Text: Matthew 7:21-23, Psalms 103:7
If you move away from Him, He will move farther away from you.
Taking a picture with a man of God is different from knowing Him. Many Christians are so shallow; many are loud, noisy, and proud with very little depth. It is like empty barrels making noise. If you are coming to a place like this and they are praying, and they say, “O God, arise, and let His enemies be scattered,” and you start to pray, but you just committed fornication before coming, if God should answer that your prayer, you will scatter o. It is just His mercy.
Many think they can hide from God. It is foolishness to think that you can hide from God. We may not see what you are doing, but He can see. A married man roaming around – you’re clever, and he sees you.
There are symptoms of shallowness, and they are common. Check your life and pray today. It is better to be close to God and be a friend of God, and He will fight your battle.
WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF SHALLOWNESS?
Poverty of knowledge of the Bible: Many Christians do not know what the Bible is saying on many things. Many do not attend Bible study for two or three years. Many miss Sunday school and say, “Service has not started.”
There are many old and young people in the church without depth. This is why many are blown away with every wind of doctrine. If I begin to move about here and say, “Get up. Define “salvation”, “sanctification”, “redemption”, “justification”, and “regeneration”; they will say it is not clear. It shows you are shallow.
What does the Bible say about alcohol, oral sex, smoking, or temptation? You do not know. It shows you are shallow.
Inability to quote scriptures: Any Christian of any depth should be able to quote scriptures. You will find the life of Jesus and those Pharisees and Sadducees very interesting. They used to quote scriptures, and Jesus would also reply to them with scriptures. Listen: scripture memorisation is part of spiritual growth. The devil came to Jesus and said, “Jump down, for God will give His angels charge over you.” Jesus quoted scriptures right back to him. He said, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”
Low prayer stamina: It shows the person is shallow. When you are not shallow, you see prayer as a love affair between you and God. You spend time every day praying. You stay in the presence of God. When you get to know God, you will see that one hour will be too short.
Inability to lead and teach others after being a Christian for two years: You should be able to guide and teach others.
If you are a man and not a priest in your house, you are not leading worship and prayer in your house. When your wife says, “Let us pray,” you tell your wife, “Go and pray; I will pray on my own.” You do not pray with your family; you are not a real man; you are a shallow person. You cannot teach, disciple, or witness; it is a sign of shallowness.
You do not like reading Christian books or messages. Shallow Christians rarely read Christian books or listen to messages. Examine your life. The only book some read is a prayer book. Whereas a Christian book will take you deeper and higher.
Lack of desire to worship God. No interest in praises and worship. Ask yourself, “Am I a worshipper? Do I sometimes sing to God in my room?” How many worship songs do you know? How many hymns do you know? You know all the reggae and Fuji songs, but not God’s songs.
Ceremonial attendance to God: Sunday Sunday medicine. Some come only on Easter Sunday (which we do not celebrate, by the way), for those who celebrate, Christmas service (which we do not celebrate) and crossover service. That is why crossover service is always the fullest.
That shows that they see their need of God but run away. It is a sign that they are shallow. Are you here but only come on Sundays? You are shallow.
Lack of quiet time, weak or lame quiet time: The truth is this: doing your quiet time will develop the most important relationship between you and God; you get the opportunity to draw near to God, and God will draw near to you; you will get the opportunity to listen to God, grow in grace and knowledge of God, and experience the presence of God.
Are you here? And when you wake up, you go to your phone, not the Bible or prayers; you are shallow. You wake up and do not spend time with God, praise Him, read your Bible and pray even for 15 minutes. You do not do quiet time. How will you become His friend when you do not talk to Him and do not even wait for Him to reply? You are always in a hurry to run from His presence; you are shallow.
A Person Is Shallow:
When you only call on God when you are in trouble.
When you trust in your ability more than God.
When you depend on riches more than God.
When you love the blessings of God more than the presence of God.
When you claim to love God but do not allow Him to control your life.
When you have no personal relationship with the Lord.
When you pursue the voice of approval of men more than the praise of God.
When you are too busy or too lazy to pray, do morning devotion, pray with your family, or do quiet time.
When you avoid fasting and avoid sacrifice.
When you lack discipline, you drink or smoke.
When you find spiritual things very boring. You are in church and pressing your phone, something you cannot do in the presence of a president.
When you pick and choose the place in the Bible you want to believe and follow.
When what you believe is contradicting the Bible, you do not care about God’s wisdom and guidance.
You partially obey God and resist change.
When you ignore the conviction of the Holy Spirit. You wake up, and He says, “You have not prayed or read your Bible; go back and do it.” You ignored it.
when you are comfortable living in habitual sin. You no longer hate sin with godly sorrow.
when you are spiritually blind, cannot see, prophesy, or have divine dreams, and you are coming to church.
when you cannot share your faith with others or witness to others. You find evangelism irritating and inconvenient.
If you are criticising preachers and men of God but not praying for them.
When you find it easy to miss church service.
When giving and tithing become a struggle.
When you keep looking for loopholes in your church standards.
When you are so worldly and carnal and you want to follow the carnal way of doing everything.
I remember when my sister was to marry. They said I am the head of the family, so they would bring engagement and introduction materials to our place, and they positioned themselves for a long ceremony before they came.
I said to them, “Welcome, husband’s side. Let us start by singing ‘Let us with a gladsome mind’.” We prayed. Then I asked them, “What do you want?” They replied, “We want to marry.” I asked them, “What did you bring?” They brought it. I said, “Put them in the kitchen.” They asked me, “Will you not check them?” I replied, “To check them is poverty. Put it there; let us share the grace in fellowship.” Within 30 minutes, everything was over.
when you love pleasure and entertainment more than things of God.
When you prefer what is comfortable for you, convenient for you, instead of what God is commanding.
When you fear men more than God. You honour people’s acceptance more than that of God.
When the majority of your time is spent feeding the flesh that will not leave this world. Immediately you die, the curse upon the flesh will happen. Dust will go back to dust; spirit will go back to God. So you are feeding what will not last. You waste so much time. You sit down with somebody and make hair for five hours, and this is very bad. Some idol worshippers cut and gather their hair, offer it to their god, and send it to us in Africa, and we put it on our heads.
When you are easily offended when corrected, you blame others instead of repenting.
You think more about current life instead of eternity.
You are focusing on material prosperity instead of eternity in view.
When you value appearance over purity, you prefer worldly entertainment instead of spiritual things.
You do not hunger and thirst after righteousness.
When you fear the devil more than sin, when you should really fear sin and run away from it.
When the thought of the second coming of Christ does not move you. The Bible says that this world will be melted with fire, and you feel it is a story.
When your sacrificial life is zero, you cannot sacrifice for God. It is only them who do politics in the house of God, seeking position in church and not purpose in Christ.
When you always like to be at the front and always want to be seen.
When Satan no longer bothers to fight you because he knows you are not doing any harm to him.
When you cannot discern between true and false doctrines.
When you have zero holiness or avoid holiness teachings. The Bible says, “Draw nigh to me, and I will draw nigh to you, but if you move away from me, I will move even farther away.” And you know He has longer legs than yours, so when He says He will move farther from you, He will move miles and miles away from you.
WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO?
If you are not born again, surrender your life to Jesus today. And if you are born again, sit down and examine yourself. Ask yourself questions. If Jesus were to come right now, and the trumpet sounded, are you sure you would go with Christ?
Is there something you are doing, and you are okay if someone is to come here on the altar and announce it? Are you here with bitterness or anger against people? Do you have malice in your heart against anyone? This is a bad situation you must grow from.
Years back, a sister came for counselling. She had three businesses which had shut down. Her cars all broke down; nothing was working. When I closed my eyes to pray for her, the Lord said, “Son, ask this woman if there is anyone who offended her and she has refused to forgive.” So I asked her, “Is there anyone who offended you and you are not ready to forgive?” She replied, “Hmm. My husband.” I asked her, “Why can you not forgive him?” She replied, “When he was poor and had nothing, I was there for him and helping him all through. Now that he has money, he went and married another woman.
So I can never forgive him.” I then asked, “Okay. Are you ready for your situation to change?” She said, “Yes, man of God. That is why I am here.” I stated, “Then forgive him.” She declared, “Lai lai, no way.” She then asked, “Is that your condition for you to pray for me? Then do not bother to pray.” She took her handbag and left. And you know, the life of a prophet is simple. If he says, “Thus saith the Lord,” and you say, “No,” it is the person who will enter into bondage and trouble.
If you are doing something and the prophet says, “Do not do it,” and you refuse to listen, it is you who will head to Prayer City. And there on the deliverance ground, the men of God are just calling prayer points; it is you who will pray, and it is you who will manifest and fall down, not the ministers.
And if you go there to pray and God decides not to answer, you cannot arrest the minister because they told you you do not want to listen.
Examine yourself today. Some have backslidden many years ago, some have been in church for years with no group or house fellowship attendance, and some do not do any form of contribution in church; they give alms to God like He is a beggar. They make hair for sixty thousand naira and give God only ten thousand or five thousand naira. It shows where your heart is. Go to God in repentance this morning.
PRAYER POINTS
Wickedness hiding in my family tree, O God, arise: shake them away, in the name of Jesus.
Any ancestral voice screaming “Not qualified” to me, shut up, in the name of Jesus.
Every power that rose before I was born and vowed that I will not rise, die, in the name of Jesus.
Powers that want me to expire before my testimony appears, your time is up: die, in the name of Jesus.
Every shrine, every altar, calling my name, scatter, in the name of Jesus.
Corners of evil load, hear the Word of the Lord: carry your load, in the name of Jesus.
Powers commanding me to carry the evil load of my father’s house, you are liars; die in the name of Jesus.
Testimony killers, favour killers, my life is not your candidate: die, in the name of Jesus.
(Lay your right hand on your head.) My head, my head, my head, hear the Word of the Lord: arise and shine, in the name of Jesus.
(Raise up your two hands to the heavenlies.) O God of divine encounter, visit me now, in the name of Jesus.
O God my Father, my life is available: appear, in the name of Jesus.
My Father, break every idol in my heart, in the name of Jesus.
