OPEN HEAVENS Devotional – Monday February 22nd 2016
TOPIC: APOSTATE OR REFORMER?
Memorize: Behold, the hire of the labourers who have
reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud,
crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of
the Lord of Sabaoth. James 5:4
Read: 1st Kings 18:41-46,
41 And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee
up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain.
42 So Ahab went up to eat and to drink.
And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the
earth, and put his face between his knees,
43 And said to his servant, Go up now,
look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing.
And he said, Go again seven times.
44 And it came to pass at the seventh
time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a
man's hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get
thee down that the rain stop thee not.
45 And it came to pass in the mean while,
that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And
Ahab rode, and went to Jezreel.
46 And the hand of the Lord was
on Elijah; and he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of
Jezreel.
Bible in one year: Luke 14:25-17:10, Job 27:1-12
MESSAGE
Apostasy in Christendom refers to religious rebellion. It
is the withdrawal of loyalty or a breaking away from the leadership or
authority of God. An apostate is a practicing Christian that once pledged
allegiance to God and the Bible doctrines, then afterwards turned back to live
contrary to his avowed belief and declaration of faith. On the other hand, a
reformer refers to a person that is making efforts to bring back those that
strayed from godly commitments, to the proper form of Christian life. A
reformer would do everything possible to instruct apostates, Christians and
unbelievers, in the complete renewal of biblical instructions of Christianity.
Apostasy occurred in several places in the Bible, and
each occurrence reveals God’s displeasure and terrible anger against apostates
and anyone that incites the people to rebel against Him. I have frequently
shared stories of several individuals who came to accept Jesus at the peak of
their troubles when their situations were hopeless, and later decided to
abandon God after they had received divine solutions to their problems through
Jesus. Some years ago, when we tried to follow-up on one of such people, he
said that a hospitalised fellow is usually allowed to go home after a successful
medical treatment. He viewed the Church as a hospital and thought he didn’t
have any business with God whatsoever after being healed. The end of such
ungrateful and rebellious people is always worse than their beginning. I pray
that you will not be overcome by the spirit of apostasy in Jesus’ name. Hebrew
6:4-6 says:
“For it is possible for those who were once enlightened,
and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy
Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to
come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they
crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”
It is important to note that apostasy is not a casual sin
but a voluntary rejection of God’s will. It is a conscious departure from the
Fatherhood of God, and a deliberate walk away from Jesus Christ and everything
He stands for. This is the reason why the above Bible passage presents apostasy
as a terrible error that is virtually impossible to remediate. May the Lord
deliver anyone that is in any form of backsliding today in Jesus’ name.
On the other hand, the main assignment of a reformer is
to call the Church of God and His people into genuine repentance and a careful
reconciliation between contemporary Christian practice and Bible doctrines. The
body of Christ must be delivered from end-time lukewarmness, modernism, and the
doctrine of relativity that is presently holding it in captivity. May we yield
ourselves to be used as the Lord raises reformers that will re-ignite the fire
of revival in the body of Christ today in Jesus’ name.
Key Point
Father, please set me on fire and use me as an instrument
of reformation in Your Church in Jesus’ Name.
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