Topic: NEVER ENGAGE IN SHOW OFF – Bishop Mike Okonkwo Devotional 18 September 2020 [The Redeemed Evangelical Mission]
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NEVER ENGAGE IN SHOW OFF
“Jesus said unto him, it is written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” Matthew 4:7 (KJV)After the first temptation where Jesus was asked to turn stones to bread, the devil saw that Jesus will not fall for any of that. Therefore, he decided to go spiritual. He said: “…. If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. (Matthew 4:6 KJV)Satan quoted from Psalm 91:11-12! If you don’t know the bible, you will fall for it. But listen to Jesus. “It is written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”In other words, Jesus was saying: why must I cast myself down to prove a point? What does that change? If I decide to cast myself down will it change anything? Let me tell you, if Jesus did it, he would have broken his head, his skull and his leg. God will not protect him because God didn’t tell him to do it. God’s protection is only guaranteed when you are in His will. As long as Jesus was in the will of God and doing what God asked him to do, even if it was a hundred and fifty story building and there is the need for him to jump down or should he had fallen from there, the angels will protect him. But for him to jump simply because he wanted to prove a point, it would be a different story. Why? Because it will be a show-off.It is also like you seeing a rattle snake and you say Jesus said we shall pick up serpent and it shall not hurt us. Then you say to everyone watch Mark 16 is about to prove itself. Beloved, the serpent will bite you. But if you are on the gospel trail, doing what God told you to do and a serpent decides to bite you like it did to Paul, it can’t harm you. When the snake fastened on Paul’s hand, he just shook it off and felt no harm. The natives were expecting him to die, but he never died. Mark 16:18 manifested in that very instant because he was in the will of God. Never let the devil distract you from the perfect will of God under any guise; stay focused on God and His word.Further Reading: Matthew 4:5-11Daily Bible Reading: Morning- Proverbs 30-31; Evening- 2 Corinthians 11:1-15