TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 29TH AUGUST 2022)
“For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.
For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.
But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.” 2 Peter 2:20-22 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 241ST DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
Jesus is our refuge, our strength and strong tower. He is our shelter and our judgement seat. Amazingly, He is also our mercy seat. It is a mystery how your savior is both your judgment and mercy seat. But that is the God we serve.
It is another beautiful day form Him, who is also called the Day. We shall rejoice and be glad in it.
Day unto day He have been loading us with benefits. Night unto night He have been watching over us. The terror that walks by night and destructions that lay by day have always met Him instead of us each time they move against us.
Indeed, if you are not serving the LORD, you are missing something.
That is why Christ should be the Center of your Christianity. If you make Church or pastor the center, you will be lost. If you make money the center you will be gone. You do not make even your earthly needs the center of your Christianity.
Anything other than Christ that you make the center of your Christianity will lead you to another Christ, another gospel, another lord and another spirit. And ultimately lead you to hell. The Bible says
“For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.” 1 Corinthians 8:5-6 NKJV
People with Christ at the center of their faith, have One and only true God as their God. Those with other things at the center of their faith serve the gods of fortress, the gods of gold, the god of riches, the gods of sex or etc. They are slaves of the antichrist spirit that make them use oil as symbol of the Holy spirit, waters, salt and, handkerchiefs and etc. as prophetic acts.
ONE OF THE MAJOR PROBLEMS WE HAVE TODAY IS CHRISTIANITY WITH ANOTHER CHRIST AT THE CENTER.
That is why you find so many churches empty of the real presence of GOD, and so many people no longer interested in Church. They went to Church and found what they thought was Christ without knowing it was not Christ hence becoming weak. After a while they withdrew.
If you give people the antichrists instead of Christ, you will send them back to the world after a season of staying in the Church. That is why today we have some many youths who were once in Church back to the enemy. Some have even become Muslims. They just hate anything called Church.
When knowing Christ intimately Him crucified is not at the Centre of a man’s ministry or calling, or a believer’s faith, it will result in serving other lords and gods ignorantly; leading to the loss of souls (those who came to Christ) to the kingdom of darkness.
The danger of not making Christ the center of the lives of those who come to Church can be eternal.
I remember the vision I saw of well dressed Christians, marching to hell with their Bibles in their hands. Obviously, if you lead a Christian life that Christ is not at the center, you will marching to hell with your Bible in your hands without knowing it.
A Christian life that is not Christ centered is a spiritual catastrophe that can keep one under what the Bible calls “the reproach of Egypt” on this side of eternity, and bring him or her into the pits of hell, despite being in Church, on the other side.
Sadly, the type of gospel people have listened to over the years have made them take the recitation of the sinner’s prayer to be salvation instead of being discipled. After reciting the sinner’s prayer, they are given an assurance of salvation without conversion. And salvation without conversion is false.
Then none remembers hell anymore, and the possible of going there even after the religious shows continues to linger.
This is one of the many things the Josiah generation is coming to stop in the end time Church. God is preparing them now, using preachers who fall into the Bible pattern of the Young prophet from Judah. The preachers have been strategically planted in the four corners of the earth.
YOU MAY NOT HAVE MET THEM BUT THEY ARE THERE. SOME KNOWN, MANY UNKNOWN.
A lot is going to stop in the Church when the Josiah generation arrives. One of it is the plan of the devil to take people from Church to hell; a plan that has prospered more than before in the last two decades.
Our devotional text made it clear that the plan of the devil is to use false teachings that sound true, because of the miracles they bring, teachings that make people use oil in prayers, raise, break or silence altars, use water, salt and etc. calling them prophetic acts to keep people away from Christ but close to His counterfeit.
The plan is to use these and other forms of man-made gospel to return people back to their unsaved states so that they slip into hell fire from the Church. Sadly, that has worked very well for him because many are ignorant of what the true grace of God teaches.
The text says;
“For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.
For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.
But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.” 2 Peter 2:20-22 NKJV
This scripture holds alot for our generation. In Bible symbols who are dogs and who are pigs?
Dogs are believers who have returned back to a life of sin consequently walking away from a living church that will not let them live doggy lifestyles to a dead church, or walking away from any kind of Church completely. While pigs are those who live in sin and still call themselves born again.
We have these classes of people today and they are increasing by the day because Christ is not at the center of so many churches.
For instance, some preachers that the immature and misguided people in church take as true and alive are making altars, oil, and all other money-making systems the center of their ministries.
THEY DO NOT KNOW OR HOLD ON TO THE AUTHENTIC DOCTRINE OF CHRIST.
Some are still presenting evangelistic teachings to people who should be listening to apostolic doctrines of Christ. That is the reason many are becoming dogs and pigs instead of Sons of God.
Satan’s plan, as the Bible reveals, is to make sure when people come to church, they are not presented with sound doctrines but the preaching they want to hear. Hence heaping teachers around their lives according to their lust and carnal desires, consequently loosing their eternal rest with Christ.
A lot of preachers and believers are going to missed either Heaven, or their rewards in Heaven for presenting the antichrist instead of Christ to the lost world. Jesus Himself gave us a clue of what to expect when He said;
“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 7:21-23 NKJV
Like I have always said, scriptures like these should scare us and bring us into alignment with the will of Christ. It should take us away from lawlessness and make us lead Christ centered lives. Which brings us to the main thrust of our 31- Day journey of faith, the Cry of the Spirit on spiritual fathering.
Authentic spiritual fathering will lead you to live a Christ centered life.
This is the aspect of spiritual fathering that is difficult to find in Church today because most preachers are not Christ centered. They sing Jesus with their lips but by their fruits it is clear that He is far from their hearts. The Bible says;
“They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.” Titus 1:16 NKJV
If you look at the work of the many so-called spiritual fathers, side by side what our Bible fathers laid down for us, you will see clearly the darkness we are being led into. While our Bible fathers fathered the sons of their generation to led Christ centered lives, the fathers of our generation are leading us to lead other kinds of lives.
THAT IS WHY THE ETERNAL DESTINY OF MANY IS IN JEOPARDY.
Recently I heard of a man who scammed church members and others, billions of Kenyan shillings made a pastor by his spiritual father who he shared the money with. The idea is to bring him under the “touch not mine anointed” cover that we preachers use, so that people will not pursue him again for their monies.
And it worked! But the day of judgment will sort them out.
You cannot easily find a spiritual father today who will father you to led a Christ centered Christian life. Sometimes I weep because of this development. I saw Christianity in the 80s and late 90s how it was. I saw what a spiritual father whose life is Christ centered look like.
It breaks my heart when I see that what we have today.
I pray that God will raise for us spiritual fathers who will make our Christianity Christ centered. A lot need to be set in order in the church today like Titus was placed by Paul in Crete to do. If you are not seeing that, then you are in spiritual blindness.
I pray that the present Church come out of the woods we have been led to and return to the foundations that our Bible fathers laid in Jesus precious name. Amen!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“For this reason, I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you— if a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination.
For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled,
holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict. Titus 1:5-9 NKJV