“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ – Matt 7:21-24
I’m not a big fan of the word NEVER or ALWAYS, whenever they are used, it’s either the person is exaggerating, lying or hasn’t thought what he or she is saying through. How can Jesus, My Lord and Master say NEVER!
Reading the CV of these people, the names that come to my mind are people like Pastor Adeboye, Bishop Oyedepo, Rev Sam Adeyemi, Pastor Tunde Bakare, Archbishop Benson Idahosa, Kenneth E. Haggin and you are at liberty to put your Pastor’s Name there. If you won’t see it as pride, you can also put my name there.
For these people to call Jesus Lord, for them to preach in His name! Ah, Even do Miracles in His name, they must have some relationship with Jesus. The one I can’t even stand is, demons did not rebuff them, they were not given the 7 Sons of Sceva treatment, the demons actually recognized their spiritual hierarchy and were successfully casted out. Demons can’t claim ignorance of these people, but not Jesus, Jesus says NEVER!
What exactly does Jesus mean? Yes, I asked Him. How can people build mega structures that was the talk of town in your name, and you’ll say you NEVER knew them. If you say I don’t know them anymore, I will understand, but NEVER, Ha Jesus, Please explain further.
Jesus is the Truth! So whatever he says is Truth. If our minds do not comprehend it, it’s because we need to ask questions. Let God be true and every man a liar. So what does Jesus mean? How can people who confess him as Lord and Saviour (Born Again), who preached in His name (Pastors), Cast out Demon’s in His name (Prayer warriors and deliverance ministers) and who did many wonders, including monstrous and monumental Church structures (The Brands) be classified by Jesus as NEVER known?
Here is what Jesus means. When Adam knew Eve – they gave birth to a Son. Adam had always lived with Eve, they were good friends, companions even, even probably had sex a few times. It’s not recorded as “Knew”, until it produced. It is what we produce as a direct consequence of an intimate relationship with Jesus, that constitutes our being known of Him. Whatever we do, for Jesus, in the Name of Jesus, without being a consequence of his intimate dealings with us, is lawlessness. It’s like a wife sleeping with the houseboy, security guard and other men to produce sons for her husband. Jesus’ words echo till eternity – “I never knew you!” Yes he’s familiar with you, yes he’s all knowing, yes he’s not unaware of your labours, but He never knew you.
If Jesus is discipling you and you are intimate with him, the natural product of that relationship is another disciple. People will be inspired to know Jesus more on your account. A Child will be born and a Son will be given. God is not impressed with exotic messages that don’t turn the hearts of people towards their Lord and Master – Jesus Christ. God is not impressed with deliverance meetings that don’t end in discipleship, the person always gets worse. He may become a pastor in one of the branches, but the bible calls them twice the son of hell. Jesus is not impressed with Big buildings – He didn’t build them because he didn’t want to, not because he was broke. If only 1 of us do the little work of discipling 1 person every year, and building real disciples for Jesus out of them, in 34 years we would have discipled 34, but guess what? If everyone of them did the same, the world would be finished in 34 years. Nobody will need any big cathedral for weekly events.
Mark my words as the rantings of a lunatic, or as the word of God! As sure as certainly as you have read this, you will remember this note in the border of the age to come! I don’t want to skimp by and do the minimum required to please Jesus, I want to go all the way in Him, to aspire for all that is available in Christ. I want ALL! Do you feel like that too? Or you want to do what you can, and beg for the rest?
Adeolu Akinyemi
NB: Jeremiah kept saying truth for over 40 years, nothing happened. I take comfort from His story. I have not started yet.
