TAKE HEED, BE WARNED

 

To take heed is to pay attention to something and being careful about it.

The Christian life is a race and a battle in which we have to be very careful that we may run until the end and finish following all the rules to avoid being disqualified and to fight well so as to win. 1Cor 9:24-27 There are so many dangers along the narrow way and we cannot afford to be ignorant. We need constant encouragement to keep pressing on and constant warning not to presume that all is right. The bible is full of warnings given to believers and we need to be reminded of for we naturally tend to forget.

Looking around you can see many believers who were once on fire for God having cooled of, having lost the passion and the zeal they once had; it’s not time to sit down and say like the Pharisee in Lk 18:10-14 thanking God that you are not like so and so who have backslidden, but we need to be on our faces before the Lord asking Him so search our hearts and our thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in us and keep us from falling. Ps 139:23-24, 16:1.

TAKE HEED, keep WATCHING and praying that you may not enter into temptation. Mat 26:41

TAKE HEED to yourselves and be on guard lest your heart be weighed down by self-indulgence, drunkenness, and worldly worries and cares of this life lest that day come to you as a trap and catch you unaware. Lk 21:36

TAKE HEED and watch at all times praying that you may have strength to escape all the things that will take place and stand before the Son on man. Lk 21:36

If you think you are standing and all is well with you, TAKE HEED lest you fall. 1Cor 10:12

TAKE HEED that no man deceives you. BE ON GUARD, I have warned you in advance. Mat 24:4, Mk 13:23

TAKE HEED to the ministry that you have received in the LORD, ensure that you fulfill it. Col 4:17

TAKE HEED that you do not do your good deed publicly to be seen by men, for then you will have no reward from you Father in heaven. Mat 6:1

TAKE HEED and beware of hypocrisy. Lk 12:1c

TAKE HEED that you do not despise anyone, even the little children. Mat 18:10

TAKE HEED WHAT you hear. Mk 4;24

TAKE HEED HOW you hear. Lk 8:18

TAKE HEED THAT THE LIGHT IN YOU DOES NOT BECOME DARKNESS. Lk 11:35

TAKE HEED, and beware of COVETOUSNESS, for a mans life is not measured by how much you own. Lk 12:15

TAKE HEED TO YOURSELF. If any sin against you rebuke him, if he repents, forgive him. Lk 17:3

TAKE HEED TO YOURSELF AND to ALL that the Holy Spirit have given you responsibility to take care of them and feed them. Act 20:28

TAKE HEED that you don’t become proud that you are now saved and some who were saved before you have backslidden. You also can backslide. Rom 11:19-21 

TAKE HEED HOW YOU SERVE GOD. For your service for God will be tested by fire. 1Cor 3:10-15

TAKE HEED that your freedom does not become a STUMBLINGBLOCK to the weaker believers. 1Cor 8:9

TAKE HEED to yourself and watch how you live and on your teaching. Persevere on these for in doing so, you will ensure salvation to yourself and to those who hear you. 1Tim 4:16

TAKE HEED lest there be in any of you an evil unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. Heb 3:12

TAKE HEED and beware of twisting scriptures to fit your own interpretation and those who do so lest you be carried away by error of wicked people and fall from your stability. 2Pet 3:16-17

Having seen this, it’s to awake from the sleep, and put on the armor of light and walk as the children of the day. Rom 13:11-13

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ACKNOWLEDGING GOD

To acknowledge God simply means admitting or recognizing or accepting His authority or expressing gratitude to Him. In the time that you have been a believer, you have seen some who you know well, who were active in the Lords work backslide, go back to sin or become lukewarm Christians. This has happened so often and almost no one seems to care about. The weeping for the backsliders has become a thing of the past and the reason is the church has lost her discernment and most believers are lukewarm. And since backsliding can happen to any of us, it is good to know where backsliding all begins.

Looking at Rom 1, we read three times that God gave up some people and the moment that happens, they got deeper into sins. See verse 24,26, 28. Backsliding therefore begins when God gives up on someone. God is patient but has said that His Spirit will not strive with man forever. Gen 6:3. He always gives a time limit for repentance but once this time ends, only judgment remains. Rev 2:21. Going back to Romans 1:21, we see that the very first step of backsliding is failure to acknowledge God as God, and honor and give thanks to Him. This made God give them up to their own hearts lusts to impurity; vs 24.

The second time God gives them up is that they served and worshipped the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever. vs 25. Worshipping the creature more than the creator simply means valuing anything above God, e.g job, family, material possessions… for example if God calls you to do something and one of your loved one does not think is important- it maybe your father or mother or a loved one, and you choose to disobey God and please your loved one, that is worshipping the created thing (loved one) more than the creator (God). Or if by telling a lie you will earn some extra money and God tells you to speak the truth, if you decide to tell the lie and then later ‘repent’ you are serving the creature (money) more than God. Everytime you silence the voice of your conscience, you are worshipping the creature more than God.

The third time God gives them up is the because they did not see it an important thing to acknowledge God. Vs 28. God giving up on people is the reason they start living a life of sin. Reading from vs 24-31, we see people living in impurity, homosexuality, all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, greed, evil, envy, murder, strife, deceit, gossips, slander, haters of God, despiteful, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful- THOUGH THEY ARE FULLY AWARE OF GODS RIGHTEOUS DECREE THAT THOSE THAT DO SUCH THINGS DESERVE TO DIE; THEY DO IT AND APPLAUD AND APPROVE THOSE WHO DO THEM.

All this begun with failure to acknowledge God and give thanks to Him. WHO MAKES YOU DIFFERENT FROM SOMEONE ELSE? WHAT DO YOU HAVE THAT WAS NOT GIVEN TO YOU? IF IT WAS GIVEN TO YOU, WHY DO YOU BOAST AS IF IT WAS SOMETHING YOU ACHIEVED YOURSELF? 1Cor 4:7. These are the three questions that we need to ask ourselves constantly to teach us to always acknowledge God. 

If you have something that others don’t have, it was God who gave to you, and thus recognizing this, you will not despise one who do not have what you have. You have good health, and someone is hospitalized, God gave you health. You are always number one in your class and someone else is always last, God gave you your memory. Your business is making profits and another is making losses, God gave it to you. If God takes away the mind He has given you or the health, will you be able to do it? If He took away the opportunities that have made you reach where you are, where would you be? Learn to always acknowledge that it is God who has given you everything you have, and you will never despise or judge others. If you are still standing today and someone else has backslidden, it is God who kept you from falling. 

TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND LEAN NOT ON YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING. IN ALL YOUR WAYS ACKNOWLEDGE HIM AND HE WILL MAKE YOUR PATHS STRAIGHT. HE WILL DIRECT YOU ON WHICH PATH TO TAKE. Prov 3:5-6

You are blessed to be a blessing

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GOD HAS TO BREAK YOU BEFORE HE CAN USE YOU

 

God has a purpose for each of us which He desires to accomplish in our lifetime. It is unfortunate that in most believers, Gods purpose is not accomplished because they do not respond to Gods dealing with them in their private lives. Just like a person who studies medicine has to go through the school of medicine, attend all the classes, do all the tests and pass before he can be entitled to be a doctor and sent to a hospital to treat patients; in the same manner God has to test us before we are ever usable to him. 

Paul explains that the treasure which contains the glory of God in us is fragile jars of clay. 2 Cor 4:6-7. For the light to be seen which is in a closed vessel, that vessel has to be broken for that light to be seen. The more broken the vessel, the more the light will be seen. He explains how the vessel is broken so as to give light to others. 2Cor 4:8-12, the vessel is broken through affliction and oppression, disappointments and perplexity, persecution, failure, death to self-will- and through all the mentioned above, the life of Jesus is manifested in our flesh, and thus when the above mentioned circumstances happen to the child of God, their life is a blessing to others and gives them life if they respond by humbling themselves and not murmuring and complaining. Read 2Cor 4:6-12 together. We can therefore conclude that God has to break us, the jar of clay, that is our self-will, before He can use us. The more our self-will is broken the more usable we will be in Gods sight.

Looking at the example of Moses, at the age of 40, he already knew that God wanted to use him to deliver the Israelites out of Egypt and he thought he was ready and started killing the Egyptians but God saw that he was not ready. Act 7:20-29. Since he was educated in all the wisdom of Egypt, he thought that’s what God would use but God had to send him in Midian to unlearn all that and learn to depend on God for everything. From a prince of Egypt to being a servant, taking care of sheep, being employed by his father in law must have really humbled him. Can you imagine one who once was a millionaire having to be given a job by his father in law and also living with him? this will humble any man, to live in the house of your wife’s parents and being fed by them. After years God had successfully broken him, he could now use him to deliver the Israelites. He was mighty in speech when he was 40years, but after being broken, he was a stammer-Acts 7:22, Ex 4:10. He was learned in all the wisdom of Egypt @40 could not dare do anything without God telling him. He never relied on the wisdom he learnt, about 16 times between Ex 39-40, the phrase, ‘’as the LORD commanded Moses is repeated’’. Thus we see that God had to break Moses before He could use him to deliver the Israelites.

Joseph at 17 already knew through dreams that God would make him a ruler in the future. Gen 37:5-10 but he was not ready. God had to break him first before he could make him a ruler. He had a coat of many colors which he had and wore it and made him proud and made him think he was better that his other 10 brothers. Gen 37:7, 23. His brothers hated him and got jealous of him and decided to kill him, but since in God’s plan it was not time for him to die, he could not be killed. Gen 37:5,11,20-21. He was sold as a slave in Potiphar’s house and God gave him favor and everything in his hands prospered. Gen 39:2-6. And since he was in danger of thinking that he was the maker of Potiphar, God had to deliver him before such thoughts entered him. The wife desired him and tempted him DAY AFTER DAY- Gen 39:10. He passed the test and was falsely accused of trying to rape her and thus was imprisoned. Gen 39:7-20 And since Potiphar was a captain of the guards in pharaohs government, joseph was imprisoned where the kings prisoners were being imprisoned. Gen 39:1,20. Joseph was not sorry for himself and complaining to God about how faithful to God he had been yet God was allowing Him to go through all that, as many believers do when they go through difficulties, but he rejoiced that God saw all that was happening to him and that GOD WAS STILL IN CONTROL. This is why he noticed that the other prisoners were depressed, Gen 40:6-7. If he himself was sad, he could not have noticed the misery of others or even be concerned about them. 

He was not yet ready, for he still thought he could help God and in get out of prison. Gen 40:14-15. God had to break him for another two years before he could make a ruler in Egypt, Gen 41:1. Now he was ready, God had successfully broken his self-will and this time he realized he deserved nothing and when he interpreted pharaohs dream, he never requested anything for himself unlike when he interpreted the dreams for the other prisoners. Gen40:14-15, 41:33-36. It is thus that fulfilled His purpose, in today’s language, when he could not use the spiritual gifts that God had given him to get something for himself.

Expecting to be in authority only to be sold as a slave, and then falsely accused and imprisoned as a criminal must have broken him and humbled him.

David when he was about 15-17 years, God appointed him King of Israel, but he was not ready until he was 30years. 1Sam 16:1,12, 2Sam 5:4. God had to make him ready to reign by allowing him to be pursed unto death by Saul for 13years. 1Sam 18:8-11, 25, 29, 19:1,10-11, 21:10, 23:8. God tested David by giving Saul into his hands and he passed both tests by not killIng him who was pursuing him unto death. 1sam 24:3-8, 26;6-14. 

For about 13 years running for his life must have really humbled him. With the knowledge that the king is seeking to kill you when he sees you, you will really seek God and be a really be a humble godly person for you know that you can meet God anytime.

Jesus was tested for 30years in every way human beings are tempted before he could begin His public ministry. He was made like us in every way. Heb 2: 17, 4:15. His disciples had to be trained by him for 3 years and Paul also had to be for three years in Arabia to be taught of God. Gal 1:17-18

In the same way today, the circumstances that comes in our lives are to break us and make us humble that God may fulfill his purpose in us. Don’t fight against the circumstances but pray that Gods purpose will be accomplished in us through these circumstance. You need not fear if you are seeking Gods will in everything, He will cause everything to work together for your very best if you love him and want to obey and please Him in everything. Rom 8:28

You are blessed to be a blessing

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WARNING TO THE WHOLEHEARTED DISCIPLES

 

 Christians who are wholehearted tend to be most of the times careless and think that they do not need to warned or corrected since thy are not lukewarm or compromising as most of the other believers around them; but bible show clearly that they also need correction and also being warned. We are going to see this from Paul’s best coworker, Timothy.

Timothy was a person who was best spoken of by others Christians and thus was an example to them, Acts 16:2. Paul went with him in missions, Acts 19:22, Rom 16:21. He also together with Paul wrote scripture, 2Cor 1:1, Phil 1:1, Col 1:1,, 1st and 2nd Thes 1:1. He was the best and could not be compared to any other of Paul’s coworkers- He was genuinely concerned about others. He never sought His own interest, He sought only to please Jesus. Phil 2:19-22.

Looking at the qualities of Timothy, we may think that such a one does not need any warning but he Paul saw it important to warn him. what about you, do you think that you and I need no warning? Are you better that Timothy? Have you written scriptures? If not, you and I need these warning more than Timothy

Don’t waste time in endless discussions and genealogies which leads to speculations which don’t help people live a faith in God. 1Tim 1:4. For example, who was Cain’s wife- if you know, will that help you live a godly life? why are you interested in other people’s wives? Was Paul married or not, did he write Hebrews? How will that knowledge help you live a godly life?

Fight a good fight, keep the faith, keep your conscience clear. 1Tim 1:18-19 Don’t fight with human beings, always keep your eyes on God and His word, even from this height you have reached beloved, you still can backslide, and therefore keep your conscience clear and learn from others who’s faith got destroyed because they did not keep their conscience clear.

You still do not know everything, you still need to be instructed by those above you. 1Tim 3:15.

You are yet to be a good servant until you warn your flock of deception and backsliding that will take place. 1Tim 4:6

Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. 1Tim 4:7 have regular time to study Gods word, prayer and fasting…

Focus on sharing Gods word to others, encouraging believers and teaching them. 1Tim 4:13. Don’t be distracted from this.

Do not neglect your spiritual gifts. 1Tim 4:14. Use all the gifts that God has given you

Give you attention to Gods word, immerse and get absorbed in it so that everyone will see that you are making progress. 1Tim4:15

Keep a close watch on how you live, always judging yourself rightly, and stay true to what is right for the sake of your salvations and those who listen to you. 1Tim 4:16

Never speak harshly to older people, but appeal to him respectively as your father or mother. Treat younger women WITH PURITY as your own sisters. 1Tim 5:1-2

Do not receive accusation against an elder expect confirmed by two or three witnesses. 1Tim 5:19. Don’t act on hear-say.

Maintain Gods word without bias and DO NOTHING FROM PARTIALITY. 1Tim5:21

Never be in a hurry appointing a church leader. 

KEEP YOURSELF PURE. 1Tim 522. Don’t go in places where you will be defiled or tempted and get rid of all sources of temptations.

Run away from the love of money, for it is the root of all evil. 1Tim 6:10-11

Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. 1Tim 6:11

Guard what God has entrusted you with. 1Tim 6:20, 2Tim 1:14

Be diligent to gain Gods approval. 2Tim 2:15 in everything seek to do only the things that God will approve of

RUN AWAY FROM YOUTHFUL LUSTS and anything that stimulates them. 2Tim 2:22

Be sober in all things and endure hardship 2Tim4:5 

You are blessed to be a blessing. Be one

@blessedmambo