reflect on have been shared today.
In closing, I want us to understand that our eternal destination will be determine by who father us; God, the flesh, the evil and corrupt system of this world, or the devil. If we are fathered by anything or anyone but God, we will not make Heaven when we die.
Salvation is coming into the Fatherhood of God! Practical Christianity is a Child of the daily Fatherhood from God.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.”
They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.”
Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.”
Then they said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God.”
Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.
Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.
When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. John 8:37-45 NKJV