TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 21ST JUNE 2022)
“Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and take notice! Seek in her broad squares to see if you can find a man [as Abraham sought in Sodom], one who does justice, who seeks truth, sincerity, and faithfulness; and I will pardon [Jerusalem—for one uncompromisingly righteous person].
And though they say, As the Lord lives, surely they swear falsely.
O Lord, do not your eyes look on the truth? [They have meant to please You outwardly, but You look on their hearts.] You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; You have consumed them, but they have refused to take correction or instruction. They have made their faces harder than a rock, they have refused to repent and return to You.
Then I said, surely these are only the poor; they are [sinfully] foolish and have no understanding, for they know not the way of the Lord, the judgment (the just and righteous law) of their God.:” Jeremiah 5:1-4 AMPC
WELCOME TO THE 172ND DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE
The LORD our God is mighty! He has been rejoicing over us with singing all the days of this year. It was not just this year we have seen Him do that, it has been the trend. Indeed, so much that He said and promised to the Church in the wilderness is being fulfilled in our days!
Today God has a word for us! But let’s start with His works in the nation of Israel.
You see, Israel was the Church in the wilderness of the law, while the present Church is the Church in the Canaan of the law, which is the grace of God.
Unfortunately many of us do not know that the law was a tutor to bring the Jewish race to Christ who is the grace of God and fulfillment of the Law! It was not to bring us to Christ. We are to come to Christ through the fulfillment of the law not through the practices of the law.
The Bible says;
“Now before the faith came, we were perpetually guarded under the Law, kept in custody in preparation for the faith that was destined to be revealed (unveiled, disclosed),
So that the Law served [to us Jews] as our trainer [our guardian, our guide to Christ, to lead us] until Christ [came], that we might be justified (declared righteous, put in right standing with God) by and through faith.” Galatians 3:23-24 AMPC
This is where things get very interesting because many do not know that we are Gentiles and not Jews. And that The practice of the law is called Judaism. The practice is not ours to keep because we are not called to be Judaist. We are called to be Christlike.
We are to study and see how the law led the Jews to Jesus and how it was fulfilled in Christ and abide by its fulfillment not the practice.
The Jews themselves are to do the same; abandoned the practices of the law and embrace their fulfillment in Christ.
Sadly, so many believers do not know this! That is why many are still unsaved by moral nature despite reciting the sinner’s prayer.
Dwelling on the things God used and did under the law (or in the dispensation of the law) is the reason for witchcraft in the Church today. It is the reason for the turning of the Church into a metaphysical cult. It is the reason for the mystical use of oil for charismatic witchcraft but presented as a symbol of the Holy Spirit.
For you to know that the use of oil in church today is just a scam, you will find preachers using oil to do what oil was not even used to do when it was a symbol of the Holy Spirit.
BUT THE BLINDNESS WILL NOT LET PEOPLE SEE THAT
There are those who are made to drink it for healing and deliverance using James 5:14 and Mark 6:12-13; two scriptures that did not even support such misuse. Others pour it into the soil to ‘sanctify’ the soil (while it is the hearts of men that needs sanctification).
Many others use it for other purposes. But it is all a scam because the Holy Spirit is the replacement for the oil.
The oil no longer serves as His symbol in God’s kingdom it only serves that way in the kingdom of preachers. I have explained this over and over and will keep doing so till Jesus comes.
The only symbol of the Holy Spirit today is nothing. He is here now. He does not need a symbol.
Those still creating and using symbols for what has already arrived are either ignorant, mischievous or just doing what the devil has anointed them to do in order to launch an attack on the cross of Christ.
The Bible says;
“For there are many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, who walk (live) as enemies of the cross of Christ (the Anointed One).” Philippians 3:18 AMPC
Sadly this breed is in the Church. And like I said yesterday in the 6th session of our Sons of God summit, the enemies of the Church cannot destroy the Church or cut it off from the face of the earth. But the enemies of the Cross can. They are more lethal than the enemies of the Church.
If you look at Church History, you will find out that what the enemy of the Church could not do for 100 years the enemies of the cross did in few years and left the church dead until the reformation.
They quenched the fire of God from the altar of men’s hearts and turned Christianity into a form of godliness without power. It became a state religion and died completely for many years until the LORD stirred Martin Luther the catholic priest to come up with the reformation.
Though with very limited revelation and a lot of carnality, God use it to bring back the fire to altars of men’s heart over the years and today we are where we are.
THE ENEMIES OF THE CROSS ARE MORE LETHAL THAN THE ENEMIES OF THE CHURCH.
God may not launch an immediate offensive at the enemies of the Church because they help the Church to grow strong and fiery as they try to destroy it. But He will always use His holy apostles and prophets to deal with the enemies of the cross because they are the only ones with the know-how to destroy His church.
They destroy the Church in seven ways that were taught yesterday. There are other ways, we just listed those seven.
One of the many things each believer must guard against is how not to be taken back to a life of sin because that is one of the major reasons for the wrong doctrines and all that. They destroy the potency of the faith, giving us a false version of everything Christ offers.
The ultimate destiny of those who have been severely attacked by the enemies of the cross was revealed by Peter when he said;
“For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through [the full, personal] knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they again become entangled in them and are overcome, their last condition is worse [for them] than the first.
For never to have obtained a [full, personal] knowledge of the way of righteousness would have been better for them than, having obtained [such knowledge], to turn back from the holy commandment which was [verbally] delivered to them.
There has befallen them the thing spoken of in the true proverb, The dog turns back to his own vomit, and, The sow is washed only to wallow again in the mire.” 2 Peter 2:20-22 AMPC
If you look at this scripture, you will discover that the ultimate destiny of a victim of the enemy of the cross is not an immediate death or destruction but a backslidden Christian life that manifest in two ways; a Church goer who will never make Heaven but believing that he will and one who is tired of Church because of the nonsense happening and just nothing to do with it again.
IN OTHER WORDS, SATAN WANTS TO TURN US ALL INTO DOGS AND SWINE BY THE ACTIVITIES OF THE ENEMIES OF THE CROSS.
A dog is a Christians who has gone back to his old ways and forgotten Church completely or attending it occasionally. A swine is a Christian who is still active in Church but lives a life of sin calling it a weakness.
When you are attacked by an enemy of the cross, you become one of them.
That is why you see many adulterers and adulteresses in Church today who do not care about God’s judgment. You find believers today who do not hold strictly to the word of truth and righteousness.
You find hypocrites everywhere who profess to know God but in works deny Him.
You find people living a life that is not Christ but calling themselves Christians. You find others who have been robbed, abused and bruised by these enemies of the cross not wanting anything to do with God again.
When we moved from four people in attendance to eight hundred between 2015-2017, 80% of those who made up the members of our church were believers who had given up on God and had stopped going to church. Some had backslidden completely and returned to their vomits like dogs, while others where living the Christian life of a pig.
You can see 2 Peter 2:20-22 fulfilled in their lives after sitting under the enemies of the Cross for too long.
But when they heard the voice of the LORD presenting the doctrine of Christ to them by a man’s voice on radio and the media, they began to come one after the other until all came and found their LORD and savior again. Today they have become temples for GOD in the Spirit enjoying the grace of GOD upon their lives.
We are on 30-day journey with the Cry of the Spirit of the living God on fear. Today is the 21st day. I discovered that what kept some of these ex victims of enemies of the cross under their ministries even after realizing that they were wrong was ecclesiastical intimidation and fear for curses that they threatened them with.
They told them if they live, this and that will happen to them. They knew some left and actually suffered the things the preacher said will happen but what they did not know is that their living was not the reason they suffered those things but their inability to find the LORD after they left was the problem.
Only a demon inspired preacher will threaten you not to leave his church.
THE ENEMIES OF THE CROSS WILL USE RELIGIOUS FEAR TO KEEP YOU IN THEIR CHURCHES WHEN YOU WANT TO LEAVE.
They will remind you of all they did for you and how it will hunt you if you leave. They will unleash their pastors to track you down until you become too weak to escape from their cage. They will twist the Bible and say so many things to you that if you are not strong in faith will keep you in their cage forever.
I have seen families torn apart by enemies of the cross who wedded them because either the husband or the wife saw the light and wanted to escape. Those who were bold stood their grounds but those who were not caved in.
When it comes to these things, family comes first but the victims of the enemies of the cross will put their antichrist pastors ahead of God and their marriage.
The reason for the pressure they mount on you is because they do not want to lose you. They know if they do, their influence over others will begin to reduce until they escape too. They just want to keep the people in their unsaved states but calling them saved and giving them positions to occupy in church.
As I look at what the LORD is doing today, I see more souls trapped like those who were saved in those earlier days of our ministry here being delivered by the LORD.
Am so glad that God is causing His word to run to and fro, using all His Holy Spirit can find. Finally, all who are appointed unto salvation will be saved. The wheat will depart from the tares and return where the LORD has designed for them.
Another earthquake of deliverance is forming and you will see many leave those churches whose preachers have become enemies of the cross. It is just a matter of time. We are at a particular stage. After now, we will be ushered into the stage where the captives will be bold enough to leave these churches.
ONE MAY BE WONDERING WHY GOD IS SENDING HIS WORD TO THE CHURCH INSTEAD OF THE WORLD?
The reason is in our devotional text. The text says;
“Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and take notice! Seek in her broad squares to see if you can find a man [as Abraham sought in Sodom], one who does justice, who seeks truth, sincerity, and faithfulness; and I will pardon [Jerusalem—for one uncompromisingly righteous person].
And though they say, As the Lord lives, surely they swear falsely.
O Lord, do not your eyes look on the truth? [They have meant to please You outwardly, but You look on their hearts.] You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; You have consumed them, but they have refused to take correction or instruction. They have made their faces harder than a rock, they have refused to repent and return to You.
Then I said, surely these are only the poor; they are [sinfully] foolish and have no understanding, for they know not the way of the Lord, the judgment (the just and righteous law) of their God.:” Jeremiah 5:1-4 AMPC
This scripture is a perfect description of the spiritual state of many churches today.
Everyone who is intimate with the LORD, know that the Church is this sick – she is morally sick. And that a morally sick Church cannot bring healing to a dying world. The activities of the enemies of the cross has made the Church to be morally sick as revealed in these words of Jeremiah. And God wants her healed, hence sending the word.
It is difficult today to find an uncompromising righteous people in so many local churches.
It is difficult to find many who does justice, who seeks the truth, sincerity and faithfulness. Most of us live very morally depraved lives saying the Church is for the sick and morally depraved. But like I said the other day, you may come sick and morally depraved, you are not to remain so.
However, that is not possible when you become connected to any preacher who is an enemy of the Cross. You will be moving from depravity to depravity believing you will make Heaven.
SADLY, THOSE WHO ARE ATTACKED BY THE ENEMIES OF THE CROSS ARE THOSE ONES WHO DEFEND THEM AND MAKE SURE THEY CONTINUE THEIR MINISTRIES.
They do not know that as they sit and absorb what they teach and follow all they ask them to do, their faith is on the line. Their eternal destiny is on the line. That is why God is furious and that was why Paul wept when he was talking about their activities in his days.
You may be wondering how will someone be the defender and financier of his attacker? That is not possible in certain warfare but in certain warfare it is very possible. They defend and finance them by giving them tithes, offerings, sacrifices and submission.
They attack whoever expose what they are doing and call them names.
That is why there will be riot in hell. Its is just that it will not be the kind of riots you see on earth. People will look for their apostles and spiritual fathers to beat up when they get there to discover that they took them there. When they discover that they made use of their church attendance, giving and submission to seal them for eternal death blindly.
There will be a lot of regrets in hell my friend!
There will be so many who will say to the LORD we did this and that in your name, and the LORD will say to them,
“depart from me because you did those things under the enemies of the cross.”
“You used your tithes and submission to finance their ministries. That was lawlessness. You practiced lawlessness, so you can’t enter here!”
“I warned you through my apostolic voices, but you branded them enemies and said they came to destroy the Church while you and your pastor were the ones destroying my church with the false doctrines and the so-called prophetic acts you claim that I said you should perform.”
“You use lawlessness to preach my gospel and lead people through sinners’ prayers. But they were not truly saved. So, depart from me!”
I believe enough has been said. Let he that has an ear hear what the Spirit is saying to the Churches!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY.
“A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’
And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ Matthew 7:18-23 NKJV