RESPONSIBILITIES OF GOD’S CHILDREN II – Thursday April 27th 2017
Memorise; Abstain from all appearance of evil. 1st Thessalonians 5:22
14 Be
ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship
hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light
with darkness?
15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
16 And
what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple
of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in
them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.
18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
Bible in one year: Numbers 22, Jeremiah 21:11-22:10, Hymn: Sing hymn 6
MESSAGE:
Yesterday,
we looked at some of the responsibilities of the children of God in
ensuring that they finish the Christian race in triumph. Another of
these responsibilities is that children of God must be on the lookout
for whatever appears to be evil and run away from it. Anything that can
lead to fornication or adultery, anything that has a shade of idolatry,
or anything that has to do with love of money falls into the category of
things you should flee from (1st Corinthians 6:18, 1st Corinthians 10:14, 1st Timothy 6:9-10).
Living a holy life is not automatic as some presume; we have to make a
conscious effort to live holy. We wrestle not against flesh and blood;
rather, we wrestle against principalities, powers, rulers of the
darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6:12).
To be effective in our warfare, our strategy has to be both offensive
and defensive in nature. How do we engage in defensive warfare? It is by
tactically abstaining from the world of darkness and sin.
In
today’s Bible reading, we are exposed to the practical way of engaging
in defensive spiritual warfare.
Open Heavens Daily Devotional 2017. The
first thing is not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers
because the Bible expressly says that friendship with the world is
enmity against God, and that whosoever will be a friend to the world is
an enemy of God (James 4:4).
It is however unfortunate that some Christians don’t see this as an
eternal truth. Even some pastors will tell you that we must be friendly
with the world in other to win them. The question is ever since we have
been making friends with worldly people, how many of them have we won?
Instead, on arrival, they pollute the Church, and we end up becoming
more like them! The problem is that the Church does not want to take the
lonely stand for the truth anymore; we want to be world-compliant. Have
we forgotten that the Almighty God assures us that even if the world
forsakes us, He would be with us (Hebrew 13:5)?
How happy our God would be, if His Church would take the stance that
Shadrach, Mechach and Abednego took in Babylon, when they were faced
with Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace (Daniel 3:16-18).
Beloved,
it is your responsibility not only to rebuke the words of darkness but
also to run away from all appearances of evil when necessary. Joseph did
this successfully, and although he suffered for it for a while, he was
later exalted to become the Prime Minister of Egypt (Genesis 39:11-23).
Open Heavens 2017 Thursday 27 April 2017:- Responsibilities of God’s
children II. That will be your story in Jesus’ Name. As you separate
yourself to the Lord in holiness, your purity will stand you out from
the crowd and cause you to be exalted in Jesus’ Name.
Action Point
Read Pslam 1 meditatively and pray that God will help you to always shun the presence of evil and its agents.
Open Heaven Daily Devotional, written by Pastor E.A Adeboye,
The
General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, one of the
largest evangelical church in the world and also the President of Christ
the Redeemer's Ministries.
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