Open Heavens 25 October 2016: Tuesday daily devotional by Pastor E. A. Adeboye – Spiritual Adultery Forbidden!

Topic: Spiritual Adultery Forbidden! [Tuesday 25, October 2016]

Memorise: For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. –Isaiah 54:5

Read: Hosea 2:2-5 (KJV)

2 Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;

3 Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.

4 And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms.

5 For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.

Bible in One Year: Micah 5-7, Psalms 87

MESSAGE:

The relationship between God and his human creatures could be likened to the relationship between a husband and his wife. God, who instituted marriage, patterned the relationship in marriage after His relationship with His people. This is why spiritual adultery is severely punished from time to time in the history of man and his interaction with his Maker.

“11 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim: 13And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth. 14 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.” - Judges 2:11, 13-14

God is jealous, like a man could be jealous over the relationship of his wife with another man, when his human creatures follow other gods besides Him (Exodus 20:5). The spiritual adultery which the children of Israel committed is vividly illustrated in the relationship between Hosea and Gomer his professional harlot-turned wife. The patience of Hosea with Gomer who was always going back to her whoredom like a dog that goes back to its vomit also illustrates God’s patience with His people who court with the people of the world. The bond becomes stronger when someone at the altar of repentance, betroths himself or herself to Jesus Christ, the original Bridegroom. The Bible says:

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” 1 John 2:15

Our Lord Jesus Christ also said that our love cannot be possibly shared between God and ephemeral things of this world. He said:

“No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” - Luke 16:13

Serving God and mammon is spiritual adultery, punishable by rejection and shame. The Bible says:

“2 Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts; 3 Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.” - Hosea 2:2-3

Beloved, beware of spiritual adultery. Stick to Jesus Christ. The Lover of your soul and He will do you good.

Prayer Point: Father, please forgive me of any spiritual adultery I might have committed against You and our spiritual matrimony. For Christ’s sake, please do not reject me.

Open Heavens Daily Devotional guide was written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, one of the largest evangelical church in the world and also the President of Christ the Redeemer's Ministrie