Open heaven devotional, April 28, 2015, by Pastor E.A Adeboye

The topic: [Watch that Backsliding]

Memorise: The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man shall be satisfied from himself. -Proverbs 14:14.

Need to Read: John 6:66-69
Verse66 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Verse67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve,Will ye also go
away? Verse68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal
life.
69 And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.
Bible in one Year: Judges 20-21, Matthew 28
MESSAGE:
Backsliding does not happen suddenly. It’s a process that occurs over a period of time, during
which a person becomes lax in his thought life and begins to entertain from the path of light to the
ways of evil from which one was once saved.
There are many prodigal sons and daughters today who have forsaken their first love in the pursuit of materialism. Many workers in the
vineyard of God, who started well, have allowed their spiritual fire to grow cold, thereby departing
from the faith. Hebrews 10:38 says,
“Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.”
A backslider loses interest in the Lord, in the Bible, in prayer, fellowship and witnessing, and
eventually turns to the world. It is like a dog returning to its vomit. You will not backslide in Jesus’ Name. The flesh will always find
expression when people fail to focus on spiritual things. The flesh expression when people fail to
focus on spiritual things. The flesh clouds the minds of God’s children with such things as idle
past-times, sports and television, and fills their heart with junk at the expense of spiritual growth.
Before you know it, backsliding would have commenced. Someone who has always been very zealous for God will then begin to miss church meetings when there are crucial match fixes. A
sister who has been very productive in evangelism will then begin to come late to meetings because
of addition to certain television soaps. As Christians who are Heaven bound, we have to be very careful. Let us keep ourselves away from
danger zones as much as we can. You have to be very vigilant and sober so that the devil doesn’t
drag you to Hell with little things you think do not matter ( 1 Peter 5:8 ). Those detrimental “little
things” you fail to terminate may end up terminating your destiny (Song of Solomon 2:15 )
Remember that even David, a man after God’s heart, fell for Bathsheba. Samson, the Lord’s anointed from the womb, lost his two eyes and
was reduced to a prisoner grinding corn inside the enemy’s prison. One of my sons came to me complaining of a problem. He confessed that as
every weekend drew to a close; he would get excited, looking forward to the next Monday morning because he would see his secretary again. I told him to disengage her from the job. A
proverb in my native tongue says “Stay away from
a snake whose head is still intact.” Whatever you can’t control will truncate your destiny. Whatever
is capable of destroying your testimony must be avoided. Sometimes you need to apply wisdom and not strength (Ecclesiastes 9:18 ).
Action Point: Take wise, decisive action on any Relationship that has the potential of destroying
your testimony.
God bless you.