“Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him. But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What shall we do? For this Man works many signs. If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.”
Memory verse: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” Matthew 6:24
There are certain things written in the bible through which God gives clarity and direction to His children who study the word. Jesus is the centre of Christianity and His blood has paid the price of all our sins. While the devil has been banished to earth and is restless, he is not relaxing but constantly seeking lives to steal, kill and destroy. “By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Hebrews 10:10
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10
The devil is bent of ensuring he takes many with him to hell and in doing so he has various strategies in place to implement his move. When children of God become ignorant or act carelessly, we give an opportunity to the devil to confidently implement and execute his operation in our environment.
In your environment, there can only be one ruler and so Jesus tells us no one can serve two masters. So when we do things that are contrary to what God desires, we are edging towards glorying the devil or indirectly beckoning for him to invade.
It’s impossible to be in-between when it comes to being for God or for the devil; stating the obvious, they both have followers and it’s left to us as to choose sides. Literally, we cannot sit on the fence. “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” John 8:44.
The children of the devil are keen to protect their father’s territory and so Children of God must be alert knowing that there can be no days off, time off, time away and the rest alike in Christianity. This is because the devil will use that as an opportunity to attack. We are to constantly aim towards walking with God all day every day.
Some of our actions and behaviors are leaving us exposed and giving the devil an entrance into our territory. We see from today’s bible reading that everything the devil does is to protect his territory. They could not afford to have everyone believe Jesus to it was important to take him out of the picture “Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What shall we do? For this Man works many signs. If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.”
All of what the devil does are intentional therefore we are to intentionally do everything to protect our territory as believers in Christ. We cannot do it of our own strength, hence why as we consciously try, we should remain connected to God in prayers, studying of his word and implementing it in our everyday life.
PRAYERS
- Father I am grateful for the gift of life and for the sufficiency of your grace
- I am grateful for your kindness and for all you have done and are still doing for me
- Thank you for the grace to know you and the power of your resurrection
- Help me to remain knitted to you Lord, to stay in your camp and be alert always, not giving the devil an opportunity to invade my life.
- I invite you to be the centre of my all, help me to love you unconditionally and obey your teachings.
- Help me to love my neighbors as myself
- Have mercy upon me Lord, forgive all my wickedness and help me to cease from them
- Let your love occupy my heart Lord and let me live my life for you alone.
- Thank you for qualifying me through your blood on Calvary Cross
- Thank you for giving me dominion and power to conquer
- Help me Lord to run the race till the end and not lose my crown.
- Forgive me Lord of all my iniquities, bless me abundantly and make me a blessing unto others, in Jesus mighty name I pray, Amen.
