KEY SCRIPTURE:1Ti 1:20 KJV” Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.”

After our previous study, some brethren have asked me why Apostle Paul says he has given certain brethren over to satan so they learn not to blaspheme any longer. Dear child of God, many children of God have not come to terms with the superiority of their faith over any physical thing they could have. The Lord asked, What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul. Your soul is very precious, and such disciplines are to prevent you from losing your eternal salvation. Some brethren have taught that once a person is saved, he cannot lose his salvation. We saw from apostle Paul’s statement to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 about the brother who was to be disciplined that way 1 Corinthians 5:5 KJV “To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” The scripture clearly stated the importance of such corrections or disciplines in the church of God.

We remember a lot of statements the Lord said, about the fact that it is better to lose something or everything in this life, so you would be prevented from going to hellfire. Many people still consider hellfire as a religious thought to frighten people, and not a true place of eternal torment, of the kind of torture that cannot be compared to any form of suffering in this life. Dear child of God, you must tremble at God’s word and give no place to sin. Secondly, many people do not acknowledge the spiritual covering of the church. Some just speak very badly about the church and do not see the great spiritual authority the church holds over their lives.

I once talked with Arch Bishop Duncan Williams( I have also heard him share it with different audiences)about his insubordination to his Spiritual father, the Late Arch Bishop Benson Idahosa. He said that because of his action, the man of God who admitted him into his bible school and graduated him, although he was not qualified to graduate, just rebelled against his spiritual father. His Father said to him You are now on your own. This means you are no longer under my spiritual covering. Arch Bishop Duncan Williams said after that statement from his spiritual father, Satan rose up against him to the point that his life became unbearable. He was constantly in the state media for all the negative reasons( scandals that were not true). The Bureau of National Investigations ( BNI) in Ghana was constantly at his heels. He really understood what it meant to lose your spiritual covering for Satan to take over. He said he met Arch Bishop Idahosa at London airport, and he quickly went to him, holding his feet and pleaded for mercy. The man of God just said ‘Satan, this matter is between me and my son, leave him alone. That was the end of all the attacks that came his way. Please dear child of God, do not underrate the authority of the church or that of God’s servants who He has placed over you, Heb 13:17 KJV” Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.”

THOUGHT: YOUR ETERNAL SALVATION IS OF PRIME IMPORTANCE, PROTECT IT

FURTHER STUDIES

2Co 13:5 KJV” Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?”

1Co 11:32 KJV” But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.”