August 25,2021
Wednesday
Revelation 2:1-5 “To the angel of the church of Ephesus write,
‘These things say He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: 2 “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not and have found them liars; 3 and you have persevered and have patience and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. 4 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.
The word angel in verse one is the messenger or the Pastor. When God gets ready to speak to a people or region, He always speaks to leadership first. God does not speak to the sheep for the Pastor, He speaks to the Pastor for the sheep. The 7 stars represent the 7 churches. Those stars being in the right hand shows that He is responsible for taking care of them and those leaders are accountable to Him. Jesus visits churches and He observes how the people are reacting and listening. He has personal knowledge of everything going on in your life. This church has a lot of good things in place. They have a lot going in the right direction. But you see in the 4th verse that He has one thing against them. Have you ever asked the Lord if He has anything against you? The church at Ephesus had strayed from their first love. If you compare your love to when you first met the Lord, are you more in love with Him than that day? If you don’t love Him as much or more than back then, you have fallen. Thank God He does not condemn us every day. He does not condemn, He convicts. Condemnation shows no way out, conviction points to the solution.
There is a shortage of the wisdom of God in the local church because there is a lack of praying in tongues in the current church of today. If you want the wisdom of God, you can have it. All you must do it move your tongue! The first thing you should turn to in the face of calamity is the Word of God. Get God’s truth on the matter! If you need clarity on what you are reading in His word, that is what the Holy Spirit is for. He is our helper! You Need to understand so that the enemy cannot bring confusion before it is established in your life! The Holy Ghost wrote the Bible, not man. He knows exactly what it says and what it means. He will tell you what it means if you will let Him do His ministry in your life! You can have the wisdom of God as much as you want. We the church are not walking with God as we should. The enemy is capable of blinding even believers! How he does that is by keeping you mentally active all the time. When you are mentally active all the time, you get caught up in his world. The tool that he uses most in our day and time is social media. If you can’t turn everything off and get with God for even 15 minutes, you are in trouble.
The days of going through the motions at church, are over! God has held back His hand of judgment for so long. God is the Just Judge and His judgement is always right. God does not look at the earth from a liberal or conservative point of view. He sees it from His righteous point of view. He has held back His hand of Judgement for His people. And according to the Bible, judgment has to begin with His people. The church is sitting back wanting God to straighten out what is unjust, when God is looking at the church. He will not violate His word. And His word states clearly that the judgement begins with us.
Noah preached faithfully year after year as he fulfilled his God given assignment to build the ark. People either laughed or mocked, or just refused to commit. That is until the almighty God shut the doors of the Ark and the flood began. Then absolutely everyone wanted on board. No one was laughing then, and they were all ready to be fully committed. But in the truest sense they missed the boat. We are watching people do the same thing today. We are also seeing believers who have cooled spiritually until they are completely out of fellowship with the Lord. And they too are about to miss the boat.
If there is anything in your life that you enjoy more than Him, then you are not where you need to be. Start with yourself. Here is how you know: What is it that you enjoy doing the most?
Luke 14:25-27 Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
If there is anything that you enjoy more than Him, you are not His disciple. That means a hobby, entertainment, material possessions, even your own family. When God compares your commitment and love for him and your commitment and love for your family, it should look as if you hate them! He loves you with a love that you have no understanding of. He will always love you that way and because of that, He wants you to love Him the same way. If you don’t, then you cannot be His disciple. He’s not asking you to give up loving your family, He’s asking you to love Him first! If you will put Him first, you won’t lose them, you will win them! They will want to have that kind of commitment because they see what it has done for you. You’re going to face mountains and troubles in life that are bigger than you! And when you get to that point in your life, you’re going to need God. If you will commit to Him in the good times, you have Him in the bad time! Commit your whole life to Him! Take up your cross! There are things in you that don’t want Him. You have to see to it that whatever it is, it dies! Don’t just go through the motions! Love Him like He loves you!