Be on Guard

I recently began studying the Gospel of Luke, and today I came to the part describing Jesus’ betrayal.

Judas Iscariot, was someone who had walked with the Master for over three years. They had carried the same burdens and faced many challenges together. Of all people, he would have seemed like the one whose heart would never stray. Yet Luke 22:3 says this:

Luke 22:3 (GNB)

“Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, who was one of the twelve disciples.”
Satan entered Judas—one of the twelve. To bring Jesus to His final end, the enemy did not need an outsider or someone who lacked understanding. Instead, he took hold of the heart of someone who had sat with Jesus and journeyed with Him throughout His ministry, and used him as a tool to carry out his agenda.

This is a reminder to all of us to remain watchful. Anyone can fall into temptation. We can be close to the Master, and yet the enemy will still seek opportunities to use us. His agenda is to find vessels through which he can carry out his threefold mission: to steal, kill, and destroy.

Daily, we must take a deliberate posture and say:

I refuse to lend my voice as a container for the devil.

I refuse to lend my feet.

I refuse to lend my social media platform.

I refuse to lend my heart or any part of my life that can become an unguarded instrument.
Just as God desires to use every part of us to advance His purpose and reveal His glory to mankind, Satan is also actively seeking vessels through which he can spread his agenda.
So the question becomes:

Will we say yes to Satan, or will we consistently reject the agenda of hell?

God desires to journey with us—but Satan also seeks to walk alongside us if we allow him

Will we choose total dependence on God, or will we push Him to the background?

Every choice and every action we take is either a yes to God or a no to Satan.




Stay Revived!

Jesus is Salvation

 

Who Is Jesus to You?

As simple as it sounds, many people find it difficult to answer it. Often, we repeat what others have said about Him. We call Him the names we have heard in sermons or read in books. But the deeper question remains: Who is Jesus to you personally?

What part of the Lord have you encountered that has made you call Him by a particular name? What can you truly say about Him?

When we study Scripture, we notice something powerful: many of the names we call God today came from people’s encounters with Him. They experienced Him in a particular way, and from that experience, they gave Him a name that reflected what He had done for them at that point in time.

In the beginning, when God created the world and placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, He communed with them. He walked with them and taught them how to live. There was intimacy, there was fellowship, and closeness between God and man.

However, after the fall of man, that closeness was lost. Sin created a separation between humanity and God. Yet God, in His love, sought a way to restore mankind back to Himself. His plan of redemption was revealed when He gave His only begotten Son for the salvation of creation.

Through this, the first dimension in which Jesus was revealed to mankind is as the Savior.

Gospel of Matthew 1:21

“And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

The name Jesus Christ itself carries the meaning of salvation.

When we come to Jesus and accept Him as our Lord and Savior, He redeems us. He removes the yoke of condemnation that once hung over our lives. Jesus did not come only to redeem humanity; He also came to restore creation to its rightful order.

To know Jesus is to experience salvation.

So I ask you again: Who is Jesus to you?

Are you carrying burdens that feel too heavy to bear? Do you feel like no one truly understands what you are going through? Do you feel as though no one can help you?

There is One who already paid the price for it all.

What He desires is simple: that you come to Him, acknowledge Him, and choose Him as your Savior. This is not just a one-time decision but a daily posture of surrender and relationship.

Jesus is salvation.

You cannot truly say you know God until you know His Son. Jesus is the One who saved mankind from the sentence of sin and restored us into relationship with God, making us His redeemed people.

So today, remember this truth: Jesus is salvation.
He is all you need to begin the journey called life, and with Him, you will never lose your way.

Stay Revived!

The Need for Spiritual Perception in the Church

The need for spiritual perception in the church should never be overlooked. It is very easy to assume that anyone who calls on the name of Jesus is automatically a true worshiper of Him.

 However, this is  not always true as scripture reminds us that not every voice that speaks about God is necessarily led by His Spirit.

A striking example of this can be found in;

 Acts 16:16–18[NKJV] The passage recounts an encounter involving Paul and Silas:

“Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, ‘These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.’ And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’ And he came out that very hour.”

Interestingly, what the girl said was true. She declared that Paul and Silas were servants of the Most High God who proclaimed the way of salvation. Yet the source of that declaration was not the Spirit of God—it was a spirit of divination.

This reveals an important truth: a statement can sound correct while the spirit behind it is not from God. Paul, through spiritual perception, recognized the source and addressed it.

Divination can be subtle. It may sound spiritual, insightful, or even accurate. Yet its purpose is not to lead people to Jesus. Instead, it can misdirect attention, distort truth, and ultimately harm the church. The mission of every message, however, is to draw people back to God and to glorify Christ alone.

Because of this, the gift of spiritual discernment is crucial—especially in these times. Every child of God must seek the ability to discern what carries the hand of God and what does not. This perception helps believers live victoriously and avoid deception.

A helpful way to judge words, teachings, or spiritual expressions is to ask:

Does this point people back to God, or does it seek attention for self?

Discernment grows out of a heart that genuinely desires to know the mind of  God. When we approach Him with hunger—aligning ourselves through prayer, humility, and obedience—He begins to shape our spiritual perception.

As believers earnestly seek the Spirit of discernment, the Lord is faithful to grant it. Through His Spirit, we are equipped to recognize truth, reject deception, and remain steadfast in Him.

As we desire the gift of discernment May the Lord grant it unto us and teach us how to inculcate it in our daily walk with Him. AMEN

Stay Revived!

The glamour outside

While curating a recent script, I spoke with an acquaintance to gain a deeper perspective on the concept. He ended the conversation with a funny—but very true—story about how the glamour on the outside often appears more attractive to people than the beauty found in the details within.

As I studied the story of Lazarus, I found myself lingering on a particular verse. In a generation constantly seeking the next big thing that will blow our minds, it often seems that nothing is ever truly enough.

One of the constant seeds the enemy highlights in our hearts is dissatisfaction and discontentment.

On the positive side, this hunger can drive us to desire more of God and more of what He has spoken concerning our lives. However, the enemy often corrupts that same desire, turning it into a restless feeling where a person never believes what they have is enough.

Even when people hear the message of the gospel, they may crave something grander—an extraordinary display, a spectacular miracle, or even the resurrection of someone from the dead—to convince them to believe and be born again.

Yet Abraham’s response to the rich man should remain our watchword:

Luke 16:31 (GNB)

“If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone were to rise from death.”

Nothing external can truly satisfy the deepest desires of the human heart—not glamour, not spectacle, and not grand displays.

Our hearts must be trained to remain fixed on the Cross. When our gaze is anchored there, our focus shifts to the agenda of heaven. We begin to see as Jesus sees, hear as He hears, and desire what He desires for us to become.

Stay Revived!