Your Heart

John 17:^17&19 “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth …And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth.” (NRSV & NLT)

God can bring glory out of shame, however, shame itself does not glorify God. In fact, there would be no need for God to change shame to glory if shame glorifies God. So, shame is of no value to anybody. Apart from the glory confusion, there is also the ‘by God’s grace’ confusion. People use God’s grace amazingly wrong. They do not prepare for a football match, for instance, and they say, ‘by God’s grace we will carry the world cup.’ Just stop that because it is just foolishness. Interestingly, Nigerians are masters at that, ‘It will happen by God’s grace’. Put in the work, that is God’s grace, really! Please read John 17:4. People do not do their work, talk less of finish it, then they say, ‘by God’s grace all things will go well’. What God’s grace are you talking about?

John 17:¹² “During my time here, I protected them by the power of the name you gave me. I guarded them so that not one was lost, except the one headed for destruction, as the Scriptures f oretold.” (emphasis added). Jesus was referring to Judas Iscariot, the son of perdition. You must have heard the saying, in every twelve there is a Judas. I am not saying it is scriptural, but it is a good measure. Before Jesus chose the twelve, He had a vigil, He prayed all night before He began to select. Yet, Jesus said, ‘I chose you twelve and one of you is a devil.’ In other words, I chose you Myself and one of you still managed to be a devil. The truth is, there is a tendency to have a couple of ‘Judas-es’ in every community. But I pray that in our communities of faith, there will be no Judas, it is just a tendency. Sometimes, it comes as a spirit that attaches itself to people. A very good person suddenly becomes rotten because that spirit of perdition has attached itself. I am grateful to God that I can pick it up very easy and I have seen it attach itself to people. I have tried to intercede in many cases; in some cases, I succeed but, in others, the person goes down. It is such a negative spirit; it tries to pollute other people. But it is banished from our communities of faith in Jesus Name. Amen! It is usually a heart issue, so check your heart.

It is the heart that usually qualifies the person as a candidate for that spirit to latch on. Judas had always kept the eye on the money. Why is Jesus wasting money when we can feed the poor? Meanwhile, it had nothing to do with the poor. The Bible said he was a thief. Look at Gehazi; Naaman brought gifts to the man of God, but Elisha did not take anything from him. Gehazi said, ‘this Elisha wants to die in poverty, but not me.’ He went after Naaman and collected the gifts. It is a wrong heart, a wrong spirit. Elisha said, ‘Did I not follow you? ’It is possible to sit in your house and follow people. Elisha said, ‘Since you took the gifts, take the leprosy also, you and your children’ – horrible place to be. Our walk with God is a heart walk; if the heart is contaminated, stop, and sort it out. Do not continue. If you continue, you are asking for trouble. How come you are beginning to get jealous? Stop and sort it out otherwise, you are asking for trouble.

Prayer: Father, sanctify me by the truth of Your Word, in Jesus Name. Amen!