UNGODLY EASE
"Woe to you who are at ease in Zion, and trust in Mount Samaria, notable persons in the chief nation, to whom the house of Israel comes!" - Amos 6:1
There is a grave danger in complacency and this is becoming the norm for us in the Christian faith today. The feeling of satisfaction or fulfillment based on men's applaud or mental delusion has made some proverbial of the old time and irrelevant in this day of much more grace.
When the heart no longer thirst for righteousness, where there is no more hunger for the work, when church politics and human management has taken over spiritual things in our hearts and lives; we begin tell stories of exploits of the past and count trophies of organisations yet we fail to realise that there is more!
The sins that break your heart to pray for men seem to be trivial now, the hypocrisy that you couldn't stand before is now what you have become a slave of. You no longer fast, yes you think it is a 'grace thing'. You are not stirred anymore to go for evangelism; you just discovered 'it is not my ministry'. You seem to have answer for your failing state. That is how you became cold and want to remain cold.
I know you have personal ambitions you want to attain in the kingdom, very soon, you may become the head of a arm in church or even a reverend. Yet you have missed the call, you have lost the fire, you have become indifferent and diplomatic. Your knowledge has crumbled your fellowship of the spirit. You are cold and out - yes you are at ease.
You no longer do the things you do then, yet you say it is in time and seasons. If you do those things now, wouldn't that time and season come?. Let us watch this thing that has made us so cold on the pews of the church, so intelligent in the secular yet insensitive and dull in the spirit. Let us weep for the revival that once encroached our lives. Let us pray for a reenactment of the commission.
Let us contend for this faith and make sure that till our last breath, we will not be at ease with the ungodliness of the world, we will not conform yet we will confront. We will not be moved by their wealth yet we will move the kingdom.
NO BUDGE
"Then Samuel told him everything, and hid nothing from him. And he said, 'It is the LORD. Let Him do what seems good to Him.'" - 1Sam 3:18
So Eli was warned beforehand of the doom that was imminent and he resigned to fate, and say as we say now 'it is God's will'. It is this ungodly ease that makes us comfortable even at the face of judgement. It is ease that makes us not to tremble at the message of hell. It is ease that causes us to excuse our weaknesses on the altar of 'grace'.
Could it be that the reason, we don't fear judgement is because the Lord has given us up to a reprobate mind? Could it be that we prefer to play religion than have a relationship with the father? What is making the prayer of mercy scares and prayer of selfish desire increase?. Why do we just have hope in this world, have we become this miserable? This is coldness and ease that unsettles the heavens.
The church is active in our present day, trying to appeal to the world for acceptance and not repentance, we are busy looking to affect the world while the stench of our personal lives just spoils all the work and effort. If the inward is clean the outside will be clean also. The fervency of our personal lives had long faded, now we are uneasy of how the world feels about us.
"Yet if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul." - Ezekiel 3:19
We now live in a society where our shortcomings are spelled out clearly but we do not make effort at correcting them. Anyone who tries to do an awakening or show our derailment is considered religious and unrealistic. The ease of the world is dangerous to God.
Let us not act as if we do not know, the Lord doesn't convict for jokes, He expects repentance when He makes our sins known - if we repent, He is committed to us. If we excuse them - He is committed to His judgement. The Lord considers sin as wickedness.
DO NOT SAY!
"Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, 'we have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones." - Luke 3:8
Do not begin to say to yourself, 'I know the Bible', do not begin to drown yourself in the illusions of things of the past, do not begin to think in your heart 'God understands'. It is a dip in spirituality that causes a Christian to foolishly depends on the father's salvation, or on the feat achieved in the past - do not say these things.
Those who have become traditionalists in the church today actually started fervently with a zeal so contagious they wanted to take on the world, but because they have allowed the praise of men or heritage gotten to get into their heads and warm their hearts, they have plunged into an irrecoverable ease that seems like coma.
Did the Lord tell you that mortal men are his mates, did the Lord show you your report card? You haven't even died not to talk of getting to heaven's gate, you're here claiming spiritual giant over undiscerning babes - a lethargic Christian is more dangerous than an unbeliever... Such men at ease will even quench the zeal of upcoming babes.
"So he said, 'I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword, I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.'" - 1Kings 9:10
Some of us in the service of the king begin to feel indispensable because it looks as if we are the only one in service, but the truth is that God is unfazed by your attitude - in fact, if you become too big in your eyes for the service, the Lord knows how to retire such a servant.
Elijah repeated the statement again in verse 14 and God actually had to put Elijah on a compulsory leave, the messenger cannot begin to feel bigger than the Sender. That you are being used is just a product of grace and not really a function of your hyper-activeness.
God is able to raise servants from touts, God is able to raise ministers from prostitutes, God is able to raise prophets from even the Muslims... Are you not aware that donkeys were used? Don't you know that the Master can send birds on errands. Do you not realise that even the trees praise the Lord... What then is all these your complacency all about?
Do not begin to slack in complacency, there are more grounds to cover. There is no curriculum vitae with God.
NO LONGER AT EASE
"Then His disciples remembered that it was written, 'Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up." - John 2:17
A Christian who isn't eaten up by zeal is actually taken off by coldness and slackness, we can't see your zeal because you are a conformist and comfortable with the status quo. How can you be where the Spirit is supressed yet you are all smiles thinking all is well - it is too dangerous.
It was this godly zeal that made Nehemiah uneasy with the state of Jerusalem walls, it was this zeal that made Esther to put her life on the line even though she was in comfort and may really not even have anything to lose. We must begin to see that when the fire isn't burning, coldness has set in.
You can be labelled overzealous, you can be said to be an extremists, yet this zeal must eat us up that, those who are at ease would realise their state. When Jesus showed His zealousness, eyebrows were raised, but non could deny the realities of errors being addressed.
"Then he said, 'Come with me, and see my zeal for the LORD.' So they had him ride in his chariot." - 2Kings 10:16
The Christian faith is an 'on the go' thing, if I can't see what your zeal for the Lord is, then you have entered spiritual coma. There are no spiritual pundits or analysts in the kingdom - please put your hand in the plow and stop being a commentator.
Please sir or ma, what are you doing for the Lord now? What are you even doing for yourself to remain in the faith? - this message is coming to you so as to evaluate your lukewarm state, so that there is profitability for the Master's business and to save your soul from hell.
The man who has spiritual zeal is a fervent man, such a person would be indignant of unrighteousness and would seek that righteousness is entrenched.
Activity isn't zeal, a pursuit to please God in every place and everytime, to be sensitive in the spirit is fervency.
CONCLUSION: Is it possible that you're at ease and dull? Maybe you aren't budging at the warnings of God because you are 'something' or have been something. It is time to be eaten up by a godly zeal.
God bless you and keep on being fervent.
© Akinsuroju Femi
There is a grave danger in complacency and this is becoming the norm for us in the Christian faith today. The feeling of satisfaction or fulfillment based on men's applaud or mental delusion has made some proverbial of the old time and irrelevant in this day of much more grace.
When the heart no longer thirst for righteousness, where there is no more hunger for the work, when church politics and human management has taken over spiritual things in our hearts and lives; we begin tell stories of exploits of the past and count trophies of organisations yet we fail to realise that there is more!
The sins that break your heart to pray for men seem to be trivial now, the hypocrisy that you couldn't stand before is now what you have become a slave of. You no longer fast, yes you think it is a 'grace thing'. You are not stirred anymore to go for evangelism; you just discovered 'it is not my ministry'. You seem to have answer for your failing state. That is how you became cold and want to remain cold.
I know you have personal ambitions you want to attain in the kingdom, very soon, you may become the head of a arm in church or even a reverend. Yet you have missed the call, you have lost the fire, you have become indifferent and diplomatic. Your knowledge has crumbled your fellowship of the spirit. You are cold and out - yes you are at ease.
You no longer do the things you do then, yet you say it is in time and seasons. If you do those things now, wouldn't that time and season come?. Let us watch this thing that has made us so cold on the pews of the church, so intelligent in the secular yet insensitive and dull in the spirit. Let us weep for the revival that once encroached our lives. Let us pray for a reenactment of the commission.
Let us contend for this faith and make sure that till our last breath, we will not be at ease with the ungodliness of the world, we will not conform yet we will confront. We will not be moved by their wealth yet we will move the kingdom.
NO BUDGE
"Then Samuel told him everything, and hid nothing from him. And he said, 'It is the LORD. Let Him do what seems good to Him.'" - 1Sam 3:18
So Eli was warned beforehand of the doom that was imminent and he resigned to fate, and say as we say now 'it is God's will'. It is this ungodly ease that makes us comfortable even at the face of judgement. It is ease that makes us not to tremble at the message of hell. It is ease that causes us to excuse our weaknesses on the altar of 'grace'.
Could it be that the reason, we don't fear judgement is because the Lord has given us up to a reprobate mind? Could it be that we prefer to play religion than have a relationship with the father? What is making the prayer of mercy scares and prayer of selfish desire increase?. Why do we just have hope in this world, have we become this miserable? This is coldness and ease that unsettles the heavens.
The church is active in our present day, trying to appeal to the world for acceptance and not repentance, we are busy looking to affect the world while the stench of our personal lives just spoils all the work and effort. If the inward is clean the outside will be clean also. The fervency of our personal lives had long faded, now we are uneasy of how the world feels about us.
"Yet if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul." - Ezekiel 3:19
We now live in a society where our shortcomings are spelled out clearly but we do not make effort at correcting them. Anyone who tries to do an awakening or show our derailment is considered religious and unrealistic. The ease of the world is dangerous to God.
Let us not act as if we do not know, the Lord doesn't convict for jokes, He expects repentance when He makes our sins known - if we repent, He is committed to us. If we excuse them - He is committed to His judgement. The Lord considers sin as wickedness.
DO NOT SAY!
"Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, 'we have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones." - Luke 3:8
Do not begin to say to yourself, 'I know the Bible', do not begin to drown yourself in the illusions of things of the past, do not begin to think in your heart 'God understands'. It is a dip in spirituality that causes a Christian to foolishly depends on the father's salvation, or on the feat achieved in the past - do not say these things.
Those who have become traditionalists in the church today actually started fervently with a zeal so contagious they wanted to take on the world, but because they have allowed the praise of men or heritage gotten to get into their heads and warm their hearts, they have plunged into an irrecoverable ease that seems like coma.
Did the Lord tell you that mortal men are his mates, did the Lord show you your report card? You haven't even died not to talk of getting to heaven's gate, you're here claiming spiritual giant over undiscerning babes - a lethargic Christian is more dangerous than an unbeliever... Such men at ease will even quench the zeal of upcoming babes.
"So he said, 'I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword, I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.'" - 1Kings 9:10
Some of us in the service of the king begin to feel indispensable because it looks as if we are the only one in service, but the truth is that God is unfazed by your attitude - in fact, if you become too big in your eyes for the service, the Lord knows how to retire such a servant.
Elijah repeated the statement again in verse 14 and God actually had to put Elijah on a compulsory leave, the messenger cannot begin to feel bigger than the Sender. That you are being used is just a product of grace and not really a function of your hyper-activeness.
God is able to raise servants from touts, God is able to raise ministers from prostitutes, God is able to raise prophets from even the Muslims... Are you not aware that donkeys were used? Don't you know that the Master can send birds on errands. Do you not realise that even the trees praise the Lord... What then is all these your complacency all about?
Do not begin to slack in complacency, there are more grounds to cover. There is no curriculum vitae with God.
NO LONGER AT EASE
"Then His disciples remembered that it was written, 'Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up." - John 2:17
A Christian who isn't eaten up by zeal is actually taken off by coldness and slackness, we can't see your zeal because you are a conformist and comfortable with the status quo. How can you be where the Spirit is supressed yet you are all smiles thinking all is well - it is too dangerous.
It was this godly zeal that made Nehemiah uneasy with the state of Jerusalem walls, it was this zeal that made Esther to put her life on the line even though she was in comfort and may really not even have anything to lose. We must begin to see that when the fire isn't burning, coldness has set in.
You can be labelled overzealous, you can be said to be an extremists, yet this zeal must eat us up that, those who are at ease would realise their state. When Jesus showed His zealousness, eyebrows were raised, but non could deny the realities of errors being addressed.
"Then he said, 'Come with me, and see my zeal for the LORD.' So they had him ride in his chariot." - 2Kings 10:16
The Christian faith is an 'on the go' thing, if I can't see what your zeal for the Lord is, then you have entered spiritual coma. There are no spiritual pundits or analysts in the kingdom - please put your hand in the plow and stop being a commentator.
Please sir or ma, what are you doing for the Lord now? What are you even doing for yourself to remain in the faith? - this message is coming to you so as to evaluate your lukewarm state, so that there is profitability for the Master's business and to save your soul from hell.
The man who has spiritual zeal is a fervent man, such a person would be indignant of unrighteousness and would seek that righteousness is entrenched.
Activity isn't zeal, a pursuit to please God in every place and everytime, to be sensitive in the spirit is fervency.
CONCLUSION: Is it possible that you're at ease and dull? Maybe you aren't budging at the warnings of God because you are 'something' or have been something. It is time to be eaten up by a godly zeal.
God bless you and keep on being fervent.
© Akinsuroju Femi
Comments
Post a Comment