Value Perception

As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion. (Proverbs 11:22)

I saw this verse in my quiet time and thought to share a few thoughts on the same.

Imagine a pig with a jeweled gold ring on its snout. It looks beautiful. Or does it? How would you feel taking it for a walk?  Does it give a fashion statement with that gold ring?

That is what beauty is to a woman without discretion. Outward beauty is but an addition to the person that is represented by the rest of her person. I will give us another passage containing the same truth from another dimension.

Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. (1Peter 3: 3, 4)

Sadly, we live in an age that places a great premium on that gold ring on the snout. And it goes without say that we are reaping the dividends of those values we hold. When we price a woman using her visible, we should not be shocked when we see that gold ring immersed in the sewer as she scavenges for food because the kind of food her body craves can only be found on dumpsites.

Let us get back to our verse. We have a beautiful woman, discretion and a gold ring on a pig’s snout. As absurd as it looks, a beautiful woman lacking discretion is just like that pig.

But then what is discretion? I know someone is asking.

At the very basic, discretion is her ability to accurately value self and therefore walk according to the value she possesses. And that is where the gold ring comes in. A woman having discretion values her whole person above her looks. She therefore will seek to develop and add value to that more than she does the visible her. It goes without say that such a woman will develop the spiritual her continuously as that is what determines who she is as Proverbs 4: 23 says.

Think about a degree certificate. It is a piece of paper whose significance is tied to the person who earned it and the institution it came from. If I stole a blank certificate from the university and inserted my name on it, probably nobody may be able to discover that it was fake. But would it mean that I have the degree printed on that paper? I might be able to get my way in many places because of that piece of paper. But I certainly will be unable to do what a legitimate holder of that degree can do in the field it denotes. Chances are that unless I use that degree for purposes other than the training it indicates I will eventually be found out as the paper will not be consistent with the training it indicates.

We talk about class. And that is one place the ring on a snout is most pronounced. Ever encountered someone speaking with a fake foreign accent? Someone travels abroad for a week and comes back with a foreign accent. Or someone goes for a meeting in a big hotel and all of a sudden has to carry bottled water everywhere with the hotel branded bottle. Maybe they happen to be in a meeting with some influential person and will do all in their power to ensure they take a picture with them that will be made the desktop of all the gadgets they own. And we have the woman who applies three coats of paint to make her face flawless and youthful. Not mentioning the ones who insert implants to make bums and boobs more visible.

Many times these are evidences of the ring on that snout. Someone attaches so little value to themselves that they will look for anything to make them feel a little better and hopefully more valuable. Sadly, instead of adding value it proves the person a fake, eventually lowering the actual value of the person.

It becomes worse because the person feels that people do not seem to notice or appreciate the effort they have taken to add value to their person without realizing that they have done absolutely nothing toward it as they have only painted a worthless thing using more visible (or expensive) colors since nothing on the inside has changed.

Of course they will become more desperate as they feel the need to get a little appreciation for all that effort in the wrong direction. They must get attention at all costs.

The reason many girls give for wearing those micro skirts is that nobody notices or appreciates them when they dress decently. They want to be told that they are sexy or look nice and will do anything to hear that.

Do you notice that snout and lack of discretion? Why should someone need others to know that they are good unless they have nothing on the inside and must show everything they have and are? They therefore will flaunt all their wares so that anyone can show the slightest attention.

But it goes beyond being noticed. Someone so inclined will prostrate to anyone who shows the slightest appreciation. That is the reason someone will jump to bed with the first person with the unlock key, ‘I love you’, irrespective of whether it is a joke or out of politeness. Then they will shout that all men are beasts or all women are players when they get bitten.

What is the purpose of dress? What does the Bible mean when it talks about modest dressing? What does modesty mean?

The basic purpose of dress is covering nakedness. That is what we see from Genesis.

Modesty is therefore restraining its purpose there. We dress to cover nakedness. Adding other purposes to it brings in another dimension. Modesty in dress is the kind of dressing that does not draw attention to the wearer. A person dressed modestly is therefore the person whose dress points away from their body and to something or somebody else.

The Bible also talks of the attire of a harlot whose purpose is directly opposite to modesty. A harlot dresses to draw attention to her body, especially the sensuous parts so that she can entice and arouse lust in her beholders. Her dress therefore accentuates those parts of the body that will point any onlooker to easily available (and of course desirable) sex. Incidentally it is the same with male prostitutes. You will therefore not need to see an advertisement of prostitution services. You will just need to walk by her place to know that she is available for sex just by her dressing.

Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house, In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night: And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart. (Proverbs 7: 8 –10)

That was how Tamar was able to have Judah sleep with her. She simply dressed the part so that Judah had no reason to suspect she was someone other than a prostitute.

Many times that is what our sisters are saying with their dressing. And that is what the lack of discretion indicates. No wonder it is compared with a pig ornamented to kill with a gold ring. This is because we are sending spurious or conflicting signals to whoever looks at us.

I see girls and women walking to church and can just but weep inwardly because their dressing points people opposite the church. And you will hear them complaining that men are not noticing them when looking for wives. How do you dress like a harlot and expect to be treated like an honorable woman?

I found an interesting quote on social media. It says that the amount of flesh a girl shows is inversely proportional to what she has to offer.  In non mathematical terms, the more a girl shows the less she has to offer. Which is the reason their fare in life consists in a broken relationship after another as nobody expects anything more than the flesh on display; and flesh has no chance of offering any long term gratification.

You see, wife material girls and women are modest in their dress. They are not temptations to the brothers because then the men will run farthest from them when they need a wife. The weaker ones will simply take the easily (and many times readily) available sex but reserve their search for a wife elsewhere.

But discretion indicates something else. Many people will change to get something. Many youth will get saved and be committed to church when they want to get married. Again that is the presence of that gold ring on the snout.

Someone develops themselves for the simple reason that they want to grow. What they get after the development is an overflow from that growth.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matthew 6:33)

Someone increases their chances for marriage when they focus elsewhere. They do not pray with one eye open as they look for available opportunities. To them a search for God is more than adequate to focus on. Then God Himself will make them irresistible.

One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple. (Psalm 27:4)

Beholding God’s beauty continually will transfer some of that beauty to the beholder as was with Moses. Seeking God for God will give Him an opportunity to use you to show off His glory in you. Using God for your purposes lowers God to a servant and denies Him the chance to fully demonstrate what He is able to accomplish once given the chance.

As an aside have you ever heard of an unattractive millionaire? What about an ugly songbird or a shapeless philanthropist?

Their attractiveness originates from elsewhere because beauty alone is not sufficient to meet any human need. What someone is and has therefore shifts the focus from the outside to other useful attributes. Simply speaking we cannot eat a plate of beauty when we are hungry.

Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised. (Proverbs 31:30)

This explains why men will leave all these beautiful girls and get a wife who did not seem interested in men and marriage because she had kept herself hidden in her environment, culture or whatever.

But there is one place discretion holds maximum water; the spiritual realm.

Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD. (Jeremiah 9: 23, 24)

This is what gives unfading beauty all over as the Bible consistently teaches. In fact, instead of such beauty fading with age, it tends to become the more evergreen with the passing of time. One becomes increasingly beautiful as they get connected to heaven. Sample this

Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. (1Peter 2:12)

Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands: Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. (1Peter 3: 1 - 6)

For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:20)

I dare say that it is impossible to seek alignment with heaven and fail to obtain the favor of men. But it is important to realize that the focus is not on the here and now but on the eternal. And we focus on the spiritual by devoting more time seeking what God wants of us and with us through His word and prayer as opposed to social media and all the other media that will shift our attention earthward.

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish. (Psalm 1)

When Garbage becomes Baggage

 In this post I want us to look at society widely to get the message God is speaking.

How does a doctor contract HIV or get addicted to drugs with all the information and knowledge he possesses? How does a marriage counselor allow their marriage to break? How does a preacher who has seen God at work lapse into immorality yet continue ministering? How does a person who swore never to take a sip of alcohol become an alcoholic? How does someone who swore to make sure that his marriage will never be like his/ her parents’ end up replicating the same thing when he gets married?

These are some issues I want us to examine.

The first point I want us to note is that the spiritual determines everything else. And since the spiritual is for the most time invisible and consciously inexplicable, we will mostly assume that it does not exist. But assuming or even behaving as if it does not exist does not annul its influence or reduce its power and influence.

In our existence we make spiritual investments but are shocked when we receive the returns from those investments. We sow seeds but complain when we reap their harvest. We purchase abodes but seek an escape route when we are required to live there. And it becomes worse because we start fighting the things we spent our all to get. It is like trying to bomb a house you had spent all your investments to build. We spend half of our lives building a fortress and then spend the other half trying to destroy it as living in it becomes unbearable.

There are two areas this is most profound; marriage and lifestyle. It goes without say that these are the areas that define who we are as well as give us our identity.

I want us to look at a few areas garbage becomes baggage, baggage that can destroy the best that we are capable of and change the course of our life, a course that we traced with the greatest care.

The first area involves spiritual covenants of the past. And these are not covenants that look like such. Many times they happen when someone is looking to improve their lot or stature in life. They get involved in partnerships with people with a deviant spirituality, simply meaning people who are in the devil’s team. As a partner one is bound to everything the partner swears to since he accesses the resources he has. One thus enters the covenant by default. That is the basis of 2 Corinthians 6:14.

But there are parents who enter such covenants simply for the benefits. They therefore bond their posterity to the enemy of souls to get positions or money. They respond to the offer he gave to Christ during His temptations with a resounding yes.

We know that the devil is not a fool to show the implications of those covenants in the long run. Like insurance and legal agreements, there is a lot of small print that only the posterity will battle with.

Let me give an example. A couple is unable to get a child and approach a medium. It is sad to say but today many pastors are mediums. Of course they are asked for this or the other animal or amount of money. But then they are required to pledge their daughters (or eldest daughters). Others will require that the medium (and this is where many pastors fall) sleep with the woman to ‘unlock’ the womb. Due to the desperation and of course because they had not sought God’s will in it, they invite demons to take over their posterity. Any child born will automatically become the property of the evil one by the covenant the parents signed. They are therefore branded with his brand. And I have not talked of families involved in witchcraft that do that as a way of increasing their potency.

Imagine that girl getting married properly. The reality is that this girl is satan’s bride because she has his seal, many times long before she was born. The legal husband will therefore be an imposter in the spiritual covenant. The devil will therefore have permission to invade her space at will as she legally belongs to him. She will be practically unmarriageable, however good her husband may be. That is unless that marriage exalts the evil one. She will always be looking for ways to run away from her marriage. That is until she of her own volition seeks for a higher covenant to nullify that earlier one. And it goes without say she can’t nullify a covenant she does not know exists.

We need to note that the only reason the devil allowed her to get married in the first place is to bring in another generation of his subjects as well as snare the partner if he has a solid spiritual seed like Saul did to David when he offered Michal to him.

And it is the same way with some vices like drunkenness, violence in the marriage, adultery and the rest. Some of the unexplainable things we do are so because some were bonded into evil by their forebears.

But there are other covenants we make. Sex is such a covenant. Let us look at the scriptures. Why is it that if one was caught having sex with a virgin he had to marry her with no option of divorce yet when caught with one pledged or married they were to be stoned to death? Simply because sex is such a powerful spiritual covenant that it has no capacity of being annulled in this lifetime.

Premarital sex is not any different. And for those who ‘innocently’ pursue sexual gratification outside marriage you should know that that is a sure way of killing your marriage. Again someone who was involved in sex before marriage made a covenant that has a detrimental effect on their marriage unless they also seek for a divine annulment of those covenants.

The second involves inheritance. Why is it that children of drunkards normally become drunkards? Why is it that women who became pregnant before getting married have their girls repeating the same? Why do girls of single mothers normally become single mothers? Why is it that getting out of that is the exception given that they detest that life and desire to never repeat it?

The simple reason is that apart or aside from covenants that may be involved there is a spiritual trend that has been set. Their spiritual DNA becomes infused with that error and therefore changes its structure. A woman who left her husband for whatever reason introduces rebellion and independence in her makeup, the same makeup that all her children will inherit.

How many times have you heard someone swear that they will not be like their father or mother yet they become exactly that?

I remember a young man who swore never to drink as he had seen his father waste his life as he never took any salary he earned home as he would drink it all in one night. That young man was also saved and very involved in church.

A few years later I was told that not long after he got married he became just like his father. He took up a lifestyle he had loathed all his life.

Swearing is not enough to alter one’s spiritual DNA. Even hating it is not enough to make the slightest dent on it.

I know many girls raised by single mothers who swore to keep their marriage yet somehow opting out for no reason but ‘boredom’ or something like it because they did not have a valid reason to leave. You see the seed of rebellion is not removed by reason. It is a spiritual seed that can only be dealt with spiritually. Your makeup does not include marriage and therefore cannot accommodate it.

A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the LORD. An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the LORD for ever: (Deuteronomy 23: 2, 3)

Even getting married to the best of men can not alter that makeup. And that is why the Bible appears too harsh on the single mother and her children, knowing that the two tribes were the product of single mothers.

And I believe it is the reason Paul advised young widows to marry. This is so that they do not develop an altered spiritual DNA that could negatively impact their children even if it was not by choice.

So, before you finally break up with that monster people call your husband, look at these things. Could you be reproducing your mother or are you listening to friends who carry the rebellious virus? Is the man really the problem or do you have baggage that the presence of a husband is confronting just by his presence? Is he irresponsible or are you impossible to live with however much he changes for you.

It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house. (Proverbs 21:9)

Have you reconciled with the parties that abused you or are you counting on your husband to cure all that abuse, abuse he knows nothing about? Are you pouring all the baggage of your past on a hapless man yet feeling frustrated that he does not help you carry it? Are you comparing your husband with the man your mother deserted, a man whose only information you have about is the only one you were fed by your bitter mother?

But that DNA also gets to the sons, only that it manifests differently. The man lacks identity and spiritual muscle or spine. He will therefore become very insecure and many times unable to make or maintain positions as he grew up as the punching bag on behalf of all men. In marriage he will therefore become subject to his wife or unable to be faithful depending on the kind of trash he was fed by his mother.

But there is a spiritual solution if one is willing to go the whole hog. And I will start with one person who was at the extreme end of the moral spectrum.

Rahab was a prostitute in condemned Jericho. But she joined mainstream Israel when she committed treason against her city by connecting to the God of Israel. Simply speaking someone doubly disqualified was able to reverse her fate by taking a conscious decision against all that she was for the sake of a God she had only read about in the news.

But she first acknowledged her lostness and need for rescue.

Her spiritual DNA, which was rotten enough for condemned Jericho, was changed when she made a conscious choice to join her faith to the God of Israel.

We must first agree that we carry anti marriage genes in our spiritual heritage, genes that make marriage a pipe dream in our experience. Struggling to rectify issues without dealing with their spiritual sources is tantamount to covering the anthill as the solution to the destruction termites are causing.

Why am I focusing on marriage than other issues? Someone may be asking.

Marriage is the foundation, even the bedrock of society. Dealing with marriage will many times effectively deal with other vices as vices are many times products of a defective family life. Much insecurity is the result of a messy family environment. Many who pursue identity through acquisitions and achievements had issues that made them insecure that they had to look for a way to counter it. From mammon worship to drug and sex addiction you will find that most have their source in a disjointed family unit.

As an example I am sure you know that quite a number of street children come from very well to do families. They run away from all that affluence to eat from the dumps because the family unit is sick. They therefore are seeking peace away from the only place it should be because it is absent there. I therefore hope you understand why I put so much emphasis on marriage.

I also know that the antichrist will ride on the lack of the family unit to appear to offer the security the family should offer and therefore would want the believers to be caught in his web by making our families as God would have them be.

In closing I want to ask this. Why does God hate divorce? Does He not understand that there are unreasonable spouses out there, spouses that seek to frustrate us at every turn? Is it that He does not care for our satisfaction in marriage? Doesn’t He care when we get stuck in a marriage that lacks adequate bonding? Why does He say that nobody should put asunder what He has joined in marriage? Why can’t I just opt out for my peace of mind?

Does God love me enough to issue such absolute commands concerning marriage? Is John 3:16 still valid if it constrains me to His absolutes? Is His love as absolute as His commandments?

Do I trust God enough to agree with His decrees? Do I trust Him enough to hold to His word? Do I trust Him enough to walk according to His revelation?

Am I His follower for who He is or for what He does for me? Does His salvation require anything more from me except receiving?

Do I know what His word says? Do I seek His word? Do I crave to know His word and obey it? Am I pledged to His word to know and keep it like Ezra was?

Living a Lie

We are continuing with the message ‘Propaganda versus Truth’, this time looking at the consequences of such a lifestyle as well as understanding how we can live it unconsciously.

There are clear signs of what one is listening to. Our lifestyle is such a giveaway that many times we could be the only ones unaware that we have lost it. Let me give a verse from off the topic to put this across.

Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. (1Timothy 3:7)

Why does a congregational minister need a good testimony from outside his arena of service? It is because that is the place people have no blinders on. They are the ones who see you in your natural environment. They will therefore have an accurate assessment of your life outside the limelight that is the congregational setting.

They hear the words you shout at your children when they misbehave. They know your reaction when the shopkeeper or tout gives you the wrong change. They have seen you react to a neighbor who soiled the linen you had hung to dry. They interact with your children and know the kind of parent you are. In short they can accurately tell the kind of information you are living by. This is different from the church setting when the whole family is at their best for the two or so hours their service will require.

If the only conversation you can have with your neighbors revolves around current affairs and movies, they know that you share the same source with them. Of course it means that you feed more on propaganda than the truth if you claim to be a believer. And you will not be able to convince them that you operate from orders of another headquarter as you appear to know too much about their headquarters.

If you get your dress code and fashion sense from movie stars as opposed to the Bible, then it is a clear giveaway that you are feeding on propaganda. If your language is as free flowing as it is packaged with earthly banter, then do not deceive yourself. If you are more conversant with the workings of evil strongholds than you are of heaven, it is easy to know who you listen to more. If your prayer consists of resisting this and binding that instead of releasing this and accessing that, it is very probable that you are combining sources. If someone just needs to attend your prayer meeting to know all the happenings, do not be shocked if you are told that your prayer meeting is a rumor mill operating from propaganda.

If your testimony’s currency dates to when you first believed; if the validity and potency of your calling relies more on when you were called as opposed to a continuous and vibrant testimony that is consistent and current, it may be the clearest evidence yet that you lost it ages ago and are operating on deadness to gain currency.

If you rely more on your mastery of Biblical languages than revelation in your sermons or writing, if the reason you use a myriad of verses in your sermons are to look for relevance instead of communicating God’s message, then it is easy to assume that you lost God’s voice long ago.

If your spiritual status is more important than your ministry impact, if they must recognize your presence and offer you special treatment for you to minister, you are completely different from Christ who came to  serve and give His life as a ransom for all.

If you excuse sin instead of confronting it you can be sure that God’s voice is foreign to your experience. If you find yourself explaining away sin instead of repenting, then it is clear that the Holy Spirit is a text book topic in your life as He convicts us of sin. If in your preaching you are more interested in making people feel better as opposed to challenging them to pursue holiness, it is evidence that your heart disconnected with God’s very long ago. If you have no problem receiving an offering or support from someone you suspect (many times even know) whose lifestyle is questionable, I will again say that you lost the network of what you claim is your source or headquarter too long ago that you even forgot how to identify a voice from there.

If a lie is a defensive weapon, if it comes out naturally in your conversations, if you do not think twice before and after an ‘innocent white lie’ it is possible that you operate from another manual than God’s. If pretension and exaggerations are what make your speeches or sermons irresistible, then it is clear that the one you represent is not the author of the Bible. If you are different from the person bearing your name on social media platforms it is very easy for your father to be the father of lies.

If you are defeatist in your expectations of the people you lead and are content to walk with a limp, then you really are not representing Christ who won against death.

Let me explain. As I have talked to young people about the importance of waiting for marriage before getting involved sexually, I encounter many ministers who argue thus;

‘Since the youth cannot stay without engaging in premarital sex …’

They therefore advocate the devil’s prescription; using condoms, birth control, and some who are part of the problem could advocate and even fund abortion because some of those fetuses would provide evidence of their mischief. In other words their defeated lives are used to explain away sin in others as they also sleep with those small girls. Yet they still claim a connection with Christ who came to overcome sin!

That is what anyone will call living a lie. They are either so deceived that they are unable to see the visible dichotomy in their lives or they know what they are doing, serving the devil yet pretending to be serving God.

He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (Mark 7: 6, 7)

Worse still is that they do not really care to know what God says. They do not read the word to know what God’s word says about their lifestyles.

The reality is that a young person connected to Christ can wait for marriage before engaging in sex. And it has been so for a long time. From Joseph even before there was a Bible to Joseph who slept on the same bed with Mary for months without having sex with her before she bore the Christ. We were also young and overcame the pressures our children go through without defiling ourselves.

For your information, there are enough young people who even today take God seriously enough to keep themselves pure for God because they know God enough to trust Him for power to overcome the hormonal surge. You just need to look around. And their lives are complete as they do not pretend to stand for what they do not believe.

And sexuality is not the only place I see enough people experiencing victory once they agree with what God says and refuse the folly of what the world uses their best argument to push. From marriage to corruption to ministry an outsider can very easily sort those sold out to Christ from those who are feeding off a lie packaged as Christianity and ministry.

I remember a term people used to describe believers in our youth when a testimony became acceptable. Before then, saying that one was saved invited resistance and even persecution (that many times was scorn from peers at a time when peer opinion carried much weight). Of course after enduring that successfully, we gained respect from our persecutors as happens everywhere else. Then people would want to identify with us and what we stood for. That is when salvation became a fashion statement. Again it is consistent with the growth of the church throughout history. And I say that as one who ministered with some pioneers of the East Africa revival a few generations ago.

Once radical obedience gains acceptance, it goes without say that tares join in as there is no sacrifice involved as was with the pioneers. And that is where confusion reigns as we will then have people with a foreign agenda joining the ranks.

The statement was that there were people who were saved and others who were really saved as the distinction between the two types of believers.

This is the reason for the message about propaganda and living a lie. It will help us know whether what we profess is what we represent. And it is so important because our eternal destination depends on it.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. (Matthew 7: 21- 27)

Otherwise we might be so comfortable believing that we are on our way to heaven when we will never lift our foot off the earth when the day of reckoning comes.

And we have two groups in this text; the first being with those who started with a connection to the point that they started experiencing spiritual manifestations who lost the connection through a comfortable life devoid of obedience yet continued enjoying spiritual validation and the second being those who thought God’s word required their concession and so chose how to best obey and maintain their materialistic lifestyles.

The  fact that the first lost their way to heaven after being so proficient in their visible manifestations means that they were living a lie, a lie they had convinced themselves was the truth. The other lived their  lives on their terms yet also visibly appearing to be  living for God  which is not much different.

Is your life consistent with your confession?