Open Heavens Daily Devotional For Today 9th August, 2018
Theme – UNBELIEF: THE UNDOING OF MAN.
MEMORISE:
8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: Hebrews 3:8
READ: Hebrews 3:7-19
7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,
8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
MESSAGE
Unbelief has been a reoccurring problem of mankind in spite of the abundant signs and wonders which the Almighty has demonstrated over the years. It is even more pronounced in this generation, where knowledge based on observations has tremendously increased as indicated by the Holy Spirit (Daniel 12:4). Because the human mind is crafted from childhood to be built around sense-based observations and not on faith, unbelief reigns supreme within the natural ma. No wonder the Lord Jesus Christ in Luke 18:8b asked this question:
“ Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”
You may think unbelief is just a problem of the world, since anyone who comes to God must believe that He is, according to Hebrews 11:6. Well, let me announce to you that more than ever before, the problem of unbelief is now characteristic of the Church. The early church also had this problem and this was why the Holy Spirit sent us this warning in Hebrews 3:12:
“Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.”
The devil has crafted repackaged this old menace of unbelief in our time. When the authenticity of the Bible is being questioned and the relevance of its contents to the 21st century Church is being debated among the high ranking church council leaders, should we be looking for unbelief elsewhere? Decades ago, some scholars sowed the seed of unbelief, and the Church seemed to be careless about it. They suggested that the New Testament needed to be “demystified”, so that Christianity could sound logical to the modern mind. The Evangelicals and Pentecostals never thought that this evil seed would find its way into their fold. Now we know better. Today, we have a situation where several Church leaders don’t believe in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Several so-called archbishops don’t believe Jesus is the only Way that leads to salvation. Several Christians don’t believe in the reality of eternal punishment in hell fire. These and several other forms of unbelief have taken hold in the hearts of many simple hearted Christians who are too lazy to search the scriptures to experience the truth of God’s word themselves. Little by little, the core of our faith as Christians is being eroded away. The question that Jesus asked about faith, which seemed so farfetched in his day, is increasingly becoming real in our day. This is why the Holy Spirit is saying to us in Habakkuk 2:4b:
“……….but the just shall live by his faith.”
What is the state of your faith in God and His immutable word today?
PRAYER POINT:
Father, please help me so that my faith may not be eroded by unbelief under the guise of “modernism”.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Job 25-29
Matthew 16:5-28
AUTHOR: PASTOR E. A. ADEBOYE
HYMN 10: MY FAITH LOOKS UP TO THEE.
1. My faith looks up to Thee,
Thou Lamb of Calvary,
Savior divine!
Now hear me while I pray,
Take all my guilt away,
Oh, let me from this day
Be wholly Thine!
2. May Thy rich grace impart
Strength to my fainting heart,
My zeal inspire!
As Thou hast died for me,
Oh, may my love to Thee
Pure, warm, and changeless be,
A living fire!
3. While life’s dark maze I tread,
And griefs around me spread,
Be Thou my guide;
Bid darkness turn to day,
Wipe sorrow’s tears away,
Nor let me ever stray
From Thee aside.
4. When ends life’s transient dream,
When death’s cold, sullen stream
Shall o’er me roll;
Blest Savior, then in love,
Fear and distrust remove;
Oh, bear me safe above,
A ransomed soul!