I was exchanging pleasantries with a sister I had not seen
for quite a while; and she asked me, ‘how is your walk with the Lord?’ I
replied, ‘I bless God!’ And we set up a time to meet and catch up. After she
left, the question she asked returned to my mind again: ‘how is your walk with
the Lord?’ This question is very important as it transcends one’s physical wellbeing
to one’s spiritual wellbeing. As sons of God, if we desire to reign with the
Lord Jesus Christ when He comes, we must be of sound mind and our walk perfect
before Him. We cannot be neither here nor there with Him. No matter what we
face on a daily basis, we must be persistent and unwavering in our faith. We
were warned by Apostle Paul by the Spirit to: “Examine and test and evaluate
your own selves to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing the
proper fruits of it. Test and prove yourselves [not Christ]…” (2Corinthians
13:5a, AMP).
In our present time, there are so many strange teachings that have
given rise to strange behaviors among some members of the Body of Christ that
negates the principles of God. If there was ever a time we must be able to sift
between the undiluted Word of God and gospel that presents itself as God’s
Word, it must be now! The false gospel sounds so true that the lines between it
and the True Gospel are getting blurrier by the day! The wisdom and blessing to
live in this world and walk perfectly before God has been given to us from the
day we said ‘yes’ to Him. The Lord knows without Him, we cannot attain such a
feat in a world ruled and filled with darkness. Only in Him can we shine like the
stars we have been created to be: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the
heavens in Christ; for He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world,
to be holy and blameless in His sight” (Ephesians 1:3-4).
When we continue to
spend time in His Word, studying and meditating, God trains our ears to hear
Him and to see the false before it contaminates us: “[The Servant of God says]
The Lord God has given Me the tongue of a disciple and of one who is taught,
that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He wakens
Me morning by morning, He wakens My ear to hear as a disciple [as one who is
taught]” (Isaiah 50:4, AMP). However, for God’s Word to take root in us we must
purge ourselves of teachings that negate His Word or our hearts will constantly
be in conflict with God’s Word. And I can assure you that, it is a matter of
time, the negative and nonsensical philosophies of the world and its systems
will have an upper hand because the Lord will not struggle with you if you
choose to adhere to the other gospel!
For us to understand this, let’s consider
the parable Jesus told His disciples to counter the Pharisees accusations that
His disciples behave contrary to their disciples and that of John the Baptist: “…No
one rips up a new garment to make patches for an old, worn-out one. If you tear
up the new to make a patch for the old, it would not match the old garment”
(Luke 5:36, TPT). This means if you try to fix the teachings and principles of
Jesus Christ into what you had learned from the world and its philosophies on
how to live, it will leave you deluded! To live Jesus’ way, we must totally surrender
and forsake our former way of thinking, which is that of the world. Beloved, don’t
be deceived, if you are not living for Jesus Christ, you are living for the
world; there is no in-between! That is why we were warned: “See to it that no
one carries you off as spoil or makes you yourselves captive by his so-called
philosophy and intellectualism and vain deceit (idle fancies and plain
nonsense), following human tradition (men’s ideas of the material rather than
the spiritual world), just crude notions following the rudimentary and
elemental teachings of the universe and disregarding [the teachings of] Christ
[the Messiah]” (Colossians 2:8, AMP).
Beloved, it is a terrible self-delusion
to think you can mix and match the things of God with the things of the world
no matter how good they look or sound! The New will always pull away from the
old, and the garment (life) will be ruined! Beloved, how is your walk with the
Lord? Are you still trying to fit Christ into the system you are operating in?
It will only end in disaster. Look at the mirror (Word of God) again and
examine yourself, if you are still in faith, walking in step with the Lord!
When you look into the mirror you must recognize yourself in Christ: “…Do you
not yourselves realize and know [thoroughly by an ever-increasing experience]
that Jesus Christ is in you – unless you are [counterfeits] disapproved on
trial and rejected” (2Corinthians 13:5b, AMP)?
Finally, if what you see is not Christ,
then quietly re-assess yourself and readjust. Don’t let the false teachings
that masquerade as truth deceive and rob you of your place in Him. But stand in
by continuing to draw near to Him: “…And since we have a great high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of
faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed
in pure water. Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering,
for He Who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10: 21-23). Jesus Christ’s coming is
not an “if”, but is a “when”; and He is almost here! Beloved, this is the time
to boldly answer ‘I am in step with Him’. May He find you and I in unwavering faith
when He returns to take us home, in Jesus Christ name! God bless you.
Comments
Post a Comment