Devotion: Destroyed For Lack Of Knowledge

Because we have not followed God’s instructions, we have had to put our faith and our trust in man’s interpretation of who God is, what God is, what God does, and what God says, just to scratch the surface.  This is not to say anything negative about the man and women of God who are amongst us spreading God’s true gospel, but is directed towards those who are spreading a gospel of some other kind.  Because we repeatedly fail to follow God’s instructions, we find ourselves deeper and deeper in this abyss that we continually dig for ourselves, with no recognizable way to exit.  God has instructed us “not to believe every spirit but to test each one to see if they be of God or not, because there be many false prophets that are in the world” (I John 4:1).  God has warned us “to beware of these false prophets that come to us in sheep’s clothing because inwardly they are but greedy voracious predators” (Matthew 7:15).  But we have gotten things so mixed up that we listen to and believe, without question, the wolves in sheep’s clothing, and try our best to discredit the true men and women of God, that is not believe or not accept, as truth, the gospel that they speak.  And the really sad part is that we continue to do the same thing, while expecting God to do something about our problems and our situations.  Well, we have some bad news for all who are expecting God to move in your life; “It ain’t gonna happen,”  We guess the correct thing to say is that it is not going to happen until we do our part.  Until we do what we are supposed to do.

“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (II Timothy 2:15).

God has instructed us “to study his word to show ourselves approved unto him.”  This means that God wants us “to investigate his word, he wants us analyze his word, and he wants us to question his word.”  He wants us to find out all that we can find out about his word.  Only by doing this first will we be able to follow the second part of his instructions, which is, “to rightly divide the word of truth.”  Since we do not study, then we are unable show ourselves approved to God.  Since we do not study, then we “typically wrongly divide the word of truth.”  Because we have wrongly divided the word of truth, we do not have the proper knowledge we need to test the every spirit as God has told us to do.  And because we do not test every spirit to see if they be of God, then we lack the needed knowledge to recognize the wolves in sheep’s clothing.  Think about it this way, usually the person giving the test is the same person who already knows the answer to all the test questions.  But because we do not have answers, we do not know the right questions to ask and by not asking, we accept anything and anyone that sounds as if it may have come from God.

But only if we would follow the instructions of God and study his word.  Because if we studied, we would be able “to rightly divide the word of truth” and by rightly dividing the word of truth, “we would gain the needed knowledge to test every spirit to see if it be of God.”  We are being destroyed because we lack knowledge (Hosea 4:6).  And because we have no knowledge, we are being held captives (Isaiah 5:13), imprisoned in a world of deceit.  But the really sad part about all of this is that we do not even see any of this is happening to us.  Because we have failed to recognize that there “are false apostles and deceitful workers, who can transform themselves into the apostles of Christ” (II Corinthians 11:13), we have freely place our faith and trust in their interpretation of who God is, what God is, what God does, and what God says, amongst other things.  God has instructed us not to believe every spirit but to test each one, because “Satan is one who can transform himself into an angel of light and his servant can transform themselves into ministers of righteousness” (II Corinthians 11:14-15).  In order “to do the test,” you must “have the knowledge” and the only way “to get the knowledge is to study.”  And by studying you learn “to rightly divide the word of truth” and once you learn “to rightly divide the word of truth, the revelation knowledge will come.”

As always, we pray that our inspirational message will abundantly bless you, greatly inform you, and that you will be the better for having read it.  If blessed by this message, please share so that others may be blessed as well.  Amen.

Enjoy your blessings - KW

Devotion: Jesus Is The Only Way

For the most part, believers and non-believers are familiar with the passage of scripture where Jesus says,

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one can come to the Father except through me (John 14:6 NLT).

Now according to scripture (Acts 4:12), there is no other name under all heaven for men to call whereby they can be saved, for salvation can be found through no one else but Jesus.  The problem is that no one knows exactly who Jesus is.  We are so confused, so influenced by Satan and this world, that we have accepted the Jesus that they preach.  Just as he in the Garden of Eden deceived Eve, he continues to deceive us today in much the same way.  Why would he change his methods since they worked so well for him in the beginning?  Satan has infiltrated the body of Christ, becoming an intricate component in the church so much so that we find it hard to recognize him.

Because of Satan’s influence, we have some who describe Jesus as God himself; others as part of the three-in-one trilogy called the Trinity.  Some believe him to be some combination of God and man, both one-hundred percent God and one-hundred percent man; or fifty percent God and fifty percent man; or some in between combination.  Some say he has no beginning because he always existed.  Others say he has always existed because he created the universe and all that we see while some say he helped the Father with creation.  Some say he has a beginning but he was, at some point created before the universe.  Still some say he had a beginning but not until he was brought forth, created in the womb of Mary.  Others say he existed from the beginning, asked God the Father to create him a body so he could come to earth, while some say he created himself a body so he could come to earth.  Some say he was the king of the Jews, while other say he was no king at all.  Some say he was poor while others say he was rich.  Some say he was white, some say he was black, while others claim some other variation.  Some say he performed all kinds of miracles and healed many people.  Some say he walked on the water, others claim he did not.  Some say he raised the dead.  Some say he raised himself from the dead.  Some say he died on the cross.  Some say he did not die on the cross.  Some say that he survived the cross to father many children.

With so much controversy surrounding the person named Jesus, how do you know that the one you are following is “the way, the truth and the life?”  Many follow the name of Jesus as if he was some type of rock star.  Others do all within their power to avoid mentioning his name.  Many try to prove his existence by any means necessary while others do everything in their power to refute him.  There are books after books written about Jesus.  There are movies and documentaries made about Jesus.  There are websites created to support Jesus and sites created to invalidate him.  So much information that it is hard to decipher it to get to the truth about Jesus.  Imagine believing yourself to be a believer only to find out what you believed you were you were not; all based on untruths.  Imagine believing yourself to be a follower of Jesus only to find out that the one whom you claimed to follow was not the one that you needed to follow; all based on deception.  Imagine believing yourself to be saved because you believed you joined the family only to find out that the family you joined was not the right one; all based on a lie.  Imagine believing yourself to be free from condemnation only to find out you have been held in captivity because you have rejected the knowledge needed to make yourself free; all based on fiction.  Imagine believing in a truth that has been manufactured by the great deceivers for the sole purpose of taking you out of the kingdom of heaven.  Imagine not even being aware of any of this until it was too late.  Come out of the darkness and get to know the real Jesus.  Jesus says,

“Look!  I have been standing at the door, and I am constantly knocking.  If anyone hears me calling him and opens the door, I will come in and fellowship with him and he with me (Revelation 3:20 TLB).  “My sheep recognize my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27 TLB).

There is but “one” who is “the way, the truth, and the life and no one will come to the Father except they come by “the one.”  The true Jesus is standing at the door, constantly knocking, waiting on those who hear his voice to answer his call and open the door so that he can come and fellowship with them and them with him.  Before it is too late, you need to learn to recognize his voice and get to know him intimately because there is only “the one.”

We again give thanks to God for this avenue that he has given us to share his word through our commentary.  We continually pray that God’s grace will be upon you and that these devotionals will be a blessing to you.  If you are blessed by them, please share so that others may be blessed as well.  Amen.

Enjoy your blessings - KW