If you want to be a prayerful Christian, never stray from the cross. The secret of continuous victory in spiritual warfare is the cross. Any day you don’t visit the cross, you are doing yourself a great disservice. If you want to be a disciple, go to the cross daily; this is the prescription of Jesus. It was when the Church began to de-emphasize the message of the cross that she started producing weak and compromised Christians. And any Church that is not a holiness Church is no Church at all, it is just a social gathering.
2 Tim. 2:19, “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity”. Obviously, this scripture implies that there are those who claim to be Christ’s that are actually not his. It implies that not everyone who claims to be a child of God is his. The Bible states that anyone who names the name of Christ should depart from iniquity. Iniquity sounds big but it is very easy to commit; it means turning away from the revealed will of God, it means to turn away from the word of God because the revealed will of God is his word.
Iniquity simply means to turn away from light. The Word is light. Iniquity is the beginning of sin and not the end of it; until you commit iniquity, you cannot sin. Sin is ‘harmatia’, (Greek) which means to miss the mark; to miss the standard of God. Until you turn away from light, you will not miss the mark. If you turn away from light, you will be in darkness and anyone who is in darkness cannot get it right. Iniquity is the beginning of sin. A lot of people have some denominations’ concept of classification of sin into big and small sins and some of the sins they consider as very small are actually not small. For instance, lying is not a small sin at all. (see Rev 21:8).
It was at the time when kings go to battle that David decided to stay at home. He took a decision to stay at home despite the fact that he knew that it was wrong. By this singular decision, he had turned away from the purpose of God. Any time you turn away from the will of God, you go into darkness. David, being a General, decided to survey his kingdom but at that very time, the devil packaged a very beautiful woman for him. Remember that David was from the tribe of Judah and Judah had a history of evil cords (with respect to sexual sin). The devil is not omniscient but he has history to his advantage. Immediately David’s eyes riveted, there was a connection. Where did the sin start? It started with one decision. On sighting the woman, his mind got activated. At this stage, the deed was as good as done.
PRAY:- Heavenly father I worship and adore you. I thank you for the salvation of my soul through the finished work of your Son – Jesus Christ at the cross of calvary. I apply the precious blood of Jesus Christ in my mind and receive cleansing from sin. Grant me the grace never to miss your mark in holiness, righteousness and wisdom I pray in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
TO BE CONTINUED.