Open Heavens Devotional by Pastor E.A. Adeboye
MEMORIZE: “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.” (Rom. 11:22).
READ: Acts. 12:20-24
Holiness is central to the present and the afterlife. If God reveals His love, power, faith, wisdom, etc., through your life but you lack holiness, you will be unable to see Him in the end (Heb 12:14). It is certain that no matter how anointed you are, you will die one day. In spite of his double-portion anointing, Elisha still died. Those with healing ministries will die one day. Are you a prosperity minister? One day you will go. Have you been fraudulently amassing wealth and using such proceeds to buy cars or build houses? One day, it’s either you leave the houses or they will leave you. Let holiness be your main hunger and desire.
Why was a Bible character like Gehazi born? According to 2 Kings 5:20-27, he was born to show the world that it is possible to be so close to greatness and still miss it. That will not be your portion! When I was told that some pastors still manipulate records in their favour, I told them there will always be someone to follow the footprints of Gehazi and Judas. Some press men once asked me what I have to say concerning one of our pastors who stole government money. I told them that if Judas could emerge out of only 12 disciples that Jesus had, I should be commended for one Judas out of over 50,000 pastors! They laughed. The truth is if God cannot use you to show His good side to the world, He will use you to teach the world that He is a God of judgement. What is God telling the world through your life? If Gehazi could miss greatness because of a little weakness he failed to tame when he could, you had better worked on your flesh today so that it does not disappoint you when it matters most.
Another person that experienced God’s severity was Herod. According to Acts 12:20-24, God created him to show the world a glimpse of His anger. Hebrews 10:31says, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God”. The death of this wicked Herod was like watching a horror movie only that this time, the movie was in real life. As he moved from his height of glory to a height of disgrace, everyone there realize that God was to be feared. Do you fear God? Always remember that we will all appear before the judgement seat of Christ.
ACTION POINT:
Father, whatever will make me an example of Your severity, take it away from my life today.
Bible in One year: 2 Tim. 1-4
Comments
Post a Comment