I was exchanging pleasantries with a sister I had not seen for quite a while; and she asked me, ‘how is your walk with the Lord?’ I replied, ‘I bless God!’ And we set up a time to meet and catch up. After she left, the question she asked returned to my mind again: ‘how is your walk with the Lord?’ This question is very important as it transcends one’s physical wellbeing to one’s spiritual wellbeing. As sons of God, if we desire to reign with the Lord Jesus Christ when He comes, we must be of sound mind and our walk perfect before Him. We cannot be neither here nor there with Him. No matter what we face on a daily basis, we must be persistent and unwavering in our faith. We were warned by Apostle Paul by the Spirit to: “Examine and test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing the proper fruits of it. Test and prove yourselves [not Christ]…” (2Corinthians 13:5a, AMP). In our present time, there are so many strange teachings that have given rise to strange behaviors among some members of the Body of Christ that negates the principles of God. If there was ever a time we must be able to sift between the undiluted Word of God and gospel that presents itself as God’s Word, it must be now! The false gospel sounds so true that the lines between it and the True Gospel are getting blurrier by the day! The wisdom and blessing to live in this world and walk perfectly before God has been given to us from the day we said ‘yes’ to Him. The Lord knows without Him, we cannot attain such a feat in a world ruled and filled with darkness. Only in Him can we shine like the stars we have been created to be: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ; for He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight” (Ephesians 1:3-4). When we continue to spend time in His Word, studying and meditating, God trains our ears to hear Him and to see the false before it contaminates us: “[The Servant of God says] The Lord God has given Me the tongue of a disciple and of one who is taught, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He wakens Me morning by morning, He wakens My ear to hear as a disciple [as one who is taught]” (Isaiah 50:4, AMP). However, for God’s Word to take root in us we must purge ourselves of teachings that negate His Word or our hearts will constantly be in conflict with God’s Word. And I can assure you that, it is a matter of time, the negative and nonsensical philosophies of the world and its systems will have an upper hand because the Lord will not struggle with you if you choose to adhere to the other gospel! For us to understand this, let’s consider the parable Jesus told His disciples to counter the Pharisees accusations that His disciples behave contrary to their disciples and that of John the Baptist: “…No one rips up a new garment to make patches for an old, worn-out one. If you tear up the new to make a patch for the old, it would not match the old garment” (Luke 5:36, TPT). This means if you try to fix the teachings and principles of Jesus Christ into what you had learned from the world and its philosophies on how to live, it will leave you deluded! To live Jesus’ way, we must totally surrender and forsake our former way of thinking, which is that of the world. Beloved, don’t be deceived, if you are not living for Jesus Christ, you are living for the world; there is no in-between! That is why we were warned: “See to it that no one carries you off as spoil or makes you yourselves captive by his so-called philosophy and intellectualism and vain deceit (idle fancies and plain nonsense), following human tradition (men’s ideas of the material rather than the spiritual world), just crude notions following the rudimentary and elemental teachings of the universe and disregarding [the teachings of] Christ [the Messiah]” (Colossians 2:8, AMP).
Beloved, it is a terrible self-delusion to think you can mix and match the things of God with the things of the world no matter how good they look or sound! The New will always pull away from the old, and the garment (life) will be ruined! Beloved, how is your walk with the Lord? Are you still trying to fit Christ into the system you are operating in? It will only end in disaster. Look at the mirror (Word of God) again and examine yourself, if you are still in faith, walking in step with the Lord! When you look into the mirror you must recognize yourself in Christ: “…Do you not yourselves realize and know [thoroughly by an ever-increasing experience] that Jesus Christ is in you – unless you are [counterfeits] disapproved on trial and rejected” (2Corinthians 13:5b, AMP)? Finally, if what you see is not Christ, then quietly re-assess yourself and readjust. Don’t let the false teachings that masquerade as truth deceive and rob you of your place in Him. But stand in by continuing to draw near to Him: “…And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He Who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10: 21-23). Jesus Christ’s coming is not an “if”, but is a “when”; and He is almost here! Beloved, this is the time to boldly answer ‘I am in step with Him’. May He find you and I in unwavering faith when He returns to take us home, in Jesus Christ name! God bless
