Friday Open Heavens Devotional - Uncircumcised In Heart?

MEMORISE: Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Acts 7:51.

MESSAGE
In his sermon just before he was killed, Stephen spoke to a Jewish audience made up of people who were circumcised in the flesh as required by God’s covenant with Abraham (Genesis 17:10). However, Stephen revealed to them that there exists a circumcision beyond that of the flesh: the circumcision of heart and ears (Acts 7:51). This circumcision is spiritual. He admonished them to accept it in order to belong to the new dispensation of grace. They rejected his message and held tenaciously to the old order, which Paul declared as irrelevant under this new dispensation. 1st Corinthians 7:19 says: “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.” Those of us who claim to know God and claim to be born-again must be careful not to fall into the same error as the Jews to whom the gospel was first preached, the circumcision of our heart and ears must not be one professed by mouth only. Our Pentecostalism must not turn to lawlessness. We must truly be circumcised in our heart and hearing, so that the message of the gospel may always have a place in our lives. We must heed the warning of Hebrews 12:15-16 “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.” We tend to glory in many things as Pentecostals, as if attending a Pentecostal Church is the main ticket to heaven. Many of us have become docile in spiritual matters. The enemy is taking advantage of this passive attitude to penetrate and adulterate Pentecostal beliefs. This is why homosexuality, lesbianism and the reconstruction of the Bible doctrines handed to us by the apostle and prophets are being considered. What we must do as individuals and as a family is to retrace our steps back to our first love for the Bible and the sound teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ, such as these in Revelation 3:2-3: “Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.”

PRAYER POINT: Pray for God to send revival upon His Church, especially among Pentecostals who are now growing lukewarm.

READ: Romans 6:1-10.
1.What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3.Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4.Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5.For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6.Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7.For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8.Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9.Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10.For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 SAMUEL 24-25 AND MARK 9:2-29.